7,878 research outputs found
Best practice report – operation and maintenance requirements
Deliverable 3.6.3 from the MERiFIC Project
A report prepared as part of the MERiFIC Project
"Marine Energy in Far Peripheral and Island Communities"This report is a deliverable of MERiFIC Work Package 3.6: ‘Operation and Maintenance requirements’ and
has been produced as a cross border collaboration between IFREMER and the University of Exeter. The
report provides an overview of guidelines and recommendations for the management of O&M operations
necessary for an optimal exploitation of Marine energy plants, with a focus on the specific areas of South
West Cornwall, UK and Iroise sea, Brittany, France. An overview of the onshore infrastructures and ports
possibly suitable for management of such O&M operations is also provided. Management of scheduled and
unscheduled maintenance operations are discussed in their various aspects including site accessibility. It
should be noted that this topic, including weather window assessment for operations is discussed in more
details in the additional MERIFIC report D3.6.2: Best Practice for installation proceduresMERiFIC was selected under the European Cross-Border Cooperation Programme
INTERREG IV A France (Channel) – England, co-funded by the ERDF
Best practice report - installation procedures
Deliverable 3.6.2 from the MERiFIC Project
A report prepared as part of the MERiFIC Project
"Marine Energy in Far Peripheral and Island Communities"This report is a deliverable of MERiFIC Task 3. 6: ‘Installation Procedures’ and has been produced in a
cross border collaboration between IFREMER and the University of Exeter. In this report different
elements are presented for the planning and organisation of installation operations for the
deployment of Marine energy plants. The optimization of installation procedures are discussed and
brought in a context to potential costs optimization and the availability of suitable vessels is
considered.
Installation procedures, which were also investigated, should include pre-installation surveys so as to
optimize the design of moorings and secure laying of the power cable, a specific feature of the
commissioning of such Marine energy plants. Attention should also be given to the Health and
Safety procedures.
Finally, the influence of the weather conditions on the success of these installation operations was
discussed and studied. Especially, "Access time" and "Waiting time" weather windows were assessed
for different sites in both areas of south west Cornwall and the Iroise Sea, pointing out the
importance of the seasonal variability of the wave climate for the planning of installation operations.MERiFIC was selected under the European Cross-Border Cooperation Programme
INTERREG IV A France (Channel) – England, co-funded by the ERDF
Undersampled Phase Retrieval with Outliers
We propose a general framework for reconstructing transform-sparse images
from undersampled (squared)-magnitude data corrupted with outliers. This
framework is implemented using a multi-layered approach, combining multiple
initializations (to address the nonconvexity of the phase retrieval problem),
repeated minimization of a convex majorizer (surrogate for a nonconvex
objective function), and iterative optimization using the alternating
directions method of multipliers. Exploiting the generality of this framework,
we investigate using a Laplace measurement noise model better adapted to
outliers present in the data than the conventional Gaussian noise model. Using
simulations, we explore the sensitivity of the method to both the
regularization and penalty parameters. We include 1D Monte Carlo and 2D image
reconstruction comparisons with alternative phase retrieval algorithms. The
results suggest the proposed method, with the Laplace noise model, both
increases the likelihood of correct support recovery and reduces the mean
squared error from measurements containing outliers. We also describe exciting
extensions made possible by the generality of the proposed framework, including
regularization using analysis-form sparsity priors that are incompatible with
many existing approaches.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figure
Next Generation Cosmology: Constraints from the Euclid Galaxy Cluster Survey
We study the characteristics of the galaxy cluster samples expected from the
European Space Agency's Euclid satellite and forecast constraints on
cosmological parameters describing a variety of cosmological models. The method
used in this paper, based on the Fisher Matrix approach, is the same one used
to provide the constraints presented in the Euclid Red Book (Laureijs et
