Blindfolded Into Debt: A Comparison of Credit Card Costs and Conditions at Banks and Credit Unions

This report analyzes the deceptive effect of credit card terms and conditions and how these terms and conditions massively raise the cost of using credit cards and contribute to rising levels of consumer debt

Reinvestment Alert 26: Banking on Bounced Checks

Bounce protection, a product that is regularly offered to many bank customers as a convenience, has turned into an excessively priced loan program, key features of which are hidden from consumers. This report analyzes the fee structure of bounce protection products offered by several major Chicago region banks

Automated reduction of submillimetre single-dish heterodyne data from the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope using ORAC-DR

With the advent of modern multi-detector heterodyne instruments that can result in observations generating thousands of spectra per minute it is no longer feasible to reduce these data as individual spectra. We describe the automated data reduction procedure used to generate baselined data cubes from heterodyne data obtained at the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope. The system can automatically detect baseline regions in spectra and automatically determine regridding parameters, all without input from a user. Additionally it can detect and remove spectra suffering from transient interference effects or anomalous baselines. The pipeline is written as a set of recipes using the ORAC-DR pipeline environment with the algorithmic code using Starlink software packages and infrastructure. The algorithms presented here can be applied to other heterodyne array instruments and have been applied to data from historical JCMT heterodyne instrumentation.Comment: 18 pages, 13 figures, submitted to Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Societ

The effect of flow circulation on the scattering of landing gear noise

An investigation into the scattering of landing gear noise sources by a lifting wing is presented. A two-dimensional test case is used in the investigation. The noise sources are represented by a monopole, which is located at the approximate position of a landing gear underneath a wing geometry. A linearized Euler equation solver is used to simulate the scattering of the monopole by the wing. The effect of a non-uniform flowfield due to circulation induced by a lifting wing is quantified as the difference in acoustic scattering over uniform and non-uniform base flows. The results show that increasing the angle of attack, or increasing the Mach number, leads to a small increase in the sound pressure level towards the ground. However, the observed increase is relatively small. A boundary element method solver is then used to investigate the same problem, and existing uniform and non-uniform flow boundary element formulations are evaluated to see which more accurately predicts the effect of flow. The results show that the uniform flow boundary element formulation is more accurate in predicting the effect of flow than the non-uniform flow approximation for this particular problem, and that the extra computational effort required for the non-uniform flow approximation does not yield a more accurate result

Letters from Mungo: A Dialogue on Decolonisation to Improve Academic Engagement with Aboriginal Students

A challenge for all universities in Australia is how to engage, and importantly, retain Aboriginal students. It can be tempting to think that addressing that challenge primarily concerns services, support and content. However, that response views the point of adaptation in the student. Academics also need to adapt and evolve if their relationship with Aboriginal students is to be improved and be embracing of how an alternative world view may enhance their own and hence their teaching. Much has been written on what constitutes decolonisation in education and how to achieve it, often involving an Indigenous voice. Less has been written on the personal transition required to realise decolonised practice so that what is experienced by all is inclusive and meaningful. This concerns what the colonisers need to do to bring about change in themselves. To explore this issue, a shared self-reflective dialogue is presented between an academic and a government scientist who have each been transformed by their experience of working with Aboriginal people. Over the structured discussion, a number of threshold concepts come to light that need to be embraced as fundamental elements on the journey to decolonisation. The work is purposefully self-reflective so that others can share the direct feedback we have had from working closely with Aboriginal people in Australia

Challenging perspectives on the cellular origins of lymphoma.

Both B and T lymphocytes have signature traits that set them apart from other cell types. They actively and repeatedly rearrange their DNA in order to produce a unique and functional antigen receptor, they have potential for massive clonal expansion upon encountering antigen via this receptor or its precursor, and they have the capacity to be extremely long lived as 'memory' cells. All three of these traits are fundamental to their ability to function as the adaptive immune response to infectious agents, but concurrently render these cells vulnerable to transformation. Thus, it is classically considered that lymphomas arise at a relatively late stage in a lymphocyte's development during the process of modifying diversity within antigen receptors, and when the cell is capable of responding to stimulus via its receptor. Attempts to understand the aetiology of lymphoma have reinforced this notion, as the most notable advances to date have shown chronic stimulation of the antigen receptor by infectious agents or self-antigens to be key drivers of these diseases. Despite this, there is still uncertainty about the cell of origin in some lymphomas, and increasing evidence that a subset arises in a more immature cell. Specifically, a recent study indicates that T-cell lymphoma, in particular nucleophosmin-anaplastic lymphoma kinase-driven anaplastic large cell lymphoma, may originate in T-cell progenitors in the thymus.T.I.M.M. was supported by a Bloodwise Gordon Piller Studentship.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from The Royal Society via https://doi.org/10.1098/rsob.16023

Climate Change and Health in British Columbia: Projected Impacts and a Proposed Agenda for Adaptation Research and Policy

This is a case study describing how climate change may affect the health of British Columbians and to suggest a way forward to promote health and policy research, and adaptation to these changes. After reviewing the limited evidence of the impacts of climate change on human health we have developed five principles to guide the development of research and policy to better predict future impacts of climate change on health and to enhance adaptation to these change in BC. We suggest that, with some modification, these principles will be useful to policy makers in other jurisdictions

Observatory/data centre partnerships and the VO-centric archive: The JCMT Science Archive experience

We present, as a case study, a description of the partnership between an observatory (JCMT) and a data centre (CADC) that led to the development of the JCMT Science Archive (JSA). The JSA is a successful example of a service designed to use Virtual Observatory (VO) technologies from the start. We describe the motivation, process and lessons learned from this approach.Comment: Accepted for publication in the second Astronomy & Computing Special Issue on the Virtual Observatory; 10 pages, 5 figure