Digital Commons Network^™

Killing Wotus 2015: Why Three Rulemakings May Not Be Enough, Stephen M. Johnson

Articles

This Article will discuss the procedural and substantive flaws in the three rulemaking efforts by the agencies. One or more of the rules (or the 2015 rule) will likely be litigated for the next several years and, ultimately, it is likely that the question of the scope of the federal government’s jurisdiction over “waters of the United States” will return to the Supreme Court. However, since challenges to those rules must originate in Federal district courts, it could take some time before the question returns to the Court.

Part II of this Article discusses the 2015 rule, including the motivation …

A Catalogue Of Locus Algorithm Pointings For Optimal Differential Photometry For 23,779 Quasars, Oisın Creaner, Kevin Nolan, David Grennan, Niall Smith, Eugene Hickey

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This paper presents a catalogue of optimised pointings for differential photometry of23,779 quasars extracted from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Catalogue and ascore for each indicating the quality of the Field of View (FoV) associated with thatpointing. Observation of millimagnitude variability on a timescale of minutes typicallyrequires differential observations with reference to an ensemble of reference stars. Foroptimal performance, these reference stars should have similar colour and magnitudeto the target quasar. In addition, the greatest quantity and quality of suitable refer-ence stars may be found by using a telescope pointing which offsets the target objectfrom the centre of the …

Classification Of The Real Roots Of The Quartic Equation And Their Pythagorean Tunes, Emil Prodanov

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Presented is a two-tier analysis of the location of the real roots of the general quartic equation x4+ax3+bx2+cx+d=0 with real coefficients and the classification of the roots in terms of a, b, c, and d, without using any numerical approximations. Associated with the general quartic, there is a number of subsidiary quadratic equations (resolvent quadratic equations) whose roots allow this systematization as well as the determination of the bounds of the individual roots of the quartic. In many cases the root isolation intervals are found. The second tier of the analysis uses two subsidiary cubic equations (auxiliary cubic equations) and …

Unconditional Quantile Regression Analysis Of Uk Inbound Tourist Expenditures, Abhijit Sharma, Richard Woodward, Stefano Grillini

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Using International Passenger Survey (2017) data, this paper employs unconditional quantile regression (UQR) to analyse the determinants of tourist expenditure amongst inbound tourists to the United Kingdom. UQR allows us to estimate heterogeneous effects at any quantile of the distribution of the dependent variable. It overcomes the econometric limitations of ordinary least squares and quantile regression based estimates typically used to investigate tourism expenditures. However, our results reveal that the effects of our explanatory variables change across the distribution of tourist expenditure. This has important implications for those tasked with devising policies to enhance the UK’s tourist flows and expenditures.

Evaluating Compressive Properties And Morphology Of Expandable Polyurethane Foam For Use In A Synthetic Paediatric Spine, Nor Amalina Muhayudin, Khairul Salleh Basaruddin, Fiona Mcevoy, Anthony Tansey

Articles

An expandable rigid PU foam can turns into complex shapes, with a shell like structure onthe outside and honeycomb structure on the inside, which can be easily shaped to a vertebraform. The present study aims to determine whether expandable rigid polyurethane foamwas an appropriate substitute for rigid block polyurethane foam to model the trabecularbone. Static compression tests were performed to determine compressive moduli and yieldstresses on three polyurethane foam densities namely 0.16 g/cm3, 0.24 g/cm3and 0.42 g/cm3.Morphology of the PU foams for all densities was also observed. The compressive modulusfor 0.16 g/cm3and 0.24 g/cm3were found varied from 40 to 43 …

Low-Pass Filtering Or Gain Tuning Free Simple Dc Offset Rejection Technique For Single And Three-Phase Systems, Samet Biricik, Hafiz Ahmed, Mohamed Benbouzid

Articles

This paper aims to address the DC offset rejection problem in grid synchronization algorithm. A simple approach to estimate the unknown grid frequency in the presence of DC offset is proposed for this purpose. Some of the existing techniques available in the literature use either low-pass filter or an additional integrator to eliminate the DC offset. Both approaches require an additional parameter to tune. However, tuning the additional parameter is not straightforward. Moreover, tuning the overall system can be complicated due to the presence of DC offset rejection part. The proposed approach does not require any additional parameter to tune. …

A Four-Week Fundamental Motor Skill Intervention Improves Motor Skills In Eight To 10-Year-Old Irish Primary School Children, Keith Costello, Joe Warne

