One Giant Heap for Mankind: The Need for National Legislation or Agency Action to Regulate Private Sector Contributions to Orbital Debris

This article will explain the dynamics of the space environment, examine current space law and its shortcomings both internationally and nationally, and present reasoned resolutions to the issue at hand including the use of petitions for action by United States government agencies and the encouragement of legislative action. This article will also address certain positive and negative aspects of adopting debris-regulating law. Above all, the United States government and the American people should be made aware of the serious issues concerning the continued use of space by the private sector, and this article seeks to facilitate that conversation. Through this awareness, the United States can address the current legal deficiencies and provide an example of the focus that should be given to space debris law

Incidences de la sixième révision de la LAI sur le travail du MSP à l'Orif

Dans ce travail de recherche, j’ai traité des incidences de la sixième révision de la LAI sur le travail du MSP de l’Orif Sion. Pour ce faire, j’ai procédé de la manière suivante : Premièrement, j’ai effectué des recherches bibliographiques et des entretiens exploratoires. Dans un deuxième temps, la réalisation d’un questionnaire et l’interview de diverses personnes m’a permis de mieux cerner les incidences de cette loi sur le travail du MSP

Le management situationnel au service de l'autonomie et de la compétence au sein d'organisations socio-éducatives

Depuis quelques siècles et décennies, la politique européenne, l'économie d'entreprise et l'informatique ont subi des changements profonds dans leur gouvernance, en déléguant un plus grand pouvoir de décision et d'action aux subalternes. Le système pédagogique de l'instruction publique est en pleine mutation dans les liens au savoir et les relations entre enseignants et élèves. Qu'en est-il des organisations socio-éducatives ? Est-ce qu'une gestion purement patriarcales suffit ? Très clairement, no ! Il n'est plus possible de privilégier une gouvernance qui se satisfasse d'une direction purement autoritaire. Il doit faire appel à d'autres stratégies dites persuasives, participatives, voire délégatives, même si certaines situations demandent des décisions directives

The 2010 UK Home Office ‘Sexualisation of Young People’ Review: a discursive policy analysis

This paper offers a discursive policy analysis of the 2010 UK Home Office Sexualisation of Young People Review, authored by Linda Papadopoulos (2010a). It will scrutinise the narrative presented by the text of the danger posed by cultural representations to healthy development, and trace the way that the text links this danger to catastrophic outcomes: child sexual abuse, exploitation and trafficking. Examining this narrative, the article will propose that the UK Review deploys spatial metaphors to naturalise a gendered account of childhood, sexuality and danger, evoking the creeping influence of a corrupting culture on a girl's most private self. The article will also demonstrate that this spatial narrative underpins the epistemological structure of the text – its separation of the primary from the secondary, the real from the artificial

STR-966: SEISMIC RETROFIT OF EXISTING LOW-RISE STEEL BUILDINGS IN EASTERN CANADA USING ROCKING BRACED FRAME SYSTEM

A promising retrofit strategy consists of allowing deficient braced frames to rock at their bases to reduce the force demands on the structure and the foundation. For low-rise buildings, modifications to the structure may be limited to the braced frames, which then represent a very effective solution when compared to other approaches where alterations are needed along the entire lateral load path. In the article, the rocking braced frame solution is investigated for the seismic retrofit of 3-storey typical office buildings designed in accordance with codes prevailing in the early 1980s. The frames are located in Montreal, QC, and firm ground and soft soil conditions are examined for both locations. Rocking braced frames with friction energy dissipation mechanism are investigated. The response of the retrofitted structures is examined through nonlinear time history analyses using site representative ground motions and the results are compared to predictions from simplified models assuming first mode response

