bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
EVAR Guided by 3D Image Fusion and CO2 DSA
Authors: Koutouzi Giasemi , Henrikson Olof , Roos Håkan , Zachrisson Karin , Falkenberg Mårten
Published: November 2015

Purpose: To present a new combination of imaging techniques that helps reduce the use of iodinated contrast during endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) procedures in patients with renal insufficiency. Technique: Relevant anatomical structures are marked in the preprocedure computed tomography (CT) angiogram. A 3D-3D image fusion between the preprocedure CT and an intraprocedure cone-beam CT is performed in order to overlay anatomical information on live fluoroscopy. Verification of the correct overlay matching (or adjustment if necessary) is based on carbon dioxide (CO2) digital subtraction angiograms (DSA) instead of iodine DSA. The stent-graft is placed and deployed based on the overlaid information. Correct device placement is finally verified with conventional contrast angiography. Conclusion: The combination of 3D image fusion of a preoperative CT with live fluoroscopy and CO2 DSA verification is feasible and sufficient for guidance of abdominal EVAR. This method minimizes the use of iodinated contrast media, protecting residual function in the setting of preexisting renal insufficiency.
Performing Struggles With Food in Everyday Life
Authors: Andreatta Maria Marta
Published: November 2015

Based on a set of interviews conducted with a group of middle-class young adults in their late 20s and 30s from Cordoba, Argentina, between December 2012 and May 2014, some meanings about food in connection with body, health, and cooking are presented as a performance in a series of vignettes.
p21 induction plays a dual role in anti-cancer activity of ursolic acid
Authors: Zhang Xudong , Song Xinhua , Yin Shutao , Zhao Chong , Fan Lihong , Hu Hongbo
Published: November 2015

Previous studies have shown that induction of G1 arrest and apoptosis by ursolic acid is associated with up-regulation of cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor (CDKI) protein p21 in multiple types of cancer cells. However, the functional role of p21 induction in G1 cell cycle arrest and apoptosis, and the mechanisms of p21 induction by ursolic acid have not been critically addressed. In the current study, we demonstrated that p21 played a mediator role in G1 cell cycle arrest by ursolic acid, whereas p21-mediated up-regulation of Mcl-1 compromised apoptotic effect of ursolic acid. These results suggest that p21 induction plays a dual role in the anti-cancer activity of ursolic acid in terms of cell cycle and apoptosis regulation. p21 induction by ursolic acid was attributed to p53 transcriptional activation. Moreover, we found that ursolic acid was able to inhibit murine double minute-2 protein (MDM2) and T-LAK cell-originated protein kinase (TOPK), the two negative regulator of p53, which in turn contributed to ursolic acid-induced p53 activation. Our findings provided novel insights into understanding of the mechanisms involved in cell cycle arrest and apoptosis induction in response to ursolic acid exposure.
Effects of concentration and temperature on tribological properties of biodiesel
Authors: Peng De-Xing
Published: November 2015

For tribologists, continuing challenges in engine design include reduced emissions and increased operating temperatures. Regulating the sulfur content in diesel fuel is expected to reduce the lubricity of these fuels, which may result in increased wear and damage of fuel injection systems in diesel engines. However, the use of biodiesel improves lubricity and cetane number requirements, particularly in ultra-low sulfur petro-diesel. In this study, the effect of temperature on the tribological properties of palm biodiesel was investigated using a wear machine. Palm biodiesel was used as a lubricating additive to petro-diesel at six concentrations of 2%, 5%, 10%, 20%, 50%, and 100%, and these biodiesel blends were named as B2, B5, B10, B20, B50, and B100, respectively. The tribological experiments were performed using the ball-on-ring method. Tests were conducted at 30°C, 60°C, 90°C, and 120°C, under a normal load of 50 N for 2 h and at a speed of 500 r/min. The wear scar diameter and the worn surface of tribopairs were studied and analyzed. According to the wear experimental results, the addition of a small amount of palm biodiesel to petroleum diesel can bring about a considerable reduction in the wear and friction under boundary lubrication. Results show that friction and wear increase with increasing temperature.
Fitness to fly
Authors: Hoggarth Alison , Evans Christopher
Published: November 2015

In this increasingly litigious society, requests for fitness to fly letters from airlines are becoming more common. Are you confident giving robust, defensible, advice to your patients about their fitness to fly? With an ageing population and increasing access to air travel, knowledge of the ‘fitness to fly’ regulations is essential. Below is a summary of the guidelines to help provide your patients with the latest recommendations from the UK Civil Aviation Authority.
Current challenges in diagnostic imaging of venous thromboembolism
Authors: Huisman Menno V. , Klok Frederikus A.
Published: November 2015

