The urban liberal arts college library: its public relations problems and opportunities.

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston Universit

Technologiepolitische Konsequenzen "transdisziplinärer" Innovationsprozesse

"Staatliche Innovationspolitik ist heute mit veränderten Anforderungen konfrontiert, die sich mit Stichworten wie verteilte Wissenserzeugung und disziplinübergreifende Kooperation umreißen lassen. Wissenschafts- und Technologiepolitik kann weder das eine noch das andere 'bereitstellen'. Sie kann aber - und sollte - die Entstehung entsprechender Innovationsmilieus fördern. In dem Beitrag wird argumentiert, dass darauf gerichtete Maßnahmen einen Charakter haben, der als Infrastrukturpolitik zweiter Ordnung bezeichnet werden kann. Eine primäre staatliche Aufgabe für die Erschließung von neuen Innovationsfeldern ist heute die Verbesserung der Bedingungen der Möglichkeit des Aufbaus von Austauschbeziehungen und Akteursgeflechten durch potenzielle Träger von Innovationen selbst. Daraus kann sich eine wesentlich durch Personen konstituierte virtuelle Infrastruktur bilden, die eine fallweise Kombination von Kompetenzen und anderen Ressourcen erleichtert. Staatliche Innovationspolitik wäre demnach als Investition in Akteurskonfigurationen zu konzipieren, in denen neue wissenschaftliche und technologische Optionen entwickelt werden können." (Autorenreferat)"Distributed knowledge production and transdisciplinary collaboration are a headword which describes new demands for public innovation policy. The state can provide neither of them directly, but policy makers can - and should - promote the emergence of appropriate environments. The paper argues that this will lead to a kind of second order infrastructure policy. To foster the development of new fields of innovation public bodies ought to improve the possibilities for potential actors in innovation to initiate and maintain new networks and interchange. This could lead to a virtual infrastructure which makes it easier to mobilise and combine competence and other resources when needed. Public innovation policy should therefore be considered as investment in reconfiguration of individual and organisational actors. Out of the resulting configurations may then be created new scientific and technological options." (author's abstract

Short-termed changes in quantitative ultrasound estimated bone density among young men in an 18-weeks follow-up during their basic training for the Swiss Armed Forces

Background Quantitative Ultrasound (QUS) methods have been widely used to assess estimated bone density. This study aimed to assess changes in estimated bone density in association with changes in body composition, physical activity, and anthropometry. Methods We examined changes in anthropometry, body composition, and physical activity associated with changes in estimated bone mineral density (measured using quantitative ultrasound with a heel ultrasound device indicating broadband ultrasound attenuation BUA and speed of sound SOS) in a follow-up sample of n = 73 young men at the beginning and again 18 weeks later at the end of basic military training. Results At the end of the basic training, the subjects were on average significantly heavier (+1.0%), slightly taller (+0.5%) and had a higher fat mass (+6.6%) and grip strength (+8.6%). A significant decrease in mean physical activity (−49.5%) and mean estimated bone density calculated with BUA (−7.5%) was observed in the paired t-test. The results of the multivariable linear regressions (backward selection) show that changes in skeletal muscle mass (delta = 2nd measurement minus 1st measurement) have negative and body weight (delta) have positive association with the speed of sound SOS (delta), while fat mass (delta) and physical activity (delta) had the strongest negative associations with estimated bone mineral density (delta). In particular, we found a negative association between fat mass (delta) and estimated bone mineral density (delta, estimated with BUA). Conclusion Our study suggests that estimated bone density from the calcaneus can change within a few months even in young and mostly healthy individuals, depending upon physical activity levels and other co-factors. Further studies including other troop types as control groups as well as on women should follow in order to investigate this public health relevant topic in more depth. To what extent the estimated bone density measurement with quantitative ultrasound is clinically relevant needs to be investigated in further studies

Assessing forest availability for wood supply in Europe

The quantification of forests available for wood supply (FAWS) is essential for decision-making with regard to the maintenance and enhancement of forest resources and their contribution to the global carbon cycle. The provision of harmonized forest statistics is necessary for the development of forest associated policies and to support decision-making. Based on the National Forest Inventory (NFI) data from 13 European countries, we quantify and compare the areas and aboveground dry biomass (AGB) of FAWS and forest not available for wood supply (FNAWS) according to national and reference definitions by determining the restrictions and associated thresholds considered at country level to classify forests as FAWS or FNAWS. FAWS represent between 75 and 95 % of forest area and AGB for most of the countries in this study. Economic restrictions are the main factor limiting the availability of forests for wood supply, accounting for 67 % of the total FNAWS area and 56 % of the total FNAWS AGB, followed by environmental restrictions. Profitability, slope and accessibility as economic restrictions, and protected areas as environmental restrictions are the factors most frequently considered to distinguish between FAWS and FNAWS. With respect to the area of FNAWS associated with each type of restriction, an overlap among the restrictions of 13.7 % was identified. For most countries, the differences in the FNAWS areas and AGB estimates between national and reference definitions ranged from 0 to 5 %. These results highlight the applicability and reliability of a FAWS reference definition for most of the European countries studied, thereby facilitating a consistent approach to assess forests available for supply for the purpose of international reportinginfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Locally definitizable operators: the local structure of the spectrum

We consider different types of spectral points of locally definitizable operators which can be defined with the help of approximate eigensequences. Their behavior allow a characterization in terms of the (local) spectral function. Moreover, we review some perturbation results for locally definitizable operators

Evaluation of dementia education programs for pre-registration healthcare students - A review of the literature

Most of the findings were positive, demonstrating the potential to improve students' knowledge, attitude and comfort level, however methods and evaluation were not always sufficiently reported, making them difficult to use or replicate. This review highlights the need for studies with rigorous methods to determine evidence based best practice for all those working with people with dementia in order to provide effective care and improve their quality of life

Design and Bolometer Characterization of the SPT-3G First-year Focal Plane

During the austral summer of 2016-17, the third-generation camera, SPT-3G, was installed on the South Pole Telescope, increasing the detector count in the focal plane by an order of magnitude relative to the previous generation. Designed to map the polarization of the cosmic microwave background, SPT-3G contains ten 6-in-hexagonal modules of detectors, each with 269 trichroic and dual-polarization pixels, read out using 68x frequency-domain multiplexing. Here we discuss design, assembly, and layout of the modules, as well as early performance characterization of the first-year array, including yield and detector properties.Comment: Conference proceeding for Low Temperature Detectors 2017. Accepted for publication: 27 August 201