Delivering Best Value Highway Performance

Following vascular injury, endothelial cells become activated in the attempt to repave the damaged luminal surface. In addition, a physical interaction is established not only among the denuded subendothelial matrix, activated platelets, and circulating inflammatory cells but also with the progenitor cells (PCs).1 Endothelial survival, proliferation, and migration, necessary for re-coverage of exposed lamina, are aided by CD34+ PCs that express the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) receptor-2/kinase-insert domain receptor (KDR). However, whether these cells enter the peripheral circulation as a predefined population or acquire their final antigenic phenotype on homing to the peripheral vasculature remains a matter of debate. See accompanying article on page 408 In this issue of Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology , de Boer et al propose that human CD34+/KDR+ cells are generated from circulating CD34+ cells after immobilization on activated platelets.2 By using an ex vivo flow model, the authors show that activated platelets favor the homing of CD34+ cells to sites of vascular injury and that, on cell immobilization, KDR is rapidly translocated from an endosomal compartment to the cell surface. Presumably, PCs shed afterward to “carry the message” into the circulation. It is noteworthy that de Boer et al also report an increased coexpression of KDR on CD34+ cells in type-2 diabetes, which was reduced by aspirin treatment. The authors conclude that their data might have implications for the identification of patients with subclinical vascular injury, on the basis of the hypothesis that activated/injured endothelium provides more opportunity …

Questionnaires to Assess Urinary and Anal Incontinence: Review and Recommendations

This paper will describe a successful engineering study abroad program that occurs every summer for six weeks. The program participants are engineering and science students from Mississippi State University and Clemson University in the United States and the program takes place at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom. The program is designed to handle approximately 30 students in total from the two US schools and permits wavering enrollments at one university to be compensated by the other. Thus, the University of Bristol can be assured of a reasonable number of students on a continuing basis to keep the program profitable. The first four weeks are spent at the University of Bristol, where students take two classes and earn six credit hours. The program ends with a two-week independent travel period where students typically tour the continent. While attending classes at the University of Bristol, the students experience British culture firsthand by living with host families.

Highway maintenance performance measurement is the key to implementing performance-based contracting (PBC). However, contractors have struggled with accurately understanding client intent and translating performance goals into measurable indicators. To make PBC successfully applied, this study proposes a dynamic performance measurement framework of highway routine maintenance based on grey theory. A performance indicator system is established based on the organizational structure of highway assets and the bill of quantities in the real world. In addition, a statistical analysis using the data about maintenance cost and highway condition score has been conducted to ascertain the weights and thresholds assigned to various indicators. As a result, the performance indicators, their corresponding weights, and thresholds can be flexibly adjusted to accommodate diverse periods and areas. Then, the grey theory has been employed to evaluate the comprehensive performance level of service within a region. This framework is experimented with using the data of three maintenance areas in Shaanxi Province, China: Qiaogouwan, Huaziping, and Ansai. At the end of the process, comparison and sensitivity analysis are conducted. The results demonstrate the model’s reasonability and robustness, providing valuable tools for contractors to assess the performance of highway maintenance in meeting client specifications.

