Privatising the British Airports Authority : competitions, capture and control

Although apparently successful, the government's privatisation programme has faced much criticism over the manner in which it has been implemented. This criticism has centered on potential conflict between the economic and policital aims of the policy. The major criticism of the government has been that when faced with these tradeoffs, short-run political considerations have too often dominated. Currently, legislation is passing through Parliament to enable the privatisation of the British Airports Authority (BAA). Detailed examination of this legislation provides a useful case study upon which to test such criticism. Privatisation of the BAA is of particular concern to Scotland as this organisation currently has a near-monopoly of airport provision north of the border

Stainless Steel Tubular Beams - Tests and Design

The paper presents tests on square and circular stainless steel tubular beams. An important part of the test programme was to quantify the increase in bending strength resulting from cold-work during the fabrication process. Tension and compression tests on coupons cut from finished tubes were also included in the test programme. Stress-strain curves for shear were obtained using the coupon test results and the concept of affinity factors. A design method is proposed for stainless steel tubular beams. The method incorporates the increase in strength produced by the cold-rolling process and is validated by comparing it to the test strengths. Design rules are proposed for the bending and shear strengths and for combined bending and shear. The paper describes a simple non-iterative method for calculating deflections of stainless steel tubular beams. The method is suitable for design. It is shown to produce deflections which agree closely with the tests and a comprehensive finite element analysis

Response to Corner Brook Pulp & Paper Tire Derived Fuel (TDF) Co-Firing Trial Project Proponent: Corner Brook Pulp & Paper Ltd. (Reg. 1539)

While acknowledging potential economic benefits for Corner Brook Pulp and Paper (CBPP) in using tire-derived fuel (TDF), we remain unconvinced of the net public and environmental health benefits of its use and are concerned with the methodology of the proposed test. We hope that this overview of our concerns can help the Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) make an informed decision regarding the testing of TDF at CBPP. Guiding our submission is the precautionary principle, which has been adopted by all relevant parties, including the Government of Canada, the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador and CBPP. As such and in light of the issues below, it is our position that additional research is required before moving to a test trial. This can be achieved either by conducting a full Environmental Impact Statement, including component studies and additional public hearings, or by rejecting the undertaking outright

Teachers as designers of learning in diverse, bilingual classrooms in England:An ADiBE case study

This ADiBE case study explores an innovative, integrated approach to addressing diversity in secondary classrooms in England, where more than one language is used and learned. We position diversity in multilingual and multicultural communities where schooling seeks to provide meaningful learning experiences for all students and guide learners towards being and becoming global citizens. Within a UK context, underpinning values emphasise social justice and inclusion embodied in classroom practices that actively involve teachers as researchers with their learners – in terms of ‘curriculum-making’ and reinterpreting the impact of diversity on ‘successful’ learning communities. This research analyses contextual and exploratory factors that enable diverse learners with diverse needs to engage in learning partnerships with each other and their teachers. Using a framework to capture collaborative professional learning, synergies are explored between two different approaches to bilingual learning – English as an Additional language (EAL) and Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL). The case study identifies potentially rich sites for building pedagogic capital and explores how diversity can enable more young people to feel valued, respected and successful bilingual learners in formal schooling

Compression Tests of Cold-reduced High Strength Steel Long Columns

This paper describes a series of compression tests performed on long columns fabricated from cold-formed high strength steel plates with nominal yield stress of 550 MPa (80 ksi). The steel is classified as G550 to Australia Standard AS1397. The test results presented in this paper are the second stage of an Australian Research Council research project entitled Compression Stability of High Strength Steel Sections with Low Strain-Hardening . A total of 28 long columns, which were made from two thicknesses of sheet steel (0.42 mm and 0.6 mm) (0.017 in. and 0.024 in.), were tested. A box shaped section was tested between pinned ends over a range of lengths. This paper shows the comparison of loads obtained experimentally with those predicted on the basis of AS/NZS4600 and the AISI specification including Supplement No.1, 1999. The finite element program, ABAQUS, was also used to simulate the column behaviour. For sections which undergo local instability at loads significantly less than the ultimate loads, the column design rules in AS/NZS 4600 and the AISI Specification are unconservative if used in their current form for G550 steel. Proposals for improved column design of high strength slender sections are proposed in this paper

Compression Tests on Cold-formed Angles Loaded Parallel with a Leg

This paper describes a series of compression tests on cold-formed equal angles with slender cross-section. The angles were tested between pinned ends and loaded axially with eccentric load which caused bending parallel with a leg. The test data are compared with the design rules of the Australian and American specifications for cold-formed and hot-rolled steel structures, as well as the ASCE Standard for the Design of Latticed Steel Transmission Structures. The rules of the specifications for cold-formed steel structures (AS/NZS4600 and AlSI) are shown to be very conservative. The cause of the conservatism is explained and improved design rules are proposed

