Development of an IS Relevance Index

This paper summarises the literature on the lack relevance in IS research. It then introduces the concept of an IS Relevance Index as an initiative to help address the issue and summarises the status of its development. It then presents an exploratory study using ACIS 2005 data to provide a concrete example of how an IS Relevance Index might be implemented in practice and to highlight implications. The findings may be of particular interest to IS Conference Organisers and IS Journal editors. The findings will be of great interest to IS researchers if IS conferences and IS journals choose to adopt the index or some variation

A Wii Bit of Fun: A Novel Platform to Deliver Effective Balance Training to Older Adults

BACKGROUND: Falls and fall-related injuries are symptomatic of an aging population. This study aimed to design, develop, and deliver a novel method of balance training, using an interactive game-based system to promote engagement, with the inclusion of older adults at both high and low risk of experiencing a fall.STUDY DESIGN: Eighty-two older adults (65 years of age and older) were recruited from sheltered accommodation and local activity groups. Forty volunteers were randomly selected and received 5 weeks of balance game training (5 males, 35 females; mean, 77.18 ± 6.59 years), whereas the remaining control participants recorded levels of physical activity (20 males, 22 females; mean, 76.62 ± 7.28 years). The effect of balance game training was measured on levels of functional balance and balance confidence in individuals with and without quantifiable balance impairments.RESULTS: Balance game training had a significant effect on levels of functional balance and balance confidence (P Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

The influence of socio-economic deprivation on mobility, participation and quality of life following major lower extremity amputation in the West of Scotland

Objective: Lower extremity amputation (LEA) is more common in people from lower socio-economic groups. This study examined this further by investigating the influence of socio-economic status on mobility, participation, and quality of life (QoL) after LEA. Methods: Prospective data were gathered for all LEAs performed in one year in one Scottish Health Board, commencing March 2014. A postcode derived Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) was applied by quintile (SIMD 1 = most deprived). Routine data were collected on the cohort of 171 patients; 101 participants consented and received postal questionnaires on QoL (EQ-5D-5L), participation (Reintegration to Normal Living Index [RNLI]), and mobility (Prosthetic Limb User Survey of Mobility), six (n = 67) and 12 months (n = 50) after LEA. Results: The mean ± SD age of the cohort was 66.2 ± 11.4 years; 75% were male and 53% had diabetes. In total, 67% lived in SIMD 1 and 2 and 11.1% in SIMD 5. Sixty per cent had a transtibial amputation. Mortality was 6% at 30 days 17% at six, and 29% at 12 months. Those in SIMD 1 were significantly younger (62.9 years) than those in SIMD 5 (76.3 years). Significantly more participants with a transfemoral amputation (TFA) lived in SIMD 1 (44%) compared with SIMD 5 (11%) (p = .004). Participation was low (RNLI scores: 6 months = 55.7; 12 months = 56.6) and PLUS M scores suggested mobility was poor overall at six (39.1) and 12 months (38.9). Mean QoL was 0.37 at 6 months and 0.33 at 12 months. Conclusion: Although this study observed more LEAs in those from low socio-economic areas, it is impossible to conclude whether QoL after LEA is truly influenced by socio-economic status. There was an association between the disproportionately high rate of LEAs in SIMD groups 1 and 2 and the high prevalence of smoking, 61% vs. only 21% of those in the least deprived areas (SIMD 3, 4, and 5) being current smokers

