Fruit and vegetable consumption and muscle strength and power during adolescence: a cross-sectional analysis of the Northern Ireland Young Hearts Project 1999-2001

Objectives: To examine the association between fruit and vegetable (FV) consumption and muscle strength and power in an adolescent population. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional analysis among 1019 boys and 998 girls, aged 12 and 15 years, who participated in The Young Hearts Project. FV consumption (excluding potatoes) was assessed by 7-d diet history. Grip strength and jump power was assessed with a dynamometer and Jump-MD meter, respectively. Associations between FV consumption and strength and power were assessed by regression modelling. Results: Boys and girls with the highest FV intakes (>237.71 g/d and >267.57 g/d, respectively, based on the highest tertile) had significantly higher jump power than those with the lowest intakes (<135.09 g/d and <147.43 g/d, respectively), after adjustment for confounding factors. Although girls with the highest FV intakes had higher grip strength than those with the lowest intakes, no significant independent associations were evident between FV intake and grip strength in boys or girls. Similar findings were observed when FV were analysed separately.Conclusions: Higher FV consumption in this group of adolescents was positively associated with muscle power. There was no independent association between higher FV consumption and muscle strength. Intervention studies are required to determine whether muscle strength and power can be improved through increased FV consumption.

A research-based approach to exploring the adoption of novel UK-based concrete test methods in Chinese construction sector

As part of a UK-China science bridge project - a UK government funded initiative linking leading universities and businesses in selective partnering countries in 2009 a collaborative research programme was initiated between Queen's University and the Research Institute of High Performance Concrete (part of the Central Research Institute of Building and Construction) in Beijing.

For further details email b.magee@ulster.ac.uk

Is China's fifth-largest inland lake to dry-up? Incorporated hydrological and satellite-based methods for forecasting Hulun Lake water levels

Hulun Lake, China's fifth-largest inland lake, experienced severe declines in water level in the period of 2000-2010. This has prompted concerns whether the lake is drying up gradually. A multi-million US dollar engineering project to construct a water channel to transfer part of the river flow from a nearby river to maintain the water level was completed in August 2010. This study aimed to advance the understanding of the key processes controlling the lake water level variation over the last five decades, as well as investigate the impact of the river transfer engineering project on the water level. A water balance model was developed to investigate the lake water level variations over the last five decades, using hydrological and climatic data as well as satellite-based measurements and results from land surface modelling. The investigation reveals that the severe reduction of river discharge (-364±64 mm/yr, ∼70% of the five-decade average) into the lake was the key factor behind the decline of the lake water level between 2000 and 2010. The decline of river discharge was due to the reduction of total runoff from the lake watershed. This was a result of the reduction of soil moisture due to the decrease of precipitation (-49±45 mm/yr) over this period. The water budget calculation suggests that the groundwater component from the surrounding lake area as well as surface run off from the un-gauged area surrounding the lake contributed ∼ net 210 Mm3/yr (equivalent to ∼ 100 mm/yr) water inflows into the lake. The results also show that the water diversion project did prevent a further water level decline of over 0.5 m by the end of 2012. Overall, the monthly water balance model gave an excellent prediction of the lake water level fluctuation over the last five decades and can be a useful tool to manage lake water resources in the future.

Development of Novel Activity-Based Probes for the Detection of Serine Proteases

Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is a genetic disease featuring a chronic cycle of inflammation and infection in the airways of sufferers. Mutations lead to altered ion transport, which in turn causes dehydrated airways and reduced mucociliary clearance which predisposes the patient to infection, resulting in a severe immune response and tissue destruction (1). Airway dehydration is primarily caused by the hyperabsorption of sodium by the epithelial sodium channel (ENaC) (2). ENaC is activated by the action of a number of predominantly trypsin-like Channel Activating Proteases (CAPs) including prostasin, matriptase and furin (3). Additional proteases known to activate ENaC include human airway trypsin (3), plasmin, neutrophil elastase and chymotrypsin (4).

Activity profiling is a valuable technique which involves the use of small inhibitory molecules called Activity-Based Probes (ABPs) which can be used to covalently label the active site of proteases and provide a range of information regarding its structure, catalytic mechanism, location and function within biological systems. The development of novel ABPs for CAPs, would enhance understanding of the role of these proteases in CF airways disease and in particular their role in ENaC activation and airway dehydration. This project investigates the application of a range of novel broad-spectrum ABPs targeting the various subclasses of serine proteases, to include those proteases involved in ENaC activation. Additionally, the application of more selective ABPs in detecting specific serine proteases is investigated.

