Measurement of solar UVB exposures in sea water with a high exposure dosimeter

For several decades, marine scientists have investigated the underwater ultraviolet light environment using a wide variety of spectroradiometric and radiometric equipment. These types of instruments are extremely useful for taking underwater measurements of the solar UV within a short window of time, for example recording fluctuations in UV levels caused by rapidly changing environmental parameters, like cloud cover or water turbidity. However, over long phases these spectroradiometers and radiometers become increasingly problematic to use, with high amounts of maintenance time necessary involving routine calibrations and corrections for the immersion effect. However, to supplement the short – term underwater measurements using spectroradiometers and radiometers, a new long – term dosimetric system employing Poly (2,6-dimethyl-1, 4-phenylene oxide) (PPO) film has been developed. The PPO film dosimeter has proven to be capable of measuring underwater UV dosages of at least five times that of the more commonly used polysulphone dosimeter, at a level of accuracy close to what would be expected of dosimetric measurements made in air provided that the necessary calibrations are completed correctly. This presentation details a measurement campaign made in a simulated sea water environment using a batch of PPO dosimeters set at different depths and aligned to a range of different inclinations and azimuths by means of attachment to a custom built dosimeter submersible float (DSF) unit. The results obtained from this measurement campaign were used to compute a diffuse attenuation coefficient (Kd) for the sea water. This Kd value was compared to a Kd value derived from results taken using a radiometer in the same water

The Process of Adaptation in Inter-Firm Relationships

Ross Brennan and Peter W. Turnbull, 'The Process of Adaptation in Inter-Firm Relationships, in Proceedings of the 12th annual IMP Group conference, presented at Interaction, Relationships and Networks, University of Karlsruhe, Germany: IMP.Adaptations are an important, arguably a defining, component of a long-term buyer-seller relationship. Substantial research evidence exists on the nature of the adaptations which arise within such relationships. The processes involved in adapting for a customer or supplier organisation are not so well understood. Five process metaphors for adaptation within buyer-seller relationships are explored. Each is found helpful to some extent in illuminating the process of adaptation. The metaphors are found to be complementary, so that taken together they provide a coherent process view of buyer-seller adaptations.Final Published versio

Failure of Sterne- and Pasteur-Like Strains of Bacillus anthracis to Replicate and Survive in the Urban Bluebottle Blow Fly Calliphora vicina under Laboratory Conditions

Britta von Terzi, Peter C. B. Turnbull, Wolfgang Beyer, University of Hohenheim, Institute of Environmental and Animal Hygiene, Stuttgart, GermanySteve E. Bellan, Center for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, United States of AmericaThis study aimed to elucidate the bacteriological events occurring within the gut of Calliphora vicina, selected as the European representative of blow flies held responsible for the spread of anthrax during epidemics in certain parts of the world. Green-fluorescent-protein-carrying derivatives of Bacillus anthracis were used. These lacked either one of the virulence plasmids pXO1 and pXO2 and were infected, or not infected, with a worm intestine phage (Wip4) known to influence the phenotype and survival of the pathogen. Blood meals were prepared for the flies by inoculation of sheep blood with germinated and, in case of pXO2+ strains, encapsulated cells of the four B. anthracis strains. After being fed for 4 h an initial 10 flies were externally disinfected with peracetic acid to ensure subsequent quantitation representing ingested B. anthracis only. Following neutralization, they were crushed in sterile saline. Over each of the ensuing 7 to 10 days, 10 flies were removed and processed the same way. In the absence of Wip4, strains showed steady declines to undetectable in the total B. anthracis counts, within 7–9 days. With the phage infected strains, the falls in viable counts were significantly more rapid than in their uninfected counterparts. Spores were detectable in flies for longer periods than vegetative bacteria. In line with the findings in both biting and non-biting flies of early workers our results indicate that B. anthracis does not multiply in the guts of blow flies and survival is limited to a matter of days.This work was funded by grant BE 2157/3-1 of the German Research Foundation (DFG). SEB was funded by a United States National Institute of General Medical Sciences MIDAS grant U01GM087719 to Lauren A. Meyers and Alison P. Galvani. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Center for Computational Biology and BioinformaticsEmail: [email protected]

Fronthaul evolution: From CPRI to Ethernet

It is proposed that using Ethernet in the fronthaul, between base station baseband unit (BBU) pools and remote radio heads (RRHs), can bring a number of advantages, from use of lower-cost equipment, shared use of infrastructure with fixed access networks, to obtaining statistical multiplexing and optimised performance through probe-based monitoring and software-defined networking. However, a number of challenges exist: ultra-high-bit-rate requirements from the transport of increased bandwidth radio streams for multiple antennas in future mobile networks, and low latency and jitter to meet delay requirements and the demands of joint processing. A new fronthaul functional division is proposed which can alleviate the most demanding bit-rate requirements by transport of baseband signals instead of sampled radio waveforms, and enable statistical multiplexing gains. Delay and synchronisation issues remain to be solved

A Flexible, Ethernet Fronthaul for 5th Generation Mobile and Beyond

Using Ethernet in the fronthaul can deliver the statistical multiplexing gains offered by the new functional splits proposed for the radio access network, but latency and delay variations are challenges that must be overcome

Can labor arrest the “sky pirates”? Transnational trade unionism in the European civil aviation industry

In a single European aviation market (SEAM) that is open to innovative new business strategies, most notably the (ultra) low cost model developed by Ryanair, non-territorial forms of sovereignty have been used to redefine employment relations, exert control over labor, and extract surplus value. Although aviation unions recognize the need to ‘shift scale’ from a predominantly local focus on their national (flag) airline, they have yet to develop effective strategies at the supranational level as low fares airlines continually extend their geographical reach in the open skies over Europe and beyond. Union strategies are considered at different levels (national and EU) as well as the different processes to enact these strategies (technocratic and democratic). Unions need to develop a Euro-democratization strategy if they are to arrest the anti-unionism and social dumping of European ‘sky pirates’ such as Ryanair and Norwegian Air Shuttle