[en] Chinese oil companies have become increasingly focused on securing Canadian oil. However, most of the oil sands leases with good geological and economic prospects are owned by Canadian or Canadian subsidiary companies that have proven unwilling to sell future revenue and reserves bases to the Chinese. The opportunity for a trade of Canadian oil assets for improved Chinese market entry has been limited to Husky, which has existing Chinese connections, as well as to global companies such as Exxon, Shell and BP. In May 2005, the Chinese company Sinopec completed a $105 million deal with Calgary-based Synenco and formed a joint venture for oil sands production and an upgrader. Chinese interests are also involved in the Calgary-based Value Creation Group of Companies as well as in BA Energy. Enbridge has recently invested $25 million in the Heartland upgrader project, presumably with the aim of building pipelines to move new products to Asia. The most significant problem for Canadian oil sands companies and the greatest opportunity for Chinese companies involves the utilization of trained Chinese workers for the $100 billion in oil sands construction planned for the next decade. Significant immigration barriers exist for Chinese workers in Canada, and there is a legitimate concern that Chinese workers may want to stay in Canada. It was concluded that while there may be mutual opportunities for collaboration between Chinese and Canadian energy companies, the Alberta government currently faces challenges in work shortages, immigration, and pressures from unions and environmental lobbyists. 1 fig

[en] In this paper, an imprecise EOQ model for non-instantaneous deteriorating item with different demand rate, shortages and salvage value is formulated and solved with inventory parameters like demand rate, holding cost, deteriorating cost, shortage cost and salvage value which are considered to be imprecise. The rate of deterioration here is assumed to be constant but imprecise. Here the impreciseness of the above inventory parameters are assumed as interval numbers which are made crisp representations them in parametric forms. For the first time, total average cost of the system is presented by introducing parametric functional form of interval number. The optimal order cycle, the optimal shortage period and the optimal order quantity of the proposed imprecise model are derived by minimizing the total average cost. A numerical example is presented to illustrate the solution of the proposed imprecise model. Finally a graphical representation of the optimal solution is provided to demonstrate the proposed approach. It is seen that at the lower ends of the intervals, the average total cost is maximum where as at the corresponding upper ends, the said cost is lowest.

[en] Interventional radiology (IR) is a rapidly expanding specialty that is facing the challenges of turf wars and personnel shortages. Appropriate exposure of medical students to this field can be vital to recruitment of potential future trainees or referring physicians. The aim of this study was to determine the knowledge and views of final-year medical students in a single EU country regarding various aspects of IR. An electronic survey was sent via e-mail to all final-year medical students in a European country. The students were given a month to respond to the questionnaire. A total of 234 students of 675 (34.5%) replied to the survey. Of the respondents, 35% had previously completed an attachment to the radiology department. The majority of students (63%) thought their knowledge in radiology in general was poor. The percentage of students who correctly identified procedures performed by interventional radiologists was 69% for Hickman line insertion, 79% for fibroid embolization, and 67.5% for lower limb angioplasty. Sixty percent, 30%, and 47% thought that interventional radiologists perform cardiac angioplasties, perform arterial bypasses, and create AV fistulas, respectively. Forty-nine percent felt that interventional radiologists are surgically trained. Eighty-three percent of students were first made aware of angioplasty by a cardiologist. Thirty-one percent thought that interventional radiologists do ward rounds, 24% thought that interventional radiologists have admitting rights, and 26% felt that interventional radiologists run an outpatient practice. A significant number of students (76%) thought that the job prospects in IR are good or excellent but only 40.5% were willing to consider a career in IR. In conclusion, this study indicates that IR remains a nascent but attractive specialty to the majority of medical students. Further development of the existing informal undergraduate curriculum to address shortcomings will ensure that IR continues to attract the brightest talents to the field.

