Search

illus

ON THE FIRST DAY of September, I welcomed anew member of my team in the dean's office via Zoom. I was on the campus, but our new hire--let's call her [...]

Collaboration is key to making plastic use greener as soon as possible. Our experience yields tips on how to set up industry–academic partnerships.

Inverse-designed silicon photonic metastructures offer an efficient platform to perform analogue computations with electromagnetic waves. However, due to computational difficulties, scaling up these metastructures to handle a large number of data channels is not trivial. Furthermore, a typical inverse-design procedure is limited to a small computational domain and therefore tends to employ resonant features to achieve its objectives. This results in structures that are narrow-bandwidth and highly sensitive to fabrication errors. Here we employ a two-dimensional (2D) inverse-design method based on the effective index approximation with a low-index contrast constraint. This results in compact amorphous lens systems that are generally feed-forward and low-resonance. We designed and experimentally demonstrated a vector–matrix product for a 2 × 2 matrix and a 3 × 3 matrix. We also designed a 10 × 10 matrix using the proposed 2D computational method. These examples demonstrate that these techniques have the potential to enable larger-scale wave-based analogue computing platforms.

Background: This industry survey was conducted to gain insight into the ways structured Benefit-Risk assessment (sBRA) of medical products is approached across drug or medical device developing companies, including frameworks and methods that are currently used and areas where future work is being planned. Methods: A survey containing 28 questions covering five key areas of sBRA was set-up and shared with representatives from the participating companies. Each company was asked to complete a single survey response including inputs across the company’s multidisciplinary key representatives involved in benefit-risk assessment. Results: Of the 26 participating companies, 21 (81%) are conducting sBRA. Considering these 21 qualitative frameworks were used by almost every company (19, 90%), while only 12 (57%) have used a quantitative method. Many companies have sBRA training (17, 81%), document templates (16,76%), Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)/checklists (13, 62%), and /or best practice manuals/examples (12,57%) available. Considering all 26 companies Software tools (15, 58%) and BR planning documents (11,42%) were identified as areas into which many companies intend to put effort. Conclusions: The industry survey confirmed a wide usage of sBRA by many companies involved in research and development. Nevertheless, sBRA is evolving and several future opportunities like the implementation of visualization tools were identified by the representatives of the pharmaceutical companies. Finally, challenges like the cross-functional comprehension of the added value of sBRA are still seen.

I know that some people seek out silver, platinum, gold and diamonds. But I pursue cast iron. For example, I collect toy tractors, hit-and-miss engines, hog oilers, implement seats and [...]

As standard microelectronic technology approaches fundamental limitations in speed and power consumption, novel computing strategies are strongly needed. Analogue optical computing enables the processing of large amounts of data at a negligible energy cost and high speeds. Based on these principles, ultrathin optical metasurfaces have been recently explored to process large images in real time, in particular for edge detection. By incorporating feedback, it has also recently been shown that metamaterials can be tailored to solve complex mathematical problems in the analogue domain, although these efforts have so far been limited to guided-wave systems and bulky set-ups. Here, we present an ultrathin Si metasurface-based platform for analogue computing that is able to solve Fredholm integral equations of the second kind using free-space visible radiation. A Si-based metagrating was inverse-designed to implement the scattering matrix synthesizing a prescribed kernel corresponding to the mathematical problem of interest. Next, a semitransparent mirror was incorporated into the sample to provide adequate feedback and thus perform the required Neumann series, solving the corresponding equation in the analogue domain at the speed of light. Visible wavelength operation enables a highly compact, ultrathin device that can be interrogated from free space, implying high processing speeds and the possibility of on-chip integration.

Goetz-Sota, Germaine. Manic-Depressive Dynamics and Dramaturgy in the Life of Graham Greene: An Author's Battle with the Devil Within. Lewiston, NY: Mellen, 2012. Germaine Goetz-Sota's study on Greene's dramaturgy and [...]

Stephen Land outlines Graham Greene's development, and he identifies some of the more memorable characters Greene has created. He has also attempted what few others would--examining, summarizing, paraphrasing, and classifying the bulk of Greene's novels, which is impressive and commendable. Where he and I would differ most, however, is in his argument that readers and critics are 'under no obligation to frame [their] judgement [sic] of the novel in terms of the beliefs of its characters' or to 'judge the characters and doctrines in a novel in the same way as we judge the conduct and ideas of our neighbors or of political or religious leaders.', Stephen K. Land. The Human Imperative: A Study of the Novels of Graham Greene. New York: AMS, 2008. xii + 286 pp. $87.50 cloth. Stephen Land proclaims that Graham Greene's [...]

