The Specification of the Planning Systems; Report of the 1993 Questionnaire Survey

This report describes a survey carried out as part of a research project undeaaken hy the Institute for Transport Studies and the School of Computer Studies at the University of Leeds, funded by the Science and Engineering Research Council. The project was concerned with the specification of trip planning systems, which are systems which provide information to travellers and potential travellers ahout all aspects of their journey, but in this case principally route and timetable information for public transport users and route information for car travellers before the journey is made. Previous evidence had suggested that travellers may make sub-optimal travel decisions, meaning that they may make longer, slower or more expensive journeys than necessary because of imperfect information. Other parts of the project addressed sub-optimality in the choice of mode and time of travel but a main objective of the survey described in this report was to examine sub-optimality of route choice separately for journeys with which respondents were familiar and journeys with which they were unfamiliar. Other objectives were concerned with the travel information currently used, or desired by, the respondents, who were randomly-selected travellers from the West Yorkshire town of Mirfield. Maps were widely used by car drivers - about one in five used them for familiar trips and ahout three quarters used them for unfamiliar trips. For public transport trips, timetables were used hy about half of the travellers making familiar trips and 95 per cent making unfamiliar trips. Information on delays would have been welcomed by both private and puhlic transport travellers: nearly three-quarters of familiar and unfamiliar car trips would have liked congestion information as would a significant minority of bus users. Most of all, public transport-users would have welcomed information on service delays and cancellations. It would seem that real-time information on delays would be a key feature of a successful trip planning system. The sub-optimality for car journeys averaged at 2.6 minutes per trip for familiar trips and 6 minutes per trip for unfamiliar trips. Sub-optimality was directly related to trip distance for familiar trips hut not for unfamiliar trips. This indicates a modest hut significant reduction in car journey times could be brought about by trip planning systems. Public transport trip sample sizes were too small to permit reliable estimates to be made of their sub-optimality

Investigation of an Optimum Detection Scheme for a Star-Field Mapping System

An investigation was made to determine the optimum detection scheme for a star-field mapping system that uses coded detection resulting from starlight shining through specially arranged multiple slits of a reticle. The computer solution of equations derived from a theoretical model showed that the greatest probability of detection for a given star and background intensity occurred with the use of a single transparent slit. However, use of multiple slits improved the system's ability to reject the detection of undesirable lower intensity stars, but only by decreasing the probability of detection for lower intensity stars to be mapped. Also, it was found that the coding arrangement affected the root-mean-square star-position error and that detection is possible with error in the system's detected spin rate, though at a reduced probability

Catching crabs: a case study in local-scale English conservation

Wells-next-the-Sea and Cromer in Norfolk (England) both rely upon their local crab populations, since crabbing (gillying) is a major part of their tourist industry. Compared to a control site with no crabbing, crabs from Wells harbour and Cromer pier were found to have nearly six times the amount of limb damage. Crabs caught by the general public had more injuries than crabs caught in controlled conditions, suggesting the buckets in which the crabs were kept were to blame. Since there is much evidence that such injuries have negative impacts on the survival and reproductive success of the shore crab, this is taken as evidence of non-lethal injury from humans having a population-level effect on these animals. Questionnaire data demonstrated a public lack of awareness and want for information, which was then used to obtain funding to produce a leaflet campaign informing the public of how to crab responsibly. All data collected is available online at http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.979288

Comparison Of Outcomes In Emergency Department Treated By Nurse Practitioners Or Physicians

The increasing number of patients who seek health care in the emergency department has placed a great strain on the resources of facilities to meet those primary health care needs. Utilization of nurse practitioners as health care providers in the emergency department has been suggested to meet the continuing influx of patients. The purpose of this study was to examine the outcomes for patient satisfaction, patient knowledge, and problem resolution. Three hypotheses were generated : (a) There is no difference in the outcome of satisfaction in nonurgent patients presenting to the emergency department when treated by a physician or a nurse practitioner, (b) There is no difference in the outcome of knowledge in nonurgent patients presenting to the emergency department when treated by a physician or a nurse practitioner, and (c) There is no difference in the outcome of problem resolution in nonurgent patients presenting to the emergency department when treated by a physician or a nurse practitioner. King\u27s Theory of Goal Attainment provided the theoretical framework. The Aldridge Questionnaire, adapted from a tool developed by Powers, Jalowiec, and Reichelt (1981), was used to gather data iii from the sample (N = 151). No significant difference in patient satisfaction emerged; therefore. Hypothesis 1 was accepted. However, there were significant differences in patient knowledge and problem resolution, thus Hypotheses 2 and 3 were rejected. Significantly more instructions were recalled by patients treated by nurse practitioners. Also, there was a significant difference in problem resolution in patients when measured by unscheduled visits seeking additional health care. Also, within a 4-week period following discharge from the emergency department, no patients treated by nurse practitioners made additional unscheduled visits while 8 patients treated by physicians made unscheduled visits seeking additional health care. These findings support the placement of nurse practitioners in the emergency department to help alleviate the pressures brought on by increasing numbers of patients who utilize the local emergency department for primary care. A recommendation is to implement a longitudinal study which focuses on the evolution of the nurse practitioner in the emergency department

