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Earthworks are the embankments and cuttings that allow a railway to maintain a certain line, level and grade through the landscape. Earth embankments consist of an engineered bank of earth that carries the railway above the natural ground. A cutting is used to carry the railway through ground with a natural level above the line of the railway. Modern (post 1960s) earthworks are carefully engineered to perform well. However, many railways run on earthworks that were constructed over 100 years ago without the use of mechanised plant. The quality of construction of older earthworks was often poor compared with present-day engineering practice. Ageing of the earthwork structures, and the greater demands of heavier and faster trains and climatic change, means that earthworks suffer ultimate and serviceability failures that can present operational difficulties. Older earthworks that fail or do not perform well require maintenance and repair, and sometimes complete replacement. This chapter explores the main engineering considerations for modern earthworks, and the challenges associated with older earthworks including their modes of failure and upgrade and repair.

The evolution in developed countries has taken a role in global warming and natural disasters such as flash flood, El-Nino, earthquake and groundwater contamination. The underground storage tank leakage problems and spillage of hydrocarbon liquid leading to the contamination of non-aqueous phase liquids (NAPLs) into the groundwater could reduce the quality of groundwater. This chapter is intended to investigate the behaviour and the pattern of NAPL migrations in double-porosity soil under vibration and intact conditions. The experimental model is developed by using kaolin soil type S300 and toluene as NAPLs. The kaolin soil was mixed with 25% of moisture content to produce kaolin granules in the soil column and vibrate under 0.98 Hz of frequency within 60 seconds. As a result, both specimen liquids completely migrated to the bottom of soil column: sample 1 has higher permeability compared to sample 2. This is due to the fracture in double-porosity soil under vibration effect and loosened the soil structure in sample 1 compared to good intact soil sample 2 with stronger and compact soil structure. In conclusion, this study proves that the dangerous hydrocarbon NAPL migration in fractured double-porosity soil has very harmful effect on the environment and groundwater resources.

To examine bad credit experiences in the context of identity to understand the entanglement between bad credit and the deformation of identity.

A qualitative method using depth interviews and hermeneutical analysis.

Bad credit is a major life event and plays a critical role in identity. By restricting or eliminating identity construction and maintenance through consumption, identities are deformed. Consumer identities are deformed as they are consumed by the identity deformation process as normal patterns of consumption that have built and supported their identities are disrupted and demolished. Bad credit is overwhelmingly consumptive of consumers – it consumes their time, energy, patience, lifestyle, relationships, social connections, and perhaps most importantly, it consumes their identity as it deforms who they are.

Researchers need to examine more closely not just the creation and maintenance of identity, but also how identity is deformed and deconstructed through consumption experiences that can no longer be enjoyed.

Government agencies may want to reexamine policies toward the granting of credit to reduce the incidence of loading up consumers with credit they are not able to pay for. The deformation of identity may result in anti-social behavior, although our study does not address this directly.

This study is different from previous work in several ways. We focus on identity deformation due to bad credit. By analyzing a crisis response that transcends the specific impetus of bad credit, we extend identity theory by developing an insight into “identities-in-crisis.” We also provide a theoretical framework and explore how consumers’ identities are deformed and renegotiated.

Founded by Peter the Great in 1714, the Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences (BAN—Biblioteka Akademii Nauk) is the first library of Russia open to the public. At present it is the main scientific library of the Russian Academy of Sciences and due to the size and value of its collections, BAN is among the greatest libraries of the world including the Library of Congress (USA), the Russian State Library and the Russian National Library. Since 1783, it has received depository copies of all published works in the country.