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Global environmental change and other site specific pressures (e.g. over fishing and pollution) are threating coral reefs and the livelihoods of dependent coastal communities. Multiple strategies are used to build the resilience of both coral reefs and reef dependent communities but the effectiveness of these strategies is largely unknown. Using the Western Indian Ocean (WIO) as a case study, this paper combines published literature and expert opinion elicited through a multi-stakeholder workshop to assess the intended and realised social and ecological implications of strategies commonly applied in the region. Findings suggest that all strategies can contribute to building social and ecological resilience, but this varies with context and the overall strategy objectives. The ability of strategies to be successful in the future is questioned. To support effective resilience policy development more nuanced lesson learning requires effective monitoring and evaluation as well as a disaggregated understanding of resilience in terms of gender, agency and the interaction between ecological and social resilience. Opportunities for further lesson sharing between experts in the region are needed.

ICOLD presently has 26 technical committees. The committees met on 16 and 17 May 2016 and the Regional Club Meeting was held on the evening of 17 May 2016.

The ICOLD programme kicked off with an opportunity to attend a technical tour on Sunday, 15 May, 2016. There was also an opportunity to attend these tours again on 19 May 2016, discussed in the technical tours paper.

This paper reviews the outcome from the Judicial Review which occurred as part of the legal process associated with a scheme to remediate a number of dams and provide provision to pass the design flood on Hampstead Heath.

The following is an account of an unexpected site visit by the author to Nant-y-Gro dam. This masonry dam in the Elan Valley was built in the late 1800s, to supply water to the worker's village during construction of the larger Elan Valley dams. In 1942, the dam was used by the British government, under the supervision of Barnes Wallis, to carry out early experiments during the development of the ‘bouncing bombs’ used for the Dambuster raids in the Ruhr Valley in Germany.

The ICOLD Annual Meeting and Congress were held in Stavanger, in the southwest of Norway. Delegates from the BDS attended the various technical committee meetings, the general assembly, technical presentations, tours and social events. A summary description of some of these are included within this report.

The 150th anniversary of the Dale Dyke dam failure near Sheffield was commemorated in 2014. The dam failed on first filling on 11 March 1864, with the resulting release of water leading to the loss of approximately 250 lives and extensive damage to property and infrastructure downstream. It was the largest civilian disaster of the Victorian era. To commemorate this anniversary, Dr Andy Hughes of the British Dam Society has given a number of presentations which explore various failure modes which could have led to the incident. This technical note applies current industry guidance relating to internal erosion risk assessments to the Dale Dyke dam. It aims to see if current practice would have foreseen the disaster and to ascertain if modern risk assessment methodologies could potentially help to prevent similar incidents occurring in future.

This paper presents a single report that covers one preconference to Lagan Weir and four BDS conference tours: ‘The Mournes’ Silent Valley/Ben Crom reservoirs, ‘Upper Bann’, ‘North West’ Toome Sluice/Altnaheglish, and Carrickfergus’ Carrick System and Titanic's Pump house.

There are a number of committees associated with reservoirs – not least the main committee of the British Dam Society (BDS), a place on which any member of the BDS can seek to be appointed by offering himself/herself for election. The main committee is supported by the Finances and General Purposes sub-committee (F&GP), which includes the Chairman, the Vice Chairman, the Technical Secretary, the Secretary and invited members. Other sub-committees cover events, communication and education as well as the BDS biennial conference. However, there are other committees which members may not know about, understand how they are formed or recognise what their role is. This paper should improve people's understanding.

As part of our special edition to celebrate 50 years of the British Dam Society, we have looked back at the formation and development of the British National Committee on Large Dams, now known as the British Dam Society and the society's journal.

A working group has been set up to review the third edition of Floods and Reservoir Safety and amend it such that a fourth edition can be published in 2014. The working group will make presentations to an evening meeting of the British Dam Society in October 2013 to help to ensure that the publication continues to be a key element of the profession's toolbox.

The 80th Annual Meeting of the International Committee on Large Dams (ICOLD) and the 24th Congress was held in the Japanese city of Kyoto between 2 and 8 June 2012. This article provides feedback on the event from the UK contingent, representing the BDS.

The management of International Commission on Large Dams (ICOLD) is conducted during the General Assembly (GA). The GA was held on Friday 20 May 2016 and was attended by the chairman and vice-chairman of each of the member countries. Other ICOLD delegates had the option to attend workshops on this day.

The 79th annual meeting of the International Committee on Large Dams (ICOLD) was held in the Swiss city of Lucerne between 30 May and 3 June 2011. There was a good attendance of British Dam Society (BDS) members at the meetings with a total of ten delegates who represent the UK on a number of the different technical committees. In total there were more than 1000 delegates representing 65 countries.

