1,199 research outputs found
Reducing Plastic Pollution in the Ocean: MycoBuoys as a Potential Solution
Natural mushroom mycelium-based MycoBuoys are an alternative to ubiquitous plastic flotation devices used in Maine aquaculture, fisheries and harbors. They fit perfectly into a circular economic model where natural resources are borrowed for a specific purpose and are returned as elements at the end of product life. MycoBuoys may be composted or used as mulch where 100% of the material enhances soil nutrients upon decomposition. In contrast to this cradle-to-cradle product, currently ubiquitous Stryofoam buoys have expensive end life costs in terms of ecosystem and organismal health consequences. Styrene is a known carcinogen, and the foam particles degrade into smaller fragments, but never go away. With the end of subsidies for fossil fuels (necessary to reach climate resilient goals), and with extended producer responsibility (EPR) for all manufactured products, plastic foams used for buoys will no longer be economically or environmentally feasible
Congress and national security : interest, influence and speed
Both the President and Congress have Constitutional responsibility for the nation's security. The U.S. Congress, like the President, demonstrates both interest and influence over national security affairs. An effective and often overlooked means of determining this interest and influence is to examine Congress's speed of action and the factors that influence this speed. The following five variables affect Congress's speed and provide a useful method of analysis: constituent concern, interest groups, committees and subcommittees, party leadership and presidential leadership. This thesis examines the impact of these variables in two case studies of security agency organizational reform. The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 and the Goldwater-Nichols Department of Defense Reorganization Act of 1986 both represent the fast action of Congress on vital national security problems. Though the effects of particular variables differed in the two cases, this study concludes that Congress does not need a mystical aligning of all the stars in order to move fast on an issue of national security. Instead the positive impact of one or two variables combined with the neutrality of the others results in a fast speed of action from Congress on national security affairs.http://archive.org/details/congressndnation109455415Outstanding ThesisUS Air Force (USAF) authorApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited
A framework for the prospective analysis of super-diversity coming from high levels of immigration
Background
Pressures to keep immigration rates at relatively high levels are likely to persist in most developed countries. At the same time, immigrant cohorts are becoming more and more diverse, leading host societies to become increasingly heterogeneous across multiple dimensions. For scholars who study demographic or socio-economic behaviours, the need to account for ethnocultural âsuper-diversityâ brings new challenges and complications.
Objective
The main objective of this paper is to present a framework for the prospective analysis of super-diversity in several high immigration countries.
Methods
We developed microsimulation models that simultaneously project several population-dimensions for Canada, the United States and countries of the European Union, with the aim of studying the consequences of alternate future population and migration trends.
Results
The paper presents the projected progression of three indicators of diversity for Canada, the USA and the EU28: percentage of foreign-born population, percentage of the population using a non-official language at home and percentage of non-Christians under the reference scenario. Results from alternative scenarios show the potential impact of modifying the composition of migrant cohorts. The paper also examines the projected changes in the labour force for each region by education level and language. Finally, the paper proposes a new longitudinal indicator that counts the number of years lived as active and inactive over the life course for foreign- and native-born cohorts.
Contribution
The microsimulation models provide much more informative results than more traditional cohort-component or multi-state models to study the future effects of ethnocultural super-diversity on high immigration countries
A generalized quantum microcanonical ensemble
We discuss a generalized quantum microcanonical ensemble. It describes
isolated systems that are not necessarily in an eigenstate of the Hamilton
operator. Statistical averages are obtained by a combination of a time average
and a maximum entropy argument to resolve the lack of knowledge about initial
conditions. As a result, statistical averages of linear observables coincide
with values obtained in the canonical ensemble. Non-canonical averages can be
obtained by taking into account conserved quantities which are non-linear
functions of the microstate.Comment: improved version, new titl
Magnetodielectric coupling in Mn3O4
We have investigated the dielectric anomalies associated with spin ordering
transitions in the tetragonal spinel MnO, using thermodynamic,
magnetic, and dielectric measurements. We find that two of the three magnetic
ordering transitions in MnO lead to decreases in the temperature
dependent dielectric constant at zero applied field. Applying a magnetic field
to the polycrystalline sample leaves these two dielectric anomalies practically
unchanged, but leads to an increase in the dielectric constant at the
intermediate spin-ordering transition. We discuss possible origins for this
magnetodielectric behavior in terms of spin-phonon coupling. Band structure
calculations suggest that in its ferrimagnetic state, MnO corresponds
to a semiconductor with no orbital degeneracy due to strong Jahn-Teller
distortion.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figure
Clustering of supernova Ia host galaxies
For the first time the cross-correlation between type Ia supernova host
galaxies and surrounding field galaxies is measured using the Supernova Legacy
Survey sample. Over the z=0.2 to 0.9 redshift range we find that supernova
hosts are correlated an average of 60% more strongly than similarly selected
field galaxies over the 3-100 arcsec range and about a factor of 3 more
strongly below 10 arcsec. The correlation errors are empirically established
with a jackknife analysis of the four SNLS fields. The hosts are more
correlated than the field at a significance of 99% in the fitted amplitude and
slope, with the point-by-point difference of the two correlation functions
