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This thesis offers a new understanding of Benjamin Disraeli’s religious thought. Historians remember Disraeli as a mercurial self-fashioner, who adopted various personae throughout his public life. In focusing on his eccentric self-fashioning as a political actor and novelist, many scholars have removed Disraeli from his nineteenth-century intellectual contexts in their analyses of his ideology. No full-length study of Disraeli’s religious position yet exists; instead, writers have subsumed his ideas about Judaism into analyses of his strategic presentation of Jewishness, and dismissed his Christian religious practice as politically expedient. This study takes a different approach. Rather than asking whether Disraeli can be considered a Christian or a Jew, it examines the complicated religious ideas that emerge from his body of written work, and especially from his novels. Disraeli’s Judeo-Christian theism was panoramically and imaginatively conceived, and therefore less invested in complex Victorian ecclesiastical politics than the religious beliefs of some of his parliamentary contemporaries. Nevertheless, his publicly-expressed ideas about faith can be comfortably situated within the dynamic religious atmosphere of nineteenth-century Britain. The main arguments are offered in Chapters 2-5, which consider salient religious themes in Disraeli’s work: his inflection of the Bible in his early novels, his figurative notion of Zionism, his religious conception of chosenness, his interest in ‘Neology’ and biblical criticism, the religious assumptions that undergird his language of race, and his view of England’s soil and constitution as sacred. Chapter 1 provides important contexts for these discussions by outlining the manner in which Disraeli’s work intervened in the religious debates of his time. Placing Disraeli’s religious ideas in these contexts not only fills an important gap in Disraeli scholarship; it also addresses methodological issues in writing religious history. Twentieth-century histories focused on Disraeli’s Romanticism, orientalism, racial otherness, and political ideology at the expense of his engagement with the religious testimonies and traditions of his time. This thesis therefore offers an important corrective to both Disraeli studies and Victorian historical scholarship.

© 2017, © Emerald Publishing Limited. Purpose: This study aims to investigate contemporary mobile learning practices in teacher education, exploring the following research question: how are teacher educators exploiting the pedagogical features of mobile learning? Design/methodology/approach: The study uses data from an online survey that elicited information about how 46 teacher educator participants were using distinctive mobile pedagogical features (Personalisation, Authenticity and Collaboration) in their mobile learning practices. It uses the iPAC theoretical framework to analyse the data collected. Findings: Findings indicated high self-ratings of authenticity, and positive perceptions of collaborative sharing (Collaboration construct), often involving generative tasks that required use of creative, media production mobile applications. There were weaker perceptions of personalisation and online conversation (Collaboration construct). In light of these findings, we discuss implications for teacher education and recommend future directions for research and development. Research limitations/implications: This study underlines our contention that teacher educators struggle to exploit the entire range of mobile pedagogical approaches. The findings suggest that teacher educators are cautiously exploring the potential for online collaboration mediated through mobile devices, but have not yet fully grasped the opportunities to design tasks which exploit (and model) the personalised nature of m-learning. The limitations of the study include the size of the sample (46), its self-selected nature and its bias towards Australian and the UK respondents. Practical implications: In response to the issues raised in this paper, the authors are developing a mobile learning toolkit (www.mobilelearningtoolkit.com) for teacher educators. Originality/value: There is a scarcity of m-learning studies in teacher education exploring pedagogical insights, and the views of teacher educators themselves are often absent.

Some patients with advanced cancer express the wish for an early death. This may be associated with depression. We examined the relations between depressive symptoms and desire for early death (natural or by euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide) in 142 terminally ill patients with cancer being cared for by a specialist palliative care team. They completed the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale questionnaire and answered four supplementary questions on desire for early death. Only 2 patients expressed a strong wish for death by some form of suicide or euthanasia. 120 denied that they ever wished for early release. The desire for early death correlated with depression scores. Depressive symptoms were common in the whole group but few were on antidepressant therapy. Better recognition and treatment of depression might improve the lives of people with terminal illness and so lessen desire for early death, whether natural or by suicide.

