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The coheating test is the standard method of measuring the heat loss coefficient of a building, but to be useful the test requires careful and thoughtful execution. Testing should take place in the context of additional investigations in order to achieve a good understanding of the building and a qualitative and (if possible) quantitative understanding of the reasons for any performance shortfall. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Leeds Metropolitan University has more than 20 years of experience in coheating testing. This experience is drawn upon to discuss practical factors which can affect the outcome, together with supporting tests and investigations which are often necessary in order to fully understand the results.

If testing is approached using coheating as part of a suite of investigations, a much deeper understanding of the test building results. In some cases it is possible to identify and quantify the contributions of different factors which result in an overall performance shortfall.

Although it is not practicable to use a fully investigative approach for large scale routine quality assurance, it is extremely useful for purposes such as validating other testing procedures, in-depth study of prototypes or detailed investigations where problems are known to exist.

Successful building performance testing is a vital tool to achieve energy saving targets.

The approach discussed clarifies some of the technical pitfalls which may be encountered in the execution of coheating tests and points to ways in which the maximum value can be extracted from the test period, leading to a meaningful analysis of the building's overall thermal performance.

The purpose of this paper is to look at the role of community participation in reducing anxiety and trauma in communities during two New Zealand earthquakes: the 1987 Edgecumbe and 2003 Te Anau events and explore the effectiveness of various approaches in providing information, reducing stress, and facilitating a recovery process.

The principle methods of data collection were semi‐structured interviews were undertaken between October 2006 and March 2007 with key agencies and individuals involved in the response and comprehensive analysis of papers, reports and articles in newspapers. The research was undertaken prior to the 4 September 2010 and 2011 earthquakes in Canterbury, New Zealand, and therefore community recovery from these events are not discussed in this paper.

Effective survival and recovery from disasters depends not just on people's abilities to cope with the physical impacts of the event, but also on how the societal environment complements and supports the complex and protracted processes of community recovery. Central to recovery is how society organises, mobilises and coordinates the diverse range of organizational and professional resources that can be called upon to assist recovery.

The paper offers insight into the effectiveness and benefit of incorporating of community participation in reducing anxiety and trauma in communities during earthquakes.

The purpose of this paper is to explore a case study in Washington State, USA where traditional stories (“oral tradition”) are being used in a contemporary context. Traditional knowledge is a system of experiential knowledge acquired through the continual observation of and interaction with the environment. This form of knowledge is still held by many societies and can provide an important contribution in emergency management for natural hazards. Those holding traditional knowledge can assist in understanding the nature of local hazards, suggest appropriate risk reduction and response mechanisms, and even give options for recovery based on past experiences.

The paper first discusses the nature of traditional knowledge and how it can contribute to emergency management. It then goes on to investigate a particular case study where a traditional Native American story has been combined with contemporary methods of hazard mitigation to create an educational video for tsunami hazard.

Traditional knowledge can be used effectively to undertake hazard education and enhance response to warnings. The video, titled “Run to Higher Ground!”, is an example of this, and has been readily taken up by indigenous communities and the general population (both in the USA and internationally) as an educational tool.

The paper will be of value to those working within the emergency management sector, and is particularly useful for communities who need to respond to warnings.

THE Reference Department of Paisley Central Library today occupies the room which was the original Public Library built in 1870 and opened to the public in April 1871. Since that date two extensions to the building have taken place. The first, in 1882, provided a separate room for both Reference and Lending libraries; the second, opened in 1938, provided a new Children's Department. Together with the original cost of the building, these extensions were entirely financed by Sir Peter Coats, James Coats of Auchendrane and Daniel Coats respectively. The people of Paisley indeed owe much to this one family, whose generosity was great. They not only provided the capital required but continued to donate many useful and often extremely valuable works of reference over the many years that followed. In 1975 Paisley Library was incorporated in the new Renfrew District library service.

The shape and role of management education in the UK is currently being debated. While the increase in the choice of courses and variety in their mode of delivery is helpful, quantity does not necessarily equate with quality. One institution, however, has pooled the expertise of their faculty and field experience into resources tried and tested in real company training situations. The International Management Centres claims to have provided the first complete suite of resources specifically designed for practising managers. The article considers how the training manager can develop both generalist knowledge and specific skills using these Action Learning Resources.

The productivity and quality of working life of operations within a firm with multiple operating units can be improved by the diffusion of incremental improvements from one unit to another. The opportunities and problems experienced by one large multi‐unit firm in diffusing employee innovations between units are examined. It was found that incremental or Minor Technical Improvements (MTIs) do diffuse between units. Improved communication and increased under standing of the innovation process by management may increase the amount of MTI diffusion. The costs and benefits of MTI type innovation and diffusion are explored. Opportunities for more research into the diffusion of MTIs in other multi‐unit firms are discussed.

This paper reports on the findings of a survey of organisational responses to the 1995 eruptions at Ruapehu volcano, New Zealand. The survey identified co‐ordination, communication, training and management issues that had implications for the quality and effectiveness of an integrated organisational response to hazard impacts. This paper explores the implications of organisational structure and social (professional) identity for developing and sustaining integrated emergency management capability. It also discusses the implications of decision‐making processes and group dynamics for response effectiveness. These issues are used to illustrate the nature and origin of the problems observed in the survey and to define strategies for their resolution and for promoting effective inter‐organisational relationships and integrated emergency management capability.

Represents the first systematic attempt to examine the effects of school‐based interventions on children’s self‐reported PTSD‐related distress and coping ability following a series of volcanic eruptions in a sample of 112 children. Pretreatment assessments carried out after the eruptions revealed that time was more of an ally for PTSD symptoms than for active coping ability. In terms of randomly assigned intervention conditions, both an exposure and a cognitive behavioural intervention were found to lead to significant improvement in both PTSD‐related distress and coping ability. In terms of effect sizes (Cohen’s d), the coping scores changed more following the one‐hour intervention than they had during the entire two‐month pretreatment interval; PTSD‐related scores changed over half as much as during the two‐month pretreatment interval. In addition, at four‐month follow‐up, either children continued to improve (PTSD‐distress scores) or gains were maintained (coping scores). Treated children’s PTSD and coping scores were significantly more adaptive than those of untreated children. Finally, multiple regression analyses did not reveal any significant, prospective predictors of treatment responsivity. Includes consideration of the value of self‐report methodologies at the “early gates” of a multiple gating intervention model and the value of collaborations between scientists in the wake of a disaster.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the national implementation of disaster preparedness education in New Zealand primary schools through the dissemination of What's the Plan, Stan?, a voluntary, curriculum-based teaching resource.

Results and findings from a focus group study with school teachers and local civil defence staff in 2011 and a nationally representative survey of schools in 2012 were analyzed to identify intervening, facilitating and deterrent factors of uptake and use of the resource.

The main intervening factors between resource promotion and school teachers’ awareness of the resource are word of mouth among school teachers and teachers’ proactive lesson plan research. The strongest facilitating factor was school-wide use of the resource. Lack of awareness of the resource and the perceived need for teacher training are the greatest deterrents to use of the resource.

Based on the findings, several recommendations are provided for increasing use of the resource including use of web-based technology for teacher training, integration of disaster preparedness messaging into other children's programs, ongoing evaluation and curriculum requirements.

An evaluation of the implementation of What's the Plan, Stan? adds to the limited body of knowledge on the benefits and challenges to distributing a voluntary teaching resource as a national strategy for curriculum integration of disaster education. The findings and lessons are relevant for nations meeting the Core Indicators of progress toward the 2005-2015 Hyogo Framework For Action.