Establishing a Multibeam Sonar Evaluation Test Bed near Sidney, British Columbia

The Canadian Hydrographic Service (CHS), Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVOCEANO) and the Ocean Mapping Group of the University of New Brunswick (OMG) collaborated on establishing a multibeam sonar test bed in the vicinity of the Institute of Ocean Sciences in Sidney, British Columbia Canada. This paper describes the purpose of the sonar evaluation test bed, the trials and tribulations of two foreign governments collaborating on projects of mutual interest, the evaluation areas and their characteristics for sonar testing, and sample results of sonar evaluations using this test bed. Some target detection comparisons of several systems over a range of artificial sonar targets will also be given

New frontiers for evaluation in an era of market - oriented development Monday 20 – Wednesday 22 July 2015

Over the past few decades there have been dramatic shifts in the way in which middle income and low income countries have achieved economic growth and political and social change. These changes have been driven by new contexts, new actors and new ideas, in which market-oriented development have become increasingly prominent. Traditional divisions between international aid and private sector investment have begun to breakdown, with the emergence of new forms of social and environmentally responsible investments and modalities. Evaluation practice, shaped by a dominant public sector paradigm, has not kept pace. This raises important questions about the role of evaluation, both in understanding the impact of new activities on society, as well as in supporting democratic accountability to citizens. As part of the International Year of Evaluation 2015, this Wilton Park convened meeting gave evaluation professionals, development partners, and investors an open forum to review recent evaluation experience, debate evaluation governance issues, and probe the methodological questions brought about by the market-based revolution

The Science and Technology of Particle Accelerators

The Science and Technology of Particle Accelerators provides an accessible introduction to the field, and is suitable for advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and academics, as well as professionals in national laboratories and facilities, industry, and medicine who are designing or using particle accelerators. Providing integrated coverage of accelerator science and technology, this book presents the fundamental concepts alongside detailed engineering discussions and extensive practical guidance, including many numerical examples. For each topic, the authors provide a description of the physical principles, a guide to the practical application of those principles, and a discussion of how to design the components that allow the application to be realised. Features: Written by an interdisciplinary and highly respected team of physicists and engineers from the Cockcroft Institute of Accelerator Science and Technology in the UK Accessible style, with many numerical examples Contains an extensive set of problems, with fully worked solutions available Rob Appleby is an academic member of staff at the University of Manchester, and Chief Examiner in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. Graeme Burt is an academic member of staff at the University of Lancaster, and previous Director of Education at the Cockcroft Institute. James Clarke is head of Science Division in the Accelerator Science and Technology Centre at STFC Daresbury Laboratory. Hywel Owen is an academic member of staff at the University of Manchester, and Director of Education at the Cockcroft Institute. All authors are researchers within the Cockcroft Institute of Accelerator Science and Technology and have extensive experience in the design and construction of particle accelerators, including particle colliders, synchrotron radiation sources, free electron lasers, and medical and industrial accelerator systems

Next Day Subjective and Objective Recovery Indices Following Acute Low and High Training Loads in Academy Rugby Union Players

The aim of this study was to determine the sensitivity of selected subjective and objective monitoring assessments in detecting changes in group and individual responses to low and high load bouts of high intensity intermittent exercise. In a counterbalanced crossover design, Thirteen Academy Rugby Union players (mean ± SD: age: 18 ± 1 years) performed a low load (15 min) and a high load (90 min) bout of high intensity intermittent exercise (Loughborough Intermittent Shuttle Test) one week apart. Monitoring assessments were performed immediately prior to and 20 h following each trial. Subjective self-report Well-being Questionnaire (WQ) items showed small to large deteriorations following the high load compared to low load (d = 0.4–1.5, p = 0.03–0.57). A very large increase in resting HR (HRrest) (d = 2.1, p = 0.02), moderate decrease in heart rate variability (HRV) indices (d = 0.7, p = 0.04 and d = 0.7, p = 0.01 for the natural logarithm of the standard deviation of R-R intervals (ln SDNN) and the root square of the mean squared differences of successive R-R intervals (rMSSD), respectively) and no change in countermovement jump (d = 0.0, p = 0.97) were evident following the high load compared to low load. Individual WQ responses revealed 7/9, 7/9, 6/9, 6/9, 5/9, 3/9 and 1/9 participants reported deteriorations in recovery, sleep quality, motivation, muscle soreness, fatigue, stress and appetite, respectively, following the high load compared to low load. Individual analysis indicated a negative response following the high load compared to low load in HRrest, ln SDNN and ln rMSSD for 4/6, 2/6 and 1/6 participants, respectively. Selected WQ items detected group and individual responses to high load and low load highlighting their potential utility. However, objective assessments lacked the sensitivity to detect small individual changes

