PHP152 How are topics selected and prioritized by the national institute of health and care excellence (nice) and what might be the options if a technology is not selected?

Contents: Safety culture assessment saves Barilla money via better understanding of employee attitudes; Iowa State and CIRAS launch new online safety training modules; CIRAS sets table for food companies\u27 success; CIRAS helps Regency Consulting rocket share of federal contracts upward 28 percent; Iowa\u27s worker shortage: An old problem requiring new solutions; Filling the pipeline: By growing your own workers; Luring labor via LEGOS; Timerbline\u27s long-term relationship with CIRAS enhances company growth an dprofitability; CIRAS-arragned webinar to show job shops how to get more done factor; Want to buy a rapid prototyping machine? Don\u27t decide too rapidlyhttps://lib.dr.iastate.edu/ciras_news/1048/thumbnail.jp

Microgravity simulation by diamagnetic levitation: effects of a strong gradient magnetic field on the transcriptional profile of Drosophila melanogaster

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Many biological systems respond to the presence or absence of gravity. Since experiments performed in space are expensive and can only be undertaken infrequently, Earth-based simulation techniques are used to investigate the biological response to weightlessness. A high gradient magnetic field can be used to levitate a biological organism so that its net weight is zero.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We have used a superconducting magnet to assess the effect of diamagnetic levitation on the fruit fly <it>D. melanogaster </it>in levitation experiments that proceeded for up to 22 consecutive days. We have compared the results with those of similar experiments performed in another paradigm for microgravity simulation, the Random Positioning Machine (RPM). We observed a delay in the development of the fruit flies from embryo to adult. Microarray analysis indicated changes in overall gene expression of imagoes that developed from larvae under diamagnetic levitation, and also under simulated hypergravity conditions. Significant changes were observed in the expression of immune-, stress-, and temperature-response genes. For example, several heat shock proteins were affected. We also found that a strong magnetic field, of 16.5 Tesla, had a significant effect on the expression of these genes, independent of the effects associated with magnetically-induced levitation and hypergravity.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Diamagnetic levitation can be used to simulate an altered effective gravity environment in which gene expression is tuned differentially in diverse <it>Drosophila melanogaster </it>populations including those of different age and gender. Exposure to the magnetic field <it>per se </it>induced similar, but weaker, changes in gene expression.</p

A framework for the integrated assessment of social and economic values associated with man-made marine structures

Man-made marine structures (MMS) are increasingly prevalent in the marine environment, reflecting the growth and diversity of economic and recreational activities in both onshore and offshore settings. The presence of MMS presents opportunities and conflicts for marine planners, particularly in relation to reconciling competing stakeholder interests arising from their placement and long-term fate, including decommissioning and/or removal. This necessitates the development of an integrated framework which encapsulates the complexity of social and economic values and perceptions held by differing stakeholders. Through research conducted with MMS stakeholders in Australia, we present the first framework of this type which identifies three principal categories of socio-economic values and explores the inter-relationships between these groupings. The research further underlines the pivotal significance of rules and norms which impact across all three categories. These findings will assist planners in understanding the preferences of relevant marine stakeholders in order to enhance benefits and minimise conflicts related to MMS

t→bWt \to b W in NonCommutative Standard Model

We study the top quark decay to b quark and W boson in the NonCommutative Standard Model (NCSM). The lowest contribution to the decay comes from the terms quadratic in the matrix describing the noncommutative (NC) effects while the linear term is seen to identically vanish because of symmetry. The NC effects are found to be significant only for low values of the NC characteristic scale.Comment: 11 page Latex file containing 2 eps figures (redrawn). More discussion included. To appear in PR

Evolution of active and polar photospheric magnetic fields during the rise of Cycle 24 compared to previous cycles

The evolution of the photospheric magnetic field during the declining phase and minimum of Cycle 23 and the recent rise of Cycle 24 are compared with the behavior during previous cycles. We used longitudinal full-disk magnetograms from the NSO's three magnetographs at Kitt Peak, the Synoptic Optical Long-term Investigations of the Sun (SOLIS) Vector Spectro-Magnetograph (VSM), the Spectromagnetograph and the 512-Channel Magnetograph instruments, and longitudinal full-disk magnetograms from the Mt. Wilson 150-foot tower. We analyzed 37 years of observations from these two observatories that have been observing daily, weather permitting, since 1974, offering an opportunity to study the evolving relationship between the active region and polar fields in some detail over several solar cycles. It is found that the annual averages of a proxy for the active region poloidal magnetic field strength, the magnetic field strength of the high-latitude poleward streams, and the time derivative of the polar field strength are all well correlated in each hemisphere. These results are based on statistically significant cyclical patterns in the active region fields and are consistent with the Babcock-Leighton phenomenological model for the solar activity cycle. There was more hemispheric asymmetry in the activity level, as measured by total and maximum active region flux, during late Cycle 23 (after around 2004), when the southern hemisphere was more active, and Cycle 24 up to the present, when the northern hemisphere has been more active, than at any other time since 1974. The active region net proxy poloidal fields effectively disappeared in both hemispheres around 2004, and the polar fields did not become significantly stronger after this time. We see evidence that the process of Cycle 24 field reversal has begun at both poles.Comment: Accepted for publication in Solar Physic

Cryptanalysis of an image encryption scheme based on the Hill cipher

This paper studies the security of an image encryption scheme based on the Hill cipher and reports its following problems: 1) there is a simple necessary and sufficient condition that makes a number of secret keys invalid; 2) it is insensitive to the change of the secret key; 3) it is insensitive to the change of the plain-image; 4) it can be broken with only one known/chosen-plaintext; 5) it has some other minor defects.Comment: 10 pages, three figure