Patterns for Value-Added Services Illustrated with SEAM

The basic idea behind the provision of a service is to hide the service implementation details from the client in such a way that more value is provided to the client. Very often support services allow too much of their implementation details to be visible to customers resulting in poor value proposition. In this paper we describe a project that aimed towards the requisite abstraction of the support service implementation for the research funding at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL). We show the current service, the problem it creates for its customers, and propose four patterns for improving the value that customers receive from a requisite service abstraction. The four patterns are: provide a simple service interface, incorporate needed external actors into the service view of the organization, recognize new customers and use data and process linking technology. These patterns are applied in a to-be model

Enforcing compulsory schooling by linking welfare payments to school attendance: lessons from Australia’s Northern Territory

Efforts to enforce compulsory schooling by linking welfare assistance to school attendance are rarely successful in themselves, according to this report. Abstract Efforts to enforce compulsory schooling by linking welfare assistance to school attendance are rarely successful in themselves. One reason is a lack of credibility: targeted families may anticipate that welfare administrators will be reluctant to withdraw support when attendance does not improve. Australia\u27s School Enrolment and Attendance through Welfare Reform Measure (SEAM) demonstrates the impact of a credible threat. Targeting the Indigenous population of the Northern Territory, its credibility stemmed from the extreme circumstances created by the Northern Territory Emergency Response Act and from the troubled history of race relations in Australia. We show, using a difference-in-difference analysis of standardized test data (NAPLAN), that SEAM had a substantial, immediate impact: in its first year it triggered an increase in test participation rates of 16- 20 percentage points over pre-SEAM levels; and it significantly increased the share of tested cohorts achieving national minimum standards by 5-10 percentage points. However, welfare payments were rarely withheld from truant families and participation rates fell in subsequent years, though remaining significantly above pre-SEAM levels. This suggests that initiatives such as SEAM will not be fully effective in the longer term unless accompanied by measures that increase parents’ and children’s appreciation of the value of schooling

Unravelling the relative contributions of climate change and ground disturbance to subsurface temperature perturbations: Case studies from Tyneside, UK

When assessing subsurface urban heat islands (UHIs) it is important to distinguish between localized effects of land-use change and the impacts of global climate change. However, few investigations have successfully unraveled the two influences. We have investigated borehole temperature records from the urban centres of Gateshead and Newcastle upon Tyne in northeast England, to ascertain the effects on subsurface temperatures of climate change and changes in ground conditions due to historic coal mining and more recent urban development. The latter effects are shown to be substantial, albeit with significant variations on a very local scale. Significant subsurface UHIs are indeed evident in both urban centres, estimated as 2.0 °C in Newcastle and 4.5 °C in Gateshead, the former value being comparable to the 1.9 °C atmospheric UHI previously measured for the Tyneside conurbation as a whole. We interpret these substantial subsurface UHIs as a consequence of the region’s long history of urban and industrial development and associated surface energy use, possibly supplemented in Gateshead by the thermal effect of trains braking in an adjacent shallow railway tunnel. We also show that a large proportion of the expected conductive heat flux from the Earth’s interior beneath both Gateshead and Newcastle becomes entrained by groundwater flow and transported elsewhere, through former mineworkings in which the rocks have become ‘permeabilised’ during the region’s long history of coal mining. Discharge of groundwater at a nearby minewater pumping station, Kibblesworth, has a heat flux that we estimate as ∼7.5 MW; it thus ‘captures’ the equivalent of roughly two thirds of the geothermal heat flux through a >100 km2 surrounding region. Modelling of the associated groundwater flow regime provides first-order estimates of the hydraulic transport properties of ‘permeabilised’ Carboniferous Coal Measures rocks, comprising permeability ∼3 × 10−11 m2 or ∼30 darcies, hydraulic conductivity ∼2 × 10−4 m s−1, and transmissivity ∼2 × 10−3 m2 s−1 or ∼200 m2 day−1; these are very high values, comparable to what one might expect for karstified Carboniferous limestone. Furthermore, the large-magnitude subsurface UHIs create significant downward components of conductive heat flow in the shallow subsurface, which are supplemented by downward heat transport by groundwater movement towards the flow network through the former mineworkings. The warm water in these workings has thus been heated, in part, by heat drawn from the shallow subsurface, as well as by heat flowing from the Earth’s interior. Similar conductive heat flow and groundwater flow responses are expected in other urban former coalfield regions of Britain; knowledge of the processes involved may facilitate their use as heat stores and may also contribute to UHI mitigation

DTI Economics Paper No. 2: A comparative study of the British and Italian Textile and Clothing Industries.

