Videocentric criticism, postmodernism and the deconstruction of television

This research offers an alternative method to the study of visual narrative. It criticizes Western society\u27s videocentrism, or centering of television as the predominant medium of communicating to mass society. This method is known as videocentric criticism; Chapter one assesses the modern and postmodern condition. Philosophy from the Greek and modern Enlightenments suggests that Western society\u27s videocentrism is a developing process originating in these periods. It then addresses modernity and postmodernity. Postmodern cultural phenomena that progressed in proximity with the evolution of television is discussed; Chapter two defines videocentric criticism. Narrative, structuralism, post-structuralism, and deconstruction are applied to televisual information. An example of televisual information is partially deconstructed; Chapter three proposes the Levels of Televisual Reality, which are similar to Plato\u27s Divided Line Analogy. The Levels of Televisual Reality suggest a person interacts with televisual information as an artificial form of: environment, experience, and consciousness. Examples are used

Gastroenteritis outbreaks on cruise ships: are sanitation inspection scores a true index of risk?

Background: The utility of cruise ship sanitation scores as indicators of future gastroenteritis outbreak wasinvestigated by means of a 5-year review of inspection scores and outbreaks of gastroenteritis as reportedunder the Vessel Sanitation Programme of the United States Public Health Centers for Disease Control.Materials and methods: Between 2012 and 2017 a total of 1197 inspections were published online, witha mean score of 95.7 out of 100. During the same interval there were 50 separate outbreaks of acutegastroenteritis.Results: No significant difference was found between pre-outbreak inspection scores, mean 96.4, andinspections that were not followed by an outbreak, mean 95.1 (z = 0.81, p = 0.42).Conclusions: This study shows that the current format of the inspection audits carried out under the VesselSanitation Programme generates scores that have no prognostic value with regard to future outbreaks ofgastroenteritis on board cruise ships

Medical emergency announcements on cruise ships: an audit of outcome

Background: Public address announcements are an effective way of alerting staff on cruise ships to life -threatening medical emergencies on-board, but should only be used when truly necessary. An audit to investigate the outcome following this method of activating the medical emergency response team (MERT) suggested system flaws. A new elementary first aid training programme for the crew was then developed, emphasising patient assessment and the correct determination of appropriate levels of response. Following fleet-wide implementation, post-intervention audits were performed on two other company ships to evaluate the impact of the new approach. Materials and methods: Data from all MERT activations initiated by public address announcement were prospectively collected during the audit periods, including subsequent means of transfer to the ship’s medical centre and duration of medical intervention as indicators of clinical severity. Results: After changing the training programme the overall rate of public announcements for medical emergencies fell by 43%. The proportion of patients requiring transfer by stretcher increased from 5% to 33%, whilst the proportion of patients requiring ≥ 4 h of medical intervention increased from 5% to 44%. Conclusions: The audits suggest that the new training programme may have improved the first aid responders’ decision-making as there were fewer inappropriate emergency announcements over the public address system. However, two-thirds of all MERT activations were still for patients either well enough to walk or only needing a wheelchair for subsequent transfer, indicating ongoing opportunity for improvement.

Welfare to work initiatives: understanding the politics of subcontracted service delivery

Drawing on empirical research on the recent Work Programme, Rebecca Taylor, James Rees, and Christopher Damm explain how providers from the public, private, and third sector experienced delivering it; and how the supply chain model worked

Effect of front and back squat techniques on peak loads experienced by the Achilles tendon

Background A primary technique in the discipline of strength and conditioning the squat has two principal ‘back and front’ variants. Despite the physiological and strength benefits of the squat, the propensity for musculoskeletal injury is high. The current investigation examined the influence of the front and back squat variations on the load experienced by the Achilles tendon. Material/Methods Achilles tendon loads were obtained from eighteen experienced male participants as they completed both back and front squats. Differences between squat conditions were examined using Bonferroni adjusted (p = 0.0125) paired t-tests. Results The results showed that the peak Achilles tendon load was significantly greater in the back squat (2.67 ±0.74 B.W) condition compared to the front squat (2.37 ±0.69 B.W). Conclusions Given the proposed relationship between the magnitude of the load experienced by the Achilles tendon and tendon pathology, the back squat appears to place lifters at greater risk from Achilles tendon injury. Therefore, it may be prudent for lifters who are predisposed to Achilles tendon pathology to utilize the front squat in their training

Behaviour of moist and saturated sand during shock and release

Relatively little is known about the changes that occur in the shock compaction and release of granular matter with varying levels of moisture. Here, we report a series of plate impact experiments giving shock Hugoniot and release data for a well characterized sand at dry, 10% moist and saturated water contents. The results reveal that at low moisture content the shock impedance is slightly reduced, while the release remains predominantly inelastic. Close to saturation, much more substantial changes occur: the shock impedance stiffens substantially, the Hugoniot appears to split into two branches, and the release becomes almost completely elastic. We discuss mechanisms underpinning these changes in behavior.This work was supported through the Force Protection Engineering research programme led by QinetiQ Plc. on behalf of DSTL.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from AIP via http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.493468

Metallic and organic coating development for high performance pre-finished steels.

