Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

The Impact Of Hurricane Katrina On The Environmental Security Of The Us Gulf Coast Region And Beyond, John Lanicci, James Ramsay

John M Lanicci

No abstract provided.

An Evaluation Of The Us High Production Volume (Hpv) Chemical-Testing Programme: A Study In (Ir)Relevance, Redundancy And Retro Thinking, Andrew Nicholson, Jessica Sandler, Troy Seidle

Troy Seidle, PhD

Under the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) High Production Volume (HPV) Challenge Programme, chemical companies have volunteered to conduct screening-level toxicity tests on approximately 2800 widely-used industrial chemicals. Participating companies are committed to providing available toxicity information to the EPA and presenting testing proposals for review by the EPA and posting on the EPA Web site as public information. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and a coalition of animal protection organisations have reviewed all the test plans submitted by the participating chemical companies for compliance with the original HPV framework, as well as with animal welfare guidelines …

A Modular One-Generation Reproduction Study As A Flexible Testing System For Regulatory Safety Assessment, Richard Vogel, Troy Seidle, Horst Spielmann

Troy Seidle, PhD

The European Union’s Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals (REACH) legislation mandates testing and evaluation of approximately 30,000 existing substances within a short period of time, beginning with the most widely used “high production volume” (HPV) chemicals. REACH testing requirements for the roughly 3000 HPV chemicals specify three separate tests for reproductive toxicity: two developmental toxicity studies on different animal species (OECD Test Guideline 414) and a two-generation reproduction toxicity study (OECD TG 416). These studies are highly costly in both economic and animal welfare terms. OECD TG 416 is a fertility study intended to evaluate reproductive performance of animals …

The Fine-Scale Habitat Use Of Risso’S Dolphins Off Bardsey Island, Cardigan Bay (Uk), Marijke N. De Boer, Sonja Eisfeld, Mark P. Simmonds

Mark P. Simmonds, OBE

The main objectives of this study were (1) to estimate the population size of Risso’s dolphins off Bardsey Island using mark-recapture techniques (De Boer et al., 2013); and (2) to study habitat-use in relation to fine-scale oceanographic features. This work provides preliminary information on the habitat-use of Risso’s dolphins and will benefit future studies, along with the development of effective conservation measures for this species throughout the region.

Cetaceans And Marine Debris: The Great Unknown, Mark Peter Simmonds

Mark P. Simmonds, OBE

Plastics and other marine debris have been found in the gastrointestinal tracts of cetaceans, including instances where large quantities of material have been found that are likely to cause impairment to digestive processes and other examples, where other morbidity and even death have resulted. In some instances, debris may have been ingested as a result of the stranding process and, in others, it may have been ingested when feeding. Those species that are suction or “ram” feeders may be most at risk. There is also evidence of entanglement of cetaceans in marine debris. However, it is usually difficult to distinguish …

Interactions Between Short-Beaked Common Dolphin (Delphinus Delphis) And The Winter Pelagic Pair-Trawl Fishery Ff Southwest England (Uk), Marijke N. De Boer, James T. Saulino, Mardik F. Leopold, Peter J.H. Reijnders, Mark P. Simmonds

Mark P. Simmonds, OBE

During offshore and onshore studies (2004 to 2009), the interactions between pair-trawls and short-beaked common dolphins (Delphinus delphis) were studied to better understand the impact of bycatch. A ‘hotspot’ area where pair-trawls overlapped with high dolphin abundance was identified. We made comparisons between boat-based data collected in absence and presence of pair-trawlers. The relative abundance and group-size of dolphins was significantly higher in the presence of pair-trawlers. Dolphins were observed associating with towing and hauling procedures. Significantly, more carcasses occurred in areas with hauling-activity than those without. Body-temperatures obtained from carcasses found near operating pair-trawlers indicated that bycatch mostly occurred …

Suncircles: A Prose/Poem 12/18/2014, Charles Kay Smith

Charles Kay Smith

A current project is writing a book of poetry. The different kind of poetry I’m trying to write melds science, humanities, and aesthetic aims of clarity and a polished plain style with social consciousness. I’m uploading one of the poems in the collection as an example of the kind of poetry I’m trying to compose.

