Groundwater reinjection and heat dissipation: lessons from the operation of a large groundwater cooling system in Central London

The performance of a large open-loop groundwater cooling scheme in a shallow alluvial aquifer at a prominent public building in Central London has been monitored closely over its first 2 years of operation. The installed system provided cooling to the site continuously for a period of 9 months between June 2012 and April 2013. During this period, c. 131300 m3 of groundwater was abstracted from a single pumping well and recharged into a single injection borehole. The amount of heat rejected in this period amounts to c. 1.37 GWh. A programme of hydraulic testing was subsequently undertaken over a 3 month period between July and October 2013 to evaluate the performance of the injection borehole. The data indicate no significant change in injection performance between commissioning trials undertaken in 2010 and the most recent period of testing, as evidenced by comparison of injection pressures for given flow rates in 2010 and 2013. Continuous temperature monitoring of the abstracted water, the discharge and a number of observation wells demonstrates the evolution of a heat plume in the aquifer in response to heat rejection and subsequent dissipation of this heat during the 18 month planned cessation

Distortion and regulation characterization of a Mapham inverter

Output voltage Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) of a 20kHz, 6kVA Mapham resonant inverter is characterized as a function of its switching-to-resonant frequency ratio, f sub s/f sub r, using the EASY5 engineering analysis system. EASY5 circuit simulation results are compared with hardware test results to verify the accuracy of the simulations. The effects of load on the THD versus f sub s/f sub r ratio is investigated for resistive, leading, and lagging power factor load impedances. The effect of the series output capacitor on the Mapham inverter output voltage distortion and inherent load regulation is characterized under loads of various power factors and magnitudes. An optimum series capacitor value which improves the inherent load regulation to better than 3 percent is identified. The optimum series capacitor value is different than the value predicted from a modeled frequency domain analysis. An explanation is proposed which takes into account the conduction overlap in the inductor pairs during steady-state inverter operation, which decreases the effective inductance of a Mapham inverter. A fault protection and current limit method is discussed which allows the Mapham inverter to operate into a short circuit, even when the inverter resonant circuit becomes overdamped

Fraud in overseas aid and the challenge of measurement

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the challenges of measuring fraud in overseas aid. Design/methodology/approach The research is based on 21 semi-structured interviews with key persons working in the delivery of aid in both the public and voluntary sectors. It uses the UK Department for International Development as a case study to applying more accurate measures of fraud. Findings This paper shows there are significant challenges to using fraud loss measurement to gauge fraud in overseas aid. However, it argues that, along with other types of measures, it could be used in areas of expenditure in overseas governments and charities to measure aid. Given the high risk of such aid to fraud, it argues helping to develop capacity to reduce aid, of which measuring the size of the problem is an important part; this could be considered as aid in its own right. Research limitations/implications The researchers were not able to visit high-risk countries for fraud to examine in the local context views on the challenges of measuring fraud. Practical implications The paper offers insights on the challenges to accurately measuring fraud in an overseas context, which will be useful to policy-makers in this context. Social implications Given the importance of as much aid as possible reaching recipients, it offers an important contribution to helping to reduce losses in this important area. Originality/value There has been very little consideration of how to measure fraud in the overseas aid context, with most effort aimed at corruption, which poses some of the same challenges, as well as some very different challenges

On the poverty of a priorism: technology, surveillance in the workplace and employee responses

Many debates about surveillance at work are framed by a set of a priori assumptions about the nature of the employment relationship that inhibits efforts to understand the complexity of employee responses to the spread of new technology at work. In particular, the debate about the prevalence of resistance is hamstrung from the outset by the assumption that all apparently non-compliant acts, whether intentional or not, are to be counted as acts of resistance. Against this background this paper seeks to redress the balance by reviewing results from an ethnographic study of surveillance-capable technologies in a number of British workplaces. It argues for greater attention to be paid to the empirical character of the social relations at work in and through which technologies are deployed and in the context of which employee responses are played out

SUPERPOWER: Towards a Fully Integrated Model of Planning, Action and Conversation

Following Austin's work, some theories have attempted to develop the idea that utterances can be understood as actions. In Artificial Intelligence there has been a body of work trying to do this in terms of joint planning. Previous work has been of two kinds: building up from the basic units of utterances and speech acts, or building down from external goals and trying to model connected sequences of utterances i.e. conversation. This thesis extends the latter tradition. After an initial empirical investigation, two new claims are made. Firstly the computer program, listed in the appendix, shows how time slicing changes dialogue outcome in interesting ways. Secondly an exhaustive planning framework for Power's robot world provides agents with better conversational skills than those reported so far. Finally the thesis discusses the drawbacks encountered in the empirical investigation and proposes a new basic unit, NEOTELL, a single generic unit of mutual agreement out of which whole conversations can be formed and an agents external goals achieved

