A geo-referenced benthic habitat survey in support of natural resource management: Port Graham Bay, Alaska

The impact of recent changes in climate on the arctic environment and its ecosystems appear to have a dramatic affect on natural populations (National Research Council Committee on the Bering Sea Ecosystem 1996) and pose a serious threat to the continuity of indigenous arctic cultures that are dependent on natural resources for subsistence (Peterson D. L., Johnson 1995). In the northeast Pacific, winter storms have intensified and shifted southward causing fundamental changes in sea surface temperature patterns (Beamish 1993, Francis et al. 1998). Since the mid 1970’s surface waters of the central basin of the Gulf of Alaska (GOA) have warmed and freshened with a consequent increase in stratification and reduced winter entrainment of nutrients (Stabeno et al. 2004). Such physical changes in the structure of the ocean can rapidly affect lower trophic levels and indirectly affect fish and marine mammal populations through impacts on their prey (Benson and Trites 2002). Alaskan natives expect continued and perhaps accelerating changes in resources due to global warming (DFO 2006).and want to develop strategies to cope with their changing environment.

East African Fisheries Research Organization Annual Report 1952

Several important advances have been made in our knowledge both regarding the factors which determine fertility in tropical lakes and the fish that live in them. As a result of our investigations a new theory has been put forward regarding the part played by animals in the bionomics of a lake; this theory, stated somewhat baldly, is that within certain limits the greater the number of animals in a shallow tropical lake, the greater becomes its potential fertility, and therefore the greater the number of animals it can support. The theory arises as a logical conclusion, once we accept the fact that the rate of production in such a lake is determined by the rate at which organic matter is decomposed. Bottom deposits which consist mainly of vegetable matter decompose slowly, whereas deposits which contain a high proportion of matter of animal origin decompose more rapidly. Thus the more animals in a lake, particularly animals which feed on plant material, the faster the biological cycle can proceed and the greater the density of animals it can support. This new concept will have a very profound influence on our ideas concerning the consequences of overfishing tropical waters. It also shows that efforts must be made to encourage and protect all herbivorous and detritus feeding animals, whether they be copepods, fish, or hippopotami, and whether they are of immediate economic importance or not.

Architectural research and its enemies

Like the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) that preceded it, the UK government's proposed Research Excellence Framework (REF) is a means of allocating funding in higher education to support research. As with any method for the competitive allocation of funds it creates winners and losers and inevitably generates a lot of emotion among those rewarded or penalised. More specifically, the 'winners' tend to approve of the method of allocation and the 'losers' denigrate it as biased against their activities and generally unfair. An extraordinary press campaign has been consistently waged against research assessment and its methods by those involved in architectural education, which I will track over a decade and a half. What follows will question whether this campaign demonstrates the sophistication and superior judgment of those who have gone into print, or conversely whether its mixture of misinformation and disinformation reveals not just disenchantment and prejudice, but a naivety and a depth of ignorance about the fundamentals of research that is deeply damaging to the credibility of architecture as a research-based discipline. With the recent consultation process towards a new cycle of research assessment, the REF, getting under way, I aim to draw attention to the risk of repeating past mistakes. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010.

Integrated billing mechanisms in the Internet of Things to support information sharing and enable new business opportunities

The Internet of Things (IOT) concept and enabling technologies such as RFID offer the prospect of linking the real world of physical objects with the virtual world of information technology to improve visibility and traceability information within supply chains and across the entire lifecycles of products, as well as enabling more intuitive interactions and greater automation possibilities. There is a huge potential for savings through process optimization and profit generation within the IOT, but the sharing of financial benefits across companies remains an unsolved issue. Existing approaches towards sharing of costs and benefits have failed to scale so far. The integration of payment solutions into the IOT architecture could solve this problem. We have reviewed different possible levels of integration. Multiple payment solutions have been researched. Finally we have developed a model that meets the requirements of the IOT in relation to openness and scalability. It supports both hardware-centric and software-centric approaches to integration of payment solutions with the IOT. Different requirements concerning payment solutions within the IOT have been defined and considered in the proposed model. Possible solution providers include telcos, e-payment service providers and new players such as banks and standardization bodies. The proposed model of integrating the Internet of Things with payment solutions will lower the barrier to invoicing for the more granular visibility information generated using the IOT. Thus, it has the potential to enable recovery of the necessary investments in IOT infrastructure and accelerate adoption of the IOT, especially for projects that are only viable when multiple benefits throughout the supply chain need to be accumulated in order to achieve a Return on Investment (ROI). In a long-term perspective, it may enable IT-departments to become profit centres instead of cost centres. © 2010 - IOS Press and the authors. All rights reserved.

Comparative Analysis of Five Different Homologous Feeder Cell Lines in the Ability to Support Rhesus Embryonic Stem Cells

我们以前的研究建立了五株猕猴饲养层细胞系来支持猕猴胚胎干细胞(rESCs)的生长:一岁猴耳皮肤成纤维细胞(MESFs)、两岁猴输卵管成纤维细胞(MOFs)、成年猴卵泡颗粒成纤维样细胞(MFGs)、成年猴卵泡颗粒上皮样细胞(MFGEs),以及MESFs的克隆成纤维细胞(CMESFs).我们发现MESFs、CMESFs、MOFs和MFGs,而不足MFGEs支持猕猴胚胎干细胞(rESCs,rhesus embryonic stem cells)的生长.通过半定量PCR的方法,我们在支持性的饲养层细胞中检测到了一些基因的高表达.在本研究中,我们运用Affymetrix公司的GeneChip Rhesus Macaque Genome Array芯片来研究这五株同源饲养层的表达谱,希望发现哪些细胞因子和信号通路在维持rESCs中起到重要作用.结果表明,除MFGE外,包括GREM2、bFGF,、KITLG,、DKK3、GREM1、AREG、SERPINF1和LTBF1等八个基因的mRNA在支持性的饲养层细胞中高表达.本研究结果提示,很多信号通路在支持rESCs的未分化生长和多潜能性方面可能起到了冗余的作用.

