The EC Water Framework Directive and its implications for the Environment Agency

The bulk of the European Community's water policy legislation was developed between the mid 1970s and the early 1990s. These directives addressed specific substances, sources, uses or processes but caused problems with differing methods definitions and aims. The Water Framework Directive (WFD) aims to resolve the piecemeal approach. The Environemnt Agency (EA) welcomes and supported the overall objective of establishing a coherent legislative framework. The EA has been discussing the implications of the WFD with European partners and has developed a timetable for the implementation and a special team will commission necessary research.

Phase variations and phase shift in a TE011 mode microwave cavity used for in a miniature Rb fountain frequency standard

It is the first time in China that the phase variations and phase shift of microwave cavity in a miniature Rb fountain frequency standard are studied, considering the effect of imperfect metallic walls. Wall losses in the microwave cavity lead to small traveling wave components that deliver power from the cavity feed to the walls of cavity. The small traveling wave components produce a microradian distribution of phase throughout the cavity ity, and therefore distributed cavity phase shifts need to be considered. The microwave cavity is a TE011 circular cylinder copper cavity, with round cut-hole of end plates (14mm in diameter) for access for the atomic flux and two small apertures in the center of the side wall for coupling in microwave power. After attenuation alpha is calculated, field variations in cavity are solved. The field variations of the cavity are given. At the same time, the influences of loaded quality factor QL and diameter/height (2a/d) of the microwave cavity on the phase variations and phase shift are considered. According to the phase variation and phase shift of microwave cavity we select the parameters of cavity, diameter 2a = 69.2mm, height d = 34.6mm, QL = 5000, which will result in an uncertainty delta(Delta f / f0 ) < 4.7 x 10(-17) and meets the requirement for the miniature Rb fountain frequency standard with accuracy 10(-15).

A consulta ginecológica na adolescência sob a ótica dos ginecologistas e das adolescentes

O atendimento ginecológico de qualidade na adolescência vem se tornando cada vez mais necessário na atualidade devido à ocorrência mais precoce da atividade sexual, com conseqüente aumento das gestações não planejadas, das doenças sexualmente transmissíveis e da probabilidade de câncer de colo uterino. Este estudo teve como objetivo avaliar a consulta ginecológica sob a ótica dos médicos e das adolescentes. Foi desenvolvido um estudo de corte transversal através de questionário estruturado aplicado a 191 ginecologistas filiados à Associação de Ginecologia e Obstetrícia do Estado do Rio de Janeiro e a 418 estudantes do ensino médio de escolas estadual, federal e privada da cidade do Rio de Janeiro. Os médicos responderam questões sobre dados pessoais, qualificação profissional, condutas na consulta ginecológica e sobre a necessidade de capacitação para o atendimento de adolescentes. Para as colegiais foram abordados aspectos sócio-demográficos, comportamento sexual e avaliação da consulta ginecológica. Para a análise dos dados utilizou-se o teste qui-quadrado e o t de student. Os resultados mostraram que não houve diferenças sgnificativas entre as escolares do ensino privado e da escola pública federal que, no entanto, apresentaram características distintas quando comparadas às estudantes da instituição estadual. Estas eram predominantemente da raça negra, com responsáveis de menor escolaridade e tinham piores condições de moradia. Apesar do maior número de parceiros, gestações e de abortamentos, além de histórico de violência sexual, foram à consulta ginecológica em idade mais tardia, devido à dificuldade de acesso a serviços de saúde sexual e reprodutiva. Os três grupos de estudantes manifestaram, em comum, o desejo de que o profissional investisse mais tempo, paciência e disponibilidade no atendimento ginecológico. Quanto aos profissionais, foi constatado que os mais jovens e as do sexo feminino apresentaram atitudes consideradas menos conservadoras na conduta médica. Os participantes informaram como principal obstáculo no atendimento desta faixa etária a maior duração da consulta e ressaltaram a importância de treinamento específico e da realização rotineira do exame colpocitológico. Concluiu-se que há necessidade de criação de estratégias que facilitem o acesso e a adesão deste grupo etário à rotina preventiva ginecológica e à capacitação profissional específica. Este trabalho oferece contribuições para o conhecimento da consulta ginecológica e identifica a necessidade de melhoria na qualidade da assistência prestada a esta faixa etária a fim de reduzir os agravos da atividade sexual precoce e desprotegida na adolescência.

Reproductive biology of Rastrineobola argentea (Pellegrin) in the northern waters of Lake Victoria

Size at first maturity, breeding periods and condition factor were determined for the small pelagic cyprinid Rastrineobola argentea (Pellegrin) in the Jinja waters of Lake Victoria in 1996-1997. Females showed a reduced size at maturity compared to ten years earlier when exploitation of the species was minimal. The males, however, have changed little. Although the species breeds throughout the year, two breeding peaks were observed during the drier months of August and December-January. Minimal breeding was observed in the rainy months of April-May and October-November. Fish from the open water station at Bugaia showed a higher proportion of breeding individuals than those from inshore areas. The mean monthly condition factor of fish from Napoleon Gulf confirmed breeding peaks obtained from examination of gonad development.

Beam smoothing by lens array with spectral dispersion

A scheme of combining technology of lens array (LA) and smoothing by spectral dispersion (SSD) is introduced to improve the irradiation uniformity in laser fusion based on the earlier works on LA. The feasibility of the scheme is also analyzed by numerical simulation. It shows that a focal pattern with flat-top and sharp-edge profile could be obtained, and the irradiation nonuniformity can fall down from 14% with only LA to 3% with both SSD and LA. And this smoothing scheme is depended less on the incidence comparing to other smoothing methods. The preliminary experiment has demonstrated its effectiveness. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Online journalism: research methods. A multidisciplinary approach in comparative perspective

Journalism on digital networks, and specifically on Internet, is a relatively recent phenomenon, whose spread began in approximately 1994, in parallel to that of the World Wide Web. Study of this new communicative phenomenon began simultaneously in several countries. This, in its turn, was helped by the new possibilities for communication amongst academics - electronic mail, predating the WWW, was, and is, one of the most widely used tools of the university community. The spread of these new forms of global communication helped to raise mutual awareness between research groups, making it possible to form increasingly broad and cohesive networks.

Charge and spin transport in graphene devices

170 p.