PROJECT OPTIMA: optimisation of policies for transport integration in metropolitan areas

The overall objectives of Project OPTIMA were: (i) to identify optimal urban transport and land use strategies for a range of urban areas within the EU; (ii) to compare the strategies which are specified as optimal in different cities, and to assess the reasons for these differences; (iii) to assess the acceptability and feasibility of implementation of these strategies both in nine case study cities (Edinburgh, Merseyside, Vienna, Eisenstadt, Tromsø, Oslo, Helsinki, Torino and Salerno) and more widely in the EU; and (iv) to use the results to provide more general guidance on urban transport policy within the EU

Project FATIMA Final Report: Part 1.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This Final Report covers the results of the EU-funded research project FATIMA (Financial Assistance for Transport Integration in Metropolitan Areas) which had the following objectives: (i) to identify the benefits to the private sector of optimal urban transport strategies, and the potential for obtaining private sector funding to reflect those benefits; (ii) to determine the differences between strategies optimised using public funds and those optimised within the constraints imposed by private funding initiatives; (iii) to propose mechanisms by which private sector funding can be provided so as to achieve appropriately optimal transport strategies while maintaining quality of operation; and (iv) to use the results to provide more general guidance on the role of private sector funding for urban transport in the EU. The project adopted an approach which involved the application of the same study method to nine cities, chosen to reflect a range of urban transport policy contexts in Europe: Edinburgh, Eisenstadt, Helsinki, Merseyside, Oslo, Salerno, Torino, Tromsø and Vienna. This method involved specifying appropriate policy objective functions against which transport strategies could be assessed, and finding the specific strategy that optimised each of these functions. The objective functions covered a range of differing regimes with respect to constraints on public finance and the involvement of the private sector. It was found that, in a majority of the case study cities, optimal socio-economic policies could be funded by road pricing or increased parking charges, considered over a 30 year time horizon. Such measures would typically be used to make it feasible to increase public transport frequency levels or decrease public transport fares. In general it was found to be important that the city transport planning authority had complete control over all transport measures, affecting both private and public transport. However, such strategies are likely to require significant levels of investment and, given current attitudes towards constraints on public spending, it might be politically awkward for the public sector to raise such finance. There is thus a potentially useful role for private finance to be used to help overcome such (short term) financing problems. However, it must be appreciated that the private sector will expect to make a profit on such investment. In cities where optimal policies are funded by travellers, the private sector can be reimbursed by travellers. In cities where it is unfeasible for travellers to fund all the costs of optimal policies, it will be necessary for the private sector to be reimbursed from public funds (raised from taxes). An important issue here is that the use of private finance should not be allowed to replace optimal policies with sub-optimal policies. Whether or not the private sector is involved in financing a strategy, there may be interest in private sector operation of the public transport service. However, evidence on the scale of benefits or losses from such operation is unclear. If, though, a city authority decides that private operation is beneficial, it should use, where legally possible, a franchising model in which it specifies optimal public transport service levels and fares. On the other hand, if a deregulation model is required (in order to comply with national law), private operators should not be given complete freedom to determine the operating conditions which meet their profitability target, even if the level of profitability is itself constrained as a result. There are typically a number of combinations (e.g. of fares and frequency) which achieve a given level of profitability, and not all will be equally effective in terms of public policy objectives

Project FATIMA Final Report: Part 2

The final report of project FATIMA is presented in two parts. Part 1 contains a summary of the FATIMA method and sets out the key recommendations in terms of policies and optimisation methodology from both project OPTIMA and project FATIMA. Part 1 is thus directed particularly towards policy makers. Part 2 contains the details of the methodology, including the formulation of the objective functions, the optimisation process, the resulting optimal strategies under the various objective function regimes and a summary of the feasibility and acceptability of the optimal strategies based on consultations with the city authorities. This part is thus mainly aimed at the professional in transport planning and modelling

Diagnosing GORD in Respiratory Medicine

Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GORD) is increasing in prevalence and is highly associated with several lung diseases such as asthma and COPD. Current diagnostic methods are imperfect, being insensitive, non-specific, expensive, or invasive. An accurate diagnosis of GORD can aid effective treatment and have significant clinical impact. Novel methods such as exhaled breath condensate analysis and electronic nose technology have the potential to improve the accuracy of diagnosing GORD

