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Interfacial two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) formed at the perovskite-type oxide, such as SrTiO3, has attracted significant attention due to its properties of ferromagnetism, superconductivity, and its potential application in oxide-based low-power consumption electronics. Recent studies have investigated spin-to-charge conversion at the STO interface with different materials, which could affect the efficiency of this 2DEG interface. In this report, we presented an Ar^+ ion milling method to create a 2DEG at STO directly by inducing oxygen vacancies. To quantify the spin-to-charge conversion of this interface, we measured the angular-dependent spin-torque ferromagnetic resonance (ST-FMR) spectra, revealing an unconventional spin polarization at the interface of Argon ion-milled STO and NiFe. Furthermore, a micromagnetic simulation for angular-dependent spin-torque ferromagnetic resonance (ST-FMR) has been performed, confirming the large unconventional spin polarization at the interface.

The impurity incorporation in host high-spin orbit coupling materials like platinum has shown improved charge-to-spin conversion by modifying the up-spin and down-spin electron trajectories by bending or skewing them in opposite directions. This enables efficient generation, manipulation, and transport of spin currents. In this study, we irradiate the platinum with non-focus dense plasma to incorporate the oxygen ion species. We systematically analyze the spin Hall angle of the oxygen plasma irradiated Pt films using spin torque ferromagnetic resonance. Our results demonstrate a 2.4 times enhancement in the spin Hall effect after plasma treatment of Pt as compared to pristine Pt. This improvement is attributed to the introduction of disorder and defects in the Pt lattice, which enhances the spin-orbit coupling and leads to more efficient charge-to-spin conversion without breaking the spin-orbit torque symmetries. Our findings offer a new method of dense plasma-based modification of material for the development of advanced spintronic devices based on Pt and other heavy metals.

Change in the Making is a study of change in voluntary action over time. Between 2016 and 2020 it investigated the ways in which change is negotiated, created and contested by a range of different stakeholders in diverse third sector settings. It focused attention on third sector organisations as contested spaces of collective action, involving the interplay of multiple stakeholders all with different interests. The study built on the Third Sector Research Centre's ESRC-funded 'Real Times' programme of research with third sector organisations carried out between 2010 and 2014. Change in the Making focused on four case studies of voluntary action, selected from the 15 included in the original Real Times study to provide a contrasting set of organisational scales, structures, models of engagement, and trajectories of change. The dataset includes transcripts from 121 in-depth interviews from across the four case study organisations, mostly with individuals but also a small number of paired and group interviews. Interviews were conducted with several groups of respondents associated with each of the case studies: trustees, staff (management and frontline), volunteers, service users, external partners (e.g. other organisations working in similar fields in the local area, funders etc), and national stakeholders (e.g. representatives from umbrella bodies relevant to the case studies). Sampling was purposive, with individual respondents identified through working with each of the case studies over time to identify key individuals, from each of the categories of respondents. The interviews were nearly all completed face to face, and lasted on average 60 minutes, although the length varied considerably. For the Change in the Making phase of interviews, two researchers – Angela Ellis Paine (AEP) and Rob Macmillan (RM) - were present for many of the interviews, with one of them leading the interview and the other joining in as appropriate. The interviews were semi-structured, guided by a template topic guide that was adapted for individual respondents, and evolved over time as the research progressed. A copy is provided within the dataset.

Heated dot magnetic recording (HDMR) provides a path to increase the areal density of magnetic recording media beyond 4 Tb/in2. HDMR-based recording media requires ultrasmall, noninteracting, and thermally stable magnetic dots with high perpendicular anisotropy. We have synthesized nonstoichiometric Fe60Pt40 nanoclusters with and without a Pt buffer layer on silicon substrates, which shows a reduction in chemical ordering temperatures. The Fe60Pt40 nanoclusters retain the hard magnetic phase up to 1023 K with the coercive field of 1.3 Tesla due to the Pt element compensation from the buffer layer. This compensation of Pt was confirmed through X-ray diffraction (XRD) investigations where two distinct phases of Fe3Pt and FePt3 are observed at elevated annealing temperatures. Micromagnetic simulations were performed to understand the effect of magnetic anisotropy, dipolar interaction, and exchange coupling between the soft magnetic Fe3Pt and hard magnetic FePt. The results imply that nonstoichiometric Fe60Pt40 with the Pt buffer layer facilitates low chemical ordering temperatures retaining the high perpendicular anisotropy with minimal noninteracting behavior, suitable for HDMR.

