Landowners' liability? is perception of the risk of liability for visitors accidents a barrier to countryside access?

The study seeks to analyse both the perception and reality of liability risk for owners of countryside land for injuries suffered by recreational visitors. The study starts by evaluating the relevant legislation and case law in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland on countryside access and liability in tort for injury suffered by visitors to such places. In doing so it reviews legislation such as Health &amp; Safety at Work Act 1974, Countryside &amp; Rights of Way Act 2000, Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003, Occupiers' Liability Acts 1957 &amp; 1984, Animals Act 1971 and the Compensation Act 2006. Through appraisal of this legislation and key cases such as Tomlinson -v- Congleton Borough Council (2004) the actual level of liability risk is assessed to be low. The study then investigates the rise of a pervasive discourse amongst policy makers, judiciary and senior business figures asserting the need to avoid further development of a risk adverse culture within the UK and/or to tackle a growth in the perceived "compensation culture". A link to deregulation and pro-entrepreneurship interests is shown. The reality of compensation claim rates and associated behaviours is then examined. Issues of liability risk perception are then addressed by reviewing in detail the limited available UK literature on liability perception by landowners and comparing this with evidence from the United States and New Zealand. Case studies of alleged risk adverse land management are then examined to test the evidence base for common assertions of excess regulation and/or withdrawal of access to land or facilities through fear of liability. Finally, the study explores (via interviews of 21 land managers and representative bodies) how liability risks are actually perceived by land owners and the extent of awareness of recent changes in discourse and case law regarding public safety issues. In doing so the study reveals the ways in which land managers in large pro-access agencies and utilities develop common standards and understandings around the level of "reasonably practicable" safety provision. The study concludes with recommendations for further research to investigate the way in which liability risk perceptions are formed by smaller landowners who are more remote from such "interpretive communities" (Fish 1980).</p

AN EDUCATION IN DISTANCE LEARNING: THE CASE OF AGRIBUSINESS 101

A Cal Poly introductory agribusiness class is taught via distance education to a Southern California junior college as part of a pilot project of a USDA grant to increase diversity in agribusiness education. Live, interactive video presents new challenges to on-campus students, distant students and the instructor.distance education, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

IMPACT OF INDUSTRIALIZATION ON EMPLOYEE INCOME DISTRIBUTION IN RURAL TEXAS COMMUNITIES

Labor and Human Capital,

Evaluation of anti-freeze viscosity modifier for potential external tank applications

Viscosity modifiers and gelling agents were evaluated in combination with ethylene glycol and dimethyl sulfoxide water eutectics. Pectin and agarose are found to gel these eutectics effectively in low concentration, but the anti-freeze protection afforded by these compositions is found to be marginal in simulations of the intended applications. Oxygen vent shutters and vertical metallic surfaces were simulated, with water supplied as a spray, dropwise, and by condensation from the air

Ichthyofaunal Diversification and Distribution in Jane\u27s Creek Watershed, Randolph County, Arkansas

The purposes of this study were to determine the qualitative and quantitative distribution of fishes in the Jane\u27s Creek watershed. Jane\u27s Creek is a clear, spring-fed Ozark stream in northeastern Arkansas. A knowledge of the ichthyofauna of this stream prior to a long-range impoundment is of significance to the natural history of Arkansas. Jane\u27s Creek and its tributaries were found to be alkaline, with no measurable turbidity, and to have low levels of carbon dioxide. Dissolved oxygen values ranged from 6.1 to 16.0 ppm. Only slight differences in physicochemical conditions were noted among stations and between pool and riffle areas at each station. A total of 52 species of fishes were collected during this study. Most fishes were collected by seining. A rotenone sample on 10 July 1972 yielded a standing crop of 3,005 specimens and 392 kg/ha (2,681 specimens and 349 lb/A),minnows and darters excluded. Except for black-spot disease (Apophallus sp.) on some cyprinids, the fishes generally appeared robust. The large number of fish species collected during the sampling period reflected the diversity of habitats available. These observations indicated a healthy ichthyofaunal population inhabiting a stream system receiving little if any pollution

Experimental validation of clock synchronization algorithms

The objective of this work is to validate mathematically derived clock synchronization theories and their associated algorithms through experiment. Two theories are considered, the Interactive Convergence Clock Synchronization Algorithm and the Midpoint Algorithm. Special clock circuitry was designed and built so that several operating conditions and failure modes (including malicious failures) could be tested. Both theories are shown to predict conservative upper bounds (i.e., measured values of clock skew were always less than the theory prediction). Insight gained during experimentation led to alternative derivations of the theories. These new theories accurately predict the behavior of the clock system. It is found that a 100 percent penalty is paid to tolerate worst-case failures. It is also shown that under optimal conditions (with minimum error and no failures) the clock skew can be as much as three clock ticks. Clock skew grows to six clock ticks when failures are present. Finally, it is concluded that one cannot rely solely on test procedures or theoretical analysis to predict worst-case conditions

TRANSPORTATION ALTERNATIVES IN RURAL COMMUNITIES: A FEASIBILITY ANALYSIS

Public Economics,

LOCAL ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF CONSERVATION RESERVE PROGRAM ENROLLMENTS: A SUB-COUNTY ANALYSIS

Community/Rural/Urban Development,

Analyzing the Fierz Rearrangement Freedom for Local Chiral Two-Nucleon Potentials

Chiral effective field theory is a framework to derive systematic nuclear interactions. It is based on the symmetries of quantum chromodynamics and includes long-range pion physics explicitly, while shorter-range physics is expanded in a general operator basis. The number of low-energy couplings at a particular order in the expansion can be reduced by exploiting the fact that nucleons are fermions and therefore obey the Pauli exclusion principle. The antisymmetry permits the selection of a subset of the allowed contact operators at a given order. When local regulators are used for these short-range interactions, however, this "Fierz rearrangement freedom" is violated. In this paper, we investigate the impact of this violation at leading order (LO) in the chiral expansion. We construct LO and next-to-leading order (NLO) potentials for all possible LO-operator pairs and study their reproduction of phase shifts, the ${}^4$He ground-state energy, and the neutron-matter energy at different densities. We demonstrate that the Fierz rearrangement freedom is partially restored at NLO where subleading contact interactions enter. We also discuss implications for local chiral three-nucleon interactions.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure