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Dosimetry for kilovoltage X-ray units requires a careful choice of equipment due a typically high energy dependence of standard detectors. The use of optically stimulated luminescence detectors (OSLDs) for in-vivo dosimetry and the measurement of relative output factors is investigated in this study. Supralinearity and the suitability of OSLDs for relative dose measurements are determined for the Landauer nanoDot OSLD system (Landauer, Inc., Greenwood, IL). OSLDs were found to exhibit supralinearity for therapeutic doses in kV X-rays, with the effect more pronounced in lower energy beams. Relative lead cutout factors measured with OSLDs were well within 5% of published values. OSLD measurements of applicator factors at the surface of a water phantom showed a systematic offset (> + 5%) to derived values and values measured with a PTW 23342 soft X-ray ionisation chamber (PTW, Freiburg, Germany), due to the change in source-to-skin distance (SSD) between the applicators used in this study. OSLDs are suitable for relative dosimetry in kilovoltage beams between 80 and 120 kVp when the SSD similar to the calibration/reference conditions.

Data science is becoming a mainstay in research. Despite this, very few STEM graduates matriculate with basic formal training in programming. The current lesson plan was developed to introduce undergraduates studying chemistry or biology to chemoinformatics and data science in medicinal chemistry. The objective of this lesson plan is to introduce students to common techniques used in analyzing medicinal chemistry data sets, such as visualizing chemical space, filtering to molecules that observe the Lipinski rules of drug-likeness, and principal component analysis. The content provided in this lesson plan is intended to serve as a tutorial-based reference for aspiring researchers. The lesson plan is split into two three-hour class sessions, each with an introductory slide deck, Python notebook consisting of several modules, and lab report template. During this activity, students learned to parse medicinal chemistry data sets with Python, perform simple machine learning analyses, and develop interactive graphs. During each session, students complete the Python notebook protocol and fill out a lab report template after a short lecture. By the end of the lesson plan, students were able to generate and manipulate various plots of chemical space and they reported having increased confidence in their understanding of chemistry, Python, and data science.

Hearing screening and intervention prove particularly challenging with NICU babies. Extra vigilance and parent support are required. Infants' experiences in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) are highly variable, depending [...]

Intermetallic nanoparticles show unique electronic, magnetic, and optical properties. Nonetheless, methods of their synthesis with both size and phase control are scarce, restricting exploration of these materials’ applications. We demonstrate synthetic protocols toward freestanding intermetallic nanoparticles consisting of d-block transition metals and p-block metals/metalloids, including CrSn2, MnSn2, FeSn2, MnSb, FeSb2, and CoSb. Reaction variables such as precursor type, temperature, reagent concentration, and reducing agent are all shown to affect the size and/or phase of the intermetallic nanoparticles. The ubiquity of these protocols is demonstrated by showing the magnetic characterization of MnSb nanoparticles as a function of both size and Mn/Sb stoichiometry. The synthetic protocols established here are expected to be readily adaptable to other intermetallic systems.

This article examines the New South Wales Joint Protocol to Reduce the Contact of Young People in Residential OOHC with the Criminal Justice System(2016)from the perspective of residential out-of-home-care providers, police, lawyers and departmental staff involved in the child welfare and criminal justice systems in New South Wales.

This article presents qualitative data from interviews with 46 welfare and justice professionals to examine the criminalisation of children who go missing within the Out‐Of‐Home‐Care (OOHC) residential environment. Participants had specific experience with children living in residential facilities, either through the direct provision of care services, the development of OOHC policy initiatives or through their role as law enforcement, legal or justice personnel. The research found that agency practices, which were designed to protect children, actually serve to conflate going missing with criminality, accelerating children's involvement in the justice system and ultimately endangering children's safety.

