A Process Model of Risk Communication: The Case of Global Climate Change

The authors describe a survey of public media use as it relates to different stages of awareness and concern regarding risk issues

An Automated Framework for Structural Test-data Generation

Structural testing criteria are mandated in many software development standards and guidelines. The process of generating test data to achieve 100% coverage of a given structural coverage metric is labour-intensive and expensive. This paper presents an approach to automate the generation of such test data. The test-data generation is based on the application of a dynamic optimisation-based search for the required test data. The same approach can be generalised to solve other test-data generation problems. Three such applications are discussed-boundary value analysis, assertion/run-time exception testing, and component re-use testing. A prototype tool-set has been developed to facilitate the automatic generation of test data for these structural testing problems. The results of preliminary experiments using this technique and the prototype tool-set are presented and show the efficiency and effectiveness of this approac

WILDLIFE DISEASES AND HUMAN HEALTH

Zoonoses (singular, zoonosis) are diseases transmissible from animals to man. There are over 200 such diseases; many are harbored by wildlife reservoirs. A reservoir may be defined as a source which maintains the presence of a disease in an ecosystem. Wildlife-associated zoonoses found in Texas include rabies, plague, tularemia, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, Lyme disease, leptospirosis, relapsing fever, typhus, and leprosy. The mission of the Zoonosis Control Division of the Texas Department of Health is to protect the health of Texas citizens against zoonoses. Surveillance programs for various diseases are an integral part of the overall control programs, which include epidemiological (case) investigations, surveillance, health education, and direct control efforts. The cooperation of other agencies is essential to a successful operation. The Animal Damage Control (ADC) branch of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife (USFWS) and the Texas Rodent and Predatory Animal Control Service have been especially helpful with surveillance activities, especially those involving sylvatic plague. They also assist, as needed, in other control efforts. For example, in 1976, during a major canine rabies outbreak in Laredo, (US-Mexico border), there were questions about the role of feral dogs living along the Rio Grande River in maintaining the epizootic. ADC personnel assisted when called upon by trapping several of the animals for rabies examination. (They were not infected). ADC personnel have also assisted in a study to elucidate the relationships between raccoons, bats, and rabies

FUNDAMENTAL STUDY OF IONIC LIQUID PHYSICOCHEMICAL EFFECTS ON THERMAL STABILITY OF MODEL BIOLOGICAL MACROMOLECULES

Ionic Liquids (ILs) are substances with a unique physical attribute compared to that of solid ionic salts. At room temperature, ILs are molten salts that have a variety of physical effects that can play a role in their impact on other molecules, as solvents or solutes. They can play the role of the solvent in a variety of applications, from biofuels to organic catalysis or as excipients in pharmaceutical formulations. These ILs have a desirable use as solvents due to their ability to be tunable substances. Changing the cation or anion of the IL causes a change in its physical effects on other molecules that interact with it. The understanding that intermolecular forces play a large role in the IL’s physical properties is well understood. But there are a plethora of cation and anion combinations to form molten ILs and these interactions are rarely one size fits all regarding their impact on biological substances. The focus of this thesis is on the physicochemical effect of biologically compatible, or environmentally friendly, ILs’ impact on a set of model biological macromolecules. The understandings gleamed from the results lead to a subset of ILs and their impact on a subset of model biological structures to be applied to future study and therapeutic applications

The Space of Drawing: The Place of Art in Modern Philosophy's Thinking of the Visible

In this article we engage with Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s claim as it is articulated in his famous last work, ‘Eye and Mind’, that Descartes’ account of space derived from the Renaissance art of perspective. We argue that not only is this account of space an essential element of Cartesian metaphysics, but that it plays a key role in modern philosophy and modern science. In part our aim is to underscore Merleau-Ponty’s recognition of the role that art plays in the genesis of the modern conception of space. However, we also argue that by way of this recognition, Merleau-Ponty seeks to release us from the limitations of this conception of space and the view of the human subject it entails, and return us to the world upon which the acts of drawing and painting draw, namely the ambiguous world of perception replete with creative potential

Mindful Leadership in Interprofessional Teams

Large interprofessional teams are complex systems in which the expertise of the individual team members interact with the health situation and the external environment in the delivery of modern day health care. The need for coordinating leadership and the (dynamical) need for appropriate expertise to come to the fore involves a tension between the traditional role of the team leader as authority figure and the collaborative leadership preferred by individual team members in their field of expertise. Mindful leadership may provide the leader attributes that allow for and facilitate emergent team structures to meet system changes required in implementing patient and family-centred care. In this paper, we discuss the nature of these attributes and their implications for models of interprofessional teams

The Space of Drawing

In this essay we engage with Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s claim as it is articulated in his famous last work, ‘Eye and Mind’, that Descartes’ account of space derived from the Renaissance art of perspective. We argue that not only is this account of space an essential element of Cartesian metaphysics, but that it plays a key role in modern philosophy and modern science. In part our aim is to underscore Merleau-Ponty’s recognition of the part that art plays in the genesis of the modern conception of space. However, we also argue that by way of this recognition, Merleau-Ponty seeks to release us from the limitations of this conception of space and the view of the human subject it entails, and return us to the world upon which the acts of drawing and painting draw, namely the ambiguous world of perception replete with creative potential