Problems Associated with Making Mechanical Measurements on Water–Ice at Quasistatic and Dynamic Strain Rates

Abstract: Space penetrators are a potential method of inserting instrumentation onto ice-covered bodies in the solar system. Part of a study to see whether this is feasible involves numerically simulating impact of the penetrator into ice at impact velocities of a few 100 m/s. In order to do this accurately, it is necessary to have a constitutive model for water ice that is valid at the strain rates and temperatures relevant to impact in the Outer Solar System. This paper reports certain issues and difficulties that arose during a study to obtain this data

The Surgeon General\u27s Facing Addiction Report: An Historic Document for Healthcare

The publication of Facing Addiction in America: The Surgeon General\u27s Report on Alcohol, Drugs, and Health presents an historic moment not only for the field of addiction medicine, but also for the United States as a nation. The Board of Directors of the Association for Medical Education and Research in Substance Abuse (AMERSA), on behalf of our organization, would like to express our appreciation of the efforts of Dr. Vivek Murthy and the Surgeon General\u27s Office to publish the first surgeon general\u27s report covering substance misuse and substance use disorders

Reasons and Means to Model Preferences as Incomplete

Literature involving preferences of artificial agents or human beings often assume their preferences can be represented using a complete transitive binary relation. Much has been written however on different models of preferences. We review some of the reasons that have been put forward to justify more complex modeling, and review some of the techniques that have been proposed to obtain models of such preferences

Pricing and quality investments in a mixed brown-green product market

Sustainable Supply Chain Management (SSCM) has assumed a position of prominence for academics and industry over the last two decades. The sustainability literature shows that typically manufacturers aim to optimize their pricing and greening level decisions in a mixed (green and brown) consumer market. In this work, we capture a manufacturer’s classic dilemma on the pricing of green and brown products, and greening investments, while subject to budget constraint. We compute and analyze the variations of optimal decisions over time. Our findings underscore the importance of investing in greening technologies and learning for the survival of green products. Furthermore, we show that a manufacturer’s optimal pricing strategy is to enter the market with a lower price for the green product and to increase it over time, eventually, surpassing the price for the brown product. Our analysis reveals that the greening level attraction can nullify the effect of a high price on the green product, resulting in higher green demand than brown. Higher green product demand is a win-win situation for both the manufacturer and the environment

Performance of the 2007 WHO Algorithm to diagnose Smear-negative Pulmonary Tuberculosis in a HIV prevalent setting

The 2007 WHO algorithm for diagnosis of smear-negative pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) including Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) culture was evaluated in a HIV prevalent area of Kenya

Considering the case for an antidepressant drug trial involving temporary deception: a qualitative enquiry of potential participants

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Systematic reviews of randomised placebo controlled trials of antidepressant medication show small and decreasing differences between pharmacological and placebo arms. In part this finding may relate to methodological problems with conventional trial designs, including their assumption of additivity between drug and placebo trial arms. Balanced placebo designs, which include elements of deception, may address the additivity question, but pose substantial ethical and pragmatic problems. This study aimed to ascertain views of potential study participants of the ethics and pragmatics of various balanced placebo designs, in order to inform the design of future antidepressant drug trials.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A qualitative approach was employed to explore the perspectives of general practitioners, psychiatrists, and patients with experience of depression. The doctors were chosen via purposive sampling, while patients were recruited through participating general practitioners. Three focus groups and 12 in-depth interviews were conducted. A vignette-based topic guide invited views on three deceptive strategies: post hoc, authorised and minimised deception. The focus groups and interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed. Transcripts were analysed thematically using Framework.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Deception in non-research situations was typically perceived as acceptable within specific parameters. All participants could see the potential utility of introducing deception into trial designs, however views on the acceptability of deception within antidepressant drug trials varied substantially. Authorized deception was the most commonly accepted strategy, though some thought this would reduce the effectiveness of the design because participants would correctly guess the deceptive element. The major issues that affected views about the acceptability of deception studies were the welfare and capacity of patients, practicalities of trial design, and the question of trust.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>There is a trade-off between pragmatic and ethical responses to the question of whether, and under what circumstances, elements of deception could be introduced into antidepressant drug trials. Ensuring adequate ethical safeguards within balanced placebo designs is likely to diminish their ability to address the crucial issue of additivity. The balanced placebo designs considered in this study are unlikely to be feasible in future trials of antidepressant medication. However there remains an urgent need to improve the quality of antidepressant drug trials.</p