The instability of pyrite nanocrystals’ (NCs) surfaces toward defect formation has until now impeded most applications of these materials. Here, we synthesize FeS2/FeSexcore/shell NCs, with a shell largely composed of hexagonal-phase FeSe. The direct band gap of pyrite was not significantly changed due to the iron selenide coating while reduced trap state influence on charge carriers was revealed after the reaction forming the FeSexlayer. The core/shell NCs had significantly higher surface electrical resistivity compared to pyrite. In addition, the iron selenide shell changed the net magnetic character of the NCs from diamagnetic to ferrimagnetic. The core/shell NC synthesis developed here eliminates the issue of intrinsic surface defects in pyrite NCs, and the NCs are expected to find utility as bifunctional NCs in room-temperature magnetoelectronic devices or in biomedical applications.

Bimetallic nanostructures show exciting potential as materials for effective photothermal hyperthermia therapy. We report the seed-mediated synthesis of palladium–gold (Pd–Au) nanostructures containing multiple gold nanocrystals on highly branched palladium seeds. The nanostructures were synthesized viathe addition of a gold precursor to a palladium seed solution in the presence of oleylamine, which acts as both a reducing and a stabilizing agent. The interaction and the electronic coupling between gold nanocrystals and between palladium and gold broadened and red-shifted the localized surface plasmon resonance absorption maximum of the gold nanocrystals into the near-infrared region, to give enhanced suitability for photothermal hyperthermia therapy. Pd–Au heterostructures irradiated with an 808 nm laser light caused destruction of HeLa cancer cells in vitro, as well as complete destruction of tumor xenographs in mouse models in vivofor effective photothermal hyperthermia.

The question of whether there are offenders who specialise in violent offences is one that has been of considerable interest to life course developmental criminology as well as policy makers and the public. The current study investigated this using an administrative dataset of juvenile offenders from New South Wales, Australia. Specifically, it asked whether offenders convicted of a serious violent offence differed in their demographic, criminal history and reoffending profiles and whether there were further differences in these factors across gender and cultural identity. Overall, the findings indicated that violence is more likely to occur in the context of an extensive criminal career. Indigenous male individuals were the most frequent and chronic offenders in the sample. The policy and theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.

AbstractThe New South Wales Government has made explicit its aim to reduce reoffending by 10 per cent by 2014. Contributing to the knowledge base on reoffending will help government agencies and other groups to provide adequately targeted interventions to help achieve this aim. This article looks at reoffending through the prism of intention to reoffend. It therefore moves away from procedural definitions of reoffending (e.g. arrest rate or reconviction rate) that, among other limitations, are subject to the changing policies and practices of local law enforcement agencies. Intention to reoffend also identifies a subgroup of recidivists who might be different from other recidivists in significant ways. Declared intention to reoffend was captured during interviews with young offenders (using close-ended questions) 0 to 45 days after the index sentence. The question revealed a subgroup of recidivists whose reoffending was characterised by feelings of disenfranchisement—they were more likely than other offenders in the cohort to be disengaged from teachers and parents; to be frequent binge drinkers; to have friends who all used illicit drugs; and to have parents who punished by slapping or hitting. Further to this, being sentenced to custody did not deter intention to reoffend, but rather was independently associated with intention to reoffend.

It is widely assumed that placing offenders (juvenile or adult) in custody acts as a deterrent to further offending. The present study was designed to see whether juvenile offenders who receive a detention sentence are less likely to re-offend, controlling for other factors, than juvenile offenders given some other form of sentence. Two groups of offenders (152 given an detention sentence, 243 given a non-custodial sentence) were interviewed at length about their family life, school performance, association with delinquent peers and substance abuse. They were then followed up to determine what proportion in each group was reconvicted of a further offence. Cox regression was used to model time to reconviction. The study found no significant difference between juveniles given a custodial penalty and those given a non-custodial penalty in the likelihood of reconviction, even after controlling for factors that differ between the two groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changes in the serum proteome were identified during early, fulminant, and recovery phases of liver injury from acetaminophen in the rat. Male F344 rats received a single, noninjury dose or a high, injury-producing dose of acetaminophen for evaluation at 6 to 120 h. Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis of immunodepleted serum separated approximately 800 stained proteins per sample from which differentially expressed proteins were identified by mass spectrometry. Serum alanine aminotransferase/aspartate aminotransferase levels and histopathology revealed the greatest liver damage at 24 and 48 h after high-dose acetaminophen corresponding to the time of greatest serum protein alterations. After 24 h, 68 serum proteins were significantly altered of which 23 proteins were increased by >5-fold and 20 proteins were newly present compared with controls. Only minimal changes in serum proteins were noted at the low dose without any histopathology. Of the 54 total protein isoforms identified by mass spectrometry, gene ontology processes for 38 unique serum proteins revealed involvement of acute phase response, coagulation, protein degradation, intermediary metabolism, and various carrier proteins. Elevated serum tumor necrosis factor-alpha from 24 to 48 h suggested a mild inflammatory response accompanied by increased antioxidant capability demonstrated by increased serum catalase activity. Antibody array and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay analyses also showed elevation in the chemokine monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 and the metalloprotease inhibitor tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases-1 during this same period of liver injury. This study demonstrates that serum proteome alterations probably reflect both liver damage and a concerted, complex response of the body for organ repair and recovery during acute hepatic injury.

