bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Charged nanoparticles in thin film and nanostructure growth by chemical vapour deposition
Authors: Hwang Nong-Moon , Lee Dong-Kwon
Published: November 2010

The critical role of charged nanoclusters and nanoparticles in the growth of thin films and nanostructures by chemical vapour deposition (CVD) is reviewed. Advanced nanoparticle detection techniques have shown that charged gas-phase nuclei tend to be formed under conventional processing conditions of thin films and nanostructures by thermal, hot-wire and plasma CVD. The relation between gas-phase nuclei and thin film and nanostructure growth has not been clearly understood. In this review it will be shown that many films and nanostructures, which have been believed to grow by individual atoms or molecules, actually grow by the building blocks of such charged nuclei. This new growth mechanism was revealed in an attempt to explain many puzzling phenomena involved in the gas-activated diamond CVD process. Therefore, detailed thermodynamic and kinetic analyses will be made to draw the conclusion that the well-known phenomenon of deposition of less stable diamond with simultaneous etching of stable graphite should be an indication of diamond growth exclusively by charged nuclei formed in the gas phase. A similar logic was applied to the phenomenon of simultaneous deposition and etching of silicon, which also leads to the conclusion that silicon films by CVD should grow mainly by the building blocks of charged nuclei. This new mechanism of crystal growth appears to be general in many CVD and some physical vapour deposition (PVD) processes. In plasma CVD, this new mechanism has already been utilized to open a new field of plasma-aided nanofabrication.
Engineering of thermo-optic properties in ion implanted lithium niobate waveguides by electronic stopping power
Authors: Tan Yang , Chen Feng
Published: November 2010

The thermo-optic (TO) properties of the lithium niobate waveguide fabricated by oxygen ion implantation at three different energies (2, 3 and 6 MeV) have been investigated. It is found that, as the electronic stopping power (S
e) of the O ions is below a threshold ∼2.2 keV nm−1, the TO features are well preserved in the waveguide regions. When S
e is above this value, the TO coefficients of the waveguides are considerably modified, which is attributed to the increased defect generation in the crystal.
Intrinsic defects and their influence on the chemical and optical properties of TiO2−x films
Authors: Laidani N , Cheyssac P , Perrière J , Bartali R , Gottardi G , Luciu I , Micheli V
Published: November 2010

In this work, TiO2 films produced by rf sputtering of a TiO2 target in argon and argon–oxygen plasmas were studied. The oxygen content in the feed gas was varied in a range 3–20%. The chemical composition and structure of films were characterized by Rutherford backscattering spectrometry, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and x-ray diffraction. Important information about the intrinsic defects of the films and their effects on the optical properties as well as a scheme of the energy band structure of the films could be derived from a combined use of optical spectroscopy and XPS.
Effects of finite gradient B drift on collisional boundary layer analysis for neoclassical toroidal plasma viscosity in tokamaks
Authors: Shaing K.C. , Seol JaeChun , Sun Y.W. , Chu M.S. , Sabbagh S.A.
Published: November 2010

The effects of finite gradient B drift are included in the collisional boundary layer analysis to improve the accuracy of the neoclassical toroidal plasma viscosity in tokamaks that have error fields or magnetohydrodynamic activities present. Depending on the sign of the electric charge of the species and that of the radial electric field, the effects of finite gradient B drift can either reduce, if the
E
×
B
drift is in the same direction of the gradient B drift, or enhance, if these two drifts are in the opposite direction, the magnitude of the neoclassical toroidal plasma viscosity. Here,
E
is the electric field and
B
is the magnetic field. However, because the gradient B drift depends on the effective pitch angle, the net effects have to be properly weighted by integrating over the particle energy.
Effects of thick blanket modules on the resistive wall modes stability in ITER
Authors: Villone Fabio , Liu Yueqiang , Rubinacci Guglielmo , Ventre Salvatore
Published: November 2010

In this paper we analyse the effects of three-dimensional ITER conducting structures on resistive wall modes (RWMs) growth rates. In particular, a highly detailed description of the thick ITER blanket modules (BMs) is given, with a volumetric mesh including slits, holes, pockets and an anisotropic resistivity to take into account cooling channels. Also other important details of the vacuum vessel are included, such as the outer triangular support, copper cladding, port extensions. To deal with the resulting huge computational model, a fast/parallel implementation of the CarMa code has been successfully developed and used. Both n = 1 (kink-like instability) and n = 0 (axisymmetric vertical instability) RWM are considered. The computational model is validated, on 2D test cases, by the consistency of fits to the growth rate with no-wall and ideal-wall limits calculated with MARS-F. Considering the full 3D model, the detrimental effect of ports on n = 1 growth rates is essentially counteracted by the beneficial effect of BMs.
Quasi-Classical Trajectory Study on O++DH (v= 0,j= 0)→OD++H Reaction at Different Collision Energy
Authors: Sun Hai-zhu , Liu Xin-guo , Lv Juan-juan , Liu Hui-rong
Published: November 2010

