Uniformity Studies of Scintillator Tiles directly coupled to SiPMs for Imaging Calorimetry

We present a novel geometry of scintillator tiles developed for fiberless coupling to silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) for applications in highly granular calorimeters. A high degree of uniformity of the tile response over the full active area was achieved by a drilled slit at the coupling position of the photon sensor with 2 mm, 4 mm and 5.5 mm in height, width and depth. Detailed measurements of the response to penetrating electrons were performed for tiles with a lateral size of 3 x 3 cm^2 and thicknesses of 5 mm and 3 mm.Comment: 6 pages, 8 figures, accepted by NIM

Manuscript stability and literary corruption: Our failure to understand the Beowulf manuscript

The Nowell codex, bound into BL MS Cotton Vitellius A.xv, now contains five Old English texts: The Passion of St Christopher, The Wonders of the East, The Letter of Alexander to Aristotle, Beowulf, and Judith. Damaged by fire in 1731, and distorted by subsequent treatment, many readings in all of the texts are corrupted or lost; significant efforts have been made to restore readings by, for instance, the use of UV photography by Kevin Kiernan and Joseph McGowan. Despite the work of Kiernan in particular, relatively little attention has been paid to the manuscript's presentation its texts, and still less to how the scribes expected their work to be read. Recently, the texts have been published together for the first time since the eleventh century by Robert Fulk in the Dumbarton Oaks series, and the British Library's Digitised Manuscripts project has made extremely detailed examination of the manuscript possible. Based on the use of this facsimile, this paper will suggest that the most profound corruption is in the loss in understanding of the subtleties of manuscript presentation. I will share some of the previously unrecorded scribal indications of how the texts in the manuscript could be read that can be seen when using extreme close-up images. These include a possibly runic sign; crosses and letter-shaped signs in text and margin; and a complex heirarchy of capitals which varies across the texts. Some of these evidences of scribal practice provide clear evidence of expected reading processes others are not so easily decoded and point instead to the corruption in readers' understanding despite the preservation - indeed, the digital clarification - of the literary object

Weather forecasts: up to one week in advance

In this chapter, we examine how weather forecasts are made and how they may be used by the health sector. We explore why, where and when we might obtain good forecasts and why sometimes the forecasts go wrong. We consider the theoretical and practical constraints on weather forecasts and why their accuracy declines rapidly after only a few days. Knowing the limitations of weather forecasts helps us to learn how to make best use of such information

Solving design problems to add value

Value management is well established in construction to structure early project briefing and to agree satisficing project values and objectives among project stakeholders. Current practice concentrates on the consideration of value during project definition. This paper proposes Integral Value Engineering as a design management practice that considers value in design throughout project resolution and delivery. An expansion of value management principles is proposed to include the adoption of a problem-solving approach and value-adding tools. These can help assemble value-adding frameworks in which design activity is more explicitly focused on project values. The use of problem solving frameworks to relate design method and outcome to project values is described and the notion of documenting these relationships to create a value-adding audit trail introduced. Integral Value Engineering is defined as the consideration of value when solving design problems, irrespective of the project stage in which they occur or their technical nature. The adaptability of the problem solving approach is discussed, together with its ability to accommodate the extensive variability in problem scope and concurrency in construction projects. The role of individual design engineers as practitioners of Integral Value Engineering is also described; this focuses on collaborative forums to incorporate the expertise of specialised suppliers. A web-based Value-Adding Toolbox is described to disseminate value-adding tool descriptions, methods and examples within a single organisation or managed value chain. The paper concludes that, for integral value engineering to be effective, suitable metrics must be identified to monitor the extent to which technical design solutions satisfy overall project values. This would allow responsive mechanisms to be defined so that design development can be managed throughout project duration to ensure that the satisficing values initially defined by value management at project outset will be delivered

