Caledonian foreland basin sedimentation : A new depositional model for the Upper Silurian-Lower Devonian Lower Old Red Sandstone of the Midland Valley Basin, Scotland

Open Access via Wiley publishing agreement. We thank Stuart Archer, Brian Hampton and the anonymous reviewer for their thoughtful and constructive reviews of this manuscript, which has benefited greatly from their attention. We also thank the Associate Editors at Basin Research for their time, advice and suggestions during the submission process. DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

The impact of non-equilibrium flow on the structure of turbulence over river dunes

This piece of research expands our description of how rivers flow over dunes on a river bed. Most of the scientific communities' research to date has used unnaturally steady conditions to measure how water moves over dunes. Yet these flow conditions are not strictly true to the variety of conditions nature produces, most importantly during floods. This research is the first detailed description of a wide range of flow states over dunes, and changes our present understanding of the structure of flow over dunes in rivers. Consequently, the scientific community will be able to use this new information to better model and simulate how rivers work, how they flood, and how they transport sediment towards the worlds deltas

The Astropy Problem

The Astropy Project (http://astropy.org) is, in its own words, "a community effort to develop a single core package for Astronomy in Python and foster interoperability between Python astronomy packages." For five years this project has been managed, written, and operated as a grassroots, self-organized, almost entirely volunteer effort while the software is used by the majority of the astronomical community. Despite this, the project has always been and remains to this day effectively unfunded. Further, contributors receive little or no formal recognition for creating and supporting what is now critical software. This paper explores the problem in detail, outlines possible solutions to correct this, and presents a few suggestions on how to address the sustainability of general purpose astronomical software

Meandering rivers in modern desert basins: Implications for channel planform controls and prevegetation rivers

The influence of biotic processes in controlling the development of meandering channels in fluvial systems is controversial. The majority of the depositional history of the Earth's continents was devoid of significant biogeomorphic interactions, particularly those between vegetation and sedimentation processes. The prevailing perspective has been that prevegetation meandering channels rarely developed and that rivers with braided planforms dominated. However, recently acquired data demonstrate that meandering channel planforms are more widely preserved in prevegetation fluvial successions than previously thought. Understanding the role of prevailing fluvial dynamics in non- and poorly vegetated environments must rely on actualistic models derived from presently active rivers developed in sedimentary basins subject to desert-climate settings, the sparsest vegetated regions experiencing active sedimentation on Earth. These systems have fluvial depositional settings that most closely resemble those present in prevegetation (and extra-terrestrial) environments. Here, we present an analysis based on satellite imagery which reveals that rivers with meandering channel planforms are common in modern sedimentary basins in desert settings. Morphometric analysis of meandering fluvial channel behaviour, where vegetation is absent or highly restricted, shows that modern sparsely and non-vegetated meandering rivers occur across a range of slope gradients and basin settings, and possess a broad range of channel and meander-belt dimensions. The importance of meandering rivers in modern desert settings suggests that their abundance is likely underestimated in the prevegetation rock record, and models for recognition of their deposits need to be improved

Physiological and Psychological Effects of Deception on Pacing Strategy and Performance: A Review

The aim of an optimal pacing strategy during exercise is to enhance performance whilst ensuring physiological limits are not surpassed, which has been shown to result in a metabolic reserve at the end of the exercise. There has been debate surrounding the theoretical models that have been proposed to explain how pace is regulated, with more recent research investigating a central control of exercise regulation. Deception has recently emerged as a common, practical approach to manipulate key variables during exercise. There are a number of ways in which deception interventions have been designed, each intending to gain particular insights into pacing behaviour and performance. Deception methodologies can be conceptualised according to a number of dimensions such as deception timing (prior to or during exercise), presentation frequency (blind, discontinuous or continuous) and type of deception (performance, biofeedback or environmental feedback). However, research evidence on the effects of deception has been perplexing and the use of complex designs and varied methodologies makes it difficult to draw any definitive conclusions about how pacing strategy and performance are affected by deception. This review examines existing research in the area of deception and pacing strategies, and provides a critical appraisal of the different methodological approaches used to date. It is hoped that this analysis will inform the direction and methodology of future investigations in this area by addressing the mechanisms through which deception impacts upon performance and by elucidating the potential application of deception techniques in training and competitive settings

