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Visual art is a subject that emphasizes on creativity, innovation and critical thinking, therefore, Visual Art Education (VAE) teachers have been urged to utilize the full potential of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Despite numerous literatures have highlighted the benefits of ICT, VAE teachers were found not serious toward integrating ICT in teaching. Hence, this study was carried out to determined Malaysian VAE teachers' attitudes and beliefs and their level of confidence toward incorporating ICT into art classrooms. This study explored teachers' specific approach of ICT and factors that influence their integration of ICT into art classrooms. The participants of this study were eighteen VAE teachers from three-selected secondary school in the state of Selangor, Malaysia. Data for the study was gathered by face-to-face interviews. The findings of the study indicated that Malaysian VAE teachers were still at moderate levels of ICT integration. The support from school administrator and continues professional development were identified as two main factors that contribute towards successful ICT integration. In light of the published research on the integration of ICT in the VAE subject area, hopefully, the findings of this study will assist school organization, teachers training institutions and the Ministry of Education toward establishing a standard for successful ICT integration, especially in the context of the VAE.

Anna J Hussey,1 Kevin Wing,2 Madonna Ferrone,1,3 Christopher J Licskai1,4– 6 1Asthma Research Group Windsor-Essex County Inc., Windsor, ON, Canada; 2London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK; 3Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare, Windsor, ON, Canada; 4London Health Sciences Centre, London, ON, Canada; 5Lawson Health Research Institute, London, ON, Canada; 6Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University, London, ON, CanadaCorrespondence: Christopher J LicskaiSchulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University, London, ON, CanadaEmail chris.licskai@sjhc.London.on.caPurpose: Integrated disease management (IDM) for COPD in primary care has been primarily investigated under clinical trial conditions. We previously published a randomized controlled trial (RCT) where the IDM intervention improved quality of life (QoL) and exacerbation-related outcomes. In this study, we assess the same IDM intervention in a real-world evaluation and identify patient characteristics associated with improved outcomes.Methods: This historical cohort study included patients enrolled for 12 (± 3 months) in the Best Care COPD IDM program. The main outcome was a ≥ 3 point improvement in COPD assessment test (CAT). Secondary outcomes were COPD exacerbations requiring antibiotics and/or prednisone, unscheduled physician visits, emergency department visits and hospitalizations.Results: Data for 571 patients (all patients) were included, 158 met the reference RCT eligibility (RCT matched). Improved QoL was observed in 43% (95% CI:38.9,47.2) of all patients, 47% (95% CI:39.5,55.6) of RCT matched vs 92% (95% CI:79.2,95.1) in the reference RCT intervention arm (n=72). Reductions (12 months IDM vs prior year) were observed in the proportion of patients experiencing exacerbation-related events (all patients): antibiotics/prednisone (− 9.0%,95% CI:-13.9,-3.9); unscheduled physician (− 33.1%,95% CI:-38.2,-27.9); emergency department (− 9.6%,95% CI:-13.5,-5); and hospitalizations (− 6.8%,95% CI:-10.0,-3.7). For the RCT matched group all reductions were comparable to the reference RCT intervention arm. The strongest predictors of improved QoL were baseline CAT, CAT≥ 20 vs CAT< 10 (OR 15.6,95% CI:7.91,30.83), GOLD group B (OR 6.4,95% CI:3.42,11.85) and D (OR 5.64,95% CI:2.80,11.37) vs GOLD group A. Patients with prior antibiotic/prednisone use, FEV1 < 30% predicted and GOLD group D were less likely to have no urgent health service utilization (OR 0.5,95% CI:0.30,0.68), (OR 0.2,95% CI:0.07,0.78) and (OR 0.3,95% CI:0.14,0.51), respectively.Conclusion: Best Care COPD improved QoL and reduced exacerbation-related outcomes in a manner directionally similar to the RCT from which it emanated. Baseline QoL, exacerbation history, and GOLD category were identified as possible predictors of IDM impact and will inform future program development and resource allocation.Keywords: chronic disease management, COPD assessment test, health service utilization, health status, quality of life

This article considers sample size determination for jointly testing a cause-specific hazard and the any-cause hazard for competing risks data. The cause-specific hazard and the any-cause hazard jointly characterize important study endpoints such as the disease-specific survival and overall survival, which are commonly used as co-primary endpoints in clinical trials. Specifically, we derive sample size calculation methods for two-group comparisons based on an asymptotic chi-square joint test and a maximum joint test of the aforementioned quantities, taking into account ofcensoring due to lost to follow-up as well as staggered entry and administrative censoring.Our simulations demonstrate that the proposed methods can produce substantial sample sizesavings over the classical Bonferroni adjustment method and generally have satisfactory finite sample performance.We illustrate the application of the proposed methods using the 4-D (Die Deutsche Diabetes Dialyse Studie) clinical trial.