Because the clinical diagnosis of deep-vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism is nonspecific, integrated diagnostic approaches for patients with suspected venous thromboembolism have been developed over the years, involving both non-invasive bedside tools (clinical decision rules and D-dimer blood tests) for patients with low pretest probability and diagnostic techniques (compression ultrasound for deep-vein thrombosis and computed tomography pulmonary angiography for pulmonary embolism) for those with a high pretest probability. This combination has led to standardized diagnostic algorithms with proven safety for excluding venous thrombotic disease. At the same time, it has become apparent that, as a result of the natural history of venous thrombosis, there are special patient populations in which the current standard diagnostic algorithms are not sufficient. In this review, we present 3 evidence-based patient cases to underline recent developments in the imaging diagnosis of venous thromboembolism.
Complement in hemolytic anemia
Authors: Brodsky Robert A.
Published: November 2015

Complement is increasingly being recognized as an important driver of human disease, including many hemolytic anemias. Paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH) cells are susceptible to hemolysis because of a loss of the complement regulatory proteins CD59 and CD55. Patients with atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome (aHUS) develop a thrombotic microangiopathy (TMA) that in most cases is attributable to mutations that lead to activation of the alternative pathway of complement. For optimal therapy, it is critical, but often difficult, to distinguish aHUS from other TMAs, such as thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura; however, novel bioassays are being developed. In cold agglutinin disease (CAD), immunoglobulin M autoantibodies fix complement on the surface of red cells, resulting in extravascular hemolysis by the reticuloendothelial system. Drugs that inhibit complement activation are increasingly being used to treat these diseases. This article discusses the pathophysiology, diagnosis, and therapy for PNH, aHUS, and CAD.
Large scale patterns of genetic variation and differentiation in sugar maple from tropical Central America to temperate North America
Authors: Vargas-Rodriguez Yalma L. , Platt William J. , Urbatsch Lowell E. , Foltz David W.
Published: November 2015

Background

Geological events in the latter Cenozoic have influenced the distribution, abundance and genetic structure of tree populations in temperate and tropical North America. The biogeographical history of temperate vegetation that spans large ranges of latitude is complex, involving multiple latitudinal shifts that might have occurred via different migration routes. We determined the regional structuring of genetic variation of sugar maple (Acer saccharumsubsp.saccharum) and its only subspecies in tropical America (Acer saccharumsubsp.skutchii) using nuclear and chloroplast data. The studied populations span a geographic range from Maine, USA (46°N), to El Progreso, Guatemala (15°N). We examined genetic subdivisions, explored the locations of ancestral haplotypes, analyzed genetic data to explore the presence of a single or multiple glacial refugia, and tested whether genetic lineages are temporally consistent with a Pleistocene or older divergence.

Results

Nuclear and chloroplast data indicated that populations in midwestern USA and western Mexico were highly differentiated from populations in the rest of the sites. The time of the most recent common ancestor of the western Mexico haplotype lineage was dated to the Pliocene (5.9 Ma, 95 % HPD: 4.3–7.3 Ma). Splits during the Pleistocene separated the rest of the phylogroups. The most frequent and widespread haplotype occurred in half of the sites (Guatemala, eastern Mexico, southeastern USA, and Ohio). Our data also suggested that multiple Pleistocene refugia (tropics-southeastern USA, midwestern, and northeastern USA), but not western Mexico (Jalisco), contributed to post-glacial northward expansion of ranges. Current southern Mexican and Guatemalan populations have reduced population sizes, genetic bottlenecks and tend toward homozygosity, as indicated using nuclear and chloroplast markers.

Conclusions

The divergence of western Mexican populations from the rest of the sugar maples likely resulted from orographic and volcanic barriers to gene flow. Past connectivity among populations in the southeastern USA and eastern Mexico and Guatemala possible occurred through gene flow during the Pleistocene. The time to the most common ancestor values revealed that populations from the Midwest and Northeast USA represented different haplotype lineages, indicating major divergence of haplotypes lineages before the Last Glacial Maximum and suggesting the existence of multiple glacial refugia.
Strong convergence theorem for totally quasi-ϕ-asymptotically nonexpansive multi-valued mappings under relaxed conditions
Authors: Qian Shanguang
Published: November 2015

We construct a relaxed hybrid shrinking iteration algorithm for approximating common fixed points of a countable family of totally quasi-ϕ-asymptotically nonexpansive multi-valued mappings. A strong convergence theorem for solving generalized mixed equilibrium problems is established in the framework of Banach spaces under relaxed conditions. Since there is no need to impose a uniformity assumption on the involved mappings and no need to compute complex series in the iteration process, the results improve those of the authors with related interests.
Genome sequence and description of the anaerobic lignin-degrading bacterium Tolumonas lignolytica sp. nov.
Authors: Billings Andrew F. , Fortney Julian L. , Hazen Terry C. , Simmons Blake , Davenport Karen W. , Goodwin Lynne , Ivanova Natalia , Kyrpides Nikos C. , Mavromatis Konstantinos , Woyke Tanja , DeAngelis Kristen M.
Published: November 2015

