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

Transverse cracking in the bulk and at the free edge of thin-ply composites: experiments and multiscale modelling

Thin-ply composites were shown to exhibit significantly delayed transverse cracking, but the linear onset of damage scaling with ply thickness reported by Amacher et al. (2014) did not correspond to the established LEFM based in situ strength model. This study further investigates this experimental behaviour by simultaneously comparing in situ free edge crack observation with acoustic emission measurements as well as performing ex-situ X-ray tomography observations of crack propagation. A multi-scale FE model was used to better understand the damage mechanisms at play, and showed a decreasing trend of the apparent toughness with decreasing ply thickness, which explains the deviation from the existing model. Transverse cracking at the free edges was observed to propagate quickly towards the center of the specimens for the thickest plies, while in the thinnest plies it is significantly delayed, up to a point where no cracks can reach the center of the sample before final failure

Using an epiphytic moss to identify previously unknown sources of atmospheric cadmium pollution

Urban networks of air-quality monitors are often too widely spaced to identify sources of air pollutants, especially if they do not disperse far from emission sources. The objectives of this study were to test the use of moss bioindicators to develop a fine-scale map of atmospherically-derived cadmium and to identify the sources of cadmium in a complex urban setting.We collected 346 samples of the moss Orthotrichum lyellii from deciduous trees in December, 2013 using a modified randomized grid-based sampling strategy across Portland, Oregon.We estimated a spatial linear model of moss cadmium levels and predicted cadmium on a 50 m grid across the city. Cadmium levels in moss were positively correlated with proximity to two stained-glass manufacturers, proximity to the Oregon– Washington border, and percent industrial land in a 500 m buffer, and negatively correlated with percent residential land in a 500 m buffer. The maps showed very high concentrations of cadmium around the two stained-glass manufacturers, neither of which were known to environmental regulators as cadmium emitters. In addition, in response to our findings, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality placed an instrumental monitor 120 m from the larger stained-glass manufacturer in October, 2015. The monthly average atmospheric cadmium concentration was 29.4 ng/m3,which is 49 times higher than Oregon\u27s benchmark of 0.6 ng/m3, and high enough to pose a health risk from even short-term exposure. Both stained-glass manufacturers voluntarily stopped using cadmium after the monitoring results were made public, and the monthly average cadmium levels precipitously dropped to 1.1 ng/m3 for stained-glass manufacturer #1 and 0.67 ng/m3 for stained-glass manufacturer #2

Using an epiphytic moss to identify previously unknown sources of atmospheric cadmium pollution

Urban networks of air-quality monitors are often too widely spaced to identify sources of air pollutants, especially if they do not disperse far from emission sources. The objectives of this study were to test the use of moss bioindicators to develop a fine-scale map of atmospherically-derived cadmium and to identify the sources of cadmium in a complex urban setting.We collected 346 samples of the moss Orthotrichum lyellii from deciduous trees in December, 2013 using a modified randomized grid-based sampling strategy across Portland, Oregon.We estimated a spatial linear model of moss cadmium levels and predicted cadmium on a 50 m grid across the city. Cadmium levels in moss were positively correlated with proximity to two stained-glass manufacturers, proximity to the Oregon– Washington border, and percent industrial land in a 500 m buffer, and negatively correlated with percent residential land in a 500 m buffer. The maps showed very high concentrations of cadmium around the two stained-glass manufacturers, neither of which were known to environmental regulators as cadmium emitters. In addition, in response to our findings, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality placed an instrumental monitor 120 m from the larger stained-glass manufacturer in October, 2015. The monthly average atmospheric cadmium concentration was 29.4 ng/m3,which is 49 times higher than Oregon\u27s benchmark of 0.6 ng/m3, and high enough to pose a health risk from even short-term exposure. Both stained-glass manufacturers voluntarily stopped using cadmium after the monitoring results were made public, and the monthly average cadmium levels precipitously dropped to 1.1 ng/m3 for stained-glass manufacturer #1 and 0.67 ng/m3 for stained-glass manufacturer #2

Sound Synthesis with Auditory Distortion Products

This article describes methods of sound synthesis based on auditory distortion products, often called combination tones. In 1856, Helmholtz was the first to identify sum and difference tones as products of auditory distortion. Today this phenomenon is well studied in the context of otoacoustic emissions, and the “distortion” is understood as a product of what is termed the cochlear amplifier. These tones have had a rich history in the music of improvisers and drone artists. Until now, the use of distortion tones in technological music has largely been rudimentary and dependent on very high amplitudes in order for the distortion products to be heard by audiences. Discussed here are synthesis methods to render these tones more easily audible and lend them the dynamic properties of traditional acoustic sound, thus making auditory distortion a practical domain for sound synthesis. An adaptation of single-sideband synthesis is particularly effective for capturing the dynamic properties of audio inputs in real time. Also presented is an analytic solution for matching up to four harmonics of a target spectrum. Most interestingly, the spatial imagery produced by these techniques is very distinctive, and over loudspeakers the normal assumptions of spatial hearing do not apply. Audio examples are provided that illustrate the discussion

Disposition of Federally Owned Surpluses

PDZ domains are scaffolding modules in protein-protein interactions that mediate numerous physiological functions by interacting canonically with the C-terminus or non-canonically with an internal motif of protein ligands. A conserved carboxylate-binding site in the PDZ domain facilitates binding via backbone hydrogen bonds; however, little is known about the role of these hydrogen bonds due to experimental challenges with backbone mutations. Here we address this interaction by generating semisynthetic PDZ domains containing backbone amide-to-ester mutations and evaluating the importance of individual hydrogen bonds for ligand binding. We observe substantial and differential effects upon amide-to-ester mutation in PDZ2 of postsynaptic density protein 95 and other PDZ domains, suggesting that hydrogen bonding at the carboxylate-binding site contributes to both affinity and selectivity. In particular, the hydrogen-bonding pattern is surprisingly different between the non-canonical and canonical interaction. Our data provide a detailed understanding of the role of hydrogen bonds in protein-protein interactions