Distinctions in practice within coaching in Scotland

This research sought to identify distinctions in the practice of coaches within Scotland. A survey design was adopted, with a snowball sampling strategy generating 74 responses. The data from coaches within Scotland, compared with that from respondents in other European nations, suggest that: a greater proportion of the Scottish coaching community are male, that coaches commonly evaluate at the end of every meeting and also seek feedback from commissioning managers as well as clients, that there are numerous approaches to coaching and also to continuous professional development that are less widely adopted in Scotland, that the reputation of the coaching provider is often an important factor for those commissioning coaching and that there are preferences for certain coaching models when presented with particular client issues. Recommendations are made for future analytical research to identify causal factors for any phenomena that can be cautiously determined from this data set

Distinctions in practice within coaching in Wales

This research sought to identify distinctions in the practice of coaches within Wales, compared to other European nations. A survey design was adopted, with a snowball sampling strategy generating 150 respondents. Seven surveyed aspects of coaching practice produced distinctive responses from coaches within Wales: they are less likely to have membership of any professional coaching bodies, they spend a very small proportion of their working time coaching, they are more likely to operate as internal coaches or for low fees, they are more likely to engage in self-reflection and participate in peer networks, they have a marked preference for behavioural/goalfocused methods, they are thorough in the range of topics they cover when contracting and they are likely to be selected as coaches based predominantly upon their experience levels. Recommendations are made for future analytical research to identify causal factors for these distinctions

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) are a group of structurally related chemical compounds that are frequently produced during incomplete combustion of organic matter and are among the most widespread environmental pollutants. This chapter enumerates common sources of environmental PAH that contribute to human exposures including air and water pollution, residential soil and marine sediments, occupational exposures, and lifestyle sources such as cigarette smoking and diet. It summarizes toxic effects in humans, particularly carcinogenesis, along with recent developments in measurable biomarkers of exposure

Risk-cost optimization of buried pipelines using subset simulation

On the basis of time-dependent reliability analysis, a computational framework called subset simulation (SS) has been applied for risk-cost optimization of flexible underground pipeline networks. SS can provide better resolution for rare failure events that are commonly encountered in pipeline engineering applications. Attention in this work is devoted to scrutinize the robustness of SS in risk-cost optimization of pipelines. SS is first employed to estimate the reliability of flexible underground pipes subjected to externally applied loading and material corrosion. Then SS is extended to determine the intervention year for maintenance and to identify the most appropriate renewal solution and renewal priority by minimizing the risk of failure and whole life-cycle cost. The efficiency of SS compared to genetic algorithm has been demonstrated by numerical studies with a view to prevent unexpected failure of flexible pipes at minimal cost by prioritizing maintenance based on failure severity and system reliability. This paper shows that SS is a more robust method in the decision-making process of reliability-based management for underground pipeline networks

Resampling DEA estimates of investment fund performance

Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is attractive for comparing investment funds because it handles different characteristics of fund distribution and gives a way to rank funds. There is substantial literature applying DEA to funds, based on the time series of funds' returns. This article looks at the issue of uncertainty in the resulting DEA efficiency estimates, investigating consistency and bias. It uses the bootstrap to develop stochastic DEA models for funds, derive confidence intervals and develop techniques to compare and rank funds and represent the ranking. It investigates how to deal with autocorrelation in the time series and considers models that deal with correlation in the funds' returns. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Data envelopment analysis models of investment funds

This paper develops theory missing in the sizable literature that uses data envelopment analysis to construct return-risk ratios for investment funds. It explores the production possibility set of the investment funds to identify an appropriate form of returns to scale. It discusses what risk and return measures can justifiably be combined and how to deal with negative risks, and identifies suitable sets of measures. It identifies the problems of failing to deal with diversification and develops an iterative approximation procedure to deal with it. It identifies relationships between diversification, coherent measures of risk and stochastic dominance. It shows how the iterative procedure makes a practical difference using monthly returns of 30 hedge funds over the same time period. It discusses possible shortcomings of the procedure and offers directions for future research. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

An evaluation of the fast-mixed spectrum reactor

"February 1980."Also issued as an M.S. thesis written by the first author and supervised by the second and third authors, MIT Dept. of Nuclear Engineering, 1980Includes bibliographical references (pages 145-147)An independent evaluation of the neutronic characteristics of a gas-cooled fast-mixed spectrum reactor (FMSR) core design has been performed. A benchmark core configuration for an early FMSR design was provided by Brookhaven National Laboratory, the originators of the concept. The results of the evaluation were compared with those of BNL. Points of comparison included system reactivity and breeding ratio, and region-wise power densities and isotopic compositions as a function of burnup. The results are in sufficiently good agreement to conclude that the neutronic feasibility of the FMSR concept has been independently validated. Significant differences, primarily in higher plutonium isotope concentrations, occur only in regions of low neutronic importance, and plausible reasons for the differences are advanced based on sensitivity studies and comparison of spectral indices. While both M.I.T. and BNL calculations tend to predict that the benchmark design is slightly subcritical, at the beginning of equilibrium cycle, the margin to k = 1.0 is close enough (Ak < 0.03) that the situation can be remedied. Establishment of a consensus fission product cross section set was identified as an objective of merit, since non-negligible differences were found in results computed using various extant sets (BNL, LIB-IV, Japanese). Non-fission heating by gamma and neutron interactions was evaluated for the reference core design using a coupled neutron/gamma cross section set and SN calculations. In the unfueled regions of the core, moderator elements in particular, the non-fission heating rate was found to be significant (averaging about 6 kw/liter), but posed no obvious problems. In fueled regions the common assumption of local deposition of all energy at the point of fission was verified to be a good approximation for most engineering purposes.Engineering and Advanced Reactor Safety Division of the U.S. Department of Energy at Brookhaven National Laboratory contract 472241-

Making Cornish-Fisher fit for risk measurement

Peer reviewedPostprintPostprintOthe

Penetration depth study of LaOs4_4Sb12_{12}: Multiband s-wave superconductivity

We measured the magnetic penetration depth $\lambda(T)$ in single crystals of LaOs$_{4}$Sb$_{12}$ ($T_c$=0.74 K) down to 85 mK using a tunnel diode oscillator technique. The observed low-temperature exponential dependence indicates a s-wave gap. Fitting the low temperature data to BCS s-wave expression gives the zero temperature gap value $\Delta (0)= (1.34 \pm 0.07) k_B T_c$ which is significantly smaller than the BCS value of 1.76$k_B T_c$. In addition, the normalized superfluid density $\rho(T)$ shows an unusually long suppression near $T_c$, and are best fit by a two-band s-wave model.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure