Learning alliance methodology: Contributions and challenges for multicultural planning in health service provision: A case study in Kent,UK

This article examines contributions and challenges of learning alliance methodology to multicultural planning in health provision services in an urban context. A learning alliance was implemented to target health needs of different ethno-racial groups through an action research project in Swale, Kent, UK. We argue that a learning alliance is an innovative methodology that can contribute to multicultural planning by (1) promoting the involvement of new planning stakeholders and the institutionalization of learning alliance outcomes, (2) ensuring capacity-building strategies, (3) emphasizing documentation and dissemination as innovative practices, and (4) strengthening the network capacity of a community. Critical reflections are presented here as a constructive view to improve both the learning alliance methodology and multicultural planning. The article contributes to debates on public service delivery in the context of discussions about multiculturalism, health and planning.     

A Graph Theoretic Approach for Channel Assignment in Cellular Networks

We define a cellular assignment graph to model the channel assignment problem in a cellular network where overlapping cell segments are included in the model. Our main result is the Capacity-Demand Theorem which shows a channel assignment function is always possible unless there is a connected subregion of cells and overlap segments containing more channel requests then the total capacity of all transceivers within or on the boundary of the subregion and covering any part of the subregion with an overlapping segment. We further describe the simplicity and regularity of our proposed cellular assignment graphs and their accessibility for simulation and theoretical investigation without artifacts from the overall geographical region boundaries.     

Dopamine transmission in the amygdala modulates surprise in an aversive blocking paradigm.

Learning about predictive relationships depends on surprise. For example, in Kamin's blocking paradigm learning about the association between one stimulus (X) and a footshock is attenuated when X→footshock training occurs in the presence of a good predictor (A) of that footshock. Establishing the neural processes that underlie this effect has generated considerable interest in recent years. Here, an infusion of the dopamine antagonist cis-(z)-Flupenthixol into the amygdala prior to compound (AX) conditioning attenuated the blocking effect, but had no effect on controls. This effect of dopamine antagonism in the amygdala immediately prior to compound conditioning was obtained irrespective of whether infusions occurred prior to the first, second or both compound conditioning trials. These results provide evidence for the involvement of amygdaloid dopamine in regulating surprise in fear and therefore predictive learning via a direct outcome processing mechanism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Equilibrium sorption isotherms and thermodynamic properties of starch and gluten

A modification of the GAB isotherm (Guggenheim–Anderson–De Boer) is proposed in order to correlate the sorption data for water activities higher than 0.9. The proposed isotherm retains the desirable properties of the GAB isotherm, i.e. good fitting in the range of a_w between 0.05 and 0.80, and also provides a noticeable improvement in the fitting quality for high values of a_w, by introducing a new term with an additional constant. Sorption data for native potato starch and gluten at different temperatures (2°C, 20°C, 40°C and 67°C) were well correlated for the whole a_w range. For starch at 67°C, the values of the constants of the proposed equation do not follow the same tendency obtained for lower temperatures, suggesting that the structure of the material could be changed due to the high temperature. The proposed isotherm can be of interest in the area of drying given that there are few isotherms that accurately represent sorption data at different temperatures in the zone of high a_w. Also, it can be useful to predict other thermodynamic functions. In addition, a new procedure is proposed to determine the isosteric heat by using a second order polynomial for representing the variation of moisture as a function of temperature at a fixed water activity.     

Field-Effect Mobility,Morphology and Electroluminescence of a Semiconductor Based on a DPP?Quaterfluorene Quadrupolar Linear Conjugated System

An organic semiconductor, expressed as a quadrupolar linear conjugated system ( DPP Linear-c ), consisting of a 1,4-diketopyrrolo[3,4-c]pyrrole (DPP) central unit and two quaterfluorenylphenyl arms at the 3- and 6-positions of the DPP fragment, is studied in organic field-effect transistors (OFETs). The strong propensity of DPP Linear-c to aggregate in the solid state favours the hole mobility of the semiconductor due to the alignment of HOMOs in the aggregates. The fabrication of OFETs from this novel p-type semiconductor is reported, using different dielectrics to evaluate their effect on the overall device performance. Despite its aggregation, DPP Linear-c remains luminescent in the solid state. Electroluminescence of a non-optimised OLED fabricated from this material is demonstrated.     

