Digital Commons Network^™

Pharmacological Modulation Of Nad Alters Tnf-Α Responses In Macrophage Subsets, A Al-Shabany, Aj Moody, Ad Foey, Ra Billington

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

No abstract provided.

Coastal Defence Through Wave Farms, J. Abanades, D. Greaves, G. Iglesias

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

The possibility of using wave farms for coastal defence warrants investigation because wave energy is poised to become a major renewable in many countries over the next decades. The fundamental question in this regard is whether a wave farm can be used to reduce beach erosion under storm conditions. If the answer to this question is positive, then a wave farm can have coastal defence as a subsidiary function, in addition to its primary role of producing carbon-free energy. The objective of this work is to address this question by comparing the response of a beach in the face of …

The Personality Behind Cheating: Behavioural Types And The Feeding Ecology Of Cleaner Fish, Alexander D.M. Wilson, Jens Krause, Je Herbert‐Read, Ashley J.W. Ward

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

AbstractThe complex mutualistic relationship between the cleaner fish (Labroides dimidiatus) and their ‘clients’ in many reef systems throughout the world has been the subject of debate and research interest for decades. Game‐theory models have long struggled with explaining how the mixed strategies of cheating and honesty might have evolved in such a system and while significant efforts have been made theoretically, demonstrating the nature of this relationship empirically remains an important research challenge. Using the experimental framework of behavioural syndromes, we sought to quantitatively assess the relationship between personality and the feeding ecology of cleaner fish to provide novel insights …

Developing And Testing The Standard Of Practice And Evaluation Of Critical-Care-Nursing Tool (Spect) For Critical Care Nursing Practice, Fenella J. Gill, Gavin D. Leslie, Carol Grech, Duncan Boldy, Jos M. Latour

School of Nursing and Midwifery

Background: Nurses working in critical care often undertake specialty education. There are no uniform practice outcomes for critical care programs, and consumer input to practice standards has been lacking. Methods: A structured multiphase project was undertaken to develop practice standards and an assessment tool informed by critical care nursing stakeholders as well as patients and families—the Standards of Practice and Evaluation of Critical-Care-Nursing Tool (SPECT). Results: Testing of the SPECT revealed adequate content validity index (CVI), domain CVI (range, 0.772 to 0.887), and statement CVI (range, 0.66 to 1.00). Reliability was adequate in terms of internal consistency (Cronbach’s α > 0.864) …

Steps Toward A Shared Governance Response For Achieving Good Environmental Status In The Mediterranean Sea, Sergio Cinnirella, R Sarda, Suarez De Vivero J Luis, Ruth Brennan, Alberto Barausse, John Icely, Tiziana Luisetti, David March, Carla Murciano, Alice Newton, T O'Higgins, Luca Palmeri, Maria Giovanna Palmieri, Pascal Raux, Sian Rees, J Albaiges, Nicola Pirrone, Kerry Turner

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

No abstract provided.

A Biological, Latent Variable Model Of Health (Earlybird 68)., Michael E. Hyland, Alison N. Jeffery, Terence J. Wilkin

School of Psychology

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether factor analysis of a set of health-related biomarkers provides evidence of an underlying common dimension of variation, and to explore the relationship between this dimension of variation with positive and negative affect. METHOD: Twelve health-related metabolic, immune and body-composition biomarkers at ages 5, 7, 9, 11, 14 and 16years were obtained from the EarlyBird longitudinal cohort of 347 children and supplemented by positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA) measured at age 16years. RESULTS: At each age, principal factor analysis revealed that nine of the 12 biomarkers consistently loaded on the first extracted factor, accounting for …

From Services To Civilian: The Geographies Of Veterans' Post-Military Lives, Agatha Herman, Richard Yarwood

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

No abstract provided.

Application Of Artificial Neural Networks To Weighted Interval Kalman Filtering, Amit Motwani, Sanjay K. Sharma, Robert Sutton, Phil Culverhouse

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

No abstract provided.

