Frost cracking, the breakdown of rock by freezing, is one of the most important mechanical weathering processes acting on Earth's surface. Insights on the mechanisms driving frost cracking stem mainly from laboratory and theoretical studies. Transferring insights from such studies to natural conditions, involving jointed bedrock and heterogeneous thermal and hydrological properties, is a major challenge. We address this problem with simultaneous in situ measurements of acoustic emissions, used as proxy of rock damage, and rock temperature/moisture content. The 1 year data set acquired in an Alpine rock wall shows that (1) liquid water content has an important impact on freezing-induced rock damage, (2) sustained freezing can yield much stronger damage than repeated freeze-thaw cycling, and (3) that frost cracking occurs over the full range of temperatures measured extending from 0 down to -15°C. These new measurements yield a slightly different picture than previous field studies where ice segregation appears to play an important role. Key PointsRock liquid water content has an important impact on the freezing-induced damageSustained freezing can yield stronger damage than repeated freeze-thaw cyclingFrost cracking occurs on a wide range of temperatures extending from 0 to -15C
Building Performance Simulation (BPS) is a powerful tool to estimate and reduce building energy consumption at the design stage. However, the true potential of BPS remains unrealized if trial and error simulation methods are practiced to identify combinations of parameters to reduce energy use of design alternatives. Optimization algorithms coupled with BPS is a process-orientated tool which identifies optimal building configurations using conflicting performance indicators. However, the application of optimization approaches to building design is not common practice due to time and computation requirements. This paper proposes a hybrid evolutionary algorithm which uses information gained during previous simulations to expedite and improve algorithm convergence using targeted deterministic searches. This technique is applied to a net-zero energy home case study to optimize trade-offs in passive solar gains and active solar generation using a cost constraint.
Social defeat in mice is a potent stressor that promotes the development of depressive- and anxiety-like behaviours, as well as variations of neuroendocrine and brain neurotransmitter activity. Although environmental enrichment may protect against some of the adverse behavioural and biological effects of social defeat, it seems that, among male group-housed mice maintained in an enriched environment (EE), aggressive behaviours may be more readily instigated, thus promoting distress and exacerbating psychopathological features. Thus, although an EE can potentially have numerous beneficial effects, these may depend on the general conditions in which mice were raised. It was observed in the current investigations that EE group-housed BALB/cByJ mice displayed increased anxiety-like behaviours compared to their counterparts maintained in a standard environment (SE). Furthermore, in response to social defeat, EE group-housed male mice exhibited decreased weight gain, exaggerated corticosterone elevations and altered hippocampal norepinephrine utilization compared to their SE counterparts. These effects were not apparent in the individually housed EE mice and, in fact, enrichment among these mice appeared to buffer against serotonin changes induced by social defeat. It is possible that some potentially beneficial effects of enrichment were precluded among group-housed mice, possibly owing to social disturbances that might occur in these conditions. In fact, even if social interaction is an essential feature of enrichment, it seems that some of the positive effects of this housing condition might be optimal when mice are housed individually, particularly with regard to buffering the effects of social defeat.
Let P be a simple polygon with m vertices and let be a set of n points in P. We consider the points of to be users. We consider a game with two players and. In this game, places a point facility inside P, after which places another point facility inside P. We say that a user is served by its nearest facility, where distances are measured by the geodesic distance in P. The objective of each player is to maximize the number of users they serve. We show that for any given placement of a facility by, an optimal placement for can be computed in O(m + n(logn + logm)) time. We also provide a polynomial-time algorithm for computing an optimal placement for.
In this work we discuss our efforts to use the ubiquity of smart phone systems and the mobility they provide to stream historical information about your current place on the earth to the end user. We propose the concept of timescapes to portray this historical significance of where they are standing and allow a brief travel through time. By combining GPS location, with a rich media interpretation of existing historical documents, historical facts become an on-demand resource available to travellers, school children, historians and any interested 3rd party. To our knowledge this is the first introduction of the term timescape to be used in the context of historical information pull. Copyright
In this paper we propose a method and a tool to generate test suites from extended finite state machines, accounting for multiple (potentially conflicting) objectives. We aim at maximizing coverage and feasibility of a test suite while minimizing similarity between its test cases and minimizing overall cost. Therefore, we define a multi-objective genetic algorithm that searches for optimal test suites based on four objective functions. In doing so, we create an entire test suite at once as opposed to test cases one at a time. Our approach is evaluated on two different case studies, showing interesting initial results.
