Knowing through narratives: the role of knowledge within the technological innovation process in the UK upstream oil and gas industry.

The aim of this research was to further understanding of the role of knowledge and knowledge-based processes within the process of technological innovation within the UK upstream oil and gas industry. The scope of the research encompassed three groups of actors within the innovation process: technology providers, enablers and end users. The research employed a qualitative approach using narrative and semi-structured interviews as a method for data collection, and employed an analytical template to analyse the data which was developed by integrating elements of Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) with narrative schema. A hypertextual system was also developed to determine how the explicit knowledge of the actors within the innovation process could be codified and transferred. The findings identify six knowledge-based processes present within the technological innovation process: knowledge acquisition and learning; knowledge transfer; knowledge storage and maintenance; knowledge creation; knowledge application and exploitation; and knowledge valuation and measurement. The research shows that different emphases are placed on the importance of these processes according to the role of each group of actors. In relation to the forms and types of knowledge present within the innovation process, the procedural and declarative knowledge of the technology providers are identified as key sources for the creation of new technologies. However, the enabling organisation plays a critical role in the innovation process by acting as a conduit of knowledge between the technology providers and the end users. End users are identified as a source of conditional knowledge relating to the applications of new technologies, and provide essential support for the process through funding. The research contributes to the understanding of the relationships which exist between the knowledge processes within the technological innovation process, and identifies an additional form of conditional knowledge used within the process. Methodological contributions are made in the application of snowball sampling; the development and application of the knowledge-based analytical template; the relationship between narrative schema and soft systems methodology; and the development and application of the hypertextual narrative system

Twitter response to televised political debates in Election 2015.

The advent of social media such as Twitter has revolutionised our conversations about live television events. In the days before the Internet, conversation about television programmes was limited to those sitting on the sofa with you and people you met the next morning – so-called ‘water-cooler conversation’. Now, however, it is possible to discuss events on the screen in real time with people all over the country – three out of five UK twitter users tweet while watching television (Nielsen, 2013). Thus it is not surprising to find that the General Election’s television events generated debate and discussion on twitter

XANES and Mg isotopic analyses of spinels in Ca-Al-rich inclusions: Evidence for formation under oxidizing conditions

Ti valence measurements in MgAl_2O_4 spinel from calcium-aluminum-rich inclusions (CAIs) by X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) spectroscopy show that many spinels have predominantly tetravalent Ti, regardless of host phases. The average spinel in Allende type B1 inclusion TS34 has 87% Ti^(+4). Most spinels in fluffy type A (FTA) inclusions also have high Ti valence. In contrast, the rims of some spinels in TS34 and spinel grain cores in two Vigarano type B inclusions have larger amounts of trivalent titanium. Spinels from TS34 have approximately equal amounts of divalent and trivalent vanadium. Based on experiments conducted on CAI-like compositions over a range of redox conditions, both clinopyroxene and spinel should be Ti^(+3)-rich if they equilibrated with CAI liquids under near-solar oxygen fugacities. In igneous inclusions, the seeming paradox of high-valence spinels coexisting with low-valence clinopyroxene can be explained either by transient oxidizing conditions accompanying low-pressure evaporation or by equilibration of spinel with relict Ti^(+4)-rich phases (e.g., perovskite) prior to or during melting. Ion probe analyses of large spinel grains in TS34 show that they are enriched in heavy Mg, with an average Δ^(25)Mg of 4.25 ± 0.028‰, consistent with formation of the spinel from an evaporating liquid. Δ^(25)Mg shows small, but significant, variation, both within individual spinels and between spinel and adjacent melilite hosts. The Δ^(25)Mg data are most simply explained by the low-pressure evaporation model, but this model has difficulty explaining the high Ti^(+4) concentrations in spinel

Getting the driver back into the loop: the quality of manual vehicle control following long and short non-critical transfer-of-control requests: TI:NS

Specific vehicle automation use-cases such as traffic jams will be the first level 3 functions on the market. When the ‘traffic jam pilot’ nears its limits in non-critical situations, control needs to be handed back to the driver, enabling appropriate situation awareness (SA) and vehicle handling. According to previous research, operational vehicle stabilisation can be achieved within a transfer-of-control (TOC) of a few seconds in simple traffic environments, but tactical level decisions benefit from longer hand-over times. To date, the effects of non-critical TOCs have not been studied using set time frames. To investigate the impact of short (unplanned, 5 seconds) and long (planned, 50 seconds) TOC requests, while playing/not playing an engaging tablet game, a simulator experiment was conducted with 16 participants. Comparisons of the 60-second-period of manual driving following automation suggest better longitudinal vehicle control as well as more appropriate SA following the long TOC request, and automation periods without the game. However, following no engaging game, lateral performance was worse during the first 10 seconds of manual driving. Control-level visual search patterns did not change with TOC time or the game. Future research needs to consider support for drivers’ SA maintenance and readiness to drive following high automation

The Isaacson expansion in quantum cosmology

This paper is an application of the ideas of the Born-Oppenheimer (or slow/fast) approximation in molecular physics and of the Isaacson (or short-wave) approximation in classical gravity to the canonical quantization of a perturbed minisuperspace model of the kind examined by Halliwell and Hawking. Its aim is the clarification of the role of the semiclassical approximation and the backreaction in such a model. Approximate solutions of the quantum model are constructed which are not semiclassical, and semiclassical solutions in which the quantum perturbations are highly excited.Comment: Revtex, 11 journal or 24 preprint pages. REPLACEMENT: A comment on previous work by Dowker and Laflamme is corrected. Utah preprint UU-REL-93/3/1

