A movable stop mechanism for the SIRE telescope

A movable stop mechanism (MSM) designed to activate flaps that change the size and shape of a telescope aperture stop on command is described. Operating at the cryogenic temperatures of the optical system, it consists primarily of a rotary solenoid that drives (activates) dual four-bar linkages in synchronism that in turn rotate the butterfly flaps into position. The design, performance characteristics, and testing of this mechanism are discussed. Specific problems that occurred during testing and the solutions that were adopted are also described

User roles in asynchronous distributed collaborative idea generation

This paper presents the findings of an exploratory study within a real-life context that investigates participant behaviour and emergent user roles in asynchronous distributed collaborative idea generation by a defined community of users. In the study, a high-fidelity prototype of an online virtual ideas room was built and used by a Community of Interest consisting of representatives from 10 different voluntary organisations spread across Denmark. The study revealed five user roles, which the authors propose that future asynchronous distributed collaborative idea generation platforms should consider

A Delphi Study of Additive Manufacturing Applicability for United States Air Force Civil Engineer Contingency Operations

Additive manufacturing is a relatively new technique that is gaining popularity in many applications. This research examines the possibilities for the integration of additive manufacturing (AM) machines in United States Air Force civil engineer (CE) contingency operations. A Delphi study was conducted that combined the knowledge and experience of experts in both the AM industry and the Air Force CE community to forecast the possible benefits and drawbacks of this novel AM application. The results of this Delphi study indicate that including an AM machine would be beneficial in meeting deployed Air Force CE requirements. Further, AM technology has reached a point that a pilot study would be beneficial to validate the benefits of including an AM machine in CE operations. Proposed goals of, and a design for this study are presented. Further, the results indicate that within the next five years, AM technology will have progressed far enough that a full-scale deployment of AM machines to meet Air Force CE contingency requirements will be beneficial

Sacrificing sovereignty by chance: investment treaties, developing countries, and bounded rationality

One of the striking features of modern globalization is the rising prominence of international law as governing institution for state-market relations. Nowhere has this been as pronounced as in the international investment regime. Although hardly known to anyone but specialized international lawyers merely 15 years ago, bilateral investment treaties (BITs) have today become some of the most potent legal tools underwriting economic globalization. This thesis seeks to explain why developing countries adopted investment treaties as part of their governing apparatus. The study combines econometric analysis with archival work as well as insights from more than one hundred interviews with decision-makers in the international investment regime. On this basis, it finds ‘traditional’ explanatory models of international policy diffusion insufficient to account for the BIT-movement. Instead, both qualitative and econometric evidence strongly indicates that a bounded rationality framework is best suited to explain the popularity of BITs in the developing world. Although careful cost-benefit considerations drove some developing countries to adopt investment treaties, this was rare. By overestimating the benefits of BITs and ignoring the risks, developing country governments often saw the treaties as merely ‘tokens of goodwill’. Many thereby sacrificed their sovereignty more by chance than by design, and it was typically not until they were hit by their first claim, officials realised that the treaties were enforceable in both principle and fact. The thesis is relevant to a wide range of literature. Apart from being the first comprehensive international relations study on investment treaties, its multimethod approach provides a robust and nuanced view of the drivers of international policy diffusion. Moreover, the study is the first major work in international political economy literature applying insights on systematic – and thus predictable – cognitive heuristics found in the behavioural economics discipline

Conflicting priorities: evaluation of an intervention to improve nurse-parent relationships on a Tanzanian paediatric ward.

BACKGROUND: Patient, or parent/guardian, satisfaction with health care provision is important to health outcomes. Poor relationships with health workers, particularly with nursing staff, have been reported to reduce satisfaction with care in Africa. Participatory research approaches such as the Health Workers for Change initiative have been successful in improving provider-client relationships in various developing country settings, but have not yet been reported in the complex environment of hospital wards. We evaluated the HWC approach for improving the relationship between nurses and parents on a paediatric ward in a busy regional hospital in Tanzania. METHODS: The intervention consisted of six workshops, attended by 29 of 31 trained nurses and nurse attendants working on the paediatric ward. Parental satisfaction with nursing care was measured with 288 parents before and six weeks after the workshops, by means of an adapted Picker questionnaire. Two focus-group discussions were held with the workshop participants six months after the intervention. RESULTS: During the workshops, nurses demonstrated awareness of poor relationships between themselves and mothers. To tackle this, they proposed measures including weekly meetings to solve problems, maintain respect and increase cooperation, and representation to administrative forces to request better working conditions such as equipment, salaries and staff numbers. The results of the parent satisfaction questionnaire showed some improvement in responsiveness of nurses to client needs, but overall the mean percentage of parents reporting each of 20 problems was not statistically significantly different after the intervention, compared to before it (38.9% versus 41.2%). Post-workshop focus-group discussions with nursing staff suggested that nurses felt more empathic towards mothers and perceived an improvement in the relationship, but that this was hindered by persisting problems in their working environment, including poor relationships with other staff and a lack of response from hospital administration to their needs. CONCLUSION: The intended outcome of the intervention was not met. The priorities of the intervention--to improve nurse-parent relationships--did not match the priorities of the nursing staff. Development of awareness and empathy was not enough to provide care that was satisfactory to clients in the context of working conditions that were unsatisfactory to nurses

Dødsfald. Forpagter J. Willumsen, Anhof.

Dødsfald. Forpagter J. Willumsen, Anhof