Managing Environmental and Economic Performance: a Review of Theory and Practice on Performance Measurement

As businesses struggle to maintain sustainability, a great deal of interest has focused on the issues of performance measurement systems. This paper provides a literature review on the evolution of performance measurement systems, from the traditional performance measures to the sustainable balanced scorecard. More importantly, this paper highlights the vital role of sustainable balanced scorecard as a tool that manages both economic and environmental performance. Majority of the existing sustainable balanced scorecard studies were found to be of normative nature giving limited information on how the integration process between economic and environmental dimensions is being carried out via balanced scorecard. Future research is needed to enhance the understanding of the role of the sustainable balanced scorecard as an important tool in the management of economic and environmental performance in the organization

Detection of Koi herpesvirus (KHV) in Cyprinius carpio (Koi) stocks using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)

Koi herpesvirus (KHV), which is also known as Cyprinid herpesvirus 3 (CyHV-3) infection, is an OIE(international des epizootis) listed disease that caused high losses in common and koi carp in Indonesiaand Japan in 2002 and 2003. Since the mid of 2006, the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has been usedin Malaysia for surveillance of koi fingerlings to detect virus nucleic acid, but it has been found to produceunreliable results. Following this, an alternative enzyme-link immunosorbent assay (ELISA) technique forthe detection of antibody against KHV was used to find evidence of KHV infection in koi carp stocks on farmsthat had been sampled for the PCR. For this purpose, a total of 245 serum samples from koi carp stocks werecollected and tested for the antibody to KHV by the ELISA at the Centre for Environment, Fisheries andAquaculture Science (CEFAS) laboratory, Weymouth, UK. Two hundred and eight samples were found to benegative but 37 others were either definitely positive or close to borderline positive and all were retested. Thefinal results showed that 222 (90%) samples were confirmed as negative and 19 (8%) others were definitelypositive. Meanwhile, four samples (1.6%) were positive at dilutions of 1:400 or 1:200, but cross reactionswith CyHV-1 (causing herpesviral epidermal hyperplasia) could have occurred at those dilutions. Three of thesamples were the only positive fish at two sites, but the fourth sample came from a site at which there were 4definite positive samples (from 20 fish sampled). Thus this study confirmed that Malaysian koi stocks havepreviously been exposed to KHV. With the lack of bio-security measures and awareness, there was a highprobability that the koi carp had been exposed to KHV, leading to subclinical infections and some fish mightpossibly have become carriers of the virus. Hence, further surveillance needs to be conducted to determinethe true situation of the KHV infection in Malaysia

Components of Antineutrino Emission in Nuclear Reactor

New ${\bar{\nu}_e},e$ scattering experiments aimed for sensitive searches of the ${\nu}_e$ magnetic moment and projects to explore small mixing angle oscillations at reactors call for a better understanding of the reactor antineutrino spectrum. Here we consider six components, which contribute to the total ${\bar{\nu}_e}$ spectrum generated in nuclear reactor. They are: beta decay of the fission fragments of $^{235}$U, $^{239}$Pu, $^{238}$U and $^{241}$Pu, decay of beta-emitters produced as a result of neutron capture in $^{238}$U and also due to neutron capture in accumulated fission fragments which perturbs the spectrum. For antineutrino energies less than 3.5 MeV we tabulate evolution of ${\bar{\nu}_e}$ spectra corresponding to each of the four fissile isotopes vs fuel irradiation time and their decay after the irradiation is stopped and also estimate relevant uncertainties. Small corrections to the ILL spectra are considered.Comment: LaTex 8 pages, 2 ps figure

Two novel approaches for photometric redshift estimation based on SDSS and 2MASS databases

We investigate two training-set methods: support vector machines (SVMs) and Kernel Regression (KR) for photometric redshift estimation with the data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 5 and Two Micron All Sky Survey databases. We probe the performances of SVMs and KR for different input patterns. Our experiments show that the more parameters considered, the accuracy doesn't always increase, and only when appropriate parameters chosen, the accuracy can improve. Moreover for different approaches, the best input pattern is different. With different parameters as input, the optimal bandwidth is dissimilar for KR. The rms errors of photometric redshifts based on SVM and KR methods are less than 0.03 and 0.02, respectively. Finally the strengths and weaknesses of the two approaches are summarized. Compared to other methods of estimating photometric redshifts, they show their superiorities, especially KR, in terms of accuracy.Comment: accepted for publication in ChJA

