Review Symposium

Book Review: Identity, neoliberalism and aspiration: educating white working-class boys. By Garth Stah

Expanding the Operational Use of Total Lightning Ahead of GOES-R

NASA's Shortterm Prediction Research and Transition Center (SPoRT) has been transitioning realtime total lightning observations from groundbased lightning mapping arrays since 2003. This initial effort was with the local Weather Forecast Offices (WFO) that could use the North Alabama Lightning Mapping Array (NALMA). These early collaborations established a strong interest in the use of total lightning for WFO operations. In particular the focus started with warning decision support, but has since expanded to include impactbased decision support and lightning safety. SPoRT has used its experience to establish connections with new lightning mapping arrays as they become available. The GOESR / JPSS Visiting Scientist Program has enabled SPoRT to conduct visits to new partners and expand the number of operational users with access to total lightning observations. In early 2014, SPoRT conducted the most recent visiting scientist trips to meet with forecast offices that will used the Colorado, Houston, and Langmuir Lab (New Mexico) lightning mapping arrays. In addition, SPoRT met with the corresponding Center Weather Service Units (CWSUs) to expand collaborations with the aviation community. These visits were an opportunity to learn about the forecast needs of each office visited as well as to provide onsite training for the use of total lightning, setting the stage for a realtime assessment during MayJuly 2014. With five lightning mapping arrays covering multiple geographic locations, the 2014 assessment has demonstrated numerous uses of total lightning in varying situations. Several highlights include a much broader use of total lightning for impactbased decision support ranging from airport weather warnings, supporting fire crews, and protecting large outdoor events. The inclusion of the CWSUs has broadened the operational scope of total lightning, demonstrating how these data can support air traffic management, particularly in the Terminal Radar Approach Control Facilities (TRACON) region around an airport. These collaborations continue to demonstrate, from the operational perspective, the utility of total lightning and the importance of continued training and preparation in advance of the Geostationary Lightning Mapper

Wii-Fit for Improving Gait and Balance in an Assisted Living Facility: A Pilot Study

Objectives. To determine the effects on balance and gait of a Wii-Fit program compared to a walking program in subjects with mild Alzheimer's dementia (AD). Methods. A prospective randomized (1 : 1) pilot study with two intervention arms was conducted in an assisted living facility with twenty-two mild AD subjects. In both groups the intervention occurred under supervision for 30 minutes daily, five times a week for eight weeks. Repeated measures ANOVA and paired t-tests were used to analyze changes. Results. Both groups showed improvement in Berg Balance Scale (BBS), Tinetti Test (TT) and Timed Up and Go (TUG) over 8 weeks. However, there was no statistically significant difference between the groups over time. Intragroup analysis in the Wii-Fit group showed significant improvement on BBS (P = 0.003), and TT (P = 0.013). The walking group showed a trend towards improvement on BBS (P = 0.06) and TUG (P = 0.07) and significant improvement in TT (P = 0.06). Conclusion. This pilot study demonstrates the safety and efficacy of Wii-Fit in an assisted living facility in subjects with mild AD. Use of Wii-Fit resulted in significant improvements in balance and gait comparable to those in the robust monitored walking program. These results need to be confirmed in a larger, methodologically sound study

Classtalk: A Classroom Communication System for Active Learning

This pdf file is an article describing the advantages of using Classtalk technology in the classroom to enhance classroom communication. Classtalk technology cab facilitate the presentation of questions for small group work, collec the student answers and then display histograms showing how the class answered. This new communication technology can help instructors create a more interactive, student centered classroom, especially when teaching large courses. The article describes Classtalk as a very useful tool not only for engaging students in active learning, but also for enhancing the overall communication within the classroom. This article is a selection from the electronic Journal for Computing in Higher Education. Educational levels: Graduate or professional

Influence of Role Models and Hospital Design on the Hand Hygiene of Health-Care Workers

