Using e-portfolios for learning and assessment within the Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice (PGCAP) at the University of Salford

The e-portfolio system PebblePad is being trialled since September 2010 by the Academic Development Unit (ADU) during the Engaging and Enhancing Student Learning (EESL) 30 credits module of the blended PGCAP programme. It is used as a personal learning space, to capture reflections, the process of learning and for assessment purposes

How Can We Stop Cancer?

Cancer is a disease that humans have been struggling to combat for centuries. It originates from the accumulation of several mutations over the life of a cell that causes it to evade cell death and multiply rapidly. It can affect any tissue in the body and can spread to other parts of the body through metastasis. Cancer comes in numerous shapes and sizes with different levels of aggression, growth speeds, and health risks. Many treatments for cancer exist today, three of the most popular being surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy, which can be used in combinations with other treatments to best fight cancer. Verma et al. (2019) showed that when surgical resection is used before chemotherapy, a significant decrease in postoperative hospitalization lengths and 30-day mortality rates occurs, with correlation to trends that show increased overall survival and decreased 90-day mortality rates as well. Kim et al. (2018) approached treating surgery with a targeted therapy called anti-angiogenesis using the prodrug TA, which provided successful results in combating cancer cells by inducing apoptosis in cancer cells themselves as well as the endothelial cells that nourish tumors. This research can be taken into account by oncologists and physicians when prescribing certain treatment methods in fighting cancer, as these treatment options may have similar effects in treating and preventing other cancers, neoplastic diseases, and infections that leach nutrients from the body

Taxonomy of North American fish Eimeriidae

Taxonomic descriptions, line drawings, and references are given for the 30 named and 5 unnamed species of North American fish Eimeriidae. In addition, a key was developed based on available morphologic data to distinguish between similar species. Taxa are divided into two genera: Eimeria (27 species) which are tetr&sporocystic with dizoic, nonbivalved sporocysts, and Goussia (3 species) which are tetrasporocystic with dizoic, bivalved sporocysts that lack Stleda bodies and have sporocyst walls composed of two longitudinal valves. (PDF file contains 24 pages.

Implementing a multi-vehicle multi-route spatial decision support system for efficient trash collection in Portugal

More efficient vehicle routing can improve a firm's competitive advantage or increase the efficiency by which governmental agencies supply public services. More efficient routing can also reduce traffic congestion and air pollution which are growing problems in many urban areas. Unfortunately, the identification of the optimal solution to most vehicle routing problems is computationally intractable. This article presents a user-friendly spatial decision support system (SDSS) to generate vehicle routes for multiple-vehicle routing problems that serve demand located along arcs and at nodes of the transportation network. The SDSS incorporates a geographical information system (GIS) and heuristic solution procedures to generate routes, system-wide data, and maps, as well as individual vehicle route maps, directions, and data quickly. It accommodates realistic system specifics such as vehicle capacity and time constraints and network constraints such as one-way streets, and prohibited turns. The system was tested for trash collection in Coimbra, Portugal. In addition, the SDSS can be used for "what-if" analysis related to possible changes to input parameters such as vehicle capacity and maximum driving time.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6VG7-4S094WG-1/1/a49767e3030ce208ad39a0f8ce2d119

