2,750 research outputs found
The reputation of the corporate social responsibility industry in Australia
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is increasingly seen as an imperative for sustainable business and there is a growing literature on the effect of CSR on corporate reputation. Despite this, a pall of ambiguity and uncertainty remains around what CSR means and how it should be practiced. This paper offers a unique addition to the body of literature to date by revealing that CSR is an emerging industry in Australia, which is in the process of developing its own reputation as a set of business practices. The paper is based on exploratory qualitative research using a case study methodology. Interviews were conducted with key actors within the industry to investigate shared understandings of what CSR means, perceptions of CSR practice and of the industry as a whole, and who is involved in shaping these perceptions. The research revealed that the CSR industry in Australia is in its early stages of development and is therefore in need of increased internal cooperation if it is to develop a strong reputation
Can high-frequency ultrasound predict metastatic lymph nodes in patients with invasive breast cancer?
Aim
To determine whether high-frequency ultrasound can predict the presence of metastatic axillary lymph nodes, with a high specificity and positive predictive value, in patients with invasive breast cancer. The clinical aim is to identify patients with axillary disease requiring surgery who would not normally, on clinical grounds, have an axillary dissection, so potentially improving outcome and survival rates.
Materials and methods
The ipsilateral and contralateral axillae of 42 consecutive patients with invasive breast cancer were scanned prior to treatment using a B-mode frequency of 13 MHz and a Power Doppler frequency of 7 MHz. The presence or absence of an echogenic centre for each lymph node detected was recorded, and measurements were also taken to determine the L/S ratio and the widest and narrowest part of the cortex. Power Doppler was also used to determine vascularity. The contralateral axilla was used as a control for each patient.
Results
In this study of patients with invasive breast cancer, ipsilateral lymph nodes with a cortical bulge ≥3 mm and/or at least two lymph nodes with absent echogenic centres indicated the presence of metastatic axillary lymph nodes (10 patients). The sensitivity and specificity were 52.6% and 100%, respectively, positive and negative predictive values were 100% and 71.9%, respectively, the P value was 0.001 and the Kappa score was 0.55.\ud
Conclusion
This would indicate that high-frequency ultrasound can be used to accurately predict metastatic lymph nodes in a proportion of patients with invasive breast cancer, which may alter patient management
Dynamics of Water Entry
The hydrodynamics associated with water-entry of spheres can be highly
variable with respect to the material and kinematic properties of the sphere.
This series of five fluid dynamics videos illustrates several subtle but
interesting variations. The first series of videos contrasts the nature of
impact between a hydrophilic and hydrophobic sphere, and illustrates how
surface coating can affect whether or not an air cavity is formed. The second
video series illustrates how spin and surface treatments can alter the splash
and cavity formation following water entry. The spinning sphere causes a wedge
of fluid to be drawn into the cavity due to the no-slip condition and follows a
curved trajectory. The non-spinning sphere has two distinct surface treatments
on the left and right hemispheres: the left hemisphere is hydrophobic and the
right hemisphere is hydrophilic . Interestingly, the cavity formation for the
half-and-half sphere has many similarities to that of the spinning sphere
especially when viewed from above. The third video series compares two
millimetric nylon spheres impacting at slightly different impact speeds (Uo =
40 and 45 cm/s); the faster sphere fully penetrates the free surface, forming a
cavity, whereas the slower sphere does not. The fourth series shows the
instability of an elongated water-entry cavity formed by a millimetric steel
sphere with a hydrophobic coating impacting at Uo = 600 cm/s. The elongated
cavity forms multiple pinch-off points along its decent. Finally, a millimetric
steel sphere with a hydrophobic coating breaks the free surface with an impact
speed of Uo = 350 cm/s. The cavity pinches-off below the surface, generating a
Worthington jet that pinches into droplets owing to the Rayleigh-Plateau
instability.Comment: American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics Gallery of Fluid
Motion Video Entry Replaced previous version because abstract had LaTex
markup and was too lon
Efficient loading of a He* magneto-optic trap using a liquid He cooled source
We report loading large numbers (up to 3×10⁹) of metastable triplet helium atoms into a magneto-optical trap using an atomic beam derived from a liquid He (LHe) cooled dc discharge source. Moreover, we compare the effect of liquidN₂ cooling to LHe cooling the source and demonstrate that LHe cooling offers a significant increase in performance
Quantitative Flow Field Imaging about a Hydrophobic Sphere Impacting on a Free Surface
This fluid dynamics video shows the impact of a hydrophobic sphere impacting
a water surface. The sphere has a mass ratio of m* = 1.15, a wetting angle of
110 degrees, a diameter of 9.5 mm, and impacts the surface with a Froude number
of Fr = 9.2. The first sequence shows an impact of a sphere on the free surface
illustrating the formation of the splash crown and air cavity. The cavity grows
both in the axial and radial direction until it eventually collapses at a point
roughly half of the distance from the free surface to the sphere, which is
known as the pinch-off point. The second set of videos shows a sphere impacting
the free surface under the same conditions using Particle Image Velocimetry
(PIV) to quantify the flow field. A laser sheet illuminates the mid-plane of
the sphere, and the fluid is seeded with particles whose motion is captured by
a high-speed video camera. Velocity fields are then calculated from the images.
The video sequences from left to right depict the radial velocity, the axial
velocity, and the vorticity respectively in the flow field. The color bar on
the far left indicates the magnitude of the velocity and vorticity. All videos
were taken at 2610 fps and the PIV data was processed using a 16 x 16 window
with a 50% overlap.Comment: American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics 2008 Annual
Meeting Replaced previous version because abstract had LaTex markup and was
too long, missing periods on middle initial of first two name
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