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The increasing use of road vehicles has caused a number of transport and environmental issues throughout the world. To cope with them, traffic calming schemes are being increasingly implemented in built-up areas. An example of such schemes are Tempo-30 zones. The traffic calming measures applied as part of this scheme must be carefully planned in terms of location and design details in order to obtain the desired reduction in speed, traffic volume and exhaust emissions and, last but foremost, to increase the safety and facilitate the movement of vulnerable road users. The coexistence and combined effect of these measures and their design details must also be taken into account. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the applied traffic calming measures had a considerable bearing on the reduction in speed to the desired level, as assumed in the traffic calming plan. Three street sections starting and ending with different intersection types were chosen to examine the synergy of the applied traffic calming measures. The numbers and speeds of vehicles were measured in three day-long continuous surveys. As it was expected, the amount of speed reduction depended on the hourly traffic volume on a one-way street and various other traffic engineering aspects. The obtained results may be used to modify the existing speed profile models and can guide traffic engineers in choosing the most effective traffic calming measures.

Two cable logging systems were reviewed to compare the efficiency of potential biomass extraction from remote forest sites in Ireland based on productive machine hour (PMH) and unit cost of operation (€/m3). Three operational scenarios (SC) were analysed where SC I was a three man crew operation (choker setter, the carriage operator and unhooking chokers). SC II was a variation of this with a two man crew operation. SC III was operating radio controlled chokers there was a two man crew (choker setter and carriage operator). The study aims to assess how operations in Ireland perform against previous known cable studies to determine whether the cost of timber extraction on remote forest sites inaccessible for mechanised felling, has a future given the increased demand for wood fibre in Ireland, both from the sawmilling industries and the wood for energy sector. The volume per PMH was recorded at 17.97 for SC I, 15.09 for SC II and 20.58 m3 for SC III. The difference in productivity versus SC III remote controlled chokers is 5.49 m3/PMH for SC II crew and 2.61 m3/PMH for SC I. The decrease in total volume extracted from SCs I and II versus SC III was recorded at 15.69 m3 (15%) and 32.97 m3 (36%) product respectively. In value terms, the unit cost (€/m3) varied from 6.29 (SC I) to 6.43 (SC II) to 4.57 (SC III). When looking at the production unit costs of normal wood energy supply chains in Ireland, the figures are similar ranging from 3.17 €/m3 to 8.01 €/m3. The value of the end product of course will always determine which market the eventually goes to but given that cable log wood fibre has been unthinned and unmaintained then the biomass sector may be an ever increasing demand point in the search for increased woody biomass given that the unit costs can be competitive with other wood energy supply chains.

This study contextualizes magical realism within current debates and theories of postcoloniality and examines the fiction of three of its West African pioneers: Syl Cheney-Coker of Sierra Leone, Ben Okri of Nigeria and Kojo Laing of Ghana. Brenda Cooper explores the distinct elements of the genre in a West African context, and in relation to: * a range of global expressions of magical realism, from the work of Gabriel Garcia Marquez to that of Salman Rushdie * wider contemporary trends in African writing, with particular attention to how the realism of authors such as Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka has been connected with nationalist agendas. This is a fascinating and important work for all those working on African literature, magical realism, or postcoloniality.

The ability of a newly developed carriage equipped with a remote control lock and self line extraction system manufactured by Oikawa motors Co., Ltd. was analyzed. The study investigated the reduction of the work load of the choker setter in the haul line-pulling out process of a cable logging system by a mobile tower yarder. The main objective was to compare the walking time, pulling out time, and the tension force using the three types of cable setting method, a running skyline with a simple carriage, a fixed skyline with a simple carriage and a fixed skyline with a newly developed carriage. The measuring of haul line pulling out was conducted on different slope gradients at different distances from the tower spar by four choker setters. The study showed that choker setters could reduce the force exerted by about 33%, and a decrease in the heart beat rate of 12%, when using the fixed skyline with the newly developed carriage as opposed to the running skyline with the simple carriage. The fixed skyline with the newly developed carriage resulted in more pulling speed than the running skyline with the simple carriage on the slope gradient of over 2° and the fixed skyline with simple carriage on the slope gradient of over 7°. With the newly developed carriage the pulling tension, time and heart rate are lower, when the haul line is pulled out. Thus it can be concluded that the new carriage is more productive than the simple carriage in the line pulling out process.

A 24-year-old Italian Powerpuff is taking over the fashion world with her cartoon-chic necklaces. Her own style is equally amusing.

Frank Gehry and Tiffany's are making beautiful jewelry together. Why did an architect who has always thought outside the box decide to think inside a little blue one?