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Offshore wind is poised for huge growth in the coming years, the UK government has set targets of 40 GW of offshore wind, including 1 GW of floating wind, to be installed in the UK by 2030. Many proposed wind development sites are in deeper waters, farther from shore and will therefore need to be developed as floating wind sites. Developing sites in deeper waters provides access to higher, more consistent wind speeds, however this also means increased wave heights and tougher operating conditions. This makes the challenge of site accessibility critical to the goal of lowering the costs of offshore wind. Accessibility is the amount of time that vessels can safely access a given site. The objective of this study was to make a comparison of the accessibility of potential future floating wind sites to existing fixed bottom wind farm sites. Accessibility was calculated by developing Matlab code using established techniques and definitions found in the literature. A case study was then completed using sites in Scottish waters proposed for development as part of the Scotwind leasing plan. The majority of the Scotwind sites will need to be developed as floating wind sites due to the large water depths. This study assesses the accessibility of the Scotwind leasing sites and compares them to a typical fixed bottom site. The study found that accessibility will be a greater challenge for floating farm wind sites compared to fixed bottom sites. Increased access to vessels that can operate in larger wave heights will likely be necessary to operate and maintain floating wind farm sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Individuals with spinal cord injuries (SCI) commonly present with component risk factors for cardiometabolic risk and combined risk factors for cardiometabolic syndrome (CMS). These primary risk factors include obesity, dyslipidemia, dysglycemia/insulin resistance, and hypertension. Commonly referred to as "silent killers", cardiometabolic risk and CMS increase the threat of cardiovascular disease, a leading cause of death after SCI. This narrative review will examine current data and the etiopathogenesis of cardiometabolic risk, CMS, and cardiovascular disease associated with SCI, focusing on pivotal research on cardiometabolic sequelae from the last five years. The review will also provide current diagnosis and surveillance criteria for cardiometabolic disorders after SCI, a novel obesity classification system based on percent total body fat, and lifestyle management strategies to improve cardiometabolic health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Certain wind turbine maintenance tasks require specialist equipment, such as a large crane for heavy lift operations. Equipment hire often has a lead time of several weeks but equipment use is restricted by future weather conditions through wind speed safety limits, necessitating an assessment of future weather conditions. This paper sets out a methodology for producing subseasonal-to-seasonal (up to 6 weeks ahead) forecasts that are site- and task-specific. Forecasts are shown to improve on climatology at all sites, with fair skill out to six weeks for both variability and weather window forecasts. For the case of crane hire, a cost-loss model identifies the range of electricity prices where the hiring decision is sensitive to the forecasts. While there is little difference in the hiring decision made by the proposed forecasts and the climatology benchmark at most electricity prices, the repair cost per turbine is reduced at lower electricity prices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic caused many universities to expand their use of videoconferencing technology to continue academic coursework. This study examines dental students' experience, comfort levels, and preferences with videoconferencing. Methods: Of 100 s-year US dental students enrolled in a local anesthesia course, 54 completed a survey following an online synchronous lecture given in August 2020. Survey questions asked about prior experience with videoconferencing, comfort levels with online and traditional classes, and reasons for not turning on their video (showing their face). Results: Overall, 48.2% had little or no experience with videoconferencing prior to March 2020. Students were more comfortable with in-classroom parameters (listening, asking questions, answering questions, and interacting in small groups (breakouts)) than with online synchronous learning, although differences were not significant (p's > 0.10). Regression analyses showed there were significant positive associations between videoconferencing experience and comfort with both answering questions and interacting in breakouts (B = 0.55, p = 0.04 and B = 0.54, p = 0.03, respectively). Students reported being more comfortable during in-classroom breakouts than in breakouts using videoconferencing (p = 0.003). Main reasons for students not turning on their cameras were that they did not want to dress up (48.1%), other students were not using their video features (46.3%), and they felt they did not look good (35.5%). Conclusions: Dental students were somewhat more comfortable with traditional in-person vs. online classroom parameters. Prior experience with videoconferencing was associated with increased comfort with synchronous learning, suggesting that after the pandemic, it may be beneficial to structure dental school curricula as a hybrid learning experience with both in-person and online synchronous courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nature of the relation between stock returns and the three monetary variables of interest rates (bond yields), inflation and money supply growth, while oft studied, is one that remains unclear. We argue that the nature of the relation changes over time, and this variation is largely driven by shocks, with a change in risk