2,015 research outputs found
MAGNET: A Virtual Shared Tuplespace Resource Manager
Traditional operating systems limit flexibility, performance and utilization of hardware resources by forcing applications to use inappropriate high-level abstractions, uniform protection schemes and high-level static resource management. This forced use of inappropriate services results in poor application and operating system performance. A radical new approach to operating systems design and construction is needed to meet the requirements of modern applications. Within our Centre, we are designing BITS: the Component Based Operating System, to address these issues.To realize its full potential, BITS requires a radically new resource management strategy. The operating system design gives an environment for implementing extensions, but a resource manager module is responsible for making them available. It allows system services to be specialized, replaced or extended to better serve application-specific needs.In this paper we propose the MAGNET Resource Manager enabling a free-market negotiation of application requests and server resources. It provides an additional level of flexibility for application participation in resource management. MAGNET also provides a platform for an additional runtime level of extensibility: dynamic modification and replacement of its parts during execution
High-contrast imaging of 180{\deg} ferroelectric domains by optical microscopy using ferroelectric liquid crystals
Ferroelectric liquid crystals (FLCs) couple the direction of their
spontaneous electric polarization to the direction of tilt of their optic axis.
Consequently, reversal of the electric polarization by an electric field gives
rise to an immediate and lasting optical response when an appropriately aligned
FLC is observed between crossed polarizers, with one field direction yielding a
dark image, and the opposite direction yielding a bright image. Here this
peculiar electro-optic response is used to image, with high optical contrast,
180{\deg} ferroelectric domains in a crystalline substrate of magnesium-doped
lithium niobate. The lithium niobate substrate contains a few domains with
upwards electric polarization surrounded by regions with downward electric
polarization. In contrast to a reference non-chiral liquid crystal that is
unable to show ferroelectric behavior due to its high symmetry, the FLC, which
is used as a thin film confined between the lithium niobate substrate and an
inert aligning substrate, reveals ferroelectric domains as well as their
boundaries, with strong black and white contrast. The results show that FLCs
can be used for non-destructive read-out of domains in underlying
ferroelectrics, with potential applications in e.g. photonic devices and
non-volatile ferroelectric memories.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figure
Insulin-dependent GLUT4 trafficking is not regulated by protein SUMOylation in L6 myocytes
Type-II Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) is one of the fastest growing public health issues today, consuming 12% of worldwide health budgets and affecting an estimated 400 million people. One of the key pathological traits of this disease is insulin resistance at ‘glucose sink’ tissues (mostly skeletal muscle), and this remains one of the features of this disease most intractable to therapeutic intervention. Several lines of evidence have implicated the post-translational modification,SUMOylation, in insulin signalling and insulin resistance in skeletal muscle. In this study, we examined this possibility by manipulation of cellular SUMOylation levels using multiple different tools, and assaying the effect on insulin-stimulated GLUT4 surface expression in differentiated L6 rat myocytes. Although insulin stimulation of L6 myocytes produced a robust decrease in total cellular SUMO1-ylation levels, manipulating cellular SUMOylation had no effect on insulin-responsive GLUT4 surface trafficking using any of the tools we employed. Whilst we cannot totally exclude the possibility that SUMOylation plays a role in the insulin signalling pathway in human health and disease, our data strongly argue that GLUT4 trafficking in response to insulin is not regulated by protein SUMOylation, and that SUMOylation does not therefore represent a viable therapeutic target for the treatment of insulin resistance
Curricular initiatives that enhance student knowledge and perceptions of sexual and gender minority groups: a critical interpretive synthesis
Background: There is no accepted best practice for optimizing tertiary student knowledge, perceptions, and skills to care for sexual and gender diverse groups. The objective of this research was to synthesize the relevant literature regarding effective curricular initiatives designed to enhance tertiary level student knowledge, perceptions, and skills to care for sexual and gender diverse populations.Methods: A modified Critical Interpretive Synthesis using a systematic search strategy was conducted in 2015. This method was chosen to synthesize the relevant qualitative and quantitative literature as it allows for the depth and breadth of information to be captured and new constructs to be illuminated. Databases searched include AMED, CINAHL EBM Reviews, ERIC, Ovid MEDLINE, Ovid Nursing Database, PsychInfo, and Google Scholar. Results: Thirty-one articles were included in this review. Curricular initiatives ranging from discrete to multimodal approaches have been implemented. Successful initiatives included discrete sessions with time for processing, and multi-modal strategies. Multi-modal approaches that encouraged awareness of one’s lens and privilege in conjunction with facilitated communication seemed the most effective.Conclusions: The literature is limited to the evaluation of explicit curricula. The wider cultural competence literature offers further insight by highlighting the importance of broad and embedded forces including social influences, the institutional climate, and the implicit, or hidden, curriculum. A combined interpretation of the complementary cultural competence and sexual and gender diversity literature provides a novel understanding of the optimal content and context for the delivery of a successful curricular initiative
Establishment of Enabling Technology for Manufacture of Selected Types of Continental and Speciality Cheeses
End of Project ReportThe objectives in the project were the development of the science and technology for speciality cheese manufacture, identification and overcoming of the technical constraints to the manufacture of soft speciality cheeses in Ireland and the development of Moorepark Technology Limited (MTL) pilot plant as an integrated, flexible pre-commercial manufacturing platform with which to evaluate the market for speciality cheese.Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marin
The scholarship of teaching and learning critical thinking: finding a way forward with evidence from a medical teaching context
The scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) in higher education has a deep- seated concern with developing critical thinking, now a common learning outcome and desired graduate attribute. The prolific inquiry into what critical thinking might be has, however, resulted in a complex literature, with multiple definitions used both explicitly, and implicitly, in practice. Unfortunately, this lack of shared meaning creates barriers for those who need to develop thinking in the classroom. In a year-long action research project, six teacher participants developed a three-part strategy to overcome these barriers in undergraduate small group medical teaching. Iterative thematic data analysis revealed how teachers 1. avoided using the term ‘critical thinking,’ 2. used short phrases to identify types of thinking desired, 3. offered students guidance in ‘thinking language.’ Findings are supported by literature, adding the idea that currently, avoiding use of the term ‘critical thinking’ might better enhance students’ thinking development
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