Accessing nanotube bands via crossed electric and magnetic fields

We investigate the properties of conduction electrons in single-walled armchair carbon nanotubes in the presence of mutually orthogonal electric and magnetic fields transverse to the tube's axis. We find that the fields give rise to an asymmetric dispersion in the right- and left-moving electrons along the tube as well as a band-dependent interaction. We predict that such a nanotube system would exhibit spin-band-charge separation and a band-dependant tunneling density of states. We show that in the quantum dot limit, the fields serve to completely tune the quantum states of electrons added to the nanotube. For each of the predicted effects, we provide examples and estimates that are relevant to experiment.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Mental Health Programs in Remote Divisions of General Practice: PARC Knowledge Harvesting Program Issues Report

Part of the Primary Mental Health Care Australian Resource Centre (PARC) knowledge management strategy for the Primary Mental Health Care Network.This discussion paper describes the mental health activities of Divisions of General Practice (DGPs) operating in remote areas of Australia , and documents the knowledge of the people who work in these programs.Primary Mental Health Care Australian Resource Centre (PARC) Primary Mental Health Care Network

Plan de marketing para el posicionamiento de la marca Lipifresh

El estilo de vida que llevamos actualmente en los centros urbanos es sinónimo de exposición constante a pantallas, polución y ambientes climatizados. Sin embargo, no estamos concientizados como sociedad respecto a los daños que esto puede generar en nuestra salud ocular y las consecuencias que esto trae aparejado. El hábito mantener hidratada nuestra película lagrimal no está arraigado entre nosotros, pero a fin de cuentas es tan importante como mantener hidratada nuestra piel o protegerla del sol. El presente trabajo parte de esta premisa para desarrollar una estrategia de posicionamiento para la marca Lipiresh Spray. Un producto novedoso y único en el mercado local, por tratarse del primer hidratante ocular en formato de spray, que puede aplicarse sobre el párpado con los ojos cerrados y brindar una hidratación más eficaz que cualquier colirio, gota o lágrima artificial. Bajo el concepto de “sensación de frescura en cada momento” hemos desarrollado un plan de marketing que busca penetrar el mercado argentino de hidratantes oculares y satisfacer la necesidad de hidratación que experimentan esos hombres y mujeres que desean mantener sus ojos lubricados pero a quienes les resulta incómodo usar gotas. Consideramos que la marca tiene mucho potencial y oportunidad de crecimiento ya que hasta el momento sólo ha captado el 0,00426% de un mercado de 340.344 de potenciales compras. El mercado se encuentra en crecimiento y teniendo en cuenta el alto grado de exposición a pantallas al que serán sometidos en los próximos 20 años los segmentos más jóvenes de la población, consideramos que su crecimiento será exponencial y encontramos aquí una oportunidad de negocio. Para 2019 hemos planteado como objetivo principal un crecimiento de un 60% en ventas online y 135% en tiendas físicas. Nuestra estrategia para lograr dicho objetivo será mejorar la red de distribución y llevar adelante un plan de comunicación agresivo y eficiente. La principal propuesta de la estrategia de distribución es la venta del producto en grandes cadenas de farmacias de los principales centros urbanos del país. A su vez, proponemos desarrollar una nueva variante de producto con mejoras del efecto anti-age que hoy ofrece la fórmula de Lipifresh Spray. El plan de comunicación diseñado para llevar a cabo nuestra estrategia de promoción se basa en cuatro pilares: marketing de relacionamiento, promociones, punto de venta y marketing online. Creemos en la eficiencia de este plan de marketing y consideramos que realizando mejoras en la distribución y comunicando sostenida y estratégicamente no tendremos otro resultado que el éxito y la instauración de la marca en un mercado que pese a las limitaciones de la situación económica actual, está ávido de productos novedosos y que mejoren su calidad de vida.Fil: Wade, María Victoria. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Económicas. Buenos Aires, Argentina

Predicting site productivity drivers for Podocarpus totara and modelling its growth with 3-PG

