Bridging Opportunities in Human Health Services

The Campus to Community project aims to develop facilitated, in-depth site visits for VCU faculty and staff interested in exploring human health services opportunities in the Richmond community. The site visit experience will provide exposure to various community organizations specializing in human health, essentially creating a “bridge” between VCU’s campus and these facilities. This initiative is intended to motivate employees to action within the Richmond community by enabling them to observe first-hand the services that these organizations provide, learn more about the organizations’ missions, and engage in meaningful interactions with representatives on site. Likewise, it will allow Richmond community organizations to discuss unique needs and opportunities for partnerships with VCU

Making Up Instruments: Design Fiction for Value Discovery in Communities of Musical Practice

The design of a new technology entails the materialisation of values emerging from the specific community, culture and context in which that technology is created. Within the domain of musical interaction, HCI research often examines new digital tools and technologies which can carry unstated cultural assumptions. This paper takes a step back to present a value discovery exercise exploring the breadth of perspectives different communities might have in relation to the values inscribed in fictional technologies for musical interaction. We conducted a hands-on activity in which musicians active in different contexts were invited to envision not-yet-existent musical instruments. The activity revealed several sources of influence on participants’ artefacts, including cultural background, instrumental training, and prior experience with music technology. Our discussion highlights the importance of cultural awareness and value rationality for the design of interactive systems within and beyond the musical domain

The roles of static stability and tropical – extratropical interactions in the summer interannual variability of the North Atlantic sector

Summer seasonal forecast skill in the North Atlantic sector is lower than winter skill. To identify potential controls on predictability, the sensitivity of North Atlantic baroclinicity to atmospheric drivers is quantified. Using ERA-INTERIM reanalysis data, North Atlantic storm-track baroclinicity is shown to be less sensitive to meridional temperature-gradient variability in summer. Static stability shapes the sector’s interannual variability by modulating the sensitivity of baroclinicity to variations in meridional temperature gradients and tropopause height and by modifying the baroclinicity itself. High static stability anomalies at upper levels result in more zonal extratropical cyclone tracks and higher eddy kinetic energy over the British Isles in the summertime. These static stability anomalies are not strongly related to the summer NAO; but they are correlated with the suppression of convection over the tropical Atlantic and with a poleward-shifted subtropical jet. These results suggest a non-local driver of North Atlantic variability. Furthermore, they imply that improved representations of convection over the south-eastern part of North America and the tropical Atlantic might improve summer seasonal forecast skill

A Reply to My Critics: The Critical Spirit of Bourdieusian Language

Drawing on my article “Bourdieusian reflections on language: Unavoidable conditions of the real speech situation”, this paper provides a detailed response to the above commentaries by Lisa Adkins, Bridget Fowler, Michael Grenfell, David Inglis, Hans-Herbert Kögler, Steph Lawler, William Outhwaite, Derek Robbins and Bryan S. Turner. The main purpose of this “Reply to my critics” is to reflect upon the most important issues raised by these commentators and thereby contribute to a more nuanced understanding of key questions arising from Bourdieu’s analysis of language

Electric vehicle fast charging station usage and power requirements

The anticipated usage and power requirements of future fast charging points is critical information for organisations planning the rollout of electric vehicle charging infrastructure. This paper presents two novel methods to assist in such planning, one method to predict the time of day fast charging points will be used and one method to estimate the fast charging power required to satisfy electric vehicle driver requirements. The methods involve taking data from instrumented gasoline vehicles and assuming that all the journeys are instead conducted using full battery electric vehicles. The methods can be applied to any dataset of gasoline vehicle journeys that have key data, namely journey start and end times and distance travelled. The methods are demonstrated using a dataset from the United States. It is predicted that for long distance journeys, when the electric vehicle range is exceeded, fast charging point usage will peak in the evening, with 45% of daily fast charges occurring between the hours of 3pm and 7pm. It is also estimated that to satisfy 80% of long distance journeys a charging rate of 20 miles/minute is required, equating to a charging power of 400kW assuming the electric vehicles achieve a driving efficiency of 3 miles/kWh

Discovery of genes associated with fruit ripening in Carica papaya using expressed sequence tags

To identify genes involved in papaya fruit ripening, a total of 1171 expressed sequence tags (ESTs) were generated from randomly selected clones of two independent fruit cDNA libraries derived from yellow and red-fleshed fruit varieties. The most abundant sequences encoded: chitinase, 1-aminocyclopropane- 1-carboxylic acid (ACC) oxidase, catalase and methionine synthase, respectively. DNA sequence comparisons identified ESTs with significant similarity to genes associated with fruit softening, aroma and colour biosynthesis. Putative cell wall hydrolases, cell membrane hydrolases, and ethylene synthesis and regulation sequences were identified with predicted roles in fruit softening. Expressed papaya genes associated with fruit aroma included isoprenoid biosynthesis and shikimic acid pathway genes and proteins associated with acyl lipid catabolism. Putative fruit colour genes were identified due to their similarity with carotenoid and chlorophyll biosynthesis genes from other plant species. © 2005 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved

MILL DEMONSTRATION OF TMP PRODUCTION FROM FOREST THINNINGS: PULP QUALITY, REFINING ENERGY, AND HANDSHEET PROPERTIES

High-value, large-volume utilization of forest thinning materials from U.S. National Forests is a potentially important contributor to sustainable forest health. This study demonstrated the utilization of wood chips produced from thinnings for the production of thermomechanical pulp (TMP). Both whole-log chips (primarily from small-diameter logs, tops, and reject logs) and sawmill “residue” chips from a HewsawTM system (Mäntyharju, Finland) were evaluated. The residue chips produced in this study were substituted for a TMP mill’s standard residue chips up to about 50%. The whole-log chips were substituted for the mill’s whole-log chips up to about 30%. The results show that substitution of chips produced from forest thinnings reduced refining energy in all trials. Pulp quality was maintained throughout all trials

Wastewater-Based Epidemiology for monitoring community derived antimicrobials and resistance genes: a one-year longitudinal study

Increasing understanding and awareness of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is critical in tackling this growing global crisis. Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) is a promising approach to monitoring a range of AMR targets in communities through analysis of wastewater. This longitudinal study provides insight into antimicrobial (AA) usage within two communities in the South West of the UK, one city (Bath) and one town (Keynsham). AAs, including metabolites, from a range of different classes were quantified over the study period. Average loads of AAs were higher in Bath than for Keynsham (difference on average was 88 ± 6%) which reflected the larger population. Several AAs experienced seasonal fluctuations, such as the macrolides erythromycin and clarithromycin that were found in higher loads in the winter, whilst other AA levels, including sulfamethoxazole and sulfapyridine, stayed consistent over the study period. Several antimicrobial resistant genes (ARGs) were also studied within the city area, in order to determine how closely the abundance of these genes correlates with the levels of relevant AAs. Several genes including ermB, sul1 and intI1 were not found at statistically significant different loads in winter 2018/19 when compared to summer 2019. Due to relatively stable AA and ARG levels across 13 months monitoring time, no clear correlation was observed between absolute loads of ARGs and total loads of associated AAs by class. Hospital effluent within the city catchment was also investigated for AAs and ARGs. Several AAs were more common in hospital wastewater than in community wastewater, including sulfamethoxazole and trimethoprim. This work can help establish baselines for AA usage in communities, providing community-wide surveillance and evidence for informing public health interventions