Strength grading of sawn timber in Europe: an explanation for engineers and researchers.

This paper is a concise explanation of the normative background to strength grading in Europe, addressing important aspects that are commonly misunderstood by structural engineers and timber researchers. It also highlights changes that are being made to the standards to: incorporate requirements of the construction products regulations; add improvements to the system to accommodate the latest knowledge and technology; and widen the application of the standards. Where designs need to be optimised, there is an opportunity to use the system more intelligently, in combination with the latest technology, to better fit design values to the true properties of the timber resource. This can bring a design enhancement equivalent to effort improving other aspects of the structure, such as connectors and reinforcement. Parallel to this, researchers working on other aspects of structural improvement need to understand what grades really mean in respect of the properties of the timber, in order to correctly analyse the results of testing. It is also useful to know how techniques used in grading can assist with material properties characterisation for research. The amount of destructive testing involved in establishing machine grading settings and visual grading assignments presents a barrier to greater use of local timber, and diversification of commercial species, so it is important that any researcher assessing the properties of such species should consider, from the outset, doing the research in a way that can contribute to a grading dataset at a later date. This paper provides an overview of what is required for this.

Multiple Principles and the Obligation to Obey the Law

Nkiruka, A., Multiple Principles and the Obligation to Obey the Law, Deakin Law Review. Vol. 10. No. 2. 2005. p. 524 RAE2008

Career transitions in sport: European perspectives

Wylleman, P., Alfermann, D., Lavallee, D. (2004). Career transitions in sport: European perspectives. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 5 (1), 7-20 RAE2008

Iraq and world order: a Turkish perspective

G?l, Ayla. 'Iraq and world order: a Turkish perspective', in: 'The Iraq Crisis and World Order: Structural, Institutional and Normative Challenges', (Eds) Thakur, R., Sidhu, W. P. S., United Nations University Press, Hong Kong , pp.114-133, 2006 RAE2008

In Praise of Folly: International Administration and the Corruption of Humanity

Bain, William, 'In Praise of Folly: International Administration and the Corruption of Humanity', International Affairs, (2006) 82(3) pp.525-538 RAE2008

Constructing Enemies: 'Islamic Terrorism' in Political and Academic Discourse

Jackson, Richard, (2007) 'Constructing Enemies: 'Islamic Terrorism' in Political and Academic Discourse', Government and Opposition, 42(3) pp.394-426 RAE2008

Language, Policy and the Construction of a Torture Culture in the War on Terrorism

Jackson, R. (2007). Language, Policy and the Construction of a Torture Culture in the War on Terrorism. Review of International Studies. 33(3), pp.353-371 RAE2008

ZASTOSOWANIE DERYWACYJNEJ KONCEPCJI WYKŁADNI PRAWA DO ROZSTRZYGANIA SPRAW ZE STOSOWANIEM PRZEPISÓW UNIJNYCH

Celem artykułu jest przedstawienie aplikacji zastosowania na krajowym poziomie stosowania przepisów unijnych koncepcji wykładni derywacyjnej Macieja Zielińskiego. Podjęto w nim próbę udzielenia odpowiedzi na pytanie o wzajemne relacje przepisów prawnych ustanowionych przez socjologicznie różnych prawodawców do norm postępowania odtwarzanych w procesie wykładni w oparciu o analizę syntaktyczną oraz treściową krajowych i unijnych przepisów prawnych z różnych gałęzi prawa. Zastosowanie założeń koncepcji derywacyjnej do rozstrzygania spraw z elementem unijnym prowadzi do konkluzji, że zarówno zjawisko rozczłonkowania (na poziomie syntaktycznym oraz treściowym), jak również kondensacja norm postępowania w przepisach prawnych przebiegać może w sposób krzyżowy pomiędzy aktami prawnymi ustanowionymi przez różnych prawodawców socjologicznych (faktycznych). Ponadto, analiza szczególnego typu unijnych przepisów bezpośrednio skutecznych, prima facie stanowiących źródło obowiązku normatywnego wyłącznie dla państw członkowskich, w świetle założeń koncepcji wykładni derywacyjnej uświadamia, że przepisy te stanowią w gruncie rzeczy modelową egzemplifikację zjawiska kondensacji elementów norm prawnych. Przeprowadzona analiza relacji zakresowych przepisów prawnych do norm postępowania wykazuje stosowalność koncepcji derywacyjnej w procesie rozstrzygania spraw z elementem unijnym. Koncepcja ta wyjaśnia szczególnie złożone problemy wykładni prawa w sprawach z elementem unijnym oraz dostarcza teorii i praktyce instrumentarium do ich rozwiązywania. Jej zastosowanie unaocznia jednocześnie złożoną strukturę systemu prawa, którą charakteryzuje zjawisko hybrydyzacji.

