Positive emotional experiences with portable interactive products

Positive emotions are central to human life and have implications to the overall quality of people's life (Fredrickson, 1998). This paper reports on positive experiences with two types of portable interactive devices (PIDs), specifically media/entertainment and medical/health devices. The study is based on a six-month longitudinal study exploring people's emotional experience and how PIDs mediate these experiences in everyday contexts. Previous findings by the authors (Gomez, Popovic & Blackler, 2011) presented four categories of activities including Feature, Functional, Mediation and Auxiliary activities and their relationship to emotional experience. The paper presents emotional experiences with specific activities reported with a focus on positive emotions. It concludes with a discussion of the findings on positive experiences and the implications for the future design of PIDs.

Positive impacts of environmental characteristics on health and wellbeing in health-care facilities : a review

Well-designed indoor environments can support people’s health and welfare. In this literature review, we identify the environmental features that affect human health and wellbeing. Environmental characteristics found to influence health outcomes and/or wellbeing included: environmental safety; indoor air quality (e.g. odour and temperature); sound and noise; premises and interior design (e.g. construction materials, viewing nature and experiencing nature, windows versus no windows, light, colours, unit layout and placement of the furniture, the type of room, possibilities to control environmental elements, environmental complexity and sensory simulations, cleanliness, ergonomics and accessibility, ‛‛wayfinding’’); art, and music, among others. Indoor environments that incorporate healing elements can, for instance, reduce anxiety, lower blood pressure, lessen pain and shorten hospital stays.

Prediction of transcriptional regulatory interactions in bacteria : a comparative genomics approach

