The transmission of digitally-coded-speech signals by means of random access discrete address systems

Imperial Users onl

Postwar Culture Beneath the Pines: The Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts, 1946-1962

The Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts (ISOMATA) was founded in 1946 by faculty of the University of Southern California. Located in Southern California\u27s San Jacinto Mountain region, the school\u27s leaders sought to create a therapeutic refuge for arts education which blended outdoor recreation, art and music workshops, and multicultural education. This thesis offers a critical analysis of ISOMATA\u27s early growth and development by focusing on how the school\u27s leaders tailored a liberal vision of arts education to the cultural and political mainstream of postwar Southern California

KS3 and KS4 learners' use of Web 2.0 technologies in and out of school - summary

This is a summary of the second report from research commissioned by Becta into Web 2.0 technologies for learning at Key Stages 3 and 4. This report describes findings from data collected using a guided survey of 2,611 Year 8 and Year 10 pupils and 60 focus groups held with approximately 300 learners. The analysis explores learner use of Web 2.0 technologies and their motivations for using social networking sites and the implications of these findings for teachers and providers

Engene: A genetic algorithm classifier for content-based recommender systems that does not require continuous user feedback

We present Engene, a genetic algorithm based classifier which is designed for use in content-based recommender systems. Once bootstrapped Engene does not need any human feedback. Although it is primarily used as an online classifier, in this paper we present its use as a one-class document batch classifier and compare its performance against that of a one-elms k-NN classifier

Phage display-derived inhibitor of the essential cell wall biosynthesis enzyme MurF

Background To develop antibacterial agents having novel modes of action against bacterial cell wall biosynthesis, we targeted the essential MurF enzyme of the antibiotic resistant pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa. MurF catalyzes the formation of a peptide bond between D-Alanyl-D-Alanine (D-Ala-D-Ala) and the cell wall precursor uridine 5'-diphosphoryl N-acetylmuramoyl-L-alanyl-D-glutamyl-meso-diaminopimelic acid (UDP-MurNAc-Ala-Glu-meso-A2pm) with the concomitant hydrolysis of ATP to ADP and inorganic phosphate, yielding UDP-N-acetylmuramyl-pentapeptide. As MurF acts on a dipeptide, we exploited a phage display approach to identify peptide ligands having high binding affinities for the enzyme. Results Screening of a phage display 12-mer library using purified P. aeruginosa MurF yielded to the identification of the MurFp1 peptide. The MurF substrate UDP-MurNAc-Ala-Glumeso-A2pm was synthesized and used to develop a sensitive spectrophotometric assay to quantify MurF kinetics and inhibition. MurFp1 acted as a weak, time-dependent inhibitor of MurF activity but was a potent inhibitor when MurF was pre-incubated with UDP-MurNAc-Ala-Glu-meso-A2pm or ATP. In contrast, adding the substrate D-Ala-D-Ala during the pre-incubation nullified the inhibition. The IC50 value of MurFp1 was evaluated at 250 μM, and the Ki was established at 420 μM with respect to the mixed type of inhibition against D-Ala-D-Ala. Conclusion MurFp1 exerts its inhibitory action by interfering with the utilization of D-Ala-D-Ala by the MurF amide ligase enzyme. We propose that MurFp1 exploits UDP-MurNAc-Ala-Glu-meso-A2pm-induced structural changes for better interaction with the enzyme. We present the first peptide inhibitor of MurF, an enzyme that should be exploited as a target for antimicrobial drug development

Mobilising and organising for large scale change in healthcare: 'The Right Prescription: A Call to Action on the use of antipsychotic drugs for people with dementia'

This study sought to explore the use of a mobilising and organising methodology as an approach to large scale change. We have chosen as an example of a mobilising and organising approach to change in action, the work of the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement to support the Department of Health Quality Improvement Productivity and Prevention (QIPP) programme, through acting as an enabler for a work stream which focuses on the prescribing of antipsychotic medication in people with dementia - part of the medicines management QIPP work stream. The aim of this study is to identify key components, and areas of achievement, within the call to action, to tell the story of how this approach has evolved to respond to the challenges inherent within the English NHS, to identify how this approach might be utilised by others and to identify lessons for the future implementation of such an approach within the public secto