Procunier Remodel Project

The Procunier Remodel Project report summarizes the preconstruction process for a single-family home remodel in the city of Walnut Creek. Key aspects of the report involve architectural design, structural design, interaction with the city, and interaction with the client

Observing and Tracking the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

The subtropical waters between Hawaii and California are currently infested with an accumulation of plastic estimated to be twice the area of Texas, otherwise known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP). This paper presents a novel CubeSat mission to monitor the size, growth and position of the GPGP. At 1.6 million square kilometres, the GPGP is by far the largest and most serious accumulation of garbage out of the five patches littered across the world’s oceans. If we are to prevent further damage to the marine ecosystems, it is imperative we act with the utmost urgency. Leveraging recent technological advancements in imaging capabilities, a comprehensive concept of operations has been produced detailing the satellite\u27s lifecycle from launch to deorbit, including the crucial phases whereby data is collected and transmitted. Although this paper focuses on tracking and monitoring the GPGP, the same concept of operations has the potential to observe all five garbage patches. The proposed mission utilises two reflective indices, Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Floating Debris Index (FDI), that will aid in differentiating surface plastics from other floating materials. For the mission to employ both NDVI and FDI, the chosen payload will require a spectral capture range from 665nm (red edge) to 1600nm (Short Wave Infrared) and would ideally have a Ground Sampling Distance (GSD) of no greater than 10m to guarantee the data collected is valuable

Introductory programming: a systematic literature review

As computing becomes a mainstream discipline embedded in the school curriculum and acts as an enabler for an increasing range of academic disciplines in higher education, the literature on introductory programming is growing. Although there have been several reviews that focus on specific aspects of introductory programming, there has been no broad overview of the literature exploring recent trends across the breadth of introductory programming. This paper is the report of an ITiCSE working group that conducted a systematic review in order to gain an overview of the introductory programming literature. Partitioning the literature into papers addressing the student, teaching, the curriculum, and assessment, we explore trends, highlight advances in knowledge over the past 15 years, and indicate possible directions for future research

Factors influencing participant enrolment in a diabetes prevention program in general practice: lessons from the Sydney diabetes prevention program

Background: The effectiveness of lifestyle interventions in reducing diabetes incidence has been well established. Little is known, however, about factors influencing the reach of diabetes prevention programs. This study examines the predictors of enrolment in the Sydney Diabetes Prevention Program (SDPP), a community-based diabetes prevention program conducted in general practice, New South Wales, Australia from 2008&ndash;2011.Methods: SDPP was an effectiveness trial. Participating general practitioners (GPs) from three Divisions of General Practice invited individuals aged 50&ndash;65 years without known diabetes to complete the Australian Type 2 Diabetes Risk Assessment tool. Individuals at high risk of diabetes were invited to participate in a lifestyle modification program. A multivariate model using generalized estimating equations to control for clustering of enrolment outcomes by GPs was used to examine independent predictors of enrolment in the program. Predictors included age, gender, indigenous status, region of birth, socio-economic status, family history of diabetes, history of high glucose, use of anti-hypertensive medication, smoking status, fruit and vegetable intake, physical activity level and waist measurement.Results: Of the 1821 eligible people identified as high risk, one third chose not to enrol in the lifestyle program. In multivariant analysis, physically inactive individuals (OR: 1.48, P = 0.004) and those with a family history of diabetes (OR: 1.67, P = 0.000) and history of high blood glucose levels (OR: 1.48, P = 0.001) were significantly more likely to enrol in the program. However, high risk individuals who smoked (OR: 0.52, P = 0.000), were born in a country with high diabetes risk (OR: 0.52, P = 0.000), were taking blood pressure lowering medications (OR: 0.80, P = 0.040) and consumed little fruit and vegetables (OR: 0.76, P = 0.047) were significantly less likely to take up the program.Conclusions: Targeted strategies are likely to be needed to engage groups such as smokers and high risk ethnic groups. Further research is required to better understand factors influencing enrolment in diabetes prevention programs in the primary health care setting, both at the GP and individual level.<br /

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead