Administrative Law

The authors discuss recent developments in the field of administrative law in Florida. They discuss the constitutional and legal limitations imposed on the Florida legislature, administrative agencies and judiciary when involved in the administrative process. They then analyze the recent trend towards consolidation of proceedings among agencies and conclude that, if the trend is to gain any momentum, the legislature must redraft the regulatory schemes

Estimation of atmospheric total organic carbon (TOC) – paving the path towards carbon budget closure

The atmosphere contains a rich variety of reactive organic compounds, including gaseous volatile organic carbon (VOCs), carbonaceous aerosols, and other organic compounds at varying volatility. Here we present a novel and simple approach to measure atmospheric non-methane total organic carbon (TOC) based on catalytic oxidation of organics in bulk air to carbon dioxide. This method shows little sensitivity towards humidity and near 100&thinsp;% oxidation efficiencies for all VOCs tested. We estimate a best-case hourly precision of 8&thinsp;ppb&thinsp;C during times of low ambient variability in carbon dioxide, methane, and carbon monoxide (CO). As proof of concept of this approach, we show measurements of TOC + CO during August–September 2016 from a coastal city in the southwest United Kingdom. TOC + CO was substantially elevated during the day on weekdays (occasionally over 2&thinsp;ppm&thinsp;C) as a result of local anthropogenic activity. On weekends and holidays, with a mean (standard error) of 102 (8)&thinsp;ppb&thinsp;C, TOC + CO was lower and showed much less diurnal variability. TOC + CO was significantly lower when winds were coming off the Atlantic Ocean than when winds were coming off land if we exclude the weekday daytime. By subtracting the estimated CO from TOC + CO, we constrain the mean (uncertainty) TOC in Atlantic-dominated air masses to be around 23 (± ≥ 8)&thinsp;ppb&thinsp;C during this period. A proton-transfer-reaction mass spectrometer (PTR-MS) was deployed at the same time, detecting a large range of organic compounds (oxygenated VOCs, biogenic VOCs, aromatics, dimethyl sulfide). The total speciated VOCs from the PTR-MS, denoted here as Sum(VOC), amounted to a mean (uncertainty) of 12 (± ≤ 3)&thinsp;ppb&thinsp;C in marine air. Possible contributions from a number of known organic compounds present in marine air that were not detected by the PTR-MS are assessed within the context of the TOC budget. Finally, we note that the use of a short, heated sample tube can improve the transmission of organics to the analyzer, while operating our system alternately with and without a particle filter should enable a better separation of semi-volatile and particulate organics from the VOCs within the TOC budget. Future concurrent measurements of TOC, CO, and a more comprehensive range of speciated VOCs would enable a better characterization and understanding of the atmospheric organic carbon budget.</p

The Sydney Multisite Intervention of LaughterBosses and ElderClowns (SMILE) study: Cluster randomised trial of humour therapy in nursing homes

Objectives: To determine whether humour therapy reduces depression (primary outcome), agitation and behavioural disturbances and improves social engagement and quality-of-life in nursing home residents. Design: The Sydney Multisite Intervention of LaughterBosses and ElderClowns study was a singleblind cluster randomised controlled trial of humour therapy. Setting: 35 Sydney nursing homes. Participants: All eligible residents within geographically defined areas within each nursing home were invited to participate. Intervention: Professional 'ElderClowns' provided 9-12 weekly humour therapy sessions, augmented by resident engagement by trained staff 'LaughterBosses'. Controls received usual care. Measurements: Depression scores on the Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia, agitation scores on the Cohen-Mansfield Agitation Inventory, behavioural disturbance scores on the Neuropsychiatric Inventory, social engagement scores on the withdrawal subscale of Multidimensional Observation Scale for Elderly Subjects, and self-rated and proxy-rated quality-of-life scores on a health-related quality-of-life tool for dementia, the DEMQOL. All outcomes were measured at the participant level by researchers blind to group assignment. Randomisation: Sites were stratified by size and level of care then assigned to group using a random number generator. Results: Seventeen nursing homes (189 residents) received the intervention and 18 homes (209 residents) received usual care. Groups did not differ significantly over time on the primary outcome of depression, or on behavioural disturbances other than agitation, social engagement and quality of life. The secondary outcome of agitation was significantly reduced in the intervention group compared with controls over 26 weeks (time by group interaction adjusted for covariates: p=0.011). The mean difference in change from baseline to 26 weeks in Blom-transformed agitation scores after adjustment for covariates was 0.17 (95% CI 0.004 to 0.34, p=0.045). Conclusions: Humour therapy did not significantly reduce depression but significantly reduced agitation

"If You Don't Drink at University, You're Going to Struggle to Make Friends" Prospective Students' Perceptions around Alcohol Use at Universities in the United Kingdom

Background: New students arrive at university with pre-determined perceptions around how alcohol can be used as a tool to overcome anxieties and secure new friendships, which in turn influences students’ drinking behaviors. From a health promotion perspective, the transition to university may present a unique yet understudied opportunity to challenge and reframe situated drinking norms. This paper explores prospective university students’ perceptions of the role that alcohol plays at university and the influence that these perceptions have on behavior. Method: Focus groups with 46 prospective university students (aged 16-20 years) recruited from colleges and sixth forms in the North West of England. Results: Through various sources of information, new students arrive at university with pre-conceived perceptions of a heavy student drinking culture and knowledge around how alcohol can be used to aid successful integration with new peers. Alcohol was viewed by new students as a social lubricant which is key to accruing social capital. Cultural presentations of the student drinker identity led prospective students to formulate negative connotations of those students who transgress from the norms of drinking. Conclusions: The findings provide new insights into how young people conceptualize alcohol at university and the impact that these perceptions have on shaping ideology and influencing drinking behavior. Breaking down these norms presents real challenges for those trying to address excessive drinking in universities, therefore, early intervention which challenges, re-frames and modifies perceptions before students arrive on campus may help to reduce the pressure and expectations to drink in social situations

Parton Fragmentation within an Identified Jet at NNLL

The fragmentation of a light parton i to a jet containing a light energetic hadron h, where the momentum fraction of this hadron as well as the invariant mass of the jet is measured, is described by "fragmenting jet functions". We calculate the one-loop matching coefficients J_{ij} that relate the fragmenting jet functions G_i^h to the standard, unpolarized fragmentation functions D_j^h for quark and gluon jets. We perform this calculation using various IR regulators and show explicitly how the IR divergences cancel in the matching. We derive the relationship between the coefficients J_{ij} and the quark and gluon jet functions. This provides a cross-check of our results. As an application we study the process e+ e- to X pi+ on the Upsilon(4S) resonance where we measure the momentum fraction of the pi+ and restrict to the dijet limit by imposing a cut on thrust T. In our analysis we sum the logarithms of tau=1-T in the cross section to next-to-next-to-leading-logarithmic accuracy (NNLL). We find that including contributions up to NNLL (or NLO) can have a large impact on extracting fragmentation functions from e+ e- to dijet + h.Comment: expanded introduction, typos fixed, journal versio

Seasonal dependence of peroxy radical concentrations at a northern hemisphere marine boundary layer site during summer and winter: evidence for photochemical activity in winter

International audiencePeroxy radicals (HO2+?RO2) were measured at the Weybourne Atmospheric Observatory (52° N, 1° E), Norfolk using a PEroxy Radical Chemical Amplifier (PERCA) during the winter and summer of 2002. The peroxy radical diurnal cycles showed a marked difference between the winter and summer campaigns with maximum concentrations of 12 pptv at midday in the summer and maximum concentrations as high as 30 pptv (10 min averages) in winter at night. The corresponding nighttime peroxy radical concentrations were not as high in summer (3 pptv). The peroxy radical concentration shows a distinct anti-correlation with increasing NOx during the daylight hours. At night, peroxy radicals increase with increasing NOx indicative of the role of NO3 chemistry. The average diurnal cycles for net ozone production, N(O3) show a large variability in ozone production, P(O3), and a large ozone loss, L(O3) in summer relative to winter. For a daylight average, net ozone production in summer than winter (1.51±0.5 ppbv h?1 and 1.11±0.47 ppbv h?1 respectively) but summer shows more variability of (meteorological) conditions than winter. The variability in NO concentration has a much larger effect on N(O3) than the peroxy radical concentrations. Photostationary state (PSS) calculations show an NO2 lifetime of 5 min in summer and 21 min in the winter, implying that steady-state NO-NO2 ratios are not always attained during the winter months. The results show an active peroxy radical chemistry at night and the ability of winter to make oxidant. The net effect of this with respect to production of ozone in winter is unclear owing to the breakdown in the photostationary state

Optical investigation of the charge-density-wave phase transitions in NbSe3NbSe_{3}

We have measured the optical reflectivity $R(\omega)$ of the quasi one-dimensional conductor $NbSe_{3}$ from the far infrared up to the ultraviolet between 10 and 300 $K$ using light polarized along and normal to the chain axis. We find a depletion of the optical conductivity with decreasing temperature for both polarizations in the mid to far-infrared region. This leads to a redistribution of spectral weight from low to high energies due to partial gapping of the Fermi surface below the charge-density-wave transitions at 145 K and 59 K. We deduce the bulk magnitudes of the CDW gaps and discuss the scattering of ungapped free charge carriers and the role of fluctuations effects

Prediction of Emerging Technologies Based on Analysis of the U.S. Patent Citation Network

The network of patents connected by citations is an evolving graph, which provides a representation of the innovation process. A patent citing another implies that the cited patent reflects a piece of previously existing knowledge that the citing patent builds upon. A methodology presented here (i) identifies actual clusters of patents: i.e. technological branches, and (ii) gives predictions about the temporal changes of the structure of the clusters. A predictor, called the {citation vector}, is defined for characterizing technological development to show how a patent cited by other patents belongs to various industrial fields. The clustering technique adopted is able to detect the new emerging recombinations, and predicts emerging new technology clusters. The predictive ability of our new method is illustrated on the example of USPTO subcategory 11, Agriculture, Food, Textiles. A cluster of patents is determined based on citation data up to 1991, which shows significant overlap of the class 442 formed at the beginning of 1997. These new tools of predictive analytics could support policy decision making processes in science and technology, and help formulate recommendations for action