Aptamer Functionalized Zinc Oxide Field Effect Transistors For Odor Detection

Odor detection and identification are complex processes, and tasks that currently only animals do well. There is a pressing need for an electronic nose, or eNose, with good sensitivity, selectivity, and speed that mimics that ability. Food quality control operations, environmental sensing, occupational safety, and the defense sectors all require systems that can rapidly and reliably detect trace levels of volatile organic compounds. The goal of this work is to create a biologically inspired device which can accurately detect and identify odors at concentrations consistent with the most sensitive biological systems. In order to mimic a natural olfactory system, we replaced the biological components of the olfactory system with synthetic components. If successful, this approach would provide a basis for a computational strategy that identifies odor based on combinatorial patterns of receptor activation, so that the number of recognizable odors exceeds the number of receptors. Our efforts produced an aptamer-decorated zinc oxide field effect transistor (Apta-FET) that shows great sensitivity to target compounds, but limited selectivity. We demonstrated that aptamers attached to a FET respond to targets in a concentration-dependent manner, and that this response can be measured electrically. The limited selectivity of our device highlights the need for many different kinds of aptamers within the same device, as well as the need for more advanced computational analysis of the output data. It is our hope that these hurdles will be overcome

Tools to Promote Open Pedagogy in the Classroom

A 30-page toolkit with 16 distinct teaching methods that promote open pedagogy explained. The beginning of the toolkit explains open pedagogy and its relationship to OER. There is a section at the end with additional resources and next steps if faculty want to implement some of these methods. There are multiple weblinks and examples embedded in the document so that faculty who are interested in a particular method can use those resources for more information and to see examples of how to implement open pedagogy

Mixing with the radiofrequency single-electron transistor

By configuring a radio-frequency single-electron transistor as a mixer, we demonstrate a unique implementation of this device, that achieves good charge sensitivity with large bandwidth about a tunable center frequency. In our implementation we achieve a measurement bandwidth of 16 MHz, with a tunable center frequency from 0 to 1.2 GHz, demonstrated with the transistor operating at 300 mK. Ultimately this device is limited in center frequency by the RC time of the transistor's center island, which for our device is ~ 1.6 GHz, close to the measured value. The measurement bandwidth is determined by the quality factor of the readout tank circuit.Comment: Submitted to APL september 200

Ambient ammonia measurements using laser photo-acoustic spectroscopy

Ammonia concentrations reached minimal levels (approximately 0.1 ppb) in early winter, followed by a sudden later winter increase. A direct relationship between ambient ammonia levels and air temperature was inferred from the data (linear correlation coefficient r=0.53). Ammonia concentrations were determined to be directly related to the absolute humidity of the air (r=0.72); a weaker relationship between ammonia concentrations and relative humidity was discovered (r=0.37). The data also indicated that ammonia levels were generally higher within continental air masses than those of maritime origin. Soil parameters such as pH and moisture content were found to have a major bearing on the release of gaseous ammonia from soils in the region

Religious Education's Double Hermeneutic

© 2018 The Author(s). This modest work of disambiguation begins with the simple recognition that there are ‘hermeneutics’ and ‘hermeneutics’, and argues that not all senses of the term have been given sufficient attention in the discussion of what religious education is and could be.I hope to do some important definitional work around the different senses that hermeneutics might have in religious education, and thereby to think through what it might mean to say that a concern in religious education is a ‘hermeneutical’ one. Finally, I hope to address the ‘so what’ question and make a case for the vital importance of hermeneutics for understanding religious education, as well as for understanding religion. This case lies not primarily in the association of religious education with the interpretation of scripture or more generally with questions of text or interpretation, but in the close association of education in its broadest sense with hermeneutical concerns. I sketch out the implications of a hermeneutical approach for teachers and curriculum planners faced with the tasks (which cannot be interpreted away) of selecting curriculum content and making decisions about pedagogical approach