The quasi-classical trajectory calculations O++DH(v = 0, j = 0)→OD++H reactions on the RODRIGO potential energy surface have been carried out to study the isotope effect on stereo-dynamics at the collision energies of 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, and 2.5 eV. The distributions of dihedral angle P(φr) and the distributions of P(θr) are discussed. Furthermore, the angular distributions of the product rotational vectors in the form of polar plot in θr and φr are calculated. The differential cross section shows interesting phenomenon that the reaction is dominated by the direct reaction mechanism. Reaction probability and reaction cross section are also calculated. The calculations indicate that the stereo-dynamics properties of the title reactions are sensitive to the collision energy.
Ab initioStudy on Mechanism of Forming a Silicic Bis-Heterocyclic Compound Between Dimethylmethylenesilylene and Ethene
Authors: Lu Xiu-hui , Han Jun-feng , Yu Hai-bin , Lian Zhen-xia
Published: November 2010

The mechanism of the cycloaddition reaction of forming a silicic bis-heterocyclic compound between singlet dimethylmethylenesilylene (Me2C=Si:) and ethene has been investigated with the CCSD(T)//MP2/6-31G* method. From the potential energy profile, it can be predicted that, this reaction has one dominant channel. The presented rule of this dominant channel: the 3p unoccupied orbital of Si in dimethylmethylenesilylene and the π orbital of ethene forming the π→p donor-acceptor bond, resulting in the formation of three-membered ring intermediate (INT1); INT1 then isomerizes to a four-membered ring silylene (P2), which is driven by ring-enlargement effect; due to sp3 hybridization of Si atom in P2, P2 further combines with ethene to form a silicic bis-heterocyclic compound.
Determination of the Real Surface Area of Palladium Electrode
Authors: Fang Lan-lan , Tao Qian , Li Ming-fang , Liao Ling-wen , Chen Dong , Chen Yan-xia
Published: November 2010

Four methods, including voltammetric measurement of double layer capacitance, surface oxides reduction, under potential deposition of Cu and carbon monoxide (CO) stripping have been applied to evaluate the real surface area of a polycrystalline Pd (pc-Pd) electrode. The results reveal that the second and third methods lead to consistent results with deviations below 5%. And from the determined double layer capacitance and CO stripping charge, it is deduced that the double layer capacity unit area is 23.1±0.4 μF/cm2 and the saturated CO adlayer should be ca. 0.66 ML in order to ensure that the real surface area as determined is consistent with the other two techniques. The applicability as well as the attentions when applying these techniques for the determination of the real surface area of pc-Pd electrodes have been discussed.
GSearcher: Agile Attribute Querying for Biological Networks
Authors: Su Gang , Athey Brian D. , Meng Fan
Published: November 2010

Summary: GSearcher provides a highly interactive user experience in navigating attribute data associated with large and complex biological networks. The user may either perform a quick search using keywords, phrases or regular expressions, or build a complex query with a group of filters for efficient and flexible exploration of large datasets.

Availability:  http://brainarray.mbni.med.umich.edu/gsearcher/

Contact:  sugang@umich.edu
SAMStat: monitoring biases in next generation sequencing data
Authors: Lassmann Timo , Hayashizaki Yoshihide , Daub Carsten O.
Published: November 2010

Motivation: The sequence alignment/map format (SAM) is a commonly used format to store the alignments between millions of short reads and a reference genome. Often certain positions within the reads are inherently more likely to contain errors due to the protocols used to prepare the samples. Such biases can have adverse effects on both mapping rate and accuracy. To understand the relationship between potential protocol biases and poor mapping we wrote SAMstat, a simple C program plotting nucleotide overrepresentation and other statistics in mapped and unmapped reads in a concise html page. Collecting such statistics also makes it easy to highlight problems in the data processing and enables non-experts to track data quality over time.

Results: We demonstrate that studying sequence features in mapped data can be used to identify biases particular to one sequencing protocol. Once identified, such biases can be considered in the downstream analysis or even be removed by read trimming or filtering techniques.

Availability: SAMStat is open source and freely available as a C program running on all Unix-compatible platforms. The source code is available from http://samstat.sourceforge.net.

Contact:  timolassmann@gmail.com
Scoring-and-unfolding trimmed tree assembler: concepts, constructs and comparisons
Authors: Narzisi Giuseppe , Mishra Bud
Published: November 2010

Motivation: Mired by its connection to a well-known 𝒩𝒫-complete combinatorial optimization problem—namely, the Shortest Common Superstring Problem (SCSP)—historically, the whole-genome sequence assembly (WGSA) problem has been assumed to be amenable only to greedy and heuristic methods. By placing efficiency as their first priority, these methods opted to rely only on local searches, and are thus inherently approximate, ambiguous or error prone, especially, for genomes with complex structures. Furthermore, since choice of the best heuristics depended critically on the properties of (e.g. errors in) the input data and the available long range information, these approaches hindered designing an error free WGSA pipeline.

