NEPA Compliance and the Adoption of an Environmental Impact Statement by a Regulatory Agency

Federal regulatory agencies have responsibilities under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) at multiple stages of their regulatory responsibilities. This includes the development of regulations and when conducting their oversight responsibilities. This paper reviews the roles of regulatory agencies (the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)) related to the disposal of high-level radioactive waste, spent nuclear fuel, and transuranic waste under NEPA and as modified by other laws. The focus of this paper is on how the NRC looked at how to address its responsibilities, with a brief review of the EPA to provide a contrast in how the two regulatory agencies comply with NEPA

A Novel Recurrent Convolutional Neural Network for Ocean and Weather Forecasting

Numerical weather prediction is a computationally expensive task that requires not only the numerical solution to a complex set of non-linear partial differential equations, but also the creation of a parameterization scheme to estimate sub-grid scale phenomenon. The proposed method is an alternative approach to developing a mesoscale meteorological model – a modified recurrent convolutional neural network that learns to simulate the solution to these equations. Along with an appropriate time integration scheme and learning algorithm, this method can be used to create multi-day forecasts for a large region. The learning method presented is an extended form of Backpropagation Through Time for a recurrent network with outputs that feed back through as inputs only after undergoing a fixed transformation. An initial implementation of this approach has been created that forecasts for 2,744 locations across the southeastern United States at 36 vertical levels of the atmosphere, and 119,000 locations across the Atlantic Ocean at 39 vertical levels. These models, called LM3 and LOM, forecast wind speed, temperature, geopotential height, and rainfall for weather forecasting and water current speed, temperature, and salinity for ocean forecasting. Experimental results show that the new approach is 3.6 times more efficient at forecasting the ocean and 16 times more efficient at forecasting the atmosphere. The new approach showed forecast skill by beating the accuracy of two models, persistence and climatology, and was more accurate than the Navy NCOM model on 16 of the first 17 layers of the ocean below the surface (2 meters to 70 meters) for forecasting salinity and 15 of the first 17 layers for forecasting temperature. The new approach was also more accurate than the RAP model at forecasting wind speed on 7 layers, specific humidity on 7 layers, relative humidity on 6 layers, and temperature on 3 layers, with competitive results elsewhere

Making healthcare safer by understanding, designing and buying better IT

When nobody or nothing notices an error, it may turn into patient harm. We show that medical devices ignore many errors, and therefore do not adequately support patient safety. In addition to preventable patient harm, errors may be reported ignoring potential flaws in medical device design, and front line staff may be inappropriately blamed. We present some suggestions to improve reporting and the procurement of hospital equipment

Patterns of glacio‐isostatic adjustment in mainland Scotland: new data from western central Scotland, proximal to the zone of maximum rebound

The results of geomorphological mapping and survey of Lateglacial and Holocene displaced shorelines in the Clyde estuary and around Loch Lomond, western central Scotland are described. On the basis of morphology, sedimentology, altitude and radiocarbon dating, four discrete shorelines are identified and are correlated with previously identified Scottish displaced shorelines. The shoreline formerly referred to as the Main Postglacial Shoreline is renamed the Menteith Shoreline. This body of data, combined with data on displaced shorelines for Scotland as a whole has been analysed using Gaussian quadratic trend surface analysis in order to determine the centre of glacio‐isostatic displacement for each shoreline. These Gaussian models of palaeo‐relative sea‐level suggest that the zone of greatest displacement lay NNW of Loch Lomond in the Lateglacial then moved SSE to the region of Loch Lomond during the Holocene and the Clyde in the Late Holocene. The factors responsible for the movement of the zone of greatest uplift are discussed, including temporal variations in the ice‐sheet thickness, variations in water load in the adjacent sea‐lochs and neotectonic processes. Comparison is made with glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) models. A sensitivity analysis has been carried out on the use of Gaussian trend surface analysis glacio‐isostatic modelling and this is included in the research evaluation, and reported in full in the Supporting Information files, along with the raw data used throughout this study

Mechanochemical finishing: developing a mechanical finishing process to form tribologically superior surfaces

Both mechanical and chemical finishing process are regularly used to reduce frictional losses and improve the wear resistance of components within mechanical systems like internal combustion engine cylinders and fluid pumps. Coatings often require highly specialised equipment and are usually expensive in comparison to mechanical processes. In many applications, both mechanical finishing and chemical coatings are applied to component surfaces in order to achieve a surface with all the desired properties. This thesis applies tribofilm forming research when using particular nano-additives to mechanical finishing processes in order to mechanochemically generate a tribologically superior surface through a simple, single stage operation. Cast iron plates were honed against grit paper with dry Cu$_2$S microparticles causing a reduction reaction in the particles for sulphur to then react with the iron in the plates. Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) revealed a huge increase in the quantity of copper in the cast iron caused by the mechanochemical honing. X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) did suggest a small quantity of iron sulphides had formed. While the honing process did successfully reduce the copper sulphide, a lot of the sulphur was lost in the process while the copper sintered into the surface. Lubricated friction tests at a variety loads showed a small reduction in friction with the copper honed samples. In order to better understand mechanisms for tribofilm formation and discover any synergistic behaviours between nano-MoS$_2$ and ceramic nanospheres, SiO$_2$ was tested with MoS$_2$ as lubricant additives in a variety of High Frequency Reciprocating Rig (HFRR) tests. At high load and 50 °C the two nanoparticles on their own could not improve friction or wear but when used together, the SiO$_2$ improved the conditions for MoS$_2$ to chemically react with the steel contacts forming a protective tribofilm. This was characterised through a combination of EDS and Hard X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (HAXPES). Attempts to recreate these results in the TE 77 High Frequency Friction Machine (TE 77) low load adapter were unsuccessful. Keeping lubricant additives successfully dispersed is a well documented issue. To get round this, Cu$_2$S and Al$_2$O$_3$ microparticles were mixed with a base grease whose viscosity was great enough that once dispersed the particles could not settle. The formulated greases were put under very high load (920N) in line contact in the TE 77 to generate a tribofilm style layer that was then tested with point contact wear in a base lubricant. The formulated greases were tested against a commercial grease containing MoS$_2$. At low loads, only the MoS$_2$ treated surface produced lower friction than the untreated plate. In 50 °C tests at a higher load, all the treated surfaces slightly reduced friction compared to the untreated plate and the hybrid Cu$_2$S, Al$_2$O$_3$ surface had the lowest friction. MoS$_2$ produced the shallowest scar with a tribofilm similar to that generated with the hybrid lubricant in the previous chapter. This thesis introduces a proof of concept for two mechanochemical finishing processes as well as developing understanding for the synergistic behaviour of Transition Metal Dichalcogenides (TMDC) and ceramics as nano-additives in lubricants. The potential scope for this research is huge as the finishing processes could be beneficial to any mechanical system where there are sliding metal contacts. A large amount of work is still needed to bring this work from its concept stage to full realisation in a commercial setting

