The role of municipal markets in urban food strategies: a case study

Municipal markets have been recognised by both government and industry as valuable social spaces which can address growing public health issues in urban areas such as obesity. Yet, there is a lack of evidence linking markets to the public health impacts that are claimed. his chapter will provide indicatory levels of food access at a large municipal market in Leeds and extrapolate the indings into a discussion on the wider potential role of municipal markets in urban food strategies. Speciic focus will be on the role on markets in addressing food access for low-income urban communities. As urban food strategies develop in towns and cities across Britain, steering groups and urban planners need to take a realistic look at potential existing food strategy assets. Historically, traditional British markets have been important municipal bodies that ensured urban dwellers have access to an adequate and afordable diet

The politics of bestial imagery in satire, 1789-1820

This thesis examines the widespread use of bestial imagery in satirical verse, prose and prints published between 1789 – 1820, through a study of Shelley, Spence, Gillray, Gifford, Robinson, Catherine Ann Dorset, Thelwall, Eaton, and Wolcot. The thesis asks why these writers and printers used animal metaphors so frequently, but moreover, what impact the use of this imagery had on the political landscape of satire in the period. Recent criticism has focussed on the historical and political contexts of Romantic-era satire, and this thesis follows that criticism with an historicist methodology, combining literary, historical and political approaches. Furthermore, the thesis analyses verse, prose and pictorial satires as contributing to the same political discourse and as doing so in closely related cultural arenas. This thesis claims originality on the basis that not only the use of animal imagery has a significant impact on how both contemporary and modern readers interpret its political meanings and contexts, but also that this is an argument that has not yet been posited by other critics. In addition, this thesis argues that through bestial metaphors, satirical writers and artists create a community wherein imagery is exchanged, developed and manipulated, and that this practice of cultural exchange significantly shapes those satires’ historical contexts. Each of the thesis’ five chapters focuses on a major satiric animal metaphor, whereby close readings of satires are offered alongside wider political and historical contexts. Consequently, this thesis provides a map of the most common satiric animal metaphors and their concomitant politics, and in doing so creates a new critical framework in which the growing interest in Romantic- period satire can be further developed

Feedback seeking in customer service relationships

With the shift to a service economy (Cascio, 1995), customer service effectiveness is a critical measure of success for service firms. In service relationships, where a single employee may be the only point of contact for customers, monitoring service effectiveness becomes incumbent upon the employees delivering the service (i.e., boundary spanners). The purpose of this study was to provide an investigation into service effectiveness (i.e., customer satisfaction and repatronage and word-of-mouth intentions) in service relationships. Specifically, boundary spanners\u27 perceived organizational support (POS) was proposed to impact customer satisfaction through its impact on feedback seeking behaviors (i.e., direct inquiry, monitoring, positive feedback, and negative feedback). Feedback seeking behaviors, in addition to customers liking of and perceived similarity to boundary spanners, were proposed to impact satisfaction. In turn, customer satisfaction was proposed to lead to repatronage intentions and word-of-mouth intentions. Participants included 147 boundary spanner and customer dyads in business-to-business service relationships. Despite the good fit of the overall model, the strength and significance of individual parameters in the model varied. Customer liking and perceived similarity had a direct impact on customer satisfaction, which in turn impacted repatronage and word-of-mouth intentions. Neither POS nor any individual feedback seeking behaviors had a significant impact on satisfaction. However, when considered together, three types of feedback seeking behavior (direct inquiry, positive and negative feedback seeking) did have a positive impact on satisfaction. These findings indicate that satisfied customers are more likely to return to boundary spanners and to recommend the boundary spanner to other prospective customers. Further, boundary spanners may enhance customer satisfaction through seeking feedback on their service delivery. Implications and directions for future research are discussed

Field Studies and Modeling Exploring Mean and Maximum Water Age Association to Water Quality in a Drinking Water Distribution Network

This paper presents the findings of an investigation into predicted/modeled water age and the associated quality characteristics within a UK drinking water distribution network to determine if there is a discernable link. The hydraulic and water quality software Aquis was used to identify water volumes of different ages, generated by localized demand patterns in pipes that are in close proximity to one another. The pipe network studied was small spatially, of a single material, and had a consistent demand attributable to serving predominately light industry, but with interesting hydraulic patterns involving loops and mixing of water volumes, and some long retention times. Field work was undertaken to obtain water quality samples from five network locations identified as containing a broad range of calculated water age. The samples were analyzed for standard regulated parameters by a UK Accreditation Service (UKAS) [formerly known as the National Measurement Accreditation Service (NAMAS)] accredited water laboratory in line with UK water industry standard quality assurance practice. The water sample analytical results were examined to test how a number of physical, chemical, and bacteriological parameters related to the calculated water age at each sample point. Heterotrophic plate counts were used as the indicator of general bacteriological water quality. A limited association between the calculated water mean age and quality parameters was observed. Further investigations, taking into account mixing of different aged water volumes and the maximum age contributions to the mean age at each sample location, produced some association. The work demonstrated that mean age is not a sufficient guide to general water quality in this small network area. Mixing effects, and maximum age volume contributions, need to be taken into account if a more comprehensive understanding of water quality is to be obtained

