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The aim is to present findings of a theoretical analysis for optimal design of a concrete trough for a new lightweight low‐profile rail track system.

A non‐linear numerical optimisation technique is adopted to predict the minimum area of a pre‐tensioned pre‐stressed trough section satisfying the serviceability and ultimate limit states as per British Standard BS 8110 for critical loading and boundary conditions.

An optimum concrete trough section is calculated to carry all possible load combinations expected during the design life of the track. The performance of the rail, elastomeric pad and track base were found to be satisfactory under the same critical loading and boundary conditions.

The theoretical analysis gives a valuable insight into system parameter values that can optimise design performance and cost. However, these optimal design features now need to be tested experimentally.

When Equitable Life went to court in a case concerning the bonus rates it applied to pension policies with guaranteed annuity options, it emphasised that its rules gave it wide discretion in its bonus decisions, an argument that was unsuccessful. This paper considers the constraints on the discretion available to life insurers in the way they determine bonuses on with‐profits policies. It reviews four previous court cases concerning withprofits policies: in one of these, the insurer lost. The Financial Services Authority has now taken on board the need for life insurers to describe their bonus practices far more fully. That will help lead to a more precisely defined contract between policyholders and insurers. It is also proposing new rules, which should reduce the potential for discretion to be abused. The paper also considers the actuarial profession, whose members have the responsibility of making recommendations to life insurers about bonuses. It suggests there may be benefit if the profession can go beyond the limited guidance on bonuses it has issued, to develop and publish best practice in the bonus declaration process.

The purpose of this paper is to compare the use of blended learning in property education courses in different countries. The rationale for this study is to fill the research gap in this area. The focus of previous research on blended learning has been on individual countries only, and there is yet to appear any research on a cross-country comparison. The purpose of this study is to identity the differences as well as the good practices using blended learning as a delivery approach in different countries As a result, individual countries can learn experience from another country. It is expected academics interested in using blended learning as a delivery approach will benefit from the research findings of this paper, through gaining an understanding of the advantages and challenges of using blended learning in different countries.

This paper presents the research findings of questionnaire surveys and interviews with academics teaching property courses in Australia and the UK. The questionnaire aimed to gather academics’ views on blended learning, their reasons for using blended learning as a teaching method, their design of blended learning courses and the support they provide to students on dealing with web technology. The aim of the interviews was to gain deeper insight into the successful factors and challenges in the use of blended learning. In total, 16 interviews were conducted. The interviews were recorded, transcribed and coded to identify similar themes. Content analysis was used as a method to analyse the interview data. The frequency of the answer in the questionnaire and comments from interviewees is presented.

The Australian and UK property academics have similar views on many aspects of blended learning. Their definitions of blended learning are similar as their reasons to use it as a teaching method. The commonly used teaching and learning activities in their blended learning courses in both countries are, again, similar, such as the use of lectures, case studies and guest lecturers. On the other hand, the academics in the two countries face different challenges. A challenge faced by the Australian property academics is to deliver online courses to students who have limited internet downloading capacity and broadband width. Australia is a very large country and has more regional and remote areas. Another challenge faced by the Australian academics is keeping up with the constant introduction of new teaching and learning technology by their universities. On the other hand, the UK academics faced a different challenge, which was to sufficiently engage and encourage students to contribute in online Discussion Boards. The finding is possibly because the UK study was conducted two years prior to the Australian study and the idea of online discussions was relatively new to students at the time. The conclusion drawn from this research is that “time” and the size of the country influence the use of blended learning.

This project is the first to conduct a cross-country comparison on the use of blended learning in professionally accredited property courses.

Whilst none would dispute the efficiency of present methods of sampling and analysis of foods—they extend elaborately to the widest range of edible commodities—they are few indeed who would agree that this applies to the sampling and testing, the quality control, of drugs. This has been a statutory duty of food and drugs authorities since the first of the Food and Drugs Acts and the measures have continued with little change down to the Food and Drugs Act, 1955. Annual Reports, however, show that rarely does the ratio of drug samples to those of food exceed 1 to 20 and more often is about 1 to 30. The range of drug samples is also limited to time‐worn household remedies, some of which are almost Victorian and have been supplanted by newer remedies. Samples of dispensed medicines are conspicuous by their almost complete absence. Obtaining samples from test prescriptions, however, has always been a great difficulty not only in food and drugs administration, but in other relevant fields.