Exponential growth of genomic data in the last two decades has made manual analyses impractical for all but trial studies. As genomic analyses have become more sophisticated, and move toward comparisons across large datasets, computational approaches have become essential. One of the most important biological questions is to understand the mechanisms underlying gene regulation. Genetic regulation is commonly investigated and modelled through the use of transcriptional regulatory network (TRN) structures. These model the regulatory interactions between two key components: transcription factors (TFs) and the target genes (TGs) they regulate. Transcriptional regulatory networks have proven to be invaluable scientific tools in Bioinformatics. When used in conjunction with comparative genomics, they have provided substantial insights into the evolution of regulatory interactions. Current approaches to regulatory network inference, however, omit two additional key entities: promoters and transcription factor binding sites (TFBSs). In this study, we attempted to explore the relationships among these regulatory components in bacteria. Our primary goal was to identify relationships that can assist in reducing the high false positive rates associated with transcription factor binding site predictions and thereupon enhance the reliability of the inferred transcription regulatory networks. In our preliminary exploration of relationships between the key regulatory components in Escherichia coli transcription, we discovered a number of potentially useful features. The combination of location score and sequence dissimilarity scores increased de novo binding site prediction accuracy by 13.6%. Another important observation made was with regards to the relationship between transcription factors grouped by their regulatory role and corresponding promoter strength. Our study of E.coli ��70 promoters, found support at the 0.1 significance level for our hypothesis | that weak promoters are preferentially associated with activator binding sites to enhance gene expression, whilst strong promoters have more repressor binding sites to repress or inhibit gene transcription. Although the observations were specific to �70, they nevertheless strongly encourage additional investigations when more experimentally confirmed data are available. In our preliminary exploration of relationships between the key regulatory components in E.coli transcription, we discovered a number of potentially useful features { some of which proved successful in reducing the number of false positives when applied to re-evaluate binding site predictions. Of chief interest was the relationship observed between promoter strength and TFs with respect to their regulatory role. Based on the common assumption, where promoter homology positively correlates with transcription rate, we hypothesised that weak promoters would have more transcription factors that enhance gene expression, whilst strong promoters would have more repressor binding sites. The t-tests assessed for E.coli �70 promoters returned a p-value of 0.072, which at 0.1 significance level suggested support for our (alternative) hypothesis; albeit this trend may only be present for promoters where corresponding TFBSs are either all repressors or all activators. Nevertheless, such suggestive results strongly encourage additional investigations when more experimentally confirmed data will become available. Much of the remainder of the thesis concerns a machine learning study of binding site prediction, using the SVM and kernel methods, principally the spectrum kernel. Spectrum kernels have been successfully applied in previous studies of protein classification [91, 92], as well as the related problem of promoter predictions [59], and we have here successfully applied the technique to refining TFBS predictions. The advantages provided by the SVM classifier were best seen in `moderately'-conserved transcription factor binding sites as represented by our E.coli CRP case study. Inclusion of additional position feature attributes further increased accuracy by 9.1% but more notable was the considerable decrease in false positive rate from 0.8 to 0.5 while retaining 0.9 sensitivity. Improved prediction of transcription factor binding sites is in turn extremely valuable in improving inference of regulatory relationships, a problem notoriously prone to false positive predictions. Here, the number of false regulatory interactions inferred using the conventional two-component model was substantially reduced when we integrated de novo transcription factor binding site predictions as an additional criterion for acceptance in a case study of inference in the Fur regulon. This initial work was extended to a comparative study of the iron regulatory system across 20 Yersinia strains. This work revealed interesting, strain-specific difierences, especially between pathogenic and non-pathogenic strains. Such difierences were made clear through interactive visualisations using the TRNDifi software developed as part of this work, and would have remained undetected using conventional methods. This approach led to the nomination of the Yfe iron-uptake system as a candidate for further wet-lab experimentation due to its potential active functionality in non-pathogens and its known participation in full virulence of the bubonic plague strain. Building on this work, we introduced novel structures we have labelled as `regulatory trees', inspired by the phylogenetic tree concept. Instead of using gene or protein sequence similarity, the regulatory trees were constructed based on the number of similar regulatory interactions. While the common phylogentic trees convey information regarding changes in gene repertoire, which we might regard being analogous to `hardware', the regulatory tree informs us of the changes in regulatory circuitry, in some respects analogous to `software'. In this context, we explored the `pan-regulatory network' for the Fur system, the entire set of regulatory interactions found for the Fur transcription factor across a group of genomes. In the pan-regulatory network, emphasis is placed on how the regulatory network for each target genome is inferred from multiple sources instead of a single source, as is the common approach. The benefit of using multiple reference networks, is a more comprehensive survey of the relationships, and increased confidence in the regulatory interactions predicted. In the present study, we distinguish between relationships found across the full set of genomes as the `core-regulatory-set', and interactions found only in a subset of genomes explored as the `sub-regulatory-set'. We found nine Fur target gene clusters present across the four genomes studied, this core set potentially identifying basic regulatory processes essential for survival. Species level difierences are seen at the sub-regulatory-set level; for example the known virulence factors, YbtA and PchR were found in Y.pestis and P.aerguinosa respectively, but were not present in both E.coli and B.subtilis. Such factors and the iron-uptake systems they regulate, are ideal candidates for wet-lab investigation to determine whether or not they are pathogenic specific. In this study, we employed a broad range of approaches to address our goals and assessed these methods using the Fur regulon as our initial case study. We identified a set of promising feature attributes; demonstrated their success in increasing transcription factor binding site prediction specificity while retaining sensitivity, and showed the importance of binding site predictions in enhancing the reliability of regulatory interaction inferences. Most importantly, these outcomes led to the introduction of a range of visualisations and techniques, which are applicable across the entire bacterial spectrum and can be utilised in studies beyond the understanding of transcriptional regulatory networks.

Positive experiences for participants in suicide bereavement groups : a grounded theory model of elements that contribute to the process of adjusting to the loss

Grounded Theory was used to examine the experiences of 13 participants who had attended psycho-educational support groups for those bereaved by suicide. Results demonstrated core and central categories which fit well with group therapeutic factors developed by Yalom (1995) and emphasised the importance of universality, imparting information and instilling hope, catharsis and self-disclosure, and broader meaning making processes surrounding acceptance or adjustment. Participants were commonly engaged in a lengthy process of oscillating between loss oriented and restoration focused reappraisals. The functional experience of the group comprised feeling normal within the group, providing a sense of permission to feel and to express emotions and thoughts and to bestow meaning. Structural variables of information and guidance and different perspectives on the suicide and bereavement were gained from other participants, the facilitators, group content and process. Personal changes, including in relationships and in their sense of self, assisted participants to develop an altered and more positive personal narrative.

