Dust in the centres of galaxies: observations and modelling of dust in the nucleus of NGC1068 and in the galactic centre

As the “archetypal” Seyfert II galaxy, NGC1068 is one o f the best-studied dusty objects in the sky. Yet — in comm on with Seyfert galaxies in general — the properties of its dust are not at all well-known. To remedy this situation I have modelled the IR polarisation and 3.4/rm dust absorption feature observed in the nucleus of NGC1068 and com pared the results with new and existing spectroscopy and polarimetry. I find that to reproduce the observed polarisation, the aligned dust grains in this AGN must be larger than those seen in the Galactic diffuse ISM and molecular clouds. I am also led to conclude that the polarising grains in NG C1068 do not take the form of silicate cores with organic mantles, a model which has been widely used to describe dust in the diffuse ISM of our Galaxy. The organic fraction of the dust instead exists as some form of small, nonpolarising grain, and its 3.4/rm feature shows that it is chemically very similar to carbonaceous dust in other, very different environments. The interpretation of this is not yet clear, but it is consistent with a common formation site and mechanism for the carrier of the band seen in many environments, which is then resistant to processing in the ISM . I have also applied these models to a Galactic centre line of sight, again finding that the core-mantle dust grain model is unlikely to be a valid representation of this dust

Cattle and the Climate: Why Industrial Production Is Not The Solution To Emissions From Beef And Dairy Farms

KEYWORDS: Beef and dairy production systems. GHG emissions. Literature review. Science-based communication. HIGHLIGHTS: *Provides user-friendly explanation of basic concepts and terminology as well as summaries of current scientific thinking related to GHG emissions of different beef and dairy production systems around the world. The aim is to give those concerned about the negative impacts of industrial animal agriculture a clear understanding of these complex and confusing issues, and to supply them with a solid foundation on which to build their case against industrializing cattle production in low- and middle-income countries. For example, it explains the difference between "intensification" and "industrialization", and why understanding the difference is critically important. *Provides key points that are useful in countering certain prevalent claims in favor of industrialization. (One such claim is that industrialization is essential in order to reduce GHG emission because non-industrial systems generate too much greenhouse gases and do not produce enough meat and dairy to meet global demands). For example, it points out that: Animals from smallholder systems – especially those in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) – often perform many more functions than cattle on industrial farms, and this complicates the way in which emissions are divided between ("allocated to") multiple products from a farm. And farms in LMICs that have low climate footprints already exist, and it is quite possible to bring more on board

Modeling Agricultural Outcomes in a Warmer, Wetter Vermont

This thesis aimed to model agricultural outcomes that are important to Vermont dairy farms and their surrounding communities -- runoff, erosion, nitrogen and phosphorus losses, crop yields, and timeliness of farm operations -- under a set of possible future climates. The Agricultural Policy/Environmental eXtender (APEX) model was used for this work, and the models were calibrated using data from a project that measured most of these outcomes on a set of local farms. The model setup and calibration methodology is thoroughly documented and may be a useful starting point for others who are new to agricultural modeling. Applied to two farms growing continuous corn, the future climate simulations showed that increasing temperatures by 2 C, combined with raising total precipitation or changing the seasonality of precipitation, had little effect on any outcome. Intense rainfall has increased greatly in recent decades, so a combination of higher temperatures and more intense precipitation was also simulated. This led to more runoff, more soil loss, and more nutrient losses. While median values were only modestly increased, the 95%-ile and total losses over the simulation period increased by a larger amount (as much as 53%, depending on the site). Management practices that can reduce runoff and soil/nutrient loss exist, but their effectiveness when a higher fraction of losses occur in large events is not well known. Crop yields changed by \u3c10% in all simulations, and in some cases increased slightly. Other studies have warned of decreases in yields because of high summer temperatures and droughts. The pilot simulations in this thesis probed only a limited range of climate parameter space, so running the models for a wider range of scenarios may illuminate the circumstances in which particularly harmful and beneficial outcomes occur. Finally, APEX can in principle calculate the delays to corn planting that are expected if climate change leads to wetter conditions in the spring. However, the models consistently predicted that only harvest operations will be delayed. The reasons for this are not well understood, and it may be a useful avenue for future work. The present work is limited in a number of ways. Chief among these are somewhat mediocre model performance, and the narrow range of farming systems and climate scenarios investigated. Statistics describing the performance of the calibrated models were poorer than anticipated, and satisfactory results could not be obtained for some nutrient loss pathways. Only two farms were modeled, in just four hypothetical future climates; results for other relevant farming systems and climates may be quite different. Nonetheless, it is hoped that this thesis serves as a useful illustration of the potential and limitations of utilizing the APEX model in this context, and that it lays the groundwork for a more extensive investigation of agricultural outcomes under climate change in Vermont

Tidal and marine energy in the uk– identifying the future challenges for supply chain development

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the current technical and operational supply chain issues surrounding the development of tidal and marine energy production in the UK. The paper outlines the market and growth potential of tidal energy production in the UK before identifying the key supply chain themes surrounding tidal energy production including an analysis of the portability and transferability of current supply chain thinking and development from other renewable energy systems such as wind turbine technology towards the development of tidal energy supply chain systems. The paper closes by identifying the major challenges that the UK supply chain must overcome in order to develop a comprehensive and robust supply chain system

Learning about Professionalism within Practice-based Education: what are we looking for?

