16,541 research outputs found
The computer simulation and prediction of rock fall
No full textThis thesis deals with the study of rock falls using a mathematical model, codified for computer use, entitled GeoFall. GeoFall, which was developed by the author, allows predictions to be made of rock fall trajectories, run out distances and kinetic energies for a rock of any arbitrary shape. Its main purpose is to assist in the design of remedial works. The mathematical model is based on rigid body mechanics, and analyses a fall in 2D space using a new theory of impact dynamics developed by Brach (1991). The main features and algorithms of the program are presented in this thesis. The performance of GeoFall was evaluated by comparing actual rock fall events described in several published papers with the output created by GeoFall. Also the output from GeoFall has been compared with the output from other rock fall simulation programs used to simulate the documented rockfalls. A new rock slope inventory system entitled the Rock Fall Risk Assessment System (RFRAS) has been developed by the author to determine the rock fall risk at specific rock fall sites. It consists of three phases of inspection, the slope survey, and the preliminary and detailed rating phases. The detailed rating phase uses 13 parameters that when assessed, evaluated and totalled, numerically differentiates slopes from the least to the most hazardous producing an overall rating in the range 21-1926. It not only allows the relative risk of rockfall between slopes to be assessed but it also categorises the rock fall risk and the potential number of future rockfalls. It has been tested on 18 slopes at ten locations in County Durham. The final part of the thesis details a new laboratory based procedure that can be used to determine the coefficients of restitution for any type of rock material. The normal coefficient of restitution has been determined for seven different types of rock, and the tangential coefficient of restitution has been determined for a local sandstone. Some tentative correlations between the normal coefficient of restitution and the rocks physical properties, such as its Unconfined Compressive Strength (UCS) have been presented
The rise and fall of the Labour league of youth
No full textThis thesis charts the rise and fall of the Labour Party’s first and most enduring youth organisation, the Labour League of Youth. The history of the League, from its birth in the early nineteen twenties to its demise in the late nineteen fifties, is placed in the context of the Labour Party’s subsequent fruitless attempts to establish and maintain a vibrant and functional youth organisation. A narrative is incorporated that illuminates the culture, organisation and political activism of the League and establishes it as a predominantly working class radical organisation. The reluctance on the part of the Labour Party to grant autonomy to its youth sections resulted in the history of the League of Youth being one of control, suppression and tension. This state of affairs ensured that subsequent youth groups, the Young Socialists and Young Labour, would be established in an atmosphere of reservation and scepticism.
The thesis places the prime responsibility for the failure of the party’s youth organisations with the party leadership but also considers the contributory factors of changing social and political circumstances. A number of themes are explored which include the impact of structure and agency factors, the power of the Parliamentary Labour Party, the political socialisation of leading figures within the party, the social context in which each of the groups emerged and the extent to which the youth groups were prey to intra-party factionalism.
The thesis redresses the balance of research where most accounts have focussed on the Young Socialists and traces the common characteristics that are prevalent in the way the party leadership has approached its relationship with its youth organisations. Use has been made of previously unpublished primary source material, the major source being the League of Youth members themselves whose recollections have helped to demonstrate the arguments put forward in this thesis
Not a geography of what doesn't exist, but a counter-geography of what does: Rereading Giuseppe Dematteis' Le Metafore della Terra
No full textThe shaping of geography as a discipline has been the result of a combination of productive and successful communication and missed opportunities, of presence and absence, of fluid travels of ideas and projects, but also of closures, impediments, good lessons that got lost. This paper suggests that using a counterfactual approach to draw attention to specific geographies that remained unfulfilled and poorly known helps to think beyond linear genealogies. By discussing a particular book called Le Metafore della Terra by Giuseppe Dematteis, published in Italian in 1985 but largely unknown in English-language geography, we reflect on what happened when it was published - and also specifically what did not happen and, cautiously, what might have happened. In his book, Dematteis took issue with geography and geographers' past and contemporary mistakes, suggesting that the depoliticization of geographical knowledge had served merely powerful interests, rendering the imagining of alternative worlds impossible. He picked apart sacred tenets of the geographical tradition: escapist fantasies of exploration