Coordinating International Standards: The Formation of the ISO

In the article on “Standardization” in the 14th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, Paul Gough Agnew, the long-time Secretary of the American Standards Association (ASA), argued: In the flow of products from farm, forest, mine, and sea through processing and fabricating plants, and through wholesale and retail markets to the ultimate consumer, most difficulties are met at the transition points––points at which the product passes from department to department within a company, or is sold by one company to another or to an individual. The main function of standards is to facilitate the flow of products through these transition points. Standards are thus both facilitators and integrators. In smoothing out points of difficulty, or “bottlenecks,” they provide the evolutionary adjustments which are necessary for industry to keep pace with technical advances. They do this in the individual plant, in particular industries, and in industry at large. They are all the more effective as integrators in that they proceed by simple evolutionary steps, albeit inconspicuously.2 Albeit inconspicuous, standard setting has been among the nuts and bolts of globalizing industrial capitalism since its beginning, assuring that things needing to work together fit from product to product, industry to industry, and country to country. The foci of the first two of the now 229 “technical committees” of the non-specialized international standards organizations that emerged after the two world wars—the interwar International Standards Association [ISA] and the post-World War II International Organization for Standardization [ISO]—are iconic: “Screw Threads” and “Bolts, Nuts and Accessories.” Over the past two decades, voluntary standardization processes, invented by turn-of-the-twentieth-century engineers working in national and international technical committees, have increasingly been 1 We would like to thank Madame Beatrice Frey at ISO for her help in providing us access to original documents from UNSCC and ISO, and Stacy Leistner at ANSI for his help in providing access to the minutes from AESC and ASA meetings. 2 Quoted as epigraph of Dickson Reck, ed., National Standards in a Modern Economy, (New York, 1956), v. 3 applied to issues that have little in common with those of fitting one mechanical part to another, such as work processes (ISO 9000), environmental pollution (ISO 14,000), and human rights (SA 8000 and the planned ISO 26000)

Ex vivo testing of a novel, tissue-preserving technology for battlefield deployment and limb perfusion support technology that provides long-term circulatory support to systemically-isolated injured limbs

Objectives -- Limb injuries are the most common combat injuries, representing ~70% of injuries in the Iraq/Afghanistan conflicts, with 5-7% resulting in major limb amputation. Under battlefield conditions, the priority is to preserve life, often leading to irreversible limb damage/amputation. To reduce limb loss rate, we have developed limb salvage technology suitable for austere environments. The point of contact technology has two components, aimed at preserving limbs at injury site and during clearance/transportation. A dual, pneumatic tourniquet isolates the limb and controls haemorrhage, and a cooling sock reduces metabolic requirements and enhances viability. The third component (perfusion technology) is not field-deployed (used in field hospitals). Using our mini-integrated ECMO, coupled with automated control and encasement technology, our limb life support technology supports prolonged tissue metabolism and circulation, permitting staged surgical intervention. This technology chain was tested using disarticulated ovine hind limbs, mimicking the most extreme scenario–salvaging a fully disarticulated limb beyond 3hrs. Methods -- Freshly disarticulated limbs were collected (point of contact) and assessment of prolonged muscle viability performed under three conditions: Non-cooled, non-perfused (NC-NP, no intervention); perfused-cooled (NC-P), and; cooled-perfused (C-P) (n=3 per group). Cooled limbs placed in the cooling sock throughout transit/evacuation, and perfused limb groups placed on limb life support technology (arrival at military medical facility). Femoral artery and vein were cannulated and limb heated and oxygenated for 2hrs. Tissue viability assessment was at 1hr (baseline) and 3hr post-disarticulation, performed using nerve stimulation on intact muscle. Results -- Mean±SD deep tissue cooling after 1hr was 8.56 ±1oC for cooled groups. Limbs were perfused 77±17min post-disarticulation. For nerve stimulation (observable twitch threshold (in mA for 1s)), all groups displayed baseline muscle activity 1hr post-disarticulation; C-P 21±20.5; NC-P 85±18; NC-NP 33±26.5. At test endpoint, C-P and NC-P values were 50±69.3 and 22±13.5, respectively, and no muscle activity shown in non-intervention group. Discussions -- We sustained considerable muscle nerve activity in both perfused groups at 3hr post-disarticulation, whilst non-intervention limbs showed no activity. Our technology focuses on ultimately maximising functional recovery. The field-deployable system is suitable for frontline trauma care in austere environments, and designed to support tissue salvage and regeneration

Synthetic lethal analysis of Caenorhabditis elegans posterior embryonic patterning genes identifies conserved genetic interactions

Phenotypic robustness is evidenced when single-gene mutations do not result in an obvious phenotype. It has been suggested that such phenotypic stability results from 'buffering' activities of homologous genes as well as non-homologous genes acting in parallel pathways. One approach to characterizing mechanisms of phenotypic robustness is to identify genetic interactions, specifically, double mutants where buffering is compromised. To identify interactions among genes implicated in posterior patterning of the Caenorhabditis elegans embryo, we measured synthetic lethality following RNA interference of 22 genes in 15 mutant strains. A pair of homologous T-box transcription factors (tbx-8 and tbx-9) is found to interact in both C. elegans and C. briggsae, indicating that their compensatory function is conserved. Furthermore, a muscle module is defined by transitive interactions between the MyoD homolog hlh-1, another basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor, hnd-1, and the MADS-box transcription factor unc-120. Genetic interactions within a homologous set of genes involved in vertebrate myogenesis indicate broad conservation of the muscle module and suggest that other genetic modules identified in C. elegans will be conserved

