The New Zealand Jury

In New Zealand, the recent history of the jury has been one of fairly steady decline. This is particularly so of the civil jury, which has become virtually extinct with little realistic prospect of revival

Feasibility Analysis for Reclaim Device During Shotcrete Application

Shotcrete application has proven advantages over cast-in-place concrete under many different situations. Ease of access, minimal formwork, and higher productivity are prime examples. Its uses have exponentially increased through technical innovations to improve the ready-mix, nozzlemen technique, application surfaces, and to ensure higher dependability of the equipment. Unfortunately, concrete waste is still one of the highest percentages of overall waste in the construction industry. Shotcrete rebound, the material that falls from the wall due to lack of cohesion during installation, has slowly been reduced due to ready-mix alterations over the years, but effective recycling processes have yet to be implemented. Concrete recycling plants have helped to re-route concrete waste from landfills, but they still increase time and money spent cleaning and transporting the material. In some cases, such as gunite solutions, the material cannot be recycled, and becomes waste once it comes in contact with the ground. Instituting reclaim devices underneath shotcrete nozzles will not only catch the rebounded material, but feed it through the main hose for re-application. Since this has never been implemented, initial feedback from industry professionals will set the tone for the marketing and feasibility of this potential product

Recent advances in drug delivery systems based on polypeptides prepared fromN-carboxyanhydrides

Recent years have seen a dramatic increase in interest in the use of ring-opening polymerization of N-carboxyanhydride monomers as a method to prepare well-defined polypeptides and peptide hybrid materials. The resulting molecules are often capable of assembling into a variety of different structures, including micelles, vesicles, nanoparticles and hydrogels, and therefore have been explored as novel drug delivery systems. Peptides are attractive in this regard due to their rich chemical functionality and ability to assemble through the formation of secondary structures (e.g. α-helices and β-sheets). In addition, they are inherently biodegradable and biocompatible. This review describes recent advances in the field, covering aspects such as improved methods with which to prepare better-defined polypeptides, crosslinking of assemblies to enhance biostability, the preparation of materials that respond to a variety of stimuli (including light and intra- or extracellular redox conditions), functionalization with targeting ligands to enhance cellular uptake, assemblies for small interfering RNA delivery and approaches to theranostic systems. © 2014 Society of Chemical Industr

Preferences over the Fair Division of Goods: Information, Good, and Sample Effects in a Health Context

Greater recognition by economists of the influential role that concern for distributional equity exerts on decision making in a variety of economic contexts has spurred interest in empirical research on the public judgments of fair distribution. Using a stated-preference experimental design, this paper contributes to the growing literature on fair division by investigating the empirical support for each of five distributional principles — equal division among recipients, Rawlsian maximin, total benefit maximization, equal benefit for recipients, and allocation according to relative need among recipients — in the division of a fixed bundle of a good across settings that differ with respect to the good being allocated (a health care good — pills, and non-health care but still health-affecting good — apples) and the way that alternative possible divisions of the good are described (quantitative information only, verbal information only, and both). It also offers new evidence on sample effects (university sample vs. community samples) and how the aggregate ranking of principles is affected by alternative vote-scoring methods. We find important information effects. When presented with quantitative information only, support for the division to equalize benefit across recipients is consistent with that found in previous research; changing to verbal descriptions causes a notable shift in support among principles, especially between equal division of the goods and total benefit maximization. The judgments made when presented with both quantitative and verbal information match more closely those made with quantitative-only descriptions rather than verbal-only descriptions, suggesting that the quantitative information dominates. The information effects we observe are consistent with a lack of understanding among participants as to the relationship between the principles and the associated quantitative allocations. We also find modest good effects in the expected direction: the fair division of pills is tied more closely to benefit-related criterion than is the fair division of apples (even though both produce health benefits). We find evidence of only small differences between the university and community samples and important sex-information interactions.Distributive Justice; Equity; Resource Allocation; Health Care

Preferences over the Fair Division of Goods: Information, Good, and Sample Effects in a Health Context

