A framework for documenting and analyzing life-cycle costs using a simple network based representation

The introduction of high reliability systems combined with new ways of operating complex systems, particularly in aircraft design and operation has received much attention in recent years. Some systems are now being introduced into service, however, justifying such systems on a financial basis is difficult and may act to limit the rate of introduction on new products. Conventional life cycle costing based on a hierarchical cost breakdown structure is poor at recording and analysing the cost implications of introducing new technologies that have effects that span more than one phase in the life cycle. There is a risk that too much emphasis is put on ‘faith’ that a candidate technology will reduce cost because the cost analysis methods lack descriptive and analytical power. We describe an approach to representing the costs associated with introducing new technologies and evaluating their total cost. Our aim was to facilitate the comparison of different technological choices in new product development, with a particular interest in how the perceived benefits of enhanced reliability systems can be shown in a way that is inclusive, objective and easy to understand

A Note on Cogito

Abstract A Note to Cogito Les Jones Blackburn College Previous submissions include -Intention, interpretation and literary theory, a first lookWittgenstein and St Augustine A DiscussionAreas of Interest – History of Western Philosophy, Miscellaneous Philosophy, European A Note on Cogito Descartes' brilliance in driving out doubt, and proving the existence of himself as a thinking entity, is well documented. Sartre's critique (or maybe extension) is both apposite and grounded and takes these enquiries on to another level. Let's take a look. 'I think' somehow, for all its power, lacks something. What? Consider what one does when thinking (difficult, but we can try). Implicit in the word 'think', in fact the very essence of the word 'think', is that activity is going on, and if such activity is going on then it must be going on about something, an object, an emotion, a problem,or maybe some dreamlike state, but common to all these is that something is going on. Is that really so? Well, if that wasn't so we would be able to think in a pure state, wouldn't we? But what does a pure state of 'thinking' mean? It can't mean that there isnothing there, because if there were nothing there then no thinking would be taking place. Can it mean that we are thinking of nothing? Well no, because if we are thinking of nothing then we are thinking of something, we are contemplating the notion, or the nature, of nothing. In fact, one can argue that if we talk of something, inthis case nothing or nothingness, then in our head we have some notion of what that is, i.e. something exists in the mind for it to come out of our mouths. Thinking is a recognition of something outside the individual, for the very act of direction, which isan indispensable part of thinking, recognises, must recognise, that there are things to address outside the individual. Something else to bear in mind. According to Sartre human beings are condemned to freedom. Why condemned? Human beings did not choose to be born, but the act ofbeing born also imparts the freedom of which Sartre speaks. Freedom is something which we parrot off as being a sine qua non for the human condition. I believe that's true, but freedom in this sense isn't without its consequences for the individual humanbeing, for individual human beings handle freedom differently. To some it enables them to fly, to others it imparts immense pressures, anguish, heartbreak, unhappiness can all be associated with such freedom. Each individual is responsible for his destiny, for his direction. If someone says that God impelled him, that individual chose his or her God, and chose to obey his or her God. This believer has to sift through the multitude of things that his or her God desire of him or her. All this is fine, so long as we acknowledge what is going on here. Belief in God is, by definition, a belief. Belief, following Wittgenstein, is a language game with its rules and its boundaries. The essential feature of religion as language game are its boundaries, which can be summed up in the word belief. OK, belief has its practises which are its constituent parts, but belief is the boundary between religion and other language games, as the proof constituents are different. Our world is determined by the language used to describe everything that goes on within it. The boundaries of our world are set by the language we use. This might be better put as language gives access to ever expending boundaries. Ever expanding boundaries