A critical analysis of the development of the public benefit requirement of charitable purposes under English and Welsh charity law, from Re Compton [1945] 1 Ch 123 to R (Independent School Council) v Charity Commission [2012] Ch 214

The enactment of the Charities Act 2006 in November 2006 introduced the first statutory definition of charity into English and Welsh law. Under the provisions of the Act, charitable status requires that an institution must be established for charitable purposes only and that the charitable purposes must be of public benefit. Although, generally, well received the Charities Act 2006 has been criticised as ‘flawed’ on the public benefit requirement of charitable purposes. The Charities Act 2006 was passed with the principle aim of modernising existing charity law, which was considered outdated and unclear. However, unlike charitable purposes, which are set down within the provisions of the Act, a definition of public benefit is not provided. Section 3(3) of the Charities Act 2006 merely provides that ‘reference to public benefit is a reference to the public benefit as that term is understood for the purposes of the law relating to charities in England and Wales’. This lack of a definition as to what constitutes public benefit and statutory reliance upon the charities’ regulator, the Charity Commission, to interpret and provide guidance on the public benefit requirement for charitable purposes has led to criticism that the Charities Act 2006 has raised as many uncertainties as it sought to clarify. In critically evaluating the impact of the Charities Act 2006, and its successor, the Charities Act 2011, upon English charity law, this assessment places the legal definition of charity within its complex and, at times, vague historical context. Thus, providing an ideal backdrop in which to explore the policy objectives behind the Charities Acts and assess the effectiveness of the Charities Acts in achieving those objectives

Numerical integration of the contravariant integral form of the Navier–Stokes equations in time-dependent curvilinear coordinate systems for three-dimensional free surface flows

We propose a three-dimensional non-hydrostatic shock-capturing numerical model for the simulation of wave propagation, transformation and breaking, which is based on an original integral formulation of the contravariant Navier–Stokes equations, devoid of Christoffel symbols, in general time-dependent curvilinear coordinates. A coordinate transformation maps the time-varying irregular physical domain that reproduces the complex geometries of coastal regions to a fixed uniform computational one. The advancing of the solution is performed by a second-order accurate strong stability preserving Runge–Kutta fractional-step method in which, at every stage of the method, a predictor velocity field is obtained by the shock-capturing scheme and a corrector velocity field is added to the previous one, to produce a non-hydrostatic divergence-free velocity field and update the water depth. The corrector velocity field is obtained by numerically solving a Poisson equation, expressed in integral contravariant form, by a multigrid technique which uses a four-colour Zebra Gauss–Seidel line-by-line method as smoother. Several test cases are used to verify the dispersion and shock-capturing properties of the proposed model in time-dependent curvilinear grids

Characterization of the geomechanical properties of Oligocene clay in Budapest

Abstract The Oligocene Kiscell Clay is a widespread sediment of the Budapest region. The best-evaluated parts of the deposit are found along the new Metro (subway) line (Line 4) on the Buda side of the Danube River, where cores were cut. The geomechanical parameters of the Kiscell Clay were studied and evaluated using 481 samples from 41 cores. Nearly 5000 data were processed using different statistical parameters. The results of the statistical analyses are compared with previously-described soil-mechanical parameters; regional correlations of the mechanical properties of the Kiscell Clay are made by comparison with the results of previous analyses (Görög 2007a). There are significant discrepancies in the datasets of cohesion and uniaxial compressive strength, but other parameters show better correlation. In any case these analyses provide information for the engineering geologic design and planning for underground structures

Numerical simulation of fluid-structure interaction phenomena

In this thesis, a new method for the investigation of aeroelastic phenomena for long-span bridges is proposed: the aerodynamic fields and the motion of structure are simulated simultaneously and in a coupled manner. The structure is represented as a bidimensional elastically suspended rigid body with two degrees of freedom whose natural frequencies correspond to those of the fundamental flexural and torsional modes of vibration of the structure. The aerodynamic fields are simulated by numerically integrating the Unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) equations with a finite volume scheme on moving grids which adapt to the structural motion. The URANS equations are completed by the turbulent closure relations which are expressed as a function of the turbulent kinetic energy, the turbulence frequency and the strain tensor according to the k- SST approach. The presented model is used in order to identify the critical flutter wind velocity of the Forth Road Bridge deck, and the numerical results are compared with those of an experimental campaign. For wind velocities equal or greater than the critical wind flutter velocity, the deck starts to oscillate increasingly. It is demonstrated that the reason for the onset of the torsional-branch coupled flutter lies in the fact that, within each of the first oscillation cycles, there is a portion of the cycle in which the energy supplied by the aerodynamic field to the deck motion is more than the energy extracted in the rest of the cycle. Then it is shown that the reason for the amplification of the instability resides in the drifting of large vortical formations along the deck surface. The numerical model is also used to test the effect, on the aeroelastic stability of the Forth Road Bridge deck, of the introduction of a couple of sloping barriers at the windward and leeward bridge deck edges. It is demonstrated that the aerodynamic modifications produced by the introduction of such barriers is effective in increasing the critical flutter velocity and mitigating the vibration amplitudes which develop during the flutter instability

