Union World Research Articles

Quantitative and Qualitative Evaluation of Scoring Opportunities by South Africa in World Cup Rugby 2003.

The scoring opportunities of the South African team (SA) during the 2003 Rugby Union World Cup were evaluated from videotape recordings (n = 5 matches) to determine the location of the field (i) where the points were scored from, (ii) where the movement that lead to the scoring opportunity started from, and (iii) the net direction across the field that the ball was moved. These data were analysed using Chi-Square tests to determine if scoring opportunities occurred from different areas of the field. The duration of SA possession of the ball before the points were scored was also determined (this included play leading up to and following a penalty, if appropriate). The data were also categorised into 1st or 2nd half scoring opportunities and analysed with a t-test. There were significant differences between the areas of the field where the points were scored from (P<0.01). The scoring opportunities resulting in points were most frequently scored inside the opposition’s 25 m area (86%) with the two wings accounting for 34% (right) and 31% (left). Scoring opportunities began more frequently from the attacking midfield area (between half-way line and opposition’s 25 m) 50%, attack 26%, defensive midfield 18% and the defence 5%. The scoring movements were more frequently initiated on the right attacking midfield area of the field (24%) compared with the left (13%) or central area (13%). The net direction of play was most frequently from the right to left direction (34%). Left to right play only accounted for 17% of the scoring opportunities however, net play in the right channel was more frequent (23%), with the rest of the play occurring in the central (9%) or left (17%) channels. SA’s mean duration of possession of the ball before scoring was longer in the 1st half (25.52 ± 6.5 s) compared to 2nd half (18.34 ± 8.8 s). In conclusion, in the 2003 Rugby Union World Cup South Africa most frequently started their scoring opportunities on the right side of the field between the halfway line and the opposition’s 25 m line, tended to move the ball in a right to left direction and required more time in possession to secure points in the 1st half compared to the 2nd half.

One Region, Several Municipalities, Many Communities

The dominant model for protected areas worldwide is in a state of flux. A vocabulary is emerging to codify new ideas about what a protected area is and how it should be managed. The World Conservation Union (IUCN) World Commission on Protected Areas and its partners share a vision for protected areas of the 21st Century. This vision introduces new ideas that have the potential to be ecologically and socially constructive. These ideas include conservation strategies that become mainstream public policy, that emphasize bioregional approaches, and that involve local people. The IUCN recommends that decision-making authority be shared between the regional, municipal and community levels. The Condor Bioreserve, in highland Ecuador, has many elements of the archetypical protected area of the 21st Century as described by the IUCN. This paper makes three central recommendations for effective bioregional planning that does not compromise power at the local and municipal levels: (1) The Condor Bioreserve concept should transition into a neutral concept that all stakeholders feel a part of, rather than an exclusive idea that emanates from The Nature Conservancy, (2) plans that will be implemented across the entire bioregion should be limited, extremely specific, and clearly communicated to all participants. Finally, (3) municipalities and community park guards should be genuinely involved in all bioregional planning.

The European Union, MERCOSUL and new world order

General introduction, Helio Jaguaribe the European Union and the new multilateralism, Alvado de Vasconcelos Europe, Mercosul and transatlantic relations - a British perspective, Charles Grant multilateralism, regionalism and the prospect for international order - a view from Germany and Europe, Christoph Bertram Mercosul - beyond 2000, Ricardo Andres Markwald the international political role of Mercosul II, Samuel Pinheiro Guimaraes globalization, Argentina and Mercosul, Aldo Ferrer Mercosul - an interpretation of the past and a view to the future, Carlos Perez Llana Brazil in a globalizing world, Amaury de Souza Brazilian foreign policy at the beginning of the 21st century, Clodoaldo Hugueney conclusion, Helio Jaguaribe and Alvaro de Vasconcelos.