Climate information for public health action: challenges and opportunities

Throughout this book, we have sought to identify how, when and where climate information, based on historical data, monitoring products and predictions of future weather and climate can be used to inform health policy and practice. We have prioritized operational information over research opportunities to ensure a focus on practical outcomes. In this chapter, we provide a short review of climate information currently available, as described in detail in Chapters 4-9. We then explore how developments in technologies, institutional arrangements and the education of health professionals are providing new opportunities for translating climate information into a new resource for health-sector decision-making

Using VALiD to understand value from the stakeholder perspective

A “value agenda” has arisen in the UK’s cultural development in recent years. In the construction sector, a desire to make worthwhile building investments that are socially beneficial as well as commercially successful has become commonplace. This value agenda has become embodied in government policy which has, in turn, shaped the investment strategies of public bodies. Construction projects are becoming concerned with engaging directly with stakeholders to understand and reflect their attitudes, opinions and values in the final solution. In the private sector, the value agenda has stimulated business and societal debate to the stage where fulfilment of stakeholders’ expectations is seen as a precursor to commercial success. It is increasingly held that people seek to use buildings and facilities that reflect their values and which, therefore, they feel at ease with. In response to the above, VALiD (Value in Design) has been developed as a flexible framework that helps construction project teams explore and understand stakeholders’ values as a precursor to delivering value. Within this framework, VALiD defines value as the relationship of stakeholder benefits sought, sacrifices accepted, and resources expended. It is defined individually for every stakeholder in recognition that each has different underlying values and, therefore, a different perception of value. The use of VALiD to define project objectives and assess value delivery performance is described. The paper presents a summary of construction organisations’ response to this treatment of value, including the status of its development through continuing industry and academic research in the UK

Integral value engineering in design

Construction industry clients demand certainty in project cost, quality and time. The inability of traditionally composed design teams to consistently deliver this suggests that their expertise is sometimes inadequate. As clients become more dynamic in the next millennium, they are likely to demand greater certainty when construction projects are implemented to support frequent revisions in their short term function. By establishing a collaborative working framework it is proposed that supply chains can be better managed to identify and design out potential problems using integrated, collaborative design processes. This proposal is being investigated by the Integrated Collaborative Design (ICD) research project, a collaboration of AMEC Construction, Loughborough University and eleven supply organisations, supported by the EPSRC and DETR through the IDAC Link programme. Focusing on one component of the ICD project, this paper reviews existing, reactive, value engineering methods and by identifying their inadequacies establishes the need for an integrated approach. A value management context is described which integrates value engineering into continuous design processes. The paper discusses the opportunities for utilising supplier design expertise by modelling design process information flows. It also identifies potential cultural barriers to the use of design processes incorporating integral value engineering techniques and describes the linkage to other ICD components that are addressing these issues

Construction value management revisited: the designer's role

Value management is well established in construction. The method provides a structured, documentable consideration of project stakeholders to ensure that projects are required, framed to satisfy values and sufficiently supported by all stakeholders to ensure successful completion. A variety of construction-specific value management methods exist and many UK design management contractors offer the practice to clients as a structured method of considering the role of each project in adding value to clients’ business activities. Value management in construction has grown from the manufacturing sector, but historical review suggests it was extrapolated verbatim, with limited revision for construction application. The soundness of this foundation is examined. The paper reviews the extent to which designers are currently provided with mechanisms to consider stakeholder values during the project stages when most design output is produced. Integral Value Engineering is proposed to continuously relate ongoing design activity to the project values current at the time of each design task’s completion. The paper describes a toolbox of value-adding tools that provide project designers with methods of structuring design activity to relate technical design solutions to stakeholder values. Development of the toolbox as a web-based resource is reviewed, and its supporting role confirmed by validation exercises. The paper concludes by establishing the need for all designers in the supply chain to be provided with methods of structuring their problem solving processes to address value delivery, and the suitability of the value-adding toolbox to them. Future work must develop means of actively maintaining a shared understanding of values throughout project progression, providing a framework and objective for ongoing design activity