Floating nut retention system

A floating nut retention system includes a nut with a central aperture. An inner retainer plate has an opening which is fixedly aligned with the nut aperture. An outer retainer member is formed of a base plate having an opening and a surface adjacent to a surface of the inner retainer plate. The outer retainer member includes a securing mechanism for retaining the inner retainer plate adjacent to the outer retainer member. The securing mechanism enables the inner retainer plate to float with respect to the outer retainer number, while simultaneously forming a bearing surface for inner retainer plate

The Ministerial Foothills: Labour Government Junior Ministers 1997-2010

The article assesses the role and influence of junior ministers in the Labour government of 1997–2010, putting them in context against the background of the experience and position of junior ministers in previous British governments. The article also analyses data relating to junior ministers' appointments and promotions under Labour to bring out the patterns of continuity and change in ministerial career paths. Junior ministerial jobs remain key apprenticeship posts in the British system, and though the experience can be a limiting and frustrating one, they undertake many essential ministerial functions and help maintain political control and accountability in government

Rangeland Rehydration: Collaboration between Land Managers, Government and Private Experts

In the rangelands of New South Wales, Australia, many successful soil erosion control techniques have been developed. These techniques have been implemented by the Western Local Land Services (WLLS), rehabilitating 23,000 ha since 2004. However the focus was on degraded land with little regard to catchment dynamics and the threatening processes that were causing the degradation. With the introduction of Ecosystem Management Understanding (EMU)™ in 2016, the focus was broadened to address grazing properties in a drainage ecosystem context. There is a focus on understanding landscape function and designing projects that address threatening processes. With the integration of the WLLS and EMU approaches, effort is now put into saving threatened landscapes and resurrecting degraded landscapes. Both approaches have been integrated to restore soil moisture, reduce grazing impacts, restore calm water and save productive landscapes. In this process, landscape objectives and outcomes are identified and priority projects developed. A major benefit is the increased capacity of land managers to understand landscape processes and then to design and implement projects on their properties. This knowledge is allowing land managers to focus on being rain ready during droughts. The level of ownership has provided a forward looking focus for land managers, building resilience during drought. Each grazing property will approach the same issue differently, depending on resources and preferences. Some approaches use earthworks while other approaches use soft filters to improve rainfall management. Earthwork techniques include champagne banks, waterponding, waterspreading, contour furrows and erosion control structures across roads. Soft filters are placed in flow lines to slow water and can be constructed from mesh, branches or rocks. We tell this story through examples of projects and demonstrate the success of a collaborative approach to landscape rehydration

The incidence of error in young children's wh-questions

Many current generativist theorists suggest that young children possess the grammatical principles of inversion required for question formation but make errors because they find it difficult to learn language-specific rules about how inversion applies. The present study analyzed longitudinal spontaneous sampled data from twelve 2–3-year-old English speaking children and the intensive diary data of 1 child (age 2;7 [years;months] to 2;11) in order to test some of these theories. The results indicated significantly different rates of error use across different auxiliaries. In particular, error rates differed across 2 forms of the same auxiliary subtype (e.g., auxiliary is vs. are), and auxiliary DO and modal auxiliaries attracted significantly higher rates of errors of inversion than other auxiliaries. The authors concluded that current generativist theories might have problems explaining the patterning of errors seen in children's questions, which might be more consistent with a constructivist account of development. However, constructivists need to devise more precise predictions in order to fully explain the acquisition of questions

Understanding the power of the prime minister : structure and agency in models of prime ministerial power

Understanding the power of the prime minister is important because of the centrality of the prime minister within the core executive of British government, but existing models of prime ministerial power are unsatisfactory for various reasons. This article makes an original contribution by providing an overview and critique of the dominant models of prime ministerial power, highlighting their largely positivist bent and the related problem of the prevalence of overly parsimonious conceptions of the structural contexts prime ministers face. The central argument the paper makes is that much of the existing literature on prime ministerial power is premised on flawed understandings of the relationship between structure and agency, that this leads to misunderstandings of the real scope of prime ministerial agency, as well as its determinants, and that this can be rectified by adopting a strategic-relational view of structure and agency

The utility of renal ultrasonography in the diagnosis of renal colic in emergency department patients

Objective: Computed tomography (CT) is an imaging modality used to detect renal stones. However, there is concern about the lifetime cumulative radiation exposure attributed to CT. Ultrasonography (US) has been used to diagnose urolithiasis, thereby avoiding radiation exposure. The objective of this study was to determine the ability of US to identify renal colic patients with a low risk of requiring urologic intervention within 90 days of their initial emergency department (ED) visit. Methods: We completed a retrospective medical record review for all adult patients who underwent ED-ordered renal US for suspected urolithiasis over a 1-year period. Independent, double data extraction was performed for all imaging reports and US results were categorized as normal, suggestive of ureterolithiasis, ureteric stone seen or disease unrelated to urolithiasis. Charts were reviewed to determine how many patients underwent subsequent CT and urologic intervention. Results: Of the 817 renal US procedures ordered for suspected urolithiasis during the study period, the results of 352 (43.2%) were classified as normal, and only 2 (0.6%) of these patients required urologie intervention. The results of 177 (21.7%) renal US procedures were suggestive of ureterolithiasis. Of these, 12 (6.8%) patients required urologie intervention. Of the 241 (29.5%) patients who had a ureteric stone seen on US, 15 (6.2%) required urologie intervention. The rate of urologie intervention was significantly lower in those with normal results on US (p \u3c 0.001) than in those with abnormal results on US. Conclusion: A normal result on renal US predicts a low likelihood for urologie intervention within 90 days for adult ED patients with suspected urolithiasis

