We report a significant advance in thermally insulating transparent materials: silica-based monoliths with controlled porosity which exhibit the transparency of windows in combination with a thermal conductivity comparable to aerogels.

The lack of transparent, thermally insulating windows leads to substantial heat loss in commercial and residential buildings, which accounts for ~4.2% of primary US energy consumption annually. The present study provides a potential solution to this problem by demonstrating that ambiently dried silica aerogel monoliths, i.e., ambigels, can simultaneously achieve high optical transparency and low thermal conductivity without supercritical drying. A combination of tetraethoxysilane, methyltriethoxysilane, and post-gelation surface modification precursors were used to synthesize ambiently dried materials with varying pore fractions and pore sizes. By controlling the synthesis and processing conditions, 0.5–3 mm thick mesoporous monoliths with transmittance >95% and a thermal conductivity of 0.04 W/(m K) were produced. A narrow pore size distribution, <15 nm, led to the excellent transparency and low haze, while porosity in excess of 80% resulted in low thermal conductivity. A thermal transport model considering fractal dimension and phonon-boundary scattering is proposed to explain the low effective thermal conductivity measured. This work offers new insights into the design of transparent, energy saving windows.

As part of their ongoing efforts to address frontloading and otherperceived problems, both the Democratic National Committee (DNC) andRepublican National Committee (RNC) proposed revised schedules andrules for 2008. The major changes for the Democrats were that twonew states were allowed to join Iowa and New Hampshire in violatingthe official February 5 start date. The idea was that thesestates—Nevada from the West and South Carolina from the South—wouldenhance participation by more diverse populations (Latinos andAfrican Americans). While the Republican rules called for states tolose half of their delegate vote if they violated the timing rules,the Democrats implemented a “death penalty” requiring any stateviolating the timing rules to lose all of its delegates. TheNew York Times called these changes the biggestshift in the way Democrats have nominated their presidentialcandidates in 30 years. Yet in the end these changes did little tolessen frontloading, as 70% of all delegates were actually chosen bythe beginning of March. Two large states (Michigan and Florida)defied both national parties and voted before February 5.

As the 2008 presidential nominating process got underway, Iowa'scoveted status as first-in-the-nation appeared increasingly injeopardy, as states engaged in aggressive frontloading throughout2006 and 2007. In the past, late March primaries in large stateslike Florida, New York, and California were irrelevant to theelectoral outcome. To avoid a repeat in 2008, Florida moved itsprimary to January 29 and California moved to what is now beingcalled “super duper Tuesday” on February 5 when nearly two dozenstates will hold primaries. Under pressure from extra-early votingin Florida and other front-loading states, as we write this the Iowacaucuses are to be held on January 3, two days after New Year's. Itseems possible that as a result of the nominating season becomingmore condensed, there may be an increase in the importance of Iowaand New Hampshire, the opposite of what the states moving earlierwanted. If the first nominating events are now the starter's gun ina 50-meter dash rather than a mile run, who gets off the startingblocks first may well matter even more. As Hull (2007, 66) argues, Iowa's impact on New Hampshire and thenational nomination process is a “wild, wired one.” In this rapidsea of a changing nomination process we take a close look at theIowa electorate, both statewide registered voters and a subset oflikely caucus attendees, to shed light on the underpinnings ofsupport for the presidential candidates in the early stages of the2008 campaign, using unique rolling cross-sectional data to trackopinion change over time.TheUniversity of Iowa Hawkeye Poll is co-directed by David Redlawskand Caroline Tolbert. It was administered with the support ofthe University of Iowa Social Science Research Center, DirectorKevin Leicht, and funded by the University of Iowa Office of theProvost and the College of Liberal Arts and Science. We thankall these people along with the team of graduate andundergraduate students who worked with us on the surveyproject.

With a number of sentencing judgments expected in cases pending before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, the enforcement of sentences has become an important concern. The author discusses theoretical and practical issues raised in this regard, including the juridical basis for enforcement as well as the Model Agreement regarding modalities of enforcement. On the basis of this Model Agreement, a number of agreements has been concluded with individual states. The author concludes that the nature of the Tribunal has necessitated the development of novel and sometimes artificial measures for the enforcement of sentences.