Control theory helps to resolve the measles paradox

Measles virus (MV) is a highly contagious respiratory morbillivirus that results in many disabilities and deaths. A crucial challenge in studying MV infection is to understand the so-called ‘measles paradox’—the progression of the infection to severe immunosuppression before clearance of acute viremia, which is also observed in canine distemper virus (CDV) infection. However, a lack of models that match in vivo data has restricted our understanding of this complex and counter-intuitive phenomenon. Recently, progress was made in the development of a model that fits data from acute measles infection in rhesus macaques. This progress motivates our investigations to gain additional insights from this model into the control mechanisms underlying the paradox. In this paper, we investigated analytical conditions determining the control and robustness of viral clearance for MV and CDV, to untangle complex feedback mechanisms underlying the dynamics of acute infections in their natural hosts. We applied control theory to this model to help resolve the measles paradox. We showed that immunosuppression is important to control and clear the virus. We also showed under which conditions T-cell killing becomes the primary mechanism for immunosuppression and viral clearance. Furthermore, we characterized robustness properties of T-cell immunity to explain similarities and differences in the control of MV and CDV. Together, our results are consistent with experimental data, advance understanding of control mechanisms of viral clearance across morbilliviruses, and will help inform the development of effective treatments. Further the analysis methods and results have the potential to advance understanding of immune system responses to a range of viral infections such as COVID-19

Identifying Shear Buckling Coefficients for Channels with Rectangular Web Stiffeners using the Generalised cFSM

The Direct Strength Method (DSM) of design for cold-formed sections was recently extended in the North American Specification for Cold-Formed Steel Structural Members (NAS S100:2012) to include members in shear. The method has largely been developed on the basis of work done on lipped channel sections. To utilise the method requires the critical shear buckling load of the section, which may be determined from a minimum point on the signature curve for the section in pure shear. However when longitudinal web stiffeners are added to the channel a minimum may not exist, or may occur at half-wavelengths where the critical buckling mode is localised in the individual vertical portions of the web rather than involving the full web as an essentially continuous element, as occurs for a plain lipped channel in local shear buckling. This paper explores the application of the recently-developed generalised constrained finite strip method (cFSM) to determine critical shear buckling loads for lipped channels with rectangular web stiffeners, from which shear buckling coefficients may be back-calculated. The addition of the stiffener leads to new distortional modes, deemed web-distortional modes, that play an important role in the buckling behaviour of web-stiffened channels at half-wavelengths where buckling involves deformations of the web as a continuous element. Using the cFSM, combinations of pure local modes and the web-distortional modes are considered to produce modal solutions. These modal solutions always give a minimum regardless of section and these minima are used to identify critical buckling half-wavelengths. The critical shear buckling loads are then taken as those at the same half-wavelengths on the corresponding traditional FSM signature curves for the sections. The proposed method is appropriate for sections with small stiffeners, as are used in practice

Effects of lactulose on growth, carcass characteristics, faecal microbiota, and blood constituents in broilers

Citation: Mohammadi Gheisar, M., Nyachoti, C. M., Hancock, J. D., & Kim, I. H. (2016). Effects of lactulose on growth, carcass characteristics, faecal microbiota, and blood constituents in broilers. Veterinarni Medicina, 61(2), 90-96. doi:10.17221/8722-VETMEDThis study was conducted to determine the effect of supplementing diets with lactulose on growth performance, carcass characteristics, faecal microbiota, and blood constituents. A total of 324 one-day-old Ross 308 mixed-sex broiler chicks with an average initial body weight of 38 g were used in a 35-day growth assay. There were 18 birds/pen and six pens/treatment with food and water available ad libitum. Treatments consisted of a corn-soybean-meal-based diet with 0, 0.25 and 0.5% of lactulose. The results indicated that body weight gain (BWG) was improved (linear effect, P < 0.05) by increasing the concentration of lactulose in the diet from zero to 0.5% while the feed conversion ratio (FCR) decreased (linear effect, P < 0.05) for Days 8 to 21, 21 to 35, and overall (Day 0 to 35). Chickens fed the diet supplemented with 0.5% lactulose showed a higher relative weight of breast meat compared to other groups. Inclusion of lactulose decreased the count of Salmonella and E. coli in excreta of chickens fed diets containing 0.25 or 0.5% lactulose (P < 0.05), but the count of Lactobacillus was not affected. Drip loss percentage was decreased (P < 0.05) on Day 1 by addition of 0.5% lactulose, but there was no effect on meat colour. Blood characteristics were not influenced. Thus, it was concluded that inclusion of lactulose improves growth performance and alters excreta microbial populations with no adverse effect on broilers