Markets, Depots and Sales Tables: The Women's Institute's Rural Retailing

In 1917 the Coventry Evening Telegraph noted that the problems of ‘surplus garden produce’ had arisen and that ‘smallholders were being encouraged to group together in order to bring their supplies in quantity to market. Women’s Institutes have been formed, and these arrange for the opening of a market for a certain number of hours one day a week’. WIs, which had begun being formed under the auspices of the Agricultural Organisation Society from 1915 could be seen to be one of the earliest examples of Farmers Markets. These rural women were to improve the food supply in wartime when there was a food crisis; shortages, queues, price rises and in 1918 the introduction of rationing. The WIs encouraged food saving and preservation their markets enabled small holders, cottage gardeners and allotment holders to find a financial non- exploitive outlet for their produce. Markets and retail outlets developed in a number of towns or even cities in rural areas: Worcester, Leamington Spa and Lichfield and in post-war Britain depot trading centres were set up in some county towns Maidstone in Kent in 1919, Winchester in 1920. Between them they provided rural women with a retail space initially for their garden produce and then in time for the preserves, baking and craftwork. Jam, cakes, toys, knitted toys and garments even a wedding trousseau were ordered or sold through these retail outlets. The Markets were not restricted to WI members and often sold work produced by small­holders, the disabled and ex-servicemen. Membership required buying at least one share; as they were a co-operative venture there was a limit on the number of shares it was possible to purchase. Sales tables at some monthly WI meeting provided yet another retail outlet for rural women. This paper will explore the significance of these retail opportunities to rural women: as a chance to earn much needed cash, in placing a value on domestic labour and as an indication that when looking at rural women’s lives, in first half of the twentieth century, divisions between being consumers and producers of food and domestic products may be more fluid than it is something assumed.

Essays on Machine Learning and Hedonic Models

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-08

The Copenhagen Consensus Conference 2016: children, youth, and physical activity in schools and during leisure time

From 4 to 7 April 2016, 24 researchers from 8 countries and from a variety of academic disciplines gathered in Snekkersten, Denmark, to reach evidence-based consensus about physical activity in children and youth, that is, individuals between 6 and 18 years. Physical activity is an overarching term that consists of many structured and unstructured forms within school and out-of-school-time contexts, including organised sport, physical education, outdoor recreation, motor skill development programmes, recess, and active transportation such as biking and walking. This consensus statement presents the accord on the effects of physical activity on children's and youth's fitness, health, cognitive functioning, engagement, motivation, psychological well-being and social inclusion, as well as presenting educational and physical activity implementation strategies. The consensus was obtained through an iterative process that began with presentation of the state-of-the art in each domain followed by plenary and group discussions. Ultimately, Consensus Conference participants reached agreement on the 21-item consensus statement.

A three dimensional finite volume approach to the thermo-mechanical modelling of the shape casting of metals

This paper presents a three dimensional, thermos-mechanical modelling approach to the cooling and solidification phases associated with the shape casting of metals ei. Die, sand and investment casting. Novel vortex-based Finite Volume (FV) methods are described and employed with regard to the small strain, non-linear Computational Solid Mechanics (CSM) capabilities required to model shape casting. The CSM capabilities include the non-linear material phenomena of creep and thermo-elasto-visco-plasticity at high temperatures and thermo-elasto-visco-plasticity at low temperatures and also multi body deformable contact with which can occur between the metal casting of the mould. The vortex-based FV methods, which can be readily applied to unstructured meshes, are included within a comprehensive FV modelling framework, PHYSICA. The additional heat transfer, by conduction and convection, filling, porosity and solidification algorithms existing within PHYSICA for the complete modelling of all shape casting process employ cell-centred FV methods. The termo-mechanical coupling is performed in a staggered incremental fashion, which addresses the possible gap formation between the component and the mould, and is ultimately validated against a variety of shape casting benchmarks.

Evaluation of the JOSTLE mesh partitioning code for practical multiphysics applications

The use of unstructured mesh codes on parallel machines is one of the most effective ways to solve large computational mechanics problems. Completely general geometries and complex behaviour can be modelled and, in principle, the inherent sparsity of many such problems can be exploited to obtain excellent parallel efficiencies. However, unlike their structured counterparts, the problem of distributing the mesh across the memory of the machine, whilst minimising the amount of interprocessor communication, must be carefully addressed. This process is an overhead that is not incurred by a serial code, but is shown to rapidly computable at turn time and tailored for the machine being used.

