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In order to lessen the worsened formability, failures and fractures occurring in the cold stamping process, the hot stamping technology was adopted in the forming of DP steel engine dumping plank. The simulation technology of finite element method was also used to forecast the forming defects in the stamping process of the DP steel engine dumping plank. In the paper, the forming limit, the influences of stamping gaps and the influences of different blank holder force on the stamping part were analyzed by using eta/DYNAFORM software. Meanwhile, the thickness changes and the materials flow conditions of the DP plank during the hot stamping process were also analyzed. Through the experimental analysis, the result of the finite element numerical simulation complied very well with that of actual production results. The research results show that duplex steel plate can meet the performance requirements of car engine dumping plank forming, which offers theory basis for the production of similar parts.

If a sawn board or plank that is warped after drying is being planed, the feed rollers and the pressure elements will more or less straighten the wood during planing. However, when the pressure is released, some degree of warp will recur since the wood will spring back. With a large amount of straightening, only the cross-sectional dimensions of the wood should be affected by the planing operation, leaving warp unchanged, while a small amount of straightening should have a larger impact on warp. The objective of this study was to evaluate how warp is affected by planing in an industrial planer with standard configuration. A total of 20 pine planks with the dry target dimension 50 mm×150 mm were selected, of which half were severely warped. The worst twist, crook and bow per two metres and maximum cup were measured both before and after planing. The planer in the experiment had different impacts on the different warp types. For the individual planks, twist was reduced by 25% and crook was reduced ...

This article examines the status and meanings of heterosexual love in post-war Britain. It is situated within the burgeoning field of the history of emotion and draws upon recent work on interiority and modern selfhood. It argues that love became a central plank in the quest for self-actualization in this period. It explains why love triumphed over pragmatism in the remaking of British matrimony and how this impacted upon the institution of marriage itself. The article posits the immediate post-war years as a time of significant discursive change and emotional instability: expectations rose and critical introspection deepened. The ways in which love was fashioned in the 1940s and 1950s were central to the dramatic social and cultural changes that occurred in the decades that followed.

This article explores the relationship between anti-slavery and the ethnic reconstruction of Welshness which took place in the nineteenth century. Their alleged anti-slavery credentials allowed the Welsh to define themselves as more ethical and Christian than the other British nations, and the author claims that anti-slavery, along with disestablishment and temperance, was a key plank in the establishment of a hegemonic Nonconformist definition of ‘Welshness’ in the nineteenth century. This argument is developed by turning to the reception in Wales of Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852), particularly the creative adaptation of Stowe's novel by Gwilym Hiraethog, Aelwyd F'Ewythr Robert (Uncle Robert's Hearth) (1953). Hiraethog's Aelwyd, an ambitious experiment in which the original American novel is placed in a charged relationship to the experiences and stories of a group of Welsh peasants, offers an interesting example of transnational and translinguistic literary influence made possibl...

The question of how to finance public services and infrastructure has been a contentious issue in the United Kingdom at least since the Conservative Government in Westminster, in 1992, introduced the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) as a Public Private Partnership (PPP) procurement method to secure private funding for public services and infrastructure. After 1997, the new Labour Government in Westminster essentially endorsed its predecessor's policies - but there was dissent in the devolved UK territories where policy­ makers started searching for alternatives. Our article documents and analyses an example for such a search. We explore the evolution of the Scottish Futures Trust (SFT) as a central - and highly contested - plank of the Scottish National Party's strategy to finance Scotland's public services and infrastructure in place of PPP and PFI. The SNP, broadly Social Democratic in its policy objectives (McCrone &

Teaching young children to create equal-size groups is your treasure map for building students' flexible, connected understanding of and reasoning about ratios, fractions, and multiplicative operations.

A comparative analysis of boats depicted in the rock art of Lake Kanozero and Northern Europe suggests that they refer to the same type, which was common in northern cultures and was characterized by a protruding straight keel, an oblique sternpost, and a stem post decorated with an elk head. The design apparently consisted of a broad keel plank to which the sides, bow, and stern were attached. In boats represented at Kanozero, this plank protrudes forward, beyond the nose, and backward, beyond the stern.