Normal renal sonogram identifies renal colic patients at low risk for urologic intervention: A prospective cohort study

Introduction: Determining which patients with ureterolithiasis are likely to require urologic intervention is a common challenge in the emergency department (ED). The objective was to determine if normal renal sonogram could identify low-risk renal colic patients, who were defined as not requiring urologic intervention within 90 days of their initial ED visit and can be managed conservatively. Methods: This was a prospective cohort study involving adult patients presenting to the EDs of a tertiary care centre with suspected renal colic over a 20-month period. Renal ultrasonography (US) was performed in the diagnostic imaging department by trained ultrasonographers, and the results were categorized into four mutually exclusive groups: normal, suggestive of ureterolithiasis, visualized ureteric stone, or findings unrelated to urolithiasis. Electronic medical records were reviewed to determine if patients received urologic intervention within 90 days of their ED visit. Results: Of 610 patients enrolled, 341 (55.9%) had US for suspected renal colic. Of those, 105 (30.8%) were classified as normal; none of these patients underwent urologic intervention within 90 days of their ED visit. Ninety (26.4%) US results were classified as suggestive, and nine (10%) patients received urologic intervention. A total of 139 (40.8%) US results were classified as visualized ureteric stone, and 34 (24.5%) patients had urologic intervention. Seven (2.1%) US results were classified as findings unrelated to urolithiasis, and none of these patients required urologic intervention. The rate of urologic intervention was significantly lower in those with normal US results (p \u3c 0.001) than in those with abnormal findings. Conclusion: A normal renal sonogram predicts a low likelihood for urologic intervention within 90 days for adult ED patients with suspected renal colic

Pine Beams Retrofitted with FRP and Poplar Planks: Mechanical Behavior

The paper presents an experimental analysis of the bending behavior of pine beams (Pinus Sylvester) retrofitted with fiber reinforced plastic (FRP) and poplar planks used as external covering. Poplar wood was chosen because of its rapid growth in planted forests, its homogeneity and attributes for sustainable local development, and high CO2 absorption rate. Vibration tests were also conducted in order to evaluate the stiffness in a non-destructive way and compare it with that obtained by means of the destructive tests. Three types of reinforcement were compared, namely: basalt fabric (FB), carbon fabric (FC) and carbon laminate (LC). In addition, some pine beams were reinforced only with poplar planks and used as control specimens in order to evaluate the improvement provided by the FRP. It was observed that a strong delamination preceded the final breakage of beam. Moreover, the results indicated that stiffness is provided mainly by the poplar plank and not by the FRP, as was expected.This work was made possible thanks to the financial support of the COMPOP_Timber project “Desarrollo de productos de ingeniería elaborados a base de tablones y chapas de chopo con inserciones de material compuesto para su uso en construcción”, BIA2017-82650-R

Liberal intervention in the foreign policy thinking of Tony Blair and David Cameron

David Cameron was a critic of Tony Blair’s doctrine of the international community, which was used to justify war in Kosovo and more controversially in Iraq, suggesting caution in projecting military force abroad while in opposition. However, and in spite of making severe cuts to the defence budget, the Cameron-led Coalition government signed Britain up to a military intervention in Libya within a year of coming into office. What does this say about the place liberal interventionism occupies in contemporary British foreign policy? To answer this question, this article studies the nature of what we describe as the ‘bounded liberal’ tradition that has informed British foreign policy thinking since 1945, suggesting that it puts a distinctly UK national twist on conventional conservative thought about international affairs. Its components are: scepticism of grand schemes to remake the world; instinctive Atlanticism; security through collective endeavour; and anti-appeasement. We then compare and contrast the conditions for intervention set out by Tony Blair and David Cameron. We explain the similarities but crucially also the vital differences between the two leaders’ thinking on intervention, with particular reference to Cameron’s perception that Downing Street needed to loosen its control over foreign policy-making after Iraq. Our argument is that policy substance, policy style and party political dilemmas prompted Blair and Cameron to reconnect British foreign policy with its ethical roots, ingraining a bounded liberal posture to British foreign policy after the moral bankruptcy of the John Major years. This return to a patient, pragmatic and ethically informed foreign policy meant that military operations in Kosovo and Libya were undertaken in quite different circumstances, yet came to be justified by similar arguments from the two leaders

Multiword Units Predict Non-inversion Errors in Children's Wh-questions: "What Corpus Data Can Tell Us?".

Subject-auxiliary inversion in interrogatives has been a topic of great interest in language acquisition research, and has often been held up as evidence for the structure-dependence of grammar. Usage-based and nativist approaches posit different representations and processes underlying children’s question formation and therefore predict different causes for these errors. Here, we explore the question of whether input statistics predict children’s spontaneous non-inversion errors with wh- questions. In contrast to previous studies, we look at properties of the non-inverted, errorful forms of questions. Through a series of corpus analyses, we show that the frequency of uninverted subsequences (e.g., “she is going” in “what she is going to do?*”) is a good predictor of children’s errors, consistent with recent evidence for multiword units in children’s comprehension and production. This finding has implications for the types of mental representations and cognitive processes researchers ascribe to children acquiring a first language