Toward community standards in the quest for orthologs

The identification of orthologs—genes pairs descended from a common ancestor through speciation, rather than duplication—has emerged as an essential component of many bioinformatics applications, ranging from the annotation of new genomes to experimental target prioritization. Yet, the development and application of orthology inference methods is hampered by the lack of consensus on source proteomes, file formats and benchmarks. The second ‘Quest for Orthologs' meeting brought together stakeholders from various communities to address these challenges. We report on achievements and outcomes of this meeting, focusing on topics of particular relevance to the research community at large. The Quest for Orthologs consortium is an open community that welcomes contributions from all researchers interested in orthology research and applications. Contact: [email protected]

Convalescent plasma in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised controlled, open-label, platform trial

SummaryBackground Azithromycin has been proposed as a treatment for COVID-19 on the basis of its immunomodulatoryactions. We aimed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of azithromycin in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19.Methods In this randomised, controlled, open-label, adaptive platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19Therapy [RECOVERY]), several possible treatments were compared with usual care in patients admitted to hospitalwith COVID-19 in the UK. The trial is underway at 176 hospitals in the UK. Eligible and consenting patients wererandomly allocated to either usual standard of care alone or usual standard of care plus azithromycin 500 mg once perday by mouth or intravenously for 10 days or until discharge (or allocation to one of the other RECOVERY treatmentgroups). Patients were assigned via web-based simple (unstratified) randomisation with allocation concealment andwere twice as likely to be randomly assigned to usual care than to any of the active treatment groups. Participants andlocal study staff were not masked to the allocated treatment, but all others involved in the trial were masked to theoutcome data during the trial. The primary outcome was 28-day all-cause mortality, assessed in the intention-to-treatpopulation. The trial is registered with ISRCTN, 50189673, and ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04381936.Findings Between April 7 and Nov 27, 2020, of 16 442 patients enrolled in the RECOVERY trial, 9433 (57%) wereeligible and 7763 were included in the assessment of azithromycin. The mean age of these study participants was65·3 years (SD 15·7) and approximately a third were women (2944 [38%] of 7763). 2582 patients were randomlyallocated to receive azithromycin and 5181 patients were randomly allocated to usual care alone. Overall,561 (22%) patients allocated to azithromycin and 1162 (22%) patients allocated to usual care died within 28 days(rate ratio 0·97, 95% CI 0·87–1·07; p=0·50). No significant difference was seen in duration of hospital stay (median10 days [IQR 5 to >28] vs 11 days [5 to >28]) or the proportion of patients discharged from hospital alive within 28 days(rate ratio 1·04, 95% CI 0·98–1·10; p=0·19). Among those not on invasive mechanical ventilation at baseline, nosignificant difference was seen in the proportion meeting the composite endpoint of invasive mechanical ventilationor death (risk ratio 0·95, 95% CI 0·87–1·03; p=0·24).Interpretation In patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19, azithromycin did not improve survival or otherprespecified clinical outcomes. Azithromycin use in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 should be restrictedto patients in whom there is a clear antimicrobial indication

The determinants of the governance of air conditioning maintenance in Australian retail centres