[en] Typical address-oriented computer memories cannot recognize incomplete or noisy information. Associative (content-addressable) memories solve this problem but suffer from severe capacity shortages. I propose a model of a quantum memory that solves both problems. The storage capacity is exponential in the number of qbits and thus optimal. The retrieval mechanism for incomplete or noisy inputs is probabilistic, with postselection of the measurement result. The output is determined by a probability distribution on the memory which is peaked around the stored patterns closest in Hamming distance to the input

[en] Intergrowth perovskite type complex oxides La_0.8Ln_0.2Sr₂MnCrO_7-δ (Ln=La, Nd, Gd, and Dy) have been synthesized by sol-gel method. Rietveld profile analysis shows that the phases crystallize with tetragonal unit cell in the space group 14/mmm. The unit cell parameters a and c decrease with decreasing effective ionic radius of the lanthanide ion. The magnetic studies suggest that the ferromagnetic interactions are dominant due to Mn³⁺-O-Mn⁴⁺ and Mn³⁺-O-Cr³⁺ double exchange interactions. Both Weiss constant (θ) and Curie temperature (T_C) increase with decreasing ionic radius of lanthanide ion. It was found that the transport mechanism is dominated by Mott's variable range hopping (VRH) model with an increase of Mott localization energy

[en] The role of the Assistant Practitioner in radiography has been established for over 10 years. Wakefield, Spilsbury, Atkin and McKenna"1"3 (2009) describe how the role was originally introduced to overcome a shortage of registered staff at that time. Whilst there are clear overarching descriptions of what the role of the Assistant Practitioner is, Wakefield et al. concluded that there are many interpretations of the role and that there are inconsistencies between employers and subsequent uncertainty in workforce planners. Stewart-Lord, McLaren and Ballinger"1"8 (2011) also found that there were a variety of roles and responsibilities undertaken by Assistant Practitioners in the field of radiography. This article outlines the curriculum design process for a foundation degree to develop Assistant Practitioners in diagnostic imaging and the associated challenges faced. - Highlights: • The article considers the development of a foundation degree to support Assistant Practitioners in diagnostic imaging. • It considers the external drivers currently influencing the development of this sector of the workforce. • It also discusses the challenges of curriculum design of non-commissioned, unregulated programmes.

[en] Attendees of nuclear conferences are well aware of the increasing predominance of gray hair, and educational establishments in most countries are experiencing a decline in enrollments in nuclear-related courses. Clearly, there could be a problem of qualified manpower for the nuclear industry in the future. A report by the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) seeks to assess the supply-and-demand situation for qualified manpower - defined as people with professional occupations as engineers and scientists with at least a bachelor's degree or equivalent. 3 figs

[en] The U.S. Department of Energy originally created the National Analytical Management Program (NAMP) to help coordinate its analytical capabilities and to address national needs in technology and resources. In support of this mission, the NAMP established a subcommittee to promote training and education in radiochemistry to avert the predicted loss in expertise. In cooperation with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and university partners, the NAMP developed a series of two-hour webinar presentations by experts on different topics relevant to radiochemistry. These webinars are intended to be of interest to those already in the workforce who may need a refresher course or a better understanding of specific radiochemistry topics. The live webinars include slides presentation, and engage the attendees by giving them the opportunity to ask questions during the live event through the web-cast interface. Certificates may be given for attendance during the live webinar. The success of these webinars relies not only on the presenters who are internationally recognized experts but also on how we promote them: we advertised them through a dedicated web site, social networks or flyers. Another important point is that they are free are accessible online in 2 formats: audio-video recording and pdf files. Recorded and archived versions comprise a library vital to future generations of radio-chemists and scientists interested in radiochemistry. The first webinar, An Overview of Actinide Chemistry, was presented on April 20, 2012. The overwhelmingly positive feedback from participants clearly demonstrates that the NAMP webinars are making a difference by providing unique educational opportunities in radiochemistry

[en] Shortages of ⁹⁹Mo, the most commonly used diagnostic medical isotope, have caused great concern and have prompted numerous suggestions for alternate production methods. A wide variety of accelerator-based approaches have been suggested. In this paper we survey and compare the various accelerator-based approaches.

[en] The case for fast reactors is argued, with reference to the longterm shortage of alternative fuel at economical prices, and for removing the dependence on imported uranium supplies. Projections for future energy demands are discussed, as well as estimations of time when fast reactors may prove economically attractive. The present UK fast reactor policy is mentioned, and also the collaboration between the nuclear industry, the generating boards and the pooling of efforts with European neighbours. The authority's programme is outlined, including outstanding problems and future prospects. (U.K.)