Automated real time detection of solar wind shocks and consequences for the identification of SSC and SI events

Algorithms have been developed to automatically detect Earth bound shocks in the solar wind as measured by the ACE satellite. These involve simple threshold techniques and wavelet analysis. One practical application of this shock detection is that it can provide power companies with advanced warning of the potential for geomagnetically induced currents. The automatically detected shocks have been tested against published lists of known shocks and accuracy statistics are presented. Another use for automated shock detection is an aid to the preparation of lists of rapid variations: SSC and SI events. To contribute to the IAGA published list of rapid variations, as prepared by Ebro Observatory, BGS staff routinely identify, scale and classify the events recorded at the three UK magnetic observatories. This is carried out using the criteria from the Atlas of Rapid Variations (1959) and subsequent IAGA instructions. The usefulness of automated detection of solar wind shocks for this task is examined by testing these against lists of identified SSC and SI events

Space weather effects on drilling accuracy in the North Sea

The oil industry uses geomagnetic field information to aid directional drilling operations when drilling for oil and gas offshore. These operations involve continuous monitoring of the azimuth and inclination of the well path to ensure the target is reached and, for safety reasons, to avoid collisions with existing wells. Although the most accurate method of achieving this is through a gyroscopic survey, this can be time consuming and expensive. An alternative method is a magnetic survey, where measurements while drilling (MWD) are made along the well by magnetometers housed in a tool within the drill string. These MWD magnetic surveys require estimates of the Earth’s magnetic field at the drilling location to correct the downhole magnetometer readings. The most accurate corrections are obtained if all sources of the Earth’s magnetic field are considered. Estimates of the main field generated in the core and the local crustal field can be obtained using mathematical models derived from suitable data sets. In order to quantify the external field, an analysis of UK observatory data from 1983 to 2004 has been carried out. By accounting for the external field, the directional error associated with estimated field values at a mid-latitude oil well (55 N) in the North Sea is shown to be reduced by the order of 20%. This improvement varies with latitude, local time, season and phase of the geomagnetic activity cycle. By accounting for all sources of the field, using a technique called Interpolation In-Field Referencing (IIFR), directional drillers have access to data from a “virtual” magnetic observatory at the drill site. This leads to an error reduction in positional accuracy that is close to matching that of the gyroscopic survey method and provides a valuable independent technique for quality control purposes

An online digital archive of magnetograms from 1846 to 1987

The magnetic measurements from current UK observatories, together with those from their historical predecessors, provide some of the longest running continuous sets of geophysical observations in the world. A campaign to capture high quality digital images of >300,000 analogue magnetograms (front and back) was completed in 2013, with every single image now available to search, view and download from the on-line archive at www.bgs.ac.uk/data/magnetograms. In parallel with the capture of the magnetograms, the related published yearbooks were scanned and are available online as PDF documents at www.geomag.bgs.ac.uk/data_service/data/yearbooks/yearbooks.html. This work has helped to ensure that these valuable long-term data sets are not lost, irrespective of what may happen in the future to the original photographic paper records. The additional benefit of immediate worldwide access to the data contained within these historic documents has also been established. In this paper we present the BGS OpenGeoscience service, which the magnetogram image archive forms part of. We also show some results of on-going work to acquire digital data from the images and the yearbooks. We discuss past and potential future use of the data for scientific research, such as space weather studies of the magnetograms during the period of the Carrington storm and studies into the homogeneity of long term geomagnetic activity indices that are used in space climate research

A multilevel neo-institutional analysis of infection prevention and control in English hospitals: coerced safety culture change?

Despite committed policy, regulative and professional efforts on healthcare safety, little is known about how such macro-interventions permeate organisations and shape culture over time. Informed by neo-institutional theory, we examined how inter-organisational influences shaped safety practices and inter-subjective meanings following efforts for coerced culture change. We traced macro-influences from 2000 to 2015 in infection prevention and control (IPC). Safety perceptions and meanings were inductively analysed from 130 in-depth qualitative interviews with senior- and middle-level managers from 30 English hospitals. A total of 869 institutional interventions were identified; 69% had a regulative component. In this context of forced implementation of safety practices, staff experienced inherent tensions concerning the scope of safety, their ability to be open and prioritisation of external mandates over local need. These tensions stemmed from conflicts among three co-existing institutional logics prevalent in the NHS. In response to requests for change, staff flexibly drew from a repertoire of cognitive, material and symbolic resources within and outside their organisations. They crafted 'strategies of action', guided by a situated assessment of first-hand practice experiences complementing collective evaluations of interventions such as 'pragmatic', 'sensible' and also 'legitimate'. Macro-institutional forces exerted influence either directly on individuals or indirectly by enriching the organisational cultural repertoire

