Texas Business Review, October 1976

To Push or Not To Push; Tracking Intracity Changes; Killeen-Temple: Magnet AreaBureau of Business Researc

The importance of boundary objects in industry-academia collaborations to support evidencing the efficacy of educational technology

The context of a 2.5 year academia-led programme for the educational technology sector in the United Kingdom is used to explore the role of logic models as boundary objects to support the programme objectives. The programme provided educational research training and mentoring to participants from 252 small and medium-sized enterprises to support them with the use of existing and self-generated evidence of the efficacy of their educational technologies. Participants from a deliberate sample of six enterprises were interviewed to elicit their perceptions of the process through which the creation and use of a logic model for their product or service did or did not become a useful tool to support their research and business goals. The results suggest that logic models have vital roles as boundary objects in this context, such as supporting communication, learning, and product development. The study offers a first-case example of how logic models can be used in the design of educational technology, responding to the call for research in this area. A discussion on the challenges associated with the use of the logic model in the context of the project concludes the article

Efficient and reliable transportation of consignments (ERTOC)

This paper describes a new initiative to drive business improvement and sustainability throughout the supply chain from factory to point of sale. The effort, called Efficient and Reliable Transportation of Consignments (ERTOC), aims to develop a standards based open architecture data hub to deliver accurate information for transport operators and their customers to use and improve business efficiency and effectiveness. Only by understanding the true environmental costs involved, users will be able to compare and assess different transport options to make better informed choices. Such a need drives this effort to demonstrate how a standardised data hub can track the carbon costs of transport at consignment level. The paper presents the underlying architecture of the proposed system, which servesto integrate (diverse and third party)resources, involving collection of data, storage and provision of it for further processing

Supporting small and medium-sized enterprises in the educational technology sector to become more research-minded: Introduction to a small collection

The EDUCAtional Technology Exchange programme (EDUCATE) at UCL Institute of Education provides the context for this paper, which describes the programme’s vision, objectives and key activities, and sets the context for the collection of articles that follow. This university-led programme was underpinned by Luckin’s (2016) golden triangle of evidence-informed educational technology (edtech) as it sought to support 252 small and medium-sized enterprises to become more research-informed through a six-month research training and mentoring programme. The evaluation of the programme’s design-based research cycles revealed the importance of the careful choice and evolution of its boundary objects. These boundary objects, namely each enterprise’s ‘logic model’ and research proposal, facilitated meaningful conversations between the programme’s research mentors and the enterprises. These boundary objects involved several iterations, during which the language of the two communities became more aligned, helping to bridge the academic knowledge and practices with those of the enterprises

The hierarchical response of human corneal collagen to load

Fibrillar collagen in the human cornea is integral to its function as a transparent lens of precise curvature, and its arrangement is now well-characterised in the literature. While there has been considerable effort to incorporate fibrillar architecture into mechanical models of the cornea, the mechanical response of corneal collagen to small applied loads is not well understood. In this study the fibrillar and molecular response to tensile load was quantified using small and wide angle X-ray scattering (SAXS/WAXS), and digital image correlation (DIC) photography was used to calculate the local strain field that gave rise to the hierarchical changes. A molecular scattering model was used to calculate the tropocollagen tilt relative to the fibril axis and changes associated with applied strain. Changes were measured in the D-period, molecular tilt and the orientation and spacing of the fibrillar and molecular networks. These measurements were summarised into hierarchical deformation mechanisms, which were found to contribute at varying strains. The change in molecular tilt is indicative of a sub-fibrillar “spring-like” deformation mechanism, which was found to account for most of the applied strain under physiological and near-physiological loads. This deformation mechanism may play an important functional role in tissues rich in fibrils of high helical tilt, such as skin and cartilage

Controlled dehydration of a ruthenium complex-DNA crystal induces reversible DNA kinking

Hydration-dependent DNA deformation has been known since Rosalind Franklin recognised that the relative humidity of the sample had to be maintained to observe a single conformation in DNA fibre diffraction. We now report for the first time the crystal structure, at the atomic level, of a dehydrated form of a DNA duplex and demonstrate the reversible interconversion to the hydrated form at room temperature. This system, containing d(TCGGCGCCGA) in the presence of Λ-[Ru(TAP)2(dppz)]2+ (TAP = 1,4,5,8-tetraazaphenanthrene, dppz = dipyridophenazine), undergoes a partial transition from an A/B hybrid to the A-DNA conformation, at 84-79% relative humidity. This is accompanied by an increase in kink at the central step from 22° to 51°, with a large movement of the terminal bases forming the intercalation site. This transition is reversible on rehydration. Seven datasets, collected from one crystal at room temperature, show the consequences of dehydration at near-atomic resolution. This result highlights that crystals, traditionally thought of as static systems, are still dynamic and therefore can be the subject of further experimentation

