Realizing homology classes up to cobordism

4 pages, no figures

Incidentally Raised Cardiac Troponin I Has a Worse Prognosis in Older Patients Compared to Those with Normal Cardiac Troponin I and Patients with Acute Coronary Syndrome : A Cohort Study

Acknowledgement J.H.B.-S. was supported by the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (NNUH) Research and Development (R&D) research capability funds between July 2013 and December 2014.

Potentials and Limits to Basin Stability Estimation

5 pages, 4 figures

Palladium Sulfide – A Highly Selective Catalyst for the Gas Phase Hydrogenation of Alkynes to Alkenes

Acknowledgements The support of the Spanish Government (projects CTQ2014-52956-C3-2-R and CTQ2014-52956-C3-3-R) is recognized.

How to trust a few among many

Acknowledgments Dr. Sensoy thanks to the U.S. Army Research Laboratory for its support under grant W911NF-14-1-0199 and The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) for its support under grant 113E238

In-situ infrared spectroscopy as a non-invasive technique to study carbon sequestration at high pressure and high temperature

We would like to thank EPSRC for a Doctoral Training Grant (G.A.M) and the Erasmus programme for supporting the study visit to Turin (R.W). We would also like to thank Dr. Federico Cesano for SEM/EDX measurements and for fruitful discussion. Dr. Jo Duncan is thanked for his tremendous insight during XRD interpretation.

Collaborating to Refine Knowledge

Peer reviewed

Distributed Learning: An Agent-Based Approach to Data-Mining

Peer reviewed

When does female multiple mating evolve to adjust inbreeding? : Effects of inbreeding depression, direct costs, mating constraints, and polyandry as a threshold trait

Ackowledgements: This work was funded by a European Research Council Starting Grant to JMR. All simulations were performed using the Maxwell computing cluster at the University of Aberdeen

A new stepwise carbon cycle data assimilation system using multiple data streams to constrain the simulated land surface carbon cycle

Acknowledgements. This work was mainly funded by the EU FP7 CARBONES project (contracts FP7-SPACE-2009-1-242316), with also a small contribution from GEOCARBON project (ENV.2011.4.1.1-1-283080). This work used eddy covariance data acquired by the FLUXNET community and in particular by the following networks: AmeriFlux (U.S. Department of Energy, Biological and Environmental Research, Terrestrial Carbon Program; DE-FG02-04ER63917 and DE-FG02-04ER63911), AfriFlux, AsiaFlux, CarboAfrica, CarboEuropeIP, CarboItaly, CarboMont, ChinaFlux, Fluxnet-Canada (supported by CFCAS, NSERC, BIOCAP, Environment Canada, and NRCan), GreenGrass, KoFlux, LBA, NECC, OzFlux, TCOS-Siberia, USCCC. We acknowledge the financial support to the eddy covariance data harmonization provided by CarboEuropeIP, FAO-GTOS-TCO, iLEAPS, Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, National Science Foundation, University of Tuscia, Université Laval and Environment Canada and US Department of Energy and the database development and technical support from Berkeley Water Center, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Microsoft Research eScience, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, University of California-Berkeley, University of Virginia. Philippe Ciais acknowledges support from the European Research Council through Synergy grant ERC-2013-SyG-610028 “IMBALANCE-P”. The authors wish to thank M. Jung for providing access to the GPP MTE data, which were downloaded from the GEOCARBON data portal (https://www.bgc-jena.mpg.de/geodb/projects/Data.php). The authors are also grateful to computing support and resources provided at LSCE and to the overall ORCHIDEE project that coordinate the development of the code (http://labex.ipsl.fr/orchidee/index.php/about-the-team).

An evaluation of an online peer support forum for university students with depressive symptoms

Background: Depression is the most common mental health problem among young people, particularly university students, with prevalence rates as high as 48% reported. This population however, is reluctant to seek professional help. Online interventions may be particularly appealing to students, with evidence suggesting that they use the Internet for mental health support. While there are many mental health resources on the Internet few focus specifically on the needs of young people and few have been evaluated. This research aimed to develop and pilot test an online peer support intervention for students experiencing depressive symptoms. Methods: A depression support Web site (www.losetheblues.ie) was designed specifically for 18-24. year old students. The study used a mixed method, involving quantitative descriptive, pre- and post-test and qualitative descriptive designs. Data were collected using the Centre for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), a background questionnaire and online forum posts. Results: The sample consisted of 117 university students with self-reported depressive symptoms. Results from participants in the pre- and post-test element of the study, showed no statistical significance. The forum posts revealed that the participants' main difficulties were loneliness and perceived lack of socialization skills. The Web site provided a place for sharing, offering and receiving emotional and informational support. Conclusion: Developing health care interventions in an online environment presents unique challenges to the research process, however they have the potential to provide mental health care that is accessible and affordable.

