Economic assessment of bovine tuberculosis and alternative policies

Break-even analyses of the costs and benefits of six alternative bovine tuberculosis (bTB) control strategies were undertaken. The results show that some strategies, such as zoning, would require relatively small reductions in bTB incidence as a result to be cost effective, whilst for others, such as proactive badger removal, the costs would require a substantial and relatively rapid reduction in bTB incidence to be worthwhile.

EU Policies on Bioenergy and their Potential Clash with the WTO

The paper outlines EU policy on bioenergy, including biofuels, in the context of its policy initiatives to promote renewable energy to combat greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. The EU's Member States are responsible for implementing EU policy: thus, the UK's Renewables Obligation on electricity suppliers and its Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation and road-fuel tax rebates are examined. It is unlikely that EU policy is in conflict with the WTO Agreement on Agriculture or that on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures, but its provisions on environmental sustainability criteria could be problematic.

Burn-in policies for products having dormant states

Many systems might have a long time dormant period, during which the systems are not operated. For example, most building services products are installed while a building is constructed, but they are not operated until the building is commissioned. Warranty terms for such products may cover the time starting from their installation times to the end of their warranty periods. Prior to the commissioning of the building, the building services products are protected by warranty although they are not operating. Developing optimal burn-in policies for such products is important when warranty cost is analysed. This paper considers two burn-in policies, which incur different burn-in costs, and have different burn-in effects on the products. A special case about the relationship between the failure rates of the products at the dormant state and at the operating state is presented. Numerical examples compare the mean total warranty costs of these two burn-in policies.

Burn in policies for products having dormant states

Constructing a building is a long process which can take several years. Most building services products are installed while a building is constructed, but they are not operated until the building is commissioned. The warranty term for the building service systems may cover the time starting from their installation to the end of the warranty period. Prior to the commissioning of the building, the building services systems are protected by warranty although they are not operated. The bum in time for such systems is important when warranty costs is analyzed. In this paper, warranty cost models for products with burn in periods are presented. Two burn in policies are developed to optimize the total mean warranty cost. A special case on the relationship between the failure rates of the product at the dormant state and at the I operating state is presented.

Optimal maintenance policies under different operational schedules

In the reliability literature, maintenance time is usually ignored during the optimization of maintenance policies. In some scenarios, costs due to system failures may vary with time, and the ignorance of maintenance time will lead to unrealistic results. This paper develops maintenance policies for such situations where the system under study operates iteratively at two successive states: up or down. The costs due to system failure at the up state consist of both business losses & maintenance costs, whereas those at the down state only include maintenance costs. We consider three models: Model A, B, and C: Model A makes only corrective maintenance (CM). Model B performs imperfect preventive maintenance (PM) sequentially, and CM. Model C executes PM periodically, and CM; this PM can restore the system as good as the state just after the latest CM. The CM in this paper is imperfect repair. Finally, the impact of these maintenance policies is illustrated through numerical examples.

The graduate teacher programme in England: mentor training, quality assurance and the findings of inspection

In its recent report on the Graduate Teacher Programme (GTP), an employment-based route to Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) in England, the Government's Office for Standards in Education found that, although almost all trainees meet the standards required to qualify, too often they do so at an adequate level, rather than achieving the high levels of which they should be capable. The underlying reason for this is the quality of mentoring provided in the schools. The inspectors concluded that schoolbased trainers are often not adequately prepared for their role in implementing wide-ranging training programmes for trainee teachers. Despite this generally bleak picture, Ofsted concluded that 'the minority of cases of good practice in the training programmes and of high quality teaching by trainees indicate that the GTP can be an effective alternative route for training teachers'™. This article considers the strengths and weaknesses of the Graduate Teacher Programme, introduced in January 1998, and also reports on a small-scale project, funded by the Teacher Training Agency (TTA), the key objective of which was to strengthen the existing partnerships by improving the quality of school-based tutor training and continuous professional development of staff.