Tolumonas lignolytica BRL6-1T sp. nov. is the type strain of T. lignolytica sp. nov., a proposed novel species of the Tolumonas genus. This strain was isolated from tropical rainforest soils based on its ability to utilize lignin as a sole carbon source. Cells of Tolumonas lignolytica BRL6-1T are mesophilic, non-spore forming, Gram-negative rods that are oxidase and catalase negative. The genome for this isolate was sequenced and returned in seven unique contigs totaling 3.6Mbp, enabling the characterization of several putative pathways for lignin breakdown. Particularly, we found an extracellular peroxidase involved in lignin depolymerization, as well as several enzymes involved in β-aryl ether bond cleavage, which is the most abundant linkage between lignin monomers. We also found genes for enzymes involved in ferulic acid metabolism, which is a common product of lignin breakdown. By characterizing pathways and enzymes employed in the bacterial breakdown of lignin in anaerobic environments, this work should assist in the efficient engineering of biofuel production from lignocellulosic material.
From the Copper-Colored Sons of Montezuma to Comrade Pancho Villa: The Radicalizing Effect of Mexican Revolutionaries on the Texas Socialist Party, 1910–1917
Authors: Alter Thomas
Published: November 2015

This article argues that differing political reactions to the Mexican Revolution, even before differences over World War I and the Bolshevik Revolution, led to the initial fracturing of the Socialist Party in the United States during the 1910s. Texas Socialists had long been at odds with the dominant right wing of the SP headed by Victor Berger over how the party should be organized. But once Mexican revolutionaries began interacting with Texas Socialists, this fight expanded from one of internal party organizing to one over how a socialist transformation of the United States should be conducted. While the Berger wing of the SP took a noninterventionist stance toward revolutionary Mexico, the Texas SP went further in calling for the Mexican Revolution to be emulated in Texas as it also challenged their white supremacist views. Through common political struggle, many white Texas Socialists came to view Mexican Americans and Mexicans not as slavish peons but as fellow fighters.
The expression of the T-box selector genemidlinein the leg imaginal disc is controlled by both transcriptional regulation and cell lineage
Authors: Svendsen Pia C. , Ryu Jae-Ryeon , Brook William J.
Published: November 2015

The Drosophila Tbx20 homologs midline and H15 act as selector genes for ventral fate in Drosophila legs. midline and H15 expression defines the ventral domain of the leg and the two genes are necessary and sufficient for the development of ventral fate. Ventral-specific expression of midline and H15 is activated by Wingless (Wg) and repressed by Decapentaplegic (Dpp). Here we identify VLE, a 5 kb enhancer that drives ventral specific expression in the leg disc that is very similar to midline expression. Subdivision of VLE identifies two regions that mediate both activation and repression and third region that only mediates repression. Loss- and gain-of-function genetic mosaic analysis shows that the activating and repressing regions respond to Wg and Dpp signaling respectively. All three repression regions depend on the activity of Mothers-against-decapentaplegic, a Drosophila r-Smad that mediates Dpp signaling, and respond to ectopic expression of the Dpp target genes optomoter-blind and Dorsocross 3. However, only one repression region is responsive to loss of schnurri, a co-repressor required for direct repression by Dpp-signaling. Thus, Dpp signaling restricts midline expression through both direct repression and through the activation of downstream repressors. We also find that midline and H15 expression are both subject to cross-repression and feedback inhibition. Finally, a lineage analysis indicates that ventral midline-expressing cells and dorsal omb-expressing cells do not mix during development. Together this data indicates that the ventral-specific expression of midline results from both transcriptional regulation and from a lack of cell-mixing between dorsal and ventral cells.
Advances in understanding and managing atopic dermatitis
Authors: Barton Michael , Sidbury Robert
Published: November 2015

Atopic dermatitis is a chronic, pruritic skin disease characterized by an improperly functioning skin barrier and immune dysregulation. We review proposed atopic dermatitis pathomechanisms, emphasizing how these impact current perspectives on natural history, role of allergic sensitization, and future therapeutic targets.
Post-translational control of RIPK3 and MLKL mediated necroptotic cell death
Authors: Murphy James M. , Vince James E.
Published: November 2015

Several programmed lytic and necrotic-like cell death mechanisms have now been uncovered, including the recently described receptor interacting protein kinase-3 (RIPK3)-mixed lineage kinase domain-like (MLKL)-dependent necroptosis pathway. Genetic experiments have shown that programmed necrosis, including necroptosis, can play a pivotal role in regulating host-resistance against microbial infections. Alternatively, excess or unwarranted necroptosis may be pathological in autoimmune and autoinflammatory diseases. This review highlights the recent advances in our understanding of the post-translational control of RIPK3-MLKL necroptotic signaling. We discuss the critical function of phosphorylation in the execution of necroptosis, and highlight the emerging regulatory roles for several ubiquitin ligases and deubiquitinating enzymes. Finally, based on current evidence, we discuss the potential mechanisms by which the essential, and possibly terminal, necroptotic effector, MLKL, triggers the disruption of cellular membranes to cause cell lysis.
Sequential Shortest Path Interdiction with Incomplete Information
Authors: Borrero Juan S. , Prokopyev Oleg A. , Sauré Denis
Published: November 2015

