\u3cem\u3eKrieg v. Seybold\u3c/em\u3e: The Seventh Circuit Adopts a Bright Line in Favor of Random Drug Testing

In Krieg v. Seybold, Robert Krieg challenged the City of Marion, Indiana’s, policy of random drug testing as it applied to his job as a heavy-equipment operator in the Department of Streets and Sanitation. While the Fourth Amendment normally would require the City to have a reasonable suspicion that Krieg used drugs before it could require him to submit to a drug test, the Supreme Court has created a “safety” exception to this rule. This exception permits government employers to test certain safety-sensitive employees for drugs without suspicion where a characteristic of the workplace makes suspicion-based testing impractical. The Seventh Circuit held that the safety-sensitive nature of Krieg’s job fit within this exception and therefore affirmed summary judgment in favor of the city. Because the Seventh Circuit failed to identify any circumstance that would make suspicion-based testing impractical, this Note will argue that the court improperly created a bright-line rule that all safety-sensitive workers can be subject to suspicionless drug tests. Further, this Note will argue that the Seventh Circuit failed to create a principled distinction between the safety concerns raised by Krieg’s job and those raised by other blue-collar positions. As a result, the court’s bright line will have a far-reaching effect, depriving many blue-collar workers of the normal protection of the Fourth Amendment

\u3cem\u3eKrieg v. Seybold\u3c/em\u3e: The Seventh Circuit Adopts a Bright Line in Favor of Random Drug Testing

In Krieg v. Seybold, Robert Krieg challenged the City of Marion, Indiana’s, policy of random drug testing as it applied to his job as a heavy-equipment operator in the Department of Streets and Sanitation. While the Fourth Amendment normally would require the City to have a reasonable suspicion that Krieg used drugs before it could require him to submit to a drug test, the Supreme Court has created a “safety” exception to this rule. This exception permits government employers to test certain safety-sensitive employees for drugs without suspicion where a characteristic of the workplace makes suspicion-based testing impractical. The Seventh Circuit held that the safety-sensitive nature of Krieg’s job fit within this exception and therefore affirmed summary judgment in favor of the city. Because the Seventh Circuit failed to identify any circumstance that would make suspicion-based testing impractical, this Note will argue that the court improperly created a bright-line rule that all safety-sensitive workers can be subject to suspicionless drug tests. Further, this Note will argue that the Seventh Circuit failed to create a principled distinction between the safety concerns raised by Krieg’s job and those raised by other blue-collar positions. As a result, the court’s bright line will have a far-reaching effect, depriving many blue-collar workers of the normal protection of the Fourth Amendment

Local competition and metapopulation processes drive long-term seagrass-epiphyte population dynamics

It is well known that ecological processes such as population regulation and natural enemy interactions potentially occur over a range of spatial scales, and there is a substantial body of literature developing theoretical understanding of the interplay between these processes. However, there are comparatively few studies quantifying the long-term effects of spatial scaling in natural ecosystems. A key challenge is that trophic complexity in real-world biological communities quickly obscures the signal from a focal process. Seagrass meadows provide an excellent opportunity in this respect: in many instances, seagrasses effectively form extensive natural monocultures, in which hypotheses about endogenous dynamics can be formulated and tested. We present amongst the longest unbroken, spatially explict time series of seagrass abundance published to date. Data include annual measures of shoot density, total above-ground abundance, and associated epiphyte cover from five Zostera marina meadows distributed around the Isles of Scilly, UK, from 1996 to 2011. We explore empirical patterns at the local and metapopulation scale using standard time series analysis and develop a simple population dynamic model, testing the hypothesis that both local and metapopulation scale feedback processes are important. We find little evidence of an interaction between scales in seagrass dynamics but that both scales contribute approximately equally to observed local epiphyte abundance. By quantifying the long-term dynamics of seagrass-epiphyte interactions we show how measures of density and extent are both important in establishing baseline information relevant to predicting responses to environmental change and developing management plans. We hope that this study complements existing mechanistic studies of physiology, genetics and productivity in seagrass, whilst highlighting the potential of seagrass as a model ecosystem. More generally, this study provides a rare opportunity to test some of the predictions of ecological theory in a natural ecosystem of global conservation and economic val

Proyecciones estratégicas en bibliotecas públicas: qué, cómo y para qué. Un estudio comparativo

Objective. To determine convergence points regarding strategic projections of public libraries in Bellingham, Chicago (United States), Calgary, London (Canada), Scotland, Finland, Ireland and Victoria (Australia). Design/Methodology/Approach. The research was performed by means of the documentary analysis of relevant articles on strategic management, and the qualitative content analysis of strategic reports regarding the performances of public libraries in the aforementioned contexts. Results/Discussion. There were noted the points of contact between the contemporary functions of public libraries and their projections in order to benefit their communities. Conclusions. Strategic management must be a steady activity in public libraries. The presence and materialization of strategic projections lead public libraries to satisfy the informational and cultural needs, such as the benefits of their communities. Originality/Value. The analysis of eight strategic public library projections in different contexts enable us to suggest points of convergence that might be relevant to other public libraries, and researchers involved in such strategic management process

