The effects of upstream Natural Flood Management on urban surface drainage performance

The evaluation of rural Natural Flood Management (NFM) has traditionally focused on the ability of interventions to mitigate downstream fluvial flooding by attenuating catchment response. This research expands this focus – investigating whether these same interventions could also mitigate surface flood risk in downstream urban areas. By moderating water levels in receiving watercourses, upstream NFM could promote free discharge from urban drainage outfalls and thereby improve local surface drainage performance. A novel modelling methodology has been developed to characterise the response of three separate catchments – the Bin Brook in Cambridgeshire, the Asker in Dorset and a sub-catchment of the upper Calder in Yorkshire. The upstream, rural response is simulated by coupling Dynamic TOPMODEL (a semi-distributed hydrological model) and HEC-RAS (which solves the shallow flow equations). This offers a freely-available, spatially-informed approach for the evaluation of a range of upstream NFM interventions (located both within and beyond the riparian zone) at a catchment-scale. This modelled rural response then provides the input for a downstream, integrated urban drainage model (Infoworks ICM). This is then be used to examine how any consequent changes in outfall inundation by the urban watercourse alter local drainage performance. Each case study is examined separately before a comparative study of all three is undertaken to identify broader trends. These trends suggest that during more frequent events (e.g. 1 in 10 year), upstream NFM interventions create the greatest reductions for the time low-lying outfalls are submerged by local watercourses. As storm severity increases (heightening risk of drainage surcharge or failure) these reductions diminish. Despite this, the slight delay in rural response continues to allow more water to escape surface systems before outfall inundation occurs, increasing the effective capacity of networks and reducing surface flood volumes. While any improvements to outfall discharge would not, in themselves, justify NFM implementation, these interventions have the potential to contribute to a downstream water level management strategy in certain locations and therefore will be of interest to urban flood risk practitioners.Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Counci

John Locke and the education of the poor

The purpose of this study was to examine John Locke\u27s views on the education of the poor and compare them with his general philosophy of man and education.;John Locke (1632-1704) is one of the best-known and respected philosophers of the Western World. For three hundred years his famous Essay Concerning Human Understanding has led many philosophers to a view of man as a free and rational being. Unburdened with innate ideas, Locke\u27s man is free to learn to be all that he can be.;Locke extended this general theory into a handbook for education. He published in great detail the training and rigors to be undergone by a child. This book, the famous Some Thoughts concerning Education, told the gentry that a disciplined study of the liberal arts untainted with useless knowledge was the basis of education. This would be augmented with the acquisition of a useful trade. Above all, the gentleman would learn how to learn. .;It seems, however, that all this concern for proper education was aimed at the gentry--the gentlemen who would need these skills to get along in a society of like men. When we look at Locke\u27s ideas on the education of the poor, we see little of the tenderness that was to be afforded the gentry.;Could these seemingly dichotomous views of education--kindness and understanding for the gentry and force and cruelty the poor--be reconciled with Locke\u27s philosophy of the rational and free man?;I hypothesized that John Locke\u27s ideas of education for the poor were consistent with his philosophy of man.;I concluded that Locke\u27s ideas for the education of the poor are indeed consistent with his views of man as put forth in the Essay Concerning Human Understanding and his views of education as shown in Some Thoughts Concerning Education

