Community OR — Five Years of Organised Activities and Beyond

What has become known as Community Operational Research has been around in the UK for many years. The election of Jonathan Rosenhead as President of the UK OR Society in 1986–87 was the catalyst for bringing together and expanding activities which had been carried out largely by individuals working in isolation on a voluntary basis. The following five years have seen the establishment of the Community OR Unit at Northern College, the Centre for Community OR at Hull University and the Community OR Network, which supports the activities of volunteer OR workers across the UK. This paper reviews the range and types of work which have been undertaken by various practitioners. An assessment of the success of community OR is made and a number of issues which have arisen are discussed. Finally, given the diverse nature of community OR, its practice and practitioners, there is some discussion about the future of the area.     

Kinetic study of the hydrolysis of isocyanic acid in the gas phase

The hydrolysis of isocyanic acid in the gaseous phase has been investigated at temperatures between 553 and 613 K by mass spectrometry and evaluated to obtain the corresponding kinetic data. The reaction order and reaction constant have been determined. Finally, the influence of water on the catalysed formation of melamine from isocyanic acid under the operating conditions employed has been investigated in order to determine whether there is a need to try the process gas.     

Subdivision of work on construction projects

In order to control a project, construction management requires project information. This is obtained through accounting, estimating, cost management and scheduling functions which produce project reports. These reports are best obtained by subdividing the project into small parts. The ways in which each of these functions subdivides a project in order to produce its reports is discussed, together with a means of interrelating this information with a technique known as the work breakdown structure.     

Effect of dose rate and length of storage on the ESR signal strength in irradiated chicken bone

One hundred and twenty-five pairs of chicken drumsticks were randomly allocated to one of five dose rates: 5, 10, 15, 20 or 600 kGyh-. The highest dose rate was obtained using a linear accelerator whilst the remaining dose rates were provided using a ⁶⁰Co gamma source. Each batch of 25 pairs was further divided into groups five of which were stored at 4°C for 0, 7, 14, 21 or 28 days. ESR spectroscopy was used to measure the intensity of the radiation-induced signal. There was a quadratic relationship between ESR signal strength and dose rate, which although statistically significant is unlikely to be of practical importance. The magnitude of the ESR signal declined by about 20% over the first 14 days of storage at 4°C and thereafter the decrease was minimal.     

Optimal size,hydraulic retention time and volatile solids loading rate of biogas unit using water hyacinth

With a view to evaluate the effects of hydraulic retention time and volatile solids loading rate on methane production using water hyacinth, experiments were conducted in a 160 dm³ capacity, well-mixed continuous digestion unit at ambient temperature. The optimal design of biogas plant using water hyacinth was elucidated, to provide a unit giving a maximum methane yield of 0.16 nm³ kg^?1 volatile solids added, which was 60% greater than the conventional plant using cowdung. The calculations of optimal design factors were based on reactor size, hydraulic retention time and volatile solids loading rate; considerations were made of capital cost, running costs and operational revenue.     

人支气管上皮靶细胞形态学参数的测量

支气管上皮靶细胞形态学参数对计算受氡子体照射的支气管的剂量是很重要的。本文介绍利用奥尔新兰-PAS 染色的外科切除人肺组织切片,测量基底细胞粘液细胞和的胞核深度与数目。结果表明,叶、段和小支气管的粘液细胞核深度分别为相应节段基底细胞的61%、69%和73%;此三节段粘液细胞的数目分别为基底细胞的53%、29%和28%,平均为37%。     

Approximate channel identification via δ‐signed correlation

A method of approximate channel identification is proposed that is based on a simplification of the correlation estimator. Despite the numerical simplification (no multiplications or additions are required, only comparisons and an accumulator), the performance of the proposed estimator is not significantly worse than that of the standard correlation estimator. A free (user selectable) parameter moves ‘smoothly’ from a situation with small sum‐squared channel estimation error but hard‐to‐identify channel peaks, to one with a larger sum‐squared estimation error but easy‐to‐identify channel peaks. The proposed estimator is shown to be biased and its behaviour is analysed in a number of situations. Applications of the proposed estimator to sparsity detection, symbol timing recovery and to the initialization of blind equalizers are suggested. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.