The role of external suppliers across statutory health insurance procurement processes varies widely and is a source of political contention throughout the modern world. We comprehensively examine the role of non-profit organisations in public health procurement within publicly funded healthcare which runs parallel to private provision in a 'two-tier' system. We build a unique 'Big Data' based pipeline which scrapes tens of thousands of heterogeneous accounting datasets from across a commissioning hierarchy. These datasets provide granular information on every element of procurement at the micro-level (where the value of a transaction is greater than twenty-five thousand pounds), mandated by transparency requirements introduced by David Cameron in 2010. We develop tools to scrape, parse, and reconcile suppliers with institutional registers. The processed dataset contains over four hundred and forty-five billion pounds worth of commissioning across over 1.9 million rows of clean data. Approximately 1% at each level of procurement comes from institutions listed on the Charity Commission for England and Wales: a number relatively consistent across time, despite contractual patterns. We show a slight regional variation and analyse the 'North-South' divide. Linking to the International Classification of Non-profit Organizations, we show involvement of multiple different types of charity, with more payments going to the 'Social Services' aggregate, but the highest cumulative values going to the 'Health' aggregate. We analyse the distribution across various sizes and ages, from grassroots to 'Super Major' non-profits, and analyse variation over time. We conclude with a re-evaluation of the effects of the controversial Health and Social Care Act of 2012 and the integration of the free market and volunteerism, otherwise known as the 'Big Society'.

Knowledge of the three-dimensional movement patterns of elasmobranchs is vital to understand their ecological roles and exposure to anthropogenic pressures. To date, comparative studies among species at global scales have mostly focused on horizontal movements. Our study addresses the knowledge gap of vertical movements by compiling the first global synthesis of vertical habitat use by elasmobranchs from data obtained by deployment of 989 biotelemetry tags on 38 elasmobranch species. Elasmobranchs displayed high intra- and interspecific variability in vertical movement patterns. Substantial vertical overlap was observed for many epipelagic elasmobranchs, indicating an increased likelihood to display spatial overlap, biologically interact, and share similar risk to anthropogenic threats that vary on a vertical gradient. We highlight the critical next steps toward incorporating vertical movement into global management and monitoring strategies for elasmobranchs, emphasizing the need to address geographic and taxonomic biases in deployments and to concurrently consider both horizontal and vertical movements.

Background Primary transplantation was developed in the 1980s as an alternative therapy to palliative reconstruction of uncorrectable congenital heart disease. Although transplantation achieved more favorable results, its utilization has been limited by the availability of donor organs. This review examines the long-term outcomes of heart transplantation in neonates at our institution. Methods The institutional pediatric heart transplant database was queried for all neonatal heart transplants performed between 1985 and 2017. Follow-up was obtained from medical records and an annually administered questionnaire. Overall survival and time to development of complications were estimated using the Kaplan Meier method. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to identify independent predictors of survival. Results Heart transplantation was performed in 104 neonates. Median age was 17 days. Hypoplastic left heart syndrome (classic or variant) was the primary diagnosis in 77.8% of patients. Survival at 10 years and 25 years was 73.9% and 55.8%, respectively. At 20 years, freedom from allograft vasculopathy and lymphoproliferative disease was 72.0% and 81.9%, respectively. Freedom from re-transplantation was 81.4% at 20 years. Eight patients (7.6%) developed end-stage renal disease. By multivariate analysis, lower glomerular filtration rate and allograft vasculopathy were the only significant predictors of death. Conclusions Neonatal heart transplantation remains a durable therapy with very acceptable long-term survival. Children transplanted in the newborn period have the potential to reach adulthood with minimal need for reintervention.