Making the Internet accessible for people with cognitive and communication Impairments

This paper provides an overview of the work of the European Union (EU) World Wide Augmentative and Alternative Communication (WWAAC) project, which aims to make the electronic highway more accessible to people with cognitive and communication impairments, in particular those persons using symbols instead of text to communicate. Many of these users will also be users of alternative and augmentative communication (AAC) devices. The appropriateness of guidelines from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) are discussed, with the finding that few specific guidelines are available to make Web sites truly accessible and usable for these user groups. We propose that additional guidelines are required in order to facilitate access to Web pages for AAC users. Requirements capture and preliminary evaluation activities within the project have led to the development of draft guidelines that will be refined and validated as the project reaches its final evaluation phase. These draft guidelines are discussed along with other developments needed in this area.

Carcass of Dead Policies: The Irrelevance of NATO

In 1877, Lord Salisbury, commenting on Great Britain's policy on Eastern Question, noted that the commonest error in politics is sticking to carcass of dead policies. (1) Salisbury was bemoaning fact that many influential members of British ruling class could not recognize that history had moved on; they continued to cling to policies and institutions that were relics of another era. Salisbury went on to note that cost was enormous because this preoccupation with anachronism damaged Britain's real interests. Despite Salisbury's clever words, his observation is nothing new. Throughout Western history policymakers often have tended to rely on past realities, policies, and institutions to assess and deal with contemporary and future situations. Post-Cold War American policymakers have not been immune from falling into this trap. Indeed, this inertial approach, characterized by Washington's unbending support for NATO and its expansion, has defined American foreign and security policy since collapse of Soviet Union and bipolar world. During Cold War, NATO provided proper linchpin of American--and West European--security policy, and served as a useful, even fundamental deterrent to Soviet military might and expansionism. However, NATO's time has come and gone, and today there is no legitimate reason for it to exist. Although strong differences exhibited in Alliance over war against Iraq have accelerated NATO's irrelevancy, root causes of its problems go much deeper. Consequently, for both United States and Europe, NATO is at best an irrelevant distraction and at worst toxic to their respective contemporary security needs. The Inertial Imperative The end of Cold War presented a problem similar to one faced by post-World War II American leaders. A tectonic shift had occurred that required innovation, creativity, and a real understanding of evolving world. For some experts--both in government and academia, as well as on both sides of Atlantic--the collapse of Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact called into question need for NATO. They recognized that an era had ended and time was ripe for a basic debate about future of NATO and Western security policies and structures. Unfortunately, policymakers in Washington who established priorities for post-Cold War era reacted quite differently from their predecessors. A small, influential coterie of policymakers in elder Bush and then Clinton administrations reacted reflexively and inertially, cutting off what should have been useful debate on future. Moreover, virtually all of officials who helped define foreign and security policy in Bush 41 Administration have resurfaced in current Bush Administration. According to them, existence and viability of NATO was not to be questioned. It was to remain basically same successful alliance of American and European foreign and security policy that it had been since 1949. But a fundamental change was taking place in post-Cold War security environment. In 1949, a genuine, measurable security threat justified NATO for all its members. Now, with end of Cold War, inertial attachment to NATO meant that alliance had to seek or invent reasons to justify its existence and relevance. American officials recognized threats to alliance. NATO needed props. Expansion into former Warsaw Pact was one. Not only did expansion provide a whole new raison d'etre for alliance, but--perhaps more important--it spawned a large new bureaucracy and accompanying busyness that provide lifeblood of institutions trying to justify their existence. At same time, theological mantra changed. Since there was no longer an enemy, NATO could not be described as a defensive alliance, it now was to be a combination of a wide-ranging political and collective security alliance. …

Pre-performance routine consistency: temporal analysis of goal kicking in the Rugby Union World Cup

This study examined the consistency of pre-performance routines in international rugby union goal kickers on kicks of varying difficulty and under different amounts of situational pressure. Concentration times and physical preparation times were calculated from video recordings of the 572 place kicks taken during the 1999 Rugby Union World Cup. In contrast to the view that performers should seek consistent pre-performance routine times, the results revealed a strong positive relationship between kick difficulty and concentration time. Analysis of the effect of situational pressure, determined by the difference in score before the kick, revealed that players tended to have longer concentration times and shorter physical preparation times when the scores were close. There were no differences between the best and worst kickers in the tournament on routine time, consistency or rhythmicity. The view that increasing the temporal consistency of a routine will result in improved performance is challenged.