Over the last decade, the term 'participation' has gained prominence within children's services and policy formation. However, this term is used in variable ways and there remains a lack of consensus within policy circles about its employment. As a consequence, young people encounter a variety of practices to which this term is ascribed. This article explores the understandings of participation as they varied across settings with a cohort of upper-primary pupils who accessed a number of children's services within their locality. Contested meanings of participation became particularly apparent within a multi-agency project in which the area's community centre and housing office piloted a project packaged as an antisocial-behaviour prevention strategy. This project brought participatory learning strategies into the school and raised awareness for those participating about community services and opportunities. The article draws on observations of sessions and interviews with teachers, youth workers and young people to explore the negotiations around pedagogy and discourse that the project entailed in order to explore the different ways that participation was glossed within these negotiations. This examination of differing understandings and performances of participation is then used to reflect upon changing the children's services agenda and terminology. Introduction: the currency of participation Whether within Team around the Child (Department for Education, 2011), the latest nomenclature for English integrated children's services policy, or Getting It Right for Every Child (GIRFEC), Scotland's policy (Scottish Government, 2010), multi-agency working has been foregrounded as important to effectively delivering services to ensure children's well-being, with education being seen as an important contributor to this project. Scotland has long had distinct education, criminal justice and social work policies from those of the other regions of the United Kingdom. However, in 1998, when new devolution arrangements for Scotland were ratified and its own Parliament put in place, further powers to coordinate and manage these distinct policy areas became possible. As a result, the different regions of the United Kingdom have developed differing policies at different points in the last decade. Nevertheless, an overarching aim of 'Modernising Government' (Cabinet Office, 1999; Scottish Parliament, 2000), with its key plank of 'joined-up services', set in motion a drive to bring services for children and families together. This was given further momentum by serious case reviews into the deaths of abused children, which highlighted serious failings in communication between differing services. The English strategy for integrated working has sought to surmount some of the obstacles to joint working by forcing services separated into different departments to engage in joint commissioning of services and to work to a comprehensive published plan based in consultation with all stakeholders, including children themselves. However, this planning process was one of

Design a kind of suitable village residence constructs of the economy energy prepare to make wall plank, the wall's plank has heat preservation economy energy and accepts heavy dual function, can satisfy accepting of two-story building heavy, and the hot work according to economy energy residence request, the wall's plank can act for a village use to glue soil brick. Pass sample product engineering the fulfillment carried on an engineering application, proving should be prepared to make wall plank to have good economy energy effect.

They came down through the sloping backyards, Henry, his brothers Jack and little Frankie, and his best friend Joey, climbing the cyclone fence at the Tylers', slipping through the slot where a plank had fallen from the Grutzmachers' board fence, and then cutting through the vacant lot behind the Eckleses' house, where they saw two blue jays and a cardinal, and where Joey knocked a squirrel off a telephone wire with a rock in only four throws. Reddish and silvery, the furred body lay still on the mossy ground, its head disturbingly ratlike up close; then abruptly it quivered, shook itself, and bounced away. The boys crossed Delaware, cautiously took the path through the woods next to the Weird Sisters' house, descended the embankment, crossed the brook, and climbed to a narrow stand of peeling birch trees and low mulberry bushes. There they huddled in back of a huge white marble 169 platform and carved marble open book they called the Bible Stone. They had come here almost every day of the summer; now, on a Saturday two weeks after school had started, the air minty with the first cool of autumn, the cemetery lay before them once again, the spreading lawns glistening in the morning light, and a fine white mist floating on the black water of the duck pond. Henry and Jack each carried half of an old, two-parter Army backpack of heavy canvas their father had given them; Joey had a newer, lighter pack from a surplus store; Frankie wore a tooled leather gun belt with a chromeplated cap pistol in the holster. The pistol had white plastic handgrips made to look like horn or bone.

The study of traditional boats has enhanced our knowledge of the maritime past. Traditional boats are both river- and sea-worthy. They have been used in rivers for transporting cargo to inland ports from ships anchored at sea, and have often been used in naval warfare. In this paper an attempt has been made to study the sewn-plank boats of Goa, their building techniques and other features in order to understand their quality and how they were used in the past for an inland river-transport system. © 2011 The Authors

Proposals by the UK Coalition government, which came into power in May 2010, to alter the electoral system for the Westminster Parliament have generated much debate and some controversy. The central plank of the campaigners for reform, viz. the introduction of a form of proportional representation, has been tried in New Zealand for some years now in the form of a mixed member proportional system. This article explains how that system came into being and how it has fared in the nearly two decades for which it has been in existence.