The inhibited temperament provides a biological component for what was formerly observed as ah introverted personality. It also provides us a way to reexamine literary artifacts that have long been branded by folk psychology and inaccurate models of human psychology. The benefit to a scientific approach to human behavior is that there is correspondence between the two, unlike typical readings of Lawrence's novel that posit a biologically illogical adaptation--i.e. the Oedipal complex. The Inhibited Temperament in Lawrence rescues his novel from such an oubliette of folk psychology and ideological criticism., But please don't let it cost you a great deal, on our behalf, or I shall be miserable and feel responsible again. --Letters 235, ed. Huxley He was so clearly [...]

INTRODUCTION Here, Good Clinical Practice(s) (GCPs) are viewed in both their current and potential state as central to the social enterprise called clinical research. In that light, this piece reflects [...]

To promote equality, many educators try to be 'colorblind.' They try to look past the race of their students to avoid bias and create a refuge from the racially charged [...]

A core activity in pharmacovigilance is the management of individual case safety reports (ICSR). A quality system program for ICSR helps improve effectiveness and integrates different functions and processes, thus [...]

Two key commentators give their opinions of the pros and cons of sustainability.

There are several thousand women and girls serving at shrines throughout the Volta delta, around an hour east of Accra, Ghana. Known as trokosi, they are, theoretically, wives and servants to the gods. In practice, they have a range of roles, including domestic and agricultural duties. Trokosi emerged in around 1900, when a family offered a shrine priest one of its virgin daughters because it could not afford the cattle it had been told to bring as an offering to the gods. The Ghanaian government passed legislation in late 1998 making it illegal to send a child away from home for a religious ritual, but there are problems associated with implementing this legislation.

The article discusses various topics and opinions submitted by readers. One reader expresses skepticism about Microsoft extending support for Windows 10, suggesting that the company's decision to add Copilot to Windows 10 is more about encouraging its use than offering extended support. Another reader shares their experience with Windows 10 and the compatibility issues they faced when upgrading to Windows 11. A different reader discusses the dominance of YouTube as a video platform and the inevitability of having to tolerate advertisements. Another reader expresses dissatisfaction with TalkTalk's compensation for lost film downloads and decides to cancel their broadband service. Lastly, a reader warns about the prevalence of fake SD cards and the need for consumers to be cautious when purchasing storage devices. [Extracted from the article]

Scientists say the human brain can simultaneously track and process only nine items without losing information. Any more, they say, is simply too much to handle at once. They obviously [...]

Executive suites are booming. What does that mean for you? They are called 'executive suites,' or 'working environments,' or occasionally even 'McOffices.' They all basically mean the same thing: short-term [...]

'Your mission, gentlemen, should you choose to accept it, is to research a mixed-use building in Grand Rapids, Michigan. You have 72 hours and of course, a limited budget. Good [...]

Kaetsu College in Cambridge, England, is based around New Hall, a building constructed for the city's university in 1964. The design of the new areas of the building needed to take into account changes in techniques, needs and materials, but to be appropriate to the existing structure. The development includes a rotunda which provides a welcoming entrance area, along with en-suite study bedrooms and a covered walkway.

The new student accommodation building, designed by ECD for Linacre College, Oxford, was designed to match the main college building and surrounding architecture. Internally the building features non-rectilinear geometry, and the helical staircase features marble stairs and metal balustrading. The building incorporates study bedrooms, communal kitchens, and bathrooms, and students were consulted about how the rooms were fitted out. ST George's Church, Sheffield has been transformed into a lecture theatre and student accommodation, and features thick Gothic roof trusses and stained glass windows.

The Lobb Partnership designed the new football and rugby stadium in Huddersfield, England, in a dramatic, futuristic style which would meet the needs of the club for the next 50 years. The 25,000 all-seat stadium also had to fulfil the expectations of the public and be cost-effective. Attendances for the football matches have now doubled, with the site's commercial facilities also in regular use. The local council wanted the stadium to belong to the community rather than a specific club. The construction and design of the stadium is examined.

The Galleries is a mixed office and residential development on an important site in Glasgow, Scotland. Designed by architect, Cooper Cromar Associates, the building recalls the traditional Victorian tenement buildings of the city. It has a deep plan with four storeys and a penthouse level. The development is aimed at professional tenants and marks a return to an understanding of urban housing in Glasgow being more than just a building.

Architect, Reiach and Hall has designed a speculative office block at 10, George Street, Edinburgh, Scotland. The building consists of two six storey blocks linked by a core and lobby. It is in the modern style but has regard for the classical buildings which surround it. Views of the city are emphasised. The building has been fully let despite a surplus of office space in Edinburgh. This is due to its high quality and interesting design.

