Introducing a brief measure of cultural and religious identification in American Jewish identity.

The authors conducted 3 studies to develop and investigate the psychometric properties of the American Jewish Identity Scales (AJIS), a brief self-report measure that assesses cultural identification and religious identification. Study 1 assessed the content validity of the item pool using an expert panel. In Study 2, 1,884 Jewish adults completed the initial AJIS and various measures of ethnic identity, collective self-esteem, and religiosity. Using confirmatory factor analyses, the authors selected and cross-validated 33 items that loaded highly and differentially on the 2 theorized latent factors. Study 3 assessed the AJIS's short-term stability and its relation to social desirability. Tests of reliability and construct validity provided initial psychometric support for the measure and confirmed the theorized primary salience of cultural identification. Participants reported significantly more private than public collective self-esteem, and the most Jewish-identified participants reported greater private self-esteem, acculturative stress, and perceived discrimination than did their more assimilated counterparts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

NSTX plasma operation with a Liquid Lithium Divertor

NSTX 2010 experiments were conducted using a molybdenum Liquid Lithium Divertor (LLD) surface installed on the outer part of the lower divertor. This tested the effectiveness of maintaining the deuterium retention properties of a static liquid lithium surface when refreshed by lithium evaporation as an approximation to a flowing liquid lithium surface. The LLD molybdenum front face has a 45% porosity to provide sufficient wetting to spread 37 g of lithium, and to retain it in the presence of magnetic forces. Lithium Evaporators were used to deposit lithium on the LLD surface. At the beginning of discharges, the LLD lithium surface ranged from solid to liquefied depending on the amount of applied and plasma heating. Noteworthy improvements in plasma performance were obtained similar to those obtained previously with lithiated graphite, e.g., ELM-free, quiescent edge, H-modes. During these experiments with the plasma outer strike point on the LLD, the rate of deuterium retention in the LLD, as indicated by the fueling needed to achieve and maintain stable plasma conditions, was the about the same as that for solid lithium coatings on the graphite prior to the installation of the LLD, i.e., about two times that of no-lithium conditions. The role of lithium impurities in this result is discussed. Following the 2010 experimental campaign, inspection of the LLD found mechanical damage to the plate supports, and other hardware resulting from forces following plasma current disruptions. The LLD was removed, upgraded, and reinstalled. A row of molybdenum tiles was installed inboard of the LLD for 2011 experiments with both inner and outer strike points on lithiated molybdenum to allow investigation of lithium plasma facing issues encountered in the first testing of the LLD.     

Assessing the impact of swales on receiving water quality

Swales are one type of sustainable drainage system (SuDS) which contribute to the management of water quality in receiving waterbodies. Using a semi-quantitative approach, an impact assessment procedure is applied to the residual water quality that is carried forward to surface waters and groundwaters following treatment within a swale. Both volumetric and pollutant distributions are considered as stormwater passes through the swale system. The pollutant pathways followed by TSS, nitrate, chloride, metals (Cd, Cu, Pb, Zn) and polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are determined for a swale receiving highway runoff. For TSS, metals and PAHs between 20% and 29% of the total mean influent pollutant load is predicted to be directed to infiltration through the underlying soils compared to between 4% and 16% of chloride and nitrate. Although surface water impacts are deemed possible, the discharges of swales to groundwaters are assessed to represent a negligible impact for effectively maintained systems.     

Fostering active network management through SMEs’ practises

Managing the electricity network through ‘smart grid’ systems is a key strategy to address challenges of energy security, low carbon transitions and the replacement of ageing infrastructure networks in the UK. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have a significant role in shaping patterns of energy consumption. Understanding how their activities interrelate with changes in electricity systems is critical for active network management. A significant challenge for the transformation of electricity systems involves comprehending the complexity that stems from the variety of commercial activities and diversity of social and organizational practises among SMEs that interact with material infrastructures. We engage with SMEs to consider how smart grid interventions ‘fit’ into everyday operational activities. Drawing on analysis of empirical data on electricity use, smart metre data, surveys, interviews and ‘energy tours’ with SMEs to understand lighting, space heating and cooling, refrigeration and IT use, this paper argues for experimenting with the use of practise theory as a framework for bringing together technical and social aspects of energy use in SMEs. This approach reveals that material circumstances and temporal factors shape current energy demand among SMEs, with ‘connectedness’ an emergent factor.     

