Monometallic salts derived from complex anions of group 10 metal ions with p-tolylsulfonyldithiocarbimate ligand: Synthesis, characterization and properties

New monometallic complex salts of the form X-2[M(L)(2)] [M = Ni2+, X = (CH3)(2)NH2+(1); M = Ni2+, X = (CH3)(4)N+ (2); M = Ni2+, X = (C2H5)(4)N+(3); M = Ni2+, X = (C3H7)(4)N+(4); M = Ni2+; X = (C6H13)(4)N+) (5); M = Pd2+,X = (CH3)(2)NH2+(6); M = Pd2+, X= (C2H5)(4)N+(7); M = Pd2+, X= (C3H7)(4)N+(8); M = Pd2+, X = (C6H13)(4)N+ (9); M = Pt2+, X = (CH3)(2)NH2+(10); L = p-tolylsulfonyldithiocarbimate (CH3C6H4SO2N=CS22 )] have been prepared and characterized by elemental analysis, IR, H-1 and C-13 NMR and UV-Vis spectroscopy; 1, 3, 4 and 5 by X-ray crystallography. In 1, 3, 4 and 5, the Ni atom is four coordinate with a square planar environment being bonded to four sulfur atoms from two bidentate ligands. All the salts are weakly conducting (sigma(rt) = 10 (7) to 10 (14) Scm (1)) because of the lack of significant S center dot center dot center dot S intermolecular interactions between complex anions [M(L)(2)](2) in the solid state however, they show behavior of semiconductors in the temperature range 353-453 K. All the Pd(II) and Pt(II) salts exhibited phtotolumeniscent emissions near visible region in solution at room temperature.

An analysis of the UK development industry's role in brownfield regeneration

Purpose – This study aims to provide a review of brownfield policy and the emerging sustainable development agenda in the UK, and to examine the development industry’s (both commercial and residential) role and attitudes towards brownfield regeneration and contaminated land. Design/methodology/approach – The paper analyses results from a two-stage survey of commercial and residential developers carried out in mid-2004, underpinned by structured interviews with 11 developers. Findings – The results suggest that housebuilding on brownfield is no longer the preserve of specialists, and is now widespread throughout the industry in the UK. The redevelopment of contaminated sites for residential use could be threatened by the impact of the EU Landfill Directive. The findings also suggest that developers are not averse to developing on contaminated sites, although post-remediation stigma remains an issue. The market for warranties and insurance continues to evolve. Research limitations/implications – The survey is based on a sample which represents nearly 30 per cent of UK volume housebuilding. Although the response in the smaller developer groups was relatively under-represented, non-response bias was not found to be a significant issue. More research is needed to assess the way in which developers approach brownfield regeneration at a local level. Practical implications – The research suggests that clearer Government guidance in the UK is needed on how to integrate concepts of sustainability in brownfield development and that EU policy, which has been introduced for laudable aims, is creating tensions within the development industry. There may be an emphasis towards greenfield development in the future, as the implications of the Barker review are felt. Originality/value – This is a national survey of developers’ attitudes towards brownfield development in the UK, following the Barker Review, and highlights key issues in UK and EU policy layers. Keywords Brownfield sites, Contamination Paper type Research paper

Use of nutritional complete supplements in older adults with dementia: systematic review and meta-analysis of clinical outcomes

Background & Aims: Malnutrition is prevalent in people diagnosed with dementia however ensuring adequate oral intake within this group is often problematic. It is important to determine whether providing nutritionally complete oral nutritional supplements (ONS) drinks is an effective way of improving clinical outcomes for older people with dementia. This paper systematically reviewed clinical, wellbeing and nutritional outcomes in people with long-term cognitive impairment. Methods: The CINAHL, Medline and EMBASE databases were searched from their inception until January 2012. Reference lists of the included papers, foreign language papers and review articles obtained were manually searched. Results: Twelve articles were included in the review containing 1076 people in the supplement groups (intervention) and 748 people in the control groups. Meta-analysis shows there was a significant improvement in weight (p=<0.0001), Body Mass Index (BMI) (p=<0.0001) and cognition at 6.5+/-3.9 month follow up (p=0.002) when supplements were given compared to the control group. Conclusions: Providing ONS drinks has a positive effect on weight gain and cognition at follow up in older people with dementia. Additional research is required in both comparing nutritional supplements to vitamin/mineral tablets and high protein/calorie shots and clinical outcomes relevant to hospitalised people with dementia.

