The women’s shed movement : scoping the field internationally

Our paper focuses on delineating and scoping international Women’s Sheds, a movement that has emerged within the past decade, mainly in Australia, Ireland and the UK. It addresses two main research questions. Firstly, what is the origin, distribution, nature and intent of Women’s Sheds internationally to March 2021? Secondly, how might Women’s Sheds be located within a typology inclusive of Men’s Sheds and a range of community development models? We employed a systematic search via the internet in 2020-21, followed up by attempted email or phone contact to publicly reported Women’s Sheds and like organisations internationally. In the process, we created a publicly shareable blog including a database of 122 existing, previously active, developing or planned Women’s Sheds and like organisations to 13 March 2021. We identify four nations where self-identified Women’s Sheds have operated or commenced within the past decade: Australia (61), the UK (30), Ireland (28) and New Zealand (3), particularly during the five years between 2014 and 2019. The COVID-19 pandemic seriously curtailed this previous momentum and development after March 2020. We identify some similarities but also important differences between Women’s and Men’s Sheds. We propose a typology that accounts not only for the different ways in which Women’s Sheds operate and women participate within their communities but also the different ways in which they locally collaborate (or not) with Men’s Sheds in different countries. We conclude that Women’s Sheds have largely been created by women in order to claim the shed as a positive female gendered space, in order to create an alternative community of women’s hands-on practice. © 2021, Adult Learning Australia. All rights reserved

NASA Human Integration Design Handbook (HIDH): Revitalization of Space-Related Human Factors, Environmental and Habitability Data

This chart illustrates the contents for NASA's Human Integration Design Handbook, which is being developed as a new reference handbook for designing systems which accomodate the capabilities and limitations of the human crew

A giant duodenal diverticulum causing Lemmel syndrome

An 80-year-old female, with a known periampullary giant duodenal diverticulum, presented to the emergency department with general deterioration. While not clinically icteric, her laboratory investigations revealed an obstructive jaundice. MRCP demonstrated mild distension of the gallbladder with several calculi. There was intra- and extra-hepatic biliary dilatation to the level of the ampulla. A giant fluid and air filled periampullary duodenal diverticulum measuring ~8 cm in the long axis was noted. The CBD was dilated to the level of this diverticulum and the cause of the patient’s biliary dilatation and obstruction. A rare pancreaticobiliary complication of duodenal diverticula is Lemmel syndrome. Lemmel syndrome is defined as an obstructive jaundice caused by a periampullary duodenal diverticulum compressing the intra-pancreatic portion of the common bile duct with resultant dilatation of the extra- and intra-hepatic bile ducts. Recognition of this condition is important, as delayed diagnosis can result in unnecessary further investigations

Proficiency testing of laboratories for paralytic shellfish poisoning toxins in shellfish by QUASIMEME: A review

AbstractParalytic Shellfish Poisoning (PSP) toxins are some of the most toxic substances known to man and consumption of shellfish containing these naturally-occurring neurotoxins can lead to a range of different symptoms including death in extreme cases. It is imperative therefore, to implement robust shellfish monitoring programs to minimise the possibility of contaminated product reaching the marketplace. To improve the quality assurance of these programs, QUASIMEME, the proficiency test provider added to its scope PSP toxins in shellfish. Since 2009, six proficiency testing exercises have been delivered by QUASIMEME with a total of thirty-four different laboratories submitting data using a range of different methods. These include animal and antibody based assays, together with High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) techniques using post and pre-column oxidation and more recently LC-MS/MS methodologies.Data from these exercises is presented and laboratory performance is assessed to determine any changes in overall performance over the six rounds, together with any potential method-related performance issues. The data showed the improvement of laboratories over the six exercises with between laboratory CV% values decreasing from an average of 39% in the first year to 22% in 2014 and the average percentage of participants receiving satisfactory z-scores increasing from 50% in 2009 to over 66% in 2014

Offshore wind potential in Northern Ireland using GIS multi-criteria assessment

Northern Ireland aims to achieve 1 GW of offshore wind power by 2030 to reduce energy carbon intensity. However, the region faces challenges hindering offshore wind development, including political and geographical constraints. This study investigates these challenges and opportunities, focusing on the technical and innovative aspects of offshore wind deployment in Northern Ireland. Methodologically, the study employs advanced spatial analysis techniques to assess water depths, vessel density, seabed substrate, and wind resource estimation. It also conducts a multi-criteria analysis to integrate various parameters and identify optimal locations for different turbine foundation types. By analyzing the regions 6500 km2 sea area, this research identifies significant depth and spatial constraints due to marine conservation legislation, shipping, and fishing activities. Despite these obstacles, the study unveils promising prospects for offshore wind generation, with potential capacities exceeding 1 GW for fixed-bottom installations and far larger capacities for floating offshore wind projects across multiple areas. Furthermore, the analysis underscores the complexity of offshore wind project development in Northern Ireland, highlighting the necessity for innovative solutions and strategic site selection to navigate environmental, economic, and social challenges effectively. Northern Ireland exhibits notable potential for offshore wind energy development, particularly through the adoption of floating foundations, which are better suited to the region's deep-water conditions

From Marriages to Coalitions: A Soft CSP Approach

In this workwerepresent the Optimal Stable Marriage problem as a Soft Constraint Satisfaction Problem. In addition, we extend this problem from couples of individuals to coalitions of generic agents, in order to define new coalition-formation principles and stability conditions. In the coalition case, we suppose the preference value as a trust score, since trust can describe a nodes belief in another nodes capabilities, honesty and reliability. Soft constraints represent a general and expressive framework that is able to deal with distinct concepts of optimality by only changing the related c-semiring structure, instead of using di erent ad-hoc algorithms. At last, we propose an implementation of the classical OSM problem by using Integer Linear Programming tools

NASA Space Flight Human System Standards

NASA has begun a new approach to human factors design standards. For years NASA-STD-3000, Manned Systems Integration Standards, has been a source of human factors design guidance for space systems. In order to better meet the needs of the system developers, NASA is revising its human factors standards system. NASA-STD-3000 will be replaced by two documents: set of broad human systems specifications (including both human factors and medical topics) and a human factors design handboo