Zoo Store 1 at the Natural History Museum: Meeting National Standards

The Natural History Museum (NHM), London is at the forefront of natural history science, and a major player in developing standards for the care of these collections in museums. Around ten years ago, there was a great deal of activity developing policies and standards for the care of the different museum collections. Despite this, the feeling in the museum is that the management of the collections was neglected for some years. Since the Museum Registrar was appointed in 2004, the Museum hosted the International SPNHC Conference and has been working on implementing these policies. This paper examines how the NHM’s collections storage compares to the standards and policies to which the museum aspires. Zoo Store 1, one of the NHM’s oldest storerooms, is used as a case study. The investigation found that the store falls short of the aspired standards in documentation, security, storage and environmental conditions, but significant progress has been made in the last two years. Reasons range from historical problems inherited from previous generations of museum workers, the attitudes of personnel, and the sheer time that it takes to implement a series of standards across very large collections and numbers of staff

The limits of the total crystal-field splittings

The crystal-fields causing $|J>$ electron states splittings of the same second moment $\sigma^{2}$ can produce different total splittings $\Delta E$ magnitudes. Based on the numerical data on crystal-field splittings for the representative sets of crystal-field Hamiltonians ${\cal H}_{\rm CF}=\sum_{k}\sum_{q}B_{kq}C_{q}^{(k)}$ with fixed indexes either $k$ or $q$, the potentials leading to the extreme $\Delta E$ have been identified. For all crystal-fields the admissible ranges $(\Delta E_{min},\Delta E_{max})$ have been found numerically for $1\leq J\leq 8$. The extreme splittings are reached in the crystal-fields for which ${\cal H}_{\rm CF}s$ are the definite superpositions of the $C_{q}^{(k)}$ components with different rank $k=2,4$ and 6 and the same index $q$. Apart from few exceptions, the lower limits $\Delta E_{min}$ occur in the axial fields of ${\cal H}_{\rm CF}(q=0)=B_{20}C_{0}^{(2)}+B_{40}C_{0}^{(4)}+B_{60}C_{0}^{(6)}$, whereas the upper limits $\Delta E_{max}$ in the low symmetry fields of ${\cal H}_{\rm CF}(q=1)=B_{21}C_{1}^{(2)}+B_{41}C_{1}^{(4)}+B_{61}C_{1}^{(6)}$. Mixing the ${\cal H}_{\rm CF}$ components with different $q$ yields a secondary effect and does not determine the extreme splittings. The admissible $\Delta E_{min}$ changes with $J$ from $2.00\sigma$ to $2.40\sigma$, whereas the $\Delta E_{max}$ from $2.00\sigma$ to $4.10\sigma$. The maximal gap $\Delta E_{max}-\Delta E_{min}=2.00\sigma$ has been found for the states $|J=4>$. Not all the nominally allowed total splittings, preserving $\sigma^{2}=const$ condition, are physically available, and in consequence not all virtual splittings diagrams can be observed in real crystal-fields.Comment: 30 pages, Appendix (8 pages) and 11 tables; submitted to pss(b

The Double Knee Bend Alters Rate of Force Development in The Clean Exercise

Weightlifting technique used by many team sport athletes differs from that of competitiveweightlifters. Specifically, between the first and second pull, the double knee bend (DKB)involves an unweighting phase wherein the knees are flexed before extension in the second pull.Proficiency in this technique may be the primary mechanism by which weightlifters producelarge vertical ground reaction force (GRF) peaks and rates of force development (RFD). Thepurpose of this study was therefore to evaluate differences in GRF during cleans with andwithout the DKB. GRF were measured during performance of 80%1RM cleans by 10experienced weightlifters with or without the DKB. Paired samples t-tests revealed greater forcereduction during unweighting (d=2.85), and greater RFD (d=2.30) in the second pull with theDKB compared with no DKB. Our findings suggest that the use of the DKB during training ofthe clean exercise may provide a greater power-specific training stimulu

Public-Private Partnerships in the hospital sector : analysis of the performance of the four PPP Hospitals in Portugal

