Human activities and interests within and around lakes of the Victoria and Kyoga basin and their consequences to sustainable fish production

Of all the great lakes, Lake Victoria has the highest population concentration on its fringes. This has resulted into serious human impacts on the ecosystem through intense agricultural activities (cultivation, livestock and over fishing), sporadic settlements, urbanization and industrial establishments. The consequences have been loss of animals and plant life, deforestation and general land degradation, pollution, loss of water quality and clean air. Aquatic life has become endangered and less guaranteeing to continued fish production. Awareness workshops and general talks have been done to a few selected communities by the lakes landing sites and in the catchment area to mitigate the deteriorating environmental conditions. Naturally the situation calls for reversal to the increasing stress of the ecosystem. As a result, every water body surveyed put forward some mitigation suggestions

Designing inclusive systems

The Cambridge Workshops on Universal Access and Assistive Technology (CWUAAT) are a series of workshops held at a Cambridge University College every two years.

ZnO based SAW and FBAR devices for lab-on-a chip applications

Acoustic wave devices were fabricated incorporating ZnO films deposited using both a standard rf magnetronand a novel High Target Utilisation (HiTUS) Sputtering System. Our results demonstrated the feasibility of using a single SAW-based actuation mechanism for both microfluidics and sensing. To further improve the sensitivity of our bio-sensors we have also investigated the use of Thin Film Bulk Acoustic Resonators.

Learning based automatic face annotation for arbitrary poses and expressions from frontal images only

Statistical approaches for building non-rigid deformable models, such as the Active Appearance Model (AAM), have enjoyed great popularity in recent years, but typically require tedious manual annotation of training images. In this paper, a learning based approach for the automatic annotation of visually deformable objects from a single annotated frontal image is presented and demonstrated on the example of automatically annotating face images that can be used for building AAMs for fitting and tracking. This approach employs the idea of initially learning the correspondences between landmarks in a frontal image and a set of training images with a face in arbitrary poses. Using this learner, virtual images of unseen faces at any arbitrary pose for which the learner was trained can be reconstructed by predicting the new landmark locations and warping the texture from the frontal image. View-based AAMs are then built from the virtual images and used for automatically annotating unseen images, including images of different facial expressions, at any random pose within the maximum range spanned by the virtually reconstructed images. The approach is experimentally validated by automatically annotating face images from three different databases. © 2009 IEEE.

Stakeholder challenges in purchasing medical devices for patient safety.

OBJECTIVE: This study identifies the stakeholders who have a role in medical device purchasing within the wider system of health-care delivery and reports on their particular challenges to promote patient safety during purchasing decisions. METHODS: Data was collected through observational work, participatory workshops, and semi-structured qualitative interviews, which were analyzed and coded. The study takes a systems-based and engineering design approach to the study. Five hospitals took part in this study, and the participants included maintenance, training, clinical end-users, finance, and risk departments. RESULTS: The main stakeholders for purchasing were identified to be staff from clinical engineering (Maintenance), device users (Clinical), device trainers (Training), and clinical governance for analyzing incidents involving devices (Risk). These stakeholders display varied characteristics in terms of interpretation of their own roles, competencies for selecting devices, awareness and use of resources for purchasing devices, and attitudes toward the purchasing process. The role of "clinical engineering" is seen by these stakeholders to be critical in mediating between training, technical, and financial stakeholders but not always recognized in practice. CONCLUSIONS: The findings show that many device purchasing decisions are tackled in isolation, which is not optimal for decisions requiring knowledge that is currently distributed among different people within different departments. The challenges expressed relate to the wider system of care and equipment management, calling for a more systemic view of purchasing for medical devices.

Key principles for developing industrially relevant strategic technology management toolkits

When considering the potential uptake and utilization of technology management tools by industry, it must be recognized that companies face the difficult challenges of selecting, adopting and integrating individual tools into a toolkit that must be implemented within their current organizational processes and systems. This situation is compounded by the lack of sound advice on integrating well-founded individual tools into a robust toolkit that has the necessary degree of flexibility such that they can be tailored for application to specific problems faced by individual organizations. As an initial stepping stone to offering a toolkit with empirically proven utility, this paper provides a conceptual foundation to the development of toolkits by outlining an underlying philosophical position based on observations from multiple research and commercial collaborations with industry. This stance is underpinned by a set of operationalized principles that can offer guidance to organizations when deciding upon the appropriate form, functions and features that should be embodied by any potential tool/toolkit. For example, a key objective of any tool is to aid decision-making and a core set of powerful, flexible, scaleable and modular tools should be sufficient to allow users to generate, explore, shape and implement possible solutions across a wide array of strategic issues. From our philosophical stance, the preferred mode of engagement is facilitated workshops with a participatory process that enables multiple perspectives and structures the conversation through visual representations in order to manage the cognitive load in the collaborative environment. The generic form of the tools should be configurable for the given context and utilized in a lightweight manner based on the premise of 'start small and iterate fast'. © 2012 Elsevier Inc.

