Retrospective Application of the 2008 Amendments to New York\u27s Adverse Possession Laws

(Excerpt) This Note argues that the new requirements imposed by New York\u27s amended adverse possession statute are being unconstitutionally applied retrospectively to vested property rights, thereby divesting individuals of their property without just compensation. Part I outlines the history of adverse possession and the status of the law in New York today. Part II exposes the issues in applying the amended statutes by looking at how recent New York State Supreme Court and Appellate Division cases have interpreted section 9. Part III analyzes the issues raised by the retrospective application of the amended statute through statutory construction and a discussion of the policies behind adverse possession. This Part will also demonstrate how the indefinite expansion of the limitations period for adverse possession-as permitted by the literal interpretation of section 9-abrogates substantive rights as well as procedural remedies. Consequently, the limitations period for adverse possession is distinct from purely procedural statutes of limitations that have been revived and upheld by New York as constitutional. Lastly, this Part will argue that retrospective application of the amended laws to vested property rights violates the Fourteenth Amendment as an unconstitutional taking of property without just compensation. Part IV proposes three solutions: (1) the New York Court of Appeals hears and decides a case on point, setting the requisite precedent; (2) the legislature modifies the language of section 9 to prohibit the retrospective application of the amended statutes to niche possessors; or (3) New York justly compensates niche possessors divested of their property in this manner with the fair market value of their property at the time of divestment

Body composition and fitness in elite Spanish children tennis players

The aims of this study were to describe body composition and physical fitness changes during a whole-season in elite children tennis players. A total of 7 elite children tennis players participated in the study. Whole body composition by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) and physical fitness were assessed during a season. Subjects increased lean and bone percentage, and decreased abdominal fat and total body fat percentage (all p<0.05). From month1 to month5 subjects improved in handgrip right test, standing broad jump and 20m shuttle run test (all p<0.05). From month5 to month10 there were not significant differences in physical fitness, although some showed a decline (back-saver sit and reach and shuttle run 20 m test). During the whole season, subjects decreased sit and reach in the left leg, but increased handgrip dominant test and standing broad jump (all p<0.05). During a season, children tennis players increased lean and bone percentage, and decreased abdominal and total fat percentage (all p<0.05). However, waist circumference and waist to height ratio were not useful to detect body composition changes. In addition, there were asymmetric changes in fitness (maximal isometric strength increased in the dominant hand and flexibility decreased in the contra lateral leg)

Advocacy intentions : the relationship of service quality, satisfaction and personality with a surgical experience

In specialized health care services, the context of this study, positive word-of-mouth and referrals are better devices than mass advertising and promotion techniques. Because advocacy intentions are conducive to success in such an industry, they are of prime interest in this study. A patient's willingness to talk to others about their service experience has serious financial outcomes and can serve as a valuable marketing resource to the facility as seen in this study on the Shouldice Hospital. Much literature agrees that service quality and satisfaction are antecedents to positive behavioural intentions. However, the research goal is to study various independent relationships that affect advocacy intentions specifically. This study attempts to prove that advocacy intentions will be highest when patients' perception of overall service quality, technical (physical signals) and functional (human interaction) quality, and satisfaction are at their highest. In addition, personality is added to the model to suggest that certain personality types are positively related to advocacy intentions over others, an area gone understudie

Macrofaunal assemblages associated with the sponge Sarcotragus foetidus Schmidt, 1862 (Porifera: Demospongiae) at the coasts of Cyprus and Greece

Background: This paper describes a dataset of macrofaunal organisms associated with the sponge Sarcotragus foetidus Schmidt, 1862, collected by scuba diving from two sampling sites: one in Greece (North Aegean Sea) and one in Cyprus (Levantine Sea). New information: This dataset includes macrofaunal taxa inhabiting the demosponge Sarcotragus foetidus and contributes to the ongoing efforts of the Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS) which aims at filling the gaps in our current knowledge of the world's oceans. This is the first paper, to our knowledge, where the macrofauna associated with S. foetidus from the Levantine Basin is being recorded. In total, 90 taxa were recorded, from which 83 were identified to the species level. Eight of these species are new records for the Levantine Basin. The dataset contains 213 occurrence records, fully annotated with all required metadata. It is accessible at http://lifewww-00.her.hcmr.gr:8080/medobis/resource.do?r=organismic_assemblages_sarcotragus_foetidus_cyprus_greec