Learning To Pronounce First Words In Three Languages: An Investigation Of Caregiver And Infant Behavior Using A Computational Model Of An Infant., Ian S. Howard, Piers Messum

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

Words are made up of speech sounds. Almost all accounts of child speech development assume that children learn the pronunciation of first language (L1) speech sounds by imitation, most claiming that the child performs some kind of auditory matching to the elements of ambient speech. However, there is evidence to support an alternative account and we investigate the non-imitative child behavior and well-attested caregiver behavior that this account posits using Elija, a computational model of an infant. Through unsupervised active learning, Elija began by discovering motor patterns, which produced sounds. In separate interaction experiments, native speakers of English, French and …

Qualified Doctor And Medical Students' Use Of Resources For Accessing Information: What Is Used And Why?, Nicola Brennan, Sarah Edwards, Narcie Kelly, Alice Miller, Lucy Harrower, Karen Mattick

Peninsula Medical School

BACKGROUND: Learning to access information using resources such as books and search engines is an important and fast changing challenge for doctors and medical students. Many resources exist to support evidence-based clinical decision-making, but a wide range of factors influences their use. OBJECTIVE: To explore qualified doctor and medical students' use of resources for accessing information and to determine what is used and why. METHODS: A stratified sample of 46 participants was recruited in Devon, UK. Participants kept a self-report diary of resources used over a week. The diaries were then used to stimulate recall within a semi-structured interview. Diary …

Finite Element Modelling Of Residual Stresses In Shot-Peened Steam Turbine Blades, M Newby, Mn James, Dg Hattingh

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

No abstract provided.

Mediofrontal Event-Related Potentials In Response To Positive, Negative And Unsigned Prediction Errors., Thomas D. Sambrook, Jeremy Goslin

School of Psychology

Reinforcement learning models make use of reward prediction errors (RPEs), the difference between an expected and obtained reward. There is evidence that the brain computes RPEs, but an outstanding question is whether positive RPEs ("better than expected") and negative RPEs ("worse than expected") are represented in a single integrated system. An electrophysiological component, feedback related negativity, has been claimed to encode an RPE but its relative sensitivity to the utility of positive and negative RPEs remains unclear. This study explored the question by varying the utility of positive and negative RPEs in a design that controlled for other closely related …

Evaluation Of The Microbial Community, Acidity And Proximate Composition Of Akamu, A Fermented Maize Food, Patience C. Obinna-Echem, Victor Kuri, Jane Beal

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

No abstract provided.

Heat-Killed Probiotic Bacteria Differentially Regulate Colonic Epithelial Cell Production Of Human Β-Defensin-2: Dependence On Inflammatory Cytokines., N. Habil, W. Abate, J. Beal, A. D. Foey

School of Biomedical Sciences

The inducible antimicrobial peptide human β-defensin-2 (hBD-2) stimulated by pro-inflammatory cytokines and bacterial products is essential to antipathogen responses of gut epithelial cells. Commensal and probiotic bacteria can augment such mucosal defences. Probiotic use in the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease, however, may have adverse effects, boosting inflammatory responses. The aim of this investigation was to determine the effect of selected probiotic strains on hBD-2 production by epithelial cells induced by pathologically relevant pro-inflammatory cytokines and the role of cytokine modulators in controlling hBD-2. Caco-2 colonic intestinal epithelial cells were pre-incubated with heat-killed probiotics, i.e. Lactobacillus casei strain Shirota (LcS) …

A Novel Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinase (Pi3k) Inhibitor Directs A Potent Foxo-Dependent, P53-Independent Cell Cycle Arrest Phenotype Characterized By The Differential Induction Of A Subset Of Foxo-Regulated Genes, Richard Hill, Ravi Kiran Reddy Kalathur, Sergio Callejas, Laura Colaço, Ricardo Brandão, Beatriz Serelde, Antonio Cebriá, Carmen Blanco-Aparicio, Joaquín Pastor, Matthias Futschik, Ana Dopazo, Wolfgang Link

School of Biomedical Sciences

No abstract provided.

