Information Smoothies: embedding information skills in assessed learning

A collaborative project was undertaken in the academic year 2008-09 between Library and lecturing staff at Leeds Metropolitan University to embed information literacy skills within assessed module workbooks. Workbooks were delivered through a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) alongside face-to-face sessions on specific resources. Although no mechanisms for measuring effectiveness were included in the project plan, the data from the software used (Intute: Informs) has provided an opportunity to discuss possible explanations for usage levels and improvements in future projects

Promoting library engagement through employability (among other things)

Jennifer Wilson and Laurence Morris explain how a simple reminder about library resources at Leeds Beckett University developed into a service aimed at improving employability amongst students. Utilising existing resources and working in collaboration, the library has created a new way for students to discover and engage with employability skills and services

Strategies for Supporting Smoking Cessation Among Indigenous Fathers: A Qualitative Participatory Study

© The Author(s) 2019. There is a need for tailored smoking cessation programs specifically for Indigenous fathers who want to quit smoking.The aim of this study was to engage Indigenous men and key informants in guiding cultural adaptations to the Dads in Gear (DIG) cessation program. In Phase 1 of this qualitative participatory study, Indigenous men were engaged in group sessions and key informants in semistructured interviews to gather advice related to cultural adaptations to the DIG program. These data were used to guide the development of program prototypes. In Phase 2, the prototypes were evaluated with Indigenous fathers who were using tobacco (smoking or chewing) or were ex-users. Data were analyzed inductively. Recommendations for programming included ways to incorporate cultural values and practices to advance men’s cultural knowledge and the need for a flexible program design to enhance feasibility and acceptability among diverse Indigenous groups. Men also emphasized the importance of positive message framing, building trust by providing “honest information,” and including activities that enabled discussions about their aspirations as fathers as well as cultural expectations of current-day Indigenous men. That the Indigenous men’s level of involvement with their children was diverse but generally less prescriptive than contemporary “involved fathering” discourse was also a key consideration in terms of program content. Strategies were afforded by these insights for meeting the men where they are in terms of their fathering—as well as their smoking and physical activity. This research provides a model for developing evidence-based, gender-specific health promotion programs with Indigenous men

Examining the impact of critical attributes on hard drive failure times: Multi-state models for left-truncated and right-censored semi-competing risks data

\ua9 2023 The Authors. Applied Stochastic Models in Business and Industry published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. The ability to predict failures in hard disk drives (HDDs) is a major objective of HDD manufacturers since avoiding unexpected failures may prevent data loss, improve service reliability, and reduce data center downtime. Most HDDs are equipped with a threshold-based monitoring system named self-monitoring, analysis and reporting technology (SMART). The system collects several performance metrics, called SMART attributes, and detects anomalies that may indicate incipient failures. SMART works as a nascent failure detection method and does not estimate the HDDs\u27 remaining useful life. We define critical attributes and critical states for hard drives using SMART attributes and fit multi-state models to the resulting semi-competing risks data. The multi-state models provide a coherent and novel way to model the failure time of a hard drive and allow us to examine the impact of critical attributes on the failure time of a hard drive. We derive dynamic predictions of conditional survival probabilities, which are adaptive to the state of the drive. Using a dataset of HDDs equipped with SMART, we find that drives are more likely to fail after entering critical states. We evaluate the predictive accuracy of the proposed models with a case study of HDDs equipped with SMART, using the time-dependent area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) and the expected prediction error (PE). The results suggest that accounting for changes in the critical attributes improves the accuracy of dynamic predictions

Complete mitochondrial genome sequence of Urechis caupo, a representative of the phylum Echiura