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Aim: To determine if a four-week fundamental motor skills intervention improves fundamental motor skills in Irish school children. Methods: 100 Primary School boys (n = 58) and girls (n = 42) participated in this study (Age 9 ± 1 years, equally divided into a control and intervention group. Proficiency was assessed qualitatively using the Fundamental Motor Skills Quotient (FMSQ) pre and post intervention, and between gender. Results: There was no change in the control group over time (p = 0.54; Mean change = 0.06 [−0.14 to 0.26]; Cohen’s d = 0.01 [Trivial]). In the intervention group, both the male (p …

A Chronic Strain Of The Cystic Fibrosis Pathogen Pandoraeapulmonicola Expresses A Heterogenous Hypo-Acylated Lipid A, Molly D. Pither, Siobhan Mcclean, Alba Silipo, Antonio Molinaro, Flaviana Di Lorenzo

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Pandoraeasp. is an emerging Gram-negative pathogen in cystic fibrosis causing severe and persistent inflammation and damageof the lungs. The molecular mechanisms underlying the high pathogenicity ofPandoraeaspecies are still largely unknown. AsGram-negatives,Pandoraeasp. express lipopolysaccharides (LPS) whose recognition by the host immune system triggers aninflammatory response aimed at the bacterial eradication from the infected tissues. The degree of the inflammatory responsestrongly relies on the fine structure of the LPS and, in particular, of its glycolipid moiety, i.e. the lipid A. Here we report thestructure of the lipid A isolated from the LPS of a chronic strain ofP. pulmonicola(RL 8228), one of the …

Monitoring Wellness, Training Load, And Running Performance During A Major International Female Field Hockey Tournament, Aideen Mcguinness, Gerard Mcmahon, Shane Malone, Darren Kenna, David Passmore, Kieran Collins

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The current observational study quantified players' activity profiles during a major international female field hockey tournament and determined whether an association exists between well-being measures and running performance within elite female hockey players. Elite female field hockey players (23 6 3 years; 162.6 6 13 cm; and 66 6 6 kg) participated in the study. Participants running performance was monitored using global positioning system technology (S5; Catapult Innovations , Scoresby, Victoria, Australia), with daily well-being questionnaires used to quantify player responses during the tournament. Thresholds for the magnitude of the observed change for each variable were determined using the Hopkins …

Training And Technique Choices Predict Self-Reported Running Injuries: An International Study, Joe Warne, Allison H. Gruber, Roy Cheung, Jason Bonacci

Articles

The aim of this study was to describe the self-reported injury, training, and running technique choices of regular runners in four international regions. Design and Setting 756 participants began an expert derived self-report online survey in Ireland, USA, Hong Kong and Australia. Participants 325 participants completed the survey (age=38±10years; weight=68.0±13.1kg; height=1.70±0.10m). Main Outcome Measures Descriptive statistics are reported examining injury incidence and location; shoe and orthosis choices; and training and technique practices. A backwards logistic regression was implemented to examine associations between injury and training choices. Results 68.3% reported having an injury in the last year. 81.45% of these injuries …

Comparing Tagging Suggestion Models On Discrete Corpora, Bojan Bozic, Andre Rios, Sarah Jane Delany

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This paper aims to investigate the methods for the prediction of tags on a textual corpus that describes diverse data sets based on short messages; as an example, the authors demonstrate the usage of methods based on hotel staff inputs in a ticketing system as well as the publicly available StackOverflow corpus. The aim is to improve the tagging process and find the most suitable method for suggesting tags for a new text entry.

An Univariable Approach For Forecasting Workload In The Maintenance Industry, Paulo Silva, Fernando Pérez Téllez, John Cardiff

Articles

The forecasting of the workload in the maintenance industry is of great value to improve human resources allocation and reduce overwork. In this paper, we discuss the problem and the challenges it pertains. We analyze data from a company operating in the industry and present the results of several forecasting models.

