How green in our library?

An environment group has had a presence within Leeds Met Libraries since December 2004. Initially the group chose to look at simple things which could have a positive impact on how we use resources in the workplace. We introduced recycling bins for plastic cups and cans in the staff tearooms, provided dispensers for plastic carrier bags near the self-service machines and arranged training hours for library staff to learn more about environmental issues and to look at their carbon footprint. In May 2006, the group decided to continue their work via an e-mail discussion forum where any issues of environmental concern were raised, with dedicated members of the group continuing to action if appropriate. We found that as time went on, there was an increased interest in environmental matters, so much so that in April 2009 the group reformed, with a new membership and a new title of Green Initiatives Group. The remit of the group is: - To raise awareness of and promote green issues amongst library staff. - To exchange best practice in the university and in the Higher Education library sector. - To build relationships with other ethical organisations working in the Leeds area. One of our aims is to be aware of initiatives taking place in the wider university and to be able to communicate relevant information to library staff about what the university is involved in environmentally. Below is a brief outline of what we have achieved as a group and current projects we are working on

Panels illuminated by edge-lighted lens technique

Electroluminescent lamps used to edge-light a specially ground lens provide nonglare, reduced eye strain panel illumination. There is no noticeable falloff in brightness along the lens edge. Light intensity diminishes toward the lens center. A slight halo, observed along the lens edge, has no detrimental effect

Symbolic execution proofs for higher order store programs

Higher order store programs are programs which store, manipulate and invoke code at runtime. Important examples of higher order store programs include operating system kernels which dynamically load and unload kernel modules. Yet conventional Hoare logics, which provide no means of representing changes to code at runtime, are not applicable to such programs. Recently, however, new logics using nested Hoare triples have addressed this shortcoming. In this paper we describe, from top to bottom, a sound semi-automated verification system for higher order store programs. We give a programming language with higher order store features, define an assertion language with nested triples for specifying such programs, and provide reasoning rules for proving programs correct. We then present in full our algorithms for automatically constructing correctness proofs. In contrast to earlier work, the language also includes ordinary (fixed) procedures and mutable local variables, making it easy to model programs which perform dynamic loading and other higher order store operations. We give an operational semantics for programs and a step-indexed interpretation of assertions, and use these to show soundness of our reasoning rules, which include a deep frame rule which allows more modular proofs. Our automated reasoning algorithms include a scheme for separation logic based symbolic execution of programs, and automated provers for solving various kinds of entailment problems. The latter are presented in the form of sets of derived proof rules which are constrained enough to be read as a proof search algorithm

Promoting green issues and sustainability in UK higher education libraries

Climate change affects us all. Individually and collectively, we must reduce our carbon footprint to protect the future of the planet. But how can higher education libraries contribute? In April of 2007, a request was made to SCONUL libraries – via LIS-SCONUL – for information on library green initiatives that they were taking forward. The responses highlighted that there is growing interest in the issue and that sustainability issues are beginning to be taken very seriously. This is partially driven by the greater awareness of the need to reduce carbon emissions throughout society. Specifically within higher education, it is also a result of encouragement by funding bodies, such as the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) (see http://www.hefce. ac.uk/lgm/sustain/), through pressure from groups such as People and Planet and their ‘green league’ of higher education institutions (http:// peopleandplanet.org/gogreen/greenleague2007), and through rewards for excellence such as the Times Higher Education and Higher Education Academy Awards for an outstanding contribution by a higher education institution to sustainable development. Library staff are often active in wider institutional sustainability initiatives and can act as ‘champions’ for environmental issues and initiatives. Most of the libraries that responded to the request for information have aligned their green initiatives/ policies with those of their host organisation. Some libraries have participated in a wider institutional initiative to apply for the environmental management standard, ISO 14001. However, there are many specific ways that libraries can become more environmentally friendly and can make a difference

Evaluation of a pilot of legally assisted and supported family dispute resolution in family violence cases