Forests have been identified as key mitigation strategies to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions as they sequester and store carbon through growth. The Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) and One Billion Tree (OBT) programme aim to increase tree plantings to offset these emissions by identifying exotic and indigenous tree species suitable for carbon sequestration across New Zealand. However, the rate of planting indigenous tree species has been slow as the species ability to sequester carbon is not well documented and legislation has prevented harvesting. The endemic conifer tōtara (Podocarpus totara D. Don) is an indigenous tree species which could be suitable for timber and carbon forestry. Previous studies have identified that tōtara can grow across a wide range of climatic and environmental conditions, however, few studies have investigated the key site productivity drivers and examined how they potentially influence productivity across sites. The aims of this study were to identify the main productivity drivers for tōtara across sites in the North Island of New Zealand and model growth using the 3-PG (Physiological Principles in Predicting Growth) forest growth model developed by Landsberg and Waring (1997). This study had two main hypotheses; 1) site fertility and temperature would be significant drivers of tōtara productivity and 2) the 3-PG growth model would be able to predict the growth of tōtara (stem diameter, basal area, volume, height and stand density) moderately well, providing a good fit to both the calibration and validation datasets with minimal error (RMSE). To test these hypotheses, 21 previously described planted and naturally regenerated tōtara stands across the North Island were selected. Fifteen sites were re-measured to investigate site productivity drivers for tōtara and to calibrate the 3-PG forest growth model. A multiple linear regression analysis using the backward elimination method was conducted to examine 22 growth related variables. Reineke’s (1933) stand density index (SDI) approach was used to identify trends in mortality as a function of stand density and size across sites. In addition, four volume equations by Ellis (1979), Coomes et al. (2002), Beets et al. (2012), and Todoroki and Steward (2019), that had previously been used to estimate volume of tōtara were tested to identify the most appropriate fit to two tōtara specific datasets. After model calibration, six additional sites, drawn from previous mensuration data were used to validate the model. The results from this study identified that climatic and soil physiochemical properties were significant drivers of tōtara productivity in planted and naturally regenerated stands. Temperature (max, mean and min), rainfall, elevation, soil total phosphorus, HCP ECa (horizontal coplanar receiver, apparent electromagnetic conductivity), and other soil macro and micronutrients (e.g. potassium and manganese) were selected as significant drivers of tōtara productivity from the multiple linear regression analysis; thus Hypothesis 1 of this study was supported. Currently, it is unclear how much these variables contribute to productivity and further research is recommended to investigate the level of contribution these significant drivers have on tōtara. Further investigation of more sites with collection of detailed growth and soil sampling data is recommended to develop a site fertility index for tōtara to quantify the role of fertility across sites. The volume equation developed by Todoroki and Steward (2019) provided the most appropriate fit to the tōtara dataset. A species-specific equation can therefore improve current estimates of volume in stands. In addition, the SDI index successfully identified relative stand densities for maximum and optimal stocking and can provide a basis for informing density management across tōtara sites. The 3-PG forest growth model predicted the growth of tōtara across sites with variable success. The 3-PG model provided reasonable estimates of stem diameter, height and stand density across the calibration sites (R2 ≥ 0.60 with low RMSE). However, the model consistently over-estimated basal area and volume. The model performed poorly (R2 ≤ 0.50) when tested with the validation dataset, and significantly over-estimated all growth variables apart from stand density. Therefore, the results did not support Hypothesis 2. This result could be due to the limited quantity and quality of data available and further investigation into the model’s parameters and algorithms is recommended. Overall, even though the results were less accurate than expected, they indicate that process-based models, like 3-PG, as opposed to empirical models, can be used to model species with limited datasets to identify base line information on growth over time and identify where additional research efforts should be directed to improve predictions. This thesis emphasises the need to investigate a wider range of tōtara sites across varied soil fertility and productivity to improve the quality of the data available for growth modelling and forest management. This should include regular re-measurement of growth and long-term monitoring of climatic and edaphic factors across sites. This study has significantly improved the knowledge base available for tōtara to assist landowners, forest managers, iwi and the government to grow and manage tōtara for both commercial and non-commercial purposes

Transitioning a home telehealth project into a sustainable, large-scale service: a qualitative study

© 2016 Wade et al. Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.Background This study was a component of the Flinders Telehealth in the Home project, which tested adding home telehealth to existing rehabilitation, palliative care and geriatric outreach services. Due to the known difficulty of transitioning telehealth projects services, a qualitative study was conducted to produce a preferred implementation approach for sustainable and large-scale operations, and a process model that offers practical advice for achieving this goal. Methods Initially, semi-structured interviews were conducted with senior clinicians, health service managers and policy makers, and a thematic analysis of the interview transcripts was undertaken to identify the range of options for ongoing operations, plus the factors affecting sustainability. Subsequently, the interviewees and other decision makers attended a deliberative forum in which participants were asked to select a preferred model for future implementation. Finally, all data from the study was synthesised by the researchers to produce a process model. Results 19 interviews with senior clinicians, managers, and service development staff were conducted, finding strong support for home telehealth but a wide diversity of views on governance, models of clinical care, technical infrastructure operations, and data management. The deliberative forum worked through these options and recommended a collaborative consortium approach for large-scale implementation. The process model proposes that the key factor for large-scale implementation is leadership support, which is enabled by 1) showing solutions to the problems of service demand, budgetary pressure and the relationship between hospital and primary care, 2) demonstrating how home telehealth aligns with health service policies, and 3) achieving clinician acceptance through providing evidence of benefit and developing new models of clinical care. Two key actions to enable change were marketing telehealth to patients, clinicians and policy-makers, and building a community of practice. Conclusions The implementation of home telehealth services is still in an early stage. Change agents and a community of practice can contribute by marketing telehealth, demonstrating policy alignment and providing potential solutions for difficult health services problems. This should assist health leaders to move from trials to large-scale services