Infection and Inflammation in Bovine Staphylococcus aureus Mastitis

The aim of this project was to study the dynamics of intramammary infection and resulting inflammation in Staphylococcus aureus mastitis in cows. Four cows with naturally occurring subclinical mastitis in one or more quarters, caused by S. aureus, were used in this study. The strains of S. aureus causing infection in the cows were determined by restriction enzyme fragmentation pattern (REFP) analysis. Two cows were infected with one strain of S. aureus, designated strain A, and two cows were infected with a different strain of S. aureus, designated strain B. The cows were subsequently challenged by the intramammary route in a novel cross-over design with large numbers (108-109) of either the indigenous strain or the non-indigenous strain of S. aureus. Quarters which were naturally infected with S. aureus and then challenged by the intramammary route with S. aureus remained persistently infected three weeks following challenge in three of the four cows, irrespective of the challenge strain. The fourth cow required treatment with antibiotics due to an increase in the severity of mastitis. The results of this study showed that in one cow, intramammary challenge of a subclinically infected quarter with the indigenous strain of S. aureus failed to induce an anamnestic immune response which might have instigated clearance of the original infection from the quarter; while in the other cow, the indigenous strain was replaced with three distinct isolates. It also showed that intramammary challenge of a subclinically infected quarter with the non-indigenous strain of S. aureus, in two cows, did not result in permanent replacement of the indigenous strain with the recently infused non-indigenous strain. In addition to the original strains A and B, eight distinct strains isolated from the four cows, were recognised by REFP analysis, indicating that a cow, or even a quarter, may be infected simultaneously by more than one strain of S. aureus. This study showed that the examination of multiple colonies per milk sample was required in order to identify the diversity of S. aureus strains present and to maximise the benefit of bacterial strain identification as an epidemiological tool in mastitis investigations. As REFP analysis is a time consuming method, a repetitive extragenic palindromic polymerase chain reaction (REP-PCR) was developed during this project to facilitate more rapid identification of the ten S. aureus strains originally identified by REFP. To investigate the acute phase response as an indicator of inflammation in mastitis, mammary secretions from the four cows with naturally occurring subclinical mastitis caused by S. aureus were collected prior to, and following, intramammary challenge with S. aureus. Serum amyloid A (SAA) was isolated and purified from the serum of bovine clinical cases by ultracentrifugation, gel electrophoresis and electro-elution. Serum amyloid A was identified by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay and immunoblotting using a polyclonal rabbit anti-human SAA antibody. The purified SAA was used to immunise mice in an attempt to produce a monoclonal antibody specifically against bovine SAA but this proved to be unsuccessful even when the SAA was bound to a carrier protein. Increased levels of haptoglobin were identified in mammary secretions from a single quarter of one cow. This quarter had been originally uninfected and then challenged by the intramammary route with strain B. In the absence of a polyclonal or monoclonal antibody to bovine SAA, sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis was used to identify proteins in mammary secretions with a similar molecular weight to SAA. A protein of similar molecular weight to SAA was identified in the same quarter in which the increased haptoglobin levels were measured

Innate and acquired immune responses in crossbred cattle

Resistance to infection by pathogenic organisms is critical for survival of livestock under commercial farming conditions. Understanding the complex processes involved in immunity to infection is essential to allow future selection of animals for disease resistance to become an attainable goal in livestock production. The overall aim of this study was to assess various aspects of immune function in a genetically defined population of male and female Holstein Friesian cross Charolais cattle from six months of age. One aspect of the study assessed the in vitro proliferation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) induced by Staphylococcus aureus or Phytohaemagglutinin (PHA) in over 300 second generation animals consisting of F2, Holstein-Friesian backcross and Charolais backcross individuals. Variation in S. aureus-induced, PHA-induced and control PBMC proliferation was found among individuals at each of the time points assessed. Statistical analyses by Residual Maximum Likelihood (REML) identified a significant effect of sex on all of the parameters assessed and a significant effect of control PBMC proliferation on S. aureus-induced and PHA-induced PBMC proliferation. Overall, males had higher levels of both specific and non-specific immunity measured by S. aureus-induced, PHA-induced and control in vitro PBMC proliferation. Following REML analysis, the control in vitro PBMC proliferation was found to have a regression coefficient greater than zero and less than one, which indicated that in this study, calculation of immunity using stimulation indices (SI) or delta counts per minute (Delta c.p.m.) would have been inaccurate and would have resulted in misleading interpretation of the data. On several occasions, sample age and year of birth were also identified as significant factors. The sample age and year of birth were found to have different effects on specific and non-specific immunity. Specific immune function, measured by S. aureus-induced PBMC proliferation, was shown to increase with sample age of the individual, whereas, non-specific immune function, measured by PHA-induced PBMC proliferation, was shown to decrease with sample age. Specific immune function, measured by S. aureus-induced PBMC proliferation, was shown to decrease in the animals born in the 1998 to 2000 cohorts, whereas, non-specific immune function, measured by PHA-induced PBMC proliferation was shown to increase in the animals born in the 1998 to 2000 cohorts. Following REML analyses, the cross and sire of the animal were found to be significant at several of the time points. Variation in immune function was identified among crosses with the Holstein-Friesian backcross animals having greater levels of S. aureus-induced PBMC proliferation than the Charolais backcross animals. In contrast, the Charolais backcross animals were identified as having greater levels of PHA induced PBMC proliferation than the Holstein-Friesian backcross animals. In addition, a small subset of animals for which additional MHC RFLP patterns were available, were ranked for S. aureus-induced and PHA-induced in vitro PBMC proliferation. This study identified that animals with high specific immune responses, measured by S. aureus- induced PBMC proliferation, may have low non-specific immune responses, measured by PHA-induced PBMC proliferation, and also, conversely, that animals with high non-specific immune responses may have low specific immune responses. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.)