THEMATIC MAPPING OF THE NAIVASHA-REGION (KENYA) FROM LANDSAT IMAGES

At the University of Karlsruhe as a graduating student I could join to a project created by the European Community for supporting the developing countries. In my thesis work I classified two images with relatively few ground data. I used the excellent possibilities of the DIDIX image processing package and passing-through with ARC/INFO. The de- scribed classification will be followed in the future by careful analysis and suggestion for cultivation

MISI and Landsat ETM+: Thermal calibration and atmospheric correction

Two new remote sensing instruments were used for the first time this past summer, both with novel thermal imaging capabilities. NASA\u27s Landsat ETM+ (Enhanced Thematic Mapper+), the latest in the series of Earth imaging satellites, has both higher radiometric and spatial resolution than ever before. RIT\u27s MISI (Modular Imaging Spectrometer Instrument) is an airborne sensor with a unique thermal spectrometer. The images from both will be used for a wide variety of applications. The purpose of this research is three-fold; to ensure MISI thermal imagery is calibrated by developing a laboratory calibration process, to develop techniques to remove the effects of the atmosphere being imaged, and to ensure that Landsat thermal imagery is calibrated by using the calibrated MISI imagery. Although we failed to successfully calibrate MISI in the lab, using ground truth the instrument was empirically calibrated to within O.5K. Two different atmospheric correction techniques, a multiple-altitude technique and a multi-band technique, were used on the calibrated imagery and found to successfully predict ground temperature to within 1.4K and O.8K, respectively. To verify the Landsat calibration, MISI images were projected to space-reaching radiance to compare with Landsat. Although over the three collects this summer, we did find a consistent difference between MISI and Landsat (RMS ofO.6K) more data must be taken before we are convinced that Landsat\u27s calibration coefficients need updating. This being the inaugural flight seasons for both instruments makes much of this data very preliminary but the tools are in place for future flight seasons

Az új gazdaság térbeli elhelyezkedése Magyarországon = The Spatial Location of the New Economy in Hungary

A doktori értekezés célja az új gazdaság fogalmának, megközelítéseinek, az új gazdaság és a tér kapcsolatának elméleti, majd a magyarországi adatok alapján empirikus bemutatása. Fő kérdésünk, hogy milyen térszerkezetet követ az IKT a magyar gazdaságban, elsősorban a meglévő nagyvárosokhoz és más fontosabb gazdasági csomópontokhoz kapcsolódik, vagy jelentkeznek olyan centripetális erők is, melyek a gazdasági tevékenység "terítését" segítik elő

3D free surface flow simulations based on the integral form of the equations of motion

This work deals with a novel three-dimensional finite-volume non-hydrostatic shock-capturing model for the simulation of wave transformation processes and wave-structure interaction. The model is based on an integral formulation of the Navier-Stokes equations solved on a coordinate system in which the vertical coordinate is varying in time. A finite-volume shock-capturing numerical technique based on high order WENO reconstructions is adopted in order to discretize the fluid motion equations

Numerical investigation of the three-dimensional velocity fields induced by wave-structure interaction

Submerged shore-parallel breakwaters for coastal defence are a good compromise between the need to mitigate the effects of waves on the coast and the ambition to ensure the preservation of the landscape and water quality. In this work we simulate, in a fully three-dimensional form, the hydrodynamic effects induced by submerged breakwaters on incident wave trains with different wave height. The proposed three-dimensional non-hydrostatic finite-volume model is based on an integral form of the Navier-Stokes equations in σ-coordinates and is able to simulate the shocks in the numerical solution related to the wave breaking. The obtained numerical results show that the hydrodynamic phenomena produced by wave-structure interaction have features of three-dimensionality (undertow), that are locally important, and emphasize the need to use a non-hydrostatic fully-three-dimensional approach

Numerical simulation of the Rio Fucino dam-break flood

In this paper a dam-break flood model based on a contravariant integral form of the shallow water equations is presented. The equations of motion are numerically solved by means of a finite volume-finite difference numerical scheme that involves an exact Riemann solver and is based on a WENO reconstruction procedure. An original scheme for the simulation of the wet front progress on the dry bed is adopted. The proposed model is used to simulate the Rio Fucino dam-break and subsequent flood wave propagation, downstream of the Campotosto reservoir (Italy)