Report of the final workshop on education, capacity development and monitoring in support of Bar Reef Marine Sanctuary (BRMS) management, Kalpitiya, Sri Lanka, 23 May, 2015

Objectives of the workshop included: presentation of research to stakeholders; briefing of stakeholders on project objectives, contents and activities; to get stakeholder perceptions and suggestions.

Data Analysis on Complicated Construction Data Sources: Vision, Research, and Recent Developments

Compared with construction data sources that are usually stored and analyzed in spreadsheets and single data tables, data sources with more complicated structures, such as text documents, site images, web pages, and project schedules have been less intensively studied due to additional challenges in data preparation, representation, and analysis. In this paper, our definition and vision for advanced data analysis addressing such challenges are presented, together with related research results from previous work, as well as our recent developments of data analysis on text-based, image-based, web-based, and network-based construction sources. It is shown in this paper that particular data preparation, representation, and analysis operations should be identified, and integrated with careful problem investigations and scientific validation measures in order to provide general frameworks in support of information search and knowledge discovery from such information-abundant data sources.

Unified modelling in support of organization design and change

The aim of this research is to provide a unified modelling-based method to help with the evaluation of organization design and change decisions. Relevant literature regarding model-driven organization design and change is described. This helps identify the requirements for a new modelling methodology. Such a methodology is developed and described. The three phases of the developed method include the following. First, the use of CIMOSA-based multi-perspective enterprise modelling to understand and capture the most enduring characteristics of process-oriented organizations and externalize various types of requirement knowledge about any target organization. Second, the use of causal loop diagrams to identify dynamic causal impacts and effects related to the issues and constraints on the organization under study. Third, the use of simulation modelling to quantify the effects of each issue in terms of organizational performance. The design and case study application of a unified modelling method based on CIMOSA (computer integrated manufacturing open systems architecture) enterprise modelling, causal loop diagrams, and simulation modelling, is explored to illustrate its potential to support systematic organization design and change. Further application of the proposed methodology in various company and industry sectors, especially in manufacturing sectors, would be helpful to illustrate complementary uses and relative benefits and drawbacks of the methodology in different types of organization. The proposed unified modelling-based method provides a systematic way of enabling key aspects of organization design and change. The case company, its relevant data, and developed models help to explore and validate the proposed method. The application of CIMOSA-based unified modelling method and integrated application of these three modelling techniques within a single solution space constitutes an advance on previous best practice. Also, the purpose and application domain of the proposed method offers an addition to knowledge. © IMechE 2009.

FBS Linkage ontology and technique to support engineering change management

© 2014, Springer-Verlag London. Engineering changes are essential for any product development, and their management has become a crucial discipline. Research in engineering change management has brought about some methods and tools to support dealing with changes. This work extends the change prediction method through incorporation of a function–behaviour–structure (FBS) scheme. These additional levels of detail provide the rationales for change propagation and allow a more proactive management of changes. First, we develop the ontology of this method based on a comprehensive comparison of three seminal functional reasoning schemes. Then, we demonstrate the FBS Linkage technique by applying it to a diesel engine. Finally, we evaluate the method.

An application of the analytic hierarchy process and fuzzy logic inference in a decision support system for forage selection

Forage selection plays a prominent role in the process of returning cultivated lands back into grasslands. The conventional method of selecting forage species can only provide attempts for problem-solving without considering the relationships among the decision factors globally. Therefore, this study is dedicated to developing a decision support system to help farmers correctly select suitable forage species for the target sites. After collecting data through a field study, we developed this decision support system. It consists of three steps: (1) the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), (2) weights determination, and (3) decision making. In the first step, six factors influencing forage growth were selected by reviewing the related references and by interviewing experts. Then a fuzzy matrix was devised to determine the weight of each factor in the second step. Finally, a gradual alternative decision support system was created to help farmers choose suitable forage species for their lands in the third step. The results showed that the AHP and fuzzy logic are useful for forage selection decision making, and the proposed system can provide accurate results in a certain area (Gansu Province) of China.

The use of podcasts to enhance research-teaching linkages in undergraduate nursing students.

An understanding of research is important to enable nurses to provide evidencebasedcare. However, undergraduate nursing students often find research a challenging subject. The purpose of this paper is to present an evaluation of the introduction of podcasts in an undergraduate research module to enhance research teaching linkages between the theoretical content and research in practice and improve the level of student support offered in a blended learning environment. Two cohorts of students (n=228 and n=233) were given access to a series of 5 “guest speaker” podcasts made up of presentations and interviews with research experts within Edinburgh Napier. These staff would not normally have contact with students on this module, but through the podcasts were able to share their research expertise and methods with our learners. The main positive results of the podcasts suggest the increased understanding achieved by students due to the multi-modal delivery approach, a more personal student/tutor relationship leading to greater engagement, and the effective use of materials for revision and consolidation purposes. Negative effects of the podcasts centred around problems with the technology, most often difficulty in downloading and accessing the material. This paper contributes to the emerging knowledge base of podcasting in nurse education by demonstrating how podcasts can be used to enhance research-teaching linkages and raises the question of why students do not exploit the opportunities for mobile learning.