WASHINGTON--New World Radio Group has been broadcasting international radio content since 1992, and now it encompasses a trio of stations: WNWR(AM)/1540 in Philadelphia, WCRW(AM)/1190 in Leesburg, Va., and our flagship [...]

This work reports on the development of borate- and methacrylate-polymer-coated zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnOBM) via a plasma polymerization technique to replace the harmful conventional antiwear additive zinc dialkyl dithiophosphate (ZDDP) in automotive lubricants. Here, the tribochemistry across the interfaces formed between sliding ferrous surfaces and coated and uncoated ZnO nanoparticles is thoroughly studied from the perspective of elucidating the tribofilm formation, wear, and friction performance of a novel ZnOBM-based nanolubricant. Tribological tests conducted under a boundary lubrication regime revealed that oil formulations containing only ZnOBM nanoadditives and a mixture of ZnOBM with a low amount of ZDDP (350 ppm of P) significantly improve wear performance (up to 95%) compared to the base oil. Electrical contact resistance results acquired in situ during tribological tests demonstrated that lubricants containing ZnOBM nanoparticles at sliding interfaces undergo tribochemical reactions to form stable tribofilms that reduce friction and wear. Atomic force microscopy (AFM), X-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy (XANES), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis revealed that ZnOBM nanoparticles, by themselves, form patchy interfacial tribofilms containing iron borate, boron oxide, and zinc oxide and lead to superior tribological performance. Interestingly, ZnOBM nanoparticles interact synergistically with ZDDP to form a hierarchical interface of boron-doped tribofilms, with zinc–iron polyphosphates at the surface and iron oxide, zinc and iron sulfides in the bulk. These encouraging results suggest the potential effective use of the ZnOBM nanoparticles to significantly reduce harmful levels of ZDDP (350 ppm) in the engine oil without compromising the antifriction and antiwear performance and to develop eco-friendly high-performance lubricant additives.

Thermodynamic-like local atomistic entropy and enthalpy variables are introduced as a means to delineate and quantify phase transitions in atomistic simulations of extensional flow of an entangled polyethylene melt. These variables measure the local ordering and energetics at the monomer level, as opposed to the global system, and hence can be used to detect and quantify flow-enhanced nucleation events on small length and time scales that lead to flow-induced crystallization. The kinetics of the nucleating localized crystals can also be tracked using an atomistic Gibbs free energy composite variable. Based on the assumption that the global crystallization process followed a first-order reversible kinetic rate expression with a lag time, kinetic rate constants were calculated as functions of the Deborah number that allowed quantification of the flow-induced crystallization phenomenon exhibited by the simulated system under planar elongational flow at a temperature high above its quiescent melting point.

The Seawater Greenhouse, Tenerife, Canary Islands, has been awarded the Design Museum's Design Sense award. The building has been constructed on a lightweight steel frame which was prefabricated in the UK, it is clad in polythene. Both materials are recyclable. The design, by Light Works, tries to incorporate sustainable features in the building yet keeping in sympathy with the surrounding nature. The Seawater Greenhouse uses sunshine and seawater to make cool air and fresh water. Seawater is converted into freshwater by a solar-powered condenser.

Robert and Brenda Vale have designed five new ecological houses in Nottinghamshire, England. The houses have been sold on a 999 year lease to people who agree to work regularly on a number of projects linked to the site, such as carrying out repairs on the houses. The houses are built so as not to need central heating run on fossil fuels. Heat is obtained by solar panels on double height conservatories. Windows and doors are tripled glazed. Water is gathered from the roofs of the houses. It took 18 months to build the houses.

Flow-induced phenomena in entangled solutions of linear C1000H2002polyethylene dissolved in n-hexadecane and benzene solvents were simulated via nonequilibrium molecular dynamics at concentrations of 14.5C* and 13.5C*, respectively, of the coil overlap concentration, C*. The simulations revealed that both solutions undergo a chemical phase separation when subject to planar extensional flow at extension rates faster than the inverse Rouse time of the solution. The onset of phase separation initiated after roughly two Hencky strain units of deformation for both solutions and attained a stationary state at about ten Hencky strain units. Furthermore, the simulations revealed that at very high extension rates the polymer phase forms semicrystalline domains regardless of the solvent; however, the critical extension rate for flow-induced crystallization appeared to be affected by a number of variables, including solution temperature and the chemical nature of the solvent.