In this paper, Ultrasound Wireless System is introduced for wireless communication between the sides of ultra-thickness plank without breach of the structure. This system could be applied in the plank of the difference material of metal or non-metal and in environment in which high seal condition is required in uttermost, for instance ultra-pressure, radiation and virulent test. In this wireless system, the ultrasonic telemetry using single pulse for driving and receiving PZT has been designed and built to demonstrate the ability of the ultrasonic telemetry. This paper describes the designed transmitting circuit and receiving circuit and the results of a pilot set up. The driving characteristics and frequency response of PZT was analyzed and tested. It is very important that the transmitting circuit and receiving circuit were designed according to the frequency characteristics of the PZT and coupling, that is, the width of pulse and frequency of signal for the driving PZT must be properly chosen. It has been shown that communication of sensor signals can be made at two sides of steel enclosed container using PZT as ultrasonic transmitters and receivers.

This special issue arises from the work of the Consortium for Research on Educational Access, Transitions and Equity www.create-rpc.org. Access to basic education is a central plank of the global E...

In 2000, archaeologists from Yekaterinburg and Surgut excavated the preserved portion (380 sq. m) of the Bronze Age fortifi ed settlement situated on the Bystry Kulyogan River, right bank of the Ob River, 35 km west of Surgut. The settlement was initially estimated to be approximately 650 sq. m in size. An isolated dwelling was located on a small sandy promontory. It was protected by an arcuate moat and probably by a palisade along the perimeter. The dwelling is rectangular in plan and resembles a tall truncated pyramid with rounded angles. It is characterized by a frame-pole construction with vertical load bearing posts, inclined log and pole walls, and fl at or very low gable roof similar to those encountered among traditional Khanty surface dwellings or above grave structures. Walls were fi xed by sandy mounds along the outer perimeter. The largest portion of the dwelling was occupied by a rectangular pit with vertical walls 0.4–0.9 m high sheeted with half-beams or half-section timber. Plank beds were located along the walls. The elevated shelf between the pit and walls was used to store kitchen utensils, tools, and provisions. The Bronze Age assemblage includes 33 stone artifacts and 1640 fragments of at least 25 Kulyogan type vessels. Vessels are jar-like with fl at bottom, decorated with comb and pit patterns. The site is preliminarily dated to the fi rst half or the fi rst third of the 2nd millennium BC.

This study focuses on the manufacturing process of veneer composite plank and test the mechanical properties.The results showed that: ① In the dipping process, when the dipping time was 20min and adhesive solids was 25%,the veneer composite plank can get a better mechanical properties; ②In the low-temperature drying process, according to the mechanical properties and drying efficiency, low drying temperature appropriate select 50°C; ③Considering the mechanical properties and the cost issue as the density increases, select the density of 1.0g/cm3 is appropriate. Prove that the production technology is feasible, its products have uniform texture and good mechanical properties can be widely used for furniture, flooring and structural materials and other fields.

This case traces Under Armour from its founding in 1996 through 2008 when the company entered the hyper-competitive non-cleated athletic footwear market. In 1996, with an innovative product and locker room access to college and pro players, Kevin Plank started Under Armour. He turned a struggling t-shirt company into a dominant player capturing 75% of the performance apparel market. In 2006, Under Armour successfully entered the athletic footwear market with a line of football cleats. Under Armour was the first company to disrupt Nike's dominance of the football cleat market by gaining 25% of the market within a year of introduction. In 2008, Under Armour entered the non-cleated athletic footwear market with a cross-trainer sneaker line and a $4.4 million Super Bowl ad. Unlike prior introductions, Nike responded aggressively to Under Armour's move into sneakers. Despite increased sales, Under Armour's costs increased, and profits and stock price decreased. The case concludes by asking students to evaluate Under Armour's next move. An extensive exhibit provides an overview of the athletic footwear industry in 2008.

