bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Exceling Hse Professional Development Using An Hse Online University
Authors: Breitsprecher K. , Worley L. A.
Published: March 2016

A competent workforce is critical for conducting safe operations and preventing incidents. However, during an economic or industry downturn, there is a tendency to limit the focus on training and stifle the growth of competency programs to reduce costs. These reductions typically have a greater impact on support-role employees such as HSE. Yet, the role of advising and supporting the organization in critical HSE matters falls to the HSE employees. For an organization to remain focused during these challenging periods, it is absolutely essential for HSE professionals at all levels of experience to excel in HSE technical and behavioral aspects.

These external organizational challenges as well as fast-paced innovations in the industry have increased the need to accelerate the development of employees. To keep up with these advances and challenges, competencies of HSE employees need to be accelerated as well. Therefore, innovative training strategies are needed to address cost reductions, excel professional development, and competencies of HSE employees.

This paper describes the development and implementation of a virtual, customizable, and self-paced professional development strategy targeted for HSE employees. The program advances the proficiency of HSE employees by accelerating the development of HSE technical and behavioral competencies. It is designed to ‘excel the HSE professional', resulting in the HSE employee being competent, credible, and a critical business partner to the organization. Preliminary results of the program implementation are highly successful. In addition to successful analytics such as employee participation and a high pass rate, participant testimonials speak to the success and benefit of the program.

Providing an engaging professional development strategy for HSE employees has benefits for the organization and the employee. Participating in the program enhances the HSE employee's motivation, sense of purpose, and dedication to the organization. In addition, the organization excels the competencies of the HSE function, making HSE employees stronger business partners to the organization. Competent HSE employees are credible, able to engage with the organization and provide pertinent HSE advice and support. A competent and driven HSE function that is established as a critical business partner in the organization is important at the best of times, but even more so during economic challenges when maintaining HSE focus is vital.
Health Impact Assessment: Moving From Assessment To Decision Making And Management
Authors: Erickson Heidi S. , Barron Tania , Hunicke Rachel , Drinkwater Ashley , Beck Jacqui
Published: March 2016

SCOPE

While there is a growing body of literature on how to conduct health impact assessments (HIAs) most of the guidance to date focuses on how to conduct health baselines and identify potential impacts. Little information is reported on how to more effectively use assessment results to make practical business decisions at the site level that will help to safeguard community health and manage project risk.

METHOD

The opinion of interdisciplinary HIA practitioners in the oil and gas and extractive sectors were surveyed with the intent of taking the pulse of the HIA community as to the perceived current challenges and opportunities for HIA results to contribute to informing business decisions, managing business decisions, and safeguarding the health of communities within the zone of influence.

RESULTS

Overall, survey respondents had a favorable perspective on the state of HIA based on the surveyed categories. Over half of respondents indicated they perceived HIAs were moving from impact assessment to decision making and management, specifically: 1) HIA mitigations are included in site-wide management plans, 2) HIA mitigations are effective, 3) HIA mitigations were effective at addressing the impact they were meant to manage, and 4) HIA mitigations are responsive to community concerns. Surveyed participants provided potential future steps that might be considered to improve implementation and effectiveness of HIA results at supporting project decision making and managing project risk.

NOVEL/ADDITIVE INFORMATION

This paper represents an initial step to better understand what results private sector HIAs are producing and how these results are being used by the business by presenting an interdisciplinary perspective on the current perceived state of HIA and practical steps to help HIA results become more implementable and effective at supporting project decision making. Thus, supporting a future shift in focus in the field of HIAs from assessment of potentially significant health impacts to improved business decision making and implementation of mitigation solutions to further help safeguard the health of communities and manage project risk.
Adapting Your Assurance Program to Maximize Value in Challenging Times
Authors: Peduzzi Matthew B. , Kuykendall Dina , Brooke-Lander Melanie
Published: March 2016

With the most recent downturn in our industry, companies are under more pressure than ever to find new and better ways to control both their costs and HSE risks. As a result, we must adapt our HSE assurance programs to be most efficient and effective in these challenging times.

Assurance programs that are flexible in their approach and content can actually improve risk management and lower overall costs at the same time. When designed with a more locally owned approach, it can serve as a catalyst to push an already mature HSE management system and culture closer to an incident free workplace.

Flexibility is typically absent from most assurance programs, because they are intentionally designed to align with rigid financial and compliance assurance models. However, where mature HSE management systems already exist, flexibility can readily be incorporated without losing any ground on risk assurance. And, there are multiple ways to achieve flexibility. A cornerstone of our approach is a robust self-assessment process. These self-assessments are co-owned by operations and HSE, and drive accountability and ownership of the process, results and the improvements that follow. With this model, fewer enterprise level (corporate) HSE Management System audits are required. The use of self-assessments more widely across the company results in better overall coverage with less corporate involvement and lower costs. Another technique was to build in the identification of key learnings and an assessment of performance against HSE fundamentals to promote self-discovery of the obstacles standing in the way of incident free operations. Focusing on performance against the fundamentals of HSE allows an operation to look forward, instead of at what's already been done, and engages employees in a meaningful way. This focus on engaging employees and truly understanding how they do their work, provides a higher level of assurance that they are fully recognizing hazards and effectively controlling their risk.

