New Technology and Researchers’ Access to Court and Tribunal Information: the need for European analysis

We discuss the limitations and rights which may affect the researcher’s access to and use of digital, court and administrative tribunal based information. We suggest that there is a need for a European-wide investigation of the legal framework which affects the researcher who might wish to utilise this form of information. A European-wide context is required because much of the relevant law is European rather than national, but much of the constraints are cultural. It is our thesis that research improves understanding and then improves practice as that understanding becomes part of public debate. If it is difficult to undertake research, then public debate about the court system – its effectiveness, its biases, its strengths – becomes constrained. Access to court records is currently determined on a discretionary basis or on the basis of interpretation of rules of the court where these are challenged in legal proceedings. Anecdotal evidence would suggest that there are significant variations in the extent to which court documents such as pleadings, transcripts, affidavits etc are made generally accessible under court rules or as a result of litigation in different jurisdictions or, indeed, in different courts in the same jurisdiction. Such a lack of clarity can only encourage a chilling of what might otherwise be valuable research. Courts are not, of course, democratic bodies. However, they are part of a democratic system and should, we suggest – both for the public benefit and for their proper operation – be accessible and criticisable by the independent researcher. The extent to which the independent researcher is enabled access is the subject of this article. The rights of access for researchers and the public have been examined in other common law countries but not, to date, in the UK or Europe.

New technology and new workplaces: call centre careers – a growing reality?

Research to date suggests that career advancement in call centres (CCs) is relatively uncommon with employees often viewing such employment as a stopgap measure before moving on to something better. This study set out to determine whether such scenarios have changed over time since CCs have become more established in their work organisation, information and communication technology (ICT) and management processes. This study particularly focused on training and development initiatives, how employees access training and development, and whether CCs support career development. Using both qualitative and quantitative methods, these issues are examined within 10 Australian CCs of varying size from various sectors. Two-thirds of respondents stated that they intended to develop a career in the industry and 7 in 10 reported that they believed there were promotional opportunities emerging in their current organisation. Despite these findings, the evidence also suggests that more needs to be done both to create coherent career paths and to establish structured, accredited training programmes for CC employees.

Numerical simulation of a patent technology for sealing of deep-sea oil wells using nonlinear finite element method

For over 50 years bridge plugs and cement have been used for well abandonment and work over and are still the material of choice. However the failures of cement abandonments using bridge plugs has been reported on many occasions, some of which have resulted in fatal consequences. A new patented product is designed to address the shortcomings associated with using bridge plugs and cement. The new developed tools use an alloy based on bismuth that is melted in situ using Thermite reaction. The tool uses the expansion properties of bismuth to seal the well. Testing the new technology in real field under more than 2 km deep sea water can be expensive. Virtual simulation of the new device under simulated thermal and mechanical environment can be achieved using nonlinear finite element method to validate the product and reduce cost. Experimental testing in the lab is performed to measure heat generated due to thermite reaction. Then, a sequential thermal mechanical explicit/implicit finite element solver is used to simulate the device under both testing lab and deep water conditions.

The nuclei of comets 7P/Pons-Winnecke, 14P/Wolf and 92P/Sanguin

Jupiter Family comets (JFCs) are short period comets which have recently entered the inner solar system, having previously orbited in the Kuiper Belt since the formation of the planets. We used two nights on the 3.6 m New Technology Telescope (NTT) at the European Southern Observatory, to obtain VRI photometry of three JFCs; 7P/Pons-Winnecke, 14P/Wolf and 92P/Sanguin. These were observed to be stellar in appearance. We find mean effective radii of 2.24 ± 0.02 km for 7P, 3.16 ± 0.01 km for 14P and 2.08 ± 0.01 km for 92P, assuming a geometric albedo of 0.04. From light-curves for each comet we find rotation periods of 7.53 ± 0.10 and 6.22 ± 0.05 h for 14P and 92P respectively. 7P exhibits brightness variations which imply a rotation period of 6.8 = Prot = 9.5 h. Assuming the nuclei to be ellipsoidal the measured brightness variations imply minimum axial ratios a/b of 1.3 ± 0.1 for 7P and 1.7 ± 0.1 for both 14P and 92P. This in turn implies minimum densities of 0.23 ± 0.08 g cm-3 for 7P, 0.32 ± 0.02 g cm-3 for 14P and 0.49 ± 0.06 g cm-3 for 92P. Finally, we measure colour indices of (V-R) = 0.40 ± 0.05 and (R-I) = 0.41 ± 0.06 for 7P/Pons-Winnecke, (V-R) = 0.57 ± 0.07 and (R-I) = 0.51 ± 0.06 for 14P/Wolf, and (V-R) = 0.54 ± 0.04 and (R-I) = 0.54 ± 0.04 for 92P/Sanguin.

Kinematics of the ring-like nebula SuWt 2

We present the first detailed spatio-kinematical analysis and modelling of the southern planetary nebula SuWt 2. This object presents a problem for current theories of planetary nebula formation and evolution, as it is not known to contain a central post-main-sequence star. Deep narrow-band [NII]6584Å images reveal the presence of faint bipolar lobes emanating from the edges of the nebular ring. Long-slit observations of the Ha and [NII]6584Å emission lines were obtained using the ESO (European Southern Observatory) Multi-Mode Instrument on the 3.6-m ESO New Technology Telescope. The spectra reveal the nebular morphology as a bright torus encircling the waist of an extended bipolar structure. By deprojection, the inclination of the ring is found to be 68° +/- 2° (cf. ~90° for the double A-type binary believed to lie at the centre of the nebula), and the ring expansion velocity is found to be 28 kms-1. Our findings are discussed with relation to possible formation scenarios for SuWt 2. Through comparison of the nebular heliocentric systemic velocity, found here to be -25 +/- 5km s-1, and the heliocentric systemic velocity of the double A-type binary, we conclude that neither component of the binary could have been the nebular progenitor. However, we are unable to rule out the presence of a third component to the system, which would have been the nebula progenitor.

SurfaceSlide: A Multitouch Digital Pathology Platform

Background: Digital pathology provides a digital environment for the management and interpretation of pathological images and associated data. It is becoming increasing popular to use modern computer based tools and applications in pathological education, tissue based research and clinical diagnosis. Uptake of this new technology is stymied by its single user orientation and its prerequisite and cumbersome combination of mouse and keyboard for navigation and annotation.

Methodology: In this study we developed SurfaceSlide, a dedicated viewing platform which enables the navigation and annotation of gigapixel digitised pathological images using fingertip touch. SurfaceSlide was developed using the Microsoft Surface, a 30 inch multitouch tabletop computing platform. SurfaceSlide users can perform direct panning and zooming operations on digitised slide images. These images are downloaded onto the Microsoft Surface platform from a remote server on-demand. Users can also draw annotations and key in texts using an on-screen virtual keyboard. We also developed a smart caching protocol which caches the surrounding regions of a field of view in multi-resolutions thus providing a smooth and vivid user experience and reducing the delay for image downloading from the internet. We compared the usability of SurfaceSlide against Aperio ImageScope and PathXL online viewer.

Conclusion: SurfaceSlide is intuitive, fast and easy to use. SurfaceSlide represents the most direct, effective and intimate human–digital slide interaction experience. It is expected that SurfaceSlide will significantly enhance digital pathology tools and applications in education and clinical practice.

z'-band Ground-based Detection of the Secondary Eclipse of WASP-19b

We present the ground-based detection of the secondary eclipse of the transiting exoplanet WASP-19b. The observations were made in the Sloan z' band using the ULTRACAM triple-beam CCD camera mounted on the New Technology Telescope. The measurement shows a 0.088% ± 0.019% eclipse depth, matching previous predictions based on H- and K-band measurements. We discuss in detail our approach to the removal of errors arising due to systematics in the data set, in addition to fitting a model transit to our data. This fit returns an eclipse center, T 0, of 2455578.7676 HJD, consistent with a circular orbit. Our measurement of the secondary eclipse depth is also compared to model atmospheres of WASP-19b and is found to be consistent with previous measurements at longer wavelengths for the model atmospheres we investigated.

Patterns of cough in the clinic

Current guidelines for the management of cough highlight the value of a taking a careful history to establish specific features of the cough in particular its duration, typical triggers or aggravants and associated symptoms. Unfortunately the diagnostic yield from a history alone is poor and there is a need to understand the pattern of clinical cough in a more precise way. As the technology to record cough in ambulatory settings becomes more sophisticated so the possibility that precise measurement of the cough frequency, intensity and acoustic characteristics may offer diagnostically valuable information in individual patients becomes a reality. In this article the current knowledge of the clinical patterns of cough is discussed and the potential for new technology to record cough patterns in a meaningful way is considered.

Voices from higher up the ladder:Exploring the team leader role in call centres

This paper focuses on an under-researched employee category in the call centre literature-the team leader. The paper, drawing on data from nine Australian call centres, finds that the team leader role is integral to the effectiveness of call centres, yet it is a role that consists of considerable complexity and contradictions. The research demonstrates the critical role performed by team leaders: coach, mentor, trainer, performance evaluator, communicator and supervisor. It also shows team leaders as being far more positive about many of the features of the call centre work environment compared with those on the front line. However, there does appear to be a need for greater acknowledgement of their challenging role, the contradictions that are inherent in the job and the need, in many cases, for increased support being made available to assist. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

The AstraLux large M-dwarf multiplicity survey

We present the results of an extensive high-resolution imaging survey of M-dwarf multiplicity using the Lucky Imaging technique. The survey made use of the AstraLux Norte camera at the Calar Alto 2.2m telescope and the AstraLux Sur camera at the ESO New Technology Telescope in order to cover nearly the full sky. In total, 761 stars were observed (701M-type and 60 late K-type), among which 182 new and 37 previously known companions were detected in 205 systems. Most of the targets have been observed during two or more epochs, and could be confirmed as physical companions through common proper motion, often with orbital motion being confirmed in addition. After accounting for various bias effects, we find a total M-dwarf multiplicity fraction of 27% ± 3% within the AstraLux detection range of 008-6? (semimajor axes of ~3-227 AU at a median distance of 30pc). We examine various statistical multiplicity properties within the sample, such as the trend of multiplicity fraction with stellar mass and the semimajor axis distribution. The results indicate that M-dwarfs are largely consistent with constituting an intermediate step in a continuous distribution from higher-mass stars down to brown dwarfs. Along with other observational results in the literature, this provides further indications that stars and brown dwarfs may share a common formation mechanism, rather than being distinct populations. © 2012. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.