This study focuses on the effect of impregnation process on the main mechanical properties in the production of veneer composite plank. The results showed that:①Under the normal pressure and temperature the drug absorption of impregnated veneer shall extend the volume with the growth in impregnation time, but growing faster early, the later change slowly. In the impregnation process under pressure, its absorption rate and speed are greatly increased. ②The Modulus of rupture (MOR) and modulus of elasticity (MOE) of veneer composite plank are gradually increased with the drug absorption increased, but after reached a certain peak value they gradually decrease, and the variation of MOE is smaller than MOR.

Longmen Grottoes is the famous cultural heritage. Many factors should be considered in reinforcement project of the plank way cantilever beam. Considering the characteristics of the tourist area, many reinforcement schemes are put forward. At last, the methods with CFRP sheet is selected to reinforce the plank way cantilever beam. The reinforcement effect shows that the method with CFRP material increases very little weight of the structural members. The appearance of the reinforced member is harmonious to the surrounding environment.

When the first friars expanded the use of dispensation from traditional monastic observances, obedience entered the Dominican system of governance as a weak institution. For decades the results were productive; by about 1300, however, misdeeds and malfeasance weighed heavily on the Order’s operational integrity. Administrators in at least one of the Dominican Order’s provinces, the province of Aragon, recognized these troublesome developments and tried to strengthen obedientiary thought and practice. The muscular obedience that Bernat Sescala and Nicholas Rossell sought to impose, advanced in part through a language of traditionality, became one plank in a broad effort to reinvigorate administrative command and control. But the reformers failed. Dissenters, factional cliques, and the friars’ deep investment in the status quo succeeded in thwarting reformers’ plans. This case has much in common with the many moments in late medieval social life when regulative structures and organization dynamics conspired...

(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.)John Woolman's Path to the Peaceful Kingdom: A Quaker In the British Empire . By Geoffrey Plank . Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press , 2012. viii + 296 pp. $39.95 cloth.Book Reviews and NotesSince his death in 1772, the life and work of John Woolman (1720-1772) has been interpreted and defined by subsequent writers in the context of abolitionists, social reformers, peace activists, mystics, and great spiritual thinkers; his on-going influence is part of the lasting power of a carefully crafted life story by both friends and admirers. Yet during his lifetime, Woolman's actions and message often confused and bewildered many of his contemporaries, in spite of his apparent sensitivities to the attitudes of his listeners. His life was his message and he carefully (and prayerfully) ordered it both to reflect his values and to provide object lessons. From refusing to wear dyed clothes, which he saw as a symbol of exploitation, luxury, and waste, through to avoiding sugar, manner of speech, and careful oversight of his diet, Woolman sought to make practical statements about implicit evils. Unfortunately much of his life proved incomprehensible to distant observers who did not have access to the inner thoughts that motivated him. Only with the posthumous publication (and editing on both sides of the Atlantic) of his journal were the two brought together. Even then, many American Friends initially admired his piety rather than his stance against slave holding, though both were clearly noted in his journal.As with many reformers and visionaries, Woolman was as much a product of his age as a transformer of it. As Geoffrey Plank asserts in his introduction "we cannot understand Woolman's career without examining the community he was born into and the religious society that shaped him" (9). Working within the administrative structures of the Society of Friends, Woolman along with other reformers coordinated pastoral responses to the wider needs and perceived evils of both North American and Colonial society. Previous works on Woolman have sought to identify the uniqueness of his contribution, but Plank in a well referenced and clearly written narrative has placed him back in the context of his contemporaries, giving the reader a perceptive insight into the historical figure. He is able to do this by a careful revisiting of primary sources ranging from the journal, the extensive correspondence of Woolman and his acquaintances, and the records of local Friends Meetings. Through this mass of material (meticulously referenced) the reader is carefully guided into a very intimate encounter with Woolman the man and introduced afresh to the sheer humanity and visionary character of this inspirational, if "singular," Quaker.The volume works extremely well, because instead of marshalling the sources into a standard biography they are arranged thematically, introducing the reader in a loose chronological framework to the significant influences and the contemporary issues that animated Woolman. Each theme takes up a chapter and they include, Woolman's analysis of the course of history, his understanding of discernment, his lifelong fidelity to Quaker discipline, and chapters on his views on work, slavery, and warfare. …

Longmen Grottoes is the famous cultural heritage. Many factors should be considered in reinforcement project of the plank way slab. Considering the characteristics of the tourist area, many reinforcement schemes are put forward, at last, the method with CFRP sheet is selected to reinforce the plank way slab. The reinforcement effect shows that this method increases very little weight of the structural members. The appearance of the reinforced members are harmonious to the surrounding environment.