Still another strategy was to increase the breadth and scope of people involved in the audit and risk management processes. Operational business leaders participate in the audit teams, which enhances their HSE acumen and elevates their overall commitment and involvement in HSE. It also provides a natural pathway to share best practices and lessons learned. A multi-faceted assurance program can also integrate quality, consolidate external ISO certifications, and incorporate specialty disciplines such as radiation and focus areas like process safety. Such an integrated but flexible approach eliminates redundancy, maximizes efficiency, and moves the business towards a higher level of operational excellence.

This paper will explain how these concepts were incorporated, describe how a flexible HSE assurance model works, and illustrate specific examples of what has been achieved through our enhanced program.
Impacting Organizational and Safety Performance by Developing a HSE Staff Leadership Program: A Colombian Case Study
Authors: Correa F. , Aranguren L. Varon , Mesa A.
Published: March 2016

The present paper was written to show the implementation and evaluation of a HSE's leadership case study at Mansarovar Energy Colombia Ltd (hereinafter MECL). MECL is a joint venture of two state companies, SINOPEC from China and ONGC from India. HSE programs are designed to cause a transformation process that leads to enhance employee's life skills as part of the HSE area and their workforce readiness. The process should also impact the effectiveness and engagement of the HSE staff.

MECL believes that company values and improvements on the professionals' behaviours can be effectively developed through the combination of academic programs and activities. A lack of cooperation between the HSE's areas reduces the know-how accumulation and sharing and results in a failure to achieve individual, area, and/or corporate goals, as is stated on the balanced scorecard.

For this case study, the HSE leadership program was based on the integration of the principles in effective leadership, into various aspects of day to day company practices, especially for the professionals that work at the oil field.

The implementation process was facilitated by the following pillars: The training and professional development of all HSE staff in leadership principles.The integration of leadership concepts by HSE professionals into HSE meetings, the provision of HSE training material, HSE 24/7 conversations, and a wide range of activities developed with the purpose of fostering the understanding, deployment, and application of these principles into the workers.The maintenance of project's goals, through coaching and group work sessionsThe evaluation of program effectiveness via HR (human resources) and HSE indicators.

The HSE leadership program has led to a world class HSE's culture at MECL. Indicators such as TRIR (Total Recordable Injury Rate), LTIF (Lost Time Injury Frequency) and Severity have remained below the values reported by OGPi for 2013.

In addition, Vehicle Index Frequency (VIF) and spill events stay under control with low values. The results of "Great Place to Work Survey" have increased from 61.5 to 72.4 out of 100 points for the period 2012-2014, which indicates an improved synergy, leadership and alignment with common goals at MECL.
Peer Health Educators Can Promote Worksite and Community Health
Authors: Shannon A. , De La Torre E. , Davis-Street J. , Okala C. , Maulidarman Maulidarman
Published: March 2016

Problem Statement

Chronic diseases, communicable and non-communicable, can have a serious impact on the workforce in many global locations and cause more than 60% of all deaths globally (more than 80% of which are in low- and middle-income countries) (Bloom et al., 2011). They are a major cause of poverty, a barrier to economic development, and a neglected global emergency. One means of addressing health promotion and leveraging social support is by mobilizing the workforce itself through peer-based education programs.

Objectives and Scope of Study

This paper will demonstrate how a peer health educator model can be used to facilitate message delivery and adoption of new health behaviors in two business settings in the oil and gas industry – Nigeria and Indonesia. The goal of this model is to reach a greater portion of the Company workforce and enable the ability to improve workforce and community health.

Method

Evidence-based peer health education models will be implemented and evaluated in two locations. These models will then be refined to provide a fit for purpose model than can be deployed in other locations.

Results and Observations

Variables including age, gender, race, religion, socioeconomic status, and life experience may be used by target audiences to determine perceptions of similarity and trust. PHEs are committed employees who volunteer to engage the target audience around various but well defined health issues. Recruiting and training PHEs from the workforce at a ratio of 1:20, and providing resources to guide discussions around health and healthy behaviors has increased the reach of workforce health promotion compared to traditional means. Additionally, through interpersonal exchanges within a social network, workforce members are influenced and supported in their health behavior choices. The PHEs also serve as an easily accessible referral source for workforce members who require additional information.

Conclusions

In the energy industry operations range from remote to office-based and access to reliable health information varies, PHEs can serve as credible health information sources, providers of social support and a means for disseminating important health information.

Applications

Prevention-focused health and wellness programs can have a long term positive impact on workforce and community health in the diverse settings that energy companies operate.

