Some phthalates are developmental and reproductive toxicants in animals. Exposure to phthalates is considered to be potentially harmful to human health as well. Based on a comprehensive literature research, we present an overview of the sources of human phthalate exposure and results of exposure assessments with special focus on human biomonitoring data. Among the general population, there is w...

Introduction So far, growth and recovery of post-socialist countries of central and east Europe (CEE) was based on efficiency gains from reallocations between sectors and firms, and on the firm level productivity improvements. Growth was not based on local R&D and extensive innovation activities. In order to grow further, CEECs will have to accumulate new knowledge and acquire new technology. I...

Despite debuting to little fanfare under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), dispute settlement under the World Trade Organization (WTO) has been called the “backbone of the multilateral trading system.” Indeed, whereas GATT dispute settlement could scarcely have seemed more flawed, the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU) is widely touted for boosting confidence in an in...

Spatially extensive analysis of satellite, climate, and census data reveals humanenvironment interactions of regional or continental concern i n the United States. A grid-based principal components analysis of Bureau of Census variables revealed two independent demographic phenomena, a-settlement reflecting traditional human settlement patterns and p-settlement describing relative population gr...

Due to the scarcity of useable land in Hong Kong, it is a common practice to reclaim land from the sea. The reclaimed land usually undergoes a long period of settlement that may affect building structures and underground facilities such as water supply and sewage systems built on the land. Measurements of land settlement can provide valuable data for assessing the impacts of land settlement and...

The landscapes of the Near East show both the first settlements and the longest trajectories of settlement systems. Mounding is a characteristic property of these settlement sites, resulting from millennia of continuing settlement activity at distinguished places. So far, however, this defining feature of ancient settlements has not received much attention, or even been the subject of systemati...

Large value payment and securities settlement systems are important components of an economy's nancial system. Many such systems are operated by central banks and are liquidity intensive. Central banks often provide inexpensive liquidity to facilitate settlement. This leads to a number of policy questions about the provision of such liquidity. To answer these questions, central banks need to un...

For sessile marine invertebrates with complex life cycles, habitat choice is directed by the larval phase. Defining which habitat-linked cues are implicated in sessile invertebrate larval settlement has largely concentrated on chemical cues which are thought to signal optimal habitat. There has been less effort establishing physical settlement cues, including the role of surface microtopography...

Granular materials are widely used in industrial processes despite their complex and poorly understood mechanical behaviour both in static and dynamic regimes. A prototypical example is the settlement and compaction of a granular bed under vibrational loading. The elementary mechanisms of this process are still unclear and there is presently no established theory or methodology to predict the s...