An Economic Evaluation of Incineration as a Residual Municipal Solid Waste Management Option in Ireland

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and National Competitiveness Council (NCC) report that despite pressing EU policy requirements, Ireland remains heavily dependent on indigenous landfill capacity and overseas markets for its Residual Solid Waste (RMSW) reprocessing and waste to energy capacities. This deficit threatens Ireland’s competitiveness and its environmental policy objectives. In the context of government revisions to national waste policy, economic analysis should underpin the policy choices used to identify indigenous RMSW management alternatives to landfill. This paper seeks to make a contribution to the debate by evaluating the RMSW treatment option of incineration by performing a cost-benefit analysis (CBA). The research demonstrates that certain configurations of RMSW incineration can provide a net benefit, relative to the status quo of landfilling RMSW in Ireland. In doing so, the study illustrates the sensitivity of an incineration project’s benefits to its scale, operational costs and its capacity to recover energy. It finds that incineration does not provide a net benefit relative to landfill, if its scale and energy recovery capacity are insufficient. The methodology may be adapted to evaluate other RMSW infrastructure options e.g. mechanical, biological treatment (MBT).Cost-benefit analysis, Residual municipal solid waste, Incineration, Ireland

Sherlock: An Automated Follow-Up Telescope for Wide-Field Transit Searches

The most significant challenge currently facing photometric surveys for transiting gas-giant planets is that of confusion with eclipsing binary systems that mimic the photometric signature. A simple way to reject most forms of these false positives is high-precision, rapid-cadence monitoring of the suspected transit at higher angular resolution and in several filters. We are currently building a system that will perform higher-angular-resolution, multi-color follow-up observations of candidate systems identified by Sleuth (our wide-field transit survey instrument at Palomar), and its two twin system instruments in Tenerife and northern Arizona.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, to appear in AIP Conf Proc: The Search for Other Worlds, eds. S. S. Holt & D. Demin

‘We kind of try to merge our own experience with the objectivity of the criteria’: The role of connoisseurship and tacit practice in undergraduate fine art assessment

This article explores connoisseurship in the context of fine art undergraduate assessment practice. I interviewed twelve fine art lecturers in order to explore and unpack the concept of connoisseurship in relation to subjectivity, objectivity and tacit practice. Building on the work of Bourdieu (1973, 1977, 1986) and Shay (2003, 2005), both of whom problematize the view that subjectivity and objectivity are binary opposites, my research illustrates the ways that connoisseurship is underpinned by informed professional judgements located in communities of practice. Within this particular conception of connoisseurship, the lecturers’ expertise is co-constituted in communities of assessors through participation and engagement. Standards reside in communities of practice

Exercise: The ultimate treatment to all ailments?

Extensive clinical research has provided robust evidence that exercise is a cost-effective measure to substantially alleviate the burden of a large number of diseases, many of which belong to the cardiovascular (CV) spectrum. In terms of cardiac benefit, the positive effects of exercise are attributed to improvements in standard risk factors for atherosclerosis, as well as to its positive impact on several pathophysiological mechanisms for CV diseases. For secondary prevention, exercise, optimally in the context of a cardiac rehabilitation program, has been shown to improve functional capacity and survival. Clinicians should encourage physical activity and provide exercise recommendations for all patients, taking into consideration any underlying pathology. In the present review, the benefits of exercise for the prevention and treatment of major CV risk factors and heart conditions are analyzed

Older adults and the unique role of the radiation therapist: Future directions for improving geriatric oncology training and education.

There is widespread recognition that the provision of high quality, appropriate and equitable care to older adults with cancer is a growing challenge in oncology practice. Radiation therapy (RT) is an effective and localised treatment that represents an attractive curative or palliative option for many older adults, and radiation therapists (RTT) play an important role in the delivery, support and quality of care for people during RT. The need to develop an evidence-based, global approach to improving all radiation oncology (RO) professionals' knowledge and clinical practice in geriatric oncology (GO) has been previously identified. This article specifically focusses on the status quo of GO clinical practice and education for RTT worldwide. We explore the unique clinical role that RTT play in the management of older adults with cancer and define multiple clinical care points in which RTT could potentially participate in geriatric screening, geriatric assessment and intervention to optimise the care of older adults, with a focus on dementia. Directions for future efforts to improve the knowledge and clinical skills of RTT in caring for older adults are discussed

Post-harvest soil water and N status in pulse fields in comparison to chem-fallow

Non-Peer Reviewe

Status, Trends and Attendance Patterns of the Northern Fulmar Fulmarus glacialis in Nunavut, Canada

