Space diplomacy and the International Space Station

Debates regarding spacepower, and within this, what is meant by space diplomacy, are in their infancy. This article seeks to contribute to these academic discussions and reflects on the role of the International Space Station (ISS) as an asset of space diplomacy. Although it has been showcased as a successful venture of multilateral science diplomacy, US structural power has ensured that it has first and foremost been a means to project US power and reward strategic partners. As the deadline for decommissioning looms, we argue that now is the time to consider the contributions the ISS has made to space diplomacy and reflect on what will be lost when its life ends

Electrostatics in the Stability and Misfolding of the Prion Protein: Salt Bridges, Self-Energy, and Solvation

Using a recently developed mesoscopic theory of protein dielectrics, we have calculated the salt bridge energies, total residue electrostatic potential energies, and transfer energies into a low dielectric amyloid-like phase for 12 species and mutants of the prion protein. Salt bridges and self energies play key roles in stabilizing secondary and tertiary structural elements of the prion protein. The total electrostatic potential energy of each residue was found to be invariably stabilizing. Residues frequently found to be mutated in familial prion disease were among those with the largest electrostatic energies. The large barrier to charged group desolvation imposes regional constraints on involvement of the prion protein in an amyloid aggregate, resulting in an electrostatic amyloid recruitment profile that favours regions of sequence between alpha helix 1 and beta strand 2, the middles of helices 2 and 3, and the region N-terminal to alpha helix 1. We found that the stabilization due to salt bridges is minimal among the proteins studied for disease-susceptible human mutants of prion protein

Nine key principles to guide youth mental health: Development of service models in New South Wales

Aims: Historically, the Australian health system has failed to meet the needs of young people with mental health problems and mental illness. In 2006, New South Wales (NSW) Health allocated considerable funds to the reform agenda of mental health services in NSW to address this inadequacy. Children and Young People's Mental Health (CYPMH), a service that provides mental health care for young people aged 12-24 years, with moderate to severe mental health problems, was chosen to establish a prototype Youth Mental Health (YMH) Service Model for NSW. This paper describes nine key principles developed by CYPMH to guide the development of YMH Service Models in NSW. Methods: A literature review, numerous stakeholder consultations and consideration of clinical best practice were utilized to inform the development of the key principles. Results: Subsequent to their development, the nine key principles were formally endorsed by the Mental Health Program Council to ensure consistency and monitor the progress of YMH services across NSW. As a result, between 2008 and 2012 YMH Services across NSW regularly reported on their activities against each of the nine key principles demonstrating how each principle was addressed within their service. Conclusions: The nine key principles provide mental health services a framework for how to reorient services to accommodate YMH and provide a high-quality model of care. [Corrections added on 29 November 2013, after first online publication: The last two sentences of the Results section have been replaced with "As a result, between 2008 and 2012 YMH Services across NSW regularly reported on their activities against each of the nine key principles demonstrating how each principle was addressed within their service."] © 2013 Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd

Is Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease transmitted in blood?

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) has been considered infectious since the mid-1960s, but its transmissibility through the transfusion of blood or blood products is controversial. The causative agent's novel undefined nature and resistance to standard decontamination, the absence of a screening test, and the recognition that even rare cases of transmission may be unacceptable have led to the revision of policies and procedures worldwide affecting all facets of blood product manufacturing from blood collection to transfusion. We reviewed current evidence that CJD is transmitted through blood

COST-S: a new methodology and tools for sewerage asset management based on whole life costs

This is the final version of the article. Freely available from IWA Publishing via the link in this record.This paper discusses the development of a methodology and software tools aimed at assisting management decisions in order to provide acceptable performance at a minimum cost over the whole life of the sewerage system. Whole Life Costing (WLC) approaches have been shown to offer an ideal platform to provide investment and operational management tools that take account of the timing of interventions, system behaviour and performance all within a sensible economic and engineering framework. The need for such a methodology and the requirements for its useful implementation are introduced first. The paper then describes how research collaboration between the UK Water Industry and two UK research centres (Centre for Water Systems at Exeter University and Pennine Water Group at Universities of Sheffield and Bradford), and supported by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council grant, resulted in an innovative, practical and auditable methodology with associated tools for better proactive management of ageing and rapidly deteriorating sewerage systems.The authors would like to acknowledge the generous support of EPSRC (Project No.GR/M16122/01 and GR/R98617/01) as well as that of the industrial collaborators;AWG, Northumbrian Water,Thames Water Services,United Utilities and Yorkshire Water Services

Prediction of winter vitamin D status and requirements in the UK population based on 25(OH) vitamin D half-life and dietary intake data

