Effects of offshore wind farms on marine wildlife

Marine management plans over the world express high expectations to the development of offshore wind energy. This would obviously contribute to renewable energy production, but potential conflicts with other usages of the marine landscape, as well as conservation interests, are evident. The present study synthesizes the current state of understanding on the effects of offshore wind farms on marine wildlife, in order to identify general versus local conclusions in published studies. The results were translated into a generalized impact assessment for coastal waters in Sweden, which covers a range of salinity conditions from marine to nearly fresh waters. Hence, the conclusions are potentially applicable to marine planning situations in various aquatic ecosystems. The assessment considered impact with respect to temporal and spatial extent of the pressure, effect within each ecosystem component, and level of certainty. Research on the environmental effects of offshore wind farms has gone through a rapid maturation and learning process, with the bulk of knowledge being developed within the past ten years. The studies showed a high level of consensus with respect to the construction phase, indicating that potential impacts on marine life should be carefully considered in marine spatial planning. Potential impacts during the operational phase were more locally variable, and could be either negative or positive depending on biological conditions as well as prevailing management goals. There was paucity in studies on cumulative impacts and long-term effects on the food web, as well as on combined effects with other human activities, such as the fisheries. These aspects remain key open issues for a sustainable marine spatial planning

Development of Advanced Thin Films by PECVD for Photovoltaic Applications

Compared to wafer based solar cells, thin film solar cells greatly reduce material cost and thermal budget due to low temperature process. Monolithically manufacturing allows large area fabrication and continuous processing. In this work, several photovoltaic thin films have been developed by rf-PECVD including a-Si:H and μc-Si, both intrinsic and doped on Corning 4 inch glass substrate at low temperature. The conductivity of n type and p type μc-Si at 180ºC was 17S/cm and 7.1E-2S/cm, respectively. B dopants either in a-Si:H or μc-Si films require higher plasma power to get active doping. The B2H6-to-SiH4 flow ratio for p type μc-Si lies from 0.01 to 0.025. Chamber conditions have critical effect on film quality. Repeatable and superior results require a well-established cleaning passivation procedure. Moreover, μc-Si films have been deposited from pure silane on glass substrate by modified rf-ICP-CVD. The deposition rate has been dramatically increased to 5Å/s due to little H2 dilution with crystalline fraction was around 69%, and 6.2Å/s with crystalline fraction 45%. Microstructure started to form at 150ºC with a thin incubation layer on the glass substrate, and became fully dense conical conglomerates around 300nm where conductivity and crystallinity saturated. Additionally, a-SiGe:H films have been developed by modified rf-ICP-CVD. The optical band gaps have been varied from 1.25 to 1.63eV by changing SiH4-to-GeH4 ratio. Also high temperature resulted in low bandgap. Cross-section TEM showed some microcrystllites appeared near interface region. Heterojunction solar cells on p type c-Si wafer have been fabricated using films developed in this thesis. Interference fringes in EQE disappeared on either textured substrate or cells with lift-off contacts. Maximum EQE was 87% around 700nm. I-V curves have also been studied where the interesting kink suggests a counter-diode has formed between emitter region and contacts

Can a Multifaceted Intervention Including Motivational Interviewing Improve Medication Adherence, Quality of Life, and Mortality Rates in Older Patients Undergoing Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery? A Multicenter, Randomized Controlled Trial with 18-Month Follow-Up.