Organic coated steels are extremely popular in the construction industry due to their flexibility, cost, ease of construction and aesthetic nature. However the fact that they can be produced in many colours and finishes in large volumes slightly belies the complexity of the system itself. Many of the components have a degree of environmental sensitivity and therefore with the introduction and implementation of strict environmental legislation constant improvement is needed to keep in line or ahead of such directives. Improvement of the coating system from the substrate up is presented in this thesis. Initial work was undertaken to understand the species that would be released from an organic coating. To this end PVC based model coatings were produced and subjected to natural weathering for one year, the coatings were designed to degrade by addition of a U grade TiO2 to ensure that results were obtained during the period. The leachate species were monitored on a monthly basis and identified using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICPMS). From this work it was found that pigmentation has an effect on the degradation of coatings. It was shown that monitoring of metallic run off is important as it provides details on species type, while some species can be identified as markers to photo-degradation of the coating. The comparison of stabilisers historic, present and novel using the same natural weathering method and testing period. Hydrotalcite was identified as a potential novel stabiliser for PVC based coatings. When compared to organotin based stabilisers as used in the past or Barium/Zinc based stabilisers that are currently used Hydrotalcite performed favourably both from a chemical and physical point of view. With regard to improving the coating system as a whole the next phase of work involved the identification of an optimum galvanised coating weight. Samples of Zn/Al galvanised steels with increasing coating weight were subjected to natural weathering for one year and the amount of zinc monitored monthly. Conventional hot dipped galvanised steel and Zalutite coatings were included in the sample field to provide further comparison points. A coating weight of 255 gm-2 was found to be the optimum with respect to the natural weathering, while Zalutite which contains a high aluminium addition performed best overall. This gave rise to the next section of work that involved used of the Scanning Vibrating Electrode Technique (SVET) to characterise the corrosion performance of galvanised coatings with aluminium additions greater than 4.8%. It was found that increasing the aluminium content improved both surface and cut edge corrosion. Under the parameters under which the samples were produced a wholly eutectic structure was achieved at a target addition of 6.1%. The final phase of work was a study on reducing the coating thickness of the high aluminium coatings to see if the improvement in corrosion performance attributed to increased aluminium addition carried across to thinner coatings. The samples were again tested using the SVET. The results suggest that there is some scope for reducing the coating thickness at certain aluminium levels

Development of high pressure and cryogenic techniques, and their application to neutron diffraction

Neutron diffraction is an extremely powerful technique in condensed matter research; it can be used to measure crystallographic structures, including some of those undeterminable using X-rays. It is also perhaps the most powerful technique for determining magnetic structures, and for probing the strength of magnetic interactions, revealing information beyond that extractable from a magnetometer. High pressure is used by many condensed matter researchers as an additional thermodynamic variable, or tool to perturb otherwise stable systems, and has been used with neutron diffraction for many years. When coupled with low temperatures, this has led to the discovery of an enormous range of non-ambient phases of matter, with a range of exotic properties, some of which are discussed in this thesis. Pressure has a very strong effect on the magnetic properties of a material, with many of the most unusual magnetic phases existing only at extremely low temperatures, or pressures which can only be reached on very small samples. The main topic for this thesis is the study, development, and implementation of new techniques to combine low temperatures, high pressures, and neutron diffraction measurements from micro sized samples. A new pressure cell has been designed, tested, and commissioned with neutron beam time on the WISH diffractometer at the ISIS neutron facility. The cell is compact, with a total mass of approximately 5 kg, and is capable of generating large loads in excess of 4.5 tonnes force. Depending on the sample size used with the cell, the opposed anvil system is capable of generating a range of different pressures beyond what is widely available for low temperature neutron diffraction measurements. To save wasted experimental time in cooling and warming the device, the cell is capable of varying the applied load continuously down to 5 K, whilst the sample pressure can also be measured in-situ using a compact spectrometer system. Obtaining refineable neutron diffraction data from the small samples (< 1mm3) possible in an opposed anvil pressure cell is challenging due to extremely low ratios of signal-to-background when compared with large volume pressure cells. Finite element analysis (FEA) was performed to minimise the mass of the cell, whilst also minimising the amount of supporting material in the beam. Despite this, the signal from the sample is typically very weak; to overcome this, a novel 3D printed device has been designed and tested to collimate extremely small samples, removing much of the background signal from the surrounding material. It has enabled neutron data to be collected from samples an order of magnitude smaller than previously measurable in the cell. To maximise the pressures achievable in the pressure cell, for a given sample volume, an extended FEA study was performed to understand the evolutions of stresses in the cell, and understand the limitations of using sapphire as an anvil material. To complement this work, a compact piston cylinder cell has also been designed for a combination of different measurements. One of the key challenges in high pressure research is in knowing, or ensuring, that the conditions the sample is under are approximately the same for a variety of different measurements. Since different instruments, and techniques, may not allow for the same apparatus to be used between them, this is not always possible. A compact clamped piston cylinder cell has been designed, suitable for in-situ electrical measurements, with additional potential for simultaneous neutron diffraction measurements. The device is demonstrated through an ultrasonic characterisation of the compound UGe2. In addition to the information obtainable from neutron diffraction, much can be learnt from studying the transport properties of a material. This information can be used alongside neutron data to provide a full understanding of how a material behaves. One technique of interest measures how the electrical properties of a material changes under applied magnetic field. This is difficult to achieve under pressure due to the often anisotropic construction of the pressure cell affecting the magnetic field on the sample in different orientations, and the challenge in getting wires to the sample under pressure. This thesis presents the design, and preliminary testing, of an ultra compact high symmetry piston cylinder cell designed to be taken to sub-Kelvin temperatures and rotationally oriented in applied magnetic field. The spherical construction of the cell means that the field on the sample position is, to a very close approximation, identical in all orientations. Finally, this thesis presents a study of the binary alloy Pd3Fe under pressure. Pd3Fe was recently reported to undergo a large-volume collapse under high pressure at room temperature, resulting in near zero thermal expansion]. There are several competing theories on the mechanism behind this process. To investigate further, a series of single crystal Pd3Fe samples were grown, cut, prepared, and extensively analysed. The results of this study suggest that the cause for the large volume collapse may not be magnetic in nature, as previously expected