Geomorphological considerations for the introduction of boulders and groynes for fisheries enhancement: assessment of River Eden at Carhead

This report seeks to briefly provide geomorphological guidance over the introduction of 'habitat enhancement' features for fisheries improvement which is an expanding area of interest throughout the region. This document is a primary attempt to draw together the salient details from the large quantity of literature published in recent years with reference to boulder introduction and to groyne/deflector placement in NW rivers. Secondly the potential introduction of such features is assessed, with reference to the proposed works at Carhead on the Eden

Improved combustion chamber optical probe

Optical inspection probe permits remote inspection of combustion chambers through 360 degrees, and is fully controllable in terms of elevation, focus, and sweep. It eliminates the hazards of physically entering combustion chamber interiors and throats of rocket engines for inspection

Annular wing

An annular wing particularly suited for use in supporting in flight an aircraft characterized by the absence of directional stabilizing surfaces is described. The wing comprises a rigid annular body of a substantially uniformly symmetrical configuration characterized by an annular positive lifting surface and cord line coincident with the segment of a line radiating along the surface of an inverted truncated cone. A decalage is established for the leading and trailing semicircular portions of the body, relative to instantaneous line of flight, and a dihedral for the laterally opposed semicircular portions of the body, relative to the line of flight. The direction of flight and climb angle or glide slope angle are established by selectively positioning the center of gravity of the wing ahead of the aerodynamic center along the radius coincident with an axis for a selected line of flight

Chevron Deference and Patent Exceptionalism

The Duke Law Journal’s Forty-Sixth Annual Administrative Law Symposium addresses the timely and important topic of patent exceptionalism. Administrative law exceptionalism—the misperception that a particular regulatory field is so different from the rest of the regulatory state that general administrative law principles do not apply—is by no means unique to patent law. Scholars, attorneys, and agency officials in various regulatory fields ranging from immigration to tax have sought, contrary to the Supreme Court’s general guidance, “to carve out an approach to administrative review good for [the regulatory field’s] law only.” This Essay focuses on one of the main debates from the Symposium: whether courts should apply Chevron deference to interpretations of substantive patent law advanced by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO). Part I frames the debate about whether Chevron deference should apply, contrasting the positions taken by Stuart Benjamin and Arti Rai on the one hand, and John Golden on the other. After agreeing with Professors Benjamin and Rai that certain PTO interpretations of substantive patent law are probably eligible for Chevron deference, Part II outlines how a stronger case could be made for why it is worth the PTO’s time and energy to seek Chevron deference from the Supreme Court. Among other reasons, the PTO and its U.S. Department of Justice lawyers should request such deference to weaken the Federal Circuit’s control over substantive patent law and reverse an era of patent stare decisis. The Essay concludes by urging patent law scholars to play a more active role in urging courts to abandon patent exceptionalism

Evaluation of Sure Start Mellow Valley: Findings from the stakeholder survey

Sure Start is a government programme which aims to make a difference to children 0-4 years and their families through supporting parents, increasing childcare availability and improving the health and social development of young children. Local Sure Start programmes seek to involve parents and other partners in their work. Sure Start principles are listed below. Sure Starts will be changing with the government’s commitment to build Children’s Centres in every community by 2010

Peer assessment of research: how many publications per staff?

The UK's higher education funding councils have proposed reducing the number of submitted outputs from four to three in the forthcoming Research Excellence Framework to reduce the burden on panel members. This reduction is considered to be sufficient for panels to form a robust view of the achievements of individuals and their departments. The key issue is whether the subject panels would have sufficient information to judge the quality of research at departmental level with details of only three outputs per staff. Two journal quality indicators are used in this note to test the assumption that three publications is likely to be as useful to the panels as four to measure research quality in three cognate units of assessment (business & management, economics & econometrics and accounting & finance). In fact, the results indicate that two publications would be sufficient, thereby providing more time for a careful assessment of submitted outputs

Economic evaluations of non-communicable disease interventions

Background Demographic projections suggest a major increase in non-communicable disease (NCD) mortality over the next two decades in developing countries. In a climate of scarce resources, policy-makers need to know which interventions represent value for money. The prohibitive cost of performing multiple economic evaluations has generated interest in transferring the results of studies from one setting to another. This paper aims to bridge the gap in the current literature by critically evaluating the available published data on economic evaluations of NCD interventions in developing countries. Methods We identified and reviewed the methodological quality of 32 economic evaluations of NCD interventions in developing countries. Developing countries were defined according to the World Bank classification for low- and lower middle-income countries. We defined NCDs as the 12 categories listed in the 1993 World Bank report Investing in Health. English language literature was searched for the period January 1984 and January 2003 inclusive in Medline, Science Citation Index, HealthStar, NHS Economic Evaluation Database and Embase using medical subheading terms and free text searches. We then assessed the quality of studies according to a set of pre-defined technical criteria. Results We found that the quality of studies was poor and resource allocation decisions made by local and global policy-makers on the basis of this evidence could be misleading. Furthermore we have identified some clear gaps in the literature, particularly around injuries and strategies for tackling the consequences of the emerging tobacco epidemic. Conclusion In the face of poor evidence the role of so-called generalised cost-effectiveness analyses has an important role to play in aiding public health decision-making at the global level. Further research is needed to investigates the causes of variation among cost, effects and cost-effectiveness data within and between settings. Such analyses still need to take a broad view, present data in a transparent manner and take account of local constraints

The upper atmosphere

Energy transfer, and heat sinks and sources in upper atmosphere for composition and temperature behavio