5,884 research outputs found
Designing an Accessible, Technology-Driven Justice System: An Exercise in Testing the Access to Justice Technology Bill of Rights
The Access to Justice Technology Bill of Rights project, sponsored by the Access to Justice Board of Washington State, included a committee composed of attorneys, judges, technologists, and librarians charged with envisioning an ideal civil justice system. Our goals were to design a system with certain core values (e.g., due process and access to justice), test the system using a complex family law scenario, determine what opportunities technology brings to the table, and identify what barriers technology creates for persons using the system. This Article describes an idealized civil justice system (System) unlike anything that presently exists. The System is composed of people and technology that together provide a factual information-delivery system, an advocate, an adversary, a mediator, an adjudicator, and a proactive enforcer. To be successful, our System needs to use a wide variety of current and next-generation technologies and processes. The System gives the participants in a legal issue the opportunity to resolve their issue by themselves before escalating the issue for mediation or adjudication. In addition, the System plays an active role in the enforcement of whatever resolution is reached. At the core of the System is a cycle in which all participants simultaneously review and choose options. The interaction of all the participants choosing options allows the System to converge to a mutually acceptable resolution of the issue
Fecundity of Wild Northern Bobwhite Hens Under Hatchery Conditions
We describe egg production by 88 pairs of randomly selected, mature, wild-caught northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) hens housed under optimal conditions of food, water, climate, and a 17-hr photoperiod in a hatchery. We collected eggs daily using an 18-day period to differentiate between clutches. Hens continuously laid eggs until ceasing production. We evaluated number of eggs laid by each hen individually and hens collectively including total number, number/clutch, number/day, hatching success, and egg mass. Eighty-six hens produced 5,888 eggs. Number of eggs produced by individual hens ranged from 0 to 172 over ~ 200 days. Mean number of eggs laid/hen/day was 0.86. Clutch size ranged from 0 (n 1â4 2) to 12 (n 1â4 1). Mean number of eggs/clutch was 8.57. There was a strong correlation between clutch size and number of clutches. Some hens demonstrated continuous production of several large clutches. Hatching success of 5,793 eggs included for analysis was 61.6% (3,571 hatched, 2,222 failed to hatch). Hatched eggs had a greater mean mass compared to those that did not hatch
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Crystallization Behavior of Virgin TR-55 Silicone Rubber Measured Using Dynamic Mechanical Thermal Analysis with Liquid Nitrogen Cooling
Dynamic mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA) of virgin TR-55 silicone rubber specimens was conducted. Two dynamic temperature sweep tests, 25 to -100 C and 25 to -70 to 0 C (ramp rate = 1 C/min), were conducted at a frequency of 6.28 rad/s (1 Hz) using a torsion rectangular test geometry. A strain of 0.1% was used, which was near the upper limit of the linear viscoelastic region of the material based on an initial dynamic strain sweep test. Storage (G{prime}) and loss (G{double_prime}) moduli, the ratio G{double_prime}/G{prime} (tan {delta}), and the coefficient of linear thermal expansion ({alpha}) were determined as a function of temperature. Crystallization occurred between -40 and -60 C, with G{prime} increasing from {approx}6 x 10{sup 6} to {approx}4 x 10{sup 8} Pa. The value of {alpha} was fairly constant before ({approx}4 x 10{sup -4} mm/mm- C) and after ({approx}3 x 10{sup -4} mm/mm- C) the transition, and peaked during the transition ({approx}3 x 10{sup -3} mm/mm- C). Melting occurred around -30 C upon heating
Cultivating equality: delivering just and sustainable food systems in a changing climate
T
oday, the world faces a greater challenge perhaps than ever before:
tackling hunger and malnutrition in the face of climate change
and increasing natural resource scarcity. Civil society, governments,
researchers, donors, and the private sector are simultaneously debating
and collaborating to find solutions. But the dialogue is over-emphasizing
food production.
Improving yields is important, particularly in places where there is not
enough food or where food producers live in poverty. But simply producing
more is not enough to tackle hunger. Furthermore, acknowledging that
lack of food is not the sole cause of hunger is important. Inequality
shapes who has access to food and the resources to grow it and buy it.
It governs who eats first and who eats worst. Inequality determines who
can adapt more readily to a changing climate. Hunger and poverty are
not an accident â they are the result of social and economic injustice and
inequality at all levels, from household to global. The reality of inequality
is no truer for anyone than it is for women â half the worldâs population,
with far less than their fair share of the worldâs resources.
