A framework for developing evaluation capacity in health care settings.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a framework for developing an effective evaluation practice within health care settings. Three features are reviewed; capacity building, the application of evaluation to program activities and the utilization of evaluation recommendations. First, the organizational elements required to establish effective evaluation practice are reviewed emphasizing that an organization's capacity for evaluation develops over time and in stages. Second, a comprehensive evaluation framework is presented which demonstrates how evaluation practice can be applied to all aspects of a program's life cycle, thus promoting the scope of evidence-based decision making within an organization. Finally, factors which influence the adoption of evaluation recommendations by decision makers are reviewed accompanied by strategies to promote the utilization of evaluation recommendations in organization decision making.

Ionizing radiation and the retina

This review considers the effects of ionizing radiation on the retina and examines the relationship between the natural course of radiation retinopathy and the radiobiology of the retinal vascular endothelial cell (RVEC). Radiation retinopathy presents clinically as a progressive pattern of degenerative and proliferative vascular changes, chiefly affecting the macula, and ranging from capillary occlusion, dilation, and microaneurysm formation, to telangiectasia, intraretinal microvascular abnormalities, and neovascularization. The total-radiation dose and fractionation schedule are the major determinants for the time of onset, rate of progression, and severity of retinopathy, although other factors such as concomitant chemotherapy and preexisting diabetes may exaggerate the vasculopathy by intensifying the oxygen-derived free-radical assault on the vascular cells. The differential radiosensitivity of RVECs is attributed to their nuclear chromatin conformation, their antioxidant status, and their environment. We propose pathogenetic mechanisms for radiation retinopathy and suggest that the peculiar latency and unique clinical pattern is related to the life cycle of the RVEC. A rationale is also proposed for the use of radiotherapy in the treatment of subneovascularization and age-related macular degeneration.

Development of small and medium-sized enterprise horizontal innovation networks: UK agri-food sector study

Within the management literature, there is an emergent discourse on horizontal collaboration among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), whereby individual rivalries are overcome by the need for more resources and innovation, leading to increased competitiveness through joint product development. In particular, a number of these horizontal collaborations between SMEs have occurred within the agri-food sector. As a consequence, this article aims to explore the longitudinal development of horizontal innovation networks within an artisan bakers’ network as part of the UK SME agri-food sector. An interpretivist research approach was used, whereby the development and evolution of an artisan bakers’ horizontal network was studied over a 27-month period. The findings, as summarised in conceptual models which draw upon knowledge-based open innovation and social network constructs, illustrate that a complex three-stage life cycle development occurred within the bakers’ horizontal network.

Changes in modal parameters of a steel truss bridge due to artificial damage

This study investigated how damage changes the modal parameters of a real bridge by means of a field experiment which was conducted on a real steel truss bridge consecutively subjected to four artificial damage scenarios. In the experiment, both the forced and free vibrations of the bridge were recorded, the former for identifying higher modes available exclusively and the latter for lower modes with higher resolution. Results show that modal parameters are little affected by damage causing low stress redistribution. Modal frequencies decrease as damage causing high stress redistribution is applied; such a change can be observed if the damage is at the non-nodal point of the corresponding mode shape. Mode shapes are distorted due to asymmetric damage; they show an amplification in the damaged side as damage is applied at the non-nodal point. Torsion modes become more dominant as damage is applied either asymmetrically or on an element against large design loads. © 2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London.

Structural damage diagnosis of steel truss bridges by outlier detection

This study discusses structural damage diagnosis of real steel truss bridges by measuring trafficinduced vibration of bridges and utilizing a damage indicator derived from linear system parameters of a time series model. On-site damage experiments were carried out on real steel truss bridges. Artificial damage was applied to the bridge by severing a truss member with a cutting machine.Vehicle-induced vibrations of the bridges before and after applying damagewere measured and used in structural damage diagnosis of the bridges. Changes in the damage indicator are detected by Mahalanobis-Taguchi system (MTS) which is one of multivariate outlier analyses. The damage indicator and outlier detection was successfully applied to detect anomalies in the steel truss bridges utilizing vehicle-induced vibrations. Observations through this study demonstrate feasibility of the proposed approach for real world applications.

