A Mobile App Delivering a Gamified Battery of Cognitive Tests Designed for Repeated Play (OU Brainwave): App Design and Cohort Study

Background: Mobile phone and tablet apps are an increasingly common platform to collect data. A key challenge for researchers has been participant “buy-in” and participant attrition for designs requiring repeated testing. Objective: The objective of this study was to develop and asses the utility of 1 – 2 minute versions of both classic and novel cognitive tasks within a user focussed and driven mobile phone and tablet app designed to encourage repeated play. Methods: A large sample (N = 13,979 at first data collection) participated in multiple, self-paced, sessions of working memory (N-back), spatial cognition (Mental rotation), sustained attentional focus (Persistent Vigilance task), and split attention (Multiple object tracking) tasks along with an implementation of a novel action learning task. A full morningness-eveningness questionnaire was also included. Data was collected across an 18 month period. While the app prompted reengagement at set intervals, each participant was free to repeatedly complete each task as many times as they wished. Results: We found a significant relationship between morningness and age (r = 0.298, n = 12755, p Conclusions: Using extremely short testing periods and permitting participants to decide their own level of engagement - both in terms of which gamified task they played, and how many sessions they completed - we were able to collect a substantial and valid dataset. We suggest that the success of OU brainwave should inform future research oriented apps - particularly in issues around balancing participant engagement with data fidelity

Textbook Affordability Open Course: Facilitator Guide and D2L Course Materials

This guide will help facilitators of the Textbook Affordability Open Course organize and implement the content in their own learning environment. The designers of the course have included items that need to be updated and personalized for each implementation of the course as well as helpful tips for successful implementation. This course is an introduction to textbook affordability, open educational resources, and other open practices that impact equity in our classrooms. While it is geared towards higher education faculty, the concepts and practices covered here can be used in any teaching and learning scenario. This course will explore concepts tied to the one cost factor teachers can control - course materials - and relate that directly to increasing equitable practice in the classroom. By the end of the course, you will have explored your own library for options for course materials, searched for open educational resources in your content area, discovered other open practices that may be useful to your own teaching, and defined how equity and course material cost are related

Could - and Should - Scotland Sell Carbon Credits in International Markets?

Scotland could remove carbon emission in excess of its output within the next three decades (CCC, 2020a). This work investigated the conditions through which Scotland can meet and exceed its emissions targets and potentially engage in the trade of carbon credits internationally. Key findings are: Without significant deployment of negative emission technologies (NETs) , Scotland will only be able to achieve net zero by 2045 if emission reduction policies and their effects follow highly optimistic modelling. By 2050 however, Scotland may be able to become net negative without the deployment of NETs under a slightly wider range of policy options. Experts interviewed highlighted influencing factors such as: the Scottish Government's desire to pursue NET deployment at scale; the potential to pursue the trade of carbon credits internationally; and the potential for Scotland's engagement in carbon trading to bolster climate ambition internationally. They also highlighted that Scotland's position on trading should be influenced by issues surrounding the environmental credibility of carbon credits and the risk of NETs and carbon credits acting as a moral hazard- reducing the drive towards wider de-carbonisation rather than bolstering ambition

Single-inhaler triple therapy in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease:a systematic review

