International Research Laboratory Research Articles

Between double absence and transnational professional – the unrevealed side of scientific mobility

The paper concerns the situation of the majority of mobile scientists working in the international prestigious research laboratories in 21st century. I point out the lag between official communication about open access and democratic and fair selections which occur in scientific careers all the time and unspoken issues related with ethnical and national discrimination in the workplaces. The problem of ethnical discrimination is omitted in the sociological literature issue however, the ethnographic data provided from scientific laboratories indicates that the ethnicity and origin (as well as the nationality of scientist) play an important role. I employ in this paper the Abdelmalek Sayad’s concept of “double absence”, showing that the situation of “foreigner” scientists (majority of the PhD students and post-docs working abroad) is similar to other categories of migrants.

Competition for the Elements of the City Environment for Irkutsk’s Public Spaces: Street Furniture, Street Design

The article reviews the contest «Street furniture. Street design», which was held this summer by manufacturing company «PalpNord», International research laboratory of study and design of the urban environment «Urban Planning School» and the Union of Architects of Russia. The winners and their projects are also listed in the article.

Yrjö Tapio Konttinen 1952–2014

Yrjö Tapio Konttinen 1952–2014

First international inter-laboratory comparison of high-pressure CH4, CO2 and C2H6 sorption isotherms on carbonaceous shales

An inter-laboratory study of high-pressure gas sorption measurements on two carbonaceous shales has been conducted in order to assess the reproducibility of the sorption isotherms and identify possible sources of error. The measurements were carried out by seven international research laboratories using either in-house or commercial sorption equipment (manometric and gravimetric methods). Excess sorption isotherms for methane, carbon dioxide and ethane were measured at 65°C and at pressures up to 25MPa on two organic-rich shales in the dry state. The samples used in this study were taken from immature Posidonia shale (Germany) and over-mature Upper Chokier Formation (Belgium). Their total organic carbon (TOC) contents were 15.1% and 4.4% , respectively, and their vitrinite reflectance (VRr) values 0.5% and 2.0%.The objective of this study was to assess the reproducibility of sorption isotherms among laboratories each following their own measurement and data reduction procedures. All labs were asked to follow a predefined sample drying procedure prior to measurement in order to minimize any effects related to moisture. The reproducibility of the methane excess sorption isotherms was better for the high-maturity shale (within 0.02–0.03mmol/g) than for the low-maturity sample (up to 0.1mmol/g), similar to observations in earlier inter-laboratory studies on coals. The reproducibility for CO2 and C2H6 sorption isotherms was satisfactory at pressures below 5MPa, however, the results deviate considerably at higher pressures. Anomalies in the shape of the excess sorption isotherms were observed for CO2 and C2H6 and these are explained as being due to high sensitivity of gas density to temperature and pressure close to the critical point as well as from a limited measurement accuracy and possibly uncertainty in the equation of state (EoS).The low sorption capacity of carbonaceous shales (as compared to coals and activated carbons) sets very high demands on the accuracy of pressure and temperature measurement and precise temperature control. Furthermore, the sample treatment, measurement and data reduction procedures must be optimized in order to achieve satisfactory inter-laboratory consistency and accuracy. Systematic errors must be minimized first by calibrating the pressure and temperature sensors to high-quality standards. Blank sorption measurements with a non-sorbing sample (e.g. stainless steel) can be used to identify and quantitatively account for measuring artifacts resulting from unknown residual systematic errors or from the limited accuracy of the EoS. The possible sources of error causing the observed discrepancies are discussed.

Международные научно-исследовательские лаборатории в России: субъективная и объективная оценка результативности

