This study replicated a previously reported male advantage on certain items of Raven’s Matrices and found no sex differences in performance on other items. We refer to the latter as analytic (1) items and the former as analytic (2) items. Reasons for the male advantage were investigated by correlating scores obtained by male and female high school students on analytic (1) and analytic (2) items with their scores on tests of spatial, verbal and mathematical ability. There were no sex differences in the magnitude of the correlations between scores on analytic (2) items and the two spatial and verbal tests. In contrast, males but not females showed a significantly higher correlation of maths with analytic (2) than with analytic (1). The results suggest the Raven’s Matrices may engage different, more specific cognitive processes in males and more general cognitive processes in females.

One of the challenges to sustainable development is the disconnection between environmental impacts and their underlying causes. Whilst impacts are often localized and perceptions limited accordingly, sources can often be traced to broader factors, and there is a need for methodologies to establish these linkages between localized effects and global causes. Europe's Regional Seas provide a useful illustration, characterized by a variety of ecological problems influenced by a range of local and wider factors within complex ecosystems. The Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) model is one methodology used to establish connections between ecological conditions and human activity. Whilst there are some significant challenges in developing and using such models, they deepen understanding of ecological systems and the influences of socio-economic forces on them. In particular, they can help in contextualizing the apparent effectiveness of regulatory interventions and understanding the role that the forces of globalization play in creating localized ecosystem degradation.

As part of its strategy for more sustainable construction, the UK Government has been encouraging sector representative bodies and trade associations to develop sector sustainability strategies. A four-year research programme aimed at developing such a strategy for the precast concrete industry was therefore established by the British Precast Concrete Federation in 2004, in collaboration with the Department of Civil and Building Engineering at Loughborough University. In accordance with best practice, the research began with the identification and prioritisation of sustainability issues for the precast industry. A facilitated workshop with key practitioners from the industry identified a series of key business issues for the industry and demonstrated that sustainability was intrinsically linked to the profitability and competitiveness of the industry. A questionnaire survey was then conducted to verify and prioritise these issues across the wider industry. Whilst the survey verified the issues, priorities were found to vary between groups of companies as a result of them being in different phases of a corporate sustainability model. The research has enabled priorities for the precast sector sustainability strategy to be identified which will facilitate progress towards a more sustainable precast concrete industry in the UK.

EC environmental law has been the subject of close scrutiny for many years, with inadequate transposition and implementation of directives highlighted by the European Court and others. This scrutiny has played a part in the incremental development of the nature of the obligations which directives place on Member States. Thus a history of transposition can be studied for the older directives, so that uncertainties and other problems with provisions; the evolving nature of transposing measures; and the experience of practical implementation can be brought together to identify failings in transposition and implementation, assess whether and how these have been addressed, and identify the continuing consequences of these failings. This article examines such a ‘life-cycle’ of transposition and implementation within the United Kingdom of one of the more mature environmental directives – the Groundwater Directive. This Directive is nearing the end of a lengthy life-cycle, with the transition to the Water Framework Directive under way. The Directive has not been the subject of significant attention by the courts or academic writers and so it might be assumed that it has proved less problematic than other directives. Yet there have been important, albeit latent, problems, which only become apparent when looking beneath the level of paper transposition at practical implementation. These problems could, however, have serious continuing consequences for the environment.

Several studies have reported that individuals with autism and Asperger's syndrome show a local processing bias on tasks involving features and configurations. This study assessed whether this bias results from differences in the perception of features or a cognitive bias to attend to features in autism as a consequence of a deficit in attending to configurations. Children with autism and typically developing children performed a task assessing the initial perceptual representation of features and configurations following a 50 ms stimulus display and the development of the perceptual representation by grouping processes following an 800 ms stimulus display. No differences were observed between the two groups, suggesting that the perceptual and attentional mechanisms marshalled by this task operate typically in children with autism.

Soil is the Cinderella of environmental media. The Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution has suggested that soil protection has been taken for granted by policy and law makers and that soil quality has not been given the same priority as air or water quality. After many years of neglect, we have arrived at something of a crossroads in terms of soil protection policy. Various policy documents have emerged which seek to place soil protection on a higher level of importance. The simple aim of this article is to locate the UK's position on soil protection in the context of the wider framework which is emerging at a European level. The article concludes that whilst there has been a recognition for some years that an integrated soil protection policy is needed in the UK, the progress towards producing such a policy has been painfully slow, fragmented and unproductive partly as a result of a lack of basic information on soil and the incoherent nature of the administration of soil protection.

OBJECTIVE:To determine baseline characteristics of women undergoing uterine artery embolization (UAE) for symptomatic fibroids.DESIGN:Multicenter, prospective, single-arm clinical treatment trial.SETTING:Eight Ontario university and community hospitals.PATIENT(S):Five hundred fifty-five women undergoing UAE for fibroids.INTERVENTION(S):Baseline questionnaires completed before UAE.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S):Questionnaires were analyzed for demographic, medical, and gynecologic histories. Fibroid symptoms, impact of symptoms, previous consultations, and treatments were also analyzed.RESULT(S):The Ontario cohort (66% white, 23% black, 11% other races) had an average age of 43. Thirty-one percent were under age 40. Most women were university educated (68%) and working outside the home (85%). Women reported heavy menstrual bleeding (80%), urinary urgency/frequency (73%), pain during intercourse (41%), and work absences (40%). They experienced fibroid-related symptoms for an average of 5 years and consulted with on average of three gynecologists before UAE. High fibroid life-impact scores were reported by 58%. Black women were significantly younger (40.7 vs. 44.0 years), more likely to experience symptoms longer (7 vs. 5 years), and more likely to undergo myomectomy before UAE (24% vs. 9%) than white women.CONCLUSION(S):Our study illustrates that large numbers of women with highly symptomatic fibroid disease are averse to surgery despite their burden of suffering and are actively seeking alternatives to hysterectomy.

