Action Limit Research Articles

Forecasting Dose from Unobserved Times: Case Study of Transient Workers at a Nuclear Power Plant.

To evaluate the likelihood of exceeding the occupational exposure limit (OEL) for annual ionizing radiation doses among transient workers at the Hope Creek Nuclear Generating Station, and to propose a method for forecasting exposures among transient workers in general. We obtained personal dosimeter data from the Hope Creek Nuclear Generating Station for the period of January-December 2014, comprising 1955 monthly dose measurements from 498 transient workers. The majority of the transient workers (96%) did not report 12 months of data. The missing months indicate that transient workers may receive ionizing radiation doses at other nuclear power plants throughout the year. We estimated the likelihood of a worker exceeding the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's annual OEL of 5000 mrem. To do so, we had to account both for left-censored data below the limit of detection (27% of all measurements) and make assumptions about doses received during months not employed at the facility. We used a maximum likelihood estimation method for non-detected measurements that accounted for repeated measurements on an individual. To account for missing months of measurements, we considered two extreme scenarios: the best case of workers who receive zero exposures outside of the Hope Creek, and the illustrative worst case of workers who receive multiple exposures at other nuclear power plants with similar exposure scenarios to Hope Creek. We employed a bootstrap procedure to forecast annual personal doses under both scenarios, while imputing non-detected measurements. None of the workers' reported measurements exceeded the OEL. Bootstrapped annual exposure doses revealed similar patterns, with a very small likelihood of exceeding the OEL, but great potential for variability. Some workers under the best-case scenario may reach Hope Creek's 2000 mrem internal action limit if exposed at the 98th percentile of their projected annual dose. This scenario becomes more likely when assuming that a worker received doses at other nuclear power plants besides Hope Creek throughout the year. The Hope Creek Nuclear Generating Station appears to be typical of its industry peers in terms of annual ionizing radiation doses, which makes it a good test subject for predicting worker doses received elsewhere. Transient workers may receive doses at more than one nuclear power plant throughout the year, which makes them especially at risk for overexposure. The presence of internal plant monitoring systems and the use of tools such as bootstrapping to predict compliance are therefore important for health protection. An argument can also be made for better tracking of exposures in real time of transient workers across facilities. Our method applies to transient workers in any industry for whom exposure assessment is complicated by gaps in exposure histories and records.

Producing the common goodPhilanthropic investment practices in 20th century Denmark

Since the beginning of the 1990’s, civil society has attracted both scholarly and political interest as the ‘third sphere’ outside the state and the market, strongly amplified by the sectorial conceptualization of state, market and civil society. In contrast, this article shows that civil society is and have never been a pre-existing location separated from state and market. Its boundaries are constantly produced through practices interweaving political, economic and moral components. This will be studied through an exemplary Danish historical case of the Egmont Foundation 1920-2014. The study shows how different and changing philanthropic investments practices took part in producing a distinction between state, market and civil society by demarcating categories of deserving and undeserving needy as part of the “common good” through changing donation practices and organisational forms. As a consequence, we can trace ongoing re-distributions of power relations in society over time. The developing of a post-sectorial concept of civil society is two-fold; First, by showing how political, economic and moral components are interlinked through the negotiation of the “common” and the “good”. Second, by showing how these interlinks and transgression constantly re-distribute power relations in society and in turn creates possibilities and limits for actions both in past, present and future.

Acquisitive Prescription and Limitation Periods Regarding Movable Property

This article will concentrate on Dutch law and US law. It will address the question how these legal systems treat prescription and limitation of actions regarding movable property. The central questions will be, first, whether prescription should run against an owner who cannot prevent the prescription or limitation period from running against him or her, and, second, what the disadvantages are if a possessor/defendant cannot rely on a limitation period or acquisitive prescription against a plaintiff.

