335 research outputs found
The diary of James Brownlee
James Brownlee was born in April 1824. He was the second of three sons (and five daughters) born to the missionary John Brownlee, and his colonial born wife Catharine. The importance of James as an historical character is obscured by that of his father and elder brother Charles. James had a varied career which was cut short by his untimely death in March 1851 at the youthful age of twenty-six years and eleven months. We are fortunate that he has left a vivid account of several aspects of the seventh Frontier War in a diary which he kept from April to September 1846. The diary also points to the significance of his family in the history of the Eastern Cape. Thesis, p. 1
A synopsis of the MusiQual feasibility study into the effectiveness of music therapy in palliative care inpatient settings
The research team involved in conducting the MusiQual study – carried out in Belfast, Northern Ireland by Queen’s University Belfast, Every Day Harmony Music Therapy, and Marie Curie Northern Ireland – aimed to ascertain the feasibility of carrying out a larger multicentre trial into the effectiveness of music therapy in improving the quality of life of palliative care inpatients. This synoptic paper summarises a number of publications which resulted from developing and implementing the MusiQual study. Those publications include the main findings paper (Porter et al., 2018) and a number of supplementary publications: a systematic review of the literature (McConnell et al., 2016a), a realist review of the literature (McConnell & Porter, 2016), a critical realist evaluation (Porter et al., 2017a), an outline of the theoretical model which resulted from the realist review of the literature (McConnell & Porter, 2016), and the treatment manual for music therapy in palliative care drafted for use in the potential multicentre trial and recently published (Kirkwood et al., 2019). The purpose of this synopsis is to consolidate information in one single, accessible place in order to advance knowledge in this area of work and support the evidence-informed practice of music therapists and others in this field
Does the discussion help? The impact of a formally assessed online discussion on final student results
While there is agreement that participation in online asynchronous discussions can enhance student learning, it has also been identified that there is a need to investigate the impact of participation in online discussions on student course performance. This paper presents a case study based on an undergraduate engineering management unit employing a formally assessed online discussion area. It was observed that while many students read a significant number of discussion postings, generally, the posting of new and reply messages occurred at the minimum level required to qualify for the assignment marks. Based on correlation and multiple regression analysis, it was observed that two variables were significantly related to a student\u27s final unit mark—prior academic ability and the number of new postings made to the online discussion. Each new posting contributed three times as much to the final unit mark as its nominal assessment value, suggesting that the work in preparing their new discussion postings assisted students in the completion of a range of assessable tasks for the unit. The number of postings read was not significantly correlated with the final unit mark, suggesting that passive lurking in this online discussion did not significantly contribute to student learning outcomes.<br /
Evidence in support of the call to ban the tackle and harmful contact in school rugby: a response to World Rugby
In a paper published in BJSM (June 2016), World Rugby employees Ross Tucker and Martin Raftery and a third coauthor Evert Verhagen took issue with the recent call to ban tackling in school rugby in the UK and Ireland. That call (to ban tackling) was supported by a systematic review published in BJSM. Tucker et al claim that: (1) the mechanisms and risk factors for injury along with the incidence and severity of injury in youth rugby union have not been thoroughly identified or understood; (2) rugby players are at no greater risk of injury than other sports people, (3) this is particularly the case for children under 15 years and (4) removing the opportunity to learn the tackle from school pupils might increase rates of injuries. They conclude that a ban ‘may be unnecessary and may also lead to unintended consequences such as an increase in the risk of injury later in participation.’ Here we aim to rebut the case by Tucker et al. We share new research that extends the findings of our original systematic review and meta-analysis. A cautionary approach requires the removal of the tackle from school rugby as the quickest and most effective method of reducing high injury rates in youth rugby, a public health priority
Pre-activity movement control exercise programme to prevent injuries in youth rugby':Some concerns
Stochastic Thermodynamics Across Scales: Emergent Inter-attractoral Discrete Markov Jump Process and Its Underlying Continuous Diffusion
The consistency across scales of a recently developed mathematical
thermodynamic structure, between a continuous stochastic nonlinear dynamical
system (diffusion process with Langevin or Fokker-Planck equations) and its
emergent discrete, inter-attractoral Markov jump process, is investigated. We
analyze how the system's thermodynamic state functions, e.g. free energy ,
entropy , entropy production , and free energy dissipation ,
etc., are related when the continuous system is describe with a coarse-grained
discrete variable. We show that the thermodynamics derived from the underlying
detailed continuous dynamics is exact in the Helmholtz free-energy
representation. That is, the system thermodynamic structure is the same as if
one only takes a middle-road and starts with the "natural" discrete
description, with the corresponding transition rates empirically determined. By
"natural", we mean in the thermodynamic limit of large systems in which there
is an inherent separation of time scales between inter- and intra-attractoral
dynamics. This result generalizes a fundamental idea from chemistry and the
theory of Kramers by including thermodynamics: while a mechanical description
of a molecule is in terms of continuous bond lengths and angles, chemical
reactions are phenomenologically described by the Law of Mass Action with rate
constants, and a stochastic thermodynamics.Comment: 21 pages, 1 figur
Limiting inter-annual variation in total allowable catch strategies. An application to ICES roundfish stocks
This study evaluated through simulation management strategy that stabilise catch levels by setting
bounds on the inter-annual variability in Total Allowable Catches (TACs). An integrated modelling
approach was used, which modelled both the ‘real’ and observed systems and the interactions between
all system components. The modelling framework therefore allowed evaluation of the robustness of
candidate management strategies to both the intrinsic properties of the systems, and the ability to
observe, monitor, assess and control them. Strategies were evaluated in terms of level of risk
(measured as the probability of spawning stock biomass falling below the biomass limit reference
level for the stock) and cumulative yield.
The simulation approach used provides a powerful tool for the examination of the performance of
candidate management strategies. It has shown that better management is not necessarily going to be
achieved by improving the assessement, since even with a perfect assessment (where the simulated
working group knew stock status perfectly) stocks may crash at fishing levels that standard stochastic
projections would suggest were safe. Also explicitly modelling the assessment process can result in
quite different outcomes than those predicted by the simple projection traditionally used by stock
assessment working groups. This is because the simple projection assumes that the status of the stock
in the current year is known without error and that the target fishing mortality can be achieved
without error. However, in practice the assessment is based on last years data and the effect of any
management measure on SSB is only manifest, following the implementation of the quota, at the end
of the following year.
The choice of target and fishing mortality levels and minimum stock levels results from ICES
interpretation of the precautionary approach. This lead to the definition of fishing mortality and
biomass reference points that are intended to prevent over-fishing and to trigger recovery plans when
a stock is overfished respectively. Although, fishing mortality and biomass reference points were
originally intended to be independent, a fishing mortality level implies a corresponding biomass level.
In the case of saithe a fishing mortality of 0.40 (i.e. the FPA level) would drive the stock to Blim,
suggesting that the choice of biomass and target reference points are not consistent for this stock
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