Water regulation: the periodic review — a response

There is a whiff of ‘investment is a good thing’ in the article. Those who pay the bills to finance it may expect it to be appraised in respect of both costs and benefits. I took this up with Lord Crickhowell, Chairman of the National Rivers Authority (NRA), back in 1989 when we were first appointed. We now agree that this is the right approach. OFWAT has contributed by estimating the consequences of investment for customers’ bills and in encouraging water companies to research the views of their customers. I know the NRA is working on the assessment of environmental benefits. Meanwhile customers’ bills continue to rise. Thirty per cent of the 15,000 complaints a year received by OFWAT are about the level of or, more often, the increase in bills. I have statutory duties to protect the interests of customers and in pursuit of this need to ensure that investment in a monopoly sector — either to improve the environment or to sustain the serviceability of water company assets — is fully justified. I am not convinced that this is always the case. Some of the standards set on quality grounds are extremely stringent and it is not obvious that all customers want to pay for them.

Rapid Access to Perinatal Psychiatric Care in Depression (RAPPID): A Master’s Thesis

Depression is the leading cause of disability among women of reproductive age worldwide. Upwards of 1 in 5 women suffer from perinatal depression. This condition has deleterious effects on several birth outcomes, infant attachment, and children’s behavior/development. Maternal suicide causes 20% of postpartum deaths in depressed women. Although the vast majority of perinatal women are amenable to being screened for depression, screening alone does not improve treatment rates or patient outcomes. Obstetrics/Gynecology (Ob/Gyn) clinics need supports in place to adequately address depression in their patient populations. The primary goal of this thesis is to develop, refine, and pilot test a new low-cost and sustainable stepped care program for Ob/Gyn clinics that will improve perinatal women’s depression treatment rates and outcomes. We developed and beta tested the Rapid Access to Perinatal Psychiatric Care in Depression (RAPPID) Program, to create a comprehensive intervention that is proactive, multifaceted, and practical. RAPPID aims to improve perinatal depression treatment and treatment response rates through: (1) access to immediate resource provision/referrals and psychiatric telephone consultation for Ob/Gyn providers; (2) clinic-specific implementation of depression care, including training support and toolkits; and (3) proactive depression screening, assessment, and treatment in OB/Gyn clinics. RAPPID builds on a low-cost and widely disseminated population-based model for delivering psychiatric care in primary care settings. Formative data and feedback from key stakeholders also informed the development of RAPPID. Our formative and pilot work in real-world settings suggests RAPPID is feasible and has the potential to improve depression detection and treatment in Ob/Gyn settings. The next step will be to compare two active interventions, RAPPID vs. enhanced usual care (access to resource provision/referrals and psychiatric telephone consultation) in a cluster-randomized trial in which we will randomize 12 Ob/Gyn clinics to either RAPPID or enhanced usual care

Creating the next Generation of E-Assessments in the Real World

With the technologies and analysis models available to us, there are an ever increasing number of ways we can deliver e-assessments. However, when trying to deliver reliable, innovative and rich e-assessments in the real world a number of technical challenges quickly appear. This paper looks at some of those challenges and how we can overcome them

Research data management education for future curators

Science has progressed by “standing on the shoulders of giants” and for centuries research and knowledge have been shared through the publication and dissemination of books, papers and scholarly communications. Moving forward, much of our understanding builds on (large scale) datasets, which have been collected or generated as part of the scientific process of discovery. How will this be made available for future generations? How will we ensure that, once collected or generated, others can stand on the shoulders of the data we produce?Educating students about the challenges and opportunities of data management is a key part of the solution and helps the researchers of the future to start to think about the problems early on in their careers. We have compiled a set of case studies to show the similarities and differences in data between disciplines, and produced a booklet for students containing the case studies and an introduction to the data lifecycle and other data management practices. This has already been used at the University of Southampton within the Faculty of Engineering and is now being adopted centrally for use in other faculties. In this paper, we will provide an overview of the case studies and the guide, and reflect on the reception the guide has had to date

A study of participants\u27 experience of Yirra : An adolescent treatment program