Getting the driver back into the loop: the quality of manual vehicle control following long and short non-critical transfer-of-control requests: TI:NS

Specific vehicle automation use-cases such as traffic jams will be the first level 3 functions on the market. When the ‘traffic jam pilot’ nears its limits in non-critical situations, control needs to be handed back to the driver, enabling appropriate situation awareness (SA) and vehicle handling. According to previous research, operational vehicle stabilisation can be achieved within a transfer-of-control (TOC) of a few seconds in simple traffic environments, but tactical level decisions benefit from longer hand-over times. To date, the effects of non-critical TOCs have not been studied using set time frames. To investigate the impact of short (unplanned, 5 seconds) and long (planned, 50 seconds) TOC requests, while playing/not playing an engaging tablet game, a simulator experiment was conducted with 16 participants. Comparisons of the 60-second-period of manual driving following automation suggest better longitudinal vehicle control as well as more appropriate SA following the long TOC request, and automation periods without the game. However, following no engaging game, lateral performance was worse during the first 10 seconds of manual driving. Control-level visual search patterns did not change with TOC time or the game. Future research needs to consider support for drivers’ SA maintenance and readiness to drive following high automation

Normal and abnormal NHC coordination in cationic hydride iodide complexes of aluminium

We thank the University of St Andrews and the EPSRC UK National Mass Spectrometry Facility (NMSF) at Swansea University.The mixed N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) complexes NHCAlHxI3-x, where NHC is IDip or IMes ((HCNAr)2C:, Ar = 2,6-iPr2C6H3 = Dip (IDip); or 2,4,6-Me3C6H2 = Mes (IMes)), x = 1 or 2, were either prepared from NHCAlH3 and NHCAlI3 or by halogenation of NHCAlH3 with MeI. Reaction of [(IDip)AlHxI3-x], with x = 0-3, with another equivalent of a IDip afforded either fluxional equilibria in benzene solution for x = 0, no reaction for x = 3, or the new mixed normal-abnormal NHC-coordinated ionic complexes [(IDip)AlH2(aIDip)]I ( 9 ) and [(IDip)AlHI(aIDip)]I ( 10 ), where aIDip is the abnormal IDip carbene tautomer bonded through its 4-position. The molecular structures of 9 and 10 were determined and show slightly shorter Al–C(aIDip) than Al–C(IDip) distances. In addition, a complex containing [(IDip)AlI2(aIDip)]I ( 11 ) was structurally characterized though could not intentionally be synthesised. Possible formation mechanisms for 9 - 11 are discussed and the normal and abnormal IDip coordination to the aluminium(III) centre is believed to occur for steric reasons.PostprintPeer reviewe

Observations of Milky Way Dwarf Spheroidal galaxies with the Fermi-LAT detector and constraints on Dark Matter models

We report on the observations of 14 dwarf spheroidal galaxies with the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope taken during the first 11 months of survey mode operations. The Fermi telescope provides a new opportunity to test particle dark matter models through the expected gamma-ray emission produced by pair annihilation of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs). Local Group dwarf spheroidal galaxies, the largest galactic substructures predicted by the cold dark matter scenario, are attractive targets for such indirect searches for dark matter because they are nearby and among the most extreme dark matter dominated environments. No significant gamma-ray emission was detected above 100 MeV from the candidate dwarf galaxies. We determine upper limits to the gamma-ray flux assuming both power-law spectra and representative spectra from WIMP annihilation. The resulting integral flux above 100 MeV is constrained to be at a level below around 10^-9 photons cm^-2 s^-1. Using recent stellar kinematic data, the gamma-ray flux limits are combined with improved determinations of the dark matter density profile in 8 of the 14 candidate dwarfs to place limits on the pair annihilation cross-section of WIMPs in several widely studied extensions of the standard model. With the present data, we are able to rule out large parts of the parameter space where the thermal relic density is below the observed cosmological dark matter density and WIMPs (neutralinos here) are dominantly produced non-thermally, e.g. in models where supersymmetry breaking occurs via anomaly mediation. The gamma-ray limits presented here also constrain some WIMP models proposed to explain the Fermi and PAMELA e^+e^- data, including low-mass wino-like neutralinos and models with TeV masses pair-annihilating into muon-antimuon pairs. (Abridged)Comment: 25 pages, 4 figures, accepted to ApJ, Corresponding authors: J. Cohen-Tanugi, C. Farnier, T.E. Jeltema, E. Nuss, and S. Profum

Polyglutamine Genes Interact to Modulate the Severity and Progression of Neurodegeneration in Drosophila

The expansion of polyglutamine tracts in a variety of proteins causes devastating, dominantly inherited neurodegenerative diseases, including six forms of spinal cerebellar ataxia (SCA). Although a polyglutamine expansion encoded in a single allele of each of the responsible genes is sufficient for the onset of each disease, clinical observations suggest that interactions between these genes may affect disease progression. In a screen for modifiers of neurodegeneration due to SCA3 in Drosophila, we isolated atx2, the fly ortholog of the human gene that causes a related ataxia, SCA2. We show that the normal activity of Ataxin-2 (Atx2) is critical for SCA3 degeneration and that Atx2 activity hastens the onset of nuclear inclusions associated with SCA3. These activities depend on a conserved protein interaction domain of Atx2, the PAM2 motif, which mediates binding of cytoplasmic poly(A)-binding protein (PABP). We show here that PABP also influences SCA3-associated neurodegeneration. These studies indicate that the toxicity of one polyglutamine disease protein can be dramatically modulated by the normal activity of another. We propose that functional links between these genes are critical to disease severity and progression, such that therapeutics for one disease may be applicable to others