Grenville Skarn Titanite: Potential Reference Material for Sims U–Th–Pb Analysis

We have investigated the homogeneity, chemical composition, structure, degree of radiation damage, and post-formation evolution of titanite crystals from skarns of the Grenville Province of the Canadian Shield using SHRIMP, TIMS, Raman and PL spectroscopy, EBSD, and EPMA–WDS. These results are used to assess the potential of the titanite as Reference Material (RM) for micro-analytical U–Th–Pb age dating. The SHRIMP data show that these megacrysts (5–31g) have concordant U–Pb isotope systematics, 60 to 500 ppm U, 120 to 1200 ppm Th , 206Pb/204Pb between 500 and 2500, ages of ~1 Ga, and excellent homogeneity at the scale of the analytical volume of the ion probe. The ID–TIMS titanite data for OLT1, OLT2 and TCB show that these crystals are essentially concordant. Data for OLT1 and OLT2 show slight scatter (i.e., in excess of that expected from the uncertainty in an individual analysis). For OLT1, one of seven analyses shows Pb loss or, possibly, a younger period of growth. Crystals OLT1 and OLT2 have respective TIMS concordia ages of 1014.8 ± 2.0 Ma (2s, n = 6, MSWD = 1.8) and 998.0 ± 4.5 Ma (2s, n = 3, MSWD = 3.3) for domains that have not lost Pb.The TIMS analyses of TCB are tightly clustered and give a concordia age of 1018.1 ± 1.7 Ma (2s, n = 4, MSWD = 0.92). Raman and PL spectra show a low to moderate degree of accumulated radiation-induced damage in the Grenville Skarn Titanite crystals and uniform internal distributions of this damage. The EDSB contrast images indicate little or no crystallographic misorientation. The EMPA–WDS data show that the outer 50–100 mm of the OLT1 and TCB crystals are enriched in Al and F, and depleted in Fe and Nb, when compared with the interior. In spite of the variation in composition and degree of radiation damage amongst samples, there are no identifiable matrix effects in our SHRIMP data. Some Grenville skarn titanite (GST) crystals have potential as RM for micro-analytical U–Th–Pb age dating. Crystal TCB has excellent homogeneity of U–Th–Pb isotopic composition. Crystals OLT1 and OLT2 have minor TIMS age heterogeneity. However, this heterogeneity is smaller than that of the Khan titanite, our current in-house titanite standard. Careful selection of analysis areas during SIMS, and of chips for TIMS analysis, allows high-quality isotopic data to be obtained from these large crystals of titanite

Evaluation of Mare’s Milk Composition and Quality during Lactation

Our objective was to evaluate changes in the composition and quality of mare’s milk throughout lactation. Milk samples were obtained from fifteen mares immediately after foaling, and then once weekly from the first week of lactation up until the second through eighth week depending on the foaling date of each mare. Samples averaging 3 mL for colostrum samples, 3 mL for weekly sampling thereafter, and 2 oz. for DHI milk composition analysis, were collected after each teat was disinfected with a cotton ball that was moistened with 70% ethanol. Each 3 mL sample was examined for microbial growth via the application of approximately 0.1 mL milk sample on ¼ of a blood agar culture plate which was then incubated for 24 to 48 hours before being analyzed. Each 2 oz. sample was analyzed for fat, protein, lactose, milk urea nitrogen, and somatic cell count. The concentrations of fat, protein, and somatic cell counts decreased as a whole throughout lactation, while lactose and milk urea nitrogen concentrations increased. The averages for fat, protein, lactose, milk urea nitrogen, and somatic cell count were 1.73%, 2.08%, 6.62%, 25.77mg/dl, and 79,000 cells/ml (39,000 cells/ml without 1 outlier sample), respectively for the collection period. No bacterial infections were found on the culture plates. A California Mastitis Test (CMT) was also conducted, of which no inflammatory results were found. All mares maintained good condition throughout lactation, and foals grew well. Overall, composition was similar to other studies with horses showing excellent mammary health and milk quality

