Regression is a fundamental prediction task common in data-centric engineering applications that involves learning mappings between continuous variables. In many engineering applications (e.g., structural health monitoring), feature-label pairs used to learn such mappings are of limited availability, which hinders the effectiveness of traditional supervised machine learning approaches. This paper proposes a methodology for overcoming the issue of data scarcity by combining active learning (AL) for regression with hierarchical Bayesian modeling. AL is an approach for preferentially acquiring feature-label pairs in a resource-efficient manner. In particular, the current work adopts a risk-informed approach that leverages contextual information associated with regression-based engineering decision-making tasks (e.g., inspection and maintenance). Hierarchical Bayesian modeling allow multiple related regression tasks to be learned over a population, capturing local and global effects. The information sharing facilitated by this modeling approach means that information acquired for one engineering system can improve predictive performance across the population. The proposed methodology is demonstrated using an experimental case study. Specifically, multiple regressions are performed over a population of machining tools, where the quantity of interest is the surface roughness of the workpieces. An inspection and maintenance decision process is defined using these regression tasks, which is in turn used to construct the active-learning algorithm. The novel methodology proposed is benchmarked against an uninformed approach to label acquisition and independent modeling of the regression tasks. It is shown that the proposed approach has superior performance in terms of expected cost—maintaining predictive performance while reducing the number of inspections required.

The concept of Health Systems is ubiquitous in the healthcare literature. However, the question ‘what is a Health System’ is not easy to answer. The emerging field of Health Systems Design is by nature multi-disciplinary, involving several disciplines with different ontological commitments and diverse perspectives and interpretations of health and system. To avoid confusions in communication and facilitate engagement between the design and health communities, it is important to begin an open exploration of the fundamental concepts of Health Systems. This paper is a first step in that endeavour

Designing accessible and inclusive buildings is essential if they are to provide enjoyable and inspiring experiences for all their occupants. Research revealed that many architectural design professionals perceive a lack of awareness of the aspects to consider when designing to be a limiting factor in the uptake of Inclusive Design. By involving expert stakeholders this study provides evidence for the demand to create an Inclusive Design Canvas, a strategic design template offering an educational springboard for building industry professionals to embed Inclusive Design in the design process.

In an increasingly interconnected world, changes of uncertain nature and impact affect the functioning of human societies that depend on health, ecological, and economic systems. The proposed framework for systems-of-systems resilience explains ways of accommodating and responding to these challenges while encompassing the interfaces of the health, environment, and economy domains and their effect on communities. Resilience is defined as a continuous process and we distinguish between four system properties, five resilience capacities, and a variety of system activities.

Characterising a socio-technical system by its underlying structure is often achieved by cluster analyses and bears potentials for engineering design management. Yet, highly connected systems lack clarity when systematically searching for structures. At two stages in a clustering procedure (pre-processing and post-processing) modelled and external information were used to reduce ambiguity and uncertainty of clustering results. A holistic decision making on 1) which information, 2) when, and 3) how to use is discussed and considered inevitable to reliably cluster highly connected systems.

Anomalous coronary arteries from the pulmonary artery are uncommon causes of heart failure in the adult population. This case demonstrates the unusual presentation in a patient with anomalous right coronary artery from the pulmonary artery and discusses the complex pathophysiology of this lesion and the role of guideline-directed medical therapy in the management of these patients.

A central part of the design process is collaboration, harnessing specialist expertise often in meetings. We understand relatively little about how meetings serve teams of designers and their work and this study uses soft systems methodology to attempt to create structures that describe and explain meetings. The results suggest extension of the boundary of interest and suggest a conceptual framework which reveals some under-addressed stages and activities which may help designers improve their meetings.

Healthcare systems are under strain, this creates a challenge for designers to develop solutions for better health and care delivery. This paper presents a sandbox of illustrative design themes used to improve health systems based on state of the art research projects. These were collated from presentations at The Second International Meeting on Healthcare Systems Design Research, held at DTU-Technical University of Denmark. Attending groups were mapped based on their research keywords, target journals and methodologies in order to gain insight on the communities research landscape.

Delivering good quality mental health services remains a top priority in the English National Health Service (NHS). An approach to designing better delivery systems that takes into account the complexities of mental health services is highly desirable. This paper follows previous work that have sought to identify the key components of mental health delivery systems and explored the nature of the relationships between them. The paper presents the results of a qualitative thematic analysis of the requirements for diagrams as tools for describing and representing delivery systems in mental health.