We study sequential interdiction when the interdictor has incomplete initial information about the network and the evader has complete knowledge of the network, including its structure and arc costs. In each time period, the interdictor blocks at most k arcs from the network observed up to that period, after which the evader travels along a shortest path between two (fixed) nodes in the interdicted network. By observing the evader’s actions, the interdictor learns about the network structure and arc costs and adjusts its actions to maximize the cumulative cost incurred by the evader. A salient feature of our work is that the feedback in each period is deterministic and adversarial. In addition to studying the regret minimization problem, we also discuss time stability of a policy, which is the number of time periods until the interdictor’s actions match those of an oracle interdictor with prior knowledge of the network. We propose a class of simple interdiction policies that have a finite regret and detect when the instantaneous regret reaches zero in real time. More importantly, we establish that this class of policies belongs to the set of efficient policies.
2013–2014 Gary L. Lilien ISMS-MSI Practice Prize Competition
Authors: Kannan P. K.
Published: November 2015

I introduce the special section highlighting the background of the competition and the work of the finalists in the 2013–2014 Gary L. Lilien ISMS-MSI Practice Prize Competition, showcasing the best applications of rigor and relevance by marketing scientists in working with practical problems. The winning paper is by a team who developed an innovative pricing tool to enable an electric utility operating in Germany to acquire customers on online price comparison sites while optimizing various metrics of interest. The other two finalists comprise a team that developed an integrated marketing model to address multiple business objectives of the Georgia Aquarium and a team that developed a marketing science model of evaluation and purchase intentions incorporating customer emotions to test advertisement effectiveness for Kmart Australia.
Factors associated with non-adherence to oral IBD medication: a systematic review of the literature 1980–2013
Authors: Peel Adam , Thorpe Gabrielle , Deane Katherine Helen O'Leary
Published: November 2015

Background

Non-adherence to oral medication for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) has been estimated to be 30–45%. Factors found to be associated with non-adherence, while frequently reported, are often conflicting.

Methods

Databases Embase, Medline, CINAHL and PsycINFO were used to identify studies between 2008 and 2013. Results were summarised through vote count, with reference to study quality and participant number.

Results

Seventeen records met the inclusion criteria and were analysed alongside another 15 identified by a previous literature review ( Jackson et al, 2010 ). Factors related to adherence were grouped into four themes: demographic, psychosocial, clinical and medication. Only the factors of attitudes towards and beliefs about treatment, barriers to taking medication, and membership of a patient support group were found to be consistently associated with adherence

Conclusions

Many factors reported to be associated with adherence to oral IBD medication are not supported with any consistency. Further research is needed in areas shown to be consistently associated with adherence.
Misogynoir and antiblack racism: What The Walking Dead teaches us about the limits of Speculative Fiction fandom
Authors: Johnson Dominique Deirdre
Published: November 2015

Antiblack racial antagonisms manifest in discourse through audience engagement with characters in Speculative Fiction (SF). This article addresses the ways that a fictional black woman in a popular SF series gets constructed in the public imaginaries of a popular fandom community. The character Michonne from the dystopian comic book series and television drama, The Walking Dead, provides an excellent occasion to examine audience engagement that distinctly operates within a recognizable cultural frame. The character’s reception between has sparked much debate and criticism due to the ways that she is understood and dramatized in relation to other characters in the series. While a majority of fan content regarding the character recognizes her skill and abilities for survival with relative positivity, she is routinely regarded as an outsider, perpetually unfeeling or emotionally inept. The result is a broad lack of empathy mitigated by antiblack misogyny. It is as though her character is regarded as a functional object (a weapon) and less than human, which bears the weight of the question of black non-ontology as a requirement for social order. This is particularly interesting within an imagined world of the undead. This article interrogates the ways in which fandom communities actively cite, circulate and produce discourses that sustain structural antagonisms, as well as how they contribute to, respond, or engage particularly problematic tropes regarding black female subjectivities.
Classic FM’s place within the tradition of UK classical music radio 1992–1995
Authors: Stoller Tony
Published: November 2015

