In loco parentis and the professional responsibilities of teachers.

This paper examines the concept of in loco parentis in the light of its legal origins and considers its relevance to contemporary schooling, particularly the professional responsibilities of teachers. It is argued that from a legal perspective, in loco parentis is now largely an anachronism in New Zealand education, although it appears to have some limited application in non-compulsory and out-of-school-hours educational activities. From an ethical point of view, the concept remains useful because it stresses the duty of care that professional teachers have towards their students. However, teachers need to be clear about its extremely limited legal relevance as either a source of teacher authority or a legal basis for teachers to attend to the health and well-being of their students. In the main, its old functions have been superseded by much more specific legislatio

Renewable Resourse Integration In Biodegradable Composites

For a variety of applications it is desirable to produce textile materials with specially designed properties. Reinforcing 2D and 3D woven structures for fibers reinforced polymer composites were developed from renewable natural fibers and tested in this research work. Results and discussion are presented in the paper

Pollutant dispersion in a developing valley cold-air pool

Pollutants are trapped and accumulate within cold-air pools, thereby affecting air quality. A numerical model is used to quantify the role of cold-air-pooling processes in the dispersion of air pollution in a developing cold-air pool within an alpine valley under decoupled stable conditions. Results indicate that the negatively buoyant downslope flows transport and mix pollutants into the valley to depths that depend on the temperature deficit of the flow and the ambient temperature structure inside the valley. Along the slopes, pollutants are generally entrained above the cold-air pool and detrained within the cold-air pool, largely above the ground-based inversion layer. The ability of the cold-air pool to dilute pollutants is quantified. The analysis shows that the downslope flows fill the valley with air from above, which is then largely trapped within the cold-air pool, and that dilution depends on where the pollutants are emitted with respect to the positions of the top of the ground-based inversion layer and cold-air pool, and on the slope wind speeds. Over the lower part of the slopes, the cold-air-pool-averaged concentrations are proportional to the slope wind speeds where the pollutants are emitted, and diminish as the cold-air pool deepens. Pollutants emitted within the ground-based inversion layer are largely trapped there. Pollutants emitted farther up the slopes detrain within the cold-air pool above the ground-based inversion layer, although some fraction, increasing with distance from the top of the slopes, penetrates into the ground-based inversion layer.Peer reviewe

Реструктуризація підприємств в умовах трансформації економіки України

Розглянуто динаміку фінансового стану підприємств України за галузями та необхідність їх фінансового оздоровлення. Проаналізовано механізм та основні варіанти проведення реструктуризації, на прикладах визначено специфічні особливості реструктуризації підприємств різних галузей. Ключові слова: реструктуризація, трансформація, структурні перетворення, фінансові результати, управління, перепрофілювання.Рассмотрена динамика финансового состояния предприятий Украины по отраслям и необходимость их финансового оздоровления. Проанализирован механизм и основные варианты проведения реструктуризации, на примерах определены специфические особенности реструктуризации предприятий различных отраслей. Ключевые слова: реструктуризация, трансформация, структурные преобразования, финансовые результаты, управление, перепрофилирование.The paper focuses on dynamics of financial position of Ukraine’s enterprises by industries and the need for their financial recovery.The mechanism and main ways of restructuring are analysed, specific characteristics of enterprises restructuring are illustrated on the examples from different industries. Keywords: restructuring, transformation, struc¬tural changes, financial results, management, re-profiling

Flow during the evening transition over steep Alpine slopes

A field campaign, the Slope Experiment near La Fouly (SELF-2010), was conducted to monitor the evening transition of slope flows on clear-sky days from July to September 2010 in a narrow valley of the Swiss Alps. A steep west-facing slope with inclinations ranging from 25◦ to 45◦ was instrumented from 1900mto 2200mabove sea-level. Detailed measurements were made along a linear transect of the slope with two turbulence towers, two weather stations, five surface temperature measurement stations and a tethered balloon system. The present study focuses on nine exemplary ‘convective’ days, characterized by weak synoptic flow and clear-sky conditions, during which thermal circulations prevail. The analysis of the observational data shows that topographic shading triggers the evening transition. The topographic configuration around the experimental site results in a sharply defined ‘shading front’ propagating up slope, causing a sudden decrease in incoming short-wave radiation on the order of several hundreds of Wm−2 within a few minutes. The slope surface rapidly responds to the advancing shading front; in some cases, reductions in surface temperatures of some 10◦C in less than 10 min are observed. This is rapidly followed by an early-evening calm period with very small turbulent kinetic energy (TKE< 0.05m2 s−2) and extremely light wind speeds (< 0.5ms−1). When the inertia-driven upslope flow is fully stopped by the katabatic acceleration, a shallow local drainage flow forms and reaches a quasi-equilibrium 1.5 h after the local sunset. An analysis of the TKE budget close to the surface shows that the buoyancy flux is much greater than the shear production in the last hours before the local sunset, possibly due to valley curvature effects. Copyright c 2012 Royal Meteorological Societ