Proposed scoring scheme for qualitive thematic analysis

Drawing on the work of psychotherapy researchers Robert Elliott, Clara Hill and colleagues, the following scheme has been proposed for the write up of qualitative thematic analysis when describing the ‘weighting’ of codes or categories (i.e. the number of interviews that the code/category appeared in). The intention is to use ‘plain English’ terms to describe the frequency of occurrence. For example the term ‘around half’ is used to describe 50% plus or minus one interview, and ‘nearly all’ is used to describe 100% minus one or two interviews. The table below sets out the proposed scoring scheme for studies with various numbers of participants, from 6 to 20. It is not envisaged that this scheme is applicable to studies of less than six participants, however the scheme could well be extended beyond 20. The scoring tends to be ‘understated’, such that ‘Around half’ equates to a half and slightly more rather than a half and slightly less. Additionally, the ‘Nearly all’ is restricted to All-1 until there are more than 11 participants in a study

Stories for Change

This compendium of nearly 50 best practices showcases the notable strategies that increase access to arts and culture for older adult and immigrant populations. Newcomers and older adults (65 +) are two of the fastest growing populations -- communities across the country are grappling with a demographic makeup that is increasingly diverse and proportionally older than in the past. Arts and cultural organizations have the opportunity to reach-out, to increase resources in the community, and to engage populations that are at risk for being overlooked."Stories for Change" is a compelling collection, brimming with new ideas brought to fruition by many types of organizations including: museums, libraries, community development organizations, theaters, orchestras, dance ensembles, area agencies on aging, transportation bureaus, parks, botanic gardens, universities, and more. Organizations that hope to enhance the lives of their older and immigrant residents can find approaches portrayed in these Stories that can be adapted to meet the needs of their communities.Best practices include the well-known Alzheimer's Project of the Museum of Modern Art, which has been adapted to museums around the country, and Circle of Care, a unique ride share program that partners young people with older adults to attend free arts performances in Boulder, Colorado. Stories are located in rural, mid-size, and metropolitan settings; many can be easily implemented, and do not require a major overhaul of staffing, operations, or an organization's mission

Quantum state estimation with unknown measurements

Improved measurement techniques are central to technological development and foundational scientific exploration. Quantum optics relies upon detectors sensitive to non-classical features of light, enabling precise tests of physical laws and quantum-enhanced technologies such as precision measurement and secure communications. Accurate detector response calibration for quantum-scale inputs is key to future research and development in these cognate areas. To address this requirement quantum detector tomography (QDT) has been recently introduced. However, the QDT approach becomes increasingly challenging as the complexity of the detector response and input space grows. Here we present the first experimental implementation of a versatile alternative characterization technique to address many-outcome quantum detectors by limiting the input calibration region. To demonstrate the applicability of this approach the calibrated detector is subsequently used to estimate non-classical photon number states.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure

Reduced GABA-B/GIRK-mediated regulation of the VTA following a single exposure to cocaine

In this paper, Arora and colleagues expand on their previous work on GIRK channels in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) presenting evidence that a single exposure to cocaine reduces inhibitory GABAergic transmission to dopamine (DA) neurons in the ventral tegmental area. Mice receiving i.p. injections of cocaine saw a short lived (1-5 days) decrease in GABAb mediated G-protein coupled inwardly-rectifying potassium (GIRK) currents in DA neurons in the VTA. This decrease parallels an NMDA-mediated increase in the frequency of glutamatergic neurotransmission. Chronic cocaine injections had no additional effects beyond those seen with single injections. Though they found no change in mRNA levels for GABAb receptors, GIRK channels, or RGS-2 (a G-protein regulator), immunoelectron microscopy indicated a decrease in levels of GIRK channels in the plasma membrane of the dendrites of VTA DA neurons. The cocaine-mediated decrease in GIRK currents was abolished in the presence of D2/3R antagonist sulpiride, but not in the presence of D1/5 antagonist SCH23390, indicating a link between D2/3 receptor activation and GIRK activity. Interestingly, the addition of quinpirole, a D2/3 agonist, elicited similar GIRK currents, though they were smaller than those mediated by GABAb receptors. Similarly, acute injections of cocaine significantly diminished quinpirole-evoked currents