Correlates of Snake Entanglement in Erosion Control Blankets

In road construction projects across the United States, erosion control methods (e.g., erosion control blankets [ECBs]), are mandated to stimulate seedbed regeneration and prevent soil loss. Previous reports have suggested that snakes are vulnerable to entanglement in ECBs. We conducted a literature review, field surveys, and an entanglement experiment to examine what factors increase a snake’s risk of ECB entanglement. Our literature review produced reports of 175 reptiles entangled in mesh products, 89.1% of which were snakes, with 43.6% of snake entanglements occurring in erosion control products. During our field surveys, we found 10 entangled snakes (n = 2 alive; n = 8 dead). From our experiment, we found that ECBs that contain fixed‐intersection, small‐diameter mesh consisting of polypropylene were significantly more likely to entangle snakes compared with ECBs with larger diameter polypropylene mesh or ECBs that have woven mesh made of natural fibers. Snake body size was also associated with entanglement; for every 1‐mm increase in body circumference, the probability of entanglement increased 4%. These results can help construct a predictive framework to determine those species and individuals that are most vulnerable to entanglement

Leveraging hope & experience: Towards an integrated model of transformative learning, community and leadership for sustainability action and change

How can we engage in futures-oriented ‘hope work’ in the face of extraordinary global challenges, and from within the confines of a commodified higher education system? This chapter traces the experience of a group of staff and students at Manchester Metropolitan University Business School, who came together to explore this question through an experimental, emergent, and creative process of co-operative inquiry. This shared safe space enabled relations of trust, openness and enjoyment to emerge, which were conducive to learning, community-building, and shared leadership. Thus our shared experience enabled us to shed new and critical light on transformative learning, transformative community and transformative leadership. However, in place of three separate concepts, our findings lead us to a composite, integrated and mutually reinforcing model centred on a set of connecting 2 principles. These in turn are rooted in our subjective experiences of our practical cares and concerns, both individual and shared. Emerging from within an experiential ontology, then, this integrated model offers a reflexive alternative to the top-down approach to sustainability teaching and strategy that currently prevails in many higher education institutions. We share here our experience and the theoretical model it catalysed – along with suggestions for practical actions. In so doing, we hope that we might inspire others to experiment (in their own way) with more organic, less hierarchical, and potentially more enduring approaches to the pedagogy and practice of sustainability

Ethical issues in implementation research: a discussion of the problems in achieving informed consent

Background: Improved quality of care is a policy objective of health care systems around the world. Implementation research is the scientific study of methods to promote the systematic uptake of clinical research findings into routine clinical practice, and hence to reduce inappropriate care. It includes the study of influences on healthcare professionals' behaviour and methods to enable them to use research findings more effectively. Cluster randomized trials represent the optimal design for evaluating the effectiveness of implementation strategies. Various codes of medical ethics, such as the Nuremberg Code and the Declaration of Helsinki inform medical research, but their relevance to cluster randomised trials in implementation research is unclear. This paper discusses the applicability of various ethical codes to obtaining consent in cluster trials in implementation research. Discussion: The appropriate application of biomedical codes to implementation research is not obvious. Discussion of the nature and practice of informed consent in implementation research cluster trials must consider the levels at which consent can be sought, and for what purpose it can be sought. The level at which an intervention is delivered can render the idea of patient level consent meaningless. Careful consideration of the ownership of information, and rights of access to and exploitation of data is required. For health care professionals and organizations, there is a balance between clinical freedom and responsibility to participate in research. Summary: While ethical justification for clinical trials relies heavily on individual consent, for implementation research aspects of distributive justice, economics, and political philosophy underlie the debate. Societies may need to trade off decisions on the choice between individualized consent and valid implementation research. We suggest that social sciences codes could usefully inform the consideration of implementation research by members of Research Ethics Committees