The Traveler, February 2004

News from the Iowa Tourism Offic

UK Renewable Heat Policy: Lessons from Renewable Electricity Policy

7th BIEE Academic Conference, Oxford, UK, 24-25 September 2008Introduction: Figures presented by the UK’s Department for Trade and Industry in 2007 suggest demand for heat energy accounts for almost half of all UK energy consumption, and for 79% of nontransport related energy consumption (DTI, 2007). This translates to around 47% of UK CO2 emissions, making heating a major contributor to the UK’s climate change emissions. Despite this, there has been little attention paid to the more sustainable supply of heat and on policy relating to renewable energy sources of heat (RES-H). Heat from renewables sources accounted for only 0.6% of UK heat demand in 2006 and this fraction has been in decline for over a decade (BERR, 2008a). Recently emerging discussion seems centred around the associated costs and contribution of a target in the range of 11-14% of total UK heat demand to be met by 2020 (BERR, 2008b; BERR, 2008c). The UK, in common with the large majority of other nations which have developed renewable energy policy, has tended to focus, often exclusively, on electrical generation. While there may be a number of explanations for this, a switch to more sustainable sources of heat offers many of the same advantages with regard to reduced environmental impact, increased security of supply and all he other benefits that go with renewable electrical generation. This paper considers the particular needs of RES-H technologies in terms of the policy instruments which might best suit their growth. It considers what lessons might be learned from the policy experience with renewable energy sources of electricity (RES-E) whilst also emphasising the key differences which have the potential to undermine the application of instruments from one category to the other. The diverse needs of different RES-H technologies are considered, with particular attention to the often conflicting nature of their requirements for support. Critical assessment of the problems of transferring mechanisms wholesale from employment in support of RES-E to efforts to support RES-H is carried out

Pochodzenie prasłowiańskiego *čьjь ‘czyj’ / Izvor praslovanskega *čьjь ‘čigav’

This article proposes a new analysis of the isolated Proto-Slavic word for ‘whose’, *čьjь. The lexeme is explained as a simple thematic derivative (in *‑o‑) from PIE *kʷi‑h₁ ‘with whom/what’ (instrumental singular of *kʷi‑ ‘who/what’); thus: post-PIE *kʷi‑h₁‑o‑ ‘being with whom/what’ > ‘whose’ > PSl. *čьjь. The structure is comparable to derivatives such as PIE *h₂ep‑i ‘in water’ → *h₂ep‑i‑o‑ ‘being in water’ > Ved. ápiya‑ ‘idem’.Članek prinaša novo razlago izolirane praslovanske besede *čьjь ‘čigav’. Leksem se razlaga s tematično izpeljavo (na *‑o‑) iz praindoevropskega *kʷi‑h₁ ‘s kom/čim’ (or. ed. h *kʷi‑ ‘kdo/kaj’), torej: pide. *kʷi‑h₁‑o ‘tak, ki je s kom/čim’ > ‘čigav’ > psl. *čьjь. Struktura izpeljanke je primerljiva z novo razlago pide. *h₂ep‑i ‘v vodi’ → *h₂ep‑i‑o‑ ‘tak, ki je v vodi’ > ved. ápiya‑ ‘isto’

A new law on advance directives in Germany

This article presents the new German law on advance directives from 1 September 2009. The history of the parliamentary process of this law is described, the present regulations are explained, their relevance for medical practice discussed and shortcomings are identified. Finally, the new law is compared with other regulations in the international context. Previously established legal practice in Germany has now become largely confirmed by the new law: An advanced directive must be respected in any decision concerning medical treatment, regardless of the stage of the illness. It can be informally revoked at any time, even with limited decision-making capacity. Nobody may be obliged to issue a directive in any way. Advance directives do not need notarisation or routine updating after certain time intervals. Provided that the patient, who is no longer mentally competent, has issued a lasting power of attorney (Bevollmachtiger), or provided that the patient has been appointed a healthcare proxy by the courts (Betreuer), this authorised surrogate must assert the patient's will. The role of the guardianship court is clarified: it only needs to be involved in cases of disagreement as to the patient's will. The new German law thus combines more legal certainty with a liberal emphasis on patient autonomy and flexible, adaptable regulations

