Gold Clusters in the Gas Phase

Gold clusters exhibit strong size and charge state dependent variations in their properties. This is demonstrated by significant changes in their geometric structures and also in their chemical properties. Here we focus on clusters containing up to about 20 gold atoms and briefly review their structural evolution emphasising the role of isomerism and structural fluxionality. The discussion of chemical properties is limited to the interaction of gold clusters with molecular oxygen and carbon monoxide, separately, and their interaction in CO/O2 co-adsorbates on gold clusters eventually leading to CO oxidation. Whilst highlighting results obtained using different experimental approaches, special attention is given to the insights obtained using infrared multiple photon dissociation (IR-MPD) spectroscop

Exploring the impact of virtual patient design : medical students' small group learning around medical error

Background: The demands on medical and healthcare practitioners are continuously changing, with new technologies, treatments and regulatory guidelines emerging each year. One such example is increased focus on the impact of medical error, which although difficult to measure is generally acknowledged to be responsible for significant numbers of patient harms each year. As a consequence, the provision of education and training must adapt to reflect this, providing learners with an updated range of skills that can meet the needs of their profession. An increase in the use of technology has been one way that educators have sought to achieve this, along with developing pedagogies and approaches such as problem-based learning which better reflect the challenges faced by medicine and healthcare professionals. Virtual patients are interactive simulations of clinical scenarios that have been shown to be well-suited to the development of clinical reasoning skills. They have been widely used in medicine and healthcare training, although they have yet to be fully adopted across the sector. Virtual patients can vary significantly in their design and their use within activities. To date there is a lack of knowledge about the ways different design features of virtual patients can be optimally applied to benefit student learning. Aim: The aim of this thesis is to increase knowledge of how virtual patient design impacts upon undergraduate medical student learning, particularly when targeting medical error education in small-group teaching. Methods: The four studies in this thesis explore design features of virtual patients and how they impact upon different aspects of the student learning experience. Study I investigated the impact of including video elements within a virtual patient used to support a problem-based learning tutorial. Mixed methods were used to capture aspects of both student and tutor experiences, and a thematic analysis was undertaken to identify themes in the unstructured responses. Studies II-IV each explored different outcomes around the use of decision-making elements in virtual patients designed to develop awareness of medical errors. A series of six virtual patients were delivered to undergraduate medical students undertaking paediatric placements across six institutions as part of small-group teaching. Students were allocated to one of two virtual patient designs: a branched design that allowed students to make decisions, or a linear design which followed a pre-determined structure without scope for student decision-making. In study II, following the completion of all virtual patients, students completed a survey instrument designed to measure aspects of their motivation and learning strategies. Comparisons between the branched and linear groups were made to establish the impact of the virtual patient design. Study III used log-linear analysis to explore learner performance in a single-best answer assessment and included an additional group of students who received traditional lecture-based teaching. In the assessment, questions were categorised in one of 3 groups; directly related to decision points in the virtual patient cases, in the same area of management but relating to different decisions and options, and in the same broad area of medicine but different areas of patient management. Study IV compared the self-efficacy and other related factors between students who received the branched and linear virtual patients, and asked participants to complete a survey instrument directly after each virtual patient case. A regression analysis was performed to explore how different factors impacted upon the self-efficacy of students. Results: In study I we identified eight distinct themes relating to the use of video elements. One theme related to levels of engagement, with some participants finding the use of video to be beneficial and others preferring text. Some participants identified that the use of video slowed the pace of the tutorial but was well suited to providing information about procedures. In study II we demonstrated that the use of linear or branched structures for virtual patients had no consistent impact upon the measures of learner motivation and learning strategies. Similarly, in study IV our findings showed that the use of a linear or branched design did not impact upon learner self-efficacy. However, in study III we showed that both virtual patient design and institution had an impact on student learning, and these were retained in our final model. A branching design for virtual patients improved student learning around the decision points in the virtual patient cases. Students performed equally well in the questions regarding the same management approaches but different decisions regardless of whether they received the linear or branched interventions, and scored higher than those that received traditional teaching. There was no difference between any of the groups in the questions that related to different areas of patient management. Conclusions: Overall, our findings suggest that the use of a branched virtual patient design is able to improve student learning around medical error when used in small-group teaching, and is not associated with any impact on learner motivation or self-efficacy. Our studies have not provided any evidence that this learning transfers to other areas of medicine. These findings have been broadly repeated at six institutions, demonstrating that despite evidence of the strong impact of institutional culture on our results, the findings can be generalised to multiple settings. We conclude that educators should seek to design virtual patients which allow learners to rehearse key patient management decisions, supported by video in areas where this can be most beneficial, such as demonstrating procedures. These virtual patients should be embedded in broader learning activities that encourage learners to identify deeper features within the learning, with a view to transferring that learning to other areas of patient management

