2,164 research outputs found
Exploration for volcanogenic sulphide mineralisation at Benglog, north Wales
Exploration for volcanogenic sulphide mineralisation
around Benglog is one of three investigations
designed to assess the metallogenic potential
of the Ordovician Aran Volcanic Group.
Detailed geological mapping in the Benglog
area enabled an interpretation of the volcanic
environment, critical to such an assessment, to be
made. The eruptive rocks are acid and basic in
composition; the acid rocks are mostly ash-flow
tuffs derived from outside the area, whereas the
basic rocks have a local derivation. They are all
interbedded with dark grey or black silty mudstone
and were probably erupted in a submarine
environment. Contemporaneous dolerite sills were
intruded into wet sediment.
This environment was suitable for volcanogenic
exhalative sulphide deposits to form and indications
of a metallogenic horizon were found at the top
of the Y Fron Formation in the form of abundant
pyrite, minor pyrrhotite and minor base metal
enrichment.
Soil samples, analysed for copper, lead and
zinc, were collected and geophysical surveys were
carried out along eleven east-west trending traverse
lines 300 m apart across the volcanic succession.
Indications were found of minor vein mineralisation
at dolerite intrusion margins and locally along
faults. Very high chargeability and low resistivity
anomalies over mudstones did not spatially
coincide with geochemical anomalies in soil, but
the secondary redistribution of metals in soils and
variable thickness of overburden precluded
confident interpretation of the source of many
soil anomalies. Geochemical drainage data, in
conjunction with rock analyses, show strong
barium enrichment in mudstones which could be
volcanogenic in origin but related to two separate
eruptive episodes.
The findings of the survey were inconclusive.
An environment suitable for the formation of
volcanogenic exhalative sulphide deposits was
established, but the geochemical and geophysical
surveys located only minor vein mineralisation and
tenuous indications of other styles of mineralisation.
Recommendations are made for further work
Adapting Psychological Therapies for Autism
BackgroundPsychological interventions informed by cognitive behavioural theory have proven efficacy in treating mild-moderate anxiety and depression. They have been successfully adapted for autistic children and adults who experience disproportionately high rates of co-occurring emotional problems. There has been little research into the perspectives and experience of psychological therapists adapting cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) as part of routine clinical practice. We surveyed therapist skills, experience and confidence in working psychologically with autistic people, in order to highlight gaps and needs, as well as strengths in terms of therapist skills when working with this group.MethodFifty therapists attending a training event completed a survey about their experience of adapting CBT for autistic clients, alongside a measure of therapist confidence.ResultsAlmost all therapists reported making adaptations to CBT practice when working with autistic clients. Key challenges identified were rigidity in thinking and pacing sessions appropriately. Therapists were relatively confident about core engagement and assessment skills but reported less confidence in using their knowledge to help this group. Therapist confidence was not associated with years of practice or number of adaptations made, but was positively associated with level of therapy training received.ConclusionsThis study highlights a need for training and ongoing supervision to increase therapist confidence in and ability to make appropriate adaptations to CBT treatment protocols for autistic people
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Application of Solid Freeform Fabrication Processes for Injection Molding Low Production Quantities: Process Parameters and Ejection Force Requirements for SLS Inserts
Studies are underway for the application of solid freeform fabrication processes for mold
inserts to be used in thermoplastic injection molding of low quantities of parts. This work
initially compares a laser sintered insert (LaserForm™ ST-100) with a steel insert. Models and
experiments determine process parameters, including molding latitude, and ejection force
requirements. Ejection force predictions are based on work by Menges, using values for elastic
modulus determined from tensile tests at ejection temperatures. Similar studies are planned for
stereolithography inserts (SL 5170).Mechanical Engineerin
K022: Effect of combination therapy (ANG II antagonist, valsartan and a calcium channel blocker) in a hypertensive model of diabetic nephropathy