We assessed the effect of medical staff role models and the number of health-care worker sinks on hand-hygiene compliance before and after construction of a new hospital designed for increased access to handwashing sinks. We observed health-care worker hand hygiene in four nursing units that provided similar patient care in both the old and new hospitals: medical and surgical intensive care, hematology/oncology, and solid organ transplant units. Of 721 hand-hygiene opportunities, 304 (42%) were observed in the old hospital and 417 (58%) in the new hospital. Hand-hygiene compliance was significantly better in the old hospital (161/304; 53%) compared to the new hospital (97/417; 23.3%) (p<0.001). Health-care workers in a room with a senior (e.g., higher ranking) medical staff person or peer who did not wash hands were significantly less likely to wash their own hands (odds ratio 0.2; confidence interval 0.1 to 0.5); p<0.001). Our results suggest that health-care worker hand-hygiene compliance is influenced significantly by the behavior of other health-care workers. An increased number of hand-washing sinks, as a sole measure, did not increase hand-hygiene compliance

Intelligence within BAOR and NATO's Northern Army Group

During the Cold War the UK's principal military role was its commitment to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) through the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR), together with wartime command of NATO's Northern Army Group. The possibility of a surprise attack by the numerically superior Warsaw Pact forces ensured that great importance was attached to intelligence, warning and rapid mobilisation. As yet we know very little about the intelligence dimension of BAOR and its interface with NATO allies. This article attempts to address these neglected issues, ending with the impact of the 1973 Yom Kippur War upon NATO thinking about warning and surprise in the mid-1970s. It concludes that the arrangements made by Whitehall for support to BAOR from national assets during crisis or transition to war were - at best - improbable. Accordingly, over the years, BAOR developed its own unique assets in the realm of both intelligence collection and special operations in order to prepare for the possible outbreak of conflict

Methodology and Historical Perspective of a Hall Thruster Efficiency Analysis

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/77214/1/AIAA-38092-814.pd

Determining the impact of an artificial intelligence tool on the management of pulmonary nodules detected incidentally on CT (DOLCE) study protocol: a prospective, non-interventional multicentre UK study

INTRODUCTION: In a small percentage of patients, pulmonary nodules found on CT scans are early lung cancers. Lung cancer detected at an early stage has a much better prognosis. The British Thoracic Society guideline on managing pulmonary nodules recommends using multivariable malignancy risk prediction models to assist in management. While these guidelines seem to be effective in clinical practice, recent data suggest that artificial intelligence (AI)-based malignant-nodule prediction solutions might outperform existing models. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: This study is a prospective, observational multicentre study to assess the clinical utility of an AI-assisted CT-based lung cancer prediction tool (LCP) for managing incidental solid and part solid pulmonary nodule patients vs standard care. Two thousand patients will be recruited from 12 different UK hospitals. The primary outcome is the difference between standard care and LCP-guided care in terms of the rate of benign nodules and patients with cancer discharged straight after the assessment of the baseline CT scan. Secondary outcomes investigate adherence to clinical guidelines, other measures of changes to clinical management, patient outcomes and cost-effectiveness. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: This study has been reviewed and given a favourable opinion by the South Central-Oxford C Research Ethics Committee in UK (REC reference number: 22/SC/0142).Study results will be available publicly following peer-reviewed publication in open-access journals. A patient and public involvement group workshop is planned before the study results are available to discuss best methods to disseminate the results. Study results will also be fed back to participating organisations to inform training and procurement activities. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT05389774

Deadly diving? Physiological and behavioural management of decompression stress in diving mammals

© The Author(s), 2011. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences 279 (2012): 1041-1050, doi:10.1098/rspb.2011.2088.Decompression sickness (DCS; ‘the bends’) is a disease associated with gas uptake at pressure. The basic pathology and cause are relatively well known to human divers. Breath-hold diving marine mammals were thought to be relatively immune to DCS owing to multiple anatomical, physiological and behavioural adaptations that reduce nitrogen gas (N2) loading during dives. However, recent observations have shown that gas bubbles may form and tissue injury may occur in marine mammals under certain circumstances. Gas kinetic models based on measured time-depth profiles further suggest the potential occurrence of high blood and tissue N2 tensions. We review evidence for gas-bubble incidence in marine mammal tissues and discuss the theory behind gas loading and bubble formation. We suggest that diving mammals vary their physiological responses according to multiple stressors, and that the perspective on marine mammal diving physiology should change from simply minimizing N2 loading to management of the N2 load. This suggests several avenues for further study, ranging from the effects of gas bubbles at molecular, cellular and organ function levels, to comparative studies relating the presence/absence of gas bubbles to diving behaviour. Technological advances in imaging and remote instrumentation are likely to advance this field in coming years.This paper and the workshop it stemmed from were funded by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Marine Mammal Centre