BACKGROUND: Mitochondria contain small genomes that are physically separate from those of nuclei. Their comparison serves as a model system for understanding the processes of genome evolution. Although hundreds of these genome sequences have been reported, the taxonomic sampling is highly biased toward vertebrates and arthropods, with many whole phyla remaining unstudied. This is the first description of a complete mitochondrial genome sequence of a representative of the phylum Echiura, that of the fat innkeeper worm, Urechis caupo. RESULTS: This mtDNA is 15,113 nts in length and 62% A+T. It contains the 37 genes that are typical for animal mtDNAs in an arrangement somewhat similar to that of annelid worms. All genes are encoded by the same DNA strand which is rich in A and C relative to the opposite strand. Codons ending with the dinucleotide GG are more frequent than would be expected from apparent mutational biases. The largest non-coding region is only 282 nts long, is 71% A+T, and has potential for secondary structures. CONCLUSIONS: Urechis caupo mtDNA shares many features with those of the few studied annelids, including the common usage of ATG start codons, unusual among animal mtDNAs, as well as gene arrangements, tRNA structures, and codon usage biases

Phaeochrornocytorna: A Case Report

A 52-year-old man presented with a 4-year history of paroxysmal attacks of anxiety, giddiness, palpitation, sweating, and severe headache. These symptoms were associated with sudden increases in his blood pressure; and a provisional diagnosis of phaeochromocytoma was made. Collections of urine were submitted for catecholamine assay. One collection showed a slight increase in catecholamines but the rest were normal, including a collection made after a provocation test, using histamine 0,025 mg intravenously. The histamine test did, however, cause systolic and diastolic blood pressure to rise by 20 mmHg. As he was mildly hypertensive between paroxysms, a phentolamine test was carried out, utilising 5 mg well diluted, intravenously, over 5 minutes under basal conditions. This, too, was negative. An aortogram failed to demonstrate convincingly tumour vascularisation, but there was a mild hypertensive crisis during this examination. At laparotomy, a single phaeochromocytoma was found in the right adrenal gland, and was successfully removed. Recovery was uneventful and the patient was discharged, normotensive and not requiring hypotensive therapy, though mild hypertension has developed since. No residual catecholamine activity has been detected. The preparation of the patient for surgery and the control of operative complications are described, and the salient diagnostic features of phaeochromocytoma are briefly discussed.S. Afr. Med. J. 48, 401 (1974

Simulation of the spreading of a gas-propelled micro-droplet upon impact on a dry surface using a lattice-Boltzmann approach

Spray cooling is one of the most promising methods of cooling high heat flux electronics. Depending on the type of the nozzle, spray cooling can be categorized as single phase or two phase. In the latter, which is known to be more effective, a secondary gas is used to further pressurize the liquid and form smaller droplets at higher velocities. The gas is also assumed to assist the spreading phase by imposing normal and tangential forces on the droplet free surface which adds to the complicated hydrodynamics of the droplet impact. Moreover, the order of magnitude of droplet size in spray cooling is 10¯⁶m thereby introducing a low Weber and Reynolds numbers impact regime which heretofore has not been well understood. A 3D lattice Boltzmann method was implemented to simulate the impact of a single micro-droplet on a dry surface in both ambient air and under a stagnation gas flow. Two cases were closely compared and correlations were proposed for the instantaneous spreading diameter. Contrary to recent findings at higher impact We and Re, it was found that stagnation flow only significantly affects the spreading phase for Ca*⩾0.35 but has little influence on the receding physics

Social genetic and social environment effects on parental and helper care in a cooperatively breeding bird

Phenotypes expressed in a social context are not only a function of the individual, but can also be shaped by the phenotypes of social partners. These social effects may play a major role in the evolution of cooperative breeding if social partners differ in the quality of care they provide and if individual carers adjust their effort in relation to that of other carers. When applying social effects models to wild study systems, it is also important to explore sources of individual plasticity that could masquerade as social effects. We studied offspring provisioning rates of parents and helpers in a wild population of long-tailed tits Aegithalos caudatus using a quantitative genetic framework to identify these social effects and partition them into genetic, permanent environment and current environment components. Controlling for other effects, individuals were consistent in their provisioning effort at a given nest, but adjusted their effort based on who was in their social group, indicating the presence of social effects. However, these social effects differed between years and social contexts, indicating a current environment effect, rather than indicating a genetic or permanent environment effect. While this study reveals the importance of examining environmental and genetic sources of social effects, the framework we present is entirely general, enabling a greater understanding of potentially important social effects within any ecological population