Book Reviews

Book reviews by Edward F. Barrett, Alfred L. Scanlan, Robert T. Molloy, Aaron I. Abell, and Robert E. Sullivan

“It’s all part of the culture”: undergraduate students’ experiences of banter in university sports clubs and societies

Recent research has focused on students’ experience of banter in the general university setting. However, these experiences may differ when specifically focusing on university students’ interactions in sports clubs and societies. The present study explored undergraduate students’ understanding and experiences of banter in sports clubs and societies through five focus groups (n = 24; 18–23 years, 5 male, 19 female) at one UK university using semi-structured interviews and vignettes. Thematic analysis identified three key themes: “It’s all part of the culture”, banter to excuse inappropriate behaviour, and a question of boundaries. Discussions highlighted banter was accepted and expected, but there was a sense of ‘banter fatigue’. There was awareness that banter could be used to mask harmful behaviour such as hazing and inappropriate sexual behaviour. Students also highlighted that boundaries were important when using banter, discussing how repetition can have a negative impact on the target of the banter. The study contributes to the limited literature exploring the use and perceptions of banter by students in extracurricular activities at university

The Importance of Meteorite Collections to Sample Return Missions: Past, Present, and Future Considerations

While much of the scientific community s current attention is drawn to sample return missions, it is the existing meteorite and cosmic dust collections that both provide the paradigms to be tested by these missions and the context for interpreting the results. Recent sample returns from the Stardust and Hayabusa missions provided us with new materials and insights about our Solar System history and processes. As an example, Stardust sampled CAIs among the population of cometary grains, requiring extensive and unexpected radial mixing in the early solar nebula. This finding would not have been possible, however, without extensive studies of meteoritic CAIs that established their high-temperature, inner Solar System formation. Samples returned by Stardust also revealed the first evidence of a cometary amino acid, a discovery that would not have been possible with current in situ flight instrument technology. The Hayabusa mission provided the final evidence linking ordinary chondrites and S asteroids, a hypothesis that developed from centuries of collection and laboratory and ground-based telescopic studies. In addition to these scientific findings, studies of existing meteorite collections have defined and refined the analytical techniques essential to studying returned samples. As an example, the fortuitous fall of the Allende CV3 and Murchison CM2 chondrites within months before the return of Apollo samples allowed testing of new state-of-the-art analytical facilities. The results of those studies not only prepared us to better study lunar materials, but unanticipated discoveries changed many of our concepts about the earliest history and processes of the solar nebula. This synergy between existing collections and future space exploration is certainly not limited to sample return missions. Laboratory studies confirmed the existence of meteorites from Mars and raised the provocative possibility of preservation of ancient microbial life. The laboratory studies in turn led to a new wave of Mars exploration that ultimately could lead to sample return focused on evidence for past or present life. This partnership between collections and missions will be increasingly important in the coming decades as we discover new questions to be addressed and identify targets for for both robotic and human exploration . Nowhere is this more true than in the ultimate search for the abiotic and biotic processes that produced life. Existing collections also provide the essential materials for developing and testing new analytical schemes to detect the rare markers of life and distinguish them from abiotic processes. Large collections of meteorites and the new types being identified within these collections, which come to us at a fraction of the cost of a sample return mission, will continue to shape the objectives of future missions and provide new ways of interpreting returned samples

Optimization of Magnetized Electron Cooling with JSPEC

The Electron-Ion-Collider (EIC) will be a next-generation facility located at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), built with the goal of accelerating heavy ions up to 275 GeV. To prevent ion beam size growth during the acceleration phase, cooling techniques will be required to keep the beam size from growing due to intra-beam scattering. The JSPEC (JLab Simulation Package for Electron Cooling) $\texttt{C++}$ package is a tool designed to numerically model magnetized and unmagnetized cooling through friction forces between co-propagating electron and ion bunches. Here we describe a feature that has been added to the JSPEC package, which implements a Nelder-Mead Simplex optimization algorithm to allow a user to optimize certain beam parameters in order to achieve a target cooling time

Abell 1451 and 1RXS J131423.6-251521: a multi-wavelength study of two dynamically perturbed clusters of galaxies

We present results from optical, X-ray and radio observations of two X-ray bright (L_X ~ 10^{45} erg/s) galaxy clusters. A1451 is at redshift z=0.1989 and has line-of-sight velocity dispersion sigma_v = 1330 km/s as measured from 57 cluster galaxies. It has regular X-ray emission without signs of substructure, a Gaussian velocity distribution, lack of a cooling flow region and significant deviations from the observed scaling laws between luminosity, temperature and velocity dispersion, indicating a possible merging shock. There is only one spectroscopically confirmed cluster radio galaxy, which is close to the X-ray peak. 1RXS J131423.6-251521 has z=0.2474 and sigma_v = 1100 km/s from 37 galaxies. There are two distinct galaxy groups with a projected separation of \~700 kpc. The velocity histogram is bi-modal with a redshift-space separation of ~1700 km/s, and the X-ray emission is double peaked. Although there are no spectroscopically confirmed cluster radio galaxies, we have identified a plausible relic source candidate.Comment: 16 pages, 12 figures, some in colour; A&A accepte