associated with each variable shifting the pattern of behaviour. We show a change in the correlation between each of the three variables with stock returns. Notably, a predominantly negative correlation with bond yields and inflation becomes positive, while the opposite is true for money supply growth. The shift begins with the bursting of the dotcom bubble but is exacerbated by the financial crisis. Results of predictive regressions for stock returns also indicate a switch in behaviour. Predominantly negative predictive power switches temporarily to positive around economic shocks. This suggests that higher yields, inflation and money growth typically depress returns but support the market during periods of stress. However, after the financial crisis, higher inflation and money growth exhibit persistent positive predictive power and suggest a change in the risk perception of higher values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acronychia crassipetala is an endemic plant species in Australia. Its phytochemistry and therapeutic properties are underexplored. The hexane extract of the fruit A. crassipetala T. G. Hartley was found to inhibit the growth of the Gram-positive bacteria Staphylococcus aureus. Following bio-activity guided fractionation, two prenylated acetophenones, crassipetalonol A (1) and crassipetalone A (2), were isolated. Their structures were determined mainly by NMR and MS spectroscopic analyses. This is the first record of the isolation and structural characterisation of secondary metabolites from the species A. crassipetala. Their antibacterial and cytotoxic assessments indicated that the known compound (2) had more potent antibacterial activity than the antibiotic chloramphenicol, while the new compound (1) showed moderate cytotoxicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the offshore wind industry, failures are often costlier than those experienced onshore. Through examination of the literature, it is clear that failures occurring in offshore transmission systems are not well documented. As a result of this, many developers and other parties involved in the planning processes associated with offshore wind farms will defer back to existing reliability metrics in the public domain. This article presents a review of European offshore wind farm transmission failures based on fusing information from multiple public domain sources. The results highlight both the spread of the reliability performance of these assets and the reliability performance over time. The results also reinforce the industry view that installation practices could lead to low reliability in the initial years of operation, resulting in increased repair costs and decreased revenue for wind farm owners and operators. The information collated in the review is also compared to metrics from across the literature to evaluate the difference in forecasted failure rates to those experienced within the industry. In general, it is found that the experienced failure rates are subject to a much higher spread in practice than those published until now. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the behaviour of the equity yield and its relation to the bond yield is important for portfolio managers and those engaged in modelling the interaction between asset classes. During the mid-1900s, the equity yield—which was previously greater than the bond yield—declined, while the bond yield rose and became higher. Research, seeking to understand this, put forward the view that stock and bond return volatility is key. Evidence from the 2000s suggest that the relative values of the equity and bond yield have flipped again, with the former now greater. Empirical evidence presented here shows that during such periods, the hypothesised relation between the equity yield and the bond yield and the two volatilities also changes, with the signs reversed. Moreover, there is noticeable variation in the coefficient values. This paper argues that the relative equity and bond yield values are, to a large extent, driven by inflation volatility. High inflation volatility persisted during the first half of the twentieth century when the equity yield was higher. This was followed by more benign inflation volatility when the bond yield became higher. Evidence for a long span of US data, and shorter German, Japanese, and UK data, suggests the recent rise in the equity yield is accompanied by an uptick in inflation volatility relative to its recent tranquillity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper for the first time captures the impact of uncertain maintenance action times on vessel routing for realistic offshore wind farm problems. A novel methodology is presented to incorporate uncertainties, e.g., on the expected maintenance duration, into the decision-making process. Users specify the extent to which these unknown elements impact the suggested vessel routing strategy. If uncertainties are present, the tool outputs multiple vessel routing policies with varying likelihoods of success. To demonstrate the tool's capabilities, two case studies were presented. Firstly, simulations based on synthetic data illustrate that in a scenario with uncertainties, the cost-optimal solution is not necessarily the best choice for operators. Including uncertainties when calculating the vessel routing policy led to a 14% increase in the number of wind turbines maintained at the end of the day. Secondly, the tool was applied to a real-life scenario based on an offshore wind farm in collaboration with a United Kingdom (UK) operator. The results showed that the assignment of vessels to turbines generated by the tool matched the policy chosen by wind farm operators. By producing a range of policies for consideration, this tool provided operators with a structured and transparent method to assess trade-offs and justify decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]