Innovations or Technical Contributions

This paper leverages a public health construct and applies it improve workforce and community health.
The effects of conservation messaging on retail water deliveries
Authors: Hollis Michael
Published: March 2016

In 2014 the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California spent $5.5 million on a large scale public outreach campaign designed to foster public awareness about the California drought and to promote water conservation. This paper estimates the water savings associated with that effort.
Experiences of Budapest Waterworks with state, municipal ownership structures and with the involvement of private funding: case study of Budapest Waterworks
Authors: Bencze T. , Mindak E.
Published: March 2016

In Central Europe privatization happened in the era of general political and economic transformation. The importance of privatisation is understandable given the specificity of the formerly planned economies where almost all productive assets were in the possession or under tight control of the state. Privatisation in Central and Eastern Europe (CCE) countries is unique; the number of assets that changed owners is huge and touched upon almost all sectors of economy. After several-decade-long socialist planned economy type of operations and after the collapse of the socialist regime, Budapest Waterworks was operated in Public Private Partnership (PPE) scheme by two professional investors (SUEZ Environment, and RWE Aqua GmbH). Public private partnership brought many benefits, namely the cross transfer of public and private sector skills leading to efficiency improvements and development. However, change of the legislative environment, the long term nature of the contract, lack of proper contract management and the evolution of different governmental strategies all lead to the early termination of contract. In our case study, we aim to present the various ownership structures with impact on the financing needs and tariff setting mechanism as well as the last decades’ results, effects on the present operations highlighting the efficiency improvement gained in the field of management of non revenue water, reorganisation of billing and receivables and process reengineering.
Rule-based rain gauge network design in urban areas aided by spatial kernel density
Authors: Jing Changfeng , Yu Jianjun , Dai Peipei , Wei Haiyang , Du Mingyi
Published: March 2016

An algorithm of rule-based rain gauge network design in urban areas was proposed in this study. We summarized three general criteria to select the sites of rain gauges, including: (i) installment in open space; (ii) priority consideration of important regions and even distribution; and (iii) keep strong signal and avoid weak interference. Aided by spatial kernel density, the candidate locations were determined through clustering the residential buildings at first. Secondly, the overlay and buffer spatial analyses were carried out to optimize the candidate sites to avoid signal interference. Finally, the quality of site location was evaluated by cross-validation in using observed historical rainfall and ranked by mean square error for final consideration. A study case in Xicheng district, Beijing, China was selected to demonstrate the proposed method. The result showed that it could be well applied in urban areas with the capability of considering complex urban features through defining rules. It thus could provide scientific evidence for decision making in rain gauge site selection.
New paradigms in urban water management for conservation and sustainability
Authors: Capodaglio Andrea G. , Ghilardi Paolo , Boguniewicz-Zablocka Joanna
Published: March 2016

In order to achieve a sustainable degree of water resources usage, new paradigms in urbanized basins planning must be adopted. Worldwide urbanized areas total population has overcome in 2010, its rural counterpart. While urbanization can be a powerful driver of sustainable development, as the higher population density enables governments to more easily deliver essential infrastructure and services in urban areas at relatively low cost per capita, these benefits do not materialize automatically and inevitably. Water bodies are usually severely hit and impaired by poorly planned urbanization. Old water resources planning paradigms must be abandoned and new ones, which include the connection of ‘green cities’ and their infrastructure with new modes of drainage and landscape planning and improved consideration of receiving waters, ought to be adopted. These must not only be environmentally and ecologically sound, but also functionally and aesthetically attractive to the public. New eco-cities shall no longer rely on excessive water volumes withdrawn from often distant surface and groundwater sources, with a once-only use of the resource, and large water losses due to leaks and evapotranspiration. Long-distance transfer of wastewater and high energy usage and emissions for its treatment should be avoided by distributed and decentralized integrated water/wastewater management. Effluent-domination shall no longer be a characteristic of urbanized river basins. The paper examines some of the paradigms that have been proposed for improving integrated water resources management in urban basins and illustrates some recent examples whether already implemented or still at the proposal stage.
A new approach for studying the operation of a secondary sedimentation tank
Authors: Pezza Ing. Lucio
Published: March 2016

A new theory regarding the behavior of activated sludge in a sedimentation tank has been developed, based on the principles of momentum preservation in suspended sludge, the ratio between drag and gravity, and the potential energy of the sludge blanket. Field tests enabled the determination of new criteria for the functioning of secondary sedimentation tanks complying with this new theory.
Community-based rainwater harvesting (CB-RWH) to supply drinking water in developing countries: lessons learned from case studies in Africa and Asia
Authors: Kim Yongkyun , Han Mooyoung , Kabubi Julius , Sohn Hong-Gyoo , Nguyen Duc-Canh
Published: March 2016