This article summarises the 4-day technical tour of southern Switzerland undertaken by an international group of ICOLD 2011 attendees. The tour, which began in Lucerne and ended in Zurich, took in the Gotthard base tunnel along with five alpine dams: the Nalps, Santa Maria, Luzzone, Contra and Isola dams.

The annual meeting (Committee Meetings and 77th Executive and Symposium) was held at the Brasilia Alvorada Hotel in Brasilia between 21 May 2009 and 24 May 2009. At the Executive Meeting Kenya was accepted as the 89th member country of ICOLD and the meeting was informed that Niger was applying to become the 90th member country.

Recently, the author was fortunate to attend the Annual South African National Committee on Large Dams (SANCOLD) held in Cape Town. This conference celebrated 50 years of SANCOLD. The title of the conference was ‘Dam safety, maintenance and rehabilitation of dams in Southern Africa’.

A UK utility recently commissioned a university engineering research department to help it draw up guidelines for seismic assessments with the aid of a conslting engineer. In addition to producing a useful new guidebook for the civil engineering profession as a whole, the utility has benefitted directly from practical new research, and both industrial partners have increased their visibility to undergraduate and post graduate students. It demonstrates that there are real benefits to be had from greater collaboration between industry and academia, even though this may not be immediately obvious from the outset. This paper describes the research project that started it all off—a critical investigation into the seismic vulnerability of the reservoir towers and dam gates—and how the relationship subsequently developed.

In July of 2011, the Rundle Feedermain, a 24-inch (600-mm) C303 Concrete Bar-Wrapped Pipe (BWP) transmission main, failed in a residential neighborhood in the City of Calgary (the City). Residential development had cropped up around the feedermain since its construction in 1973. Although the main is located in an easement, the exact break location was 9 ft (3 m) west of a residential property line. This increased the main’s consequence of failure, as additional ruptures may cause serious damage to private property. In order to return the Rundle Feedermain to operation, the City commissioned Pure Technologies (Pure) to complete an emergency inspection of the pipeline. Pure mobilized available inspection platforms to examine the line upstream and downstream of the failure location to ensure that no other pipe sections were at risk of rupture. The inspection used a robotics platform equipped with Pure’s electromagnetic (EM) technology, which is able to identify broken bars and broad areas of cylinder corrosion in BWP. The emergency assessment identified four additional areas of distress and allowed the City to repair a second section of BWP that was likely to fail had the pipeline returned to operation. After the successful inspection of the Rundle Feedermain, the City of Calgary began incorporating BWP inspection into its biannual feedermain condition assessment program. Due to this shift in focus, in August of 2013 the City excavated one section of 30-inch (750mm) BWP that was identified as badly distressed during the inspection program. The excavation verified that the pipe had broken bars and cylinder corrosion and was a candidate for near-term failure if left in operation. Due to the various operating conditions encountered in the program and with the City’s cooperation, Pure has been able to refine and improve BWP inspection technology and apply it to multiple inspection vehicle platforms to assess the City’s BWP mains. Through condition assessment, the City is able to identify and repair isolated damaged pipe sections on otherwise serviceable pipelines. This prevents unnecessary and expensive main rehabilitation or replacement, while renewing the condition of the City’s critical large-diameter pipeline assets. This paper will outline Pure’s BWP inspection technology based on two projects in the City of Calgary and include actual results from field verifications of the electromagnetic inspection data.

Objective: To identify opportunities for earlier HIV diagnosis within primary and secondary care settings in the UK in Africans with newly diagnosed HIV infection. Methods: A survey of newly diagnosed HIV-positive Africans attending 15 HIV treatment centres across London was conducted between April 2004 and February 2006. The survey consisted of a confidential self-completed questionnaire linked to clinician-completed clinical records. Results: A total of 263 questionnaires were completed, representing an uptake rate of 79.5% of patients approached and 49.8% (131/263) of participants presented with advanced HIV disease (CD4 cell count < 200 cells/ml at diagnosis). In the year prior to HIV diagnosis 76.4% (181/237) had seen their GP, 38.3% (98/256) had attended outpatient services, and 15.2% (39/257) inpatient services, representing missed opportunities for earlier HIV diagnosis. Of those attending GP services the issue of HIV and/or HIV testing was raised for 17.6% (31/176) and 37.1% (78/210) had a previous negative HIV test, 32.5% of these within the UK. Medical attention was sought for wide ranging reasons, often not obviously connected to underlying HIV status. Despite the population predominantly coming from countries of high HIV prevalence personal appreciation of risk was comparatively low and knowledge of benefits of testing lacking. Conclusion: Africans are accessing health services but clinicians are failing to use these opportunities effectively for preventive and diagnostic purposes with regards to HIV infection. Comparatively low appreciation of personal risk and lack of perceived ill health within this community means clinicians need to be more proactive in addressing HIV. 2008 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins AIDS 2008, 22:115‐122