α-Synuclein is a presynaptic protein whose aberrant aggregation is associated with Parkinson’s disease. Here, the authors show how αSynuclein-induced docking of synaptic vesicles is modulated by the lipid composition changes typically observed in neurodegeneration using an in vitro system.

Strain sensing technology using fibre Bragg grating (FBG) sensors is an attractive capability for aerospace structural health monitoring (SHM) and assessment because they offer resistance to harsh environments, low maintenance, and potential for high density and high strain sensing. The development of FBG inscription techniques through the fibre polymer coating using infrared (IR) lasers has overcome the mechanical weaknesses introduced by removal of the fibre coating, which is typically required for conventional UV laser inscription of FBGs. Type I and Type II femtosecond gratings are fabricated using through-coating inscription techniques, but the higher laser energy used for Type II gratings damages the glass fibre core, impacting mechanical performance. This paper investigates the fatigue performance of Type I and Type II through-coating FBG sensors with different fibre geometries and photosensitisation approaches to evaluate their overall reliability and durability, with a view to assess their performance for potential use in civil and defence SHM applications. The fatigue performance of FBG sensors was assessed under high-strain and high-frequency mechanical loading conditions by using a custom-designed electro-dynamically actuated loading assembly. In addition, pre- and post-fatigue microscopic analyses and high-resolution reflection spectrum characterisation were conducted to investigate the failure regions of the fibres and the effect of fatigue loading on reflection spectrum features. As expected, Type I gratings had a significantly higher fatigue life compared to Type II gratings. However, Type II gratings performed significantly better than conventional UV laser-inscribed FBGs and electrical foil strain gauges. Type II gratings withstand higher temperatures, and are therefore more suitable for application in harsh environments.

α-Synuclein (αS) is a presynaptic protein whose aggregation is associated with Parkinson’s disease (PD). Although the physiological function of αS is still unclear, several lines of evidence indicate that this protein may play a role in the trafficking of synaptic vesicles (SVs) during neurotransmitter release, a task associated with its ability to bind SVs and promote their clustering. It is therefore crucial to identify the cellular factors that modulate this process. To address this question, using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy we have characterized the role of cholesterol, a major component of the membrane of SVs, in the binding of αS with synaptic-like vesicles. Our results indicate that cholesterol can act as a modulator of the overall affinity of αS for SVs by reducing the local affinity of the region spanning residues 65–97 in the non-amyloid-β component (NAC) of the protein. The increased population of bound states that expose the region 65–97 to the solvent was found to induce stronger vesicle-vesicle interactions by αS. These results provide evidence that cholesterol modulates the clustering of synaptic vesicles induced by (α)S, and supports the role of the disorder-to-order equilibrium of the NAC region in the modulation of the biological properties of the membrane-bound state of αS.

One of the important functions of antennas is to facilitate wireless communication. The IEEE 802.11 is part of the IEEE802 set of local area network technical standards, and specifies the media access control and physical layer protocols for implementing wireless local area network computer communication. The network physical layer protocol with a centre frequency of 2.4 GHz has a bandwidth of 22 MHz. A conformal load-bearing antenna structure (CLAS) facilitating this communication band that is tuned to 2.4 GHz must remain within this bandwidth. The aim of this paper is to investigate the effects of mechanical loading imposed on a load-bearing patch antenna with respect to its ability to remain within the specified bandwidth. The mechanical loading configurations considered include tensile, biaxial, and twisting. This paper will also report on the response of the antenna patch to the presence of a disbond between the metallised antenna and its substrate, which can arise due to fabrication anomalies and operational usage. This numerical work will assist in the design of experimental testing of the mechanical and electromagnetic properties of an embedded CLAS, which will ultimately be used to inform selection of appropriate regions to place patch antennas on load-bearing deformable surfaces.

