Design and construction of the IMACS-IFU, a 2000-element integral field unit

The IMACS-IFU is an Integral Field Unit built for the IMACS spectrograph at the Magellan-I-Telescope at Las Campanas Observatory. It consists of two rectangular fields of 5 by 7 arcseconds, separated by roughly one arcminute. With a total number of 2000 spatial elements it is the second largest fiber-lenslet based IFU worldwide, working in a wavelength range between 400 and 900 nm. Due to the equally sized fields classical background subtraction, beam switching and shuffling are possible observation techniques. One particular design challenge was the single, half a metre long curved slit in combination with a non telecentric output. Besides the construction some preliminary results are described.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, 1 table. Proceedings for SPIE poster 5492-175 of SPIE Symposium "Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation", June 2004, Glasgo

Consumer protection and the regulation of mobile phone contracts : a study of automatically renewable long-term contracts across jurisdictions

This article deconstructs mobile phone contracts as an example of long-term contractual relations in four jurisdictions to reveal that there are three elements which define consumer protection. The elements are contract duration, renewal of the agreement and unilateral modification. Each of these factors are regulated differently in each of the jurisdictions, but, assessed collectively, similar levels of consumer protection are found. The authors show that the reason for the different weighting is determined by regulation (subject-specific or general); by external factors, such as technological development, geography or business considerations; and by wider cultural considerations. The comparison of these features across the jurisdictions shows that, ultimately, regulatory intervention plays little role in contract design, unless an overwhelming policy goal is pursued, which means that, in most cases, regulators would be advised to avoid or reduce regulation of mobile phone and other long-term contracts

Gradience, Allophony, and the Southern Shift Trigger

Monophthongization is thus the triggering event (Labov 1994) for the chain shift. Monophthongization is overall disfavored before voiceless consonants; but the specific relationship between pre-voiced (PRIZE) and pre-voiceless (PRICE) differs in different parts of the South (Fridland 2003, Thomas 2001). A modular feedforward architecture of phonology (cf. Bermúdez-Otero 2014, Fruehwald 2013) distinguishes phonetically and phonologically controlled patterns: • Phonological rules manipulate discrete, categorical phonological entities. • Outputs of phonological rules are still represented as discrete structural entities. • Phonetic implementation rules map these to concrete physical articulations. • Phonetic rules operate gradiently over continuous phonetic space. A vowel chain shift is a change in phonetic implementation; this means the entities involved need not be phonemes per se, but any discrete phonological segment, potentially an allophone of another phoneme (Dinkin 2011). This implies… • if the Southern Shift is a pull-chain as described… • and if the modular feedforward account of chain shifts is correct… • then the relationship between PRICE and PRIZE must have originally been gradient— a continuum from more diphthongal to more monophthongal. If the shift had originated with distinct diphthongal and monophthongal allophones, the original /ay / position would still be occupied, not leaving space for /ey / to lower. So: Was Southern /ay/-monophthongization a phonetically gradient process

The underlying values of German and English contract law

This thesis identifies the underlying values of German and English contract law. It establishes that to some extent almost all values are reflected in both jurisdictions but that in many cases the underlying values compete with each other. The thesis identifies the balance of the values in the context of four problem areas namely pre-contractual duties of disclosure (breaking off negotiations), mistake, unfair contract terms and changed circumstances. The thesis concludes that although almost all values are reflected in each system the balance of the values differs significantly. This is important and topical because identifying the balance of the competing values within a jurisdictions and contrasting these to another jurisdiction provides a deeper level of understanding of the courts' decision-making process. The particular questions which the research addresses are twofold, firstly, which values are competing within the context of a particular problem, and secondly, what weight is given to each value in a given context in contrast to the other jurisdiction. In order to address these questions a combination of doctrinal and comparative research methods is adopted. The focus is on the decisions of the respective courts', but doctrinal elements are also explored through the way in which cases were interpreted by academic writers at that particular time, while a functional comparative method is adopted. The work does not aim to create its own theory of contract or try to engage in the theoretical debate of which universal values 'should' apply. The implications of the research findings are that policies at a European level can more accurately identify the core underlying values if they firstly identify the viability of harmonising areas of contract law and at a national level and evaluate potential legislative changes in light of these values. Additionally, identification of the values also allows further research on the desirability of the values to be conducted

Flower-specific KNOX phenotype in the orchid Dactylorhiza fuchsii

The KNOTTED1-like homeobox (KNOX) genes are best known for maintaining a pluripotent stem-cell population in the shoot apical meristem that underlies indeterminate vegetative growth, allowing plants to adapt their development to suit the prevailing environmental conditions. More recently, the function of the KNOXgene family has been expanded to include additional roles in lateral organ development such as complex leaf morphogenesis, which has come to dominate the KNOX literature. Despite several reports implicating KNOX genes in the development of carpels and floral elaborations such as petal spurs, few authors have investigated the role of KNOX genes in flower development. Evidence is presented here of a flower-specific KNOX function in the development of the elaborate flowers of the orchid Dactylorhiza fuchsii, which have a three-lobed labellum petal with a prominent spur. Using degenerate PCR, four Class I KNOX genes (DfKN1–4) have been isolated, one from each of the four major Class I KNOX subclades and by reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR), it is demonstrated that DfKNOXtranscripts are detectable in developing floral organs such as the spur-bearing labellum and inferior ovary. Although constitutive expression of the DfKN2 transcript in tobacco produces a wide range of floral abnormalities, including serrated petal margins, extra petal tissue, and fused organs, none of the vegetative phenotypes typical of constitutive KNOX expression were produced. These data are highly suggestive of a role for KNOX expression in floral development that may be especially important in taxa with elaborate flowers