Compounds were synthesised by Solid-Phase Peptide Synthesis (SPPS) using a standard Fmoc/tBu strategy. Kinetic evaluation of synthesised ABPs against various serine proteases was determined by fluorogenic steady-state enzyme assays. Furthermore, application of ABPs and confirmation of irreversible nature of the compounds was carried out through SDS-PAGE and electroblotting techniques.

Synthesised compounds showed potent irreversible inhibition of serine proteases within their respective targeting class (NAP855 vs Trypsin k3/Ki = 2.60 x 106 M-1 min-1, NFP849 vs Chymotrypsin k3/Ki = 1.28 x 106 M-1 min-1 and NVP800 vs Neutrophil Elastase k3/Ki = 6.41 x 104 M-1 min-1). Furthermore ABPs showed little to no cross-reactivity between classes and so display selectivity between classes. The irreversible nature of compounds was further demonstrated through labelling of proteases, followed by separation and detection via SDS-PAGE and electroblotting techniques. Targeted labelling of active proteases only, was demonstrated by failure of ABPs to detect previously inactivated proteases. Extension of the substrate recognition site within probes resulted in an increased potency and selectivity in the detection of the target proteases. Successful detection of neutrophil elastase from CF sputum samples by NVP800, demonstrated the application of compounds within biological samples and their potential use in identifying further proteases involved in ENaC activation and airway dehydration in CF patients.

LC- HRMS based metabolomics in food safety and doping control – DeTECH21

Issues surrounding the misuse of prohibited and licensed substances in animals destined for food production and performance sport competition continue to be an enormous challenge to regulatory authorities charged with enforcing their control. Efficient analytical strategies are implemented to screen and confirm the presence of a wide range of exogenous substances in various biological matrices. However, such methods rely on the direct measurement of drugs and/or their metabolites in a targeted mode, allowing the detection of restricted number of compounds. As a consequence, emerging practices, in particular the use of natural hormones, designer drugs and low-dose cocktails, remain difficult to handle from a control point of view. A new SME-led FP7 funded project, DeTECH21, aims to overcome current limitations by applying an untargeted metabolomics approach based on liquid chromatography coupled to high resolution mass spectrometry and bioinformatic data analysis to identify bovine and equine animals which have been exposed to exogenous substances and assist in the identification of administered compounds. Markerbased strategies, dealing with the comprehensive analysis of metabolites present in a biological sample (urine/plasma/tissue), offer a reliable solution in the areas of food safety and animal sport doping control by effective, high-throughput and sensitive detection of exogenously administered agents. Therefore, the development of the first commercially available forensic test service based on metabolomics profiling will meet 21st century demands in animal forensics.

The Cyrenaican Prehistory Project 2012: the sixth season of excavations in the Haua Fteah cave

The paper reports on the sixth season of fieldwork of the Cyrenaican Prehistory Project (CPP) undertaken in September 2012. As in the spring 2012 season, work focussed on the Haua Fteah cave and on studies of materials excavated in previous seasons, with no fieldwork undertaken elsewhere in the Gebel Akhdar. An important discovery, in a sounding excavated below the base of McBurney's 1955 Deep Sounding (Trench S), is of a rockfall or roof collapse conceivably dating to the cold climatic regime of Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 6 (globally dated to c. 190-130 ka) but more likely the result of a seismic event within MIS 5 (globally dated to c. 130-80 ka). The sediments and associated molluscan fauna in Trench S and in Trench D, a trench being cut down the side of the Deep Sounding, indicate that this part of the cave was at least seasonally waterlogged during the accumulation, probably during MIS 5, of the -6.5 rn of sediment cut through by the Deep Sounding. Evidence for human fréquentation of the cave in this period is more or less visible depending on how close the trench area was to standing water as it fluctuated through time. Trench M, the trench being cut down the side of McBurney's Middle Trench, has now reached the depth of the latest Middle Stone Age or Middle Palaeolithic (Levalloiso-Mousterian) industries. The preliminary indications from its excavation are that the transition from the Levalloiso-Mousterian to the blade-based Upper Palaeolithic or Late Stone Age Dabban industry was complex and perhaps protracted, at a time when the climate was oscillating between warmstage stable environmental conditions and colder and more arid environments. The estimated age of the sediments, c. 50-40 ka, places these oscillations within the earlier part of MIS 3 (globally dated to 60-24 ka), when global climates experienced rapid fluctuations as part of an overall trend to increasing aridity and cold.

