Due Process and Deeds of Trust—Strange Bedfellows?

The authors examine in detail the validity of the private sale provisions of the Washington Deed of Trust Act in light of the recent procedural due process decisions of the United States Supreme Court. In addition to concluding that the present Washington Act appears to be unconstitutional, the authors briefly discuss the policy considerations involved and suggest general guidelines for change

Patterns of brain growth in one FGFR2 mouse model for Apert Syndrome

Apert syndrome is a disorder associated with craniosynostosis resulting from one of two mutations in Fibroblast Growth Factor Receptor 2 (FGFR2). Individuals with Apert syndrome demonstrate brain dysmorphology, often associated with cognitive deficits. In this study, micro magnetic resonance images of the brain of FGFR2+/P253R mice and their wildtype littermates were acquired at two ages, P0 (newborn) and P2 (two days old). Fifteen landmarks on the brain surface were collected to compare growth patterns in the morphological phenotypes of the brain."Work supported by NIDCR R01 DE018500

Accounting for the effect of concentration fluctuations on toxic load for gaseous releases of carbon dioxide.

Research Highlights • An approach to account for the effect of concentration fluctuations on toxic load is investigated in the context of land-use planning for major hazard sites. • For momentum-dominated free-jets of CO 2 gas, the approach is shown to be conservative. • For low-momentum dense CO 2 plumes, the validity of the approach is uncertain • Recommendations are provided for additional analysis of experimental data and numerical simulations in order to address this uncertainty. • Measurements of concentration fluctuations in large-scale CO 2 release experiments would be beneficial Abstract In Great Britain, advice on land-use planning decisions in the vicinity of major hazard sites and pipelines is provided to Local Planning Authorities by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), based on quantified risk assessments of the risks to the public in the event of an accidental release. For potential exposures to toxic substances, the hazard and risk is estimated by HSE on the basis of a "toxic load". For carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), this is calculated from the time-integral of the gas concentration to the power eight. As a consequence of this highly non-linear dependence of the toxic load on the concentration, turbulent concentration fluctuations that occur naturally in jets or plumes of CO 2 may have a significant effect on the calculated hazard ranges. Most dispersion models used for QRA only provide estimates of the time-or ensemble-averaged concentrations. If only mean concentrations are used to calculate the toxic load, and the effects of concentration fluctuations are ignored, there is a danger that toxic loads and hence hazard ranges will be significantly under-estimated. This paper explores a simple and pragmatic modification to the calculation procedure for CO 2 toxic load calculations. It involves the assumption that the concentration fluctuates by a factor 3 of two with a prescribed square-wave variation over time. To assess the validity of this methodology, two simple characteristic flows are analysed: the free jet and the dense plume (or gravity current). In the former case, an empirical model is used to show that the factor-oftwo approach provides conservative estimates of the hazard range. In the latter case, a survey of the literature indicates that there is at present insufficient information to come to any definite conclusions. Recommendations are provided for future work to investigate the concentration fluctuation behaviour in dense CO 2 plumes. This includes further analysis of existing dense gas dispersion data, measurements of concentration fluctuations in ongoing large-scale CO 2 release experiments, and numerical simulations. Keywords Concentration fluctuations, carbon dioxide, toxic load, free jet, dense plume, land-use planning Introduction In Great Britain, advice on land-use planning decisions in the vicinity of major hazard sites and pipelines is provided to Local Planning Authorities by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), based on Quantified Risk Assessments (QRA) for the risks to the public in the event of an accidental release. For potential exposures to toxic substances, QRA is based on estimates of individual or societal risk for exposures to amounts of substances that would result in certain levels of toxicity. The toxicological hazard is determined by HSE, based on the duration of exposure as specified according to the Toxic Load (TL) (HSE, 2008). Risk estimates are based on the likelihood of a hypothetical individual receiving an exposure equal to or greater than a threshold level of TL known as the Specified Level of Toxicity (SLOT). The TL relating to the mortality of 50% of an exposed population is also specified by a threshold level known as the Significant Likelihood of Death (SLOD). Further information on the SLOT and SLOD concepts is provided by To calculate the TL, HSE uses the well-known formula of ten Berge (ten where c is the instantaneous gas concentration at a point in space, T is the duration of exposure and n is the ten Berge toxic load exponent, which is specific to the particular substance released. Values of n together with SLOT and SLOD levels are provided for chemicals of major hazard interest by HSE (2008). For a review of alternative toxic load models, see for example 4 However, for substances where n is greater than unity, fluctuations in concentration over time can have a significant effect on the toxic load. In the study of chlorine releases by For carbon dioxide, the ten Berge exponent n is eight (HSE, 2008), reflecting the highly nonlinear response to exposure. A factor of two increase in CO 2 concentration therefore produces a factor of 256 increase in the toxic load. Any fluctuations in concentration above the mean level will very quickly tend to increase the toxic load. Basing TL calculations