Erodibility of hill peat

peer-reviewedThe project was funded by the European Union Structural Funds EAGGF distributed under the Department of Agriculture and Food Stimulus Fund.The energy necessary to entrain soil in water depends on the soil strength. Once entrained, the settling velocity of the eroded soil in water is of fundamental importance to the processes of sediment transport and deposition. In this paper, stream power theory and transport concepts coupled with the equation of continuity were used to derive a transport-limited peat concentration. The ratio of the log of the actual sediment concentration in surface run-off to the log of the transport-limited sediment concentration was the index of erosion used. The value of this index is a measure of the sensitivity of peat to erosion by sheet flow. Four peats were subjected to a range of overland flow rates under two slopes in a laboratory flume. The peats represented peat farmed in a sustainable manner (Leenane), overgrazed peat (Maam), peat undergoing erosion (Newport) and peat which had undergone weathering following exposure by a landslip (Croagh Patrick). Both in situ and surface damaged slabs were studied. The results indicate that shearing and remoulding of a wet peat surface (e.g., by animal treading) and weathering of exposed drained peat surfaces predispose peat to erosion. Defoliation by overgrazing is considered to be of secondary importance.Department of Agriculture, Food and the MarineEuropean Union Structural Funds EAGG

Quality management and e-commerce: the role of codes of conduct governing the use of technology

Discussion of the relationship between TQM and information and communications technology (ICT) normally focuses either on technological issues, or on the role of ICT in enabling the achievement of quality goals by means of business process re-engineering. Less attention has been paid to the effects that the increased utilisation of ICT is having on management style, and on the quality of relationships. This paper reports on research undertaken into the development, implementation and enforcement of codes of conduct designed to govern employees' use of ICT. A study of 125 London-based employers found that, although such codes had been introduced in nearly three-quarters of the organisations, the majority failed to address a key issue of concern to customers' privacy of personal data. Furthermore, the codes themselves were seen to have little influence on the behaviour of employees. The reasons for this are discussed within a TQM framework, and suggestions made as to how compliance might be improved in future

e-Government in Greece: opportunities for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of local government

Currently in Greece, the Operational Programme for the Information Society (OPIS) is promoting ICT in the public sector. However, a content study of Greek government websites reveals that at local level e-government has generally not progressed beyond the information presentation stage. The findings of an online survey of government employees and interviews with key government officials suggest reasons for this. Recommendations are made for facilitating the development and implementation of full interactive local e-government

Safety net? Trust and e-government

Although the use of e-government by citizens is uneven, states are pressing ahead with e-government programmes despite the concerns of online users about areas such as privacy, the security of online transactions and fraud. Issues of trust and e-government are explored by looking at the Greek experience. Evidence is presented of a mismatch between the perceived importance of the trustworthiness of e-government websites and the actual priorities set by the authorities. Recommendations are made for the enhancement of public trust and confidence in government, and a model is proposed for determining the trustworthiness of e-government sites

Pore geometry as a control on rock strength

This study was funded via RJW's University of Leicester start-up fund, as part of AAB's PhD project. We thank Don Swanson and Mike Poland at HVO, Hawai'i, for their help and advice during fieldwork planning and sample collection in the Koa'e fault system, and the National Park Service for granting a research permit to collect rock samples. Sergio Vinciguerra is thanked for access to the Rock Mechanics and Physics lab at the British Geological Survey and Audrey Ougier-Simonin is thanked for her help preparing samples and advice during testing. We thank Mike Heap (EOST Strasbourg) and an anonymous reviewer for their detailed and careful comments that greatly improved the manuscript.Peer reviewedPostprin

Continuation of a deep borehole stress measurement profile near the San Andreas Fault: 2. Hydraulic fracturing stress measurements at Black Butte, Mojave Desert, California

Hydraulic fracturing stress measurements were obtained in the Black Butte drill hole, 18 km northeast of the San Andreas fault in the Mojave Desert, at depths from 251 to 635 m. In all tests the least and greatest horizontal principal stresses (S_h and S_H, respectively) exceeded the vertical stress (S_ν), indicating a thrust faulting stress regime. A single good-quality hydraulic fracture impression from 309 m depth indicates an S_H direction of N41°E ± 10°. This S_H direction should be interpreted with caution because it is based on only one observation. This orientation is fairly compatible with nearby surface stress measurements but is incompatible with most of the hydraulic fracturing stress orientations reported from comparable depths in the Mojave Desert and is not favorable for right-lateral slip on either the San Andreas fault or NW striking faults present farther to the east. The stress regime measured in the Black Butte hole is comparable to that measured at nearby shallow depths but differs from the strike-slip or transitional (strike-slip to thrust faulting) stress regime present at similar depths in two nearby holes: Crystallaire, 4 km northeast of fhe San Andreas fault, and Hi Vista, 32 km northeast of the San Andreas fault. The S_H direction measured in these holes is approximately 60° counterclockwise of that observed in the Black Butte hole. The differences in stress magnitudes and orientation among these holes substantiate previous indications of local variations in stress in the upper kilometer of the crust in this area and cast doubt on the validity of linear elastic models in which the effects of the San Andreas fault dominate the stress field in the western Mojave Desert

e-Government in Greece: bridging the gap between need and reality

Increased use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in all layers of society, and especially in the public sector, is being promoted by the EU through various programmes and frameworks. Although Greece is keen to promote the information society, e government appears shyly on the horizon, mainly with the establishment of citizen service centres’. The reasons why full interactive online presence is still in its infancy in Greece, at least at a local government level, are considered and recommendations made for further research

Acoustic characterization of crack damage evolution in sandstone deformed under conventional and true triaxial loading

We thank the Associate Editor, Michelle Cooke, and the reviewers, Ze'ev Reches and Yves Guéguen, for useful comments which helped to improve the manuscript. We thank J.G. Van Munster for providing access to the true triaxial apparatus at KSEPL and for technical support during the experimental program. We thank R. Pricci for assistance with technical drawings of the apparatus. This work was partly funded by NERC award NE/N002938/1 and by a NERC Doctoral Studentship, which we gratefully acknowledge. Supporting data are included in a supporting information file; any additional data may be obtained from J.B. (e-mail: [email protected]).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Upper critical dimension, dynamic exponent and scaling functions in the mode-coupling theory for the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang equation

We study the mode-coupling approximation for the KPZ equation in the strong coupling regime. By constructing an ansatz consistent with the asymptotic forms of the correlation and response functions we determine the upper critical dimension d_c=4, and the expansion z=2-(d-4)/4+O((4-d)^2) around d_c. We find the exact z=3/2 value in d=1, and estimate the values 1.62, 1.78 for z, in d=2,3. The result d_c=4 and the expansion around d_c are very robust and can be derived just from a mild assumption on the relative scale on which the response and correlation functions vary as z approaches 2.Comment: RevTex, 4 page

An Exactly Solved Model of Three Dimensional Surface Growth in the Anisotropic KPZ Regime

We generalize the surface growth model of Gates and Westcott to arbitrary inclination. The exact steady growth velocity is of saddle type with principal curvatures of opposite sign. According to Wolf this implies logarithmic height correlations, which we prove by mapping the steady state of the surface to world lines of free fermions with chiral boundary conditions.Comment: 9 pages, REVTEX, epsf, 3 postscript figures, submitted to J. Stat. Phys, a wrong character is corrected in eqs. (31) and (32