48,371 research outputs found
Assessing the exposure risk and impacts of pharmaceuticals in the environment on individuals and ecosystems
No full textCopyright @ 2013 The authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.The use of human and veterinary pharmaceuticals is increasing. Over the past decade, there has been a proliferation of research into potential environmental impacts of pharmaceuticals in the environment. A Royal Society-supported seminar brought together experts from diverse scientific fields to discuss the risks posed by pharmaceuticals to wildlife. Recent analytical advances have revealed that pharmaceuticals are entering habitats via water, sewage, manure and animal carcases, and dispersing through food chains. Pharmaceuticals are designed to alter physiology at low doses and so can be particularly potent contaminants. The near extinction of Asian vultures following exposure to diclofenac is the key example where exposure to a pharmaceutical caused a population-level impact on non-target wildlife. However, more subtle changes to behaviour and physiology are rarely studied and poorly understood. Grand challenges for the future include developing more realistic exposure assessments for wildlife, assessing the impacts of mixtures of pharmaceuticals in combination with other environmental stressors and estimating the risks from pharmaceutical manufacturing and usage in developing countries. We concluded that an integration of diverse approaches is required to predict 'unexpected' risks; specifically, ecologically relevant, often long-term and non-lethal, consequences of pharmaceuticals in the environment for wildlife and ecosystems
Studies within a trial priorities to improve the evidence to inform recruitment and retention practice in clinical trials
No full textBackground: trial execution commonly relies on experience and judgement because there is a lack of evidence to inform how best to design and deliver clinical trials. Recruitment and retention are critical determinants to trial success have been persistent challenges that impact various stakeholders including funders, researchers, and the public. Studies within a trial (SWATs) are a way to discover best practices for recruitment and retention strategies, however, the current SWAT landscape has not been formally explored to date. This study aimed to (i) identify where current activity is taking place (ii) understand if SWATs are addressing PRioRiTY questions (iii) highlight gaps in the literature for future research.Methods: in November 2020, registered SWATs in the SWAT repository store were extracted and categorised into ‘recruitment’, ‘retention’ or ‘other’ based on the primary outcome. Recruitment and retention SWATs were subsequently mapped against PRioRiTY 1 and 2 questions and descriptive statistics were used to present the findings.Results: 125 registered SWATs were extracted from the repository. 50 and 36 SWATs reported recruitment and retention as their primary outcome, respectively. A majority of recruitment SWATs investigated what and how information should be designed and delivered to potential trial participants (n = 23, 46%) and the advantages and disadvantages of using technology during the recruitment process (n = 9, 18%). Three of the Top 10 PRioRiTY 1 questions had no SWATs mapped against them. A majority of retention SWATs focused on the best ways to encourage participants to complete trial tasks (n = 24, 67%), how incentives should be implemented (n = 10, 28%) and strategies to make participants feel valued (n = 9, 25%). Five of the Top 10 PRioRiTY 2 questions had no SWATs mapped against them.Conclusions: this study identified a mismatch between registered SWAT activity and the priority questions in recruitment and retention. Trial teams should consider the PRioRiTy 1 and 2 questions for recruitment and retention, respectively, when designing a SWAT. In addition, there is a great breadth of research taking place, but replication of existing research is needed to produce confident evidence-based guidance for trialists and researchers to implement into their work
Role, function, and expectations of research funding committees: perspectives from committee members
No full textResearch funding committees play an integral role in the research funding process, consisting of a range of skills, knowledge, and expertise (e.g., professional, and public contributors). Although there is some evidence that has explored the efficiency and effectiveness of funding committees in terms of the funding process, there is a lack of published evidence about the purpose, role, and function of funding committees, from the perspective of committee members.A subset of survey data from a cohort of six National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) research programmes, exploring the purpose of a funding committee, and the expectations and role of a funding committee member between October 2020 to December 2021. All committee members were eligible to participate in the survey.Using an inductive approach, 50 completed responses (22.5% response rate) were analysed, focusing on the role of a funding committee member and the functions of a funding committee. Participants highlighted seven key areas for the purpose of a funding committee: prioritising and recommending what research to fund (n=36) and assessment of quality (n=24) being the most common responses. Four areas were considered important to the expectations and role of funding committee members, with reviewing, critically appraising, and discussing applications (n=44); and being fair, objective, and unbiased (n=27) being the most common responses.The findings offer a unique insight into committee members’ expectations about the role, purpose and function of a funding committee and their contribution to the funding recommendation process. There was high agreement that the purpose and role of committees and their members was to offer expert advice to make fair, impartial decisions on which research should be prioritised. Exploring the purpose, role, and function of funding committees has relevance and importance for funding organisations seeking to enhance and optimise the decision-making practice of funding committees