This paper introduces performances and characteristics of concrete bar-type plank, a new type of building materials, through detailed graphics recording its applications in State Key Laboratory for Green Building Materials. Also, it proposes issues in further research and potential direction for concrete bar-type plank development widespread used in actual projects, i.e., to become an exterior wall structure system rather than a simple decorative component.

As an increasing amount of manufacturing employment has relocated to the Global South, the developed economies of the Global North have sought new ways of competing within the global economy. In part they have done so through the promotion of the so-called ‘knowledge-based economy’ (KBE) constituted by innovations and new markets in high-tech industries like telecommunication, information technology, and the life sciences. A KBE discourse has become a central plank of policy at the national and European levels. This raises a series of questions, however, about the ability of less-favoured regions to compete for knowledge-based activities, given existing conditions of uneven development and the unequal distribution of knowledge assets between regions in the developed economies. In this respect, particularly critical to regional outcomes are the forms of economic coordination and governance that emerge in knowledge-based commodity chains. Engaging with recent debates concerned with global commodity chains, this paper builds on the idea that economic governance is increasingly alliance driven, entailing a diverse set of geographies and trust-based relationships between a variety of organisations that include small innovative firms, large multinational corporations, and national (and subnational) policy actors. These forms of governance open up new opportunities for less-favoured regions, although these continue to be constrained by already existing power relations between regions.

The wooden plank fence presents a deadly but unrecognized hazard to motorists. We hypothesize that fence plank injury is prevalent and results in significant morbidity and mortality. Databases of the University of Kentucky's Level I Trauma Center and the Fayette County Coroner were retrospectively analyzed over a 12-year period (1995-2006). One hundred and twenty-eight subjects were involved in vehicle contact with wooden plank fences. One hundred and twenty-three subjects were evaluated at the Emergency Department of our trauma center; 35 (27%) had a patient-plank interaction (PPI). Men (30/35) were more frequently involved (86%), and average age was 32.8 years. Thirty-two (91%) were drivers; 14/35 (40%) died from PPI-related injuries. The most common cause of death was blunt head trauma in 13 of these 14 fatally injured subjects (93%). This study provides new data underscoring the frequency, lethality, and economic consequences of this injury mechanism. Further research is needed to quantify the national prevalence of this problem and develop injury-mitigating strategies pertaining to roadway or fence design.

Microwave reference blackbodies and targets play a key role in astrophysical and geo- physical studies. The emissivity of these devices is usually inferred from return-loss experiments which may introduce at least 10 separate types of calibration errors. The origin of these inaccuracies depends on test conditions and on the nature of each target. The most overlooked errors are related to the geometry adapted in constructing refer- ence loads and to the effects of conduction or convection. Target shape and design can create an imbalance in the probabilities of absorption and emission. This leads to loss of radiative equilibrium, despite the presence of a thermodynamic steady state. Heat losses or gains, through conduction and convection, compensate for this unexpected physical condition. The improper calibration of blackbodies and targets has implications, not only in global climate monitoring, but also relative to evaluating the microwave back- ground.

Studies on two novel uses of hybrid structural members consisting of commercially produced glass reinforced pultruded ribbed fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) planks and concrete are discussed in this paper. Pultruded planks are produced by all the major pultruders in the world and are utilized primarily as decking for platforms. These highly optimized panels have the potential to be used in many other infrastructure applications, but their flexural stiffnesses have generally been too low to be used in highway and pedestrian bridges due to current span requirements. However, when used “compositely” with concrete or cementitious materials in a hybrid form they have the potential to be much more widely used. Two research studies conducted on two possible hybrid systems of different structural depths are discussed in this paper. The first study describes the use of pultruded planks as permanent formwork in highway bridge decks where the plank is used with concrete to produce a solid slab of 200 mm depth that is typical of slabs seen in highway bridge decks. The second study describes the use of pultruded planks in pedestrian bridge decks where the pultruded plank is used with a cement-board or a cast-in-place concrete panel to produce a hollow slab of 75 mm depth that is typical of timber decking used in FRP pedestrian bridges. Tests were conducted on beam-type specimens of the hybrid slabs to investigate the load transfer mechanisms between the pultruded plank and the cementitious “overlays” for both the 75 mm and 200 mm depths. From analysis of the load-carrying capacity and failure mechanisms of the hybrid slabs it was concluded that such hybrid slabs are viable systems for both highway and pedestrian bridge decks. A bridge deck using the 200 mm deep hybrid slab system was recently constructed on a highway in Wisconsin, USA.

