Bodmin Hospital

Monitoring the vibration level for railway coaches is an important topic of study in the transport industry. The level and pattern of these vibrations are indicative of various types of defects, such as irregularities in the rail or voids beneath the track pavement. Using this information, various measures can be taken to prevent accidents. This paper presents a real-time implementation of the Fast Fourier Transform, used to analyze such vibration signals. The measurements are made using threeaxis accelerometers equipped on board a special vehicle used to analyze rail track parameters.

Abstract The impact of climate change on food safety is an evolving area of science. Examples of outbreaks of food and water-related infection possibly related to climate change are reviewed here along with other emerging issues. For instance, increasing sea temperatures are contributing to an increase in Vibrio spp. in the aquatic environment and rising cases of foodborne infections and as well resulting in new patterns of fish-related diseases in consumers, such as Ciguatera fish poisoning. Warmer and wetter climactic conditions are also contributing to an increase in mycotoxin production and there is a growing concern that the drive towards more sustainable food supplies and novel alternative protein sources may lead to the emergence of novel threats. Future areas of possible concern (‘unknown unknowns’) are climactic conditions driving the appearance of highly virulent foodborne pathogens, increased threats due to increases in noxious seaweed in coastal areas in the Caribbean and Mexico, and dust storms spreading fungal and bacterial pathogens over vast areas globally. To ensure public safety in the future these new threats need to be recognized, and appropriate mitigation measures put in place by the food industry—which may require a re-evaluation of many established HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) plans.

This letter presents a high-performance corrugated horn for the subterahertz, manufactured monolithically using high-precision 3D printing technology based on microlaser sintering of stainless-steel powder. The horn features 45° inclined corrugation stubs that allow the building of the component with its axis vertical without any internal support structures. This ensures circular symmetry of the horn and high cross-polarization discrimination and circumvents radiation performance degradation, typical of tilted printing. Departing from traditional designs, the horn also incorporates a rectangular-to-circular waveguide adapter, not only enhancing compactness but also avoiding errors and losses associated with assembly. The stainless-steel antenna was plated with gold. The prototype, measuring 10.8 mm × 10.8 mm × 29.7 mm, exhibits outstanding performance with a peak gain from 18 to 22 dBi, and >36 dB cross-polar discrimination over the frequency band of 145–225 GHz. This is the first demonstration of 3D-printed corrugation structures in corrugated horns showing high performance beyond 100 GHz.

Abstract Six regional recharge and groundwater models have been recently developed of the Chalk and Upper Greensand from Dorset to Kent. Updated Chalk stratigraphy and mapping have improved understanding of geological structure and the development of preferential groundwater flow pathways along hardground horizons. Where shallow dipping folds bring these into the zone of active groundwater flow, extensive ‘underdrainage’ may result in marked differences between surface and groundwater catchments. Hardgrounds and marls are also associated with spring discharges, as are some faults and the clay formations that underlie or confine the aquifer system. Higher specific yield within the Upper Greensand helps support summer baseflow, as do local groundwater discharges from augmentation schemes, watercress and fish farm operations. The aquifer system has been successfully modelled using the ‘variable hydraulic conductivity with depth’ version of MODFLOW. Depths of secondary permeability development have been distributed according to ground and groundwater level data. Interfluve–valley contrasts overlie a base hydraulic conductivity set according to the formation saturated at the water table and enhanced by active hardgrounds. Local parameter overrides may also be needed. The Wessex Basin conceptual and numerical model is described before summarizing similarities and contrasts from the other five regional model areas.

The purpose of this paper is to determine which particular organisational and managerial factors contribute to the propensity to export in a declining sector. For this purpose the textile and clothing sector in Portugal and the United Kingdom is chosen for investigation. This study analyses firms’ resources and capabilities, as well as decision-makers’ objective and subjective characteristics in a sample of 167 Portuguese and 165 UK firms in the textile and clothing industry. The fundamental research questions are: which characteristics of the firm are associated with stronger export propensity, and is it possible to identify a profile of decision-makers associated with export propensity? For Portugal, the size of firm and the educational level of managers are the key determinants of export propensity. As to the UK, age and perception of costs are the key factors. In addition, we also investigated managers’ commitment to exporting, for which the important determinants of export propensity in the textile and clothing sector were found to be planning, advertising and promotion. When combining the two country data-sets, particular firm characteristics, namely, firm size, competitive advantage, and technology, and a specific objective characteristic, namely, the number of languages spoken, are the key factors associated with the propensity to export in this declining sector.

