The Nova Scotia Ombudsman

Along with the dramatic rise of the welfare state, a concept of government generally accepted by most Canadians if not enthusiastically supported, has come a realization that the opportunities for individual grievances against government have multiplied. Each year .... thousands of administrative decisions are made, many of them by minor officials, which affect the lives of every citizen. If some of these decisions are arbitrary or unjustified, there is no easy way for the ordinary citizen to gain redress .\u27 Rather belatedly, many governments have recognized that the existing machinery to protect the citizen against unfair administrative action is inadequate and that new protections are needed. One response, and an increasingly popular one, has been to establish the office of ombudsman. Essentially, the ombudsman is a special officer appointed by the legislature to receive complaints from citizens against administrative injustice and maladministration and who has power to investigate, criticize and publicize but not reverse administrative action. To date, six Canadian provinces have established the office of ombudsman. One of these is Nova Scotia

Prison Industries Metering at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice: Two Years of Operational Experience

In 2001 the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Utilities and Energy Department (TDCJU& E) completed the installation of an extensive energy consumption metering system for their prison industries system. As the second largest state prison system in the nation, TDCJ facilities are scattered over many locations around the state and cover a diversity of prison industries and agricultural operations. The Energy Systems Laboratory (ESL), with New Horizon Technologies, Inc. (NHT) and eComponents Technology, Inc. installed a state-ofthe- art sub-metering system with the intent of meeting the needs of the TDCJ-U&E group well into the future. The system uses a web-based data acquisition interface and is capable of near real-time data acquisition and display. Fifteen-minute interval utility and sub-metered energy consumption data have been continuously collected since the system was commissioned. This paper describes the varied applications for these data at the TDCJ-U&E department. Significant improvements in the quality of energy use reporting and unit accountability have been obtained. Prison industries now receive monthly energy consumption reports and are responsible for the cost of their sub-metered energy consumption. Additionally, the operations and maintenance staff have found the data to be very useful for energy systems and equipment operational diagnosis

The discrete fragmentation equations : semigroups, compactness and asynchronous exponential growth

In this paper we present a class of fragmentation semigroups which are compact in a scale of spaces defined in terms of finite higher moments. We use this compactness result to analyse the long time behaviour of such semigroups and, in particular, to prove that they have the asynchronous growth property. We note that, despite compactness, this growth property is not automatic as the fragmentation semigroups are not irreducible

State of the Art Energy Submetering at Texas Department of Criminal Justice Industries

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice Utilities and Energy Department (TDCJ-U&E) has completed the first phase of a detailed energy use submetering system that will be one of the largest such installations in the United States at the second largest state prison system in the nation. Through responsibility accounting, TDCJ unit wardens and other staff needed to be able to monitor and justify the utility and energy use and expenses for the various prison industries and agricultural operations. These facilities are scattered at many locations around the state and cover a diversity of prison industries and agricultural operations from meat packing operations to metal fabrication, furniture restoration, garment and shoe factories, vehicle restoration, soap and detergent plants, mattress making and graphics that include sign and license plate manufacturing. The Energy Systems Laboratory (ESL) with New Horizon Technologies, Inc. (NHT) proposed to install a state-of-the-art submetering system that would meet the needs of the TDCJ system well into the future. Upon award of the contract, TDCJ-U&E assisted the ESL and NHT in conducting numerous surveys of the proposed metering locations, coordinated installations of the equipment with local unit wardens and staff, then installed the system hardware and software. The system uses a web-based user interface and is capable of real-time data acquisition and display. SquareD supplied the components for the field metering installation and local plumbing contractors either retrofitted existing gas meters or installed new meters as required. Preliminary testing began in late summer of 2000 and the system is collecting 15 minute interval utility and energy consumption data. This paper will describe the issues involved in implementing a project covering such a large geographic area, tight security issues and using inmate labor

Pharmacological And Genetic Reversal Of Age-Dependent Cognitive Deficits Attributable To Decreased Presenilin Function

Alzheimer\u27s disease (AD) is the leading cause of cognitive loss and neurodegeneration in the developed world. Although its genetic and environmental causes are not generally known, familial forms of the disease (FAD) are attributable to mutations in a single copy of the Presenilin (PS) and amyloid precursor protein genes. The dominant inheritance pattern of FAD indicates that it may be attributable to gain or change of function mutations. Studies of FAD-linked forms of presenilin (psn) in model organisms, however, indicate that they are loss of function, leading to the possibility that a reduction in PS activity might contribute to FAD and that proper psn levels are important for maintaining normal cognition throughout life. To explore this issue further, we have tested the effect of reducing psn activity during aging in Drosophila melanogaster males. We have found that flies in which the dosage of psn function is reduced by 50% display age-onset impairments in learning and memory. Treatment with metabotropic glutamate receptor (mGluR) antagonists or lithium during the aging process prevented the onset of these deficits, and treatment of aged flies reversed the age-dependent deficits. Genetic reduction of Drosophila metabotropic glutamate receptor (DmGluRA), the inositol trisphosphate receptor (InsP(3)R), or inositol polyphosphate 1-phosphatase also prevented these age-onset cognitive deficits. These findings suggest that reduced psn activity may contribute to the age-onset cognitive loss observed with FAD. They also indicate that enhanced mGluR signaling and calcium release regulated by InsP(3)R as underlying causes of the age-dependent cognitive phenotypes observed when psn activity is reduced

Update on Apollo Data Restoration by the NSSDC and the PDS Lunar Data Node

The Lunar Data Node (LDN) , under the auspices of the Geosciences Node of the Planetary Data System (PDS) and the National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC), is continuing its efforts to recover and restore Apollo science data. The data being restored are in large part archived with NSSDC on older media, but unarchived data are also being recovered from other sources. They are typically on 7- or 9-track magnetic tapes, often in obsolete formats, or held on microfilm, microfiche, or paper documents. The goal of the LDN is to restore these data from their current form, which is difficult for most researchers to access, into common digital formats with all necessary supporting data (metadata) and archive the data sets with PDS. Restoration involves reading the data from the original media, deciphering the data formats to produce readable digital data and converting the data into usable tabular formats. Each set of values in the table must then be understood in terms of the quantity measured and the units used. Information on instrument properties, operational history, and calibrations is gathered and added to the data set, along with pertinent references, contacts, and other ancillary documentation. The data set then undergoes a peer review and the final validated product is archived with PDS. Although much of this effort has concentrated on data archived at NSSDC in the 1970's, we have also recovered data and information that were never sent to NSSDC. These data, retrieved from various outside sources, include raw and reduced Gamma-Ray Spectrometer data from Apollos 15 and 16, information on the Apollo 17 Lunar Ejecta And Meteorites experiment, Dust Detector data from Apollos 11, 12, 14, and I5, raw telemetry tapes from the Apollo ALSEPs, and Weekly Status Reports for all the Apollo missions. These data are currently being read or organized, and supporting data is being gathered. We are still looking for the calibrated heat flow data from Apollos 15 and 17 for the period 1975-1977, any assistance or information on these data would be welcome. NSSDC has recently been tasked to release its hard-copy archive, comprising photography, microfilm, and microfiche. The details are still being discussed, but we are concentrating on recovering the valuable lunar data from these materials while they are still readily accessible. We have identified the most critical of these data and written a LASER proposal to fund their restoration. Included in this effort are data from the Apollo 15 and 16 Mass Spectrometers and the Apollo 17 Par-UV Spectrometer and ancillary information on the Apollo 17 Surface Electrical Properties Experiment