The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is a planned large radio interferometer designed to operate over a wide range of frequencies, and with an order of magnitude greater sensitivity and survey speed than any current radio telescope. The SKA will address many important topics in astronomy, ranging from planet formation to distant galaxies. However, in this work, we consider the perspective of the SKA as a facility for studying physics. We review four areas in which the SKA is expected to make major contributions to our understanding of fundamental physics: cosmic dawn and reionisation; gravity and gravitational radiation; cosmology and dark energy; and dark matter and astroparticle physics. These discussions demonstrate that the SKA will be a spectacular physics machine, which will provide many new breakthroughs and novel insights on matter, energy, and spacetime.

Ruminants are recognised to suffer from Cu-responsive disorders. Present understanding of Cu transport and metabolism is limited and inconsistent across vets and veterinary professionals. There has been much progress from the studies of the 1980s and early 1990s in cellular Cu transport and liver metabolism which has not been translated into agricultural practice. Cu metabolism operates in regulated pathways of Cu trafficking rather than in pools of Cu lability. Cu in the cell is chaperoned to enzyme production, retention within metallothionein or excretion via the Golgi into the blood. The hepatocyte differs in that Cu-containing caeruloplasmin can be synthesised to provide systemic Cu supply and excess Cu is excreted via bile. The aim of the present review is to improve understanding and highlight the relevant progress in relation to ruminants through the translation of newer findings from medicine and non-ruminant animal models into ruminants.

Coal and hydrocarbons have been exploited from the Carboniferous rocks of the Midland Valley for over 200 years. This work characterises organic matter from the Mississippian black shales of the Midland Valley from Wardie, Scotland. Biomarker analysis allowed the estimation of the degree of microbial transformation of organic matter, type of kerogen and thermal maturity during hydrocarbon generation. Parameters based on the biomarker indicators confirm a generally mixed type II/III kerogen. However, some samples contain mostly terrestrial organic matter, whilst others contain predominantly marine organic matter, which shows that the sedimentary environment varied greatly throughout the basin. The presence of gammacerane suggests water column stratification and anoxic conditions. Organic matter was much better protected from post-depositional alteration within the concretions, where higher TOC (total organic carbon) and TS (total sulphur) contents occur, than in the surrounding sediments. This can be induced by very early diagenetic formation of these concretions which protected organic matter from late diagenetic degradation.

Estimated values of vitrinite reflectance (Rc, Rcs) show that the sedimentary rocks reached the catagenesis stage. Most samples exhibit maximum organic matter maturation temperatures of around c60–90°C. However, stable isomers of phenyldibenzo[b,d]thiophene detected in some samples indicate that in some cases post-depositional hydrothermal activity affected maturation of organic matter increasing temperatures to as high as c174°C.

The species of Guarea F.Allam. ex L. (Meliaceae) are revised. Sixty-nine species are recognised, a key to the species is provided, all names are typified and descriptions of all species are given. A phylogenetic analysis based on ITS sequence data is discussed. Six new species and one new subspecies are described. Five new combinations for subspecies are made.

A consensus of expert opinion was used to provide both face and consensual validity to a list of potential indicators of sheep welfare. This approach was used as a first step in the identification of valid welfare indicators for sheep. The consensus methodology of the National Institute of Health, using pre-meeting consultation and focus group discussions, was used to ascertain the consensus opinion of a panel of sheep welfare experts. The Farm Animal Welfare Council's five freedoms were used as a framework to organise a list of current on-farm welfare issues for sheep. The five freedoms were also the welfare criterion used to identify potential on-farm welfare indicators for sheep. As a result, experts identified 193 welfare issues for sheep and lambs managed on farms across England and Wales. Subsequently, a combination of animal- (n = 26), resource- (n = 13) and management- (n = 22) based indicators was suggested for (i) adult rams, (ii) adult ewes (male and female sheep, over 1 year old), (iii) growing lambs (male and female sheep, over 6 weeks to 1 year old) and (iv) young lambs (male and female lambs, 6 weeks old and under). The results from this study could therefore be used to inform the further development of valid methods of assessing the on-farm welfare of sheep.

This paper presents three different methods of estimating the number and age distribution of individuals susceptible to pertussis in England and Wales. The first approach is an extrapolation from data in the prevaccine era, the second is based upon theoretical consideration of the transmission dynamics of pertussis, and the third is a detailed cohort analysis of available notification and vaccination data. Each of these analyses suggests that the total number of people susceptible to pertussis infection in England and Wales has remained at 3–4 million for the past 40 years, despite the increase and changes in numbers vaccinated. The effect of vaccination has been to reduce the incidence of infection and disease, but not to reduce the number of susceptibles. These findings, which are consistent with ‘mass action theory’, could be tested by an appropriately designed seroepidemiological survey.