Analysis Of Automatic Annotations Of Real Video Surveillance Images, Diana Guevara Flores, Fernando Pérez Téllez, David Pinto Avendaño

Articles

The results of the analysis of the automatic annotations of real video surveillance sequences are presented. The annotations of the frames of surveillance sequences of the parking lot of a university campus are generated. The purpose of the analysis is to evaluate the quality of the descriptions and analyze the correspondence between the semantic content of the images and the corresponding annotation. To perform the tests, a fixed camera was placed in the campus parking lot and video sequences of about 20 minutes were obtained, later each frame was annotated individually and a text repository with all the annotations was …

Named Entity Recognition Based On A Graph Structure, David Muñoz, Fernando Pérez Téllez, David Pinto

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The identification of indirect relationships between texts from different sources makes the task of text mining useful when the goal is to obtain the most valuable information from a set of texts. That is why in the field of information retrieval the correct recognition of named entities plays an important role when extracting valuable information in large amounts of text. Therefore, it is important to propose techniques that improve the NER classifiers in order to achieve the correct recognition of named entities. In this work, a graph structure for storage and enrichment of named entities is proposed. It makes use …

Association Between Eccentric Knee Flexor Strength And Hamstring Injury Risk In 185 Elite Gaelic Football Players, Mark Roe, Eamonn Delahunt, Malachy Mchugh, Conor Gissane, Shane Malone, Kieran Collins, Catherine Blake

Articles

Hamstring strains are the most common time-loss injury in elite Gaelic football affecting over 20% of players per season. Thus, there is a need to identify factors contributing to the onset of hamstring injuries in order to inform injury risk management strategies. The current study investigated whether eccentric knee flexor strength and between-limb imbalances were associated with increased risk of sustaining a timeloss hamstring injury in elite Gaelic football players. A total of 185 elite male players (26.9 ± 2.7 years, 86.4 ± 6.2 kg, 183.4 ± 5.6) were prospectively followed for 12 weeks from the day of testing. Injury …

Identification Of Maximal Running Intensities During Elite Hurling Match-Play, Damien Young, Shane Malone, Marco Beato, Laurent Mourot, Giuseppe Coratella

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The current study aimed to describe the duration-specific running intensities of elite hurling players during competition with respect to position using a rolling average method. Global positioning systems (10-Hz Viper; STATSport, Viper, Newry, Northern Ireland) were used to collect data from 36 elite hurling players across 2 seasons. Players were categorized according to playing positions (full-backs, half-backs, midfielders, half-forwards, and full-forwards). A total of 230 full match samples were obtained from 22 competitive games for analysis. The velocity-time curve was analyzed using a rolling average method, in which the maximum relative total distance (TD; m·min), high-speed running distance (HSR; m·min), …

Review Of Rick Fantasia French Gastronomy And The Magic Of Americanism (Temple University Press: Philadelphia, 2018), Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire

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No abstract provided.

Knowledge Management In The Pharmaceutical Industry: Between Academic Research And Industry Regulations, Ahmed Ramy, Mohamed Af Ragab, Amr Arisha

Articles

The pharmaceutical sector is one of the pillars of the world’s economy. A significant proportion of its value lies in intellectual assets generated through continuous innovation and lengthy development cycles within a strictly regulated environment. The purpose of this paper is to address the gap between knowledge management (KM) as an expanding academic discipline in the pharmaceutical industry and at the same time a growing regulatory expectation. A systematic review of 137 refereed KM articles revealed six empirical research themes in the pharmaceutical industry. In a subsequent step, the discovered themes and subthemes were compared with the extant regulatory expectations …

Knowledge And Behavioural Interventions To Reduce Human Health Risk From Private Groundwater Systems: A Global Review And Pooled Analysis Based On Development Status, S. Mooney, C. P. Mcdowell, J. O'Dwyer, P. D. Hynds

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Groundwater contamination constitutes a significant health risk for private well users residing in rural areas. As the responsibility to safeguard rural private domestic groundwater typically rests with non-expert homeowners, interventions promoting risk mitigation and awareness represent the most viable means of preventing supply contamination. However, no global review or pooled analyses of these interventions has been undertaken to date. The current study sought to identify and quantify the performance of private well interventions from 1990 to 2018 via a global systematised review and pooled analysis. The PICO (Population-Intervention-Comparison-Outcome) approach was employed for literature identification. Relevant studies were statistically analysed across …

Investigation Of The Chemical Composition Of Plasma-Treated Water By Midiplexc And Its Antimicrobial Effect On L. Monocytogenes And Pseudomonas Fluorescens Monospecies Suspension Cultures, Oliver Handorf, Harald Below, Uta Schnabel, Katharina Riedel

