The collection and analysis of pre-evacuation times derived from evacuation trials and their application to evacuation modelling

This paper presents data relating to occupant pre-evacuation times from university and hospital outpatient facilities. Although the two occupancies are entirely different, they do employ relatively similar procedures: members of staff sweep areas to encourage individuals to evacuate.However the manner in which the dependent population reacts to these procedures is quite different. In the hospital case, the patients only evacuated once a member of the nursing staff had instructed them to do so, while in the university evacuation, the students were less dependent upon the actions of the staff, with over 50% of them evacuating with no prior prompting. In addition, the student pre-evacuation time was found to be dependent on their level of engagement in various activities.

The collection of pre-evacuation times from evacuation trials involving a Hospital Outpatient area and a University Library facility

This paper presents data relating to occupant pre-evacuation times from a university and a hospital outpatient facility. Although the two structures are entirely different they do employ relatively similar procedures: members of staff sweeping areas of the structure to encourage individuals to evacuate. However, the manner in which the dependent population reacts to these procedures is quite different. In the hospital case the patients only evacuated once a member of the nursing staff had instructed them to do so while in the university evacuation the students were less dependent upon the actions of the staff with over 50% of them evacuating with no prior prompting. Although this data may be useful in a variety of areas, it was collected primarily for use within evacuation models.

Trust, leadership and economic necessity in post-compulsory education

Trust is a complex concept that has increasingly been debated in academic research (Kramer and Tyler, 1996). Research on 'trust and leadership' (Caldwell and Hayes, 2007) has suggested, unsurprisingly, that leadership behaviours influence 'follower' perceptions of leaders' trustworthiness. The development of 'ethical stewardship' amongst leaders may foster high trust situations (Caldwell, Hayes, Karri and Bernal, 2008), yet studies on the erosion of teacher professionalism in UK post-compulsory education have highlighted the distrust that arguably accompanies 'new managerialism', performativity and surveillance within a climate of economic rationalisation established by recent deterministic skills-focused government agendas for education (Avis, 2003; Codd, 1999, Deem, 2004, DFES, 2006). Given the shift from community to commercialism identified by Collinson and Collinson (2005) in a global economic environment characterised by uncertainty and rapid change, trust is, simultaneously, increasingly important and progressively both more fragile and limited in a post compulsory education sector dominated by skills-based targets and inspection demands. Building on such prior studies, this conference paper reports on the analysis of findings from a 2007-8 funded research study on 'trust and leadership' carried out in post-compulsory education. The research project collected and analysed case study interview and survey data from the lifelong learning sector, including selected tertiary, further and higher education (FE and HE) institutions. We interviewed 18 UK respondents from HE and FE, including principals, middle managers, first line managers, lecturers and researchers, supplementing and cross-checking this with a small number of survey responses (11) on 'trust and leadership' and a larger number (241) of survey responses on more generalised leadership issues in post-compulsory education. A range of facilitators and enablers of trust and their relationship to leadership were identified and investigated. The research analysed the ways in which interviewees defined the concept of 'trust' and the extent to which they identified that trust was a mediating factor affecting leadership and organisational performance. Prior literature indicates that trust involves a psychological state in which, despite dependency, risk and vulnerability, trustors have some degree of confident expectation that trustees will behave in benevolent rather than detrimental ways. The project confirmed the views of prior researchers (Mayer, Davis and Schoorman, 1995) that, since trust inevitably involves potential betrayal, estimations of leadership 'trustworthiness' are based on followers' cognitive and affective perceptions of the reliability, competence, benevolence and reputation of leaders. During the course of the interviews it also became clear that some interviewees were being managed in more or less transaction-focused, performative, audit-dominated cultures in which trust was not regarded as particularly important: while 'cautious trust' existed, collegiality flourished only marginally in small teams. Economic necessity and survival were key factors influencing leadership and employee behaviours, while an increasing distance was reported between senior managers and their staff. The paper reflects on the nature of the public sector leadership and management environment in post-compulsory education reported by interviewees and survey respondents. Leadership behaviours to build trust are recommended, including effective communication, honesty, integrity, authenticity, reliability and openness. It was generally felt that building trust was difficult in an educational environment largely determined by economic necessity and performativity. Yet, despite this, the researchers did identify a number of examples of high trust leadership situations that are worthy of emulation.

Co-acquisition of hyperpolarised 13C and 15N NMR spectra

Recent developments in dynamic nuclear polarisation now allow significant enhancements to be generated in the cryo solid state and transferred to the liquid state for detection at high resolution. We demonstrate that the Ardenkjaer-Larsen method can be extended by taking advantage of the properties of the trityl radicals used. It is possible to hyperpolarise 13C and 15N simultaneously in the solid state, and to maintain these hyperpolarisations through rapid dissolution into the liquid state. We demonstrate the almost simultaneous measurement of hyperpolarised 13C and hyperpolarised 15N NMR spectra. The prospects for further improvement of the method using contemporary technology are also discussed.

Applications of DNP-NMR for the measurement of heteronuclear T1 relaxation times

Measurement of heteronuclear spin-lattice relaxation times is hampered by both low natural abundance and low detection sensitivity. Combined with typically long relaxation times, this results in extended acquisition times which often renders the experiment impractical. Recently a variant of dynamic nuclear polarisation has been demonstrated in which enhanced nuclear spin polarisation, generated in the cryo-solid state, is transferred to the liquid state for detection. Combining this approach with small flip angle pulse trains, similar to the FLASH-T(1) imaging sequence, allows the rapid determination of spin-lattice relaxation times. In this paper we explore this method and its application to the measurement of T(1) for both carbon-13 and nitrogen-15 at natural abundance. The effects of RF inhomogeneity and the influence of proton decoupling in the context of this experiment are also investigated.