Future directions for scientific advice in Europe

Across Europe, scientific evidence and advice is in great demand, to inform policies and decision making on issues such as climate change, new technologies and environmental regulation. But the diversity of political cultures and attitudes to expertise in different European countries can make the task of designing EU-wide advisory institutions and processes both sensitive and complex. In January 2015, President Juncker asked Commissioner Moedas to report on options for improving scientific advice within the European Commission. At a time when these issues are higher than usual on the political agenda, it is important that the case for scientific advice and evidence-informed policy is articulated and analysed afresh. To support these efforts, this collection brings together agenda-setting essays by policymakers, practitioners, scientists and scholars from across Europe. Authors include Anne Glover, Ulrike Felt, Robert Madelin, Andy Stirling, Vladimír Šucha and Jos van der Meer. Their contributions outline various challenges but also constructive ways forward for scientific advice in Europe

Anomalous Quartic Couplings in ννˉγγ\nu \bar{\nu} \gamma \gamma Production via WW-Fusion at LEP2

The production of $\nu \bar{\nu} \gamma \gamma$ in high-energy $e^+e^-$ collisions offers a window on anomalous quartic gauge boson couplings. We investigate the effect of two possible anomalous couplings on the cross section for $\nu \bar{\nu} \gamma \gamma$ production via $WW$-fusion at LEP2 ($\sqrt{s} = 200$ GeV).Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, LaTex, clarifying definition adde

Summary of the Structure Function Session at Dis01

The status and ongoing developments in the field of deep inelastic scattering presented at the DIS01 workshop in Bologna are discussed from both the experimental and the theoretical perspective.Comment: Invited talk presented at the 9th International Workshop on Deep Inelastic Scattering (DIS 2001), Bologna, Italy, 27 Apr - 1 May 2001, to appear in the Proceedings. (30 pages, 17 figures

Internal load modelling of tapered-roller main bearings in wind turbines

The replacement of double-row spherical roller bearings with double-row tapered roller bearings as the main shaft support in wind turbines has been proposed as one of the solutions to the premature failures affecting the industry. In order to improve our scientific knowledge of tapered roller bearing loading in wind turbine main shafts, this thesis sets out to explore how these components may be modelled, how such models can be utilised to improve the understanding of their operational characteristics in relation to the inflow wind, and to compare their behaviour with that of spherical roller bearings. Novel drivetrain models with tapered roller main bearings are developed in this thesis with capabilities of evaluating internal component loading while accounting for variations in system sti↵ness at different operating points. The findings demonstrate that modelling the moment reaction behaviour of tapered-roller bearings is crucial for even simplistic representations, since moment loads at the wind turbine hub are key drivers of bearing displacement. The models developed here are used in an extensive analysis to determine characteristics and sensitivities regarding operational conditions experienced by double-row tapered roller bearings under realistic turbulent inflow conditions, while properly accounting for the system load-response behaviour, roller load distributions and impacts on bearing fatigue life ratings. The presence of “looped” loading structures and evidence of consistent roller edge-loading throughout normal operation is demonstrated, and load response was also found to be largely shared between the two roller rows, this contrasts strongly with the conditions known to hold for spherical-roller main bearings. High levels of fatigue life sensitivity to both operational and lubrication conditions are documented, and shear effects in the wind were found to have opposite effects depending on the bearing type in use, with increased shear exponents drastically reducing the fatigue life rating of the tapered roller bearing. Crucially, this work demonstrates the uniqueness of load conditions experienced by tapered roller bearings in wind turbines, indicating that experience developed in more conventional rolling bearing applications should not be reapplied blindly without first determining its validity in this application space.The replacement of double-row spherical roller bearings with double-row tapered roller bearings as the main shaft support in wind turbines has been proposed as one of the solutions to the premature failures affecting the industry. In order to improve our scientific knowledge of tapered roller bearing loading in wind turbine main shafts, this thesis sets out to explore how these components may be modelled, how such models can be utilised to improve the understanding of their operational characteristics in relation to the inflow wind, and to compare their behaviour with that of spherical roller bearings. Novel drivetrain models with tapered roller main bearings are developed in this thesis with capabilities of evaluating internal component loading while accounting for variations in system sti↵ness at different operating points. The findings demonstrate that modelling the moment reaction behaviour of tapered-roller bearings is crucial for even simplistic representations, since moment loads at the wind turbine hub are key drivers of bearing displacement. The models developed here are used in an extensive analysis to determine characteristics and sensitivities regarding operational conditions experienced by double-row tapered roller bearings under realistic turbulent inflow conditions, while properly accounting for the system load-response behaviour, roller load distributions and impacts on bearing fatigue life ratings. The presence of “looped” loading structures and evidence of consistent roller edge-loading throughout normal operation is demonstrated, and load response was also found to be largely shared between the two roller rows, this contrasts strongly with the conditions known to hold for spherical-roller main bearings. High levels of fatigue life sensitivity to both operational and lubrication conditions are documented, and shear effects in the wind were found to have opposite effects depending on the bearing type in use, with increased shear exponents drastically reducing the fatigue life rating of the tapered roller bearing. Crucially, this work demonstrates the uniqueness of load conditions experienced by tapered roller bearings in wind turbines, indicating that experience developed in more conventional rolling bearing applications should not be reapplied blindly without first determining its validity in this application space