Isolation and characterisation of graves’ disease-specific extracellular vesicles from tissue maintained on a bespoke microfluidic device

AbstractThis report demonstrates the ability of a microfluidic device to maintain human Graves' disease tissue enabling the isolation and characterisation of Graves' disease specific exosomes. Graves' disease (n = 7) and non-Graves’ disease (Hashimoto's thyroiditis, n = 3; follicular adenoma, n = 1) human tissue was incubated in a microfluidic device for 6 days ± dexamethasone or methimazole and effluent was analysed for the size and concentration of extracellular vesicles (EV) using nanoparticle tracking analysis. Exosomes were isolated by centrifugation and characterised using Western blotting and qRT-PCR for miRNA-146a and miRNA-155, previously reported to be immunomodulatory. EV were detected in all effluent samples. No difference in concentration was observed in the EV released from Graves' compared to non-Graves’ disease tissue and although the size of EV from Graves' disease tissue was smaller compared to those from non-Graves’ disease tissue, the difference was not consistently significant. No effect of treatment was observed on the size or concentration of EV released. The exosome markers CD63 and CD81 were detectable in 2/5 Graves' disease tissue exosomes and CD63 was also evident in exosomes from a single non-Graves’ sample. miRNA-146a and miRNA-155 were detectable in all samples with no difference between tissue cohorts. Treatment did not influence miRNA expression in exosomes isolated from Graves' disease tissue. Although miRNA-146a and miRNA-155 were both elevated following treatment of non-Graves’ disease tissue with dexamethasone and methimazole, the increase was not significant. This study provides a proof of concept that incubation of tissue on a microfluidic device allows the detection, isolation and characterisation of extracellular vesicles from human tissue biopsies

Improving management of student clinical placements: insights from activity theory

Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.Background An approach to improve management of student clinical placements, the Building Teams for Quality Learning project, was trialed in three different health services. In a previous paper the authors explored in some detail the factors associated with considerable success of this approach at one of these services. In this paper, the authors extend this work with further analysis to determine if the more limited outcomes observed with participants at the other two services could be explained by application of activity theory and in particular the expansive learning cycle. Methods Staff at three health services participated in the Building Teams for Quality Learning project: a dental clinic, a community aged care facility and a rural hospital. At each site a team of seven multi-disciplinary staff completed the project over 9 to 12 months (total 21 participants). Evaluation data were collected through interviews, focus groups and direct observation of staff and students. Following initial thematic analysis, further analysis was conducted to compare the processes and outcomes at each participating health service drawing on activity theory and the expansive learning cycle. Results Fifty-one interview transcripts, 33 h of workplace observation and 31 sets of workshop field notes (from 36 h of workshops) were generated. All participants were individually supportive of, and committed to, high quality student learning experiences. As was observed with staff at the dental clinic, a number of potentially effective strategies were discussed at the aged care facility and the rural hospital workshops. However, participants in these two health services could not develop a successful implementation plan. The expansive learning cycle element of modeling and testing new solutions was not achieved and participants were unable, collectively to reassess and reinterpret the object of their activities. Conclusion The application of activity theory and the expansive learning cycle assisted a deeper understanding of the differences in outcomes observed across the three groups of participants. This included identifying specific points in the expansive learning cycle at which the three groups diverged. These findings support some practical recommendations for health services that host student clinical placements

Do GPs use electronic mental health resources? A qualitative study

BACKGROUNDThe Better Outcomes in Mental Health Care (BOMHC) initiative encourages general practitioners to use electronic mental health resources (EMHRs) during consultation with patients requiring psychological assistance. However, there is little data on GPs&rsquo; acceptance and use of EMHRs.METHODSemistructured interviews were conducted with 27 GPs to determine their attitude toward EMHRs, and their use during consultation with patients.RESULTSFew GPs reported frequently using EMHRs in consultation. Identified barriers to use included lack of familiarity with information technology, and insufficient knowledge of available resources. Identified advantages of electronic resources included high patient acceptance, time efficiency, and improved quality of information.DISCUSSIONGeneral practitioners recognise several advantages of utilising electronic resources for managing patients with mental illness. However, GPs are not sufficiently familiar with electronic resources to use them effectively. This could be overcome by education.<br /

Marine reserve impacts : why have marine reserves been established in Oregon?

Overview: Marine reserves are a type of marine protected area with full protections. This means that taking of marine species within an Oregon Marine Reserve is never allowed. Many studies from around the world show that marine reserves can provide long-term conservation benefits to marine organisms, populations, and biodiversity. In this lesson, students learn about the goals that have been set for Oregon’s Marine Reserves, and how scientific data is being collected to help determine whether the goals are being met.Learning Goals: Students will learn the following: • Oregon’s five marine reserves were established to protect marine ecosystems. • Researchers collect data over many years to determine the impacts of marine reserves and whether the goals for the reserves are being met. • Understanding the impacts of marine reserves can inform and improve fishery management decisions