Salmon stocks and fisheries in England and Wales, 2001. Preliminary assessment prepared for ICES, April 2002

This report presents a preliminary assessment of the state of salmon stocks and fisheries in England and Wales in 2001 to assist ICES in providing scientific advice to NASCO and to provide early feedback to fishery managers and anglers. The chief indicators of the state o f salmon stocks are normally the catches taken by rod and net fisheries. However, in 2001 angling was affected by the outbreak of foot and mouth disease (FMD), which restricted angling opportunities and access to rod fisheries in many parts of the country for lengthy periods. It is impossible to quantify the impact that FMD had on rod catches, although these were undoubtedly significantly reduced; net fisheries were unaffected by FMD. The declared salmon catch for 2001 (including those fish released alive by anglers) is provisionally estimated at 209 tonnes, representing some 57,000 fish, and comprising 153 tonnes (-43,000 fish) by nets and fixed engines and 56 tonnes (-14,000 fish) by rods. For direct comparison with previous years, it should be noted that the declared catch prior to the issue of a second reminder was about 49 tonnes (see below). An estimated 26 tonnes (43%) of the rod catch was released alive. These figures do not take account of catches of salmon which go unreported (including those taken illegally), and it is estimated that there may have been a total of 33 tonnes of additional fish caught in 2001; approximately 15% of all fish killed.

Modelling the fluid dynamics and coupled phenomena in arc weld pools

A 3D model of melt pool created by a moving arc type heat sources has been developed. The model solves the equations of turbulent fluid flow, heat transfer and electromagnetic field to demonstrate the flow behaviour phase-change in the pool. The coupled effects of buoyancy, capillary (Marangoni) and electromagnetic (Lorentz) forces are included within an unstructured finite volume mesh environment. The movement of the welding arc along the workpiece is accomplished via a moving co-ordinator system. Additionally a method enabling movement of the weld pool surface by fluid convection is presented whereby the mesh in the liquid region is allowed to move through a free surface. The surface grid lines move to restore equilibrium at the end of each computational time step and interior grid points then adjust following the solution of a Laplace equation.

Rats, floods and flowers: London's Gothicized nature

AUTHOR's OVERVIEW This chapter attempts a definition of London eco-gothic, beginning with an ecocritical reading of the ubiquitous London rat. Following Dracula, popular London gothic has been overrun, from the blunt horror-schlock of James Herbert’s 1970s Rats series to China Miéville’s King Rat. Maud Ellman’s elegant discussion of the modernist rat as a protean figure associated with a ‘panoply of fears and fetishes’, underlines how the rat has always featured in anti-urban discourse: as part of racist representations of immigration; as an expression of fear of disease and poverty; or through a quasi-supernatural anxiety about their indestructible and illimitable nature which makes them a staple feature of post-apocalyptic landscapes. Even so, the London rat is a rather more mundane manifestation of urban eco-gothic than the ‘city wilderness’ metaphors common to representations of New York or Los Angles as identified by eco-critic Andrew White. London’s gothic noses its way out through cracks in the pavements, grows from seeds in suburban gardens or accumulates through the steady drip of rainwater. However, I will suggest, in texts such as Maggie Gee’s The Flood and P. D. James’ Children of Men, London eco-gothic becomes less local and familiar as it responds to global environmental crisis with more dramatic tales of minatorial nature.

Becoming private property: custom, law, and the geographies of ‘ownership’ in 18th- and 19th-century England

The making private of hitherto public goods is a central tenet of neoliberalism. From land in Africa, Asia, and South America to the assertion of property rights over genes and cells by corporations, the process(es) of making private property matters more than ever. And yet, despite this importance, we know remarkably little about the spatial plays through which things become private property. In this paper I seek to address this imbalance by focusing upon the formative context of 18th- and early-19th-century England. The specific lens is wood, that most critical of all ‘natural’ things other than land in the transition to market-driven economies. It is shown that the interplay between custom, law, and local practices rendered stable and aspatial definitions of property impossible. Whilst law was the key technology through which property was mediated, the cadence of particular places gave these mediations distinctive forms. I conclude that not only must we take property seriously, but we must also take the conditions and contexts of its making seriously too.

Acute Asthma Epidemics, Weather and Pollen in England, 1987-1994

Recent epidemics of acute asthma have caused speculation that, if their causes were known, early warnings might be feasible. In particular, some epidemics seemed to be associated with thunderstorms. We wondered what risk factors predicting epidemics could be identified. Daily asthma admissions counts during 1987-1994, for two age groups (0-14 yrs and > or = 15 yrs), were measured using the Hospital Episodes System (HES). Epidemics were defined as combinations of date, age group and English Regional Health Authority (RHA) with exceptionally high asthma admission counts compared to the predictions of a log-linear autoregression model. They were compared with control days 1 week before and afterwards, regarding seven meteorological variables and 5 day average pollen counts for four species. Fifty six asthma epidemics were identified. The mean density of sferics (lightning flashes), temperature and rainfall on epidemic days were greater than those on control days. High sferics densities were overrepresented in epidemics. Simultaneously high sferics and grass pollen further increased the probability of an epidemic, but only to 15% (95% confidence interval 2-45%). Two thirds of epidemics were not preceded by thunderstorms. Thunderstorms and high grass pollen levels precede asthma epidemics more often than expected by chance. However, most epidemics are not associated with thunderstorms or unusual weather conditions, and most thunderstorms, even following high grass pollen levels, do not precede epidemics. An early warning system based on the indicators examined here would, therefore, detect few epidemics and generate an unacceptably high rate of false alarms.

Road freight transport to, from, and within London

This paper examines the development of road freight transport operations to, from, and within London, from medieval times to the present. Until the twentieth century, road transport was the dominant mode within London but was less important for goods moved between the rest of the country and the capital. However, since the mid-twentieth century, road transport has also dominated goods movements to and from London, mainly through technological developments in goods vehicle speed and size. Since the introduction of a Mayor of London in 2000, there has been much interest in the efficiency and sustainability of road freight transport measures at a London level. Analysis suggests that present day journeys from London generate approximately four times fewer vehicle miles per tonne lifted than in the 1830s and nine times fewer than in the 1690s.