Macrofaunal assemblages associated with the sponge <i>Sarcotragus foetidus</i> Schmidt, 1862 (Porifera: Demospongiae) at the coasts of Cyprus and Greece

Background This paper describes a dataset of macrofaunal organisms associated with the sponge Sarcotragus foetidus Schmidt, 1862, collected by scuba diving from two sampling sites: one in Greece (North Aegean Sea) and one in Cyprus (Levantine Sea). New information This dataset includes macrofaunal taxa inhabiting the demosponge Sarcotragus foetidus and contributes to the ongoing efforts of the Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS) which aims at filling the gaps in our current knowledge of the world's oceans. This is the first paper, to our knowledge, where the macrofauna associated with S. foetidus from the Levantine Basin is being recorded. In total, 90 taxa were recorded, from which 83 were identified to the species level. Eight of these species are new records for the Levantine Basin. The dataset contains 213 occurrence records, fully annotated with all required metadata

Morphological Variation In Atyaephyra Desmarestii (Millet, 1831) Within And Among Populations Over Its Geographical Range

In order to elucidate the distinction of Atyaephyra desmarestii subspecies (A. d. desmarestii, A. d. orientalis, A. d. stankoi and A. d. mesopotamica ) and investigate their geographical distribution in Greece, the main morphological features and somatometric ratios were studied in numerous specimens collected from a dense station network of Greek fresh waters. Specimens from Belgium, Portugal, Albania and Turkey were also examined. Atyaephyra desmarestii was found in western and northern Greece while it was absent in eastern Greece , the Aegean and the Ionian islands. The comparison of the obtained data with those of the literature revealed a clearly overlapping variability of the main key morphological features among the four subspecies. The results of this study indicate that the current A. desmarestii subspecies are not valid on the basis of the used key features. There is only one very variable species with many ecophenotypes

Single scattering and effective medium description in multilayer cylindrical metamaterials: Application to graphene and metasurface coated cylinders

Coated and multicoated cylinder systems constitute an appealing metamaterial category, as they allow a very rich and highly tunable response, resulting from the interplay of the many different geometrical and material parameters involved. Here we derive and propose an effective medium approach for the detailed description and analysis of the electromagnetic wave propagation in such systems. In particular, we investigate infinitely-long multilayered cylinders with additional electric and magnetic surface conductivities at each interface. Our effective medium approach is based on the well known in the solid state physics community Coherent Potential Approximation (CPA) method, combined with a transfer matrix-based formulation for cylindrical waves. Employing this effective medium scheme, we investigate two realistic systems, one comprising of cylindrical tubes made of uniform tunable graphene sheets and one of cylinders/tubes formed of metasurfaces exhibiting both electric and magnetic sheet conductivities. Both systems show a rich palette of engineerable electromagnetic features, including tunable hyperbolic response, double negative response and epsilon-near-zero and mu-near-zero response regions

GENDER DIFFERENCES OF HIGH LEVEL GYMNASTS ON POSTURAL STABILITY: THE EFFECT OF ANKLE SPRAIN INJURIES

Artistic gymnastics is the sport with the highest number of injuries for the athletes involved. Several studies supported that the ankle and knee joints are the most commonly injured body parts of gymnasts. Ankle instability in particular is often caused by damage to passive structures leading to neuromuscular impairment. The purpose of this study was to assess gender differences on postural stability of high level gymnasts, with the effect of lateral ankle sprains injuries partially out. Ten high level female and 10 high level male gymnasts who experienced lateral ankle sprains injuries volunteered to participate in the study. Participants were assessed for postural stability on the NeuroCom EquiTest Computerized Dynamic Posturography system. Three tests were used to evaluate the: a) Unilateral Stance, b) Motor Control Test, and c) Adaptation Test. The scores for Unilateral Stance, Motor Control, and Adaptation tests were recorded.  Significant gender differences were found on Unilateral Stance-Right Foot Eyes closed in slow velocity, on Motor Control Test for Amplitude Scaling on Left and Right Foot in Backward direction, and on Adaptation Test Toes down balance. Conclusively, female athletes exhibited better balance scores compared to males, when controlling for the number of lateral ankle sprains injuries they experienced during the last two years. These findings are discussed with respect to the severity of previous lateral ankle sprains injuries, and the experience from training and competing in different events, for males and females respectively