10,583 research outputs found
Alterplinarity â âAlternative Disciplinarityâ in Future Art and Design Research Pursuits
Contemporary design is typified by fluid, evolving patterns of practice that regularly traverse, transcend and transfigure historical disciplinary and conceptual boundaries. This mutability means that design research, education, and practice is constantly shifting, creating, contesting and negotiating new terrains of opportunities and re-shaping the boundaries of the discipline. This paper proposes that this is because globalisation and the proliferation of the digital has resulted in connections that are no longer âamidâ, cannot be measured âacrossâ, nor encompass a âwholeâ system, which has generated an âotherâ dimension (Bourriaud, 2009), an âalternative disciplinarityâ - an âalterplinarityâ. As the fragmentation of distinct disciplines has shifted creative practice from being âdiscipline-basedâ to âissue- or project-basedâ (Heppell, 2006), we present the argument that the researcher, who purposely blurs distinctions and has dumped methods from being âdiscipline-basedâ to âissue- or project-basedâ, will be best placed to make connections that generate new ways to identify âotherâ dimensions of design research, activity and thought that is needed for the complex, interdependent issues we now face. We present the case that reliance on the historic disciplines of design as the boundaries of our understanding has been superseded by a boundless space/time that we call âalterplinarityâ. The digital has modified the models of design thought and action, and as a result research and practice should transform from a convention domesticated by the academy to a reaction to globalisation that is yet to be disciplined
Value Creation or Destruction: The Role of Private label in UK Grocery Category Management Decisions
Category management is a collaborative approach between food manufacturers and retailers to manage product categories rather than individual brands. It operates at both strategic and operational levels and seeks to create value ultimately for the consumer. The paper contributes to the literature and practice. It uses a qualitative interview study of twenty five senior practitioners and explores the role of private label products within UK grocery categories as consumers continue to switch due to lower prices and comparable quality to the traditional brands. The research also examines how private label manufacturers can create value within the category management relationship and how they can aspire to category captainship if they generate retailer specific and differentiated category strategies. The paper accepts its limitations and explains how further research in this important field of retailing is necessary to update the literature and help practitioners navigate their way through turbulent sector change
Geographic profiling - The debate continues: Ten problems with the Rossmo and Filer defence of computer profiling.
Power Law Distribution of the Duration and Magnitude of Recessions in Capitalist Economies : Breakdown of Scaling
Power law distributions of macroscopic observables are ubiquitous in both the
natural and social sciences. They are indicative of correlated, cooperative
phenomena between groups of interacting agents at the microscopic level. In
this paper we argue that when one is considering aggregate macroeconomic data
(annual growth rates in real per capita GDP in the seventeen leading capitalist
economies from 1870 through to 1994) the magnitude and duration of recessions
over the business cycle do indeed follow power law like behaviour for a
significant proportion of the data (demonstrating the existence of cooperative
phenomena amongst economic agents). Crucially, however, there are systematic
deviations from this behaviour when one considers the frequency of occurrence
of large recessions. Under these circumstances the power law scaling breaks
down. It is argued that it is the adaptive behaviour of the agents (their
ability to recognise the changing economic environment) which modifies their
cooperative behaviour.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures, Accepted for Publication in Physica
Incidence of wrong-site surgery list errors for a 2-year period in a single national health service board
Introduction: Wrong-site/side surgical "never events" continue to cause considerable harm to patients, healthcare professionals, and organizations within the United Kingdom. Incidence has remained static despite the mandatory introduction of surgical checklists. Operating theater list errors have been identified as a regular contributor to these never events. The aims of the study were to identify and to learn from the incidence of wrong-site/side list errors in a single National Health Service board.
Methods: The study was conducted in a single National Health Service board serving a population of approximately 300,000. All theater teams systematically recorded errors identified at the morning theater brief or checklist pause as part of a board-wide quality improvement project. Data were reviewed for a 2-year period from May 2013 to April 2015, and all episodes of wrong-site/side list errors were identified for analysis.
Results: No episodes of wrong-site/side surgery were recorded for the study period. A total of 86 wrong-site/side list errors were identified in 29,480 cases (0.29%). There was considerable variation in incidence between surgical specialties with ophthalmology recording the largest proportion of errors per number of surgical cases performed (1 in 87 cases) and gynecology recording the smallest proportion (1 in 2671 cases). The commonest errors to occur were "wrong-side" list errors (62/86, 72.1%).
Discussion: This is the first study to identify incidence of wrong-site/site list errors in the United Kingdom. Reducing list errors should form part of a wider risk reduction strategy to reduce wrong-site/side never events. Human factors barrier management analysis may help identify the most effective checks and controls to reduce list errors incidence, whereas resilience engineering approaches should help develop understanding of how to best capture and neutralize errors
Jupiter as a Giant Cosmic Ray Detector
We explore the feasibility of using the atmosphere of Jupiter to detect
Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECR's). The large surface area of Jupiter
allows us to probe cosmic rays of higher energies than previously accessible.
Cosmic ray extensive air showers in Jupiter's atmosphere could in principle be
detected by the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on the Fermi observatory. In order
to be observed, these air showers would need to be oriented toward the Earth,
and would need to occur sufficiently high in the atmosphere that the gamma rays
can penetrate. We demonstrate that, under these assumptions, Jupiter provides
an effective cosmic ray "detector" area of km. We predict
that Fermi-LAT should be able to detect events of energy eV with
fluence erg cm at a rate of about one per month. The observed
number of air showers may provide an indirect measure of the flux of cosmic
rays eV. Extensive air showers also produce a synchrotron
signature that may be measurable by ALMA. Simultaneous observations of Jupiter
with ALMA and Fermi-LAT could be used to provide broad constraints on the
energies of the initiating cosmic rays.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures. Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical
Journal Letter
Flatfish herding behavior in response to trawl sweeps: a comparison of diel responses to conventional sweeps and elevated sweeps
Commercial bottom trawls often have sweeps to herd fish into
the net. Elevation of the sweeps off the seaf loor may reduce seafloor disturbance, but also reduce herding
effectiveness. In both field and laboratory experiments, we examined the behavior of flatfish in response to sweeps. We tested the hypotheses that 1) sweeps are more effective at
herding flatfish during the day than at night, when fish are unable to see approaching gear, and that 2) elevation
of sweeps off the seafloor reduces herding during the day, but not at night. In sea trials, day catches were greater than night catches for four out of six flatfish species examined. The elevation of sweeps 10 cm significantly
decreased catches during the day, but not at night. Laboratory experiments revealed northern rock sole (Lepidopsetta polyxystra) and Pacific halibut (Hippoglossus stenolepis) were more likely to be herded\ud
by the sweep in the light, whereas in the dark they tended to pass under or over the sweep. In the light, elevation
of the sweep reduced herding, and more fish passed under the sweep. In contrast, in the dark, sweep elevation
had little effect upon the number of fish that exhibited herding behavior. The results of both field and laboratory
experiments were consistent with the premise that vision is the principle sensory input that controls fish behavior and orientation to trawl gear, and gear performance will differ
between conditions where flatfish can see, in contrast to where they cannot see, the approaching gear
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