Experimental investigation of a wavelet based drive-by bridge inspection system incorporating pattern recognition

This paper presents the results of an experimental investigation, carried out in order to verify the feasibility of a ‘drive-by’ approach which uses a vehicle instrumented with accelerometers to detect and locate damage in a bridge. In theoretical simulations, a simplified vehicle-bridge interaction model is used to investigate the effectiveness of the approach in detecting damage in a bridge from vehicle accelerations. For this purpose, the accelerations are processed using a continuous wavelet transform and damage indicators are evaluated and compared. Alternative statistical pattern recognition techniques are incorporated to allow for repeated vehicle passes. Parameters such as vehicle speed, damage level, location and road roughness are varied in simulations to investigate the effect. A scaled laboratory experiment is carried out to assess the effectiveness of the approach in a more realistic environment, considering a number of bridge damage scenarios.

Energy balance of SRC willow used for managing farmyard washings - how does it compare to a conventional wastewater treatment works?

The water and wastewater industry in the UK accounts for around 3% of total energy use and just over 1% of total UK greenhouse gas emissions. Targets for greenhouse gas emissions reduction and higher renewable energy penetration, coupled with rising energy costs, growing demand for wastewater services and tightening EU water quality requirements, have led to an increased interest in alternative wastewater treatment methods. The use of short rotation coppice (SRC) willow for the treatment of wastewater effluent is one such alternative, which brings with it the dual benefits of wastewater treatment and production of biomass for energy. In order to assess the effectiveness of SRC willow, it is important to analyse the overall energy balance in terms of energy input versus energy output. This paper carries out an energy life cycle analysis of a specific SRC willow plantation in Northern Ireland to which farmyard washings (dirty water) are applied. The system boundaries include the establishment, maintenance, and harvesting of the plantation, along with the transport and drying of the wood for biomass combustion. The analysis shows that the overall energy balance is positive, and that the direct and indirect energy demands are 12% and 8% of gross energy production respectively. The energy demands of the plantation are compared with the energy required to treat an equivalent nutrient load in a conventional wastewater treatment plant. While a conventional plant consumes 2.6 MJ/m3 , the irrigation system consumes 1.6 MJ/m3 and the net energy production of the scenario is 48 MJ/m3 .

Economic Stress and the Great Recession in Ireland: Polarization, Individualization or ‘Middle Class Squeeze’?

Following an unprecedented boom, since 2008 Ireland has experienced a severe economic crisis. Considerable debate persists as to where the heaviest burden of the recession has fallen. Conventional measures of income poverty and inequality have a limited capacity to answer this question. Our analysis, which focuses on economic stress and the mediating role of material deprivation, provides no evidence for individualization or class polarization. Instead we find that while economic stress level are highly stratified in income class and social class terms in both boom and bust periods, the changing impact of class is contingent on life course stage. The affluent income class remained largely insulated from the experience of economic stress. However, it saw its relative advantage overthe income poor class decline at the earlier stage of the life-course. At the other end of the hierarchy, the income poor experienced a relative improvement in their situation in the early life course phases. The precarious income class experienced some improvement in its situation at the earlier life course stages while the outcomes for the middle classes remain unchanged. In the mid-life course stages the precarious and lower middle classes experienced disproportionate increase in their stress levels while at the later life-cycle stage it is the combined middle classes that lost out. Additional effects over time relating to social class are restricted to the deteriorating situation of the petit bourgeoisie at the middle stage of the life-course. The pattern is clearly a good deal more complex that suggested by conventional notions of ‘middle class squeeze’ and points to the distinctive challenges relating to welfare and taxation policy faced by governments in the Great Recession.

