Span of control in supervision of rail track work

The supervision of engineering work on the railways has received relatively little examination despite being both safety-critical in its own right and having wider implications for the successful running of the railways. The present paper is concerned with understanding the factors that make different engineering works perceived as easier or harder to manage. We describe an approach building on notions of ‘span of control’, through which we developed the TOECAP inventory (Team, Organisation, Environment, Communication, Activity and Personal). This tool was validated through both interviews and questionnaires. As well as identifying the physical factors involved, the work also emphasised the importance of collaborative and attitudinal factors. We conclude by discussing limitations of the present work and future directions for development

Expression of Ovine Herpesvirus -2 Encoded MicroRNAs in an Immortalised Bovine - Cell Line

Ovine herpesvirus-2 (OvHV-2) infects most sheep, where it establishes an asymptomatic, latent infection. Infection of susceptible hosts e.g. cattle and deer results in malignant catarrhal fever, a fatal lymphoproliferative disease characterised by uncontrolled lymphocyte proliferation and non MHC restricted cytotoxicity. The same cell populations are infected in both cattle and sheep but only in cattle does virus infection cause dysregulation of cell function leading to disease. The mechanism by which OvHV-2 induces this uncontrolled proliferation is unknown. A number of herpesviruses have been shown to encode microRNAs (miRNAs) that have roles in control of both viral and cellular gene expression. We hypothesised that OvHV-2 encodes miRNAs and that these play a role in pathogenesis. Analysis of massively parallel sequencing data from an OvHV-2 persistently-infected bovine lymphoid cell line (BJ1035) identified forty-five possible virus-encoded miRNAs. We previously confirmed the expression of eight OvHV-2 miRNAs by northern hybridization. In this study we used RT-PCR to confirm the expression of an additional twenty-seven OvHV-2-encoded miRNAs. All thirty-five OvHV-2 miRNAs are expressed from the same virus genome strand and the majority (30) are encoded in an approximately 9 kb region that contains no predicted virus open reading frames. Future identification of the cellular and virus targets of these miRNAs will inform our understanding of MCF pathogenesis

The positioning system of the ANTARES Neutrino Telescope

The ANTARES neutrino telescope, located 40km off the coast of Toulon in the Mediterranean Sea at a mooring depth of about 2475m, consists of twelve detection lines equipped typically with 25 storeys. Every storey carries three optical modules that detect Cherenkov light induced by charged secondary particles (typically muons) coming from neutrino interactions. As these lines are flexible structures fixed to the sea bed and held taut by a buoy, sea currents cause the lines to move and the storeys to rotate. The knowledge of the position of the optical modules with a precision better than 10cm is essential for a good reconstruction of particle tracks. In this paper the ANTARES positioning system is described. It consists of an acoustic positioning system, for distance triangulation, and a compass-tiltmeter system, for the measurement of the orientation and inclination of the storeys. Necessary corrections are discussed and the results of the detector alignment procedure are described

Energy Technologies for the 21st CenturyThe Roles of Renewable Energy

Abstract Renewable energy sources, originating for the most part from the sun's radiant energy, are ubiquitous, long-lived, essentially free of carbon emissions, and have the potential to contribute significantly to mounting energy needs of the globe. In terms of percentage increase in installed capacity, renewable energy collectively is the fastest growing energy source. Even assuming that the developing world raises its standard of living considerably, the technical potential of renewable energies is more than enough to meet annual global needs several times over a century from now. Realizing even some of this potential involves overcoming obstacles in generation costs, proximity to markets, and in many cases intermittency, as well as others. From the perspective of work on a wide range of energy technologies by both the World Energy Council and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the potential, timing, and investment costs for renewable energy technologies in the 21st century have become clearer. The marketplace, based on cost and performance, will determine which technologies are commercialized along with government policies that at a minimum do not hinder their introduction, and-at a maximum-may encourage more rapid and successful introduction. A wide range of possible scenarios (34) based on factors that include energy availability, demographics, economic development, competition, environmental constraints, and most importantly technical learning, place some constraints on the range of possible energy requirements. Most scenarios indicate that renewable energy in total is likely to be as much as half the world's supply in 100 years, but most of that growth is expected in the period 50 to 100 years from now-if critical advancements and investments are made over the next 50 years

Accurate and objective infarct sizing by contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging in a canine myocardial infarction model.

To identify an accurate and reproducible method to define myocardial infarct (MI) size, we conducted a study in a closed-chest canine model of acute myocardial infarction, in which MI size was measured using different thresholding techniques and by imaging at different delay times after contrast administration