Portrait of the Patient as a Young Man: An Exploration of the Use of Photographs in Hospital

The display of personal photographs in hospital is a common practice that has yet to be rigorously examined. The photographs displayed are subject to interpretation by the viewer and may lead to misunderstandings or miscommunication if clarification of meaning is not sought. This paper explores a range of possible meanings that the display of photographs in hospital may hold, based on a case study of a 15 year old boy hospitalised with a life threatening illness. Further research is needed into the actual meanings attributed to the display of photographs in hospital by patients and family members.     

EMAP-Wetlands: A sampling design with global application

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) initiated the Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP) in 1988. The wetland component (EMAP-Wetlands) is designed to provide quantitative assessments of the current status and long-term trends in the ecological condition of wetland resources. EMAP-Wetlands will develop a wetland monitoring network and will identify and evaluate indicators that describe and quantify wetland condition. The EMAP-Wetlands network will represent a probability sample of the total wetland resource. The EMAP sample is based on a triangular grid of approximately 12,600 sample points in the conterminous U.S. The triangular grid adequately samples wetland resources that are common and uniformly distributed in a region, such as the prairie pothole wetlands of the Midwest. However, the design is flexible and allows the base grid density to be increased to adequately sample wetland resources, such as the coastal wetlands of the Gulf of Mexico, which are distributed linearly along the coast. The Gulf sample network required a 49-fold increase in base grid density. EMAP-Wetlands aggregates the 56 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's (FWS) National Wetland Inventory (NWI) categories (Cowardin et al. 1979) into 12 functionally similar groups (Leibowitz et al. 1991). Both the EMAP sample design and aggregated wetland classes are suitable for global inventory and assessment of wetlands.The research described in this report has been funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. This document has been prepared at the EPA Environmental Research Laboratory in Corvallis, OR, through contract No. 68-C8-0006 to Man Tech Environmental Technology, Inc. This paper has been subjected to the Agency's peer and administrative review and approved for publication. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute endorsement or recommendation for use.     

Construction of Partially Balanced Incomplete Block Designs with Nested Rows and Columns

A number of methods of construction of partially balanced incomplete block designs with nested rows and columns are developed and new balanced incomplete block designs with nested rows and columns are obtained as a by-product.     

CLIX: a search algorithm for finding novel ligands capable of binding proteins of known three-dimensional structure.

A computer algorithm, CLIX, capable of searching a crystallographic data-base of small molecules for candidates which have both steric and chemical likelihood of binding a protein of known three-dimensional structure is presented. The algorithm is a significant advance over previous strategies which consider solely steric or chemical requirements for binding. The algorithm is shown to be capable of predicting the correct binding geometry of sialic acid to a mutant influenza-virus hemagglutinin and of proposing a number of potential new ligands to this protein.     

Introducing the Multivariate Dale Model in Population‐Based Genetic Association Studies

Until recently, the most common parametric approaches to study the combined effects of several genetic polymorphisms located within a gene or in a small genomic region are, at the genotype level, logistic regressions and at the haplotype level, haplotype analyses. An alternative modeling approach, based on the case/control principle, is to regard exposures (e.g., genetic data such as derived from Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms – SNPs) as random and disease status as fixed and to use a marginal multivariate model that accounts for inter‐relationships between exposures. One such model is the multivariate Dale model. This model is based on multiple logistic regressions. That is why the model, applied in a case/control setting, leads to straightforward interpretations that are similar to those drawn in a classical logistic modeling framework. (© 2004 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Hume and the argument for biological design

There seems to be a widespread conviction — evidenced, for example, in the work of Mackie, Dawkins and Sober — that it is Darwinian rather than Humean considerations which deal the fatal logical blow to arguments for intelligent design. I argue that this conviction cannot be well-founded. If there are current logically decisive objections to design arguments, they must be Humean — for Darwinian considerations count not at all against design arguments based upon apparent cosmological fine-tuning. I argue, further, that there are good Humean reasons for atheists and agnostics to resist the suggestion that apparent design — apparent biological design and/or apparent cosmological fine-tuning — establishes (or even strongly supports) the hypothesis of intelligent design.     

Predicting mean and variance of all possible lines and hybrids from designs with partially inbred progenies

Two-factor mating designs at consecutive S_n and S_(n+1) levels (S₀ and S₁ S₁ and S₂, or F₂ and F₃) allow estimation of all components of the variation among homozygous lines and F₁ hybrids that can be derived from a given population. They also allow for the prediction of the mean of these lines and single-cross hybrids. Some tests for the presence of epistasis are possible at the levels of means and of variances. Such mating designs can be very useful for predicting the value of the best possible lines or the best possible F₁ hybrids when it is difficult to produce, at an experimental level for exploratory purposes, either lines or hybrids.     

Analysis of parameters about useful life extension in 70 tools and methods related to eco-design and circular economy

One of the approaches followed by the circular economy (CE) to achieve sustainability through design is product life extension. Extending the life of products to make them useful for as long as possible is a means to reduce waste production and materials consumption, as well as the related impacts. For designers, conceptualizing products in a way that allows them to be used for longer is a challenge, and assessing how well they extend their lifespan can be helpful when it comes to choosing the best proposal. In this paper, 70 tools and methods related to eco-design and circular economy are studied to determine how many of them consider parameters related to life extension and which can be applied in the early stages of design. The results of the analysis show that most of the existing tools and methods are applicable to developed products, and only a few of them take into account parameters related to extending the useful life. Of the 70 tools and methods, only 14 include some parameter related to life extension and are applicable to concepts. CE toolkit, Eco-design PILOT, CE Designer, Circularity Assessment tool, Circularity Potential Indicator and Circular Design Tools take into consideration eight or more parameters to assess life extension in concepts. This will help designers select the most appropriate and will indicate the need for more complete tools to consider useful life extension in the early stages of design and thus enhance the selection of more sustainable products.     

Environmental conditions during glycerol bioconversion affect 3-hydroxypropionic acid bioproduction by Limosilactobacillus reuteri DSM 17938

3-Hydroxypropionic acid (3-HP) is a platform molecule whose biological production was carried out by the bacterium Limosilactobacillus reuteri according to a two-step process: first, a growth phase in batch mode on glucose, then a glycerol bioconversion into 3-HP in fed-batch mode. With the objective of improving 3-HP bioproduction, this study aimed at defining the operating conditions during the bioconversion phase that increases the bioproduction performance. A central composite rotatable design allowed testing various pH levels and specific glycerol feeding rates. By establishing response surfaces, optimal conditions have been identified that were different depending on the considered output variable (final 3-HP quantity, 3-HP production yield and production rate). Of them, 3-HP final quantity and 3-HP production yield were maximized at pH 6.0 and at specific glycerol feeding rates of 60 and 55 mg_gly g_CDW⁻¹ h⁻¹, respectively. The specific 3-HP production rate was the highest at the upper limit of the specific substrate feeding rate (80 mg_gly g_CDW⁻¹ h⁻¹) but was not affected by the pH. An additional experiment was carried out at pH 6.0 and a specific glycerol feeding rate of 80 mg_gly g_CDW⁻¹ h⁻¹ to validate the previous observations. In conclusion, the results showed a significant improvement of 3-HP concentration by 13%, of specific production rate by 34% and of 3-HP volumetric productivity by 39%, as compared to the initial values.