Developing Professional Skills In Stem Students: Data Information Literacy, Lisa Zilinski, Megan R. Sapp Nelson, Amy S. Van Epps

Lisa Zilinski

Undergraduate STEM students are increasingly expected to have some data use skills upon graduation, whether they pursue post-graduate education or move into industry. This project was an initial foray into the application of data information literacy competencies to training undergraduate students to identify markers of data and information quality. The data consumer training appeared within two courses to help students evaluate data objects, including databases and datasets available on the Internet. The application of the Data Credibility Checklist provides a foundation for developing data reuse competencies. Based upon the initial presentation of the content, it became obvious that students need …

Health Professionals’ Roles In Animal Agriculture, Climate Change, And Human Health, Aysha Z. Akhtar, Michael Greger, Hope Ferdowsian, Erica Frank

Michael Greger, MD, FACLM

What we eat is rapidly becoming an issue of global concern. With food shortages, the rise in chronic disease, and global warming, the impact of our dietary choices seems more relevant today than ever. Globally, a transition is taking place toward greater consumption of foods of animal origin, in lieu of plantbased diets. With this transition comes intensification of animal agriculture that in turn is associated with the emergence of zoonotic infectious diseases, environmental degradation, and the epidemics of chronic disease and obesity. Health professionals should be aware of these trends and consider them as they promote healthier and more …

In Service For Sharing: Leadership And Leader - Follower Relationship Factors As Influencers Of Tacit Knowledge Sharing In The It Industry, Billy Whisnant, Odai Khasawneh

Odai Khasawneh

Volunteer Studies In Pain Research — Opportunities And Challenges To Replace Animal Experiments: The Report And Recommendations Of A Focus On Alternatives Workshop, C. K. Langley, Q. Aziz, C. Bountra, N. Gordon, P. Hawkins, A. Jones, G. Langley, T. Nurmikko, I. Tracey

Gill Langley, PhD

Despite considerable research, effective and safe treatments for human pain disorders remain elusive. Understanding the biology of different human pain conditions and researching effective treatments continue to be dominated by animal models, some of which are of limited value. British and European legislation demands that non-animal approaches should be considered before embarking on research using experimental animals. Recent scientific and technical developments, particularly in human neuroimaging, offer the potential to replace some animal procedures in the study of human pain. A group of pain research experts from academia and industry met with the aim of exploring creatively the tools, strategies …

The Validity Of Animal Experiments In Medical Research, Gill Langley

Gill Langley, PhD

Other animals, such as mice, rats, rabbits, dogs and monkeys, are widely used as surrogates for humans in fundamental medical research. This involves creating disorders in animals by chemical, surgical or genetic means, with the aim of mimicking selected aspects of human illnesses. It is a truism that any model or surrogate is not identical to the target being modelled. So, in medical research, experiments using animals or cell cultures or even healthy volunteers instead of patients (being the target population with the target illness) will inevitably have limitations, although these will be greater or lesser depending on the model.

Kinematic Effects In Large Transport Aircraft, Shem Malmquist, Dennis Vincenzi, Dahai Liu

Dahai Liu

The control of an aircraft relies on sensory feedback. It follows that any aspect that could create a situation where that feedback is faulty can lead to unintended outcomes. The size of very large jet aircraft can result in kinematic effects that impact the perceptions of the flight crew. Due to the large amount of inertia involved, coupled with aerodynamic factors, when the aircraft pitch (θ) is initially changed, the short term actual motion of the aircraft, as viewed from the center of gravity, remains relatively unchanged. As a consequence of aircraft design, this results in the flight deck changing …

Exploring The Dimensions Of Nomophobia: Developing And Validating A Questionnaire Using Mixed Methods Research, Caglar Yildirim

Caglar Yildirim

Nomophobia is defined as the fear of being out of mobile phone contact and is considered a modern age phobia introduced to our lives as a byproduct of the interaction between people and mobile information and communication technologies, especially smartphones. This research study sought to contribute to the nomophobia research literature by identifying and describing the dimensions of nomophobia and developing a questionnaire to measure nomophobia. Consequently, this study adopted a two-phase, exploratory sequential mixed methods design. The first phase was a qualitative exploration of nomophobia through semi-structured interviews conducted with nine undergraduate students at a large Midwestern university in …

Striving For Cultural Competence In An Hiv Program: The Transformative Impact Of A Microsystem In A Larger Health Network, Judith N Sabino, Timothy Friel, Lynn Deitrick, Debbie Salas-Lopez

Debbie Salas-Lopez MD, MPH

No abstract provided.

欠測値補定の診断手法としての多重代入法(高橋将宜), Masayoshi Takahashi

Masayoshi Takahashi

No abstract provided.

