Employment at Will: The American Rule and Its Application in Alaska

In this thesis, secondary flow in a two stage, low aspect ratio turbine is investigated using CFD. A parameter study is carried out to investigate how the turbine performance is affected by the choice of aspect ratio. This is done in two steps, first by changing the blade height and then the blade size. The study shows that increasing the aspect ratio will lead to a significant increase of efficiency, but the effect diminishes for large aspect ratios, at which the efficiency moves towards an asymptotic value. Furthermore it is shown that increasing the aspect ratio to a certain value by changing the blade height results in a higher efficiency compared to changing the blade size, which is due to the difference in hub-to-tip ratio. An attempt to quantify the secondary losses is also made by looking at the radial kinetic energy at the outlet of a blade row. It turns out though, that the radial kinetic energy does not follow the same trend as the total pressure loss coefficient, which implies that it can not be used to quantify the secondary losses. Lastly, an effort to improve the method used for generating blade profiles is made, and the updated method is used to redesign rotor 2 to reduce losses

FAIRer Data through Digital Recording: The FAIMS Mobile Experience

Critical data and metadata must be captured or created in the field, or shortly thereafter, to avoid loss. For the past 10 years, the Field Acquired Information Management Systems (FAIMS) project has developed and operated a customisable field data capture platform. Over time, we built features and approaches that incorporated the Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR) principles into born-digital datasets created during fieldwork. This paper synthesises our experience helping more than 40 projects adapt the FAIMS platform to nearly 70 research workflows in archaeology and other fieldwork domains. We review what elements of the FAIR Data Principles FAIMS was able to build into our software, how users received these capabilities, and what sociotechnical challenges impeded creation of FAIRer field data. Based on our experience, we argue that field data capture software can facilitate the production of FAIRer data, making those data much more Findable and Reusable, and somewhat more Accessible and Interoperable. Any such improvements, however, depend upon (1) making FAIR-data features an integral part of field data collection systems, minimising the burden imposed on researchers, and (2) researchers’ willingness to spend time and resources implementing FAIR Data Principles that do not provide immediate benefits to their research

The FANCM:p.Arg658* truncating variant is associated with risk of triple-negative breast cancer

Abstract: Breast cancer is a common disease partially caused by genetic risk factors. Germline pathogenic variants in DNA repair genes BRCA1, BRCA2, PALB2, ATM, and CHEK2 are associated with breast cancer risk. FANCM, which encodes for a DNA translocase, has been proposed as a breast cancer predisposition gene, with greater effects for the ER-negative and triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) subtypes. We tested the three recurrent protein-truncating variants FANCM:p.Arg658*, p.Gln1701*, and p.Arg1931* for association with breast cancer risk in 67,112 cases, 53,766 controls, and 26,662 carriers of pathogenic variants of BRCA1 or BRCA2. These three variants were also studied functionally by measuring survival and chromosome fragility in FANCM−/− patient-derived immortalized fibroblasts treated with diepoxybutane or olaparib. We observed that FANCM:p.Arg658* was associated with increased risk of ER-negative disease and TNBC (OR = 2.44, P = 0.034 and OR = 3.79; P = 0.009, respectively). In a country-restricted analysis, we confirmed the associations detected for FANCM:p.Arg658* and found that also FANCM:p.Arg1931* was associated with ER-negative breast cancer risk (OR = 1.96; P = 0.006). The functional results indicated that all three variants were deleterious affecting cell survival and chromosome stability with FANCM:p.Arg658* causing more severe phenotypes. In conclusion, we confirmed that the two rare FANCM deleterious variants p.Arg658* and p.Arg1931* are risk factors for ER-negative and TNBC subtypes. Overall our data suggest that the effect of truncating variants on breast cancer risk may depend on their position in the gene. Cell sensitivity to olaparib exposure, identifies a possible therapeutic option to treat FANCM-associated tumors

The role of artefact catalogues in Australian historical archaeology: a framework for discussion

Efforts to utilise catalogues prepared in the past two decades of digging in Australia are often hampered by errors and inconsistencies in data, lack of comprehensive reporting, and mismanagement of assemblages, their accompanying documentation and datahases. These problems are the result of difficulties affecting other aspects of the archaeological process, such as insufficient funding, training and systematic quantification of assemblages. In order to create more reliable and more efficient catalogues in the future, it is necessary to take a step back and open the debate on the role catalogues should have in Australian historical archaeology. The authors put forward their view that catalogues must be designed to facilitate comprehensive and contextual assemblage analysis, now and in the decades to come. Having established this primary goal, the authors discuss other means to improve the efficiency and consistency of catalogue production, including standards and guidelines, quality assurance testing, reporting and physical access to assemblages and associated records. They conclude with a number of specific measures that might be enable these objectives, and importantly, welcome debate on the issue