Abstract Background Guidelines recommend that treatment with a long-acting β2 agonist (LABA), a long-acting muscarinic antagonist (LAMA), and inhaled corticosteroids (ICS), i.e. triple therapy, is reserved for a select group of symptomatic patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) who continue to exacerbate despite treatment with dual therapy (LABA/LAMA). A number of single-inhaler triple therapies are now available and important clinical questions remain over their role in the patient pathway. We compared the efficacy and safety of single-inhaler triple therapy to assess the magnitude of benefit and to identify patients with the best risk-benefit profile for treatment. We also evaluated and compared study designs and population characteristics to assess the strength of the evidence base. Methods We conducted a systematic search, from inception to December 2018, of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of single-inhaler triple therapy in patients with COPD. The primary outcome was the annual rate of moderate and severe exacerbations. Results We identified 523 records, of which 15 reports/abstracts from six RCTs were included. Triple therapy resulted in the reduction of the annual rate of moderate or severe exacerbations in the range of 15–52% compared with LAMA/LABA, 15–35% compared to LABA/ICS and 20% compared to LAMA. The patient-based number needed to treat for the moderate or severe exacerbation outcome ranged between approximately 25–50 (preventing one patient from having an event) and the event-based number needed to treat of around 3–11 (preventing one event). The absolute benefit appeared to be greater in patients with higher eosinophil counts or historical frequency of exacerbations and ex-smokers. In the largest study, there was a significantly higher incidence of pneumonia in the triple therapy arm. There were important differences in study designs and populations impacting the interpretation of the results and indicating there would be significant heterogeneity in cross-trial comparisons. Conclusion The decision to prescribe triple therapy should consider patient phenotype, magnitude of benefit and increased risk of adverse events. Future research on specific patient phenotype thresholds that can support treatment and funding decisions is now required from well-designed, robust, clinical trials. Trial registration PROSPERO #CRD42018102125 .https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/152151/1/12931_2019_Article_1213.pd

Stoichiometry-anisotropy connections in epitaxial L1(0) FePt(001) films

The order parameters and anisotropy constants of a series of epitaxial L1(0) FePt films with compositions in the range of 45-55 at. % Fe and nominal thicknesses of 50 nm have been characterized. The films were made by cosputtering the elements onto single crystal MgO(001) substrates. The substrates were coated with 1 nm Pt/1 nm Fe bilayer seeds prior to alloy deposition. Both the bilayer seed and the alloy film were deposited at 620 degreesC. Lattice and order parameters were obtained by x-ray diffraction. Film compositions and thicknesses were determined by Rutherford backscattering spectrometry, and room-temperature magnetocrystalline anisotropies were determined with a torque magnetometer. It was found that the order parameter had a maximum for the film composition closest to the equiatomic composition, whereas the magnetocrystalline anisotropy increased as the Fe content increased from below to slightly above the equiatomic composition. These results imply that nonstoichiometric FePt compositions, with a slight excess of Fe, may in fact be preferred for applications that require high anisotropy

Press protest and publics: the agency of publics in newspaper campaigns

Campaign advocacy is a common but rarely researched practice in British tabloid journalism. Newspaper campaigns give an account of ‘public opinion’ to politicians, make explicit claims to speak for ‘the public’ and authentically represent them, and also address readers in an unconventional way in order to recruit their support. This article therefore examines the effect to which agency is attributed to readers and other publics in two such campaigns, and argues that publics were portrayed as active only in relation to the newspaper’s activity, and as primarily as reacting emotionally to the problem. The campaigning press promote themselves commercially and politically as quasi-representatives who challenge distant and ‘out of touch’ political representatives with the populist impulses of ‘public’ demands, but without enhancing the democratic process, or publics’ position within it

Tax avoidance as an anti-austerity issue: the progress of a protest issue through the public sphere

Theorists of left and right agree that periods of crisis are fertile times at which to precipitate change. However, protesters on the periphery of the public sphere must overcome barriers, or what Habermas called ‘sluice gates’, if their discourse is to be publicly and politically influential. This study of newspaper discourse and activity in parliament and the public sphere over a six year period takes tax justice campaigning in the UK as a case study, and in particular protest group UK Uncut’s attempt to mobilize opposition to austerity by advocating a crackdown on tax avoidance as an alternative to cuts. It finds that whilst UK Uncut successfully amplified existing arguments previously raised by experts, trade unions and the left-leaning press, austerity barely figured in debate about tax avoidance once it was picked up by other actors in the public sphere on the other side of the 'sluice gates'. The reasons for this were structural and discursive, related to the role and interests of receptive actors at the institutional centre of the public sphere, and their ability, along with the conservative press, to transform the moral framing of tax avoidance from the injustice of making the poor pay for the financial crisis through cuts, into the 'unfairness' of middle class earners paying higher taxes than wealthier individuals and corporations. The latter reifies the 'hardworking taxpayer', and implies a more instrumental and clientalistic relationship to the state, and an essentially neoliberal sense of fairness. Where neoliberal ideology was challenged, it was in social conservative terms – nationalist opposition to globalisation, framing multinational corporations as a threat to the domestic high street – rather than protesters’ social democratic challenge to market power and social injustice. This indicates how a progressive message from the periphery can be co-opted into the currently resurgent right-wing populism