A framework for the forensic analysis of user interaction with social media

The increasing use of social media, applications or platforms that allow users to interact online, ensures that this environment will provide a useful source of evidence for the forensics examiner. Current tools for the examination of digital evidence find this data problematic as they are not designed for the collection and analysis of online data. Therefore, this paper presents a framework for the forensic analysis of user interaction with social media. In particular, it presents an inter-disciplinary approach for the quantitative analysis of user engagement to identify relational and temporal dimensions of evidence relevant to an investigation. This framework enables the analysis of large data sets from which a (much smaller) group of individuals of interest can be identified. In this way, it may be used to support the identification of individuals who might be ‘instigators’ of a criminal event orchestrated via social media, or a means of potentially identifying those who might be involved in the ‘peaks’ of activity. In order to demonstrate the applicability of the framework, this paper applies it to a case study of actors posting to a social media Web site.

BSkyB transformation from a new loss-making venture to a successful organisation: case study and interview with Jeremy Darroch, Chief Executive of British Sky Broadcasting Group Plc

Purpose – This paper aims to articulate strategic dilemmas faced by a Chief Executive of a highly successful company and how such dilemmas were resolved. Design/methodology/approach – The case is based on a semi-structured interview with Mr Jeremy Darroch – Chief Executive of BSkyB – and analysis of documentary evidence. Findings – It is often difficult to implement strategies that simultaneously yield high organic growth rate, innovation, and a healthy balance-sheet. The paper sheds light on how Sky has met this challenge. Research limitations/implications – The research offers a unique insight into the views of a principal strategist and articulates the background to offer context, however, because of its design the findings are not generalisable. Originality/value – Very few articles offer insight into the thinking of those with principal responsibility for design and delivery of strategy. This paper offers such an insight based on a detailed interview with a highly successful Chief Executive.

Genetic association analysis of vitamin D pathway with obesity traits

Objective:Observational studies have examined the link between vitamin D deficiency and obesity traits. Some studies have reported associations between vitamin D pathway genes such as VDR, GC and CYP27B1 with body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC); however, the findings have been inconsistent. Therefore, we investigated the involvement of vitamin D metabolic pathway genes in obesity-related traits in a large population-based study.Methods:We undertook a comprehensive analysis between 100 tagging single nucleotide polymorphisms (tagSNPs) in genes encoding for DHCR7, CYP2R1, VDBP, CYP27B1, CYP27A1, CYP24A1, VDR and RXRG, and obesity traits in 5224 participants (aged 45 years) in the 1958 British birth cohort (1958BC). We further extended our analyses to investigate the associations between SNPs and obesity traits using the summary statistics from the GIANT (Genetic Investigation of Anthropometric Traits) consortium (n=123 865).Results:In the 1958BC (n=5224), after Bonferroni correction, none of the tagSNPs were associated with obesity traits except for one tagSNP from CYP24A1 that was associated with waist-hip ratio (WHR) (rs2296239, P=0.001). However, the CYP24A1 SNP was not associated with BMI-adjusted WHR (WHRadj) in the 1958BC (rs2296239, P=1.00) and GIANT results (n=123 865, P=0.18). There was also no evidence for an interaction between the tagSNPs and obesity on BMI, WC, WHR and WHRadj in the 1958BC. In the GIANT consortium, none of the tagSNPs were associated with obesity traits.Conclusions:Despite a very large study, our findings suggest that the vitamin D pathway genes are unlikely to have a major role in obesity-related traits in the general population.

