1,819 research outputs found
Performing against the odds: developmental trajectories of children in the EPPSE 3 to 16 study
The Effective Pre-School, Primary and Secondary Education (EPPSE 3 to 16) research project is a large scale, longitudinal, mixed-methods research that is following the progress of 3,000 children since 1997 from the age of 3- to 16-years-old.
A focus for EPPSE has been the extent to which pre-school, compulsory education and childrenâs home learning experiences (HLE) can reduce inequality. Earlier EPPSE found that what parents did with their children was important in terms of the childrenâs outcomes, not simply âwho they wereâ in terms of social class and income.
Following a pilot study with disadvantaged children who were âsucceeding against the oddsâ towards the end of primary school, this study provides in-depth exploration and explanation of how risks and protective factors in the lives of children shape their learning life-courses, and why they lead to academic resilience for some but not for others
Recommended from our members
Performance of diagnostic tests to detect respiratory viruses in older adults.
The performance of 4 laboratory methods for diagnosis of viral respiratory tract infections (RTI) in older adults was evaluated. Seventy-four nasopharyngeal (NP) swab specimens were obtained from 60 patients with RTI at a long-term care facility over 2 respiratory seasons. Sixteen specimens were positive for a respiratory virus by at least 1 method. Multiplex reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) by the Luminex xTAG Respiratory Viral Panel (RVP) detected 16 (100%) of the positive specimens, RVP of 24-h culture supernatant detected 8 (50%), direct fluorescent antibody testing detected 4 (25%), rapid culture detected 2 (12.5%), and rapid antigen testing detected none. For a comparison group, RVP was performed on NP swabs from 20 outpatient children with RTI. The mean fluorescence intensity by RVP was significantly lower for positive adult patients than pediatric patients (P = 0.0373). Our data suggest that older adult patients shed lower titers of viruses, necessitating a highly sensitive assay such as RT-PCR to reliably detect respiratory viral pathogens
Effective pre-school, primary and secondary education 3-14 project (EPPSE 3-14) - Final report from the Key Stage 3 phase: influences on students' development from age 11 - 14
Regional differences in APD restitution can initiate wavebreak and re-entry in cardiac tissue: A computational study
Background
Regional differences in action potential duration (APD) restitution in the heart favour arrhythmias, but the mechanism is not well understood.
Methods
We simulated a 150 Ă 150 mm 2D sheet of cardiac ventricular tissue using a simplified computational model. We investigated wavebreak and re-entry initiated by an S1S2S3 stimulus protocol in tissue sheets with two regions, each with different APD restitution. The two regions had a different APD at short diastolic interval (DI), but similar APD at long DI. Simulations were performed twice; once with both regions having steep (slope > 1), and once with both regions having flat (slope < 1) APD restitution.
Results
Wavebreak and re-entry were readily initiated using the S1S2S3 protocol in tissue sheets with two regions having different APD restitution properties. Initiation occurred irrespective of whether the APD restitution slopes were steep or flat. With steep APD restitution, the range of S2S3 intervals resulting in wavebreak increased from 1 ms with S1S2 of 250 ms, to 75 ms (S1S2 180 ms). With flat APD restitution, the range of S2S3 intervals resulting in wavebreak increased from 1 ms (S1S2 250 ms), to 21 ms (S1S2 340 ms) and then 11 ms (S1S2 400 ms).
