Development of an undergraduate multidisciplinary engineering project

During their time at university it is necessary for undergraduate engineering students to develop not just technical skills related to their chosen engineering subject, but to also develop team working, time management, self organisation and decision making skills that will enable them to work effectively as engineers in the real world after graduation. These important transferable skills are highly sought after by industry and any chance to identify where such skills have been successfully used during an undergraduate degree course is a valuable addition to a student’s CV when subsequently entering the job market. To address the need of developing transferable skills, the School of Engineering and Design Multidisciplinary Project (MDP) was introduced in 2007 to provide first year undergraduate students with an opportunity to work together in multidisciplinary teams on a design and construction project. Each team is comprised of students from across the range of subject areas within the School and tasked with designing and building a robotic vehicle to tackle an obstacle course. The basis for the kits provided to each team are Lego Mindstorms robots for a majority of groups while the remaining groups are provided with a Parallax Basic STAMP 2 chip and a micro-controller chip to design their vehicle around. Figure 1 shows a selection of the 50 completed project builds from the 2009 MDP, showing the wide array of designs produced by the students. This paper describes the main aims of the MDP and gives an overview of how it has developed over the last three years to become a key part of the engineering undergraduate programme at Brunel University

Blogging as a viable research methodology for young people with arthritis: a qualitative study.

The development of services that are responsive to the needs of users is a health policy priority. Finding ways of engaging young people in research to gain insights into their particular experiences, perspectives, and needs is vital but challenging. These data are critical to improving services in ways that meet the needs of young people

Floer cohomology of Platonic Lagrangians

We analyse holomorphic discs on Lagrangian SU(2)-orbits in a family of quasihomogeneous threefolds of SL(2;C), previously studied by Evans-Lekili, introducing several techniques that should be applicable to wider classes of homogeneous Lagrangians. By studying the closed-open map we place strong restrictions on the self-Floer cohomology of these Lagrangians, which we then compute using the Biran-Cornea pearl complex.EPSRC PhD studentshi

Social network ties beyond nonredundancy: An experimental investigation of the effect of knowledge content and tie strength on creativity

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from American Psychological Association via the DOI in this record.Social network research emphasizes the access to nonredundant knowledge content that network ties provide. I suggest that some content is more beneficial than others and that tie strength may affect creativity for reasons other than the associated structure. That is, tie strength may affect how individuals process nonredundant knowledge. I investigate 2 types of knowledge content-information (i.e., facts or data) and frames (i.e., interpretations or impressions)-and explore whether tie strength influences their effect on creativity. Drawing on creativity theory, I employ an experimental design to provide greater theoretical clarity and to isolate causality. According to the results from 2 studies, distinct frames received from contacts facilitate creativity, but the effect of distinct information is more complex. When individuals receive distinct information from strong ties, it constrains creativity compared to distinct frames. Content from weak ties appears to facilitate creativity across all scenarios. The results of mediated moderation analysis indicate the effect of framing versus information for strong ties is driven by decision-making time, as an indicator of cognitive expansion

Employment status and health after privatisation in white collar civil servants: prospective cohort study

Objectives To determine whether employment status after job loss due to privatisation influences health and use of health services and whether financial strain, psychosocial measures, or health related behaviours can explain any findings.Design Data collected before and 18 months after privatisation.Setting One department of the civil service that was sold to the private sector,Participants 666 employees during baseline screening in the department to be privatised.Main outcome measures Health and health service outcomes associated with insecure re-employment, permanent exit from paid employment, and unemployment after privatisation compared with outcomes associated with secure re-employmentResults Insecure re-employment and unemployment were associated with relative increases in minor psychiatric morbidity (mean difference 1.56 (95% confidence intervals interval 1.0 to 2.2) and 1.25 (0.6 to 2.0) respectively) and having four or more consultations with a general practitioner in the past year (odds ratio 2.04 (1.1 to 3.8) and 2.39 (1.3 to 4.7) respectively). Health outcomes for respondents permanently out of paid employment closely resembled those in secure re-employment, except for a substantial relative increase in longstanding illness (2.25; 1.1 to 4.4), Financial strain and change in psychosocial measures and health related behaviours accounted for little of the observed associations. Adjustment for change in minor psychiatric morbidity attenuated the association between insecure re-employment or unemployment and general practitioner consultations by 26% and 27%, respectively.Conclusions Insecure re-employment and unemployment after privatisation result in increases in minor psychiatric morbidity and consultations with a general practitioner, which are possibly due to the increased minor psychiatric morbidity

Significant familial differences in the frequency of abortion and Toxoplasma gondii infection within a flock of Charollais sheep