Barriers to Subcontracted Labor Productivity in Urban Development Projects: An On-site Project Management Perspective

Considering the confined and complex nature of urban construction projects, labor productivity is one of the key factors attributing to project success. With the proliferation of sub-contracted labor, there is a necessity to consider the ramifications of this practice to the sector. This research aims to outline how project managers can optimise productivity levels of sub-contracted labor in urban construction projects, by addressing the barriers that most restrict these efficiency levels. A qualitative research approach is employed, incorporating semi-structured interviews based on three case studies from an urban context. The results are scrutinised using mind mapping software and accompanying analytical techniques. The findings from this research indicate that the effective on-site management of sub-contracted labor has a significant impact on the degree of success of an urban development project. The two core barriers to sub-contracted labor productivity are; 1) ineffective supervision of sub-contracted labor, and 2) lack of skilled sub-contracted labor. The implication of this research is that on-site project management play an integral role in the level of productivity achieved by sub-contracted labor in urban development projects. Therefore, on-site management situated in urban, confined construction sites, are encouraged to take heed of the findings herein and address the barriers documented. The value of this research is obtained through consideration of the critical factors; construction management professionals can mitigate such barriers, in order to optimise subcontracted labor productivity on-site.

Incentive Mechanisms and Their Impact on Project Performance

Good performance characterizes project success and value for money. However, performance problems are not uncommon in project management. Incentivization is generally recognized as a strategy of addressing performance problems. This chapter aims to explore incentive mechanisms and their impact on project performance. It is mainly based on the use of incentives in construction and engineering projects. The same principles apply to project management in other industry sectors. Incentivization can be used in such performance areas as time, cost, quality, safety and environment. A client has different ways of incentivizing his contractor’s performance, e.g. (1) a single incentive or multiple incentives; and (2) incentives or disincentives or a combination of both. The establishment of incentive mechanisms proves to have a significant potential for relationship development, process enhancement and performance improvement. In order to ensure the success of incentive mechanisms, both contractors and clients need to make extra efforts. As a result, a link is developed among incentive mechanisms, project management system and project performance.

Musculoskeletal (MSK) and Sport and Exercise Medicine (SEM) in General Practice (GP): A Novel GP-based clinic

The problem-Musculoskeletal (MSK) symptoms are common within primary care but some GPs are not comfortable managing these; waiting times for hospital appointments are a major cause of patients’ complaints. Current UK healthcare policies emphasise a need for more community-based management. We aimed to pilot an innovative general practice-based clinic to improve the management of MSK and Sport and Exercise Medicine (SEM) symptoms within general practice.

The approach-This project was conducted in an inner-city practice of approximately 9,000 patients and 5 GP partners. The practice commissioned a novel monthly 4-hour clinic staffed by one GP with a specialist interest in MSK and SEM conditions. Each patient was allocated a 20-minute appointment. All primary care staff within the practice could refer any patient for whom they considered hospital referral appropriate, with no specific exclusion criteria. Management plans included injection therapy, exercise prescription and onward referral. After three months (August-October 2014) numbers of consultations, sources of referral, reasons for referral and management outcomes were described; patient satisfaction was assessed by questionnaire, offered to 10 randomly selected patients by reception staff and self-completed by patients. Costs of the clinic were compared to current options.

Findings- All patients (14 males; 21 females; aged 35-77 years), were seen within four weeks of referral (one third of orthopaedic referrals in 2013 waited over 9 weeks for appointment). Most were referred from other GPs; some came from physiotherapy and podiatry. Shoulder problems were the most frequent reason for referral. The commonest management option was steroid injection, with most patients being given advice regarding exercise and analgesia; there were 3 onward referrals (2 physiotherapy; 1 rheumatology).

Comparing August-October data in 2014 and 2013, total, orthopaedic and rheumatology referrals were reduced by 147, 2 and 3, respectively; within the practice MSK presentations and physiotherapy and x-ray referrals were 60, 47 and 90 fewer, respectively.

The cost per attendance at the clinic was £61; initial orthopaedic-ICAT assessments cost £82 and a consultant appointment £213.

Satisfaction questionnaires were returned by all 10 selected participants and provided positive feedback, expressing preference for community-based, rather than hospital, management.

Consequence- Our pilot study indicates that this novel service model has potential for efficient and effective management of MSK and SEM complaints in primary care, reducing the need for hospital referral and the clinical burden on general practices. The innovation deserves further evaluation in a full-scale trial to determine its generalisability to other practice settings and populations.

