פרסומים

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are hypothesized to replace or change the use of the transport system by facilitating new or different activities. This article offers a review of more than 40 years of research regarding the relationship between ICTs and urban mobility. We discuss the expectations for the changes in travel demand, travel patterns, and the urban form as a result of the development and introduction of ICTs. Much of the interest in the relationships between ICTs and mobility is premised on the expectation of substitution effects, but empirical findings often suggest more complex effects than direct substitution. Although research on single types of travel activity may sometimes indicate simple substitution effects, examination of the broader impacts may also reveal travel generation effects as well. As such, ICTs do not simply substitute mobility patterns but change them. A growing body of research focuses on changing mobility patterns (in terms of time and space), changes in the experience of travel and changes in the perceptions of travel costs due to the interaction between old and new technologies for overcoming distance. ICTs are gradually becoming embedded within the transport system, enabling flexibility, multitasking, and an increase in human activities.

Abstract A mathematical model for slug (finite liquid volume) motion in not-fully-wettable capillary tubes with sinusoidally varying cross-sectional areas was developed. The model, based on the Navier-Stokes equation, accounts for the full viscous terms due to nonuniform geometry, the inertial term, the slug's front and rear meniscus hysteresis effect, and dependence of contact angle on flow velocity (dynamic contact angle). The model includes a velocity-dependent film that is left behind the advancing slug, reducing its mass. The model was successfully verified experimentally by recording slug movement in uniform and sinusoidal capillary tubes with a gray-scale high-speed camera. Simulation showed that tube nonuniformity has a substantial effect on slug flow pattern: in a uniform tube it is monotonic and depends mainly on the slug's momentary mass/length; an undulating tube radius results in nonmonotonic flow characteristics. The static nonzero contact angle varies locally in nonuniform tubes owing to the additional effect of wall slope. Moreover, the nonuniform cross-sectional area induces slug acceleration, deceleration, blockage, and metastable-equilibrium locations. Increasing contact angle further amplifies the geometry effect on slug propagation. The developed model provides a modified means of emulating slug flow in differently wettable porous media for intermittent inlet water supply (e.g., raindrops on the soil surface).

Sensitive and selective detection of cancer biomarkers is vital for the successful diagnosis of early stage cancer and follow-up treatment. Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) in combination with different amplification strategies is one of the anal. approaches allowing the screening of protein biomarkers in serum. Here we describe the development of a point-of-care sensor for the detection of folic acid protein (FAP) using graphene-based SPR chips. The exceptional properties of CVD graphene were exploited to construct a highly sensitive and selective SPR chip for folate biomarker sensing in serum. The specific recognition of FAP is based on the interaction between folic acid receptors integrated through π-stacking on the graphene coated SPR chip and the FAP analyte in serum. A simple post-adsorption of human serum:bovine serum albumin (HS:BSA) mixts. onto the folic acid modified sensor resulted in a highly anti-fouling interface, while keeping the sensing capabilities for folate biomarkers. This sensor allowed femtomolar (fM) detection of FAP, a detection limit well adapted and promising for quant. clin. anal. [on SciFinder(R)]

The chapter examines the outcomes of 20 years of land reform in the Russian Federation’s agriculture. The landownership structure is assessed, the risks voiced at the beginning of the reform are re-evaluated and new risks related to the development of landownership are highlighted. Russia’s land policy has gone through several stages since the beginning of reform: from clearly formulated policies and procedures in the early 1990s to a set of administrative activities entrusted to disjointed land authorities at the present time. Despite institutional difficulties, the land market appears to be emerging in Russia; land has become transferable, it is actively redistributed between peasant farms and corporate farms and it is reallocated to new users. In the absence of an institution that controls and manages the country’s land resources, the land policy is unable to respond to new challenges that arise in the course of the ongoing land reform. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2017.

This study focuses on Kaizer Hill, a quarry site located in the vicinity of the city of Modiin where remains of a single prehistoric cultural entity assigned to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A were discovered. A systematic survey revealed that large-scale quarrying activities have left damage markings on the bedrock of the Hilltop and its slopes. We aim to present here our findings from the Hilltop, which are concerned with the human impact on rock surfaces and the lithic artifacts retrieved during the survey. It is evident that the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A inhabitants of the area changed their landscape forever, “stripping” the caliche surface and penetrating it in search of flint bedded in the bedrock.

This is a first rigorous attempt by scholars of Hebrew to evaluate the syntactic impact of the various languages with which Modern Hebrew was in contact during its formative years. Twenty-four different innovative syntactic constructions of Modern Hebrew are analysed, and shown to originate in previous stages of Hebrew, which, since the third century CE, solely functioned as a scholarly and liturgical language. The syntactic changes in the constructions are traced to the native languages of the first Modern Hebrew learners, and later to further reanalysis by the first generation of native speakers.

Educational policy documents from around the globe currently highlight the goal of teaching higher order thinking (HOT). Yet, most classrooms worldwide are still predominately characterized by a pedagogy of knowledge transmission, focusing on lower-order cognitive levels. This discrepancy points to the need to study issues of large scale implementation of HOT. The goal of this paper is to address this issue by examining two decades of implementing HOT in civic education in Israel, adopting a dual approach: first, the paper provides a historical analysis of relevant policies and political transformations, showing what happens to a policy decision to foster HOT over the years. The analysis shows that the way from a policy paper to what actually had taken place in classrooms is long and bumpy. The policy did cause several practical changes, but for more than 10 years, impacts were slim, sometimes causing unexpected (and undesirable) consequences. Then, the paper zooms-in on one specific period in which more elaborate implementation efforts took place. Significant hallmarks of the process were an emphasis on developing instructional leadership, detailed pedagogical planning, a blend of tight “top down” processes with “bottom up” processes characterized by growing freedom and autonomy, and modelling the culture of thinking.