© 2013 Rachel Perry, Kimberley Pressick-Kilborn, Matthew Kearney. This paper reports on outcomes from a study that explored how connected learning spaces, mediated by videoconference technology, enabled real-world engagement in pre-service teacher education. Student teachers in drama and science education participated in the study, which involved varied connections with school children and their classroom teachers. Key themes that emerged were underpinned by a consideration of authentic learning: student teachers’ observations of teacher practices; enactment of multiple roles; and exposure to diverse and timely feedback. Implications for the design of discipline specific on-campus activities are considered in relation to how they inform effective integration of videoconference technology for real-world, professional engagement in teacher education.

A substantial proportion of patients with heart failure have preserved left ventricular ejection fraction (HF-PEF). Previous studies have reported mixed results whether survival is similar to those patients with heart failure and reduced EF (HF-REF). We compared survival in patients with HF-PEF with that in patients with HF-REF in a meta-analysis using individual patient data. Preserved EF was defined as an EF epsilon 50. The 31 studies included 41 972 patients: 10 347 with HF-PEF and 31 625 with HF-REF. Compared with patients with HF-REF, those with HF-PEF were older (mean age 71 vs. 66 years), were more often women (50 vs. 28), and have a history of hypertension (51 vs. 41). Ischaemic aetiology was less common (43 vs. 59) in patients with HF-PEF. There were 121 [95 confidence interval (CI): 117, 126] deaths per 1000 patient-years in those with HF-PEF and 141 (95 CI: 138, 144) deaths per 1000 patient-years in those with HF-REF. Patients with HF-PEF had lower mortality than those with HF-REF (adjusted for age, gender, aetiology, and history of hypertension, diabetes, and atrial fibrillation); hazard ratio 0.68 (95 CI: 0.64, 0.71). The risk of death did not increase notably until EF fell below 40. Patients with HF-PEF have a lower risk of death than patients with HF-REF, and this difference is seen regardless of age, gender, and aetiology of HF. However, absolute mortality is still high in patients with HF-PEF highlighting the need for a treatment to improve prognosis.

The concordance genus of a knot is the least genus of any knot in its concordance class. It is bounded above by the genus of the knot, and bounded below by the slice genus, two well-studied invariants. In this paper we consider the concordance genus of 11--crossing prime knots. This analysis resolves the concordance genus of 533 of the 552 prime 11--crossing knots. The appendix to the paper gives concordance diagrams for 59 knots found to be concordant to knots of lower genus, including null-concordances for the 30 11--crossing knots known to be slice., Comment: 21 pages, 14 figures

The literature on digital video in education emphasises the use of prefabricated, instructional-style video assets. Learning designs for supporting the use of these expert-generated video products have been developed. However, there has been a paucity of pedagogical frameworks for facilitating specific genres of learner-generated video projects. Informed by two studies, this article describes the development of a learning design for a popular genre: learner-generated digital storytelling. A particular learning design representation is used to present a structured description of an approach to digital storytelling, and issues are raised relating to future iterations of the design. © 2011 Taylor & Francis.

For over three centuries and throughout the globe, people have enthusiastically bought savings products that incorporate lottery elements. In lieu of paying traditional interest to all investors proportional to their balances, these Prize Linked Savings (PLS) accounts distribute periodic sizeable payments to some investors using a lottery-like drawing where an investor's chances of winning are proportional to one's account balances. This paper describes these products, provides examples of their use, argues for their potential popularity in the United States --especially to low and moderate income non-savers--and discusses the laws and regulations in the United States that largely prohibit their issuance.

This research project investigated the use of interactive whiteboards (IWBs) in K-12 education. Exploration of the use of IWBs in six different school settings provided insights into the activities, approaches, roles and beliefs of students and teachers in a range of primary and secondary class contexts and discipline areas. The study was informed by socio-cultural theory and a major focus was on the interactions between the new technology, pedagogy and the social conditions of the classroom. The findings presented in this paper focus on the pedagogical aspects of using IWBs that emerged from the study.

Digital video is an exciting emerging technology that can be used In schools to support, extend, or change pedagogy and curriculum outcomes. In particular, student-generated digital video has potential to enhance or change pedagogy. In this paper, we review relevant literature in this area and outline results from a recently completed research project that investigated the use of student-generated digital video projects across the K-12 curriculum In five Australian schools. Findings indicate a range of learning outcomes and pedagogical approaches. While most of our findings agree with the literature, there was less evidence of conceptual understanding of curriculum topics in our study, and a greater emphasis on audience as a key factor.