Impact of metabolic perturbation on ovarian function

Metabolic perturbations including hyperinsulinemia that are induced during obesity and heat stress in humans and production animals are allied with several health hallmarks and impaired fertility. This dissertation research focused on charactering the impact of changes to central metabolism on ovarian function. We hypothesized that hyperinsulinemia induced during central metabolic perturbations, alters ovarian insulin-mediated PI3K signaling, negatively impacting ovarian folliculogenesis, steroidogenesis and xenobiotic biotransformation. To test this hypothesis, mRNA and protein expression profiles of insulin, PI3K, steroidogenic, inflammatory and chemical metabolism members were quantified using qRT-PCR, Western blotting or immunohistochemistry techniques using three models of hyperinsulinemia: 1) high fat diet (HFD)-induced obesity, 2) a transgenic mouse model of progressive obesity and 3) a porcine model of hyperinsulinemia. Overall, our data demonstrates that the ovarian insulin-KITLG-KIT-AKT signaling pathway is active and upregulated during central metabolic alterations. Perturbations to ovarian insulin-KITLG-KIT-AKT signaling pathway are likely to impact 1) follicle activation, oocyte viability and recruitment, 2) steroid hormone biosynthesis, and 3) xenobiotic biotransformation, potentially accelerating susceptibility to chemical exposure. All of these scenarios could lead to impairment of ovarian function, and may at least partially explain why female fecundity is compromised during altered metabolic states

Engineering data management: a tool for technical coordination

This paper studies the basic motivations behind Engineering Data Management (EDM) in a decade long Large Hadron Collider (LHC) project with at least another decades operational period at CERN. The main argument is that without strict managerial principles to control engineering work the exploitation of EDM becomes impossible. Structured and organized configuration management is the absolute prerequisite for an effective integration of design, manufacturing and installation work. EDM is seen to provide all collaborating parties of the project with a coherent and up-to-date view of the product specifications together with other relevant information, such as products change log, responsibilities and status indicators during the products whole life-cycle. It is argued that by combining simple and commonly accepted managerial principles with an advanced EDM system the outcome supports the main phases of products evolution, i.e. design, assembly, operation and maintenance. The paper outlines the main tasks of the configuration management and the fundamental requirements of EDM in order to meet LHC-projects complexity, stringent budget, high quality and tight schedule constraints set by the CERN Council. Keywords: configuration management, new product development, project management, concurrent engineering, engineering data managemen

Postischemic treatment of neonatal cerebral ischemia should target autophagy.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the contributions of autophagic, necrotic, and apoptotic cell death mechanisms after neonatal cerebral ischemia and hence define the most appropriate neuroprotective approach for postischemic therapy. METHODS: Rats were exposed to transient focal cerebral ischemia on postnatal day 12. Some rats were treated by postischemic administration of pan-caspase or autophagy inhibitors. The ischemic brain tissue was studied histologically, biochemically, and ultrastructurally for autophagic, apoptotic, and necrotic markers. RESULTS: Lysosomal and autophagic activities were increased in neurons in the ischemic area from 6 to 24 hours postinjury, as shown by immunohistochemistry against lysosomal-associated membrane protein 1 and cathepsin D, by acid phosphatase histochemistry, by increased expression of autophagosome-specific LC3-II and by punctate LC3 staining. Electron microscopy confirmed the presence of large autolysosomes and putative autophagosomes in neurons. The increases in lysosomal activity and autophagosome formation together demonstrate increased autophagy, which occurred mainly in the border of the lesion, suggesting its involvement in delayed cell death. We also provide evidence for necrosis near the center of the lesion and apoptotic-like cell death in its border, but in nonautophagic cells. Postischemic intracerebroventricular injections of autophagy inhibitor 3-methyladenine strongly reduced the lesion volume (by 46%) even when given >4 hours after the beginning of the ischemia, whereas pan-caspase inhibitors, carbobenzoxy-valyl-alanyl-aspartyl(OMe)-fluoromethylketone and quinoline-val-asp(OMe)-Ch2-O-phenoxy, provided no protection. INTERPRETATION: The prominence of autophagic neuronal death in the ischemic penumbra and the neuroprotective efficacy of postischemic autophagy inhibition indicate that autophagy should be a primary target in the treatment of neonatal cerebral ischemia

Processus métier et composants logiciels pour la gestion intégrée des eaux en milieu urbain