This article considers whether the UK’s classical music radio station, Classic FM that launched in September 1992, should be regarded as having been during the mid-1990s within the tradition of classical music broadcasting on UK radio established by the BBC. The history of classical music radio in the United Kingdom since 1945 was characterized by a series of efforts to widen the franchise, to attract a continuing middlebrow and middle-class audience alongside more elite programming. The introduction of Classic FM, happening at much the same time as BBC Radio 3 was recast in order to attract a wider audience, comprises the most recent such attempt. Drawing on a new database of programme output, and supported by audience data, the changes introduced by Radio 3 from the beginning of the 1990s are shown to be a deliberate attempt to create a more diverse network, soundly based in the established canonic repertoire of classical music radio, but willing to test of the margins of that repertoire. The history of the arrival of Classic FM shows that it came about in a relatively unplanned way. Far from being a natural progression from the earlier Independent Local Radio services, it arrived almost by chance into the broadcasting ecology. The station’s output was dominated by relatively undemanding sequence programming, but was based on the same central canonic repertoire as Radio 3, with Classic FM striking downwards towards greater popularity, whereas the BBC station ascertained upwards towards presenting this genre of music at times as high art. Nevertheless, the two occupied substantially the same cultural ground, and Classic FM notably displayed programming ambition outside peak times, placing it firmly within the longer tradition of UK radio. The common ground shared by the two stations is further demonstrated by the similarity of their audience profiles, and the extent of shared listening, with one million listeners tuning in to both stations each week in the mid-1990s. Classic FM and Radio 3 between them reawakened the substantial middle-class, middlebrow audience for classical music radio in the United Kingdom. It is correct to locate Classic FM within the continuing tradition of British classical music radio, and to regard it as comprising and extending UK public service radio broadcasting accordingly.
Defining Scholarship within College-based Higher Education
Authors: Eaton Jonathan
Published: November 2015

Welcome to the first Special Issue of JPAAP published in June 2014.
Book Review
Authors: Eboh Winifred Oluchukwu
Published: November 2015

Cross-Cultural Teaching and Learning for Home and International Students - Internationalisation of Pedagogy and Curriculum in Higher Education
Exploring the Value of Doctoral Study in College-based Higher Education: A Practitioner Perspective
Authors: Davis Jane
Published: November 2015

This paper takes the form of an ‘on the horizon’ piece, presenting the outcomes of a small pilot research activity that sought to explore the value of doctoral research undertaken by four practitioners employed in College-based Higher Education. (CBHE) The paper reflects on the thematic analysis of narratives provided through loosely structured interviews that sought the participants’ perceptions of the value of their doctoral journey from aspiration to actualisation. The outcomes of the research activity are considered in the context of a range of literature that explores the value and impact of doctoral study. The discussion is widened by the consideration of references made by participants as to the way in which their experience could have been further enhanced through different forms of organisational engagement. The paper concludes by drawing together themes from the research that could be supported by a wider study of doctoral researchers in CBHE.
Student Attitudes to an Online, Peer-instruction, Revision Aid in Science Education
Authors: Mac Raighne Aaron , Casey Morag M , Howard Robert , Ryan Barry
Published: November 2015

Peer instruction has been shown to have a positive effect on students’ engagement and learning. However, many of the techniques designed to incorporate peer instruction into the student experience are very heavy on resources. PeerWise is a free, low-maintenance, web-tool designed to allow peer instruction between students within a large class group. Students can write, answer and discuss Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) based on their work in-class. In this study, we introduce PeerWise to a wide and varied cohort of science students (N=509) across different disciplines, undergraduate years, levels (certificate to honours degree) and institutes. The attitudes of the students to PeerWise are probed using a questionnaire (356 respondents). This includes responses to Likert-style questions and thematic analysis carried out on free-text responses. It is found that the students are positive about the addition of PeerWise and recognise the advantages of the software in their learning. They recognise, and articulate, the advantages of PeerWise as an active-learning, peer-instruction revision tool. Further advantages and disadvantages are discussed, such as the flooding of system with easy and/or repetitive questions. Overall, the results are positive and are very similar across the varied class groups. In this study, PeerWise performs as free and low-maintenance software that allows the addition of (another) peer-instruction aspect to modules.
Student Perception of Learning and Teaching by VC
Authors: Clarke Simon
Published: November 2015

This paper explores the student experience of learning and teaching through the medium of videoconferencing (VC), on a range of HE programmes across all the partners of the University of the Highlands (UHI). The primary evidence used are the 190 responses to an online survey made available to any taught HE student at UHI that had taken modules where VC had played a significant role in delivery. Twenty-nine multiple choice, multiple answer and continuous response questions were asked, covering a wide range of subjects from students’ circumstances of study, to how they rated difference aspects of the experience. The study suggests that not only can VC succeed as a mode of educational delivery when undertaken by pioneering staff with a strong interest in educational technology, but it continues to succeed when delivered by an institution’s rank and file teachers, as a mature technology that has lost its novelty value. The much greater sample size of this study compared to those that have been undertaken in the past also provides a quantitative basis for identifying the approaches to teaching which succeed best, and for identifying the groups amongst whom VC is best received. Key factors for success were found to be appropriate allocation and configuration of VC suites, effective training in the use of VC, and teaching that placed a premium on interaction with students. However, social circumstances appear to be as important as substantive quality factors in colouring perception. Students’ rating of the technology as a mode of study seems to be heavily coloured by their access to educational alternatives. Students in remote locations appear more favourably disposed than those in larger campuses, mature students more than school leavers and women more than men. This has important implication for design and marketing of VC mediated degrees in the future.
Developing Effective Bite Sized Staff Development Through Thematic Analysis
Authors: Gray Colin
Published: November 2015