for CO 2 solely on the mean concentration could therefore lead to a significant under-estimate of the hazard range. In practically all foreseeable releases of CO 2 , the dispersion of the gas will involve some fluctuations in concentration over time due to turbulence. Turbulence is produced from the strong shear layers induced by high-momentum jets, from frictional effects from a dense current rolling along the ground, or from turbulence already present in the atmosphere. Even if gas is produced at the source at a constant rate, an observer at some distance downstream will in nearly all circumstances be subjected to a time-varying concentration. This phenomenon is very well known and has been the subject of extensive study, e.g. Many dispersion models used for risk assessment purposes are unable to provide reliable estimates of the concentration fluctuations over time. A notable exception is the FROST software developed by GL Noble Denton (P. Cleaver, Personal Communication, January 2011) which assumes profiles for both peak and mean concentrations, and hence allows the effects of concentration fluctuations to be included in a simple manner. Although some models, such as DRIFT To provide a practical and simple means of moving forward, the present paper examines a simple and pragmatic modification to the calculation procedure for CO 2 toxic load. It involves the assumption that the concentration fluctuates by a factor of two with a prescribed squarewave variation over time, i.e. it is assumed that the concentration is twice the mean for half of the time, and zero for the remaining time. This rudimentary approach is not intended to provide a realistic reflection of actual turbulent fluctuations, but is merely aimed at incorporating the effects of fluctuations on the toxic load to a very basic degree. The utility of such an approach is that it can be readily implemented in simple dispersion models and therefore provides a practical solution methodology at the present time. In the future, more robust scientifically-based models will no doubt be proposed for use in risk assessment. 5 The notion of a factor of two variation about the mean to account for turbulent concentration fluctuations is not a new concept. It is commonly used in the context of flammable vapour clouds, where hazard ranges are often defined as the location where the predicted average gas concentration reaches half of the Lower Flammability Limit (50% LFL), e.g. To analyse whether the methodology involving a factor-of-two variation about the mean is valid for CO 2 toxic load calculations, two idealised scenarios are examined in the present work: the free jet and the dense plume (or gravity current). Free Jets The empirically-based toxic load model for free jets examined here is derived from the flammability factor model of To calculate the toxic load requires two simple modifications of the flammability factor model. Firstly, the concentration Probability Distribution Function (PDF) is integrated between concentration volume fraction limits of zero and one (rather than just between the flammable limits) and, secondly, the concentration is raised to the ten Berge toxic load exponent, as follows: where ( ) c p~is the concentration PDF, and the time-varying concentration, c , is expressed as a volume fraction. In the model of • The mean concentration along the jet centreline is determined from empirical profiles from 6 The present model was implemented in MatLab and the integration of Equation The results show, as expected, that the smallest hazard range is produced if concentration fluctuations are ignored and only the mean concentration is used to determine the toxic load. Assuming a factor-of-two variation about the mean produces the largest hazard range. The distance from the jet source to the SLOT or SLOD is approximately 50% higher when the factor-of-two model is adopted, compared to the approach where concentration fluctuations are ignored. Results from the PDF model suggest that the factor-of-two approach is conservative in terms of the distance to the SLOT and SLOD on the centreline of the jet. Since the intensity of the fluctuations increases towards the periphery of the jet, the PDF model predicts the toxic effect to extend over a wider area near the base of the jet than the other two model results, which are based solely on the mean concentration contours. The results shown in The PDF on which the present model is based was derived from experimental measurements of gas concentration in free jets by The results shown here are for free jets in a quiescent environment. Commonly, risk assessments consider releases in non-zero wind-speeds. The present model is not valid under these conditions. Gas jets in a cross flow were studied experimentally by Low-Momentum Dense Plumes Although CO 2 is likely to be stored and transported at high pressure, perhaps in the supercritical or dense-phase state As the dense CO 2 vapour cloud spreads along the ground away from the source it will entrain fresh air and dilute. However, unlike many toxic gases such as chlorine, which remains toxic down to very low concentrations, the short-term exposure levels for CO 2 are relatively high. Its Immediately Dangerous to Life and Health (IDLH) concentration is 4% vol/vol (40,000 ppm) compared to just 0.001% vol/vol (10 ppm) for chlorine (NIOSH, 1995). If it is assumed that the source of CO 2 gas is at its sublimation temperature at atmospheric pressure (-78.5 ˚C), and the ambient temperature is 0˚C, then by the time that the CO 2 has diluted to 4% vol/vol, the CO 2 -air mixture will have a density 5% greater than ambient. At a higher CO 2 concentration of 10% vol/vol, which causes unconsciousness after 30 minutes exposure (NORSOK, 2001), the gas mixture will be 11% denser than ambient. Therefore, over the range of concentrations of practical interest, it is likely that a large, low-momentum CO 2 release will exhibit gravity effects. The CO 2 cloud will not behave as a passive or neutral tracer gas. Dense gas clouds exhibit different dispersion behaviour to those of neutrally-buoyant