The startup and steady shear flow properties of an entangled, monodisperse linear polyethylene liquid (C1000H2002) were investigated via virtual experimentation using nonequilibrium molecular dynamics. The simulation results for transient and steady-state rheological functions were directly compared with several variations of the tube model. These comparisons demonstrated that in the linear viscoelastic regime where the shear rate was lower than the reciprocal disengagement time of the liquid (i.e., γ̇ < τd–1) all the models examined were reasonably capable of predicting shear flow behavior of both shear and normal stresses under both steady-state and startup conditions. Within the shear rate range τd–1< γ̇ < τe–1(where τeis the entanglement time of the liquid), all models performed poorly under both steady-state and startup conditions due to inaccurate evolution equations for the tube orientation tensor and the tube stretch. The neglect of entanglement dynamics leading to individual molecular tumbling dynamics in the models appeared to be the primary source of error. At high shear rates (γ̇ > τe–1), the entanglement dynamics influenced the stress significantly, and all model predictions for shear and normal stresses diverged from the simulated values. A simple modification to the stress expression was proposed to incorporate the entanglement dynamics, which resulted in good quantitative agreement of predicted steady-state and startup shear and normal stresses of NEMD-guided model predictions with the simulated data. Additional results demonstrated that the overshoot and undershoot in the shear viscosity under startup of shear flow were correlated to tube orientation and chain tumbling dynamics, respectively. The dynamics of the tube stretch variable and normal stress differences were directly correlated to the behavior of the energetic potential between atomic interaction sites, which exhibited clear signs of tumbling dynamics of individual molecules for γ̇ well below τR–1.

Town councils are increasingly promoting lighting strategies to make places more attractive to use and safer and encourage investment to an area. There is a lack of literature on exterior lighting and what is available usually concentrates on highway lighting and pedstrian requirements. The Institute of Lighting Engineers (ILE) offers technical guidance and it recommends avoiding uplighting of buildings as it can distort architectural detail and causes sky pollution.

An Edwardian pump house in Manchester, England, has been adapted to become the Pump House: People's History Museum. The refurbishment and changes cost 1.3 million pounds sterling. The museum now houses artefacts of the Labour Party from the National Museum of Labour History. The museum features a main exhibition gallery, with an upper floor gallery for temporary exhibitions, a cafe and performance space, and a large reception area and bookstore.

The construction industry spent 95 million pounds sterling on research and development in 1993, with only a small amount of input from architects. The major companies perceive architects as users of their products although many architects believe they should be involved in product development. Some architects are asked to contribute to new product development, and they could become more involved under the ESPRIT programme, and the BRITE/EURAM which finances the development of new material technologies.

The interior design of the new St Mungo Museum, Glasgow, Scotland, is described. The museum exhibits artefacts of world religions. Page and Park, architect, created a five-year old building with the atmosphere of an older one. The building was re-worked by Ian Begg, baronial revivalist architect, into a Gothic, monastic-style of architecture, incorporating original stained glass windows. The bench seating is made from comfortable American white oak. The lighting is aimed at preventing degradation of the artworks while attaining optimum viewing conditions.

Tye British Rail interchange station at Manchester Airport has been designed by Architect, Austin-Smith: Lord using the metaphore of a lizard. The steel and concrete structure consists of three levels that are separately roofed and slot into eachother. Access from the airport terminal on the highest level to the platforms five meters below ground is by ramp and escalator. The interior of the building is light and spacious with the pin-joint structure clearly expressed. The building illustrates how a good brief can lead to good design that will enhance Manchester's image as an international city.

The Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, England has been designed in the minimalist style by Jeremy Dixon, Edward Jones, BDP. The building uses the interiors of Georgian houses facing Cookridge Street but the entrance, through the old gable end, is a sheet of black granite. Inside, the gallery is a white space without distracting lines. Offices and study rooms are located on the upper floor and are simple and light. The tension between old and new, interior and exterior is well handled.

Scottish architect, Reiach and Hall has surveyed its past and potential customers as part of an exercise in improving public peception of the firm. The results of the survey showed the need to emphasise areas of work which the clients were not aware of but generally reinforced the company's own views of its position in the market. Reiach and Hall is committed to quality and continuing education. The staff of 30 work in teams, share skills and all are computer literate.

The London Docklands Development Corporation were able to redevelop much of London's derelict docklands during the 1980's. Normal planning procedures were not observed, and critics say that market forces were the only criteria used in the huge new developments. Developers were allowed freedom to build wherever they saw fit due to lack of normal development controls. Developments are surrounded by dereliction, and are not linked to each other. Critics say this has led to the 'deconstructed city.'

Two contrasting architectural practices based in the Dundee area of Scotland are described. Nicoll Russell Studios has a staff of 25 with four partners. Its work is locally based but the practice is moving into international markets. It has no recognisable house style but values design and enters competitions. James F Stephen has a staff of 16 with two partners. It works locally and has a clear style based on the use of stone, slate and stained timber. It has a youthful atmosphere and is committed to training.