The brave new world of European unions

The brave new world of European unions

Cannabis-Based Medicines ??? GW Pharmaceuticals

Cannabis-Based Medicines ??? GW Pharmaceuticals

Re-Orienting Desire: The Gay International and the Arab World

One of the more compelling issues to emerge out of the gay movement in the last two decades is the universalization of “gay rights.” This project has appropriated the prevailing U.S. discourse on human rights in order to launch itself on an international scale. Following in the footsteps of the white Western women’s movement, which had sought to universalize its issues through imposing its own colonial feminism on the women’s movements in the non-Western world — a situation that led to major schisms from the outset — the gay movement has adopted a similar missionary role. Organizations dominated by white Western males (the International Lesbian and Gay Association [ILGA] and the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission [IGLHRC]) sprang up to defend the rights of “gays and lesbians” all over the world and to advocate on their behalf. ILGA, which was founded in 1978 at the height of the Carter administration’s human rights campaign against the Soviet Union and Third World enemies, asserts that one of its aims is to “create a platform for lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgendered people internationally, in their quest for recognition, equality, and liberation, in particular through the world and regional confer

Physiological characteristics of nationally competitive female road cyclists and demands of competition.

There are few published data describing female cyclists and the studies available are difficult to interpret because of the classification of athletes. In this review, cyclists are referred to as either internationally competitive (International Cycling Union world rankings provided when available) or nationally competitive. Based on the limited data available it appears that the age, height, body mass (BM) and body composition of women cyclists who have been selected to the US and Australian National Road Cycling Teams from 1980 to 2000 are fairly similar. Female cyclists who have become internationally competitive are generally between 21 to 28 years of age, 162 to 174 cm, 55.4 to 58.8 kg and 38 to 51 mm (sum of 7 skinfolds) corresponding to 7 to 12% body fat. The lower BM and percentage body fat are traits unique to the most competitive women. Internationally competitive women cyclists also possess a slightly superior ability to produce a high absolute power output for a fixed time period and a noticeably greater ability to produce power output relative to BM. In Women's World Cup races, successful women (top 20 places) spend more time >7.5 W/kg (11 +/- 2 vs 7 +/- 2%, p < 0.01) and less time <0.75 W/kg (24 +/- 4 vs 29 +/- 3%, p = 0.05) compared with non-top 20 placed riders. Additionally, cyclists in the top 20 produced higher average power (3.6 +/- 0.4 vs 3.1 +/- 0.1 W/kg, p = 0.01). Unlike professional men's road cycling, the physiological characteristics of internationally competitive female road cyclists and the demands of women's cycling competition are poorly understood.

Effect of altitude training on serum creatine kinase activity and serum cortisol concentration in triathletes.

In this investigation we evaluated the effect of a 5-week training program at 1860 m on serum creatine kinase (CK) activity and serum cortisol concentration in national-caliber triathletes for the purpose of monitoring the response to training in a hypobaric hypoxic environment. Subjects included 16 junior-level female (n = 8) and male (n = 8) triathletes who were training for the International Triathlon Union (ITU) World Championships. After an initial acclimatization period, training intensity and/or volume were increased progressively during the 5-week altitude training camp. Resting venous blood samples were drawn at 0700 hours following a 12-h overnight fast and were analyzed for serum CK activity and serum cortisol concentration. Subjects were evaluated before [7-10 days pre-altitude (SL 1)] and after [7-10 days post-altitude (SL 2)] the 5-week training camp at 1860 m. At altitude, subjects were evaluated within 24-36 h after arrival (ALT 1), 7 days after arrival (ALT 2), 18 days after arrival (ALT 3), and 24-36 h prior to leaving the altitude training camp (ALT 4). A repeated-measures analysis of variance was used to evaluate differences over time from SL 1 to SL 2. Compared to SL 1, serum CK activity increased approximately threefold (P < 0.05) within the initial 24-36 h at altitude (ALT 1), and increased by an additional 70% (P < 0.05) after the 1st week of altitude training (ALT 2). Serum CK activity remained significantly elevated over the duration of the experimental period compared to pre-altitude baseline levels. Serum cortisol concentration was increased (P < 0.05) at the end of the 5-week altitude training period (ALT 4) relative to SL 1, ALT 1 and ALT 3. These data suggest that: (1) the initial increase in serum CK activity observed in the first 24-36 h at altitude was due primarily to acute altitude exposure and was independent of increased training intensity and/or training volume, (2) the subsequent increases in serum CK activity observed over the duration of the 5-week altitude camp were probably due to the combined effects of altitude exposure and increased training load, and (3) the increase in serum cortisol concentration observed at the end of the altitude training camp reflects the additive effect of 5 weeks of altitude exposure in combination with a progressively increased training intensity and/or volume.

