Committing to Effective Climate Governance in Northern Ireland: A Defining Test of Devolution

This is the second of a two-part analysis exploring the interaction between UK devolution and governance of the national low carbon transition. It argues that devolution shaped the national climate governance regime created by the Climate Change Act 2008, but will itself be tested and even altered as the traction of the low carbon imperative intensifies. This dynamic is explored in the specific context of the UK’s most devolved region. The first article argued that devolution facilitated and arguably forced Northern Ireland’s devolved administration to give a highly qualified and potentially illusory consent to the regional application of the UK Act. The second article argues that making a more effective commitment to climate governance will be a defining test of its devolution arrangements but will require constitutional arrangements designed for conflict resolution to mature. Failure to do so will have important implications for the UK’s putative ‘national’ low carbon transition and the longer-term viability of devolution in the region.

Tullis Rennie's Muscle Memory: Listening to the Act of Listening

This paper explores a recent, broadly 'electroacoustic', fixed medium composition by Tullis Rennie, which uses his background in ethnographic fieldwork to explore (in this case through auto-ethnography) modes of listening, and the role of technologies in mediating this listening. Muscle Memory: A conversation about jazz, with Graham South (trumpet) (2014) begins to answer questions about how one work can comment on and analyse or critique another through its own agency as music, bringing composition and ethnography together in fruitful collision, and illuminating the human capacity to manipulate and be manipulated by musical activity. The paper uses the piece to test the extent to which four functions, identified by Simon Frith (1987. Towards an aesthetic of popular music. In R. Leppert & S. McClary (Eds.), Music and society (pp. 133-49). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) as crucial to the meaningfulness of popular music may, in the context of ubiquitously technologised music, have broader application than he originally intended.

The darmstadt challenge (the turing test revisited)

Significant work has been done in the areas of Pervcomp/Ubicomp Smart Environments with advances on making proactive systems, but those advances have not made these type of systems accurately proactive. On the other hand a great deal is needed to make systems more sensible/sensitive and trustable (both in terms of reliability and privacy). We put forward the thesis that a more integral and social-aware sort of intelligence is needed to effectively interact, decide and act on behalf of people’s interest and that a way to test how effective systems are achieving these desirable behaviour is needed as a consequence. We support our thesis by providing examples on how to measure effectiveness in variety of different environments.

Group 15 (Snav) - The Data Protection Act 1998

An online tutorial outlining the definitions and principles of the Data Protection Act. Contains questions on scenarios which allow the user to test their knowledge, as well as a downloadable space-shooter game which gets the user to answer Data Protection Act questions.

Clinical test responses to different orthoptic exercise regimes in typical young adults

Purpose The relative efficiency of different eye exercise regimes is unclear, and in particular the influences of practice, placebo and the amount of effort required are rarely considered. This study measured conventional clinical measures after different regimes in typical young adults. Methods 156 asymptomatic young adults were directed to carry out eye exercises 3 times daily for two weeks. Exercises were directed at improving blur responses (accommodation), disparity responses (convergence), both in a naturalistic relationship, convergence in excess of accommodation, accommodation in excess of convergence, and a placebo regime. They were compared to two control groups, neither of which were given exercises, but the second of which were asked to make maximum effort during the second testing. Results Instruction set and participant effort were more effective than many exercises. Convergence exercises independent of accommodation were the most effective treatment, followed by accommodation exercises, and both regimes resulted in changes in both vergence and accommodation test responses. Exercises targeting convergence and accommodation working together were less effective than those where they were separated. Accommodation measures were prone to large instruction/effort effects and monocular accommodation facility was subject to large practice effects. Conclusions Separating convergence and accommodation exercises seemed more effective than exercising both systems concurrently and suggests that stimulation of accommodation and convergence may act in an additive fashion to aid responses. Instruction/effort effects are large and should be carefully controlled if claims for the efficacy of any exercise regime are to be made.