Mission impossible! Setting up a branch library in Dubai

In spring 2018 the University of Birmingham announced that it would be the first global top 100 and Russell Group University to open a branch campus in Dubai. Initially this would take the form of an incubator campus providing capacity for approximately 350 students across 4 disciplines with a target of opening a full scale campus in 2020, accommodating up to approximately 4,500 UG and PG students. A library was required; however there would be no dedicated library staff in Dubai and no additional staffing resource within the UK. Library Services therefore faced the challenge of setting up a library from scratch, at arm’s length, with no additional resource. In this article, we mainly focus on the work relating to reading lists, and acquiring and licensing content

To co-op or not to co-op: a case study of food co-ops in England

Food co-ops are highlighted in UK policy as one way of improving food provisioning systems when formal state and commercial services fail to deliver. This research takes a case study approach to food retail co-ops in England funded under a community outreach programme. The co-ops surveyed had different priorities, some ranking health and food prices as more important than those associated with sustainability. In the majority of cases there were no formal membership structures and no involvement of members in decisionmaking. All operated on a part-time basis, few had business plans for future development, and many were reliant on voluntary labour or inputs from other organisations for their survival. Many food initiatives using the title food co-op were not formally constituted as cooperatives, losing both the potential power and advantages that formal incorporation can provide and opportunities to engage in processes associated with “democracy”. There is potential for a “co-op of co-operatives”, with local food initiatives being members of the larger co-op. This would enable leverage in areas of lobbying and food purchasing and provide additional leverage in terms of changing the food supply system to be more sustainable

An Experimental Investigation of the Flow over Blunt-Nosed Cones at a Mach Number of 5.8

Shock shapes were observed and static pressures were measured on spherically-blunted cones at a nominal Mach number of 5.8 over a range of Reynolds numbers per inch from 97,000 to 238,000, for angles of yaw from 0° to 8°. Six combinations of the bluntness ratios 0.4, 0.8, and l.064 with the cone half angles 10°, 20°, and 40° were used in determining the significant parameters governing pressure distribution. The pressure distribution on the spherical nose for both yawed and unyawed bodies is predicted quite accurately by the modified Newtonian theory given by C_p = C_(P_(max)) cos ^2 η, where η is the angle between the normal to a surface element and the flow direction ahead of the bow shock. Cone half angle was found to be the significant parameter in determining the pressure distribution near the nose-cone junction and over the conical afterbody. On the 40° spherical nosed cone models the flow overexpanded with respect to the Taylor-Maccoll pressure in the region of the spherical-conical juncture, after which the pressure returned rapidly to the Taylor-Maccoll value. For models with smaller cone angles the region of minimum pressure occurred farther back on the conical portion of the model, and the Taylor-Maccoll pressure was approached more gradually. The shape of the pressure distributions as described in nondimensional coordinates was independent of the radius of the spherical nose and of the Reynolds number over the range of Reynolds number per inch between .97 x 10^5 and 2.38 x 10^5. Integrated results for the pressure foredrag of the models at zero yaw compared very closely with the predictions of the modified Newtonian approximation, except for models with large cone angles and small nose radii, where the drag approaches the value given by the Taylor-Maccoll theory for sharp cones

Artificial Neural Network Model for a Low Cost Failure Sensor: Performance Assessment in Pipeline Distribution

YesThis paper describes an automated event detection and location system for water distribution pipelines which is based upon low-cost sensor technology and signature analysis by an Artificial Neural Network (ANN). The development of a low cost failure sensor which measures the opacity or cloudiness of the local water flow has been designed, developed and validated, and an ANN based system is then described which uses time series data produced by sensors to construct an empirical model for time series prediction and classification of events. These two components have been installed, tested and verified in an experimental site in a UK water distribution system. Verification of the system has been achieved from a series of simulated burst trials which have provided real data sets. It is concluded that the system has potential in water distribution network management

Online modelling of water distribution systems: a UK case study

Hydraulic simulation models of water distribution networks are routinely used for operational investigations and network design purposes. However, their full potential is often never realised because, in the majority of cases, they have been calibrated with data collected manually from the field during a single historic time period and, as such, reflect the network operational conditions that were prevalent at that time, and they are then applied as part of a reactive, desktop investigation. In order to use a hydraulic model to assist proactive distribution network management its element asset information must be up to date and it should be able to access current network information to drive simulations. Historically this advance has been restricted by the high cost of collecting and transferring the necessary field measurements. However, recent innovation and cost reductions associated with data transfer is resulting in collection of data from increasing numbers of sensors in water supply systems, and automatic transfer of the data to point of use. This means engineers potentially have access to a constant stream of current network data that enables a new era of "on-line" modelling that can be used to continually assess standards of service compliance for pressure and reduce the impact of network events, such as mains bursts, on customers. A case study is presented here that shows how an online modelling system can give timely warning of changes from normal network operation, providing capacity to minimise customer impact

Measured Water Temperature Characteristics in a Pipeline Distribution System

YesThis paper describes the design, development, deployment and performance assessment of a prototype system for monitoring the 'health' of a water distribution network based on the temperature distribution and time-dependent variations in temperature across the network. It has been found that the water temperature can reveal unusual events in a water distribution network, indicated by dynamic variations in spatial temperature differential. Based on this indication it is shown how patterns of changes in the water temperature can be analysed using AQUIS pipeline distribution software and used in conjunction with hydraulic (e.g. flow and pressure) sensors to indicate the state of ¿health¿ of the network during operation