Designing for Successful Learning: redesign of an IELTS preparation short course

While the Evening IELTS Preparation Short Course at London Metropolitan University has been running for several years, it has not benefited from a formal pre-determined syllabus. This paper reports on a redesign of the course which was undertaken to enable students doing it to finish with a better ability to achieve their required/desired IELTS exam score

Identity crisis? Negotiating blackness in the British police service: a regional perspective

Our paper will address preliminary findings from a pilot study in which we will interview a sample of black police personnel from Nottingham, UK. Our goal in this project is to uncover the mechanisms by which police officers as well as other police staff negotiate their black identities in the context of their roles within law enforcement an entity that clearly been historically characterized by systemic racism

The secular evolution of discrete quasi-Keplerian systems. I. Kinetic theory of stellar clusters near black holes

We derive the kinetic equation that describes the secular evolution of a large set of particles orbiting a dominant massive object, such as stars bound to a supermassive black hole or a proto-planetary debris disc encircling a star. Because the particles move in a quasi-Keplerian potential, their orbits can be approximated by ellipses whose orientations remain fixed over many dynamical times. The kinetic equation is obtained by simply averaging the BBGKY equations over the fast angle that describes motion along these ellipses. This so-called Balescu-Lenard equation describes self-consistently the long-term evolution of the distribution of quasi-Keplerian orbits around the central object: it models the diffusion and drift of their actions, induced through their mutual resonant interaction. Hence, it is the master equation that describes the secular effects of resonant relaxation. We show how it captures the phenonema of mass segregation and of the relativistic Schwarzschild barrier recently discovered in $N$-body simulations.Comment: 24 pages, 3 figure

Model selection for amplitude analysis

Model complexity in amplitude analyses is often a priori under-constrained since the underlying theory permits a large number of possible amplitudes to contribute to most physical processes. The use of an overly complex model results in reduced predictive power and worse resolution on unknown parameters of interest. Therefore, it is common to reduce the complexity by removing from consideration some subset of the allowed amplitudes. This paper studies a method for limiting model complexity from the data sample itself through regularization during regression in the context of a multivariate (Dalitz-plot) analysis. The regularization technique applied greatly improves the performance. An outline of how to obtain the significance of a resonance in a multivariate amplitude analysis is also provided

Black and Asian police officers and support staff: prejudice, identity, agency and social cohesion

This primary research paper presents a review of research that finds that the British Government’s new social cohesion agenda does hold promise for racial and ethnic prejudice reduction – but that social cohesion policies and practice must include at their core policies to reduce institutional racism in British police services. Analysis of the literature reveals that considerably more research is required to examine the precise nature and dynamics of institutional racism within the police services. There is a need to understand how racism against Black and minority ethnic (BME) police employees, and police racism against BME communities, influences social cohesion. That this is important, given the British government’s current social cohesion policy agenda, is patently clear. Considerably more research is about to be undertaken in this area by the authors of this paper and the results will be published in the academic press, disseminated at conferences and presented in training programmes

Investigation of the use of meshfree methods for haptic thermal management of design and simulation of MEMS

This thesis presents a novel approach of using haptic sensing technology combined with virtual environment (VE) for the thermal management of Micro-Electro-Mechanical-Systems (MEMS) design. The goal is to reduce the development cycle by avoiding the costly iterative prototyping procedure. In this regard, we use haptic feedback with virtua lprototyping along with an immersing environment. We also aim to improve the productivity and capability of the designer to better grasp the phenomena operating at the micro-scale level, as well as to augment computational steering through haptic channels. To validate the concept of haptic thermal management, we have implemented a demonstrator with a user friendly interface which allows to intuitively "feel" the temperature field through our concept of haptic texturing. The temperature field in a simple MEMS component is modeled using finite element methods (FEM) or finite difference method (FDM) and the user is able to feel thermal expansion using a combination of different haptic feedback. In haptic application, the force rendering loop needs to be updated at a frequency of 1Khz in order to maintain continuity in the user perception. When using FEM or FDM for our three-dimensional model, the computational cost increases rapidly as the mesh size is reduced to ensure accuracy. Hence, it constrains the complexity of the physical model to approximate temperature or stress field solution. It would also be difficult to generate or refine the mesh in real time for CAD process. In order to circumvent the limitations due to the use of conventional mesh-based techniques and to avoid the bothersome task of generating and refining the mesh, we investigate the potential of meshfree methods in the context of our haptic application. We review and compare the different meshfree formulations against FEM mesh based technique. We have implemented the different methods for benchmarking thermal conduction and elastic problems. The main work of this thesis is to determine the relevance of the meshfree option in terms of flexibility of design and computational charge for haptic physical model

Ventilation strategies for road tunnels in different countries and consequences using Fixed Fire Fighting System (FFFS)

