Edinburgh Napier University

About: Edinburgh Napier University is a education organization based out in Edinburgh, United Kingdom. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Context (language use). The organization has 2665 authors who have published 6859 publications receiving 175272 citations.

Diffusion theory in biology: a relic of mechanistic materialism.

Abstract: Diffusion theory explains in physical terms how materials move through a medium, eg water or a biological fluid There are strong and widely acknowledged grounds for doubting the applicability of this theory in biology, although it continues to be accepted almost uncritically and taught as a basis of both biology and medicine Our principal aim is to explore how this situation arose and has been allowed to continue seemingly unchallenged for more than 150 years The main shortcomings of diffusion theory will be briefly reviewed to show that the entrenchment of this theory in the corpus of biological knowledge needs to be explained, especially as there are equally valid historical grounds for presuming that bulk fluid movement powered by the energy of cell metabolism plays a prominent note in the transport of molecules in the living body First, the theory's evolution, notably from its origins in connection with the mechanistic materialist philosophy of mid nineteenth century physiology, is discussed Following this, the entrenchment of the theory in twentieth century biology is analyzed in relation to three situations: the mechanism of oxygen transport between air and mammalian tissues; the structure and function of cell membranes; and the nature of the intermediary metabolism, with its implicit presumptions about the intracellular organization and the movement of molecules within it In our final section, we consider several historically based alternatives to diffusion theory, all of which have their precursors in nineteenth and twentieth century philosophy of science

New Test for Determination of Masonry Tensile Bond Strength

Abstract: The bond strength between masonry units and mortar has been of considerable interest to researchers for some time. The flexural bond strength of masonry in particular is needed for the design of masonry walls subjected to horizontal forces applied normal to the face of the wall, such as wind forces. Researchers and standards have suggested different kinds of specimens and test procedures to determine the flexural bond strength. These include the test on wallettes (small walls), the bond wrench test, the Brench test, the direct tensile test, and the crossed couplet test. Each of these tests has its own drawbacks and problems. This paper presents a test method to determine the flexural bond strength, ffb , by bending. The test could be used for laboratory research to investigate the many factors affecting bond strength and also for deriving design values for masonry standards. The specimen is constructed from two brick units in a Z-shaped configuration, and three-point loading induces a flexural bond failur...

A Survey of Limitations and Enhancements of the IPv6 Routing Protocol for Low-Power and Lossy Networks: A Focus on Core Operations

Abstract: Driven by the special requirements of the low-power and lossy networks (LLNs), the IPv6 routing protocol for LLNs (RPL) was standardized by the IETF some six years ago to tackle the routing issue in such networks Since its introduction, however, numerous studies have pointed out that, in its current form, RPL suffers from issues that limit its efficiency and domain of applicability Thus, several solutions have been proposed in the literature in an attempt to overcome these identified limitations In this survey, we aim mainly to provide a comprehensive review of these research proposals assessing whether such proposals have succeeded in overcoming the standard reported limitations related to its core operations Although some of RPL’s weaknesses have been addressed successfully, the study found that the proposed solutions remain deficient in overcoming several others Hence, the study investigates where such proposals still fall short, the challenges and pitfalls to avoid, thus would help researchers formulate a clear foundation for the development of further successful extensions in future allowing the protocol to be applied more widely

Identifying patients' support needs following critical illness: a scoping review of the qualitative literature.

Abstract: Intensive care survivors suffer chronic and potentially life-changing physical, psychosocial and cognitive sequelae, and supporting recovery is an international priority. As survivors’ transition from the intensive care unit to home, their support needs develop and change. In this scoping review, we categorised patients’ support needs using House’s Social Support Needs framework (informational, emotional, instrumental, appraisal) and mapped these against the Timing it Right framework reflecting the patient’s transition from intensive care (event/diagnosis) to ward (stabilisation/preparation) and discharge home (implementation/adaptation). We searched electronic databases from 2000 to 2017 for qualitative research studies reporting adult critical care survivors’ experiences of care. Two reviewers independently screened, extracted and coded data. Data were analysed using a thematic framework approach. From 3035 references, we included 32 studies involving 702 patients. Studies were conducted in UK and Europe (n = 17, 53%), Canada and the USA (n = 6, 19%), Australasia (n = 6, 19%), Hong Kong (n = 1, 3%), Jordan (n = 1, 3%) and multi-country (n = 1, 3%). Across the recovery trajectory, informational, emotional, instrumental, appraisal and spiritual support needs were evident, and the nature and intensity of need differed when mapped against the Timing it Right framework. Informational needs changed from needing basic facts about admission, to detail about progress and treatments and coping with long-term sequelae. The nature of emotional needs changed from needing to cope with confusion, anxiety and comfort, to a need for security and family presence, coping with flashbacks, and needing counselling and community support. Early instrumental needs ranged from managing sleep, fatigue, pain and needing nursing care and transitioned to needing physical and cognitive ability support, strength training and personal hygiene; and at home, regaining independence, strength and return to work. Appraisal needs related to obtaining feedback on progress, and after discharge, needing reassurance from others who had been through the ICU experience. This review is the first to identify the change in social support needs among intensive care survivors as they transition from intensive care to the home environment. An understanding of needs at different transition periods would help inform health service provision and support for survivors.

A novel explainable machine learning approach for EEG-based brain-computer interface systems

Abstract: Electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings can be of great help in decoding the open/close hand’s motion preparation. To this end, cortical EEG source signals in the motor cortex (evaluated in the 1-s window preceding movement onset) are extracted by solving inverse problem through beamforming. EEG sources epochs are used as source-time maps input to a custom deep convolutional neural network (CNN) that is trained to perform 2-ways classification tasks: pre-hand close (HC) versus resting state (RE) and pre-hand open (HO) versus RE. The developed deep CNN works well (accuracy rates up to $$89.65 \pm 5.29\%$$ for HC versus RE and $$90.50 \pm 5.35\%$$ for HO versus RE), but the core of the present study was to explore the interpretability of the deep CNN to provide further insights into the activation mechanism of cortical sources during the preparation of hands’ sub-movements. Specifically, occlusion sensitivity analysis was carried out to investigate which cortical areas are more relevant in the classification procedure. Experimental results show a recurrent trend of spatial cortical activation across subjects. In particular, the central region (close to the longitudinal fissure) and the right temporal zone of the premotor together with the primary motor cortex appear to be primarily involved. Such findings encourage an in-depth study of cortical areas that seem to play a key role in hand’s open/close preparation.