A genome-wide association meta-analysis identifies new childhood obesity loci

Multiple genetic variants have been associated with adult obesity and a few with severe obesity in childhood; however, less progress has been made in establishing genetic influences on common early-onset obesity. We performed a North American, Australian and European collaborative meta-analysis of 14 studies consisting of 5,530 cases (≥95th percentile of body mass index (BMI)) and 8,318 controls (<50th percentile of BMI) of European ancestry. Taking forward the eight newly discovered signals yielding association with P < 5 × 10(-6) in nine independent data sets (2,818 cases and 4,083 controls), we observed two loci that yielded genome-wide significant combined P values near OLFM4 at 13q14 (rs9568856; P = 1.82 × 10(-9); odds ratio (OR) = 1.22) and within HOXB5 at 17q21 (rs9299; P = 3.54 × 10(-9); OR = 1.14). Both loci continued to show association when two extreme childhood obesity cohorts were included (2,214 cases and 2,674 controls). These two loci also yielded directionally consistent associations in a previous meta-analysis of adult BMI(1).

Dynamic group communication for large-scale parallel data mining

Exascale systems are the next frontier in high-performance computing and are expected to deliver a performance of the order of 10^18 operations per second using massive multicore processors. Very large- and extreme-scale parallel systems pose critical algorithmic challenges, especially related to concurrency, locality and the need to avoid global communication patterns. This work investigates a novel protocol for dynamic group communication that can be used to remove the global communication requirement and to reduce the communication cost in parallel formulations of iterative data mining algorithms. The protocol is used to provide a communication-efficient parallel formulation of the k-means algorithm for cluster analysis. The approach is based on a collective communication operation for dynamic groups of processes and exploits non-uniform data distributions. Non-uniform data distributions can be either found in real-world distributed applications or induced by means of multidimensional binary search trees. The analysis of the proposed dynamic group communication protocol has shown that it does not introduce significant communication overhead. The parallel clustering algorithm has also been extended to accommodate an approximation error, which allows a further reduction of the communication costs. The effectiveness of the exact and approximate methods has been tested in a parallel computing system with 64 processors and in simulations with 1024 processing elements.

Type-1 error inflation in the traditional by-participant analysis to metamemory accuracy: a generalized mixed-effects model perspective

In order to examine metacognitive accuracy (i.e., the relationship between metacognitive judgment and memory performance), researchers often rely on by-participant analysis, where metacognitive accuracy (e.g., resolution, as measured by the gamma coefficient or signal detection measures) is computed for each participant and the computed values are entered into group-level statistical tests such as the t-test. In the current work, we argue that the by-participant analysis, regardless of the accuracy measurements used, would produce a substantial inflation of Type-1 error rates, when a random item effect is present. A mixed-effects model is proposed as a way to effectively address the issue, and our simulation studies examining Type-1 error rates indeed showed superior performance of mixed-effects model analysis as compared to the conventional by-participant analysis. We also present real data applications to illustrate further strengths of mixed-effects model analysis. Our findings imply that caution is needed when using the by-participant analysis, and recommend the mixed-effects model analysis.

Efficient group communication for large-scale parallel clustering

Global communication requirements and load imbalance of some parallel data mining algorithms are the major obstacles to exploit the computational power of large-scale systems. This work investigates how non-uniform data distributions can be exploited to remove the global communication requirement and to reduce the communication cost in iterative parallel data mining algorithms. In particular, the analysis focuses on one of the most influential and popular data mining methods, the k-means algorithm for cluster analysis. The straightforward parallel formulation of the k-means algorithm requires a global reduction operation at each iteration step, which hinders its scalability. This work studies a different parallel formulation of the algorithm where the requirement of global communication can be relaxed while still providing the exact solution of the centralised k-means algorithm. The proposed approach exploits a non-uniform data distribution which can be either found in real world distributed applications or can be induced by means of multi-dimensional binary search trees. The approach can also be extended to accommodate an approximation error which allows a further reduction of the communication costs.