Building Information Modelling Energy Performance Assessment on Domestic Dwellings: A Comparative Study

Building Information Modelling (BIM) is growing in pace, not only in design and construction stages, but also in the analysis of facilities throughout their life cycle. With this continued growth and utilisation of BIM processes, comes the possibility to adopt such procedures, to accurately measure the energy efficiency of buildings, to accurately estimate their energy usage. To this end, the aim of this research is to investigate if the introduction of BIM Energy Performance Assessment in the form of software analysis, provides accurate results, when compared with actual energy consumption recorded. Through selective sampling, three domestic case studies are scrutinised, with baseline figures taken from existing energy providers, the results scrutinised and compared with calculations provided from two separate BIM energy analysis software packages. Of the numerous software packages available, criterion sampling is used to select two of the most prominent platforms available on the market today. The two packages selected for scrutiny are Integrated Environmental Solutions - Virtual Environment (IES-VE) and Green Building Studio (GBS). The results indicate that IES-VE estimated the energy use in region of ±8% in two out of three case studies while GBS estimated usage approximately ±5%. The findings indicate that the introduction of BIM energy performance assessment, using proprietary software analysis, is a viable alternative to manual calculations of building energy use, mainly due to the accuracy and speed of assessing, even the most complex models. Given the surge in accurate and detailed BIM models and the importance placed on the continued monitoring and control of buildings energy use within today’s environmentally conscious society, this provides an alternative means by which to accurately assess a buildings energy usage, in a quick and cost effective manner.

Characterisation of a novel panel of polymorphic microsatellite loci for the liver fluke, Fasciola hepatica, using a next generation sequencing approach

The liver fluke, Fasciola hepatica is an economically important pathogen of sheep and cattle and has been described by the WHO as a re-emerging zoonosis. Control is heavily reliant on the use of drugs, particularly triclabendazole and as a result resistance has now emerged. The population structure of F. hepatica is not well known, yet it can impact on host-parasite interactions and parasite control with drugs, particularly regarding the spread of triclabendazole resistance. We have identified 2448 potential microsatellites from 83Mb of F. hepatica genome sequence using msatfinder. Thirty-five loci were developed and optimised for microsatellite PCR, resulting in a panel of 15 polymorphic loci, with a range of three to 15 alleles. This panel was validated on genomic DNA from 46 adult F. hepatica; 38 liver flukes sourced from a Northwest abattoir, UK and 8 liver flukes from an established isolate (Shrewsbury; Ridgeway Research). Evidence for null alleles was found at four loci (Fh_1, Fh_8, Fh_13 and Fh_14), which showed markedly higher levels of homozygosity than the remaining 11 loci. Of the 38 liver flukes isolated from cattle livers (n=10) at the abattoir, 37 genotypes were identified. Using a multiplex approach all 15 loci could be amplified from several life cycle stages that typically yield low amounts of DNA, including metacercariae, the infective life cycle stage present on pasture, highlighting the utility of this multiplex microsatellite panel. This study reports the largest panel of microsatellite markers available to date for population studies of F. hepatica and the first multiplex panel of microsatellite markers that can be used for several life cycle stages.

New insights into sequence variation in the IGS region of 21 cyathostomin species and the implication for molecular identification

Cyathostomins comprise a group of 50 species of parasitic nematodes that infect equids. Ribosomal DNA sequences, in particular the intergenic spacer (IGS) region, have been utilized via several methodologies to identify pre-parasitic stages of the commonest species that affect horses. These methods rely on the availability of accurate sequence information for each species, as well as detailed knowledge of the levels of intra- and inter-specific variation. Here, the IGS DNA region was amplified and sequenced from 10 cyathostomin species for which sequence was not previously available. Also, additional IGS DNA sequences were generated from individual worms of 8 species already studied. Comparative analysis of these sequences revealed a greater range of intra-specific variation than previously reported (up to 23%); whilst the level of inter-specific variation (3-62%) was similar to that identified in earlier studies. The reverse line blot (RLB) method has been used to exploit the cyathostomin IGS DNA region for species identification. Here, we report validation of novel and existing DNA probes for identification of cyathostomins using this method and highlight their application in differentiating life-cycle stages such as third-stage larvae that cannot be identified to species by morphological means.