Modelling carbon export mediated by biofouled microplastics in the Mediterranean Sea

Marine microplastics can be colonized by biofouling microbial organisms, leading to a decrease in microplastics' buoyancy. The sinking of biofouled microplastics could therefore represent a novel carbon export pathway within the ocean carbon cycle. Here, we model how microplastics are biofouled by diatoms, their consequent vertical motion due to buoyancy changes, and the interactions between particle-attached diatoms and carbon pools within the water column. We initialize our Lagrangian framework with biogeochemical data from NEMO-MEDUSA-2.0 and estimate the amount of organic carbon exported below 100 m depth starting from different surface concentrations of 1-mm microplastics. We focus on the Mediterranean Sea that is characterized by some of the world's highest microplastics concentrations and is a hotspot for biogeochemical changes induced by rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. Our results show that the carbon export caused by sinking biofouled microplastics is proportional to the concentration of microplastics in the sea surface layer, at least at modeled concentrations. We estimate that, while current concentrations of microplastics can modify the natural biological carbon export by < 1%, future concentrations projected under business-as-usual pollution scenarios may lead to carbon exports up to 5% larger than the baseline (1998–2012) by 2050. Areas characterized by high primary productivity, that is, the Western and Central Mediterranean, are those where microplastics-mediated carbon export results to be the highest. While highlighting the potential and quantitatively limited occurrence of this phenomenon in the Mediterranean Sea, our results call for further investigation of a microplastics-related carbon export pathway in the global ocean

Santa Anita: la finca, el feudo y el territorio en la nación imaginada por el personaje Fernando Vallejo

The farm of Santa Anita is an emblematic place constantly appearing in Fernando Vallejo’s narrative. Through the memory of the farm, we see a worldview, a way of seeing the world linked to the region within a literary writing which constitutes a highly contextualized social practice. In this sense, we consider the imagination as an act committed to reality and therefore we will appraise the ideological and political changes of human and social agencies that literary writing set in motion. Therefore, we will analyze the text as a document in which the relationship with power is presented as a testimony of the existence of more or less opened relations of struggle and conflict.La finca de Santa Anita es un espacio emblemático que aparece constantemente en la narrativa de Fernando Vallejo; a través del recuerdo de la finca podemos observar una cosmovisión, una manera de ver el mundo ligada al territorio dentro de una escritura literaria que constituye una práctica social fuertemente contextualizada. En este sentido, la imaginación puede ser entendida como un acto comprometido con la realidad y por ello se apreciará el mérito de las variaciones ideológicas y políticas de las agencias humanas y sociales que la escritura literaria pone en movimiento. Por tanto, se analizará el texto como un documento en el que la relación con el poder se presenta como un testimonio de la existencia de unas más o menos abiertas relaciones de lucha y conflicto

Estado de la cuestión sobre las características gramaticales de los marcadores discursivos del español

En este artículo vamos a centrarnos en una serie de rasgos delimitadores de naturaleza prosódica, morfosintáctica, semántica y pragmática que pueden servir para acotar el amplio y heterogéneo campo de los marcadores del discurso del español. El análisis de estos rasgos, a partir del contraste de informaciones provenientes de distintos modelos teóricos, nos facilita una serie de pruebas reveladoras acerca de qué tipo de unidades pueden estar o no dentro de las unidades objeto de estudio. Una vez resuelta esta cuestión, nos centraremos en el siguiente aspecto: ¿cuál es la categoría de los marcadores? Dos son los puntos de vista fundamentales: la conjunción como categoría prototípica de los marcadores y los marcadores como un subconjunto de la categoría adverbial

Aproximação ao modo subjuntivo do espanhol desde uma perspectiva multivariável

This paper analyzes the subjunctive mood in Spanish from a multivariable and holistic perspective. More specifically, we analyze the pragmatic, semantic and syntactic characteristics of subjunctive constructions. To this end, we analyzed one hundred subjunctive constructions in light of some concepts of Dik’s Functional Grammar (1997). The data was analyzed from a set of traits located on a prototypical scale. The traits were determined based on a preliminary analysis of the data, with the information reported in the literature and based on the theoretical model adopted.Este artículo analiza el modo subjuntivo del español desde una perspectiva multivariable y holística. Específicamente, analiza qué características pragmáticas, semánticas y sintácticas presentan las construcciones con subjuntivo. Para responder la pregunta se analizaron cien construcciones de subjuntivo a la luz de algunos conceptos de la Gramática Funcional de Dik (1997). Los datos fueron analizados a partir de un conjunto de rasgos que se ubicaron en una escala de prototipicidad. La determinación de los rasgos se hizo con base en un análisis preliminar de los datos, con la información reportada en la bibliografía y con base en el modelo teórico adoptado.Este artigo analisa o modo subjuntivo do espanhol desde uma perspectiva multivariável e holística. Especificamente, analisa quais características pragmáticas, semânticas e sintáticas apresentam as construções no subjuntivo. Para responder à pergunta, analisaram-se cem construções no subjuntivo sob alguns conceitos da Gramática Funcional de Dik (1997). Os dados foram analisados a partir de um conjunto de características organizadas em nível de prototipicidade. A determinação dessas características baseou-se em uma análise preliminar dos dados, com as informações apresentadas na bibliografia e com base no modelo teórico adotado

