Weed control strategies in organically grown carrots

This paper outlines a study to integrate elements of cultural, thermal and mechanical control methods in the production of late maincrop drilled organic carrots. Agronomic and economic findings are discusse

Horticultural weed control in organic systems – a modelling approach

This report was presented at the UK Organic Research 2002 Conference. Weed control is an important yet mainly unaddressed research issue in organic systems. At present there is little agronomic support to underpin weed management decisions. Computer modelling and simulation techniques may provide a valuable tool for understanding the nature and processes of the organic system thus generating knowledge and information of direct benefit to growers, which will aid in short and long term weed management strategies

An analysis into early customer experiences of self-service checkouts:lessons for improved usability

The research aims to examine the perceptions of relative novice users of self-service checkouts (SSCOs) and if these perceptions change before, during and following use. Employing a diary approach with 31 respondents relatively unfamiliar with SSCOs, the research will document their experiences with this technology across stationary, hardware and grocery stores in two Scottish cities (Glasgow and Dundee). Findings suggest that the majority of respondents were motivated to use the technology because of time saving and convenience. However, the actual experience of using SSCOs was not always considered quicker when compared to staffed checkouts because of technical issues, lack of staff assistance and the impersonal, sometimes stressful and controlled nature of the cramped SSCO environment. Following post-use reflections, the majority of respondents’ opinions did not change from their initial perceptions and indicated that they would prefer not to use the technology in the future. Based on the findings, this study makes some practical suggestions centring on the design and usability of SSCOs, which may go some way to reducing customer dissatisfaction and frustration with the technology, especially from the perspective of new users of the technology

Mr Cameron’s new language initiative for Muslim women: lessons in policy implementation

As the government announces a programme to teach Muslim women to speak English, this article examines how such a policy can be implemented successfully, arguing that lessons that can be drawn from both academic research, especially that carried out with Muslim women themselves, and from successful policy application in the past. It focuses on two projects carried out in the recent past for the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) and Jobcentre Plus, and outlines the key factors that led to their success. The LSC project involved one of the largest in-depth surveys of Muslim women’s attitudes towards work, and their views on life in Britain, that has ever been undertaken. The Jobcentre Plus project was a highly successful and innovative employment training initiative for ethnic minority women piloted in Sheffield, the very kind of ‘targeted’ approach that Mr Cameron has claimed his government’s new language initiative will be

Creating an employment ready graduate:stakeholder perspectives of internship programmes and their ability to enhance the graduate employability skills set

Purpose: The aims of this research are to examine stakeholder perspectives of the use and usefulness of graduate attributes which are embedded into the curriculum of a UK university and to evaluate the potential of these graduate attributes to go beyond institutional pedagogy and enhance the employability skills set of graduates.Design/methodology/approach: The research used a mixed method to elicit perspectives of a University’s graduate attributes, interviewing employers and surveying students using a self-assessment tool and convenience sampling approach. Findings: The research found that there are key attributes for the success of University-led graduate attributes which include engagement from stakeholders with those attributes, commitment from teaching staff towards the development of identified attributes, appropriate time to align and embed attributes into the curriculum and with the needs of stakeholders and a framework which compliments institutional research and is properly resourced (Al-Mahood and Gruba, 2007). No one graduate attribute works in isolation, they have to be part of a measured and balanced model or framework to address the multi-faceted nature of graduate employability. The research reveals that work-based initiatives were the most valued by graduates and employers alike, which are arguably easier to teach as it is learning by doing as opposed to developing generic softer skills which are not valued highly by graduates in respect to employment. The findings support existing research that graduates value graduate attributes which involve work based learning activities as a means to gain employability skills and employment. Practical and social implications: The research findings should provide Universities and Colleges from both within and out with the UK with a blueprint from which to create or refresh existing University led graduate attributes. Originality/value: The findings from this paper consolidate existing research in the area of graduate employability and take research forward in the areas of graduate attributes, the measurement of these attributes and their currency in terms of employability and employer synergy

Theoretically-Driven Infrastructure for Supporting Healthcare Teams Training at a Military Treatment Facility

The Team Resource Center (TRC) at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth (NMCP) currently hosts a tri-service healthcare teams training course three times annually . The course consists of didactic learning coupled with simulation exercises to provide an interactive educational experience for healthcare professionals. The course is also the foundation of a research program designed to explore the use of simulation technologies for enhancing team training and evaluation. The TRC has adopted theoretical frameworks for evaluating training readiness and efficacy, and is using these frameworks to guide a systematic reconfiguration of the infrastructure supporting healthcare teams training and research initiatives at NMCP

South Asian women and the labour market in the UK: attitudes, barriers, solutions