are only possible by ever expanding thought, and ever expanding thought is only possible by ever expanding directions to our thought brought about through language. It is a fact taken that to be conscious is to think. How could this be otherwise? Consciousness without thought just does not make sense. Imagine a state of consciousness without directional thought. What would it be like? It would be something never experienced, completely out of our understanding. Why? Because understanding itself is a directional thought process. If we say we are going outside our understanding then that is a world of void, and a world of void does not exist. Can such a world be contemplated in our thinking? Well, yes, but then it requires thinking, and thinking requires direction, and such direction requires language. Why does direction require language? Because there is no other way for human beings to articulate a directional thought. Could one point at an image without language? Well, one could have an image in mind, but the essence of saying something about it, of descriptive power, brings us back to the essence, to the power of language to direct. So what of this language of which we speak? Wittgenstein's private language argument points us towards the notion that language itself constantly develops and redevelops through human interaction. Descarte's cogito implies that thinking rules out doubt of one's own existence. But such thinking, to be valid, to make sense, to direct, must develop in a language that has developed, has been verified, by a plurality, by a plurality whose essence is social. Correct use of language symbols, i.e. words, requires that we verify and reverify the accuracy of such symbols. How do we do that? We do that in constant usage, in constant interaction, with other human beings. An individual using a private language could not be understood by others, his symbol system has not been verified by others, his meanings may not be your meanings. It follows from what we have said above that language is constructed, and is continually constructed, in a social context. Given our previous thoughts regarding verification this could not be otherwise. Language has a normative form. All language users are required, by their very use of the language, to verify the use of terms, grammar etc etc. As Wittgenstein cites (appropriately) games as a model, let us take a look. If I play e.g. Ludo, I am governed by the rules. It is not just that I may play dishonestly, for if I were to play at all that very dishonesty, to count as Ludo, would have to be rule governed. The rules of Ludo are Ludo, they are the essence and the constitution of it. Wittgenstein, particularly in his later writings, interweaves many concepts, and connects them in different and sometimes rather elusive ways. Wittgenstein sees concepts like emotions, sentiments and experiences in these interweaving maps. Of course these can be regarded as psychological concepts ** Language can be considered in another but related way, as embodying the elements of a cultural heritage. Language was seen as embodying the notion of higher culture in the arts, architecture etc. Over recent decades this has tended to shift to consider less tangible benefits, such things as oral traditions, cultural values and cultural identity. So language enables us to explore, through the achievements of past generations, cultural mores that may have laid unchallenged for many years. Many of these values and mores may be seen as independent of the language by which they are transmitted, but still this monumental accomplishment of mankind i.e. language, enables man to explore, to modify, to codify, to extend the boundaries of human experience. There are therefore massive implications for our Note on Cogito of Wittgenstein's work. Following Wittgenstein emotions and other psychological concepts can be termed depth grammar, and are distinguished by the fact that the third person of the present is recognised by observation, the first person is not. Taking Wittgenstein's well known pain example the sentence 'He is in pain' is a third person statement of an observational nature. The sentence 'I am in pain' is not derived from observation but from experience, it is an expression of that experience, it's essence is the experience. The asymmetry consists in the fact that predicting psychological attributes of others is warranted by what they do and say. By contrast, the use of such statements in the first person present tense does not rest on one's observation of one's own behaviour. (Hacker 2010:287) p 9 According to Wittgenstein 'I am in pain' is more like a cry of pain, an expression of pain, than a report of some pain. Of course this appertains for other similar statements. 'I feel good' etc

