Development of an operational fitness test for the Royal Air Force

Since 2002, the Royal Air Force (RAF) has been working towards developing role-related physical tests for use as an operational fitness test (OFT). The purpose of this study was to establish reliability of the OFT (comprising four tests), investigate gym-based tests as predictors of performance and establish performance standards. Fifty-eight RAF personnel performed the OFT on three occasions. A separate cohort carried out fitness and anthropometric tests before performing the OFT, by way of establishing performance predictors. Documented evidence and views of an expert panel were used to determine OFT standards. Reliability ranged from moderate to good for three tests, with one test (Dig) showing poor reliability. The 95% limits of agreement for the prediction models ranged from good to poor (6.7-34.2%). The prediction models were not sufficiently accurate to estimate confidently OFT performance, but could be used as a guide to quantify likely outcome and training needs.     

Regional aboveground forest biomass using airborne and spaceborne LiDAR in Québec

Aboveground dry biomass was estimated for the 1.3 M km² forested area south of the treeline in the eastern Canadian province of Québec by combining data from an airborne and spaceborne LiDAR, a Landsat ETM+ land cover map, a Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission (SRTM) digital elevation model, ground inventory plots, and vegetation zone maps. Plot-level biomass was calculated using allometric relationships between tree attributes and biomass. A small footprint portable laser profiler then flew over these inventory plots to develop a generic airborne LiDAR-based biomass equation (R² = 0.65, n = 207). The same airborne LiDAR system flew along four portions of orbits of the ICESat Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS). A square-root transformed equation was developed to predict airborne profiling LiDAR estimates of aboveground dry biomass from GLAS waveform parameters combined with an SRTM slope index (R² = 0.59, n = 1325).Using the 104,044 quality-filtered GLAS pulses obtained during autumn 2003 from 97 orbits over the study area, we then predicted aboveground dry biomass for the main vegetation areas of Québec as well as for the entire Province south of the treeline. Including cover type covariances both within and between GLAS orbits increased standard errors of the estimates by two to five times at the vegetation zone level and as much as threefold at the provincial level. Aboveground biomass for the whole study area averaged 39.0 ± 2.2 (standard error) Mg ha^? 1 and totalled 4.9 ± 0.3 Pg. Biomass distributions were 12.6% northern hardwoods, 12.6% northern mixedwood, 38.4% commercial boreal, 13% non-commercial boreal, 14.2% taiga, and 9.2% treed tundra. Non-commercial forests represented 36% of the estimated aboveground biomass, thus highlighting the importance of remote northern forests to C sequestration. This study has shown that space-based forest inventories of northern forests could be an efficient way of estimating the amount, distribution, and uncertainty of aboveground biomass and carbon stocks at large spatial scales.     

Identifying discriminating variables between teachers who fully integrate computers and teachers with limited integration

Given the prevalence of computers in education today, it is critical to understand teachers’ perspectives regarding computer integration in their classrooms. The current study surveyed a random sample of a heterogeneous group of 185 elementary and 204 secondary teachers in order to provide a comprehensive summary of teacher characteristics and variables that best discriminate between teachers who integrate computers and those who do not. Discriminant Function Analysis indicated seven variables for elementary teachers and six for secondary teachers (accounting for 74% and 68% of the variance, respectively) that discriminated between high and low integrators. Variables included positive teaching experiences with computers; teacher’s comfort with computers; beliefs supporting the use of computers as an instructional tool; training; motivation; support; and teaching efficacy. Implications for support of computer integration in the classroom are discussed.     

An evaluation of new heuristics for the location of cross-docks distribution centers in supply chain network design

This paper addresses an evaluation of new heuristics solution procedures for the location of cross-docks and distribution centers in supply chain network design. The model is characterized by multiple product families, a central manufacturing plant site, multiple cross-docking and distribution center sites, and retail outlets which demand multiple units of several commodities. This paper describes two heuristics that generate globally feasible, near optimal distribution system design and utilization strategies utilizing the simulated annealing (SA) methodology. This study makes two important contributions. First, we continue the study of location planning for the cross-dock and distribution center supply chain network design problem. Second, we systematically evaluate the computational performance of this network design location model under more sophisticated heuristic control parameter settings to better understand interaction effects among the various factors comprising our experimental design, and present convergence results. The central idea of the paper is to evaluate the impact of geometric control mechanism vis-a-vis more sophisticated ones on solution time, quality, and convergence for two new heuristics. Our results suggest that integrating traditional simulated annealing with TABU search is recommended for this supply chain network design and location problem.     

Purification, characterization, and high performance liquid chromatography assay of Salmonella glucose-1-phosphate cytidylyltransferase from the cloned rfbF gene

We report the purification and characterization of glucose-1-phosphate cytidylyltransferase, the first of five enzymes committed to biosynthesis of CDP-D-abequose from Salmonella enterica strain LT2. The purification was greatly facilitated by using a cloned rfbF gene encoding this enzyme. Pure enzyme was obtained by 64-fold enrichment in three chromatography steps. The NH2-terminal sequence of the purified enzyme was in agreement with the sequence predicted from the nucleotide sequence of the rfbF gene. The SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis estimated subunit M(r) of 31,000 agrees well with the M(r) of 29,035 calculated from the amino acid composition deduced from the nucleotide sequence of the rfbF gene. The glucose-1-phosphate cytidylyltransferase catalyzes a reversible bimolecular group transfer reaction and steady-state kinetic measurements, including product inhibition patterns, indicate that this reaction proceeds by a "ping-pong" type of mechanism. The Km values for CTP, alpha-D-glucose 1-phosphate, CDP-D-glucose, and pyrophosphate are 0.28, 0.64, 0.11, and 1.89 mM, respectively.     