Child car restraints : mandating type and seating row according to age with positive effect in regional city in Queensland, Australia

Road trauma is a leading cause of child injury worldwide. In highly motorised countries, injury as a passenger represents a major proportion of all child road deaths and hospitalisations. Australia is no exception, particularly since there are high levels of private motor vehicle travel to school in most Australian states. Recently the legislation governing the type of car restraints required for children aged under 7 years has changed in Australia, aligning requirements better with accepted best practice. However, it is unclear what effect these changes have had on children’s seating positions or the types of restraints used. A mixed methods evaluation of the impact of the new legislation on compliance was conducted at three times: baseline (Time 1); after announcement that changes were going to be implemented but before enforcement began (Time 2); and after enforcement commenced (Time 3). Measures of compliance were obtained using two methods: road-side observations of vehicles with child passengers; and parental self-report (intercept interviews conducted at Time 2 and Time 3 only). Results from the observations suggested an overall positive effect. Proportions of children occupying front seats decreased overall and use of dedicated child seats increased to almost 40% of the observed children by Time 3. However, almost a quarter of the children observed still occupied front seats. These results differed from those of the interview study where almost no children were reported as usually travelling in the front seat, and reported use of dedicated restraints with children was almost 90%, over twice that of the observations.

Cytokine synthesis by intestinal intraepithelial lymphocytes. Both gamma/delta T cell receptor-positive and alpha/beta T cell receptor-positive T cells in the G1 phase of cell cycle produce IFN-gamma and IL-5

Murine intestinal intraepithelial lymphocytes (IEL) have been shown to contain subsets of alpha/beta TCR+ and gamma/delta TCR+ T cells that spontaneously produce cytokines such as IFN-gamma and IL-5. We have now determined the nature and cell cycle stage of these cytokine-producing T lymphocytes in EIL by using IFN-gamma- and IL-5-specific ELISPOT assay, cytokine-specific mRNA-cDNA dot-blot hybridization and polymerase chain reaction, and flow cytometry (FACS) for DNA analysis. When CD3+ T cells from IEL of normal C3H/HeN mice were separated into low and high density fractions by discontinuous Percoll gradients, IFN-gamma and IL-5 spot-forming cells were only found in the former population. Analysis of mRNA for these cytokines by both IFN-gamma- and IL-5-specific dot-blot hybridization and polymerase chain reaction revealed that higher levels of message for IFN-gamma and IL-5 were also seen in the low density fraction. However, cell cycle analysis of these two fractions by FACS using propidium iodide showed a similar pattern of cell cycle stages in both low and high density populations (G0 + G1 approximately 96 to 98% and S/G2 + M approximately 2 to 4%). Finally, mRNA from gamma/delta TCR+ and alpha/beta TCR+ T cells in both low and high density fractions of IEL were analyzed for IFN-gamma and IL-5 message by polymerase chain reaction. After 35 cycles of amplification, both gamma/delta TCR+ and alpha/beta TCR+ T cells in the low density fraction expressed higher levels of message for these two cytokines when compared with the high density population. These results have now shown that both gamma/delta and alpha/beta TCR+ IEL can be separated into low and high density subsets and both fractions possess a similar stage of cell cycle. However, only the low density cells (in G1 phase) of both gamma/delta and alpha/beta TCR types possess increased cytokine-specific mRNA and produce the cytokines IFN-gamma and IL-5. Our results suggest that alpha/beta TCR+ and gamma/delta TCR+ IEL can produce cytokines without cell proliferation.