In this first such study in an Irish setting, patients referred to a Hospice Home Care Team were asked where they would prefer to die, and were then followed until death to determine actual place of death, and factors that influenced same. Over 80% expressed a preference to die at home. Almost 50% of those who expressed a preference for a home death actually died there. Of those admitted to hospital or hospice to die, uncontrolled symptoms and inability of family to cope were the main reasons precipitating admission. On closer assessment, it was felt that a significant minority of those admitted could have been cared for at home had additional resources been available in the community. Facilitating choice in place of care for the dying is acknowledged government policy and, as such, greater resources should be made available to community health and social services to support ongoing care at home.

This paper discusses student and teacher perceptions of a new development in the use of the predict-observe-explain (POE) strategy. This development involves the incorporation of POE tasks into a multimedia computer program that uses real-life, digital video clips of difficult, expensive, time consuming or dangerous scenarios as stimuli for these tasks. The program was created by the first author to be used by pairs of secondary physics students to elicit their conceptions of force and motion and encourage discussion about these views. In this computer learning environment, students were required to type full sentence responses that were recorded by the computer for later analysis by the researcher. Other data sources for this study included audio and video recordings of student discussions, interviews with selected students and their teachers, classroom observations, and student questionnaires. This paper will report on some findings from the study, focussing on student and teacher perceptions of the computer-mediated POE tasks. The findings have implications for the effective use of multimedia to enhance meaningful learning in science classrooms. © 2001 Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Fundamentos: Encuesta poblacional dirigida a conocer los factores que influyen en la elección de los alimentos de la población española. Métodos: Análisis de una muestra de todo el territorio español compuesta por 1009 individuos y seleccionada por un procedimiento aleatorio multietápico. Este estudio corresponde a la participación española en un estudio europeo sobre las actitudes de la población frente a la alimentación, nutrición y salud dirigido por el Instituto Europeo de Estudios Nutricionales de Dublín. Se determinó el porcentaje de individuos que situó a alguno de los cinco factores mencionados con más frecuencia (calidad, precio, dieta sana, condicionantes españoles, sabor) entre las tres primeras influencias en la elección de alimentos. Se ajustó un modelo multivariante para identificar los factores asociados a la elección de una dieta sana como una de las tres primeras influencias en la alimentación.Resultados: El precio influía más en los individuos de mayor edad, en niveles socioeconómicos más bajos y en individuos con menor nivel educativo. Fue mayor el impacto del precio en las mujeres de la zona Norte, Noreste y Noroeste. El sexo, la distribución geográfica, la edad y el nivel educativo presentaron un efecto independiente y significativo sobre la importancia concedida por la población a la elección de una dieta sana. Conclusiones: Los resultados sugieren la necesidad de una mayor educación sobre dieta y salud especialmente en hombre jóvenes, personas con menor nivel educativo y mujeres del Noroeste del país.

Little information exists regarding the time course of gene expression after arterial transfection. Accordingly, we sought to determine the time course of gene expression after liposome-mediated arterial gene transfer (lipofectin) using an arterial organ culture model.Explanted segments of rabbit descending thoracic aorta were maintained in organ culture. Arterial gene transfer, facilitated by cationic liposomes (Lipofectin), was performed with the plasmid pXGH5 encoding the human growth hormone (hGH) under the control of mouse metallothionein-1 promoter.The time course of hGH production after transfection with the plasmid pXGH5 was evaluated. Significant levels (181.0 +/- 33.9 ng/24 hours/gm) of hGH were detected within 24 hours post-transfection, reached a peak on day 7 (238.4 +/- 35.3 ng/24 hours/gm), and declined after day 10. At day 21, hGH could be observed in 50% of the arteries. Immunostaining with a monoclonal antibody for hGH revealed that only a small number of arterial cells (1%) were responsible for production of hGH.The organ culture model is a feasible and efficient means for investigating the kinetics of arterial gene transfer. Transfection of pXGH5 results in significant levels of hGH for up to 3 weeks, despite anatomic evidence of only limited gene expression. These data thus support the notion that the magnitude and/or duration of gene expression may be disproportionately high, relative to anatomic assessment of transfection efficiency in the case of a transgene encoding for a secreted protein.