Mapping experience in organizations: A learning process for strategic technology planning

Today's fast-paced, dynamic environments mean that for organizations to keep "ahead of the game", engineering managers need to maximize current opportunities and avoid repeating past mistakes. This article describes the development study of a collaborative strategic management tool - the Experience Scan to capture past experience and apply learning from this to present and future situations. Experience Scan workshops were held in a number of different technology organizations, developing and refining the tool until its format stabilized. From participants' feedback, the workshop-based tool was judged to be a useful and efficient mechanism for communication and knowledge management, contributing to organizational learning.

Designing Inclusive Systems

The Cambridge Workshops on Universal Access and Assistive Technology (CWUAAT) are a series of workshops held at a Cambridge University College every two years.

A value mapping tool for sustainable business modelling

Purpose: Although business models that deliver sustainability are increasingly popular in the literature, few tools that assist in sustainable business modelling have been identified. This paper investigates how businesses might create balanced social, environmental and economic value through integrating sustainability more fully into the core of their business. A value mapping tool is developed to help firms create value propositions better suited for sustainability. Design/methodology/approach: In addition to a literature review, six sustainable companies were interviewed to understand their approaches to business modelling, using a case study approach. Building on the literature and practice, a tool was developed which was pilot tested through use in a workshop. The resulting improved tool and process was subsequently refined through use in 13 workshops. Findings: A novel value mapping tool was developed to support sustainable business modelling, which introduces three forms of value (value captured, missed/destroyed or wasted, and opportunity) and four major stakeholder groups (environment, society, customer, and network actors). Practical implications: This tool intends to support business modelling for sustainability by assisting firms in better understanding their overall value proposition, both positive and negative, for all relevant stakeholders in the value network. Originality/value: The tool adopts a multiple stakeholder view of value, a network rather than firm centric perspective, and introduces a novel way of conceptualising value that specifically introduces value destroyed or wasted/ missed, in addition to the current value proposition and new opportunities for value creation. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Stretching-assembled nanowires for organic-based thin film transistors

We demonstrate a stretched contact-printing technique to assemble one-dimensional nanostructures with controlled density and orientation. Over 90% nanowires are highly aligned along the primary stretching direction. Specifically, The hybrid inorganic-organic TFTs based on a parallel-aligned nanowire network and a semiconducting polymer reveal a significant positive enhancement in transistor performance and air-stability.

CNTs & graphene for field emission applications

This paper details the use of carbon nanotubes and graphene for key field emission applications. Herein we describe the growth of nanotubes and their optimization for use in electron microscopes, field emission displays and x-ray sources. We also present a novel edge-emitting graphene based structure for large area electron emission displays.

Elevated levels of urinary 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine in male electrical and electronic equipment dismantling workers exposed to high concentrations of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans, polybrominated diphenyl ethers, and polychlorinated biphenyls

To investigate the occupational exposure levels to polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), indoor dust (n = 3) in workshops and hair samples from male workers (n = 64) were collected at two electrical and electronic equipment waste (E-waste) dismantling factories located in the LQ area in east China in July 11-13, 2006. Pre- and postworkshift urines (64 of each) were also collected from the workers to study oxidative damage to DNA using 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) as a biomarker. The concentrations of PCDD/Fs, PCDD/F-WHO-TEQs, PBDEs, PCBs and PCB-WHO-TEQs were (50.0 +/- 8.1) x 10(3), 724.1 +/- 249.6, (27.5 +/- 5.8) x 10(6), (1.6 +/- 0.4) x 10(9), (26.2 +/- 3.0) x 10(3) pg/g dry weight (dw) in dust, and (2.6 +/- 0.6) x 10(3), 42.4 +/- 9.3, (870.8 +/- 205.4) x 10(3), (1.6 +/- 0.2) x 10(6), 41.5 +/- 5.5 pg/g dw in hair, respectively. The homologue and congener profiles in the samples demonstrated that high concentrations of PCDD/Fs, PBDEs, and PCBs were originated from open burning of E-waste. The 8-OHdG levels were detected at 6.40 +/- 1.64 mu mol/mol creatinine in preworkshift urines. However, the levels significantly increased to 24.55 +/- 5.96 mu mol/mol creatinine in postworkshift urines (p < 0.05). Then, it is concluded that there is a high cancer risk originated from oxidative stress indicated by the elevated 8-OHdG levels in the E-waste dismantling workers exposed to high concentrations of PCDD/Fs, PBDEs, and PCBs.