The impact of surgical ward nurses practicing respiratory assessment on positive patient outcomes

Objective: A literature review to examine the incorporation of respiratory assessment into everyday surgical nursing practice; possible barriers to this; and the relationship to patient outcomes. Primary argument: Escalating demands on intensive care beds have led to highly dependent patients being cared for in general surgical ward areas. This change in patient demographics has meant the knowledge and skills required of registered nurses in these areas has expanded exponentially. The literature supported the notion that postoperative monitoring of vital signs should include the fundamental assessment of respiratory rate; depth and rhythm; work of breathing; use of accessory muscles and symmetrical chest movement; as well as auscultation of lung fields using a stethoscope. Early intervention in response to changes in a patient's respiratory health status impacts positively on patient health outcomes. Substantial support exists for the contention that technologically adept nurses who also possess competent respiratory assessment skills make a difference to respiratory care. Conclusions: Sub-clinical respiratory problems have been demonstrated to contribute to adverse events. There is a paucity of research knowledge as to whether respiratory education programs and associated inservice make a difference to nursing clinical practice. Similarly, the implications for associated respiratory educational needs are not well documented, nor has a research base been sufficiently developed to guide nursing practice. Further research has the potential to influence the future role and function of the registered nurse by determining the importance of respiratory education programs on post-operative patient outcomes.

Standing up and finding my voice through positive digital storytelling

‘Positive Stories’ is a digital storytelling initiative that took place in Adelaide in 2010–2011.1 This article describes participants’ experiences of creative self-representation and the thorny complications of mediating voice, particularly in situations where privacy and publicity are significant issues.

Calculation of dose kernels for radiotherapy applications using the GEANT 4 Monte Carlo toolkit

Dose kernels may be used to calculate dose distributions in radiotherapy (as described by Ahnesjo et al., 1999). Their calculation requires use of Monte Carlo methods, usually by forcing interactions to occur at a point. The Geant4 Monte Carlo toolkit provides a capability to force interactions to occur in a particular volume. We have modified this capability and created a Geant4 application to calculate dose kernels in cartesian, cylindrical, and spherical scoring systems. The simulation considers monoenergetic photons incident at the origin of a 3 m x 3 x 9 3 m water volume. Photons interact via compton, photo-electric, pair production, and rayleigh scattering. By default, Geant4 models photon interactions by sampling a physical interaction length (PIL) for each process. The process returning the smallest PIL is then considered to occur. In order to force the interaction to occur within a given length, L_FIL, we scale each PIL according to the formula: PIL_forced = L_FIL 9 (1 - exp(-PIL/PILo)) where PILo is a constant. This ensures that the process occurs within L_FIL, whilst correctly modelling the relative probability of each process. Dose kernels were produced for an incident photon energy of 0.1, 1.0, and 10.0 MeV. In order to benchmark the code, dose kernels were also calculated using the EGSnrc Edknrc user code. Identical scoring systems were used; namely, the collapsed cone approach of the Edknrc code. Relative dose difference images were then produced. Preliminary results demonstrate the ability of the Geant4 application to reproduce the shape of the dose kernels; median relative dose differences of 12.6, 5.75, and 12.6 % were found for an incident photon energy of 0.1, 1.0, and 10.0 MeV respectively.

Stigmergy within web modelling languages : positive feedback mechanisms

Stigmergy is a biological term originally used when discussing insect or swarm behaviour, and describes a model supporting environment-based communication separating artefacts from agents. This phenomenon is demonstrated in the behavior of ants and their food foraging supported by pheromone trails, or similarly termites and their termite nest building process. What is interesting with this mechanism is that highly organized societies are formed without an apparent central management function. We see design features in Web sites that mimic stigmergic mechanisms as part of the User Interface and we have created generalizations of these patterns. Software development and Web site development techniques have evolved significantly over the past 20 years. Recent progress in this area proposes languages to model web applications to facilitate the nuances specific to these developments. These modeling languages provide a suitable framework for building reusable components encapsulating our design patterns of stigmergy. We hypothesize that incorporating stigmergy as a separate feature of a site’s primary function will ultimately lead to enhanced user coordination.

Towards positive organisation austerity : combining austerity measures with Positive Organisational Scholarship (POS)

The purpose of this paper is to explore the potential and value of positive management practices to address the pain and suffering that frequently accompanies periods of large-scale austerity in public sectors. Public managers are increasingly asked to implement severe austerity measures and at the same time to build service delivery capacity; contradictory tasks. We draw on and further develop Cameron’s (2012) model of Positive Leadership to identify seven positive shared leadership practices that, while not eliminating the pain and suffering associated with austerity measures at least offer some scope, compared to traditional public management practices, for managing the austerity-build capacity duality in ways that respond to those affected with compassion and respect. We draw on published reports of a large-scale austerity program to highlight the potential and value of positive shared leadership practices for creating what we refer to as positive organisational austerity. The paper contributes to the literature on public management response to crises in two main ways. First, the paper introduces and develops the concept of shared positive leadership (Cameron, 2012; Carson et al. 2007) as a way of managing in austerity. Second, the paper introduces the concept of positive organisational austerity as a means of highlighting a reorientation in thinking about austerity measures and their implementation.