Assessment of dietary ratios of red clover and grass silages on milk production and milk quality in dairy cows

Twenty-four multiparous Holstein-Friesian dairy cows were used in a replicated 4 × 4 Latin square changeover design experiment to test the effects of changing from ryegrass (Lolium perenne) silage to red clover (Trifolium pratense) silage in graded proportions on feed intakes, milk production, milk organoleptic qualities, and whole-body nitrogen partitioning. Four dietary treatments, comprising ad libitum access to 1 of 4 forage mixtures plus a standard allowance of 4 kg/d dairy concentrates, were offered. The 4 forage mixtures were, on a dry matter (DM) basis: 1) 100% grass silage, 2) 66% grass silage: 34% red clover silage, 3) 34% grass silage: 66% red clover silage, and 4) 100% red clover silage. In each of 4 experimental periods, there were 21 d for adaptation to diets and 7 d for measurements. There was an increase in both DM intakes and milk yields as the proportion of red clover in the diet increased. However, the increase in milk yield was not as great as the increase in DM intake, so that the efficiency of milk production, in terms of yield (kg) of milk per kg of DM intake, decreased. The concentrations of protein, milk fat, and the shorter chain saturated fatty acids decreased, whereas C18 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) and long-chain PUFA (C20+) increased as the proportion of red clover in the diet increased. There was little effect of dietary treatment on the organoleptic qualities of milk as assessed by taste panel analysis. There were no effects on the aroma of milk, on aftertaste, or overall liking of the milk. Milk was thicker and creamier in color when cows were fed grass silage compared with red clover silage. The flavor of milk was largely unaffected by dietary treatment. In conclusion, increasing the proportion of red clover in the diet of dairy cows increased feed intakes and milk yields, decreased the concentration of fat and protein in milk, increased PUFA for healthiness, and had little effect on milk organoleptic characteristics.     

Effective material flow at an assembly facility

Effective material flow in an assembly facility leads to reduced material handling costs and increased productivity. This research focuses on improving the flow of materials for an assembly facility that receives supplied parts through receiving docks and transfers the parts to material storage locations and then to part usage locations. The locations of the receiving docks, storage locations, and line locations are predetermined, but the assignment of parts to dock locations and storage locations and the material flow paths through the facility are decision variables. Furthermore, design decisions such as the dock strategy employed and the configuration of the storage areas lead to additional decision variables. The goal is to reduce overall material handling costs by effectively receiving, storing and transferring the material from loading docks to line locations. The contribution of this research is in applying multi-commodity network flow models that integrate many of the sub-problems that are assumed to be solved a priori in many existing models. This integrated approach was used to evaluate configuration changes for a collaborating facility. One of the scenarios analysed showed an improvement in the material handling costs of nearly 10% as compared to current practices.     

Using cognitive work analysis to explore system flexibility

The presented work describes a structured approach for identifying flexible working practices in complex socio-technical systems; further, it presents a framework for the elicitation of design changes capable of increasing system adaptability. The proposed approach uses the first three phases of the cognitive work analysis framework: work domain analysis; control task analysis; and strategies analysis. Functions are extracted from an abstraction hierarchy; these are then explored in a number of different situations using a contextual activity template. These functions are then explored in greater detail with the strategies analysis phase. The contextual activity template is used to identify situations where functions are unable to perform; in order to increase the flexibility of the system, new strategies are then proposed and represented in strategies analyses flow diagrams. To communicate the approach, it is introduced using the familiar, domestic domain of an ‘Apple iPod’. The paper presents a structured approach based upon cognitive work analysis for exploring system flexibility. The case study presented, an Apple iPod, shows how design changes to the system can be informed by this approach. This paper takes an existing approach and clarifies the link between analysis and design.     

Functional Description of Read-out Electronics for Time-Domain Multiplexed Bolometers for Millimeter and Sub-millimeter Astronomy

We have developed multi-channel electronics (MCE) which work in concert with time-domain multiplexors developed at NIST, to control and read signals from large format bolometer arrays of superconducting transition edge sensors (TESs). These electronics were developed as part of the Submillimeter Common-User Bolometer Array-2 (SCUBA2 ) camera, but are now used in several other instruments. The main advantages of these electronics compared to earlier versions is that they are multi-channel, fully programmable, suited for remote operations and provide a clean geometry, with no electrical cabling outside of the Faraday cage formed by the cryostat and the electronics chassis. The MCE is used to determine the optimal operating points for the TES and the superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) amplifiers autonomously. During observation, the MCE execute a running PID-servo and apply to each first stage SQUID a feedback signal necessary to keep the system in a linear regime at optimal gain. The feedback and error signals from a ～1000-pixel array can be written to hard drive at up to 2 kHz.     

Electrochemical synthesis of silver oxide nanowires,microplatelets and application as SERS substrate precursors

We describe the electrochemical synthesis of silver oxide nanowires and nanowire bundles, filled platelets and hollow microplatelets in either basic or acidic N,N-dimethylformamide solution. We propose that these nanostructures are formed at the electrode surface via two competing reactions namely, silver dissolution off the electrode in the presence of NH₃ or HF during the anodization of silver, and silver oxide precipitation. Results show that the precipitated silver oxide nanoparticles aggregate into nanowires as well as into filled and hollow microscale platelets, depending upon the nuclei concentration and the anodization current density. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and Raman scattering spectroscopy show that the nanowires and microplatelets are mainly composed of Ag₂O. Nanowire bundles are used as substrates for surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) where single molecule detection is achieved and evidenced using a bianalyte Raman technique.