Armed with ~4K reference targets, the Planck satellite low frequency instrument (LFI) is intended to map the microwave anisotropies of the sky from the second Lagrange point, L2. Recently, the complete design and pre-flight testing of these ~4K targets has been published (Valenziano L. et al., JINST 4, 2009, T12006). The receiver chain of the LFI is based on a pseudo-correlation architecture. Consequently, the presence of a ~3K microwave background signal at L2 can be established, if the ~4K reference targets function as intended. Conversely, demonstration that the targets are unable to provide the desired emission implies that the ~3K signal cannot exist, at this location. Careful study reveals that only the second scenario can be valid. This analysis thereby provides firm evidence that the monopole of the microwave background, as initially detected by Penzias and Wilson, is being produced by the Earth itself.

Given that torso muscle endurance is one of the few metrics that has been shown to be linked to having a history of back disorders together with predicting future back disorders, endurance tests for workers have been developed. While some data exists on the V-sit exercise for flexor endurance, some have specifically adopted the plank test. The primary objective of this study was to assess links between the two tests. Two data sets were collected. The first set was obtained from a convenience group of fire fighters where the plank endurance test scores, together with the Biering Sorensen test for extension endurance, were obtained over three years. The second data set was obtained from a tightly controlled cross-sectional study of university students that included scores for both flexor and extensor endurance. 620 fire fighters for the first data set and 181 university students for the second. While flexor endurance in the firefighters peaked when aged in their 40's, extensor endurance peaked in their 20's. In the study of university students, the plank scores were relatively higher than the V-sit scores in males but relatively lower than the V-sit in the females. A pearson correlation test between the paired plank and V-sit scores of each subject rendered a coefficient of r =0.34. This means that the performance on one flexor test only predicted 11% of the score in the other. ANOVA comparison of scores based on their history of having had shoulder or back troubles showed no significant link between V-sit or plank scores. The plank scores are not well correlated with the V-sit scores suggesting that the two measure different variables. Since more data exists for the V-sit, measurement of flexor endurance in occupational settings using this test probably forms a stronger link to back injury.

This article provides an ‘insider’ perspective on the work of the Correctional Services Accreditation Panel (CSAP) of England and Wales, a key plank of the government’s ‘What Works’ strategy and in particular its aim of reducing re-offending through the development of ‘gold standard’, ‘evidence-based’ interventions (principally — but not exclusively — offending behaviour programmes). The article begins with a brief discussion of the concept of accreditation, its value and potential drawbacks. It then provides an account of CSAP’s working practices and some reflections on the results of its work so far, set against the background of challenges and tensions arising from a changing policy environment, resource constraints, mixed results from outcome studies, and debates about what some perceived as an over-narrow remit for accreditation. It concludes with some thoughts about possible future directions for CSAP or successor bodies with broadly similar goals.

Social scientists recognize a complex and iterative relationship between the built environment and social identities. Here, we explore the extent to which household and settlement remains may be used as archaeological correlates of collective identities among the Stó:lō-Coast Salish peoples of the Fraser River Valley. Using data from six recently tested archaeological sites we begin with the household and explore expressions of identity at various social-spatial scales. The sites span the period from 4200 cal B.C. to the late A.D. 1800s and include settlements with semi-subterranean houses of different forms as well as aboveground plank houses. Across this timeframe we see both change and continuity in settlement location, layout, size, and house form. Our data suggest that although group identities have changed over the millennia, selected social units have persisted through many generations and can be linked to present-day identities of the Stó:lō-Coast Salish.

[EN] We investigate the Lindelöf property of Dowker planks. In particular, we give necessary conditions such that the product of a Dowker plank with the irrationals is not Lindelöf. We also show that if there exists a Michael space, then, under some conditions involving singular cardinals, there is one that is a Dowker plank.

