On Site

Contemporary debates on the transformation of building methods, the structure of the building industry, and the introduction of new technologies (informational, material and structural) in professional literature and in the architectural humanities tend to ignore the realities of work on construction sites. This follows a long history of failure to recognise the importance of workers’ experience and knowledge of building as a process by the key professions in the industry. The absence of the working process in accounts of historical development is exacerbated by abstract reflection on building know-how, categories of expertise, and the structure of the industry, when these are not supported by direct observation and engagement with building work and workers. Key assumptions about the relation between structural and technological changes in the industry and the knowledge, skills, composition, and requirements of the workforce can be challenged by paying attention to day-to-day activities and conditions of site work

Disk Evolution in Young Binaries: from Observations to Theory

The formation of a binary system surrounded by disks is the most common outcome of stellar formation. Hence studying and understanding the formation and the evolution of binary systems and associated disks is a cornerstone of star formation science. Moreover, since the components within binary systems are coeval and the sizes of their disks are fixed by the tidal truncation of their companion, binary systems provide an ideal "laboratory" in which to study disk evolution under well defined boundary conditions. In this paper, we review observations of several inner disk diagnostics in multiple systems, including hydrogen emission lines (indicative of ongoing accretion), $K-L$ and $K-N$ color excesses (evidence of warm inner disks), and polarization (indicative of the relative orientations of the disks around each component). We examine to what degree these properties are correlated within binary systems and how this degree of correlation depends on parameters such as separation and binary mass ratio. These findings will be interpreted both in terms of models that treat each disk as an isolated reservoir and those in which the disks are subject to re-supply from some form of circumbinary reservoir, the observational evidence for which we will also critically review. The planet forming potential of multiple star systems is discussed in terms of the relative lifetimes of disks around single stars, binary primaries and binary secondaries. Finally, we summarize several potentially revealing observational problems and future projects that could provide further insight into disk evolution in the coming decadeComment: 16 pages, 7 figures, chapter in Protostars and Planets

Assessment of risk to Boeing commerical transport aircraft from carbon fibers

The possible effects of free carbon fibers on aircraft avionic equipment operation, removal costs, and safety were investigated. Possible carbon fiber flow paths, flow rates, and transfer functions into the Boeing 707, 727, 737, 747 aircraft and potentially vulnerable equipment were identified. Probabilities of equipment removal and probabilities of aircraft exposure to carbon fiber were derived

'Front-loaded' vocational education versus lifelong learning: a critique of current UK government policy

It seems negative and churlish to complain about the use of a phrase like 'lifelong learning', since the attractions of lifelong ignorance are difficult to describe. However, this alluring phrase repays closer scrutiny. It is our contention that its undiscriminating use, particularly when applied to vocational education, carries significant dangers. To be specific, we contend that while vocational expertise continues to grow over a working lifetime, the initial period of vocational education is vital to success in those occupations that require skill, knowledge and judgement. In economic terms, failure to attend to the initial period of vocational education compromises attempts to run the economy as a highskill equilibrium that uses skilled labour to satisfy a demand for high-quality goods and services (Finegold 1991; Crouch 1999; Culpepper 1999; Brown 2001). In personal terms, young people's ability to develop their lives in their working environment is seriously compromised. This, in turn, compromises one of the aims of their education, to choose a satisfying and worthwhile life

Future conditional: from Just Transition to radical transformation?

Within the context of an accelerating climate emergency, the introduction frames the strategies and actions adopted by labour and unions to reduce carbon emissions that are presented in the articles contributing to this special issue. Industrial relations scholarship, which has been slow to address the climate emergency, has focussed on the jobs versus environment dilemma, the role of unions, technical innovation versus social unionism, and just transition approaches. Whilst labour and union approaches in different sectors across Europe are largely confined to variants of ecological modernisation, a more proactive transformative strategy opening up an alternative eco-socialist vision for the future is emerging. The issue highlights the contradictions in union strategies, the drivers of change, and the way forward in pursuance of a green economy through a focus on the roles of government and the public sector, the organisation of labour and the labour process, and education and training

Free healthy breakfasts in primary schools: A cluster randomised controlled trial of a policy intervention in Wales, UK