If we are to achieve the new Sustainable Development Goal of ending
hunger by 2030, we must address the underlying inequalities in food
systems. In a changing climate, agriculture and food systems must be
sustainable and productive â but our efforts cannot end there. They
must be profitable for those for whom it is a livelihood; they must be
equitable, to facilitate a level playing field in the market, to secure rights
to resources for food producers, and to ensure access to nutritious food for
all; they must be resilient to build the capacity of populations vulnerable
to economic shocks, political instability, and increasing, climate-induced
natural hazards to recover and still lift themselves out of poverty
Five days at outdoor education camp without screens improves preteen skills with nonverbal emotion cues
AbstractA field experiment examined whether increasing opportunities for face-to-face interaction while eliminating the use of screen-based media and communication tools improved nonverbal emotionâcue recognition in preteens. Fifty-one preteens spent five days at an overnight nature camp where television, computers and mobile phones were not allowed; this group was compared with school-based matched controls (n=54) that retained usual media practices. Both groups took pre- and post-tests that required participants to infer emotional states from photographs of facial expressions and videotaped scenes with verbal cues removed. Change scores for the two groups were compared using gender, ethnicity, media use, and age as covariates. After five days interacting face-to-face without the use of any screen-based media, preteensâ recognition of nonverbal emotion cues improved significantly more than that of the control group for both facial expressions and videotaped scenes. Implications are that the short-term effects of increased opportunities for social interaction, combined with time away from screen-based media and digital communication tools, improves a preteenâs understanding of nonverbal emotional cues
Large-Amplitude Ultraviolet Variations in the RR Lyrae Star ROTSE-I J143753.84+345924.8
The NASA Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) satellite has obtained
simultaneous near and far ultraviolet light curves of the ROTSE-I Catalog RR
Lyrae ab-type variable star J143753.84+345924.8. A series of 38 GALEX Deep
Imaging Survey observations well distributed in phase within the star's
0.56432d period shows an AB=4.9mag variation in the far UV (1350-1750A) band
and an AB=1.8mag variation in the near UV (1750-2750A) band, compared with only
a 0.8mag variation in the broad, unfiltered ROTSE-I (4500-10000A) band. These
GALEX UV observations are the first to reveal a large RR Lyrae amplitude
variation at wavelengths below 1800A. We compare the GALEX and ROTSE-I
observations to predictions made by recent Kurucz stellar atmosphere models. We
use published physical parameters for the comparable period (0.57433d),
well-observed RR Lyrae star WY Antliae to compute predicted FUV, NUV, and
ROTSE-I light curves for J143753.84+345924.8. The observed light curves agree
with the Kurucz predictions for [Fe/H]=-1.25 to within AB=0.2mag in the GALEX
NUV and ROTSE-I bands, and within 0.5mag in the FUV. At all metallicities
between solar and one hundredth solar, the Kurucz models predict 6-8mag of
variation at wavelengths between 1000-1700A. Other variable stars with similar
temperature variations, such as Cepheids, should also have large-amplitude FUV
light curves, observable during the ongoing GALEX imaging surveys.Comment: This paper will be published as part of the Galaxy Evolution Explorer
(GALEX) Astrophysical Journal Letters Special Issue. Links to the full set of
papers will be available at http:/www.galex.caltech.edu/PUBLICATIONS after
November 22, 200
Elastic energy of polyhedral bilayer vesicles
In recent experiments [M. Dubois, B. Dem\'e, T. Gulik-Krzywicki, J.-C.
Dedieu, C. Vautrin, S. D\'esert, E. Perez, and T. Zemb, Nature (London) Vol.
411, 672 (2001)] the spontaneous formation of hollow bilayer vesicles with
polyhedral symmetry has been observed. On the basis of the experimental
phenomenology it was suggested [M. Dubois, V. Lizunov, A. Meister, T.
Gulik-Krzywicki, J. M. Verbavatz, E. Perez, J. Zimmerberg, and T. Zemb, Proc.
Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. Vol. 101, 15082 (2004)] that the mechanism for the
formation of bilayer polyhedra is minimization of elastic bending energy.
Motivated by these experiments, we study the elastic bending energy of
polyhedral bilayer vesicles. In agreement with experiments, and provided that
excess amphiphiles exhibiting spontaneous curvature are present in sufficient
quantity, we find that polyhedral bilayer vesicles can indeed be energetically
favorable compared to spherical bilayer vesicles. Consistent with experimental
observations we also find that the bending energy associated with the vertices
of bilayer polyhedra can be locally reduced through the formation of pores.
However, the stabilization of polyhedral bilayer vesicles over spherical
bilayer vesicles relies crucially on molecular segregation of excess
amphiphiles along the ridges rather than the vertices of bilayer polyhedra.
Furthermore, our analysis implies that, contrary to what has been suggested on
the basis of experiments, the icosahedron does not minimize elastic bending
energy among arbitrary polyhedral shapes and sizes. Instead, we find that, for
large polyhedron sizes, the snub dodecahedron and the snub cube both have lower
total bending energies than the icosahedron
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