BT is a leading international supplier of telepresence in the form of telephony. Tele-presence enables “people as content”, and there are rapidly developing and wide-ranging opportunities for broadband, mobile, multimedia telepresence services. This paper outlines work in progress at BT Adastral Park, including projects on large-scale inhabited applications, networked immersionor “through-the-screen” conferencing, and wearable computing for ubiquitous telepresence. We conclude that research into future services requires a reappraisal of traditional methods, with an emphasis on multidisciplinary collaboration.

We have built and characterized an injection-seeded, Q-switched, flash-lamp-pumped, eye-safe Er:glass laser that is suitable for coherent remote sensing. The output of the device is a 400-ns, single-frequency, transform-limited pulse of 1 mJ at 1.552 μm.

We report a case of a 63-year-old man with a complicated postsurgical bronchopleural fistula (BPF), which was treated with a minimally-invasive hybrid procedure using fluoroscopy, bronchoscopy, and thoracoscopy. A previous surgical attempt had failed to seal the pathologic tract. An Amplazter II vascular plug was successfully deployed into the BPF, followed by autologous blood and glue injection. An adjunctive endoscopically-guided glue embolization was deemed necessary. The 14-month clinical and imaging follow-up confirmed the successful exclusion of the BPF. No migration of the device was noted and the patient remained asymptomatic. The combined endoscopic and fluoroscopic guided management of a BPF using the Amplatzer II vascular plug and glue was proven safe and effective after mid-term follow-up.

Calls for the establishment of a laser-based broadband Internet link for the solar system to enhance the transmission of vast amounts of data gathered through space exploration vehicles. Spacecrafts that are orbiting Mars as of November 2002; Overview of exploration vehicles that will probe Mars; Difficulties faced by astronautical professionals involved in the plan to explore the planet.

As applications and environments supporting collaborative virtual communities (CVEs) become increasingly available, opportunities to work, learn, play, and share experiences trans-culturally are not only more appealing, but also more feasible. Distributed cross-cultural and cross-organizational interactions are here, now. The emergence of such synchronous, post-geographical, virtual communities raises particular issues around fostering the intercultural 'chemistry' of online interactions and online community design.Elaine Raybourn and Andrew McGrath facilitated a one-day workshop at Group 99 on online community design, highlighting the potential for intercultural communication as an over-arching design principle. The program committee included Elizabeth Churchill, Alan Munro, Wolfgang Prinz, William Stubblefield, and Eunice Young. Workshop participants represented intellectually and culturally diverse backgrounds and fields including computer science, systems engineering, ethnography, HCI, intercultural communication, design, and psychology. Private sector, public sector, and university affiliations were also represented.

Several letters to the editor are presented including one in response to the article by Alex Malone regarding a bicycling trail referred as Spin City, another regarding the cycling cap used by cyclists, and another in response to the article that provides guide for the Tour de France.

The article presents several letters which provides views of the readers on Rugby League football including selection of Karmichael Hunt in Australian national team, substandard referees and position of South Sydney Rabbitohs in the National Rugby League.