Promoting Healthy Communities and Preventing Childhood Obesity: Trends in Recent Legislation

Summarizes state legislation enacted in 2009 in the areas of healthy eating and physical activity, such as school nutrition and BMI measurements, and healthy community design and access to healthy food, such as safe routes to school and farmers' markets

Promoting Healthy Communities and Reducing Childhood Obesity: Legislative Options

Summarizes legislation proposed or enacted in 2007-08 in the areas of healthy eating and physical activity such as nutrition, physical education, and obesity prevention and treatment, as well as healthy community design and access to healthy food

Naturally Occurring Asbestos in Alaska and Experiences and Policy of Other States Regarding its Use

INE/AUTC 09.0

Application of general semi-infinite Programming to Lapidary Cutting Problems

We consider a volume maximization problem arising in gemstone cutting industry. The problem is formulated as a general semi-infinite program (GSIP) and solved using an interiorpoint method developed by Stein. It is shown, that the convexity assumption needed for the convergence of the algorithm can be satisfied by appropriate modelling. Clustering techniques are used to reduce the number of container constraints, which is necessary to make the subproblems practically tractable. An iterative process consisting of GSIP optimization and adaptive refinement steps is then employed to obtain an optimal solution which is also feasible for the original problem. Some numerical results based on realworld data are also presented

Biomarker and carbon isotope constraints (d13C, d14C) on sources and cycling of particulate organic matter discharged by large Siberian rivers draining permafrost areas

Circumpolar permafrost soils store about half of the global soil organic carbon pool. Currently most of this organic matter remains frozen and therefore does not take part in the active carbon cycle, making permafrost soils a globally important carbon sink. As a result of Arctic climate warming the thaw-induced release of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere possibly creates a positive climate feedback. The great arctic rivers play an important role in global biogeochemical cycles by connecting the large permafrost carbon pool of their hinterlands with the arctic shelf seas and the Arctic Ocean. The first part of this thesis deals with the modern Lena River system using biomarkers to detect and characterize organic matter sources. The second part investigates past permafrost dynamics and the possible permafrost/wetland climate feedback during the last deglaciation and Early Holocene using compound-specific 14C dating of sediments discharged by the Amur River to the Okhotsk Sea

Comparison of Heating Efficiency of a Heat Pump to Electric Heating Panels

Several questions may be raised about the practicability of the heating feature of a heat pump. Is the heat pump as economical to operate as the ordinary air conditioner and a separate heating system? What months during the year could the heat pump be operated to the best advantage? Could the heat pump supply all the heat requirements for South Dakota conditions? Because there were so many unknown factors involved it was impossible to estimate the operating cost by calculation. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to compare the operating efficiency of a commercially available heat pump air conditioner ( window model) with that of an electric heating panel under actual operating conditions in a single room

Global governance: Eine begriffliche Erkundung im Spannungsfeld von Nachhaltigkeit, Globalisierung und Demokratie. Welche Globalisierung ist zukunftsfähig?

Der vorliegende Text befasst sich mit einigen, von uns allerdings für wesentlich gehaltenen Schattenseiten gegenwärtiger Globalisierungsprozesse, und er befragt in herrschaftskritischer Perspektive das als neuer Steuerungsmodus entworfene Konzept von Global Governance. Damit soll zum einen darauf hingewiesen werden, dass Globalisierung politisch angelegt und gewollt ist. Zum anderen geht es uns um konzeptionelle Ansätze, die geeignet sind, den mit Globalisierung einhergehenden Defiziten in den Bereichen Demokratie und Umwelt entgegenzuwirken. Es ist keine unmittelbar handlungsorientierte Analyse, mit der wir uns der Thematik nähern, sondern eine begriffliche Erkundung. In unseren Ausführungen beziehen wir uns vorrangig auf die Arbeiten der Enquete-Kommission des Deutschen Bundestages Globalisierung der Weltwirtschaft (2002). Wir stellen das dort verhandelte Konzept von Global Governance vor und umreißen dessen demokratietheoretische Schwächen. Anschließend stellen wir zwei Denkrichtungen vor, die uns mit ihrer spezifischen Ortsbestimmung von Zivilgesellschaft und einem anderen Politikbegriff geeignet erscheinen, der politischen Dimension und Problematik von Globalisierungsprozessen gerecht zu werden. In einem Abschnitt über Nachhaltiges Regieren. skizzieren wir, entlang welcher Rationalitätsmuster die Demokratiedefizite in Verbindung mit Globalisierung und Nachhaltigkeit verlaufen und verknüpfen diese Überlegungen mit der Debatte, die derzeit zum Themenkomplex globale öffentliche Güter geführt wird