Reconciling Environmentalism and the Left: Perspectives on Democracy and Social Justice in British Columbia\u27s Environmental Movement

The article examines how political ideas of environmentalists support as well as impede relations between the environmental movement and other progressive movements. This requires examination of the role and meaning of social justice and democracy in the discourse of environmentalism. Ibis study focuses such an examination on a sample of environmental activists in British Columbia. Q methodology is used to discern patterns of association between particular sets of environmental ideas, and beliefs and values related to democracy and social justice. The authors identify four environmental/political perspectives: alienated ecocentrism, civic communitarianism, insider preservationism and green egalitarianism. These perspectives share a perception of justice focused on fair democratic procedures. Fairness is linked to inclusion and equal treatment

An Incremental Learning Method to Support the Annotation of Workflows with Data-to-Data Relations

Workflow formalisations are often focused on the representation of a process with the primary objective to support execution. However, there are scenarios where what needs to be represented is the effect of the process on the data artefacts involved, for example when reasoning over the corresponding data policies. This can be achieved by annotating the workflow with the semantic relations that occur between these data artefacts. However, manually producing such annotations is difficult and time consuming. In this paper we introduce a method based on recommendations to support users in this task. Our approach is centred on an incremental rule association mining technique that allows to compensate the cold start problem due to the lack of a training set of annotated workflows. We discuss the implementation of a tool relying on this approach and how its application on an existing repository of workflows effectively enable the generation of such annotations

Octilinear Force-Directed Layout with Mental Map Preservation for Schematic Diagrams

We present an algorithm for automatically laying out metro map style schematics using a force-directed approach, where we use a localized version of the standard spring embedder forces combined with an octilinear magnetic force. The two types of forces used during layout are naturally conflicting, and the existing method of simply combining these to generate a resultant force does not give satisfactory results. Hence we vary the forces, emphasizing the standard forces in the beginning to produce a well distributed graph, with the octilinear forces becoming prevalent at the end of the layout, to ensure that the key requirement of line angles at intervals of 45? is obtained. Our method is considerably faster than the more commonly used search-based approaches, and we believe the results are superior to the previous force-directed approach. We have further developed this technique to address the issues of dynamic schematic layout. We use a Delaunay triangulation to construct a schematic “frame”, which is used to retain relative node positions and permits full control of the level of mental map preservation. This technique is the first to combine mental map preservation techniques with the additional layout criteria of schematic diagrams. To conclude, we present the results of a study to investigate the relationship between the level of mental map preservation and the user response time and accuracy

Underlap counterdoping as an efficient means to suppress lateral leakage in the electron\u2013hole bilayer tunnel FET

The electron\u2013hole bilayer tunnel (EHBTFET)\uf0a0has been proposed as a density of states (DOS) switch capable of achieving a subthreshold slope lower than 60mV/decade at room temperature; however, one of the main challenges is the control of the lateral band-to-band tunneling (BTBT) leakage in the OFF state. In this work, we show that by using oppositely doped underlap regions; the unwanted penetration of the wavefunction into the underlap region at low gate biases is prevented; thereby drastically reducing the lateral BTBT leakage without any penalty on the ON current. The method is verified using a full-quantum 2D Schr\uf6dinger\u2013Poisson solver under the effective mass approximation. For a channel thickness of 10 nm, an In0.53Ga0.47As EHBTFET with counterdoping can exhibit an ON-current up to 20 mA mm and an average subthreshold swing (SS) of about 30 mV/dec. Compared to previous lateral leakage suppression solutions, the proposed method can be fabricated using template-assisted selective epitaxy

Comorbid Medical Conditions as Predictors of Overall Survival in Glioblastoma Patients

Glioblastoma (GBM) is an aggressive central nervous system tumor with a poor prognosis. This study was conducted to determine any comorbid medical conditions that are associated with survival in GBM. Data were collected from medical records of all patients who presented to VCU Medical Center with GBM between January 2005 and February 2015. Patients who underwent surgery/biopsy were considered for inclusion. Cox proportional hazards regression modeling was performed to assess the relationship between survival and sex, race, and comorbid medical conditions. 163 patients met inclusion criteria. Comorbidities associated with survival on individual-characteristic analysis included: history of asthma (Hazard Ratio [HR]: 2.63; 95% Confidence Interval [CI]: 1.24–5.58; p = 0.01), hypercholesterolemia (HR: 1.95; 95% CI: 1.09–3.50; p = 0.02), and incontinence (HR: 2.29; 95% CI: 0.95–5.57; p = 0.07). History of asthma (HR: 2.22; 95% CI: 1.02–4.83; p = 0.04) and hypercholesterolemia (HR: 1.99; 95% CI: 1.11–3.56; p = 0.02) were associated with shorter survival on multivariable analysis. Surgical patients with GBM who had a prior history of asthma or hypercholesterolemia had significantly higher relative risk for mortality on individual-characteristic and multivariable analyses

Determining the Mechanical Properties of Microcrystalline Cellulose (MCC)-Filled PET-PTT Blend Composites

Polymer composite materials consisting of poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET)-poly(trimethylene terephthalate) (PTT) blends and microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) were prepared by injection molding. The composites were analyzed for tensile, flexural, and impact strength as well as density determinations. There was no statistical difference in terms of mechanical properties between the control PET-PTT blend and 2.5 wt% MCC-filled composites. Because of better compatibility as well as better stress-transfer properties, the tensile strength of the composites was larger (reaching values from 24.8-36.3 MPa with the addition of 20 wt% MCC). Elongation at break of the composites was greater (reaching values from 2.3-3.3% with the addition of 20 wt% MCC). The tensile modulus of MCC-filled composites systemically increased with increasing MCC loading (reaching values from 1.11-1.68 GPa with the addition of 30 wt% MCC). The flexural modulus of composites was higher than the control PET-PTT blend. The modulus also increased with increasing MCC loading (reaching values from 2.10-3.37 GPa with the addition of 30 wt% MCC). The Izod impact strength of the composites decreased as the MCC loading increased and this observation was in good agreement with commonly observed filled polymer systems