Participatory Sonic Arts: towards a socially engaged art of sound in the everyday (The Som da Maré Project)

Participatory and socially engaged art practices have, for a couple of decades, emerged a myriad of aesthetic and methodological strategies across different media. These are artistic practices that have a primary interest in participation, affecting social dynamics, dialogue and at times political activism. Nato Thompson in “Living Form: Socially Engaged Art from 1991-2011” surveys these
practices, which range from theatre to urban planning, visual art to healthcare. Linked to notions such as relational aesthetics (Bourriaud, 1998), community art and public art, socially engaged art often focuses on the development of a sense of ownership by the part of participants. If an artist is working truly collaboratively with participants and addressing the reality of a particular community, the long-term effect of a project lies in the process of engagement as well as in the artwork itself. Projects by New York based artist Pablo Helguera, for example, use different media to engage with social inequalities through participative action while rejecting the notion of art for art sake.

“Socially engaged art functions by attaching itself to subjects and problems that normally belong to other disciplines, moving them temporarily into a space of ambiguity. It is this temporary snatching away of subjects into the realm of art-making that brings new insights to a particular problem or condition and in turn makes it visible to other disciplines.” (Helguera, 2011)

Socially engaged practices develop the notion of artwork about or by a community, to work of a community. In this chapter we address how socially engaged, participatory approaches can form a context for the sonic arts, arguably less explored than practices such as theatre and performance art. The use of sound is clearly present in a wide range of socially engaged work (e.g. Helguera’s “Aelia Media” enabling a nomadic radio station in Bologna or Maria Andueza “Immigrant Sounds – Res(on)Art (Stockholm)” exploring ways of sonically resonating a city, or Sue MacCauley’s “The Housing Project” addressing ways of representing the views of urban dwellers on public scape through sound art. It is nevertheless rare to encounter projects which take our experience of sound in the everyday as a trigger for community social engagement in a participatory context.
We address concepts and methodologies behind the project Som da Maré, a participatory sonic arts project in the favelas of Maré, Rio de Janeiro.

Islanding Detection Based on Probabilistic PCA with Missing Values in PMU Data

This paper proposes a probabilistic principal component analysis (PCA) approach applied to islanding detection study based on wide area PMU data. The increasing probability of uncontrolled islanding operation, according to many power system operators, is one of the biggest concerns with a large penetration of distributed renewable generation. The traditional islanding detection methods, such as RoCoF and vector shift, are however extremely sensitive and may result in many unwanted trips. The proposed probabilistic PCA aims to improve islanding detection accuracy and reduce the risk of unwanted tripping based on PMU measurements, while addressing a practical issue on missing data. The reliability and accuracy of the proposed probabilistic PCA approach are demonstrated using real data recorded in the UK power system by the OpenPMU project. The results show that the proposed methods can detect islanding accurately, without being falsely triggered by generation trips, even in the presence of missing values.

Cataract surgery and subtype in a defined, older population: the SEECAT Project

AIM:

To describe the distribution of cataract subtypes present before surgery among a defined population of older, bilaterally pseudophakic individuals.

METHODS:

This was a cohort study of bilaterally pseudophakic individuals participating in the Salisbury Eye Evaluation (SEE), and their locally resident siblings. Subjects underwent slit lamp and retroillumination photography and grading using the Wilmer Cataract Grading System. For all individuals determined to be bilaterally pseudophakic, an attempt was made to determine for each eye the type(s) of cataract present before surgery, based on previous SEE photographs (for SEE participants) and/or medical records obtained from the operating ophthalmologist (for both SEE participants and their siblings).

RESULTS:

The mean age of 223 participants providing data in this study was 78.7 (SD 5.2) years, 19.3% of subjects were black and 60.1% female. The most common surgically removed cataract subtype in this population was pure nuclear (43.5%), followed by nuclear combined with posterior subcapsular cataract (PSC) (20.6%), and nuclear combined with cortical (13.9%); less common types were pure cortical (4.9%), pure PSC (4.5%), and PSC combined with cortical (2.7%). Factors such as sex and source of lens data (study photograph versus clinical record) did not significantly affect the distribution of lens opacity types, while PSC was significantly (p = 0.01) more common among younger people and nuclear cataract was significantly (p = 0.001) more common among white compared to black people.

CONCLUSION:

Epidemiological studies have suggested that the different subtypes of cataract are associated with different risk factors. As studies begin to identify new prevention strategies for cataract, it would appear likely that different strategies will be efficacious against different types of cataract. In this setting, it will be helpful to know which cataract types are most frequently associated with surgery. Among this older, majority white population, nuclear cataract showed a clear predominance among individuals having undergone surgery in both eyes. This may be contrasted with both clinic and population based studies of younger people, which have generally found PSC cataract to predominate.