Международные научно-исследовательские лаборатории - сравнительно новая для России форма организации научного сообщества. Они нацелены на привлечение в вузы ведущих иностранных специалистов и перспективных молодых ученых, способствуя наращиванию потенциала отечественной науки. В статье анализируется эффективность международных лабораторий в решении указанных задач по объективному (публикационная, патентная и иная научная активность) и субъективному (удовлетворенность трудом) критериям. Основными детерминантами эффективности выступают мотивация сотрудников, их вовлеченность в работу и ресурсное обеспечение. Каузальные связи и корреляции между пятью перечисленными переменными оцениваются при помощи авторской концептуальной модели, составленной с опорой на результаты предыдущих зарубежных и отечественных исследований, обзор которых приводится в работе. Информационной базой для анализа служил онлайн-опрос представителей международных лабораторий, проведенный во 2-м квартале 2012 г.Авторы характеризуют изучаемую выборку специалистов при помощи индексов и дескриптивных распределений, проводят факторный анализ мотивов с построением их типологии, а также тестируют концептуальную схему посредством моделирования структурными уравнениями.В результате факторного анализа выявлены четыре основных набора мотивов - фокус на получении научных результатов, практико-ориентированные материальные ценности, нацеленность на реальный сектор либо построение научной карьеры за рубежом.Моделирование структурными уравнениями в той или иной степени подтвердило исходные предположения авторов. Чем активнее сотрудники лаборатории вовлечены в ее проекты и чем больше их устраивает собственная работа, тем выше производительность. Однако сила влияния этих факторов сравнительно невелика. Оказалась справедливой и гипотеза о положительной связи между степенью удовлетворенности трудом и ресурсным обеспечением. Наконец, от вовлеченности работников напрямую зависят как объективные показатели, так и субъективные оценки результативности.

Full Scale Field Blast Tests on Reinforced Concrete Residential Buildings – From Theory to Practice

The spread of terror threats aimed against built up urban areas has grown considerably during the years and attracts the attention and concern of many countries. The severity and potential danger of an extreme blast event in an urban area and especially in the proximity of buildings was demonstrated most severely in past events. Many countries, including Israel, are facing different threats of war and terror. Therefore, the Israeli Home Front Command (IHFC) is continuously engaged in theoretical and experimental research activities that are related to the response of civilian buildings to these threats. This paper focuses on blast pressure which is a major effect of these threats. The experience gained in recent years, in relation to the structural response of RC buildings, with emphasis on residential buildings that are subjected to blast loads, can be very helpful in the development of improved requirements and guidelines for design of such buildings, aimed mainly at reducing of the damage, and taking measures for damage localization in an attempt to reduce the occurrence probability of a progressive collapse of these buildings. The aforementioned experiences combine lessons learnt from different accidental events with the results of continuous research on major topics of blast response, including theoretical and experimental studies. Controlled experimental studies in general and full scale field tests in particular are most important and educative in these aspects. This paper describes the basic ideas behind full scale field blast tests aimed at studying the blast resistance and the response of reinforced concrete residential buildings and of various structural and nonstructural components that are incorporated in these buildings. Producing controlled blast loads of different intensities in the vicinity of the tested buildings enables identification of the structural elements' response at different damage levels, as well as at their ultimate state. It also enables to follow the overall response of multistory buildings to blast loading and assess their vulnerability to progressive collapse. This paper aims at addressing the full scale field tests of buildings subjected to blast, discussing some basic concepts and presenting some full scale field blast tests that had been performed in recent years. These tests have been performed by the IHFC, in cooperation with the National Building Research Institute (NBRI) at Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and partly with international research laboratories partners. This presentation aims at providing some insight into full scale field blast tests in general with some emphasis on a 5 story reinforced concrete residential building that was heavily instrumented with more than 200 gauges, including pressure, acceleration and strain gauges. The measured signals provide valuable information on the dynamic response of the tested structure that can be compared with predictions of its response made by different computational tools. The main objective of the present paper is to overview the potential benefits of field blast tests and to describe the ongoing studies. The detailed description and in depth analysis of any single test is beyond the scope of this paper, and is a subject matter for complementary specific papers in this field of blast response of reinforced concrete structures.

Analyses of single- and two-phase flow pressure drops in helical pipes using a modified RELAP5 code

Thermal fluid dynamics analyses on single- and two-phase flows in helical pipes of steam generators to be used in Generation III and IV nuclear reactors have been performed. The study concerned with experimental activities as well code simulations carried out in the framework of a collaboration between the Department of Energetics of the Polytechnic of Torino and the Department of Energy of the University of Palermo. The goal was the validation of models implemented in Relap5/Mod3.2β thermal–hydraulic advanced code to simulate the hydrodynamic behaviour of helical pipe components in spite of the one-dimensional nature of the code. It is shown that much of the experimental data obtained at several national and international research laboratories are well predicted by this modified RELAP5 code for the examined helical pipe geometries.