Toimintolaskennan hyödyntäminen prosessijohtamisen tukena julkisen sektorin terveydenhuolto-organisaatiossa

Tämän tutkielman tavoitteena on tutkia toimintolaskennan ja toimintojohtamisen käyttöä sekä hyödyntämistä prosessijohtamisen tukena. Työssä keskitytään tarkastelemaan ilmiötä julkisen sektorin terveydenhuoltoalalla. Tutkielmassa sovelletaan kvalitatiivista eli laadullista tutkimusmenetelmää. Tutkielma koostuu kahdesta osasta. Teoriaosassa käsitellään alan kirjallisuutta tieteellisten artikkelien valossa. Empiriaosassa selvitettiin tutkittavan organisaation kustannus- ja toimintolaskennan hyödyntämisestä prosessijohtamisen tukena. Aineistonkeruu empiirisen osion osalta toteutettiin avoimina ja strukturoimattomina haastatteluina. Tutkielman tuloksina muodostui ymmärrys organisaation kustannuslaskennan nykytilanteesta ja hyödyntämismahdollisuuksista prosessienkehittämisessä. Kustannus- ja toimintolaskentaa hyödynnetään nykyisin pääasiassa hinnoittelupäätöksiin. Kustannustietoja ei systemaattisesti hyödynnetä prosessienkehittämisessä eikä arvioitaessa potentiaalisia kehitys- ja parannuskohteita. Toimintolaskennan erityispiirteet tukevat kuitenkin sitä, että toimintolaskenta sopii terveydenhuolto-organisaatioon kustannuslaskentamalliksi. Voidaan todeta kustannuslaskennan tukevan Lean- kehitystyön kohdentamista ja tuloksien arviointia.

Multi-physics modeling of aluminium reduction cells

Aluminium cells involve a range of complex physical processes which act simultaneously to provide a narrow satisfactory operating range. These processes involve electromagnetic fields, coupled with heat transfer and phase change, two phase fluid flow with a range of complexities plus the development of stress in the cell structure. All of these phenomena are coupled in some significant sense and so to provide a comprehensive model of these processes involves their representation simultaneously. Conventionally, aspects of the process have been modeled separately using uncoupled estimates of the effects of the other phenomena; this has enabled the use of standard commercial CFD and FEA tools. In this paper we will describe an approach to the modeling of aluminium cells which describes all the physics simultaneously. This approach uses a finite volume approximation for each of the phenomena and facilitates their interactions directly in the modeling-the complex geometries involved are addressed by using unstructured meshes. The very challenging issues to be overcome in this venture will be outlined and some preliminary results will be shown.

Barns intryck av omgivningen på en ortopedteknisk avdelning : - En kvalitativ studie om hur barn uppfattar miljön och mötet på en ortopedteknisk avdelning

Bakgrund: För att uppnå en god barnanpassad vård inom ortopedteknik krävs information om hur barn uppfattar mötet på en ortopedteknisk avdelning. Genom att ta del av barns tankar, åsikter och förslag kan verksamheter i framtiden lättare argumentera för exempelvis hur lokaler bör inredas och hur man bör bemöta barn.   Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur barn upplever mötet på en ortopedteknisk avdelning i avseendet vårdmiljö och möte med ortopedingenjören.   Metod: En kvalitativ metod där deltagarna får rita och berätta kallad “Draw and tell” och åtta intervjuer med barn mellan 6 till 12 år om deras upplevelse efter besöket hos en ortopedingenjör genomfördes. Intervjuerna transkripterades och en innehållsanalys genomfördes.   Resultat: Vissa gemensamma faktorer hittades i intervjuerna så som att det ansågs att det samtalades för mycket utan att engagera barnet samt att aktiviteter som fanns sågs som bra då det kunde bli lite väntan under besöket. Det fanns flera förslag på andra aktiviteter som önskades under väntan och speglade barnens egna intressen så som datorspel och böcker.   Slutsats: Denna studie visar att det som ortopedingenjören är viktigt att engagera barnen vid mötena samt att aktiviteter finns till hands under långa väntetider.   Nyckelord: Barns upplevelser, ortopedteknik, ortopedingenjör, bemötande, miljö

Software tools for automating the parallelisation of FORTRAN computational mechanics codes

It is now clear that the concept of a HPC compiler which automatically produces highly efficient parallel implementations is a pipe-dream. Another route is to recognise from the outset that user information is required and to develop tools that embed user interaction in the transformation of code from scalar to parallel form, and then use conventional compilers with a set of communication calls. This represents the key idea underlying the development of the CAPTools software environment. The initial version of CAPTools is focused upon single block structured mesh computational mechanics codes. The capability for unstructured mesh codes is under test now and block structured meshes will be included next. The parallelisation process can be completed rapidly for modest codes and the parallel performance approaches that which is delivered by hand parallelisations.

Parallelisation of a 3-D electromagnetic scattering code

A high-frequency time domain finite element scattering code using a combination of edge and piecewise constant elements on unstructured tetrahedral meshes is described. A comparison of computation with theory is given for scattering from a sphere. A parallel implementation making use of the bulk synchronous parallel (BSP) programming model is described in detail; a BSP performance model of the parallelized field calculation is derived and compared to timing measurements on up to 128 processors on a Cray T3D.