Validering av Alberta Context Tool (ACT) för bruk inom svensk kommunal äldrevård : Ett verktyg för implementering av evidensbaserad vård

The aim of this study was to conduct an instrument test of the Canadian questionnaire Alberta Context Tool (ACT) version Long-Term care for Swedish conditions. ACT is designed in order to measure the context in the care environment and different behaviours related to the changes in clinical practice. In total, 159 Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs) and Registered Nurses (RNs) within municipality care of the elderly were included in the survey. The test included the instrument's reliability and face validity.The reliability test was implemented through calculation of Cronbach´s Alpha, and showed internal consistency for five of the scales of the ACT-instrument with Cronbach´s Alpha values ranging between 0,728 and 0,873. However, three dimensions got lower values (0,558 - 0,683).The analysis was carried out with content analysis and carried out for LPNs and RNs in separate groups. The majority of LPNs expressed that it was easy to respond to the questions (56%), while nine percent considered it as difficult. Eleven comments were given about questions that were perceived to be unclear, complicated or contained difficult words. In the RN group only 30 percent considered that the questions were easy to respond to. One third of the RNs considered that part of the questions were unclear, and six RNs expressed also which questions they experienced as unclear. In general, the questions in the ACT were perceived as relevant. The instrument's relevance as a tool to measure contextual factors that influence the implementation of evidence based nursing can also be considered to be determined. By modifying the content in the questionnaire in accordance with what appeared in this survey and to implement yet another test, the instrument should be considered to be relevant for use within Swedish municipality care of the elderly. ACT can be used both as a tool in the work on improvement of clinical practice and as a tool for further research about implementation of evidence based nursing.

Testing of combined heating systems for small houses: Improved procedures for whole system test methods : Deliverable 2.3

Dynamic system test methods for heating systems were developed and applied by the institutes SERC and SP from Sweden, INES from France and SPF from Switzerland already before the MacSheep project started. These test methods followed the same principle: a complete heating system – including heat generators, storage, control etc., is installed on the test rig; the test rig software and hardware simulates and emulates the heat load for space heating and domestic hot water of a single family house, while the unit under test has to act autonomously to cover the heat demand during a representative test cycle. Within the work package 2 of the MacSheep project these similar – but different – test methods were harmonized and improved. The work undertaken includes:  • Harmonization of the physical boundaries of the unit under test. • Harmonization of the boundary conditions of climate and load. • Definition of an approach to reach identical space heat load in combination with an autonomous control of the space heat distribution by the unit under test. • Derivation and validation of new six day and a twelve day test profiles for direct extrapolation of test results.   The new harmonized test method combines the advantages of the different methods that existed before the MacSheep project. The new method is a benchmark test, which means that the load for space heating and domestic hot water preparation will be identical for all tested systems, and that the result is representative for the performance of the system over a whole year. Thus, no modelling and simulation of the tested system is needed in order to obtain the benchmark results for a yearly cycle. The method is thus also applicable to products for which simulation models are not available yet. Some of the advantages of the new whole system test method and performance rating compared to the testing and energy rating of single components are:  • Interaction between the different components of a heating system, e.g. storage, solar collector circuit, heat pump, control, etc. are included and evaluated in this test. • Dynamic effects are included and influence the result just as they influence the annual performance in the field. • Heat losses are influencing the results in a more realistic way, since they are evaluated under "real installed" and representative part-load conditions rather than under single component steady state conditions.   The described method is also suited for the development process of new systems, where it replaces time-consuming and costly field testing with the advantage of a higher accuracy of the measured data (compared to the typically used measurement equipment in field tests) and identical, thus comparable boundary conditions. Thus, the method can be used for system optimization in the test bench under realistic operative conditions, i.e. under relevant operating environment in the lab.   This report describes the physical boundaries of the tested systems, as well as the test procedures and the requirements for both the unit under test and the test facility. The new six day and twelve day test profiles are also described as are the validation results.

Meeting the Standards: An Analysis of Eight Grade Educational Assesment Test Scores in Maine

This paper examines the impact of socioeconomic factors on eighth grade achievement test scores in the face of federal and state initiatives for educational reform in Maine. We use student-level data over a five year period to provide a framework for understanding the policy implications of these initiatives. We model performance on standardized tests using a seemingly unrelated regressions approach and then determine the likelihood of meeting the standards defined by the adequate yearly progress requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act and Maine Learning Results initiatives. Our results indicate that the key factors influencing a student’s test scores include the education of a student’s parents, special services received for learning disabilities, and alternative measures of academic achievement.

Mutagenicity and chemopreventive activities of Astronium species assessed by Ames test

In the neotropical savannah, Astronium species are used in popular medicine to treat allergies, inflammation, diarrhea and ulcers. Given that natural products are promising starting points for the discovery of novel potentially therapeutic agents, the aim of the present study was to investigate the mutagenic and antimutagenic activities of hydroalcoholic extracts of Astronium spp. The mutagenicity was determined by the Ames test on Salmonella typhimurium strains TA98, TA97a, TA100 and TA102. The antimutagenicity was tested against the direct-acting and indirect-acting mutagens. The results showed that none of the extracts induce any increase in the number of revertants, demonstrating the absence of mutagenic activity. On the other hand, the results on the antimutagenic potential showed a moderate inhibitory effect against NPD and a strong protective effect against B[a]P and AFB1. This study highlights the importance of screening species of Astronium for new medicinal compounds. The promising results obtained open up new avenues for further study and provide a better understanding the mechanisms by which these species act in protecting DNA from damage. However, further pharmacological and toxicological investigations of crude extracts of Astronium spp., as well as of its secondary metabolites, are necessary to determine the mechanism(s) of action to guarantee their safer and more effective application to human health.