Conclusion
Regional differences in APD restitution are an arrhythmogenic substrate that can be concealed at normal heart rates. A premature stimulus produces regional differences in repolarisation, and a further premature stimulus can then result in wavebreak and initiate re-entry. This mechanism for initiating re-entry is independent of the steepness of the APD restitution curve
Measurement of the 18Ne(a,p_0)21Na reaction cross section in the burning energy region for X-ray bursts
The 18Ne(a,p)21Na reaction provides one of the main HCNO-breakout routes into
the rp-process in X-ray bursts. The 18Ne(a,p_0)21Na reaction cross section has
been determined for the first time in the Gamow energy region for peak
temperatures T=2GK by measuring its time-reversal reaction 21Na(p,a)18Ne in
inverse kinematics. The astrophysical rate for ground-state to ground-state
transitions was found to be a factor of 2 lower than Hauser-Feshbach
theoretical predictions. Our reduced rate will affect the physical conditions
under which breakout from the HCNO cycles occurs via the 18Ne(a,p)21Na
reaction.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication on Physical Review
Letter
WS19.4 Pro-inflammatory response of THP-1 monocytic cells to lipopolysaccharide from Prevotella sp. isolated from CF patients
ConservationBots: Autonomous Aerial Robot for Fast Robust Wildlife Tracking in Complex Terrains
Today, the most widespread, widely applicable technology for gathering data
relies on experienced scientists armed with handheld radio telemetry equipment
to locate low-power radio transmitters attached to wildlife from the ground.
Although aerial robots can transform labor-intensive conservation tasks, the
realization of autonomous systems for tackling task complexities under
real-world conditions remains a challenge. We developed ConservationBots-small
aerial robots for tracking multiple, dynamic, radio-tagged wildlife. The aerial
robot achieves robust localization performance and fast task completion times
-- significant for energy-limited aerial systems while avoiding close
encounters with potential, counter-productive disturbances to wildlife. Our
approach overcomes the technical and practical problems posed by combining a
lightweight sensor with new concepts: i) planning to determine both trajectory
and measurement actions guided by an information-theoretic objective, which
allows the robot to strategically select near-instantaneous range-only
measurements to achieve faster localization, and time-consuming sensor rotation
actions to acquire bearing measurements and achieve robust tracking
performance; ii) a bearing detector more robust to noise and iii) a tracking
algorithm formulation robust to missed and false detections experienced in
real-world conditions. We conducted extensive studies: simulations built upon
complex signal propagation over high-resolution elevation data on diverse
geographical terrains; field testing; studies with wombats (Lasiorhinus
latifrons; nocturnal, vulnerable species dwelling in underground warrens) and
tracking comparisons with a highly experienced biologist to validate the
effectiveness of our aerial robot and demonstrate the significant advantages
over the manual method.Comment: 33 pages, 21 figure
Effective emotion regulation strategies improve fMRI and ECG markers of psychopathology in panic disorder: Implications for psychological treatment action
© 2015 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved. Impairments in emotion regulation are thought to have a key role in the pathogenesis of anxiety disorders, but the neurobiological underpinnings contributing to vulnerability remain poorly understood. It has been a long-held view that exaggerated fear is linked to hyperresponsivity of limbic brain areas and impaired recruitment of prefrontal control. However, increasing evidence suggests that prefrontal-cortical networks are hyperactive during threat processing in anxiety disorders. This study directly explored limbic-prefrontal neural response, connectivity and heart-rate variability (HRV) in patients with a severe anxiety disorder during incidental versus intentional emotion regulation. During 3 Tesla functional magnetic resonance imaging, 18 participants with panic disorder and 18 healthy controls performed an emotion regulation task. They either viewed negative images naturally (Maintain), or they were instructed to intentionally downregulate negative affect using previously taught strategies of cognitive reappraisal (Reappraisal). Electrocardiograms were recorded throughout to provide a functional measure of regulation and emotional processing. Compared with controls, patients showed increased neural activation in limbic-prefrontal areas and reduced HRV during incidental emotion regulation (Maintain). During intentional regulation (Reappraisal), group differences were significantly attenuated. These findings emphasize patients' ability to regulate negative affect if provided with adaptive strategies. They also bring prefrontal hyperactivation forward as a potential mechanism of psychopathology in anxiety disorders. Although these results challenge models proposing impaired allocation of prefrontal resources as a key characteristic of anxiety disorders, they are in line with more recent neurobiological frameworks suggesting that prefrontal hyperactivation might reflect increased utilisation of maladaptive regulation strategies quintessential for anxiety disorders
- âŠ