Greater recognition by economists of the influential role that concern for distributional equity exerts on decision making in a variety of economic contexts has spurred interest in empirical research on the public judgments of fair distribution. Using a stated-preference experimental design, this paper contributes to the growing literature on fair division by investigating the empirical support for each of five distributional principles — equal division among recipients, Rawlsian maximin, total benefit maximization, equal benefit for recipients, and allocation according to relative need among recipients — in the division of a fixed bundle of a good across settings that differ with respect to the good being allocated (a health care good — pills, and non-health care but still health-affecting good — apples) and the way that alternative possible divisions of the good are described (quantitative information only, verbal information only, and both). It also offers new evidence on sample effects (university sample vs. community samples) and how the aggregate ranking of principles is affected by alternative vote-scoring methods. We find important information effects. When presented with quantitative information only, support for the division to equalize benefit across recipients is consistent with that found in previous research; changing to verbal descriptions causes a notable shift in support among principles, especially between equal division of the goods and total benefit maximization. The judgments made when presented with both quantitative and verbal information match more closely those made with quantitative-only descriptions rather than verbal-only descriptions, suggesting that the quantitative information dominates. The information effects we observe are consistent with a lack of understanding among participants as to the relationship between the principles and the associated quantitative allocations. We also find modest good effects in the expected direction: the fair division of pills is tied more closely to benefit-related criterion than is the fair division of apples (even though both produce health benefits). We find evidence of only small differences between the university and community samples and important sex-information interactions.Distributive justice, equity, resource allocation, health care

Improving efficiency of persistent storage access in embedded Linux

Real-time embedded systems increasingly need to process and store large volumes of persistent data, requiring fast, timely and predictable storage. Traditional methods of accessing storage using general-purpose operating system-based file systems do not provide the performance and timing predictability needed. This paper firstly examines the speed and consistency of SSD operations in an embedded Linux system, identifying areas where inefficiencies in the storage stack cause issues for performance and predictability. Secondly, the CharIO storage device driver is proposed to bypass Linux file systems and the kernel block layer, in order to increase performance, and provide improved timing predictability

Dates of birth and seasonal changes in well-being among 4904 subjects completing the seasonal pattern assessment questionnaire

Background: Abnormal distributions of birthdates, suggesting intrauterine aetiological factors, have been found in several psychiatric disorders, including one study of out-patients with Seasonal Affective Disorder (S.A.D.). We investigated birthdate distribution in relation to seasonal changes in well-being among a cohort who had completed the Seasonal Pattern Assessment Questionnaire (SPAQ). Method: A sample of 4904 subjects, aged 16 to 64, completed the SPAQ. 476 were cases of S.A.D. on the SPAQ and 580 were cases of sub-syndromal S.A.D. (S-S.A.D.). 92 were interview confirmed cases of S.A.D. Months and dates of birth were compared between S.A.D. cases and all others, between S.A.D. and S-S.A.D. cases combined and all others, and between interview confirmed cases and all others. Seasonality, as measured through seasonal fluctuations in well-being on the Global Seasonality Scores (GSS) of the SPAQ, was compared for all subjects by month and season of birth. Results: There was no evidence of an atypical pattern of birthdates for subjects fulfilling criteria for S.A.D., for the combined S.A.D. / S-S.A.D. group or for interview confirmed cases. There was also no relationship between seasonality on the GSS and month or season of birth. Limitations: Diagnoses of S.A.D. made by SPAQ criteria are likely to be overinclusive. Conclusion: Our findings differ from studies of patients with more severe mood disorders, including psychiatric out-patients with S.A.D. The lack of association between seasonality and birthdates in our study adds credence to the view that the aetiology of S.A.D. relates to separable factors predisposing to affective disorders and to seasonality

Sustainable Solutions to ‘Complex Problem-Solving\u27 a Key to Effective Community and Industry Engagement and Partnerships by University Researchers

Community and industry engagement by universities and academics are sometimes prone to accusations of exclusive or academic ‘talk-fests\u27 which can reinforce rather than resolve the ‘bridgeable disconnect\u27 between the general community and particular organizations with vested interests (Grayson, 2010). Concrete modes and strategies of ‘linking knowledge to action\u27 are needed to build upon the participatory exchange or mediation of stakeholder perspectives and interests. This paper reports on the exploration, development and application of the kind of convergent and also interdisciplinary approach to development studies which might: (a) better link theory and practice as a basis for the elusive goal of strategic ‘sustainability\u27, and (b) also encourage and optimize authentic, collaborative, and complex modes of problem-solving as a key to community and industry engagement by academic institutions and researchers. It will do so in relation to some practical case studies in such partnerships