An Agent-based approach to modelling integrated product teams undertaking a design activity.

The interactions between individual designers, within integrated product teams, and the nature of design tasks, all have a significant impact upon how well a design task can be performed, and hence the quality of the resultant product and the time in which it can be delivered. In this paper we describe an ongoing research project which aims to model integrated product teams through the use of multi-agent systems. We first describe the background and rationale for our work, and then present our initial computational model and results from the simulation of an integrated product team. The paper concludes with a discussion of how the model will evolve to improve the accuracy of the simulation

Delayed Sowing Decreased Lucerne Dry Matter Yield over Two Seasons

Lucerne (Medicago sativa L.) can be sown in New Zealand from late spring (October) to early autumn (March). In the establishment season, greatest drymatter (DM) yields are normally attained from sowing early and production lost from delayed sowing is only considered in the establishment season. The objective of this research is to determine if sowing date continues to have an effect on DM yield in year two and how the partitioning of DM between the above and below ground plant fractions is influenced by sowing date

SERUM CHEMISTRY, BLOOD GAS, AND PHYSIOLOGICAL MEASURES OF SANDHILL CRANES SEDATED WITH ALPHA-CHLORALOSE

Capture techniques that lessen handling stress may also lessen pathologic influences on physiologic measures, improving the validity of these measures for use in individual health assessment of freeranging wildlife. Since 1990, the International Crane Foundation (ICF) has successfully used chemical immobilization with alpha-chloralose (AC; C6H11Cl3O6), a chloral derivative of glucose, to facilitate captures of sandhill cranes (Grus canadensis tabida) for ecological studies (Hayes et al. 2003). Although this chemical has been used orally for the immobilization of many species, the physiologic effects of AC are not well understood in cranes. The primary purpose of this study was to measure serum chemistry, venous blood gas, and physiological values in free-ranging sandhill cranes successfully immobilized using this technique

Regional sentiment bias in social media reporting during crises

Crisis events such as terrorist attacks are extensively commented upon on social media platforms such as Twitter. For this reason, social media content posted during emergency events is increasingly being used by news media and in social studies to characterize the public’s reaction to those events. This is typically achieved by having journalists select ‘representative’ tweets to show, or a classifier trained on prior human-annotated tweets is used to provide a sentiment/emotion breakdown for the event. However, social media users, journalists and annotators do not exist in isolation, they each have their own context and world view. In this paper, we ask the question, ‘to what extent do local and international biases affect the sentiments expressed on social media and the way that social media content is interpreted by annotators’. In particular, we perform a multi-lingual study spanning two events and three languages. We show that there are marked disparities between the emotions expressed by users in different languages for an event. For instance, during the 2016 Paris attack, there was 16% more negative comments written in the English than written in French, even though the event originated on French soil. Furthermore, we observed that sentiment biases also affect annotators from those regions, which can negatively impact the accuracy of social media labelling efforts. This highlights the need to consider the sentiment biases of users in different countries, both when analysing events through the lens of social media, but also when using social media as a data source, and for training automatic classification models

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http://archive.org/details/japaneseresource00simrNAN

Low vitamin D status is associated with impaired bone quality and increased risk of fracture-related hospitalization in older Australian women

The vitamin D debate relates in part to ideal public health population levels of circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD) to maintain bone structure and reduce fracture. In a secondary analysis of 1,348 women aged 70-85 years at baseline (1998) from the Perth Longitudinal Study of Aging in Women (PLSAW, a five-year calcium supplementation trial followed by two five-year extensions), we examined the dose-response relations of baseline plasma 25OHD with hip DXA BMD at year 1, lumbar spine BMD and trabecular bone score (TBS) at year 5, and fracture-related hospitalizations over 14.5 years obtained by health record linkage. Mean baseline plasma 25OHD was 66.9±28.2 nmol/L and 28.5%, 36.4% and 35.1% of women had levels50 nmol/L are a minimum public health target and 25OHD levels beyond 75 nmol/L may not have additional benefit to reduce fracture risk

Delineating the interfacial interactions and gas evolution in low-cobalt, high-energy density lithium-based batteries

Layered oxides (LiNi₁₋ [subscript x] M [subscript x] O₂; M = Co, Mn, Al) are promising cathode materials that can achieve key performance metrics with their high energy densities and rate performance. However, these materials suffer from a series of surface and bulk degradations during charge-discharge that may compromise the performance and safety of the battery. This dissertation focuses on elucidating the surface and bulk degradation mechanisms that result from electrode-electrolyte incompatibility for high-energy layered-oxide cathodes and lithium-metal anodes. Extensive discussions are provided on the set-up of specialized instrumentation for advanced gas detection and application of advanced characterization tools to elucidate the surface interfacial reactions at the electrode-electrolyte interface for the development of sustainable, safe, and long-lasting lithium-based batteries. An evaluation of the influence of calendering on cobalt-free LiNi₀.₉Mn₀.₀₅Al₀.₀₅O₂ (NMA-90) cathodes is explored as a facile method to minimize the degree of electrode-level effects on cell performance for future projects. Calendered NMA-90 | graphite full cells exhibit lower cell impedance, enhanced cyclability, and pulse-power performance. Overall, calendering is demonstrated to be a crucial post-processing technique for commercial high-nickel cathodes. Gas evolution from the cathode at high voltages remains a pervasive issue for practical batteries. The details of the design and set-up of an online electrochemical mass spectrometry system (OEMS) that operates well for cells with lean and volatile electrolytes is provided. This system is applied to a broad series of cathode-electrolyte systems and charging conditions to elucidate the factors leading to gas release from the cathode. Important topics to gas evolution from the layered-oxide cathode, including voltage, state of charge, cathode composition, electrolytes, and surface coatings are discussed. A separate pathway to achieving high energy densities with the cathode is to increase the upper cut-off voltage of the battery to 4.6 V from the standard 4.4 V vs Li/Li⁺. A localized saturated electrolyte (LSE) is employed to enable the stable cycling of a cobalt-free, low-nickel LiNi₀.₇Mn₀.₂₅Al₀.₀₅O₂ in lithium-metal half-cells. It is found that the improvements to the cycling performance are due to a beneficial interphase layer, reduced degree of rock-salt phase formation, and reduced gas evolution from the cathode. Transition-metal dissolution from the cathode is exacerbated at high voltages, which will influence solid-electrolyte interphase (SEI) formation at the anode. Secondary-ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) is employed to track the distributions of common products found in the SEI. Spatial correlations between deposited transition-metals, organic/inorganic electrolyte decomposition products, and lithium metal on the lithium-metal anode are established and quantified for a variety of anodes cycled with different cobalt-free cathodes and electrolytes. Critical insights into the effects of spatial heterogeneity and SEI localization on cell cyclability are provided.Materials Science and Engineerin