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Plasma -generated compounds conceived by microwave -induced plasma (MidiPLexc) were physicochemically investigated in their molecular compositions. Therefore, plasma -treated water (PTW) was generated by treatment with the MidiPLexc within a 1 l glass bottle for a pre -treatment time of 100 s, 300 s and 900 s. The PTW was further investigated in its composition of reactive oxygen/nitrogen species. For this purpose, the hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) concentration of the PTW was determined electrochemically using chronoamperometry, and the anionic components were determined using ion chromatography. As a result, H2O2 concentrations of up to 720 mg l−1 , nitrite concentrations of 1600 …

Analysis Of A Large Spatiotemporal Groundwater Quality Dataset, Ontario 2010–2017: Informing Human Health Risk Assessment And Testing Guidance For Private Drinking Water Wells, Tessa Latchmore, Paul Hynds, R. Stephen Brown, Corinne Schuster-Wallace, Sarah Dickson-Anderson, Kevin Mcdermott, Anna Majury

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Approximately 1.5 million individuals in Ontario are supplied by private water wells (private groundwater supplies). Unlike municipal supplies, private well water quality remains unregulated, with owners responsible for testing, treating, and maintaining their own water supplies. The primary goal of this study was to assess the effect of repeat sampling of private well water in Ontario and investigate the efficacy of geographically- and/or temporally specific testing recommendations and health risk assessments. The current study combines the Well Water Information System Dataset and the Well Water Testing Dataset from 2010 to 2017, inclusive. These two large existing province-wide datasets collated over …

Risk Communication Approaches For Preventing Private Groundwater Contamination In The Republic Of Ireland: A Mixed-Methods Study Of Multidisciplinary Expert Opinion, S. Mooney, J. O'Dwyer, Paul Hynds

Articles

The mechanisms of private-well groundwater contamination are uniquely complex, necessitating a multisector communicative approach to risk management, premised on behaviour promotion. In countries such as the Republic of Ireland (ROI), characterised by oftentimes high groundwater contamination risk and concurrently limited user awareness, incorporation of multidisciplinary, ‘expert-based’ knowledge may facilitate design of evidence-based, practical interventions. Expert interviews represent an efficient form of expert consultation, enabling ease of access to niche information and comparison of procedure, but remain under-utilised within the groundwater management literature. In response, the current study elicited opinion from 50 experts across four broad categories (communications, engineering/science, policy, and …

Enhanced Gas Barrier Properties Of Graphene Oxide/Rubber Composites With Strong Interfaces Constructed By Graphene Oxide And Sulfur, Long Zheng, Stephen Jerrams, Zongchao Xu, Liqun Zhang, Li Liu, Shipeng Wen

Articles

Constructing strong interfacial interactions and complex filler networks is crucial to establishing high gas barrier properties in rubber composites. In this research, sulfur-graphene oxide (S-GO) hybrids were prepared by in situ growth of sulfur on the surfaces of GO sheets. The S-GO hybrids were also introduced into butadiene styrene rubber (SBR) using a green method of latex compounding. Results showed that sulfur could melt and spread on the surface of the GO during the crosslinking process at high temperatures. This process prevented the aggregation of GO and resulted in a fine dispersion of GO and complex filler networks in S-GO/SBR …

Enhanced Covalent Interface, Crosslinked Network And Gas Barrier Property Of Functionalized Graphene Oxide/Styrene-Butadiene Rubber Composites Triggered By Thiol-Ene Click Reaction, Long Zheng, Stephen Jerrams, Tian Su, Zongchao Xu, Liqun Zhang, Li Liu, Shipeng Wen

Articles

The high gas barrier property of a rubber composite is of great significance for reducing the exhaust gas emissions due to tire rolling resistance and hence the contribution this factor makes to environmental protection. Enhanced covalent interfaces and crosslinked networks are crucial to the gas barrier property of rubber composites. In this research, γ-mercaptopropyltriethoxysilane (MPS) modified GO (MGO)/styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) composites were prepared by a synergetic strategy of latex compounding method and thiol-ene click reaction. It was found that the mercapto groups in MGO reacted with the vinyl groups in SBR molecules through thiol-ene click reaction during the crosslinking process …

An Examination Of The Role Of Spatial Ability In The Process Of Problem Solving In Chemical Engineering, Sheryl Sorby, Gavin Duffy, Norman Loney

