Collisionless Plasma Shocks in Striated Electron Temperatures

The existence of low frequency waveguide modes of ion acoustic waves is demonstrated in magnetized plasmas for electron temperatures striated along the magnetic field lines. At higher frequencies, in a band between the ion cyclotron and the ion plasma frequency, radiative modes develop and propagate obliquely to the field away from the striation. Arguments for the subsequent formation and propagation of electrostatic shock are presented and demonstrated numerically. For such plasma conditions, the dissipation mechanism is the "leakage'' of the harmonics generated by the wave steepening

Phase space structures generated by an absorbing obstacle in a streaming plasma

The dynamic behavior of an ion flow around an obstacle in a collisionless plasma is investigated. The obstacle consists here of an absorbing cylinder, and a 2 dimensional electrostatic particle-in-cell simulation is used to study the flow characteristics. The formation of irregular filamented density depletions, oblique to the flow, is observed. The dynamics of these structures depend on the physical parameters of the plasma. The structures form at the edges of the wake behind the obstacle, in a region with a strong velocity shear, and are found to be associated with phase-space vortices, observed specially in the velocity direction perpendicular to the flow. The results can be of interest in the interpretation of structures in space plasmas as observed by instrumented space crafts

Weakly nonlinear ion sound waves in gravitational systems

Ion sound waves are studied in a plasma subject to gravitational field. Such systems are interesting by exhibiting a wave growth that is a result of energy flux conservation in inhomogeneous systems. The increasing wave amplitude gives rise to an enhanced interaction between waves and plasma particles that can be modeled by a modified Korteweg-de Vries equation. Analytical results are compared with numerical Particle-in-Cell simulations of the problem. Our code assumes isothermally Boltzmann distributed electrons while the ion component is treated as a collection of individual particles interacting through collective electric fields. Deviations from quasi neutrality are allowed for.Comment: 30 pages, 9 figure

A European Union Approach to Material Deprivation using EU-SILC and Eurobarometer data

The paper discusses methodological issues raised by the construction of indicators on material deprivation, which is defined here as an enforced lack of a combination of items depicting some aspects of living conditions related to housing conditions, possession of durables and capacity to afford basic requirements. More specifically, its focus is on the selection of items, their dimensional structure, their aggregation in a synthetic measure and their weighting. The paper also puts in perspective material deprivation and income-based poverty indicators to emphasise the complementarity of the two approaches. It covers the European Union countries available in the 2007 Community Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) users’ data base.Material deprivation ; EU-SILC ; Eurobarometer ; Poverty ; European Union

Income poverty and material deprivation in European countries

Since 2009, the European Union (EU) portfolio of commonly agreed social in-dicators includes measures of material deprivation. The rationale for this inclu-sion is that if purely income-based indicators of poverty and inequality are es-sential, they are nevertheless not sufficient to satisfactorily reflect the diversity of living conditions in the EU, especially since the 2004 and 2007 enlarge-ments. The paper analyses the relationship between income poverty and mate-rial deprivation in 25 European countries (24 EU Member States plus Norway) and aims at identifying the most important factors that determine the risk of being income poor and/or materially deprived. It is based on the 2007 cross-sectional data of the EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) users? data base.material deprivation; income poverty; European Union; Eu-SILC; open method of coordination; social inclusion

Wolfsen Land & Cattle Company v. Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations

In a case of first impression, the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reviewed a trial court ruling on a motion to intervene as a matter of right. In reviewing the Federal Claims Rule for intervention as of right, the court assessed the necessary showing of facts required by the intervenor to meet its burden of proving that adequate representation could not be made by an existing party. The court found that the trial court properly denied Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations’ (“PCFFA”) motion because its litigation goals were the same as those of the government, and therefore the court’s conclusion would resolve the government’s contentions at the same time as it would the PCFFA similar and related arguments

Montana Wildlife Federation v. Montana Board of Oil & Gas Conservation

The Montana Wildlife Federation challenged the Montana Board of Oil and Gas Conservation decision to issue twenty-three gas well permits in the Cedar Creek Anticline. The Plaintiffs claimed that twenty-three individual Environmental Assessments completed by Montana Board of Oil and Gas Conservation staff were inadequate under the Montana Environmental Policy Act review standards and that the Board was required to conduct a programmatic review of the permits. The Montana Supreme Court affirmed the lower court’s finding of summary judgment for the MBOGC, ruling that, under MEPA’s arbitrary and capricious standard, the Court’s role is not to determine if it would have made the same decision as the Board, but to decide whether the Board had sufficient information to make the decision it made. The Court found that the Board’s decision did not violate Montana’s statutory framework regulating oil and gas or MEPA’s procedural requirements

Texas v. United States Environmental Protection Agency

In Texas v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit vacated an Environmental Protection Agency rule disapproving Texas’s State Implementation Plan for compliance with National Ambient Air Quality Standards under the Clean Air Act. The court emphasized the importance of the cooperative federalism model embodied in the Clean Air Act, wherein the Environmental Protection Agency sets air quality standards and each state determines how it will meet those standards. The court held that the agency acted arbitrarily and capriciously in disapproving the plan because disapproval was not based on enforceable statutory requirements of the Clean Air Act