Celebrating Economies of Change: Brave Visions for Inclusive Futures

This issue has been inspired by a path-breaking conference held by the Canadian Society for Ecologi-cal Economics (CANSEE), which took place this past May 2019 in Waterloo, Ontario. Entitled Engaging Economies of Change, the conference aimed to ex-pand existing research networks in the economy-environment nexus by building connections beyond the academy in order to meaningfully engage with the practicalities of building and implementing change. This issue captures the rich content shared during the event, as well as descriptions of the pro-cesses and efforts made to create a welcoming and respectful space where academics and community activists could build alliances and discuss common challenges. The conference organizers – all graduate students and activists themselves -- called this ‘building a brave space’.This research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canad

High-throughput screening Raman microspectroscopy for assessment of drug-induced changes in diatom cells

High-throughput screening Raman spectroscopy (HTS-RS) with automated localization algorithms offers unsurpassed speed and sensitivity to investigate the effect of dithiothreitol on the diatom Phaedactylum tricornutum. The HTS-RS capability that was demonstrated for this model system can be transferred to unmet analytical applications such as kinetic in vivo studies of microalgal assemblages. © 2019 The Royal Society of Chemistry

Progression of Rhinitis to Rhinosinusitis: A Cohort Study

Introduction: Chronic rhinitis (CR) and rhinosinusitis are prevalent conditions affecting people all over the world. Their exact relationship is still not fully understood. We sought to find out, whether CR is a risk factor for chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) and which main subgroup or other factors could be predisposing. Methods: Patients with diagnosed CR between 2005 and 2010 were selected from the electronic medical record and were contacted by phone call. They were interviewed and screened for possible CRS using internationally approved questionnaires, e.g. NOSE-D and SNOT-20-GAV. Those with elevated scores were invited for a clinical examination. Results: Of 113 patients available for statistical analysis (48/65 = f/m), mean age of 52 ± 15 years, 13 patients were diagnosed with CRS. Extrapolated for the total cohort of 334, calculated prevalence was 9.5%. No statistical significantly higher probability of developing CRS for either main subgroup of CR was found. Age of onset, prior surgery of the nose, and use of topical nasal treatments were associated with the development of CRS in multivariate analyses (OR = 0.1, 3.2, and 3.2, respectively). Discussion/conclusions: Only a small number of rhinitis patients developed CRS, questioning the paradigm of CR being a clear risk factor for CRS. Keywords: Age of onset; Chronic rhinitis; Chronic rhinosinusitis with/without polyps; Disease burden; Risk factor

New methodology to process shifted excitation Raman difference spectroscopy data : a case study of pollen classification

Shifted excitation Raman difference spectroscopy (SERDS) is a background correction method for Raman spectroscopy. Here, the difference spectra were directly used as input for SERDS-based classification after an optimization procedure to correct for photobleaching of the autofluorescence. Further processing included a principal component analysis to compensate for the reduced signal to noise ratio of the difference spectra and subsequent classification by linear discriminant analysis. As a case study 6,028 Raman spectra of single pollen originating from plants of eight different genera and four different growth habits were automatically recorded at excitation wavelengths 784 and 786 nm using a high-throughput screening Raman system. Different pollen were distinguished according to their growth habit, i.e. tree versus non-tree with an accuracy of 95.9%. Furthermore, all pollen were separated according to their genus, providing also insight into similarities based on their families. Classification results were compared using spectra reconstructed from the differences and raw spectra after state-of-art baseline correction as input. Similar sensitivities, specificities, accuracies and precisions were found for all spectra with moderately background. Advantages of SERDS are expected in scenarios where Raman spectra are affected by variations due to detector etaloning, ambient light, and high background

Optimizing the total energy consumption and CO₂ emissions by distributing computational workload among worldwide dispersed data centers

Major internet service providers have built and are currently building the world's largest data centres (DCs), which has already resulted in significant global energy consumption. Energy saving measures, from chip to building level, have been introduced gradually in recent decades. However, there is further potential for savings by assessing the performance of different DCs on a wider scale and evaluating information technology (IT) workload distribution strategies among these DCs. This paper proposes a methodology to optimize the electricity consumption and CO2 emissions by distributing IT workload across multiple imaginary DCs. The DCs are modelled and controlled in a virtual test environment based on a building energy simulation (BES) tool (TRNSYS). A controller tool (Matlab) is used to support testing and tuning of the optimization algorithm. A case study, consisting of the distribution of IT workload across four different types of data centers in multiple locations with different climate conditions, is presented. The case study will illustrate.</p

Optimizing the total energy consumption and CO₂ emissions by distributing computational workload among worldwide dispersed data centers

Major internet service providers have built and are currently building the world's largest data centres (DCs), which has already resulted in significant global energy consumption. Energy saving measures, from chip to building level, have been introduced gradually in recent decades. However, there is further potential for savings by assessing the performance of different DCs on a wider scale and evaluating information technology (IT) workload distribution strategies among these DCs. This paper proposes a methodology to optimize the electricity consumption and CO2 emissions by distributing IT workload across multiple imaginary DCs. The DCs are modelled and controlled in a virtual test environment based on a building energy simulation (BES) tool (TRNSYS). A controller tool (Matlab) is used to support testing and tuning of the optimization algorithm. A case study, consisting of the distribution of IT workload across four different types of data centers in multiple locations with different climate conditions, is presented. The case study will illustrate.</p

When I relive a positive me: Vivid autobiographical memories facilitate autonoetic brain activation and enhance mood

Autobiographical memory is vital for our well-being and therefore used in therapeutic interventions. However, not much is known about the (neural) processes by which reliving memories can have beneficial effects. This study investigates what brain activation patterns and memory characteristics facilitate the effectiveness of reliving positive autobiographical memories for mood and sense of self. Particularly, the role of vividness and autonoetic consciousness is studied. Participants (N= 47) with a wide range of trait self-esteem relived neutral and positive memories while their bold responses, experienced vividness of the memory, mood, and state self-esteem were recorded. More vivid memories related to better mood and activation in amygdala, hippocampus and insula,indicative of increased awareness of oneself (i.e., prereflective aspect of autonoetic con-sciousness). Lower vividness was associated with increased activation in the occipital lobe, PCC, and precuneus, indicative of a more distant mode of reliving. While individuals with lower trait self-esteem increased in state self-esteem, they showed less deacti-vation of the lateral occipital cortex during positive memories. In sum, the vividness of the memory seemingly distinguished a more immersed and more distant manner of memory reliving. In particular, when reliving positive memories higher vividness facilitated increased prereflective autonoetic consciousness, which likely is instrumental in boosting mood

Patients’ experiences of safety in a hospital learning department:A qualitative study

Objectives: This study aimed to explore experiences of the safety of hospital-admitted patients in learning departments where students and nurses provide care together. Methods: This general qualitative explorative study was conducted in a University Medical Center in the Netherlands. Patients admitted to a learning department were purposefully sampled. Semi-structured individual interviews were conducted. Data was collected between February and April 2021. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. Results: Five main themes emerged after interviewing patients (n = 13): having accountable nurses, trust through autonomy and support, taking time to communicate, a safe learning environment with backup, and being unaware of being in a learning department. All patients indicated that they feel safe in a learning department. Conclusion: Patients felt safe being admitted to a learning department and experienced no differences in feeling safe between nurses and students. Patients can feel safer in the department if they are informed in advance that they have been admitted to a learning department, so they are aware of the presence of students