The Power Line Health Controversy: Legal Problems and Proposals for Reform

Part I of this Note examines the primary means of compensating individuals whose property is affected by EMFs from nearby power lines: eminent-domain and inverse-condemnation proceedings. Although power lines adversely affect property values in several ways, 6 fear of the potential health problems caused by power lines has had the greatest impact.\u27 v Part I evaluates the three approaches that courts have developed to determine whether plaintiffs can recover for the effect of public fears of EMFs on property values. This Part concludes that although testimony about the biological effects of EMFs should be inadmissible, property owners should be able to present particularized evidence as to the actual effect of such fear on the value of the property at issue. Part II suggests three possible tort theories-battery, trespass, and nuisance-that plaintiffs might use to get injunctive relief and monetary damages for the harms caused by EMFs. Although these theories remain relatively untested in court, they have the potential to provide the monetary relief or cessation of EMF exposure that plaintiffs have sought. Part II suggests that plaintiffs seeking monetary damages should bring battery or trespass actions, while plaintiffs seeking injunctive relief may have more success under a nuisance theory. Part III of the Note examines how utility companies can defuse opposition to power-line construction by changing their approach to the EMF issue. Power companies need to adopt both alternative technologies and a more politically sensitive attitude in addressing EMF concerns. Part III concludes that such steps will reduce the losses utility companies face from private lawsuits, while simultaneously accelerating new power-line construction

The Veterinary Nurse Workshops 2015: feline patients and stress

It is important that feline stress is considered in cats in the veterinary hospital, as stress can negatively impact on the welfare of the individual in several ways, for example, stressed cat can often be difficult to examine and may require restraint during handling. Such handling can often further impact negatively on the animal's emotional state — such signs of stress related to the veterinary environment and difficulty in examining can make it hard to make a diagnosis. Furthermore, for animals experiencing a stay in the veterinary hospital, stress can increase the recovery time of the patient. It is therefore important to assess each feline patient and take measures appropriate to that individual to help them cope in an inherently stressful environment. As animals descended from a solitary ancestor, cats are often very subtle in their body language and behaviour (e.g. posture, facial expressions, type and frequency of specific behaviours), and as a result signs of stress can be difficult to detect. However, veterinary nurses are well placed to monitor behavioural signs of stress displayed by patients in the hospital. As well as learning such signs, being able to communicate them both verbally and through the use of written records will not only ensure each patient has the best care from nurse to nurse, it will also help any student nurses in the practice learn these skills. Stress in the feline patient was the subject of discussion at The Veterinary Nurse workshops 201

Organizational Support and Communication: A Case Study of a New Risk Management Tool for University Aquatic Supervision

Research of in-service training and risk management strategies suggests that there are dysfunctions among employees that have a lack of team understanding about risk management and risk plans (Ammon & Brown, 2007; Hsiao & Kostelnik, 2009). Furthermore, theorists who study the dynamics of employee-employer relationships provide evidence that strong interpersonal support fosters a healthy staff mentality with regard to organizational goal commitment (Eisenburger et al. 1986). A seven-point Likert questionnaire was administered to 15 student lifeguards at one Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education Division II institution. Twenty-four questions identified three dependent variables, two relating to organizational support and one relating to communication about risk management. Pearsons correlation coefficients were used to identify strong relationships between aspects of the Organizational Support Theory and a newly developed set of questions, the scale for Communicating about Risk Management (CRM); this questionnaire identifies to what degree employees hear their supervisor communicating about risk management plans and practices. The current research showed strong correlations between several variables. For example, there was a strong, positive correlation (r = .75, p = .001), between the following two variables, a perception that an organization shows concern for an employee is associated with safety audits that are being performed by the supervisor while an employee is on duty

Asynchronous Graph Pattern Matching on Multiprocessor Systems

Pattern matching on large graphs is the foundation for a variety of application domains. Strict latency requirements and continuously increasing graph sizes demand the usage of highly parallel in-memory graph processing engines that need to consider non-uniform memory access (NUMA) and concurrency issues to scale up on modern multiprocessor systems. To tackle these aspects, graph partitioning becomes increasingly important. Hence, we present a technique to process graph pattern matching on NUMA systems in this paper. As a scalable pattern matching processing infrastructure, we leverage a data-oriented architecture that preserves data locality and minimizes concurrency-related bottlenecks on NUMA systems. We show in detail, how graph pattern matching can be asynchronously processed on a multiprocessor system.Comment: 14 Pages, Extended version for ADBIS 201

Effect of plant regulators on set and berry development in certain seedless and seeded varieties of Vitis vinifera L.