Herbal And Microbial Products For The Management Of Obesity, Maha Salama, Soheir El Zalabani, Essam Abdel Sattar

Pharmacy

Obesity is a global epidemic and one of the major health burdens of modern times. The prevalence of obesity is increasing worldwide; it constitutes a serious problem in developed as well as developing countries. Beside adults, the number of obese teenagers and children in particular has dramatically increased. Obesity is characterized by accumulation of excess fat in adipose tissues in an extent to produce adverse effects on health, leading to a reduction in life expectancy and/or a raise in health hazards. People are classified as overweight (pre-obese) and obese on the basis of the Body Mass Index (BMI), crude measure …

Fabrication And Performance Evaluation Of A Fractal-Based Slot Printed Antenna For Dual-Band Wireless Applications, Seevan F., Jawad K. Ali, Ali I. Hammoodi, Ali J. Salim, Mahmood T. Yassen

Iraqi Journal of Computers, Communications, Control and Systems Engineering

Different fractal geometries are successfully applied to design compact size printed and microstrip antenna structures for multiband and dual-band wireless communication applications. In this paper, a printed antenna with fractal based slot structure is presented as a candidate for use in dual-band wireless applications. The slot structure of the proposed antenna is with circle based fractal geometry. The slot structure has been etched in the ground plane of an FR4 substrate with relative dielectric constant of 4.4 and 1.6 mm thickness and on the reverse side a microstrip line has to be printed as a 50 Ω feed. Simulation results …

Redefining En Banc Review In The Federal Courts Of Appeals, Alexandra Sadinsky

Fordham Law Review

Every circuit has the ability to review cases en banc. Hearing cases en banc allows the full circuit court to overturn a decision reached by a three–judge panel. Due to the decreasing probability of U.S. Supreme Court intervention, the circuit court is often the court of last resort in the ordinary life of a case, thereby amplifying the importance of en banc review. Despite its significance, many critics contend that en banc review is inefficient and rarely granted.

Each circuit has enacted its own rules governing en banc procedure. These rules have both slight and significant differences from one another …

Is The Cross-Section Of Expected Bond Returns Influenced By Equity Return Predictors?, Tarun Chordia, Amit Goyal, Yoshio Nozowa, Avanidhar Subrahmanyam, Qing Tong

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This paper studies whether the commonly analyzed equity return predictors also predict corporate bond returns. Bond markets do price risk, but are also susceptible to delayed information transmission relative to equities. Firm size and profitability are negatively priced while idiosyncratic volatility is positively priced, suggesting that large firms, more profitable firms and relatively less volatile firms are more attractive to bond investors, thus requiring lower returns. Consistent with a relatively sophisticated institutional clientele, bonds are efficiently priced in that none of the behaviorally-motivated variables provide profitable trading strategies after accounting for transactions costs, though some risk-based variables continue to do …

The Australian Football League And The Closet, Andrew Douglas

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This thesis examines the complete absence of openly gay males from the ranksof the professional players in the Australian Football League (AFL). It seeks to explain this absence in the context of the modern gay rights movement. incontemporary Australian society. It compares and contrasts the effects of thismovement on both the AFL and other mainstream Australian social institutions.

Over more than four decades, the gay rights movement has effected a number of social changes. These changes include both specific legal reforms and more general trends such as the increasing social visibility of gay men across a range of mainstream institutions …

The Role Of Strangers In Victorian Novels: A Psychoanalytical Study Of Their Repressions, Functions And Aspirations, Mohammad Ahmed Al-Abdulrazaq

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The aim of this study is to examine the stranger characters in three Victorian Novels, Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge and Charles Dickens's Great Expectations. The exploration of the characters is based on the analysis of their psyche to understand how they are utilized by the Victorian writers. The study highlights how the fictional strangers can assist in the course of the action of the novel and function as a stimulus by which the actions and thoughts develop plausibly and feasibly. Utilizing the views of Freud, Erikson and others the study will allow for …