Mapping the noise in a Greek general hospital

Sound pressure levels were monitored in a general hospital, in Greece, at ten indoor locations and at three outdoor locations, in the yard of the building. The selected indoor locations are representative of distinct activities that are common in every hospital, such as the emergency department, patient wards and several supporting services, like washing the clothes or the dishes. Noise levels were highly variable in each monitoring location and depended on the activities in the room, such as conversations, medical equipment in use, analytical devices or other machinery in operation. The highest noise levels that were recorded were in the blood donation unit and in the laundry room (the L10,8h was 73 and 79 dB(A) respectively), mainly due to the opening/closing of the metal lids of garbage bins in the first location and due to the wringing of the clothes in the second. Indoor background noise levels i.e. the L95,8h values, were more than 55 dB(A) and higher than the respective outdoor values (except of the L95,8h in one ward of the paediatric ward). The calculated average LEX, 8h was 69.3 dB(A), below the European Union lower exposure action limit value, i.e. 87 dB(A), that was set to prevent hearing loss of the employees. However, noise levels in the wards, in the emergency and the outpatient department were above the values suggested by international guidelines for a healing environment. Sound spectra revealed peaks in frequencies that were representative of the sources of the noise and also the presence of low frequency noise components.

Updated quantitative risk assessment (QRA) of the BSE risk posed by processed animal protein (PAP).

EFSA was requested: to assess the impact of a proposed quantitative real‐time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) ‘technical zero’ on the limit of detection of official controls for constituents of ruminant origin in feed, to review and update the 2011 QRA, and to estimate the cattle bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) risk posed by the contamination of feed with BSE‐infected bovine‐derived processed animal protein (PAP), should pig PAP be re‐authorised in poultry feed and vice versa, using both light microscopy and ruminant qPCR methods, and action limits of 100, 150, 200, 250 and 300 DNA copies. The current qPCR cannot discriminate between legitimately added bovine material and unauthorised contamination, or determine if any detected ruminant material is associated with BSE infectivity. The sensitivity of the surveillance for the detection of material of ruminant origin in feed is currently limited due to the heterogeneous distribution of the material, practicalities of sampling and test performance. A ‘technical zero’ will further reduce it. The updated model estimated a total BSE infectivity four times lower than that estimated in 2011, with less than one new case of BSE expected to arise each year. In the hypothetical scenario of a whole carcass of an infected cow entering the feed chain without any removal of specified risk material (SRM) or reduction of BSE infectivity via rendering, up to four new cases of BSE could be expected at the upper 95th percentile. A second model estimated that at least half of the feed containing material of ruminant origin will not be detected or removed from the feed chain, if an interpretation cut‐off point of 100 DNA copies or more is applied. If the probability of a contaminated feed sample increased to 5%, with an interpretation cut‐off point of 300 DNA copies, there would be a fourfold increase in the proportion of all produced feed that is contaminated but not detected.

Narrating the future: A distentive capability approach to strategic foresight

Strategic foresight encompasses thinking and organizing differently within the contingencies of the present in ways that is mindful of the unpredictable future. Building on the Ricoeurian notion of distentio- ‘the stretching of consciousness through simultaneous attention to memory and expectation’, we develop the concept of distentive capability as a spatio-temporal process of ‘way-finding’ that sustains the creative emergence of strategic foresight across multiple time horizons. Emphasizing narratives as the site of strategic foresight, we draw on tropes taken from three of the most popular speeches delivered by Steve Jobs, the American information technology entrepreneur, inventor and founder of Apple Inc. to illustrate how distentive capability as played out in the reassembling of the past, the present and the future, stretched out in time, may contribute to the identification of potentialities and limits for strategic action. Implication for the theory and practice of strategic foresight are presented.

