Search results

Automated inspection of the inner surface of a pipe can be achieved by a mobile robot. Pipe inspection is necessary to locate defects due to corrosion and wear while the pipe is transporting fluids. Pipe inspection devices are available for these tasks; they commonly use ultrasonic or magnetic flux variation to detect defects. Says that the magnitude of the costs involved in the development and implementation of these inspection techniques is such that it inhibits their more frequent and widespread use. Posits that the automated pipe inspection robot presented is a proposed cost‐effective alternative solution. The inspection device is a PC‐based design that uses mechatronic principles to ensure a purposeful interaction between the robot and its environment.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the processes involved in the creation and eventual demise of a market for biodiversity offsets in the UK. The reasons for the failure of this market to take hold as a governance mechanism are considered, and its subsequent effects examined.

The research examines a single case study of the creation of a pilot market for biodiversity offsets in the UK. Data include policy and industry papers, complemented with interviews with biodiversity offset practitioners, regulators and non-government organisations.

The case study demonstrates that a market for biodiversity offsets was piloted with the intent to contribute to the reform of the UK planning regime. However, disagreements about this political project, uncertainties in the knowledge base, and continued entanglements with existing biodiversity meant it was impossible to stabilise the assemblages necessary to support the market, leading to its eventual demise. However, the principles and devices of offsetting have proved more resilient, and have started to combine with the existing arrangements for the governance of nature.

The paper presents a situation where a political project to reform governance arrangements through the creation of a market was not successful, making it of interest to researchers and policymakers alike.

While biodiversity offsetting has been widely discussed from scientific, legal and political perspectives, this paper addresses it as a market, explicitly designed to become a part of a governance regime. It also advances the understanding of the mechanisms by which similar processes of marketisation can fail, and suggests avenues for future research in those contexts.

The resourcing of policing activity is characterised by a level of complexity, particularly where evaluating alternative policy options is concerned. In this paper, a case study using multimethodological modelling to compare alterative policy choice in a group context is outlined with respect to response-patrol officer (RPO) deployment within a UK police force. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The application of a three phase modelling process is illustrated where scenario planning is used to generate the scope of the system elements to be modelled. This is followed by causal mapping to identify the barriers to improving officer resourcing, and system dynamics modelling is used to simulate the impacts of a range of policy options within this policing function. A group model building approach was applied throughout the modelling phases with an expert group to negotiate a shared view of the structure and dynamics of the resourcing policy challenges.

A fully validated system dynamics model emerged from the multi-phase modelling process which allowed a series of alternative future policy scenarios to be explored and evaluated. Useful policy insights were generated by the system dynamics simulation model which suggested more efficient rules for resource allocation in the police force’s RPO function.

The insights from this case study demonstrates that multi-phase modelling has potential application in policy exploration across a range of emergency service providers whose actions are governed by both variable demand and constrained supply of resource.

The study aims to look at the link between horizontal violence (HV) and organizational culture aspects. Bullying and hostility including intergroup conflict are referred to as HV. HV is a significant issue that is encountered in various professions. The different cultural typologies of group, developmental, hierarchical and rational culture have been addressed in this study. Additionally, it is identified that the prevalence of HV in organizations with different cultural dimensions.

Using a non-probability multistage sampling strategy, a quantitative method was used and questionnaires were circulated to collect data from the information technology sector. The data were analyzed using multiple regression analysis.

The findings demonstrated that HV has a positive and substantial association with the group and developmental culture, whereas HV has a negative link with hierarchical and rational culture.

These results provide a valuable tool for human resource managers and policymakers in promoting a healthy work environment and employee interpersonal collaboration, which will improve the organization’s overall performance.

This study is a novel work exploring the HV among employees in technological firms, and also combining the concepts of HV and organizational culture and also assists future researchers in many folds.

This chapter investigates how food microenterprises leverage cultural representations to develop the tourism offering of a place. Food tourism is considered to provide visitors with cultural experiences of place. In a homogenized world, authentic food characteristics enable tourists to have unique food experiences according to the place. This case study considers the way in which food microenterprises in Wales and Brittany leverage characteristics of place to develop food tourism experiences. Following a mixed methods design, findings show differences in the food tourism offering of Wales and Brittany, and differing levels of awareness of each food destination. Findings also point to the need for clear food tourism strategies, to enable places to fully exploit their unique resources in the food tourism offering.

