High-Resolution Timeseries Analysis of Dynamic Geochemistry: A 27-Well Survey of Contaminated Groundwater Downstream of the former S-3 Ponds, Oak Ridge, Tennessee

Spatiotemporal variability of geochemistry of contaminated groundwater has large implications on overall water quality and ability to respond to remedial applications. Gaining knowledge of how geochemistry changes over time in an area can help establish response trends to changing external conditions like weather and level of contamination. In this study, a spatiotemporal survey was performed on 27 wells at the Y-12 Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. This was completed to measure diurnal fluxes in geochemistry from seasonal changes and extreme weather conditions in three areas of historically different contamination levels from a single point contamination source. Measurements were gathered over 27 previously established groundwater wells, four days a week, for the span of 17 weeks (70 days total) to build a time series of geochemistry. In-field geochemical measurements were obtained using In-Situ Aqua TROLL 600s including dissolved oxygen (DO), pH, conductivity, oxidation-reduction potential (ORP), and salinity. Groundwater samples were taken for laboratory analysis and include metals, anions and organic acids, total organic carbon, and stable water isotopes. Here, the field measured geochemistry results are presented. Findings show that time and weather play critical roles in groundwater geochemistry but in varied ways for certain parameters. DO and conductivity values showed large effects due to changing weather conditions, but with extreme rainfall DO showed lasting changes, while conductivity levels quickly rebounded to baseline levels. However, this phenomenon was seen to a much lesser extent in wells with historically high amounts of contamination. PCA analysis showed that all parameters in areas of high contamination were more stable throughout the timeseries even under extreme weather conditions. Conclusions suggest time and weather play important roles in controlling overall geochemistry in groundwater and measuring geochemical response throughout time can also aid in determining redox conditions and extent of contamination. Therefore, it is necessary to have weather and water levels as parameters when establishing baseline geochemistry for any given area

Applications of MRI Magnetic Susceptibility Mapping in PET-MRI Brain Studies

Magnetic susceptibility mapping (SM) uses magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) phase images to produce maps of the magnetic susceptibility (χ) of tissues. This work focuses on the applications of SM-based imaging to PET-MRI, the hybrid imaging modality which combines positron emission tomography (PET) with MRI. First, the potential of using SM to aid PET attenuation correction (AC) is explored. AC for PET-MRI is challenging as PET-MRI provides no information regarding the electron density of tissues. Recently proposed SM methods for calculating the χ in regions of no MRI signal are used to segment air, bone and soft tissue in order to create AC maps. In the head, SM methods are found to produce inferior air/bone segmentations to high-performing AC methods, but result in more accurate AC than ultrashort-echo (UTE)-based air/bone segmentations, and may be able to provide additional information in subjects with atypical anatomy. Secondly, a SM pipeline for inclusion in a PET-MRI study into biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is developed. In the Insight46 study 500 healthy subjects from the 1946 MRC National Survey of Health and Development are undergoing a comprehensive PET-MRI protocol at two time-points. SM processing methods are compared and optimised, and a method for processing images with oblique imaging planes is developed. The effect of using different tools for automated segmentation of regions of interest (ROIs) on reported regional χ values is analysed. The ROIs resulting from different tools are found to result in large differences in χ values. FIRST is chosen as the most appropriate ROI segmentation tool for this study based on anatomical accuracy as assessed by a neuroradiologist. Initial analysis of χ values from 100 subjects using data from the first time-point is carried out. No significant association with regional χ values is found for amyloid status, PET radiotracer uptake, or APOE genotype

Infanticide, a mother’s crime : expert evidence and infanticide cases, 1688-1955

“Infanticide: A Mother’s Crime” explores expert evidence in cases of infanticide with a view to determining the extent of certainty, created by medical men who founded their evidence on anatomical exploration and science. As the thesis progresses, it becomes clear that medical men were unable to scientifically establish cause of death, and in doing so convey certainty; instead medical men conveyed uncertainty. However, rather than being seen as a professional failing, this thesis will argue, that the uncertainty created by medical men made a positive contribution to infanticide cases. The combination of uncertainty created by medical experts and the changing perceptions of infanticidal women by the court, allowed the jury to find infanticidal women not guilty of a capital offence. A number of cases demonstrate that the jury found the women guilty of the lesser offence of concealment of birth; a favourable outcome for both the women and the collective conscience of the jury.This research begins in the year 1688 with an examination of evidence given by the midwife. In the absence of medical reasoning or discourse, she gave evidence based purely on her experience and knowledge, until the eighteenth century when the courts seemed to demand greater certainty from expert evidence. As the midwife was replaced in the courtroom by medical men, during the eighteenth century, this research will continue by drawing on the testimony of medical men, mental state experts and pathologists until its conclusion in 1955. The longevity of this research has been divided into forty or fifty year periods, allowing the testimony to be examined within each period, and timeframes to be compared over a substantial period of time. Cases have been examined both within and outside the London area, by drawing on examplesfrom the Old Bailey and Hull and the surrounding area

Is pesticide exposure a cause of obstructive airways disease?

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Buying Design, Where are we now? Associate Parliamentary Design Innovation Group Term Paper

‘Design ...The purposeful move from a current situation to a preferred situation.’ – Herbert Simon In 2010 the Associate Parliamentary Design and Innovation Group (APDIG) published a report critiquing government procurement practice as it related to design services. The main accusation was that government too often tried to buy design as though it were a discrete commodity, rather than a creative service, and that this seriously hampered the ultimate outcome for both buyer and supplier. This paper brings an update on the state of design procurement, including the results of an industry consultation conducted by our partners on the initial report, the Design Business Association

Why is reporting quality improvement so hard? A qualitative study in perioperative care.

