Distribution and status of bats in Europe

National and international agencies, societies and individuals are increasingly seeking information on the current distribution and status of bats in Europe. The stimulus to produce this report came in 1980 when the Environment and Consumer Protection Service of the Commission of the European Communities (EEC) requested information on the threatened flora and vertebrate fauna within the EEC. This was needed so that there could be a co-ordinated approach to the conservation of these biota. The EEC had become aware of its commitment to international conservation in 1979 when the Bern Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats was published and presented by the Council of Europe to its 21 Member States for signing and ratification. Despite one third of the indigenous terrestrial mammal species in Europe being bats, little is known of their detailed distribution and numbers. However, accumulation of knowledge has gathered momentum and, although much has been published, it is widely scattered, often in obscure journals. Brink in the early 1950s (1967) was one of the first to attempt a compilation of distribution maps for the European bats and these have been reproduced many times. However, present knowledge is much improved and new maps are needed. This report is an attempt to summarize the present status of bats in 27 countries in western Europe and provides sources where more detailed information can be found. I hope it will also stimulate more systematic recording and detailed ecological research, which are necessary to establish conservation requirements for each species. Many bats move between summer and winter roosts and these may be separated by large distances. A few species have significant populations in EEC countries in winter (eg Vespertilio murinus) but in summer these bats form nursery colonies in north-east Europe, particularly in Poland and the USSR. Thus, it is vital to consider the range and migrations of a species when preparing conservation strategies (Strelkov 1969; Roer 197

Energy supply and demand in California

The author expresses his views on future energy demand on the west coast of the United States and how that energy demand translates into demand for major fuels. He identifies the major uncertainties in determining what future demands may be. The major supply options that are available to meet projected demands and the policy implications that flow from these options are discussed

Consumer shopping behavior: how much do consumers save?

This paper documents the potential and actual savings that consumers realize from four particular types of purchasing behavior: purchasing on sale; buying in bulk (at a lower per unit price); buying generic brands; and choosing outlets. How much can and do households save through each of these behaviors? How do these patterns vary with consumer demographics? We use data collected by a marketing firm on all food purchases brought into the home for a large, nationally representative sample of U.K. households in 2006. We are interested in how consumer choice affects the measurement of price changes. In particular, a standard price index based on a fixed basket of goods will overstate the rise in the true cost of living because it does not properly consider sales and bulk purchasing. According to our measures, the extent of this bias might be of the same or even greater magnitude than the better-known substitution and outlet biases

Hybrid finite difference/finite element immersed boundary method

The immersed boundary method is an approach to fluid-structure interaction that uses a Lagrangian description of the structural deformations, stresses, and forces along with an Eulerian description of the momentum, viscosity, and incompressibility of the fluid-structure system. The original immersed boundary methods described immersed elastic structures using systems of flexible fibers, and even now, most immersed boundary methods still require Lagrangian meshes that are finer than the Eulerian grid. This work introduces a coupling scheme for the immersed boundary method to link the Lagrangian and Eulerian variables that facilitates independent spatial discretizations for the structure and background grid. This approach employs a finite element discretization of the structure while retaining a finite difference scheme for the Eulerian variables. We apply this method to benchmark problems involving elastic, rigid, and actively contracting structures, including an idealized model of the left ventricle of the heart. Our tests include cases in which, for a fixed Eulerian grid spacing, coarser Lagrangian structural meshes yield discretization errors that are as much as several orders of magnitude smaller than errors obtained using finer structural meshes. The Lagrangian-Eulerian coupling approach developed in this work enables the effective use of these coarse structural meshes with the immersed boundary method. This work also contrasts two different weak forms of the equations, one of which is demonstrated to be more effective for the coarse structural discretizations facilitated by our coupling approach

Reynolds and Mach number simulation of Apollo and Gemini re-entry and comparison with flight

Reynolds and Mach numbers simulation of Apollo and Gemini reentry compared with flight dat

A thermalized ion explosion model for high energy sputtering and track registration

A velocity spectrum of neutral sputtered particles as well as a low resolution mass spectrum of sputtered molecular ions was measured for 4.74 MeV F-19(+2) incident of UF4. The velocity spectrum is dramatically different from spectra taken with low energy (keV) bombarding ions, and is shown to be consistent with a hot plasma of atoms in thermal equilibrium inside the target. A thermalized ion explosion model is proposed for high energy sputtering which is expected to describe track formation in dielectric materials. The model is shown to be consistent with the observed total sputtering yield and the dependence of the yield on the primary ionization rate of the incident ion

Confronting the Peppercorn Settlement in Merger Litigation: An Empirical Analysis and a Proposal for Reform

Shareholder litigation challenging corporate mergers is ubiquitous, with the likelihood of a shareholder suit exceeding 90%. The value of this litigation, however, is questionable. The vast majority of merger cases settle for nothing more than supplemental disclosures in the merger proxy statement. The attorneys that bring these lawsuits are compensated for their efforts with a court-awarded fee. This leads critics to charge that merger litigation benefits only the lawyers who bring the claims, not the shareholders they represent. In response, defenders of merger litigation argue that the lawsuits serve a useful oversight function and that the improved disclosures that result are beneficial to shareholders. This Article offers a new approach to assessing the value of these claims by empirically testing the relationship between merger litigation and shareholder voting on the merger. If the supplemental disclosures produced by the settlement of merger litigation are valuable, they should affect shareholder voting behavior. Specifically, supplemental disclosures that are, in effect, “compelled” by settlement should produce new and unfavorable information about the merger and lead to a lower percentage of shares voted in favor of it. Applying this hypothesis to a hand-collected sample of 453 large public company mergers from 2005-2012, we find no such effect. We find no significant evidence that disclosure-only settlements affect shareholder voting. These findings warrant a reconsideration of Delaware merger law. Specifically, under current law, supplemental disclosures are viewed by courts as providing a substantial benefit to the shareholder class. In turn, this substantial benefit entitles the plaintiffs’ lawyers to an award of attorneys’ fees. Our evidence suggests that this legal analysis is misguided and that supplemental disclosures do not in fact constitute a substantial benefit. As a result, and in light of the substantial costs generated by public company merger litigation, we argue that courts should reject disclosure settlements as a basis for attorney fee awards. Our approach responds to critiques of merger litigation as excessive and frivolous by reducing the incentive for plaintiffs’ lawyers to bring weak cases, but it would have an additional benefit. Current practice drags state court judges into the task of indirectly promulgating disclosure standards in connection with the approval of fee awards. We argue, instead, for a more efficient specialization between state and federal courts in the regulation of mergers: public company merger disclosure should be policed by the federal securities laws while state corporate law focuses on substantive fairness