RSS Management: An RSS Reader to Manage RSS Feeds That Efficiently and Effectively Pulls and Filters Feeds With Minimal Bandwidth Consumption

In the early 2000s, RSS (Really Simple Syndication) was launched into cyber space and rapidly gained fame by existing as the underlying technology that fueled millions of web logs (blogs). Soon RSS feeds appeared for news, multimedia podcasting, and many other types of information on the Internet. RSS introduced a new way to syndicate information that allowed anyone interested to subscribe to published content and pull the information to an aggregator, (RSS reader application), at their discretion. RSS made it simple for people to keep up with online content without having to continuously check websites for new content. This new technology quickly had its shortcomings though. Aggregators were set to periodically check a feed for new content and if the new content did exist then the whole feed may be downloaded again and content filtering was either completely absent or filtering was performed once the file was already downloaded. Users who may have only occasionally checked a site for new content were now equipped with the ability to subscribe to content all over the web and have an aggregator poll the sites periodically for new content. However this presented a serious scalability problem in terms of bandwidth utilization. The same users that were checking a site once a day for new content were now checking the sites with the aggregator on a specific interval such as every hour. Bandwidth utilization increased dramatically where RSS was involved. The aim of this thesis is to design a better RSS aggregator that effectively and efficiently polls, downloads and filters RSS content while using a minimal amount of bandwidth and resources. To meet these needs, an RSS aggregator named FeedWorks has been developed that allows for users to create subscriptions to content and set a interval to poll that subscription for newly published material. The aggregator uses specific HTTP (hypertext transfer protocol) header information to check for new content before it downloads a file and if new content is found, downloads the file but filters it based on user-created filter criteria before it writes the information to disk. Filtering and searching algorithms have been researched to tune the performance and limit the strain on the processor. Caching mechanisms have also been used to enhance the performance of the application. The aggregator contains content management functionality to allow users to create subscriptions and subscription groups and to apply filters to a specific subscription or groups of subscriptions. This thesis compares the aggregator with other currently available products and services. It provides detailed information regarding the end user\u27s interface and the content management functionality it provides. Descriptive information is also presented that explains the content filtering and feed polling functionality and their respective algorithms

Analysis and Design of an Affordable High Altitude Rocket System

This paper discusses the design of the Rarefied High-Altitude Zenith Experimental Rocket (RHAZER) which is launched at an altitude of 35 kilometers from a weather balloon. The weather balloon is capable of carrying up to 2 kilograms of payload to this altitude, and the rocket can carry a payload of approximately 150 grams to an altitude of at least 80 kilometers and be recovered safely after landing. It is designed to be aerodynamically stable at its launch point, while using fins to spin-stabilize before it enters the low-pressure upper atmosphere. This system has been designed to be used as an educational tool by K-12 schools, so affordability has been the primary driver

RSS Management: An RSS Reader to Manage RSS Feeds That Efficiently and Effectively Pulls and Filters Feeds With Minimal Bandwidth Consumption