This paper uses pragmatic findings and lessons learned from three case studies to deduce that community-based rainwater harvesting (CB-RWH) is an innovative solution to develop sustainable drinking water supply systems in developing countries, especially in Africa and Asia. Taking advantage of traditional community-based activities in African and Asian villages, the water supply system can be significantly improved with the introduction and implementation of CB-RWH systems. Furthermore, sustainable, safe water sources in Africa and Asia can be brought to fruition when transparent self-regulatory management systems are supported through comprehensive design and maintenance guidelines and funded from private and public sources. To this end, the potential for CB-RWH to lead toward greater resilience and sustainability was investigated. Based on case studies of three successful demonstration projects in Africa and Asia, this paper identifies 14 innovative solutions resolving technical, economic, and social problems which have been barriers preventing the wide implementation of CB-RWH in developing countries, especially in Africa and Asia. It also recommends strategies to promote CB-RWH in African and Asian villages, which include the following: implementation of more pilot projects at local levels; promotion of and education in rainwater preservation and harvesting at all levels of the education system; and innovation in micro-funding systems in cooperation with corporate social responsibility activities. These strategies will promote the implementation of CB-RWH as a mainstream and high-priority technique for national, regional, and global water strategies.
Study of different carbon materials for their use as bioanodes in microbial fuel cells
Authors: González-Nava Catalina , Godínez Luis A. , Chávez Abraham U. , Cercado Bibiana , Arriaga Luis G. , Rodríguez-Valadez Francisco J.
Published: March 2016

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are capable of removing the organic matter contained in water while generating a certain amount of electrical power at the same time. One of the most important aspects in the operation of MFCs is the formation of biofilms on the anode. Here, we report the characterization of different carbon electrodes and biofilm using a rapid and easy methodology for the growth of biofilms. The biofilms were developed and generated a voltage in less than 4 days, obtaining a maximum of 0.3 V in the cells. Scanning electron microscopy images revealed that growth of the biofilm was only on the surface of the electrode, and consequently both carbon cloth Electrochem and carbon cloth Roe materials showed a greater quantity of volatile solids on the surface of the anode and power density. The results suggested that the best support was carbon cloth Electrochem because it generated a power density of 13.4 mW/m2 and required only a few hours for the formation of the biofilm.
Design and Application of Removable Plugging Slurry for Fractured Carbonate Reservoir
Authors: Huang Weian , Wang Zaiming , Qiu Zhengsong , Hu Zhongzhi , Zhong Hanyi , Liu Yunfeng , Li Zhaochuan
Published: March 2016

To meet the requirements of leakage stopping and reservoir protection at the same time in fractured formation, the removable plugging slurries with high temperature tolerance were designed, evaluated and applied in the field successfully. Analysis shows that the fibre materials can deposit onto crack surface, bridge and seal fractures quickly and the selected particles can bridge in throat near wellbore. The comprehensive grading of filling particles was determined from the point of view of gradient filling. The designed plugging slurries KJD155 and KJD200 with higher total dissolution rates sealed 1 mm, 2 mm, 3 mm, and 4 mm crack blocks effectively at room temperature and high temperature (KJD155 at 155 °C; KJD200 at 200 °C) respectively. Their pressure bearing ability of them was up to 5 MPa under bottom hole conditions, which was beneficial to the next operation. Field application of the designed plugging slurries was carried out successfully and showed that they were removable and did smaller damage to reservoir.
Predicting the Oil Well Production Based on Multi Expression Programming
Authors: Ma Xin , Liu Zhi-bin
Published: March 2016

Predicting the oil well production is very important and also quite a complex mission for the petroleum engineering. Due to its complexity, the previous empirical methods could not perform well for different kind of wells, and intelligent methods are applied to solve this problem. In this paper the multi expression programming (MEP) method has been employed to build the prediction model for oil well production, combined with the phase space reconstruction technique. The MEP has shown a better performance than the back propagation networks, gene expression programming method and the Arps decline model in the experiments, and it has also been shown that the optimal state of the MEP could be easily obtained, which could overcome the over-fitting.
Cholinesterase, tyrosinase inhibitory and antioxidant potential of randomly selected Umbelliferous plant species and chromatographic profile of Heracleum platytaenium Boiss. and Angelica sylvestris L. var. sylvestris
Authors: Orhan Ilkay , Tosun Fatma , Skalicka-Woźniak Krystyna
Published: March 2016

Neurobiological activity of the methanol extracts of thirteen Umbelliferae
(Apiaceae) plants was tested against acetylcholinesterase (AChE),
butyrylcholinesterase (BChE), and tyrosinase (TYR) using high-throughput
screening technique. Although the extracts displayed none to low profile of
inhibition against enzymes, the highest cholinesterase inhibition was
observed with Heracleum platytaenium (32.52 ? 3.27 % for AChE and 46.16 ?
1.42 % for BChE) at 100 ?g mL-1. Since neurodegeneration is linked to
oxidative damage, antioxidant potential of the extracts was searched through
radical scavenging, metal-chelating capacity, and reducing power experiments
and exerted modest levels of activity varying according to the method. The
extracts had a better ability to scavenge nitric oxide radical (19.47 ? 2.09
% to 54.91 ? 1.98 %). Since these species are known to be rich in coumarins,
our quantitative high-performance liquid chroatography (HPLC) analysis
indicated presence of xanthotoxin, angelicin, isopimpinellin, bergapten, and
pimpinellin in Heracleum platytaenium and angelicin and imperatorin in
Angelica sylvestris var. sylvestris.
Observations and light curve solutions of four ultrashort-period binaries
Authors: Kjurkchieva D. , Popov V. , Vasileva D. , Petrov N.
Published: March 2016

