46 research outputs found
Labour Unions and Green Transitions in the USA: Contestations and Explanations
No full textThis report asks: have US labour unions, declining in numbers and divided on climate policy, adopted any initiatives to address climate change? The goal here is to both outline the deep cleavages with respect to climate policy and to show that the views of unions are more complex and contradictory than the opposition-support dichotomy. In the second part of the report, the author explains the internal and external factors which account for the variability in union responses to climate change and policy, amongst and within unions.Adapting Canadian Work and Workplaces to Respond to Climate Chang
Ocean, sea-ice, atmosphere oscillations in the Southern Ocean as simulated by the SINTEX coupled model
No full text1This study evaluates the Antarctic Circumpolar Wave
(ACW) as simulated by the SINTEX coupled model. We
found evidence that sea-ice treatment plays a crucial role
on simulating the ACW. In particular, SST anomalies at
interannual time scales describe a propagating ACW-like
pattern when a dynamic thermodynamic sea-ice model
is coupled with the ocean, but when sea-ice is relaxed
to climatology, anomalies occur as zonally symmetric
patterns that do not propagate in longitude. Moreover,
from the experiment with an active sea-ice component
we saw that ACW-like oscillations are strongly modulated
by low frequency variability. Our result adds some
extra confidence to previous studies based on relatively
short series of observed data.This research was supported by the
PREDICATE EU project (EVK2 – CT-1999 – 0020,). First author was supported by the PRISM EU project (EVR1 – CT-2001 – 40012).Published4A. Clima e OceaniJCR Journalrestricte
Prediction Games: Encouraging Engagement with Data
No full textPrediction games, data-driven games modeled after fantasy sports, are aimed to motivate people to explore, analyze, and develop their own understanding of large data sets. They revolve around activities where players examine historical data and information resources to make predictions about future events. As a result, they may help improve the players��� domain knowledge and data interpretation skills. But what matters in the design of such games? And, as we envision prediction games created by instructors in an educational environment, what forms of support aid the authoring of prediction activities yet involve very little to no programming?
To answer these questions, we first conducted a survey of fantasy sports players which showed that many seek out information including news and data. They analyze this content to make predictions, resulting in them learning more about the sport. Next, we developed Fantasy Forecaster, a prediction game prototype to gather system requirements and user feedback. Lessons from the survey and development of the prototype informed our prediction games framework and its implementation in the climate domain: Fantasy Climate.
Fantasy Climate is a prediction game based on weather data where players select a location among a set of choices based on whether their assessment of upcoming weather. In particular, they are asked to select which location will be warmest and coolest compared to their historic norms on an upcoming date. The game also featured communication tools, integrated climate-related news, and historical weather data with visualizations to make sense of them. User studies of Fantasy Climate revealed that social interaction, particularly asynchronous discussions made the game more engaging and helped players gather information for prediction making. Also, the in-game presentation of domain-related news had an effect on engagement and players' performance.
From our prediction games framework and the implementation of Fantasy Climate, we identified a set of necessary and valuable prediction activity specifications which led to the development of the Activity Creation Wizard (ACW). The ACW is an environment that guides the author through a series of steps to author their prediction activity. Features of the ACW included a help system that provides the author with explanations, tutorials and examples during the authoring process. Also included were a template component that allows the author to reuse the customizations of a previously created prediction activity, and tools to automate repetitive and tedious tasks such as building the prediction schedule.
The evaluation of the ACW showed no background knowledge was required to use the ACW to author a prediction activity. The help system was in general adequate in assisting the participants in their information needs, templates were found useful by many, and automation reduced the time taken for repetitive tasks. Some authors did not want to use templates or automation in order to have more control over the design of their activity. However, the help system, templates, and automation tools of the ACW were not sufficient in helping the participants understand the consequences of their customization on the prediction activity. Reasoning about the effects of their choices on gameplay was noted as the primary challenge during the authoring task by several participants. Additionally, the evaluation identified alternative ways of authoring the prediction activity that challenged our current design of the ACW, including the potential value of co-dependent customizations and collaborative authoring.