The association between myopia and various subtypes of lens opacity: SEE (Salisbury Eye Evaluation) project.

PURPOSE: To establish the relationship between myopia and lens opacity. DESIGN: Population-based cross-sectional study. PARTICIPANTS: Two thousand five hundred twenty participants from the Salisbury Eye Evaluation aged 65 to 84 years. METHODS: Participants filled out questionnaires regarding medical history, social habits, and a detailed history of distance spectacle wear. They underwent a full ocular examination. Lens photographs were taken for assessment of lens opacity using the Wilmer grading system. Multivariate logistic regression models using generalized estimating equations were used to analyze the relationship between lens opacity type and degree of myopia, while accounting for potential confounders. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Presence of posterior subcapsular opacity, cortical opacity, or nuclear opacity. RESULTS: Significant associations were found between myopia and both nuclear and posterior subcapsular opacities. For nuclear opacity, the odds ratios (ORs) were 2.25 for myopia between -0.50 diopters (D) and -1.99 D (P<0.001), 3.65 for myopia between -2.00 D and -3.99 D (P<0.001), 4.54 for myopia between -4.00 D and -5.99 D (P<0.001), and 3.61 for myopia -6.00 D or more (P = 0.002). For posterior subcapsular cataracts, ORs were 1.59 for myopia between -0.50 D and -1.99 D (P = 0.11), 3.22 for myopia between -2.00 D and -3.99 D (P = 0.002), 5.36 for myopia between -4.00 D and -5.99 D (P<0.001), and 12.34 for myopia -6.00 D or more (P<0.001). No association was found between myopia and cortical opacity. The association between posterior subcapsular opacity and myopia was equally strong for those wearing glasses by age 21 years and for those without glasses; for nuclear opacity, significantly higher ORs were found for myopes who started wearing glasses after age 21. CONCLUSIONS: These results confirm the previously reported association between myopia, posterior subcapsular opacity, and nuclear opacity. Furthermore, the strong association between early spectacle wear and posterior subcapsular opacity among myopes, absent for nuclear opacity, suggests that myopia may precede opacity in the case of posterior subcapsular opacity, but not nuclear opacity. Measures of association between posterior subcapsular opacity and myopia were stronger in the current study than have previously been found. Longitudinal studies to confirm the association are warranted.

Recurrent Convolutional Network for Video-based Person Re-Identification

In this paper we propose a novel recurrent neural networkarchitecture for video-based person re-identification.Given the video sequence of a person, features are extracted from each frame using a convolutional neural network that incorporates a recurrent final layer, which allows information to flow between time-steps. The features from all time steps are then combined using temporal pooling to give an overall appearance feature for the complete sequence. The convolutional network, recurrent layer, and temporal pooling layer, are jointly trained to act as a feature extractor for video-based re-identification using a Siamese network architecture.Our approach makes use of colour and optical flow information in order to capture appearance and motion information which is useful for video re-identification. Experiments are conduced on the iLIDS-VID and PRID-2011 datasets to show that this approach outperforms existing methods of video-based re-identification.

https://github.com/niallmcl/Recurrent-Convolutional-Video-ReID
Project Source Code

Competency-Based Theory For Achieving Innovation: The Case Of Post-Disaster Reconstruction

For those working in the humanitarian sector, achieving positive outcomes for postdisaster communities through reconstruction projects is a pressing concern. In the wake of recent natural disasters, NGOs have become increasingly involved in the permanent reconstruction of affected communities. They have encountered significant barriers as they implement reconstruction programmes and this paper argues that it is important to address the visible lack of innovation that is partially to blame. The theoretical bedrock of a current research project will be used as the starting point for this argument, the overall goal of which is to design a competency-based framework model that can be used by NGOs in post-disaster reconstruction projects. Drawing on established theories of management, a unique perspective has been developed from which a competency-based reconstruction theory emerges. This theoretical framework brings together 3 distinct fields; Disaster Management, Strategic Management and Project Management, each vital
to the success of the model. The objectives of this paper are a) to investigate the role of NGOs in post-disaster reconstruction and establish the current standard of practice b) to determine the extent to which NGOs have the opportunity to contribute to sustainable community development through reconstruction c) to outline the main factors of a theoretical framework first proposed by Von Meding et al. 2009 and d) to identify the innovative measures that can be taken by NGOs to achieve more positive outcomes in their interventions. It is important that NGOs involved in post-disaster reconstruction become familiar with concepts and strategies such as those contained in this paper. Competency-based organizational change on the basis of this theory has the potential to help define the standard of best practice to which future NGO projects might align themselves.