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Engineers often communicate with one another through drawings or sketches and understanding technical information through graphical representations is a skill necessary for engineering practice. Well-developed spatial skills are known to be important to understanding technical drawings and are therefore, important to success in engineering. Unfortunately, of all cognitive processes, spatial skills show robust gender differences, favouring males, which could contribute to the underrepresentation of women in engineering. In this research, we administered a test of spatial cognition to students enrolled in a common 3rd year course in chemical engineering . In a second session, students were given a set of …

Β-Methylumbelliferone Surface Modification And Permeability Investigations At Pentel™ Graphite Electrodes, Susan Warren, Brian Seddon, Ruth Pilkington, Alison Crossely, Philip Holdway, Eithne Dempsey

Articles

Electrochemical and micro-imaging analysis of a commercial graphite-composite material is presented following electro-oxidation with β-methylumbelliferone. Charge-transfer surface modification was observed for the graphite electrode, presumed to have arisen from adsorbed interfacial umbelliferone moieties. The molecular permeability of the new surface towards a range of similar, yet size-variable (23 Å3–136 Å3) molecular redox probes is discussed. Red-shift fluorescence in confocal microscopy offers further support for the presence of a surface-bound umbelliferone layer. An SEM-platinum profiling technique was used as an imaging tool to map the umbelliferone surface and size-distribution of electroactive sites.

Simultaneous Measurement Of Displacement And Temperature Based On Two Cascaded Balloon-Like Bent Fibre Structures, Ke Tian, Ruoning Wang, Meng Zhang, Xiafan Wang, Xin Wang, Guoyong Jin, Elfed Lewis, Gerald Farrell, Pengfei Wang

Articles

A low-cost optical fibre sensor based on two cascaded balloon-like bent fibre (BBF) structures for simultaneous displacement and temperature measurement is reported. The sensor is fabricated by cascading two balloon-like bent single-mode fibres (SMFs) which with different bending radii, generating two separate interference dips within a limited wavelength range. The wavelength of the two interference dips exhibits different responses to external displacement and temperature variations, hence simultaneous measurement of displacement and temperature is realized. Experimental results show that the proposed optical fibre sensor achieves a displacement sensitivity of −318.8 pm/μm and a temperature sensitivity of 47.4 pm/°C. Taking advantage of …

High-Sensitivity Temperature Sensor Based On Anti-Resonance In High-Index Polymer-Coated Optical Fiber Interferometers, Xiaokang Lian, Qiang Wu, Gerald Farrell, Yuliya Semenova

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Compared to the multimode interference (MMI) effect, the anti-resonance (AR) effect does not rely on the multimode property of the optical waveguide. This Letter shows that fiber bending can suppress the MMI and can break the superposition of AR spectra of multiple modes in a high-index polymer-coated optical fiber interferometer based on a single-mode fiber-polymer-coated no-core fiber-single-mode fiber hetero-structure. This results in the dominance of the AR spectrum of an individual mode and consequently in periodic sharp transmission dips. As a result of this phenomenon and large thermo-optical and thermal expansion coefficients of the polymer, a compact, high-sensitivity and linear …

A Hybrid System Dynamics, Discrete Event Simulation And Data Envelopment Analysis To Investigate Boarding Patients In Acute Hospitals, Leila Keshtkar, Wael Rashwan, Waleed Abo Hamad, Amr Arisha

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Timely access to health services has become increasingly difficult due to demographic change and aging people growth. These create new heterogeneous challenges for society and healthcare systems. Congestion at acute hospitals has reached unprecedented levels due to the unavailability of acute beds. As a consequence, patients in need of treatment endure prolonged waiting times as a decision whether to admit, transfer, or send them home is made. These long waiting times often result in boarding patients in different places in the hospital. This threatens patient safety and diminishes the service quality while increasing treatment costs. It is argued in the …

Saperi: Approaching Gender Gap Using Spatial Ability Training Week In High-School Context, Maria Giulia Ballatore, Gavin Duffy, Sheryl Sorby, Anita Tabacco

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Maria Giulia Ballatore, Gavin Duffy, Sheryl Sorby, and Anita Tabacco. 2020. SAperI: approaching gender gap using Spatial Ability training week in high-school context. In Eighth International Conference on Technological Ecosystems for Enhancing Multiculturality (TEEM’20), October 21–23, 2020, Salamanca, Spain. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 7 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3434780.3436577