Book review: the two degrees dangerous limit for climate change: public understanding and decision making by Christopher Shaw

In The Two Degrees Dangerous Limit for Climate Change: Public Understanding and Decision Making, Christopher Shaw explores environmental policymaking by focusing on the public circulation of 2°C as the widely cited maximum figure by which temperatures can be allowed to rise. Derek Wall praises the book for combining natural science and social science to offer a well-researched and provocative interrogation of policy claims made about climate change

Interactive visual analysis of location reporting patterns

Interactive visualization methods are often used to aid in the analysis of large datasets. We present a novel interactive visualization technique designed specifically for the analysis of location reporting patterns within large time-series datasets. We use a set of triangles with color coding to indicate the time between location reports. This allows reporting patterns (expected and unexpected) to be easily discerned during interactive analysis. We discuss the details of our method and describe evaluation both from expert opinion and from a user study.

Kin-Aggregations Explain Chaotic Genetic Patchiness, a Commonly Observed Genetic Pattern, in a Marine Fish

The phenomenon of chaotic genetic patchiness is a pattern commonly seen in marine organisms, particularly those with demersal adults and pelagic larvae. This pattern is usually associated with sweepstakes recruitment and variable reproductive success. Here we investigate the biological underpinnings of this pattern in a species of marine goby Coryphopterus personatus. We find that populations of this species show tell-tale signs of chaotic genetic patchiness including: small, but significant, differences in genetic structure over short distances; a non-equilibrium or “chaotic” pattern of differentiation among locations in space; and within locus, within population deviations from the expectations of Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE). We show that despite having a pelagic larval stage, and a wide distribution across Caribbean coral reefs, this species forms groups of highly related individuals at small spatial scales (metres). These spatially clustered family groups cause the observed deviations from HWE and local population differentiation, a finding that is rarely demonstrated, but could be more common than previously thought

Developing pedagogies that work for Pre-Service and Early Career Teachers to reduce the Attainment Gap in Literacy, Numeracy and Health and Wellbeing. Research Question 3: What other practice or research might assist us in our purpose?

This report contributes to the Scottish Council of Deans of Education project related to the Scottish Attainment Challenge. It presents a literature review that responds to the third research question of the SCDE collaborative project: What other practice or research might assist us in our purpose? The purpose of this phase was to resource professional conversations and thinking in the teacher education sector, and to inform the final trial phase of the project. A literature search was undertaken using a range of strategies, to identify published accounts of innovative work from beyond Scotland in the following fields: initial teacher education for high poverty settings; pedagogies in literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing; mentoring and induction. Each group of studies is summarised under themes with their potential for the SAC, ITE programmes and professional learning noted

Housing, street and health: a new systemic research framework

As the world’s population grows in cities, urban dwellers spend a large amount of time inside their home, making housing health ever more important. Critical for residents’ health, the interactions between indoor residential environments and outdoor environmental conditions (e.g. air pollution, noise, heat) are mediated by the controversial and evolving relationship between housing and the street. Currently, there is a lack of ways to integrate and explore synergies among the plurality of perspectives that have addressed the interactions between housing, street and health (HSH). This paper proposes a systemic research framework to address conceptually, spatially and temporally HSH interactions. With a focus on European cities, determinants of housing health are identified through six perspectives, comprising environmental health, domestic architecture, building technologies, socio-economic inequalities, housing prices and urban planning. Their interrelationships are organised in a causal loop diagram, which can be used to highlight gaps in research and data. Subsequently, the paper explores the research and practical applications of the resulting systemic understanding, taking the context of Geneva, Switzerland, as an example. In sum, this study illustrates ways to integrate systemic, transdisciplinary and spatiotemporal approaches essential to holistically address the complexity of HSH relationships. Practice relevance The interactions between housing, street and health (HSH) have been approached from different and often siloed perspectives, addressing issues ranging from diseases to architectural design and history, building technologies, socio-economic inequalities, housing prices and urban planning. This fragmentation hinders the coordination of interventions aimed at improving the health of residential environments, limiting the identification of synergies and trade-offs. This paper proposes a research framework enabling the integration of knowledge on the HSH interactions. The resulting holistic and systemic understanding is instrumental in fostering collaborations across disciplinary fields and among a variety of stakeholders, in raising awareness of the risks and opportunities associated with HSH interactions, and in supporting the design and implementation of health and wellbeing agendas at the building, neighbourhood or city level

