Disposal of Explosive Ordnance and Environmental Risk Mitigation

Humanitarian mine action (HMA) survey and clearance operations have always focused on the contamination that can be seen. Whether it is anti-personnel (AP) mines, anti-vehicles (AV) mines, or explosive remnants of war (ERW), our efforts focus on removing items that pose an immediate blast and fragmentation hazard to humans. However, in certain circumstances, explosive ordnance (EO) also poses a significant environmental hazard, not least from the toxicity of its components, such as heavy metals and explosives. The understanding of contamination from EO in air, soil, and water has developed significantly in recent decades.[i] [ii] [iii] [iv] This has mainly been driven by scientists and industry, as well as military users required to focus on the environmental impact of military training, and led to the development of improved management practices to mitigate the associated environmental risk.[v] [vi] [vii] [viii]This has lead in some countries to significant policy change. Notably the tonnage of munitions disposed of by open burning open detonation (OBOD) by the United States Department of Defense decreased by 58 percent during the period 1998–2018.[ix] In comparison, it is not clear that HMA is universally applying best practice to mitigate the chemical contamination risk from its clearance and explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) activities. A sector that follows simple principles such as “do no harm” and ostensibly always seeks to apply “all reasonable effort” might wish to review and update its current approach

Maths attitudes, school affect and teacher characteristics as predictors of maths attainment trajectories in primary and secondary education

Maths attainment is essential for a wide range of outcomes relating to further education, careers, health and the wider economy. Research suggests a significant proportion of adults and adolescents are underachieving in maths within the UK, making this a key area for research. This study investigates the role of children's perceptions of the school climate (children's affect towards school and student–teacher relationships), their attitudes towards maths and teacher characteristics as predictors of maths attainment trajectories, taking the transition from primary to secondary education into consideration. Two growth models were fit using secondary data analysis of the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). The first model, which looked at predictors of maths attainment in primary education, found significant associations only between positive maths attitudes and increased maths attainment. The second model, which looked at predictors of maths attainment in secondary education, found significant associations between increased maths attainment and positive maths attitudes, decreased school belonging, positive student–teacher relationships and increased teacher fairness. The findings suggest that the secondary education school environment is particularly important for maths attainment

Foundations of the Unified Modeling Language.

Object-oriented analysis and design is an increasingly popular software development method. The Unified Modeling Language (UML) has recently been proposed as a standard language for expressing object-oriented designs. Unfor- tunately, in its present form the UML lacks precisely defined semantics. This means that it is difficult to determine whether a design is consistent, whether a design modification is correct and whether a program correctly implements a design. Formal methods provide the rigor which is lacking in object-oriented design notations. This provision is often at the expense of clarity of exposition for the non-expert. Formal methods aim to use mathematical techniques in order to allow software development activities to be precisely defined, checked and ultimately automated. This paper aims to present an overview of work being undertaken to provide (a sub-set of) the UML with formal semantics. The semantics will facilitate the use of the UML in the software development process by allowing development steps to be defined and checked

Groundwater supply sustainability in fragile states: a case study examining challenges and approaches

Sustainable groundwater supply development in developing countries remains an ongoing challenge due to a range of technical and community related factors. The challenge in fragile states becomes increasingly difficult due to often adverse operational environments and rapid NGO interventions. Such challenging conditions reduce the likelihood of achieving sustainable supplies in the long term. Recent practical experiences in Wau, South Sudan are presented and used to examine groundwater supply sustainability challenges and potential solutions that can be applied in wider fragile state contexts. It should be recognised that groundwater supply sustainability cannot always be realistically achieved in fragile state environments; however, long term financial and developmental incentives exist to maximise sustainability potential wherever the context allows. A combination of preparedness and informed early-phase decision making in collaboration with capable local partners can maximise groundwater supply sustainability potential in challenging fragile state working environments

The Specification of a Reference Implementation for the Unified Modelling Language

Syntax Semantics Denotational Mapping Figure 2: Profile semantics 3.1 Meta-modelling sub-language An essential component of the proposed architecture is a meta-modelling sublanguage. This is used to characterise all aspects of a profile and the kernel library. It provides all the facilities necessary to write profiles, including: simple class diagrams, a simple constraint language, packages (to represent models), an enhanced version of package imports, and a notion of package realisation. Like any other profile, the meta-modelling sub-language imports a number of concepts from the kernel library (see figure 3). StaticBasics (from KernelLibrary) Constraint Basics (from KernelLibrary) Meta-Modelling Sub-Language ModelManagement Basics (from KernelLibrary) Figure 3: The meta-modelling sub-language package As an example, figure 4 shows some of the classes that might belong to 6 the abstract syntax of the sub-language. These deal with two fundamental static modelling con..