Health and social care professions are being held to account concerning their professionalism in ways that would have been unprecedented in the recent past. Students of the School of Health Sciences (HSC) within the University of East Anglia (UEA) in the United Kingdom have professionalism taught and assessed in a number of ways and have overt opportunities to develop their professional performance during practice education. In order to augment this further, a UEA Professionalism Charter has been developed, which helps students to define, learn and apply professionalism in a particular way. Since professionalism is being scrutinised by a number of bodies it is important that there is agreement about its nature. Without an overt definition of professionalism from the Health and Care Professions Council (the regulatory body for occupational therapy, physiotherapy and speech and language therapy) this study set out to explore what could be learned about this body’s perspective through analysis of its Fitness to Practice hearings. The outcome revealed that a definition could be identified and that this bears a close resemblance to that used within the UEA Professionalism Charter. The study therefore supports the continued use of the Charte

Maternal caregivers have confluence of altered cortisol, high reward-driven eating, and worse metabolic health.

Animal models have shown that chronic stress increases cortisol, which contributes to overeating of highly palatable food, increased abdominal fat and lower cortisol reactivity. Few studies in humans have simultaneously examined these trajectories. We examined premenopausal women, either mothers of children with a diagnosis of an autism spectrum disorder (n = 92) or mothers of neurotypical children (n = 91). At baseline and 2-years, we assessed hair cortisol, metabolic health, and reward-based eating. We compared groups cross-sectionally and prospectively, accounting for BMI change. Caregivers, relative to controls, had lower cumulative hair cortisol at each time point, with no decreases over time. Caregivers also had stable levels of poor metabolic functioning and greater reward-based eating across both time points, and evidenced increased abdominal fat prospectively (all ps ≤.05), independent of change in BMI. This pattern of findings suggest that individuals under chronic stress, such as caregivers, would benefit from tailored interventions focusing on better regulation of stress and eating in tandem to prevent early onset of metabolic disease, regardless of weight status

Are life-extending treatments for terminal illnesses a special case? Exploring choices and societal viewpoints

Criteria used by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to assess life-extending, end-of-life (EoL) treatments imply that health gains from such treatments are valued more than other health gains. Despite claims that the policy is supported by societal values, evidence from preference elicitation studies is mixed and in-depth research has shown there are different societal viewpoints. Few studies elicit preferences for policies directly or combine different approaches to understand preferences.Survey questions were designed to investigate support for NICE EoL guidance at national and regional levels. These ‘Decision Rule’ and ‘Treatment Choice’ questions were administered to an online sample of 1496 UK respondents in May 2014. The same respondents answered questions designed to elicit their agreement with three viewpoints (previously identified and described) in relation to provision of EoL treatments for terminally ill patients. We report the findings of these choice questions and examine how they relate to each other and respondents' viewpoints.The Decision Rule questions described three policies: DA – a standard ‘value for money’ test, applied to all health technologies; DB – giving special consideration to all treatments for terminal illnesses; and DC – giving special consideration to specific categories of treatments for terminal illnesses e.g. life extension (as in NICE EoL guidance) or those that improve quality-of-life (QoL). Three Treatment Choices were presented: TA – improving QoL for patients with a non-terminal illness; TB – extending life for EoL patients; and TC – improving QoL at the EoL.DC received most support (45%) with most respondents giving special consideration to EoL only when treatments improved QoL. The most commonly preferred treatment choices were TA (51%) and TC (43%). Overall, this study challenges claims about public support for NICE's EoL guidance and the focus on life extension at EoL and substantiates existing evidence of plurality in societal values

Problematising the concept of 'sustainability' in the supply chain through systematic literature review

The authors contend that there are two broad 'senses' in which 'sustainability' is currently understood in supply chain research and practice – responsibility (in terms of environmental and social practices) and continuity (in the face of twenty-first century uncertainty and disruption). Systematic review is used to illustrate the predominance of the responsibility 'sense' of sustainability in academic literature labelled 'sustainable supply chain.' The authors propose that parallel research into strategies for supply chain continuity (e.g. agility and resilience) be brought within the fold of the 'sustainable supply chain' research label for the sake of clarity of the 'sustainability' concept and the development of a truly sustainable supply chain, because a responsible supply chain might not necessarily be a resilient supply chain in the twenty-first century global environment