Happiness and freedom in direct action: critical mass bike rides as ecstatic ritual, play, and temporary autonomous zones

ABSTRACTMost leisure research does not consider collective action and social change, while most social movement research overlooks carnivality and spontaneity. A counter-example is the alternative bicycling movement critical mass (CM), a rebellious, liberatory leisure and cultural event. CM is goal-oriented and a libidinal expression of participant desire. This paper investigates CM’s production of happiness and freedom via three heterodox theories. Ecstatic rituals are repetitive, cathartic collective events that people engage in to express joy and flaunt convention. Political theories of play interpret individual’s physically-embodied, creative, and performative actions. Temporary autonomous zones are spatial locations of resistance to authority that evade state detection and suppression. CM – unlike standard bike races or conventional movement protest – transcends the limitations of physical exercise, lackadaisical leisure, and militant direct action. Instead it is a hybrid form of collective action, combining premeditated ritual, rebellious play, and mobile freedom-seeking.

Multisource Transfer Double DQN Based on Actor Learning.

Deep reinforcement learning (RL) comprehensively uses the psychological mechanisms of "trial and error" and "reward and punishment" in RL as well as powerful feature expression and nonlinear mapping in deep learning. Currently, it plays an essential role in the fields of artificial intelligence and machine learning. Since an RL agent needs to constantly interact with its surroundings, the deep Q network (DQN) is inevitably faced with the need to learn numerous network parameters, which results in low learning efficiency. In this paper, a multisource transfer double DQN (MTDDQN) based on actor learning is proposed. The transfer learning technique is integrated with deep RL to make the RL agent collect, summarize, and transfer action knowledge, including policy mimic and feature regression, to the training of related tasks. There exists action overestimation in DQN, i.e., the lower probability limit of action corresponding to the maximum Q value is nonzero. Therefore, the transfer network is trained by using double DQN to eliminate the error accumulation caused by action overestimation. In addition, to avoid negative transfer, i.e., to ensure strong correlations between source and target tasks, a multisource transfer learning mechanism is applied. The Atari2600 game is tested on the arcade learning environment platform to evaluate the feasibility and performance of MTDDQN by comparing it with some mainstream approaches, such as DQN and double DQN. Experiments prove that MTDDQN achieves not only human-like actor learning transfer capability, but also the desired learning efficiency and testing accuracy on target task.

Dioxin-like Compounds in Lake Fish Species: Evaluation by DR-CALUX Bioassay

Fish consumption is the principal source of intake of organochlorinated compounds in humans. Compared with other types of foods of animal origin, fish contain the highest levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polychlorinated dibenzo- p-dioxins, and polychlorinated dibenzofurans, all of which are classified as highly toxic organochlorine compounds. Currently, lakes and fish farms in northern Italy are not regularly monitored for PCBs and dioxins in areas contaminated by industrial sources, partially because of the high costs of traditional analytical methods that limit the number of samples to be analyzed. The DR-CALUX cell bioassay is based on the uptake of the cellular aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) for dioxins and dioxin-like compounds. The aim of this study was to assess the levels of dioxins and dioxin-like PCB contamination in Lake Maggiore and Lake Como, two lakes in northwestern Italy, and in nearby areas. The levels were quantified using the cell bioassay DR-CALUX and reference controls in two wild fish species, perch ( Perca fluviatilis) and roach ( Rutilus rutilus), and in a farmed species, rainbow trout ( Oncorhynchus mykiss). Tissue samples collected from the farmed rainbow trout were also submitted to immunohistochemical analysis of CYP1A expression as a marker for environmental pollutant-induced liver damage. The levels of dioxins, furans, and dioxin-like PCBs were all below the maximum levels and action limits set by European Union Regulation, suggesting no risk for human health associated with the consumption of the fish species caught or farmed in these areas.