Commissioned by: Association of Suppliers to the British Clothing Industry Conference, Hucknell, Nottingham, February 2004 During the 1990s the Italian clothing and textiles industry grew while the British, French and German textile and clothing industries declined by 40%. In 2001 the Italian textiles & clothing sector was three times larger than the British, accounting for 11.7% of Italian manufacturing output but only 3.3% in Britain. In 2000 Italian fabric exports were 15 times that of the UK. The study was conducted in response to a recommendation by the Textiles and Clothing Strategy Group (TCSG), comprising UK industry, trade unions, Higher Education and the DTI. The purpose of the study was to account for these differences, assess relative merits against value for money and identify best practice in the Italian industry. The methodology comprised comparative analysis and case studies of British and Italian textile mills and tailoring manufacturers, based on my initial recommendations. We visited 5 textile mills in Yorkshire and 15 in Italy plus 3 factories in each country. I conducted a detailed comparative technical analysis of the construction of suit jackets against 13 devised criteria, a number of interviews,compared technologies, equipment and manufacturing methods across all factories, against 8 criteria, drawing on my specialist knowledge and experience as a menswear clothing technologist. The technical reports I compiled formed a section of the final report. Findings were presented to the Clothing Strategy Group and published by the DTI as their Economic Paper No 2 . I made further presentations to industry and academic groups including ASBCI, FCDE, The Textile Society, Savile Row Tailors Association, and LSE. Other outcomes were a publication in the Journal of the Textile Society Text, an article in Selvedge magazine and contributions to the Encyclopaedia of Clothing by Thomson Gale. As a result of this research further consultancy projects have been conducted with the Industry Forum and ASBCI

Applications of Advanced Computational Modelling for Principal Underground Mining Hazards Management and Control