PPPs are being used worldwide in the hospital sector, despite the absence of a consensual definition and structural model. For the purpose of this thesis, a review of the existing PPP definitions, models and main drivers was conducted. A particular focus was given to the existing PPP hospitals models within Europe. The main discrepancies/differences seem to be between the PPP hospitals models that include the provision of clinical services and the ones that don’t (i.e. only involve infrastructure). Portugal announced an intensive PPP hospital program in 2001. PPPs were introduced while a complete reorganization of the hospital sector was occurring, leading to a shift in the Portuguese government /Ministry of health's role regarding the healthcare sector. So far the literature was not able to prove and to demonstrate the advantages of the use of PPPs in the hospital sector for all cases and models. In order to analyze and understand the performance of the PPP hospitals compared to the remaining public hospital, an analysis was conducted. This was based on the data provided by the ACSS. In general, PPP hospitals presented better values than the national average and an improvement tendency. The PPP hospitals particularly stood out in both quality and financial-based analysis. Given this study’s conclusion and limitations, suggestions for further research were given, namely a Value for money analysis should be conducted.As Parcerias-Público privadas estão a ser implementadas no sector hospitalar no mundo todo. Ainda assim não existe uma definição consensual do termo PPP nem do modelo a seguir. No âmbito desta tese foi efectuada uma revisão da literatura sobre a definição do termo PPP, dos modelos existentes e dos principais motivos para a sua implementação. Uma especial atenção foi dada aos modelos existentes no sector hospitalar Europeu. A principal diferença entre os modelos existentes assenta na divisão entre os hospitais PPPs que incluem o serviço clinico e os que não incluem (i.e apenas infraestrutura). Em 2001, foi anunciado em Portugal um program intensivo de PPPs no sector hospitalar. As PPPs foram introduzidas no contexto de uma vasta reorganização do sector hospitalar que levou a uma mudança do papel do Estado no sector da saúde. Até hoje, a literatura não conseguiu demonstrar as vantagens gerais e claras das PPPs para os vários modelos que existem. Com o objectivo de tentar compreender o desempenho dos hospitais PPPs, comparativamente com os restantes hospitais públicos, foi conduzida uma análise. Esta análise baseou-se nos dados fornecidos pela ACSS. No geral os hospitais PPPs apresentaram melhores valores que a média nacional e uma tendência de melhoria. Os hospitais PPPs destacaram-se especialmente nos indicadores de qualidade e económico-financeiros. Dada as conclusões e limitações desta tese, foram apresentadas sugestões para uma análise futura, especial uma análise de valor de dinheiro

Awareness, attitude and purchase intention’s influence on the response to the out of stock of organic yogurts

In Portugal, the consumption of organic products is a growing trend, since consumers are becoming more concerned in having a healthy diet and adopting a lifestyle which takes into consideration not only how food products can impact their wellbeing but also how sustainable they are from production to consumption. Following this trend, retailers are also taking actions, such as creating areas in the supermarket dedicated only to healthy food products. This study focused only on organic yogurts, since they represent one of the most consumed categories among organic food products. The main purpose of this thesis is to understand consumers with different levels of Awareness, Attitude and Purchase Intention towards organic yogurts, on how they react to the lack of availability of their preferred organic yogurt. Six in-depth interviews and a survey were used in order to reach a more detailed analysis. The main conclusions taken from the study are that Awareness and Attitude towards organic yogurts are positively related and both variables influence positively the Purchase Intention of organic yogurts. The main response given by organic yogurt consumers, when confronted with the Out of Stock of their preferred organic yogurt, is to still choose their preferred organic yogurt, waiting for it to be restocked at their usual store or to look for the exact same one at a different store. On the other side, non-organic yogurt consumers when faced with the OOS of their preferred yogurt, opt for another non-organic yogurt with a different flavor or from another brand.Em Portugal, o consumo de produtos biológicos é uma tendência em crescimento dado que os consumidores estão cada vez mais preocupados em ter uma dieta saudável e em adoptar um estilo de vida que tenha em consideração não só como é que os produtos alimentares podem afetar o seu bem-estar, mas também quão sustentáveis são desde a produção ao consumo. Seguindo esta tendência, os retalhistas também estão a adoptar ações como a criação de áreas no supermercado dedicadas exclusivamente a produtos alimentícios saudáveis. Este estudo focou-se apenas em iogurtes biológicos, visto que representam uma das categorias mais consumidas de produtos alimentares biológicos. O objetivo principal desta tese é compreender consumidores com diferentes níveis de Conhecimento, Atitude e Intenção de Compra relativamente a iogurtes biológicos, sobre como os mesmos reagem à falta de stock do seu iogurte biológico preferido. Foram realizadas seis entrevistas e um questionário com o propósito de produzir uma análise mais detalhada. Concluindo, o Conhecimento e a Atitude relativos a iogurtes biológicos estão positivamente relacionados e ambas as variáveis influenciam de forma positiva a Intenção de Compra destes produtos. A principal resposta dada pelos consumidores de iogurtes biológicos, quando confrontados com a Falta de Stock do seu iogurte preferido, é continuarem a escolher o iogurte biológico preferido, esperando que o mesmo seja reabastecido na loja habitual ou procurando-o numa loja diferente. Por outro lado, os consumidores de iogurtes não biológicos optam por outro iogurte não biológico com um sabor diferente ou de outra marca

Mechanosensitive Self-Replication Driven by Self-Organization

Self-replicating molecules are likely to have played an important role in the origin of life, and a small number of fully synthetic self-replicators have already been described. Yet it remains an open question which factors most effectively bias the replication toward the far-from-equilibrium distributions characterizing even simple organisms. We report here two self-replicating peptide-derived macrocycles that emerge from a small dynamic combinatorial library and compete for a common feedstock. Replication is driven by nanostructure formation, resulting from the assembly of the peptides into fibers held together by β sheets. Which of the two replicators becomes dominant is influenced by whether the sample is shaken or stirred. These results establish that mechanical forces can act as a selection pressure in the competition between replicators and can determine the outcome of a covalent synthesis.