泸州老窖古酿酒作坊空气微生物分布特征研究

本文主要研究了泸州老窖古酿酒作坊内外环境空气真菌和空气细菌的群落结构和分布特征。结果如下： 作坊内外环境空气微生物浓度差别显著，并随季节变换而变化，春、夏季微生物浓度较高，秋、冬季较低，空气真菌在夏季达到最高，细菌在春季最高。 古作坊内外环境检测到的真菌均为16 属，但优势菌属不同，作坊外的优势菌属为青霉属(Penicillium)、曲霉属(Aspergillus)、无孢菌(non-sporing)、枝孢霉属(Cladosporium)和链格孢属(Alternaria)；而作坊内优势菌属为曲霉属、青霉属、酵母菌(Yeast)、无孢菌，作坊内还含有较高浓度的根霉属（Rhizopus）、毛霉属（Mucor）、短梗霉属（Aureobasidiu），枝孢霉属和链格孢属等，曲霉属、酵母菌、根霉属、毛霉属为古酿酒作坊重要的酿酒真菌，青霉属、链格孢属为酿酒不利菌群。对古作坊内曲霉属进行了初步鉴定，主要是小冠曲霉（A.cristatellus）、米曲霉（A.oryzae）、黑曲霉（A.niger）和白曲霉（A.cadidus）。 空气细菌10 属21 种，作坊内外环境的优势菌属均为芽孢杆菌属（Bacillus）、微球菌属(Micrococcus)、葡萄球菌属(Staphylococcus)、假单胞菌属(Pseudomonad)，其中芽孢杆菌属在作坊内占有绝对的优势，浓度比在40℅以上，是古酿酒作坊重要的酿酒细菌，另外还检测到较高浓度的乳酸杆菌（lactobucillus），这类菌容易使酒味发涩发苦，为酿酒不利菌。 作坊内外环境空气微生物表现出明显的交流现象。作坊内，青霉属、枝孢霉属、链格孢属、葡萄球菌属等杂菌占有一定比例；而在作坊外,芽孢杆菌属、曲霉属、根霉属(Rhizopus)、酵母菌等处于相对较高水平，绿化环境较好的营沟头作坊内的短梗霉属，枝孢霉属和链格孢属等杂菌含量低于什字头和新街子作坊。 The community structure and distribution characteristic of airborne microbes was investigated in ancient brewage workshops of luzhoulaojiao. The results are as follows: The concentration of airborne microbes was different in interior and exterior environment of ancient workshops, and also varied by seasons. microbial concentration was higher in spring and summer, and lower in fall and winner. The highest levels of airborne bacteria was in spring, but the fungal’s in summer. The identified genus of fungi were 16 in interior and exterior environment of the ancient workshops. But the dominant genus were different , The advantage genus in the interior were Aspergillus, Yeasts, Penicillum and Nonsporing and in the exterior were Penicillum, Nonsporing, Cladosporium, Aspergillus and Aureobasidiu. Rhizopus ,mucor, Aureobasidiu, Cladosporium, Alternaria and all also were at a higher level. Among these, Aspergillus, Yeasts, Rhizopus ,mucor are important vintage flora . Penicillum, Alternaria do harm to vintage. Aspergillus of ancient workshops was identified , the preponderant aspergillus species were A.cristatellus, A.oryzae, A.niger and A.cadidus in ancient brewage workshops. 10 genus 21 species bacteria were identified, the advantage genuses among the interior and exterior of the three workshops were bacillus, microccus, Staphylococcus Pseudomonas. Bacillus, which account for beyond 40℅ of the total bacteria concentration in all sampling pots, was the most dominant genus. Lactobacillus was identified at a high level in ancient workshops, it makes spirit taste bitter and astringent. So it is not a kind of good bacterium for vintage. The fungus in the interior and exterior atmosphere characterized intercommunion phenomenon. Obviously, the concentration of profitless fungus such as Penicillum, Cladosporium, Alternaria appeared in the interior, and the fungus such as Bacillus, Aspergillus, Rhizopus and Yeasts in the exterior were at a relatively high level. the harmfull fungus in yinggoutou workshops such as Aureobasidiu, Cladosporium, Alternaria and all were lower than shenzitou and xinjiezi workshops.

External Examining: an Engineering Subject Centre guide.

This handbook was prepared for external examiners and for use in training workshops for newly appointed external examiners.