Parallel-propagating Fluctuations at Proton-kinetic Scales in the Solar Wind are Dominated by Kinetic Instabilities

We use magnetic helicity to characterise solar wind fluctuations at proton-kinetic scales from Wind observations. For the first time, we separate the contributions to helicity from fluctuations propagating at angles quasi-parallel and oblique to the local mean magnetic field, $\mathbf{B}_0$. We find that the helicity of quasi-parallel fluctuations is consistent with Alfv\'en-ion cyclotron and fast magnetosonic-whistler modes driven by proton temperature anisotropy instabilities and the presence of a relative drift between $\alpha$-particles and protons. We also find that the helicity of oblique fluctuations has little dependence on proton temperature anisotropy and is consistent with fluctuations from the anisotropic turbulent cascade. Our results show that parallel-propagating fluctuations at proton-kinetic scales in the solar wind are dominated by proton temperature anisotropy instabilities and not the turbulent cascade. We also provide evidence that the behaviour of fluctuations at these scales is independent of the origin and macroscopic properties of the solar wind.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJL. 6 Pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl

An Exploratory Comparison of Private and HBCU Marketing Student Study Abroad Program (SAP) Participation Intentions

The current research compares two demographically diverse universities regarding their respective awareness of the study abroad programs (SAPs) offered by their school. The study focuses on each sample’s awareness of SAP opportunities (i.e., as offered by their own institution) as well as each group’s opinion of the level of university administrator effort aimed at promoting the SAP offerings at each school. The authors analyzed whether student perceptions of the level of administrator support affected student expectations regarding SAP participation prior to graduation. Given the different socio-economic characteristics of the two student samples used in the study, the authors provide additional insight as to the relatively low rate of minority SAP participation

EFFIP (E-support for Families & Friends of Individuals affected by Psychosis) – developing and evaluating an eHealth complex intervention for family carers

Abstract of Speaker presentation, delivered at European Academy of Nursing Science Summer Conference 2018: Leadership in Nursing: challenges for the future, Ghent, Belgium, 11-12 July 2018.Background - Participatory action research (PAR) is active, collaborative and seeks to develop knowledge from everyday occurrences (Reason and Bradbury 2013). A creative movement workshop developed from the Lydia Osteoporosis PAR Project 2 (LOP 2) and enabled volunteer local research collaborators and participants to articulate new practice knowledge.Lydia Osteoporosis PAR Project 2 (LOP 2)17pubpubSuppl

Yield differences between Sultana clones related to virus status and genetic factors