Finally, the ACW evaluation also involved a task where participants created a prediction game in the domain of their choice. Interviews with participants on their created prediction games revealed two major findings. One finding was that educational, social, and socio-cultural factors play an important role in what makes prediction games engaging. The other finding was authoring resulted in a recognition by the participants of the educational benefits of prediction games which align well with the primary motives of this research work
Flame dynamics of azimuthal forced spinning and standing modes in an annular combustor
No full textAzimuthal forcing has been applied to flames in a laboratory scale annular combustor in order to accurately control the azimuthal mode of excitation. A new forcing configuration permitted not only the pressure amplitude, but also the spin ratio and mode orientation to be accurately controlled, in order to generate standing modes and for the first time strong spinning modes in both a clockwise (CW) and anti-clockwise (ACW) direction. The phase averaged heat release dynamics of these modes was compared and a number of differences observed depending on the direction of pressure wave propagation, demonstrating characteristic ACW and CW heat release patterns. A new spin compensating averaging method was then introduced to analyse the flame dynamics, and it was shown that through the application of this method the dynamics of standing wave oscillations could be decomposed to recover the characteristic ACW and CW heat release responses. The global heat release response was also assessed during strongly spinning modes, and the magnitude of the response was shown to depend strongly on the direction of propagation, demonstrating the importance of the local swirl direction on the global heat release response, with important implications for the modelling of such flows.publishedVersion© 2018 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of The Combustion Institute. This is an open access article under the CC BY license. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Are intrinsic neural timescales related to sensory processing? Evidence from abnormal behavioural states
No full textThe brain exhibits a complex temporal structure which translates into a hierarchy of distinct neural timescales. An open question is how these intrinsic timescales are related to sensory or motor information processing and whether these dynamics have common patterns in different behavioral states. We address these questions by investigating the brain's intrinsic timescales in healthy controls, motor (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, locked-in syndrome), sensory (anesthesia, unresponsive wakefulness syndrome), and progressive reduction of sensory processing (from awake states over N1, N2, N3). We employed a combination of measures from EEG resting-state data: auto-correlation window (ACW), power spectral density (PSD), and power-law exponent (PLE). Prolonged neural timescales accompanied by a shift towards slower frequencies were observed in the conditions with sensory deficits, but not in conditions with motor deficits. Our results establish that the spontaneous activity's intrinsic neural timescale is related to the neural capacity that specifically supports sensory rather than motor information processing in the healthy brain
Self-sustained Combustion Synthesis and Asbestos-bearing Waste: Scaling up from Laboratory Towards Pre-industrial Size Plant
No full textAbstractAn apparatus and a technique were developed for triggering the breakdown reaction of chrysotile by means of a combustion synthesis well known as Self-propagating High temperature Synthesis or SHS. The experiments were carried out varying different Asbestos-Containing Waste (ACW). The reactions were carried in a continuous-feeding configuration, indispensable for the development and fine-tuning of the process parameters towards industrial scale up. Experiments demonstrated to be effective in destructing the fibrous habit of chrysotile. The SHS process in comparison with conventional thermal treatments, due to fast reaction time and low activation energy, positively reflects into time and costs of the process
Is the bullhead sign on bone scintigraphy really common in the patient with SAPHO syndrome? A single-center study of a 16-year experience
No full textObjectiveThe aim of this study was to assess the bone lesion distribution and analyze the frequency of the bullhead sign in patients with SAPHO (synovitis, acne, pustulosis, hyperostosis, and osteitis) syndrome using whole-body bone scintigraphy (WBBS) in a relatively populous study population.MethodsIn this study, the Nuclear Medicine Department's records of one center were retrospectively reviewed and the patients who fulfilled the diagnostic criteria for SAPHO syndrome and underwent Tc-99m-methylene diphosphonate WBBS were identified over a 16-year period. The following data were collected from patients, including age, sex, surgically proved pathology of the bone lesions, WBBS surveillance interval, and SAPHO syndrome components. The bone lesion distribution and the frequency of bullhead sign involving the manubrium and bilateral sternoclavicular junctions were analyzed.ResultsForty-eight patients were enrolled in this study. The