Modelling the activity of seawater and implications for desalination exergy analyses

Exergy analysis has been applied to desalination membrane processes in an effort to characterise energy consumption and to optimise energy efficiency. Several models have been used to this end in the literature. One assumption that is common in these analyses is that of ideal solution behavior. However, seawater and other aqueous solutions of interest do not behave ideally. Indeed, even when ideal behavior is not assumed, there are several approaches to calculate these activity values, which are typically a function of the molality and ionic strength of the electrolytic solution. What is not clear from the published literature is the impact that the choice of activity calculation model has on the exergy analysis results. The objective of this research was to undertake the exergy analysis of a seawater membrane desalination plant using the Szargut chemical exergy approach and to compare the activity calculation approaches. The chemical exergy of the seawater was calculated using several activity coefficient modelling approaches including, (a) ideal mixture model, (b) the Debye-Huckel limiting law, (c) the Davies model, and finally, (d) the Pitzer model, which is more appropriate for higher ionic strength solutions such as seawater. The results showed considerable differences in the chemical exergy rates and the magnitude of chemical exergy destruction rates calculated using the various models. For example, there were percentage differences of 61.8% and 44.7% between the magnitude of chemical exergy destruction rates calculated using the Pitzer model when compared with the Debye-Huckel limiting law for the nanofiltration and reverse osmosis processes respectively

Fibre tract segmentation for intraoperative diffusion MRI in neurosurgical patients using tract-specific orientation atlas and tumour deformation modelling

Purpose:: Intraoperative diffusion MRI could provide a means of visualising brain fibre tracts near a neurosurgical target after preoperative images have been invalidated by brain shift. We propose an atlas-based intraoperative tract segmentation method, as the standard preoperative method, streamline tractography, is unsuitable for intraoperative implementation. Methods:: A tract-specific voxel-wise fibre orientation atlas is constructed from healthy training data. After registration with a target image, a radial tumour deformation model is applied to the orientation atlas to account for displacement caused by lesions. The final tract map is obtained from the inner product of the atlas and target image fibre orientation data derived from intraoperative diffusion MRI. Results:: The simple tumour model takes only seconds to effectively deform the atlas into alignment with the target image. With minimal processing time and operator effort, maps of surgically relevant tracts can be achieved that are visually and qualitatively comparable with results obtained from streamline tractography. Conclusion:: Preliminary results demonstrate feasibility of intraoperative streamline-free tract segmentation in challenging neurosurgical cases. Demonstrated results in a small number of representative sample subjects are realistic despite the simplicity of the tumour deformation model employed. Following this proof of concept, future studies will focus on achieving robustness in a wide range of tumour types and clinical scenarios, as well as quantitative validation of segmentations