The paper presents light curve solutions of our observations of four new
ultrashort-period eclipsing binaries with MS components. Two of them have
periods almost at the upper limit (0.22 days) of the ultrashort-period
binaries, while the periods of around 0.18 days of CSS J171508.5+350658 and
CSS J214633.8+120016 are amongst the shortest known orbital periods. CSS
J171410.0+ 445850, CSS J214633.8+120016 and CSS J224326.0+154532 are
over contact binaries with fill out factors around 0.25 while CSS
J171508.5+350658 is a semidetached system. The two targets with shortest
periods consist of M dwarfs.
Quantification of mast cells in different stages of periodontal disease
Authors: Marjanovic Dragan , Andjelkovic Zlatibor , Brkic Zlata , Videnovic Goran , Sehalic Meliha , Matvjenko Vladimir , Lestarevic Snezana , Djordjevic Nadica
Published: March 2016

Background/Aim. Mast cells are mononuclear cells originating from bone
marrow. They produce various biologically active substances, which allow them
to actively participate in immune and inflammatory processes associated with
periodontal disease. The study focused on distribution and density of mast
cells in healthy gingiva as well as in different stages of periodontal
disease. Methods. The material used for this purpose was gingival biopsies
taken from 96 patients classified into 4 groups: healthy gingiva, gingivitis,
initial and severe periodontal disease. Toluidine blue staining according to
Spicer was utilized for identifying mast cells. Results. Basing on our study,
the density of mast cells in the gingival tissue increases with the
progression of the infection, which means they are more numerous in
gingivitis compared to healthy gingiva, as well as in periodontal disease
compared to gingivitis. Conclusion. Increase in the number of mast cells in
the infected gingiva can be correlated with an increased influx of
inflammatory cells from blood circulation into the gingival stroma, as well
as with the collagen lysis, since these cells produce substances with
collagenolytic potential. Based on the distribution of mast cells, it could
be concluded that in the evolution of periodontal disease there are
significant dynamic alterations in migration and localization of these cells.
A mixed integer linear programming formulation for low discrepancy consecutive k-sums permutation problem
Authors: Bogdanovic Milena , Maksimovic Zoran , Simic Ana , Milosevic Jelisavka
Published: March 2016

In this paper, low discrepancy consecutive k-sums permutation problem is
considered. A mixed integer linear programing (MILP) formulation with a
moderate number of variables and constraints is proposed. The correctness
proof shows that the proposed formulation is equivalent to the basic
definition of low discrepancy consecutive k-sums permutation problem.
Computational results, obtained on standard CPLEX solver, give 88 new exact
values, which clearly show the usefulness of the proposed MILP formulation.
Methylglyoxal-Induced Endothelial Cell Loss and Inflammation Contribute to the Development of Diabetic Cardiomyopathy
Authors: Vulesevic Branka , McNeill Brian , Giacco Ferdinando , Maeda Kay , Blackburn Nick J.R. , Brownlee Michael , Milne Ross W. , Suuronen Erik J.
Published: March 2016

The mechanisms for the development of diabetic cardiomyopathy remain largely unknown. Methylglyoxal (MG) can accumulate and promote inflammation and vascular damage in diabetes. We examined if overexpression of the MG-metabolizing enzyme glyoxalase 1 (GLO1) in macrophages and the vasculature could reduce MG-induced inflammation and prevent ventricular dysfunction in diabetes. Hyperglycemia increased circulating inflammatory markers in wild-type (WT) but not in GLO1-overexpressing mice. Endothelial cell number was reduced in WT-diabetic hearts compared with nondiabetic controls, whereas GLO1 overexpression preserved capillary density. Neuregulin production, endothelial nitric oxide synthase dimerization, and Bcl-2 expression in endothelial cells was maintained in the hearts of GLO1-diabetic mice and corresponded to less myocardial cell death compared with the WT-diabetic group. Lower receptor for advanced glycation end products and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) levels were also observed in GLO1-diabetic versus WT-diabetic mice. Over a period of 8 weeks of hyperglycemia, GLO1 overexpression delayed and limited the loss of cardiac function. In vitro, MG and TNF-α were shown to synergize in promoting endothelial cell death, which was associated with increased angiopoietin 2 expression and reduced Bcl-2 expression. These results suggest that MG in diabetes increases inflammation, leading to endothelial cell loss. This contributes to the development of diabetic cardiomyopathy and identifies MG-induced endothelial inflammation as a target for therapy.
Antiobesity Action of ACAM by Modulating the Dynamics of Cell Adhesion and Actin Polymerization in Adipocytes
Authors: Murakami Kazutoshi , Eguchi Jun , Hida Kazuyuki , Nakatsuka Atsuko , Katayama Akihiro , Sakurai Miwa , Choshi Haruki , Furutani Masumi , Ogawa Daisuke , Takei Kohji , Otsuka Fumio , Wada Jun
Published: March 2016

