Preponderance of the Evidence: An Ineffective Burden of Proof in Expatriation Proceedings

This Comment will review the recent history of evidentiary standards in expatriation proceedings. The Comment will also analyze the views espoused by the Supreme Court in the Terrazas opinion regarding the use of the preponderance standard in light of constitutional limitations on congressional power and the standard\u27s effectiveness in preventing forcible denationalization. Finally, the propriety of the alternative clear, convincing and unequivocal evidence standard will be briefly examined

The Astronomy of the Kamilaroi People and their Neighbours

The Kamilaroi people and their neighbours, the Euahlayi, Ngemba, and Murrawarri, are an Aboriginal cultural grouping located in the northwest and north central of New South Wales. They have a rich history, but have been missed in much of the literature concerned with sky knowledge in culture. This study collected stories, some of which have not previously been reported in an academic format, from Aboriginal people practicing their culture, augmented with stories from the literature, and analysed the data to create a database of sky knowledge that will be added to the larger body of Aboriginal cultural knowledge in Australia. We found that there is a strong sky culture reflected in the stories, and we also explored the stories for evidence of an ethnoscientific approach to knowledge of the sky.Comment: 28 pages, 9 figure

Solar heating systems for recirculation aquaculture

The literature over the past 25 years indicates that there has been a continued interest in using passive and active solar technologies to reduce the conventional energy required to maintain water temperatures in small recirculation aquaculture systems. Although all of the experimental systems reviewed report favourable results, there is little information available to guide system designers. This paper describes the use of a simulation model to predict the annual conventional energy consumption of a 10.6 m3 RAS enclosed in a double layer polyethylene greenhouse in two different climates. The water was maintained at 22.5 &deg;C and the recirculation rate was 10% of tank volume per day. Simple unglazed solar collectors have also been combined with the greenhouse to further reduce energy consumption. The effect of increasing collector area on the solar fraction and utilization of useful energy was predicted. Finally, the model was used to investigate the relationship between the occurrence of condensation on the inner cover, ventilation rates and energy use. It was found that in a hot dry climate, the greenhouse alone was sufficient to reduce the conventional energy requirements by 87%; while in the cooler temperate climate reductions of 66% were possible. When solar collectors were added to the system, conventional energy requirements were reduced further and depended on the area of collector used. For example, in the temperate climate location, conventional energy requirements were reduced to 23% of a RAS enclosed in a non-solar building when 26 m2 of solar collector inclined at the optimum angle for winter energy collection were used. Although condensation could be successfully reduced by ventilation of the greenhouse, this increased conventional energy requirements because the potential for evaporation was increased. Covering the tanks at night was found to be a more effective strategy because it reduced condensation and conventional energy use simultaneously.<br /

Renewable energy and sustainability - an evaluation

Renewable energy advocates often invoke the goal of sustainability in order to promote their cause. Most people agree that the energy supply for a sustainable world should be based on safe, clean and renewable forms of energy. However, sustainability is a much over-used word to the point where it has become almost meaningless. This paper argues that we need to reaffirm the meaning of sustainability and use its defining principles to guide our advocacy and practice. If we ignore these principles, we run the danger of generating unrealistic expectations and mistrust, and becoming involved in practice that is questionable from a sustainability perspective. On the other hand, if we use the principles of sustainability to guide our practice and advocacy, our goals will be more achievable, our credibility will increase and our practice will become more ethical. This paper uses one model of sustainability to evaluate examples of renewable energy advocacy and practice.<br /

Operational experiences with rockbed storage systems

Many rockbed thermal storage systems were installed in solar homes and greenhouses in Australia during the 1970s and 1980s. However, this technology appears to have waned in popularity since that time, although other storage options such as phase change materials are still not established alternatives. This paper re-evaluates rockbed storage technology, in the light of the experiences of users over the last 20 years. Of the 31 systems investigated, only seven were determined to be still working. There are a number of reasons for this, depending on the type and use of the system, which are discussed.<br /

An evaluation of personal greenhouse gas calculators

Personal greenhouse gas calculators (PGGC) are important tools to raise awareness of the impact of personal behaviour on carbon dioxide emissions. Per capita, Australians are the highest emitters of greenhouse gases in the world and the task for them to reduce emissions to sustainable levels will be particularly challenging. This paper reviews six PGGC promoted in Australia and evaluates them for their consistency. The emissions for an individual currently practicing a modest green lifestyle are calculated and compared. Emission calculations were found to differ by an order of magnitude in some cases. It was also found that users of PGGC are not adequately informed about the limitations of the calculators. The adoption of modest and radical green lifestyles reduced greenhouse gas emissions to 83% and 53% of the average Australian, indicating that behavioural changes by consumers alone will be insufficient to reduce emissions to sustainable levels.<br /

Energy and greenhouse gas emissions implications of alternative housing types for Australia

Many cities around the world are looking for ways to reduce their per capita greenhouse gas emissions. The outward growth of cities from a central business district, typical of many cities around the world, is often seen as working against this goal and as unsustainable. This is especially the case in circumstances where this growth is not supported by the necessary infrastructure, often resulting in an increase in the use of private transport. However, alternative scenarios to contain the outward growth are being proposed. This paper provides a comparison of the energy demand and greenhouse gas emissions between typical detached outer-suburban housing currently being built in Australia\u27s major cities and inner-city and -suburban apartments, which are increasingly seen as a legitimate alternative to the housing that is currently being built on our outer city fringes. By analysing the energy demand associated with the construction and operation of each housing type and for occupant travel it was found that the location of the housing and its size are the dominant factors determining energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. The findings from this analysis provide useful information for policy-makers in planning the development of our cities into the future, when faced with a growing population and an increasing need to minimise greenhouse gas emissions

Improved embedded atom method potentials for metal hydride systems

Metal hydride systems are an important research topic in materials science because of their many practical, industrial, and scientific applications. Therefore, the development of reliable and efficient interatomic potentials for metal hydrides systems, to be utilized in molecular simulations, can be of great value in accelerating the research in this field. In this research, fully analytical interatomic Embedded Atom Method (EAM) potentials are developed for the PdAgH system. Ab initio simulations were performed to obtain the properties of selected PdAgH structures for fitting. The potentials are fit utilizing the central atom method without employing time-consuming molecular dynamics simulations in the fitting procedure. The new PdAgH potential extends a PdH model with fewer fitting parameters than previously developed EAM models for the hydride systems that can better predict the cohesive energy, lattice constant, bulk modulus, elastic constants, and the stable alloy crystal structures during molecular dynamics (MD) simulations for PdH over a wide range of hydrogen concentrations. MD simulation with the new PdAgH potential shows that the lattice constants and cohesive energies are in good agreement with the results from ab initio simulations for much of the hydrogen composition range. Simulations show that H atoms within the PdAg fcc structure move from tetrahedral positions to lower energy octahedral positions as predicted by the DFT results and previous works. Additionally, the elastic constants follow trends comparable to previous work and DFT calculations. Extension of the model to PdCuH and many other alloy combinations can now be easily accomplished building on this work

Resource letter CPE-1: Computers in physics education

This resource letter provides a source of information for physics teachers who wish to use computers in physics education. The letter E” after a reference indicates a relatively elementary item useful for people just beginning to develop an interest in using computers; the letter I denotes intermediate level references for people who have already mastered the specialized vocabulary of computer uses; and the letter A denotes advanced material for people who have experience using computers in physics teaching. This letter code does not refer to the level of the physics concepts discussed in any of the articles. An asterisk (*) indicates those articles to be included in an accompanying Reprint Book