Electrical control of photogenerated THz spin current pulses from a spintronic emitter has been at the forefront for the development of scalable, cost-efficient, wideband opto-spintronics devices. Artificially combined ferroelectric and ferromagnet heterostructure provides the potential avenue to control the spin dynamics efficiently utilizing the magnetoelectric coupling. The demonstration of the electric field control of spin dynamics has so far been limited up to gigahertz frequencies. Here, we demonstrate the electric field mediated piezoelectric strain control of photogenerated THz spin current pulse from a multiferroic spintronic emitter. The phase reversal of the THz spin current pulse is obtained from the combined effect of piezoelectric strain and a small constant magnetic field applied opposite to the initial magnetization of the ferromagnet. The piezoelectric strain-controlled phase switching of THz spin current thus opens a door to develop efficient strain engineered scalable on-chip THz spintronics devices., Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures

Executive Summary\ud A substantial proportion of the British population supports charities by giving time and money, and the work of charitable organisations affects the daily lives of most people.\ud During the 2020 COVID-19 crisis there has been an unprecedentedly high response to fundraising efforts for NHS charities, notably that organized by 99 year old war veteran Tom Moore.\ud Despite evident public generosity, there are ongoing debates about the ‘right role’ for charity in relation to state provision as well as concerns about ‘poor practice’ in UK charities, often fueled by media coverage, and these have prompted a number of policy and regulatory initiatives, particularly in relation to fundraising. \ud Taking a historical ‘long view’ shows that public concerns about charities and charitable practice are long-standing. This paper presents evidence from studies conducted in 1947, 1991 and 2015 which show striking consistency across seventy years in terms of: a lack of detailed public knowledge about the charity sector; ongoing debates about the scope and limits of governmental responsibility and charitable initiative; widespread concern about waste and duplication of charitable efforts; and an enduring sense of frustration with fundraising tactics. \ud We thus highlight the need to be aware of the existence of a significant and enduring paradox: the reliance of British charity on sceptical but nonetheless supportive donors.\ud We conclude that efforts to improve the workings of the charity sector (either through legislation or through sector-led initiatives to raise standards) should take account of this paradox by providing a balanced view of the behavior of charities. \ud Charities can rightly be expected to be held to high standards of behaviour, but so too should those who wish to criticise them. If more is to be expected of charity, it is essential that there is a reasoned and open debate rather than the platitudes and ideological criticisms that have marked public discussion recently.

Mean elemental ratios ( SD) by spawning area.

Supplemental material, nvsq-accepted-charity-density-and-social-need_a-longitudinal-perspective_supplementary-materials_20200118 for Charity Density and Social Need: A Longitudinal Perspective by Diarmuid McDonnell, John Mohan and Paul Norman in Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly

Neonatal heart transplantation was developed and established in the 1980’s as a durable modality of therapy for complex-uncorrectable heart disease. Patients transplanted in the neonatal period have experienced unparalleled long-term survival, better than for any other form of solid-organ transplantation. However, the limited availability of neonatal and young infant donors has restricted the indications and applicability of heart transplantation among newborns in the current era. Indications for heart transplantation include congenital heart disease not amenable to other forms of surgical palliation, and cardiomyopathy, including some primary tumors. Use of ABO-incompatible transplants, and organs with prolonged cold ischemic time or marginal function have all been associated with good outcomes in infants. These extended strategies to increase the donor pool may also someday include donation after determination of circulatory death and the use of anencephalic donors. The operative techniques for donors and recipients of neonatal heart transplantation are unique and have been well-described. Immunosuppression protocols for neonates need not include induction and are largely steroid-free. Newborn and young infant transplant recipients have fewer episodes of rejection, less coronary allograft vasculopathy, less post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease and less renal dysfunction than their older counterparts. Long-term outcomes have been very encouraging in terms of graft survival, patient survival, and quality of life. Our review highlights the history, current indications, techniques and outcomes of heart transplantation in this immunologically-privileged subset of patients.