Kicking Timetabling Problems into Touch

Tie schedule for the 1999 Rugby Union World Cup had to satisfy the Organising Committee, various Rugby Unions and several television companies as well as being fair to all the competing teams. Consequently producing the schedule was a complex multi-objective problem and a meta-heuristic based approach was envisaged; however an intensive analysis of the problem lead to a satisfactory schedule being produced using manual methods. This schedule was compared with solutions generated using tabu search, with the World Cup organisers preferring the manual solution. Thus some apparently complicated problems may not be as difficult as they first seem.

The impact of international copyright management and clearance systems on multimedia markets

A multimedia composition is composed of numerous, perhaps thousands, of segments of copyrightable works, each of which is a unit of intellectual property. Each segment may have been created by a national of country A, sold to an entity in country B, and now desired by the multimedia developer in country C. The implications for international legal frameworks, enforcement, and licensing are daunting, particularly as laws continue to lag behind technology. We focus on the international copyright management and clearance system linking the copyright holder with the potential legal user of that work—the multimedia developer. A goal of such a system is to minimize transaction costs. Transaction costs are born primarily by the multimedia developer who must search for and negotiate usage rights to each segment. To illustrate the different solutions, a continuum is defined with endpoints representing: (1) Collective Management (mandated clearinghouses), and (2) Individual Management (pure market solutions). The mid-point is defined to be a voluntary clearinghouse. We review and discuss the approaches to multimedia copyright management issues in the US, the European Union, Japan, and key world bodies. Most current national copyright systems for software, audio-visual, literary, and musical works are either managed individually by the copyright holders or are managed through voluntary copyright clearance organizations.

State of the Union, 1994: the Clinton administration and the nation in profile

The state of the world and the Union world economy - enacting a global new deal environment - achieving sustainability international security - promoting domestic stability national defense - meeting real defense needs industrial restructuring - investing in the future the domestic economy of jobs creating decent work taxation - sharing the burden health care - providing comprehensive coverage democracy - strengthening political institutions public life - revitalizing communities race and gender ensuring a true multiculturalism social welfare - eliminating poverty and disenfranchisement getting there.

Union Maid

The train pulled out of Grand Central Station and I felt free…free to leave behind me the stiff, stuffed furniture and the stifled lives of my Depression childhood. "Good-bye to all that shit," I thought, "Hello to myself…whoever I might be…out on the Mississippi... among riverboat workers…living in a union world of my own choosing."This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.

De Griekse Vakbeweging in de jaren 40 en de marges van de politiek (review)