Evidence of the prevalence of a history of past and/or current family violence among separated parents, and the presence of ongoing safety concerns for themselves and their children as a result of ongoing contact with the other parent, has created an impetus for the family law system to find more effective ways of dealing with families affected by family violence. In July 2009, the Federal Government announced funding for a pilot program to provide assistance, including family dispute resolution (FDR), to such families. Subsequently, Women’s Legal Service Brisbane (and other consultants) were funded by the Attorney- General’s Department (AGD) to develop a model for coordinated family dispute resolution (CFDR). CFDR is a service for separated families who need assistance to resolve parenting disputes where there has been a history of past and/or current family violence. It is being implemented in five sites/lead agencies across Australia: Perth (Legal Aid Western Australia), Brisbane (Telephone Dispute Resolution Service [TDRS], run by Relationships Australia Queensland), Newcastle (Interrelate), Western Sydney (Unifam) and Hobart (Relationships Australia Tasmania). TDRS made adaptions to the model to accommodate its telephone-based service. The pilot commenced operation at most sites in the final quarter of 2010. Implementation in one location (Brisbane) was delayed until mid-2011 to allow time to finalise the composition of the partnership. This report presents the findings of an evaluation of this process

Automated reasoning for reflective programs

Reflective programming allows one to construct programs that manipulate or examine their behaviour or structure at runtime. One of the benefits is the ability to create generic code that is able to adapt to being incorporated into different larger programs, without modifications to suit each concrete setting. Due to the runtime nature of reflection, static verification is difficult and has been largely ignored or only weakly supported. This work focusses on supporting verification for cases where generic code that uses reflection is to be used in a “closed” program where the structure of the program is known in advance. This thesis first describes extensions to a verification system and semi-automated tool that was developed to reason about heap-manipulating programs which may store executable code on the heap. These extensions enable the tool to support a wider range of programs on account of the ability to provide stronger specifications. The system’s underlying logic is an extension of separation logic that includes nested Hoare-triples which describe behaviour of stored code. Using this verification tool, with the crucial enhancements in this work, a specified reflective library has been created. The resulting work presents an approach where metadata is stored on the heap such that the reflective library can be implemented using primitive commands and then specified and verified, rather than developing new proof rules for the reflective operations. The supported reflective functions characterise a subset of Java’s reflection library and the specifications guarantee both memory safety and a degree of functional correctness. To demonstrate the application of the developed solution two case studies are carried out, each of which focuses on different reflection features. The contribution to knowledge is a first look at how to support semi-automated static verification of reflective programs with meaningful specifications

Wounding patterns and human performance in knife attacks: optimising the protection provided by knife-resistant body armour

Stab attacks generate high loads,1 and to defeat them, armour needs to be of a certain thickness and stiffness.2,3 Slash attacks produce much lower loads and armour designed to defeat them can be far lighter and more flexible.Methods and subjects: Phase 1: Human performance in slash attacks: 87 randomly selected students at the Royal Military College of Science were asked to make one slash attack with an instrumented blade on a vertically mounted target. No instructions on how to slash the target were given. The direction, contact forces and velocity of each attack were recorded. Phase 2: Clinical experience with edged weapon attacks: The location and severity of all penetrating injuries in patients attending the Glasgow Royal Infirmary between 1993 and 1996 were charted on anatomical figures.Results Phase 1: Two types of human slash behaviour were evident: a ‘chop and drag’ blow and a ‘sweep motion’ type of attack. ‘Chop and drag’ attacks had higher peak forces and velocities than sweep attacks. Shoulder to waist blows (diagonal) accounted for 82% of attacks, 71% of attackers used a long diagonal slash with an average cut length of 34 cm and 11% used short diagonal attacks with an average cut length of 25 cm. Only 18% of attackers slashed across the body (short horizontal); the average measured cut length of this type was 28 cm. The maximum peak force for the total sample population was 212 N; the maximum velocity was 14.88 m s−1. The 95 percentile force for the total sample population was 181 N and the velocity was 9.89 m s−1. Phase 2: 431 of the 500 patients had been wounded with edged weapons. The average number of wounds sustained by victims in knife assaults was 2.4. The distribution of wounds by frequency and severity are presented.Conclusions Anti-slash protection is required for the arms, neck, shoulders, and thighs. The clinical experience of knife-attack victims provides information on the relative vulnerabilities of different regions of the body. It is anticipated that designing a tunic-type of Police uniform that is inherently stab and slash resistant will eventually replace the current obvious and often bulky extra protective vest. Attempts at making a combined garment will need to be guided by ergonomic considerations and field testing. A similar anatomical regional risk model might also be appropriate in the design of anti-ballistic armour and combined anti-ballistic and knife-resistant armour