DRM and modchips: Time for the Court of Justice to do the "right" thing

This paper looks at three key cases; UsedSoft (C-458/13), PC Box (C-355/12) and Grund (C-458/13), on the topic of the extent and nature of a copyright holders abilityto constrain future uses of their copyrighted works in the field of software and critically considers the interaction between copyright and competition law in these judgements.In UsedSoft, the Court of Justice of the European Union (hereafter CJEU) shook the common-law world by suggesting that under certain circumstances the licensing of a piece of software could constitute a sale, they achieved this by focusing on the balance of right between the user and the vendor and more importantly, on the “specific subject matter” of the right granted.In PC Box, a more economically cautious judgement, but one with intellectual consonance with UsedSoft, the CJEU looked at the issue of 'modchips' to permit homebrew and other non-approved games to be played on Nintendo consoles. They decided that the TPM (technological protection measures) embedded in the consoles were analogous to the other more traditional methods of encryption and DRM (digital rights management) employed in standard software. However, the judgement also highlighted that the use of a balancing test with regard to the appropriateness of the TPM devices in consoles was necessary. Furthermore, the Court judged that the national courts should carry out a 'real world' market test to see if the use of modchips truly adversely affected the interests of the copyright holder i.e. how of then they were used for infringing as opposed to non-infringing uses.Finally, we shall consider the key case that never was - Grund. This case was, and remains, something of an enigma as the preliminary reference questions were difficultto comprehend but nevertheless promised important clarifications in the law.However, we will consider it in this discussion largely because the reference was ultimately withdrawn because the parties were convinced that the issue was resolved by the judgement in PC Box. Thus it offers an insight into the future utility of theUsedSoft and PC Box judgements

Apollo experience report: Lunar module environmental control subsystem

A functional description of the environmental control subsystem is presented. Development, tests, checkout, and flight experiences of the subsystem are discussed; and the design fabrication, and operational difficulties associated with the various components and subassemblies are recorded. Detailed information is related concerning design changes made to, and problems encountered with, the various elements of the subsystem, such as the thermal control water sublimator, the carbon dioxide sensing and control units, and the water section. The problems associated with water sterilization, water/glycol formulation, and materials compatibility are discussed. The corrective actions taken are described with the expection that this information may be of value for future subsystems. Although the main experiences described are problem oriented, the subsystem has generally performed satisfactorily in flight

Green investment strategies: a positive force in cities

Deterioration of urban neighborhoods is known to induce out migration, but how well do public investments to reverse decline actually work? To evaluate Philadelphia’s greening investment, researchers measured property buyers’ willingness to pay more—and found that greening works.Community development

Development of food groupings to guide dietary advice in people with diabetes

Foods commonly consumed by 16 adults with diabetes were grouped according to macrinutrient value and type of fat to form 13 categories of which 10 would form the focus of dietary advice. Dietary modeling demonstrated that the food group pattern provided adequate nutrition and low variation in dietary targets. Idealised proportions of fat types were achieved only when daily servings of foods such as oils, nuts, oily fish and soy were included. The food groupings proved appropriate for dietary advice for diabetes

The Social and Economic Impact of Covid-19 on Family Functioning and Well-Being: Where do we go from here?

A growing body of research demonstrates that COVID-19 has had a profound impact on family functioning and well-being in a range of countries. The fear and uncertainty of the health risks, in addition to the stress from ensuing restrictions and constraints on everyday life caused major disruptions, impacting the financial, emotional, and physical well-being of adults and children alike. In this report, we summarize the current literature on the impact of COVID-19 disruption to family functioning and economic well-being as a context for this special issue. Our findings indicate that while the pandemic may have caused a reallocation of intra-familial tasks, a large gender disparity remains regarding the proportion of domestic work and childcare. The pandemic disproportionally impacted lower-income families, families from ethnic minority and vulnerable groups, and women. Finally, the financial impacts of the emergence in Spring of 2020 have strained family relationships, although the effects depend to a large extent on quality of the relationships and family well-being before COVID-19. To address the long-term bidirectional effects of the pandemic on family well-being and the well-being of the global economy calls for research that crosses disciplinary divides. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature

Biophysical controls of marsh soil shear strength along an estuarine salinity gradient

Sea-level rise, saltwater intrusion, and wave erosion threaten coastal marshes, but the influence of salinity on marsh erodibility remains poorly understood. We measured the shear strength of marsh soils along a salinity and biodiversity gradient in the York River estuary in Virginia to assess the direct and indirect im-pacts of salinity on potential marsh erodibility. We found that soil shear strength was higher in monospecific salt marshes (5–36 kPa) than in biodiverse freshwater marshes (4–8 kPa), likely driven by differences in below ground biomass. However, we also found that shear strength at the marsh edge was controlled by sediment characteristics, rather than vegetation or salinity, suggesting that inherent relationships may be obscured in more dynamic environments. Our results indicate that York River freshwater marsh soils are weaker than salt marsh soils, and suggest that salinization of these freshwater marshes may lead to simultaneous losses in biodiversity and erodibility

OneOpPF: A Personal Finance Professional Development Resource

This article describes personal finance programming available through the OneOp Personal Finance team (OneOpPF) for the professional development of Extension educators and military Personal Financial Managers for outreach to their clientele. Included is a brief description of six OneOpPF deliverables (webinars, blog posts, Question of the Day tweets, podcasts, social media, and newsletters) and a discussion of impact indicators such as online outreach statistics and continuing education units awarded to program participants. The article concludes with four best practices for working with military stakeholders and a description of how OneOpPF program materials can be accessed by Extension professionals

Building Community Capacity for Integrating Engineering in Rural Middle School Science Classrooms

: Broadening participation in engineering is an important national priority and has led to increasing demands for engineering content to be integrated into traditional K-12 curriculum. However, expecting teachers to incorporate engineering into their classrooms without additional training or resources is unreasonable. Partnering teachers with industry partners is one promising way to prioritize integrated science and engineering content while also introducing youth to possible career paths. In this programmatic article, we introduce the Partnering with Educators and Engineers in Rural Schools (PEERS) project that focuses on the collaborative design, implementation, and study of recurrent hands-on engineering activities with middle school youth in three rural communities in or near Appalachia. We discuss the curricular priorities of the program as well as preliminary findings on both student-focused and capacity-building metrics across the partnerships. Key discussion points include (1) a need to distill goals for engineering outreach by wrestling with what success might really look like for middle-school youth engagement with engineering and (2) cultivating community capacity to better support education systems and the simultaneous potential for and challenges of collaborating to build such infrastructure