gases. Gravitational forces act to accelerate the cloud, whilst the vertical density gradient tends to suppress turbulence and reduce dilution. Concentrations inside the spreading dense plume tend to be more uniform than those in the equivalent passive plume. Therefore, as the dense plume meanders it produces lower intensity fluctuations in the core and higher intensity fluctuations on the periphery as compared to equivalent passive plumes (see Britter, 1988, and The bulk of research efforts to analyse concentration fluctuations in gas dispersion have been undertaken for passive, neutrally-buoyant plumes. Early work in this area includes that of 8 Further work on concentration fluctuations has been undertaken by Wilson and co-workers at the University of Alberta A significant body of research on concentration fluctuations has been undertaken over the last 30 years by Chatwin, Mole, Nielsen and co-workers at Sheffield University and Risø National Laboratory Research into concentration fluctuations with more focus on practical models for risk assessment has been undertaken by Other related work in this field includes the statistical analysis of concentration in dense gas clouds by None of the work examined as part of this literature review was found to provide a model for concentration fluctuations in dispersing dense gas clouds that could be used to calculate the toxic load. However, some previously reported studies provide anecdotal evidence of the potential magnitude of certain relevant parameters. Statistical analysis by Future Directions The literature survey has not revealed any further useful insight into concentration fluctuations in dense gas releases, to validate the proposed factor-of-two model. Three potential avenues for future work are as follows: Firstly, a thorough assessment of previous field-scale dense gas dispersion experiments involving time-resolving gas concentration measurements could be undertaken. The measurements need to have been taken at a rate equal to, or faster, than the human breathing rate (approx. 0.3 Hz). In some cases, it may be possible to infer concentration values from thermocouple measurements of fluctuating temperature, using an approach similar to that adopted by Witcofksi and Chirivella (1984). It has already been established that dense gas experiments exhibit a degree of scatter due to the stochastic nature of the flow Secondly, if sufficient concentration fluctuation data does not yet exist, it could be generated by new field-scale experiments. There are difficulties in interpreting data from reduced scale wind tunnel tests due to the need to scale dimensionless parameters for both buoyancy and turbulence simultaneously. Often, wind tunnel tests are performed at lower Reynolds numbers, which do not feature the full range of turbulence scales, or the slow changes in conditions which are present in the atmosphere. At the present time, a number of field-scale CO 2 releases are planned in order to support the risk assessment of planned carbon capture, 10 transport and storage infrastructure. This includes the medium-scale and field-scale tests to be undertaken as part of the EU-funded CO 2 PipeHaz project 1 , and the large-scale tests to be undertaken as part of the National Grid COOLTRANS project. In view of this, it would be advantageous to maximise the potential benefits from these large and costly experiments by recording time-varying CO 2 concentrations (or at least temperatures), which could subsequently be used to develop concentration PDFs. Thirdly, the matter could be investigated by numerical simulations, using methods in which time-varying concentrations are resolved. The most promising avenue is to use Large-Eddy Simulation (LES). This approach has previously been used to assess concentration fluctuations in passive and buoyant plumes by Once these analyses have been performed, it would be beneficial to revisit the factor-of-two square-wave model proposed here. If it was shown to be significantly under-or overconservative, other alternatives could be investigated, such as the use of prescribed triangular or sinusoidal variations in concentration over time. Discussion and Conclusions The present work has examined the validity of a simple approach to account for the effect of concentration fluctuations in calculating the toxic load for atmospheric CO 2 releases. It is based on the assumption that the concentration at any point in space fluctuates by a factor of two with a prescribed square-wave variation over time. Analysis of free jets of CO 2 using a PDF-based model originally derived to predict the ignition probability of flammable gas jets has shown that this factor-of-two approach produces conservative predictions of the hazard range, in terms of the maximum distance to the SLOT and SLOD. For low-momentum plumes of dense CO 2 gas, a review of the literature has shown that, at present, it is not possible to establish the validity of the factor-of-two model. Suggestions have been provided for future work to address this matter, involving analysis of existing data, new field-scale measurements and numerical simulations using LES. It is clear from the literature review and analysis presented in the current work that if only mean concentrations are used to calculate the toxic load, hazard ranges for CO 2 releases are likely to be significantly under-predicted. Given the current state of knowledge, it is unclear whether in all circumstances the proposed factor-of-two model will always give rise to conservative predictions. However, at the very least this approach provides a step in the right direction, and incorporates the effect of fluctuations on the toxic load in a way that can be easily adopted using the current generation of quantified risk assessment models. Impact analysis will show whether or not the approach leads to untenable (over-conservative) hazard ranges in scenarios of practical interest. As scientific understanding develops, and more 1 http://www.co2pipehaz.eu 11 sophisticated, practical models are developed, it will be necessary to reassess this methodology