Microstructure and superconducting properties of hot isostatically pressed MgB2

Bulk samples of MgB2 have been formed by hot isostatic pressing (HIPping) of commercial powder at 100MPa and 950=B0C. The resulting material is 100% dense with a sharp superconducting transition at 37.5K. Microstructural studies have indicated the presence of small amounts of second phases within the material, namely MgO and B rich compositions, probably MgB4. Magnetisation measurements performed at 20K have revealed values of Jc=1.3 x 106A/cm2 at zero field, and 9.3 x 105A/cm2 at 1T. Magneto optical (MO) studies have shown direct evidence for the superconducting homogeneity and strong intergranular current flow in the material.Comment: 3 pages, 6 figures, text updated, new references included and discussed. Submitted to Superconductor Science and Technolog

Genetic relationship between purebred and crossbred sow longevity

Background The overall breeding objective for a nucleus swine selection program is to improve crossbred commercial performance. Most genetic improvement programs are based on an assumed high degree of positive relationship between purebred performance in a nucleus herd and their relatives’ crossbred performance in a commercial herd. The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between purebred and crossbred sow longevity performance. Sow longevity was defined as a binary trait with a success occurring if a sow remained in the herd for a certain number of parities and including the cumulative number born alive as a measure of reproductive success. Heritabilities, genetic correlations, and phenotypic correlations were estimated using THRGIBBS1F90. Results Results indicated little to no genetic correlations between crossbred and purebred reproductive traits. This indicates that selection for longevity or lifetime performance at the nucleus level may not result in improved longevity and lifetime performance at the crossbred level. Early parity performance was highly correlated with lifetime performance indicating that an indicator trait at an early parity could be used to predict lifetime performance. This would allow a sow to have her own record for the selection trait before she has been removed from the herd. Conclusions Results from this study aid in quantifying the relationship between purebred and crossbred performance and provide information for genetic companies to consider when developing a selection program where the objective is to improve crossbred sow performance. Utilizing crossbred records in a selection program would be the best way to improve crossbred sow productivity

Scientific Exploration of Near-Earth Objects via the Crew Exploration Vehicle

The concept of a crewed mission to a Near-Earth Object (NEO) has been analyzed in depth in 1989 as part of the Space Exploration Initiative. Since that time two other studies have investigated the possibility of sending similar missions to NEOs. A more recent study has been sponsored by the Advanced Programs Office within NASA's Constellation Program. This study team has representatives from across NASA and is currently examining the feasibility of sending a Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) to a near-Earth object (NEO). The ideal mission profile would involve a crew of 2 or 3 astronauts on a 90 to 120 day flight, which would include a 7 to 14 day stay for proximity operations at the target NEO. One of the significant advantages of this type of mission is that it strengthens and validates the foundational infrastructure for the Vision for Space Exploration (VSE) and Exploration Systems Architecture Study (ESAS) in the run up to the lunar sorties at the end of the next decade (approx.2020). Sending a human expedition to a NEO, within the context of the VSE and ESAS, demonstrates the broad utility of the Constellation Program s Orion (CEV) crew capsule and Ares (CLV) launch systems. This mission would be the first human expedition to an interplanetary body outside of the cislunar system. Also, it will help NASA regain crucial operational experience conducting human exploration missions outside of low Earth orbit, which humanity has not attempted in nearly 40 years

Role of land-ocean interactions in stepwise Northern Hemisphere Glaciation

The investigation of triggers causing the onset and intensification of Northern Hemisphere Glaciation (NHG) during the late Pliocene is essential for understanding the global climate system, with important implications for projecting future climate changes. Despite their critical roles in the global climate system, influences of land-ocean interactions on high-latitude ice sheets remain largely unexplored. Here, we present a high-resolution Asian dust record from Ocean Drilling Program Site 1208 in the North Pacific, which lies along the main route of the westerlies. Our data indicate that atmosphere-land-ocean interactions affected aeolian dust emissions through modulating moisture and vegetation in dust source regions, highlighting a critical role of terrestrial systems in initiating the NHG as early as 3.6 Myr ago. Combined with additional multi-proxy and model results, we further show that westerly wind strength was enhanced, mainly at low-to-middle tropospheric levels, during major glacial events at about 3.3 and 2.7 Myr ago. We suggest that coupled responses of Earth’s surface dynamics and atmospheric circulation in the Plio-Pleistocene likely involved feedbacks related to changes in paleogeography, ocean circulation, and global climate