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Practical applications of a social justice agenda in counselling and psychotherapy: The Relational Equality in Education Framework (REEF)
No full textRecently there has been an increasing focus on the social justice agenda in counselling and psychotherapy. In order to ensure that this does not merely function as rhetoric, therapists must consider how to translate their social justice values into action. This paper aims to extend current understandings of social justice by foregrounding an emphasis on relational equality and power. We consider the importance of educational settings as a site of social justice action for therapists and set out The Relational Equality in Education Framework as an illustration of ways in which therapists might work to enhance relational equality in education on micro, meso and macro levels. Such efforts would ensure the social justice work of therapists takes an important shift from rhetoric to action
Wasserstein distance error bounds for the multivariate normal approximation of the maximum likelihood estimator
No full textWe obtain explicit p-Wasserstein distance error bounds between the distribution of the multi-parameter MLE and the multivariate normal distribution. Our general bounds are given for possibly high-dimensional, independent and identically distributed random vectors. Our general bounds are of the optimal O(n-1=2) order. Explicit numerical constants are given when p 2 (1; 2], and in the case p > 2 the bounds are explicit up to a constant factor that only depends on p. We apply our general bounds to derive Wasserstein distance error bounds for the multivariate normal approximation of the MLE in several settings; these being singleparameter exponential families, the normal distribution under canonical parametrisation, and the multivariate normal distribution under non-canonical parametrisation. In addition, we provide upper bounds with respect to the bounded Wasserstein distance when the MLE is implicitly dened
Primary Systemic Sclerosis heart involvement: a systematic literature review and preliminary data-driven, consensus-based WSF/HFA definition
No full textIntroduction: primary heart involvement in systemic sclerosis (SSc-pHI) may cause morpho-functional and electrical cardiac abnormalities and is a common cause of death. The absence of a clear definition of SSc-pHI limits our understanding and ability to focus clinical research. We aimed to create an expert consensus definition for SSc-pHI.Methods: A systematic literature review of cardiac involvement and manifestations in SSc was conducted to inform an international and multi-disciplinary task-force. In addition, the nominal group technique (NGT) was used to derive a definition that was then subject to voting. Sixteen clinical cases were evaluated to test face validity, feasibility, reliability and criterion validity of the newly created definition.Results: 171 publications met eligibility criteria. Using the NGT, experts added their opinion, provided statements to consider and ranked them to create the consensus definition, which received 100% agreement on face validity. A median 60(5-300) seconds was taken for the feasibility on a single case. Inter-rater agreement was moderate [mKappa(95%CI) 0.56(0.46-1.00) for first and 0.55(0.44-1.00) for second round] and intra-rater agreement was good [mKappa(95%CI) 0.77(0.47-1,00)]. Criterion validity showed a 78(73-84) % correctness versus gold standard.Conclusion: A preliminary SSc-pHI consensus-based definition was created and partially validated, for use in future clinical research
A century of increasing lung function and its implications for the diagnosis of lung disease: Results from 243,465 European adults across ten population-based studies
No full textBackground: During the last century, socioeconomic and scientific advances changed the health and physique of European populations. Accompanying improvements in lung function, if unrecognised, could lead us to misclassify lung function measurements, and hence diseases such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). We investigated how population lung function changed with birth year across the last century and how such change may influence lung function interpretation.Methods: We included 243,465 Europeans from ten population-based studies, aged 20-95 years, born between 1884 and 1996. Forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) and forced vital capacity (FVC), were measured between 1965 and 2016. We used meta-regression to investigate how FEV1, FVC and the FEV1/FVC ratio changed with birth year. To substantiate our findings, we used linear regression to investigate how the FEV1 and FVC values, predicted by 32 reference equations, published between 1961 and 2015, changed with estimated birth year.Findings: Average European FEV1 and FVC values increased substantially with birth year across the last century. After accounting for height, smoking behaviour, and other co-factors, FEV1 increased by 4.8 mL/birth year (95% confidence interval [CI]:2.6-7.0; P<0.0001) and FVC by 8.8 mL/birth year (95% CI:5.7-12.0; P<0.0001). We found corroboratory birth year-related increases in the FEV1 and FVC values predicted by published reference equations. Whereas FEV1 and FVC increased with advancing birth year, the FEV1/FVC ratio decreased by 0.11 per 100 birth years (95% CI:0.09-0.14; P<0.0001).Interpretation: Average height adjusted European FEV1 and FVC increased with birth year across the last century, causing population values to progressively exceed previously predicted values. Concurrently, the FEV1/FVC ratio decreased. If current diagnostic parameters remain unchanged, the identified shifts in European values will allow the easier fulfilment of diagnostic criteria for COPD, but the systematic underestimation of lung disease severity
Local Oxidation of the Buried Epoxy-Amine / Iron Oxide Interphase