Mesh partitioning and load balancing for distributed memory parallel systems

A method is outlined for optimising graph partitions which arise in mapping unstructured mesh calculations to parallel computers. The method employs a relative gain iterative technique to both evenly balance the workload and minimise the number and volume of interprocessor communications. A parallel graph reduction technique is also briefly described and can be used to give a global perspective to the optimisation. The algorithms work efficiently in parallel as well as sequentially and when combined with a fast direct partitioning technique (such as the Greedy algorithm) to give an initial partition, the resulting two-stage process proves itself to be both a powerful and flexible solution to the static graph-partitioning problem. Experiments indicate that the resulting parallel code can provide high quality partitions, independent of the initial partition, within a few seconds. The algorithms can also be used for dynamic load-balancing, reusing existing partitions and in this case the procedures are much faster than static techniques, provide partitions of similar or higher quality and, in comparison, involve the migration of a fraction of the data.

Dynamic multi-partitioning for parallel finite element applications

The central product of the DRAMA (Dynamic Re-Allocation of Meshes for parallel Finite Element Applications) project is a library comprising a variety of tools for dynamic re-partitioning of unstructured Finite Element (FE) applications. The input to the DRAMA library is the computational mesh, and corresponding costs, partitioned into sub-domains. The core library functions then perform a parallel computation of a mesh re-allocation that will re-balance the costs based on the DRAMA cost model. We discuss the basic features of this cost model, which allows a general approach to load identification, modelling and imbalance minimisation. Results from crash simulations are presented which show the necessity for multi-phase/multi-constraint partitioning components.

DIRECT NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF INCOMPRESSIBLE MULTIPHASE FLOW WITH PHASE CHANGE

Phase change problems arise in many practical applications such as air-conditioning and refrigeration, thermal energy storage systems and thermal management of electronic devices. The physical phenomenon in such applications are complex and are often difficult to be studied in detail with the help of only experimental techniques. The efforts to improve computational techniques for analyzing two-phase flow problems with phase change are therefore gaining momentum. The development of numerical methods for multiphase flow has been motivated generally by the need to account more accurately for (a) large topological changes such as phase breakup and merging, (b) sharp representation of the interface and its discontinuous properties and (c) accurate and mass conserving motion of the interface. In addition to these considerations, numerical simulation of multiphase flow with phase change introduces additional challenges related to discontinuities in the velocity and the temperature fields. Moreover, the velocity field is no longer divergence free. For phase change problems, the focus of developmental efforts has thus been on numerically attaining a proper conservation of energy across the interface in addition to the accurate treatment of fluxes of mass and momentum conservation as well as the associated interface advection. Among the initial efforts related to the simulation of bubble growth in film boiling applications the work in \cite{Welch1995} was based on the interface tracking method using a moving unstructured mesh. That study considered moderate interfacial deformations. A similar problem was subsequently studied using moving, boundary fitted grids \cite{Son1997}, again for regimes of relatively small topological changes. A hybrid interface tracking method with a moving interface grid overlapping a static Eulerian grid was developed \cite{Juric1998} for the computation of a range of phase change problems including, three-dimensional film boiling \cite{esmaeeli2004computations}, multimode two-dimensional pool boiling \cite{Esmaeeli2004} and film boiling on horizontal cylinders \cite{Esmaeeli2004a}. The handling of interface merging and pinch off however remains a challenge with methods that explicitly track the interface. As large topological changes are crucial for phase change problems, attention has turned in recent years to front capturing methods utilizing implicit interfaces that are more effective in treating complex interface deformations. The VOF (Volume of Fluid) method was adopted in \cite{Welch2000} to simulate the one-dimensional Stefan problem and the two-dimensional film boiling problem. The approach employed a specific model for mass transfer across the interface involving a mass source term within cells containing the interface. This VOF based approach was further coupled with the level set method in \cite{Son1998}, employing a smeared-out Heaviside function to avoid the numerical instability related to the source term. The coupled level set, volume of fluid method and the diffused interface approach was used for film boiling with water and R134a at the near critical pressure condition \cite{Tomar2005}. The effect of superheat and saturation pressure on the frequency of bubble formation were analyzed with this approach. The work in \cite{Gibou2007} used the ghost fluid and the level set methods for phase change simulations. A similar approach was adopted in \cite{Son2008} to study various boiling problems including three-dimensional film boiling on a horizontal cylinder, nucleate boiling in microcavity \cite{lee2010numerical} and flow boiling in a finned microchannel \cite{lee2012direct}. The work in \cite{tanguy2007level} also used the ghost fluid method and proposed an improved algorithm based on enforcing continuity and divergence-free condition for the extended velocity field. The work in \cite{sato2013sharp} employed a multiphase model based on volume fraction with interface sharpening scheme and derived a phase change model based on local interface area and mass flux. Among the front capturing methods, sharp interface methods have been found to be particularly effective both for implementing sharp jumps and for resolving the interfacial velocity field. However, sharp velocity jumps render the solution susceptible to erroneous oscillations in pressure and also lead to spurious interface velocities. To implement phase change, the work in \cite{Hardt2008} employed point mass source terms derived from a physical basis for the evaporating mass flux. To avoid numerical instability, the authors smeared the mass source by solving a pseudo time-step diffusion equation. This measure however led to mass conservation issues due to non-symmetric integration over the distributed mass source region. The problem of spurious pressure oscillations related to point mass sources was also investigated by \cite{Schlottke2008}. Although their method is based on the VOF, the large pressure peaks associated with sharp mass source was observed to be similar to that for the interface tracking method. Such spurious fluctuation in pressure are essentially undesirable because the effect is globally transmitted in incompressible flow. Hence, the pressure field formation due to phase change need to be implemented with greater accuracy than is reported in current literature. The accuracy of interface advection in the presence of interfacial mass flux (mass flux conservation) has been discussed in \cite{tanguy2007level,tanguy2014benchmarks}. The authors found that the method of extending one phase velocity to entire domain suggested by Nguyen et al. in \cite{nguyen2001boundary} suffers from a lack of mass flux conservation when the density difference is high. To improve the solution, the authors impose a divergence-free condition for the extended velocity field by solving a constant coefficient Poisson equation. The approach has shown good results with enclosed bubble or droplet but is not general for more complex flow and requires additional solution of the linear system of equations. In current thesis, an improved approach that addresses both the numerical oscillation of pressure and the spurious interface velocity field is presented by featuring (i) continuous velocity and density fields within a thin interfacial region and (ii) temporal velocity correction steps to avoid unphysical pressure source term. Also I propose a general (iii) mass flux projection correction for improved mass flux conservation. The pressure and the temperature gradient jump condition are treated sharply. A series of one-dimensional and two-dimensional problems are solved to verify the performance of the new algorithm. Two-dimensional and cylindrical film boiling problems are also demonstrated and show good qualitative agreement with the experimental observations and heat transfer correlations. Finally, a study on Taylor bubble flow with heat transfer and phase change in a small vertical tube in axisymmetric coordinates is carried out using the new multiphase, phase change method.

