The Domain-Specific Risk-Taking Scale lacks convergence with alternative risk-taking propensity measures

The domain-specific evaluative approach to risk-taking propensity allows people to differentiate situations in which they will approach risk-related decisions from situations in which they will avoid them. The Domain-Specific Risk-Taking Scale (DOSPERT) is the most widely used measure of such evaluations. The current study of the DOSPERT tests alternatives to the assumed five-domain structure, explores associations between the DOSPERT and alternative risk-taking measures, and tests the incremental validity of the DOSPERT in predicting both self-reported risky behavior and risky behavior in the lab. Analyses show that the DOSPERT would benefit from a six-factor structure rather than five factors, the DOSPERT domains are weakly correlated with the majority of alternative risk-taking propensity measures, and the DOSPERT can predict variance in certain self-reported risky behaviors, but not risky behaviors in the lab, after accounting for alternative measures

Templated Synthesis of Graphene

Producing cost effective graphene remains difficult and is a large barrier to the material realising its full potential. Current techniques are either very expensive to scale requiring high temperatures and low pressures, or produce a product not suitable for many of the big marquee applications in electronics. This document proposes developments on the chemical vapour deposition process of producing graphene by using high surface area templating material. This allows the synthesis of larger quantities of high quality graphene. The added benefits of the methods proposed here is an increased control in the morphology of the produced graphene. Studies have shown that changes in morphology of graphene have a large effect on the properties and allow for different applications. In this document, four templating material are used to grow graphene. Two use a powdered catalyst of cobalt hydroxide hexagons and copper oxide cubes and both successfully catalyse and template the synthesis of carbon. On the cobalt hexagons, depending on conditions, curved graphitic materials would arrange into a hexagonal macrostructure or high quality graphene would be produced with little evidence of hexagonal shape. On the copper oxide cubes, three clear products could be produced depending on the conditions. Carbon nanofibers would either arrange themselves into cubes or fibrous "worm" like structures. Also thin carbon coatings could be produced on the cube. The other two method were the templating the graphene on a foam template in order to synthesise graphene foams. Graphene foams have numerous applications including energy storage, gas storage and supports. The first method describes synthesis of graphene on a metal foam templated from a hydrogel. Two products were synthesised depending on the conditions - firstly a high quality graphene/graphite foam was synthesised. Also a foam macrostructure of closed graphitic structures was produced. The second method produced graphite foams from poly high internal phase emulsion template

Will web-based research suffice when collecting U.S. school district policies? The case of physical education and school-based nutrition policies

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Recognizing the growing childhood overweight problem, a number of school-based strategies, including policy approaches, have been proposed and are being implemented to address the problem considering the amount of time children spend in schools. This paper describes the results of a pilot study that tested approaches to collecting U.S. school district policy information regarding physical education and nutrition requirements that can inform efforts by policy makers, researchers, advocates and others interested in collecting school district-level obesity-related policies that are typically not systematically available from a "one stop" source.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Sixty local school districts representing six states were selected for conducting the district policy research, with larger, urban school districts over-sampled to facilitate collection of policies from districts representing a larger proportion of the public school population in each study state. The six states within which the pilot districts were located were chosen based on the variability in their physical education and school-based nutrition policy and geographic and demographic diversity. Web research and a mail canvass of the study districts was conducted between January and May 2006 to obtain all relevant policies. An additional field collection effort was conducted in a sample of districts located in three study states to test the extent to which field collection would yield additional information.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Policies were obtained from 40 (67%) of the 60 districts, with policies retrieved via both Web and mail canvass methods in 16 (27%) of the districts, and were confirmed to not exist in 10 (17%) of the districts. Policies were more likely to be retrieved from larger, urban districts, whereas the smallest districts had no policies available on the Web. In no instances were exactly the same policies retrieved from the two sources. Physical education policies were slightly more prevalent than nutrition policies.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Collection of U.S. local school district policies requires a multi-pronged approach. Web research and mail canvasses will likely yield different types of policy information. Given the variance in district-level Web site presence, researchers and others interested in obtaining district physical education and nutrition-related policies should consider supplementing Web research with more direct methods.</p

Findings from the USQ students' experiences and expectations of technologies survey 2012

The Students' Experiences and Expectations of Technology Survey (SEETS) was designed to provide USQ with an understanding of how its students are currently using the technologies they have access to in support of their learning and how they might like (intend) to use them in the future. It also investigated the differences between their use of technologies for academic purposes compared to their use in everyday life. This survey was originally used by three universities in Sydney in 2010; Macquarie, UTS and UWS (Gosper, Malfroy, McKenzie & Rankine 2011), and was broadly based on both the ECAR Survey, originally developed by EDUCAUSE (ECAR, 2008) and the Great Expectations of IT Survey (JISC, 2008) from the United Kingdom. Since its original use in 2010 some of the terminology was updated to reflect the use of more recent popular online tools and trends. To help determine which tools should be included in the survey reference was made to the work of The Horizon Project, a project of the New Media Consortium (http://www.nmc.org/horizon). This project regularly highlights the technologies likely to impact on teaching and learning in universities for the foreseeable future. However, it was also recognized that not all students, and in this case USQ students, have access to, or use the latest technologies (Kennedy, et al., 2008), it was therefore important to ensure the survey also covered the use of more traditional technologies (email, SMS, mobile phones), together with the more recent cloud based technologies

Transcatheter closure of atrial septal defects within the oval fossa: medium-term results in children using the ‘ASDOS'-technique

Abstract Objectives The purpose of this study was to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the ASDOS-tech-nique (Sulzer-Osypka GmbH, Germany) for transcatheter closure of atrial septal defects within the oval fossa. Background Although several attempts have been made to occlude defects within the oval fossa by transcatheter techniques, none of these has gained general acceptance. Methods Patients with a defect in the oval fossa measuring equal to or less than 20 mm diameter, with a residual septal rim of 5mm or greater, body weight greater than 10 kg, with clinical indications for surgical closure were considered for transcatheter closure. Follow-up investigations were performed at discharge, after 1, 3, 6 and 9 months, as well as after 1 and 2 years. Results Of 78 patients considered for closure, a device was inserted in 41 patients (53%), with success being achieved in 40 patients (98%). The ages ranged from 1.1 to 15 years (7.8 ± 1.92 years), the 'stretched' diameter of the defect from 10 to 20 mm (14.7 ± 2.60 mm), and the diameters of the inserted devices from 25 to 45 mm (33.2 ± 5.43 mm). Transient impairment of atrioventricular conduction occured in 4 patients. During the follow-up of 23.0 ± 5.6 months elective surgical closure of a residual shunt was performed 26 months after insertion of the devcie in one patient. None of the other patients required surgery, hospitalisation or medical treatment, and none is requiring further treatment of the defect within the oval fossa. Fracture of one arm of the device occurred in 4 patients, but the fractured arms are in an unchanged and stable position after a period of at least 19 months. Conclusions Our medium-term data show that transcatheter closure in children of defects within the oval fossa can be performed with a high efficacy and safety using the ASDOS-devic

Reasons for discontinuing clozapine: a cohort study of patients commencing treatment

Background Clozapine is uniquely effective in the management of treatment-resistant schizophrenia (TRS). However, a substantial proportion of patients discontinue treatment and this carries a poor prognosis. Methods We investigated the risk factors, reasons and timing of clozapine discontinuation in a two-year retrospective cohort study of 316 patients with TRS receiving their first course of clozapine. Reasons for discontinuation of clozapine and duration of treatment were obtained from case notes and Cox regression was employed to test the association of baseline clinical factors with clozapine discontinuation. Results A total of 142 (45%) patients discontinued clozapine within two years. By studying the reasons for discontinuations due to a patient decision, we found that adverse drug reactions (ADRs) accounted for over half of clozapine discontinuations. Sedation was the most common ADR cited as a reason for discontinuation and the risk of discontinuation due to ADRs was highest in the first few months of clozapine treatment. High levels of deprivation in the neighbourhood where the patient lived were associated with increased risk of clozapine discontinuation (HR = 2.12, 95% CI 1.30–3.47). Conclusions Living in a deprived neighbourhood was strongly associated with clozapine discontinuation. Clinical management to reduce the burden of ADRs in the first few months of treatment may have a significant impact and help more patients experience the benefits of clozapine treatment