Coxsackie virus and adenovirus receptor-like membrane protein (CLMP) was identified as the tight junction–associated transmembrane protein of epithelial cells with homophilic binding activities. CLMP is also recognized as adipocyte adhesion molecule (ACAM), and it is upregulated in mature adipocytes in rodents and humans with obesity. Here, we present that aP2 promoter–driven ACAM transgenic mice are protected from obesity and diabetes with the prominent reduction of adipose tissue mass and smaller size of adipocytes. ACAM is abundantly expressed on plasma membrane of mature adipocytes and associated with formation of phalloidin-positive polymerized form of cortical actin (F-actin). By electron microscopy, the structure of zonula adherens with an intercellular space of ∼10–20 nm was observed with strict parallelism of the adjoining cell membranes over distances of 1–20 μm, where ACAM and γ-actin are abundantly expressed. The formation of zonula adherens may increase the mechanical strength, inhibit the adipocyte hypertrophy, and improve the insulin sensitivity.
Towards Interoperable Network Ontologies for the Digital Humanities
Authors: Langmead Alison , Otis Jessica M. , Warren Christopher N. , Weingart Scott B. , Zilinksi Lisa D.
Published: March 2016

Scholars have long been interested in networks. Networks of scholarly exchange, trade, kinship, and patronage are some of the many such longstanding subjects of study. Recent and ongoing digital humanities projects are now considering networks with fresh approaches and increasingly complex datasets. At the heart of these digital projects are ‘network ontologies’ — functional data models for distilling the complicated, messy connections between historical people, objects, and places. Although scholars creating network ontologies necessarily focus on different types of content, if these networks are to form a coherent body of scholarship in the future, we must work towards the creation interoperable ontological structures, rather than yet another set of competing standards.

Here we examine the methodological considerations behind designing such interoperable ontologies, focusing primarily on the example of Early Modern historical networks. We argue that it would be infeasible to adopt a single ontological standard for all possible digital humanities projects; flexibility is essential to accommodate all subjects and objects of humanistic enquiry, from the micro-level to the longue-durée. However, we believe it possible to establish shared practices to structure these network ontologies on an ongoing basis in order to ensure their long-term interoperability.
Modeling the Humanities: Data Lessons from the World of Education
Authors: Lewis Armanda
Published: March 2016

This article will explore advances in the field of educational data modeling that have implications for modeling humanistic data. Traditional humanistic inquiry, bolstered by micro-analyses conducted by the scholar, has made way for machine-assisted methods that parse and quantify large amounts of qualitative data to reveal possible trends and focus more analogue approaches. At best, this play between human- and machine-directed approaches can lead to more profound explorations of texts. In this exploration of qualitative-quantitative methodologies that leverage human agency and machine-directed techniques, I suggest a mixed methods approach for dealing with the humanities. Specifically, this discussion will analyze the current methodological tensions related to Educational Data Mining and Learning Analytics to reveal best practices for modeling humanistic data.

Principle questions of interest in this essay include: What defines literary “big” data? How can we define DH modeling and where does it depart from traditional data modeling? What role does machine-based modeling have in the context of the scholarly close read? What can we learn from educational data modeling practices that are in the midst of resolving tensions between human-machine patterning?
Jon Silkin as Anthologist, Editor, and Translator
Authors: Munday Jeremy
Published: March 2016

This article draws on the papers of Jon Silkin (1930–1997) held in the Brotherton Library, University of Leeds, to analyse Silkin's crucial yet neglected role as a commissioner, editor, and translator of modern poetry. Particular attention is given to his work on anthologies of modern Hebrew and Japanese poetry, which remained uncompleted on his death. Silkin closely collaborated with a range of local poets and translators, relying on them as expert informants for the selection of texts and to provide him with literals. This article discusses the complex powerplays that result when the various actors clash over their expectations of such anthologies.
Deconstructing the non-episodic readings of Spanish deverbal adjectives
Authors: Fábregas Antonio
Published: March 2016

The interpretation of an eventuality embedded in a deverbal adjective is typically non-episodic; specifically it is dispositional, habitual or modal. This article examines these readings based on a case study of three productive adjectivalizing suffixes in Spanish. It is proposed that the same structure can underlie these three non-episodic readings. Which is selected in each case is a function of different pieces of linguistic information, including the causal link between subject and eventuality, and the status of external circumstances relevant for the situation. This approach suggests an underspecification view of polysemy, makes it possible to account for the range of non-episodic readings without using designated null aspectual operators, and provides a natural explanation of the asymmetries between these readings with respect to adjective-to-noun conversion and combination with animate nouns.
Are relational adjectives possible cross-linguistically? The case of Japanese
Authors: Nagano Akiko
Published: March 2016

