Letter from A.B. Temple to A.R. Hunter, Jacksonville, Fla., 1869-01-25

This letter is dated January 25, 1869, from A. B. Temple to A. R. Hunter, sent from the St. James Hotel, Jacksonville, Florida. The correspondent writes in a highly descriptive manner, and he provides details concerning business, travel and leisure activities in Jacksonville and the surrounding region. He relates his impressions of Florida upon his arrival in Jacksonville, stating it is the largest place in the state, with about 6,000 inhabitants, but compares its enterprise unfavorably to his previous country town of far fewer inhabitants. He recounts several boating, hunting and fishing trips along the St. Johns River, with frequent sightings of alligators on the river banks. He also mentions visits to orange groves in Palatka (75 miles) and to another grove 130 miles from Jacksonville, and provides interesting information about orange production, the price of oranges and the cost of acreage. He observes there are almost all prices for land if they think a man wants to buy. The envelope dated January 27 is addressed to A. R. Hunter Esq, West Albany, N.Y. The letter, while legible, is difficult to read. Box 1, Folder

Optimisation of Grease Application to Railway Track

Trackside lubricators are designed to deliver grease to passing wheel flanges to reduce wheel and rail wear on curves. Ensuring that they are set up to deliver sufficient grease for the range of vehicles passing a site can be a challenge. For example, vehicle dynamics modelling and site investigations have shown that the wheels of passenger vehicles do not run as close to the rail face as those of freight vehicles, meaning that they are less likely to contact the grease and lubricate subsequent curves. To investigate the effects of different trackside devices, and the influence of parameters governing grease pickup, including lateral wheel displacement and pump durations, a bespoke test rig was built at the University of Sheffield. The rig used a scaled wheel, a short section of rail and a modern trackside lubricator set-up. Experiments involving different lateral wheel displacements and pumping durations were carried out, in addition to the visualisation of the size of the grease bulb. This showed how a grease bulb grows. It also indicated that a worn profile is likely to require greater wheel displacement to make contact with grease bulbs when compared to a new wheel profile. The experimental results showed that increasing pickup of grease can be expected when an additional component called a GreaseGuide™ was fitted to a regular grease delivery unit (GDU) on the rail. The efficiency of grease pickup was investigated, and test results exploring increasing pump durations have indicated a relationship between pickup and bulb size. To validate the use of the scaled rig, similar tests were carried out using a full-scale test rig. The full-scale results were compared to the experimental results of the scaled wheel rig. This showed that whilst there were differences between the two test rigs in absolute values and anomalous results, overall trends were the same on both test scales. The effect of temperature on bulb size and pumpability of grease was also investigated. This work can be extended further by using the same method to investigate other parameters that affect the lubrication of curves. This can lead to optimised lubricator set-up to ensure that the track is fully lubricated all the time

Food insecurity: Discrepancy within Australian couple households

© 2024 The Authors. Australian Journal of Social Issues published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Australian Social Policy Association. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Food security remains a global public health priority but there may be bias in the prevalence of household food insecurity, depending upon who answers the questions. Using a cross‐section from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey, we analysed components of food insecurity reported separately by both partners in 718 households, allowing examination of discrepancies among couples. We modelled discrepancy in reports of food insecurity on 8 items using binary logit models for each question and a binomial regression for the number of questions on which there was discrepancy. Among couples who differed on an item, (conditional) discrepancy rates ranged from 71.75% to 85.86%. Females were more likely than males to report food insecurity on most items. Key characteristics associated with discrepancy were female's and male's age, female's education, being born in Australia, renting and male's employment. Male's age and birthplace were associated with discrepancy on more items while male's higher education and being a homeowner were associated with discrepancy on fewer items. Among couples who differed in responses, females were more likely to report food insecurity if they were older or had a disability, if their male partner was younger or had no disability, or if either person had more education than high school. The prevalence of food insecurity among couple households may be underestimated by 7.4 percentage points due to discrepancies in reporting. Discrepancies can reduce the accuracy of measures of food insecurity, impeding the targeting of responses, and lead to a less efficient allocation of resources to combat food insecurity.Peer reviewe

International Public Health Research Involving Interpreters: a Case Study from Bangladesh