Results: We dispense with the idea of limiting the solutions to just the approximated ones, and instead favor an approach that could potentially lead to an exhaustive (exponential-time) search of all possible layouts. Its computational complexity thus must be tamed through a constrained search (Branch-and-Bound) and quick identification and pruning of implausible overlays. For his purpose, such a method necessarily relies on a set of score functions (oracles) that can combine different structural properties (e.g. transitivity, coverage, physical maps, etc.). We give a detailed description of this novel assembly framework, referred to as Scoring-and-Unfolding Trimmed Tree Assembler (SUTTA), and present experimental results on several bacterial genomes using next-generation sequencing technology data. We also report experimental evidence that the assembly quality strongly depends on the choice of the minimum overlap parameter k.

Availability and Implementation: SUTTA's binaries are freely available to non-profit institutions for research and educational purposes at http://www.bioinformatics.nyu.edu.

Contact:  narzisi@nyu.edu

Supplementary information:  Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Fishery discards in the Irish Sea exhibit temporal oscillations and trends reflecting underlying processes at an annual scale
Authors: Viana Mafalda , Graham Norman , Wilson James G. , Jackson Andrew L.
Published: November 2010

Viana, M., Graham, N., Wilson, J. G., and Jackson, A. L. 2011. Fishery discards in the Irish Sea exhibit temporal oscillations and trends reflecting underlying processes at an annual scale. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 68: 221–227. Non-inclusion of discard data in stock assessment can lead to underestimation of biomass and fishing mortality; this is of particular concern if there have been changes in discard practices over time. Although variability in space and time is a well-documented feature of discards, the temporal dynamics of the practice has received little detailed attention. The aim here is to characterize the temporal patterns of discarding practices in the Irish Sea (ICES Division VIIa) from 1994 to 2008. Trend and seasonality were explored in discards per unit effort (dpue) of haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus), whiting (Merlangius merlangus), and cod (Gadus morhua) through Bayesian harmonic regression (HREG) models. The HREG models reveal discarding of all three species in annual cycles, with a peak in the second quarter, perhaps reflecting species biology or fisher behaviour, or both. The dpue of cod cycled around a constant level throughout the observation period, but whiting and haddock dpue increased.
Environmental influences on stock abundance and fishing power in the silver-lipped pearl oyster fishery
Authors: Hart Anthony M. , Thomson Adrian W. , Murphy David
Published: November 2010

Hart, A. M., Thomson, A. W., and Murphy, D. 2011. Environmental influences on stock abundance and fishing power in the silver-lipped pearl oyster fishery. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 68: . Stock variability, fishing power, and the contributing environmental factors were examined for the Australian silver-lipped pearl oyster, Pinctada maxima. The approach was to compare the longer-term time-series of stock abundance derived from catch per unit effort against the shorter-term 0+ spat-settlement index to seek agreement on causal factors. Indices of stock abundance were established with generalized linear models that simultaneously examined the influence of technological and environmental factors, resulting in a predictive model with a 3-year forecast. The advent of global positioning systems caused a 30% increase in fishing power. A negative relationship between abundance and rainfall, and a positive relationship between abundance and temperature, was detected for both spat settlement and fishery abundance. Northerly winds (negative northings) from December to February significantly enhanced settlement, but easterly winds (negative eastings) in the main fishing month of May influenced fishing power positively. After standardizing for the effects of fishing power, a 150% increase in stock abundance of the exploited component of P. maxima stocks was detected between 2004 and 2009. A major contributor to this increase was an exceptionally high settlement of spat in 2005, associated with a rare combination of environmental conditions. Once this year class grows beyond the target size classes, abundance is predicted to decrease to the normal levels.
Failure to Thrive
Authors: Slade Alexandra
Published: November 2010

Failure to thrive is a description applied to children whose current weight or rate of weight gain are significantly below that of other children of similar age and sex. It is a common problem that is often seen in general practice. Medical and social factors may both contribute to the condition. These range from paediatric disorders such as coeliac disease to childhood neglect. Early diagnosis and intervention are important for preventing malnutrition, as well as mental, emotional and social problems in adulthood.
Cystic Fibrosis
Authors: Williams Rachel , Barker Helen
Published: November 2010

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is the most common, life-limiting, inherited disease in Caucasian populations. Currently in the UK, there are approximately 8000 people with CF and 3 million healthy carriers. It is an autosomal recessively inherited condition that causes multisystem disease, particularly affecting the lungs and gastrointestinal tract. CF occurs in 1 in 2500 live births so with the advent of national newborn screening for this condition, GPs are likely to face more consultations relating to CF. The aim of this article is to give an overview of CF including its genetics, screening programme and diagnosis, clinical features, current management and future therapies.
Neonatal Jaundice
Authors: Urs Arun , Shivashankar Shalini , Simon Chantal
Published: November 2010