Self-archiving practice and the influence of publisher policies in the social sciences
No full textAuthors in different disciplines exhibit very different behaviours on the so-called ‘green’ road to open access, i.e. self-archiving. This study looks at the self-archiving behaviour of authors publishing in leading journals in six social science disciplines. It tests the hypothesis that authors are self-archiving according to the norms of their respective disciplines rather than following self-archiving policies of publishers, and that, as a result, they are self-archiving significant numbers of publisher PDF versions. It finds significant levels of
self-archiving, as well as significant self-archiving of
the publisher PDF version, in all the disciplines
investigated. Publishers’ self-archiving policies have
no influence on author self-archiving practice
Author Co-Citation Analysis (ACA): a powerful tool for representing implicit knowledge of scholar knowledge workers
No full textIn the last decade, knowledge has emerged as one of the most important and valuable organizational assets. Gradually this importance caused to emergence of new discipline entitled ―knowledge management‖. However one of the major challenges of knowledge management is conversion implicit or tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge. Thus Making knowledge visible so that it can be better accessed, discussed, valued or generally managed is a long-standing objective in knowledge management. Accordingly in this paper author co- citation analysis (ACA) will be proposed as an efficient technique of knowledge visualization in academia (Scholar knowledge workers)
Analytical study of contents of LANL physics and cross-listed e-print archives, 1994-2002
No full textThe frontiers of physics and cross-listed e-print archives posted during the years 1994-2002 at http://www.arxiv.org/archives/physics web service of Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) are explored from 7770 submissions. E-print archives posted to top most six physics-cross-listed research categories besides physics (5390) are: Condensed matter (754), Quantum physics (279), Astrophysics (222), Chemical physics (129), High energy physics - Phenomenology (118), and High energy physics-Theory (100). Prominent contributors are B.G. Sidharth (India), V.V. Flambaum (Australia), Antonina N. Fedorova (Russia), and Michael G. Zeitlin (Russia). Most preferred journals for rechannelising e-print archives are Physical Review Letters, Physical Review A, Physical Review E, Nuclear Instruments and Methods A, and Journal of Chemical Physics
An equivalence of categories in algebraic geometry and some unlikely intersections in powers of elliptic curves
No full textThesis (MSc)--Stellenbosch University, 2024.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Let E be an elliptic curve defined over a number field and let C₁, C₂ EN C be irreducible closed
algebraic curves where N 3. Suppose that C₁ is not contained in a 1-dimensional algebraic subgroup
of EN C and C₁ C₂ is not contained in a 2-dimensional algebraic subgroup of EN C . Extending work
of Boxall on the multiplicative group to elliptic curves, we prove that, if at least one of C₁ and
C₂ is not defined over Q, then there are at most finitely many points x C₁ such that there exists
an n N such that nx C₂ and that n C₁ C₂ where n C₁ nx x C₁ . Moreover, we consider a defini-
tion of affine varieties and prevarieties, in the classical sense, over an arbitrary field and
provide expository development of many well-known properties of these classical affine varieties.
Additionally, extending well-known definitions of functors in the algebraically closed field case,
we rigorously construct func- tors in both directions, between the category of these prevarieties
and the category of reduced schemes of finite type over the same arbitrary field, which we show to
be quasi-inverse so that they give rise to an equivalence of cate- gories. Finally, in an appendix,
we include the well-known definition and some properties of schemes as well as some other basic
topics for convenience.AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Laat E ’n elliptiese kurwe wees wat oor ’n getalveld gedefinieer word en laat C₁, C₂ EN C ‘n
onherleibare geslote algebraïese kurwe wees waar N 3. Gestel C₁ is nie vervat in ’n 1-dimensionele
algebraïese subgroep van EN C nie en C₁ C₂ is nie vervat in ’n 2-dimensionele algebraïese subgroep
van EN C nie. Uitbreiding van werk van Boxall op die vermenigvuldigende groep tot elliptiese
kurwes, bewys ons dat, as ten minste een van C₁ en C₂ nie oor Q gedefinieer word nie, is daar
hoogstens eindige hoeveelheid punte x C₁, sodanig dat daar ’n n N bestaan sodat nx C₂ en dat n
C₁ C₂ waar n C₁ nx x C₁ . Verder beskou ons ’n definisie van verwante variëteite en
voorvariëteite, in die klassieke sin, oor ’n arbitrêre veld en bied blootstel- lingsontwikkeling
van baie bekende eienskappe van hierdie klassieke verwante variëteite. Daarbenewens, om bekende
definisies te verleng van funktore in die algebraïes geslote veldsaak, konstrueer ons funktore
streng in beide rigtings, tussen die kategorie van hierdie voorvariëteite en die kategorie van
verminderde skemas van eindige tipe oor dieselfde arbitrêre veld, wat ons wys dat dit kwasi-
omgekeerd is sodat dit aanleiding gee tot ’n ekwivalensie van kategorieë. Ten slotte, in ’n