OBJECTIVES: Quality improvement (QI) may help to avert or mitigate the risks of suboptimal care, but it is often poorly reported in the healthcare literature. We aimed to identify the influences on reporting QI in the area of perioperative care, with a view to informing improvements in reporting QI across healthcare. DESIGN: Qualitative interview study. SETTING: Healthcare and academic organisations in Australia, Europe and North America. PARTICIPANTS: Stakeholders involved in or influencing the publication, writing or consumption of reports of QI studies in perioperative care. RESULTS: Forty-two participants from six countries took part in the study. Participants included 15 authors (those who write QI reports), 12 consumers of QI reports (practitioners who apply QI research in practice), 11 journal editors and 4 authors of reporting guidelines. Participants identified three principal challenges in achieving high-quality QI reporting. First, the broad scope of QI reporting-ranging from small local projects to multisite research across different disciplines-causes uncertainty about where QI work should be published. Second, context is fundamental to the success of a QI intervention but is difficult to report in ways that support replication and development. Third, reporting is adversely affected by both proximal influences (such as lack of time to write up QI) and more distal, structural influences (such as norms about the format and content of biomedical research reporting), leading to incomplete reporting of QI findings. CONCLUSIONS: Divergent terminology and understandings of QI, along with existing reporting norms and the challenges of capturing context adequately yet succinctly, make for challenges in reporting QI. We offer suggestions for improvement

Investigating the Potential of Artificial Intelligence Powered Interfaces to Support Different Types of Memory for People with Dementia

There has been a growing interest in HCI to understand the specific technological needs of people with dementia and supporting them in self-managing daily activities. One of the most difficult challenges to address is supporting the fluctuating accessibility needs of people with dementia, which vary with the specific type of dementia and the progression of the condition. Researchers have identified auto-personalized interfaces, and more recently, Artificial Intelligence or AI-driven personalization as a potential solution to making commercial technology accessible in a scalable manner for users with fluctuating ability. However, there is a lack of understanding on the perceptions of people with dementia around AI as an aid to their everyday technology use and its role in their overall self-management systems, which include other non-AI technology, and human assistance. In this paper, we present future directions for the design of AI-based systems to personalize an interface for dementia-related changes in different types of memory, along with expectations for AI interactions with the user with dementia.Comment: 7 page

An ethnographic study of improving data collection and completeness in large-scale data exercises.

Background: Large-scale data collection is an increasingly prominent and influential feature of efforts to improve healthcare delivery, yet securing the involvement of clinical centres and ensuring data comprehensiveness often proves problematic. We explore how improvements in both data submission and completion rates were achieved during a crucial period of the evolution of two large-scale data exercises. Methods:  As part of an evaluation of a quality improvement programme, we conducted an ethnographic study involving 90 interviews and 47 days of non-participant observation of two UK national clinical audits in a period before submission of data on adherence to clinical standards became mandatory. Results: Critical to the improvements in submission and completion rates in the two exercises were the efforts of clinical leaders to refigure "data work" as a professionalization strategy. Using a series of strategic manoeuvres, leaders constructed a cultural account that tied the fortunes of the healthcare professions to the submission of high-quality data, proposing that it would demonstrate responsibility, transparency, and alignment with the public interest. In so doing, clinical leadership deployed tactics that might have been seen as unwarranted managerial aggression had they been imposed by parties external to the profession. Many residual challenges were linked not to principled objection by clinicians, but to mundane problems and frustrations in obtaining, recording, and submitting data. The cultural framing of data work as a professional duty was important to resolving its status as an abject form of labour. Conclusions: Improving data quality in large-scale exercises is possible, but requires cooperation with clinical centres. Enabling professional leadership of data work may offer some significant advantages, but attention is also needed to mundane and highly consequential obstacles to participation in data collection

Parenting agendas:an empirical study of intensive mothering and infant cognitive development

Intensive parenting debates reflect the critical importance of a child’s early years, and parents’ roles in determining later developmental outcomes. Mothers are usually assigned primary responsibility for facilitating their infants’ cognitive development through adequate and appropriate sensory stimulation. Drawing on Foucault’s technologies of the self we explore how new mothers shape their mothering practices in order to provide appropriately stimulating interactions. Using findings from 64 interviews (31 women were interviewed twice, 2 women were interviewed only once) we identify three main positions whereby mothers function in relation to their infants’ development; mother as committed facilitator, creative provider and careful/caring monitor. We consider the perceived normative nature of these positions and the impact they can have on middle-class women’s subjectivities as new mothers. Our study of parental agendas and infant cognitive development suggests that a continued focus on the mother’s role within early infant development reflects and upholds ideologies of child-centred, intensive mothering, which risks precluding ‘alternative’ maternal subjectivities and promotes conservative feminine identities

The Effects of Mindful Movement and Exercise on Depression

This evidence based review looked at any correlation between aerobics, running, Qi\u27 gong and mindfulness practices like meditation and yoga. What were their effects if any on depression? The findings from meta-analysis concluded that each in their own way did in fact relieve, improve or prevent signs and symptoms of depression as well as other dysregulatory and co-occurring health concerns like PTSD, Anxiety, Chronic Pain, insomnia and addiction issues. There was a clear correlation that an integrative approach to treatments and therapies needs further research in conventional medicine. Some treatments were found to be as effective if not more so than pharmaceuticals. As health care costs continue to rise, alternative, complementary and integrative cost effective treatments and therapies should be researched and considered. This review helps open the door for policy makers and medical professionals to look at treatment modalities in their own professions