La justice sociale dans la jurisprudence au Royaume-Uni

This chapter surveys the extent to which UK courts have developed the concept of social justice. It focuses on decisions reached in the areas of equality, welfare law, education, and health care, and concludes with a consideration of the extent to which UK judges consider that individuals should take personal responsibility for their own well-being.

Assessment of the effectiveness of the guard ring in obtaining a uni-directional flow in an in situ water permeability test

The non-destructive evaluation of the water permeability of concrete structures is a long standing challenge, principally due to the difficulty of achieving a uni-direction flow for computing the water permeability coefficient. The use of a guard ring (GR) was originally proposed for the in situ sorptivity test, but little information can be found for the water permeability test. In this study, the effect of a GR was carefully examined through the flow simulation, which was verified by carrying out experiments. It was observed that the GR can confine the flow near the surface, but cannot achieve a uni-directional flow across the whole depth of flow. To achieve a better performance, it is essential to consider the effects of the size of the inner seal and the GR and the significant interaction between these two. The analysis of the experimental data has indicated that the GR influences the flow for porous concretes, but there is no significant effect for dense concretes. Further investigation, validated using the flow-net theory, has shown a strong correlation between the water permeability coefficients obtained with the GR (K w-GR) and without it (K w-No GR), suggesting that one dimensional flow is not essential for interpreting data for site tests. Another practical issue was that more than 30 % of the tests with GR failed due to the difficulty of achieving a good seal between the inner and the outer chambers. Based on the work reported in this paper, a new water permeability test is proposed.

Seasonal differences in the effects of oscillatory and uni-directional flow on the growth and nitrate-uptake rates of juvenile Laminaria digitata (Phaeophyceae)

The influence of oscillatory versus unidirectional flow on the growth and nitrate-uptake rates of juvenile kelp, Laminaria digitata, was determined seasonally in experimental treatments that simulated as closely as possible natural environmental conditions. In winter, regardless of flow condition (oscillatory and unidirectional) or water velocity, no influence of water motion was observed on the growth rate of L. digitata. In summer, when ambient nitrate concentrations were low, increased water motion enhanced macroalgal growth, which is assumed to be related to an increase in the rate of supply of nutrients to the blade surface. Nitrate-uptake rates were significantly influenced by water motion and season. Lowest nitrate-uptake rates were observed for velocities <5 cm · s−1 and nitrate-uptake rates increased by 20%–50% under oscillatory motion compared to unidirectional flow at the same average speed. These data further suggested that the diffusion boundary layer played a significant role in influencing nitrate-uptake rates. However, while increased nitrate-uptake in oscillatory flow was clear, this was not reflected in growth rates and further work is required to understand the disconnection of nitrate-uptake and growth by L. digitata in oscillatory flow. The data obtained support those from related field-based studies, which suggest that in summer, when insufficient nitrogen is available in the water to saturate metabolic demand, the growth rate of kelps will be influenced by water motion restricting mass transfer of nitrogen.

Liquid-liquid equilibria of ternary 2M1B/2M2B-2M1BOH-H2O and quaternary 2M1B-2M2B-2M1BOH-H2O mixtures

Liquid-liquid equilibria of two ternary mixtures 2M1B-2M1BOH-H[2]O] and 2M2B-2M1BOH-H[2]O were measured at 5, 15 and 25 C. UNIQUAC and NRTL models were fitted to the experimental data using ASPEN PLUS. Both experimental and correlated values of equilibrium compositions were compared with the values predicted by UNIFAC method. The same procedure was extended to the quaternary mixture 2M1B-2M2B-2M 1BOH-H[2]O. The regressed results were in good agreements with experimental data. Original UNIFAC model performed better representation than Dortmund UNIFAC model.

Impact of antibiotics on conjugational resistance gene transfer in Staphylococcus aureus in sewage.

Ohlsen K, Ternes T, Werner G, Wallner U, Löffler D, Ziebuhr W, Witte W, Hacker J. Institute for Molecular Biology of Infectious Diseases, The University of Würzburg, Röntgenring 11, D-97070 Würzburg, Germany. knut.ohlsen@mail.uni-wuerzburg.de The growing rate of microbial pathogens becoming resistant to standard antibiotics is an important threat to public health. In order to assess the role of antibiotics in the environment on the spread of resistance factors, the impact of subinhibitory concentrations of antibiotics in sewage on gene transfer was investigated using conjugative gentamicin resistance (aacA-aphD) plasmids of Staphylococcus aureus. Furthermore, the concentration of antibiotics in hospital sewage was measured by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)-electrospray tandem mass spectrometry. Several antibiotics were found to be present in sewage, e.g. ciprofloxacin up to 0.051 mgl(-1) and erythromycin up to 0.027 mgl(-1). Resistance plasmid transfer occurred both on solidified (dewatered) sewage and in liquid sewage in a bioreactor with a frequency of 1.1x10(-5)-5.0x10(-8). However, low-level concentrations of antibiotics measured in sewage are below concentrations that can increase plasmid transfer frequencies of gentamicin resistance plasmids of staphylococci.