Agile methods for agile universities

We explore a term, Agile, that is being used in various workplace settings, including the management of universities. The term may have several related but slightly different meanings. Agile is often used in the context of facilitating more creative problem-solving and advocating for the adoption, design, tailoring and continual updating of more innovative organizational processes. We consider a particular set of meanings of the term from the world of software development. Agile methods were created to address certain problems with the software development process. Many of those problems have interesting analogues in the context of universities, so a reflection on agile methods may be a useful heuristic for generating ideas for enabling universities to be more creative

Techno-economic evaluation of reducing shielding gas consumption in GMAW whilst maintaining weld quality

A new method of supplying shielding gases in an alternating manner has been developed to enhance the efficiency of conventional gas metal arc welding (GMAW). However, the available literature on this advanced joining process is very sparse and no cost evaluation has been reported to date. In simple terms, the new method involves discretely supplying two different shielding gases to the weld pool at predetermined frequencies which creates a dynamic action within the liquid pool. In order to assess the potential benefits of this new method from a technical and cost perspective, a comparison has been drawn between the standard shielding gas composition of Ar/20%CO2, which is commonly used in UK and European shipbuilding industries for carbon steels, and a range of four different frequencies alternating between Ar/20%CO2 and helium. The beneficial effects of supplying the weld shielding gases in an alternating manner were found to provide attractive benefits for the manufacturing community. For example, the present study showed that compared with conventional GMAW, a 17 per cent reduction in total welding cost was achieved in the case of the alternating gas method and savings associated with a reduction in the extent of post-weld straightening following plate distortion were also identified. Also, the mechanical properties of the alternating case highlighted some marginal improvements in strength and Charpy impact toughness which were attributed to a more refined weld microstructure

Movement of Ericaphis fimbriata (Hemiptera: Aphididae) apterae on blueberry

Blueberry scorch Virus is a new and important pathogen of blueberry in British Columbia, Canada of which the blueberry-infesting aphid Ericaphis fimbriata is a known Vector. In a study of the movement of apterous E. fimbriata, significantly more aphids fell when one ladybird beetle was added to E. fimbriata infested blueberry branches than when zero, two, or four were added. Similar numbers of aphids fell in the presence or absence of beetles at low aphid density (10-30 aphids per terminal), but more fell in the presence of beetles at high aphid density (50-70 aphids per terminal). The time taken for aphids to move a minimum distance of 60 cm off infested plants onto uninfested plants decreased with increasing aphid density which has important implications for the spread of the Virus

Rolling covenants to protect coastal ecosystems in the face of sea-level rise

This article considers how “rolling covenants” (i.e., covenants on land title that can operate in a “rolling” geographic area to keep pace with sea-level rise) can be used to permit productive use of land in the short term, while ensuring land use can shift over time to allow for coastal ecosystem migration in the medium to long term. We use Australia as a case study, and through analysis of legislation and a series of semistructured interviews, we demonstrate how land title-based covenants can be used to give legal effect to “rolling covenant” arrangements where land is subject to existing use and occupation. We then consider practical issues associated with drafting a rolling covenant arrangement, including an analysis of the types of events or scenarios that could be used as a basis for land use changing (e.g., projected sea-level rise, actual ecosystem migration), and the advantages and disadvantages of each. We conclude that rolling covenants are a viable option for land management in the coastal zone, especially in circumstances where funding sources are available to incentivize uptake. Rolling covenants may provide opportunities for coastal wetlands to be maintained and even enhanced in cover, thereby delivering important ecosystem services (e.g., blue carbon) into the future

Growth of Solid Solution Single Crystals

The objective of the study is to establish the effects of processing semiconducting, solid solution, single crystals in a microgravity environment on the metallurgical, compositional, electrical, and optical characteristics of the crystals. The alloy system being investigated is the solid solution semiconductor Hg(1-x)Cd(x)Te, with x-values appropriate for infrared detector applications in the 8 to 14 mm wavelength region. Both melt and Te-solvent growth are being performed. The study consists of an extensive ground-based experimental and theoretical research effort followed by flight experimentation where appropriate. The ground-based portion of the investigation also includes the evaluation of the relative effectiveness of stabilizing techniques, such as applied magnetic fields, for suppressing convective flow during the melt growth of the crystals