aanhangsel, sluit ons die bekende definisie en sommige eienskappe van skemas sowel as ander basiese
onderwerpe vir gerief.Master
Dual Hierarchy for Gravitational n-body
No full textThe n-body problem is the simulation of pair-wise interactions between n objects. This problem appears in many forms, with the classic example being the modeling of gravitational forces between point masses, necessary for cosmological simulations. Many approximation approaches have been devised to reduce the complexity of this problem.t-SNE is a data visualization method that requires repeatedly solving a variant of the n-body problem. A recent paper (An Efficient Dual-Hierarchy t-SNE Minimization, van de Ruit et. al.) proposes a novel algorithm that outperforms other t-SNE minimization methods on medium-scale datasets. The report proves the viability of a dual-traversal method that uses an embedding tree to emit forces and an independent field tree to collect forces. Because the embedding tree is a Linear-BVH and the field tree is an orthtree built to a fixed depth, the overall algorithm has linear complexity.This thesis demonstrates how the dual-tree approach can be adapted for gravitational n-body simulations. Following this, it measures the performance against similar implementations of other algorithms and shows that while the adapted Dual Hierarchy approach is faster than Barnes-Hut, it is outperformed by the Fast Multipole Method on realistic large-scale cosmological datasets.https://github.com/JacksonCampolattaro/n-body Git repository containing an implementation of the adapted Dual Hierarchy algorithm for Gravitational n-body, as well as implementations of several other common algorithms compared against during benchmarking.Computer Engineerin
Implementing a nurse-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy intervention to reduce the impact of hot flushes/night sweats in women with breast cancer: a qualitative process evaluation of the MENOS4 trial
No full textBackground: hot flushes and night sweats are life-altering symptoms experienced by many women after breast cancer treatment. A randomised controlled trial (RCT) was conducted to explore the effectiveness of breast care nurse (BCN)-led group cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). This paper reported findings from a qualitative process evaluation to optimise the CBT intervention and explore the determinants of implementation into routine practice.Methods: qualitative process evaluation occurred in parallel with the RCT to explore patient and healthcare staff experiences and perspectives using semi-structured interviews pre-and post-intervention. Normalisation Process Theory (NPT) informed data collection, analysis, and reporting of findings. The analysis involved inductive thematic analysis, NPT coding manual and subsequent mapping onto NPT constructs.Results: BCNs (n=8), managers (n=2), surgeons (n=3) and trial participants (n=8) from six sites took part. All stakeholders believed group CBT met a need for non-medical hot flushes/night sweats treatment, however, had little exposure or understanding of CBT before MENOS4. BCNs believed the work fitted with their identity and felt confident in delivering the sessions. Despite little understanding, patients enrolled onto group CBT because the BCNs were trusted to have the knowledge and understanding to support their needs and despite initial scepticism, reported great benefit from group-based participation. Both managers and surgeons were keen for BCNs to take responsibility for all aspects of CBT delivery, but there were some tensions with existing clinical commitments.Conclusions: both healthcare staff and patient participants believe BCN-led group CBT is a beneficial service but barriers to long-term implementation into routine care suggest there needs to be multi-level organisational support.Trial registration: NCT02623374 – Last updated 07/12/2015 on ClinicalTrials.gov PR
Bibliographics for the 983 eprints in the live archives of E-LIS : trends and status report up to 7th July 2004, based on author-self-archiving metadata
No full textThe priority for ideas and philosophy related to "Network Theory" have been traced back and documented by Braun(2004),and credit goes to Karinthy(1929).The IT has empowered to realise it, as the most practical phenomena and it is no more a humour. The OAI (Open Archives Initiatives)and ACIS (Academic Contributor Information System)are progressive in the direction ,which may lead to realise the "Collective Genius" at global level. Focus of present study is on Author-Self-Archiving (A-S-A)Metadata of the 983 Eprints in the Live Archives of the E-LIS (EPrints of Library and Information Science),which were approved till 7th July 2004.The A-S-A Metadata was used for librametric analysis. Self-explanatory bibliographics are illustrated.The highlights include: Conference papers (34%); highest approval, June 2004 (28%); published archives (76%);not refereed (52%); not in public domain (60%); highest self-archiving-author (De Robbio, Antonella).The Nos. of EPrints having single JITA domain specifications were: Theoretical and general aspects of libraries and information(27); Information use and sociology of information(80);Users,literacy and reading(13);Libraries as physical collections(30);Publishing and legal issues(57);Management(13);Industry, profession and education(36);Information sources, supports, channels(113) ; Information treatment for information services, Information functions and techniques (101); Technical services libraries, archives and museums(25); Housing technologies(1); Information technology and library technology(92); and Inter-domainery (395) i.e. having specifications of two or more than two JITA classes
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