Measurement of the top quark production cross section and search for the SM Higgs boson in dilepton final states with the CMS detector at the LHC pp collider at √s = 7 TeV

Memoria de tesis presentada por Patricia Lobelle Pardo para optar al grado de Doctor en el Departamento de Física Moderna de la Universidad de Cantabria.El Modelo Eständard(SM) describe el comportamiento de todas las partículas subatómicas conocidas, explicando con éxito todos los datos de colisiones de altas energías. Sin embargo, todavía quedan cuestiones por resolver en este modelo, como la naturaleza del mecanismo responsable de la ruptura de la simetría electrodébil y el orígen de la masa. El mecanismo de Higgs proporciona una de las soluciones más simples al problema, requiere la existencia de una nueva partícula escalar, el bosón de Higgs, que todavía no se ha detectado. Todas las propiedades de esta partícula se pueden predecir dentro del Modelo Estándard excepto su masa, que es un parámetro libre de la teor´ıa. Después del descubrimiento del quark top en 1995, el bosón de Higgs es la única pieza que falta en este modelo. La búsqueda del bosón de Higgs se ha llevado a cabo en diferentes experimentos,y, hasta el momento, se han puesto límites a su masa. Las búsquedas en el colisionador e+ e− LEP proporcionaron un límite inferior a la masa de 114.4 GeV /c2 a un nivel de confianza del 95%. Actualmente, los experimentos CDF y D0 en el colisionador pp¯ Tevatron siguen realizando búsquedas de Higgs y han alcanzado suficiente sensibilidad para excluir un bosón de Higgs del SM con una masa comprendida entre aproximadamente 158 and 175 GeV /c2 a un nivel de confianza del 95% C.L. Otras medidas indirectas, como las derivadas de medidas electrodébiles de precisión ponen un límite superior en 185 GeV /c2 al 95% C.L. Por tanto, todos los límites experimentales y teóricos obtenidos hasta el momento favorecen un bosón de Higgs ligero. Todas estas medidas contribuyen, además, a orientar las búsquedas en el LHC. El LHC es un colisionador pp, diseñado para producir colisiones a una energía en centro de masas de √s = 14 TeV, siete veces superior a la del Tevatron, lo que permitir´a estudiar un rango amplio de procesos, tanto dentro del Modelo Estándar como evidencias de física más allá de este Modelo. Por tanto, si el mecanismo de Higgs es válido los experimentos del LHC tienen el potencial para encontrar el bosón de Higgs, permitiendo concluir la búsqueda llevada a cabo durante muchos años en diferentes colisionadores. El trabajo presentado en esta tesis doctoral se centra en la medida de la sección eficaz de producción de pares de quarks top-antitop y en la búsqueda del bosón de Higgs del SM en el modo de desintegración WW, ambos procesos en el estado final dileptónico, con los datos recogidos durante el año 2010 en colisiones pp a √s = 7 TeV, lo que corresponde a una luminosidad integrada de 36 pb−1. Todo esto ha sido posible gracias a las excelentes prestaciones y funcionamiento del detector CMS durante el año 2010.Peer Reviewe

La construcción de la identidad cultural de los paisajes rurales serranos: el caso de Montefrío

Actualmente, los espacios rurales están siendo víctima de una pérdida continua de sus valores agrícolas, ambientales, históricos y culturales. El planeamiento urbanístico actual entiende en suelo rural como un negativo de la ciudad (suelo no urbanizable), al que le aplica herramientas de ordenación impropias y deslocalizadas. Este estudio pretende reconocer los valores propios que caracterizan y construyen este territorio y que conforman los elementos identitarios del paisaje rural (Sabaté, 2010; Magnaghi, 2011). Para esto, se plantea la diacronía como herramienta de revelación de estas identidades (González Villaescusa) con las que la planificación urbanística puede proteger las herencias culturales e incentivar el desarrollo de la conciencia del lugar en un escenario en continua evolución (Montasell, 2010). El estudio se centra en el municipio de Montefrío (Granada) enclavado en la cordillera sub bética; un paisaje serrano con valores históricos, agrarios y etnológicos, alejado de las presiones urbanísticas, que lo convierten en un marco ideal para esta investigación.Nowadays, rural areas are the victim of a continuing loss of agricultural, environmental, historical, cultural values. The current urban planning interpret a rural land as a negative of the city (undeveloped land) where applies relocated and improper urban management tools. This study aims to recognize the values that characterize and build up the territory and from local identity components of the rural landscape (Sabaté, 2010; Magnaghi, 2011). For this, raises the evolution as a tool for disclosing these identities (González Villaescusa) with which urban planning can protect cultural heritage and encourage the development of a sense of place on a stage of continuos evolution (Montasell, 2010). The study focuses on the town of Montefrío (Granada) sub bética nestled in the mountains; a mountain landscape with historical, agricultural and ethnological values, remote from urban development pressures, away from urban pressures, making it an ideal framework for this research