Use of smart technologies to collect and retain crash information

Task 1.1 of Pendant Work Package 1 has a threefold objective: firstly to develop methods and guidelines for the reconstruction of road traffic accidents, secondly to develop a database of information about public domain crash tests, and thirdly to develop methods for determining the comparability and accuracy of reconstruction methods. As part of the third aim the Description of work (2001) states: "Specific reference will be made to the use of smart technologies to collect and retain information about the crash (‘black boxes’, ‘crash recorders’). The Task will examine current capabilities and identify the main obstacles to their wider implementation." The purpose of this report is to provide an overview of the state of the art in recording information about the crash phase, including current capabilities and main obstacles to further implementation

Recreation, tourism and nature in a changing world : proceedings of the fifth international conference on monitoring and management of visitor flows in recreational and protected areas : Wageningen, the Netherlands, May 30-June 3, 2010

Proceedings of the fifth international conference on monitoring and management of visitor flows in recreational and protected areas : Wageningen, the Netherlands, May 30-June 3, 201

The Critical Challenges from International High-Tech and Computer-Related Crime at the Millennium

The automotive industry stands in front of a great challenge, to decrease its impact on the environment. One important part in succeeding with this is to decrease the structural weight of the body structure and by that the fuel consumption or the required battery power. Carbon fibre composites are by many seen as the only real option when traditional engineering materials are running out of potential for further weight reduction. However, the automotive industry lacks experience working with structural composites and the methods for high volume composite manufacturing are immature. The development of a composite automotive body structure, therefore, needs methods to support and guide the conceptual work to improve the financial and technical results. In this thesis a framework is presented which will provide guidelines for the conceptual phase of the development of an automotive body structure. The framework follows two main paths, one to strive for the ideal material diversity, which also defines an initial partition of the body structure based on the process and material selection. Secondly, a further analysis of the structures are made to evaluate if a more cost and weight efficient solution can be found by a more differential design and by that define the ideal part size. In the case and parameter studies performed, different carbon fibre composite material systems and processes are compared and evaluated. The results show that high performance material system with continuous fibres becomes both more cost and performance effective compared to industrialised discontinuous fibre composites. But also that cycle times, sometimes, are less important than a competitive feedstock cost for a manufacturing process. When further analysing the manufacturing design of the structures it is seen that further partition(s) can become cost effective if the size and complexity is large enough.      QC 20140527</p

On the world market trajectory of 21 major book publishing companies in globalization and European studies in 100+ countries. From “Amsterdam University Press” via “Palgrave” and “Nova Science Publishers” to Transaction Publishers” by international, 19 indicator comparison

Ever since the path-breaking empirical studies by Schott (1998) world systems scholars start from the well-established assumption that world science is a single gigantic center-periphery relationship. The strategic and tactical practical conclusions for individual scholars and their agenda in the scientific periphery and the semi-periphery, to which Europe increasingly belongs, are much harder to draw than the general diagnosis. Where can scholars from outside the US attractively publish their manuscripts for the world market? How does the European Union make its point in the global scientific arena in the field of the debates about social policies and globalization? Is there a way, especially for scholars from the new member countries of the European Union, and from the newly formed “Union for the Mediterranean”, to effectively publish their works on the world market? Only three European social affairs ministries (France, Poland, Spain) afford themselves the luxury to publish their own scientific journal, while others must rely on international publishing to make their expertise heard internationally. This article tries to answer tentatively such a difficult and strategic question, and quantitatively compares the performance of Amsterdam University Press (EU); Ashgate (EU); Blackwell (EU); Cambridge UP (EU); Campus (Frankfurt/Ann Arbor) (EU); Cornell UP (USA); Edward Elgar (EU); Houghton/Mifflin (US); IOS Press (EU); Lexington (US); Monthly Review Press (US); Nova Science Publishers (US); Oxford University Press (EU); Palgrave Macmillan (EU); Praeger Publishers (EU); Routledge (EU); Rowman/Littlefield (US); Sage Publications (US); Springer-Verlag (US); St. Martin's Press (US); and Transaction Publishers (US), which in between them control a sizeable share of the social science academic book publishing market in such fields of political science as globalization or European Union studies, with up to nineteen quantitative performance criteria, ranging from market success rates on global markets both in North America as well as mainly in the Asia-Pacific and European region, comparative library presence rates at international organizations libraries, such as the European Union and the United Nations, and the quantitative impact of published titles on combined indices of peer reviewed journals and the international daily and weekly press. In addition, our study evaluates the impact of the companies’ books and journals on the literature, contained in “Google book search” and “Google scholar”, all per total company book and serials output. In terms of their ability to place books on the markets of now 100+ countries well in comparison to total production, the American companies in our sample hold an unparalleled power. The relative market leaders, which get a large percentage of their total book output to more than 50 global libraries each, are: • Lexington (US) • St. Martin's Press (US) • Rowman/Littlefield (US) • Monthly Review Press (US) • Praeger Publishers (US) • Cornell UP (US) • Ashgate (UK) • Transaction Publishers (US) • Edward Elgar (UK) • Nova Science Publishers (US) Our results, based on simple combined ranks and more sophisticated non-parametric and parametric, multivariate SPSS XV factor analytical evaluations of indicator performance are a further sign of the fact that Europe would do well to further learn from the culture of major US Universities.JEL classification: F5 - International Relations and International Political Economy; F50 – General; M3 - Marketing and Advertising; M30 - General

Frozen Ground - The News Bulletin of the International Permafrost Association, No.15

Frozen Ground - The News Bulletin of the International Permafrost Association, No.1

An Assessment of the Effectiveness of the UN Universal Periodic Review: Towards the Abolition of the Death Penalty in the United States of America

International law plays an important role in regulating the criminal punishments imposed by states, including capital punishment. Although capital punishment is not prohibited by international law, the United Nations’ ultimate goal is worldwide abolition of the death penalty. The United States of America (‘the US’) retains the death penalty in thirty-one States, the federal government, and in the military. The US has a ‘thorny’ relationship with international law, which to some extent can be attributed to the theory of ‘American exceptionalism’. This theory allows the US to act ‘exceptionally’ simply by virtue of it being a super-power state. Despite this, the US does engage with international law through the Universal Periodic Review (‘UPR’). The General Assembly of the United Nations (‘UNGA’) created the UPR in 2006 through Resolution 60/251 to be a universal and intergovernmental peer review process, intended to appraise every UN member state’s protection and promotion of human rights. To date, no scholar has examined the effectiveness of the UPR in the context of the abolition of the death penalty in the US. This thesis contributes to filling that gap in the literature by undertaking a qualitative review of the 2010 and 2015 US UPRs, examining the UPR’s role in facilitating the abolition of capital punishment in the US. From this analysis, the author has identified three broad themes within the US UPR regarding capital punishment. Namely, one, the right to a fair trial and due process, two, intellectual disabilities and mental health, and, three, the implementation of a death sentence. From this, the author has identified recommendations to strengthen the UPR mechanism, both generally, and specifically in the context of the abolition of the death penalty in the US. The potential impact of this research is three-fold. First, it will assist in ensuring the US is held to account to its international obligations whilst it retains the death penalty. Second, it will further the Steikers’ ‘blueprint for abolition’, by providing evidence to show the arbitrary application of the death penalty in the US in violation of international and domestic laws. Third, the strengthening of the UPR will benefit the mechanism generally, for the protection and promotion of human rights globally