Sharing Supermodular Costs

We study cooperative games with supermodular costs. We show that supermodular costs arise in a variety of situations; in particular, we show that the problem of minimizing a linear function over a supermodular polyhedron—a problem that often arises in combinatorial optimization—has supermodular optimal costs. In addition, we examine the computational complexity of the least core and least core value of supermodular cost cooperative games. We show that the problem of computing the least core value of these games is strongly NP-hard and, in fact, is inapproximable within a factor strictly less than 17/16 unless P = NP. For a particular class of supermodular cost cooperative games that arises from a scheduling problem, we show that the Shapley value—which, in this case, is computable in polynomial time—is in the least core, while computing the least core value is NP-hard.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (DMI-0426686

The Campbells: lordship, literature and liminality

The Campbells have the potential to offer much to the theme of literature and borders, given that the kindred’s astonishing political success in the late medieval and early modern period depended heavily upon the ability to negotiate multiple frontiers: between Highlands and Lowlands; between Gaelic Scotland and Ireland, and, especially after the Reformation, with England and the matter of Britain. This paper will explore the literary dimension to Campbell expansionism, from the Book of the Dean of Lismore in the earlier sixteenth century, to poetry addressed to dukes of Argyll in the earlier eighteenth century. Particular attention will be paid to the literary proclivities of the household of the Campbells of Glenorchy on either side of what appears to be a major watershed in 1550; and to the agenda of the Campbell protégé John Carswell, first post-Reformation bishop of the Isles, and author of the first printed book in Gaelic in either Scotland or Ireland, Foirm na n-Urrnuidheadh (‘The Form of Prayers’), published at Edinburgh in 1567

Facts, Values and Quanta

Quantum mechanics is a fundamentally probabilistic theory (at least so far as the empirical predictions are concerned). It follows that, if one wants to properly understand quantum mechanics, it is essential to clearly understand the meaning of probability statements. The interpretation of probability has excited nearly as much philosophical controversy as the interpretation of quantum mechanics. 20th century physicists have mostly adopted a frequentist conception. In this paper it is argued that we ought, instead, to adopt a logical or Bayesian conception. The paper includes a comparison of the orthodox and Bayesian theories of statistical inference. It concludes with a few remarks concerning the implications for the concept of physical reality.Comment: 30 pages, AMS Late

The Infrared Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) for TMT: Data Reduction System

IRIS (InfraRed Imaging Spectrograph) is the diffraction-limited first light instrument for the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) that consists of a near-infrared (0.84 to 2.4 $\mu$m) imager and integral field spectrograph (IFS). The IFS makes use of a lenslet array and slicer for spatial sampling, which will be able to operate in 100's of different modes, including a combination of four plate scales from 4 milliarcseconds (mas) to 50 mas with a large range of filters and gratings. The imager will have a field of view of 34$\times$34 arcsec$^{2}$ with a plate scale of 4 mas with many selectable filters. We present the preliminary design of the data reduction system (DRS) for IRIS that need to address all of these observing modes. Reduction of IRIS data will have unique challenges since it will provide real-time reduction and analysis of the imaging and spectroscopic data during observational sequences, as well as advanced post-processing algorithms. The DRS will support three basic modes of operation of IRIS; reducing data from the imager, the lenslet IFS, and slicer IFS. The DRS will be written in Python, making use of open-source astronomical packages available. In addition to real-time data reduction, the DRS will utilize real-time visualization tools, providing astronomers with up-to-date evaluation of the target acquisition and data quality. The quicklook suite will include visualization tools for 1D, 2D, and 3D raw and reduced images. We discuss the overall requirements of the DRS and visualization tools, as well as necessary calibration data to achieve optimal data quality in order to exploit science cases across all cosmic distance scales.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figures, 6 tables, Proceeding 9913-165 of the SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation 201

Directional Solidification of Mercury Cadmium Telluride During the Second United States Microgravity Payload Mission (USMP-2)

As a solid solution semiconductor having, a large separation between liquidus and solidus, mercury cadmium telluride (MCT) presents a formidable challenge to crystal growers desiring an alloy of high compositional uniformity. To avoid constitutional supercooling during Bridgman crystal growth it is necessary to solidify slowly in a high temperature gradient region. The necessary translation rate of less than 1 mm/hr results in a situation where fluid flow induced by gravity on earth is a significant factor in material transport. The Advanced Automated Directional Solidification Furnace (AADSF) is equipped to provide the stable thermal environment with a high gradient, and the required slow translation rate needed. Ground based experiments in AADSF show clearly the dominance of flow driven transport. The first flight of AADSF in low gravity on USMP-2 provided an opportunity to test theories of fluid flow in MCT and showed several solidification regimes which are very different from those observed on earth. Residual acceleration vectors in the orbiter during the mission were measured by the Orbital Acceleration Research Experiment (OARE), and correlated well with observed compositional differences in the samples