Underground coal mining is facing increased threats from the hazards of spontaneous combustion and heating of coal, abnormal mine gas emissions, and harmful dust concentrations in underground workings, due to increased production outputs and extraction depth of cover. To control and mitigate these engineering problems, there is a need to gain critical knowledge of spontaneous heating in the longwall (LW) goaf, gas migration patterns onto the LW face, and ventilation dynamics and dust dispersion in complex underground environments. Advanced Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modelling can be used to simulate various scenarios portraying these hazards that may occur in underground LWs and provide much-needed knowledge and fundamental science that can be used to develop robust and effective control and mitigation strategies against these hazards. A comprehensive literature review has been conducted to understand these principal mining hazards (PMH), with a particular emphasis on the applications of CFD modelling in the prevention management and control of those PMH arising during coal extraction process. The insufficiencies and gaps in research on spontaneous combustion in active LW goaf, gas migration onto the LW face, and dust dispersion and transport in the development heading were identified. In addition, several field studies were carried out in underground coal mines in Australia to gain a better understanding of these mining issues and collate essential data for the CFD modelling studies. In recent years, goaf heating and spontaneous combustion incidents have been reported in several Australian underground coal mines during normal production cycles. The onset of these heating incidents was dictated by many operational and environmental parameters. Based on the site-specific conditions of an underground coal mine, where the coal seam gas is of approximately 80% carbon dioxide (CO2) and 20% methane (CH4) with a gas emission rate of 2000 l/s, CFD models were developed and validated with field gas monitoring data collected from the Tube Bundle System. The CFD models incorporated a user defined function (UDF) of gas emission and permeability variations in a three-dimensional (3D) space of computational domain representing the LW panels and goaf areas. Simulation results indicated that better goaf inertisation could be achieved when nitrogen (N2) was injected via cut-throughs (C/T) at about 250 m behind the LW face on the maingate (MG) side and surface boreholes at 100 m and 700 m on the tailgate (TG) side, with a total injection rate greater than 1750 l/s. The oxygen concentration on the MG and TG side dropped below 5% at distances of 120 m and 75 m behind the LW face, with a confined oxidation zone area of 35375 m2, which was approximately one-third of the oxidation zone area without inert gas injection. The impact of geological variations (i.e., coal seam orientations and goaf gas composition) on spontaneous combustion prevention and management was further studied using CFD models. The influence of ventilation design and operational parameters (e.g., tightness of the goaf seals) on spontaneous combustion control was also investigated by additional CFD models based on field data. During LW sealing-off, the ventilation flow dynamics change within the goaf, which considerably increases the risk of spontaneous combustion and gas explosion. To prevent these hazards, CFD models were developed and calibrated with field gas monitoring data to simulate a range of operational scenarios of different ventilation arrangements. The modelling studies indicated that at least six gas sensors should be employed and positioned appropriately to ensure effective goaf atmosphere monitoring for risk management during the LW sealing-off process. Extensive CFD-DPM (Discrete phase model) coupling modelling studies were conducted to investigate dust-related issues in LW gateroad development panels. Based on site-specific conditions, a CFD model incorporating a Continuous Miner (CM), Shuttle Car (SC) and exhausting ventilation tube was established and validated with onsite dust monitoring data. Three scenarios of CM cutting at the middle, floor and roof positions were considered and simulated. In all cases, the simulation results indicated that high levels of dust exposure would occur to left-hand-side (LHS) operators and consequently they should be equipped with high-quality personal protective equipment and stay behind the ventilation duct inlet during coal cutting process, while miners standing at the right-hands-side (RHS) of the CM for roof and/or rib bolting and machine operation should stay immediately behind the bolting rig where dust concentration was relatively low. The studies conducted in this thesis provided new insights into the current goaf inertisation practices to effectively manage and control spontaneous heating in LW goaf by considering geological variations and mining design. Furthermore, the CFD modelling study of gas flow dynamics during the panel sealing-off process provides new knowledge of ventilation and goaf gas dynamics, which is critical to the positioning of gas monitoring sensors to reliably measure goaf atmosphere changes, thus minimizing spontaneous heating and gas explosion risks with much-improved mine safety. The research work also shed light on the dust and ventilation behaviour in gateroad development panels, and provided several recommendations for operators’ locations and dust mitigation strategies to improve the health and safety of miners. The research outcomes from this study contribute to the improvement of current practices and guidance for PMH management and control in underground mines and tunnelling projects

Productivity in longwall mining of hard coal

The thesis investigates productivity and its measurement in longwall hard coal mining, considering firstly the general state of the art. Productivity is defined, and the varying disciplinary approaches to it are critically compared. The state of productivity in practice is reviewed, leading to the concepts of total productivity. The facets of technological change and international comparison are scrutinized. A more specialised discussion is then introduced on the state of the art in underground coal mining. Weaknesses of the partial measure of labour productivity, as well as critical observations for improvements, are revealed. The subject is put into a technological and economic perspective, with special emphasis on mechanisation and safety. The inadequacies of international comparison to date are examined in order to construct a firm base for this study. [Continues.

Space Construction Automated Fabrication Experiment Definition Study. (SCAFEDS), part 3. Volume 1: Executive summary

A range of tasks focused on a baseline system concept is discussed. A beam builder concept developed to produce a triangular beam is discussed. Beam elements used laminated graphite and glass composite strip material with external surface coatings are described

Cultural capital of IT developers in Ukraine: exploratory case study

Article focuses on the analysis of approaches to studying cultural capital of IT developers. Exploratory case study refers to the IT developers’ activity and focuses the cultural capital (CC) of the Ukrainian IT sector. Theoretical foundation of the study is based on the cultural capital theory referring to the value of social relations and networks. Research results demonstrate that Ukrainian IT developers accumulate CC through education: individual, in family, at school and with peers. Cultural capital could be transformed into other forms of capital: economic and social ones