International Health Regulations (2005) and the U.S. Department of Defense: building core capacities on a foundation of partnership and trust

A cornerstone of effective global health surveillance programs is the ability to build systems that identify, track and respond to public health threats in a timely manner. These functions are often difficult and require international cooperation given the rapidity with which diseases cross national borders and spread throughout the global community as a result of travel and migration by both humans and animals. As part of the U.S. Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center (AFHSC), the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Globa Emerging Infections Surveillance and Response System (AFHSC-GEIS) has developed a global network of surveillance sites over the past decade that engages in a wide spectrum of support activities in collaboration with host country partners. Many of these activities are in direct support of International Health Regulations (IHR[2005]). The network also supports host country military forces around the world, which are equally affected by these threats and are often in a unique position to respond in areas of conflict or during complex emergencies. With IHR(2005) as the guiding framework for action, the AFHSC-GEIS network of international partners and overseas research laboratories continues to develop into a far-reaching system for identifying, analyzing and responding to emerging disease threats.

Bacterial Protein Secretion and Trafficking Down Under

In July 2008, Australian microbiologists braved wintry Melbourne weather to attend the Annual Scientific Meeting of the Australian Society for Microbiology. The meeting attracted more than 1100 delegates from around the Asia–Pacific region and offered over 400 scientific presentations covering the latest research findings from leading local and international research and clinical laboratories. The theme of the meeting, ‘Changing Times’, highlighted the immense challenges ahead for the microbiology community in responding quickly and appropriately to often unpredictable environmental, political, public health and regulatory changes in the face of microbes that are changing just as rapidly. Keynote speakers addressed many of these issues within their presentations including Nobel Laureate, Peter Doherty (Department of Microbiology & Immunology, University of Melbourne, Australia) who delivered the opening address. Mike Levine (Center for Vaccine Development, Baltimore, USA) gave the Commonwealth Serum Laboratory-sponsored Bazeley Oration and used his invaluable clinical insight to discuss the history and future development of typhoid vaccines as well as the use of Salmonella as a vaccine carrier, and the construction and testing of new-generation Salmonella vaccines. Alan Cowman (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, Australia) gave the prestigious Rubbo Oration and presented a stunning overview of malaria biology as well as recent progress on mechanisms to control this devastating infectious disease. The meeting also hosted a special ‘Infection Control Day’, which comprised a series of workshops and presentations designed to draw attention to the problems of antibiotic resistance and the measures needed to reduce hospital-acquired infections and their transmission. In the area of microbial and molecular pathogenesis, a major topic of the meeting was the secretion of bacterial proteins and their trafficking within infected cells. There are now at least six recognized bacterial systems (Type I–VI) dedicated to the export of bacterial proteins that often play a direct role in the interaction of pathogens with their hosts. The study of these secretion systems and their substrates is therefore an essential part of understanding how a pathogen causes disease. In some cases, the export of a protein leads to the construction of zones within the bacterial membranes that serve as an adhesive organelle to contact host surfaces. In other cases, the secreted factors are translocated directly into a eukaryotic cell, where they interfere with host cell function. In this instance, a bacterial protein may need to cross two bacterial membranes and one or more mammalian cell membranes to reach a target site. The substrate specificity of secretion systems is remarkable and a single secretion system may be dedicated to a single substrate, only a few substrates or, in the case of Legionella, more than 150 proteins. Current work on the function of bacterial secretion systems and their substrates at the molecular and structural level is driven by the expectation of greater insight into how pathogens evolve and cause disease.