Objective: The present study evaluated the impact of a national school programme of universal free healthy breakfast provision in Wales, UK. Design: A cluster randomised controlled trial with repeated cross-sectional design and a 12-month follow-up. Primary outcomes were breakfast skipping, breakfast diet and episodic memory. Secondary outcomes were frequency of eating breakfast at home and at school, breakfast attitudes, rest-of-day diet and class behaviour. Setting: Primary schools in nine local education authority areas. Subjects: A total of 4350 students (aged 9–11 years) at baseline and 4472 at follow-up in 111 schools. Results: Students in intervention schools reported significantly higher numbers of healthy food items consumed at breakfast and more positive attitudes towards breakfast eating at 12 months. Parents in intervention schools reported significantly higher rates of consumption of breakfast at school and correspondingly lower rates of breakfast consumption at home. No other significant differences were found. Conclusions: The intervention did not reduce breakfast skipping; rather, pupils substituted breakfast at home for breakfast at school. However, there were improvements in children’s nutritional intake at breakfast time, if not the rest of the day, and more positive attitudes to breakfast, which may have implications for life-course dietary behaviours. There was no impact on episodic memory or classroom behaviour, which may require targeting breakfast skippers

Molecular Dynamics Simulations of a Pressure-induced Glass Transition

We simulate the compression of a two-component Lennard-Jones liquid at a variety of constant temperatures using a molecular dynamics algorithm in an isobaric-isothermal ensemble. The viscosity of the liquid increases with pressure, undergoing a broadened transition into a structurally arrested, amorphous state. This transition, like the more familiar one induced by cooling, is correlated with a significant increase in icosahedral ordering. In fact, the structure of the final state, as measured by an analysis of the bonding, is essentially the same in the glassy, frozen state whether produced by squeezing or by cooling under pressure. We have computed an effective hard-sphere packing fraction at the transition, defining the transition pressure or temperature by a cutoff in the diffusion constant, analogous to the traditional laboratory definition of the glass transition by an arbitrary, low cutoff in viscosity. The packing fraction at this transition point is not constant, but is consistently higher for runs compressed at higher temperature. We show that this is because the transition point defined by a constant cutoff in the diffusion constant is not the same as the point of structural arrest, at which further changes in pressure induce no further structural changes, but that the two alternate descriptions may be reconciled by using a thermally activated cutoff for the diffusion constant. This enables estimation of the characteristic activation energy for diffusion at the point of structural arrest.Comment: Latex using Revtex macro

Clonal analysis of meningococci during a 26 year period prior to the introduction of meningococcal serogroup C vaccines

Meningococcal disease remains a public health burden in the UK and elsewhere. Invasive Neisseria meningitidis, isolated in Scotland between 1972 and 1998, were characterised retrospectively to examine the serogroup and clonal structure of the circulating population. 2607 isolates causing invasive disease were available for serogroup and MLST analysis whilst 2517 were available for multilocus sequence typing (MLST) analysis only. Serogroup distribution changed from year to year but serogroups B and C were dominant throughout. Serogroup B was dominant throughout the 1970s and early 1980s until serogroup C became dominant during the mid-1980s. The increase in serogroup C was not associated with one particular sequence type (ST) but was associated with a number of STs, including ST-8, ST-11, ST-206 and ST-334. This is in contrast to the increase in serogroup C disease seen in the 1990s that was due to expansion of the ST-11 clonal complex. While there was considerable diversity among the isolates (309 different STs among the 2607 isolates), a large proportion of isolates (59.9%) were associated with only 10 STs. These data highlight meningococcal diversity over time and the need for ongoing surveillance during the introduction of new meningococcal vaccines

Comparative VET European Research since the 1980s: Accommodating Changes in VET Systems and Labour Markets

The article assesses the role comparative research plays from the 1980s in understanding vocational education and training (VET) systems in Europe, driven by political, economic, social and labour market changes. This research has been transformed, moving from national comparisons of VET systems, grounded in institutional theory and engaging with convergence versus divergence debates or human capital theory, to the varieties of capitalism approach considering groups of countries as representative of particular capitalist economies, to transcending national boundaries and emphasising capitalist diversity, governance and labour agency. Drawing on examples of research in which the authors and others have been involved, particularly on the construction industry, the article traces this development and shows how, despite governance weaknesses, comparative research has been enriched by the addition of a European Union level through the introduction of tools, such as the European Qualifications Framework. Four dimensions are proposed - labour market, governance, education and competence - capable of identifying VET 'families' and intra-national variations and capturing the dynamics of VET systems. Through a multi-dimensional and multi-level framework, comparative VET research can provide a deeper understanding of how and why VET systems respond to the challenges of technological, economic and environmental change