Library purchasing consortia in the UK

The distribution of library purchasing consortia across the United Kingdom is uneven and sector-dependent. Only higher education libraries show a well developed regional infrastructure of purchasing consortia covering virtually all eligible libraries. While there are clear sectoral disparities amongst the library purchasing consortia surveyed, the size of consortium expenditure seems to determine whether procurement professionals are involved. Thus in those whose spend consistently exceeds European Commission guidelines’ thresholds, the involvement of purchasing professionals is much more likely, and also crucial to the successful navigation of such procedures

Virtual Reality and its Applications in the Mockup Process: A Case Study

Mockups are an important part of the construction process as they provide numerous benefits in both constructability review and aesthetic approval. Virtual Reality is an emerging technology that could prove to be a valuable addition to the mockup process. Many construction firms are attempting to incorporate virtual reality into any process they can --ranging from impressing owners in order to procure jobs to training employees so they can more adeptly adjust to field conditions. This paper will introduce virtual reality and some of its applications in the construction industry, specifically analyzing virtual reality and its applications in the mockup process via a case study. While the projects were met largely with success, they had their share of challenges in implementation. VR mockups proved valuable for aesthetic review purposes. They also improved the design-approval process which, in turn, reduced both cost and time. The technology was still met with challenges in implementation. The primary challenges were: aversion to the new technology, illness/nausea, hesitation about increased investment earlier in the project, and the reliance on available technology

Some aspects of miscible phase displacement as applied to the recovery of oil reservoir crude

Recent application of the miscible sing displacement process as a method to increase recovery from petroleum reservoirs has resulted in a great deal of laboratory investigation, none of which provided conclusive evidence as to the amount of mixing taking place between the displacing and displaced fluids. This investigation attempts to provide a possible insight into the rate and degree of mixing of two fluids with respect to flow path transversed and the rate of advance of the fluids. The laboratory investigation consisted of displacing a fluid from a packed core with another fluid under completely miscible conditions. Experimental evidence indicates that mixing between two miscible fluids does not necessarily stabilize with respect to volume composition although the length of the mixing zones might approach a constant value. Rate of flow has little effect on the volume of the mixing zone; however it was noted that the volumetric concentration of the displacing fluid in the mixing zone decreased with slower rates of advance. It would be possible as well as practical to conduct investigations using fluid samples from a given reservoir prior to the instigation of a flood of this type. Results determined from such investigations could be used to predict behavior in the reservoir --Abstract, page 1

Managing Fiscal Volatility by Redefining Tax Cuts and Tax Hikes

This report analyzes how states should cope with fiscal volatility at the level of institutional-design policy. We propose that states reconsider how they define terms like ‘‘tax cuts’’ and ‘‘tax hikes.’’ By adopting a new baseline for defining those terms, states can increase the likelihood of using tax rate adjustments to cope with fiscal volatility rather than more harmful spending fluctuations

Verrucae vulgaris (warts)

This issue of eMedRef provides information to clinicians on the pathophysiology, diagnosis, and therapeutics of verrucae vulgaris