The ergonomics of command and control

Since its inception, just after the Second World War, ergonomics research has paid special attention to the issues surrounding human control of systems. Command and Control environments continue to represent a challenging domain for Ergonomics research. We take a broad view of Command and Control research, to include C2 (Command and Control), C3 (Command, Control and Communication), and C4 (Command, Control, Communication and Computers) as well as human supervisory control paradigms. This special issue of ERGONOMICS aims to present state-of-the-art research into models of team performance, evaluation of novel interaction technologies, case studies, methodologies and theoretical review papers. We are pleased to present papers that detail research on these topics in domains as diverse as the emergency services (e.g., police, fire, and ambulance), civilian applications (e.g., air traffic control, rail networks, and nuclear power) and military applications (e.g., land, sea and air) of command and control. While the domains of application are very diverse, many of the challenges they face share interesting similarities

Systems of practice and the circular economy: transforming mobile phone product service systems

Of late, policy and research attention has increasingly focused on making the Circular Economy a reality. A key part of this agenda is the creation of Sustainable Product Service Systems (SPSS) that meet consumers’ needs whilst lessening negative environmental impacts. Although the SPSS literature has grown recently, key aspects require further examination. In response, this paper discusses empirical research exploring consumers’ reactions to a novel, hypothetical mobile phone SPSS, utilizing qualitative methods that included ‘business origami’. It examines consumers’ knowledge about current mobile phone life cycles, and responses to the proposed SPSS, drawing on a ‘systems of practice’ framework to discuss the potential for significant changes in phone purchase and use. It outlines barriers to alterations in practices, underscoring the centrality that connectivity and data storage now have in many peoples’ daily lives, which have for some become clustered around the capabilities and accessibility of the mobile phone

Contemporary Urban Vernaculars in Rap, Literature and in Translation in Sweden and the UK

This thesis explores the use of contemporary urban vernaculars in creative writing in Sweden and the UK. Contemporary urban vernaculars can be defined as varieties of informal speech that have emerged in urban areas with high ethnic and linguistic diversity, and have come to index social affiliation and identity. The thesis examines the form these varieties take when represented in selected examples of creative writing including rap lyrics, poetry, prose, drama, and translation. It also looks at the way such varieties progress from one form to another, arguing that there is a translation effect in operation as spoken language is codified through oral and written forms both within, and between, languages. In order to do all this, the study progresses through a number of steps. First it describes the linguistic phenomena in question; identifying potential equivalences between occurrences of these phenomena in Swedish and English. It then investigates the ways these forms of spoken language have found their way into rap, and then literature, as well as exploring the connections and disparities between these creative verbal forms, both in terms of their formal qualities and their social ones. The main literary corpus consists of a small number of works in Swedish published from 2001 to 2008, including a play, poems, short stories and novels. In addition to this corpus, the thesis discusses UK novels from 2003 and 2011, and a range of lyrics by rappers in Sweden and the UK, spanning a period from the early 1990s to 2014. Subsequently, it looks at the way translators working between Swedish and English have dealt with contemporary urban vernaculars in some of these texts, as well as discussing translators’ treatment of ‘non-standard’ language more generally. The thesis concludes by reflecting on the social implications of representing and codifying contemporary urban vernaculars in the ways described

Stability of 1-D Excitons in Carbon Nanotubes under High Laser Excitations

Through ultrafast pump-probe spectroscopy with intense pump pulses and a wide continuum probe, we show that interband exciton peaks in single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) are extremely stable under high laser excitations. Estimates of the initial densities of excitons from the excitation conditions, combined with recent theoretical calculations of exciton Bohr radii for SWNTs, suggest that their positions do not change at all even near the Mott density. In addition, we found that the presence of lowest-subband excitons broadens all absorption peaks, including those in the second-subband range, which provides a consistent explanation for the complex spectral dependence of pump-probe signals reported for SWNTs.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Spitzer 3.6 micron and 4.5 micron full-orbit lightcurves of WASP-18

We present new lightcurves of the massive hot Jupiter system WASP-18 obtained with the Spitzer spacecraft covering the entire orbit at 3.6 micron and 4.5 micron. These lightcurves are used to measure the amplitude, shape and phase of the thermal phase effect for WASP-18b. We find that our results for the thermal phase effect are limited to an accuracy of about 0.01% by systematic noise sources of unknown origin. At this level of accuracy we find that the thermal phase effect has a peak-to-peak amplitude approximately equal to the secondary eclipse depth, has a sinusoidal shape and that the maximum brightness occurs at the same phase as mid-occultation to within about 5 degrees at 3.6 micron and to within about 10 degrees at 4.5 micron. The shape and amplitude of the thermal phase curve imply very low levels of heat redistribution within the atmosphere of the planet. We also perform a separate analysis to determine the system geometry by fitting a lightcurve model to the data covering the occultation and the transit. The secondary eclipse depths we measure at 3.6 micron and 4.5 micron are in good agreement with previous measurements and imply a very low albedo for WASP-18b. The parameters of the system (masses, radii, etc.) derived from our analysis are in also good agreement with those from previous studies, but with improved precision. We use new high-resolution imaging and published limits on the rate of change of the mean radial velocity to check for the presence of any faint companion stars that may affect our results. We find that there is unlikely to be any significant contribution to the flux at Spitzer wavelengths from a stellar companion to WASP-18. We find that there is no evidence for variations in the times of eclipse from a linear ephemeris greater than about 100 seconds over 3 years.Comment: 17 pages, 10 figures. Accpeted for publication in MNRA

Ki67 expression levels are a better marker of reduced melanoma growth following MEK inhibitor treatment than phospho-ERK levels

The loss of tumour phospho-extracellular responsive kinase (pERK) positivity is the major treatment biomarker for mitogen-activated protein kinase/extracellular responsive kinase (MEK) inhibitors. Here, we demonstrate that there is a poor correlation between pERK inhibition and the anti-proliferative effects of MEK inhibitors in melanoma cells. We suggest that Ki67 is a better biomarker for future clinical studies

An investigation into six coal fly ashes from the United Kingdom and Poland to evaluate rare earth element content

AbstractRare earth elements have been identified by the European Commission as a critical raw material. Six European coal fly ashes have been investigated for their rare earth element content. A coal fly ash from the UK has levels of rare earth element that are approaching that which might be commercially viable to exploit. After classification there was found to be a slight enrichment in the smaller non-magnetic inorganic content of the coal fly ash