Flowering clusters on ungirdled, nondefoliated shoots of 'Black Corinth', and girdled shoots defoliated to 1 /ia leaf, were dipped in 4-CPA at 15 ppm, or GA3 at 5 or 15 ppm. In nondefoliated shoots the set was decreased about 13 °/o at 15 ppm, but there were no significant differences among the other treatments. All treatments produced heavier rachises, berries, and clusters than the ungirdled, untreated controls. In defoliated shoots the set was decreased approximately 85 °/o by GA3 at 15 ppm. 4-CPA significantly increased set, but a mixture of GA3 and 4-CPA did not alter set.Similar experiments were carried on with the seeded varieties 'Pinot Chardonnay', 'Muscat of Alexandria', and 'Grenache'. Clusters on ungirdled nondefoliated shoots were dipped in GA3, 4-CPA, or a mixture of the two compounds. Like treatments were made on other clusters on shoots defoliated to 1/4 leaf. There was a varietal difference in response among the seeded varieties. The compounds injured the Muscat and reduced the set and berry size.All treatments increased the set of seedless berries on nondefoliated shoots of 'Pinot'. In both 'Chardonnay' and 'Grenache' there was a shift from seeded to seedless berries. Application of 4-CPA resulted in a significantly greater set in total number of berries on defoliated shoots of 'Chardonnay' and 'Muscat'.All solutions containing GA3 increased siz'e of seedless berries on nondefoliated shoots of 'Pinot'. GA3 applied at shatter stage increased size of seedless 'Muscat' berries. With one exception, there was no increase in size of one-, two-, or three-seeded berries.Percentage set was significantly increased in defoliated shoots of 'Muscat' by 4-CPA, and in 'Pinot' by 4-CPA or a mixture of 4-CPA and GA3.A kinin, benzyladenine, failed to increase set or berry size, but intensified the development of a purple anthocyanin pigment in 'Muscat'.The possible importance of the ratio of a leaf-produced set factor to gibberellin in berry set in 'Black Corinth' is discussed

Farm Feed Processing.

12 p

Studying Algebraic Structures Using Prover9 and Mace4

In this chapter we present a case study, drawn from our research work, on the application of a fully automated theorem prover together with an automatic counter-example generator in the investigation of a class of algebraic structures. We will see that these tools, when combined with human insight and traditional algebraic methods, help us to explore the problem space quickly and effectively. The counter-example generator rapidly rules out many false conjectures, while the theorem prover is often much more efficient than a human being at verifying algebraic identities. The specific tools in our case study are Prover9 and Mace4; the algebraic structures are generalisations of Heyting algebras known as hoops. We will see how this approach helped us to discover new theorems and to find new or improved proofs of known results. We also make some suggestions for how one might deploy these tools to supplement a more conventional approach to teaching algebra.Comment: 21 pages, to appear as Chapter 5 in "Proof Technology in Mathematics Research and Teaching", Mathematics Education in the Digital Era 14, edited by G. Hanna et al. (eds.), published by Springe

Energy Conversion Research

Contains reports on three research projects.U. S. Air Force (Research and Technology Division) under Contract AF33(615)-3489 with the Air Force Aero Propulsion Laboratory, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohi

Validation of the SCID-hu Thy/Liv mouse model with four classes of licensed antiretrovirals.

BackgroundThe SCID-hu Thy/Liv mouse model of HIV-1 infection is a useful platform for the preclinical evaluation of antiviral efficacy in vivo. We performed this study to validate the model with representatives of all four classes of licensed antiretrovirals.Methodology/principal findingsEndpoint analyses for quantification of Thy/Liv implant viral load included ELISA for cell-associated p24, branched DNA assay for HIV-1 RNA, and detection of infected thymocytes by intracellular staining for Gag-p24. Antiviral protection from HIV-1-mediated thymocyte depletion was assessed by multicolor flow cytometric analysis of thymocyte subpopulations based on surface expression of CD3, CD4, and CD8. These mice can be productively infected with molecular clones of HIV-1 (e.g., the X4 clone NL4-3) as well as with primary R5 and R5X4 isolates. To determine whether results in this model are concordant with those found in humans, we performed direct comparisons of two drugs in the same class, each of which has known potency and dosing levels in humans. Here we show that second-generation antiretrovirals were, as expected, more potent than their first-generation predecessors: emtricitabine was more potent than lamivudine, efavirenz was more potent than nevirapine, and atazanavir was more potent than indinavir. After interspecies pharmacodynamic scaling, the dose ranges found to inhibit viral replication in the SCID-hu Thy/Liv mouse were similar to those used in humans. Moreover, HIV-1 replication in these mice was genetically stable; treatment of the mice with lamivudine did not result in the M184V substitution in reverse transcriptase, and the multidrug-resistant NY index case HIV-1 retained its drug-resistance substitutions.ConclusionGiven the fidelity of such comparisons, we conclude that this highly reproducible mouse model is likely to predict clinical antiviral efficacy in humans