Geovisualization of household energy consumption characteristics

A vast amount of quantitative data is available within the energy sector, however, there is limited understanding of the relationships between neighbourhoods, demographic characteristics and domestic energy consumption habits. We report upon research that will combine datasets relating to energy consumption, saving and loss with geodemographics to enable better understanding of energy user types. A novel interactive interface is planned to evaluate the performance of these energy-based classifications. The research aims to help local governments and the energy industry in targeting households and populations for new energy saving schemes and in improving efforts to promote sustainable energy consumption. Energy based neighbourhood classifications will also promote consumption awareness amongst domestic users. This poster describes the research methodology, data sources and visualization requirements

Advocacy Coalition Framework Lens on Pressing Healthcare Issues

In deciding how to interpret and understand public policy, many experts use theories and frameworks to justify their reasoning. One of the most common avenue of viewing policy involves the advocacy coalition framework based on its broad applicability. This popular framework consists of banding like-minded individuals together into a coalition to advance the narrative by creating acceptable policies for their group. These coalitions normally include a wide range of professional backgrounds from interest groups, elected officials, researchers in academia. These groups utilize special events to influence subfields consisting of actors who decide the solutions for policy problems. Subfields normally are made up of key players employed in government institutions and private industrial groups who willingly agree to work toward a compromise with the goal to create policy acceptable for both sides (Cairney 2014) These coalitions influence the subfield in different ways through capitalizing on their influential power or by ignoring the alliances and mergers of the groups. This paper shall explore how advocacy coalition framework works for three pressing issues facing the healthcare industry. These three policies focus on drug pricing, heath data privacy and opioid liability. This paper will explore the policy in depth, provide historical context and the major players while outlining how the specific proposals fit in the framework as well as identifying the framework’s limitations with the policy

Evidence for the Strong Effect of Gas Removal on the Internal Dynamics of Young Stellar Clusters

We present detailed luminosity profiles of the young massive clusters M82-F, NGC 1569-A, and NGC 1705-1 which show significant departures from equilibrium (King and EFF) profiles. We compare these profiles with those from N-body simulations of clusters which have undergone the rapid removal of a significant fraction of their mass due to gas expulsion. We show that the observations and simulations agree very well with each other suggesting that these young clusters are undergoing violent relaxation and are also losing a significant fraction of their stellar mass. That these clusters are not in equilibrium can explain the discrepant mass-to-light ratios observed in many young clusters with respect to simple stellar population models without resorting to non-standard initial stellar mass functions as claimed for M82-F and NGC 1705-1. We also discuss the effect of rapid gas removal on the complete disruption of a large fraction of young massive clusters (``infant mortality''). Finally we note that even bound clusters may lose >50% of their initial stellar mass due to rapid gas loss (``infant weight-loss'').Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, MNRAS letters, accepte

Star Cluster Survival in Star Cluster Complexes under Extreme Residual Gas Expulsion

After the stars of a new, embedded star cluster have formed they blow the remaining gas out of the cluster. Especially winds of massive stars and definitely the on-set of the first supernovae can remove the residual gas from a cluster. This leads to a very violent mass-loss and leaves the cluster out of dynamical equilibrium. Standard models predict that within the cluster volume the star formation efficiency (SFE) has to be about 33 per cent for sudden (within one crossing-time of the cluster) gas expulsion to retain some of the stars in a bound cluster. If the efficiency is lower the stars of the cluster disperse mostly. Recent observations reveal that in strong star bursts star clusters do not form in isolation but in complexes containing dozens and up to several hundred star clusters, i.e. in super-clusters. By carrying out numerical experiments for such objects placed at distances >= 10 kpc from the centre of the galaxy we demonstrate that under these conditions (i.e. the deeper potential of the star cluster complex and the merging process of the star clusters within these super-clusters) the SFEs can be as low as 20 per cent and still leave a gravitationally bound stellar population. Such an object resembles the outer Milky Way globular clusters and the faint fuzzy star clusters recently discovered in NGC 1023.Comment: 21 pages, 8 figures, accepted by Ap

Initial behavioural and attitudinal responses to influenza A, H1N1 ('swine flu')

Copyright © 2010 by the BMJ Publishing Group Ltd. All rights reserved.This study was sponsored by Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR), and supported by the Community Coalition Concerned about SARS and other community organisations in the great Toronto area

Modelling psychological responses to the great East Japan earthquake and nuclear incident

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited - Copyright @ 2012 Goodwin et al.This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.The Great East Japan (Tōhoku/Kanto) earthquake of March 2011was followed by a major tsunami and nuclear incident. Several previous studies have suggested a number of psychological responses to such disasters. However, few previous studies have modelled individual differences in the risk perceptions of major events, or the implications of these perceptions for relevant behaviours. We conducted a survey specifically examining responses to the Great Japan earthquake and nuclear incident, with data collected 11-13 weeks following these events. 844 young respondents completed a questionnaire in three regions of Japan; Miyagi (close to the earthquake and leaking nuclear plants), Tokyo/Chiba (approximately 220 km from the nuclear plants), and Western Japan (Yamaguchi and Nagasaki, some 1000 km from the plants). Results indicated significant regional differences in risk perception, with greater concern over earthquake risks in Tokyo than in Miyagi or Western Japan. Structural equation analyses showed that shared normative concerns about earthquake and nuclear risks, conservation values, lack of trust in governmental advice about the nuclear hazard, and poor personal control over the nuclear incident were positively correlated with perceived earthquake and nuclear risks. These risk perceptions further predicted specific outcomes (e.g. modifying homes, avoiding going outside, contemplating leaving Japan). The strength and significance of these pathways varied by region. Mental health and practical implications of these findings are discussed in the light of the continuing uncertainties in Japan following the March 2011 events

Space station needs, attributes, and architectural options: Space station program cost analysis

This report documents the principal cost results (Task 3) derived from the Space Station Needs, Attributes, and Architectural Options study conducted for NASA by the McDonnell Douglas Astronautics Company. The determined costs were those of Architectural Options (Task 2) defined to satisfy Mission Requirements (Task 1) developed within the study. A major feature of this part of the study was the consideration of realistic NASA budget constraints on the recommended architecture. Thus, the space station funding requirements were adjusted by altering schedules until they were consistent with current NASA budget trends

Surviving infant mortality in the hierarchical merging scenario

We examine the effects of gas expulsion on initially sub-structured and out-of-equilibrium star clusters. We perform $N$-body simulations of the evolution of star clusters in a static background potential before removing that potential to model gas expulsion. We find that the initial star formation efficiency is not a good measure of the survivability of star clusters. This is because the stellar distribution can change significantly, causing a large change in the relative importance of the stellar and gas potentials. We find that the initial stellar distribution and velocity dispersion are far more important parameters than the initial star formation efficiency, and that clusters with very low star formation efficiencies can survive gas expulsion. We suggest that it is variations in cluster initial conditions rather than in their star formation efficiencies that cause some clusters to be destroyed while a few survive.Comment: 9 pages, 10 figures, 1 tabl