Event Abstract Back to Event Gradient based axon growth modelling of different cell types with specific growth features in the spinal cord of hatchling Xenopus tadpole Abul Kalam Al Azad1*, Roman Borisyuk1, Stephen R Soffe2 and Alan Roberts2 1 University of Plymouth, School of Computing and Mathematics, United Kingdom 2 University of Bristol, School of Biology, United Kingdom It is imperative to understand how simple basic mechanisms can allow primary functioning neuronal circuits to develop. To explore the 'functional connectome', we investigate anatomy and electrophysiology of young hatchling Xenopus tadpole's spinal cord. Our bottom-up approach to modelling of neuronal connectivity is based on developmental process of axon growth - we develop a gradient-based mathematical model for axon growth. It is known that in the developing developing vertebrate spinal cord, axons grow under influence of chemical morphogenes released from the dorsal roof plate ('BMP'), ventral floor plate ('Shh') and hindbrain region ('Wnt'). Distribution of these guidance molecules along the spinal cord set up a gradient field which steer the axons in appropriate locations and thus ensure formation of proper connections. The model of axon growth includes a fixed environment of the governing gradients and seven parameters describing the sensitivity of axon to different guidance molecules. Sensitivity parameters are specific for axons of each cell-type and also they are specific for the direction of axon growth (either to head or tail). A stochastic optimization programming technique is implemented to determine the values of these parameters for each cell-type and each direction of axon growth. The cost function provides a fitting of the model to the experimental measurements of axons and takes into account the projection of the axon to the Dorso-Ventral axis as well as the axon tortuisity. The model successfully generates axons of both commissural and non-commissural neurons which include stimulus receiving sensory neurons, sensory infomation processing interneurons and motorneurons. We model axons of seven types of spinal neurons believed to be involved in swimming and struggling behaviour of tadpole. Each neuron has a different axon growth feature, e.g., commissural neurons grow axons ventrally on the same side of the spinal cord at first and turn longitudinally on the other (contralateral) side of the spinal cord and non-commissural neurons grow their axons on the same (ipsilateral) side of spinal cord. This gradient based axon growth will in fact lead to bilogical reconstruction of the connectome of the tadpole's spinal cord. Keywords: computational neuroscience Conference: 4th INCF Congress of Neuroinformatics, Boston, United States, 4 Sep - 6 Sep, 2011. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Computational neuroscience Citation: Azad A, Borisyuk R, Soffe S and Roberts A (2011). Gradient based axon growth modelling of different cell types with specific growth features in the spinal cord of hatchling Xenopus tadpole. Front. Neuroinform. Conference Abstract: 4th INCF Congress of Neuroinformatics. doi: 10.3389/conf.fninf.2011.08.00064 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 17 Oct 2011; Published Online: 19 Oct 2011. * Correspondence: Dr. Abul Kalam Al Azad, University of Plymouth, School of Computing and Mathematics, Plymouth, United Kingdom, abul.azad@plymouth.ac.uk Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Abul Kalam Al Azad Roman Borisyuk Stephen R Soffe Alan Roberts Google Abul Kalam Al Azad Roman Borisyuk Stephen R Soffe Alan Roberts Google Scholar Abul Kalam Al Azad Roman Borisyuk Stephen R Soffe Alan Roberts PubMed Abul Kalam Al Azad Roman Borisyuk Stephen R Soffe Alan Roberts Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.

Erratum to “TNFR-associated factor-2 (TRAF-2) in Alzheimer’s disease” [Culpan et al. (Neurobiol Aging 2009 July;30(7):1052-60)

On April 17, 2019, the University of Bristol became the first university in the United Kingdom (UK) to declare a climate emergency. Against a backdrop of high visibility and public concern about climate change, as well as climate emergency declarations from other sectors, another 36 UK universities followed suit over the next year. This paper explores what these climate emergency declarations show about how UK universities are responding to climate change and wider sustainability concerns, as well as how they view and present themselves in relation to this. Critical Discourse Analysis of the declarations allowed for in-depth scrutiny of the purpose and wider social context of the documents, demonstrating that they function as promotional statements, as presenting a collective voice, and showing a commitment from the universities to action. We argue that while these provide the potential for advancing sustainability within the sector, the tendency to use declarations as publicity and promotional material does detract from new commitments and action. The research contributes to the discussion around the role of universities as institutions with a responsibility both to act on climate change and to shape the broader societal response to it. It also provides insights as to how future research can evaluate universities in relation to their commitments and strategies, and provides suggestions to help ensure they live up to the promises and intentions that they have publicly made.

In Supply Chain Management (SCM), performance measurement can facilitate understanding and integration among the supply chain partners. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to review the existing SCM performance measurement framework based on the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Balanced Scorecard (BSC) models reported in the literature. Second, based on the prioritisation of the suggested performance measures/metrics and performance at different decision levels, a mathematical model is developed to optimise the overall performance measurement of SCM for Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs).

In academic research on intercultural communication (IC), students’ perceptions and experiences regarding English as a lingua franca (ELF) have been central to the discussion because they form the basis for English teaching policies and practices in multilingual and multicultural environments. Substantial theoretical research on ELF has called for a paradigm shift from emphasizing the over-simplistic correlation between language and Anglophone cultures to recognizing the legitimacy of non-native English learners’ home culture in English teaching pedagogy. Nonetheless, little empirical research has been conducted to examine how ELF speakers understand their home culture in ELF communications. Relatively fewer studies have investigated to what extent ELF users’ perceptions of home culture influence their IC practices. To address these gaps, this study aims to explore Chinese international students in a liberal arts university in the United Kingdom and their understanding of Chinese culture in authentic ELF interactions. In addition, the perceived effects of Chinese culture on students’ IC were explored in great depth. This study adopts a mixed-method approach, including a student questionnaire (N = 200) and follow-up semi-structured interviews (N = 10). Following descriptive statistics and thematic analysis of the obtained data, the findings revealed that most participants lacked a thorough understanding of their home culture, while they considered home culture playing a significant role in ELF communications. The contribution of this study builds on work in English users’ awareness of home culture in IC to identify the significance of enabling the presence of English learners’ home culture in English language teaching (ELT) classrooms.