Design by Contract (DbC) is a software development methodology that focuses on clearly defining the interfaces between components to produce better quality object-oriented software. The idea behind DbC is that a method defines a contract stating the requirements a client needs to fulfill to use it, the precondition, and the properties it ensures after its execution, the postcondition. Though there exists ample support for DbC for sequential programs, applying DbC to concurrent programs presents several challenges. Using Java as the target programming language, this paper tackles such challenges by augmenting the Java Modelling Language (JML) and modifying the JML compiler to generate Runtime Assertion Checking (RAC) code to support DbC in concurrent programs. We applied our solution in a carefully designed case study on a highly concurrent industrial software system from the telecommunications domain to assess the effectiveness of contracts as test oracles in detecting and diagnosing functional faults in concurrent software. Based on these results, clear and objective requirements are defined for contracts to be effective test oracles for concurrent programs whilst balancing the effort to design them. Main results include that contracts of a realistic level of completeness and complexity can detect around 76% of faults and reduce the diagnosis effort for such faults by at least ten times. We, therefore, show that DbC can not only be applied to concurrent software but can also be a valuable tool to improve the economics of software engineering.
Resource Description and Access is the new content standard coming Spring 2013, with national libraries using RDA effective March 30, 2013. Libraries need to address training for staff in all departments on how to interpret, catalogue and use RDA records.
What happens in a department when one introduces EBLIP into the daily workflow? The researcher reflects on the challenges and rewards of the first year as a Collections Assessment Librarian, a newly created position in the library.
Completed for: Community Opportunity & Innovation Network (COIN), Supervising Professor: Tom Whillans; Trent Centre for Community-Based Education
Abstract:
The Trent Centre for Community Based Education (TCCBE) brought together graduate students from Trent University’s Sustainability Studies Masters program with Peterborough’s Community Opportunity & Innovation Network (COIN), to collaborate on a community based research project for the Peterborough Centre for Social Innovation (PCSI). This workshop report outlines phase one's literature review on social innovation governance and strategies, workshop results and discussion, as well as recommendations and the conclusions of this community-based research.
Completed for: Community Opportunity & Innovation Network (COIN) Supervising Professor: Tom Whillans Trent Centre for Community-Based Education
Abstract:
Abstract: This workshop implemented SAS2 community-based research methods to facilitate direction for the Peterborough Centre for Social Innovation (PCSI) on their governance, operations, collaborations and finance strategies during their pilot project. The results will be used to provide direction on the selection of two or three case studies for interview to understand how successful social innovation organizations have connected to the community need. The results of the governance models workshop demonstrated that the PCSI should remain flexible to be reactive to the environment as many participants supported a hybrid governance and collaboration model. In addition, the operation and collaboration workshop showed that there was strong support for work space, kitchen space and programming that would provide outreach opportunities to the community. Facilitating a locally-focused social innovation centre was also a key foundation for the participants. This workshop report outlines phase one's literature review on social innovation governance and strategies, workshop results and discussion, as well as recommendations and the conclusions of this community-based research.
Prepared by Sara Fralin,Andreina Pulido and Elizabeth Teleki
Completed for: Trent Centre for Community-Based Education : Supervising Professor: Nadine Changfoot
Abstract:
The Community First: Impacts of Community Engagement (CFICE) is a Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) funded research project designed to provide insights into how post-secondary institutions and community partners can establish and maintain successful relationships that ultimately maximize the value created for non-profit organizations. CFICE is organized into five self-managing research hubs; the focus of this report is the Peterborough and Haliburton section of the Community Environmental Sustainability (CES) hub. Hub members participated in interviews and a focus group to discuss the results of four first year demonstration projects. For the most part, results were favourable, especially for community-based organizations, who pointed to a high level of influence and a number of net gains such as increased capacity and the development of valuable resources. A notable finding was the important role of community-university bridging organizations, U-Links and the Trent Centre for Community-Based Education. Participants identified both organizations as a critical ingredient to the smooth functioning of demonstration projects. Challenges participants identified included delay of grant funds, delayed ethics approval and university resistance to community-based research projects in some areas.