Mapping the micro-abrasion mechanisms of CoCrMo : some thoughts on varying ceramic counterface diameter on transition boundaries invitro

The micro-abrasion wear mechanisms for CoCrMo against variable size alumina balls, representing typical artificial femoral head sizes, were investigated over a range of applied loads in foetal calf serum solution. SEM analysis of resulting wear scars displayed two-body and mixed-mode abrasion modes of wear. The wear factor, κ was found to range between 0.86 and 22.87 (10-6 mm3/ Nm). Micro-abrasion mechanism and wastage maps were constructed for parameter range tested. A dominant 3-2 body abrasion regime was observed with increasing load and ball diameter. A 28 mm ball diameter displayed the lowest wastage with increasing load. Proteins may act to reduce the severity of contact between abrasive particles and bearing surfaces. Wear volumes did not necessarily increase linearly with applied load and ball diameter, therefore, there is a need to develop further accurate models for wear prediction during micro-abrasion conditions. Wear mapping for hip replacement could provide a useful aid in pre-clinical hip wear evaluations and long-term performance

Adrenal lesions found incidentally: how to improve clinical and cost-effectiveness

Introduction Adrenal incidentalomas are lesions that are incidentally identified while scanning for other conditions. While most are benign and hormonally non-functional, around 20% are malignant and/or hormonally active, requiring prompt intervention. Malignant lesions can be aggressive and life-threatening, while hormonally active tumours cause various endocrine disorders, with significant morbidity and mortality. Despite this, management of patients with adrenal incidentalomas is variable, with no robust evidence base. This project aimed to establish more effective and timely management of these patients. Methods We developed a web-based, electronic Adrenal Incidentaloma Management System (eAIMS), which incorporated the evidence-based and National Health Service–aligned 2016 European guidelines. The system captures key clinical, biochemical and radiological information necessary for adrenal incidentaloma patient management and generates a pre-populated outcome letter, saving clinical and administrative time while ensuring timely management plans with enhanced safety. Furthermore, we developed a prioritisation strategy, with members of the multidisciplinary team, which prioritised high-risk individuals for detailed discussion and management. Patient focus groups informed process-mapping and multidisciplinary team process re-design and patient information leaflet development. The project was partnered by University Hospital of South Manchester to maximise generalisability. Results Implementation of eAIMS, along with improvements in the prioritisation strategy, resulted in a 49% reduction in staff hands-on time, as well as a 78% reduction in the time from adrenal incidentaloma identification to multidisciplinary team decision. A health economic analysis identified a 28% reduction in costs. Conclusions The system’s in-built data validation and the automatic generation of the multidisciplinary team outcome letter improved patient safety through a reduction in transcription errors. We are currently developing the next stage of the programme to proactively identify all new adrenal incidentaloma cases

Predicting diffuse microbial pollution risk across catchments: The performance of SCIMAP and recommendations for future development

Microbial pollution of surface waters in agricultural catchments can be a consequence of poor farm management practices, such as excessive stocking of livestock on vulnerable land or inappropriate handling of manures and slurries. Catchment interventions such as fencing of watercourses, streamside buffer strips and constructed wetlands have the potential to reduce faecal pollution of watercourses. However these interventions are expensive and occupy valuable productive land. There is, therefore, a requirement for tools to assist in the spatial targeting of such interventions to areas where they will have the biggest impact on water quality improvements whist occupying the minimal amount of productive land. SCIMAP is a risk-based model that has been developed for this purpose but with a focus on diffuse sediment and nutrient pollution. In this study we investigated the performance of SCIMAP in predicting microbial pollution of watercourses and assessed modelled outputs of E. coli, a common faecal indicator organism (FIO), against observed water quality information. SCIMAP was applied to two river catchments in the UK. SCIMAP uses land cover risk weightings, which are routed through the landscape based on hydrological connectivity to generate catchment scale maps of relative in-stream pollution risk. Assessment of the model's performance and derivation of optimum land cover risk weightings was achieved using a Monte-Carlo sampling approach. Performance of the SCIMAP framework for informing on FIO risk was variable with better performance in the Yealm catchment (rs = 0.88; p 0.05). Across both catchments much uncertainty was associated with the application of optimum risk weightings attributed to different land use classes. Overall, SCIMAP showed potential as a useful tool in the spatial targeting of FIO diffuse pollution management strategies; however, improvements are required to transition the existing SCIMAP framework to a robust FIO risk-mapping tool