The CLARITY modular ambient health and wellness measurement platform

Emerging healthcare applications can benefit enormously from recent advances in pervasive technology and computing. This paper introduces the CLARITY Modular Ambient Health and Wellness Measurement Platform:, which is a heterogeneous and robust pervasive healthcare solution currently under development at the CLARITY Center for Sensor Web Technologies. This intelligent and context-aware platform comprises the Tyndall Wireless Sensor Network prototyping system, augmented with an agent-based middleware and frontend computing architecture. The key contribution of this work is to highlight how interoperability, expandability, reusability and robustness can be manifested in the modular design of the constituent nodes and the inherently distributed nature of the controlling software architecture.Emerging healthcare applications can benefit enormously from recent advances in pervasive technology and computing. This paper introduces the CLARITY Modular Ambient Health and Wellness Measurement Platform:, which is a heterogeneous and robust pervasive healthcare solution currently under development at the CLARITY Center for Sensor Web Technologies. This intelligent and context-aware platform comprises the Tyndall Wireless Sensor Network prototyping system, augmented with an agent-based middleware and frontend computing architecture. The key contribution of this work is to highlight how interoperability, expandability, reusability and robustness can be manifested in the modular design of the constituent nodes and the inherently distributed nature of the controlling software architecture

Influence of anatomic correction for transposition of the great arteries on myocardial perfusion: Radionuclide imaging with technetium-99m 2-methoxy isobutyl isonitrile

AbstractObjectives. We sought to determine the incidence of late perfusion defects attributable to coronary artery mobilization in patients undergoing anatomic correction for complete transposition of the great arteries.Background. Anatomic correction (arterial switch procedure) is currently the surgical treatment of choice for complete transposition. From its conception, there has been concern about the impact on myocardial perfusion of the coronary artery mobilization and reimplantation involved in the correction. Previous studies have demonstrated myocardial perfusion defects in patients after correction, although a causal relation between coronary mobilization, and perfusion abnormality has not been established.Methods. In a case-comparison study designed to test this hypothesis, 29 children underwent imaging with technetium-99m 2-methoxy isobutyl isonitrile (technetium-99m mibi). Ten had undergone anatomic correction (arterial switch group; interval from operation 6.9 ± 1.42 years [range 4.9 to 9.1]); 9 had required noncoronary open heart surgery for other cardiac lesions (postbypass group; interval from operation 5.6 ± 3.6 years [range 1.0 to 13.25]); and 10 had had no surgical procedure (control group). The latter group comprised children with atrial or ventricular septal defects who required a radionuclide study for shunt calculation. Planar studies were performed in all 29 children, and additional tomographic acquisition was achieved in 25. To assess reversibility of perfusion defects both an exercise and a rest planar study were performed in the arterial switch group.Results. Perfusion abnormalities were observed in seven of the nine children in the postbypass group and in all 10 children in the arterial switch group. The frequency of perfusion defects in these two groups was similar, with at least 25% of the tomographic segments reported being abnormal. The control group had significantly fewer defects than the other two groups (p = 0.02), with only 8% of the tomographic segments judged to be abnormal. In all except one patient in the arterial switch group, the segments reported as abnormal on the planar exercise study were either abnormal or equivocal on the rest study, indicating a fixed abnormality.Conclusions. Although the precise etiology of these perfusion abnormalities cannot be defined from this study, these data suggest that their origin is related more to the insult of open heart surgery itself than to the coronary manipulation involved in the arterial switch procedure. The functional importance requires further study

Double-outlet right ventricle: Morphologic demonstration using nuclear magnetic resonance imaging

Sixteen patients with double-outlet right ventricle, aged 1 week to 29 years (median 5 months), were studied with a 1.5 tesla nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) imaging scanner. Two-dimensional echocardiography was performed in all patients. Thirteen patients underwent angiography, including nine who underwent subsequent surgical correction. Three patients underwent postmortem examination.Small children and infants were scanned inside a 32 cm diameter proton head coil. Multiple 5 mm thick sections separated by 0.5 mm and gated to the patient's electrocardiogram were acquired with a spin-echo sequence and an echo time of 30 ms. A combination of standard and oblique imaging planes was used. Imaging times were <90 min. The NMR images were technically unsuitable in one patient because of excessive motion artifact.In the remaining patients, the diagnosis of double outlet right ventricle was confirmed and correlated with surgical and postmortern findings. The NMR images were particularly valuable in demonstrating the interrelations between the great arteries and the anatomy of the outlet septum and the spatial relations between the ventricular septal defect and the great arteries. Although the atrioventricular (AV) valves were not consistently demonstrated, NMR imaging in two patients identified abnormalities of the mitral valve that were not seen with two-dimensional echocardiography. In one patient who had a superoinferior arrangement of the ventricles, NMR imaging was the most useful imaging technique for demonstrating the anatomy.In patients with double-outlet right ventricle, NMR imaging can provide clinically relevant and accurate morphologic information that may contribute to future improvement in patient management