377 research outputs found
Fictocritical Empathy and the Work of Mourning
What is at stake in this fictocritical aesthetic remediation? What existing practices would it re-function, supplement or supersede? Is mourning adequate to the task of cross-cultural reconciliation? How might fictocritical effects be animated in the service of this aim? In the process of exploring these questions I will suggest that the methodology of mourning is an allegorical vehicle for cross-cultural writing. Employed to remediate the colonial inheritance, it nonetheless requires acts of empathy according to models of the imagination that are part and parcel of that inheritance
Home for Good? Preparing to Support People with Learning Difficulties in Residential Settings when they Develop Dementia
This report explores the findings of a study which investigated the current models of practice for supporting people with learning difficulties and dementia living in care home settings. It looked at the key issues and discovered examples of best practice in relating to providing care homes for this group. The report includes a poster with some quick tips for staff supporting people with learning difficulties and dementia
Using a water treatment residual and compost co-amendment as a sustainable soil improvement technology to enhance flood holding capacity
The recycling of clean wastes, such as those from the treatment of drinking water,
has gained importance on the environmental agenda due to rising costs of landfill
disposal and movement towards a ‘zero’ waste economy. More than one third of
the globe’s soils are degraded and as such policies towards determining soil health
parameters and reversing destruction of the globe’s most valuable non-renewable
source are at the forefront of environmental debate. This thesis questions the
opportunity for water treatment residual (WTR) to be used as a beneficial material
for the co-amendment of soil with compost to improve the soil’s flood holding
capacity (Kerr et al., 2016), which includes functions such as the water holding
capacity, hydraulic conductivity, soil structure and shear strength. Currently, water
treatment residual is typically sent to landfill for disposal, but this research shows
that the reuse of WTR as a co-amendment is able to improve the flood holding
capacity of soils. This research crosses the boundary between geotechnical and
geoenvironmental and provides a holistic approach to quantifying a soil from both
perspectives.
Iron based water treatment residual from Northumbrian Water Ltd was used in
both laboratory and field trials to establish the effect of single WTR and a compost
and WTR co-amendment on the water holding capacity (the gravimetric water
content, volumetric water content, volume change of samples i.e. swelling and
shrinkage), and the effect of amendment on the erosional resistance, hydraulic
conductivity and shear strength compared to a control soil. A series of four trials
were conducted to develop and establish a novel method to determine the water
holding capacity, supplemented by standard geotechnical methods to determine
the flood holding capacity. The use of x-ray computed tomography has provided
accompanying information on the morphology of dried WTR and changes in the
internal characteristics of amended soil between a dry and wet state. The
amendment application rate ranges from 10 – 50%.
Experiments have shown that the single amendment of WTR, compared to a
control soil, yields significant increases in the hydraulic conductivity (by up to a
factor of 28), increases the shear strength of soils at low testing pressure (25 kPa)
by 129%, increases the maximum gravimetric water content by up to 13.7%, and
improves swelling by up to 12% (but only at the highest amendment rate, 30%),
increases the maximum void ratio when saturated by 11%, and reduces shrinkage
by maintaining porosity by 14%. However the application of WTR as a single
amendment has implications for the chemical health of the soil as it is highly
effective at immobilising phosphorous as and such cannot not effectively be used
as a soil amendment. The single application of compost yielded significant
improvement in the water holding capacity (improving gravimetric water content
by up to 34.7%, increasing the sample volume by up to 83.3%, and increased the
void ratio by 8.2%), however this application reduces the hydraulic conductivity
by up to 84.5% and the shear strength by 3% compared to the control soil.
Co-amendment using compost and WTR (in two forms, air dried 80% solids and
wet at 20% solids, as produced from water treatment works) improved the flood
holding capacity of soils by retaining the structural improvements of amendment
using WTR and the water holding capacity improvements of compost. Compared to
the control soil, for co-amended soils the gravimetric water content was improved
by up to 25%, the volume increased by up to 51.7%, experienced 13% less
shrinkage and an 11.5% increase in maximum void ratio. The hydraulic
conductivity was also improved by up to 475%, and shear strength was increased
at both low and high testing pressures by to 53.8%.