Three dimensional modeling of contaminants transportation (oil spill) in Caspian Sea

Nowadays, Caspian Sea is in focus of more attentions than past because of its individualistic as the biggest lake in the world and the existing of very large oil and gas resources within it. Very large scale of oil pollution caused by development of oil exploration and excavation activities not only make problem for coastal facilities but also make severe damage on environment. In the first stage of this research, the location and quality of oil resources in offshore and onshore have been determined and then affected depletion factors on oil spill such as evaporation, emulsification, dissolution, sedimentation and so on have been studied. In second stage, sea hydrodynamics model is offered and tested by determination of governing hydrodynamic equations on sea currents and on pollution transportation in sea surface and by finding out main parameters in these equations such as Coriolis, bottom friction, wind and etc. this model has been calculated by using cell vertex finite volume method in an unstructured mesh domain. According to checked model; sea currents of Caspian Sea in different seasons of the year have been determined and in final stage different scenarios of oil spill movement in Caspian sea on various conditions have been investigated by modeling of three dimensional oil spill movement on surface (affected by sea currents) and on depth (affected by buoyancy, drag and gravity forces) by applying main above mentioned depletion factors.

Using SVG as the Rendering Model for Structured and Graphically Complex Web Material

This paper reports some experiments in using SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics), rather than the browser default of (X)HTML/CSS, as a potential Web-based rendering technology, in an attempt to create an approach that integrates the structural and display aspects of a Web document in a single XML-compliant envelope. Although the syntax of SVG is XML based, the semantics of the primitive graphic operations more closely resemble those of page description languages such as PostScript or PDF. The principal usage of SVG, so far, is for inserting complex graphic material into Web pages that are predominantly controlled via (X)HTML and CSS. The conversion of structured and unstructured PDF into SVG is discussed. It is found that unstructured PDF converts into pages of SVG with few problems, but difficulties arise when one attempts to map the structural components of a Tagged PDF into an XML skeleton underlying the corresponding SVG. These difficulties are not fundamentally syntactic; they arise largely because browsers are innately bound to (X)HTML/CSS as their default rendering model. Some suggestions are made for ways in which SVG could be more totally integrated into browser functionality, with the possibility that future browsers might be able to use SVG as their default rendering paradigm.