Retail centres are a visible sign of developed capitalist societies and make an appreciable contribution to these economies. For the firms involved in supplying air conditioning maintenance to retail centres, governance structures (that incorporate the make-or-buy decision and the decision concerning the nature of the exchange relationship) are fundamental business decisions. The absence of literature in this area creates a research opportunity to undertake a theoretical and empirical investigation into the determinants of the governance of air conditioning maintenance in Australian retail centres. The research objectives revolve around a microeconomic theory (Transaction Cost Economics) and two related theories – one from strategic management (Resource-Based Theory) and one from a power-based perspective (Resource Dependency Theory). In terms of the make-or-buy decision, an integrative framework of vertical integration is developed that aims to create a clearer understanding of the conditions under which Transaction Cost Economics (TCE) and Resource-Based Theory (RBT) are dominant. This approach is encouraged by the similarity of the assumptions made in TCE and RBT concerning rationality and which envisage a short term approach to profits. If a wider view is taken, that includes supply chains in which firms take a longer term approach to profits, then Resource Dependency Theory (RDT) can also be considered as a complementary theory to TCE. In order to test TCE on the issue of the nature of the exchange relationship, TCE's contractual schema is developed, along with a new type of asset specificity (Ongoing Asset Specificity). Case studies and a nationwide postal survey are used to collect data from multiple sources, comprising 51 interviews, the collection of documentary information, as well as 18 completed case study questionnaires and 205 useable survey questionnaires. Multiple research methods allow the relative strengths of different methods to be combined to more effectively test the hypotheses. Pattern matching and regression analysis are the main techniques used to analyse the data. The results provide a successful testing of the integrative framework of vertical integration. That is, this framework is shown to be more powerful in accounting for the make-or-buy decisions in the supply chains in this thesis, than the singular deployment of either TCE or RBT. With regard to the nature of the exchange relationship decision, the results also support the development of TCE's contractual schema and Ongoing Asset Specificity. Through the incorporation of these developments, TCE outperforms RDT across all of the internal and external exchanges in the supply chains in this thesis. In total, it is concluded that transaction costs and production costs can both be key determinants of the governance of air conditioning maintenance in the chain that supplies this activity to Australian retail centres. Moreover, and in this chain, upstream exchange relationships are not determined by downstream external exchange relationships. The implications of the results for practice - in more mainstream construction, and concerning the make-or-buy decision, particularly concern trades in close physical and intellectual proximity to the main contractor’s key activity of planning and coordinating site activity. Here, the results indicate that main contractors would benefit from focusing on the possibility of hold-up and not production cost improvements. With respect to external relationships, the results show that even when clients have an ongoing requirement for an activity, a discrete exchange can be both economical and effective. This suggests that calls by some government sponsored reports for all clients buying services from main contractors to seek a relational exchange are not justified. In terms of the firm's internal relationships and upstream external relationships, the evidence from this thesis is that these relationships should not necessarily be determined by the firm’s downstream external relationships. Here, for example, main contractors might not allow their exchanges with their staff and subcontractors to be determined by exchanges with their clients. More specifically, this thesis suggests that main contractors can prosper from developing relational exchanges with their staff, core subcontractors and suppliers despite engaging in discrete and arms-length exchanges with their clients. This finding may encourage main contractors to help move mainstream construction away from any "command and control" image

Factors affecting the performance of small indigenous contractors in Papual New Guinea

Contractors’ performance, amongst other things, has been associated with the high cost of public housing in Papua New Guinea. Given that small indigenous contractors undertake construction of all public housing, this paper investigates the performance of small indigenous contractors.\ud \ud Eight likely factors that affect small indigenous contractors' performance are identified from the literature. An empirical study is then described aimed at determining how these factors affect project cost, time and quality. This comprised a survey conducted in Port Moresby by personally administered questionnaires to a sample of small indigenous contractors to assess the level of factors associated with the problem of lack of performance. Additionally, the view of each firm concerning the effect of each factor on performance was also obtained. The results show that, with the exception of culture, all the factors are perceived to have an effect of construction performance. It is also shown that the incidence of these factors, within the firms surveyed, are quite low. Of particular concern is the level of cash flow

A comprehensive review of delays in power transmission projects

The power transmission (PT) system is at the very heart of the power industry and which is vital to the development of a country. Delays in PT projects have a significant adverse effect on the economic development of a country and although billions of dollars are invested globally in PT projects, costly delays are common. Despite the critical nature of PT, the literature relating to the causes of delays is embryonic, with no theoretical or empirical studies yet conducted to establish the factors involved. This paper presents a first step in rectifying this situation. A total of 74 published articles are reviewed that are most closely related to PT projects in order to identify their likely causes of delay. As a result, 82 potential causes of delay are identified and classified into nine major groups. The causes are then ranked in terms of their frequency of occurrence in the literature. Finally, conclusions are drawn concerning the extent to which this review and analysis may form a theoretical framework that can be tested empirically, as well as providing crucial information with recommendation to PT project stakeholders to achieve their key targets including the realisation of the benefits involved