Neonatal jaundice is the most common reason for readmission to hospital in the first week of life. About 60% of term and 80% of preterm babies develop jaundice in the first week of life, and about 10% of breastfed babies are still jaundiced at 1 month of age. Mostly, neonatal jaundice is benign and does not need any intervention. However, the possibility that jaundice may be a sign of serious underlying illness warrants close consideration. This article aims to give an outline of neonatal jaundice in infants of 35 and more weeks of gestation from birth to 28 days of age, its management in primary care and indications for referral to secondary care.
Why Waste a Good Crisis?
Authors: Bhatti Naureen , Viney Rebecca
Published: November 2010

New GPs are well trained and well placed to fulfil the requirements for revalidation. However, the current job market predicted 20–30% cuts in National Health Service (NHS) spending and the rethinking of how we provide care will bring radical changes to the workplace and workforce. Doctors will need resilience, flexibility and a clear personal action plan to stay safe and thrive in the new culture of General Practice. For example, as a newly qualified doctor, you may find yourself negotiating a difficult partnership, struggling to meet clinical demands or wondering about what direction your future career path should take. This is exactly the kind of thing that mentoring can help you to navigate.
Confidentiality in Primary Care: Ethical and Legal Considerations
Authors: Slowther Anne
Published: November 2010

GPs face particular challenges in relation to confidentiality for a variety of reasons. Information about one patient may be relevant to another family member who is also the GP's patient. GPs provide continuity of care for their patients not only over time but also across multiple illnesses, minor and major. They are more likely to be aware of the social dimension of their patients' lives, for example, to know if their patient with epilepsy is driving. The GP patient record is displayed on the computer screen during a patient consultation and is visible to anyone who has accompanied the patient without the patient necessarily realizing it. These and other examples illustrate why GPs need to be aware of the ethical and legal requirements governing patient confidentiality and its implications for their work in day-to-day practice. This article describes the ethical and legal framework within which health care professionals discharge their duty of confidentiality and looks at recent General Medical Council (GMC) guidance and its practical implications.
Interstitial Lung Disease
Authors: Gillies Kirsty
Published: November 2010

Interstitial lung disease (ILD), previously known as diffuse parenchymal lung disease, refers to an extensive variety of acute and chronic disorders that have similar clinical and radiological features. These disorders cause inflammation or fibrosis of the alveolar and interstitium of the lung. The aim of this article is to give guidance on clinical assessment, causes and management of ILD.
Focused Clinical Assessment
Authors: Schroeder Knut , Chan Wai-Sun , Fahey Tom
Published: November 2010

Assessing patients clinically through taking the history and performing a physical examination provides the basis for safe and effective clinical practice. Doctors new to general practice can find it difficult to undertake an effective clinical assessment in under 10 minutes, while not missing serious illness. This article outlines strategies for assessing patients in a focused yet patient-centred way and discusses areas that can be particularly difficult.
Global protected area impacts
Authors: Joppa Lucas N. , Pfaff Alexander
Published: November 2010

Protected areas (PAs) dominate conservation efforts. They will probably play a role in future climate policies too, as global payments may reward local reductions of loss of natural land cover. We estimate the impact of PAs on natural land cover within each of 147 countries by comparing outcomes inside PAs with outcomes outside. We use ‘matching’ (or ‘apples to apples’) for land characteristics to control for the fact that PAs very often are non-randomly distributed across their national landscapes. Protection tends towards land that, if unprotected, is less likely than average to be cleared. For 75 per cent of countries, we find protection does reduce conversion of natural land cover. However, for approximately 80 per cent of countries, our global results also confirm (following smaller-scale studies) that controlling for land characteristics reduces estimated impact by half or more. This shows the importance of controlling for at least a few key land characteristics. Further, we show that impacts vary considerably within a country (i.e. across a landscape): protection achieves less on lands far from roads, far from cities and on steeper slopes. Thus, while planners are, of course, constrained by other conservation priorities and costs, they could target higher impacts to earn more global payments for reduced deforestation.
Virulence properties and integron-associated antibiotic resistance of Klebsiella mobilis strains isolated from clinical specimens
Authors: Koczura Ryszard , Mokracka Joanna , Krzymińska Sylwia , Kaznowski Adam
Published: November 2010

This study examined Klebsiella mobilis isolates cultured from clinical specimens for virulence-associated properties and antibiotic resistance. The strains produced a number of siderophores, including enterobactin, aerobactin and yersiniabactin. All isolates were able to adhere to and invade epithelial cells. They had cytotoxic activity, which caused destruction of human laryngeal epithelial HEp-2 cells and evoked lysis of murine macrophage J774 cells. Analyses of HEp-2 and J774 cellular morphology and DNA fragmentation in the cells showed features typical of cells undergoing apoptosis. Some K. mobilis strains harboured class 1 integrons carrying the aadA1 gene encoding an aminoglycoside adenyltransferase.
Manganese Limitation Induces Changes in the Activity and in the Organization of Photosynthetic Complexes in the CyanobacteriumSynechocystissp. Strain PCC 6803
Authors: Salomon Eitan , Keren Nir
Published: November 2010