The Departmental Committee appointed to inquire into the use of preservatives and colouring matters in the preservation and colouring of food, have now issued their report, and the large amount of evidence which is recorded therein will be found to be of the greatest interest to those concerned in striving to obtain a pure and unsophisticated food‐supply. It is of course much to be regretted that the Committee could not see their way to recommend the prohibition of all chemical preservatives in articles of food and drink; but, apart from this want of strength, they have made certain recommendations which, if they become law, will greatly improve the character of certain classes of food. It is satisfactory to note that formaldehyde and its preparations may be absolutely prohibited in foods and drinks; but, on the other hand, it is suggested that salicylic acid may be allowed in certain proportions in food, although in all cases its presence is to be declared. The entire prohibition of preservatives in milk would be a step in the right direction, although it is difficult to see why, in view of this recommendation, boric acid should be allowed to the extent of 0·25 per cent. in cream, more especially as by another recommendation all dietetic preparations intended for the use of invalids or infants are to be entirely free from preservative chemicals; but it will be a severe shock to tho3e traders who are in the habit of using these substances to be informed that they must declare the fact of the admixture by a label attached to the containing vessel. The use of boric acid and borax only is to be permitted in butter and margarine, in proportions not exceeding 0·5 per cent. expressed as boric acid, without notification. It is suggested that the use of salts of copper in the so‐called greening of vegetables should not be allowed, but upon this recommendation the members of the Committee were not unanimous, as in a note attached to the report one member states that he does not agree with the entire exclusion of added copper to food, for the strange reason that certain foods may naturally contain traces of copper. With equal truth it can be said that certain foods may naturally contain traces of arsenic. Is the addition of arsenic therefore to be permitted? The Committee are to be congratulated upon the result of their labours, and when these recommendations become law Great Britain may be regarded as having come a little more into line— although with some apparent reluctance—with those countries who regard the purity of their food‐supplies as a matter of national importance.

The Corporation of the City of London are about to appoint a Public Analyst, and by advertisement have invited applications for the post. It is obviously desirable that the person appointed to this office should not only possess the usual professional qualifications, but that he should be a scientific man of high standing and of good repute, whose name would afford a guarantee of thoroughness and reliability in regard to the work entrusted to him, and whose opinion would carry weight and command respect. Far from being of a nature to attract a man of this stamp, the terms and conditions attaching to the office as set forth in the advertisement above referred to are such that no self‐respecting member of the analytical profession, and most certainly no leading member of it, could possibly accept them. It is simply pitiable that the Corporation of the City of London should offer terms, and make conditions in connection with them, which no scientific analyst could agree to without disgracing himself and degrading his profession. The offer of such terms, in fact, amounts to a gross insult to the whole body of members of that profession, and is excusable only—if excusable at all—on the score of utter ignorance as to the character of the work required to be done, and as to the nature of the qualifications and attainments of the scientific experts who are called upon to do it. In the analytical profession, as in every other profession, there are men who, under the pressure of necessity, are compelled to accept almost any remuneration that they can get, and several of these poorer, and therefore weaker, brethren will, of course, become candidates for the City appointment.

The Sanitary Committee of a certain County Council, strong with the strength of recent creation, have lately been animated by a desire to distinguish themselves in some way, and, proceeding along the lines of least resistance, they appear to have selected the Public Analyst as the most suitable object for attack. The charge against this unfortunate official was not that he is incompetent, or that he had been in any way negligent of his duties as prescribed by Act of Parliament, but simply and solely that he has the temerity to reside in London, which city is distant by a certain number of miles from the much favoured district controlled by the County Council aforesaid. The committee were favoured in their deliberations by the assistance of no less an authority than the “Principal” of a local “Technical School”;—and who could be more capable than he to express an opinion upon so simple a matter? This eminent exponent of scientific truths, after due and proper consideration, is reported to have delivered himself of the opinion that “scientifically it would be desirable that the analyst should reside in the district, as the delay occasioned by the sending of samples of water to London is liable to produce a misleading effect upon an analysis.” Apparently appalled by the contemplation of such possibilities, and strengthened by another expression of opinion to the effect that there were as “good men” in the district as in London, the committee resolved to recommend the County Council to determine the existing arrangement with the Public Analyst, and to appoint a “local analyst for all purposes.” Thus, the only objection which could be urged to the employment of a Public Analyst resident in London was the ridiculous one that the composition of a sample of water was likely to seriously alter during the period of its transit to London, and this contention becomes still more absurd when it is remembered that the examination of water samples is no part of the official duty of a Public Analyst. The employment of local scientific talent may be very proper when the object to be attained is simply the more or less imperfect instruction of the rising generation in the rudiments of what passes in this country for “technical education”; but the work of the Public Analyst is serious and responsible, and cannot be lightly undertaken by every person who may be acquainted with some of the uses of a test‐tube. The worthy members of this committee may find to their cost, as other committees have found before them, that persons possessing the requisite knowledge and experience are not necessarily indigenous to their district. Supposing that the County Council adopts the recommendation, the aspirations of the committee may even then be strangled in their infancy, as the Local Government Board will want to know all about the matter, and the committee will have to give serious and valid reasons in support of their case.

The purpose of this paper is to establish the status of education for sustainability in the teacher education programmes in the province of Manitoba in Canada and to identify challenges and obstacles for mainstreaming education for sustainability in those programmes.

Using a multi-unit case study design, online programme information and data from interviews with faculty administrators and a convenience sample of faculty members from all five faculties of education in Manitoba were collected and analysed.

There is no systematic and focused preparation of teachers for education for sustainability in any of the Manitoba teacher education programmes. Three challenges for mainstreaming of education for sustainability are identified: lack of leadership, an unfavourable view of the role of education for sustainability and the silo-ing within faculties of education.

The research is limited by its focus on the programme-based implementation of education for sustainability in faculties of education, which did not include any course-based implementation by individual instructors.

To address the challenges and obstacles for mainstreaming, the authors argue for joint leadership across the relevant institutional levels (government, university and faculty), and for establishing education for sustainability as a framework for responding to the purpose question of school education.

The study provides empirical evidence for some of the major challenges for mainstreaming education for sustainability in faculties in education and, by generalisation, all university faculties.