This article sketches the European and Southeast Asian interest groups behind the biofuel agenda and discusses its social and ecological ramifications in the context of the palm oil boom in Indonesia. Although biofuels are a key plank in the green modernisation of capitalism, this article argues that they require the imposition of capitalist social relations of nature and thus deepen the ongoing multiple (economic, social, climate and biodiversity) crisis. The article ends with a discussion of the emerging transnational campaign alliances in opposition to the palm oil - biofuel - agenda.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to show how the promotion of integrated forage/ruminant‐livestock industries forms a key plank in efforts to improve rural household livelihoods in Western China.Design/methodology/approachThe paper critiques how this industry development has proceeded in the case of Qingyang prefecture in Gansu. The way in which the industry policy has manifested from central to local levels of government is outlined along with how the industry policy relates to other measures intended to improve household livelihoods.FindingsThe outcomes of this forage‐livestock industry policy do not always match the intention, and the paper examines the various disconnects that arise between government agencies, government and households and households and the market. The foremost challenge for policy makers is in connecting households and markets.Originality/valueIdentifying the impacts of policy and institutional settings associated with forage‐livestock systems is crucial if improvements are to be made and as these systems become more widespread in Western China.

This paper investigates the influence of anchor rods, planks and inner knee braces on the critical load of scaffolding systems under concentric and eccentric loads in construction. The steel rebar of grade 3 is used in place of the patent anchor rod in this study. The results show that the critical load of the scaffolding system increases by 1.5 times when anchor rods of a length of 30 cm are used on two sides of each story of the scaffolding system. The critical load increases by 4 times when the scaffolding system has both the anchor rods and plank. The critical load of the scaffolding system with the anchor rods placed on each story is twice as large as that with anchor rods added every two stories; the failure mode of the system also switches from the in-plane to out-of-plane mode. The 30-cm-long anchor rod, used in place of a steel bar of grade 3, provides a good lateral restraint to the scaffolding system. Moreover, the setup plank can significantly elevate the critical load of the scaffolding system; the critical load increases approximately 1.5 times under the concentric load, and increases up to 2.2 times under the TL/4 eccentric load, defined as a load applied at a quarter distance from the end. The anchor rod and the plank should always be included in a scaffolding system to improve its stability, especially under the eccentric loads in construction.

Access to basic education is a central plank of the global initiatives on Education for All and is prominently included in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to which almost all countries subs...

The semiclassical approximation method is applied for solution construction of the Fokker-Planck equation with quadratic nonlocal nonlinearity and various coefficients in models of asset returns estimation. Analitical expressions determining nonlinear evolution operator are obtained in semiclasical approximation.

Afghanistan seems to be sliding into chaos notwithstanding the initial euphoria that followed the toppling of the Taliban regime. The long-term stability of Afghanistan is mainly contingent upon its integration in a regional cooperative framework. The Afghanistan Compact adopted at the London Conference in January-February 2006 identified regional cooperation as a main plank of the international community's reconstruction strategy. However, not all stakeholders in the region share similar perceptions or interests in promoting regional cooperation. This article seeks to examine whether regional cooperation in South Asia could be an effective mechanism to bring in long-term stability in Afghanistan. Will regional cooperation augment Afghanistan's capacity to deliver basic needs to the Afghan people? Would its entry into the South Asian fold contribute to peace in that country?

Historians of the eugenics movement in Australia in the first half of the twentieth century have failed to provide an adequate explanation for its place and relative importance both within public policy planning and more generally in the zeitgeist. This article argues for a new approach, characterising eugenics as a science or technology being utilised on occasions for the more fundamental and time-honoured task of the elimination of racial degeneracy. Thus, a wider question is raised about the role of eugenics as a central plank in the development of scientific racism in the twentieth century.