Manganese (Mn) ions are essential for oxygen evolution activity in photoautotrophs. In this paper, we demonstrate the dynamic response of the photosynthetic apparatus to changes in Mn bioavailability in cyanobacteria. Cultures of the cyanobacterium Synechocystis PCC 6803 could grow on Mn concentrations as low as 100 nm without any observable effect on their physiology. Below this threshold, a decline in the photochemical activity of photosystem II (PSII) occurred, as evident by lower oxygen evolution rates, lower maximal photosynthetic yield of PSII values, and faster QA reoxidation rates. In 77 K chlorophyll fluorescence spectroscopy, a peak at 682 nm was observed. After ruling out the contribution of phycobilisome and iron stress-induced IsiA proteins, this band was attributed to the accumulation of partially assembled PSII. Surprisingly, the increase in the 682-nm peak was paralleled by a decrease in the 720-nm peak, dominated by PSI fluorescence. The effect on PSI was confirmed by measurements of the P700 photochemical activity. The loss of activity was the result of two processes: loss of PSI core proteins and changes in the organization of PSI complexes. Blue native-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis analysis revealed a Mn limitation-dependent dissociation of PSI trimers into monomers. The sensitive range for changes in the organization of the photosynthetic apparatus overlaps with the range of Mn concentrations measured in natural environments. We suggest that the ability to manipulate PSI content and organization allows cyanobacteria to balance electron transport rates between the photosystems. At naturally occurring Mn concentrations, such a mechanism will provide important protection against light-induced damage.
Relevance of monitoring metabolic reduction in patients with relapsed or refractory follicular and mantle cell lymphoma receiving bendamustine: a multicenter study
Authors: Tateishi Ukihide , Tatsumi Mitsuaki , Terauchi Takashi , Ishizawa Kenichi , Ogura Michinori , Tobinai Kensei
Published: November 2010

The aim of the present study was to investigate the relevance of monitoring metabolic reduction evaluated by 18F‐fluorodeoxyglucose (18F‐FDG) PET/CT in relapsed or refractory patients with follicular lymphoma (FL) and mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) who received bendamustine. We conducted a phantom study of 18F‐FDG PET/CT to ensure quality control for performing a multicenter clinical study. We analyzed 49 patients with relapsed or refractory FL and MCL who received bendamustine (120 mg/m2) on days 1–2 of a 21‐day cycle for up to six cycles as a licensing phase II study. 18F‐FDG PET/CT scans were acquired before the first and after the last cycle. In a total of 175 target lesions, the maximum perpendicular diameter (Max PD), minimum PD (Min PD), sum of the products of the Max PD (SPD), maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax), and the percentage reduction rates of Max PD (%Max PD), SPD (%SPD) and SUVmax (%SUVmax) were evaluated for the response to treatment. The therapeutic response was assessed after the last cycle of treatment according to the revised response criteria for malignant lymphoma (revised RC). We evaluated 134 lesions in 39 patients (76%) achieving complete response (CR) and 41 lesions in 10 patients (24%) not achieving CR. The Max PD, Min PD, SPD and SUVmax of the lesions after the last cycle were significantly higher in patients with non‐CR than in patients with CR. The %MPD, %SPD and %SUVmax of the lesions were significantly greater in patients with CR than in patients with non‐CR (P < 0.0001). Metabolic reduction was observed in all target lesions of relapsed or refractory patients with FL and MCL who achieved CR after bendamustine therapy. (Cancer Sci 2011; 102: 414–418)
Oral administration of Parabacteroides distasonis antigens attenuates experimental murine colitis through modulation of immunity and microbiota composition
Authors: Kverka M , Zakostelska Z , Klimesova K , Sokol D , Hudcovic T , Hrncir T , Rossmann P , Mrazek J , Kopecny J , Verdu E F , Tlaskalova-Hogenova H
Published: November 2010

Commensal bacteria have been shown to modulate the host mucosal immune system. Here, we report that oral treatment of BALB/c mice with components from the commensal, Parabacteroides distasonis, significantly reduces the severity of intestinal inflammation in murine models of acute and chronic colitis induced by dextran sulphate sodium (DSS). The membranous fraction of P. distasonis (mPd) prevented DSS-induced increases in several proinflammatory cytokines, increased mPd-specific serum antibodies and stabilized the intestinal microbial ecology. The anti-colitic effect of oral mPd was not observed in severe combined immunodeficient mice and probably involved induction of specific antibody responses and stabilization of the intestinal microbiota. Our results suggest that specific bacterial components derived from the commensal bacterium, P. distasonis, may be useful in the development of new therapeutic strategies for chronic inflammatory disorders such as inflammatory bowel disease.
ICT use in education: different uptake and practice in Hebrew‐speaking and Arabic‐speaking schools in Israel
Authors: Nachmias R. , Mioduser D. , Forkosh‐Baruch A.
Published: November 2010