Recently, it has been suggested that in the context of diabetes and hypertension, more aggressive blood pressure targets should be considered. To achieve these levels of blood pressure control, it is likely that combination therapy will need to be used. The present study has explored the role of the addition of either a dihydropyridine or a non-dihydropyridine calcium channel blocker (CCB) to Ang II antagonist based treatment in an experimental model of hypertension and diabetes. The doses chosen for the combination therapy groups were lower than those used with monotherapy in order to achieve similar antihypertensive efficacy. Diabetic (streptozotocin induced) SHR were randomised to no treatment, valsartan (30 mg/kg/day), the non-dihydropyridine CCB verapamil (20 mg/kg/day), the dihydropyridine CCB amlodipine (6 mg/kg/day), a combination of valsartan and amlodipine (20 mg + 4 mg/kg/day respectively) or valsartan and verapamil (20 mg + 15 mg/kg/day respectively). Serial measurements of systolic blood pressure (BP) and albumin excretion rate (AER) were performed monthly (data are shown at week 16 for AER and mean of wk 20-28 for BP). This model was associated with hypertension (control, 217 ± 8, diabetic, 200 ± 5 mmHg) which was reduced by most treatments to a similar degree (valsartan 165 ± 3, amlodipine 164 ± 2, verapamil 182 ± 4, valsartan + amlodipine 151 ± 3 and valsartan + verapamil 169 ± 5 mmHg). Diabetes was associated with a progressive increase in AER (control 1.5 vs diabetic 17 mg/24 hr). Valsartan retarded the increase in AER (11 mg/24 hr). Similar efficacy was observed in the valsartan + amlodipine combination (9 mg/24 hr) but not with amlodipine alone (16 mg/24 hr) despite similar effects on blood pressure. No advantage of verapamil versus amlodipine either as monotherapy or in combination with valsartan was observed. The present study indicates that the combination of an Ang II antagonist and a dihydropyridine CCB is an effective regimen at reducing blood pressure and albuminuria in the context of diabetes and hypertensio
Use of geostatistical Bayesian updating to integrate airborne radiometrics and soil geochemistry to improve mapping for mineral exploration
Mineral exploration programmes around the world use data from remote
sensing, geophysics, and direct sampling. On a regional scale, the
combination of airborne geophysics and ground-based geochemical
sampling can aid geological mapping and mineral exploration. Since
airborne geophysical and traditional soil-sampling data are generated at
different spatial resolutions, they are not immediately comparable due to
their different sampling density. Several geostatistical techniques,
including indicator cokriging and collocated cokriging, can be used to
integrate different types of data into a geostatistical model. However,
with increasing numbers of variables the inference of the crosscovariance
model required for cokriging can be demanding in terms of
effort and computational time. In this paper a Gaussian-based Bayesian
updating approach is applied to integrate airborne radiometric data and
ground-sampled geochemical soil data to maximize information
generated from the soil survey, enabling more accurate geological
interpretation for the exploration and development of natural resources.
The Bayesian updating technique decomposes the collocated estimate
into two models: prior and likelihood models. The prior model is built
from primary information and the likelihood model is built from
secondary information. The prior model is then updated with the
likelihood model to build the final model. The approach allows multiple
secondary variables to be simultaneously integrated into the mapping of
the primary variable. The Bayesian updating approach is demonstrated
using a case study from Northern Ireland. The geostatistical technique
was used to improve the resolution of soil geochemistry, at a density of
one sample per 2 km2, by integrating more closely measured airborne
geophysical data from the GSNI Tellus Survey, measured over a
footprint of 65 x 200 m. The directly measured geochemistry data were
considered as primary data and the airborne radiometric data were used
as secondary data. The approach produced more detailed updated maps
and in particular enhanced information on the mapped distributions of
zinc, copper, and lead. The enhanced delineation of an elongated
northwest/southeast trending zone in the updated maps strengthened
the potential for discovering stratabound base metal deposits
Hunger, nutrition, and precipitation: evidence from Ghana and Bangladesh
Changing precipitation patterns caused by climate change are expected to have major impacts on food security and nutrition in agrarian areas in developing countries. However, the linkages between the duration and severity of precipitation shocks and their effects on child nutrition and household food security metrics remain underexplored. In this study, we used Feed the Future datasets from Ghana and Bangladesh to examine the impact of precipitation extremes on nutrition, measured by children’s height-for-age and weight-for-height Z-scores, and food security, measured by the Household Hunger Scale. We used a spatial error regression to control for the effects of spatial autocorrelation, and we found an association between precipitation shocks and household hunger in both Ghana and Bangladesh, as well as an association between higher rainfall and worse child nutrition in Ghana