A study is carried out on the ventilation strategies for road tunnels in different countries and consequences using fixed fire fighting systems (FFFS). The type of ventilation strategy for road tunnels can ensure the safety of people during the evacuation stages and protection of the rescue services during their intervention of the fire. Ventilation strategies vary from country to country and therefore it is important to get a suitable strategy which can be applied in these countries [1]. FFFS in road tunnels are defined as fire fighting equipment, which is permanently installed in the tunnel with a pipe system that water or other extinguishing agents. Usually FFFS are water spray systems and can be either high pressure or low pressure systems. Such systems will be able to fight fires that are relatively large and thereby potentially prevent a major disaster. In a tunnel without a fire suppression system, a slightly lower ventilation velocity is preferred to slow down the fire growth at the initial stage of evacuation. At the fire fighting stage the ventilation velocity can be adjusted up to critical velocity. In order to explore the effects of FFFS during different ventilation conditions, an analysis will be conducted on a large scale Runehamar and model scale tunnel fire experiments conducted at SP. The analysis show that the longitudinal ventilation system and FFFS will provide a tenable environment for safe evacuation.A study is carried out on the ventilation strategies for road tunnels and consequences using fixed fire fighting systems (FFFS) in different countries. The type of ventilation strategy used for road tunnels can ensure the safety of people during the evacuation stages and protection of the rescue services during their intervention of the fire. Ventilation strategies vary from country to country and therefore it is important to get a suitable strategy which can be applied in these countries. The commonly used types in tunnels include longitudinal, transverse and semi-transverse, with and without air and smoke dampers. This study focuses on longitudinal systems. In such systems, the longitudinal ventilation velocity selected is important to prevent the smoke back flow (backlayering) and can affect the fire in the tunnel in a positive or negative way depending on the stages of the fire. FFFS in road tunnels are defined as fire fighting equipment, which is permanently installed in the tunnel with a pipe system that water or other extinguishing agents. Usually FFFS are water spray systems and can be either high pressure (water mist) or low pressure systems (deluge system) shown in Figure 1 . Such systems will be able to fight fires that are relatively large and thereby potentially prevent a major disaster. In a tunnel without a fire suppression system, a slightly lower ventilation velocity is preferred to slow down the fire growth at the initial stage of evacuation. Figure 1 FFFS after activation of the system In order to explore the effects of FFFS during different ventilation conditions, an analysis will be conducted on a large scale Runehamar and model scale tunnel fire experiments conducted at SP (Statens Provningsanstalt) Technical Research Institute of Sweden. The analysis shows that the longitudinal ventilation system and FFFS will provide a tenable environment for safe evacuation. This project aims to explore the effects of the conditions inside the road tunnel with and without FFFS on evacuees form experimental data found from scale models and fullscale SP data. The thesis recommends a realistic longitudinal ventilation strategy with and without FFFS. By calculating and analyzing the concentration of the fractional effective dose or fractional incapacitating dose (FED/FID) for a free burn test and a test with a FFFS, the results at a certain distance from the fire is analyzed. The study will propose a ventilation strategy to use together with the FFFS system. The study of the test data shows that the use of FFFS decreased the temperatures in the tunnels and was not affected by the different velocities. In the experiments, the longitudinal ventilation velocity was set at 3 m/s, which prevented backlayering of smoke during the test, thus proving effective during the evacuation process. The longitudinal ventilation velocity of 2 m/s used in the Runehamar tunnel 2016 test can be used to prevent long backlayering. The study confirmed that at the initial stages of the fire that a velocity of 2 m/s be used and after the FFFS is initiated the velocity can be increased to 3 m/s. At a distance of 42 m away from the fire, the model scale test showed that the longitudinal ventilation velocities can increase the temperature in the free burn test. However, FED heat conv will not affect the people. The study of the test show in the cases of the Runehamar test it can be concluded that people at a distance of 1000 m away from the fire will be safe with and without FFFS for test conducted 2016, however in the full scale test of 2013 due to failure of the FFFS people are affected by the concentration of FED asphyxia of 0.3 is obtained after 44.95 minutes of exposure time. This will although be dependent on the type of material burning. The calculated concentration for FED heat conv. of 0.3741 was obtained after 30 minutes of exposure time was found in the model scale. The early activation of the FFFS reduces the concentration significantly. The different longitudinal ventilation velocities used in the test namely: 2 m/s, 3 m/s and 6 m/s has shown to be effective in controlling the fire at both distances and providing a safe environment for people. It was shown that the most effective of the three velocities was 3m/s when FFFS is operating. The early activation of the FFFS made a difference in controlling the fire thus it’s recommended for use in road tunnels. The results of the study support the idea that although people will be safe in the road tunnels, the first few minutes are important during a tunnel fire for the ability of people in the tunnel to escape

Case 16 : Don’t Miss the Bus

Dr. Philip Singe is the Chief Medical Officer of Health in the fictional Region of King in Ontario, Canada. Upon learning that Ottawa Public Health is offering a walking school bus program, Dr. Singe asks Vincent Randall to investigate the evidence. In charge of the health promotion portfolio at King Region Public Health (KRPH), Vincent Randall has been asked to apply the principles of evidence-based public health to identify and appraise the evidence on walking school buses. KRPH may suggest a similar initiative to the King Region School Board during an upcoming meeting. Given the short timeframe of one week, Vincent is likely to begin his search by identifying systematic reviews of the literature that are pertinent to the walking school bus program. The scenario depicted in the case is a common occurrence in public health organizations. In the process of developing new programs, the practices of other organizations and the opinions of leaders in the field can be influential. The case provides students with the opportunity to apply evidence-based practices to program and policy development in order to critically assess program options