A closer look at projects [Case study], pp. 1-4.

This is a case study that looks at two use cases for projects. The first is with Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) who use projects to archive and maintain projects within the institute (and, soon, for sensitive data). The second is with the Museum of Domestic Design & Architecture (MoDA) at Middlesex University who are using projects for individual research projects within the museum

Stress in trade union officials: an issue for managerial concern?

This study examines stress levels in, and a range of stressors experienced by, officials from a trade union within the fire and rescue service (n = 85). Findings indicate dissatisfaction with aspects of the work of union officials. Additionally, respondents exhibited excessive levels of stress resulting from the service’s organisational structure and their role within it. The benefits of the union role to the service are noted; and it is suggested that consideration be given to effecting change in organisational structure, climate, and practice in the fire and rescue service, and to improving support for union officials

Safe use of symbols in handover documentation for medical teams

Concern has been reported about the safe use of medical abbreviations in documents such as handover sheets and medical notes, especially when information is being communicated between staff of different specialties (BBC 2008, Sheppard et al. 2008). This article describes a study to investigate whether the use of symbols in handover documentation that is shared within and between multidisciplinary teams (MDTs) has similar safety implications. We asked 19 healthcare professionals from a range of specialties to identify 45 different combinations of 38 individual symbols. The symbols and combinations of symbols were extracted from 102 handover sheets taken from 6 different healthcare contexts in 4 London hospitals. Three symbols proposed in Microsoft's Common User Interface guidelines for alert symbols were also included. Results reveal that while some symbols are well understood, many others are either ambiguous or unknown. These results have implications for the safe use of symbols in medical documents, including paper and electronic handover documents and Electronic Patient Records (EPRs), especially where teams comprise individuals from different professional backgrounds, i.e. MDTs. We offer initial suggestions for standardisation and further research

The tail of the Jurassic fish Leedsichthys problematicus (Osteichthyes: Actinopterygii) collected by Alfred Nicholson Leeds - an example of the importance of historical records in palaeontology

The specimen of the tail of <i>Leedsichthys problematicus</i>, now in The Natural History Museum, London, was one of the most spectacular fossil vertebrates from the Oxford Clay Formation of Peterborough, but as an isolated find it shares no bones in common with the holotype of the genus and species. However, a letter from Alfred Nicholson Leeds and related documents cast valuable new light on the excavation of the tail, indicating that it was discovered with cranial bones, gill-rakers, and two pectoral fins, thereby including elements that can potentially be compared with those of the holotype. The documents also clearly indicate that The Natural History Museum's specimen is not part of the same individual as any other numbered specimen of <i>Leedsichthys</i> as had been speculated on other occasions. The maximum size of the animal represented by The Natural History Museum's specimen was possibly around 9 metres, considerably less than previous estimates of up to 27.6 metres for <i>Leedsichthys</i>. Historical documentary evidence should therefore be rigorously checked both when studying historical specimens in science, and in preparing text for museum display labels

A Shift in Systems: (Co-)conceptualising Pedagogy in an Era of Continuous Complexity

As a result of complex co-constructive entanglements of contemporary lived-ex-perience, this paper develops ideas from posthumanist and material perspectives on education, that recognise, unpack and analyse the particular dynamic, co-con-structive nature of the postdigital entanglements of technology with the epistemic and ontological development of students (Bozalek, Braidotti, Shefer and Zemby-las, 2018). Drawing from Haraway’s idea of symbiogenesis, (2016), this paper suggests that a critical facet of contemporary pedagogy requires an understanding of the key skill of poiesis, to render visible the entangled ontology of the contem-porary postdigital adolescent to better inform appropriate pedagogic developments

Environmental effects of SPS: The middle atmosphere

The heavy lift launch vehicle associated with the solar power satellite (SPS) would deposit in the upper atmosphere exhaust and reentry products which could modify the composition of the stratosphere, mesosphere, and lower ionosphere. In order to assess such effects, atmospheric model simulations were performed, especially considering a geographic zone centered at the launch and reentry latitudes

The Neon Abundance in the Ejecta of QU Vul From Late-Epoch IR Spectra

We present ground-based SpectroCam-10 mid-infrared, MMT optical, and Spitzer Space Telescope IRS mid-infrared spectra taken 7.62, 18.75, and 19.38 years respectively after the outburst of the old classical nova QU Vulpeculae (Nova Vul 1984 #2). The spectra of the ejecta are dominated by forbidden line emission from neon and oxygen. Our analysis shows that neon was, at the first and last epochs respectively, more than 76 and 168 times overabundant by number with respect to hydrogen compared to the solar value. These high lower limits to the neon abundance confirm that QU Vul involved a thermonuclear runaway on an ONeMg white dwarf and approach the yields predicted by models of the nucleosynthesis in such events.Comment: ApJ 2007 accepted, 18 pages, including 5 figures, 1 tabl

The Effect of Cow-Diet on the Fermentation of Forages

In vitro fermentation of fresh forages minced to resemble chewed material have enabled net proteolysis and volatile fatty acid (VFA) production to be measured using rumen inocula from a cow fed lucerne hay (Burke et al., 2000). However both cow and diet affect the rumen cellulolytic bacterial populations (Weimer et al., 1999) and are able to influence in vitro digestion kinetics (Mertens et al., 1998). The objective of this study was to measure cow-diet effects on in vitro digestion and fermentation of perennial ryegrass (P; Lolium perenne), sulla (S; Hedysarum coronarium), maize (M; Zea maize) silage and mixtures