Water management in urban areas is a complex task because of the several interactions that exist between the different facets of the urban water system (surface and subsurface water, sewer system, water supply system, water and wastewater treatment plant, etc) and the many stakeholders in this context. It is necessary to reconsider current practices in order to shift from a sectored approach towards an integrated and global one. Such an approach implies that for each decision that has to be taken or each operation that has to be planned, numerous parameters must be considered and huge amounts of data have to be handled. Software tools offer in this context very interesting potentialities because of their ability to store, manage and exploit large volumes of spatial, thematic and temporal data. However, it turns out that such tools are not so easy to put into practice : exchange of information remains difficult, a lack of functions specific to water management has been stated, and the complexity of the domain itself makes the construction of dedicated software systems difficult and costly. The objectives of the present study are thus to develop concepts and a methodology allowing the development of software systems that support the management of urban water in an integrated and sustainable way. First, an identification of the criterions that must be fulfilled by such systems is carried out. It is shown that they must be: 1°) able to evolve in the same direction as water management practices; 2°) adaptable to the specific needs of their users; 3°) deployable on various computer systems configurations; 4°) able to interact with third party software systems; 5°) built and modified easily ; 6°) user friendly; and 7°) affordable. This research, taking into account these requirements, proposes to build software systems by assembling business components. Business components are reusable autonomous groups of software components that allow the handling of business objects, which are themselves high granularity objects that represent things active in the business domain. Indeed, such components allow the construction of software systems that exactly match users' requirements while taking advantage of the integration of preexisting parts : rapid development processes, cost reduction and increased quality. From a theoretical point of view, the proposal is built on three main principles : the complexity inherent to the domain of urban water management is tackled by segmentation. Each business component allows the handling of a coherent, limited and clearly defined set of concepts. A software tool can be built by integrating such business components and then be customized, thus recreating the complexity of the domain, but in a controlled manner; "real world" entities act as points of articulation between the businesses of the stakeholders : in the field of urban water management, the different actors handle, in the context of their business processes, abstractions of the same "real world" entities. Specific business components support the handling of these abstractions, submitting them to each user in a form that fits their needs. In this way, a business component, implementing a well defined set of concepts, will be used by the group of users concerned by these concepts, allowing an integrated approach of the different business processes; business components must be conceived in order to maximise their reusability potential in different software applications. Indeed, if this potential is high it is more worthwhile to develop the concerned business component. From a technical perspective, the proposal is based on : object orientation, which allows a direct mapping from the real world to the software system, and facilitates the development of systems that are modular, evolutive and easy to understand; software components, which allow the grouping of logically correlated functions and concepts into autonomous units. Such components are, with regards to their reusability, of an adequate level of granularity ; interoperability among components realised through a clear distinction between interfaces (the definition of the services offered) and implementations (the way of carrying out these services), associated with a standardisation of these interfaces. This research presents a way to identify, characterize and develop a set of business components specifically for urban water management software systems. The structure of such components is described. Two main kinds of business components are distinguished : entity components, which allow the handling of real world entities; and process components, which are designated to support specific business processes, and offer for this aim the adequate functions. Designated to be reused, business components must be constructed very meticulously, and the use of a software development method is for this purpose unavoidable. A method, dedicated for the development of business components in the domain of urban water management, is presented, whose characteristics are : 1°) to be based on the analysis of the business processes of the stakeholders; 2°) to allow rapid, iterative cycles, each of them leading to a set of operational business components; 3°) to allow the stepwise definition of a global reference mode1 of the urban water management domain that supports the development of coherent and non redundant business components; and 4°) to offer a technique that maximises the reusability potential of these components. The presented concepts, as well as the development method, are validated through prototyping. It is shown that a business component based approach of software systems offers a real opportunity to improve the business processes in the field of urban water management. Such components also offer possibilities to easily implement software systems that will help the monitoring and management of the urban water system. The enhancement of the value of the available data and the information exchange between stakeholders is facilitated. Thus, the development and use of business component based approaches must be encouraged. For this reason, this research concludes with the proposal of an organisational process aimed to stimulate and coordinate the setting up of a "business component market" for urban water management systems