In the era of increased corporate globalisation, the lingering principles of directing mind and will have plagued South Africa, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Luxembourg and the United States, amongst other neighbouring territories from manufacturing a realist model of corporate fault. The incorporation of absolute corporate liability in international governance documents has repeatedly fallen short of the expectations in the aftermath of Bhopal, Saveso and P & O European Ferries and other ecological disasters alike. It is of fundamental importance to combat transnational corporate activity from a world order perspective by establishing a legal regime which supports the philosophy that corruption becomes entrenched within the corporate culture, a culture that is indicative of corporate guilt.This paper will travel through several jurisdictions, identifying models of corporate fault, to determine their practicality, viability and legitimacy in the regime of corporate criminal liability. The paramount issues anchoring each jurisdiction from evolution in the respective doctrine is the requirement to locate a high mens rea offence from a directing mind and will and impute this onto the corporate defendant. Due to delegation of managerial responsibilities, the supposed mens rea offence takes places at base level, a technique that has insulated multinational companies from criminal liability. In other jurisdictions, the paper reveals strained attempts to make a derivative fault based model work, which is unsuccessful. Disregarding the employees rank and status to some extent, a corporate body is seen to be held criminally liable where it has partially benefited as a result of its employees actions whether intended or not and whether initially prevented, preventable or not preventable.This paper will continue to examine and evaluate the only available realist model of corporate fault in workable form, as codified into the Australian Criminal Code Act 1995. The ‘corporate culture’ doctrine remedies the fallacies of a derivative approach and is successful against strategies employed by a larger institution, making it a workable model for capturing corporate fault. The rules pertaining to the model will be closely critiqued and viewed in light of a series of cases before concluding that this approach is the first step in the courses of action required against the evolution of structurally complex corporate arrangements.

Measurement techniques for column interface monitoring in an advanced gas cooled reactor model

The risk of epilepsy after febrile convulsions was determined in a national population based study in the United Kingdom and reported from the Department of Paediatrics, Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge and the Institute of Child Health, University of Bristol, England.

In opening the discussion on Mr Gleeson's paper, Professor Murray Stewart (Urban Research Unit, University of Bristol) suggested that the United Kingdom had now much experience of “managing with less”. “Corporate planning” had its limitations, especially when cutbacks were involved. Then people retreated into their departmental shells to protect their own interests. In Britain planning units were to some extent in disgrace and there was more stress on making use of existing departments and ad hoc working groups. It was also beneficial to focus more attention on the impact of programs on particular client groups or areas. This was useful to the politicians, as it focused on what was of electoral concern, and it also helped departments to work together. One of the worst failures in British capital budgeting had been failure to “monitor” programs. He echoed all that Mr Gleeson's paper said about the role of politicians. There had to be much more debate between politicians and officials at an early stage in the decision‐making process. This was better done through working parties and discussions on specific cases, rather than more diffuse contacts.

Scope classification is a new instance-based learning (IBL) technique with a rule-based characterisation. Within the scope approach, the classification of an object o is based on the examples that are closer to o than every example labelled with another class. In contrast to standard distance-based IBL classifiers, scope classification relies on partial preorderings ≤o between examples, indexed by objects. Interestingly, the notion of closeness to o that is used characterises the classes predicted by all the rules that cover o and are relevant and consistent for the training set. Accordingly, scope classification is an IBL technique with a rule-based characterisation. Since rules do not have to be explicitly generated, the scope approach applies to classification problems where the number of rules prevents them from being exhaustively computed. Currently at Department of Computer Science, University of Bristol, Merchant Venturers Building, Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1UB, United Kingdom

This paper considers methodology and pedagogical approaches used in higher education in the United Kingdom and Russia in developing transferable employability skills when teaching final-year undergraduates. The paper analyses outcomes of introducing innovative approaches to teaching translation at the University of Bristol and at Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU).The MSU approach is aimed at the development of self-motivation, continual learning, ability to influence others through effective communication while at the same time developing students’ discipline-related skills in the field of translation studies.The innovation introduced at the University of Bristol involves a move from traditional classroom-based delivery of a final-year undergraduate translation module to a blended e-learning approach, thus addressing organisational needs (developing an effective mechanism of peer assessment in large translation classes) while achieving a higher quality of work and developing valuable employability skills.The primary objective is to show the students that they can improve their translation and analytical skills through conducting research online and by interacting with the other members of the group using a virtual learning environment. Recent results confirm that both approaches proved to be extremely beneficial. The students developed a better awareness of what is expected of them in assessed assignments. They enhanced their discipline-related skills in the field of translation studies. Their communication skills, ability to provide constructive feedback and analyse their own and other students’ work have also significantly improved. This contributed to the development of transferable employability skills including working as part of a team, critical thinking, communicating and influencing, problem solving, decision making and time management.