In the early 2000s, RSS (Really Simple Syndication) was launched into cyber space and rapidly gained fame by existing as the underlying technology that fueled millions of web logs (blogs). Soon RSS feeds appeared for news, multimedia podcasting, and many other types of information on the Internet. RSS introduced a new way to syndicate information that allowed anyone interested to subscribe to published content and pull the information to an aggregator, (RSS reader application), at their discretion. RSS made it simple for people to keep up with online content without having to continuously check websites for new content. This new technology quickly had its shortcomings though. Aggregators were set to periodically check a feed for new content and if the new content did exist then the whole feed may be downloaded again and content filtering was either completely absent or filtering was performed once the file was already downloaded. Users who may have only occasionally checked a site for new content were now equipped with the ability to subscribe to content all over the web and have an aggregator poll the sites periodically for new content. However this presented a serious scalability problem in terms of bandwidth utilization. The same users that were checking a site once a day for new content were now checking the sites with the aggregator on a specific interval such as every hour. Bandwidth utilization increased dramatically where RSS was involved. The aim of this thesis is to design a better RSS aggregator that effectively and efficiently polls, downloads and filters RSS content while using a minimal amount of bandwidth and resources. To meet these needs, an RSS aggregator named FeedWorks has been developed that allows for users to create subscriptions to content and set a interval to poll that subscription for newly published material. The aggregator uses specific HTTP (hypertext transfer protocol) header information to check for new content before it downloads a file and if new content is found, downloads the file but filters it based on user-created filter criteria before it writes the information to disk. Filtering and searching algorithms have been researched to tune the performance and limit the strain on the processor. Caching mechanisms have also been used to enhance the performance of the application. The aggregator contains content management functionality to allow users to create subscriptions and subscription groups and to apply filters to a specific subscription or groups of subscriptions. This thesis compares the aggregator with other currently available products and services. It provides detailed information regarding the end user\u27s interface and the content management functionality it provides. Descriptive information is also presented that explains the content filtering and feed polling functionality and their respective algorithms

Effect of Correlated Lateral Geniculate Nucleus Firing Rates on Predictions for Monocular Eye Closure Versus Monocular Retinal Inactivation

Monocular deprivation experiments can be used to distinguish between different ideas concerning properties of cortical synaptic plasticity. Monocular deprivation by lid suture causes a rapid disconnection of the deprived eye connected to cortical neurons whereas total inactivation of the deprived eye produces much less of an ocular dominance shift. In order to understand these results one needs to know how lid suture and retinal inactivation affect neurons in the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) that provide the cortical input. Recent experimental results by Linden et al. showed that monocular lid suture and monocular inactivation do not change the mean firing rates of LGN neurons but that lid suture reduces correlations between adjacent neurons whereas monocular inactivation leads to correlated firing. These, somewhat surprising, results contradict assumptions that have been made to explain the outcomes of different monocular deprivation protocols. Based on these experimental results we modify our assumptions about inputs to cortex during different deprivation protocols and show their implications when combined with different cortical plasticity rules. Using theoretical analysis, random matrix theory and simulations we show that high levels of correlations reduce the ocular dominance shift in learning rules that depend on homosynaptic depression (i.e., Bienenstock-Cooper-Munro type rules), consistent with experimental results, but have the opposite effect in rules that depend on heterosynaptic depression (i.e., Hebbian/principal component analysis type rules)

Experimental generation of multi-photon Fock states

We experimentally demonstrate the generation of multi-photon Fock states with up to three photons in well-defined spatial-temporal modes synchronized with a classical clock. The states are characterized using quantum optical homodyne tomography to ensure mode selectivity. The three-photon Fock states are probabilistically generated by pulsed spontaneous parametric down conversion at a rate of one per second, enabling complete characterization in 12 hours.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure

A Changing World of Workplace Conflict Resolution and Employee Voice: An Australian Perspective

The authors contribute to dispute resolution theory and provide new insights on such important issues as employee voice, workplace disputes and employees’ intentions to quit. They conducted and analyzed a survey of managers in Australian workplaces. They apply Budd and Colvin’s (2008) path-finding dispute resolution framework to examine two research questions: first, is there a relationship between the resolution of disputes and employee voice as measured by employee perceptions of influence over decision-making? Second, is there a relationship between the resolution of workplace disputes and employees’ intentions to quit? These are important questions in view of the high costs of workplace conflict and employee turnover. The authors find that employee voice facilitates successful dispute resolution. Further, employee voice has the additional benefit of directly reducing employee turnover intentions, above and beyond its indirect effect by helping to resolve conflicts at work