Highly Efficient Quasi 2D Blue Perovskite Electroluminescence Leveraging a Dual Ligand Composition

Perovskite light-emitting diodes (PeLEDs) are advancing because of their superior external quantum efficiencies (EQEs) and color purity. Still, additional work is needed for blue PeLEDs to achieve the same benchmarks as the other visible colors. This study demonstrates an extremely efficient blue PeLED with a 488 nm peak emission, a maximum luminance of 8600 cd m⁻², and a maximum EQE of 12.2% by incorporating the double-sided ethane-1,2-diammonium bromide (EDBr₂) ligand salt along with the long-chain ligand methylphenylammonium chloride (MeCl). The EDBr₂ successfully improves the interaction between 2D perovskite layers by reducing the weak van der Waals interaction and creating a Dion–Jacobson (DJ) structure. Whereas the pristine sample (without EDBr₂) is inhibited by small stacking number (n) 2D phases with nonradiative recombination regions that diminish the PeLED performance, adding EDBr₂ successfully enables better energy transfer from small n phases to larger n phases. As evidenced by photoluminescence (PL), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and atomic force microscopy (AFM) characterization, EDBr₂ improves the morphology by reduction of pinholes and passivation of defects, subsequently improving the efficiencies and operational lifetimes of quasi-2D blue PeLEDs.     

GENs: generative encoding networks

Machine Learning - Mapping data from and/or onto a known family of distributions has become an important topic in machine learning and data analysis. Deep generative models (e.g., generative...     

Entrepreneurial acquisitions,open innovation and UK high growth SMEs

This paper examines the dynamics of entrepreneurial acquisitions undertaken by UK high growth small and medium enterprises (SMEs). While entrepreneurial acquisitions are increasingly deployed by SMEs, little is known about their antecedents, motivational drivers and organisational outcomes. Drawing on detailed case study evidence from Scotland, the key factor found to be driving these acquisitions was the desire to augment and exploit technological complementarities between the acquiring and acquired firms. Acquisition can therefore be conceptualised as an advanced stage of the outside-in ‘open innovation’ strategies proactively used within these innovative SMEs. Firms executing this strategy typically have an acute propensity for risk, a desire for close customer engagement, effective business models and strong external orientation. The work suggests that greater attention should be paid within M&A theory to the dynamics of these types of smaller scale entrepreneurial acquisitions.     

Detecting Periods of Significant Increased Communication Levels for Subgroups of Targeted Individuals

This paper investigates detecting significant increases in communication patterns and levels between small groups of individuals within a moderate‐size targeted group. Potential applications range from trying to establish emerging thought leaders within an organisation to the detection of the planning stages of a crime. The scan statistic is a popular choice for monitoring and detecting spatio‐temporal outbreaks, but it is difficult to apply to large‐scale target groups because of the computational effort required. When monitoring communication levels between thousands of people, the number of combinations of people whose communication may have increased is very high, and to scan through all of these to find which combinations have increased communications significantly is an enormous task. A successful surveillance plan will have early communication outbreak detection properties and good diagnostic capabilities for identifying individuals contributing to this outbreak. This paper proposes a new computationally feasible approach for detecting communication outbreaks based on exponentially weighted moving average smoothed communication counts between individuals within the network. We apply a cumulative sum of ordered signal‐to‐noise (SN) ratios for communication counts to flag significant departures from their respective median values. This plan is demonstrated to be efficient at detecting changes in communication levels for a small part of the network and diagnosing who is involved in the outbreak. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Comparison of three-dimensional surface scanning techniques for capturing the external ear

Congenital facial anomalies, such as microtia (malformation of the external ear), lead to significant psychosocial effects starting from early childhood. Three-dimensional (3D) scanning and advanced manufacturing are being investigated as a cheaper and more personalised method of fabricating reconstructive treatments for patients compared to traditional approaches. To date, most case studies have used expensive 3D scanners, yet, there is potential for low-cost devices to provide comparable results. This study aimed to investigate these different approaches. Both ears of 16 adult participants were scanned with three devices: Artec Spider (Artec Group), Intel^® RealSense? (Intel), and the Apple iPhone^® 7 (Apple Inc.) combined with photogrammetry using 90, 60 and 30 photographs. The scanning time, processing time, accuracy, completeness, resolution and repeatability of each technique were assessed using the Artec Spider as a reference scanner. Our results show that the iPhone had the longest processing time however, this decreased nine-fold when reducing the number of photos from 90 to 30. There was no significant difference in the accuracy, completeness or repeatability of the iPhone scans with 90 photographs (1.4?±?0.6?mm, 79.9%, 1.0?±?0.1?mm), 60 photographs (1.2?±?0.2, 79.3%, 0.9?±?0.2?mm) or 30 photographs (1.2?±?0.3?mm, 74.3%, 1.0?±?0.2?mm). The Intel RealSesne performed significantly worse in each parameter (1.8?±?03?mm; 46.6%, 1.4?±?0.5). Additionally, the RealSense had significantly lower resolution with not enough detail captured for the application. These results demonstrate that the ear can be accurately 3D scanned using iPhone photographs. We would recommend capturing between 30 and 60 photographs of the ear to create a scan that is accurate but without the downfall of long processing time. Using these methods we aim to provide a more comfortable setting for the patient and a lower-cost and more personalised ear prosthesis.