Prophetic Preaching to Resistant Audiences: a Call for Change

Problem. Recent trends in homiletics emphasize preaching about the listeners’ felt-needs. Often the nature of prophetic-preaching requires the preacher to address needs that are not felt by the listeners. This present study was to create a homiletical strategy for preaching unpopular truths and about needs that are unperceived by the listeners. This study was also to identify some unpopular truths and unperceived needs of the Spokane Valley Seventh-day Adventist Church that were to be addressed in a series of sermons. Method. A biblical study was conducted into the role of the preacher as prophet. This study compared the techniques used by Jesus and various biblical characters to bring about change. The counsel o f Ellen White pertaining to the presentation of unpopular truths and preaching toward a change was analyzed. Contemporary literature pertaining to persuasive communication, conflict management, and prophetic preaching was also investigated. This research was used in devising a homiletical strategy for preaching about unpopular truths and unperceived needs. Questionnaires were devised to ascertain what listeners consider to render a sermon effective and to identify unpopular truths and unperceived needs in the Spokane Valley SDA Church. These questionnaires were administered to the Spokane Valley SDA congregation, pastors o f the Upper Columbia Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, and administrators of the same Conference as well as the North Pacific Union Conference of SDA. Data acquired from these questionnaires were used in creating the homiletical strategy and for determining what were unpopular truths and unperceived needs. A series of eight sermons addressing unpopular truths and unperceived needs was preached to the Spokane Valley SDA congregation, four utilizing the homiletical strategy and four not using the strategy or ignoring it. A questionnaire was administered following each sermon, involving a preselected group of approximately 30 members, and a feedback session involving this same group was conducted at the conclusion o f the sermon series. The data received from the post-sermon questionnaires and feedback session were used to determine the effectiveness o f each sermon. Results. The homiletical strategy discovered and created was the inductive method requiring intentional consideration o f a three-pronged process— care-fronting process, prophetic process, and designing process. All sermons appeared to effectively address the unpopular truths and unperceived needs o f the Spokane Valley SDA congregation. However, there appeared to be no difference in the effectiveness of the four sermons utilizing the homiletical strategy when compared to the four sermons ignoring or not using the strategy. Conclusions. It is the calling of the preacher to follow the example of the prophet-preachers of the Bible. This will demand preaching for change in the hearts and minds of the listeners. Unpopular truths and unperceived needs may be effectively addressed in the pulpit Furthermore, although sermons employing the three-pronged homiletical strategy were not judged by listeners as being more effective than other strategies, they did prove to be just as viable. Therefore, preachers may consider using the proposed strategy when they have to preach to their listeners’ unfelt needs

Anisotropic Quadrilateral Mesh Optimization

In order to determine the validity and the quality of meshes, mesh optimization methods have been formulated with quality measures. The basic idea of mesh optimization is to relocate the vertices to obtain a valid mesh (untangling) or improve the mesh quality (smoothing), or both. We will look at a new algebraic way of calculating quality measure on quadrilateral meshes, based on triangular meshes in 2D as well as new optimization methods for simultaneous untangling and smoothing for severely deformed meshes. An innovative anisotropic diffusion method will be introduced for consideration of inner boundary deformation movements for quadrangle meshes in 2D

Panel discussion II: safeguarding good policy practice

Monetary policy

From coal pits to tar sands: examining labour migration between the Athabasca oil sands and an Atlantic Canadian region

In less than two decades, the Oil Sands industries of Northern Alberta have transformed from a costly experiment in oil production hidden in the Canadian hinterlands to a mega-industry employing over 100 000 individuals situated at the centre of the Canadian economy. This rapid growth is due in large part to industries' adoption of certain neoliberal strategies, in particular making use of mobile and flexible temporary migrant workforces drawn from communities from across Canada undergoing processes of deindustrialization, capital flight and high levels of unemployment. One such region is Industrial Cape Breton, a former centre of coal mining and steel milling. The region has become strongly connected to the Oil Sands industries following the demise of its central industries at the turn of the millennium and is now dealing with the impacts that patterns of long-distance labour migration have on local communities and families. Based on multi-sited fieldwork conducted in Industrial Cape Breton and the Oil Sands region, the present dissertation examines this emerging pattern of labour migration as an aspect of the ongoing neoliberalization of the labour force. Through an examination of the political economies of migration and resource extraction, an exploration of the sending and receiving regions involved in these commutes, and use of work-life narratives as a methodological tool to examine the lived experiences of those involved in these mobile labour arrangements, this dissertation argues for attention to the connection of class and migration. Such labour migrations are both cause and consequence of a shift in classed subjectivities among a mobile working class involved in long-distance commute work. The processes that allow for labour migration fall fundamentally within the scopes of a broader neoliberal project yet rest on the foundations formed through the pre-established Fordist project. The promises of Fordism and the Fordist legacy allow for the establishment and continuation of certain forms of neoliberalism and of certain forms of labour migration as workers attempting to re-create Fordist patterns of stable and secure relations to work instead become implicated in insecure and unstable work relations which highlight the neoliberal era

Iodine Poisoning Counteracted by Thiosulphate

2 p. Reprinted from: Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine, 1928, Vol. 25, pp. 784-78