Considering Professional Consultation

In community affairs there are occasions when it is advisable, or even necessary, for a government unit or a civic organization to use the services of professional consultants. Many of the decision-making issues are quite complex. To understand and appreciate what is involved, specialized and technical knowledge may have to be made available. Professional consultants can serve as an important source of vital perceptions. At times, even in the same decision area, the counsel of several different types of experts is in order.Reviewed October 1993

Basic Procedures in Administration of Zoning Regulations Appeals

This guide has been prepared as a training aid for city and county officials and citizens. It illustrates the basic sequence of events in situations commonly involved with administration of local zoning regulations. It indicates the normal place and function of the various officials and bodies in the different kinds of procedures

Basic Procedures in Administration of Zoning Regulations : Roles of Enforcement Officer and Board of Adjustment

The Zoning Enforcement Officer, who often has the title of Building Inspector, is the key person in the enforcement of the zoning regulations. If he or she does not thoroughly understand and carry out his or her duties, most of the effectiveness of zoning will be lost. The Zoning Enforcement Officer should read and become familiar with the zoning provisions. The officer should keep track of all amendments enacted by the legislative body, taking care to note them on his or her copy of the regulations, including, when necessary, the zoning district map. The officer should attend the meetings of the Board of Adjustment in order to understand the actions of the Board.Reviewed October 1993

The Planning Process and People

Planning takes place on many levels, ranging from the individual to the nation and beyond. It can be related to a tremendous variety of situations and time spans, so there is no reason to expect the planning process to be uniform in its application. The particular elements of planning, the structures and techniques used, and the degrees of complexity will vary widely, depending on the conditions, issues and units of concern. About the only elements common to any planning are the assumptions that what happens today has consequences in the future, and that people can do things in the present that will increase the probabilities of particular events and situations matching their expectations or aspirations in the future. In other words, the planning process is predicated on the notions that the present is the father of the future, and people can purposely intervene to give some direction to the flow of events.Reviewed October 1993

Basic Procedures in Administration of Zoning Regulations : Making Applications

This guide has been prepared as a training aid for city and county officials and citizens. It illustrates the basic sequence of events in situations commonly involved with administration of local zoning regulations. It indicates the normal place and function of the various officials and bodies in the different kinds of procedures.Reviewed October 1993

Inhibition of non-haem iron absorption in man by polyphenolic-containing beverages

The effects of different polyphenol-containing beverages on Fe absorption from a bread meal were estimated in adult human subjects from the erythrocyte incorporation of radio-Fe. The test beverages contained different polyphenol structures and were rich in either phenolic acids (chlorogenic acid in coffee), monomeric flavonoids (herb teas, camomile (Matricaria recutita L.)), vervain (Verbena officinalis L.), lime flower (Tilia cordata Mill.), pennyroyal (Mentha pulegium L.) and peppermint (Mentha piperita L.), or complex polyphenol polymerization products (black tea and cocoa). All beverages were potent inhibitors of Fe absorption and reduced absorption in a dose-dependent fashion depending on the content of total polyphenols. Compared with a water control meal, beverages containing 20–50 mg total polyphenols/serving reduced Fe absorption from the bread meal by 50–70 %, whereas beverages containing 100–400 mg total polyphenols/serving reduced Fe absorption by 60–90 %. Inhibition by black tea was 79–94 %, peppermint tea 84 %, pennyroyal 73 %, cocoa 71 %, vervain 59 %, lime flower 52 % and camomile 47 %. At an identical concentration of total polyphenols, black tea was more inhibitory than cocoa, and more inhibitory than herb teas camomile, vervain, lime flower and pennyroyal, but was of equal inhibition to peppermint tea. Adding milk to coffee and tea had little or no influence on their inhibitory nature. Our findings demonstrate that herb teas, as well as black tea, coffee and cocoa can be potent inhibitors of Fe absorption. This property should be considered when giving dietary advice in relation to Fe nutrition

A demonstration of motion base design alternatives for the National Advanced Driving Simulator

A demonstration of the capability of NASA's Vertical Motion Simulator to simulate two alternative motion base designs for the National Advanced Driving simulator (NADS) is reported. The VMS is located at ARC. The motion base conditions used in this demonstration were as follows: (1) a large translational motion base; and (2) a motion base design with limited translational capability. The latter had translational capability representative of a typical synergistic motion platform. These alternatives were selected to test the prediction that large amplitude translational motion would result in a lower incidence or severity of simulator induced sickness (SIS) than would a limited translational motion base. A total of 10 drivers performed two tasks, slaloms and quick-stops, using each of the motion bases. Physiological, objective, and subjective measures were collected. No reliable differences in SIS between the motion base conditions was found in this demonstration. However, in light of the cost considerations and engineering challenges associated with implementing a large translation motion base, performance of a formal study is recommended

Hyperbranched polymers with high degrees of branching and low dispersity values : pushing the limits of thiol–yne chemistry

We propose a versatile approach to the production of hyperbranched polymers with high degrees of branching and low dispersity values (Đ), involving slow monomer addition of a thiol/yne monomer to multifunctional core molecules in the presence of photoinitiator and under UV irradiation. The small thiol/yne monomer was synthesized via 1-ethyl-3-(3-(dimethylamino)propyl)carbodiimide hydrochloride (EDC·HCl) esterification, and batch polymerizations were performed at varying concentrations. The batch thiol–yne polymerizations had fast reaction kinetics and large dispersity values that increased with increasing concentration. Introduction of monomer by slow addition to a multifunctional alkyne core (tri(prop-2-yn-1-yl) 1,3,5-benzenetricarboxylate) or alkene core (triallyl 1,3,5-benzenetricarboxylate) was found to lower dispersity at monomer concentrations of 0.5–2.0 M. Degrees of branching were determined by 1H NMR spectroscopy to be greater than 0.8 in most cases. Increasing the fraction of core molecule was found to decrease dispersity to values as low as 1.26 and 1.38 for the alkene core and alkyne core, respectively, for monomer concentrations of 0.5 M with 10 mol % core molecule. Molecular weights of the hyperbranched structures were also determined by light scattering size exclusion chromatography (SEC) detection, and intrinsic viscosities were determined by viscometry SEC detection. The Kuhn–Mark–Houwink–Sakurada α parameter decreased from 0.35 for the batch process to values as low as 0.21 (10 mol % alkene core) or 0.16 (10 mol % alkyne core), indicating that the thiol–yne structures became more globular and dense with the slow monomer addition strategy. This simple and versatile approach is a promising new development for the design of hyperbranched polymers of well-controlled molecular weight and molecular weight distributions, with very high degrees of branching