Closing educational gaps between sub‐populations in Israel, particularly between students in Hebrew‐speaking and Arabic‐speaking schools, persists to be one of the priorities of Israel's education system. In the field of information and communication technology (ICT), this goal refers to infrastructure as well as practice, i.e. teaching and learning. A secondary analysis of Second Information Technology in Education Study 2006 study findings portrays a multifaceted state of affairs on some issues, e.g. vision and goals, attitudes on ICT importance in general and as a lever for paradigmatic change in particular. This is contrary to expectations due to the inequality in allocation (mainly of infrastructure) between the two sectors. Arabic‐speaking mathematics teachers indicate greater ICT usage in their target class, while among science teachers, Hebrew‐speaking teachers report greater usage and influence on their pedagogy, indicating innovative usage. Conclusions suggest that further effort is needed to close the gaps between Hebrew‐ and Arabic‐speaking schools as well as collaboration and exchange of ideas, information and educational experience between staff members from both sectors.
Clinical audit and quality improvement – time for a rethink?
Authors: Bowie Paul , Bradley Nicholas A. , Rushmer Rosemary
Published: November 2010

Rationale and aim  Evidence of the benefits of clinical audit to patient care is limited, despite its longevity. Additionally, numerous attitudinal, professional and organizational barriers impede its effectiveness. Yet, audit remains a favoured quality improvement (QI) policy lever. Growing interest in QI techniques suggest it is timely to re‐examine audit. Clinical audit advisors assist health care teams, so hold unique cross‐cutting perspectives on the strategic and practical application of audit in NHS organizations. We aimed to explore their views and experiences of their role in supporting health care teams in the audit process.

Method  Qualitative study using semi‐structured and focus group interviews. Participants were purposively sampled (n = 21) across health sectors in two large Scottish NHS Boards. Interviews were audio‐taped, transcribed and a thematic analysis performed.

Results  Work pressure and lack of protected time were cited as audit barriers, but these hide other reasons for non‐engagement. Different professions experience varying opportunities to participate. Doctors have more opportunities and may dominate or frustrate the process. Audit is perceived as a time‐consuming, additional chore and a managerially driven exercise with no associated professional rewards. Management failure to support and resource changes fuels low motivation and disillusionment. Audit is regarded as a ‘political’ tool stifled by inter‐professional differences and contextual constraints.

Conclusions  The findings echo previous studies. We found limited evidence that audit as presently defined and used is meeting policy makers' aspirations. The quality and safety improvement focus is shifting towards ‘alternative’ systems‐based QI methods, but research to suggest that these will be any more impactful is also lacking. Additionally, identified professional, educational and organizational barriers still need to be overcome. A debate on how best to overcome the limitations of audit and its place alongside other approaches to QI is necessary.
The application of pharmacoeconomic modelling to estimate a value‐based price for new cancer drugs
Authors: Dranitsaris George , Truter Ilse , Lubbe Martie S. , Cottrell Wayne , Spirovski Biljana , Edwards Jonathan
Published: November 2010

Rationale, aims and objectives  Value‐based pricing has recently been discussed by international bodies as a means to estimate a drug price that is linked to the benefits it offers patients and society. The World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended using three times a country's per capita gross domestic product (GDP) as the threshold for economic value. Using the WHO criteria, pharmacoeconomic modelling was used to illustrate the application of value‐based price towards bevacizumab, a relatively new drug that provides a 1.4‐month survival benefit to patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC).

Methods  A decision model was developed to simulate outcomes in mCRC patients receiving chemotherapy ± bevacizumab. Clinical data were obtained from randomized trials and costs from Canadian cancer centres. Utility estimates were determined by interviewing 24 oncology nurses and pharmacists. A price per dose of bevacizumab was then estimated using a target threshold of $CAD117 000 per quality adjusted life year gained, which is three times the Canadian per capita GDP.

Results  For a 1.4‐month survival benefit, a price of $CAD830 per dose would be considered cost‐effective from the Canadian public health care perspective. If the drug were able to improve patient quality of life or survival from 1.4 to 3 months, the drug price could increase to $CAD1560 and $CAD2180 and still be considered cost‐effective.

Discussion  The use of the WHO criteria for estimating a value‐based price is feasible, but a balance between what patients/governments can afford to pay and the commercial viability of the product in the reference country would be required.
Measuring how well the NHS looks after its own staff: methodology of the first national clinical audits of occupational health services in the NHS
Authors: Williams Siân , Rogers Caroline , Peel Penny , Harvey Samuel B. , Henderson Max , Madan Ira , Smedley Julia , Grant Robert
Published: November 2010

Rationale, aims and objectives  Little is known about the quality of occupational health care provided to National Health Service (NHS) staff. We designed the first national clinical audits of occupational health care in England. We chose to audit depression and back pain as health care workers have high levels of both conditions compared with other employment sectors. The aim of the audits was to drive up quality of care for staff with these conditions. The object of this paper is to describe how we developed an audit methodology and overcame challenges presented by the organization and delivery of occupational health care for NHS staff.

