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A novel scale of behavioural indicators of stress for use with domestic horses
Get PDFBehaviour scores (BS) offer non-invasive, objective and easy to use ways of assessing welfare in animals. Their development has, however, largely focused on behavioural reactions to stressful events (often induced), and little use of physiological measures has been made to underpin and validate the behavioural measures. This study aimed to develop a physiologically validated scale of behavioural indicators of stress for the purpose of welfare assessment in stabled domestic horses. To achieve this, behavioural and physiological data were collected from 32 horses that underwent routine husbandry procedures. Principal component analysis (PCA) of the behavioural and physiological data revealed three meaningful components that were used as the basis of the scale. Analysis of video clips of the horses’ responses to the husbandry procedures was undertaken by a panel of equestrian industry professionals using a free choice profiling (FCP) methodology. These results were added to the scale along with key definitions from relevant literature. Salivary cortisol levels were significantly correlated with the BS confirming the scale was meaningful and reflected physiological stress. The scale offers an easy to use ‘tool’ for rapid, reliable non-invasive welfare assessment in horses, and reduces the need for potentially invasive physiological measures
How Can Visual Arts Help Doctors Develop Medical Insight?
No full textThis research project examines how using the visual arts can develop medical insight, as part of a pilot programme for two groups of medical students. It was a UK study; a collaboration between Liverpool and Glyndwr University’s and Tate Liverpool’s learning team. Tate Liverpool is the home of the National Collection of Modern Arts in the North of England and one of the largest galleries of modern and contemporary art outside London. The project adapted Tate Liverpool’s Opening Doors course in devising and piloting a single day programme that engaged students in exploring perception, communication, emotion and narrative. Opening Doors introduces participants to modern and contemporary art and empowers them to work in new ways with groups and individuals. The exercises used as part of the programme allowed us to observe what connections and interpretations were made, and to discuss with the participants what influenced student choice and decision making in relation to specific works of art.
This article will focus on the use of gallery education to highlight examples of contemporary culture to develop links between art and medicine, alongside the development of transferable skills. The study is of professional interest because it is using a cross-disciplinary approach, broadening the disciplines involved in teaching medical skills; and could form a model for further cross-curricular and cross discipline work
A Parametric Study of the Low-Impulse Blast Behaviour of Fibre-Metal Laminates Based on Different Aluminium Alloys
Get PDFA parametric study has been undertaken in order to investigate the influence of the properties of the aluminium alloy on the blast response of fibre-metal laminates (FMLs). The finite element (FE) models have been developed and validated using experi-mental data from tests on FMLs based on a 2024-O aluminium alloy and a woven glass-fibre/polypropylene composite (GFPP). A vectorized user material subroutine (VUMAT) was employed to define Hashin’s 3D rate-dependant damage constitutive model of the GFPP. Using the validated models, a parametric study has been carried out to investigate the blast resistance of FML panels based on the four aluminium alloys, namely 2024-O, 2024-T3, 6061-T6 and 7075-T6. It has been shown that there is an approximation linear relationship between the dimensionless back face displacement and the dimensionless impulse for all aluminium alloys investigated here. It has also shown that the residual displacement of back surface of the FML panels and the internal debonding are dependent on the yield strength of the aluminium alloy
The Sahin-Francis Scale of Attitude towards Islam: A Study among Students in Pakistan
Get PDFRecent years have seen growing interest in empirical religious research within the Islamic context. This paper contributes to that growth by exploring the reliability of the Sahin-Francis Scale of Attitude toward Islam. The scale is a 23-item instrument which measures attitudes toward Islam on a 5-point Likert scale. A total of 729 English speaking Pakistani young people (45% male and 55% female) completed the FSCAI. The data demonstrated that the scale is a reliable measure achieving a Cronbach Alpha of .91 and accounting for 37.4% of the variance. The measure is recommended for further research in the Muslim context
Characterisation and molecular association of Nigerian and Sudanese Acacia gum exudates