The Role of Chromatin Modifications in the Evolution of Giant Plant Genomes.

Angiosperm genome sizes (GS) range ~2400-fold and comprise genes and their regulatory regions, repeats, semi-degraded repeats, and 'dark matter'. The latter represents repeats so degraded that they can no longer be recognised as repetitive. In exploring whether the histone modifications associated with chromatin packaging of these contrasting genomic components are conserved across the diversity of GS in angiosperms, we compared immunocytochemistry data for two species whose GS differ ~286-fold. We compared published data for Arabidopsis thaliana with a small genome (GS = 157 Mbp/1C) with newly generated data from Fritillaria imperialis, which has a giant genome (GS = 45,000 Mbp/1C). We compared the distributions of the following histone marks: H3K4me1, H3K4me2, H3K9me1, H3K9me2, H3K9me3, H3K27me1, H3K27me2, and H3K27me3. Assuming these histone marks are associated with the same genomic features across all species, irrespective of GS, our comparative analysis enables us to suggest that while H3K4me1 and H3K4me2 methylation identifies genic DNA, H3K9me3 and H3K27me3 marks are associated with 'dark matter', H3K9me1 and H3K27me1 mark highly homogeneous repeats, and H3K9me2 and H3K27me2 mark semi-degraded repeats. The results have implications for our understanding of epigenetic profiles, chromatin packaging and the divergence of genomes, and highlight contrasting organizations of the chromatin within the nucleus depending on GS itself

Intelligence as a source of cold case homicide investigation : a cross national perspective

Cold case homicides are probably the most complex and difficult of cases to (re-) investigate. Each is different in terms of means and motives, method of killing, geographic location and weapon used. There is no single method of investigation that fully fits with each type of cold case homicide. Therefore, several investigative techniques are in common practice, such as DNA profiling and fingerprint analysis etc. However, it is not known how an ‘Intelligence-Led Policing Model’ (ILPM) can be applied in cold case homicide investigations and literature is currently lacking that would enable us to shed light on this issue. The aim of the research is to develop a robust understanding on how an ILPM can help to solve old and cold case homicides

Reasons for non-suicidal self-harm in adult male offenders with and without borderline personality traits

The presented study aimed to advance understanding of the reasons for non-suicidal self-harm (NSSH) in adult male offenders, with and without borderline personality traits. 179 offenders completed self-report measures of NSSH and other clinical constructs, with 42 being identified as having self-harmed. Results were consistent with past research and supported the relative importance of intrapersonal over interpersonal functions, but also highlight that self-harm is performed rarely for one type of reason. The results also show that the presence of borderline personality traits increases the likelihood of endorsing a range of interpersonal reasons. These findings highlight the importance of understanding the range of reasons for engaging in NSSH to help manage the behaviour within the priso

Hyb-Seq for flowering plant systematics

High-throughput DNA sequencing (HTS) presents great opportunities for plant systematics, yet genomic complexity needs to be reduced for HTS to be effectively applied. We highlight Hyb-Seq as a promising approach, especially in light of the recent development of probes enriching 353 low-copy nuclear genes from any flowering plant taxon

Potential of herbariomics for studying repetitive DNA in angiosperms

Repetitive DNA has an important role in angiosperm genomes and is relevant to our understanding of genome size variation, polyploidisation and genome dynamics more broadly. Much recent work has harnessed the power of high-throughput sequencing (HTS) technologies to advance the study of repetitive DNA in flowering plants. Herbarium collections provide a useful historical perspective on genome diversity through time, but their value for the study of repetitive DNA has not yet been explored. We propose that herbarium DNA may prove as useful for studies of repetitive DNA content as it has for reconstructed organellar genomes and low-copy nuclear sequence data. Here we present a case study in the tobacco genus (Nicotiana; Solanaceae), showing that herbarium specimens can provide accurate estimates of the repetitive content of angiosperm genomes by direct comparison with recently-collected material. We show a strong correlation between the abundance of repeat clusters, e.g., different types of transposable elements and satellite DNA, in herbarium collections versus recent material for four sets of Nicotiana taxa. These results suggest that herbarium specimen genome sequencing (herbariomics) holds promise for both repeat discovery and analyses that aim to investigate the role of repetitive DNAs in genomic evolution, particularly genome size evolution and/or contributions of repeats to the regulation of gene space