Hedgehogs, humans and high‐school science

The ‘Lisbon strategy’, adopted by the member states of the European Union (EU) in 2000, aims to make Europe the most dynamic and competitive knowledge‐based economy in the world by 2010. The overall aim is to increase the levels of investment that member states put into scientific research up to and beyond 3% of their Gross Domestic Product. Although this aim will certainly not be met in the expected timeframe, it is noble and important nonetheless. > …even if the members of the EU increase investment into research, it will be in vain if they do not also work to increase the number of researchers However, even if the members of the EU increase investment into research, it will be in vain if they do not also work to increase the number of researchers. Indeed, the current number of researchers per 100,000 citizens in the EU is considerably lower than the figure for the USA or Japan. As scientists, we have virtually no possibility to influence how much money our governments spend on research and development, but we can have a much more active role in making science a more attractive career option for young people—notably high‐school students. Various projects and initiatives in EU countries and the USA have sought to achieve this aim by forging closer links between schools and universities or research institutes. Here, we describe the Cus‐Mi‐Bio (Centre University School of Milan for Bioscience Education; www.cusmibio.unimi.it) project that was developed at the University of Milano, Italy. The project's aim is to raise the levels of interest and enthusiasm of high‐school students for the life sciences, and hopefully to attract some of them to a career in science. There are various negative perceptions of science that need to be overcome when persuading students that it is a worthy career …

Repetitive task indicator as a tool for assessment of upper limb musculoskeletal load induced by repetitive task

A unified repetitive task indicator (RTI) has been proposed, characterizing the upper limb load resulting from repetitive work. Within RTI, the work task is described using parameters which refer to the duration of particular sequences of the work cycle and force exerted, taking into account the posture of the upper limb. On the basis of theoretical and experimental studies, undertaken by the author and on the basis of results of experimental studies conducted in other international research laboratories, available in the literature, an analysis was conducted with the aim of developing and verifying the RTI. A comparison of the RTI with indicators of internal load was performed for eight published study cases. The experimental study cases used for verification purposes were conducted for various variants of load (various types and levels of the external force and duration of cycle periods) and for various physiological indicators of internal load. Strong correlations between RTI and indicators of internal load expressed by the unified indicator (IL), showed considerable credibility of the RTI. Results of the verification are noteworthy, given the wide range of cases examined, differing in terms of the conditions under which they were done, the population examined and internal load indicators used. Thus, this analysis indicates that the proposed RTI reflects well the upper limb load occurring as a result of performing repetitive work.

A lunar laboratory

An international research laboratory can be established on the Moon in the early years of the 21st Century. It can be built using the transportation system now envisioned by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, which includes a space station for Earth orbital logistics and orbital transfer vehicles for Earth-Moon transportation. A scientific laboratory on the Moon would permit extended surface and subsurface geological exploration; long-duration experiments defining the lunar environment and its modification by surface activity; new classes of observations in astronomy; space plasma and fundamental physics experiments; and lunar resource development. The discovery of a lunar source for propellants may reduce the cost of constructing large facilities in space and enhance other space programs such as Mars exploration.

Prenalterol

Cardiovascular Drug ReviewsVolume 2, Issue 1 p. 225-243 Free to Read Prenalterol Florence Foster Vickers, Florence Foster Vickers Department of Physiology, Hahnemann University, School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19102 Clinical Research International, Merck Sharp & Dohme Research Laboratories, P.O. Box 2000, Rahway, New Jersey 07065.Search for more papers by this author Florence Foster Vickers, Florence Foster Vickers Department of Physiology, Hahnemann University, School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19102 Clinical Research International, Merck Sharp & Dohme Research Laboratories, P.O. Box 2000, Rahway, New Jersey 07065.Search for more papers by this author First published: March 1984 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1527-3466.1984.tb00466.x AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Volume2, Issue1March 1984Pages 225-243 RelatedInformation

One Scientific World

Specific recommendations to Unesco for establishing international research laboratories have been made both by the National Research Council's Committee on Unesco and by a committee of experts in various scientific fields, which met at Unesco House in Paris last August. The laboratories would be under the United Nations. Both bodies have suggested strongly that an international computation center be founded, and the NRC committee has issued a report containing excerpts from a subcommittee's more detailed memorandum on the subject.

Mr. F. C. Thompson

FREDERICK CHARLES THOMPSON, lecturer in the Leather Industries Department and research assistant in the Procter International Research Laboratory of the University of Leeds, died on September 4 at the age of forty-six years. He received his early education in a Leeds secondary school and then followed the honours course in pure chemistry at the University of Leeds, graduating in 1911. Two years later he obtained an honours degree in the chemistry of leather manufacture, and in the same year was appointed to the staff of the Leather Industries Department as assistant lecturer and demonstrator under the late Prof. H. R. Procter.