The Science and Technology of Particle Accelerators

The Science and Technology of Particle Accelerators provides an accessible introduction to the field, and is suitable for advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and academics, as well as professionals in national laboratories and facilities, industry, and medicine who are designing or using particle accelerators. Providing integrated coverage of accelerator science and technology, this book presents the fundamental concepts alongside detailed engineering discussions and extensive practical guidance, including many numerical examples. For each topic, the authors provide a description of the physical principles, a guide to the practical application of those principles, and a discussion of how to design the components that allow the application to be realised. Features: Written by an interdisciplinary and highly respected team of physicists and engineers from the Cockcroft Institute of Accelerator Science and Technology in the UK Accessible style, with many numerical examples Contains an extensive set of problems, with fully worked solutions available Rob Appleby is an academic member of staff at the University of Manchester, and Chief Examiner in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. Graeme Burt is an academic member of staff at the University of Lancaster, and previous Director of Education at the Cockcroft Institute. James Clarke is head of Science Division in the Accelerator Science and Technology Centre at STFC Daresbury Laboratory. Hywel Owen is an academic member of staff at the University of Manchester, and Director of Education at the Cockcroft Institute. All authors are researchers within the Cockcroft Institute of Accelerator Science and Technology and have extensive experience in the design and construction of particle accelerators, including particle colliders, synchrotron radiation sources, free electron lasers, and medical and industrial accelerator systems

Emotion Work in Experience-Centred Design

Experience Centred Design (ECD) implores us to develop empathic relationships and understanding of participants, to actively work with our senses and emotions within the design process. However, theories of experience-centred design do little to account for emotion work undertaken by design researchers when doing this. As a consequence, how a design researcher’s emotions are experienced, navigated and used as part of an ECD process are rarely published. So, while emotion is clearly a tool that we use, we don’t share with one another how, why and when it gets used. This has a limiting effect on how we understand design processes, and opportunities for training. Here, we share some of our experiences of working with ECD. We analyse these using Hochschild’s framework of emotion work to show how and where this work occurs. We use our analysis to question current ECD practices and provoke debate

A decision tool for updating Cochrane reviews

This report describes the development and validation of an updating tool to help assess the need and likely benefits of updating a Cochrane review. The report is presented in five sections. Section 1 describes the background and rationale for the updating tool, including information about when and how to update. Section 2 describes the development of the updating tool and the resulting decision tree and checklist. Section 3 presents the results of the in-house and ongoing formal pilot of the tool, while Sections 4 and 5 provide information about the dissemination of the tool and our key conclusions. This project was funded by the Cochrane Opportunities Fund in 2007

Criticality for the Gehring link problem

In 1974, Gehring posed the problem of minimizing the length of two linked curves separated by unit distance. This constraint can be viewed as a measure of thickness for links, and the ratio of length over thickness as the ropelength. In this paper we refine Gehring's problem to deal with links in a fixed link-homotopy class: we prove ropelength minimizers exist and introduce a theory of ropelength criticality. Our balance criterion is a set of necessary and sufficient conditions for criticality, based on a strengthened, infinite-dimensional version of the Kuhn--Tucker theorem. We use this to prove that every critical link is C^1 with finite total curvature. The balance criterion also allows us to explicitly describe critical configurations (and presumed minimizers) for many links including the Borromean rings. We also exhibit a surprising critical configuration for two clasped ropes: near their tips the curvature is unbounded and a small gap appears between the two components. These examples reveal the depth and richness hidden in Gehring's problem and our natural extension.Comment: This is the version published by Geometry & Topology on 14 November 200

Investigating the origins of ivory recovered in the United Kingdom

Over recent years, mounting pressure has been placed on countries to assess their role in the ivory trade, with a view to tackling the rapidly declining numbers of elephants, due to poaching. The United Kingdom has been identified as a large re-exporter of ivory. Despite much of this trade being reported as legal or antique ivory, such provision of ivory to meet demand is known to fuel illegal markets and provide trade routes for modern ivory sales. Aside from ivory species and age, further analysis to evaluate geographic provenance, can inform where an elephant had lived, and so identify a source region or population where poaching occurred. The purpose of this study was to determine the age and species of ivory objects surrendered or seized in the UK and assess their likely geographic provenance through comparison of results from mitochondrial DNA and stable isotope analysis to publicly accessible georeferenced African elephant databases. The results demonstrated that the objects tested from an airport seizure were modern and matched existing haplotypes allowing for regional geographic inferences (supported by both techniques) to be obtained for most of these objects. In contrast, antique and modern ivory was detected amongst the amnesty objects, and several new mtDNA haplotypes were identified. Regional geographic inferences were achieved for some but not all of the objects tested. Our findings show this combination of methods provides a wealth of information which, could provide insight into targeted elephant populations and assist in disrupting international wildlife trade networks