Noxious geopolitics, festering populaces and transmutable pasts: reframing the limits of acceptable politics through European refugee crises

ABSTRACTPavlovich's article sheds light on how recent interventions in Libya and Syria have facilitated a mass influx of Others in Europe (that is, refugees, migrants and asylum-seekers from the Middle East and Africa), thereby exacerbating already-existing frustrations and anxieties among local populations. This scenario is prompting many Europeans to look to their own collective pasts—through the prism of the present—where they find meaning in far-right, nationalist or populist narratives. These narratives are then used to legitimate political platforms that threaten the foundations of a multi-ethnic, multiracial and multiconfessional cosmopolitan society. Applying insights gleaned from ethnographic fieldwork in the Balkans, Pavlovich sheds light on how geopolitical manoeuvrings have sparked refugee crises, and subsequently impacted local politics across Europe. Ultimately, foreign intervention, refugee crises and the rise of right-leaning populism can be utilized as a heuristic prism to better understand the processes of social and political transformation in Europe. The lessons that can be learned import a sense of gravity in facing the future, given that the bounds and limits of international order and acceptable political action that were shaped in the post-Second World War era are becoming unhinged.

Between Leibniz and Kant: The Political Thought of Wilhelm von Humboldt

In his early text, The Limits of State Action, Wilhelm von Humboldt raises the Kantian question of the permissibility and legitimate extent of political and juridical coercion, as his contribution to a debate amongst Kantians launched by the publication in 1785 of Kant’s Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals. In arguing for a minimal state, concerned exclusively with internal and external security of its members but not at all with their felicity, Humboldt inflects Kantian political thought in the direction of a liberal laissez-faire state, in marked contrast to the strong interventionism that his fellow-Kantian Fichte derived from similar Kantian grounds. The article argues that the underlying conception of the individual retained by Humboldt has markedly Leibnizian traits, namely the notion of freedom as the spontaneous unfolding of a highly personal, monadic developmental trajectory toward perfection, which ought not to be impeded or homogenized by unnecessary state intervention. Humboldt thus represents not only a ‘rightist’ libertarian reading of Kant, but a particular appropriation of significant Leibnizian themes. His combination of these sources is compared with that of other contemporary theorists like Hufeland and Fichte.

Managing Clinical Heterogeneity: An Argument for Benefit-Based Action Limits

The use of reference ranges is well established in medical practice and research. Classically, a range would be derived from the local healthy population and matched in age, gender, and other characteristics to the patients under investigation. However, recruiting suitable controls is problematic and the derivation of the range by excluding 2.5% at each end of the distribution results in 5% of the values being arbitrarily discarded. Thus, the traditional reference range is derived using statistical and not clinical principles. While these considerations are recognized by clinicians, it is often not realized that the application of whole population derived reference ranges to complex pathologies that comprise patient subgroups may be problematic. Such subgroups may be identified by phenotypes including genetic etiology, variations in exposure to a causative agent, and tumor site. In this review, we provide examples of how subgroups can be identified in diverse pathologies and how better management can be achieved using evidence-based action limits rather than reference ranges. We give examples from our clinical experience of problems arising from using the wrong reference ranges for the clinical situation. Identifying subgroups will often enable clinicians to derive specific action limits for treatment that will lead to customized management and researchers a route into the study of complex pathologies.

Исковая давность при разрешении споров о защите прав на результаты интеллектуальной деятельности и средства индивидуализации

Исковая давность при разрешении споров о защите прав на результаты интеллектуальной деятельности и средства индивидуализации

Market Exposure and the Labour Process: The Contradictory Dynamics in Managing Subcontracted Services Work

Marketization of the employment relationship is a key causal factor explaining the adverse impact of subcontracting low-wage services on employment conditions. This article extends existing sociological theory by analysing the market-making and rule-breaking roles of client and subcontractor firms through qualitative data. It finds that client organizations construct different types and temporalities of marketized cost pressures, that clients and subcontractors exploit their power advantage over labour to evade institutional rules and that labour process and reputational concerns impose a degree of moderation towards socially desirable outcomes. The theoretical framework ‘unpacks’ marketization by distinguishing the interplay between contracts, regulation and labour process requirements as shaped by clients and subcontractors. In the UK cleaning sector, the potentially positive effects of client and subcontractor actions on employment conditions are marginal, focused on non-pay aspects and introduced primarily for reputational reasons. The evidence indicates the limits of voluntary action and the need for regulation.