initial WBBS indicated bone involvement in all of the 48 (100%) patients, in whom the most commonly affected region was the anterior chest wall (ACW) (100%, 48/48). The frequency of the upper costosternal junction involvement was the highest (38/48, 79.2%), and 28.9% (11/38) patients were found to show isolated involvement of the first rib in ACW. The frequency of the bullhead sign was only 22.9% (11/48, 95% CI: 12.0-37.3). In the eight (16.7%, 8/48) patients who were followed up using WBBS with an interval that ranged from 1 to 10 years, one patient with an initially single sternoclavicular junction lesion developed a typical bullhead sign over 10 years; other patients with or without the initial typical bullhead sign showed stable appearance over 1-4 years.ConclusionThis retrospective study shows that in patients with proposed SAPHO syndrome, the bone lesions are most likely located in ACW, and the configuration of the bullhead sign is characteristic, but not entirely sensitive. The value of upper costosternal junction involvement, especially the first rib, may be underevaluated.Seeding Grant for Medicine and Engineering Sciences of Peking University [BMU20140398]SCI(E)[email protected]
Ethnic Difference of the Anterior Chamber Area and Volume and Its Association with Angle Width
No full textPURPOSE. To compare the anterior chamber area/volume (ACA/ACV) and their relationship with the drainage angle between adult Caucasians and Chinese. METHODS. Study groups were comprised of four age- and sex-matched cohorts: American Caucasians, American Chinese, southern mainland Chinese, and northern mainland Chinese. All subjects were consecutively recruited from general ophthalmology clinics except for southern mainland Chinese participants who were drawn from an ongoing population-based study. Anterior segment optical coherence tomography (ASOCT) images were obtained under dark conditions. Customized software was used to analyze structural indices including ACA/ACV, angle opening distance (AOD), anterior chamber depth (ACD), anterior chamber width (ACW), lens vault (LV), corneal arc depth (CAD), iris thickness (IT), iris curvature (ICurv), and iris area (IArea). RESULTS. Data from 121, 124, 121, and 120 participants were obtained of American Caucasians, American Chinese, and southern and northern mainland Chinese, respectively. After multiple linear regression analysis, adjusting for age, sex, pupil diameter (PD), and axial length (AL), ACA/ACV was positively associated with ACD, ACW, CAD, and corneal radius of curvature (CR) but negatively related with ICurv and IArea. Ethnic Chinese had significantly smaller ACA (beta = -0.18, P = 0.022) and ACV (beta = -3.9, P = 0.001) than Caucasians. ACV contributes the most to AOD variation for both Chinese (standardized regression coefficient [SRC] = 0.47, P < 0.001) and Caucasians (SRC = 0.59, P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS. Compared with Caucasians, ethnic Chinese had smaller ACA/ACV independent of ACD, ACW, ICurv, IArea, PD, CR, and AL. ACA/ACV is the most prominent contributor to angle width variation for both Chinese and Caucasians in this study. (Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2012;53:3139-3144) DOI:10.1167/iovs.12-9776http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000304864600072&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=8e1609b174ce4e31116a60747a720701OphthalmologySCI(E)21ARTICLE63139-31445
Design and In Vivo Testing of Novel Single-Stage Tendon Graft Using Polyurethane Nanocomposite Polymer for Tendon Reconstruction.
No full textSevere trauma, failure of prior surgical repair, delayed presentation and excessive scarring around the flexor tendon bed often necessitate a two-stage surgical reconstruction, where a silicone spacer is used in the first stage to recreate the fibro-osseous tunnel through which the tendon graft can glide in the second stage. This staged procedure involves great commitment on the part of both patient and surgeon, over the course of several months, involving a prolonged period of rehabilitation that can be quite disruptive to the patient's life and work. Reducing this from a two-stage into a single-stage procedure, therefore, has the potential to reduce rehabilitation time and cost, expedite return to work, and improve outcomes. To address this, we developed polyurethane (PU) nanocomposite, as an engineered tendon sheath, for treatment of delayed flexor tendon division as a single-stage procedure. The clinically conformant tubular grafts were tested for their efficacy in the peroneus tertius tendon of 6 Mule sheep for 3 months. Semi-quantitative histological assessment was carried out by analysing four descriptive layers: tendon, tendon/polymer sheath interface, polymer sheath, and polymer sheath/surrounding tissue. Four (out of 6) of the implanted PU nanocomposites showed moderate to substantial healing of the injured tendons, with minimal adhesion after repair, ensuring good gliding movement. No statistical differences were observed in tendon repair based on intra-regional variation in the explanted grafts, indicating homogeneity in tendon repair. Overall, the PU nanocomposite bears morphological stability and functionality for tendon repair, in single-stage surgical reconstruction, demonstrating promising evidence for clinical translation