This paper draws on research carried out in the UK which examined the views of South Asian women towards employment, looking in particular at why the participation rate of Bangladeshi and Pakistani women in the labour market is very low. The focus of the paper is on non-working women. The research was aimed at informing policy design, so that policies intended to assist certain groups of people enter, or get closer to entering, the labour market might be more effective. The research involved carrying interviews with 212 Bangladeshi and Pakistani women in West Yorkshire, a sub-region of the UK with a relatively high Asian population. 26 focus groups were also carried out. It is argued that there are three broad groups of South Asian women in relation to employment: women who are some distance from the labour market; women who wish to enter paid work; and women who do currently work but require support. There are different policy implications for each of these groups. The paper concludes that the barriers to labour market entry are deep-seated, complex, and rooted in cultural, familial, and societal norms. It provides a case study of an innovative programme which was piloted in a nearby sub-region of the UK, South Yorkshire, which was tailor-made to meet the specific needs of South Asian women and was very successful. The paper argues that this could provide a template for programmes in the future aimed at assisting groups facing challenges in relation to labour market entry, such as minority ethnic women

Personalizing medicine for metastatic colorectal cancer: Current developments

Metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) is still one of the tumor types with the highest incidence and mortality. In 2012, colorectal cancer was the second most prevalence cancer among males (9%) and the third among females (8%). In this disease, early diagnosis is important to improve treatment outcomes. However, at the time of diagnosis, about one quarter of patients already have metastases, and overall survival of these patients at 5-years survival is very low. Because of these poor statistics, the development of new drugs against specific targets, including the pathway of angiogenesis, has witnessed a remarkable increase. So, targets therapies through epidermal growth factor and its receptor and also KRAS pathways modulation acquired a main role whether in association with standard chemotherapy and radiotherapy. With the current knowledge in the field of molecular biology, including genetic mutations and polymorphisms, we know better why patients respond so differently to the same treatments. So, in the future we can develop increasingly personalized treatments to the patient and not the disease. This review aims to summarize some molecular pathways and their relation to tumor growth, as well as novel targeted developing drugs and recently approved for mCRC. (C) 2014 Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Adaptations to iron deficiency: cardiac functional responsiveness to norepinephrine, arterial remodeling, and the effect of beta-blockade on cardiac hypertrophy.

BackgroundIron deficiency (ID) results in ventricular hypertrophy, believed to involve sympathetic stimulation. We hypothesized that with ID 1) intravenous norepinephrine would alter heart rate (HR) and contractility, 2) abdominal aorta would be larger and more distensible, and 3) the beta-blocker propanolol would reduce hypertrophy.Methods1) 30 CD rats were fed an ID or replete diet for 1 week or 1 month. Norepinephrine was infused via jugular vein; pressure was monitored at carotid artery. Saline infusions were used as a control. The pressure trace was analyzed for HR, contractility, systolic and diastolic pressures. 2) Abdominal aorta catheters inflated the aorta, while digital microscopic images were recorded at stepwise pressures to measure arterial diameter and distensibility. 3) An additional 10 rats (5 ID, 5 control) were given a daily injection of propanolol or saline. After 1 month, the hearts were excised and weighed.ResultsEnhanced contractility, but not HR, was associated with ID hypertrophic hearts. Systolic and diastolic blood pressures were consistent with an increase in arterial diameter associated with ID. Aortic diameter at 100 mmHg and distensibility were increased with ID. Propanolol was associated with an increase in heart to body mass ratio.ConclusionsID cardiac hypertrophy results in an increased inotropic, but not chronotropic response to the sympathetic neurotransmitter, norepinephrine. Increased aortic diameter is consistent with a flow-dependent vascular remodeling; increased distensibility may reflect decreased vascular collagen content. The failure of propanolol to prevent hypertrophy suggests that ID hypertrophy is not mediated via beta-adrenergic neurotransmission

A Bi-Directional Refinement Algorithm for the Calculus of (Co)Inductive Constructions

The paper describes the refinement algorithm for the Calculus of (Co)Inductive Constructions (CIC) implemented in the interactive theorem prover Matita. The refinement algorithm is in charge of giving a meaning to the terms, types and proof terms directly written by the user or generated by using tactics, decision procedures or general automation. The terms are written in an "external syntax" meant to be user friendly that allows omission of information, untyped binders and a certain liberal use of user defined sub-typing. The refiner modifies the terms to obtain related well typed terms in the internal syntax understood by the kernel of the ITP. In particular, it acts as a type inference algorithm when all the binders are untyped. The proposed algorithm is bi-directional: given a term in external syntax and a type expected for the term, it propagates as much typing information as possible towards the leaves of the term. Traditional mono-directional algorithms, instead, proceed in a bottom-up way by inferring the type of a sub-term and comparing (unifying) it with the type expected by its context only at the end. We propose some novel bi-directional rules for CIC that are particularly effective. Among the benefits of bi-directionality we have better error message reporting and better inference of dependent types. Moreover, thanks to bi-directionality, the coercion system for sub-typing is more effective and type inference generates simpler unification problems that are more likely to be solved by the inherently incomplete higher order unification algorithms implemented. Finally we introduce in the external syntax the notion of vector of placeholders that enables to omit at once an arbitrary number of arguments. Vectors of placeholders allow a trivial implementation of implicit arguments and greatly simplify the implementation of primitive and simple tactics