The Management and Use of Social Network Sites in a Government Department

In this paper we report findings from a study of social network site use in a UK Government department. We have investigated this from a managerial, organisational perspective. We found at the study site that there are already several social network technologies in use, and that these: misalign with and problematize organisational boundaries; blur boundaries between working and social lives; present differing opportunities for control; have different visibilities; have overlapping functionality with each other and with other information technologies; that they evolve and change over time; and that their uptake is conditioned by existing infrastructure and availability. We find the organisational complexity that social technologies are often hoped to cut across is, in reality, something that shapes their uptake and use. We argue the idea of a single, central social network site for supporting cooperative work within an organisation will hit the same problems as any effort of centralisation in organisations. We argue that while there is still plenty of scope for design and innovation in this area, an important challenge now is in supporting organisations in managing what can best be referred to as a social network site 'ecosystem'.Comment: Accepted for publication in JCSCW (The Journal of Computer Supported Cooperative Work

Examining the environmental influences on physical activity among children in rural Northern Ontario

Low levels of physical activity (PA) among children in Canada have been a primary health concern over the last decade. Higher levels of PA are associated with numerous social, physical, and mental health benefits, and research has also shown that different social, built, and natural elements of local environments are associated with varying levels of PA. Despite growing evidence around the connection between a child’s environment and PA, little research has examined the influence of the environment on the PA of rural Canadian children. Broadly based on the ecological systems theory, this dissertation used data from the Spatial Temporal Environment and Activity Monitoring (STEAM) project. The STEAM project used a multi-method design to gather both quantitative and qualitative health data on a geographically diverse group of children aged 8-14 years in Ontario. Analyses using logistic regression indicated that correlates of PA differ from weekdays to weekends and that on weekends children from rural Northern Ontario were more active than children from different neighbourhood types (urban, suburban, rural) in Southern Ontario. This established difference between rural Southern and Northern Ontario children provided evidence to support a more in-depth analysis of the factors associated with PA levels among rural Northern children. A cross-classified model was used to explore correlates of PA among rural children from Northern Ontario, specifically focusing on weather. Boys were more active than girls, children were more active on weekdays, children were less active on days with precipitation, and higher temperature led to higher levels of PA. Qualitative methods were used to further explore the environmental influences on rural children’s PA. Based on a thematic analysis of focus groups, three important themes were identified as having an impact on children’s PA: physical environment, social environment, and perceptions of safety. This dissertation demonstrated the temporal and contextual nuances of children’s PA. Specifically, temporal factors like day type and season and contextual factors including, fear of wildlife, had an impact on children’s PA. This work provided important evidence for policymakers and decision-makers to help guide future interventions and policies for increasing PA levels among children in rural communities

The economic impact of rural healthcare on rural economies: A rapid review

This is the final published version of Button BL, Taylor K, McArthur M, Newbery S, Cameron E. The economic impact of rural healthcare on rural economies: A rapid review. Can J Rural Med 2022; 27(4):158-68. DOI: 10.4103/cjrm.cjrm_70_21 Deposited by shareyourpaper.org and openaccessbutton.org. We've taken reasonable steps to ensure this content doesn't violate copyright. However, if you think it does, you can request a takedown by emailing [email protected]

Evaluation Of Osteoporosis Using Ultrasound

We have developed an equipment using ultrasound transducers to help in the diagnosis of osteoporosis. The equipment consists of an X-Y axes displacement system controlled by a microcomputer and uses two ultrasound transducers in opposite sides to inspect the calcaneus region of the patient. We have used two pairs of transducers with 500 kHz and 1 MHz central frequencies. Each pair of transducers was fixed in the X-Y displacement system submerged in a small water tank with a support for the foot of the patient. The transmitter was excited with pulses of 400-600 kHz or 800-1200 kHz and the ultrasound waves propagating through the bone in the calcaneus region are received by the opposite transducer, amplified and acquired in a digital oscilloscope. The data are transferred to the microcomputer and the ultrasound attenuation and the ultrasound transmission velocity are determined. The system was tested in patients, selected from a group that had already been diagnosed using a DEXA equipment. The results showed that there is a decrease in the ultrasound transmission velocity and the ultrasound attenuation in osteoporotic patients when compared to healthy patients of the same sex and age group. The conclusion is that ultrasound attenuation and the transmission velocity in the calcaneus region may be used as parameters in the evaluation of osteoporosis using our new system.398227828