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Theory stretches the limits of composite materials
In an advance that could lead to composite materials with virtually limitless performance capabilities, a University of Wisconsin-Madison scientist has dispelled a 50-year-old theoretical notion that composite materials must be made only of "stable" individual materials to be stable overall. Writing in the February 2 issue of the journal Physical Review Letters, Engineering Physics professor Walter Drugan proves that a composite material can be stable overall even if it contains a material having a negative stiffness, or one unstable by itself-as long as it is contained within another material that is sufficiently stable. "It's saying you're allowed to use a much wider range of properties for one of the two materials," he says. Comprising everything from golf clubs and bicycle frames to bridge beams and airplane wings, composite materials - or materials made by combining multiple distinct materials - deliver advantages over conventional materials including high stiffness, strength, lightness, hardness, fracture resistance or economy.
The People Behind the Politicians
In the posters that grace the walls of so many high school classrooms, the path taken by proposed legislation as it becomes law is as simple as series of black lines from a committee, to each legislative chamber and finally to the desk of the executive. These posters are a useful reference for a multiple-choice test, but not so helpful when trying to guide real legislation past the pitfalls of Virginias political process. You have to visit the bowels of the General Assembly to learn about the death hole.
After State Del. Kristen Amundson (D-44) coined the phrase in a conference room in the General Assembly Building in Richmond, State Sen. Toddy Puller (D-36) described serving in one years ago, when she sat on a sub-committee that existed for no purpose but to kill bills. In the rare instances she presumed to vote yea to anything, even if it was doomed regardless, she was sharply reprimanded by the committee chairman.
Prison programs aim to help offenders re-enter society
Drug programs, along with skills to help inmates re-enter the community, are two of the things besides incarceration offered at the Federal Correctional Institution-Forrest City. Both programs were outlined Wednesday during a meeting of the prisons community relations board. Dr. Alison Leukefeld, who is in charge of drug programs at the medium security unit, said there are several levels to the drug programs offered. Drug education is required for inmates with a need for services, but inmates are also allowed to volunteer. It is largely informational. We try to educate them about their choices, about the consequences of substance abuse, Leukefeld said. There is also non-residential drug abuse treatment, which involves individual and group treatment.
Young people can access information about them held by schools
The Information Commissioner's Office has published new guidance explaining the rights that young people have to access information held about them by their school. It aims to help primary and secondary state schools understand their obligations when dealing with information requests from students and their parents under the Data Protection Act. It explains what information should be provided and when information should not be disclosed. The guidance also notes that students as young as 12 should generally be able to access their own educational record and other personal information held about them. Where a young person cannot understand the nature of the request, someone with parental responsibility can ask for the information on the child's behalf.
Air pollution raises women's heart disease risk, says study
Stricter control of air pollution is needed to reduce the risk of heart disease in women, two Harvard researchers write in an editorial to be published in tomorrows New England Journal of Medicine. Their comments accompany a study in the journal that shows long-term exposure to the fine particles in air pollution are more harmful to older women than previously known, raising their risk of heart disease and death. Researchers from the University of Washington reviewed medical records from more than 65,000 postmenopausal women with no previous history of heart disease who participated in a long-running, federally funded study called the Womens Health Initiative. Other studies have shown a connection between fine particles in air pollution and death.
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