Florida-Friendly Landscaping™ Guidelines for Community Associations: Considerations for Selecting a Landscape Contractor and Writing an Effective Landscaping Contract

This document is intended to provide guidance to entities such as HOA community associations when developing a contract and hiring a landscape maintenance company to perform contracted service

Localized lentivirus delivery via peptide interactions

Gene delivery from biomaterial scaffolds has been employed to induce the expression of tissue inductive factors for applications in regenerative medicine. The delivery of viral vectors has been described as reflecting a balance between vector retention and release. Herein, we investigated the design of hydrogels in order to retain the vector at the material in order to enhance transgene expression. Poly(ethylene‐glycol) (PEG) hydrogels were modified with poly‐l‐lysine (PLL) to non‐covalently bind lentivirus. For cells cultured on the hydrogels, increasing the PLL molecular weight from 1 to 70 kDa led to increased transgene expression. The incubation time of the virus with the hydrogel and the PLL concentration modulated the extent of virus adsorption, and adsorbed virus had a 20% increase in the half‐life at 37°C. Alternatives to high molecular weight PLL were identified through phage display technology, with peptide sequences specific for the VSV‐G ectodomain, an envelope protein pseudotyped on the virus. These affinity peptides could easily be incorporated into the hydrogel, and expression was increased 20‐fold relative to control peptide, and comparable to levels observed with the high molecular weight PLL. The modification of hydrogels with affinity proteins or peptides to bind lentivirus can be a powerful strategy to enhance and localized transgene expression. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2016;113: 2033–2040. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.By conjugating affinity peptides to poly(ethylene‐glycol) (PEG) hydrogels, lentiviral vectors were non‐covalently bound to the hydrogel surface. Poly‐l‐lysine (PLL) and short, 12‐amino acid sequences identified via phage display, were analyzed. The modification of hydrogels with affinity proteins or peptides to bind lentivirus can be a powerful strategy to enhance and localized transgene expression.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/133589/1/bit25961.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/133589/2/bit25961_am.pd

Development of Bullous Acrodermatitis Enteropathica during the Course of Chemotherapy for Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia

Acrodermatitis enteropathica (AE) is an uncommon autosomal recessive genetic disorder of zinc malabsorption. The acquired form may be associated with inadequate intake, impaired absorption, and increased excretion of zinc. Those afflicted present with diarrhea, stomatitis, psychiatric symptoms, non-scarring alopecia, and nail dystrophy accompanied by erythematous which appears as scaly patches with erosion vesicles and pustules mostly affecting the extremities, perineal, and periorificial areas. Due to the variable findings of most case reports, the clinical and histopathological features of AE are often regarded as non-specific. We report an unusual case of bullous AE secondary to total parenteral nutrition for the treatment of acute pancreatitis occurring in a six-year-old male with acute lymphocytic leukemia who underwent chemotherapy. He presented with periorificial, reddish, eroded bullae with multiple vesicles and blisters on his fingers, toes, and buttock, showing necrotic keratinocytes with multiple intraepidermal vesicles and perivascular infiltration with predominant lymphocytes and few neutrophils within the dermis. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case report of bullous AE in the Korean dermatologic literature