Yirra is a residential treatment program for young people who are experiencing problems associated with their substance use. The design of this program was influenced both by consultation with other youth services, and by current literature and theories regarding the most effective approaches to delivery of youth substance use services. Yirra has been in operation since February, 1992, and to date has not been formally evaluated. This research represents the first stage of evaluation of Yirra. The Phenomenological approach to enquiry was aimed at gaining some understanding of the experience of being at Yirra, from the perspective of the young people in the program. Over a three month period, all program participants who had been in the program for a week were invited to take part in taped interviews. Data gathering also included participant observation and program document analysis. As the Yirra program was designed specifically for adolescents, the phenomenological approach to data analysis also included analysis based on the theories of adolescent development of Piaget and Erikson

Supersymmetry or Universal Extra Dimensions? Utilizing the ATLAS Experiment at CERN

Supersymmetry and Universal Extra Dimensions are just two of an array of popular and enticing extensions to the Standard Model. The work presented in this thesis evaluates the feasibility of differentiating between these two models by measuring the spins of the new particles, utilising the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. The method presented depends upon the use of an angular variable, cos θ∗ ll, which is sensitive to the polar angle in the direct slepton pair production process: qq → Z0/γ∗ → ˜l± ˜l∓ → χ˜0 1l ±χ˜0 1l ∓. This angular variable is advantageous since it is longitudinally boost invariant along the beam axis. This allows it to be used at the Large Hadron Collider where the initial centre-of-mass frame of reference is unknown and unrecoverable owing to the presence of invisible particles in the event. The work invoked Monte Carlo events, fully simulated in accordance with the mSUGRA Supersymmetry model corresponding to a selected production point in mSUGRA space of the ATLAS detector. It was demonstrated that, using this method and given the Monte Carlo simulation at this test point, the Large Hadron Collider can distinguish between the supersymmetric production angular distribution and that of UED using 30 fb−1 of integrated luminosity. A further part of the work involved an investigation into part of the innermost detector system of ATLAS. The work investigated the operational performance of a certain fraction of semiconductor tracker barrel modules utilizing data acquired during cosmic commissioning tests carried out at CERN in 2006. This included measuring the noise occupancy levels and subsequently identifying any problematic modules in the process. Eight problematic modules were identified, forming three distinct classes, each class pointing toward a different type of problem. Furthermore, an anomaly, the socalled zeroth time bin anomaly, was found and prompted further investigation to its root cause

Adapting and Testing the Feasibility of a Prenatal Intervention for Low-Income Parents [English and Spanish versions]

A Spanish translation of this publication is available to download under Additional Files. Learn about a new pilot study that aims to improve the mental health and co-parenting relationships of underserved, low-income parents and their partners. Adapting and Testing the Feasibility of a Prenatal Intervention for Low-Income Parents will adapt and test the feasibility of a group-based intervention called Choices in Childbirth & Co-Parenting (3CP) aimed at reducing depression and stress among low-income new mothers and their partners early in pregnancy. Funded by the UMASS Medical School Center for Clinical and Translational Science (UMCCTS) this pilot project is a collaborative effort among UMass Amherst, UMass Medical School, Square One, and the Children’s Trust

Minimum Particle Size for Cyclone Dust Separator

Perkins technology wish to separate small soot particles from exhaust gases, and the question posed to the study group was to determine the feasibility of using a cyclone separator to remove these particles. Soot is mostly composed of polycyclicaromatic compounds and results from the incomplete combustion of the diesel fuel in the engine. The average size of the particles formed in the engine is in the range 3 to 10 nm in diameter, but this is known to increase within the exhaust system. In the first part of this report we determine the minimum particle size that can be removed by centrifugal separation. The second part discusses the mechanisms for particle growth within the exhaust system in order to estimate the particle growth rate. In section two we estimate the minimum particle diameter that can be removed by a cyclone separator is around one micron. This estimate is consistent with current applications of hydrocyclones. The particle size measurements by Perkins Technology together with our estimates from section three, suggest that the soot particles are an order of magnitude smaller than this. Although it may be possible to remove some particles less than one micron in diameter with a well designed high-speed cyclone, we do not think it will be possible to remove a substantial proportion of 100 nm or smaller particles. The growth rate of the particles increases if the particles volume fraction or the polydispersity is increased. Therefore aggregation could be enhanced by the addition of larger particles (d > 1 µm) or water droplets (provided the water does not all vapourise) to the exhaust gas