Shared Responsibilities for Nuclear Disarmament: A Global Debate

Presents Sagan's 2009 paper calling for rethinking the balance of responsibilities and the relationship between articles in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty with seven response papers by international scholars about how to pursue nuclear disarmament

The assessment of usability of electronic shopping: A heuristic evaluation

Today there are thousands of electronic shops accessible via the Web. Some provide user-friendly features whilst others seem not to consider usability factors at all. Yet, it is critical that the electronic shopping interface is user-friendly so as to help users to obtain their desired results. This study applied heuristic evaluation to examine the usability of current electronic shopping. In particular, it focused on four UK-based supermarkets offering electronic services: including ASDA, Iceland, Sainsbury, and Tesco. The evaluation consists of two stages: a free-flow inspection and a task-based inspection. The results indicate that the most significant and common usability problems have been found to lie within the areas of ‘User Control and Freedom’ and ‘Help and Documentation’. The findings of this study are applied to develop a set of usability guidelines to support the future design of effective interfaces for electronic shopping

Use of the ODD-Luciferase Transgene for the Non-Invasive Imaging of Spontaneous Tumors in Mice

In humans, imaging of tumors provides rapid, accurate assessment of tumor growth and location. In laboratory animals, however, the imaging of spontaneously occurring tumors continues to pose many technical and logistical problems. Recently a mouse model was generated in which a chimeric protein consisting of HIF-1α oxygen-dependent degradation domain (ODD) fused to luciferase was ubiquitously expressed in all tissues. Hypoxic stress leads to the accumulation of ODD-luciferase in the tissues of this mouse model which can be identified by non-invasive bioluminescence measurement. Since solid tumors often contain hypoxic regions, we performed proof-of-principle experiments testing whether this transgenic mouse model may be used as a universal platform for non-invasive imaging analysis of spontaneous solid tumors.ODD-luciferase transgenic mice were bred with MMTV-neu/beclin1+/- mice. Upon injection of luciferin, bioluminescent background of normal tissues in the transgenic mice and bioluminescent signals from spontaneously mammary carcinomas were measured non-invasively with an IVIS Spectrum imaging station. Tumor volumes were measured manually and the histology of tumor tissues was analyzed.Our results show that spontaneous mammary tumors in ODD-luciferase transgenic mice generate substantial bioluminescent signals, which are clearly discernable from background tissue luminescence. Moreover, we demonstrate a strong quantitative correlation between the bioluminescent tumor contour and the volume of palpable tumors. We further demonstrate that shrinkage of the volume of spontaneous tumors in response to chemotherapeutic treatment can be determined quantitatively using this system. Finally, we show that the growth and development of spontaneous tumors can be monitored longitudinally over several weeks. Thus, our results suggest that this model could potentially provide a practical, reliable, and cost-effective non-invasive quantitative method for imaging spontaneous solid tumors in mice

Effect of delays in the UK two-week wait cancer referral pathway during the COVID-19 pandemic on cancer survival: a modelling study

Background: During the COVID-19 lockdown, referrals via the 2 Week Wait (2WW) urgent pathway for suspected cancer in England are reported to have dropped by up to 84%. We aimed to examine the impact on cancer survival of different scenarios of lockdown accumulated-backlog. We also aimed to examine by tumour-referral-group and age, survival benefit per referred patient considering survival decrement from delayed referral versus risk of death from nosocomial SARS-CoV-2 infection. Methods: To construct the underlying models, we used age- and stage-stratified 10 year cancer survival estimates for England 2007-2017 for 20 common tumour-types. We applied per-day hazard ratios for cancer progression generated from observational studies of delay to-treatment. We quantified the annual numbers of cancers diagnosed via the 2WW-pathway using the 2WW age- and stage-specific breakdowns. From these, for per-patient delays of 1- 6 months, we estimated aggregate number of lives lost and life-years lost in England. Using referral-to-diagnosis conversion rates and COVID-19 case fatality rates, we also estimated the survival increment per patient referred. Findings: Per month across England in 2013-2016, on average 6,281 patients with Stage 1- 3 cancer were diagnosed via the 2WW pathway of whom 1,691 would be predicted to die within 10 years from their disease. We estimated 2WW-pathway presentational-delay from three months of lockdown will result in total in 181/361/542 attributable additional deaths (if % reduction in referrals was 25/50/75% respectively). Limited diagnostic capacity to address the backlog may result in additional delays: 401/811/1,231 attributable additional deaths are estimated if additional diagnostic capacity is delayed until months 3-8 post-lockdown. 2-month delay in 2WW investigatory referral results in average loss of life-years per-referred-patient of between 0 and 0.7, depending on age and tumour-type. Interpretation: Prompt provision of additional capacity for ‘catch-up’ in diagnostics will minimise deaths consequent from ‘diagnostic-delay’ accumulated on top of the ‘presentational-delay’. Prioritisation of patient groups for whom delay would result in most life years lost warrants consideration as an option for mitigating the aggregate burden of mortality. Funding: Non

JWST/NIRCam coronagraph: mask design and fabrication

The NIRCam instrument on the James Webb Space Telescope will provide coronagraphic imaging from λ =1-5 μm of high contrast sources such as extrasolar planets and circumstellar disks. A Lyot coronagraph with a variety of circular and wedge-shaped occulting masks and matching Lyot pupil stops will be implemented. The occulters approximate grayscale transmission profiles using halftone binary patterns comprising wavelength-sized metal dots on anti-reflection coated sapphire substrates. The mask patterns are being created in the Micro Devices Laboratory at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory using electron beam lithography. Samples of these occulters have been successfully evaluated in a coronagraphic testbed. In a separate process, the complex apertures that form the Lyot stops will be deposited onto optical wedges. The NIRCam coronagraph flight components are expected to be completed this year

Topological and geometrical restrictions, free-boundary problems and self-gravitating fluids

Let (P1) be certain elliptic free-boundary problem on a Riemannian manifold (M,g). In this paper we study the restrictions on the topology and geometry of the fibres (the level sets) of the solutions f to (P1). We give a technique based on certain remarkable property of the fibres (the analytic representation property) for going from the initial PDE to a global analytical characterization of the fibres (the equilibrium partition condition). We study this analytical characterization and obtain several topological and geometrical properties that the fibres of the solutions must possess, depending on the topology of M and the metric tensor g. We apply these results to the classical problem in physics of classifying the equilibrium shapes of both Newtonian and relativistic static self-gravitating fluids. We also suggest a relationship with the isometries of a Riemannian manifold.Comment: 36 pages. In this new version the analytic representation hypothesis is proved. Please address all correspondence to D. Peralta-Sala

Viewpoints on Factors for Successful Employment for Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder

This article explores the key factors for successful employment from the viewpoints of adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and employers. Two groups of individuals participated in this study, 40 adults with ASD and 35 employers. Q method was used to understand and contrast the viewpoints of the two groups. Data were analysed using by-person varimax rotation factor analysis. Results showed that although both groups appear committed to the employment process, the difference in their understanding regarding the type of workplace support required, job expectations and productivity requirements continues to hinder successful employment. These results highlight the need to facilitate communication between employees and employers to ensure a clear understanding of the needs of both groups are met. The use of an ASD-specific workplace tool may assist in facilitating the necessary communication between these two groups