An Exploration of Sociometric Status and Peer Relations in Youth Sport

More than 10 years ago, it was suggested that sociometry and systematic observation were two potentially useful but under-utilized methods for the study of peers in youth sport (Smith, 2003). Despite this call, the methods used to study peers in sport remain largely focused on athletes' perceptions through questionnaires and interviews. Thus, the purpose of this descriptive study was to investigate the utility of sociometry in relation to sport competence and observed athlete behavior in youth sport. Three adolescent female volleyball teams were videotaped during three practice sessions, and sport competence and sociometric status were assessed using questionnaires. An observational coding system was developed and used to code athlete behaviors and data were compared across sociometric status groups. Results revealed significant differences between sociometric status groups on peer ratings of sport competence, but not on athlete behavior. However, interesting findings emerged with respect to how status groups interacted with teammates and coaches. Thus, sport competence seems to be an important factor in gaining acceptance among youth peer groups. Further, sociometry and behavioral observation appear to be useful techniques that should continue to be employed in the study of peer relations in youth sport.

La ética hacker frente al capitalismo netárquíco: software libre y peer production en las iniciativas de Economía Colaborativa en Andalucía

En los últimos años el término Economía Colaborativa se ha popularizado sin que, hasta el momento, haya sido definido de manera inequívoca. Bajo esta denominación se engloban experiencias tan diversas como bancos de tiempo, huertos urbanos, startups o grandes plataformas digitales. La proliferación de este tipo de iniciativas puede relacionarse con una multiplicidad de factores tales como el desarrollo tecnológico, la recesión económica y otras crisis superpuestas (medioambiental, de cuidados, de valores, de lo político) y un cierto cambio en los valores sociales. Entre 2014-2015 se han realizado dos investigaciones en Andalucía de manera casi paralela y con una metodología similar. La primera de ellas pretendía identificar prácticas de Economía Colaborativa en el entorno universitario. La segunda investigación identificaba experiencias de emprendimiento a nivel autonómico. A luz de los resultados obtenidos se plantea la siguiente cuestión sobre la naturaleza misma de la Economía Colaborativa: ¿nos encontramos ante prácticas postcapitalistas que abren el camino a una sociedad más justa e igualitaria o, más bien, estamos ante una respuesta del capital para, una vez más, seguir extrayendo de manera privada el valor que se genera socialmente? Este artículo, partiendo del análisis del conjunto de iniciativas detentadas en Andalucía, se centra en aquellas basadas en el software libre y la producción digital concluyendo cómo, gracias a la incorporación de ciertos aspectos de la ética hacker y las lógicas del conocimiento abierto, éstas pueden situarse dentro de un escenario de fomento de los comunes globales frente a las lógicas imperantes del capitalismo netárquico. 

Peer Mentoring and Professionalism

Peer mentoring has been a success for everyone involved resulting in a ‘win-win-win’ situation for mentors, mentees and university schools and departments (Andrews and Clark, 2011). Mentors have the opportunity to develop key transferable skills such as communication and leadership, which in turn can enhance their employability opportunities. There is also potential to increase and develop social and academic confidence. For mentees the benefits include the opportunity to gain advice, encouragement and support during the transition period from school/college/work to university along with the opportunity to gain an insight into the stages of university life by learning the "rules of the game". Through peer mentor schemes University schools and departments are meeting the demand to support student success while assisting student transition and reducing attrition. This paper will focus on the peer mentor scheme set up in the School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Queen’s University Belfast specifically the development of employability skills through company involvement in the scheme.

Cross-section and panel estimates of peer effects in early adolescent cannabis use: With a little help from my ‘friends once removed’

Peer effects in adolescent cannabis are difficult to estimate, due in part to the lack of appropriate data on behaviour and social ties. This paper exploits survey data that have many desirable properties and have not previously been used for this purpose. The data set, collected from teenagers in three annual waves from 2002-2004 contains longitudinal information about friendship networks within schools (N = 5,020). We exploit these data on network structure to estimate peer effects on adolescents from their nominated friends within school using two alternative approaches to identification. First, we present a cross-sectional instrumental variable (IV) estimate of peer effects that exploits network structure at the second degree, i.e. using information on friends of friends who are not themselves ego’s friends to instrument for the cannabis use of friends. Second, we present an individual fixed effects estimate of peer effects using the full longitudinal structure of the data. Both innovations allow a greater degree of control for correlated effects than is commonly the case in the substance-use peer effects literature, improving our chances of obtaining estimates of peer effects than can be plausibly interpreted as causal. Both estimates suggest positive peer effects of non-trivial magnitude, although the IV estimate is imprecise. Furthermore, when we specify identical models with behaviour and characteristics of randomly selected school peers in place of friends’, we find effectively zero effect from these ‘placebo’ peers, lending credence to our main estimates. We conclude that cross-sectional data can be used to estimate plausible positive peer effects on cannabis use where network structure information is available and appropriately exploited.