Prelims

Trabalho de projecto de mestrado em Medicina (Reumatologia), apresentado á Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de CoimbraIntrodução: A fibromialgia, uma doença crónica caracterizada por dor músculo-esquelética generalizada, está entre as condições associadas à deficiência de vitamina D, apesar de não ter sido encontrado ainda um mecanismo biológico claro para esta associação. A evidência disponível na literatura é controversa, existindo estudos que referem uma maior prevalência de deficiência de vitamina D em doentes com fibromialgia e outros que revelam não haver diferenças. Objectivos: O objectivo do nosso estudo consistiu na avaliação dos níveis de 25-hidroxivitamina D em doentes com fibromialgia e em controlos não afectados. Avaliámos ainda a relação entre os níveis de vitamina D, o limiar e intensidade da dor e a severidade da doença. Métodos: No nosso estudo transversal, avaliámos os níveis sanguíneos de 25-hidroxivitamina D em 22 doentes com o diagnóstico de fibromialgia e nas suas 22 irmãs sem a doença. A avaliação laboratorial foi feita no mesmo dia para o doente e para o controlo emparelhado. A recolha dos dados decorreu durante o período de dois meses no Outono/Inverno. Todos os doentes e controlos foram sujeitos ao exame físico (incluindo a avaliação do limiar doloroso) e preencheram a versão portuguesa do Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire. Evaluation of vitamin D status in a population with Fibromyalgia 5 Resultados: Os níveis médios de 25-hidroxivitamina D no soro foram de 18,53±6,47ng/ml no grupo de doentes com fibromialgia e 15,61±5,05ng/ml no grupo de controlo. Não foram encontradas diferenças entre os grupos no que respeita aos níveis médios de vitamina D nem à classificação em deficiência de vitamina D (<20ng/ml), insuficiência (21-29ng/ml) e suficiência (>30ng/ml). Nos doentes com fibromialgia foi encontrada uma associação negativa entre os níveis de vitamina D e a pontuação no Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (r=-0,554; p=0,009), bem como entre estes e a intensidade da dor medida pela Escala Visual Analógica (r=-0,447; p=0,042). Não foi encontrada relação entre os níveis de vitamina D e o limiar doloroso medido pelo dolorímetro. 95,2% da população estudada tinha níveis deficientes/ insuficientes de vitamina D. Conclusões: A deficiência de vitamina D não foi encontrada mais frequentemente nos pacientes com fibromialgia do que nos controlos sem a doença. Nos doentes com fibromialgia foi encontrada uma associação negativa entre os níveis de vitamina D, a severidade da doença e a intensidade da dor medida pela Escala Visual Analógica. Não foi encontrada relação entre os níveis de vitamina D e o limiar doloroso medido através de dolorímetro. O nosso estudo mostrou uma alta prevalência de deficiência/insuficiência de vitamina D na nossa populaçãoBackground: Fibromyalgia, a condition characterized by chronic widespread musculoskeletal pain, is among the chronic pain conditions that have been associated with vitamin D deficiency, though no clear biological mechanism has been yet found. The results of studies are controversial, existing studies reporting a higher prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in patients with fibromyalgia, with others reporting no differences. Objective: The aim of our study was evaluate serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels in patients with fibromyalgia and unaffected controls. We also aimed to evaluate the relation between 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels, pain threshold, pain intensity and the severity of the disease. Methods: In our transversal study we measured serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D in 22 patients with a diagnosis of fibromyalgia and 22 matched-controls (unaffected sisters). The blood test was performed in the same day for patient and matched-control. All the data was collected within 2 months in Autumn/Winter. All patients and controls underwent physical examination (including evaluation of pressure-induced pain threshold) and answered Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire. Results: We found a mean serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D level of 18,53±6,47ng/ml in the fibromyalgia group and 15,61±5,05ng/ml in the control group. No statistically significant differences were found between groups regarding mean serum vitamin D levels or the Evaluation of vitamin D status in a population with Fibromyalgia 7 classification in vitamin D deficiency (<20ng/ml), insufficiency (21-29ng/ml) and sufficiency (>30ng/ml). In the fibromyalgia group, we found a negative association between vitamin D level and Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire score (r=-0,554; p=0,009), as well as with pain intensity measured by Visual Analog Scale (r=-0,447; p=0,042). No relation was found between vitamin D levels and pressure-induced pain threshold. 95,2% of our population were vitamin D deficient/insufficient. Conclusions: Vitamin D deficiency was not more prevalent in fibromyalgia patients than in the control group without the disease. We found a negative association between low vitamin D levels, the severity of the disease (as assessed by FIQ) and pain intensity measured by Visual Analog Scale, but no relation was found with pressure-induced pain threshold. Our study showed a high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency/insufficiency in our populatio