Castleman disease and lymphocytic interstitial pneumonia: a complex diagnostic and management challenge

No abstract available

Reason and eros

This study is not intended as a work of research into any existing body of philosopny. It is, rather, an independent inquiry into the origins and the objective of philosophical activity. In this it assumes the somewhat enigmatic role of a philosophy of philosophy

Leveraging the L1: the role of EAL learners' first language in their acquisition of English vocabulary

Approximately one in five primary school pupils in England are classified as having English as an additional language (EAL), meaning that they routinely use, or are exposed to, languages other than English. It is commonly thought that EAL learners’ first languages (L1s) can be leveraged to positively impact their linguistic and academic development in English. However, despite an abundance of theoretical and observational evidence used to argue this position, there is little experimental evidence to clarify the extent and nature of any relevant causal relationships. This gap in evidence was revealed in the first original contribution of this thesis: a systematic review of experimental research on the educational effects of mediating primary and pre-primary multilingual learners’ learning through their L1. An extensive search of twelve bibliographic databases revealed only ten studies that met the review’s inclusion criteria. The pedagogical focuses of these studies varied, and the overall picture was unclear. However, five studies coalesced around the use of L1 as a mediating tool for teaching English vocabulary. Of these, three found that L1-mediation was associated with improved knowledge of the target vocabulary, one found an advantage associated with not using the L1, and the remaining study had mixed results. None of these studies were conducted with linguistically diverse groups of students, typical in English schools. The promising, if somewhat tentative, conclusion invited by the systematic review informed the second original contribution of this thesis: a randomised crossover trial with linguistically diverse students, comparing the effects of L1-mediated teaching and English-only teaching on English vocabulary learning. Forty EAL learners aged from 8 to 11 years, representing 14 different L1s took part. Participants watched short videos that explained the meanings of items of vocabulary taken from the National Curriculum for England. The spoken content of the videos was either in each participant’s L1 or in English. Analysis of the expressive and receptive knowledge of the target words following each condition revealed no statistically significant differences in outcomes. The implications for pedagogy and future research are discussed, especially the imperative to conduct more and better research to add clarity to our understanding of the causal relationships between different types of L1-mediation and linguistic and academic success in linguistically diverse classrooms

George Simpson (ca. 1787-1860)

Sir George Simpson, overseas Governor-in-Chief of the Hudson's Bay Company, is remembered chiefly for his success in integrating the field operations of the rival Hudson's Bay and North West Companies after their union in 1821. No explorer himself, he assisted, albeit reluctantly, John Franklin's first sortie into the Arctic and, more willingly, subsequent Admiralty expeditions. He was also responsible for organizing Company-mounted exploration and searches in the North. ... In 1844, Simpson chose a Company clerk, Dr. John Rae, to head another sortie to the Frozen Ocean. In 1846 Rae led a small party to brilliant exploring success in the northeast corner of the continent. In an 1854 Company-organized foray, Rae discovered the first relics of the lost Franklin expedition. Throughout the long search for Franklin, the Company - under Simpson's direction - assisted such Admiralty expeditions as Dr. John Richardson's with material and personnel, and mounted its own searches, such as James Anderson's 1855 journey. ..

Final Report of the Commission on Presidential Disability and the Twenty-Fifth Amendment

This Report examines the Twenty-Fifth Amendment to identify potential difficulties in presidential succession and makes recommendations

Simplifying Algebra in Feynman Graphs, Part III: Massive Vectors

A T-dualized selfdual inspired formulation of massive vector fields coupled to arbitrary matter is generated; subsequently its perturbative series modeling a spontaneously broken gauge theory is analyzed. The new Feynman rules and external line factors are chirally minimized in the sense that only one type of spin index occurs in the rules. Several processes are examined in detail and the cross-sections formulated in this approach. A double line formulation of the Lorentz algebra for Feynman diagrams is produced in this formalism, similar to color ordering, which follows from a spin ordering of the Feynman rules. The new double line formalism leads to further minimization of gauge invariant scattering in perturbation theory. The dualized electroweak model is also generated.Comment: 39 pages, LaTeX, 8 figure

Profiling Users in the Smart Grid

The implementation of the smart grid brings with it many new components that are fundamentally different to traditional power grid infrastructures. The most important addition brought by the smart grid is the application of the Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI). As part of the AMI, the smart meter device provides real time energy usage about the consumer to all of the smart grids stakeholders. Detailed statistics about a consumer’s energy usage can be accessed by the end user, utility companies and other parties. The problem, however, is in how to analyse, present and make best use of the data. This paper focuses on the data collected from the smart grid and how it can be used to detect abnormal user behaviour for energy monitoring applications. The proposed system employs a data classification technique to identify irregular energy usage in patterns generated by smart meters. The results show that it is possible to detect abnormal behaviour with an overall accuracy of 99.45% with 0.100 for sensitivity, 0.989 for specificity and an error of 0.006 using the LDC classifier

