Invitation

Exhibition of monochrome works, Annie Whiles drawings are made painstakingly neatly with pencil crayon, Alison Jones’ watercolours are informal and splashy. The work shares a relationship with objects and spaces and the correspondence between qualities of drawing, texture, composition and line of very particular places and things. Annie Whiles has placed objects and things together to form portraits of polarised powers, objects are selected on their origin and status to form difficult relationships, often unstable and comical combinations, rendered with a steady hand. Alison Jones depicts plush interiors and the parade of wealth and glamour published in W magazine online. An exacting process of elimination has been undertaken by the artist, for this apparently convivial mood and event to take place. Whilst the work of both artists invite recognition and pleasure, this welcome has conditions: it asks the viewer to check their politics and art world, along with their coat at reception

Determining Writing Readiness: Effects on Retention, Persistence & Academic Success

WRITING READINESS INITIATIVE RESEARCH PLAN Phase I: The Impacts of the Writing Readiness Initiative Phase I examines the relationship between Writing Readiness and Retention, Persistence and Academic Success. (FRIG 2012 Grant) Phase II: The Student Experience Impact of the Writing Readiness Initiative. Phase II of the Impacts of Writing Readiness Initiative study will be surveying and interviewing students to determine their perspectives on this initiative as well as their perceived impact on their writing.https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/archivedposters/1019/thumbnail.jp

Nation-building across the urban and rural in Timor-Leste : conference report

&lsquo;Nation-building across Urban and Rural Timor-Leste&rsquo; provided an opportunity for East Timorese and people from around the world to reflect, discuss and debate the nation-building process in Timor-Leste since 1999. In this context, nation-building in Timor-Leste is taken to mean the many different attempts since 1999 to ensure the political, economic and cultural integration of the population to fulfil the ambition of self rule.Ten years after the 1999 vote for independence, this conference considered how nation-building is being experienced and responded to across urban and rural communities in Timor-Leste. Broadening the discussion beyond that of &lsquo;state-building&rsquo;, at the core of the conference was a consideration of the myriad ways the new republic has been &lsquo;built&rsquo;. Here &lsquo;nation-building&rsquo; considers not only in terms of policy and programmatic initiatives but also grass roots experiences and perceptions of how Timor-Leste as a nation is seen and understood. For this reason, the majority of participants were East Timorese representatives from across the districts, allowing them top share their stories of nation-building.At this conference, nation-building was discussed in terms of what appears to be one of the most significant characteristics of contemporary Timor-Leste, namely the sharp distinction found between the urbanized capital and the rural communities where the majority of the population live. Dili has emerged as the centre for economic and political power in a way that is extraordinarily disproportionate with the remainder of the country, while rural areas often remain highly isolated and continue to be dominated by subsistence agriculture.</div

Existence and regularity of solution for a Stochastic CahnHilliard / Allen-Cahn equation with unbounded noise diffusion

The Cahn-Hilliard/Allen-Cahn equation with noise is a simplified mean field model of stochastic microscopic dynamics associated with adsorption and desorption-spin flip mechanisms in the context of surface processes. For such an equation we consider a multiplicative space-time white noise with diffusion coefficient of linear growth. Applying technics from semigroup theory, we prove local existence and uniqueness in dimensions d = 1,2,3. Moreover, when the diffusion coefficient satisfies a sub-linear growth condition of order α bounded by 1 3, which is the inverse of the polynomial order of the nonlinearity used, we prove for d = 1 global existence of solution. Path regularity of stochastic solution, depending on that of the initial condition, is obtained a.s. up to the explosion time. The path regularity is identical to that proved for the stochastic Cahn-Hilliard equation in the case of bounded noise diffusion. Our results are also valid for the stochastic Cahn-Hilliard equation with unbounded noise diffusion, for which previous results were established only in the framework of a bounded diffusion coefficient. As expected from the theory of parabolic operators in the sense of Petrovsk˘ıı, the bi-Laplacian operator seems to be dominant in the combined model

Association between rheumatoid arthritis disease activity, progression of functional limitation and long-term risk of orthopaedic surgery : Combined analysis of two prospective cohorts supports EULAR treat to target DAS thresholds

Objectives: To examine the association between disease activity in early rheumatoid arthritis (RA), functional limitation and long-term orthopaedic episodes. Methods: Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ) disability scores were collected from two longitudinal early RA inception cohorts in routine care; Early Rheumatoid Arthritis Study and Early Rheumatoid Arthritis Network from 1986 to 2012. The incidence of major and intermediate orthopaedic surgical episodes over 25 years was collected from national data sets. Disease activity was categorised by mean disease activity score (DAS28) annually between years 1 and 5; remission (RDAS≤2.6), low (LDAS>2.6-3.2), low-moderate (LMDAS≥3.2-4.19), high-moderate (HMDAS 4.2-5.1) and high (HDAS>5.1). Results: Data from 2045 patients were analysed. Patients in RDAS showed no HAQ progression over 5 years, whereas there was a significant relationship between rising DAS28 category and HAQ at 1 year, and the rate of HAQ progression between years 1 and 5. During 27 986 person-years follow-up, 392 intermediate and 591 major surgeries were observed. Compared with the RDAS category, there was a significantly increased cumulative incidence of intermediate surgery in HDAS (OR 2.59 CI 1.49 to 4.52) and HMDAS (OR 1.8 CI 1.05 to 3.11) categories, and for major surgery in HDAS (OR 2.48 CI 1.5 to 4.11), HMDAS (OR 2.16 CI 1.32 to 3.52) and LMDAS (OR 2.07 CI 1.28 to 3.33) categories. There was no significant difference in HAQ progression or orthopaedic episodes between RDAS and LDAS categories. Conclusions: There is an association between disease activity and both poor function and long-term orthopaedic episodes. This illustrates the far from benign consequences of persistent moderate disease activity, and supports European League Against Rheumatism treat to target recommendations to secure low disease activity or remission in all patients.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Plasma fibrinogen and risk of vascular recurrence after ischaemic stroke:An individual participant and summary-level data meta-analysis of 11 prospective studies

