Keeping Research Data Safe 2: Final Report

The first Keeping Research Data Safe study funded by JISC made a major contribution to understanding of long-term preservation costs for research data by developing a cost model and indentifying cost variables for preserving research data in UK universities (Beagrie et al, 2008). However it was completed over a very constrained timescale of four months with little opportunity to follow up other major issues or sources of preservation cost information it identified. It noted that digital preservation costs are notoriously difficult to address in part because of the absence of good case studies and longitudinal information for digital preservation costs or cost variables. In January 2009 JISC issued an ITT for a study on the identification of long-lived digital datasets for the purposes of cost analysis. The aim of this work was to provide a larger body of material and evidence against which existing and future data preservation cost modelling exercises could be tested and validated. The proposal for the KRDS2 study was submitted in response by a consortium consisting of 4 partners involved in the original Keeping Research Data Safe study (Universities of Cambridge and Southampton, Charles Beagrie Ltd, and OCLC Research) and 4 new partners with significant data collections and interests in preservation costs (Archaeology Data Service, University of London Computer Centre, University of Oxford, and the UK Data Archive). A range of supplementary materials in support of this main report have been made available on the KRDS2 project website at http://www.beagrie.com/jisc.php. That website will be maintained and continuously updated with future work as a resource for KRDS users

Is dry reforming the solution to reduce natural gas carbon footprint?

With the increasing world’s energy demand along with the constantly expanding field of natural gas exploitation around the world, dry reforming of methane has gained increasing attention. Through this technology, natural gas can be converted into syngas, which is a well-known building block used for the production of alcohols and fuels. This technology has become an interesting approach for the valorization of a variety of CO2 streams and for the reduction of the natural gas carbon footprint. In this work, attention will be given to the different reforming technologies used at industrial scale, followed by an investigation of the different approaches used for dry reforming of methane. Furthermore, focus will be given on how natural gas reforming could be used as a vehicle to store renewable energy while trying as well to reduce the carbon footprint of this technology. The technology presented in this work was previously developed by Hydro Québec and uses a cheap and available catalyst in addition to electricity to convert methane and carbon dioxide into syngas. Reactants conversions were up to 99% and the syngas produced had a H2/CO ratio of 1 for over 200h

Gating NO Release from Nitric Oxide Synthase

We have investigated the kinetics of NO escape from Geobacillus stearothermophilus nitric oxide synthase (gsNOS). Previous work indicated that NO release was gated at position 223 in mammalian enzymes; our kinetics experiments include mutants at that position along with measurements on the wild type enzyme. Employing stopped-flow UV–vis methods, reactions were triggered by mixing a reduced enzyme/N-hydroxy-l-arginine complex with an aerated buffer solution. NO release kinetics were obtained for wt NOS and three mutants (H134S, I223V, H134S/I223V). We have confirmed that wt gsNOS has the lowest NO release rate of known NOS enzymes, whether bacterial or mammalian. We also have found that steric clashes at positions 223 and 134 hinder NO escape, as judged by enhanced rates in the single mutants. The empirical rate of NO release from the gsNOS double mutant (H134/I223V) is nearly as rapid as that of the fastest mammalian enzymes, demonstrating that both positions 223 and 134 function as gates for escape of the product diatomic molecule

Développement de nouveaux outils statistiques pour l'analyse d'images spectrales à faibles comptes

Le projet de maîtrise était axé sur l’utilisation de traitements multivariables afin d’analyser adéquatement des ensembles de données provenant d’imagerie spectrale. Ce mémoire met premièrement en relief la particularité des détecteurs utilisés dans les microscopes, ainsi que les caractéristiques du bruit dans les données acquises. L’analyse en composantes principales est une méthode qui se trouve dans plusieurs méthodologies de traitements de données d’imagerie spectrale. Celle-ci comprend certains désavantages, dont l’impossibilité d’extraire de réels spectres et des distributions de concentrations des composés en présence dans l’échantillon. La résolution multivariée de courbes – moindres carrés alternatifs est une méthodologie qui a été popularisée dans les années 2000. Celle-ci permet de contrer les désavantages de l’analyse en composantes principales en extrayant des spectres physiquement cohérents et en créant des cartes de concentrations associées à ces spectres. Cependant, ce mémoire démontre que cette méthode est inefficace lorsque les données ont un très faible ratio signal sur bruit et que plusieurs composants sont à extraire. Des améliorations à la résolution multivariée de courbes – moindres carrés alternatifs sont donc apportées. Notamment, la caractéristique du bruit des données, connue et documentée à la suite de nombreuses études, est utilisée afin d’améliorer la convergence de l’algorithme vers la bonne solution. Ce mémoire démontre que ces améliorations sont appliquées avec succès sur des ensembles de données d’imagerie spectrale provenant de spectrométrie photoélectronique X, d’analyse dispersive en énergie et de spectroscopie des pertes d’énergie