Utility of polygenic risk scores in UK cancer screening: a modelling analysis

BACKGROUND: It is proposed that, through restriction to individuals delineated as high risk, polygenic risk scores (PRSs) might enable more efficient targeting of existing cancer screening programmes and enable extension into new age ranges and disease types. To address this proposition, we present an overview of the performance of PRS tools (ie, models and sets of single nucleotide polymorphisms) alongside harms and benefits of PRS-stratified cancer screening for eight example cancers (breast, prostate, colorectal, pancreas, ovary, kidney, lung, and testicular cancer). METHODS: For this modelling analysis, we used age-stratified cancer incidences for the UK population from the National Cancer Registration Dataset (2016–18) and published estimates of the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for current, future, and optimised PRS for each of the eight cancer types. For each of five PRS-defined high-risk quantiles (ie, the top 50%, 20%, 10%, 5%, and 1%) and according to each of the three PRS tools (ie, current, future, and optimised) for the eight cancers, we calculated the relative proportion of cancers arising, the odds ratios of a cancer arising compared with the UK population average, and the lifetime cancer risk. We examined maximal attainable rates of cancer detection by age stratum from combining PRS-based stratification with cancer screening tools and modelled the maximal impact on cancer-specific survival of hypothetical new UK programmes of PRS-stratified screening. FINDINGS: The PRS-defined high-risk quintile (20%) of the population was estimated to capture 37% of breast cancer cases, 46% of prostate cancer cases, 34% of colorectal cancer cases, 29% of pancreatic cancer cases, 26% of ovarian cancer cases, 22% of renal cancer cases, 26% of lung cancer cases, and 47% of testicular cancer cases. Extending UK screening programmes to a PRS-defined high-risk quintile including people aged 40–49 years for breast cancer, 50–59 years for colorectal cancer, and 60–69 years for prostate cancer has the potential to avert, respectively, a maximum of 102, 188, and 158 deaths annually. Unstratified screening of the full population aged 48–49 years for breast cancer, 58–59 years for colorectal cancer, and 68–69 years for prostate cancer would use equivalent resources and avert, respectively, an estimated maximum of 80, 155, and 95 deaths annually. These maximal modelled numbers will be substantially attenuated by incomplete population uptake of PRS profiling and cancer screening, interval cancers, non-European ancestry, and other factors. INTERPRETATION: Under favourable assumptions, our modelling suggests modest potential efficiency gain in cancer case detection and deaths averted for hypothetical new PRS-stratified screening programmes for breast, prostate, and colorectal cancer. Restriction of screening to high-risk quantiles means many or most incident cancers will arise in those assigned as being low-risk. To quantify real-world clinical impact, costs, and harms, UK-specific cluster-randomised trials are required. FUNDING: The Wellcome Trust

Dense, low-power sensor network for three-dimensional thermal characterization of large-scale atria spaces

We describe the design and implementation of a dense, low-power wireless sensor network for fine-grained three-dimensional thermal characterization of a large open indoor space. To better understand the airflow dynamics and ensuing energy efficiency potential of this type of modern architectural design, we developed a sustainable wireless mesh network consisting of 50 sensors hung on an array of thin cables in a 210 m[superscript 2], 14.2 m tall atrium for real-time temperature and humidity monitoring. The goal is to create compact wireless measurement sensor blocks for dense coverage in the building. We demonstrate the implementation through a preliminary analysis, which includes the evaluation of temperature distribution discrepancies with computer-simulated results and data taken during natural ventilation to illustrate the nontrivial, well-mixed temperatures observed during the studies.Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Media LaboratorySchneider Electric (Firm

Impact of Space Weather on Climate and Habitability of Terrestrial Type Exoplanets

The current progress in the detection of terrestrial type exoplanets has opened a new avenue in the characterization of exoplanetary atmospheres and in the search for biosignatures of life with the upcoming ground-based and space missions. To specify the conditions favorable for the origin, development and sustainment of life as we know it in other worlds, we need to understand the nature of astrospheric, atmospheric and surface environments of exoplanets in habitable zones around G-K-M dwarfs including our young Sun. Global environment is formed by propagated disturbances from the planet-hosting stars in the form of stellar flares, coronal mass ejections, energetic particles, and winds collectively known as astrospheric space weather. Its characterization will help in understanding how an exoplanetary ecosystem interacts with its host star, as well as in the specification of the physical, chemical and biochemical conditions that can create favorable and/or detrimental conditions for planetary climate and habitability along with evolution of planetary internal dynamics over geological timescales. A key linkage of (astro) physical, chemical, and geological processes can only be understood in the framework of interdisciplinary studies with the incorporation of progress in heliophysics, astrophysics, planetary and Earth sciences. The assessment of the impacts of host stars on the climate and habitability of terrestrial (exo)planets will significantly expand the current definition of the habitable zone to the biogenic zone and provide new observational strategies for searching for signatures of life. The major goal of this paper is to describe and discuss the current status and recent progress in this interdisciplinary field and to provide a new roadmap for the future development of the emerging field of exoplanetary science and astrobiology.Comment: 206 pages, 24 figures, 1 table; Review paper. International Journal of Astrobiology (2019