Effects of diet forage source and neutral detergent fiber content on milk production of dairy cattle and methane emissions determined using GreenFeed and respiration chamber techniques

Strategies to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions from dairy cattle are unlikely to be adopted if production or profitability is reduced. The primary objective of this study was to examine the effects of high maize silage (MS) vs. high grass silage (GS) diets, without or with added neutral-detergent fiber (NDF) on milk production and methane emission of dairy cattle, using GreenFeed (GF) or respiration chamber (RC) techniques for methane emission measurements. Experiment 1 was 12-wks in duration with a randomized block continuous design and 40 Holstein cows (74 d in milk; DIM) in free-stall housing, assigned to 1 of 4 dietary treatments (n = 10 per treatment), according to calving date, parity and milk yield. Milk production and dry matter intake (DMI) were measured daily, and milk composition measured weekly, with methane yield (g/kg DMI) estimated using a GF unit (wks 10 to 12). Experiment 2 was a 4 × 4 Latin Square Design with 5-wk periods and 4 dairy cows (114 DIM) fed the same 4 dietary treatments as in experiment 1. Measurements of DMI, milk production and composition occurred in wk 4, and DMI, milk production and methane yield were measured for 2 d in RC during wk 5. Dietary treatments for both experiments were fed as TMRs offered ad libitum and containing 500 g silage/kg DM comprised of either 75:25 MS:GS (MS) or 25:75 MS:GS (GS), without or with added NDF from chopped straw and soy hulls (+47 g NDF/kg DM; MSNDF and GSNDF). In both experiments, compared to high GS, cows fed high MS had a higher (P = 0.01) DMI, greater (P = 0.01) milk production, and lower (P = 0.02) methane yield (24% lower in experiment 1 using GF and 8% lower in experiment 2 using RC). Added NDF increased (or tended to increase) methane yield for high MS, but not high GS diets (P = 0.02 for experiment 1 and P = 0.10 for experiment 2, forage type × NDF interaction). In the separate experiments the GF and RC methods detected similar dietary treatment effects on methane emission (expressed as g/d and g/kg DMI), although the magnitude of the difference varied between experiments for dietary treatments Overall methane emission and yield were 448 g/d and 20.9 g/kg DMI using GF for experiment 1 using GF and 458 g/d and 23.8 g/kg DMI for experiment 2 using RC, respectively

Isothermal amplification and fluorescent detection of SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV-2 variant virus in nasopharyngeal swabs

The COVID-19 pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 is a serious health threat causing worldwide morbidity and mortality. Real-time reverse transcription PCR (RT-qPCR) is currently the standard for SARS-CoV-2 detection. Although various nucleic acid-based assays have been developed to aid the detection of SARS-CoV-2 from COVID-19 patient samples, the objective of this study was to develop a diagnostic test that can be completed in 30 minutes without having to isolate RNA from the samples. Here, we present an RNA amplification detection method performed using reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP) reactions to achieve specific, rapid (30 min), and sensitive (<100 copies) fluorescent detection in real-time of SARS-CoV-2 directly from patient nasopharyngeal swab (NP) samples. When compared to RT-qPCR, positive NP swab samples assayed by fluorescent RT-LAMP had 98% (n = 41/42) concordance and negative NP swab samples assayed by fluorescent RT-LAMP had 87% (n = 59/68) concordance for the same samples. Importantly, the fluorescent RT-LAMP results were obtained without purification of RNA from the NP swab samples in contrast to RT-qPCR. We also show that the fluorescent RT-LAMP assay can specifically detect live virus directly from cultures of both SARS-CoV-2 wild type (WA1/2020), and a SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.7 (alpha) variant strain with equal sensitivity to RT-qPCR. RT-LAMP has several advantages over RT-qPCR including isothermal amplification, speed (<30 min), reduced costs, and similar sensitivity and specificity

Mucus entrapment of particles by a suspension-feeding tilapia (Pisces: Cichlidae)

A miniature fiberoptic endoscope was used to observe the processes of particle encounter and retention inside the buccopharyngeal cavity of suspension-feeding tilapia. Small particles (38 µm to 1.0 mm in diameter) were trapped in strands and aggregates of mucus, which usually slid posteriorly on the ceratobranchials of arches I­IV towards the esophagus while the fish pumped water through the buccopharyngeal cavity. During stage 1 of periodic reversals of water flow inside the buccopharynx, mucus-bound particles usually lifted off the arch surfaces and travelled a short distance in an anterior or anterodorsal direction. During stage 2 of a reversal, the mucus usually resumed travel in a posterior or posteroventral direction and exited the field of view. Mucus was present less often during feeding on large particles (3­10 mm in diameter) than on small particles, and large particles were rarely observed to be attached to mucus. We discuss the advantages to suspension-feeding fishes of using aerosol filtration by mucus entrapment rather than sieving, and predict that many cichlid and cyprinid suspension feeders that consume bacteria and phytoplankton use mucus for aerosol filtration

The accuracy of clinical symptoms and signs for the diagnosis of serious bacterial infection in young febrile children: prospective cohort study of 15 781 febrile illnesses

Objectives To evaluate current processes by which young children presenting with a febrile illness but suspected of having serious bacterial infection are diagnosed and treated, and to develop and test a multivariable model to distinguish serious bacterial infections from self limiting non-bacterial illnesses