A Smart Health Monitoring Technology

With the implementation of the Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI), comes the opportunity to gain valuable insights into an individual’s daily habits, patterns and routines. A vital part of the AMI is the smart meter. It enables the monitoring of a consumer’s electricity usage with a high degree of accuracy. Each device reports and records a consumer’s energy usage readings at regular intervals. This facilitates the identification of emerging abnormal behaviours and trends, which can provide operative monitoring for people living alone with various health conditions. Through profiling, the detection of sudden changes in behaviour is made possible, based on the daily activities a patient is expected to undertake during a 24-hour period. As such, this paper presents the development of a system which detects accurately the granular differences in energy usage which are the result of a change in an individual’s health state. Such a process provides accurate monitoring for people living with self-limiting conditions and enables an early intervention practice (EIP) when a patient’s condition is deteriorating. The results in this paper focus on one particular behavioural trend, the detection of sleep disturbances; which is related to various illnesses, such as depression and Alzheimer’s. The results demonstrate that it is possible to detect sleep pattern changes to an accuracy of 95.96% with 0.943 for sensitivity, 0.975 for specificity and an overall error of 0.040 when using the VPC Neural Network classifier. This type of behavioral detection can be used to provide a partial assessment of a patient’s wellbeing

Smart Monitoring: An Intelligent System to Facilitate Health Care across an Ageing Population

In the UK, the number of people living with self-limiting conditions, such as Dementia, Parkinson’s disease and depression, is increasing. The resulting strain on national healthcare resources means that providing 24-hour monitoring for patients is a challenge. As this problem escalates, caring for an ageing population will become more demanding over the next decade. Our research directly proposes an alternative and cost effective method for supporting independent living that offers enhancements for Early Intervention Practices (EIP). In the UK, a national roll out of smart meters is underway, which enable detailed around-the-clock monitoring of energy usage. This granular data captures detailed habits and routines through the users’ interactions with electrical devices. Our approach utilises this valuable data to provide an innovative remote patient monitoring system. The system interfaces directly with a patient’s smart meter, enabling it to distinguish reliably between subtle changes in energy usage in real-time. The data collected can be used to identify any behavioural anomalies in a patient’s habit or routine, using a machine learning approach. Our system utilises trained models, which are deployed as web services using cloud infrastructures, to provide a comprehensive monitoring service. The research outlined in this paper demonstrates that it is possible to classify successfully both normal and abnormal behaviours using the Bayes Point Machine binary classifier

Endothelin-1 and the use of induced sputum to investigate its role in airway diseases

Endothelin (ET)-1 is a 21-amino acid peptide which has been the subject of intense interest since its discovery in 1988. It has a number of properties which may be important in physiology and pathophysiology, including potential relevance to airway diseases. A putative role for ET-1 in asthma has been proposed, and we sought to examine this further, as well as to extend our investigations to other respiratory diseases, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and cystic fibrosis. The technique of sputum induction has been developed recently as a non-invasive method of obtaining airway secretions for analysis, and we have applied this to the investigation of the role of ET-1 in diseases involving the airway. We have demonstrated for the first time that ET-1 is a highly potent bronchoconstrictor with a prolonged duration of action when administered by aerosol in asthma, and that asthmatics exhibit bronchial hyperreactivity to ET-1 compared with non-asthmatic subjects, but we found no evidence of an acute inflammatory airway response at 30 minutes or 4 hours following ET-l-induced bronchoconstriction in asthma, assessed by analysis of cell counts and soluble mediators in induced sputum. The bronchoconstrictor activity of ET-1 was not potentiated by an infusion of angiotensin II in stable asthmatics, despite animal evidence of potentiation, although the possibility of such interaction remains in acute severe asthma, where plasma angiotensin II levels are elevated. We did not find increased levels of ET-1 in induced sputum in mild asthmatics compared with non-asthmatic subjects, nor was there a fall in sputum ET-1 comparing samples obtained during acute severe asthma with those obtained in convalescence, although sputum and saliva levels of ET-1 are greater than plasma ET-1, suggesting local production within the respiratory tract. Examination of sputum ET-1 following allergen challenge in asthma showed a trend towards an increase in sputum ET-1 after allergen challenge, with a relationship between the increase in sputum ET-1 and the extent of sputum eosinophilia, suggesting a relationship between asthmatic airway inflammation and ET- 1 release. Sputum ET-1 is increased in smokers without lung disease, and in subjects with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), with a trend towards a fall in sputum ET-1 comparing acute exacerbation with convalescence. Finally, we have demonstrated a marked increase in sputum ET-1 in patients with cystic fibrosis compared with healthy subjects. We conclude from this series of studies that there is continuing evidence for a role for ET-1 in a number of diseases affecting the airway, and speculate that drugs which oppose the action of ET-1 may have a role in the treatment of these conditions