262 Reviews Angelos Avgoustidis, De Griekse Vakbeweging in de jaren 40 en de marges van de politiek. Amsterdam: V.U. Uitgeverij. 1988. Pp. xi + 353. Dfl. 52.50. This book, the outgrowth of a doctoral dissertation, analyzes the history of the Greek trade union movement in the 1940s. It supplements Lawrence S. Wittner's American Intervention in Greece, 1943—1949 (1982) and Heinz Rich ter's British Intervention in Greece: From Varkiza to Civil War, February 1945 to August 1946 (1985). The author makes use of hitherto unexplored Greek sources, both written and oral, in addition to American and British sources. He has produced the first history of trade unionism based on broad research. Must developments in trade unionism be understood if we are to explain political developments in the postwar period? Although Greece in the 1940s was a barely industrialized society, with only 15% of the labor force in the industrial sector, the trade unions represented the most modern portion of the economy and were able to mobilize the urban proletariat, which meant a great deal in a country where state power was concentrated in the cities. The tenacity with which the rightist trade union leaders clung to their positions is also proof of trade unionism's importance. Motivated by self-interest and relying on the power of the political right in Athens as well as the repressive state apparatus, these leaders felt threatened by the massive swing of the Greek trade unions to the left. The author develops his central thesis in chapters three, four, and five, where he explains how the Γενική Συνομοσπονδία Εϕγατών Ελλάδος (GSEE), as a consequence of Greek labor's massive support of the communist-led underground trade union movement during the war period, acquired a leftwing board at first provisionally and then officially when this board was elected in March 1946 by the first postwar trade union congress. However, this leadership was barely able to function. Although it had received 70% of the votes in the 1946 elections, it was driven underground again in the summer of 1948 after endless maneuvering and compromise by the Greek government and its foreign advisers, leaving the GSEE in the hands of the opportunist rightwing leader Fotis Makris. Trade union democracy had no chance at all. In explaining this, the author avoids a conspiracy theory and claims that the non-democratic result was not what the majority wished. On the contrary, the foreign labor advisers desired a democratic trade union movement. The problem was that they also had to keep political realities in mind. In the case of the delegates from the Trades Union Congress, there was the fact that the British government wanted to keep Greece within the UK's sphere of influence. In the case of mediators from the World Federation of Trade Unions there was the need to keep their own organization together, it being already threatened with a split into opposing camps oriented toward the West and the Soviet Union. From January 1945 until the summer of 1947 these foreign delegations tried to stimulate gendemen's agreements and compromises in an atmosphere poisoned by die repressive aftermath of the Dekemvriana. After the summer of 1947, the American labor advisers active from that point onward wanted to oust the communists and to reconstruct the trade unions around moderate centrist leaders who were meant to gain support owing to a gradual improvement in the Reviews 263 general economic situation. But Greece at this time was sliding into the third round of the civil war. AU of the foreign labor advisers, hampered as they were by political preoccupations and also by their general lack of insight into the Greek trade union world, hesitated to restrain the right-wing trade union leaders, who simply clung to their positions and refused to compromise. The audior argues diat the Communist Party of Greece—in his opinion neither guided nor supported by the Soviet Union during this period—viewed the trade unions as a conveyor belt carrying the Party's policy to the workers. The Party's decisions, especially its refusal to participate in the 1946 parliamentary elections and the halfhearted manner in which it engaged in armed struggle in 1947, were a sad...

I.U.C.A.F and Frequencies for Radio Astronomy

Many papers in the Colloquium describe the difficulties which now exist when radio astronomers try to make highly sensitive observations in various regions of the spectrum. The author has been involved for about 30 years in attempts to get parts of the radio spectrum “protected” so that radio observations could be made in these regions free from damaging interference. Thus it may be interesting in this paper to look backward to the work done by many people before and during the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) World Administrative Radio Conference (WARC) of 1959, and to describe briefly the outcome of that WARC.

Making industry more efficient

The paper shows how the Electrical Electronic Telecommunication &amp; Plumbing Union (EETPU) has responded to, and sometimes been an agent of, change in the trade union world. The union has endeavoured to reach its decisions on a wide democratic base of the opinions of members, leading to clashes with more traditional unions and finally expulsion from the TUC. This experience of adjusting to technological change is discussed in relation to British industry, its work people and managers, and the initiatives of the EETPU in training are described.

Economic Effects of Collective Bargaining

Is it possible to use the tools of classical economics, developed on the assumption of small competitive units, in analyzing problems of a world of large-scale firms and big trade unions? This discussion explores the question of whether an economics of collectives can be successfully developed from an economics of atoms. (Author's abstract courtesy EBSCO.)