Studying relational adjectives cross-linguistically, Bisetto (2010) raises the important issue of whether this type of derivation is possible across languages. In this paper, we will attempt to show that there is at least one language, Japanese, that does not possess derivational affixes for relational adjectives. All the living adjectivalizing suffixes in Japanese, -teki, -rasi(i), -ppo(i), and -chikku, derive qualitative adjectives. More significantly, we will also show that this dearth of derivational morphology is compensated for by the systematic use of genitive forms in Japanese. The set of functions mapped to specific derivational affixes in many European languages is systematically mapped to two types of modifiers, the genitive form [Noun + no] and the genitive form expanded by a marker reminiscent of combining forms [Noun + Marker + no].
Status and Perspectives of Multiferroic Magnetoelectric Composite Materials and Applications
Authors: Palneedi Haribabu , Annapureddy Venkateswarlu , Priya Shashank , Ryu Jungho
Published: March 2016

Multiferroic magnetoelectric (ME) composites are attractive materials for various electrically and magnetically cross-coupled devices. Many studies have been conducted on fundamental understanding, fabrication processes, and applications of ME composite material systems in the last four decades which has brought the technology closer to realization in practical devices. In this article, we present a review of ME composite materials and some notable potential applications based upon their properties. A brief summary is presented on the parameters that influence the performance of ME composites, their coupling structures, fabrications processes, characterization techniques, and perspectives on direct (magnetic to electric) and converse (electric to magnetic) ME devices. Overall, the research on ME composite systems has brought us closer to their deployment.
The Production Processes and Biological Effects of Intravenous Immunoglobulin
Authors: Barahona Afonso Ana , João Cristina
Published: March 2016

Immunoglobulin is a highly diverse autologous molecule able to influence immunity in different physiological and diseased situations. Its effect may be visible both in terms of development and function of B and T lymphocytes. Polyclonal immunoglobulin may be used as therapy in many diseases in different circumstances such as primary and secondary hypogammaglobulinemia, recurrent infections, polyneuropathies, cancer, after allogeneic transplantation in the presence of infections and/or GVHD. However, recent studies have broadened the possible uses of polyclonal immunoglobulin showing that it can stimulate certain sub-populations of T cells with effects on T cell proliferation, survival and function in situations of lymphopenia. These results present a novel and considerable impact of intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) treatment in situations of severe lymphopenia, a situation that can occur in cancer patients after chemo and radiotherapy treatments. In this review paper the established and experimental role of polyclonal immunoglobulin will be presented and discussed as well as the manufacturing processes involved in their production.
Maximizing Diversity in Biology and Beyond
Authors: Leinster Tom , Meckes Mark
Published: March 2016

Entropy, under a variety of names, has long been used as a measure of diversity in ecology, as well as in genetics, economics and other fields. There is a spectrum of viewpoints on diversity, indexed by a real parameter q giving greater or lesser importance to rare species. Leinster and Cobbold (2012) proposed a one-parameter family of diversity measures taking into account both this variation and the varying similarities between species. Because of this latter feature, diversity is not maximized by the uniform distribution on species. So it is natural to ask: which distributions maximize diversity, and what is its maximum value? In principle, both answers depend on q, but our main theorem is that neither does. Thus, there is a single distribution that maximizes diversity from all viewpoints simultaneously, and any list of species has an unambiguous maximum diversity value. Furthermore, the maximizing distribution(s) can be computed in finite time, and any distribution maximizing diversity from some particular viewpoint q > 0 actually maximizes diversity for all q. Although we phrase our results in ecological terms, they apply very widely, with applications in graph theory and metric geometry.
Two Universality Properties Associated with the Monkey Model of Zipf’s Law
Authors: Perline Richard , Perline Ron
Published: March 2016

The distribution of word probabilities in the monkey model of Zipf’s law is associated with two universality properties: (1) the exponent in the approximate power law approaches −1 as the alphabet size increases and the letter probabilities are specified as the spacings from a random division of the unit interval for any distribution with a bounded density function on [0,1] ; and (2), on a logarithmic scale the version of the model with a finite word length cutoff and unequal letter probabilities is approximately normally distributed in the part of the distribution away from the tails. The first property is proved using a remarkably general limit theorem from Shao and Hahn for the logarithm of sample spacings constructed on [0,1] and the second property follows from Anscombe’s central limit theorem for a random number of independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) random variables. The finite word length model leads to a hybrid Zipf-lognormal mixture distribution closely related to work in other areas.
Optimal Power Management Strategy for Energy Storage with Stochastic Loads
Authors: Pietrosanti Stefano , Holderbaum William , Becerra Victor
Published: March 2016

