A case study of a Kazakhstani EAP foundation course listening class: targeting student's perceived lecture listening needs

This case study investigated students" perceived listening needs on a foundation programme in Kazakhstan. Needs Analysis (NA) is key to targeting students" needs and tailoring materials to develop their language competence. NA has a number of stakeholders involved including the institution, academic community members, and importantly, it empowers learners as "reflective community members" [1]

New apparatus to provide repeatable surface temperature-time treatments on inoculated food samples

The final stage of the BUGDEATH project (James and Evans, 2005) was to further develop the surface heating and cooling apparatus so it would be suitable for commercial exploitation. The new apparatus can be accommodated on a bench top and produces faster more uniform heating and cooling cycles than that previously described. It can heat the surface of a food from 8 to 120 °C in 14 s, cool from 120 to 40 °C in 28 s and then to 8 °C in 5 min. There is an average control error of approximately ±1 °C and a temperature variation over the surface of the sample of only 1.2 °C. Wet heating, using steam at 100 °C, was achieved using a portable steam generator. The price of the parts which made up the apparatus were approximately €10 000 and it takes approximately two person-weeks to build. © 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Inverse dynamics modelling of upper-limb tremor, with cross-correlation analysis

A method to characterise upper-limb tremor using inverse dynamics modelling in combination with cross-correlation analyses is presented. A 15 degree-of-freedom inverse dynamics model is used to estimate the joint torques required to produce the measured limb motion, given a set of estimated inertial properties for the body segments. The magnitudes of the estimated torques are useful when assessing patients or evaluating possible intervention methods. The cross-correlation of the estimated joint torques is proposed to gain insight into how tremor in one limb segment interacts with tremor in another. The method is demonstrated using data from a single patient presenting intention tremor because of multiple sclerosis. It is shown that the inertial properties of the body segments can be estimated with sufficient accuracy using only the patient's height and weight as a priori knowledge, which ensures the method's practicality and transferability to clinical use. By providing a more detailed, objective characterisation of patient-specific tremor properties, the method is expected to improve the selection, design and assessment of treatment options on an individual basis

Design and development of apparatus to provide repeatable surface temperature-time treatments on inoculated food samples

The majority of data relating heat treatments to thermal death kinetics has previously been obtained by carrying out in vitro tests on small samples of microorganisms in growth medium or food slurries. However, strong evidence exists that suggests microbial death on heat-treated food surfaces cannot be predicted accurately from such systems. An apparatus was therefore designed to enable microbial death on food surfaces to be quantified. The apparatus uses hot air to provide a ‘dry’ heat treatment to raise the surface of a food sample to a given temperature, up to 100 °C, hold and then cool it. The surface temperature was measured using an infra-red (IR) thermometer and the air heater was controlled to give a specified surface temperature history. Steam was also used to provide a ‘wet’, but less controlled heating cycle

Multiplex RT-PCR Amplification of HIV Genes to Create a Completely Autologous DC-Based Immunotherapy for the Treatment of HIV Infection

BACKGROUND: Effective therapy for HIV-infected individuals remains an unmet medical need. Promising clinical trials with dendritic cell (DC)-based immunotherapy consisting of autologous DC loaded with autologous virus have been reported, however, these approaches depend on large numbers of HIV virions to generate sufficient doses for even limited treatment regimens. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The present study describes a novel approach for RT-PCR amplification of HIV antigens. Previously, RT-PCR amplification of autologous viral sequences has been confounded by the high mutation rate of the virus which results in unreliable primer-template binding. To resolve this problem we developed a multiplex RT-PCR strategy that allows reliable strain-independent amplification of highly polymorphic target antigens from any patient and requires neither viral sequence data nor custom-designed PCR primers for each individual. We demonstrate the application of our RT-PCR process to amplify translationally-competent RNA encoding regions of Gag, Vpr, Rev and Nef. The products amplified using this method represent a complex mixture of autologous antigens encoded by viral quasispecies. We further demonstrate that DCs electroporated with in vitro-transcribed HIV RNAs are capable of stimulating poly-antigen-specific CD8+ T cell responses in vitro. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: This study describes a strategy to overcome patient to patient viral diversity enabling strain-independent RT-PCR amplification of RNAs encoding sequence divergent quasispecies of Gag, Vpr, Rev and Nef from small volumes of infectious plasma. The approach allows creation of a completely autologous therapy that does not require advance knowledge of the HIV genomic sequences, does not have yield limitations and has no intact virus in the final product. The simultaneous use of autologous viral antigens and DCs may provoke broad patient-specific immune responses that could potentially induce effective control of viral loads in the absence of conventional antiretroviral drug therapy