High levels of BACH2 associated with lower levels of BCL2 transcript abundance in t(14;18)(q21;q34) translocation positive non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma

The t(14;18)(q21;q34) BCL2 translocation is a common genetic alteration in follicular and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. However, it is not invariably associated with BCL2 gene overexpression due to undefined mechanisms that regulate expression from the proximal immunoglobulin heavy-chain (IgH) promoter. The BACH2 transcriptional repressor is able to modulate activity of this promoter. Here we have shown that, in tumor samples with BCL2 translocation, those with high levels of BACH2 had significantly lower BCL2 transcript abundance compared to those with low levels of BACH2. This indicates that BACH2 may be partially responsible for regulation of BCL2 expression from the t(14;18)(q21;q34) translocation.

Epstein-Barr virus-positive diffuse large B-cell lymphoma of the elderly expresses EBNA3A with conserved CD8+ T-cell epitopes

Post-transplantation lymphoproliferative disorders (PTLD) arise in the immunosuppressed and are frequently Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) associated. The most common PTLD histological sub-type is diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (EBV+DLBCL-PTLD). Restoration of EBV-specific T-cell immunity can induce EBV+DLBCL-PTLD regression. The most frequent B-cell lymphoma in the immunocompetent is also DLBCL. ‘EBV-positive DLBCL of the elderly’ (EBV+DLBCL) is a rare but well-recognized DLBCL entity that occurs in the overtly immunocompetent, that has an adverse outcome relative to EBV-negative DLBCL. Unlike PTLD (which is classified as viral latency III), literature suggests EBV+DLBCL is typically latency II, i.e. expression is limited to the immuno-subdominant EBNA1, LMP1 and LMP2 EBV-proteins. If correct, this would be a major impediment for T-cell immunotherapeutic strategies. Unexpectedly we observed EBV+DLBCL-PTLD and EBV+DLBCL both shared features consistent with type III EBV-latency, including expression of the immuno-dominant EBNA3A protein. Extensive analysis showed frequent polymorphisms in EBNA1 and LMP1 functionally defined CD8+ T-cell epitope encoding regions, whereas EBNA3A polymorphisms were very rare making this an attractive immunotherapy target. As with EBV+DLBCL-PTLD, the antigen presenting machinery within lymphomatous nodes was intact. EBV+DLBCL express EBNA3A suggesting it is amenable to immunotherapeutic strategies.

Promoting a more positive traffic safety culture in Australia : lessons learnt and future directions

Adopting a traffic safety culture approach, this paper identifies and discusses the ongoing challenge of promoting the road safety message in Australia. It is widely acknowledged that mass media and public education initiatives have played a critical role in the significant positive changes witnessed in community attitudes to road safety in the last three to four decades. It could be argued that mass media and education have had a direct influence on behaviours and attitudes, as well as an indirect influence through signposting and awareness raising functions in conjunction with enforcement. Great achievements have been made in reducing fatalities on Australia’s roads; a concept which is well understood among the international road safety fraternity. How well these achievements are appreciated by the general Australian community however, is not clear. This paper explores the lessons that can be learnt from successes in attitudinal and behaviour change in regard to seatbelt use and drink driving in Australia. It also identifies and discusses key challenges associated with achieving further positive changes in community attitudes and behaviours, particularly in relation to behaviours that may not be perceived by the community as dangerous, such as speeding and mobile phone use while driving. Potential strategies for future mass media and public education campaigns to target these challenges are suggested, including ways of harnessing the power of contemporary traffic law enforcement techniques, such as point-to-point speed enforcement and in-vehicle technologies, to help spread the road safety message.