Ash deposition propensity of coals/blends combustion in boilers: a modelling analysis based on multi-slagging routes

A method that is based on the initial slagging routes and the sintered/slagging route has been developed and used for predicting the ash deposition propensities of coal combustion in utility boilers supported by the data collected from power stations. Two types of initial slagging routes are considered, namely (i) pyrite-induced initial slagging on the furnace wall, and (ii) fouling caused by the alkaline/alkali components condensation in the convection section. In addition, the sintered/slagging route is considered by the liquids temperature, which represents the melting potential of the main ash composition and is calculated using the chemical equilibrium methods. The partial least square regression (PLSR) technique, coupled with a cross validation method, is employed to obtain the correlation for the ash deposition indice. The method has been successfully applied to coals/blends combustion in boilers, ranging from low rank coals to bituminous coal. The results obtained show that the developed indice yields a higher success rate in classifying the overall slagging/fouling potential in boilers than some of the typical slagging indices. In addition, only using the SiO2/Al2O3 ratio to predict the melting behaviors and slagging potential is inaccurate since the effect of the SiO2/Al2O3 ratio is dictated by both the original ash composition and the way in which the SiO2/Al2O3 ratio is changed. Finally, the influence of the acid components (SiO2 and Al2O3) on the ash deposition prediction is investigated for guiding the mineral additives. It is noticed that the predicted ash deposition potentials of the three easy slagging coals investigated decrease more rapidly by adding Al2O3 than by adding SiO2

“I have no clue what I drunk last night” Using Smartphone technology to compare in-vivo and retrospective self-reports of alcohol consumption.

This research compared real-time measurements of alcohol consumption with retrospective accounts of alcohol consumption to examine possible discrepancies between, and contextual influences on, the different accounts.Building on previous investigations, a specifically designed Smartphone technology was utilized to measure alcohol consumption and contextual influences in de facto real-time. Real-time data (a total of 10,560 data points relating to type and number of drinks and current social / environmental context) were compared with daily and weekly retrospective accounts of alcohol consumption.Participants reported consuming more alcoholic drinks during real-time assessment than retrospectively. For daily accounts a higher number of drinks consumed in real-time was related to a higher discrepancy between real-time and retrospective accounts. This effect was found across all drink types but was not shaped by social and environmental contexts. Higher in-vivo alcohol consumption appeared to be related to a higher discrepancy in retrospectively reported weekly consumption for alcohol beverage types other than wine. When including contextual factors into the statistical models, being with two or more friends (as opposed to being alone) decreased the discrepancy between real-time and retrospective reports, whilst being in the pub (relative to being at home) was associated with greater discrepancies.Overall, retrospective accounts may underestimate the amount of actual, real-time alcohol consumed. Increased consumption may also exacerbate differences between real-time and retrospective accounts. Nonetheless, this is not a global effect as environmental and social contexts interact with the type of alcohol consumed and the time frame given for reporting (weekly vs. daily retrospective). A degree of caution therefore appears warranted with regards to the use of retrospective self-report methods of recording alcohol consumption. Whilst real-time sampling is unlikely to be completely error free, it may be better able to account for social and environmental influences on self-reported consumption

Avoiding the internet of insecure industrial things

Security incidents such as targeted distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks on power grids and hacking of factory industrial control systems (ICS) are on the increase. This paper unpacks where emerging security risks lie for the industrial internet of things, drawing on both technical and regulatory perspectives. Legal changes are being ushered by the European Union (EU) Network and Information Security (NIS) Directive 2016 and the General Data Protection Regulation 2016 (GDPR) (both to be enforced from May 2018). We use the case study of the emergent smart energy supply chain to frame, scope out and consolidate the breadth of security concerns at play, and the regulatory responses. We argue the industrial IoT brings four security concerns to the fore, namely: appreciating the shift from offline to online infrastructure; managing temporal dimensions of security; addressing the implementation gap for best practice; and engaging with infrastructural complexity. Our goal is to surface risks and foster dialogue to avoid the emergence of an Internet of Insecure Industrial Things