Every human possesses millions of distinct antibodies. It is now possible to analyze this diversity via next-generation sequencing of immunoglobulin genes (Ig-seq). This technique produces large volume sequence snapshots of B-cell receptors that are indicative of the antibody repertoire. In this paper, we enrich these large-scale sequence datasets with structural information. Enriching a sequence with its structural data allows better approximation of many vital features, such as its binding site and specificity. Here, we describe the structural annotation of antibodies pipeline that maps the outputs of large Ig-seq experiments to known antibody structures. We demonstrate the viability of our protocol on five separate Ig-seq datasets covering ca. 35 m unique amino acid sequences from ca. 600 individuals. Despite the great theoretical diversity of antibodies, we find that the majority of sequences coming from such studies can be reliably mapped to an existing structure.

Objective: This study evaluated the capability of a MALDI Biotyper system equipped with the newly introduced MBT STAR-BL module to simultaneously perform species identification and β-lactamase-mediated resistance detection in bacteremia -causing bacteria isolated from cultured isolates and patient-derived blood cultures (BCs).Methods: Two hundred retrospective cultured isolates and 153 prospective BCs containing Gram-negative rods (GNR) were collected and subjected to direct bacterial identification, followed by the measurement of β-lactamase activities against ampicillin, piperacillin, cefotaxime, ceftazidime, and meropenem using the MBT STAR-BL module. The results and turnaround times were compared with those of routine microbiological processing. All strains were also characterized by beta-lactamase PCR and sequencing.Results: Using the saponin-based extraction method, MALDI-TOF MS correctly identified bacteria in 116/134 (86.6%) monomicrobial BCs. The detection sensitivities for β-lactamase activities against ampicillin, piperacillin, third-generation cephalosporin and meropenem were 91.3, 100, 97.9, and 100% for cultured isolates, and 80.4, 100, 68.8, and 40% for monomicrobial BCs (n = 134) respectively. The overall specificities ranged from 91.5 to 100%. Furthermore, the MBT STAR-BL and conventional drug susceptibility test results were concordant in 14/19 (73.7%) polymicrobial cultures. Reducing the logRQ cut-off value from 0.4 to 0.2 increased the direct detection sensitivities for β-lactamase activities against ampicillin, cefotaxime and meropenem in BCs to 85.7, 87.5, and 100% respectively. The MBT STAR-BL test enabled the reporting of β-lactamase-producing GNR at 14.16 and 47.64 h before the interim and final reports of routine BCs processing, respectively, were available.Conclusion: The MALDI Biotyper system equipped with the MBT STAR-BL module enables the simultaneous rapid identification of bacterial species and β-lactamase-mediated resistance from BCs and cultured isolates. Adjustment of the logRQ cut-off value to 0.2 significantly increased the detection sensitivities for clinically important drug-resistant pathogens.

Although fibre Bragg gratings (FBGs) offer obvious potential for use in high-density, high-strain sensing applications, the adoption of this technology in the historically conservative aerospace industry has been slow. There are several contributing factors, one of which is variability in the reported performance of these sensors in harsh and fatigue prone environments. This paper reports on a comparative evaluation of the fatigue performance of FBG sensors written according to the same specifications using three different grating manufacturing processes: sensors written in stripped and re-coated fibres, sensors written during the fibre draw process and sensors written through fibre coating. Fatigue cycling of the fibres is provided by a customized electro-dynamically actuated loading assembly designed to provide high frequency and amplitude loading. Pre- and post-fatigue microscopic analysis and high-resolution transmission and reflection spectra scanning are conducted to investigate the fatigue performance of FBGs, the failure regions of fibres as well as any fatigue-related effects on the spectral profiles. It was found that because of the unique fabrication method, the sensors written through the fibre coating, also known as trans-jacket FBGs, show better fatigue performance than stripped and re-coated FBGs with greater control possible to tailor the optical reflection properties compared to gratings written in the draw tower. This emerging method for inscription of Type I gratings opens up the potential for mass production of higher reflectivity, apodised sensors with dense or complex array architectures which can be adopted as sensors for harsh environments such as in defence and aerospace industries.