Damping-like torque (DLT) arising from the spin Hall effect (SHE) in heavy metals and their alloys has been widely explored for applications in spin–orbit torque MRAM, auto-oscillations, spin waves, and domain wall motion. In conventional materials, the DLT efficiency is limited by intrinsic properties, while attaining strong spin–orbit coupling and higher spin-charge interconversion, with no compromise to electric properties, is the need of the hour. In this Letter, we report more than 3.5 times increase in DLT efficiency, θDL, of modified Pt-oxide by employing a better approach of low energy 20 keV O+ ion implantation. The highest fluence of O+ implantation (1 × 1017 ions cm−2) in Pt enhanced the DLT efficiency from 0.064 to 0.230 and improved the spin transmission for a smaller trade-off in the longitudinal resistivity (ρPt to ρPt−Oxide) from 55.4 to 159.5 μΩ cm, respectively. The transverse spin Hall resistivity, ρSH, is found to be proportional to the square of the longitudinal resistivity, i.e., ρimpSH∝ρ2imp, implying that the enhanced SHE in O-implanted Pt is due to a side-jumping mechanism. Further, no break in the twofold as well as mirror symmetry of torques from the O-implanted Pt allows the use of spin-torque ferromagnetic resonance-based line shape analysis to quantify such torques.

The financial position of English social policy charities has received much attention, with a particular focus on the difficulties that small- and medium-sized organisations are experiencing. However, in this article we show that the evidence base has a number of limitations. We then demonstrate, analysing data from a survey of more than 1,000 charities, that organisational size, per se, is only one dimension of the problem: perceptions that the operating and financial environment is challenging are related to other organisational characteristics. We then add to the survey data indicators of financial vulnerability to investigate whether there is a relationship between perception (responses to questions about the resources available to charities) and financial reality (the recent financial history of these charities). Somewhat reassuringly, however, we demonstrate that there is a degree of consistency between the perceptions that organisations report and we discuss the implications of the findings.

There has recently been public discussion of the rewards available to senior staff in English and Welsh charities. However, that discussion is usually based on examples of individual salaries, or on unrepresentative and small subsets of the charity population. To provide a robust and informed basis for debate, we have conducted analyses of evidence on the payment of high salaries (defined as the numbers of people paid above £60 000 p.a., a reporting threshold used by the Charity Commission) in (a) a representative sample of c.10 000 English and Welsh charities, and (b) surveys of individuals regarding comparative salary levels in different sectors of the economy. Overall, survey data shows that the proportion of staff in receipt of high salaries is lower than average in the third sector than in other sectors. Information from charity annual accounts is used to demonstrate which charities are more likely than others to pay such salaries, and to relate the likelihood of paying high salaries to charity characteristics (income, location, and subsector). We show that the distribution of high pay in the charitable sector is largely a function of the size and complexity of organisations, and is generally unrelated to subsector or income mix.

As upper-level predators, sharks are important for maintaining marine food web structure, but populations are threatened by fishery exploitation. Sustainable management of shark populations requires improved understanding of migration patterns and population demographics, which has traditionally been sought through physical and/or electronic tagging studies. The application of natural tags such as elemental variations in mineralized band pairs of elasmobranch vertebrae cartilage could also reveal endogenous and exogenous processes experienced by sharks throughout their life histories. Here, elemental profiles were characterized in vertebrae encompassing complete life histories (birth-to-death) of shortfin mako (Isurus oxyrinchus), common thresher (Alopias vulpinus) and blue shark (Prionace glauca) of known tag and recapture locations in the eastern North Pacific Ocean. All sharks were injected with oxytetracycline at initial capture, released and subsequently recaptured, with individual liberty times ranging from 215 days to 6 years. Vertebral band pairs forming over the liberty intervals were verified by counting the number of band pairs deposited since the oxytetracycline band. Regular oscillations in vertebrae manganese (Mn) content corresponded well with the number of validated band pairs, suggesting that Mn variation could be used to age sharks. Increases in vertebrae barium concentration were correlated with times when individuals occupied areas with high coastal upwelling indices, the timing and spatial intensity of which varied from year to year. Interspecific relationships were probably influenced by behavioural differences in horizontal and vertical habitat use, feeding habits and thermoregulatory physiology. These results indicate that vertebral sclerochronology has the potential to advance our knowledge of elasmobranch life history including age and growth estimation and environmental reconstruction.