A re-evaluation of the published reports on the Khufu I vessel suggests: first, Egyptian boatwrights used as much of a plank's original width and length as possible to minimize waste, resulting in unpredictable stealer and scarf placement; second, crafting tenons to be narrower than corresponding mortises may have been one of many standardized techniques of Egyptian boatbuilding; third, temporary and permanent edge-to-edge transverse lashing was an important structural feature. Finally, woven straps instead of ropes were probably used to lash this vessel, and seams were probably sealed with wadding and battens, while the frames appear to have been recycled. © 2009 The Author

The tension between hierarchy and communalism is a prominent feature of social life in transegalitarian societies. How are hierarchy and communalism combined in these societies? How are they materialized in everyday life? In this paper, we examine the relationship between hierarchy and communalism in the transegalitarian societies of the Northwest Coast of North America. We focus on households, the primary socioeconomic units of the culture area, and on the plank houses that contained them. Despite the apparent contradiction between hierarchy and communalism, we find that in Northwest Coast households with highly developed social hierarchies, communal practices remained deeply entrenched, while in households with weaker hierarchies, communalism was less developed. The relative importance of hierarchy and communalism in daily household life was clearly materialized in the spatial order of plank houses. By simultaneously objectifying both principles, the house may have played an important role in easing the tension between them.

In this research, the shear performance of the floor system using Japanese cedar plank was studied. The mechanical models for conventional wooden plank floor fixed with toe-screw or flat-screw types were suggested and compared with experimental results. It was verified that their shear performance was not enough as structural component to meet the requirement for the common wooden residential house. Therefore newly developed H-shape fastener was introduced to prevent slip between planks. Consequently the shear resistance factor of the wooden plank floor system whose interlayer slips were effectively prevented was fairly improved and arbitrary floor performance could be easily estimated by taking the unit performance of H-shape fastener into design calculation of floor.

The actualization of a simple affordance task—grasping and moving wooden planks of different sizes using either one or two hands—was assessed in the context of taskrelevant (plank sequence, plank presentation speed) and task-irrelevant (cognitive load) manipulations. In Experiment 1, fast (3 s/plank) and self-paced (≈5 s/plank) presentation speeds revealed hysteresis; the transition point for ascending series was greater than the transition point for descending series. Hysteresis was eliminated in the slowest presentation speed (10 s/plank). In Experiment 2, hysteresis was exaggerated by a cognitive load (counting backward by seven) for both fast and slow presentation speeds. These results suggest that behavioral responses to the attractor dynamics of perceived affordances are processes that require minimal cognitive resources.

The view that everything is empty (śūnya) is a central metaphysical plank of Mahāyāna Buddhism. It has often been the focus of objections. Perhaps the most important of these is that it in effect entails a nihilism: nothing exists. This objection, in turn, is denied by Mahāyāna theorists, such as Nāgārjuna. One of the things that makes the debate difficult is that the precise import of the view that everything is empty is unclear. The object of this essay is to put the debate in a new light. It does so by proposing a mathematical characterization of Emptiness—that is, the totality of empty things—showing that, whatever it is, it has a definite structure and is not, therefore, to be identified with nothingness.

Collaboration between two painters was a common occurrence in the Netherlands of the seventeenth century. To date, sixteen examples are known to have resulted from the partnership of the Antwerp landscape painter, Alexander Keirincx, and the Utrecht Italianate master, Cornelis van Poelenburch (see appendix). The paintings usually combine a wooded landscape by the hand of Keirincx with a few figures added by Van Poelenburch. Two of the works are signed by both artists, one by Van Poelenburch only, and most of the others by Keirincx alone.A few of these paintings have been analyzed using infrared reflectography, which revealed that Keirincx meticulously executed his underdrawing of the landscape, without any indication for the staffage. Next, Keirincx painted the landscape, sometimes deviating slightly from his preliminary underdrawing. After that, Cornelis van Poelenburch added figures and animals, here and there inserting small brush strokes to the landscape immediately around the figures.Although Van Poelenburch may have included his staffage without consulting Alexander Keirincx, an addition by Keirincx in one of his compositions, seems to indicate a closer contact between the artists. While they lived near each other in Utrecht (1632-1636) and London (1637-1641), their collaboration did not only occur during those years, as can be concluded from two dated works (1629, 1630).A unique instance of their collaboration is the Landscape with Cimon and Iphigenia (Utrecht; replica or copy in Leipzig, figs 17 and 26). IRR analysis unequivocally confirms that the landscape and the figure zone initially were painted by Van Poelenburch, after which Keirincx added the large tree at the left. A differently prepared plank was attached to the lower part, maybe especially for that purpose. The Leipzig version lacks this feature, as well as some minor adjustments to the composition, thus indicating that it was executed after the Utrecht panel.