Nursing research for a multi-ethnic society

Summary points • Conducting research that appropriately and sensitively pays attention to ethnicity presents an important challenge to nursing researchers and demands particular competencies. • Nursing research must recognise the multifaceted nature of ethnicity and the varied ways in which health-related experiences and outcomes may be associated with ethnicity. • Ethnic identities are complex and fluid so that using fixed ethnic categories in research requires careful consideration. • Describing and explaining differences between ethnic 'groups' demands careful attention to sampling, data generation and analysis so that partial or misleading interpretations are avoided. • Researchers should be alert to the potential for research on minority ethnic groups to do more harm than good and should seek to ensure that their research focus and approach is informed by the experiences and priorities of these groups

Centrally Banked Cryptocurrencies

Current cryptocurrencies, starting with Bitcoin, build a decentralized blockchain-based transaction ledger, maintained through proofs-of-work that also generate a monetary supply. Such decentralization has benefits, such as independence from national political control, but also significant limitations in terms of scalability and computational cost. We introduce RSCoin, a cryptocurrency framework in which central banks maintain complete control over the monetary supply, but rely on a distributed set of authorities, or mintettes, to prevent double-spending. While monetary policy is centralized, RSCoin still provides strong transparency and auditability guarantees. We demonstrate, both theoretically and experimentally, the benefits of a modest degree of centralization, such as the elimination of wasteful hashing and a scalable system for avoiding double-spending attacks.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables in Proceedings of NDSS 201

Doing pedagogical research in engineering

Doing pedagogical research in engineerin

Tracing Transactions Across Cryptocurrency Ledgers

One of the defining features of a cryptocurrency is that its ledger, containing all transactions that have evertaken place, is globally visible. As one consequenceof this degree of transparency, a long line of recent re-search has demonstrated that even in cryptocurrenciesthat are specifically designed to improve anonymity it is often possible to track money as it changes hands,and in some cases to de-anonymize users entirely. With the recent proliferation of alternative cryptocurrencies, however, it becomes relevant to ask not only whether ornot money can be traced as it moves within the ledgerof a single cryptocurrency, but if it can in fact be tracedas it moves across ledgers. This is especially pertinent given the rise in popularity of automated trading platforms such as ShapeShift, which make it effortless to carry out such cross-currency trades. In this paper, weuse data scraped from ShapeShift over a thirteen-monthperiod and the data from eight different blockchains to explore this question. Beyond developing new heuristics and creating new types of links across cryptocurrency ledgers, we also identify various patterns of cross-currency trades and of the general usage of these platforms, with the ultimate goal of understanding whetherthey serve a criminal or a profit-driven agenda.Comment: 14 pages, 13 tables, 6 figure

Human-automation collaboration in manufacturing: identifying key implementation factors

Human-automation collaboration refers to the concept of human operators and intelligent automation working together interactively within the same workspace without conventional physical separation. This concept has commanded significant attention in manufacturing because of the potential applications, such as the installation of large sub-assemblies. However, the key human factors relevant to human-automation collaboration have not yet been fully investigated. To maximise effective implementation and reduce development costs for future projects these factors need to be examined. In this paper, a collection of human factors likely to influence human-automation collaboration are identified from current literature. To test the validity of these and explore further factors associated with implementation success, different types of production processes in terms of stage of maturity are being explored via industrial case studies from the project’s stakeholders. Data was collected through a series of semi-structured interviews with shop floor operators, engineers, system designers and management personnel

Your new colleague is a robot. Is that ok?

Human robot collaboration is a concept under development that will be applied within manufacturing environments in the near future to increase efficiency and quality. While there have been significant advances in technology to enable this progress there is still little known about the wider human factors issues of employing such systems in High Value Manufacturing environments. This paper sets out our current understanding of key organisational and individual factors which need to be explored

Evaluating the Effects of Bisphenols F and S with Respect to Bisphenol A on Primordial Germ Cell Migration in Zebrafish (Danio rerio) Embryos Using Immunofluorescence Microscopy

Primordial Germ Cell (PGC) migration occurs in early embryonic development and is highly conserved across taxa. PGC migration occurs within the first 24 hours post fertilization (hpf) in zebrafish, making the organism an efficient model for observing the migration pathway. Proper PGC migration is necessary for normal gonad development and, in some species, sex determination. Disruption of this process leads to defects in gonad formation and abnormal sex determination and differentiation. Studies show that endocrine-disrupting chemicals such as bisphenol A (BPA) disrupt PGC migration in zebrafish. BPA is an estrogenic compound that has been linked to a variety of human diseases, including various cancers, diabetes, reproductive disorders, obesity, and cardiovascular diseases. It is one of the most widely used synthetic compounds worldwide, as it is used to make polycarbonate plastics. Many studies provide evidence of the harmful effects of BPA on living organisms. In response, manufacturers have started to use replacements such as bisphenol F (BPF) and bisphenol S (BPS). However, due to their structural similarity, it is likely that BPF and BPS are just as harmful to organisms as BPA. In this study, we use antibody staining and immunofluorescence microscopy to confirm that BPA exposure results in abnormal PGC migration in zebrafish embryos, as previously studied, and to illustrate that BPF and BPS exposure results in similar PGC migration defects