and conquest, the poorly problematized use of scale, the faith in the power of cartographic reason, the metaphysics of organicism, and the magical belief in the power of the market. Here, by extending the idea of counterfactual histories to look inwards to the discipline of geography itself, we choose to engage with what might have happened if this particular critical approach to geography had become better known, exploring why this radical project for the discipline was cast aside, including by the author himself. In so doing, we consider how scholars are located in so-called peripheral' places of production of geographical knowledge, discussing how this helps to understand the circulation and non-circulation of certain ideas. We use these alternatively rewritten geographies to show how dominant linear narratives of the emerging of critical thinking in the 1980s tell us an incomplete story, suggesting instead a tangled, multiple history of the discipline. We are interested in how scientific knowledge is communicated and received, how this exposes both the multi-sited nature of knowledge production and circulation, and cultural and national differences in the reception of science, and what this says about the possibility of critical thinking and progressive ideas having real impact
A retrospective evaluation of the quality of malaria case management at twelve health facilities in four districts in Zambia
No full textABSTRACTObjectiveTo establish the appropriateness of malaria case management at health facility level in four districts in Zambia.MethodsThis study was a retrospective evaluation of the quality of malaria case management at health facilities in four districts conveniently sampled to represent both urban and rural settings in different epidemiological zones and health facility coverage. The review period was from January to December 2008. The sample included twelve lower level health facilities from four districts. The Pearson Chi-square test was used to identify characteristics which affected the quality of case management.ResultsOut of 4891 suspected malaria cases recorded at the 12 health facilities, more than 80% of the patients had a temperature taken to establish their fever status. About 67% (CI95 66.1-68.7) were tested for parasitemia by either rapid diagnostic test or microscopy, whereas the remaining 22.5% (CI95 21.3.1-23.7) were not subjected to any malaria test. Of the 2247 malaria cases reported (complicated and uncomplicated), 71% were parasitologically confirmed while 29% were clinically diagnosed (unconfirmed). About 56% (CI95 53.9-58.1) of the malaria cases reported were treated with artemether-lumefantrine (AL), 35% (CI95 33.1-37.0) with sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine, 8% (CI95 6.9-9.2) with quinine and 1% did not receive any anti-malarial. Approximately 30% of patients WHO were found negative for malaria parasites were still prescribed an anti-malarial, contrary to the guidelines. There were marked inter-district variations in the proportion of patients in WHOm a diagnostic tool was used, and in the choice of anti-malarials for the treatment of malaria confirmed cases. Association between health worker characteristics and quality of case malaria management showed that nurses performed better than environmental health technicians and clinical officers on the decision whether to use the rapid diagnostic test or not. Gender, in service training on malaria, years of residence in the district and length of service of the health worker at the facility were not associated with diagnostic and treatment choices.ConclusionsMalaria case management was characterised by poor adherence to treatment guidelines. The non-adherence was mainly in terms of: inconsistent use of confirmatory tests (rapid diagnostic test or microscopy) for malaria; prescribing anti-malarials which are not recommended (e.g. sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine) and prescribing anti-malarials to cases testing negative. Innovative approaches are required to improve health worker adherence to diagnosis and treatment guidelines
A spatial database of health facilities managed by the public health sector in sub Saharan Africa
No full textHealth facilities form a central component of health systems, providing curative and preventative services and structured to allow referral through a pyramid of increasingly complex service provision. Access to health care is a complex and multidimensional concept, however, in its most narrow sense, it refers to geographic availability. Linking health facilities to populations has been a traditional per capita index of heath care coverage, however, with locations of health facilities and higher resolution population data, Geographic Information Systems allow for a more refined metric of health access, define geographic inequalities in service provision and inform planning. Maximizing the value of spatial heath access requires a complete census of providers and their locations. To-date there has not been a single, geo-referenced and comprehensive public health facility database for sub-Saharan Africa. We have assembled national master health facility lists from a variety of government and non-government sources from 50 countries and islands in sub Saharan Africa and used multiple geocoding methods to provide a comprehensive spatial inventory of 98,745 public health facilities.</p
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