Efficient and reliable transportation of consignments (ERTOC)

This paper describes a new initiative to drive business improvement and sustainability throughout the supply chain from factory to point of sale. The effort, called Efficient and Reliable Transportation of Consignments (ERTOC), aims to develop a standards based open architecture data hub to deliver accurate information for transport operators and their customers to use and improve business efficiency and effectiveness. Only by understanding the true environmental costs involved, users will be able to compare and assess different transport options to make better informed choices. Such a need drives this effort to demonstrate how a standardised data hub can track the carbon costs of transport at consignment level. The paper presents the underlying architecture of the proposed system, which servesto integrate (diverse and third party)resources, involving collection of data, storage and provision of it for further processing

Compliance to Bleach Disinfection Protocols among Injecting Drug Users in Miami

Bleach cleansing of injection equipment has been recommended to reduce the risk of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) transmission associated with the reuse of injection equipment by injecting drug users (IDUs). We evaluated the recall and performance of the most commonly recommended bleach cleansing procedure of two complete fillings of the syringe with bleach, followed by two complete fillings with rinse water, and not putting used bleach and water back into source containers. IDUs were taught this procedure on enrollment in an HIV prevention demonstration project in Dade County, Florida. During follow-up session 6-12 months after initial training, the knowledge and ability of IDUs to perform bleach cleansing were assessed by trained observers using a standardized method. In 1988-90, we assessed the knowledge and ability of 450 IDUs to perform the bleach cleansing procedure taught at enrollment. More than 90% of IDUs assessed performed the basic steps. However, only 43.1% completely filled the syringe with bleach and only 35.8% completely filled the syringe with bleach at least twice. Substantial proportions of IDUs did not perform all the steps of the previously taught bleach cleansing procedure. Compliance decreased as the number of steps required was increased. This limited compliance may make bleach cleansing less effective and suggests that some IDUs may fail to adequately disinfect injection equipment and therefore sterile needles and syringes are safer than bleach-cleansed ones. Compliance testing can help assess the effectiveness of HIV prevention programs. © 1994 Raven Press, Ltd., New York

The development and testing of small concentrating PV systems.

Abstract -Spreadsheets have been used to compare some 90 possible small PV concentrator designs that might be suitable for use at remote sites. They have apertures of about 2m 2 , use BP Solar LBG cells, and employ small aperture modules to reduce heat sinking and construction costs. Designs include fixed V-troughs and CPC's, single axis tracked cylindrical lens and mirror systems, and 2-axis tracked spherical-symmetry systems. Performance and volume production costs were estimated. Four promising systems were constructed as prototypes: A -Point-focus Fresnel lenses, 2-axis tracking; Cg = 32x; and 69x with secondaries. B -Line-focus mirror parabolic troughs, 1-axis tracking, Cg = 20x. C -SMTS ('Single-mirror two-stage'), 1-axis tracking, Cg = 30x. F -Multiple line-focus mirror parabolic troughs, E-W 1/day manual tracking, Cg = 6x. The prototypes were tested at Reading, and three for up to a year's field trial at ZSW's test site, Widderstall, in Germany. The best system efficiencies, normalised to 25°C and excluding the end losses of linear systems, were 12.5%, 13.2%, 13.6% and 14.3% for collectors A, B, C, and F, respectively. The collectors were practical and robust, and the performances of collectors B, C and F are only 10% below the estimates in the spreadsheet calculations. The best collectors have estimated production costs between 1.5 and 1.8 US $/Wp, yielding energy costs at a good site (excluding BOS and overheads) of between 5 and 7 cents/kWh (18 and 25 cents/MJ). On the same cost basis a conventional PV array costs 4.3$/Wp, and 18 cents/kWh (65 cents/MJ)

Comparing Respondent-Driven Sampling and Targeted Sampling Methods of Recruiting Injection Drug Users in San Francisco