Enhanced Tools to Improve Situational Awareness

EMBA Project ReportEXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Commonly shared situational awareness is essential to the success of almost any team endeavor. Many information networks and processes in the military environment are specifically designed to collect, filter, package, and provide information. The mismanagement of time critical knowledge can result in delays in response and confusion when information regarding changes in the operational environment is not rapidly delivered to the right audience. This analysis provides recommendations for consideration of readily available information awareness tools to enhance this process. Our survey of information systems in present use reveals some non-desirous attributes and illuminates new concerns created as the result of the second order consequences of employing more complex and powerful systems. Some of these areas of concern include: • Increased exclusiveness of information to a narrow user community • Greater difficulty to alert a large group of forces to new and developing vital information in a rapidly changing dynamic situation. • Difficulty to alert and inform a large segment of the forces to a changing environment in a slowly developing situation. • Intermittently connected users lack a simple utility to become quickly updated with the latest information status. • Inability to provide information across architecture domains or security enclaves. • Inability to export and extend the information network to newly arriving participants. An analysis of the major fielded situational awareness systems including the Common Operational Picture (COP), Global Command and Control System-Maritime (GCCS-M), Collaboration at Sea (CAS) was conducted. Included also were Microsoft Chat and Really Simple Syndication (RSS) as candidate solutions. Each system or tool was first screened to identity those possessing the desired characteristic s of a potential solution. Then the qualifying systems were screened using a matrix of weighted factors. The assigned weighting factors were determined based on discussion with Subject Matter Experts provided by the client. RSS emerged as an affordable candidate satisfying most of the attributes of the desired solution. RSS provides a “Severe Weather Alert” service to a netted environment of information systems lacking this common cross domain capability. We conclude and recommend that RSS be further trialed and evaluated under exercise or controlled conditions to assess its potential usefulness as a “bell ringer” to enhance the group focus on significant and important situational developments.Prepared for Commander, Strike Force Training Atlantichttp://archive.org/details/enhancedtoolstoi10945704

The complete spectrum of the area from recoupling theory in loop quantum gravity

We compute the complete spectrum of the area operator in the loop representation of quantum gravity, using recoupling theory. This result extends previous derivations, which did not include the ``degenerate'' sector, and agrees with the recently computed spectrum of the connection-representation area operator.Comment: typos corrected in eqn.(21). Latex with IOP and epsf styles, 1 figure (eps postscript file), 12 pages. To appear in Class. Quantum Gra

Charm mass dependence of the weak Hamiltonian in chiral perturbation theory

Suppose that the weak interaction Hamiltonian of four-flavour SU(4) chiral effective theory is known, for a small charm quark mass m_c. We study how the weak Hamiltonian changes as the charm quark mass increases, by integrating it out within chiral perturbation theory to obtain a three-flavour SU(3) chiral theory. We find that the ratio of the SU(3) low-energy constants which mediate Delta I=1/2 and Delta I=3/2 transitions, increases rather rapidly with m_c, as \sim m_c ln (1/m_c). The logarithmic effect originates from "penguin-type" charm loops, and could represent one of the reasons for the Delta I=1/2 rule.Comment: 20 pages. v2: references and clarifications added, published versio

Model Systems of Human Intestinal Flora, to Set Acceptable Daily Intakes of Antimicrobial Residues

The veterinary use of antimicrobial drugs in food producing animals may result in residues in food, that might modify the consumer gut flora. This review compares three model systems that maintain a complex flora of human origin: (i) human flora associated (HFA) continuous flow cultures in chemostats, (ii) HFA mice, and (iii) human volunteers. The "No Microbial Effect Level" of an antibiotic on human flora, measured in one of these models, is used to set the accept¬able daily intake (ADI) for human consumers. Human volunteers trials are most relevant to set microbio¬log¬ical ADI, and may be considered as the "gold standard". However, human trials are very expensive and unethical. HFA chemostats are controlled systems, but tetracycline ADI calculated from a chemostat study is far above result of a human study. HFA mice studies are less expensive and better controlled than human trials. The tetracycline ADI derived from HFA mice studies is close to the ADI directly obtained in human volunteers

Kinetics of exciton photoluminescence in type-II semiconductor superlattices

The exciton decay rate at a rough interface in type-II semiconductor superlattices is investigated. It is shown that the possibility of recombination of indirect excitons at a plane interface essentially affects kinetics of the exciton photoluminescence at a rough interface. This happens because of strong correlation between the exciton recombination at the plane interface and at the roughness. Expressions that relate the parameters of the luminescence kinetics with statistical characteristics of the rough interface are obtained. The mean height and length of roughnesses in GaAs/AlAs superlattices are estimated from the experimental data.Comment: 3 PostScript figure