A Sophisticated Library Search Strategy Using Folksonomies And Similarity Matching, William Lund, Yiu-Kai Ng, Maria Pera

William Lund

Libraries, private and public, offer valuable resources to library patrons. As of today the only way to locate information archived exclusively in libraries is through their catalogs. Library patrons, however, often find it difficult to formulate a proper query, which requires using specific keywords assigned to different fields of desired library catalog records, to obtain relevant results. These improperly formulated queries often yield irrelevant results or no results at all. This negative experience in dealing with existing library systems turn library patrons away from library catalogs; instead, they rely on Web search engines to perform their searches first and upon …

The Ups And Downs Of Knowledge Infrastructures In Science: Implications For Data Management, Christine L. Borgman, Peter T. Darch, Ashley E. Sands, Jillian C. Wallis, Sharon Traweek

Christine L. Borgman

The promise of technology-enabled, data-intensive scholarship is predicated upon access to knowledge infrastructures that are not yet in place. Scientific data management requires expertise in the scientific domain and in organizing and retrieving complex research objects. The Knowledge Infrastructures project compares data management activities of four large, distributed, multidisciplinary scientific endeavors as they ramp their activities up or down; two are big science and two are small science. Research questions address digital library solutions, knowledge infrastructure concerns, issues specific to individual domains, and common problems across domains. Findings are based on interviews (n=113 to date), ethnography, and other analyses of …

Network Analysis Of World Trade Using The Baci-Cepii Dataset, Luca De Benedictis, Silvia Nenci, Gianluca Santoni, Lucia Tajoli, Claudio Vicarelli

Luca De Benedictis

In this paper we explore the BACI-CEPII database using Network Analysis. Starting from the visualization of the World Trade Network, we then define and describe the topology of the network, both in its binary version and in its weighted version, calculating and discussing some of the commonly used network’s statistics. We finally discuss some specific topic that can be studied using Network Analysis and International Trade data, both at the aggregated and sectoral level. The analysis is done using multiple software (Stata, R, and Pajek). The scripts to replicate part of the analysis are included in the appendix, and can …

Collaborative Chemical Information Literacy: Is It "Scholarly?", Barbara C. Harvey

Barbara C. Harvey

This symposium illustrates a collaborative classroom activity that incorporates information literacy into an introductory chemistry course. The primary learning outcomes of the activity are to understand the peer-review process, knowing how to locate original research articles based on “clues” in a general news article, and how to differentiate between popular and scholarly periodicals. Students work in small groups in a highly-collaborative classroom setting. Each group is given a recent chemistry-related news item, and must determine how and where to find the original research article the news item is based on. Emphasis is placed on identifying original, peer-reviewed research publications. Each …

A Framework For Creating Active And Healthy Communities: A Case Study Of The Gold Coast, Bhishna Bajracharya, Linda Too, Isara Khanjanasthiti

Linda Too

Poor modern lifestyle choices have led to a burgeoning health concern for various government agencies prompting urgent review and action. Whilst the health sector has the primary role in addressing health issues, town planning can also contribute to better health by providing supportive environments for an active and healthy lifestyle. Local councils and other decision makers have a fundamental role in promoting healthy lifestyles among local community members through city planning and implementing physical activity and health programs. This research paper has two primary objectives. First, it develops an integrated 3-P (Place, Program and Partnership) framework for promoting active and …

Evidence Of Enso Mega-Drought Triggered Collapse Of Prehistory Aboriginal Society In Northwest Australia, Hamish Mcgowan, Samuel K. Marx, P Moss, Andrew Hammond

Samuel K Marx

The Kimberley region of northwest Australia contains one of the World's largest collections of rock art characterised by two distinct art forms; the fine featured anthropomorphic figures of the Gwion Gwion or Bradshaw paintings, and broad stroke Wandjina figures. Luminescence dating of mud wasp nests overlying Gwion Gwion paintings has confirmed an age of at least 17,000 yrs B.P. with the most recent dates for these paintings from around the mid-Holocene (5000 to 7000 yrs B.P.). Radiocarbon dating indicates that the Wandjina rock art then emerged around 3800 to 4000 yrs B.P. following a hiatus of at least 1200 yrs. …

Dust Transport And Deposition In A Superhumid Environment, Samuel K. Marx, Hamish A. Mcgowan

