FIRE PROTECTION AND LIFE SAFETY ANALYSIS OF A MODERN DISTRIBUTON FACILITY

Warehouse facilities are part of the backbone of American industry. The vast amounts of varying goods stored and distributed as part of American business has always driven the need for large, voluminous warehouses. And the increasing size of these facilities over the decades is very closely linked to the capabilities of and advances in fire protection knowledge and technology. Today’s modern distribution centers easily and often exceed one million square feet in area, and the heights are ever increasing. In the 1970’s and early 1980’s, most warehouse facilities were built to an approximate height of 30 feet; this, at the time, was the extent of the fire protection (i.e., sprinkler) knowledge and capabilities. Factory Mutual (now FM Global) developed the early suppression fast-response (“ESFR”) sprinkler in the 1980’s and buildings have been increasing in height ever since. Many applicable standards list multiple design criteria for various storage configurations in building with roof peaks up to 45 feet. Just recently this year, Viking released a nominal K-28 ESFR sprinkler that is listed to protect rack storage as a ceilingonly design option (i.e., without the need of costly in-rack fire sprinkler systems) in warehouses having a maximum roof height of 48 feet, and it is unlikely that this trend will stop. The industry will continue to research and develop safe design solutions that will allow more and more storage in a cost effective method, and as such, building and fire code will likewise evolve to accommodate. However, in the meantime, architects and engineers work to design these facilities within the parameters of governing building and fire codes, and when necessary, use performance-based design approaches when the building does not fit inside the box

BUDGET PERSPECTIVES 2007

1. DISABILITY BENEFIT – CONTROLLED OR UNDER-CONTROLLED? Brenda Gannon p. 3 2. CHILD POVERTY AND CHILD INCOME SUPPORTS: IRELAND IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE Tim Callan, Kieran Coleman, Brian Nolan and John Walsh p. 23 3. STATE FINANCIAL SUPPORT FOR HORSE RACING IN IRELAND Tony Fahey and Liam Delaney p. 3

Occupational Therapy on College Campuses: Facilitating Student Success Through Occupation

Purpose: To explore how occupational therapy services fit into a supported education model on college campuses. Rationale: College students present with many strengths and challenges in college settings. There are limited services for young adults to succeed in college and students with various diagnoses face challenges in the areas of time management, organization, academic skills, and in social areas of college (Orentlicher, & Olson, 2010; Rogers, Kash-MacDonald, Bruker, & Maru, 2010). Higher education is a role emerging area for occupational therapists, and there are some pioneering occupational therapists who have discovered multiple ways to provide services to students who are challenged by aspects of college life. Objectives: Describe the history and current practice of supported education and its fit within the domain of OT. Describe a variety of OT supported education programmes Identify aspects of the supported education programmes that participants could apply to their college or practice setting Format: This workshop will begin by describing the history and models of supported education. The presenters will define six examples of OT programmes on college campuses. Finally, the presenters will encourage participants to share ideas and identify aspects of the various programs that they could apply to their college or practice setting

Red star-forming and blue passive galaxies in clusters

We explore the relation between colour and specific star formation rate (derived from optical spectra obtained by SDSS DR4) of over 6,000 galaxies (M_r<=-20.5) in and around low redshift (z<0.12) clusters. Even though most red galaxies have little or no ongoing star formation, and most blue galaxies are currently forming stars, there are significant populations of red star-forming (SF) and blue passive galaxies. This paper examines various properties of galaxies belonging to the latter two categories. These properties include morphological parameters, internal extinction, spectral features such as EW(H_delta) and the 4000 ang break, and metallicity. Our analysis shows that the blue passive galaxies have properties very similar to their SF counterparts, except that their large range in EW(H_delta) indicates recent truncation of star formation. The red SF galaxies fall into two broad categories, one of them being massive galaxies in cluster cores dominated by an old stellar population, but with evidence of current star formation in the core. For the remaining red SF galaxies it is evident from various metallicity measures and mean stellar ages, that their colours result from the predominance of a metal-rich stellar population. The implication of the properties of these SF galaxies on environmental studies, like that of the Butcher-Oemler effect, is discussed.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Very-high-energy gamma-ray emission from high-redshift blazars

We study the possible detection of and properties of very high-energy (VHE) gamma-ray emission (in the energy band above 100 GeV) from high redshift sources. We report on the detection of VHE gamma-ray flux from blazars with redshifts z>0.5. We use the data of Fermi telescope in the energy band above 100 GeV and identify significant sources via cross-correlation of arrival directions of individual VHE gamma-rays with the positions of known Fermi sources. There are thirteen high-redshift sources detected in the VHE band by Fermi/LAT telescope. The present statistics of the Fermi signal from these sources is too low for a sensible study of the effects of suppression of the VHE flux by pair production through interactions with Extragalactic Background Light photons. We find that the detection of these sources with ground-based gamma-ray telescopes would be challenging. However, several sources including BL Lacs PKS 0426-380 at z=1.11, KUV 00311-1938 at z=0.61, B3 1307+433 at z=0.69, PG 1246+586 at z=0.84, Ton 116 at z=1.065 as well as a flat-spectrum radio quasar 4C +55.17 at z=0.89 should be detectable by HESS-II, MAGIC-II and CTA. A high-statistics study of a much larger number of VHE gamma-ray sources at cosmological distances would be possible with the proposed high-altitude Cherenkov telescope [email protected]: 10 pages, 14 figure

Knowledge and innovation in emerging market multinationals: the expansion paradox

This article examines the innovation and knowledge strategies that allow emerging-market companies to become major international players. By adopting a qualitative approach, this study identifies a significant paradox between the desire of some leading Chinese car companies to expand internationally and the current relationship of such companies with leading global car companies, which significantly inhibits Chinese international expansion. This study unpacks that paradox using innovation theory and the resource-based view and develops a matrix of strategic options that can assist emerging market multinational companies to expand internationally

Current lookback time-redshift bounds on dark energy

We investigate observational constraints on dark energy models from lookback time (LT) estimates of 32 old passive galaxies distributed over the redshift interval $0.11 \leq z \leq 1.84$. To build up our LT sample we combine the age measurements for these 32 objects with estimates of the total age of the Universe, as obtained from current CMB data. We show that LT data may provide bounds on the cosmological parameters with accuracy competitive with type Ia Supernova methods. In order to break possible degeneracies between models parameters, we also discuss the bounds when our lookback time versus redshift sample is combined with with the recent measurement of the baryonic acoustic oscillation peak and the derived age of the Universe from current CMB measurements.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, LaTe

How Strong a Kick Should be to Topple Northeastern's Tumbling Robot?

Rough terrain locomotion has remained one of the most challenging mobility questions. In 2022, NASA's Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Program invited US academic institutions to participate NASA's Breakthrough, Innovative \& Game-changing (BIG) Idea competition by proposing novel mobility systems that can negotiate extremely rough terrain, lunar bumpy craters. In this competition, Northeastern University won NASA's top Artemis Award award by proposing an articulated robot tumbler called COBRA (Crater Observing Bio-inspired Rolling Articulator). This report briefly explains the underlying principles that made COBRA successful in competing with other concepts ranging from cable-driven to multi-legged designs from six other participating US institutions