Vehicle-barrier tracking of a scaled crash test for roadside barrier design

In this paper the tracking system used to perform a scaled vehicle-barrier crash test is reported. The scaled crash test was performed as part of a wider project aimed at designing a new safety barrier making use of natural building materials. The scaled crash test was designed and performed as a proof of concept of the new mass-based safety barriers and the study was composed of two parts: the scaling technique and of a series of performed scaled crash tests. The scaling method was used for 1) setting the scaled test impact velocity so that energy dissipation and momentum transferring, from the car to the barrier, can be reproduced and 2) predicting the acceleration, velocity and displacement values occurring in the full-scale impact from the results obtained in a scaled test. To achieve this goal the vehicle and barrier displacements were to be recorded together with the vehicle accelerations and angular velocities. These quantities were measured during the tests using acceleration sensors and a tracking system. The tracking system was composed of a high speed camera and a set of targets to measure the vehicle linear and angular velocities. A code was developed to extract the target velocities from the videos and the velocities obtained were then compared with those obtained integrating the accelerations provided by the sensors to check the reliability of the method.

Speaking with One Voice?: Ethno-national Division on the Constitutional Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina

The challenge of designing institutions to manage ethno-national conflict is one of the enduring concerns of political science. One important but relatively understudied aspect of this challenge is the design of constitutional courts. Courts are likely to play a key role in the maintenence of a constitutional settlement. But this role can be especially onerous in a deeply divided and post-conflict setting where the rule of law is weak and judges have ethno-national affiliations that may undermine the appearance of judicial neutrality. In such contexts, a court’s authority (including compliance with its decisions) cannot be taken for granted.

With reference the Constitutional Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina, and using an original dataset of the Court's non-unanimous plenary decisions, we test several hypotheses about the degree to which ethno-national affiliation influences judicial behavior. We find that (1) judges on the Constitutional Court do in fact divide predictably along ethno-national lines, (2) that these patterns are robust to changes in the tenure system, and (3) are independent of party political background.

Associations between Achievement Goal Orientations and Academic Performance Among Students at a UK Pharmacy School

Objective. To ascertain goal orientations of pharmacy students and establish whether associations exist between academic performance, gender, or year of study. Methods. Goal orientations were assessed using a validated questionnaire. Respondents were categorized as high or low performers based on university grades. Associations and statistical significance were ascertained using parametric and nonparametric tests and linear regression, as appropriate. Results. A response rate of 60.7% was obtained. High performers were more likely to be female than male. The highest mean score was for mastery approach; the lowest for work avoidance. The mean score for work avoidance was significantly greater for low performers than for high performers and for males than for females. First-year students were most likely to have top scores in mastery and performance approaches. Conclusion. It is encouraging that the highest mean score was for mastery approach orientation, as goal orientation may play a role in academic performance of pharmacy students.

Measurements of immune responses for establishing correlates of vaccine protection against HIV

Well-defined correlates of protective immunity are an essential component of rational vaccine development. Despite years of basic science and three HIV vaccine efficacy trials, correlates of immunological protection from HIV infection remain undefined. In December 2010, a meeting of scientists engaged in basic and translational work toward developing HIV-1 vaccines was convened. The goal of this meeting was to discuss current opportunities and optimal approaches for defining correlates of protection, both for ongoing and future HIV-1 vaccine candidates; specific efforts were made to engage young scientists. We discuss here the highlights from the meeting regarding the progress made and the way forward for a protective HIV-1 vaccine.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa exhibits frequent recombination, but only a limited association between genotype and ecological setting

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen and an important cause of infection, particularly amongst cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. While specific strains capable of patient-to-patient transmission are known, many infections appear to be caused by unique and unrelated strains. There is a need to understand the relationship between strains capable of colonising the CF lung and the broader set of P. aeruginosa isolates found in natural environments. Here we report the results of a multilocus sequence typing (MLST)-based study designed to understand the genetic diversity and population structure of an extensive regional sample of P. aeruginosa isolates from South East Queensland, Australia. The analysis is based on 501 P. aeruginosa isolates obtained from environmental, animal and human (CF and non-CF) sources with particular emphasis on isolates from the Lower Brisbane River and isolates from CF patients obtained from the same geographical region. Overall, MLST identified 274 different sequence types, of which 53 were shared between one or more ecological settings. Our analysis revealed a limited association between genotype and environment and evidence of frequent recombination. We also found that genetic diversity of P. aeruginosa in Queensland, Australia was indistinguishable from that of the global P. aeruginosa population. Several CF strains were encountered frequently in multiple ecological settings; however, the most frequently encountered CF strains were confined to CF patients. Overall, our data confirm a non-clonal epidemic structure and indicate that most CF strains are a random sample of the broader P. aeruginosa population. The increased abundance of some CF strains in different geographical regions is a likely product of chance colonisation events followed by adaptation to the CF lung and horizontal transmission among patients.