The Future of History: Investigating the Preservation of Information in the Digital Age

Abstract This study investigates the challenges of preserving information in the digital age, and explores how this may affect the future of historical knowledge. The study is based on a series of semi-structured interviews with forty-one historians, archivists, librarians, and web researchers. While the results reject the idea of a single ‘digital black hole’ in historical records, they emphasize the importance of the issue for the future of history, and the complexity of the solutions to be adopted. The need for planning, for education, and for cooperation between historians and the information professions is also emphasized

Pharmaceutical tablet compression: measuring temporal and radial concentration profiles to better assess segregation

Abstract: Concentration monitoring inside a tablet press feed frame is important not only to assess the composition of the powder blend compressed into tablets but also to detect quality affecting phenomena such as powder segregation. Near infrared spectroscopy has been successfully used to monitor powder concentration inside the feed frame; however, so far, this methodology does not provide information on local spatial variability, since it probes a very small area of powder sample. Near infrared chemical imaging (NIR CI) has the potential to improve process monitoring because it can simultaneously acquire a plurality of spectra covering nearly the entire width of the feed frame, thereby making it possible to detect local variations in powder concentration. The present work uses both NIRS and NIR CI to monitor the concentration of Ibuprofen and Ascorbic acid in multi-component mock pharmaceutical blends flowing through the feed frame of an industrial tablet press. The concentrations of Ibuprofen and Ascorbic acid were successfully monitored in multi-component powder blends. NIR spectral wavelength ranges and pre-treatments were simultaneously optimized via a genetic algorithm. N-way PLS approach for concentration monitoring was found to be more suitable than regular PLS when analyzing spectral images and provided the ability to visualize spatial segregation

Negative pressures in full-scale distribution system: field investigation, modelling, estimation of intrusion volumes and risk for public health

International audienceVarious investigations encompassing microbial characterization of external sources of contamination (soil and trenchwater surrounding water mains, flooded air-valve vaults), field pressure monitoring, and hydraulic and transient analyses were conducted in the same distribution system where two epidemiological studies showing an increase in gastrointestinal illness for people drinking tap water were conducted in the 1990's. Interesting results include the detection of microorganisms indicators of fecal contamination in all external sources investigated but at a higher frequency in the water from flooded air-valve vaults, and the recording of 18 negative pressure events in the distribution system during a 17-month monitoring period. Transient analysis of this large and complex distribution system was challenging and highlighted the need to consider field pressure data in the process

The university of new hampshire magnetometer payload

Rocket measurements of ionospheric current and equatorial electroje

Temporal multimode storage of entangled photon pairs

Multiplexed quantum memories capable of storing and processing entangled photons are essential for the development of quantum networks. In this context, we demonstrate the simultaneous storage and retrieval of two entangled photons inside a solid-state quantum memory and measure a temporal multimode capacity of ten modes. This is achieved by producing two polarization entangled pairs from parametric down conversion and mapping one photon of each pair onto a rare-earth-ion doped (REID) crystal using the atomic frequency comb (AFC) protocol. We develop a concept of indirect entanglement witnesses, which can be used as Schmidt number witness, and we use it to experimentally certify the presence of more than one entangled pair retrieved from the quantum memory. Our work puts forward REID-AFC as a platform compatible with temporal multiplexing of several entangled photon pairs along with a new entanglement certification method useful for the characterisation of multiplexed quantum memories