Taking into account these effects of co-amendment on essential soil functions that
determines a soil’s flood holding capacity (maximum gravimetric water content,
volume change, resistance against shrinkage, void ratio (porosity), hydraulic
conductivity and shear strength), the economical and environmental sustainability
issues, the co-amendment of soil using compost and WTR may provide a solution
to both recycling clean waste product and improving the quality of soil
Techniques for clustering gene expression data
Many clustering techniques have been proposed for the analysis of gene expression data obtained from microarray experiments. However, choice of suitable method(s) for a given experimental dataset is not straightforward. Common approaches do not translate well and fail to take account of the data profile. This review paper surveys state of the art applications which recognises these limitations and implements procedures to overcome them. It provides a framework for the evaluation of clustering in gene expression analyses. The nature of microarray data is discussed briefly. Selected examples are presented for the clustering methods considered
Mortuary Variability in the Final Palatial Period on Crete: Investigating Regionality, Status, and “Mycenaean” Identity
The Late Bronze Age on the island of Crete saw a period of strong administrative and religious control by the palace at Knossos, which also controlled a vast trade network with the rest of the eastern Mediterranean. After the collapse of the palace of Knossos, the Final Palatial period (1490 - 1320 BCE), was a time of sociopolitical transition and change, witnessing an explosion in number and variety of mortuary practices used, even within the same cemetery. In this thesis I analyze Final Palatial burial practices in a more systematic method than has been previously attempted, in order to gain a better understanding of how the Minoans chose to use the mortuary sphere as a platform for constructing and negotiating their social and political identities in the dynamic socio-political climate of the Final Palatial period
Fictocriticism, the 'Doubtful Category' and 'The Space Between'
Discusses Fictocriticism as a means of resisting assimilation to the unmarked voice of the Anglo-American Academy
After the Loyalists: The Archaeology of 19th Century Kingston
No abstract available at this time
An investigation of the pulmonary surfactant system in children with severe respiratory syncytial virus infection
Severe infection with Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) is an important cause of respiratory failure in infants and young children. Pulmonary surfactant is a surface-active complex of phospholipids and proteins which lines the alveolar surface of the lung. Clinical similarities of severe RSV infection to Respiratory Distress Syndrome of the newborn (RDS) and Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) suggest that surfactant abnormalities may be involved in the pathogenesis of the disease. The hypothesis tested in this study is that the pulmonary surfactant system is dysfunctional in severe RSV infection, due to deficiency, abnormal composition, damage or inhibition. Non-bronchoscopic bronchoalveolar lavage was performed on 18 children ventilated for severe RSV infection and 16 children ventilated for surgical procedures and post operative care. It was concluded that in children with severe RSV infection, surfactant was dysfunctional. There was evidence that two mechanisms contributed to this: 1. Pulmonary surfactant proteins and phospholipids were deficient. 2. Surfactant surface activity was inhibited. Surfactant phospholipid and fatty acid composition was abnormal, and surfactant damage was present. However, the surface active properties of an organic extract of BAL fluid were intact. This indicated that damage to surfactant and change in composition did not reduce surface activity. There was minimal damage to lipids by peroxidation. In conclusion, the pulmonary surfactant system is abnormal in children with severe RSV infection. Surfactant abnormality may be an important factor leading to respiratory failure in these children. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.)
RNA-seq vs dual- and single-channel microarray data: sensitivity analysis for differential expression and clustering
With the fast development of high-throughput sequencing technologies, a new generation of genome-wide gene
expression measurements is under way. This is based on mRNA sequencing (RNA-seq), which complements the already
mature technology of microarrays, and is expected to overcome some of the latter’s disadvantages. These RNA-seq data pose new challenges, however, as strengths and weaknesses have yet to be fully identified. Ideally, Next (or Second) Generation Sequencing measures can be integrated for more comprehensive gene expression investigation to facilitate analysis of whole regulatory networks. At present, however, the nature of these data is not very well understood. In this paper we study three alternative gene expression time series datasets for the Drosophila melanogaster embryo development, in order to compare three measurement techniques: RNA-seq, single-channel and dual-channel microarrays. The aim is to study the state of the art for the three technologies, with a view of assessing overlapping features, data
compatibility and integration potential, in the context of time series measurements. This involves using established tools for each of the three different technologies, and technical and biological replicates (for RNA-seq and microarrays, respectively),
due to the limited availability of biological RNA-seq replicates for time series data. The approach consists of a sensitivity analysis for differential expression and clustering. In general, the RNA-seq dataset displayed highest sensitivity to differential expression. The single-channel data performed similarly for the differentially expressed genes common to gene sets
considered. Cluster analysis was used to identify different features of the gene space for the three datasets, with higher similarities found for the RNA-seq and single-channel microarray dataset
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