Integrating molecular diagnostics into histopathology training: the Belfast model

Molecular medicine is transforming modern clinical practice, from diagnostics to therapeutics. Discoveries in research are being incorporated into the clinical setting with increasing rapidity. This transformation is also deeply changing the way we practise pathology. The great advances in cell and molecular biology which have accelerated our understanding of the pathogenesis of solid tumours have been embraced with variable degrees of enthusiasm by diverse medical professional specialties. While histopathologists have not been prompt to adopt molecular diagnostics to date, the need to incorporate molecular pathology into the training of future histopathologists is imperative. Our goal is to create, within an existing 5-year histopathology training curriculum, the structure for formal substantial teaching of molecular diagnostics. This specialist training has two main goals: (1) to equip future practising histopathologists with basic knowledge of molecular diagnostics and (2) to create the option for those interested in a subspecialty experience in tissue molecular diagnostics to pursue this training. It is our belief that this training will help to maintain in future the role of the pathologist at the centre of patient care as the integrator of clinical, morphological and molecular information.

Meeting the Needs of Vulnerable Young Men: A Study of Service Provider Views

This article uses a qualitative approach to elicit the views of 31 professionals who provide services to vulnerable young men. The findings reveal six key themes following focus group interviews: (i) the importance of masculinity in explaining problematic behaviour; (ii) the misuse of alcohol and drugs; (iii) alienation and social isolation; (iv) concerns about suicide and self-harm; (v) the quality of existing services; and (vi) recommendations for changes to services. Service providers generally acknowledged the social context in explaining these behaviours and argued for enhanced services and a more developed skills base in working with vulnerable young men. 

Family Nurse Partnership: Meeting the needs of teenage mothers

Meeting the needs of young parents and their children more effectively will improve their life and long term health. This paper examines the Family Nurse Partnership as a public health initiative in supporting young women and improving the outcomes of themselves and their child(ren). It explores evidence of effectiveness, cost benefit and resource implications and discusses the role of the midwife within the context of public health initiatives and specifically to the delivery of the Family Nurse Partnership.

Price Discrimination in Quantity Setting Oligopoly

We analyze a two-stage quantity setting oligopolistic price discrimination game. In the first stage firms choose capacities and in the second stage they simultaneously choose the share that they assign to each segment. At the equilibrium the firms focus more on the high-valuation customers. When the capacities in the first stage are endogenous, the deadweight loss does not vanish with the level of price discrimination, as it does in one-stage games and monopoly. Moreover, the quantity-weighted average price increases with the level of price discrimination as opposed to established results in the literature for one-stage games.

Financial reintegration assistance for veterans of the Irish revolution (1916-23): post-conflict policy in an historical setting

In the aftermath of the Irish revolution and Civil War the governments of independent Ireland introduced various compensation schemes to provide financial reintegration assistance to revolutionary veterans. This would be recognised today as part of a programme for DDR. This paper will examine various service and disability pensions paid to veterans in the context of literature on post-conflict reintegration. It will examine various challenges to reintegration in an effort to analyse the success of revolutionary compensation as a post-conflict reintegration mechanism in independent Ireland after 1922.

What Went Wrong With the Mate-Tricks After-School Program, Which Increased Antisocial Behavior and Child/Parent Conflict?

This paper draws from an independent RCT evaluation on a behavior based afterschool intervention for called Mate-Tricks for 9-10 year old children and their families (N=592). This paper explores practical and theoretical issues that may have contributed to a range of iatrogenic effects found by the evaluation. To do this the paper focuses on key practical implementation factors such as: program exposure; engagement; and program quality. The paper also relates these results to popular theories of social development, including social interdependence theory. Finally, the paper discusses what the results suggest about the impact of cooperative/competitive goal structures in child and parent interventions of this type.