Szent remeték mint a szerzetesi élet példaképei: az egri irgalmas rendház 18. századi ablaktáblái Fr. Huetter Lukácstól

Abstract The order of the hospitaller brothers of St John of God worked in Eger from 1726 to 1950. One of them, brother Lucas Huetter (†1760) adorned the window shutters of the monastic cells with paintings between 1749 and 1760. The oil paintings are equally 68×38 cm. The painter in Eger used for his pictures the late 16th century print series by Johannes and Raphael Sadeler made after the works of Antwerp painter Marten de Vos (1532–1603) (titles of the series: “Solitudo sive vitae patrum eremicolarum”, “Sylvae sacrae” and “Trophaeum vitae solitariae”). The twelve scenes on the six window shutters are tightly connected to the monastic way of living. In the first pair of shutters Martinianus and Evagrius exemplify triumph over temptation. The second pair (St Venerius and St Paul the Simple) stresses the importance of obedience. The saint hermits (St Mary the Egyptian, St William of Maleval and Onuphrius) and St Francis of Assisi are paragons of poverty, asceticism and self-denial. The saints on the window shutters of the third cell (St Ignatius of Loyola, St Isidore of Madrid, the hermits Mutius and Simeon) all receive celestial help for the execution of their tasks. In “The Imitation of Christ” Thomas à Kempis presents the holy hermits and sainted founders of the orders as examples to be imitated by the monks and all God-fearing people. The window shutters in Eger did not merely serve as decoration for the cells but filled clearly didactic, exemplary roles: how to overscome the difficulties of the everyday life, to keep focused on God and to become a saint

Are human V\u3b42pos T cells really resistant to aging and Human Cytomegalovirus infection?

In their recent paper, Weili Xu et al. [1] described the different behaviors of V\u3b41pos and V\u3b42pos T cell subsets in response to lifelong stress and claimed that V\u3b42pos T cells are not affected by aging and Human Cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection. While we agree that these two \u3b3\u3b4 T cell subsets diverge both in phenotype/function and in tissue distribution, we are somewhat surprised that authors did not take into account the several previously published and contradictory experimental evidence in regards to senescence of V\u3b42pos T cells [2,3]. These latter studies reported that HCMV infection not only induces a clonal expansion of a distinct V\u3b39neg/V\u3b42pos T cell subset, but also determines a concomitant adaptive differentiation from CD27high na\uefve cells to CD27low/neg terminal-effectors. However, Weili Xu et al. argued that the expression and kinetics of both CD27 and CD45RA surface markers do not change and follow the homeostatic changes of V\u3b42pos T cells. This statement goes in the opposite direction to previously reported findings as the CD27/CD45RA phenotype has been shown to mark the maturation and differentiation (TNa\uefve, TCentral-Memory, Teffector-Memory and TEffectory-Memory RA) of V\u3b42pos T cells. Indeed, the different surface expression of both CD27 and CD45 parallel the progressive decrease of telomere length, the proliferative capacity as well as the different effector-functions and resistance to death of V\u3b42+ T cells in response to antigens and homeostatic cytokines [4,5]. Hence, we believe that these controversial issues require further discussion beyond the unilateral conclusion given by the study of Weili Xu et al

A first-principles study of MgB2 (0001) surfaces

We report self-consistent {\it ab initio} calculations of structural and electronic properties for the B- and Mg-terminated MgB$_{2}$ (0001) surfaces. We employ ultra-soft pseudopotentials and plane wave basis sets within the generalized gradient approximation. The surface relaxations are found to be small for both B- and Mg-terminated surfaces. For the B-terminated surface, both B ${\sigma}$ and ${\pi}$ surface bands appear, while only one B ${\pi}$ surface band exists near the Fermi level for the Mg-terminated surface. The superconductivity of the MgB$_2$ surfaces is discussed. The work function is predicted to be 5.95 and 4.25 eV for the B- and Mg-terminated surfaces respectively. The simulated scanning tunneling microscopy images of the surfaces are not sensitive to the sign and value of the bias voltages, but depend strongly on the tip-sample distance. An image reversal is predicted for the Mg-terminated surface.Comment: 3 pages, 4 figures, Revte