Nunavut supports ten breeding colonies of northern fulmars (Fulmarus glacialis), most of which have rarely been visited on the ground by biologists. During 2000–04, we surveyed six colonies previously thought to support more than 80% of the Canadian Arctic population, which was believed to number about 300 000 breeding pairs. Our counts suggested that the breeding populations of some colonies, especially those at the largest colonies, Cape Searle and Prince Leopold Island, were substantially smaller than previously estimated. Our estimate for the total population of Nunavut was approximately 200 000 occupied sites. However, counts made at fixed monitoring plots at Prince Leopold Island and total colony estimates at Cape Vera, Devon Island, suggested no change in numbers at those colonies since the 1970s. Numbers present at the colony peaked in late June–early July and fell sharply after the end of July. Cyclical attendance, identified in an earlier study, was irregular in period length and was not seen in all years. We concluded that counts of Apparently Occupied Sites (AOS) conducted daily for 10–15 days are the best monitoring protocol for northern fulmars at these Arctic colonies. The great day-to-day variability in counts may have contributed to the large differences between past and recent population estimates.Le Nunavut permet la subsistance de dix colonies de nidification de fulmars boréaux (Fulmarus glacialis), et rares sont les colonies qui ont été visitées par des biologistes au sol. De 2000 à 2004, nous avons recensé six colonies qui, croyait-on, soutenaient plus de 80 % de la population arctique canadienne, estimée à environ 300 000 couples reproducteurs. Nos dénombrements laissent supposer que les populations d’oiseaux nicheurs de certaines colonies, surtout les colonies les plus grosses, soit celles de cap Searle et de l’île Prince Leopold, sont nettement inférieures aux anciennes estimations. Notre estimation pour toute la population du Nunavut se chiffrait à environ 200 000 sites occupés. Toutefois, les dénombrements effectués à des lieux de surveillance fixes établis sur l’île Prince Leopold et les estimations totales des colonies de cap Vera, sur l’île Devon, laissent supposer qu’il n’y a pas eu de changement en ce qui a trait à ce nombre de colonies depuis les années 1970. Les nombres présents à la colonie ont atteint leur sommet vers la fin juin et le début juillet, après quoi ils ont chuté considérablement après la fin juillet. La fréquentation cyclique, dont il a été question dans une étude antérieure, était irrégulière pour ce qui est de la longueur de la période et n’était pas vue à toutes les années. Nous en avons donc conclu que les dénombrements de sites apparemment occupés qui ont été effectués quotidiennement pendant 10 à 15 jours représentent le meilleur protocole de surveillance des fulmars boréaux de ces colonies arctiques. L’importante variabilité enregistrée d’un jour à l’autre sur le plan des dénombrements pourrait avoir contribué aux grandes différences entre les estimations de population passées et récentes

c-axis Josephson Tunnelling in Twinned and Untwinned YBCO-Pb Junctions

Within a microscopic two band model of planes and chains with a pairing potential in the planes and off diagonal pairing between planes and chains we find that the chains make the largest contribution to the Josephson tunnelling current and that through them the d-wave part of the gap contributes to the current. This is contrary to the usual assumption that for a d-wave tetragonal superconductor the c-axis Josephson current for incoherent tunnelling into an s-wave superconductor is zero while that of a d-wave orthorhombic superconductor with a small s-wave component to its gap it is small but non-zero. Nevertheless it has been argued that the effect of twins in YBCO would lead to cancellation between pairs of twins and so the observation of a current in c-axis YBCO-Pb experiments is evidence against a d-wave type order parameter. We argue that both theory and experiment give evidence that the two twin orientations are not necessarily equally abundant and that the ratio of tunnelling currents in twinned and untwinned materials should be related to the relative abundance of the two twin orientations.Comment: 6 pages, RevTeX 3.0, 15 PostScript figur

Two Hands on the Wheel: Steering Robotics Innovation in Useful Directions

Practices of innovation are not autonomous. Research in STS and innovation studies has shown both the speed of knowledge production, and crucially its direction, may be susceptible to change. Indeed, interventions to the rate and direction of innovation are crucial if we are to address address the transformations needed in the economy and wider society that might for example avoid the extremes of climate change and meet the sustainable development goals. Yet interventions in these regards remain inexact. Innovation policy is one way in which government seeks to drive the production of policy towards or away from specific ends. Recent initiatives such as efforts to include "co-creation" have sought to open up innovation practices to a wider range of actors, broadening participation. But what arrangements of objects, sites, publics, and concepts do these instruments create? And how might these arrangements contribute to the laudable if lofty goals of steering innovation in useful directions? The paper follows two innovation instruments designed to influence innovation in the domain of robotics; the establishment of a "certified testbed" and a "co-creation facility". The paper asks how do co-creation instruments in the field of robotics steer innovation towards social progress or otherwise? Using a situated analysis method, this paper traces the two instruments in and around a single robotics innovation facility in the United Kingdom