Get PDFThe chemical and physicochemical characteristics of gum exudate samples harvested from mature trees of Acacia senegal at two new specific ecolocations in Nigeria, have been investigated together with gum samples harvested from A. senegal and A. seyal originating from Sudan. The monosaccharide sugar compositions for the A. senegal gum samples were found to be similar, but the protein contents for the Nigerian samples were significantly higher than recorded for the Sudanese sample. Gel Permeation Chromatography coupled to light scattering, refractive index and U.V. detectors, has shown the presence of arabinogalactan, arabinogalactan–protein and glycoprotein fractions within the A. senegal gums and has also shown the presence of an additional small proportion of very low molar mass proteinaceous material all the samples which has previously been ignored. The plot of radius of gyration, Rg, as a function of elution volume showed a discontinuity for one of the Nigerian samples and for the A. seyal gum sample at elution volumes corresponding to the AGP component suggesting a different molecular structure. Plots of Mw–v–Rg confirmed that the molecules had a compact structure. The hydrodynamic size of the molecules was followed using dynamic light scattering as a function of time and it was found that molecular association occurred in solution. The extent of association increased as the protein content in the sample increased and was inhibited in the presence of electrolyte, it was concluded that association was due to electrostatic interaction between the protein moieties and glucuronic acid groups on individual macromolecules
Characterisation and solution properties of a galactomannan from Bauhinia monandra seeds
Get PDFThis study reports on the chemical and physicochemical properties of the polysaccharide isolated from Bauhinia monandra seeds. The seeds were found to contain 17.8% polysaccharide which consisted predominantly of galactose and mannose. The Man/Gal ratio was found to be approximately 4:1and the average molar mass was 2.54 × 105 g/mol. The extracted material was also found to contain a small amount of protein (5.35%). The galactomannan produced highly viscous solution; the viscosity–shear rate profile was best described by the Williamson model. The mechanical spectrum of a 0.5 wt% solution showed that G″ was greater than G′ over the frequency range employed while at higher concentrations G′ became greater than G″ above a critical frequency. The solutions obeyed the Cox-Merz rule at low concentrations, but there was some deviation at higher concentrations. Viscosity measurements were undertaken over a range of temperatures and the activation energy of viscous flow was found to be 20.75 kJ/mol. The rheological properties of solutions of B. monandra galactomannan indicate that it has comparable characteristics to other commercially important galactomannans such as guar gum and locust bean gum and hence has potential as a thickener in the formulation of food and other related products
Multiphysics field analysis and evolutionary optimization: Design of an electro-thermo-elastic microactuator
Get PDFIn the paper, the optimization of an electro-thermo-elastic microactuator is proposed. In particular, the maximum temperature of the actuator is to be minimized, while the total displacement is to be maximized. For solving this problem, the Adaptive Gaussian Process-Assisted Differential Evolution AGDEMO method is applied
Continuous flow supercritical chemical fluid deposition of optoelectronic quality CdS
No full textSupercritical chemical fluid deposition (SCFD) has been shown to have remarkable advantages for deposition inside nanostructured templates however so far the technique has mostly been used to deposit metals. In this paper we present the SCFD of optoelectronic grade CdS. The quality of this material is demonstrated by a range of techniques including reflectivity (A) and photoluminescence spectroscopy (B and C). At 4 K the bandedge luminescence has a full-width-at-half-maximum linewidth of 30 meV comparable with that of single crystal CdS
Issues and innovations in nursing practice: Palliative care for patients with cancer: district nurses' experiences
No full textAim. This paper reports a study exploring district nurses' experiences of providing palliative care for patients with cancer and their families. Background. There is an increasing demand for palliative care in the community, as many patients wish to die at home. District nurses are central to providing palliative care in the community, but there is a dearth of literature on district nurses' experiences in palliative care. Method. A Husserlian phenomenological approach was adopted with a purposive sample of 25 female district nurses. Data were collected using unstructured, tape-recorded interviews and analysed using Colaizzi's seven stages of data analysis. Findings. Four themes were identified: the communication web; the family as an element of care; challenges for the district nurse in symptom management and the personal cost of caring. Conclusions. District nurses' experiences of providing palliative care to family units was challenging but rewarding. The emotive nature of the experience cannot be under-estimated, as many district nurses were touched by the varying situations. Whilst acknowledging the need to maintain an integrated approach to care, district nurses should be identified as the key workers in the complex situation of palliative care
Telling stories: Writing narrative
Get PDFNarrative research is about helping people to tell their stories but it is only when these stories are crafted together do they become narratives (Frank 2008). This paper will discuss the creation of narrative from the stories of individuals who have experienced the mental health care system in the UK. Their stories highlight a number of issues that are often unheard or dismissed as being too subjective to be of value for (objective) evidenced based practice. This paper will discuss how using traditional data collection methods, stories from “hard to reach” participants can be woven together to form strong narratives. Narrative methods are used to analyse the stories in a way that will authentically support evidence based practice that at the same time respects and values the subjective collective voice