al.2011). We describe the analytical approach to compute the selection function
of the photometric and spectroscopic cluster surveys. Based on the photometric
selection function, we forecast the constraints on a number of cosmological
parameter sets corresponding to different extensions of the standard LambdaCDM
model. The dynamical evolution of dark energy will be constrained to Delta
w_0=0.03 and Delta w_a=0.2 with free curvature Omega_k, resulting in a
(w_0,w_a) Figure of Merit (FoM) of 291. Including the Planck CMB covariance
matrix improves the constraints to Delta w_0=0.02, Delta w_a=0.07 and a
FoM=802. The amplitude of primordial non-Gaussianity, parametrised by f_NL,
will be constrained to \Delta f_NL ~ 6.6 for the local shape scenario, from
Euclid clusters alone. Using only Euclid clusters, the growth factor parameter
\gamma, which signals deviations from GR, will be constrained to Delta
\gamma=0.02, and the neutrino density parameter to Delta Omega_\nu=0.0013 (or
Delta \sum m_\nu=0.01). We emphasise that knowledge of the observable--mass
scaling relation will be crucial to constrain cosmological parameters from a
cluster catalogue. The Euclid mission will have a clear advantage in this
respect, thanks to its imaging and spectroscopic capabilities that will enable
internal mass calibration from weak lensing and the dynamics of cluster
galaxies. This information will be further complemented by wide-area
multi-wavelength external cluster surveys that will already be available when
Euclid flies. [Abridged]Comment: submitted to MNRA
The varying role of the GP in the pathway between colonoscopy and surgery for colorectal cancer: a retrospective cohort study
Extent: 11p.Objectives: To describe general practitioner (GP) involvement in the treatment referral pathway for colorectal cancer (CRC) patients. Design: A retrospective cohort analysis of linked data. Setting: A population-based sample of CRC patients diagnosed from August 2004 to December 2007 in New South Wales, Australia, using the 45 and Up Study, cancer registry diagnosis records, inpatient hospital records and Medicare claims records. Participants: 407 CRC patients who had a colonoscopy followed by surgery. Primary outcome measures: Patterns of GP consultations between colonoscopy and surgery (ie, between diagnosis and treatment). We investigated whether consulting a GP presurgery was associated with time to surgery, postsurgical GP consultations or rectal cancer cases having surgery in a centre with radiotherapy facilities. Results: Of the 407 patients, 43% (n=175) had at least one GP consultation between colonoscopy and surgery. The median time from colonoscopy to surgery was 27 days for those with an intervening GP consultation and 15 days for those without the consultation. 55% (n=223) had a GP consultation up to 30 days postsurgery; it was more common in cases of patients who consulted a GP presurgery than for those who did not (65% and 47%, respectively, adjusted OR 2.71, 95% CI 1.50 to 4.89, p=0.001). Of the 142 rectal cancer cases, 23% (n=33) had their surgery in a centre with radiotherapy facilities, with no difference between those who did and did not consult a GP presurgery (21% and 25% respectively, adjusted OR 0.84, 95% CI 0.27 to 2.63, p=0.76). Conclusions: Consulting a GP between colonoscopy and surgery was associated with a longer interval between diagnosis and treatment, and with further GP consultations postsurgery, but for rectal cancer cases it was not associated with treatment in a centre with radiotherapy facilities. GPs might require a more defined and systematic approach to CRC management.David Goldsbury, Mark Harris, Shane Pascoe, Michael Barton, Ian Olver, Allan Spigelman, Justin Beilby, Craig Veitch, David Weller, Dianne L O'Connel
Optimizing passive acoustic sampling of bats in forests
Passive acoustic methods are increasingly used in biodiversity research and monitoring programs because they are cost-effective and permit the collection of large datasets. However, the accuracy of the results depends on the bioacoustic characteristics of the focal taxa and their habitat use. In particular, this applies to bats which exhibit distinct activity patterns in three-dimensionally structured habitats such as forests. We assessed the performance of 21 acoustic sampling schemes with three temporal sampling patterns and seven sampling designs. Acoustic sampling was performed in 32 forest plots, each containing three microhabitats: forest ground, canopy, and forest gap. We compared bat activity, species richness, and sampling effort using species accumulation curves fitted with the clench equation. In addition, we