170,457 research outputs found
Local taxation, spending and poverty : new choices and tax justice
No full textIn the environment of the 2014 Independence Referendum, a number of key questions have been raised about the future Scotland we want to see and live in. Core to such discussions have been the interventions on wealth creation and benefits, by the leaders of the Conservatives and Labour Parties in Scotland, respectively. However, and as rigorously debated in the Whose Economy? Seminar Series (Danson and Trebeck, 2011), such questions need to be considered in their wider contexts to identify and analyse fully all aspects of ‘who pays?’ and ‘who benefits?’. Indeed, several of the papers to that seminar series echoed previous classical work on poverty and the welfare state by Townsend, Abel-Smith and others which confirmed there are some long-standing myths to be addressed. These commentaries have suggested that all is not what it seems in the review of statistics of income and benefits, and robust, objective and clinical assessment of the dat
Learning support for mature, part-time, evening students: providing feedback via frequent, computer-based assessments
No full textA new module in our first year Biology curriculum was used as a vehicle to test
strategies for improving learning support. To this end, we have administered frequent CBA, incorporating extensive feedback, both to pace the students’ study efforts and to pinpoint areas in which additional help from lecturers may be required.
Three of the 7 CBA provided through the 15-week course were initially given as
open-book summative tests, thus contributing to the overall mark for the module. Other CBA were formative: these included repeats of the summative CBA made available for revision purposes, as well as other CBA which focused mainly on aspects of the course that were summatively assessed by other means. A closedbook final exam, also computer-based, was given in the final week as a comprehensive assessment. We have evaluated the utility and effectiveness of our approach by surveying student opinion via questionnaires, examining patterns and extent of student use of formative assessments, and by analysing grades for the summative CBA. We have found the students’ perceptions of the approach to be largely positive and that the formative CBA were well-used, especially as revision aids for the final exam. Our analysis further indicates that the style of the assessments may have been especially helpful to students whose first language is not English
EFFECTS OF RANDOM-PHASE PLATES ON ABERRATED LASER-BEAMS
No full textFar-field images produced using random phase plates on a pulsed laser beam have been recorded by a CCD and then analysed. Spot sizes agree with diffraction theory while mean sizes of the pattern structures has been found larger than diffraction limit. Probability density distribution of intensity in the focal plane has not, in most cases, the expected exponential behaviour. Images obtained with reduced beam diameter show a definite central symmetry. Preliminary measurements of the optical breakdown threshold intensity in air show that threshold can be determined with much higher accuracy with RPP smoothed beams
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
No full textThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
EVIDENCE FOR MOVING FOCUS IN LASER INTERACTION WITH LONG SCALELENGTH PLASMAS
No full textLaser interaction with a preformed expanding plasma has been experimentally studied. The plasma had an n(c)/10 bulk surrounded by a large low-density region. Time-resolved spectra of the light backscattered during interaction show that, after a short phase of laser coupling with the whole plasma, the laser ligth decouples from the main plasma bulk. In fact, the interaction region moves outside at supersonic velocity due to dynamical self-focusing of the laser beam. Beam smoothing with RPP does not modify appreciaby the effect. This observation is relevant to the general problem of laser energy deposition in a plasma
The Transformation of Regional Development Agencies through Partnership: From Model Delivery to Catalytic Converter?
No full textAssaying activity and assessing thermostability of hyperthermophilic enzymes
No full textThere is now a wide variety of intra- and extra-cellular enzymes available from organisms growing above 75°C, and having sufficient stability to allow assay well above this temperature. For some of these enzymes, to assay below even 95°C will involve measurement below the optimal growth temperature for the organism. The purpose of this chapter is to cover practical aspects of enzyme assay procedures that are specific to high temperatures. Since by far the commonest routine assessment of enzyme stability is activity loss, and because it is always unwise to measure enzyme activity without being confident of its stability during the assay, we include an outline of procedures for measuring enzyme activity loss/stability at high temperatures
Mitomycin C in highly myopic eyes - Author reply
No full textOphthalmology. 2005 Feb;112(2):208-18; discussion 219.
Mitomycin C modulation of corneal wound healing after photorefractive keratectomy in highly myopic eyes.
Gambato C, Ghirlando A, Moretto E, Busato F, Midena E.
SourceRefractive Surgery Service and Antimetabolite Therapy Research Unit, Department of Ophthalmology, University of Padova, Padova, Italy.
Abstract
PURPOSE: To evaluate the role of topical mitomycin C in corneal wound healing (CWH) after photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) in highly myopic eyes.
DESIGN: Prospective, double-masked, randomized clinical trial.
PARTICIPANTS: Seventy-two eyes of 36 patients affected by high (>7 diopters) myopia.
METHODS: In each patient, one eye was randomly assigned to PRK with intraoperative topical 0.02% mitomycin C application, and the fellow eye was treated with a placebo. Postoperatively, mitomycin C-treated eyes received artificial tears (3 times daily, tapered in 3 months), whereas the fellow eye was treated with fluorometholone sodium 2% and artificial tears (3 times daily, tapered in 3 months).
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Uncorrected visual acuity (UCVA) and best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), contrast sensitivity, manifest refraction, and biomicroscopy. Contrast sensitivity was determined using the Pelli-Robson chart. Corneal confocal microscopy documented CWH.
RESULTS: Mean follow-up was 18 months (range, 12-36). No side effects or toxic effects were documented. At 12-month follow-up examination, UCVAs (logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution) were 0.4+/-0.48 and 0.5+/-0.53 (P = .03) in mitomycin C-treated eyes and corticosteroid-treated eyes, respectively. At 1 year, corneal haze developed in 20% of corticosteroid-treated eyes, versus 0% of mitomycin C-treated eyes. At 12, 24, and 36 months, corneal confocal microscopy showed activated keratocytes and extracellular matrix significantly more evident in untreated eyes (Ps = 0.004, 0.024, and 0.046, respectively).
CONCLUSION: Topical intraoperative application of 0.02% mitomycin C can reduce haze formation in highly myopic eyes undergoing PRK.
Comment in
Ophthalmology. 2006 Feb;113(2):357; author reply 357-8
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
No full textWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
A Multi-Language Comparison of Influences on Author Verification using Character N-Grams
No full textWe create a new multi-language corpus for author verification based on Wikipedia talkpages, and evaluate the influence that differences in topic and time have on character n-gram author profiles. Topic alignment between two texts is found to increase author verification precision, and an authors writing style is found to change over time, but not more significantly after 3 years than after 1 year.Information ArchitectureWISElectrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Scienc
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