Differences in yield between Sultana clones were found to be partly transmissible by grafting and partly not. The most important graft transmissible factor was leafroll, mild symptoms being associat.ed with yield reduction in 3 out of 6 seasons with a mean overall of 14 %, and severe symptoms in all 6 seasons with a mean of 35 %. The lower yields were related to fewer bunches per vine and in some seasons for severe leafroll with fewer berries per bunch. Shoot growth was delayed in spring with severe leafroll and less total annual growth was produced. There was a smaller reduction in total annual growth with mild leafrqll. Severe leafroll did not alter the colour of the fruit, either fresh, or dried with or without dipping. Sugar concentration was only slightly reduced when either mild or severe leafroll was present. Fanleaf virus in addition to severe leafroll was associated with a further reduction in yield and growth in some seasons.Yield differences not transmissible by grafting ranged up to about 50 %. The lowest yielding source vine which did not transmit reduced yield by grafting also showed puckered leaf and more oblate berry characters which were not transmitted by grafting. This was the only source vine showing any obvious morphological differences.Ertragsdifferenzen zwischen Sultana-Klonen in Beziehung zum Grad der Viruserkrankung und zu genetischen Faktoren Ertragsdifferenzen zwischen Sultana-Klonen konnten teilweise durch Pfropfung übertragen werden, teilweise nicht. Der wichtigste pfropfübertragbare Faktor war die Rollkrankheit. Beim Vorliegen leichter Krankheitssymptome war der Traubenertrag in 3 von 6 Jahren um durchschnittlich 14 % verringert; bei stark rollkranken Reben war in allen 6 Jahren ein mittlerer Ertragsrückgang von 35 % zu verzeichnen. Die niedrigeren Erträge waren durch weniger Trauben je Rebe, in einigen Jahren bei starker Erkrankung auch durch weniger Beeren je Traube bedingt. Das Triebwachstum war bei schwerer Rollkrankheit im Frühjahr verzögert, und es wurde weniger Holz erzeugt; bei leichter Erkrankung war die Holzproduktion weniger rückläufig. Starke Erkrankung veränderte die Beerenfärbung nicht, weder bei frischen noch bei getauchten oder nichtgetauchten getrockneten Beeren. Die Zuckerkonzentration war sowohl bei milder wie bei starker Rollkrankheit nur geringfügig vermindert. Schwere Rollkrankheit mit zusätzlichem Fanleafvirus war in einigen Jahren mit einer weiteren Verringerung von Traubenertrag und Holzproduktion verbunden.Die durch Pfropfung nicht übertragbaren Ertragsunterschiede erreichten annähernd 50 %. Die am schwächsten tragende Ausgangsrebe dieser Kategorie zeigte runzliges Laub und stärker abgeplattete Beeren; diese Merkmale waren nicht pfropfübertragbar. Nur diese eine Ausgangsrebe wies überhaupt deutliche morphologische Abweichungen auf

Co-producing and evaluating an innovative eHealth intervention for family carers of people with psychosis – the EFFIP Project

Paper presented at European Academy of Nursing Science Summer Conference, 2019, 10-11 July, Lisbon, Portugal

Surface Normal Deconvolution: Photometric Stereo for Optically Thick Translucent Objects

Computer Vision – ECCV 2014 13th European Conference, Zurich, Switzerland, September 6-12, 2014,This paper presents a photometric stereo method that works for optically thick translucent objects exhibiting subsurface scattering. Our method is built upon the previous studies showing that subsurface scattering is approximated as convolution with a blurring kernel. We extend this observation and show that the original surface normal convolved with the scattering kernel corresponds to the blurred surface normal that can be obtained by a conventional photometric stereo technique. Based on this observation, we cast the photometric stereo problem for optically thick translucent objects as a deconvolution problem, and develop a method to recover accurate surface normals. Experimental results of both synthetic and real-world scenes show the effectiveness of the proposed method

The Geometric Structure of Silver-Doped Silicon Clusters

Cationic silver-doped silicon clusters, SinAg+ (n=6–15), are studied using infrared multiple photon dissociation in combination with density functional theory computations. Candidate structures are identified using a basin-hopping global optimizations method. Based on the comparison of experimental and calculated IR spectra for the identified low-energy isomers, structures are assigned. It is found that all investigated clusters have exohedral structures, that is, the Ag atom is located at the surface. This is a surprising result because many transition-metal dopant atoms have been shown to induce the formation of endohedral silicon clusters. The silicon framework of SinAg+ (n=7–9) has a pentagonal bipyramidal building block, whereas the larger SinAg+ (n=10–12, 14, 15) clusters have trigonal prism-based structures. On comparing the structures of SinAg+ with those of SinCu+ (for n=6–11) it is found that both Cu and Ag adsorb on a surface site of bare Sin+ clusters. However, the Ag dopant atom takes a lower coordinated site and is more weakly bound to the Sin+ framework than the Cu dopant atom