Structural particleboard: Characterisation and stress grading

A characterisation program was carried out on 36 sheets each of 6 commercial structural particleboards, half being of 16 mm thickness and half of 19 mm thickness. Of each sheet supplied, half was used for coupon testes and half was used for whole board MOR and MOE measurements. Various statistical correlations were made of coupon and whole board properties. A stress grading system based upon the test results is proposed. it is similar in format to those used in Australian Standards for structural timbers and plywoods

Cause for optimism? Government plans for a patient-led NHS

Professor Alan Glasper outlines the new Government’s plans for the NHS, including a commitment to a free service that empowers users to have a greater say in their health care

A comparative analysis of the air quality management challenges and capabilities in urban and rural english local authorities

Local authorities in Great Britain have (in the main) completed their air quality review and assessments, the aim of the process being the identification of local hotspots where national air quality objectives are not likely to be met Across Great Britain approximately 120 Air Quality Management Areas are in the process of being declared. Local authorities, in partnership with others, are required to write and implement an action plan outlining remedial measures to improve the air quality situation in these areas. This paper compares and contrasts the challenges facing urban and rural authorities in carrying out these responsibilities. The capabilities of urban, rural and those authorities defined as 'mixed' in implementing the review and assessment process also are discussed. The data presented indicate that, although urban authorities appear to be facing greater and more complex air quality challenges, rural areas are not without their own air quality challenges. The issues facing urban authorities are different from those facing their more rural counterparts. It is hypothesised that urban authorities have more effective frameworks in place for tackling the challenges of air quality action planning. This hypothesis is tested by questionnaire surveys and in the context of an urban and a rural case-study authority. © 2002 The Editors of Urban Studies

Вечерний Первоуральск. 2020. № 097

Broadly speaking, the contemporary scientific realist is concerned to justify belief in what we might call theoretical truth, which includes truth based on ampliative inference and truth about unobservables. Many, if not most, contemporary realists say scientific realism should be treated as ‘an overarching scientific hypothesis’ (Putnam 1978, p. 18). In its most basic form, the realist hypothesis states that theories enjoying general predictive success are true. This hypothesis becomes a hypothesis to be tested. To justify our belief in the realist hypothesis, realists commonly put forward an argument known as the ‘no-miracles argument’. With respect to the basic hypothesis this argument can be stated as follows: it would be a miracle were our theories as successful as they are, were they not true; the only possible explanation for the general predictive success of our scientific theories is that they are true