Software fault-freeness and reliability predictions

Many software development practices aim at ensuring that software is correct, or fault-free. In safety critical applications, requirements are in terms of probabilities of certain behaviours, e.g. as associated to the Safety Integrity Levels of IEC 61508. The two forms of reasoning - about evidence of correctness and about probabilities of certain failures -are rarely brought together explicitly. The desirability of using claims of correctness has been argued by many authors, but not been taken up in practice. We address how to combine evidence concerning probability of failure together with evidence pertaining to likelihood of fault-freeness, in a Bayesian framework. We present novel results to make this approach practical, by guaranteeing reliability predictions that are conservative (err on the side of pessimism), despite the difficulty of stating prior probability distributions for reliability parameters. This approach seems suitable for practical application to assessment of certain classes of safety critical systems

Climate change impact, adaptation, and mitigation in temperate grazing systems: a review

Managed temperate grasslands occupy 25% of the world, which is 70% of global agricultural land. These lands are an important source of food for the global population. This review paper examines the impacts of climate change on managed temperate grasslands and grassland-based livestock and effectiveness of adaptation and mitigation options and their interactions. The paper clarifies that moderately elevated atmospheric CO2 (eCO2) enhances photosynthesis, however it may be restiricted by variations in rainfall and temperature, shifts in plant’s growing seasons, and nutrient availability. Different responses of plant functional types and their photosynthetic pathways to the combined effects of climatic change may result in compositional changes in plant communities, while more research is required to clarify the specific responses. We have also considered how other interacting factors, such as a progressive nitrogen limitation (PNL) of soils under eCO2, may affect interactions of the animal and the environment and the associated production. In addition to observed and modelled declines in grasslands productivity, changes in forage quality are expected. The health and productivity of grassland-based livestock are expected to decline through direct and indirect effects from climate change. Livestock enterprises are also significant cause of increased global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (about 14.5%), so climate risk-management is partly to develop and apply effective mitigation measures. Overall, our finding indicates complex impact that will vary by region, with more negative than positive impacts. This means that both wins and losses for grassland managers can be expected in different circumstances, thus the analysis of climate change impact required with potential adaptations and mitigation strategies to be developed at local and regional levels

The effect of housing on the mental health of older people: the impact of lifetime housing history in Whitehall II

Background: This study describes differences in trajectories of self-reported mental health in an ageing cohort, according to their housing, while controlling for confounders.Methods: The General Health Questionnaire was measured on six occasions as part of Whitehall II cohort study of office-based British civil servants (1985-2009); 10,308 men and women aged 35-55 at baseline.Results: Home-ownership was the predominant tenure at baseline and increased over the life-course, but the social gradient remained. In the bivariate analysis, by phase nine, renters had higher (poorer mental health) GHQ scores (55.48) than owner occupiers (51.98). Those who reported difficulty paying bills or problems with housing had higher GHQ scores at baseline (financial difficulties 57.70 vs 54.34; house problems 58.06 vs 53.99) and this relative difference increased by phase nine (financial difficulties 59.64 vs 51.67; house problems 56.68 vs 51.22). In multivariate models, the relative differences in GHQ scores by tenure increased with age, but were no longer significant after adjusting for confounders. Whereas GHQ scores for those with housing problems and financial difficulties were still significantly higher as participants grew older.Conclusion: The social gradient in the effect of home ownership on mental health, which is evident at baseline, diminishes as people get older, whereas housing quality and financial problems become relatively more important in explaining older people's health. Inequalities in housing quality and ability to deal with household financial problems will become increasingly important mental health issues as the population ages

Symbolic Manipulators Affect Mathematical Mindsets

Symbolic calculators like Mathematica are becoming more commonplace among upper level physics students. The presence of such a powerful calculator can couple strongly to the type of mathematical reasoning students employ. It does not merely offer a convenient way to perform the computations students would have otherwise wanted to do by hand. This paper presents examples from the work of upper level physics majors where Mathematica plays an active role in focusing and sustaining their thought around calculation. These students still engage in powerful mathematical reasoning while they calculate but struggle because of the narrowed breadth of their thinking. Their reasoning is drawn into local attractors where they look to calculation schemes to resolve questions instead of, for example, mapping the mathematics to the physical system at hand. We model the influence of Mathematica as an integral part of the constant feedback that occurs in how students frame, and hence focus, their work

Intensity-dependent reductions in resting blood pressure following short-term isometric exercise training