Mathematical tools for identifying the fetal response to physical exercise during pregnancy

In the applied mathematics literature there exist a significant number of tools that can reveal the interaction between mother and fetus during rest and also during and after exercise. These tools are based on techniques from a number of areas such as signal processing, time series analysis, neural networks, heart rate variability as well as dynamical systems and chaos. We will briefly review here some of these methods, concentrating on a method of extracting the fetal heart rate from the mixed maternal-fetal heart rate signal, that is based on phase space reconstructio

Like-Sign W Boson Production at the LHC as a Probe of Double Parton Scattering

Double parton scattering, i.e. two parton hard scattering processes in the same hadron-hadron collision, may constitute an important background for Higgs and other new particle searches at the LHC. We point out that like-sign W pair production provides a relatively clean way of searching for, and calibrating, double parton scattering at the LHC.Comment: 10 pages, LaTeX, 5 figures, epsfi

Perturbative QCD

Some of the basic concepts and most important results of perturbative QCD are presented, together with some illustrative comparisons with experiment

Flexural Behavior of Interlocking Compressed Earth Block Shear Walls Subjected to In-Plane Loading

This thesis investigates the flexural behavior of interlocking compressed earth block (ICEB) shear walls. In-plane cyclic tests were conducted to evaluate the performance of three flexure dominant large scale ICEB specimens: a slim wall with a 2:1 height to width aspect ratio, a flanged wall, and a wall with an opening at the center. Following the experimental investigation, two types of analyses were conducted for calculating the ultimate strength of flexure dominant ICEB walls: a nonlinear static analysis model assuming lumped plasticity and a plastic analysis model. In addition, incremental dynamic analysis was conducted to address the seismic performance of flexure dominant ICEB buildings. Based on the database from the incremental dynamic analysis, the collapse potential of demonstration ICEB buildings were compared for the countries of interest

Chaotic advection, transport and patchiness in clouds of pollution in an estuarine flow

We present an application of the transport theory developed for area preserving dynamical systems, to the problem of pollution and in particular patchiness in clouds of pollution in partially stratified estuaries. We model the flow in such estuaries using a $3+1$ dimensional uncoupled cartoon of the dominant underlying global circulation mechanisms present within the estuarine flow. We separate the cross section up into different regions, bounded by partial and complete barriers. Using these barriers we then provide predictions for the lower bound on the vertical local flux. We also present work on the relationship between the time taken for a particle to leave the estuary, (ie. the exit time), and the mixing within the estuary. This link is important as we show that to optimally discharge pollution into an estuary both concepts have to be considered. We finish by suggesting coordinates in space time for an optimal discharge site and a discharge policy to ensure the continually optimal discharge from such a site (or even a non optimal site).Peer Reviewe