Any article or book written by Professor Haydn Murray is to be welcomed, as he is one of the leading figures in the Industrial Minerals field, particularly with respect to various types of clays. Following a distinguished career in industry he became Professor in the Department of Geological Science in Indiana University in the USA and in his retirement continues to work actively in the field as a consultant. Many of his former PhD students are now in senior positions in industry with some of the major kaolin and clay companies both in the USA and overseas. His book covers a wide range of topics and is just 145 pages of text and figures with 45 pages of Appendices and an Index. The book is clearly aimed as an introduction to clay mineralogy and the occurrences, processing and applications of various clay minerals. For specialists in the field it will be a useful reference point for looking up locations of clay minerals they are not so familiar with. Specialists in particular clay minerals, e.g. kaolin, will view the book as a general summary of world occurrences but for more detail on particular deposits will need to carry out further reading and research. Generally …

Abstract:Question: Is there a critical depth of burial by sand beyond which species and communities fail to recover, and does repeated incremental burial have a greater impact than a single large deposition?Location: The machair on the calcareous sand dunes on South Uist, in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, UK.Methods: Eight turves were collected from each of four machair sub‐community types. After acclimatization in an unheated polythene tunnel, they were buried with sterilized machair shell sand, either by one single burial to 5 cm or by five applications of 1 cm of sand at approximately seven‐week intervals. Species response was recorded on five occasions.Results: Within machair sub‐communities, burial by sand reduced the abundance (local rooted frequency) of plants more than it reduced species richness. Intermittent burial was more damaging than a single burial event. Those species with the highest pre‐burial frequencies tended to dominate recovery in the sub‐community as a whole. Species occurring across all four sub‐community types exhibited varying responses to community burial between the differing types. Samples from slack sub‐communities had distinctly different response characteristics from those of foredunes and unploughed and three‐year fallow dune grassland.Conclusions: The perennial life‐form of many machair species has been evolutionarily selected for and dominates throughout the machair habitat. Account needs to be taken of competitive interaction between species in relation to burial response. The results of the investigation show that the hypotheses of Gilbertson et al. and Kent et al. on ‘machair stratification’ require refinement in that frequency of shallow burial can be as important as overall burial depth.

New incentives for protection and in situ use of forests and the services they provide raise hopes for the reversal of tropical and temperate deforestation. Past management of forests appropriated the rights of forest communities, providing incentives to convert natural forest into financial capital through logging, while destroying the underlying physical property. Carbon trading aims to provide a means to convert the forest property into financial capital, while protecting the physical property of forests, thereby providing new incentives for in situ forest management. The potential for carbon-emission trading as a contributor to these new incentives is tempered by concerns that it is another tool for capitalists to exploit the indigenous communities of the developing world. Estimates of annual emission trading amounting to US $200 billion raise alarm bells about the effect of such trade in the developing world. People are right to be concerned, as the history of exploitation of indigenous people, the appropriation of their rights, the loss of forests and their benefits is well documented. This exploitation resulted in the exclusion of forest communities from the basic tenets for development created by the wealth generated by traded property. However, one virtue of trade is that it can be made subject to constraints. Through international treaties and agreements, trade can be constrained and national governments obliged to observe the rules of trade. The value of tradable carbon credits will be discounted or invalid if they do not meet these criteria, providing all parties with strong incentives to achieve the necessary performance standards relating to both processes and contracts. For carbon trading to develop social capital from natural capital requires the admission of forest communities into the polity and management of forest resources. In this paper we argue for responsible carbon-emission trading based on the clear and appropriate definition of carbon entitlements, with the proviso that trading respects the rights and needs of indigenous people. We adopt this position as emissions trading now seems inevitable and there should be proper rules to control this trade where it affects forests and their inhabitants. It is imperative that the poor and indigenous people are not excluded from these systems. Trading systems and the property systems they depend on need to be more accountable, transparent and inclusive of those features which we propose.