This paper aims to investigate an emerging method for delivering online learning for the purposes of staff development. This teaching method, named Bite Sized Learning (BSL), is based on the following principles: 1. Course length is short, around one or two weeks. 2. One task is delivered each day. 3. Tasks are short, around 30 minutes. The intention of BSL is to meet the commonly cited needs of work based learners – flexibility in time, place and mode of consumption – and enable more accessible and more effective staff development in higher education. To this end, BSL is underpinned by research in work based learning, just in time learning, communities of practice and human attention spans. This study relates to a qualitative study carried out on a series of BSL courses, delivered to academic staff at Edinburgh Napier from 2012 to 2014. Staff members took part in four instances of the course and were asked for feedback on their experience. A thematic analysis process was carried out on this feedback in order to determine the effectiveness of BSL, the advantages it brings and ways in which it can be developed. Thematic analysis showed that BSL was very well received by participants and that it carries a number of advantages over traditional one-block methods of staff development. Evidence is presented to show that BSL enables effective learning and allows academic staff to participate in development when they otherwise could not. The daily delivery format was found to increase the priority of online learning and build motivation to complete each task, while keeping the tasks short and focused reduced the mental barriers to students in beginning the work. The analysis forms the basis for a BSL model of learning, and avenues of future development are proposed.
What is nature of distribution in the digital age
Authors: MacNeill Sheila , Johnston Bill
Published: November 2015

What is nature of distribution in the digital age
Academics Doing it Differently: Wooing, Hooking up and Spinning Stories
Authors: Lemon Narelle , McPherson Megan , Budge Kylie
Published: November 2015

Wooing, hooking up and spinning stories are not the usual behaviours to describe academics and the ways they make connections with other scholars. These behaviours are now how some academics build relations for research, support and professional development as a part of the way they work in and across academia with social media use. How academics reveal facets of their identity online and use social media speak to ideas about identity and agency in the contemporary university. Academics are using social media in the university and this has risks to both the academy and the academic. Academics are taking on these risks in different ways, publically representing their academic selves and their research, building networks of connections with other scholars and using Twitter to be (non) strategic to benefit their research interests and inquiries. In this paper, we focus on how academics use Twitter to make connections and relations with others. The paper draws on preliminary findings from a study of academics using Twitter that used a modified snowball recruitment method to garner participants. Informal interviews were used to discuss how the academics used Twitter, what images they used to represent and describe themselves. How their academic identity was represented online as branding, strategic or not, and their various relations was a starting point in this analysis. We examine the themes of academics branding and being (non) strategic by the stories they told of relationship building on Twitter. That is wooing, or having conversations on specific topics to make a connection and demonstrate relevance, hooking up, or networking, and spinning stories, or rather enacting professional dialogues. We argue that these behaviours demonstrate how some academics are an example of a new type of 21st century academic and conclude by suggesting that in doing so they are examples of new ways of being and becoming an academic context.
Assessment Analytics Using Turnitin & Grademark in an Undergraduate Medical Curriculum
Authors: Reed Peter , Watmough Simon , Duvall Paul
Published: November 2015

In recent times there has been an increased interest around assessment feedback – evaluation of the University of Liverpool (UoL) Medical Curriculum has shown students have real concerns about the feedback they receive (Reed & Watmough, 2015; Watmough & O’Sullivan, 2011). These concerns have been amplified in recent years by results from the National Student Survey (NSS).Through the implementation of the Turnitin and Grademark systems to support the Electronic Management of Assessment (EMA), this study set out to research the suitability of the systems as well as investigate the potential of assessment analytics – the concept that assessment data can be viewed to inform future practice and provide a coherent and holistic view of staff and student performance.Quantitative and qualitative data show that academic staff are positive in relation to the implementation of said systems to support the assessment and feedback cycle, and that whilst the collection and analysis of data can be useful, it is not a complete panacea. There are ethical considerations involved in relation to staff and students in the collection and analysis of such data.
Internationalisation of the Curriculum: Challenges and Opportunities
Authors: Robson Sue
Published: November 2015

‘Internationalisation’ is a pervasive but contested concept in contemporary higher education (HE), and poses both critical challenges and development opportunities for universities. Recent research suggests that while many HE institutions (HEIs) have an internationalisation strategy, there are limitations to the ways in which institutions approach internationalisation (Spencer-Oatey & Dauber, 2015). Attention is often paid predominantly to recruitment of international students and staff, and to mobility, with targets for the number of students and staff engaged in international programmes or research. Increasingly universities that seek to be truly internationalised are thinking beyond these structural factors, to more comprehensive approaches (Hudzik, 2011) that will enable all students and staff to have an ‘internationalised’ experience. This opinion piece addresses a key dimension of a more comprehensive approach to internationalisation, the internationalisation of the curriculum (IoC) as a means to develop global mindsets, skills and understandings.
Promoting Intercultural Engagement: Developing a Toolkit for Staff and Students in Higher Education
Authors: Grimwood Marita , Dunford Mark , Teran Pilar , Muir Nita
Published: November 2015