Michael Kennard and Andrew Charles received honorary life membership of the British Dam Society (BDS) on 8 October 2012, in recognition of their services to the Society and to the advancement of reservoir safety in the United Kingdom. In March 2014, Iain Moffat and Paul Tedd were also honoured by the BDS by awarding them life membership.

This note provides guidance for candidates applying or reapplying to reservoirs panels, emphasising the need for applicants to prepare their application well, demonstrate adequate reservoir-related continued professional development and also prepare for an interview if required.

The Construction Industry Research and Information Association is to produce a succinct consolidated guidance report on the inspection, monitoring, investigation, maintenance and repair of conduits at reservoirs.

PURPOSE: To determine the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) of pemetrexed and carboplatin given in combination, to derive a recommended dose for phase II studies, and to explore its efficacy. We assessed toxicities and explored the activity of the drug combination exclusively in patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM). The pharmacokinetics of both agents was investigated. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Twenty-seven patients (23 male, four female) with MPM were treated on five escalating dose levels. Doses ranged from pemetrexed 400 mg/m2 (as a 10-minute intravenous infusion), followed by carboplatin area under the plasma concentration-time curve (AUC) 4 mg/mL·min (as a 30-minute intravenous infusion) to pemetrexed 500 mg/m2, carboplatin AUC 6 mg/mL·min. All patients had a World Health Organization performance status of 1. A total of 163 courses of treatment were administered (median, six; range, one to 10). RESULTS: The main toxicity was hematologic, particularly neutropenia, although this was characteristically short-lived and caused few clinical problems. The MTD was pemetrexed 500 mg/m2, carboplatin AUC 6, because three of the five patients treated at this dose level experienced a dose-limiting toxicity. Eight partial responses (in 25 assessable patients) were observed for a response rate of 32%. Seventy percent of patients noticed an improvement in symptoms, usually (84%) after only two courses. Median time to progression was 305 days, and median survival time was 451 days. CONCLUSION: The MTD was pemetrexed 500 mg/m2 and carboplatin AUC 6 mg/mL·min. The recommended phase II dose of the combination is pemetrexed 500 mg/m2 and carboplatin AUC 5 mg/mL·min. The combination is both active and well tolerated in MPM and deserves further exploration.

Despite recent advances in chemotherapy, there remains a significant number of patients for whom no satisfactory treatment exists. It remains a high priority to evaluate drugs that may possess either greater efficacy or activity in tumors with intrinsic or acquired resistance to established treatment. Nolatrexed dihydrochloride (ThymitaqTM) is a novel folate-based inhibitor of thymidylate synthase (TS). TS is the rate-limiting enzyme in the de novo biosynthetic pathway for thymidine nucleotides. Since thymidine is used exclusively for the synthesis of DNA, TS remains an important target for anticancer drug therapy (1–3). A number of folate-based TS inhibitors have been developed and have demonstrated activity in clinical trials. It is postulated that inhibitors that utilize the folate-binding site of the TS enzyme have potential advantages over those, such as FdUMP, that act at the pyrimidine site. The folate-based cytotoxic agents are more likely, when compared with their pyrimidine-based counterparts, to have a unique locus of action, not be incorporated into nucleic acids, and not be susceptible to catabolic degradation. The first clinically evaluable folate-based TS inhibitor was CB3717. This showed antitumor activity but its development had to be abandoned because of unpredictable nephrotoxicity and myelosuppression (4,5). A successor, raltitrexed (Tomudex), has now been extensively investigated in the clinic. Both CB3717 and raltitrexed are termed classical antifolates because they possess a terminal para-amino benzoyl glutamate moiety. Such compounds use specific carrier systems to gain entry into cells and are typically substrates for the enzyme folyl polyglutamate synthetase (FPGS). Conversion to intracellular polyglutamates by this enzyme greatly enhances the potency of classical antifolates by increasing intracellular retention and by augmenting their inhibitory potency towards TS. However, the variable toxicity of these drugs may be due to variations in the rate of formation and retention of these polyglutamates.

This article details the electoral procedures for the president and six vice presidents that sit on the board of the International Commission on Large Dams.

A brief report of the meeting of the board of the European club of ICOLD, which took place in Innsbruck, Austria in September 2010.