Exploring the COT Briefing Paper on Sustainable Development: reducing carbon without reducing health

The development of efficient and effective service delivery in health and social care, to meet the needs of service users in this changing world. WFOT 2012 has called for occupational therapy practice to incorporate sustainable development.Occupational therapists could re-evaluate practice models and expand clinical reasoning about occupational performance to include global issues.In the UK, Climate Change will bring new challenges to the way occupational therapists work. If action is taken now some of the worst effects of climate change could be mitigated or prevented. There could be also needs to be preparation and planning for the inevitable challenges to come.The occupational therapy profession has an important role to play in sustainable health and social care at all levels and across all domains

The Karyology of Uraeotyphlus gansi, and Its Implications for the Systematics and Evolution of Uraeotyphlidae (Amphibia: Gymnophiona)

The gross karyotype of the uraeotyphlid caecilian Uraeotyphlus gansi is described as comprising 2n = 42 and fundamental number = 58. These are the first karyotype data for any species of malabaricus-group Uraeotyphlus, and the diploid number is the same as those ichthyophiids thus far studied and differs from the oxyurus-group Uraeotyphlus (2n = 36). These data support the recognition of two species groups within Uraeotyphlus, the monophyly of the oxyurus group, and the understanding that the ancestral diatriatan was more ichthyophiid-than uraeotyphlid-like. Copyright (C) 2010 S. Karger AG, Base

A new Indian species of Rhinophis Hemprich, 1820 closely related to R. sanguineus Beddome, 1863 (Serpentes: Uropeltidae)

A new species of the uropeltid (shieldtail snake) genus Rhinophis is described based on a type series of seven specimens from the Wayanad region of the Western Ghats of peninsular India. The holotype was collected before 1880 but had been misidentified as the phenotypically similar and parapatric (possibly partly sympatric) R. sanguineus. Rhinophis karinthandani sp. nov. is diagnosed by a combination of 15 dorsal scale rows at midbody, 4–8 pairs of subcaudal scales, colour pattern (uniformly dark above, whitish below with extensive dark mottling), and by its distinct mitochondrial DNA sequences (e.g. >7.6% uncorrected p-distance for nd4). Phylogenetic analysis of mitochondrial DNA sequence data indicates that the new species is most closely related to R. sanguineus among currently recognised species, with this pair most closely related to the partly sympatric R. melanoleucus. The new species description brings the number of currently recognised species in the genus to 24, six of which are endemic to India and 18 endemic to Sri Lanka. A new key to the identification of Indian species of Rhinophis is provided

Effective waves for random three-dimensional particulate materials

How do you take a reliable measurement of a material whose microstructure is random? When using wave scattering, the answer is often to take an ensemble average (average over time or space). By ensemble averaging we can calculate the average scattered wave and the effective wavenumber. To date, the literature has focused on calculating the effective wavenumber for a plate filled with particles. One clear unanswered question was how to extend this approach to a material of any geometry and for any source. For example, does the effective wavenumber depend on only the microstructure, or also on the material geometry? In this work, we demonstrate that the effective wavenumbers depend on only microstructure, though beyond the long wavelength limit there are multiple effective wavenumbers for one fixed incident frequency. We show how to calculate the average wave scattered from a random particulate material of any shape, and for broad frequency ranges. As an example, we show how to calculate the average wave scattered from a sphere filled with particles

Brewster-angle measurements of sea-surface reflectance using a high resolution spectroradiometer

This paper describes the design, construction and testing of a ship-borne spectroradiometer based on an imaging spectrograph and cooled CCD array with a wavelength range of 350-800 nm and 4 nm spectral sampling. The instrument had a minimum spectral acquisition time of 0.1 s, but in practice data were collected over periods of 10 s to allow averaging of wave effects. It was mounted on a ship's superstructure so that it viewed the sea surface from a height of several metres at the Brewster angle (53 degrees) through a linear polarizing filter. Comparison of sea-leaving spectra acquired with the polarizer oriented horizontally and vertically enabled estimation of the spectral composition of sky light reflected directly from the sea surface. A semi-empirical correction procedure was devised for retrieving water-leaving radiance spectra from these measurements while minimizing the influence of reflected sky light. Sea trials indicated that reflectance spectra obtained by this method were consistent with the results of radiance transfer modelling of case 2 waters with similar concentrations of chlorophyll and coloured dissolved organic matter. Surface reflectance signatures measured at three locations containing blooms of different phytoplankton species were easily discriminated and the instrument was sufficiently sensitive to detect solar-stimulated fluorescence from surface chlorophyll concentrations down to 1 mg m−3

Using Graph Theory to Produce Emergent Behaviour in Agent-Based Systems

Cooperation is a defining trait of Multi-Agent Systems. At the centre of these systems lies a communication network which governs how information flows from one agent to the next. However, the design of these networks is often overlooked despite the profound impact it can have on both the task performance of the agents and the emergent phenomena they produce. In this work we aim to illustrate this by investigating whether network centrality impacts the task performance and emergent inequality (unequal distribution of resources) of resource gathering agents. We achieve this by constructing several communication networks with increasing centrality and use them with an Agent-Based Model called GATHER. Our results indicate that as the variance of the population’s centrality increases, the task performance of an agent population will decrease. Furthermore, we demonstrate that simply changing the centrality of the network can produce distinct results and emergent phenomena (inequality or the lack thereof in our case). We then further support this claim by increasing the reciprocity of one of our communication networks which results in a system with greater task performance and significantly lower inequality, further illustrating the impact communication network topology can have on Multi-Agent Systems

Inequality and the Emergence of Social Stratification.

In this work, we investigate whether differential (unequal) resource access promotes social stratification (the partitioning of a population into hierarchical groups based on socioeconomic factors). We achieve this by conducting scenario experimentation with Neo- COOP, an ABM that utilizes a Cultural Algorithm to simulate the evolution of resource sharing preferences in an artificial society. By varying the agents’ initial resource sharing beliefs, the intensity of differential access, and the frequency at which the agents experience environmental stress. We find that while social stratification does increase when differential access increases, the effect is attenuated at the extremes with agents instead favouring an increase in selfish behaviour across the social strata. We also show that the severity (magnitude) of social stratification is most prominent in societies with initially selfish agents regardless of the intensity of differential access. Interestingly, our results also suggest that heterogeneous populations (agents with greater diversity of resource sharing beliefs) exhibit emergent social stratification to a lesser degree than homogenized populations (even in populations where agents are initialized to be altruistic)

Bioimpedance-derived membrane capacitance: Clinically relevant sources of variability, precision, and reliability

Membrane capacitance (