In this paper, a power management strategy (PMS) has been developed for the control of energy storage in a system subjected to loads of random duration. The PMS minimises the costs associated with the energy consumption of specific systems powered by a primary energy source and equipped with energy storage, under the assumption that the statistical distribution of load durations is known. By including the variability of the load in the cost function, it was possible to define the optimality criteria for the power flow of the storage. Numerical calculations have been performed obtaining the control strategies associated with the global minimum in energy costs, for a wide range of initial conditions of the system. The results of the calculations have been tested on a MATLAB/Simulink model of a rubber tyre gantry (RTG) crane equipped with a flywheel energy storage system (FESS) and subjected to a test cycle, which corresponds to the real operation of a crane in the Port of Felixstowe. The results of the model show increased energy savings and reduced peak power demand with respect to existing control strategies, indicating considerable potential savings for port operators in terms of energy and maintenance costs.
A New Robust Decoupled Control of the Stator Active and Reactive Currents for Grid-Connected Doubly-Fed Induction Generators
Authors: Ataji Ahmad , Miura Yushi , Ise Toshifumi , Tanaka Hiroki
Published: March 2016

This paper addresses the grid-connected variable speed doubly-fed induction generator, and proposes a new decoupled control to replace the conventional decoupled active and reactive powers (P-Q) control. The proposed decoupled control is based on decoupling the stator active and reactive currents, in contrast with the conventional decoupled P-Q control, which is based on decoupling the stator active and reactive powers by forcing the stator d- or q-voltage to zero. The proposed decoupled control has all the advantages of the conventional decoupled P-Q control such as constant switching frequency and robustness against slip angle inaccuracy, and it has some additional advantages: The proposed control requires less machine parameters; for the controller design, it requires the stator-to-rotor turns ratio only; for the online calculation, it does not requires any machine parameter. The proposed decoupled control is more flexible and robust since the control is independent of the grid voltage orientation. It is robust against variation in the grid voltage amplitude. Several experiments are carried out using a 1.1 kW doubly-fed induction generator (DFIG), and the results support the proposed decoupled control and demonstrate some of its advantages.
Effect of Granule Sizes on Acoustic Properties of Protein-Based Silica Aerogel Composites via Novel Inferential Transmission Loss Method
Authors: Sachithanadam Mahesh , Joshi Sunil
Published: March 2016

The acoustic properties of the silica aerogel (SA) granules of various sizes from 0.50 to 3.35 mm, distributed into six groups of nominal sizes and measured via a two-microphone impedance tube, are presented. The absorption coefficients of the SA granules were evaluated at ultra- to super-low frequency range from 50–1600 Hz. It was observed that nominal SA granules with sizes of 1.2 mm (AG2) and 1.7 mm (AG3) displayed the best absorption coefficients. When tested with granules filled at 5 cm depth, AG2 and AG3 absorption coefficients peaked at 980 Hz with values of 0.86 and 0.81, respectively. A novel approach to measure transmission loss (TL) by using “inferential” principle is presented. This novel method, named “Inferential Transmission Loss Method” (InTLM), revealed that the average TL, TLavg for both AG2 and AG3 SA granules was 14.83 dB and 15.35 dB, respectively. Gelatin silica aerogels doped with sodium dodecyl sulfate (GSA–SDS) composites comprising of 1.2 mm (GSA–AG2) and 1.7 mm (GSA–AG3) granules of various configurations were fabricated and evaluated for absorption coefficients and TL with known traditional acoustic panels. The results showed that GSA–AG3 had a better absorption coefficient over other configurations for the same corresponding thickness reaching the peak of 0.6 from 1300 to 1450 Hz with TLavg between 10.7 and 20.3 decibels. The four-layered GSA–AG2 and GSA–AG3 composites showed exceptionally high absorption from 500 to 800 Hz suitable for narrow band applications. Lastly, the “InTLM” was matched with the sound meter measurements, with high accuracy between 0.3 and 3.2 dB for low-frequency testing (50–1600 Hz).
Effects of Sachet Water Consumption on Exposure to Microbe-Contaminated Drinking Water: Household Survey Evidence from Ghana
Authors: Wright Jim , Dzodzomenyo Mawuli , Wardrop Nicola , Johnston Richard , Hill Allan , Aryeetey Genevieve , Adanu Richard
Published: March 2016

There remain few nationally representative studies of drinking water quality at the point of consumption in developing countries. This study aimed to examine factors associated with E. coli contamination in Ghana. It drew on a nationally representative household survey, the 2012−2013 Living Standards Survey 6, which incorporated a novel water quality module. E. coli contamination in 3096 point-of-consumption samples was examined using multinomial regression. Surface water use was the strongest risk factor for high E. coli contamination (relative risk ratio (RRR) = 32.3, p < 0.001), whilst packaged (sachet or bottled) water use had the greatest protective effect (RRR = 0.06, p < 0.001), compared to water piped to premises. E. coli contamination followed plausible patterns with digit preference (tendency to report values ending in zero) in bacteria counts. The analysis suggests packaged drinking water use provides some protection against point-of-consumption E. coli contamination and may therefore benefit public health. It also suggests viable water quality data can be collected alongside household surveys, but field protocols require further revision.