EXISTE UMA POLÍTICA NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO REGIONAL NO BRASIL

This study analyzes the National Regional Development Policy – PNDR, which completed, in 2017, ten years of its institutionalization. Discusses this policy from its basic premises and theoretical conception. Points out the difficulties for its implementation within the Brazilian Federation landmarks and the action limits of the State, especially due to the absence of a national development project. Concludes with the need to rethink the regional policy as a life reproduction instrument and not for the capital accumulation, overcoming the contradictions presented by the PNDR.

Законодательное определение понятий «срок» и «исковая давность» стран бывшего СССР

Законодательное определение понятий «срок» и «исковая давность» стран бывшего СССР

Image‐guided radiotherapy quality control: Statistical process control using image similarity metrics

The purpose of this study was to demonstrate an objective quality control framework for the image review process. A total of 927 cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) registrations were retrospectively analyzed for 33 bilateral head and neck cancer patients who received definitive radiotherapy. Two registration tracking volumes (RTVs) - cervical spine (C-spine) and mandible - were defined, within which a similarity metric was calculated and used as a registration quality tracking metric over the course of treatment. First, sensitivity to large misregistrations was analyzed for normalized cross-correlation (NCC) and mutual information (MI) in the context of statistical analysis. The distribution of metrics was obtained for displacements that varied according to a normal distribution with standard deviation of σ = 2 mm, and the detectability of displacements greater than 5 mm was investigated. Then, similarity metric control charts were created using a statistical process control (SPC) framework to objectively monitor the image registration and review process. Patient-specific control charts were created using NCC values from the first five fractions to set a patient-specific process capability limit. Population control charts were created using the average of the first five NCC values for all patients in the study. For each patient, the similarity metrics were calculated as a function of unidirectional translation, referred to as the effective displacement. Patient-specific action limits corresponding to 5 mm effective displacements were defined. Furthermore, effective displacements of the ten registrations with the lowest similarity metrics were compared with a three dimensional (3DoF) couch displacement required to align the anatomical landmarks. Normalized cross-correlation identified suboptimal registrations more effectively than MI within the framework of SPC. Deviations greater than 5 mm were detected at 2.8σ and 2.1σ from the mean for NCC and MI, respectively. Patient-specific control charts using NCC evaluated daily variation and identified statistically significant deviations. This study also showed that subjective evaluations of the images were not always consistent. Population control charts identified a patient whose tracking metrics were significantly lower than those of other patients. The patient-specific action limits identified registrations that warranted immediate evaluation by an expert. When effective displacements in the anterior-posterior direction were compared to 3DoF couch displacements, the agreement was ±1 mm for seven of 10 patients for both C-spine and mandible RTVs. Qualitative review alone of IGRT images can result in inconsistent feedback to the IGRT process. Registration tracking using NCC objectively identifies statistically significant deviations. When used in conjunction with the current image review process, this tool can assist in improving the safety and consistency of the IGRT process.

Tolerance limits and methodologies for IMRT measurement-based verification QA: Recommendations of AAPM Task Group No. 218.

Patient-specific IMRT QA measurements are important components of processes designed to identify discrepancies between calculated and delivered radiation doses. Discrepancy tolerance limits are neither well defined nor consistently applied across centers. The AAPM TG-218 report provides a comprehensive review aimed at improving the understanding and consistency of these processes as well as recommendations for methodologies and tolerance limits in patient-specific IMRT QA. The performance of the dose difference/distance-to-agreement (DTA) and γ dose distribution comparison metrics are investigated. Measurement methods are reviewed and followed by a discussion of the pros and cons of each. Methodologies for absolute dose verification are discussed and new IMRT QA verification tools are presented. Literature on the expected or achievable agreement between measurements and calculations for different types of planning and delivery systems are reviewed and analyzed. Tests of vendor implementations of the γ verification algorithm employing benchmark cases are presented. Operational shortcomings that can reduce the γ tool accuracy and subsequent effectiveness for IMRT QA are described. Practical considerations including spatial resolution, normalization, dose threshold, and data interpretation are discussed. Published data on IMRT QA and the clinical experience of the group members are used to develop guidelines and recommendations on tolerance and action limits for IMRT QA. Steps to check failed IMRT QA plans are outlined. Recommendations on delivery methods, data interpretation, dose normalization, the use of γ analysis routines and choice of tolerance limits for IMRT QA are made with focus on detecting differences between calculated and measured doses via the use of robust analysis methods and an in-depth understanding of IMRT verification metrics. The recommendations are intended to improve the IMRT QA process and establish consistent, and comparable IMRT QA criteria among institutions.