The impact of austerity in the framework of corporate rescue and the rights of workers in the EU: a road to recovery?

The financial crisis and the sovereign debt crisis have been attributed to a number of causes. Whether these are economic, social, cultural, or legal, they are all by and large also political. The aim of this article is not to delve into the myriad of heated political arguments that continue to dominate the scene, but to assess the impact of the financial crisis on the employment protection rights and the corporate rescue regimes in Greece, Portugal, France, and the United Kingdom. In light of the crisis, the rights of the workforce have been severely compromised to afford financially troubled companies a greater opportunity to recover. In order to minimise the catastrophic impact of financial turmoil on their economy and society, all four jurisdictions introduced reforms to their labour codes and corporate rescue mechanisms, often in the name of austerity. This article will offer a snap shot of the changes, their effects, and an assessment whether or not the reforms of pre-insolvency regimes have operated as an effective embankment for the protection of social and economic welfare. The purpose of this piece is to shed a light on the changes that have occurred that have affected employment rights in the domestic legal systems of individual member states, as influenced to some extent by the EU in its expectations of improvements to increase labour market flexibility, and whether corporate rescue mechanisms in individual member states are able to provide some counter balance to the erosion of employment rights generally

Attributional and Relational Processing in Pigeons

Six pigeons were trained using a matching-to-sample procedure where sample and rewarded comparisons matched on both attributional (color) and relational (horizontal or vertical orientation) dimensions. Probes then evaluated the pigeons’ preference to comparisons that varied in these dimensions. A strong preference was found for the attribute of color. The discrimination was not found to transfer to novel colors, however, suggesting that a general color rule had not been learned. Further, when color could not be used to guide responding, some influence of other attributional cues such as shape, but not relational cues, was found. We conclude that pigeons based their performance on attributional properties of but not on relational properties between elements in our matching-to-sample procedure. Future studies should look at examining other attributes to compare attributional versus relational processing

Photodiodes based in La0.7Sr0.3MnO3/single layer MoS2 hybrid vertical heterostructures

The fabrication of artificial materials by stacking of individual two-dimensional (2D) materials is amongst one of the most promising research avenues in the field of 2D materials. Moreover, this strategy to fabricate new man-made materials can be further extended by fabricating hybrid stacks between 2D materials and other functional materials with different dimensionality making the potential number of combinations almost infinite. Among all these possible combinations, mixing 2D materials with transition metal oxides can result especially useful because of the large amount of interesting physical phenomena displayed separately by these two material families. We present a hybrid device based on the stacking of a single layer MoS2 onto a lanthanum strontium manganite (La0.7Sr0.3MnO3) thin film, creating an atomically thin device. It shows a rectifying electrical transport with a ratio of 103, and a photovoltaic effect with Voc up to 0.4 V. The photodiode behaviour arises as a consequence of the different doping character of these two materials. This result paves the way towards combining the efforts of these two large materials science communities.Comment: 1 table, 4 figures (+9 supp. info. figures

Experimentation and modelling of near field explosions

Repeatable experimental results and numerical work has shown that using the Jones-Wilkins-Lee (JWL) equation of state (EOS) will give very accurate results of peak pressures and impulse delivered to a rigid target at large scaled distances. However, recent experiments/numerical modelling at small scaled distances show that the JWL will overpredict peak pressures and impulse due to the assumption of (near) instantaneous energy release from detonation. The results of this experimental/numerical study are presented herein. In the experimental work PE4 spheres at two different scaled distances have been tested using an array of Hopkinson Pressure Bars (HPB) at specific points on a rigid target to measure the local pressure-time histories. From the HPB measurements, it appears that below certain scaled distances there are chemical-physical mechanisms that do not have sufficient time to contribute to the energy driving the loading mechanisms, explaining the over-prediction of the JWL. Importantly though, the experimental results show that at very small scaled distances (0.172 m/kg1/3) the test to test percentage variation is very low (5.1%); whilst at larger scaled distances (0.819 m/kg1/3) it is much higher (23.1%). This paper presents a model which describes the process by which experimental results move from repeatable to variable to repeatable as scaled distance increases from the extreme near field to far field