This ‘on the horizon’ paper describes and reflects on the development of an intercultural engagement toolkit for academic staff in Higher Education Institutions, for use across a range of disciplines. Higher Education in the UK is continuing to grapple with two aspects of an internationalising sector: increasing numbers of non-UK students (HESA, 2015) and the need to prepare students for a globalised society (Guimaraes-Iosif, 2011). Academic staff are often uncertain about how to engage with these forces in their curricula (Barker, Hibbins, & Farrelly, 2011). While they have different levels of awareness of issues and theories relating to internationalisation of the curriculum, even those with high levels of international experience can be unsure as to how to implement effective changes to learning and teaching. A reflective toolkit to support academic staff was developed with funding from the Higher Education Academy, aiming to support universal processes of cultural negotiation in the context of programme teams and class groups. These resources have been developed following thematic analysis of focus groups and interviews with academics and students across a range of disciplines. Six key areas were identified as being influential: intercultural dialogue, global citizenship, positioning of the academic, design of curricula and assessment, international collaboration and communications. This paper will explore these themes and the theoretical framework which is the scaffolding for the toolkit, including the most recent literature (Killick, 2015; Leask, 2015). It also explores successes and frustrations experienced in the process, and ideas for the toolkit’s future development.
Electrochemical hydrogen permeation tests under galvanostatic hydrogen charging conditions conventionally used for hydrogen embrittlement study
Authors: Akiyama Eiji , Li Songjie
Published: November 2015

Electrochemical hydrogen permeation tests using pure Fe sheet specimens were performed under various galvanostatic hydrogen charging conditions commonly applied to tensile test specimens used for evaluation of hydrogen embrittlement property to obtain a guideline for efficient hydrogen charging method for a wide range of hydrogen content. Aqueous NaCl solutions containing varied concentrations of ammonium thiocyanate and a 0.1-m NaOH solution were used as electrolytes for relatively high and low hydrogen content, respectively. Addition of ammonium thiocyanate changes the mechanism of hydrogen evolution reaction and enhances hydrogen entry. By changing the concentration of ammonium thiocyanate and by changing cathodic current density, a wide range of hydrogen content can be covered. The hydrogen content in an AISI 4135 steel estimated from hydrogen permeation current density obtained for a pure Fe specimen was in good agreement with the hydrogen content experimentally measured by hydrogen thermal desorption analysis for the AISI 4135 steel. The hydrogen permeation current density data in various hydrogen charging conditions can be used as a reference for hydrogen charging of specimens.
Die Rolle der Vorstellungskraft für unsere Musikwahrnehmung: das Phänomen des Hörens-als
Authors: Reuter Gerson
Published: November 2015

The widely held belief that classical instrumental music has (or expresses) some kind of content - whether it is supposed to be some language-like meaning or some distinctive and possibly untranslatable musical content - is notoriously difficult to defend. One of the probably rather few promising options of analysing our experiences of hearing ‘content in music’ starts with the assumption that we, the listeners of music, endow the heard musical sequences with content. In the paper, I defend this anti-realism concerning musical content by spelling out the idea that due to the operation of our imagination we sometimes, in listening to music, undergo episodes of hearing-as - close relatives of the more familiar episodes of seeing-as. Drawing on Colin McGinn’s analysis of seeing-as, I develop the idea that an episode of hearing-as is a kind of hybrid mental phenomenon, a co-production of our imagination and our ‘plain hearing’ of musical parameters.
Selbstwissen: Die Grundidee
Authors: Moran Richard
Published: November 2015

In philosophy it is widely recognized that a person’s first-person perspective on his own thought and action is importantly different from the third-person perspective we may have on the thought and actions of other people. In daily life it is natural to ask someone what he is doing or what he thinks about something, on the assumption that he knows what he is doing or what he is thinking. Some philosophers, however, argue that it is impossible to speak of knowledge in this context because the idea of knowledge requires a kind of distance between subject and object, a distance that is not present in the first-person context. I argue that this denial of self-knowledge is a paradoxical conclusion that we can resist, while retaining what is distinctive about the first-person.
Die Spontaneität des Verstandes bei Kant und einigen Neokantianern
Authors: Boyle Matthew
Published: November 2015

Kant famously characterizes our human understanding as a “spontaneous” faculty, but what can this mean? I criticize some recent interpretations of Kant’s claim and suggest that we can only understand what Kant means by “the spontaneity of understanding” if we recognize certain basic differences between how Kant conceived of cognition and how philosophers commonly think of it today. I go on to argue that Kant’s conception of cognition represents an appealing alternative to the unsatisfying options that contemporary ways of thinking seem to force on us.
Comment on: ‘Screening’ for Breast Cancer: Misguided Research Misinforming Public Policies, by O. S. Miettinen
Authors: Huwiler Karin , Thürlimann Beat , Cerny Thomas , Zwahlen Marcel
Published: November 2015