Methods  We designed two retrospective case note audits which ran simultaneously. Sites submitted up to 40 cases for each audit. We used duplicate case entry to test inter‐rater reliability and performed selection bias checks. Participants received their site's audit results, benchmarked against the national average, within 4 months of the end of the data entry period. We used electronic voting at a results dissemination conference to inform implementation activities.

Results  Occupational Health departments providing services to 278 (83%) trusts in England participated in one or both audits. Median kappa scores were above 0.7 for both pilot and full audits, indicating ‘good’ levels of inter‐rater reliability.

In total, 79% of participants at a dissemination conference said that they had changed their clinical practice either during data collection (52%) or following receipt of their audit results (27%).

Conclusions  Clinical audit can be conducted successfully in the occupational health setting. We obtained meaningful data that have stimulated local and national quality improvement activities. Our methodology would be transferable to occupational health settings outside the NHS and in other countries.
Termination troubles in Escherichia coli K12
Authors: Dreyfus Marc , Heurgué‐Hamard Valérie
Published: November 2010

In this issue of Molecular Microbiology, Schaub and Hayes report that, compared with other enterobacteria, Escherichia coli K12 carries two mutations – one in the prfB gene encoding the release factor RF2, and the other in the rpsG gene encoding r‐protein S7 – that together concur in compromising translation termination at the essential rpsG gene. As a consequence, the growth of E. coli K12 is very sensitive to a further mutation (rluD‐) that depresses RF2 activity, whereas the growth of its close relative, E. coli B, is not. We tentatively discuss how the K12‐specific mutations in RF2 and S7 might have occurred and why inefficient translation termination at rpsG inhibits growth. The work of Schaub and Hayes illustrates the fact that, due probably to its long history in the laboratory, E. coli K12 has accumulated mutations that sometimes limit its value as a model for studying basic steps in prokaryotic gene expression.
The Arabidopsis tandem zinc finger protein AtTZF1 affects ABA‐ and GA‐mediated growth, stress and gene expression responses
Authors: Lin Pei‐Chi , Pomeranz Marcelo C. , Jikumaru Yusuke , Kang Shin Gene , Hah Cyrus , Fujioka Shozo , Kamiya Yuji , Jang Jyan‐Chyun
Published: November 2010

Tandem zinc finger (TZF) proteins are characterized by two zinc‐binding CCCH motifs arranged in tandem. Human TZFs such as tristetraproline (TTP) bind to and trigger the degradation of mRNAs encoding cytokines and various regulators. Although the molecular functions of plant TZFs are unknown, recent genetic studies have revealed roles in hormone‐mediated growth and environmental responses, as well as in the regulation of gene expression. Here we show that expression of AtTZF1 (AtCTH/AtC3H23) mRNA is repressed by a hexokinase‐dependent sugar signaling pathway. However, AtTZF1 acts as a positive regulator of ABA/sugar responses and a negative regulator of GA responses, at least in part by modulating gene expression. RNAi of AtTZF1–3 caused early germination and slightly stress‐sensitive phenotypes, whereas plants over‐expressing AtTZF1 were compact, late flowering and stress‐tolerant. The developmental phenotypes of plants over‐expressing AtTZF1 were only partially rescued by exogenous application of GA, implying a reduction in the GA response or defects in other mechanisms. Likewise, the enhanced cold and drought tolerance of plants over‐expressing AtTZF1 were not associated with increased ABA accumulation, suggesting that it is mainly ABA responses that are affected. Consistent with this notion, microarray analysis showed that over‐expression of AtTZF1 mimics the effects of ABA or GA deficiency on gene expression. Notably, a gene network centered on a GA‐inducible and ABA/sugar‐repressible putative peptide hormone encoded by GASA6 was severely repressed by AtTZF1 over‐expression. Hence AtTZF1 may serve as a regulator connecting sugar, ABA, GA and peptide hormone responses.
The consequences of phenotypic plasticity for ecological speciation
Authors: THIBERT‐PLANTE X. , HENDRY A. P.
Published: November 2010

We use an individual‐based numerical simulation to study the effects of phenotypic plasticity on ecological speciation. We find that adaptive plasticity evolves readily in the presence of dispersal between populations from different ecological environments. This plasticity promotes the colonization of new environments but reduces genetic divergence between them. We also find that the evolution of plasticity can either enhance or degrade the potential for divergent selection to form reproductive barriers. Of particular importance here is the timing of plasticity in relation to the timing of dispersal. If plasticity is expressed after dispersal, reproductive barriers are generally weaker because plasticity allows migrants to be better suited for their new environment. If plasticity is expressed before dispersal, reproductive barriers are either unaffected or enhanced. Among the potential reproductive barriers we considered, natural selection against migrants was the most important, primarily because it was the earliest‐acting barrier. Accordingly, plasticity had a much greater effect on natural selection against migrants than on sexual selection against migrants or on natural and sexual selection against hybrids. In general, phenotypic plasticity can strongly alter the process of ecological speciation and should be considered when studying the evolution of reproductive barriers.
An experimental test for alternative reproductive strategies underlying a female‐limited polymorphism
Authors: COX R. M. , CALSBEEK R.
Published: November 2010

