The use of site surveys in the collection of recreation data,with particular Reference to the congleton district of Cheshire

The provision of countryside recreation facilities at a local level is likely to receive increasing attention during the next decade. As an integral part of the assessment of the quality of present provision within the Congleton District of Cheshire (U.K.) five site surveys were made. Each site provides different facilities for recreation and interview questions were designed to investigate the background of the visitors and the nature of the interplay between site and visitor. The analysis of answers attempts to illustrate those aspects of this interrelationship, which may be important during the consideration of future provision of recreation sites and their management.     

An environmental purpose artificial island off Belgium

Processing municipal and industrial wastes on land and particularly near inhabited centra has met with increased opposition. An apparent remedy to the problem is the establishment of such facilities offshore, hence various projects to build them on artificial islands. The paper examines a concrete proposal to locate such an island offshore from the Belgian Coast. Oceanographic and environmental aspects of the site are discussed, construction methods reviewed, erosion and corrosion effects looked at. The possibility of utilizing ocean power to provide the necessary operation energy is likewise considered.     

The perils of foreign intervention: the Nile perch disaster for Lake Victoria

The present study involved the use of a pilot scale water treatment plant to treat turbid surface water from a stream using processed Moringa oleifera seed and alum as primary coagulants. At low initial turbidity of 21.5 to 49.3 NTU, residual turbidities of 2.7, 1.8 and 1.4 NTU were achieved after treatment using Moringa oleifera, alum, and alum with Moringa oleifera as coagulant‐aid, respectively. For medium turbidities varying from 51.8 to 114 NTU, lowest residual turbidities of 2.9, 1.2 and 1.4 were achieved after treatment using Moringa oleifera, alum, and alum with Moringa oleifera as coagulant‐aid, respectively. For high turbidity varying from 163 to 494 NTU, minimum residuals of 1.4, 1.9 and 0.9 NTU were achieved after treatment using Moringa oleifera, alum, and alum with Moringa oleifera as coagulant‐aid, respectively. The proposed mechanism for turbidity removal by Moringa oleifera seed in this study is a combination of partial‐charge neutralization and micro‐bridging or an electrostatic patch mechanism based on the results of zeta potential measurements.     

The organizational boundaries of housebuilding firms in Korea

This paper investigates the boundary of activities undertaken by Korean housebuilding firms. First, it examines the contractual relationships between housebuilding firms and contractors, focusing on the existence of quasi‐firm type organization in the Korean housebuilding industry. Second, it looks at how far Korean housebuilding firms diversify into other activities outside the industry. Secondary data analysis and an interview survey, carried out over the period between 1980 and 1995, were used. The results show that Korean housebuilding firms depend on a traditional contractual relationship with contractors but that quasi‐firm type organization is not established. On the other hand, housebuilding firms diversify into both related and unrelated business. This diversification could be a short‐term ‘survival strategy’ under a regulated environment rather than a long‐term ‘growth strategy’.     

Collapse analysis of real RC spatial structures using known failure schemes of ferro‐cement shell models

Large‐span reinforced concrete (RC) shells collapses that occurred in the last decade caused many death toll as well as significant losses to national economies. The most famous cases were the collapse of the aqua park cover in Moscow on February 2004 and the 2E terminal roof destruction at Charles de Gaulle Airport near Paris on May 2004. Following the publications of the appropriate commissions that have studied the reasons of these events, the influence of concrete creep and changes in the shell geometry on buckling of RC thin‐walled shells was not properly considered in the design. This study is focused on buckling of such shells, taking into account geometrical and physical nonlinear behaviour of compressed concrete. Other important reasons of concrete shells collapse are also analysed. The study is based on available experimental and theoretical investigations of ferro‐cement shells' models previously performed by the first author. The results of these investigations, obtained for small‐scale ferro‐cement models of thin‐walled shallow RC shells, are discussed. Behaviour of the tested models is compared with that of the above‐mentioned real shells and similar structures, which also collapsed. The critical buckling loads for the shells are obtained. It is shown that these loads are lower than the actual ones; thus, the shells buckling was unavoidable. To prevent brittle shell failure, they should be designed using other dominant failure modes that appear before the buckling. Possible failure schemes of real RC shells can be predicted using dominant failure modes obtained by laboratory testing of scaled models. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Enzymatic polymerization of polythiophene by immobilized glucose oxidase

In this study ‘green’, environmentally friendly enzymatic reaction-based synthesis of conducting polymer polythiophene (PTP) is proposed. Glucose oxidase (GO_x) was shown as an effective catalyst, which, in the presence of glucose, produces hydrogen peroxide suitable for the oxidative polymerization of PTP under ambient conditions at neutral pH. Enzymatically induced formation of the PTP layer over GO_x-modified graphite rod electrode (GRE) was demonstrated and evaluated amperometrically and by attenuated total reflectance – Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy. Surface morphology of GO_x- and PTP-modified GR electrodes was characterized by atomic force microscopy. It was clearly shown that the apparent kinetic Michaelis constant (K_M(app.)) of GO_x/PTP-modified GRE increased by increasing the duration of polymerization reaction. Therefore, enzymatic polymerization could be applied in adjustment and/or tuning of K_M(app.) and other kinetic parameters of GO_x-based electrodes used in biosensor design.     

Zein‐based ultrathin fibers containing ceramic nanofillers obtained by electrospinning. II. Mechanical properties,gas barrier,and sustained release capacity of biocide thymol in multilayer polylactide films

The combination of electrospinning technology and nanomaterials such as nanoclays can synergistically lead to novel materials with enhanced properties and functionalities for their usage in passive and active packaging applications. Part I of this work was focused on the development of ultrathin zein fibers containing nanoclays, which were oriented along the fiber axis and increased the thermal properties. Part II presents the use of the hybrid fibers as passive and active components in multilayer packaging structures. The hybrid fibers are incorporated in poly(lactic acid) films via a two‐step process: Electrospinning and compression molding. The composites thus produced presented improved mechanical and barrier properties than the unfilled material. The natural biocide extract thymol is then incorporated in the coating, and its sustained release properties are shown. The antimicrobial capacity of the hybrid fibers was also determined against foodborne bacteria. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2014 , 131, 40768.     

Social context cognition crowd‐sourcing and semi‐automatic parametrization

This paper presents a semi‐automatic method of parameterizing an existing social context cognition model. It discusses benefits of the social context cognition models for example in personality modeling and their key issue that is parametrization. It briefly introduces social context cognition model and describes a new method of its crowd‐sourcing‐based parametrization. Later, validation is provided, and ability to recreate social context cognition in the provided samples is presented with good generalization for the unknown cases. Finally, model's stability for the continuous stream of dynamic social context input data is shown. Presented system contributes to the believable agent modeling and social simulations by making much needed applications of social context cognition models easier by addressing the so far unsolved troublesome parametrization issues. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An Unexpected Construction of 2‐Arylquinolines from N‐Cinnamylanilines through sp3 C?H Aerobic Oxidation Induced by a Catalytic Radical Cation Salt

An unexpected reaction of cinnamylanilines was achieved through the radical cation salt‐induced aerobic oxidation of sp³ C H bonds, providing a series of 2‐arylquinolines. The mechanistic study shows that the cinnamylaniline was oxidized to an imine, which was attacked by the aniline generated through decomposition of the corresponding imine. After further intramolecular cyclization and aromatization, 2‐arylquinolines were obtained. This reaction provides a new method to construct 2‐arylquinolines from readily accessible starting materials.