Background: The transient and generally nonfatal nature of unstable angina has impaired the accumulation of pathologic data and the definition of the pathoanatomy of this syndrome.Methods: Atherectomy specimens from patients enrolled in CAVEAT were examined for the presence of thrombus, foam cells, cholesterol clefts, media, and adventitia. Comparison of the pathologic findings was made according to clinical presentation in the following categories: stable angina, unstable angina, and recent myocardial infarction.Results: Patients with unstable angina had a slightly higher incidence of thrombus when compared with patients presenting with stable angina (36% vs. 26%, p = .14). Within the unstable angina population some subgroups demonstrated a greater incidence of thrombus, including those whose pain was associated with ECG changes (43%, p =.06) or occurred after myocardial infarction (42%, p = .07). The incidence of thrombus was highest among patients who had a myocardial infarction within 30 days (53%, p =.004) or within 14 days (58%, p=.003). No difference between the patient groups was detected with respect to the other histologie findings.Conclusions: Atherectomy specimens from patients with unstable angina demonstrated a trend toward increasing incidence of thrombus, but this trend did not achieve statistical significance. Specimens from patients with a recent myocardial infarction did not demonstrate a significant increase in the presence of thrombus. While thrombus is a component of the pathophysiology of unstable angina in a significant number of patients, continued study is required to determine the other factors that are responsible.

A case with proteinlosing gastropathy with gastric hypersecretion of H+ and pepsin as well as hypergastrinemia is presented. Zollinger-Ellison syndrome was excluded by reduction in acid secretion and serum gastrin during the observation period as well as by the effect on gastric secretion and serum gastrin after injections of secretin and glucagon.

This paper reports on one component of a recent study which examined pre-service teachers' use of the Learning Activity Management System (LAMS) to facilitate their professional learning. Over a period of two semesters, seventeen pre-service teachers took part in an in-depth study of their professional development as a result of authoring a learning design and implementing it during their practicum. This paper reports on the preservice teachers' perceptions of LAMS' useability, flexibility and potential for use in K-12 classrooms. © 2007 Matthew Kearney and Kirsty Young.

This paper reports on a project in which a learning community of higher educators was formed to investigate how best to use mobile technologies in their own learning and teaching. Activities of this group included investigating best practice approaches by interviewing experts in the field, exploring the literature on mobile learning and then initiating and testing some mobile learning pedagogies in the context of their own higher education subjects. The community met regularly to discuss emerging issues and applications. The paper shares some of the findings gained both from the expert interviews and from the experiences of members of the community, and discusses the challenges and constraints that were experienced. We conclude with recommendations for promoting mobile learning communities in higher education. © 2010 IADIS.

Background , Questions and Methods Recent studies have emphasized that local and geographic patterns of species distributions can be set by a variety of factors related to weather and climate, including exposure to lethal environmental conditions, indirect effects on consumers and competitors, and sublethal effects of physiological stress on growth and reproduction. Predicting where, when and with what magnitude these impacts are most (and least) likely to occur is imperative if we are to effectively plan for (i.e. adapt to) the effects of climate change.We developed a series of methods for translating patterns of environmental “signals” into organismal responses in intertidal ecosystems. Importantly, “organismal climatologies” – long term patterns of organism temperature measured using in situ biomimetic sensors - show distinct differences from patterns based on environmental temperature (air or water temperature). Similarly, we explored the use of dynamic energy budget models, linked to heat budget models of animal temperature, to examine temporal and spatial patterns of sublethal stress and growth. Results and Conclusions Comparisons of four different metrics of stress- seasonal averages, extreme temperatures, number of “stressful days” (>32°C) and return time of stress events – show that temporal and spatial patterns of sublethal stress do not always track patterns of lethal exposure. In other words, simply knowing average temperature often tells us very little about exposure to extremes and vice versa. These results are consistent with the idea that extreme events can occur during the temporal synchrony of multiple “normal” events- for example low wave splash, extreme low tides and high solar radiation. Results also suggest that the combination of heat budget models with dynamic energy budgets are potentially an effective way to predict spatial patterns of intertidal organisms, but that we still need more physiological data regarding the role of aerial body temperature in driving growth and reproduction.