Niezamknięte księgi – o księgach cechowych na Pomorzu Zachodnim

Niniejsze badanie koncentruje się na księgach powstałych w wyniku działalności organizacji cechowych na Pomorzu Zachodnim. Jest to specyficzny rodzaj zabytków, w których odzwierciedla się życie zarówno zawodowe, jak i społeczne oraz towarzyskie korporacji. Pisane były niejednokrotnie przez kolejne pokolenia, obejmują nawet kilka stuleci, przez co stanowią cenne źródło historyczne. Księgi dzieliły się na urzędowe, obejmujące całokształt działalności (Amtsbuch), oraz wyspecjalizowane – księgi protokołów (Protokollbuch), księgi mistrzów, czeladników i uczniów (Meister-, Gesellen- i Lehrjungenbuch), księgi rachunkowe (Rechnungsbuch) i księgi normatywne. Tekst ukazuje znaczną różnorodność kwestii poruszanych w poszczególnych rodzajach ksiąg, a także ich formę zewnętrzną. Podstawę do badań stanowią obiekty przechowywane w Archiwum Państwowym w Szczecinie. Daleko posunięte podobieństwo w funkcjonowaniu cechów poza granicami Pomorza pozwala na przeniesienie wniosków również na inne organizacje cechowe.

Propozycja rozróżnienia teoretycznego kategorii estymy i szacunku

Poniższy tekst odnosi się do debat dotyczących sporów teoretycznych i definicyjnych o znaczenie kategorii szacunku i estymy. Autor porównuje koncepcję prestiżu Henryka Domańskiego i teorie uznania Axela Honnetha zarówno w wymiarze normatywnym, jak i tym dotyczącym badań empirycznych. Autor konkluduje, że założenia normatywne i definicje teoretyczne kategorii estymy i szacunku są bardziej przekonujące i wyszukane pod względem teoretycznym w teorii uznania Axela Honnetha.

Zagadnienia wykładni prawa w unijnych kontekstach interpretacyjnych. O adekwatności i możliwych rozwinięciach derywacyjnej koncepcji wykładni

Wydział Prawa i Administracji

Homosexuality and the United Methodist Church: An Ecclesiological Dilemma

Since 1968 The United Methodist Church has publicly debated the status and roles of homosexual persons in the life of the Church, creating considerable conflict within the Denomination. Academic research on the question of homosexuality and the Church has often focused on theological understandings of homosexuality and on the ways the conflict reflects broader "culture wars" in society. Yet little attention has been given to how the Church's concrete practices and polity toward homosexual persons reflect underlying tensions within the ecclesiological identity of the Denomination. This dissertation proposes that the issue of homosexuality is a critically important case study for exploring the practical ecclesiology of The United Methodist Church. In an effort to identify tensions within contemporary United Methodism's practical ecclesiology, it traces in detail the history of the denominational debate over homosexuality since 1968 and articulates the diverse and often conflicting ecclesiological commitments embedded within that debate. Focusing on the debate itself as a practice of the Church, this dissertation illustrates the ways in which the controversy over sexuality reflects the Denomination's conflicted practical ecclesiology. By examining the rhetoric of the sexuality debates in The United Methodist Church from 1968 to 2008, and by articulating the ecclesiological commitments embedded in those debates, the dissertation reveals a fundamental conflict over interpretations of ecclesial unity. Moreover, the dissertation explores the extent to which the conflict over unity reflects ecclesiological tensions present in John Wesley's own practical ecclesiology; and it asks whether or not contemporary interpretations of United Methodist ecclesiology might provide a normative framework for assessing and resolving the underlying ecclesial conflict at work in sexuality debates. The dissertation concludes by exploring the practice of public narrative as a concrete strategy that might be employed by the Denomination to reconcile the diverging ecclesiological visions within the contemporary church so that a clear and consensual ecclesiology might emerge.