BACKGROUND: Patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery are required to take a complex regimen of medications for extended periods, and they may have negative outcomes because they struggle to adhere to this regimen. Designing effective interventions to promote medication adherence in this patient group is therefore important. OBJECTIVE: The present study aimed to evaluate the long-term effects of a multifaceted intervention (psycho-education, motivational interviewing, and short message services) on medication adherence, quality of life (QoL), and mortality rates in older patients undergoing CABG surgery. METHODS: Patients aged over 65 years from 12 centers were assigned to the intervention (EXP; n = 144) or treatment-as-usual (TAU; n = 144) groups using cluster randomization at center level. Medication adherence was evaluated using the Medication Adherence Rating Scale (MARS), pharmacy refill rate, and lipid profile; QoL was evaluated using Short Form-36. Data were collected at baseline; 3, 6, and 18 months after intervention. Survival status was followed up at 18 months. Multi-level regressions and survival analyses for hazard ratio (HR) were used for analyses. RESULTS: Compared with patients who received TAU, the MARS, pharmacy refill rate, and lipid profile of patients in the EXP group improved 6 months after surgery (p < 0.01) and remained so 18 months after surgery (p < 0.01). QoL also increased among patients in the EXP group as compared with those who received TAU at 18 months post-surgery (physical component summary score p = 0.02; mental component summary score p = 0.04). HR in the EXP group compared with the TAU group was 0.38 (p = 0.04). CONCLUSION: The findings suggest that a multifaceted intervention can improve medication adherence in older patients undergoing CABG surgery, with these improvements being maintained after 18 months. QoL and survival rates increased as a function of better medication adherence. ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02109523

Economics Doctoral Programs Still Elide Entrepreneurship

Is entrepreneurship covered in economics doctoral programs? Updating an earlier study (Johansson 2004), we examine leading programs in the United States and Sweden by textual analysis of textbooks and assigned articles in microeconomics, macroeconomics, and industrial organization courses. We find that coverage of entrepreneurship in textbooks is scant and that theories regarding the function of the entrepreneur are hardly mentioned in assigned articles. Talk of the entrepreneur is more common in a few newer textbooks, which could indicate a renewed interest. But even textbooks that mention the entrepreneur do not define the concept or discuss the entrepreneur’s economic role in any depth; often the entrepreneur is just another optimizing agent within a model, like a borrower, manager, or investor

Regaining normalcy in relatives of patients with a pacemaker

Patients with chronic diseases, such as those with pacemakers, have shown that they have a worsened well-being, which means an increased interest in investigating how relatives of patients with pacemakers experience their situations and how the disease affects their life situations. The aim of this study was to explore the main concerns for the relatives of patients with a pacemaker and how they resolve these issues. A classic grounded theory was used throughout the study for data collection and analysis. Interviews were conducted with ten participants. Striving for normalcy emerged as the main concern for relatives of patients with a pacemaker and was handled through a process of regaining normalcy where the relatives strive to find a way to live as normal as possible. Regaining normalcy is done through developing trust, dwindling and finally life stabilizing, in which they are either holding back or new normalizing. Distinguishing signs are constantly done during the process to quickly notice possible symptoms of the patient. Increased knowledge and understanding of how the relatives of patients with a pacemaker regain normalcy can be used as a guide in order to support and inform the patient as well as their relatives in conjunction with implantation occasions but also in connection with recurring and lifelong follow-up occasions

Economics Doctoral Programs Still Elide Entrepreneurship

Is entrepreneurship covered in economics doctoral programs? Updating an earlier study (Johansson 2004), we examine leading programs in the United States and Sweden by textual analysis of textbooks and assigned articles in microeconomics, macroeconomics, and industrial organization courses. We find that coverage of entrepreneurship in textbooks is scant and that theories regarding the function of the entrepreneur are hardly mentioned in assigned articles. Talk of the entrepreneur is more common in a few newer textbooks, which could indicate a renewed interest. But even textbooks that mention the entrepreneur do not define the concept or discuss the entrepreneur’s economic role in any depth; often the entrepreneur is just another optimizing agent within a model, like a borrower, manager, or investor

Uneek : a Web Tool for Comparative Analysis of Annotated Texts

In this paper, we present Uneek, a web based linguistic tool that performs set comparison operations on raw or annotated texts. The tool may be used for automatic distributional analysis, and for disambiguating polysemy with a method that we refer to as semi-automatic uniqueness differentiation (SUDi). Uneek outputs the intersection and differences between their listed attributes, e.g. POS, dependencies, word forms, frame elements. This makes it an ideal supplement to methods for lumping or splitting in frame development processes. In order to make some of Uneek’s functions more clear, we employ SUDi on a small data set containing the polysemous verb bake. As of now, Uneek may only run two files at a time, but there are plans to develop the tool so that it may simultaneously operate on multiple files. Finally, we relate the developmental plans for added functionality, to how such functions may support FrameNet work in the future