Comparative Analysis of ESBL-Positive Escherichia coli isolates from Animals and Humans from the UK, the Netherlands and Germany

The putative virulence and antimicrobial resistance gene contents of extended spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL)-positive E. coli (n=629) isolated between 2005 and 2009 from humans, animals and animal food products in Germany, The Netherlands and the UK were compared using a microarray approach to test the suitability of this approach with regard to determining their similarities. A selection of isolates (n=313) were also analysed by multilocus sequence typing (MLST). Isolates harbouring blaCTX-M-group-1 dominated (66%, n=418) and originated from both animals and cases of human infections in all three countries; 23% (n=144) of all isolates contained both blaCTX-M-group-1 and blaOXA-1-like genes, predominantly from humans (n=127) and UK cattle (n=15). The antimicrobial resistance and virulence gene profiles of this collection of isolates were highly diverse. A substantial number of human isolates (32%, n=87) did not share more than 40% similarity (based on the Jaccard coefficient) with animal isolates. A further 43% of human isolates from the three countries (n=117) were at least 40% similar to each other and to five isolates from UK cattle and one each from Dutch chicken meat and a German dog; the members of this group usually harboured genes such as mph(A), mrx, aac(6’)-Ib, catB3, blaOXA-1-like and blaCTX-M-group-1. forty-four per cent of the MLST-typed isolates in this group belonged to ST131 (n=18) and 22% to ST405 (n=9), all from humans. Among animal isolates subjected to MLST (n=258), only 1.2% (n=3) were more than 70% similar to human isolates in gene profiles and shared the same MLST clonal complex with the corresponding human isolates. The results suggest that minimising human-to-human transmission is essential to control the spread of ESBL-positive E. coli in humans.

Sequence analysis of a CTX-M-1 IncI1 plasmid found in Salmonella enterica 4,5,12,i:-, Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae on a single UK pig farm

OBJECTIVES: In 2009, CTX-M Enterobacteriaceae and Salmonella isolates were recovered from a UK pig farm, prompting studies into the dissemination of the resistance and to establish any relationships between the isolates. METHODS: PFGE was used to elucidate clonal relationships between isolates whilst plasmid profiling, restriction analysis, sequencing and PCR were used to characterize the CTX-M-harbouring plasmids. RESULTS: Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Salmonella 4,5,12:i:- and Bovismorbificans resistant to cefotaxime (n = 65) were recovered and 63 were shown by PCR to harbour a group 1 CTX-M gene. The harbouring hosts were diverse, but the group 1 CTX-M plasmids were common. Three sequenced CTX-M plasmids from E. coli, K. pneumoniae and Salmonella enterica serotype 4,5,12:i:- were identical except for seven mutations and highly similar to IncI1 plasmid ColIb-P9. Two antimicrobial resistance regions were identified: one inserted upstream of yacABC harbouring ISCR2 transposases, sul2 and floR; and the other inserted within shfB of the pilV shufflon harbouring the ISEcp1 transposase followed by blaCTX-M-1. CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that an ST108 IncI1 plasmid encoding a blaCTX-M-1 gene had disseminated across multiple genera on this farm, an example of horizontal gene transfer of the blaCTX-M-1 gene.

Survival analysis statistics applied to threshold data obtained from the ascending forced-choice method of limits

Sensory thresholds are often collected through ascending forced-choice methods. Group thresholds are important for comparing stimuli or populations; yet, the method has two problems. An individual may correctly guess the correct answer at any concentration step and might detect correctly at low concentrations but become adapted or fatigued at higher concentrations. The survival analysis method deals with both issues. Individual sequences of incorrect and correct answers are adjusted, taking into account the group performance at each concentration. The technique reduces the chance probability where there are consecutive correct answers. Adjusted sequences are submitted to survival analysis to determine group thresholds. The technique was applied to an aroma threshold and a taste threshold study. It resulted in group thresholds similar to ASTM or logarithmic regression procedures. Significant differences in taste thresholds between younger and older adults were determined. The approach provides a more robust technique over previous estimation methods.