Polymorphism often corresponds to alternative mating tactics in males, but much less is known about this relationship in females. However, recent work suggests that selection for alternative reproductive strategies in females can maintain genetic variation in important life‐history traits. Brown anole lizards (Anolis sagrei) exhibit a genetically based polymorphism in dorsal pattern that is expressed only by females, which occur in bar (B), diamond (D) and intermediate diamond–bar (DB) morphs. Here, we use a combination of natural history data, captive breeding studies and phenotypic manipulations of reproductive investment to test the hypothesis that this polymorphism corresponds to morph‐specific patterns of reproductive investment. Three years of data from wild females and two generations of captive breeding revealed no differences among morphs in the frequency of egg production or in the number, frequency, size or sex ratio of offspring. Manipulations of reproductive investment via surgical ovariectomy revealed significant costs of reproduction with respect to survival, growth, immune function and haematocrit, but the magnitudes of these costs did not differ among morphs. Collectively, our results refute the hypothesis that this sex‐limited polymorphism is maintained by selection for alternative reproductive strategies. We compare this finding to other systems in which polymorphic females exhibit alternative reproductive tactics and discuss other selective factors that could maintain polymorphism in anoles.
Inbreeding depression in the competitive fertilization success of male crickets
Authors: SIMMONS L. W.
Published: November 2010

Mating between close relatives generally results in offspring of decreased fitness. Inbreeding depression is generally greater for life‐history traits than for morphological traits, and recent studies of traits subject to sexual selection suggest that these may suffer the greatest inbreeding depression. Sexual selection continues after mating in the form of sperm competition and cryptic female choice, imposing strong selection on male competitive fertilization success. Here, I examine the effects of a single generation of full‐sib mating on competitive fertilization success in a cricket, Teleogryllus oceanicus. The estimated coefficient of inbreeding depression in competitive fertilization success was 0.37, higher than that for other life‐history and morphological traits. Such intense inbreeding depression coupled with little or no additive genetic variance for this trait is consistent with strong directional selection on male competitive fertilization success generating high levels of dominance variance, and provides an adaptive explanation for the evolution of inbreeding avoidance found in this species.
Genetic differentiation of three endangered wild roses in northeastern Germany: Rosa inodora Fries, Rosa sherardii Davies and Rosa subcollina (H. Christ) Keller
Authors: Jürgens A. H. , Seitz B. , Kowarik I.
Published: November 2010

Because of increased interest in the use of local provenances for restoration or landscaping projects, information about the genetic differentiation of plant species is required to delineate provenances for seed collection. To obtain information about population distinctiveness of endangered Rosa species occurring in Brandenburg (northeast Germany), we investigated the genetic differentiation of Rosa inodora, R. sherardii and R. subcollina using RAPD markers. All three species were uncommon in our study region. Φ‐statistics, estimated by amova, revealed a low interpopulation differentiation for R. inodora (ΦPT = 0.19, P < 0.0001) and higher values for R. sherardii and R. subcollina (ΦPT = 0.29 and 0.30, P < 0.0001). UPGMA dendrograms and NMDS showed clear spatial differentiation for all species and a correlation between geographic and genetic distances. Due to predominantly high values of genetic differentiation and spatial patterns of ordination, we suggest small provenance regions for endangered Rosa species for seed collection.
Genetic variation in Mediterranean Helichrysum italicum (Asteraceae; Gnaphalieae): do disjunct populations of subsp. microphyllum have a common origin?
Authors: Galbany‐Casals M. , Blanco‐Moreno J. M. , Garcia‐Jacas N. , Breitwieser I. , Smissen R. D.
Published: November 2010

The yellow‐flowered everlasting daisy Helichrysum italicum (Asteraceae, Gnaphalieae) is widely distributed in the Mediterranean basin, where it grows in continuous and widespread populations in diverse open habitats. Helichrysum italicum subsp. microphyllum has a disjunct distribution in the Balearic Islands (Majorca and Dragonera), Corsica, Sardinia, Crete and Cyprus. Numerous morphological intermediates between subsp. italicum and subsp. microphyllum are known from Corsica, where the two subspecies co‐occur. The aims of the study were to investigate if subsp. microphyllum has a common origin, constituting an independent gene pool from subsp. italicum, or if the morphological differences between subsp. microphyllum and subsp. italicum have arisen independently in different locations from a common wider gene pool. Our analyses of AFLP, cpDNA sequences and morphological characters show that there is geographic structure to the genetic variation within H. italicum, with eastern and western Mediterranean groups, which do not correspond with the division into subsp. microphyllum and subsp. italicum as currently circumscribed. Local selection on quantitative trait loci provides sufficient explanation for the morphological divergence observed and is consistent with genetic data. Within the western Mediterranean group of the species we found considerable polymorphism in chloroplast DNA sequences among and within some populations. Comparison with chloroplast DNA sequences from other Helichrysum species showed that some chloroplast haplotypes are shared across species.