Mapping trends and framing issues in higher music education: Changing minds/Changing practices

This article presents five case studies from within Music in Higher Education programmes which collectively explore key questions concerning how we look at the challenges, trends and the need for change to react to the recent Higher Education climate. The case studies explore: (i) an inclusive curriculum and undergraduate student partner project; (ii) employability skills and postgraduate courses; (ii) digital creativities; (iv) music career creativities and gender; (v) an integrated student experience

Solving large 0–1 multidimensional knapsack problems by a new simplified binary artificial fish swarm algorithm

The artificial fish swarm algorithm has recently been emerged in continuous global optimization. It uses points of a population in space to identify the position of fish in the school. Many real-world optimization problems are described by 0-1 multidimensional knapsack problems that are NP-hard. In the last decades several exact as well as heuristic methods have been proposed for solving these problems. In this paper, a new simpli ed binary version of the artificial fish swarm algorithm is presented, where a point/ fish is represented by a binary string of 0/1 bits. Trial points are created by using crossover and mutation in the different fi sh behavior that are randomly selected by using two user de ned probability values. In order to make the points feasible the presented algorithm uses a random heuristic drop item procedure followed by an add item procedure aiming to increase the profit throughout the adding of more items in the knapsack. A cyclic reinitialization of 50% of the population, and a simple local search that allows the progress of a small percentage of points towards optimality and after that refines the best point in the population greatly improve the quality of the solutions. The presented method is tested on a set of benchmark instances and a comparison with other methods available in literature is shown. The comparison shows that the proposed method can be an alternative method for solving these problems.The authors wish to thank three anonymous referees for their comments and valuable suggestions to improve the paper. The first author acknowledges Ciˆencia 2007 of FCT (Foundation for Science and Technology) Portugal for the fellowship grant C2007-UMINHO-ALGORITMI-04. Financial support from FEDER COMPETE (Operational Programme Thematic Factors of Competitiveness) and FCT under project FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-022674 is also acknowledged

Stir bar-sorptive extraction, solid phase extraction and liquid-liquid extraction for levetiracetam determination in human plasma: comparing recovery rates

Levetiracetam (LEV), an antiepileptic drug (AED) with favorable pharmacokinetic profile, is increasingly being used in clinical practice, although information on its metabolism and disposition are still being generated. Therefore a simple, robust and fast liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) followed by high-performance liquid chromatography method is described that could be used for both pharmacokinetic and therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) purposes. Moreover, recovery rates of LEV in plasma were compared among LLE, stir bar-sorptive extraction (SBSE), and solid-phase extraction (SPE). Solvent extraction with dichloromethane yielded a plasma residue free from usual interferences such as commonly co-prescribed AEDs, and recoveries around 90% (LLE), 60% (SPE) and 10% (SBSE). Separation was obtained using reverse phase Select B column with ultraviolet detection (235 nm). Mobile phase consisted of methanol:sodium acetate buffer 0.125 M pH 4.4 (20:80, v/v). The method was linear over a range of 2.8-220.0 µg mL-1. The intra- and inter-assay precision and accuracy were studied at three concentrations; relative standard deviation was less than 10%. The limit of quantification was 2.8 µg mL-1. This robust method was successfully applied to analyze plasma samples from patients with epilepsy and therefore might be used for pharmacokinetic and TDM purposes.</p

and f Family Practice and Community Medicine,

An enhanced-sensitivity immunoassay for urinary microtransferrin and microalbumin was devised based on protein precipitation with cold tri chloroacetic acid followed by dissolution of the precipitate in a small vol ume of phosphate buffer. Samples can be concentrated 10-fold by this m ethod while at the same tim e removing many of the chromogens present in urine. Concentrated samples were assayed by im m unoturbidity and radial immunodiffusion. The average recovery for urinary micro transferrin was 82 percent and for microalbumin 91 percent. The reference range for 80 normal adults for m icrotransferrinuria and microalbuminuria is 0 to 0.9 and 5 to 32 mg per g creatinine, respectively. The same m ethod can be used for the assay of other proteins such as B2-microglobulin in the urine or the cerebrospinal fluid

Enhancement of photoconversion efficiency and light harvesting ability of TiO2 nanotube-arrays with Cu2ZnSnS4

We report an underpotential deposition (UPD) route of Cu2ZnSnS4/TiO2 nanotube arrays (TiO2-NTAs) in which the Kesterite (Cu2ZnSnS4) was employed as a sensitizer to enhance the photoconversion efficiency of the TiO2-NTAs. Cu2ZnSnS4 was simultaneously coated on TiO2-NTAs by depositing its constituent metals from the precursor ions via electrochemical atomic layer deposition (EC-ALD) and subsequent annealing. The detailed synthesis process, the surface morphology, crystalline structure, photoelectrochemical properties and hydrogen production rate of the as-prepared Cu2ZnSnS4/TiO2-NTAs were discussed. Thickened TiO2 nanotubes were observed, suggesting that the Cu2ZnSnS4 coating was about 5 ± 0.5 nm. The results showed that the light harvesting of TiO2-NTAs has an obvious improvement after sensitizing them with Cu2ZnSnS4. In comparison with pure TiO2-NTAs, a two-fold increment in photoconversion efficiency was achieved using the composite of Cu2ZnSnS4/TiO2-NTAs. The novel photoanode of CZTS/TiO2 NTAs achieved a maximum hydrogen generation rate of 49 ml h−1 cm−2

Mutations of the UMOD gene are responsible for medullary cystic kidney disease 2 and familial juvenile hyperuricaemic nephropathy

Introduction: Medullary cystic kidney disease 2 (MCKD2) and familial juvenile hyperuricaemic nephropathy (FJHN) are both autosomal dominant renal diseases characterised by juvenile onset of hyperuricaemia, gout, and progressive renal failure. Clinical features of both conditions vary in presence and severity. Often definitive diagnosis is possible only after significant pathology has occurred. Genetic linkage studies have localised genes for both conditions to overlapping regions of chromosome 16p11-p13. These clinical and genetic findings suggest that these conditions may be allelic. Aim: To identify the gene and associated mutation(s) responsible for FJHN and MCKD2. Methods: Two large, multigenerational families segregating FJHN were studied by genetic linkage and haplotype analyses to sublocalise the chromosome 16p FJHN gene locus. To permit refinement of the candidate interval and localisation of candidate genes, an integrated physical and genetic map of the candidate region was developed. DNA sequencing of candidate genes was performed to detect mutations in subjects affected with FJHN (three unrelated families) and MCKD2 (one family). Results: We identified four novel uromodulin (UMOD) gene mutations that segregate with the disease phenotype in three families with FJHN and in one family with MCKD2. Conclusion: These data provide the first direct evidence that MCKD2 and FJHN arise from mutation of the UMOD gene and are allelic disorders. UMOD is a GPI anchored glycoprotein and the most abundant protein in normal urine. We postulate that mutation of UMOD disrupts the tertiary structure of UMOD and is responsible for the clinical changes of interstitial renal disease, polyuria, and hyperuricaemia found in MCKD2 and FJHN