Wheelchairs and mobility devices are important to enable mobility for students who are unable to functionally walk by themselves to fully participate in daily life. However, they can be enablers or barriers to inclusion and participation for students. Children and adolescents, like other wheelchair users, have a varying number of reasons to use chairs, but what type of chair, how it is used and what type of participation it encourages or discourages is as individual as the child themselves. This is an area of practice that has little evidence on which to base decisions, leading to inconsistencies of provision practice and inclusion in mainstream environments. This chapter will discuss why children use wheelchairs in the first place, then outline some of the typical types of wheelchair available and discuss matching the child to their wheelchair. Barriers to appropriate use of wheelchairs include policy, funding, attitudes and perceived skill set. Children who use wheelchairs often do not gain the motor experiences that their peers do yet are expected to perform skilled wheeled mobility, often without training. Finally, inclusion in school is about inclusion not only in the classroom but also in all activities to do with their school-based communities.

The choice of what type of mobility a child needs is down to their self-defined goals in the context of their school environment, family and general ecosystem. Other forms of wheeled mobility included adaptive bicycles for children who are unable to utilise nonadapted bikes. The basis for assessment for wheeled mobility is the student. The most important part of adaptive seating is to match the student, their self-defined goals and their developmental needs. Barriers to inclusion are discussed. The final section of this chapter includes a discussion of where wheeled mobility is going into the future.

This is the age of research. What was once a highly selective privilege in just a few professions that could be counted on one's fingers has since the last war become a feature of every conceivable branch of science and trade, to which millions in money are devoted. The connection often seems remote, if not a little spurious. Perhaps it may be due to the enormous emphasis on the teaching of science and technology in recent years, but we see what Sir William Dale calls “these turnspits of modern science” ready to undertake, and various official bodies to finance by grants, research into almost anything. The amount spent, for example, on cancer research through the years and all over the world, which incidentally has produced very little in the way of real advancement towards a cure, must be phenomenal, but it is now probably dwarfed by the colossal sums available for trade and market research. We even see research by opposing groups, one endeavouring to prove, the other to refute some particular hypothesis. Much of it appears to lack realism or to be of any great practical value and at too high a theoretical level, including masses of statistics, without which the younger generation of scientists appears to think research valueless, if not impossible.