The objective of this article is to compare demographic characteristics, risk behaviors, and service utilization among injection drug users (IDUs) recruited from two separate studies in San Francisco in 2005, one which used targeted sampling (TS) and the other which used respondent-driven sampling (RDS). IDUs were recruited using TS (n = 651) and RDS (n = 534) and participated in quantitative interviews that included demographic characteristics, risk behaviors, and service utilization. Prevalence estimates and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated to assess whether there were differences in these variables by sampling method. There was overlap in 95% CIs for all demographic variables except African American race (TS: 45%, 53%; RDS: 29%, 44%). Maps showed that the proportion of IDUs distributed across zip codes were similar for the TS and RDS sample, with the exception of a single zip code that was more represented in the TS sample. This zip code includes an isolated, predominantly African American neighborhood where only the TS study had a field site. Risk behavior estimates were similar for both TS and RDS samples, although self-reported hepatitis C infection was lower in the RDS sample. In terms of service utilization, more IDUs in the RDS sample reported no recent use of drug treatment and syringe exchange program services. Our study suggests that perhaps a hybrid sampling plan is best suited for recruiting IDUs in San Francisco, whereby the more intensive ethnographic and secondary analysis components of TS would aid in the planning of seed placement and field locations for RDS

Multiple Sclerosis Susceptibility-Associated SNPs Do Not Influence Disease Severity Measures in a Cohort of Australian MS Patients

Recent association studies in multiple sclerosis (MS) have identified and replicated several single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) susceptibility loci including CLEC16A, IL2RA, IL7R, RPL5, CD58, CD40 and chromosome 12q13–14 in addition to the well established allele HLA-DR15. There is potential that these genetic susceptibility factors could also modulate MS disease severity, as demonstrated previously for the MS risk allele HLA-DR15. We investigated this hypothesis in a cohort of 1006 well characterised MS patients from South-Eastern Australia. We tested the MS-associated SNPs for association with five measures of disease severity incorporating disability, age of onset, cognition and brain atrophy. We observed trends towards association between the RPL5 risk SNP and time between first demyelinating event and relapse, and between the CD40 risk SNP and symbol digit test score. No associations were significant after correction for multiple testing. We found no evidence for the hypothesis that these new MS disease risk-associated SNPs influence disease severity

Observational analytic studies in multiple sclerosis: controlling bias through study design and conduct. The Australian Multicentre Study of Environment and Immune Function

Rising multiple sclerosis incidence over the last 50 years and geographic patterns of occurrence suggest an environmental role in the causation of this multifactorial disease. Design options for epidemiological studies of environmental causes of multiple sclerosis are limited by the low incidence of the disease, possible diagnostic delay and budgetary constraints. We describe scientific and methodological issues considered in the development of the Australian Multicentre Study of Environment and Immune Function (the Ausimmune Study), which seeks, in particular, to better understand the causes of the well-known MS positive latitudinal gradient. A multicentre, case-control design down the eastern seaboard of Australia allows the recruitment of sufficient cases for adequate study power and provides data on environmental exposures that vary by latitude. Cases are persons with an incident first demyelinating event (rather than prevalent multiple sclerosis), sourced from a population base using a two tier notification system. Controls, matched on sex, age (within two years) and region of residence, are recruited from the general population. Biases common in case-control studies, eg, prevalence-incidence bias, admission-rate bias, non-respondent bias, observer bias and recall bias, as well as confounding have been carefully considered in the study design and conduct of the Ausimmune Study

Albert Pierrepoint and the cultural persona of the twentieth-century hangman

Albert Pierrepoint was Britain’s most famous 20th-century hangman. This article utilises diverse sources in order to chart his public representation, or cultural persona, as hangman from his rise to prominence in the mid-1940s to his portrayal in the biopic Pierrepoint(2005). It argues that Pierrepoint exercised agency in shaping this persona through publishing his autobiography and engagement with the media, although there were also representations that he did not influence. In particular, it explores three iterations of his cultural persona – the Professional Hangman, the Reformed Hangman and the Haunted Hangman. Each of these built on and reworked historical antecedents and also communicated wider understandings and contested meanings in relation to capital punishment. As a hangman who remained in the public eye after the death penalty in Britain was abolished, Pierrepoint was an important, authentic link to the practice of execution and a symbolic figure in debates over reintroduction. In the 21st century, he was portrayed as a victim of the ‘secondary trauma’ of the death penalty, which resonated with worldwide campaigns for abolition