having a reduced for 8 degrees of freedom of 4.3, which has a
probability of random occurrence of less than 3x10^{-5}. The correlation angle
is 1.5+/-0.5 arcsec, which deprojects to a fixed co-moving correlation length
of approximately 6.5+/- 2/h mpc. Weighting the field galaxies with the mass and
star formation rate supernova frequencies of the simple A+B model produces good
agreement with the observed clustering. We conclude that these supernova
clustering differences are primarily the expected outcome of the dependence of
supernova rates on galaxy masses and stellar populations with their clustering
environment.Comment: ApJ (Letts) accepte
Cross-sectional evaluation of a longitudinal consultation skills course at a new UK medical school
Background: Good communication is a crucial element of good clinical care, and it is important to provide appropriate consultation skills teaching in undergraduate medical training to ensure that doctors have the necessary skills to communicate effectively with patients and other key stakeholders. This article aims to provide research evidence of the acceptability of a longitudinal consultation skills strand in an undergraduate medical course, as assessed by a cross-sectional evaluation of students' perceptions of their teaching and learning experiences. Methods: A structured questionnaire was used to collect student views. The questionnaire comprised two parts: 16 closed questions to evaluate content and process of teaching and 5 open-ended questions. Questionnaires were completed at the end of each consultation skills session across all year groups during the 2006-7 academic year (5 sessions in Year 1, 3 in Year 2, 3 in Year 3, 10 in Year 4 and 10 in Year 5). 2519 questionnaires were returned in total. Results: Students rated Tutor Facilitation most favourably, followed by Teaching, then Practice & Feedback, with suitability of the Rooms being most poorly rated. All years listed the following as important aspects they had learnt during the session: âą how to structure the consultation âą importance of patient-centredness âą aspects of professionalism (including recognising own limits, being prepared, generally acting professionally). All years also noted that the sessions had increased their confidence, particularly through practice. Conclusions: Our results suggest that a longitudinal and integrated approach to teaching consultation skills using a well structured model such as Calgary-Cambridge, facilitates and consolidates learning of desired process skills, increases student confidence, encourages integration of process and content, and reinforces appreciation of patient-centredness and professionalism
A framework for the prospective analysis of ethno-cultural super-diversity
Background: Pressures to keep immigration rates at relatively high levels are likely to persist in most developed countries. At the same time, immigrant cohorts are becoming more and more diverse, leading host societies to become increasingly heterogeneous across multiple dimensions. For scholars who study demographic or socio-economic behaviours, the need to account for ethno-cultural âsuper-diversityâ brings new challenges.
Objective: The main objective of this paper is to present a framework for the prospective analysis of super-diversity in several high immigration countries.
Methods: We developed microsimulation models that simultaneously project several population dimensions for Canada, the United States and countries of the European Union, with the aim of studying the consequences of alternate future population and migration trends.
Results: The paper presents the projected progression of three indicators of diversity: percentage of foreign-born population, percentage of the population using a non-official language at home and percentage of non-Christians. It also examines the projected changes in the labour force by education levels and language. Using alternative scenarios, we also show that the proportion of highly educated in the US and EU28 labour force could increase by 11 and 15 percentage points respectively if future immigrants were selected as in Canada. Finally, the paper proposes a new longitudinal indicator that counts the number of years lived as active and inactive over the life course for foreign- and native-born cohorts.
Contribution: The microsimulation models provide much more informative results than more traditional cohort-component models to study the future effects of ethno-cultural super-diversity on high immigration countries
Experiencing Grace: A Review of the Empirical Literature
Positive psychologists have used science to understand many virtues but have only just started to study grace, recently defined as â . . . the gift of acceptance given unconditionally and voluntarily to an undeserving person by an unobligated giverâ. The purpose of the current article is to provide a systematic review of all empirical studies (published and unpublished) on grace. Broadly, the empirical study of grace has focused on what people believe and how people experience both divine and human grace. Additionally, empirical attention has shifted to explore outcomes of grace-based interventions (e.g., congregation-wide interventions, marital interventions). In general, beliefs and experiences of grace were associated with (a) positive mental health outcomes, (b) religiosity, (c) virtue development, and (d) interpersonal functioning. Human grace has not been extensively explored and divine grace has been studied mostly among Christians; future studies should address these limitations and explore causal relationships
Breaking the Disk/Halo Degeneracy with Gravitational Lensing
The degeneracy between the disk and the dark matter contribution to galaxy
rotation curves remains an important uncertainty in our understanding of disk
galaxies. Here we discuss a new method for breaking this degeneracy using
gravitational lensing by spiral galaxies, and apply this method to the spiral
lens B1600+434 as an example. The combined image and lens photometry
constraints allow models for B1600+434 with either a nearly singular dark
matter halo, or a halo with a sizable core. A maximum disk model is ruled out
with high confidence. Further information, such as the circular velocity of
this galaxy, will help break the degeneracies. Future studies of spiral galaxy
lenses will be able to determine the relative contribution of disk, bulge, and
halo to the mass in the inner parts of galaxies.Comment: Replaced with minor revisions, a typo fixed, and reference added; 21
pages, 8 figures, ApJ accepte
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