The article reads David Fincher’s Fight Club (1999) and Darren Aronofsky’s film The Wrestler (2008) as films that deploy masochistic spectacles of heroically suffering white men. Both Fincher and Aronofsky are well known for their dark and sometimes surreal films that frequently take up violence as a theme (Mayshark, 2007). They are also prominent auteurial voices, nominated for and winning multiple prominent film awards. Both Fincher and Aronofsky are, the article argues, representatives of a class of American directors who, starting in the early 1990s, made independent art house films and won accolades at various film festivals, making anti-mainstream, if not subversive cinema. These filmmakers of the 1990s sustained the spirit of enquiry that was the hallmark of the auteurs of the New Hollywood age. Our contention is that Fincher’s Fight Club and Aronofsky’s The Wrestler can be accommodated on this list as films made by subversive filmmakers and that they share common features owing to their commitment to explore constructions of masculinity and performances of the same. The question that the article seeks to address is—does David Savran’s framework offered in Taking it Like a Man: White Masculinity, Masochism, and Contemporary American Culture (1998) predict the distinct male posturing of masochistically suffering white men visible in Fight Club and The Wrestler? The article will primarily use the theoretical framework offered by David Savran to examine where Fight Club and The Wrestler are situated with respect to the mainstream Hollywood fare featuring hyper-masculine heroes.

Accumulation of unfolded proteins within the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) triggers a highly conserved stress response mechanism termed the unfolded protein response (UPR). The UPR is a complex series of signaling pathways controlled by ER localized transmembrane receptors, PERK, ATF6 and IRE1α. Following activation IRE1α splices XBP-1 mRNA facilitating the formation of a potent transcription factor, spliced XBP-1. The BCL-2 family members, BAX and BAK, in addition to the mitochondrion also localize to the ER and have been demonstrated to directly interact with IRE1α promoting its activity. In this study we show that in addition to BAX and BAK, the anti-apoptotic BCL-2 protein can regulate IRE1α activity. Enhanced splicing of XBP-1 was observed in BCL-2 overexpressing cells implicating BCL-2 in the complex regulation of IRE1α activity.

Introduction - Timely access to the right kind of support for people experiencing a mental health crisis can be problematic. The voluntary sector (VS) plays a key role in providing support and enabling access, but there is a knowledge gap concerning its contribution and interface with public services in mental health crisis care. \ud \ud Methods and analysis - This study aims to address this. The study has three empirical elements: (1) a national survey of voluntary sector organisations (VSOs) in England and national stakeholder interviews to develop a typology of organisations and interventions provided by VSOs; (2) detailed mapping of VS services in two regions through interviews and extending the national survey; (3) four case studies, identified from the regional mapping, of VS mental health crisis services and their interface with National Health Service (NHS) and local authority services, at both a system and individual level. Data collection will involve interviews with commissioners; VSO and NHS or local authority providers; and focus groups with people who have experience of VSO crisis support, both service users and carers; and mapping the crisis trajectory of 10 service users in each study site through narrative interviews with service users and informal carers to understand the experience of VSO crisis care and its impact. \ud \ud Ethics and dissemination - The University of Birmingham Humanities and Social Sciences Ethical Review Committee granted ethical approval (reference ERN_16-1183) for the national and regional elements of the study. Ethical review by the Health Research Authority will be required for the case study research once the sites have been identified from the first two elements of the study. A range of methods including a policy seminar, publication in academic journals and a tool kit for commissioners and practitioners will be produced to maximise the impact of the findings on policy and practice.