Samuel K Marx

Contemporary rates of dust deposition monitored along a 300-km section of the superhumid West Coast of New Zealand's South Island are presented. In this setting, dust is entrained primarily from the dry channels of braided glaciofluvial rivers that drain the western slopes of the Southern Alps. Measured dust deposition ranged between 0.21 and 118.9 kg-1 ha -1 month-1, which is similar to dust deposition rates monitored in arid and semiarid environments. However, these are not considered to be sufficient for present day loess genesis. Dust deposition was highest in summer because of the greater frequency of favourable dust transporting winds, …

Evidence Of Solar And Tropical-Ocean Forcing Of Hydroclimate Cycles In Southeastern Australia For The Past 6500 Years, Hamish A. Mcgowan, Samuel K. Marx, Joshua Soderholm, John Denholm

Samuel K Marx

Evidence of solar and tropical‐ocean forcing of climate cycles has been found in numerous palaeoclimate records. Numerical modelling studies show physical mechanisms by which direct and indirect solar forcing may affect climate, while there is mounting evidence of solar forcing of tropical ocean‐atmosphere teleconnections. This study has developed a 6500 year record of dust deposition, a proxy for regional hydroclimate variability for the Snowy Mountains region of Australia. Spectral analysis of the record provides evidence of statistically significant cycles in dust deposition of 35–43 years, 62–73 years, 161 years and 2200 years. These correlate with variability in solar irradiance and …

A Framework For Creating Active And Healthy Communities: A Case Study Of The Gold Coast, Bhishna Bajracharya, Linda Too, Isara Khanjanasthiti

Bhishna Bajracharya

Poor modern lifestyle choices have led to a burgeoning health concern for various government agencies prompting urgent review and action. Whilst the health sector has the primary role in addressing health issues, town planning can also contribute to better health by providing supportive environments for an active and healthy lifestyle. Local councils and other decision makers have a fundamental role in promoting healthy lifestyles among local community members through city planning and implementing physical activity and health programs. This research paper has two primary objectives. First, it develops an integrated 3-P (Place, Program and Partnership) framework for promoting active and …

Australian Bid Cost Benchmarking Of Public Private Partnerships, Michael Regan, Jim Smith, Peter Love

Michael Regan

Bid costs are essentially a concern of private companies and evidence is difficult to source from companies keen to safeguard their cost structures in a competitive bid market. Little evidence is available from the product disclosure statements of public companies or published statutory or Securities Exchange returns. Few companies disclose detailed information although there is wide use of generic “rules of thumb” for different project categories and most companies engaged in the PPP market are unwilling to provide information other than in anecdotal form. This paper reviews empirical and pilot survey evidence to ascertain bid cost benchmarks for public private …

Financing Mechanisms For Public Private Partnerships: Australian Experience, Michael Regan, Jim Smith, Peter Love

Michael Regan

Recent events in international capital markets has had major impact on the ongoing rollout of Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) and slowed their use. Capital has been hard to source especially for projects over $300 million, the patronage risk model for economic infrastructure is no longer available, debt is more expensive than it was 18 months ago and credit risk insurance is no longer readily available. This has affected bid markets and slowed the delivery of new infrastructures with longer-term implications for economic performance across the whole economy.

Comparing Project Costs Internationally: Methodology And Data Issues, Rick Best

Rick Best

It is not uncommon to see or hear statements that suggest that the cost of a project in one country is some multiple of the cost in another. Whether the claim is that it is more or less costly is irrelevant – the fact is that such statements are often meaningless yet governments and clients are all too ready to accept such claims and act on them in their decision-making. In some cases relative cost, however poorly calculated, is used as the basis for conclusions regarding relative productivity in industries such as construction. Arriving at truly comparable costs between countries …

Evolving An Information Systems Capstone Course To Align With The Fast Changing Singapore Marketplace, Chris Boesch, Benjamin Kok Siew Gan

Chris BOESCH

Every year, around fifty-five undergraduate teams of four to six students are required to complete a capstone course for the School of Information Systems at Singapore Management University. Each team spends approximately five months working with an industry sponsor using the latest tools and techniques. Students actively learn by implementing the system to solve a real world problem. In addition to delivering value to the local sponsor, our students learn specialized skills currently needed in the marketplace, which might not yet be incorporated into electives and core courses. In this paper, we discuss the tradeoffs of providing students and project …

Nuclear War: Hiroshima, Nagasaki, And A Workable Moral Strategy For Achieving And Preserving World Peace, Raymond Wilson

Raymond Wilson