A test of genetic association among male nuptial coloration, female mating preference, and male aggression bias within a polymorphic population of cichlid fish

Both inter- and intrasexual selection have been implicated in the origin and maintenance of species-rich taxa with diverse sexual traits. Simultaneous disruptive selection by female mate choice and male-male competition can, in theory, lead to speciation without geographical isolation if both act on the same male trait. Female mate choice can generate discontinuities in gene flow, while male-male competition can generate negative frequency-dependent selection stabilizing the male trait polymorphism. Speciation may be facilitated when mating preference and/or aggression bias are physically linked to the trait they operate on. We tested for genetic associations among female mating preference, male aggression bias and male coloration in the Lake Victoria cichlid Pundamilia. We crossed females from a phenotypically variable population with males from both extreme ends of the phenotype distribution in the same population (blue or red). Male offspring of a red sire were significantly redder than males of a blue sire, indicating that intra-population variation in male coloration is heritable. We tested mating preferences of female offspring and aggression biases of male offspring using binary choice tests. There was no evidence for associations at the family level between female mating preferences and coloration of sires, but dam identity had a significant effect on female mate preference. Sons of the red sire directed significantly more aggression to red than blue males, whereas sons of the blue sire did not show any bias. There was a positive correlation among individuals between male aggression bias and body coloration, possibly due to pleiotropy or physical linkage, which could facilitate the maintenance of color polymorphism.

AN IMPLANTABLE MOSFET DOSIMETER MODIFIED TO ACT AS A FIDUCIAL MARKER

In external beam radiation therapy, it is imperative that the prescribed dose is administered to the correct location and in the correct amount. Though several ex vivo methods of quality assurance are currently employed to achieve this goal, verifying that the correct dose is received within the patient in situ is impossible without the capability of measuring dose inside the patient. Recently, a method of measuring dose delivered within the patient has been developed, an implantable MOSFET dosimeter. This dosimeter is implanted within the patient and records the dose received. Since the dosimeter is implanted in the patient, it could serve a dual function as a fiducial marker for image guided radiation therapy (IGRT) treatment if it could be modified to be visible on x-rays. In this study, modifications to the MOSFET dosimeter were made to increase its visibility for IGRT treatment. To test whether the modifications hindered the dosimeter’s ability to accurately measure and transmit dose information, the energy dependence, angular dependence and wireless read range of the modified dosimeter were measured and compared to unmodified dosimeters. It was found that the modified dosimeter performed as well as the unmodified dosimeter while also being suitable for use as a fiducial marker for IGRT treatment.

Wave height (regular and irregular waves) reduction in 2m water depth over a 40-m-long salt marsh test section in a large scale laboratory flume

Coastal communities around the world face increasing risk from flooding as a result of rising sea level, increasing storminess, and land subsidence. Salt marshes can act as natural buffer zones, providing protection from waves during storms. However, the effectiveness of marshes in protecting the coastline during extreme events when water levels and waves are highest is poorly understood. Here, we experimentally assess wave dissipation under storm surge conditions in a 300-m-long wave flume that contains a transplanted section of natural salt marsh. We find that the presence of marsh vegetation causes considerable wave attenuation, even when water levels and waves are high. From a comparison with experiments without vegetation, we estimate that up to 60% of observed wave reduction is attributed to vegetation. We also find that although waves progressively flatten and break vegetation stems and thereby reduce dissipation, the marsh substrate remained remarkably stable and resistant to surface erosion under all conditions.The effectiveness of storm wave dissipation and the resilience of tidal marshes even at extreme conditions suggest that salt marsh ecosystems can be a valuable component of coastal protection schemes.