The Report of the Food Investigation Board (the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research) for the year 1934 is, as were its predecessors, a document of first‐rate interest and importance. The Board was established in 1917, and under its terms of reference it has “ to submit an annual programme of research and an annual report.” The revised terms of reference clearly indicate the wide interests, both scientific and industrial, with which the Board is concerned. Its duties are “ to advise generally on the conduct of research on the properties and behaviour of foodstuffs on the scientific problems, including physical and engineering problems, involved in their storage and transport.” The duties of the Board are obviously as far reaching as they could well be. By no means the least interesting feature of these reports taken as a whole is the close connection they show to exist between the laboratory and the market place. This fact alone—which emerges quite naturally as the work which has been done, or is being done, or that which it is proposed to do, is described — gives to these reports a claim on public interest which is almost unique in the annals of Government publications. The people of this country are, whether they generally realise it or not, more affected in their daily life by problems connected with the transport and preservation of foodstuffs than those of any other country. We are far from being self‐supporting. Half the meat we eat comes from overseas. Argentina supplies us with a very large proportion of our chilled beef. Australia and New Zealand have plenty of cattle that would furnish us with good beef, but the difficulty has been to ship it in a chilled as distinct from a frozen state to these shores, On the 18th July, 1933, a first consignment of chilled beef from New Zealand reached the London market. This beef had been stowed on board in an atmosphere containing 10 per cent. of carbon dioxide. It arrived in good condition. This preliminary consignment of chilled beef from the antipodes is very rightly referred to by the Board as “ an event which may well prove historic.” In 1934 four thousand four hundred tons of meat in gas (CO2) storage were sent from Australia and from New Zealand to this country. Thus a new and important chapter in Imperial economic relations has been opened, not inferior in importance to the original introduction of cold transport and of cold storage some fifty years ago. “ Given careful handling the use of gas storage eliminates mould and bacterial slime.” Slime is a thick growth of organisms of the Achromobacter group. It appears more quickly on meat which has a high initial bacterial count at the time of shipment, and the truth of this statement is borne out by the figures given in the Report. Achromobacter growth is inhibited at 0° C in the presence of carbon dioxide ; while Proteus and aerobacter are not thus inhibited, but their optima is 37° C. So that a low temperature and at atmosphere containing 10 per cent. of carbon dioxide suffices to eliminate these troublesome groups of micro organisms from meat during transport. The term “ careful handling ” may perhaps be extended to include good sanitary conditions in the slaughter houses. The Report for 1932 dwells on the need for a plentiful supply of hot water. The older method somewhat neglected this essential, and one bucket of water sufficed for several carcases. A bacterial count of the bacterial content of water which had been used for this purpose showed that with an insufficient supply of water the number of organisms per cubic centimetre varied from two to twenty‐five millions, with five thousand B. coli per ten cubic centimetres. With an abundant supply of water the corresponding figures were fifteen thousand and five ! As the life of meat in store depends on its freedom from bacteria the need for extreme cleanliness in the treatment of meat before it leaves the slaughter house need not be insisted on. The matter has of course received adequate attention in Australia and in New Zealand where beef is being prepared for shipment under the new conditions. Other problems still remain to be considered such as the best methods of stowage to prevent chafing ; degree of humidity in the hold during transport ; air circulation to ensure uniformity in the atmosphere of the hold ; and the maintenance of the correct temperature. If these conditions are complied with the “ bloom,” that is, the natural appearance of the meat, is retained. Otherwise the oxidation of hæmoglobin to methæmoglobin ensues and the “ bloom ” of the meat is lost. “ Bloom,” it is stated, does not affect the nutritive value of the meat, but the absence of “ bloom ” would presumably affect the price of the meat on the wholesale market as it ceases to be a factor when the meat has been cut up into joints. The successful transport of a cargo of chilled beef from Australia and New Zealand therefore depends on its being landed not only in a wholesome condition, but also in a condition that will enable it to compete on at least equal terms with its foreign competitors. This evidently implies the close and effective co‐operation of everybody concerned from the stockbreeder in Australia or in New Zealand to the retailer in London.

We deeply regret to announce the death of Mr. E. Richards Bolton, F.I.C., M.I.Chem.E., who passed away suddenly on February 10th. He had a distinguished career, and among the numerous offices which he had filled, he had been President of the Society of Public Analysts, Vice‐President of the Institute of Chemistry, and a member of the Council of the Chemical Society. His death will be felt as a personal loss by many members of the profession.

The inspection of food labellings is a long and monotonous routine but nonetheless, a cornerstone of consumer protection. For many years complaints have been made of the loopholes and anomalies in the statutory requirements for labelling, particularly in descriptive names and declarations of ingredients. The long‐awaited report of the Food Standards Committee on Food Labelling has now appeared and been reviewed at some length in the present and previous issues of the B.F.J. The Committee have taken a long time over their subject, but their review of it has been most thorough. Their recommendations are in the main reasonable and whilst some are new and others, if adopted, could have a not inconsiderable influence on manufacturing practice, they do not disturb the present structure of food labelling set up by the Order of 1953, which was quite a landmark in its day.

“Give us the tools …”—one of those clarion calls which will sound down the years, has certainly been answered by the successive Conservative Governments of the past decade when it comes to the legislative tools for those engaged in public health and consumer protection. From the sole standpoint of politics, it seems curious that so much of our social legislation comes from Conservative Governments, rather than Socialist, but looking back, it is obvious that this is so.