A study was carried out to investigate the frequencies of abortion and congenital Toxoplasma gondii infection within 27 families (765 individuals) of a pedigree Charollais sheep flock maintained on a working farm in Worcestershire, UK, since 1992. Pedigree lambing records were analysed to establish the frequency of abortion for each family. The frequency of congenital infection was determined for each family by PCR analysis of tissue samples taken from newborn lambs. Atotal of 155 lambs were tested for congenital T. gondii infection, which were all born during the study period 2000–2003. Significant differences in the frequency of abortion between sheep families within this flock were observed with frequencies ranging between 0% and 48% (P<0.01). Significantly different infection frequencies with T. gondii were also observed for different families and ranged between 0% and 100% (P<0.01). Although the actual cause of each abortion was not verified, a highly significant positive correlation was found to exist between the frequency of abortion and the frequency of T. gondii infection in the same families (P<0.01). The data presented here raise further questions regarding the significance of congenital transmission of T. gondii within sheep populations, the possible successive vertical transmission of T. gondii within families of sheep, and the potential role of inherited genetic susceptibility to abortion with respect to T. gondii infection. This work invites further study into the epidemiology of ovine toxoplasmosis and may have implications for sheep husbandry methods in the future. Key words: Toxoplasma gondii, ovine, toxoplasmosis, congenital, transmission, pedigree, sheep

High levels of congenital transmission of toxoplasma gondii in longitudinal and cross-sectional studies on sheep farms provides evidence of vertical transmission in ovine hosts

Recent research suggests that vertical transmission may play an important role in sustaining Toxoplasma gondii infection in some species. We report here that congenital transmission occurs at consistently high levels in pedigree Charollais and outbred sheep flocks sampled over a 3-year period. Overall rates of transmission per pregnancy determined by PCR based diagnosis, were consistent over time in a commercial sheep flock (69%) and in sympatric (60%) and allopatric (41%) populations of Charollais sheep. The result of this was that 53·7% of lambs were acquiring an infection prior to birth: 46·4% of live lambs and 90·0% of dead lambs (in agreement with the association made between T. gondii and abortion). No significant differences were observed between lamb sexes. Although we cannot distinguish between congenital transmission occurring due to primary infection at pregnancy or reactivation of chronic infection during pregnancy, our observations of consistently high levels of congenital transmission over successive lambings favour the latter

Detection of high levels of congenital transmission of toxoplasma gondii in natural urban populations of mus domesticus

The relative importance of different transmission routes of Toxoplasma gondii has been a matter for debate. This ubiquitous parasite is generally thought to be transmitted by infective oocysts excreted by the definitive host, the cat. Ingestion of undercooked meat has also been considered an important route of transmission in many mammals while congenital transmission has generally been considered relatively rare. Experimental studies demonstrate the ability of T. gondii to be transmitted congenitally, but few studies have investigated the frequency of this transmission route in natural populations. We use PCR amplification of the SAG1 gene to investigate the frequency of congenital transmission in a wild population of mice (Mus domesticus) and show that congenital transmission is occurring in 75% of pregnancies in this population. Furthermore, for infected pregnant mice, transmission occurs to at least one foetus in 100% of cases while variable penetrance of congenital infection is observed. These high levels of congenital transmission in this wild population of mice, taken together with other recent data on congenital transmission in sheep, suggests that this phenomenon might be more widespread than previously thought

The paradox of family structure and plans after work: Why single childless employees may be the least absorbed at work

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Academy of Management via the DOI in this record.Existing research has shown that positive family experiences can affect work positively. In this article, however, we consider how family may enhance work even when family experiences are not explicitly positive. We draw on boundary theory and cognitive psychology's current concerns theory to evaluate how employees' family structures and associated after-work activities affect their work absorption. A survey of business school alumni (Study 1) revealed that single, childless workers reported lower absorption than workers with other family structures. Further, a daily diary study of university employees (Study 2) showed that employees' planned after-work activities explained the relationship between family structure and work absorption. Specifically, single, childless workers anticipated fewer domestic after-work activities, resulting in lower work absorption. Due to similarities between domestic responsibilities and work tasks-for example, their obligatory and goal-directed nature-anticipating domestic responsibilities after work reinforces, rather than distracts from, the work mindset, thus keeping employees more immersed psychologically in their work. This finding suggests that having a spouse and/or children can affect employees' work absorption positively through the anticipation of domestic duties after work. Thus, our study contributes to a more comprehensive view of how employees' work and nonwork lives are connected

The prevalence of Neospora caninum and co-infection with Toxoplasma gondii by PCR analysis in naturally occurring mammal populations

Neospora caninum and Toxoplasma gondii are closely related intracellular protozoan parasites associated with bovine and ovine abortion respectively. Little is known about the extent of Neospora/Toxoplasma co-infection in naturally infected populations of animals. Using nested PCR techniques, based on primers from the Nc5 region of N. caninum and SAG1 for T. gondii, the prevalence of N. caninum and its co-infection with T. gondii were investigated in populations of Mus domesticus, Rattus norvegicus and aborted lambs (Ovis aries). A low frequency of infection with N. caninum was detected in the Mus domesticus (3%) and Rattus norvegicus (4·4%) populations. A relatively high frequency of infection with N. caninum was detected in the brains of aborted lambs (18·9%). There was no significant relationship between N. caninum and T. gondii co-infection. Investigation of the tissue distribution of Neospora, in aborted lambs, showed that Neospora could not be detected in tissues other than brain and this was in contrast to Toxoplasma where the parasite could be frequently detected in a range of tissues