Practices of Ministerial Leadership of Korean-American United Methodist Clergywomen; Toward a Wesleyan Ecclesiology in a Global Context

This study documents, analyzes, and interprets Korean American United Methodist (KAUM) clergywomen‘s experiences in and understandings of the church. It examines contributions these (and potentially, other) clergywomen might make to Wesleyan ecclesiology generally, and particular ways United Methodists live out their faith in transitional, diverse, and global contexts. The project attempts to re-vision existing Wesleyan ecclesial discourse in the United Methodist Church (UMC) by recognizing and incorporating the contributions of racial-ethnic clergy as expressed through their leadership and practices of faith. A "practice-theory-practice" model of practical theology was used to pay systematic attention to the practical locus of the inquiries. Twenty Korean American United Methodist clergywomen were interviewed by telephone, using a voluntary sampling technique to ascertain how they both experienced the church and understood and lived out various practices of faith, including preaching, participation in and administration of the sacraments, preparation for ordained ministry, and other spiritual practices such as prayer, worship, retreats, and journaling. The dissertation summarizes those findings, provides contextual and historical interpretation, and then analyzes their responses in relation to Wesleyan theology, MinJung (mass of people) theology, and the theology of YeoSung (women who display dignity and honor as human beings). This study identifies the extraordinary call of the KAUM clergywomen interviewees to be bridge builders, strong nurturers, wounded healers, committed educators, breakers of old stereotypes, persistent seekers to fulfill God‘s call, and ecclesial leaders with ―tragic consciousness‖ who can disrupt marginality and facilitate the creative transformation of Han (a deep experience of suffering and oppression) into a constructive energy capable of shaping a new reality. According to this study, KAUM clergywomen‘s experiences and practices of faith as ecclesial leaders strengthen Wesleyan ecclesiology in terms of the UMC‘s efforts to be an inclusive church through connectionalism, and its commitment to social justice. MinJung theology and the theology of YeoSung, in their respective understandings of the church, broaden Wesleyan ecclesiology and enable the Church to be more relevant in a global context by embracing those who have not been normative theological subjects.

Generating Good Degree Distributions for Sparse Parity Check Codes using Oracles

Fast forward error correction codes are becoming an important component in bulk content delivery. They fit in naturally with multicast scenarios as a way to deal with losses and are now seeing use in peer to peer networks as a basis for distributing load. In particular, new irregular sparse parity check codes have been developed with provable average linear time performance, a significant improvement over previous codes. In this paper, we present a new heuristic for generating codes with similar performance based on observing a server with an oracle for client state. This heuristic is easy to implement and provides further intuition into the need for an irregular heavy tailed distribution.

Extracting Location from Contact Traces

Localization is essential feature for many mobile wireless applications. Data collected from applications such as environmental monitoring, package tracking or position tracking has no meaning without knowing the location of this data. Other applications have location information as a building block for example, geographic routing protocols, data dissemination protocols and location-based services such as sensing coverage. Many of the techniques have the trade-off among many features such as deployment of special hardware, level of accuracy and computation power. In this paper, we present an algorithm that extracts location constraints from the connectivity information. Our solution, which does not require any special hardware and a small number of landmark nodes, uses two types of location constraints. The spatial constraints derive the estimated locations observing which nodes are within communication range of each other. The temporal constraints refine the areas, computed by the spatial constraints, using properties of time and space extracted from a contact trace. The intuition of the temporal constraints is to limit the possible locations that a node can be using its previous and future locations. To quantify this intuitive improvement in refine the nodes estimated areas adding temporal information, we performed simulations using synthetic and real contact traces. The results show this improvement and also the difficulties of using real traces.