The influence of pH over topography and spectroscopic properties of silica hybrid materials embedding meso-tetratolylporphyrin

Hybrid porphyrin-silica materials consisting in 5,10,15,20-tetratolyl-21H,23H-porphine, encapsulated in silica matrices were obtained by sol-gel method. The hydrolysis and condensation reactions were performed by using tetraethylorthosilicate as precursor, either in one-step acid or in two steps acid-base catalysis, assisted or not by an ultrasonic field. The porphyrin-silica hybrid materials were monitored and characterized by AFM, FT-IR, fluorescence and UV-vis spectroscopy. As a result of porphyrin entrapping into silica gels, a general phenomenon regarding hyperchromic effects of the Q bands, occurs. UV-vis study revealed that during the sol-gel process, major changes regarding porphyrin ring structure occur, especially at acidic pH, when the dicationic species of porphyrin are formed. During acid-base catalyzed method the dye molecules tend to aggregate by π−π and hydrophobic co-facial interactions of sandwich H-type. In acid catalyzed process, the protonation of the porphyrins prevent the formation of aggregates, due to increased electrostatic repulsion between the molecules.     

Variability, regularity, and complexity of time series generated by schizophrenic patients and control subjects

We analyzed time series generated by 20 schizophrenic patients and 20 sex- and age-matched control subjects using three nonlinear methods of time series analysis as test statistics: central tendency measure (CTM) from the scatter plots of first differences of data, approximate entropy (ApEn), and Lempel-Ziv (LZ) complexity. We divided our data into a training set (10 patients and 10 control subjects) and a test set (10 patients and 10 control subjects). The training set was used for algorithm development and optimum threshold selection. Each method was assessed prospectively using the test dataset. We obtained 80% sensitivity and 90% specificity with LZ complexity, 90% sensitivity, and 60% specificity with ApEn, and 70% sensitivity and 70% specificity with CTM. Our results indicate that there exist differences in the ability to generate random time series between schizophrenic subjects and controls, as estimated by the CTM, ApEn, and LZ. This finding agrees with most previous results showing that schizophrenic patients are characterized by less complex neurobehavioral and neuropsychologic measurements.     

Basic aspects concerning the event-synchronous interference canceller

The adaptive noise canceller (ANC) is a commonly used linear system method for noise reduction in cases where the disturbing noise can be separately recorded (reference signal) and is not correlated with the signal of interest. In case of a periodic disturbing signal, special solutions are described in literature. Problems, however, arise when the propagation of the noise from the source to the recording sensors passes nonlinear structures. An ANC modification proposed for this case by Strobach et al. and applied by several other researchers, thus, uses an artificial reference signal, based on event triggered averaging of segments of the recorded wanted (but disturbed) signal in order to obtain a template for the repetitive distortion sequence and to construct the artificial reference signal. The effect of the averaging and the error introduced by this approximation of the real disturbing signal was not addressed in literature until now, thus, this paper presents some basic theoretical considerations on this topic. Methods are demonstrated in simulations and real biosignal processing, and application aspects are discussed.     

NIRS Detection of Moldy Core in Apples

Moldy core of apples is undetectable until the fruit is cut open or bitten into, therefore it can pose serious problems to both producer and consumer. Removal of diseased fruits prior to storage would be most desirable. The objective of this study was to evaluate the ability of VIS-NIR minispectrometers to detect moldy core in apples, on line. An apparatus which is qualified for on-line Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) measurements was developed based on an off-the-shelf minispectrometer. Apples, cv. Red Delicious, were collected from several orchards before and during the commercial harvest, and were stored at 0°C pending the tests. The data were analyzed by chemometric procedures, specifically, by partial least squares regression (PLSR), and were classified by means of canonical discriminant analysis. The canonical variables were represented by the latent variables of PLS models based on the spectra. The accuracy of the classification results was high, in light of doubts regarding the moldy fraction threshold of 5%; in such a case the mold covers only the seed carpals of the fruit, where it might remain without really damaging the fruit. Improvements should aim to reduce errors in classifying low-level damage, and also in misclassifying some healthy fruits. The rate of testing (1 s per fruit) is acceptable for quality-control purposes, but should be accelerated for future packing-line implementation.