Compliance to Bleach Disinfection Protocols among Injecting Drug Users in Miami

Bleach cleansing of injection equipment has been recommended to reduce the risk of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) transmission associated with the reuse of injection equipment by injecting drug users (IDUs). We evaluated the recall and performance of the most commonly recommended bleach cleansing procedure of two complete fillings of the syringe with bleach, followed by two complete fillings with rinse water, and not putting used bleach and water back into source containers. IDUs were taught this procedure on enrollment in an HIV prevention demonstration project in Dade County, Florida. During follow-up session 6-12 months after initial training, the knowledge and ability of IDUs to perform bleach cleansing were assessed by trained observers using a standardized method. In 1988-90, we assessed the knowledge and ability of 450 IDUs to perform the bleach cleansing procedure taught at enrollment. More than 90% of IDUs assessed performed the basic steps. However, only 43.1% completely filled the syringe with bleach and only 35.8% completely filled the syringe with bleach at least twice. Substantial proportions of IDUs did not perform all the steps of the previously taught bleach cleansing procedure. Compliance decreased as the number of steps required was increased. This limited compliance may make bleach cleansing less effective and suggests that some IDUs may fail to adequately disinfect injection equipment and therefore sterile needles and syringes are safer than bleach-cleansed ones. Compliance testing can help assess the effectiveness of HIV prevention programs. © 1994 Raven Press, Ltd., New York

The development and testing of small concentrating PV systems.

Abstract -Spreadsheets have been used to compare some 90 possible small PV concentrator designs that might be suitable for use at remote sites. They have apertures of about 2m 2 , use BP Solar LBG cells, and employ small aperture modules to reduce heat sinking and construction costs. Designs include fixed V-troughs and CPC's, single axis tracked cylindrical lens and mirror systems, and 2-axis tracked spherical-symmetry systems. Performance and volume production costs were estimated. Four promising systems were constructed as prototypes: A -Point-focus Fresnel lenses, 2-axis tracking; Cg = 32x; and 69x with secondaries. B -Line-focus mirror parabolic troughs, 1-axis tracking, Cg = 20x. C -SMTS ('Single-mirror two-stage'), 1-axis tracking, Cg = 30x. F -Multiple line-focus mirror parabolic troughs, E-W 1/day manual tracking, Cg = 6x. The prototypes were tested at Reading, and three for up to a year's field trial at ZSW's test site, Widderstall, in Germany. The best system efficiencies, normalised to 25°C and excluding the end losses of linear systems, were 12.5%, 13.2%, 13.6% and 14.3% for collectors A, B, C, and F, respectively. The collectors were practical and robust, and the performances of collectors B, C and F are only 10% below the estimates in the spreadsheet calculations. The best collectors have estimated production costs between 1.5 and 1.8 US $/Wp, yielding energy costs at a good site (excluding BOS and overheads) of between 5 and 7 cents/kWh (18 and 25 cents/MJ). On the same cost basis a conventional PV array costs 4.3$/Wp, and 18 cents/kWh (65 cents/MJ)

Comparing Respondent-Driven Sampling and Targeted Sampling Methods of Recruiting Injection Drug Users in San Francisco

The objective of this article is to compare demographic characteristics, risk behaviors, and service utilization among injection drug users (IDUs) recruited from two separate studies in San Francisco in 2005, one which used targeted sampling (TS) and the other which used respondent-driven sampling (RDS). IDUs were recruited using TS (n = 651) and RDS (n = 534) and participated in quantitative interviews that included demographic characteristics, risk behaviors, and service utilization. Prevalence estimates and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated to assess whether there were differences in these variables by sampling method. There was overlap in 95% CIs for all demographic variables except African American race (TS: 45%, 53%; RDS: 29%, 44%). Maps showed that the proportion of IDUs distributed across zip codes were similar for the TS and RDS sample, with the exception of a single zip code that was more represented in the TS sample. This zip code includes an isolated, predominantly African American neighborhood where only the TS study had a field site. Risk behavior estimates were similar for both TS and RDS samples, although self-reported hepatitis C infection was lower in the RDS sample. In terms of service utilization, more IDUs in the RDS sample reported no recent use of drug treatment and syringe exchange program services. Our study suggests that perhaps a hybrid sampling plan is best suited for recruiting IDUs in San Francisco, whereby the more intensive ethnographic and secondary analysis components of TS would aid in the planning of seed placement and field locations for RDS