Social question answering (SQA) services are social media applications that are dedicated platforms where users ask, answer and rate content interactively, resulting in building a community of users. SQA services are rich in micro-collaborations which are referred to as brief, informal episodes of collaborative information seeking. Micro-collaborations have gathered interest in the educational domain because of new ways of engaging students in collaborative information seeking. Previous studies in the field of computer supported collaborative learning are based on various theoretical and methodological approaches that examined different units of analysis. Yet, amid on-going research efforts, there still persist a lack of an overarching understanding on how micro-collaborations enhance collaborative learning in SQA services. Hence, this study aims to understand the distribution of knowledge, cognitive process and social dimension that learners demonstrate in micro-collaborations in a SQA service. Data was collected from Piazza, a SQA service used for teaching Java programming for bachelor students and analyzed using the integrated framework. Findings suggest that micro-collaborations in SQA services promote all the three dimensions including knowledge, cognitive process and social dimensions. The findings reveal that social dimension in micro-collaborations promote collaborative learning by enhancing community building, developing self-identity, and improving relational dynamics, which in turn support learning in various knowledge levels and improve the cognitive process in learning. This study serves as a foundation for researchers to study social dimension along with knowledge and cognitive process, to understand the dynamics of micro-collaborations involved in collaborative learning. As for practitioners, they can look into creating environments for collaborative learning rich in micro-collaborations in both physical as well as digital space.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the predictors of high‐quality answers in a community‐driven question answering service (Yahoo! Answers).Design/methodology/approachThe identified predictors were organised into two categories: social and content features. Social features refer to the community aspects of the users and are extracted from explicit user interaction and feedback. Content features refer to the intrinsic and extrinsic content quality of answers that could be used to select the high‐quality answers. In total the framework built in this study comprises 17 features from two categories. Based on a randomly selected dataset of 1,600 question‐answer pairs from Yahoo! Answers, high‐quality answer predictors were identified.FindingsThe results of the analysis showed the importance of content appraisal features over social and textual content features. The features identified as strongly associated with high‐quality answers include positive votes, completeness, presentation, reliability and accuracy. Features weakly associated with high‐quality answers were high frequency words, answer length, and best answers answered. Features related to the asker's user history were found not to be associated with high‐quality answers.Practical implicationsThis work could help in the reuse of answers for new questions. The study identified features that most influence the selection of high‐quality answers. Hence they could be used to select high‐quality answers for answering similar questions posed by users in the future. When a new question is posed, similar questions are first identified, and the answers for these questions are extracted and routed to the proposed quality framework for identifying high‐quality answers. Based on the overall quality index computed, the high‐quality answer could be returned to the asker.Originality/valuePrevious studies in identifying high‐quality answers were conducted using either of two approaches. First using social and textual content features found in community‐driven question answering services and second using content appraisal features by thorough assessment of answer quality provided by experts. However no study had integrated both approaches. Hence this study addresses this gap by developing an integrated generalisable framework to identify features that influence high‐quality answers.

In coronary angiography, differentiating coronary artery (CA) dissection and thrombosis can be difficult creating diagnostic equipoise and impacting clinical care. We report a case of a 39 year old male with history of Marfan's syndrome and ascending aortic aneurysm status post Bentall

XIAP is an important antiapoptotic protein capable of conferring resistance to cancer cells. Embelin, the small molecular inhibitor of XIAP, possesses wide spectrum of biological activities with strong inhibition of nuclear factor kappa B and downstream antiapoptotic genes. However, the mechanism of its cell death induction is not known. Our studies using colon cancer cells lacking p53 and Bax suggest that both lysosomes and mitochondria are prominent targets of embelin-induced cell death. Embelin induced cell-cycle arrest in G(1) phase through p21, downstream of p53. In the absence of p21, the cells are sensitized to death in a Bax-dependent manner. The loss of mitochondrial membrane potential induced by embelin was independent of Bax and p53, but lysosomal integrity loss was strongly influenced by the presence of p53 but not by Bax. Lysosomal role was further substantiated by enhanced cathepsin B activity noticed in embelin-treated cells. p53-dependent lysosomal destabilization and cathepsin B activation contribute for increased sensitivity of p21-deficient cells to embelin with enhanced caspase 9 and caspase 3 activation. Cathepsin B inhibitor reduced cell death and cytochrome c release in embelin-treated cells indicating lysosomal pathway as the upstream of mitochondrial death signaling. Deficiency of cell-cycle arrest machinery renders cells more sensitive to embelin with enhanced lysosomal destabilization and caspase processing emphasizing its potential therapeutic importance to address clinical drug resistance.

Negative perceptions of anti-social behaviour have been shown by previous research to have harmful repercussions to both an individual’s mental and physical health as well as the neighbourhood’s long-term prospects. Studies in the USA have previously found that the location of alcohol supply points is associated with these negative perceptions, whereas recent, more qualitative and ethnographic research from the UK emphasises the heterogenous and contingent nature of attitudes and perceptions towards alcohol consumption patterns and behaviour. Using multilevel models applied to data from a national crime survey and geocoded data on pubs, bars and nightclubs, this paper focuses on the complex relationship between perceptions of alcohol-related anti-social behaviour and the density of such establishments across England. The findings support the general link between unfavourable perceptions and density of outlets but also highlight the complexity of this association by showing that these relationships are dependent on other characteristics of the neighbourhood, namely deprivation and the proportion of young people in the neighbourhood.