No full textEpoxy-amine resins continue to find widespread use as the binders of corrosion protective organic coatings. In service, exposure to the environment ultimately results in oxidative deterioration of epoxy coatings, limiting the performance lifetime. Whilst the mechanisms underpinning surface oxidation have been characterized, few studies have examined polymeric degradation in the polymer / metal interphase, the integrity of which is central to performance. This is in part due to the inaccessibility of the buried interphase, which lies beyond the resolution limits of most organic analysis techniques. In this study, two innovative approaches are used to examine early stages of oxidative degradation of the buried polymer/iron oxide interphase for diglycidyl ether of bisphenol-A (DGEBA) coatings cross-linked with an aliphatic amine hardener, triethylenetetraamine (TETA). First, high fractions of iron oxide interfaces are introduced into the resin systems using synthetic hematite, Fe2O3, magnetite, Fe3O4 and goethite, Fe(O)OH powders, and the oxidation process is monitored using conventional infrared spectroscopy. Next, the buried interphase of coatings applied to iron is examined directly using nanoscale cross-sectional infrared analysis (via the photothermal infrared, PTIR, atomic force microscopy technique, known as AFM-IR). Diffusion limited oxidation is shown to initiate at the buried polymer-metal interface and progress slowly into the polymer, in accordance with pre-established mechanisms, resulting in chemical gradients of <400 nm after 28 days exposure to mild thermal aging conditions (70 °C, 14% RH)
Pore Distortion in a Metal-Organic Framework for Regulated Separation of Propane and Propylene
No full textThe development of porous solids for adsorptive separation of propylene and propane remains an important and challenging line of research. State-of-the-art sorbent materials often suffer from the trade-off between adsorption capacity and selectivity. Here, we report the regulated separation of propylene and propane in a metal-organic framework via designed pore distortion. The distorted pore structure of HIAM-301 successfully excludes propane and thus achieved simultaneously high selectivity (>150) and large capacity (~3.2 mmol/g) of propylene at 298 K and 1 bar. Dynamic breakthrough measurements validated the excellent separation of propane and propylene. In situ neutron powder diffraction and inelastic neutron scattering revealed the binding domains of adsorbed propylene molecules in HIAM-301 as well as host-guest interaction dynamics. This study presents a new benchmark for the adsorptive separation of propylene and propane
Stability and Optimization of Speculative Queueing Networks
No full textWe provide a queueing-theoretic framework for job replication schemes based on the principle “replicate a job as soon as the system detects it as a straggler”. This is called job speculation. Recent works have analyzed replication on arrival, which we refer to as replication. Replication is motivated by its implementation in Google’s BigTable. However, systems such as Apache Spark and Hadoop MapReduce implement speculative job execution. The performance and optimization of speculative job execution is not well understood. To this end, we propose a queueing network model for load balancing where each server can speculate on the execution time of a job. Specifically, each job is initially assigned to a single server by a frontend dispatcher. Then, when its execution begins, the server sets a timeout. If the job completes before the timeout, it leaves the network, otherwise the job is terminated and relaunched or resumed at another server where it will complete. We provide a necessary and sufficient condition for the stability of speculative queueing networks with heterogeneous servers, general job sizes and scheduling disciplines. We find that speculation can increase the stability region of the network when compared with standard load balancing models and replication schemes. We provide general conditions under which timeouts increase the size of the stability region and derive a formula for the optimal speculation time, i.e., the timeout that minimizes the load induced through speculation. We compare speculation with redundant-d and redundant-to-idle-queue-d rules under an S&X model. For light loaded systems, redundancy schemes provide better response times. However, for moderate to heavy loadings, redundancy schemes can lose capacity and have markedly worse response times when compared with the proposed speculative scheme.Index Terms—speculation, replication, parallel servers, load balancing, stabilit
EMMA-CAD: Design automation for synthetic mammalian constructs
No full textComputational design tools are the cornerstone of synthetic biology and have underpinned its rapid development over the past two decades. As the field has matured, the scale of biological investigation has expanded dramatically, with computational tools often relied upon by researchers to operate in the high-throughput investigational space. This is especially apparent in the modular design of DNA expression circuits, where complexity is accumulated rapidly. Alongside our automated pipeline for the high-throughput construction of Extensible Modular Mammalian Assembly (EMMA) expression vectors, we recognized the need for an integrated software solution for EMMA vector design. Here, we present EMMA-CAD (https://emma.cailab.org), a powerful, web-based computer-aided design tool for the rapid design of bespoke mammalian expression vectors. EMMA-CAD features a variety of functionalities, including a user-friendly design interface, automated connector selection underpinned by rigorous computer optimization algorithms, customization of part libraries, and personalized design spaces. Capable of translating vector assembly designs into human and machine readable protocols for vector construction, EMMA-CAD integrates seamlessly into our automated EMMA pipeline, hence completing an end-to-end design to production work flow
Upwardly Abstracted Definition-Based Subontologies
No full textIn this paper, we present a method for extracting subontologies from ELH ontologies for a set of symbols. The approach is focused on the generation of upwardly abstracted definitions of concepts, which is a technique for computing definitions expressed using closest primitive ancestors. The subontologies returned by the method are evaluated for quality and compared to extracts computed with locality-based modularisation and uniform interpolation. Our subontology generation method produces promising results in terms of size and relevance to the needs of domain experts