estimated the sampling costs to undertake the best sampling schemes. We recorded a total of 145,433 echolocation call sequences of 16 bat species. Our results indicated that to generate the best outcome, it was necessary to sample all three microhabitats of a given forest location simultaneously throughout the entire night. Sampling only the forest gaps and the forest ground simultaneously was the second best choice and proved to be a viable alternative when the number of available detectors is limited. When assessing bat species richness at the 1-km(2) scale, the implementation of these sampling schemes at three to four forest locations yielded highest labor cost-benefit ratios but increasing equipment costs. Our study illustrates that multiple passive acoustic sampling schemes require testing based on the target taxa and habitat complexity and should be performed with reference to cost-benefit ratios. Choosing a standardized and replicated sampling scheme is particularly important to optimize the level of precision in inventories, especially when rare or elusive species are expected
Validity of the activPAL3 activity monitor in people moderately affected by Multiple Sclerosis
Background: Walking is the primary form of physical activity performed by people with Multiple Sclerosis (MS), therefore it is important to ensure the validity of tools employed to measure walking activity. The aim of this study was to assess the criterion validity of the activPAL3 activity monitor during overground walking in people with MS.\ud
Methods: Validity of the activPAL3 accelerometer was compared to video observation in 20 people moderately affected by MS. Participants walked 20-30m twice along a straight quiet corridor at a comfortable speed.\ud
Results: Inter-rater reliability of video observations was excellent (all intraclass correlations > 0.99). The mean difference (activPAL3- mean of raters) was -4.70 ± 9.09, -4.55 s ± 10.76 and 1.11 s ± 1.11 for steps taken, walking duration and upright duration respectively. These differences represented 8.7, 10.0 and 1.8% of the mean for each measure respectively. The activPAL3 tended to underestimate steps taken and walking duration in those who walked at cadences of ≤ 38 steps/minute by 60% and 47% respectively.\ud
Discussion: The activPAL3 is valid for measuring walking activity in people moderately affected by MS. It is accurate for upright duration regardless of cadence. In participants with slow walking cadences, outcomes of steps taken and walking duration should be interpreted with caution
Estimate of the impact of background particles on the X-Ray Microcalorimeter Spectrometer on IXO
We present the results of a study on the impact of particles of galactic
(GCR) and solar origin for the X-ray Microcalorimeter Spectrometer (XMS) aboard
an astronomical satellite flying in an orbit at the second Lagrangian point
(L2). The detailed configuration presented in this paper is the one adopted for
the International X-Ray Observatory (IXO) study, however the derived estimates
can be considered a conservative limit for ATHENA, that is the IXO redefined
mission proposed to ESA. This work is aimed at the estimate of the residual
background level expected on the focal plane detector during the mission
lifetime, a crucial information in the development of any instrumental
configuration that optimizes the XMS scientific performances. We used the
Geant4 toolkit, a Monte Carlo based simulator, to investigate the rejection
efficiency of the anticoincidence system and assess the residual background on
the detector.Comment: 18 pages, 9 figure
Regulating Clothing Outwork: A Sceptic's View
By applying the strategies of international anti-sweatshop campaigns to the Australian context, recent regulations governing home-based clothing production hold retailers
responsible for policing the wages and employment conditions of clothing outworkers who manufacture clothing on their behalf. This paper argues that the new approach
oversimplifies the regulatory challenge by assuming (1) that Australian clothing production is organised in a hierarchical ‘buyer-led’ linear structure in which core
retail firms have the capacity to control their suppliers’ behaviour; (2) that firms act as unitary moral agents; and (3) that interventions imported from other times and places
are applicable to the contemporary Australian context. After considering some alternative regulatory approaches, the paper concludes that the new regulatory strategy effectively privatises responsibility for labour market conditions – a development that cries out for further debate
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