A high level of technical success with few complications was obtained with a variety of operators in diverse practice settings. Increased experience in UAE significantly reduced procedure and fluoroscopy time.

Abstract A phenomenological cycle simulation for a dual fuel engine has been developed to mathematically simulate the significant processes of the engine cycle, to predict specific performance parameters for the engine, and to investigate approaches to improve performance and reduce emissions. The simulation employs two zones (crevice and unburned) during the processes of exhaust, intake, compression before fuel injection starts, and expansion after combustion ends. From the start of fuel injection to the end of combustion, several, zones are utilized to account for crevice flow, diesel fuel spray, air entrainment, diesel fuel droplet evaporation, ignition delay, flame propagation, and combustion quenching. The crevice zone absorbs charge gas from the cylinder as pressure increases, and releases mass back into the chamber as pressure decreases. Some crevice mass released during late combustion may not be oxidized, resulting in emissions of hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide. Quenching ahead of the flame front may leave additional charge unburned, yielding high methane emissions. Potential reduction of engine-out NOx emissions with natural gas fueling has also been investigated. The higher substitution of natural gas in the engine produces less engine-out NOx emissions. This paper presents the development of the model, baseline predictions, and comparisons to experimental measurements performed in a single-cylinder Caterpillar 3400 series engine.

The performance, emissions and combustion characteristics of lean mixtures of natural gas and hydrogen were studied in a conventional spark ignited engine. Specifically, mixtures of natural gas blended with 5, 10 and 15 percent by volume hydrogen were considered. Engine performance parameters included power (BHP), thermal efficiency (BTE), specific fuel consumption (BSFC), coefficient of variation in mean effective pressure, cumulative energy release schedule, and emissions of CO, NOx and hydrocarbons. Major conclusions of the work include: (i) at equivalence ratios leaner than 0.80, improvements in BHP, BSFC, and BTE were significant with hydrogen addition; (ii) significant extension of the lean operating limit to lower equivalence ratios was demonstrated with increasing hydrogen concentrations in natural gas; (iii) emissions of CO, NO, and hydrocarbons decreased as equivalence ratio was reduced until partial burning became predominant; (iv) hydrogen addition appeared to allow stable engine operation with lower pollutant emissions over a relatively broad range of lean equivalence ratios; and (v) the impact of hydrogen blending on performance and emissions was dependent on the volume fraction of hydrogen, although the functional relationship appeared to be non-linear.

The work presented in this paper demonstrates that different subgroups in the population described by various economic and demographic characteristics have different levels of greenhouse gas emissions from personal automotive transportation. Further these characteristics may be assigned a rank or importance in terms of association with emissions levels. And once socioeconomic characteristics of a household are known, emissions levels may be predicted.

The use of full-fuel-cycle analysis as a scientific, economic, and policy tool for the evaluation of alternative sources of transportation energy has become increasingly widespread. However, consistent methods for performance of these types of analyses are only now becoming recognized and utilized. The work presented here provides a case study of full-fuel-cycle analysis methods applied to the evaluation of gasoline in the southeastern region of the United States. Results of the study demonstrate the significance of nonvehicle processes, such as fuel refining, in terms of energy expenditure and emissions production. Unique to this work is the application of the MOBILES mobile emissions model in the full-fuel-cycle analysis. Estimates of direct and indirect greenhouse gas production are also presented and discussed using the full-fuel-cycle analysis method.

An engine cycle simulation was developed to investigate the ignition and combustion characteristics of coal-water slurry fuels in a reciprocating, internal combustion engine. The simulation includes models for fuel and air mixing, wall heat transfer, solid coal particle combustion, coal devolatilization, and liquid evaporation and combustion. These models together with a thermodynamic analysis of the cylinder gas yield instantaneous cylinder conditions and overall indicated engine performance. The engine parameters and operating conditions were selected to be representative of a locomotive engine operating at 1000 RPM. Engine and fuel parameters investigated include engine inlet conditions (temperature and pressure), coal particle sizes and size distributions, fuel additives, and coal properties. Increases in the initial (at BDC) gas temperature or pressure, or the addition of small amounts of diesel oil improved the ignition characteristics. Slurries with smaller particle sizes exhibited better ignition qualities and resulted in higher peak indicated thermal efficiencies than slurries with larger particle sizes. Results obtained using monosize sauter mean diameter particles agreed well with results obtained for the corresponding distribution. Finally, ignition was achieved at lower initial gas temperatures for higher reactivity coals.

This paper discusses the implementation of a large office automation system to be used by nondata processing as well as data processing staff, i.e., the knowledge worker. At its completion the system will encompass more than 1,000 terminals (one terminal per office). The paper covers the nature of the basic system, IBM's Professional Office System (PROFS), what it does, how it functions, the extent of use, and how to encourage potential users to use it. The paper reviews training procedures from one-on-one to higher ratios and the reasoning behind them, and goes over in detail the nature of the "innovation" curve. Also reviewed are the computer performance and the Local Area Network (broadband with Sytek bus interface units). We currently serve more than 500 users with around 300 terminals already distributed.