The Small Mr Ras-like GTPase Rap1 and the Phospholipase C Pathway Act to Regulate Phagocytosis in Dictyostelium discoideum

The function of the small-Mr Ras-like GTPase Rap1 remains largely unknown, but this protein has been demonstrated to regulate cortical actin-based morphologic changes in Dictyostelium and the oxidative burst in mammalian neutrophils. To test whether Rap1 regulates phagocytosis, we biochemically analyzed cell lines that conditionally and modestly overexpressed wild-type [Rap1 WT(+)], constitutively active [Rap1 G12T(+)], and dominant negative [Rap1 S17N(+)] forms of D. discoideum Rap1. The rates of phagocytosis of bacteria and latex beads were significantly higher in Rap1 WT(+) and Rap1 G12T(+) cells and were reduced in Rap1 S17N(+) cells. The addition of inhibitors of protein kinase A, protein kinase G, protein tyrosine kinase, or phosphatidylinositide 3-kinase did not affect phagocytosis rates in wild-type cells. In contrast, the addition of U73122 (a phospholipase C inhibitor), calphostin C (a protein kinase C inhibitor), and BAPTA-AM (an intracellular Ca2+ chelator) reduced phagocytosis rates by 90, 50, and 65%, respectively, suggesting both arms of the phospholipase C signaling pathways played a role in this process. Other protein kinase C–specific inhibitors, such as chelerythrine and bisindolylmaleimide I, did not reduce phagocytosis rates in control cells, suggesting calphostin C was affecting phagocytosis by interfering with a protein containing a diacylglycerol-binding domain. The addition of calphostin C did not reduce phagocytosis rates in Rap1 G12T(+) cells, suggesting that the putative diacylglycerol-binding protein acted upstream in a signaling pathway with Rap1. Surprisingly, macropinocytosis was significantly reduced in Rap1 WT(+) and Rap1 G12T(+) cells compared with control cells. Together our results suggest that Rap1 and Ca2+ may act together to coordinate important early events regulating phagocytosis.

Does the colonic H,K-ATPase also act as an Na,K-ATPase?

We previously have demonstrated that the colonic P-ATPase α subunit cDNA encodes an H,K-ATPase when expressed in Xenopus laevis oocytes. Besides its high level of amino acid homology (75%) with the Na,K-ATPase, the colonic H,K-ATPase also shares a common pharmacological profile with Na,K-ATPase, because both are ouabain-sensitive and Sch 28080-insensitive. These features raise the possibility that an unrecognized property of the colonic H,K-ATPase would be Na+ translocation. To test this hypothesis, ion-selective microelectrodes were used to measure the intracellular Na+ activity of X. laevis oocytes expressing various combinations of P-ATPase subunits. The results show that expression in oocytes of the colonic H,K-ATPase affects intracellular Na+ homeostasis in a way similar to the expression of the Bufo marinus Na,K-ATPase; intracellular Na+ activity is lower in oocytes expressing the colonic H,K-ATPase or the B. marinus Na,K-ATPase than in oocytes expressing the gastric H,K-ATPase or a β subunit alone. In oocytes expressing the colonic H,K-ATPase, the decrease in intracellular Na+ activity persists when diffusive Na+ influx is enhanced by functional expression of the amiloride-sensitive epithelial Na+ channel, suggesting that the decrease is related to increased active Na+ efflux. The Na+ decrease depends on the presence of K+ in the external medium and is inhibited by 2 mM ouabain, a concentration that inhibits the colonic H,K-ATPase. These data are consistent with the hypothesis that the colonic H,K-ATPase may transport Na+, acting as an (Na,H),K-ATPase. Despite its molecular and functional characterization, the physiological role of the colonic (Na,H),K-ATPase in colonic and renal ion homeostasis remains to be elucidated.

Morphometric measurements throughout ontogeny of selected planktic foraminiferal test species

Development plays an important part in shaping adult morphology and morphological disparity, yet its influence on evolutionary processes is seldom explored because of a lack of preservation of ontogenetic stages in the fossil record. By preserving their entire ontogenetic history within their test, and with the advent of high-resolution imaging techniques, planktic foraminifera allow us to investigate the influence of developmental constraints on disparity. Using Synchrotron radiation X-ray tomographic microscopy (SRXTM), we reconstruct the ontogenetic progression of seven species across several of the major morphotypic groups of planktic foraminifera, including morphotypes of a species exhibiting high phenotypic plasticity and closely related pseudo-cryptic sister-taxa. We show differences in growth patterns between the globigerinid species, which appear more tightly regulated within the framework of isometry from the neanic stage, and the globorotaliid species, whose adult stages present allometric trends. Morphological change through ontogeny results in a change in surface area to volume ratios. Different metabolic processes therefore dominate at different stages of ontogeny, changing the vulnerability of the organism to environmental influences over growth, from factors affecting diffusion rates in the juvenile to those affecting energy supply in the adult. These findings identify some of the parameters within which evolutionary mechanisms have to act.