Deterministic and stochastic descriptions of gene expression dynamics
A key goal of systems biology is the predictive mathematical description of
gene regulatory circuits. Different approaches are used such as deterministic
and stochastic models, models that describe cell growth and division explicitly
or implicitly etc. Here we consider simple systems of unregulated
(constitutive) gene expression and compare different mathematical descriptions
systematically to obtain insight into the errors that are introduced by various
common approximations such as describing cell growth and division by an
effective protein degradation term. In particular, we show that the population
average of protein content of a cell exhibits a subtle dependence on the
dynamics of growth and division, the specific model for volume growth and the
age structure of the population. Nevertheless, the error made by models with
implicit cell growth and division is quite small. Furthermore, we compare
various models that are partially stochastic to investigate the impact of
different sources of (intrinsic) noise. This comparison indicates that
different sources of noise (protein synthesis, partitioning in cell division)
contribute comparable amounts of noise if protein synthesis is not or only
weakly bursty. If protein synthesis is very bursty, the burstiness is the
dominant noise source, independent of other details of the model. Finally, we
discuss two sources of extrinsic noise: cell-to-cell variations in protein
content due to cells being at different stages in the division cycles, which we
show to be small (for the protein concentration and, surprisingly, also for the
protein copy number per cell) and fluctuations in the growth rate, which can
have a significant impact.Comment: 23 pages, 5 figures; Journal of Statistical physics (2012
Quantum Extremism: Effective Potential and Extremal Paths
The reality and convexity of the effective potential in quantum field
theories has been studied extensively in the context of Euclidean space-time.
It has been shown that canonical and path-integral approaches may yield
different results, thus resolving the `convexity problem'. We discuss the
transferral of these treatments to Minkowskian space-time, which also
necessitates a careful discussion of precisely which field configurations give
the dominant contributions to the path integral. In particular, we study the
effective potential for the N=1 linear sigma model.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure
A scoping review of antibiotic use practices and drivers of inappropriate antibiotic use in animal farms in WHO Southeast Asia region
Antibiotic use (ABU) plays an important role in the proliferation of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Global antimicrobial consumption in food production is projected to rise by 67% from 2010 to 2030, but available estimates are limited by the scarcity of ABU data and absence of global surveillance systems. The WHO South-East Asia (WHO SEA) region is at high risk of emergence of AMR, likely driven by intensifying farm operations and worsening ABU hotspots. However, little is known about farm-level ABU practices in the region. To summarize emerging evidence and research gaps, we conducted a scoping review of ABU practices following the Arksey and O'Malley methodological framework. We included studies published between 2010 and 2021 on farm-level ABU/AMR in the 11 WHO SEA member states, and databases were last searched on 31 October 2021. Our search strategy identified 184 unique articles, and 25 publications underwent full-text eligibility assessment. Seventeen studies, reported in 18 publications, were included in the scoping review. We found heterogeneity in the categorizations, definitions, and ABU characterization methods used across studies and farm types. Most studies involved poultry, pig, and cattle farms, and only one study examined aquaculture. Most studies evaluated ABU prevalence by asking respondents about the presence or absence of ABU in the farm. Only two studies quantified antibiotic consumption, and sampling bias and lack of standardized data collection methods were identified as key limitations. Emerging evidence that farm workers had difficulty differentiating antibiotics from other substances contributed to the uncertainty about the reliability of self-reported data without other validation techniques. ABU for growth promotion and treatment were prevalent. We found a large overlap in the critically important antibiotics used in farm animals and humans. The ease of access to antibiotics compounded by the difficulties in accessing quality veterinary care and preventive services likely drive inappropriate ABU in complex ways
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