Lithiation/trapping of N-Boc piperazines and synthesis of the (–)-sparteine surrogate

This thesis describes some novel aspects of the s-BuLi mediated lithiation/trapping of N-Boc heterocycles, including a systematic investigation into the lithiation/trapping of N-Boc piperazines. Chapter 2 details an in situ ReactIR™ investigation into the time required for both the lithiation and trapping events of some commonly used N-Boc heterocycles. The remarkable difference in the time taken for trapping with some electrophiles is of particular note. The information garnered in this investigation was used to direct the racemic and asymmetric lithiation of N-Boc piperazines, as described in Chapters 3 and 4. A series of complications were encountered and overcome. The methodology culminated in the synthesis of enantiopure mono- and disubstituted N-Boc piperazines In Chapter 5, an investigation into the synthesis of the (–)-sparteine surrogate is reported. Two strategies are described: synthesis and classic resolution of racemic sparteine surrogate and the synthesis of enantiopure sparteien surrogate from commercially available precursors

A synthetic and spectroscopic investigation of the asymmetric α-lithiation-trapping of six-membered N-Boc heterocycles using Alexakis diamines

The asymmetric lithiation-trapping of six-membered N-Boc heterocycles using s-BuLi and two different Alexakis diamines is reported. These readily available ligands outperform the current ‘best-in-class’ sparteine-type diamines in the lithiation and benzophenone trapping of N-Boc piperazines and the lithiation-cyclisation-trapping of N-Boc-4-chloropiperidine. In situ IR spectroscopy has been used to optimise lithiation times and to discover previously unknown subtleties regarding the lithiation step

Isolation and characterization of Nylanderia fulva virus 1, a positive-sense, single-stranded RNA virus infecting the tawny crazy ant, Nylanderia fulva.

We report the discovery of Nylanderia fulva virus 1 (NfV-1), the first virus identified and characterized from the ant, Nylanderia fulva. The NfV-1 genome (GenBank accession KX024775) is 10,881 nucleotides in length, encoding one large open reading frame (ORF). Helicase, protease, RNA-dependent RNA polymerase, and jelly-roll capsid protein domains were recognized within the polyprotein. Phylogenetic analysis placed NfV-1 in an unclassified clade of viruses. Electron microscopic examination of negatively stained samples revealed particles with icosahedral symmetry with a diameter of 28.7±1.1nm. The virus was detected by RT-PCR in larval, pupal, worker and queen developmental stages. However, the replicative strand of NfV-1 was only detected in larvae. Vertical transmission did not appear to occur, but horizontal transmission was facile. The inter-colonial field prevalence of NfV-1 was 52±35% with some local infections reaching 100%. NfV-1 was not detected in limited samples of other Nylanderia species or closely related ant species.JSL was supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant DEB-0743542. AEF is supported by the Wellcome Trust (Grant no. [106207]) and the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union׳s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant agreement no. [646891]).This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Elsevier at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.virol.2016.06.014

Food and mood:how do diet and nutrition affect mental wellbeing?

Poor nutrition may be a causal factor in the experience of low mood, and improving diet may help to protect not only the physical health but also the mental health of the population. Depression and anxiety are the most common mental health conditions worldwide, making them a leading cause of disability.1 Even beyond diagnosed conditions, subclinical symptoms of depression and anxiety affect the wellbeing and functioning of a large proportion of the population.2 Therefore, new approaches to managing both clinically diagnosed and subclinical depression and anxiety are needed

A systematic review of interleaving as a concept learning strategy : a study protocol

Background: Education Scotland’s (2018) framework for interventions for equity supporting the Scottish Attainment Challenge highlights the promotion of high quality learning and the effective use of evidence and data. This study protocol outlines the methodology of a systematic review of the literature into the use of interleaving to facilitate the effective learning and teaching of new concepts. Methods: The systematic review has been pre-registered with PROSPERO, an international database of prospectively registered systematic reviews. The review will investigate whether presenting examples of to-be-learned concepts in an interleaved order is a more effective learning strategy than presenting examples blocked by topic, in terms of learners' ability to remember examples and to transfer learning to novel examples. Discussion: Interleaving is widely recommended as an evidence-based approach to teaching with considerable potential as a strategy for learners experiencing difficulties in working memory functioning and conceptual learning, but to date there has not been a comprehensive review of the evidence base. The review will address this gap. It will synthesize primary research studies from the past decade, investigate boundary conditions and variables that interact with interleaving, and will include a meta-analysis of recent studies. This protocol provides the details of the rationale of the review, and details the inclusion criteria and approaches to data extraction