Application of Evidence Theory and Discounting Techniques to Aerospace Design

Critical decisions are made by decision-makers throughout
the life-cycle of large-scale projects. These decisions are crucial as they
have a direct impact upon the outcome and the success of projects. To aid
decision-makers in the decision making process we present an evidential
reasoning framework. This approach utilizes the Dezert-Smarandache
theory to fuse heterogeneous evidence sources that suffer from levels
of uncertainty, imprecision and conflicts to provide beliefs for decision
options. To analyze the impact of source reliability and priority upon
the decision making process, a reliability discounting technique and a
priority discounting technique, are applied. A maximal consistent subset
is constructed to aid in dening where discounting should be applied.
Application of the evidential reasoning framework is illustrated using a
case study based in the Aerospace domain.

Net energy analysis of a solar combi system with Seasonal Thermal Energy Store

EU targets require nearly zero energy buildings (NZEB) by 2020. However few monitored examples exist of how NZEB has been achieved in practise in individual residential buildings. This paper provides an example of how a low-energy building (built in 2006), has achieved nearly zero energy heating through the addition of a solar domestic hot water and space heating system (“combi system”) with a Seasonal Thermal Energy Store (STES). The paper also presents a cumulative life cycle energy and cumulative life cycle carbon analysis for the installation based on the recorded DHW and space heating demand in addition to energy payback periods and net energy ratios. In addition, the carbon and energy analysis is carried out for four other heating system scenarios including hybrid solar thermal/PV systems in order to obtain the optimal system from a carbon efficiency perspective.

A well-to-wheel analysis of electric vehicles in the all-island Single Electricity Market

The European Union has set a target for 10% renewable energy in transport by 2020 to be met using biofuels and electric vehicles. In the case of biofuels, the biofuel must achieve greenhouse gas savings of 35% relative to the fossil fuel replaced. For biofuels, greenhouse gas savings can be calculated using life cycle analysis or the European Union default values. In contrast, all electricity used in transport is considered to be the same, regardless of the source or the type of electric vehicle. However, the choice of the electric vehicle and electricity source will have a major impact on the greenhouse gas saving. In this paper the initial findings of a well-to-wheel analysis of electric vehicle deployment in Northern Ireland are presented. The key finding indicates that electric vehicles require least amount of energy per mile on a well-to-wheel basis, consume the fewest resources, even accommodating inefficient fuel production, in comparison to standard internal combustion engine and hybrid vehicles.

Astrochemistry

In the last 40 years a wide range of molecules, including neutrals, cations and anions, containing up to 13 atoms—in addition to detections of C₆₀ and C₇₀ — have been found in the harsh environment of the interstellar medium. The exquisite sensitivity and very high spectral and, more recently, spatial resolution, of modern telescopes has enabled the physics of star formation to be probed through rotational line emission. In this article, I review the basic properties of interstellar clouds and the processes that initiate the chemistry and generate chemical complexity, particularly in regions of star and planet formation. Our understanding of astrochemistry has evolved over the years. Before 1990, the general consensus was that molecules were formed in binary, gas-phase, or volume, reactions, most importantly ion-neutral reactions despite the very low ionization in clouds. Since then, observations have indicated unambiguously that there is also a contribution from surface processes, particularly on the icy mantles that form around refractory grain cores in cold, dense gas. The balance between these two processes depends on particular physical conditions and can vary during the life cycle of a particular volume of interstellar cloud.The complex chemistry that occurs in space is driven mostly through interaction of thegas with cosmic ray protons, a source of ionization that enables a rich ion-neutral chemistry. In addition, I show that the interaction between the gas and the dust in cold, dense regionsalso leads to additional chemical complexity through reactions that take place in ices at onlya few tens of degrees above absolute zero. Although densities are low compared to those in terrestrial environments, the extremely long life times of interstellar clouds and their enormous sizes, enable complex molecules to be synthesised and detected. I show that in some instances, particularly in reactions involving deuterium, the rotational populations of reactants, together with spin-selection rules, can determine the detailed abundances. Although the review is mainly focused on regions associated with star formation, I also consider chemistry in other interesting astronomical regions — in the early Universe and in the envelopes formed by mass loss during the final stages of stellar evolution.