To reduce resting blood pressure, a minimum isometric exercise training (IET) intensity has been suggested, but this is not known for short-term IET programmes. We therefore compared the effects of moderate- and low-intensity IET programmes on resting blood pressure. Forty normotensive participants (22.3 ± 3.4 years; 69.5 ± 15.5 kg; 170.2 ± 8.7 cm) were randomly assigned to groups of differing training intensities [20%EMGpeak (~23%MVC, maximum voluntary contraction, or 30%EMGpeak (~34%MVC)] or control group; 3 weeks of IET at 30%EMGpeak resulted in significant reductions in resting mean arterial pressure (e.g. −3.9 ± 1.0 mmHg, P 0.05). Moreover, after pooling all female versus male participants, IET induced a 6.9-mmHg reduction in systolic blood pressure in female participants, but only a 1.5-mmHg reduction in systolic blood pressure in male participants, although the difference was not significant. An IET intensity between 20%EMGpeak and 30%EMGpeak is sufficient to elicit significant resting blood pressure reductions in a short-term training period (3 weeks). In addition, sexual dimorphism may exist in the magnitude of reductions, but further work is required to confirm this possibility, which could be important in understanding the mechanisms responsible

Assessing Tolerance to Heavy-Metal Stress in Arabidopsis thaliana Seedlings

The deposited book chapter is a post-print version and has been submitted to peer review.The deposited book chapter version contains attached the supplementary materials within the pdf.This publication hasn't any creative commons license associated.The deposited book chapter is part of the book series: "Environmental Responses in Plants: Methods and Protocols" (pp.197-208) published by Springer.Heavy-metal soil contamination is one of the major abiotic stress factors that, by negatively affecting plant growth and development, severely limit agricultural productivity worldwide. Plants have evolved various tolerance and detoxification strategies in order to cope with heavy-metal toxicity while ensuring adequate supply of essential micronutrients at the whole-plant as well as cellular levels. Genetic studies in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana have been instrumental in elucidating such mechanisms. The root assay constitutes a very powerful and simple method to assess heavy-metal stress tolerance in Arabidopsis seedlings. It allows the simultaneous determination of all the standard growth parameters affected by heavy-metal stress (primary root elongation, lateral root development, shoot biomass, and chlorophyll content) in a single experiment. Additionally, this protocol emphasizes the tips and tricks that become particularly useful when quantifying subtle alterations in tolerance to a given heavy-metal stress, when simultaneously pursuing a large number of plant lines, or when testing sensitivity to a wide range of heavy metals for a single line.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia grants: (EXPL/AGR-PRO/1013/2013, SFRH/BPD/44640/2008); GREEN-it "Bioresources for Sustainability": (UID/Multi/04551/2013).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Fourier transform for quantum DD-modules via the punctured torus mapping class group

We construct a certain cross product of two copies of the braided dual $\tilde H$ of a quasitriangular Hopf algebra $H$, which we call the elliptic double $E_H$, and which we use to construct representations of the punctured elliptic braid group extending the well-known representations of the planar braid group attached to $H$. We show that the elliptic double is the universal source of such representations. We recover the representations of the punctured torus braid group obtained in arXiv:0805.2766, and hence construct a homomorphism to the Heisenberg double $D_H$, which is an isomorphism if $H$ is factorizable. The universal property of $E_H$ endows it with an action by algebra automorphisms of the mapping class group $\widetilde{SL_2(\mathbb{Z})}$ of the punctured torus. One such automorphism we call the quantum Fourier transform; we show that when $H=U_q(\mathfrak{g})$, the quantum Fourier transform degenerates to the classical Fourier transform on $D(\mathfrak{g})$ as $q\to 1$.Comment: 12 pages, 1 figure. Final version, to appear in Quantum Topolog

Tauiwi general practitioners explanations of Maori health: Colonial relations in primary healthcare in Aotearoa/New Zealand?

This paper reports initial findings from qualitative research investigating how general practitioners talk about Maori health. Transcripts of semi-structured interviews with 25 general practitioners from urban Auckland were subjected to critical discursive analyses. Through this process of intensive, analytic reading, interpretative repertoires – patterns of words and images about a particular topic – were identified. This paper presents the main features of one such repertoire, termed Maori Morbidity, that the general practitioners used in accounting for poor Maori health status. Our participants were drawing upon a circumscribed pool of ideas and explaining the inequalities in health between Maori and Tauiwi in ways that gave primacy to characteristics of Maori and their culture. We discuss the implications of this conclusion for relations between Maori patients and Tauiwi doctors in primary healthcare settings

Landholder Typologies Used in the Development of Natural Resource Management Programs in Australia - A Review

This article reviews the literature on the identification of landholder typologies that can be used to assist the design and delivery of natural resource management (NRM) programs. Australian researchers have developed typologies of landholders based on a variety of criteria. The rationale for developing landholder typologies is first discussed before reviewing the various approaches that have been used by Australian researchers and comparing their findings. The methods employed have differed according to the theories used to guide the research and the 'clients' or 'sponsors' of the research. The landholder types they describe, however, have a number of similarities. These similarities suggest that the studies have identified the same fundamental divisions in the rural community, and that it may be possible to integrate landholder typologies for a variety of NRM and non-NRM applications. It is concluded that further research could usefully investigate whether concepts of social class or sub-cultures may be appropriate to define and describe the variations in landholder types