Our commentary of the article “‘Screening’ for Breast Cancer: Misguided Research Misinforming Public Policies” has two main parts. First we address some of the methodological points raised by Professor Miettinen. Then we review more specific aspects of the Swiss Medical Board statement on mammography screening for early detection of breast cancer.
Variations on Witches: a Proposal for Catalogation
Authors: Samper Emili
Published: November 2015

Stories of witches are difficult to catalogue because they tend to fall somewhere between folktales and legends. In the context of the RondCat project on Catalan folktales and the classification of tale types that do not correspond with the Aarne/Thompson/Uther (ATU) international index, this paper makes a proposal for cataloguing legends of witches collected by the Catalan folklorist Cels Gomis i Mestre (1841-1915) and published posthumously in 1987 under the title La bruixa catalana.
Security Guards as Participants in and Mediators of a Ghost Tradition
Authors: Mencej Mirjam
Published: November 2015

This article discusses narratives about a haunted building at the Faculty of Arts that began circulating around 2009. It particularly focuses on the role a group of security guards played in sustaining the ghost tradition as well as on the role that the narration and exploration of ghost lore played for its members.
Influences of Victorian Values on Japanese Versions of Grimms’ Fairy Tales
Authors: Noguchi Yoshiko
Published: November 2015

Grimms’ Fairy Tales were first introduced in Japan through English textbooks. Likewise, the first Japanese translation in book form by Ryoho Suga was not translated from the German original, but from H.B. Paull’s English translation which contains many changes in line with Victorian values. By introducing German writings via English translations, influences of English culture and society were unavoidable.
Influence of incubation time on the vibration and mechanic properties of mycowood
Authors: Gilani Marjan Sedighi , Neuenschwander Jürg , Heeb Markus , Furrer Roman , Sanabria Sergio J. , Stoel Berend C. , Robert Schwarze Francis Willis Mathew
Published: November 2015

The goal of the current study was to investigate the physical and mechanical properties of mycowood as a high quality tone-wood, obtained from Norway spruce by treatment of the white rot fungus Physisporinus vitreus as a function of the treatment time. In focus was the stiffness to weight ratio, which is often considered a main criterion for tone-wood selection. The vibro-mechanical properties were tested by non-destructive methods. The change of color and density were also measured after 4–12 months of fungal incubation. Density decreased up to 5% after 12 months of fungal treatment. Sound velocity was measured in small size specimens by means of the free-free vibration approach, while in large specimens the air-coupled ultrasound method was applied. The two techniques gave similar results and indicated that the sound velocity decreased in mycowood. Internal damping was increased in mycowood to a higher extent than the reduction in the specific modulus of elasticity (E/ρ) and thus the sound velocity in the material. The sound velocity was decreasing with increasing incubation times and scattering of data with this regard was larger in the transversal than in the longitudinal direction. The sound radiation coefficient and the characteristic impedance were enhanced in mycowood and its color was more brownish and richer in tone.
Once Again King Arthur and the Ambassadors: A Textual Crux in Malory’s

Morte Darthur
Authors: Norris Ralph
Published: November 2015

From the perspective of textual studies, ‘King Arthur and Emperor Lucius’ is the most interesting part of Sir Thomas Malory’s Morte Darthur. Its linguistic tone color is unique in the Morte Darthur, which seems to have disquieted the producers of the early copies, for both medieval witnesses to the text, the Winchester Manuscript and William Caxton’s printed edition,show signs of deliberate interference. P. J. C. Field’s recent edition uses both witnesses to attempt to restore Malory’s authorial text. However, the unusual textual situation complicates the application of Field’s critical method of editing. Caxton sometimes uses Malory’s words and sometimes his own; some of his summarizations contain many of Malory’s original words but often in a frame of his own devising, and at times he completely rewrites passages in his own words. Because Winchester has also been abridged, wherever the two diverge, and particularly within the first page or two, the possibilities will be that one or the other witness will retain Malory’s original text, that both contain parts of Malory’s original, or that Malory’s words have been lost from both texts. Determining which is most likely at any given point is further complicated by the fact that the Roman War was often considered to be a legitimate part of history in the Midle Ages and, therefore, was often retold, greatly increasing the number of potential sources, which proportionately increases the possibility of false correspondence between a possible source and the reading of the witness. Finally, one must try to make due allowance for the fact that Malory adapted and abridged his account creatively, rather than merely rendering the alliterative poem into prose. However, Field proceeds mainly on the premise that for the first few pages Winchester and Caxton have abbreviated alternately. This article argues that the two versions of the ambassadors’ demands that Field has included in his reconstruction are actually independent mutations of a common original, which can be partially reconstructed. The corrections proposed here render Malory’s text more like its sources, provide the benefit of removing more of Caxton’s rewriting, and are consistent with the very philosophical underpinning of Field’s new edition: the premise that it is important to try to recover Malory’s authorial text in every possible detail, bringing us ever closer to the exact words of a great author.