BUFFER SOLUTIONS BASED ON GLYCINE

The acid-base interaction in the Gly-NaOH-H2O and Gly-monoethanolamine (MEA) – H2O systems was studied by pH-metric method in the temperature range 293-313 K. The ionmolecular composition of the Gly-NaOH-H2O system was calculated, the dissociation concentration constants for the second stage of the Gly at the isoelectric point, and the temperature dependences of ΔG, ΔH and ΔS of the indicated process at the isoelectrical point (μ= 4.94 ∙ 10-3 M) in the 293-313 K region were determined. It is shown Gly in aqueous solutions to exist at the ratio CNaOH / QGly <0.5 mainly in the zwitterion form. The content of the NH2CH2COO- anion is directly proportional to the CNaOH/QGly ratio. According to the calculated data, the functional dependence ΔG = f (T) for Gly passes through a maximum at Textr. ≈292 K. The Gly dissociation process in the isoelectric point is endothermic in the temperature range 293 – 313 K. Enthalpy-entropy compensation is noted, for which the isothermodynamic temperature is 303 K, and the free term is 56.8 kJ/mol. The pH limits of the buffer action are determined and the buffer capacity of these systems is estimated. It has been established that effective buffer zones of aqueous solutions of Gly allow to maintain acidity in the physiological pH range and temperature range 308 – 313 K. It is shown that the buffer capacity of the Gly-NaOH-H2O and Gly-MEA-H2O systems can be varied within the limits 1∙10-3 - 4∙10-2 М and 5∙10-4 - 5∙10-2 М, respectively, changing the ratio CNaOH/QGly (CNaOH/QMEA) and temperature. The obtained data on the buffer capacity of the Gly-NaOH-H2O and Gly-MEA-H2O systems can be used in chemical analysis, microbiological and biochemical studies, and the acidity data of the solutions studied can simulate for the chemisorption of acid gases (CO2 and SO2).

Covariant Structure of Models of Geophysical Fluid Motion.

Geophysical models approximate classical fluid motion in rotating frames. Even accurate approximations can have profound consequences, such as the loss of inertial frames. If geophysical fluid dynamics are not strictly equivalent to Newtonian hydrodynamics observed in a rotating frame, what kind of dynamics are they? We aim to clarify fundamental similarities and differences between relativistic, Newtonian, and geophysical hydrodynamics, using variational and covariant formulations as tools to shed the necessary light. A space-time variational principle for the motion of a perfect fluid is introduced. The geophysical action is interpreted as a synchronous limit of the relativistic action. The relativistic Levi-Civita connection also has a finite synchronous limit, which provides a connection with which to endow geophysical space-time, generalizing Cartan (1923). A covariant mass-momentum budget is obtained using covariance of the action and metric-preserving properties of the connection. Ultimately, geophysical models are found to differ from the standard compressible Euler model only by a specific choice of a metric-Coriolis-geopotential tensor akin to the relativistic space-time metric. Once this choice is made, the same covariant mass-momentum budget applies to Newtonian and all geophysical hydrodynamics, including those models lacking an inertial frame. Hence, it is argued that this mass-momentum budget provides an appropriate, common fundamental principle of dynamics. The postulate that Euclidean, inertial frames exist can then be regarded as part of the Newtonian theory of gravitation, which some models of geophysical hydrodynamics slightly violate.