Disease profiling by MALDI MS analysis of biofluids

There is an urgent need for accurate biomarkers of disease. The low-molecular weight proteome of blood serum or other biological fluids may be an ideal source of such biomarkers, although its analysis requires high-throughput strategies to enrich and quantify peptides and small proteins with biomarker potential. Herein, serum samples from cancer cases and controls are compared using a workflow of robotic reversed-phase extraction and clean-up, followed by automated MALDI MS spectral acquisition and analysis of the low-molecular weight peptidome. The aim of the presented methodology is to facilitate the discovery of candidate serum biomarkers of cancer using MALDI MS profiling, although the method is applicable to any comparative proteomic analysis of any biofluid

Physical properties of Mesozoic sedimentary rocks from the Perth Basin, Western Australia

The Perth Basin (PB) hosts important aquifers within the Yarragadee Formation and adjacent geological formations with potential for economic exploitation by both geothermal energy and carbon capture and sequestration. Published studies on the reservoir quality of the sedimentary units of the PB are very few. This study reports some petrophysical and lithological characteristics of the sedimentary units of interest for geothermal and geosequestration scenarios and help interpolation toward non-sampled intervals. A new fluvial-dominated lithofacies scheme was developed for the Mesozoic stratigraphy from four wells drilled in the central PB (Pinjarra-1, Cockburn-1, Gingin-1 and Gingin-2) based on grainsize, sorting, sedimentary structures and colour that relate to the environment of deposition. Systematic laboratory measurements of permeability, porosity, and thermal conductivity were conducted on core samples to investigate a variety of lithofacies and depths from these wells. Empirical correlations are established among the different physical properties, indicating encouraging relationships for full PB basin interpolation such as between porosity and permeability, when the samples are grouped into ‘hydraulic units’ defined by a ‘flow zone indicator’ parameter. The common principal controls on the PB thermal conductivity are the pore space arrangement and mineralogical content, which are strongly lithofacies-specific. Therefore, the lithofacies type could be a good first-order discriminator for describing spatial variations of thermal conductivity and then estimate their flow zone indicator

Molecular and serological dynamics of Chlamydia pecorum infection in a longitudinal study of prime lamb production

© 2018 Bommana et al. Background. Chlamydia pecorum is a globally significant livestock pathogen causing pathology and production losses. The on-farm infection and serological dynamics and the relevance of existing diagnostic tools for diagnosing C. pecorum in livestock remains poorly characterized. In this study, we characterized the antigen and antibody dynamics of this pathogen in a longitudinal study of prime lamb production, utilizing the infection focused C. pecorum-specific 16S rRNA qPCR assay and serology based chlamydial Complement fixation Test (CFT). Methods. The study consisted of 76 Border Leicester mixed sex lambs (39 females and 37 males) that were sampled bimonthly from 2-10 months of age in a commercial farm operating in Central NSW, Australia. Blood/plasma was analysed for CFT antibodies, and swabs from conjunctival, rectal and vaginal sites were analysed for C. pecorum shedding using qPCR. We assessed the temporal and overall dynamics of C. pecorum in lambs, including detailed description and comparison of qPCR and CFT, the timing of first detection by either diagnostic method, the lag between infection and antibody response; and the distribution of qPCR load and CFT antibody titre over time. Results. Over the study period, C. pecorum was highly prevalent (71.0% by qPCR, 92.1% by CFT, 96.0% by both), with 21.1% (16/76) lambs shedding ≥1;000 qPCR copies/ml (denoted as high shedders). C. pecorum shedding (as evidence of infection) were first observed at two months of age (14.4%) with a significant peak of infection occurring at six months of age (34.2%), whereas seroconversions peaked at eight months of age (81.5%). 52.6% of C. pecorum qPCR and CFT positive lambs became qPCR negative by 10 months of age, indicating clearance of chlamydial infection. Although CFT is utilised for on-farm detection of active infection, we confirm that it lagged behind qPCR detection (average lag 1.7 ± 2.1 months) and that the proportion of qPCR positives simultaneously identified by CFT was low with 2/11 (18.1%), 0/13, 17/25 (68.0%), 5/7 (71.4%) and 1/10 (10.0%) concurrent seroconversions occurring at two, four, six, eight and 10 months of age, respectively. Discussion. This work reveals rapid rates of C. pecorum infection and widespread exposure during lamb production. The comparison of molecular and serological diagnostic agreement longitudinally, supports the use of qPCR as an important ancillary tool for the detection of active infections in conjunction with chlamydial CFT for routine veterinary diagnostics. Development of rapid Point-of-Care (POC) tools for diagnosing active infection would be valuable for producers and veterinarians