On a population basis, there is a gradual decline in vitamin D status (plasma 25(OH)D) throughout winter. We developed a mathematical model to predict the population winter plasma 25(OH)D concentration longitudinally, using age-specific values for 25(OH)D expenditure (25(OH)D3t1/2), cross-sectional plasma 25(OH)D concentration and vitamin D intake (VDI) data from older (70+ years; n=492) and younger adults (18-69 years; n=448) participating in the UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey. From this model, the population VDI required to maintain the mean plasma 25(OH)D at a set concentration can be derived. As expected, both predicted and measured population 25(OH)D (mean (95%CI)) progressively declined from September to March (from 51 (40-61) to 38 (36-41)nmol/L (predicted) vs 38 (27-48)nmol/L (measured) in older people and from 59 (54-65) to 34 (31-37)nmol/L (predicted) vs 37 (31-44)nmol/L (measured) in younger people). The predicted and measured mean values closely matched. The predicted VDIs required to maintain mean winter plasma 25(OH)D at 50nmol/L at the population level were 10 (0-20) to 11 (9-14) and 11 (6-16) to 13(11-16)μg/d for older and younger adults, respectively dependent on the month. In conclusion, a prediction model accounting for 25(OH)D3t1/2, VDI and scaling factor for the 25(OH)D response to VDI, closely predicts measured population winter values. Refinements of this model may include specific scaling factors accounting for the 25(OH)D response at different VDIs and as influenced by body composition and specific values for 25(OH)D3 t1/2 dependent on host factors such as kidney function. This model may help to reduce the need for longitudinal measurements

Detecting the presence and concentration of nitrate in water using microwave spectroscopy

Nitrate is a common pollutant in surface waters which water companies must monitor for regulatory and safety reasons. The presence of nitrate in deionised water is detected and concentration estimated from microwave spectroscopy measurements in the range 9kHz-6GHz. Experimental results were obtained for 19 solutions (18 salt solutions in deionised water and 1 deionised water), each measured 10 times with 4001 points (total N=190). The resulting data was randomly assigned into equal parts training and test data (N=95 each). Both regression (for the estimation of nitrate concentration) and classification (for detecting the presence of nitrate) methods were considered, with a rigorous feature selection procedure used to identify two frequencies for each of the classification and regression problems. For detection classification models were applied with nitrate levels binned using 30mg/l as the threshold. A logistic regression model achieved AUROC of 0.9875 on test data and a multi-layer perceptron achieved AUROC of 0.9871. In each case the positive predictive value of the model could be optimised at 100% with sensitivity of 90% and specificity of 100%. For the concentration estimates, a linear regression model was able to explain 42% of the variance in the training data and 45% of the variance in the test data and an MLP model delivered similar performance, explaining 43% of variance in the training data and 47% of variance in the test data. A sensor based on this model would be appropriate for detecting the presence of nitrate above a given threshold but poor at estimating concentration

Frequency Dependent Rheology of Vesicular Rhyolite

Frequency dependent rheology of magmas may result from the presence of inclusions (bubbles, crystals) in the melt and/or from viscoelastic behavior of the melt itself. With the addition of deformable inclusions to a melt possessing viscoelastic properties one might expect changes in the relaxation spectrum of the shear stresses of the material (e.g., broadening of the relaxation spectrum) resulting from the viscously deformable geometry of the second phase. We have begun to investigate the effect of bubbles on the frequency dependent rheology of rhyolite melt. The present study deals with the rheology of bubble-free and vesicular rhyolite melts containing spherical voids of 10 and 30 vol %. We used a sinusoidal torsion deformation device. Vesicular rhyolite melts were generated by the melting (at 1 bar) of an Armenian obsidian (Dry Fountain, Erevan, Armenia) and Little Glass Mountain obsidian (California). The real and imaginary parts of shear viscosity and shear modulus have been determined in a frequency range of 0.005–10 Hz and temperature range of 600°–900°C. The relaxed shear viscosities of samples obtained at low frequencies and high temperatures compare well with data previously obtained by parallel plate viscometry. The relaxed shear viscosity of vesicular rhyolites decreases progressively with increasing bubble content. The relaxation spectrum for rhyolite melt without bubbles has an asymmetric form and fits an extended exponent relaxation. The presence of deformable bubbles results in an imaginary component of the shear modulus that becomes more symmetrical and extends into the low-frequency/high-temperature range. The internal friction Q −1 is unaffected in the high-frequency/low-temperature range by the presence of bubbles and depends on the bubble content in the high-temperature/low-frequency range. The present work, in combination with the previous study of Stein and Spera (1992), illustrates that magma viscosity can either increase or decrease with bubble content, depending upon the rate of style of strain during magmatic flow