Enhancing Teaching Through Professional Learning: Case Studies Of Professional Learning To Improve Reading Instruction For Year 2 Students With Reading Difficulties In One Australian State, Susan Main

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Reading is internationally recognised as a mediating factor in the life outcomes of individuals and the continuing failure of Australian children to attain the same level of literacy as children in other Western countries is an ongoing concern. Within the continuum of reading development, there are some children who experience more difficulty than their peers in acquiring reading skills and these children are at even greater risk of poor life outcomes if they do not receive appropriate instruction. Research demonstrates that professional learning is an effective way of enhancing teachers’ knowledge and practice and, therefore, the purpose of this study …

A Primary School Internship Model: Graduate Teacher Performance As Perceived By Employing Principals, Gemma Louise Foxall

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Achieving an effective balance between the theoretical and practical components of pre-service teacher education has been a long debated issue. The quality of pre-service teacher practicum experiences vary, and are dependent on numerous variables, such as the duration of the practicum and the quality of the mentoring and provision of feedback.

This study reports on an Internship Model, which began in 2009, and its perceived impact on the quality of graduate teachers in Western Australia. As an ‘Intern Teacher’, pre-service teachers spend their final academic year working at a selected primary school, paired with a trained mentor and receive ongoing …

Understanding And Building Resilience With Art: A Socio-Ecological Approach, Meagan Shand

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Resilience is a widely researched phenomenon, it means different things to different people and is perceived and measured according to the theoretical lens being applied. The following thesis reviews the theoretical development of resilience that has led to contemporary understandings, to establish a platform for the research topic - understanding and building resilience with Art. Narrative research methods are combined with art processes to illuminate the stories of eight culturally diverse women participating in a community based mental health art program, in Western Australia. Fifteen resilience themes emerged from the collective experience, and are presented in a socio-ecological framework to …

Assessing The Fishery And Ecology Of Sharks In The United Arab Emirates, Rima W. Jabado

Dissertations

Large scale shark population declines have been documented worldwide due to overexploitation and the lack of adequate management frameworks to conserve shark stocks. This study aimed at gaining an understanding of the national shark fishery and the trade in shark products from the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Data were collected from June 2010 to October 2012 through interviews with local fishermen, market and landing site surveys, fishery independent surveys, and stomach content analysis. Interviews with local fishermen (n=126) provided information on the fishery characteristics and established that sharks were increasingly targeted due to their high value in the global fin …

Multiple Intelligences And Therapeutic Alliances: Counsellors' Experiences Of Incorporating A Multiple Intelligence Approach To Counselling, Mark Pearson

Theses

Counselling clients display many ways of reflecting and communicating within therapy. Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences (MI), while applied widely in the field of education, has only recently been applied to the field of counselling, and has the potential to support flexible responses to client’s different styles. In this study, counsellor experiences with introducing a MI approach to counselling are investigated. A focus on the impact of MI on therapeutic alliances is highlighted as therapeutic connection has been shown to contribute significantly to positive therapy outcomes. Recent research highlights the positive impact from modifying treatment in response to individual client …

War Rights And Military Virtues: A Philosophical Re-Appraisal Of Just War Theory, Matthew T. Beard

Theses

The overwhelming majority of theorists addressing questions of the morality of war do so from within the moral framework provided by Just War Theory (JWT): a normative account of war that dates back over 1500 years in the Western Tradition. However, today’s iterations of Just War Theory are markedly different from those of its intellectual ancestors. Specifically, today’s accounts tend not to consider matters of moral virtue, personal excellence, moral psychology, or human flourishing – that is, aretaic matters – to be worthy subjects of discussion. Instead, they prefer to focus overtly on questions of law, justice, and human rights …

The Place Of Eucharistic Adoration In The Apostolate Of The Laity In Light Of Magisterial Teaching, Jessica Leach

Theses

No abstract provided.