A best evidence topic in thoracic surgery was written according to a structured protocol. The question addressed was, 'in adult patients who require a tube thoracostomy, is the trocar technique comparable to blunt dissection in terms of rate of tube malposition or complications?' Altogether more than 258 papers were found using the reported search, of which 7 represented the best evidence to answer the clinical question. The authors, journal, date and country of publication, patient group studied, study type, relevant outcomes and results of these papers were tabulated. The articles included two retrospective reviews, three prospective observational studies and two prospective randomized studies. Of these, four papers concluded that the trocar technique was associated with a significantly higher rate of tube malposition and complications. One retrospective review found that the rate of tube malposition was similar in both groups; however, the trocar technique was abandoned due to the occurrence of severe complications like lung and stomach injury. Another study found that blunt dissection into the pleural space followed by the use of a trocar to direct the chest tube was as safe as and even more effective than blunt dissection alone. A randomized prospective study in cadavers comparing blunt vs sharp tip trocars reported that the use of blunt tip trocars resulted in less complications. We conclude that the trocar technique for chest tube placement should be avoided in adult patients as it is associated with a higher incidence of malposition and complications. The blunt dissection technique with digital exploration of the pleural cavity prior to chest tube placement is the safest technique and should be considered standard practice.

The measurement of voluntary activity is not straightforward; definitional and methodological questions affect the responses. This is true within the context of the UK but also in other countries of the developed world (Archambault 1993, Kendall and Knapp 1993, Gidron and Katz 1998, Salamon and Sokolowski 2001). The existence of definitional difficulties and ambiguities has a detrimental impact on the quality of academic research and policy-making in this sphere. Firstly, it impedes orderly collection of statistical information on volunteering in administrative sources. Also, it complicates the collection of survey information: the absence of well-understood and widely-agreed concepts of voluntarism in the public mind introduces uncertainty in people’s responses. To date, however, there has not been an attempt to compare findings of different surveys systematically. This paper aims to fill the gap in research by reviewing the available surveys for the UK. It focuses specifically on the methods used to obtain information on volunteering and the comparability of the results generated by different surveys.

In a Community Question Answering (CQA) service, each user interaction is different and since there are a variety of complex questions, identifying similar questions for reusing answers is difficult. This is mainly because of lexical mismatch problem. This research aims to develop a quadripartite graph-based clustering (QGC) approach by harnessing relationship of a question with common answers and associated users. It was found that QGC approach outperformed other baseline clustering techniques in identifying similar questions in CQA corpora. We believe that these findings can serve to guide future developments in the reuse of similar question in CQA services.

Community Question Answering (CQA) services are defined as dedicated platforms for users to respond to other users’ questions, resulting in the building of a community where users share and interactively give ratings to questions and answers (Liu et al., 2008). CQA services are emerging as a valuable information resource that is rich not only in the expertise of the user community but also their interactions and insights. However, current research efforts in CQA services failed to address how the heavy dependence on other users’ participation can be alleviated. Moreover, scholarly inquiries have yet to dovetail into a composite research stream where techniques gleaned from question answering (QA) research could be exploited for automating CQA services by harnessing its information richness. The goal of this research was to propose an approach that adapts and applies techniques from QA research and related fields to harness user-generated questions, answers and related metadata from CQA corpora. The research question addressed to achieve the research goal was: Given a newly posed question not found in a CQA corpus, how can this corpus be harnessed to return high-quality answers? The two research objectives addressed in this research were: 1. To match a newly posed question to those of a similar nature found in the corpus. 2. To select high-quality answers to the newly posed question from all candidate answers for similar questions. Doctor of Philosophy (SCI)

Laurie Taylor talks to Professor Harvey Molotch from New York University about his book examining public conveniences from a sociological, architectural and town planning perspective. Laurie also discusses the idea of a 'civic core'- who volunteers in their community and how? - and talks to Professor John Mohan about his research paper exploring volunteerism. They are joined by Professor Su Maddock.