Childcare, choice and social class: Caring for young children in the UK

This paper draws on the results of two qualitative research projects examining parental engagements with the childcare market in the UK. Both projects are located in the same two London localities. One project focuses on professional middle class parents, and the other on working class families, and we discuss the key importance of social class in shaping parents' differential engagement with the childcare market, and their understandings of the role childcare plays in their children's lives. We identify and discuss the different "circuits" of care (Ball et al 1995) available to and used by families living physically close to each other, but in social class terms living in different worlds. We also consider parents' relationships with carers, and their social networks. We conclude that in order to fully understand childcare policies and practices and families' experiences of care, an analysis which encompasses social class and the workings of the childcare market is needed

School choice, consumerism and the ethical strand in talk

Research on school choice highlights the extent to which a communitarian impulse informs the way some parents engage with their role as chooser. This suggests that the responsibilities of parents as consumers are often negotiated in collective as well as individualizing terms. Drawing on data from a group of mothers of diverse social class and racial backgrounds, this paper builds on some of these perspectives through deploying elements of a critical discursive analytic approach. Its aim is to explore how some mothers engage with the meaning and practice of school choice. Focusing on the emotional labouring that often underpins mothers’ rationalizations of choice, this paper examines the discursive role of emotion in these contexts as a form of social action geared towards achieving certain ends. In turn I discuss the implications of this for thinking through choice as a framing, function and discourse inhabited and performed by mothers

'It’s like saying “coloured"' : understanding and analysing the urban working classes

This paper draws on data from a qualitative project exploring the engagement of working class families in London with childcare. It is a first attempt to throw some light on our usage of the term ‘working class’, and consider what forms ‘working class-ness’ takes in relation to our respondent families. We discuss some recent sociological literature on the working class(es) in order to understand the emphasises and focuses of other research. We emphasise the heterogeneity of the working class(es), the differences in attitude and experiences based on place, gender, occupational status, education, age and family membership. Then we consider our respondents in relation to their strategies and exercise of agency, their engagement with the labour market, and their embedded-ness in social networks. We conclude that one way of understanding the lives of urban working class families is to consider the extent to which they ‘manage or struggle to cope’, a focus which emphasises process, activity and the differential degrees of agency which the respondents are able to exercise

La estrategia Educativa 2020 o las limitaciones del Banco Mundial para promover el "aprendizaje para todos"

La nueva Estrategia Educativa 2020 del Banco Mundial establece las prioridades de reforma educativa en paises en vias de desarrollo para la decada siguiente. El titulo explicito de la estrategia, Aprendizaje para Todos, es un claro reconocimiento de que, mas alla de politicas centradas en el acceso, se debe hacer algo mas para asegurar que la educacion derive en experiencias positivas de aprendizaje. Sin embargo, como este articulo sostiene, las opciones de politicas explicitas y latentes en la Estrategia 2020 no son las mas adecuadas para lograr el Aprendizaje para Todos. El articulo desarrolla tres tipos de argumentos al respecto. El primero se refiere al fuerte apego del Banco a un conocimiento disciplinario y un enfoque metodológico que es insufi ciente para entender lo que aprenden los niños en la escuela y por que. El segundo argumento se refiere al sesgo pro-mercado de la Estrategia por lo que respecta a la reforma del sector publico y a nuevas formas de oferta educativa. En tercer lugar, el articulo senala las principales ausencias de la Estrategia, con especial atencion a las omisiones relacionadas con la compleja relación entre educación y pobreza.The World Bank's 2020 Education Strategy establishes the new education priorities in developing countries for the next decade. Its title, Learning for All, clearly recognizes that, beyond policies focusing on access, something else must be done to ensure that schooling involves positive learning experiences. However, as this paper argues, the 2020 Strategy explicit and latent policy options might not be adequate to achieve Learning for All. This paper develops three arguments on that matter. The fi rst one refers to the Bank's strong attachment to a disciplinary knowledge and a methodological approach that do not suffi ce to understand what children learn at school and why. The second one addresses its pro-market bias when it approaches the public sector reforms and the new forms of providing education. The last argument points out the main omissions of this Strategy, especially in what regards the complex relation between education and poverty

Evidence of Color Coherence Effects in W+jets Events from ppbar Collisions at sqrt(s) = 1.8 TeV

We report the results of a study of color coherence effects in ppbar collisions based on data collected by the D0 detector during the 1994-1995 run of the Fermilab Tevatron Collider, at a center of mass energy sqrt(s) = 1.8 TeV. Initial-to-final state color interference effects are studied by examining particle distribution patterns in events with a W boson and at least one jet. The data are compared to Monte Carlo simulations with different color coherence implementations and to an analytic modified-leading-logarithm perturbative calculation based on the local parton-hadron duality hypothesis.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures. Submitted to Physics Letters

Helicity of the W Boson in Lepton+Jets ttbar Events

We examine properties of ttbar candidates events in lepton+jets final states to establish the helicities of the W bosons in t->W+b decays. Our analysis is based on a direct calculation of a probability that each event corresponds to a ttbar final state, as a function of the helicity of the W boson. We use the 125 events/pb sample of data collected by the DO experiment during Run I of the Fermilab Tevatron collider at sqrt{s}=1.8 TeV, and obtain a longitudinal helicity fraction of F_0=0.56+/-0.31, which is consistent with the prediction of F_0=0.70 from the standard model