The Co-produced Pathway to Impact Describes Knowledge Mobilization Processes

Knowledge mobilization supports research collaborations between university and community partners which can maximize the impacts of research beyond the academy; however, models of knowledge mobilization are complex and create challenges for monitoring research impacts. This inability to sufficiently evaluate is particularly problematic for large collaborative research networks involving multiple partners and research institutions. The Co-produced Pathway to Impact simplifies many of the complex models of knowledge mobilization. It is a logic model based framework for mapping the progress of research -\u3e dissemination -\u3e uptake -\u3e implementation -\u3e impact. This framework is illustrated using collaborative research projects from Promoting Relationships and Eliminating Violence Network (PREVNet), a pan-Canadian community-university network engaging in knowledge mobilization to promote healthy relationships among children and youth and prevent bullying. The Co-produced Pathway to Impact illustrates that research impact occurs when university researchers collaborate with non-academic partners who produce the products, policies, and services that have impacts on the lives of end beneficiaries. Research impact is therefore measured at the level of non-academic partners and identified by surveying research partners to create narrative case studies of research impact

The homeodomain protein PAL-1 specifies a lineage-specific regulatory network in the C. elegans embryo

Maternal and zygotic activities of the homeodomain protein PAL-1 specify the identity and maintain the development of the multipotent C blastomere lineage in the C. elegans embryo. To identify PAL-1 regulatory target genes, we used microarrays to compare transcript abundance in wild-type embryos with mutant embryos lacking a C blastomere and to mutant embryos with extra C blastomeres. pal-1-dependent C-lineage expression was verified for select candidate target genes by reporter gene analysis, though many of the target genes are expressed in additional lineages as well. The set of validated target genes includes 12 transcription factors, an uncharacterized wingless ligand and five uncharacterized genes. Phenotypic analysis demonstrates that the identified PAL-1 target genes affect specification, differentiation and morphogenesis of C-lineage cells. In particular, we show that cell fate-specific genes (or tissue identity genes) and a posterior HOX gene are activated in lineage-specific fashion. Transcription of targets is initiated in four temporal phases, which together with their spatial expression patterns leads to a model of the regulatory network specified by PAL-1

Searching for emotion or race: Task-irrelevant facial cues have asymmetrical effects

Journal ArticleFacial cues of threat such as anger and other race membership are detected preferentially in visual search tasks. However, it remains unclear whether these facial cues interact in visual search. If both cues equally facilitate search, a symmetrical interaction would be predicted; anger cues should facilitate detection of other race faces and cues of other race membership should facilitate detection of anger. Past research investigating this race by emotional expression interaction in categorisation tasks revealed an asymmetrical interaction. This suggests that cues of other race membership may facilitate the detection of angry faces but not vice versa. Utilising the same stimuli and procedures across two search tasks, participants were asked to search for targets defined by either race or emotional expression. Contrary to the results revealed in the categorisation paradigm, cues of anger facilitated detection of other race faces whereas differences in race did not differentially influence detection of emotion targets. © 2013 Taylor & Francis.Australian Research Council's Discovery Project

Northern Harrier, Circus cyaneus, Attacks on Greater Sage-Grouse, Centerocercus urophasianus, in Southern Alberta

The Greater Sage-Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) is an endangered species in Canada, making it critical to understand all known causes of mortality. We report the first recorded observations of female Northern Harrier (Circus cyaneus) attacks on male Greater Sage-Grouse. Although no attacks were successful, our observations suggest that Northern Harriers are predators of Greater Sage-Grouse

Host plant genotype influences survival of hybrids between Eurosta solidaginis host races

Extrinsic, host-associated environmental factors may influence postmating isolation between herbivorous insect populations and represent a fundamentally ecological cause of speciation. We investigated this issue in experiments on hybrids between the host races of Eurosta solidaginis, a fly that induces galls on the goldenrods Solidago altissima and S. gigantea. To do so, we measured the performance of parental host races and their hybrids on five genotypes of S. gigantea and nine genotypes of S. altissima to test hypotheses about how variation in plant genotype affects performance (i.e., fitness) and potentially influences gene flow between these host races. We found that rates of gall induction and of survival to adult emergence by hybrid larvae were significantly lower than those of both parental host races on both host species, adding support to the hypothesis that there is partial postmating isolation between the host races. Hybrid flies significantly varied in their performance across plant genotypes of both host species. A significant interaction between the effects of plant genotype and mating treatment (parental vs. hybrid crosses) on larval performance indicated that the relative suitability of particular plant genotypes differed between the parental host races and their hybrids. These patterns illustrate a poor correspondence between optimal parental and hybrid environments, consistent with the hypothesis that these host races are partially isolated due to extrinsic (ecological) factors. Based on these findings, we discuss the possibility that plant genotypes in which hybrid performance is high can facilitate hybridization and gene flow between partially reproductively isolated populations of herbivorous insects, thus affecting the dynamics of ecological speciation