Background: Cross-cultural and international research are important components of public health research, but the challenges of language barriers and working with interpreters are often overlooked, particularly in the case of qualitative research. Methods: A case-study approach was used to explore experiences of working with an interpreter in Bangladesh as part of a research project investigating women's experiences of emergency obstetric care. The case study: Data from the researcher's field notes provided evidence of experiences in working with an interpreter and show how the model of interviewing was adapted over time to give a more active role to the interpreter. The advantages of a more active role were increased rapport and "flow" in interviews. The disadvantages included reduced control from the researcher's perspective. Some tensions between the researcher and interpreter remained hard to overcome, irrespective of the model used. Independent transcription and translation of the interviews also raised questions around accuracy in translation. Conclusion: The issues examined in this case study have broader implications for public health research. Further work is needed in three areas: 1) developing effective relationships with interpreters; 2) the impact of the interpreter on the research process; and 3) the accuracy of the translation and level of analysis needed in any specific public health research. Finally, this paper highlights the importance to authors of reflecting on the potential impact of translation and interpretation on the research process when disseminating their research

Experimental modelling of lipping in insulated rail joints and investigation of rail head material improvements

An insulated rail joint is a component used to join two abutting rails whilst keeping them electrically separated from one another. This allows for the construction of track circuits and train detection within signalling systems. Electrical failure of the joints can be caused by plastic flow of the rail steel over the insulating gap, known as lipping. In the following paper this failure mode has been experimentally modelled using twin disc testing and indicative conclusions have been formed. It has been found in this testing that endpost thickness does not have an effect on the rate of lipping, but the endpost and rail material do. An endpost with higher compressive strength will perform better while tougher / harder rail steel will also improve performance. The application of a laser clad layer of tougher material on the running surface, however, gave the greatest resistance to lipping

Food insecurity and health conditions in the Australian adult population: A nationally representative analysis

© 2024 The Author(s). Nutrition & Dietetics published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Dietitians Australia. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.Aim: This study aimed to identify key health condition correlates of food insecurity in Australia using nationally representative data. Methods: This cross‐sectional study used data from a large, nationally representative Australian survey that included questions on the dynamics of families and households, income, wealth, welfare, labour market activity (including unemployment and joblessness), life satisfaction and wellbeing. Binary logistic regression models of eight items of food insecurity measured the association between 17 health conditions and food insecurity while controlling for various demographic and socioeconomic variables. A zero‐inflated negative binomial model identified correlates of the number of food insecurity problems. Results: Prevalence of food insecurity ranged from 3% to 9% depending on the measure analysed. Individuals experiencing blackouts, fits or loss of consciousness were 2–6 times more likely to report food insecurity than other individuals. When including control variables and incorporating other health conditions, several conditions significantly increased probability of any food insecurity: sight problems; blackouts, fits or loss of consciousness; difficulty gripping things; nervous conditions; mental illness; and chronic or recurring pain. Conclusions: Detailed information on how health conditions are associated with different types of food insecurity was generated using population‐representative data, 17 sets of health conditions, and eight measures of food insecurity. Understanding connections between food insecurity and health conditions allows public health professionals to create effective, targeted and holistic interventions.Peer reviewe

Hyperbolic Balance Laws with a Non Local Source

This paper is devoted to hyperbolic systems of balance laws with non local source terms. The existence, uniqueness and Lipschitz dependence proved here comprise previous results in the literature and can be applied to physical models, such as Euler system for a radiating gas and Rosenau regularization of the Chapman-Enskog expansion.Comment: 26 page

Raman signatures of classical and quantum phases in coupled dots: A theoretical prediction

We study electron molecules in realistic vertically coupled quantum dots in a strong magnetic field. Computing the energy spectrum, pair correlation functions, and dynamical form factor as a function of inter-dot coupling via diagonalization of the many-body Hamiltonian, we identify structural transitions between different phases, some of which do not have a classical counterpart. The calculated Raman cross section shows how such phases can be experimentally singled out.Comment: 9 pages, 2 postscript figures, 1 colour postscript figure, Latex 2e, Europhysics Letters style and epsfig macros. Submitted to Europhysics Letter