Damascenus Latinus: On Item 417 of Stegmueller's Repertorium Commentariorum

DAMASCENUS LATINUS ON ITEM 417 OF STEGMUELLER'S REPERTORIUM COMMENTARIORUM T\7Te do not have to introduce to our readers the Repertorium Commen- ?» tariorum in Sententiis Petri Lombardi by F. Stegmueller.1AmOHg the post-war publications on Mediaeval Scholasticism it certainly has to be counted among the more valuable works. A good tool for the student, the work is not perfect. The author knew it. He had to struggle with the post-war conditions of Germany, and, in certain cases, he had to rely upon second-hand information,2 or even worse. Without doubt, the work needs correcting and adding. Before doing so for Item 417, let us give a few examples to prove our point. To the list of manuscripts on Item 39, Adam Wodeham, O. F. M., add Pamplona, Spain, Cathedral ms. 1, an in-quarto codex of the 15th century. Grubbs II 63." ToItem, 45, onAUan of Lille,ought to be added Tortosa, Spain, Chapter ms. 97. Grubbs II 71. To Item, 71, on Antonius Andreas, O.F.M., add Oxford Merton College ms. 87 fol. 147 seq. To Item 74, on Antonius de Carlenis, O. P., add Vatican Ubrary Regin. 392 fol. 104—224. In this manuscript the work is anonymous, and the text of certain Distinctions of Books I—III only has been preserved. Wilmart II 440—441. The work has not been identified in this catalogue.4 From Armandus of Belvézer, Item 76, the Franciscan Institute Library has a post-incunabula edition: Venice 1507. To Item 218 on Francis of Mayronnes, O. F. M., add Paris National Library ms. lot. 1010 fol. 116—149, on the first Book of the Sentences. 1 In two volumes, Wuerzburg 1947. 2 Op. cit. I vi. 3 To avoid an exaggerated number of footnotes wè wrote some references in our text. Grubbs I and V stand for: A Union World Catalog of Manuscript Books direct. Ernest Cushing Richardson, II The Manuscript Book Collections of Spain and Portugal by Henry A. Grubbs, New York 1933 ; V A Supplement to the Manuscript Book Collections of Spain and Portugal by Henry A. Grubbs, New York 1935. 4 Bibliothecae Apostólicas Vaticane codices manu scripti recensiti — Codices Reginenses Laiini t. II Rome 1945. 37 38E. M. BUYTAERT Laurer I 361 ;5 also, Valencia, Spain, Chapter ms. 255 fol. 169 seq.; an in-quarto manuscript containing the Commentary on Sentences I. Grubbs II 83. The National Library of Madrid possesses two manuscripts to be added to Item 237, on Francis Rubio, O. F. M. : ms. 504 fol. 3—173 and ms. 517 fol. ?—35. After Guerricus de S. Quentino, O. P., is to be added the Franciscan Guy of Briançon. The Library of the Franciscan Institute possesses a copy of the edited Commentary: "Guido Briansonis super quartum Sententiarum." The subtitle runs: "Eximii Parrhisiensis achademie do/ctoris theologi Guidonis Briansonis / ordinis fratrum minorum provinciae / aquitaine conventus aurelhaci In / quartum magistri petri lombardi / Aureum opus. In quo quasi sedula apis: et ar/bitrarius iudex Johannis scoti ceterorumque docto/rum melUfluos: et electos flores mira ingenii so/lertia velut in strophium distincte luculenterque / compegit. Quod propterea coUectarium congruo / rei nomine voluit appeUari." Inc. (Collatio): "Altissimus creavit de terra medicinam. Ecclesiastic!. XXXVIII cap.Verbum premissum UtteraUter exaratur..." Inc. oí the Commentary proper: "Quero istam questionem: utrum sacramentis possit communicari aUqua virtus creativa respectu termini creationis." Explic. "A qua nos deus sua pietate et misericordia preservet : nosque faciat gaudere sua feUci gloria. Amen." There foUows some kind of colophon, written by the author himself. Here it appears that the work has been finished on January 22 1488. It has been printed by a certain Stephen Baland in 1512 ; the name of the city is not mentioned, but from the Royal permit, printed right after the title-page, we know that Baland worked for a publisher of Lyons, caUed Simon Vincent. The book contains, first an alphabetical index without pagination; then the Commentary proper, covering 274 foUos. The work is mentioned by Sbaralea I 334; obviously this author had a copy of the pubUcation on hand; nevertheless he says that it was edited in Paris. Under the name "Guido de Monte Rocherio" the Cathedral Library of Burgo...