XIAP is an important antiapoptotic protein capable of conferring resistance to cancer cells. Embelin, the small molecular inhibitor of XIAP, possesses wide spectrum of biological activities with strong inhibition of nuclear factor kappa B and downstream antiapoptotic genes. However, the mechanism of its cell death induction is not known. Our studies using colon cancer cells lacking p53 and Bax suggest that both lysosomes and mitochondria are prominent targets of embelin-induced cell death. Embelin induced cell-cycle arrest in G(1) phase through p21, downstream of p53. In the absence of p21, the cells are sensitized to death in a Bax-dependent manner. The loss of mitochondrial membrane potential induced by embelin was independent of Bax and p53, but lysosomal integrity loss was strongly influenced by the presence of p53 but not by Bax. Lysosomal role was further substantiated by enhanced cathepsin B activity noticed in embelin-treated cells. p53-dependent lysosomal destabilization and cathepsin B activation contribute for increased sensitivity of p21-deficient cells to embelin with enhanced caspase 9 and caspase 3 activation. Cathepsin B inhibitor reduced cell death and cytochrome c release in embelin-treated cells indicating lysosomal pathway as the upstream of mitochondrial death signaling. Deficiency of cell-cycle arrest machinery renders cells more sensitive to embelin with enhanced lysosomal destabilization and caspase processing emphasizing its potential therapeutic importance to address clinical drug resistance.

In a question answering (QA) system, each user interaction with the system is different and since there are a variety of arguably correct answers to complex questions, identifying factors for improving the quality of the retrieved answer is difficult. This research aims to develop a framework that identifies predictive variables for the best quality answer in a QA system. It was found that accuracy, completeness and relevance were predictors of best answer. We believe that these findings can serve to guide future developments in the answer extraction modules in the QA systems.

We present a trend analysis of the question answering (QA) domain. Bibliometric mapping was used to sketch the boundary of the domain by uncovering the topics central to and peripheral to QA research in the new millennium. This paper visualizes the evolution of concepts in the QA domain by studying the dynamics of the QA research during the periods 2000 --- 2003 and 2004 --- 2007. It was found that question classification, answer extraction, information retrieval, user interface, performance evaluation, web, & natural language were the main topics in current QA research.

This study investigates the information needs and seeking behaviour of the communication professionals at the School of Communication and Information, NTU. This study explores the usage of different information sources, importance and reasons for using them, usage of online databases, and the adequacy of collections and resources at ACRC. Master of Science (Information Studies)

This research aims to develop a model for identifying predictive variables for the selection of the best quality answer in a question-answering (QA) system. It was found that accuracy, completeness and relevance are strong predictors of the quality of the answer. Accepted version

20 pages, 3 tables, 5 figures.-- Samantha Andrzejaczek ... et al.-- Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License 4.0 (CC BY-NC), Knowledge of the three-dimensional movement patterns of elasmobranchs is vital to understand their ecological roles and exposure to anthropogenic pressures. To date, comparative studies among species at global scales have mostly focused on horizontal movements. Our study addresses the knowledge gap of vertical movements by compiling the first global synthesis of vertical habitat use by elasmobranchs from data obtained by deployment of 989 biotelemetry tags on 38 elasmobranch species. Elasmobranchs displayed high intra- and interspecific variability in vertical movement patterns. Substantial vertical overlap was observed for many epipelagic elasmobranchs, indicating an increased likelihood to display spatial overlap, biologically interact, and share similar risk to anthropogenic threats that vary on a vertical gradient. We highlight the critical next steps toward incorporating vertical movement into global management and monitoring strategies for elasmobranchs, emphasizing the need to address geographic and taxonomic biases in deployments and to concurrently consider both horizontal and vertical movements, Data analysis was funded by the Bertarelli Foundation through the Marine Science program through grants to D.J.C., B.A.B., and S.A. D.J.C. is also funded through Research England, UK. S.A. and B.A.B. thank the Moore Foundation and the Packard Foundation. F.G.-M. thanks the Instituto Politecnico Nacional for fellowships (COFAA, EDI). S.B.W. thanks funding from the Darwin Initiative (DPLUS046). A.D.M.D. acknowledges funding from the Research and Conservation Budget at Georgia Aquarium, including philanthropic gifts from several anonymous donors. K.F. acknowledges funding from the Rolex Awards for Enterprise and the Whitley Fund for Nature