INTRODUCTION: Inflammation is an emerging target for secondary prevention after stroke and randomised trials of anti-inflammatory therapies are ongoing. Fibrinogen, a putative pro-inflammatory marker, is associated with first stroke, but its association with major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) after stroke is unclear.MATERIALS AND METHODS: We did a systematic review investigating the association between fibrinogen and post-stroke vascular recurrence. Authors were invited to provide individual-participant data (IPD) and where available we did within-study multivariable analyses with adjustment for cardiovascular risk factors and medications. Adjusted summary-level data was extracted from published reports from studies that did not provide IPD. We pooled risk ratios (RR) by random-effects meta-analysis by comparing supra-median with sub-median fibrinogen levels and performed pre-specified subgroup analysis according to timing of phlebotomy after the index event.RESULTS: Eleven studies were included (14,002 patients, 42,800 follow-up years), of which seven provided IPD. Fibrinogen was associated with recurrent MACE on unadjusted (RR 1.35, 95% CI 1.17-1.57, supra-median vs sub-median) and adjusted models (RR 1.21, 95% CI 1.06-1.38). Fibrinogen was associated with recurrent stroke on univariate analysis (RR 1.19, 95% CI 1.03-1.39), but not after adjustment (RR 1.11, 95% CI 0.94-1.31). The association with recurrent MACE was consistently observed in patients with post-acute (⩾14 days) fibrinogen measures (RR 1.29, 95% CI 1.16-1.45), but not in those with early phlebotomy (&lt;14 days) (RR 0.98, 95% CI 0.82-1.18) ( P interaction  = 0.01). Similar associations were observed for recurrent stroke. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Fibrinogen was independently associated with recurrence after stroke, but the association was modified by timing of phlebotomy. Fibrinogen measurements might be useful to identify patients who are more likely to derive benefit from anti-inflammatory therapies after stroke.</p

Hydroxy double salts intercalated with Mn(II) complexes as potential contrast agents

A series of Mn(II) aminophosphonate complexes were successfully synthesized and intercalated into the hydroxy double salt [Zn5(OH)8]Cl2·yH2O. Complex incorporation led to an increase in the interlayer spacing from 7.8 to 10–12 Å. Infrared spectroscopy showed the presence of the characteristic vibration peaks of the Mn(II) complexes in the intercalates' spectra, indicating successful incorporation. The complex-loaded composites had somewhat lower proton relaxivities than the pure complexes. Nevertheless, these intercalates may have use as MRI contrast agents for patients with poor kidney function, where traditional Gd(III)-based contrast agents cause severe renal failure

OOI Biogeochemical Sensor Data: Best Practices and User Guide. Version 1.0.0.

The OOI Biogeochemical Sensor Data Best Practices and User Guide is intended to provide current and prospective users of data generated by biogeochemical sensors deployed on the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) arrays with the information and guidance needed for them to ensure that the data is science-ready. This guide is aimed at researchers with an interest or some experience in ocean biogeochemical processes. We expect that users of this guide will have some background in oceanography, however we do not assume any prior experience working with biogeochemical sensors or their data. While initially envisioned as a “cookbook” for end users seeking to work with OOI biogeochemical (BGC) sensor data, our Working Group and Beta Testers realized that the processing required to meet the specific needs of all end users across a wide range of potential scientific applications and combinations of OOI BGC data from different sensors and platforms couldn’t be synthesized into a single “recipe”. We therefore provide here the background information and principles needed for the end user to successfully identify and understand all the available “ingredients” (data), the types of “cooking” (end user processing) that are recommended to prepare them, and a few sample “recipes” (worked examples) to support end users in developing their own “recipes” consistent with the best practices presented here. This is not intended to be an exhaustive guide to each of these sensors, but rather a synthesis of the key information to support OOI BGC sensor data users in preparing science-ready data products. In instances when more in-depth information might be helpful, references and links have been provided both within each chapter and in the Appendix

The state of the Martian climate

60°N was +2.0°C, relative to the 1981–2010 average value (Fig. 5.1). This marks a new high for the record. The average annual surface air temperature (SAT) anomaly for 2016 for land stations north of starting in 1900, and is a significant increase over the previous highest value of +1.2°C, which was observed in 2007, 2011, and 2015. Average global annual temperatures also showed record values in 2015 and 2016. Currently, the Arctic is warming at more than twice the rate of lower latitudes