A survey of land suitable for Townsville stylo in the North Kimberley of W.A. 1973

The aims of the survey were to - (a) define the extent and actual location of country suitable for the production of non-indigenous pastures; in particular to classify the land for its suitability for Townsville stylo (Styioaanthes hurniiia). (b) map the areas so defined on a land system basis. The area surveyed covered approximately 88 000 sq.km (33 968 sq.miles) and included most of the catchments of the Carson, Drysdale, King Edward, Prince Regent, Charnley, Isdell and Chapman Rivers. It covered the country between latitude 14°S and 17°S and longitude 124°30\u27E and 127°30\u27E.https://researchlibrary.agric.wa.gov.au/books/1008/thumbnail.jp

Sun and planets from a climate point of view

The Sun plays a dominant role as the gravity centre and the energy source of a planetary system. A simple estimate shows that it is mainly the distance from the Sun that determines the climate of a planet. The solar electromagnetic radiation received by a planet is very unevenly distributed on the dayside of the planet. The climate tries to equilibrate the system by transporting energy through the atmosphere and the oceans provided they exist. These quasi steady state conditions are continuously disturbed by a variety of processes and effects. Potential causes of disturbance on the Sun are the energy generation in the core, the energy transport trough the convection zone, and the energy emission from the photosphere. Well understood are the effects of the orbital parameters responsible for the total amount of solar power received by a planet and its relative distribution on the planet's surface. On a planet, many factors determine how much of the arriving energy enters the climate system and how it is distributed and ultimately reemitted back into space. On Earth, there is growing evidence that in the past solar variability played a significant role in climate chang

Solar modulation during the Holocene

International audienceWe built a composite of three reconstructions of the solar modulation function over the Holocene. The reconstructions until 1950 are based on data from cosmogenic radionuclides and the present time (1951?2004) on neutron monitor data. Interpreting our composite as an index of solar activity, we were able to compare the current solar activity with the last 9300 years. During this time span 25 periods with similar high activity than the current period were found. That corresponds to about 15% of the time which lead to the conclusion that currently the Sun is very but not exceptionally active. Our composite has a large potential for studies dealing with solar activity like the understanding of the solar dynamo and the reconstruction of solar forcing

Perfection of materials technology for producing improved Gunn-effect devices

Chemical vapor deposition system for improved Gunn effect devices using arsenic chloride 3 metho

The provision of education and training for healthcare professionals through the medium of the internet

This paper describes a new initiative to provide Internet based courses to student and professional occupational therapists in four centres in the UK, Belgium the Netherlands and Sweden. The basis of this collaborative Occupational Therapy Internet School (OTIS) is the concept of the “Virtual College”. This comprises the design and implementation of a sophisticated Internet-based system through which courses can be managed, prepared and delivered online in an effective fashion, and where students can communicate both with the staff and their peers. The aim is to support and facilitate the whole range of educational activities within a remote electronic environment. A major feature of the course organisation is the adoption of a problem-based approach in which students will collaborate internationally to propose effective intervention in given case study scenarios. The paper outlines the rationale for OTIS, the content and structure of the courseware, the technical specification of the system and evaluation criteria. In addition to the more conventional web-based learning facilities generally offered, a number of agent-based approaches are being adopted to assist in the management of the course by ensuring the proper delivery of course materials and to assist the functioning of project groups. </p

Perfection of materials technology for producing improved Gunn-effect devices Interim scientific report

Chemical vapor deposition of epitaxial gallium arsenid

The light curve of the companion to PSR B1957+20

We present a new analysis of the light curve for the secondary star in the eclipsing binary millisecond pulsar system PSR B1957+20. Combining previous data and new data points at minimum from the Hubble Space Telescope, we have 100% coverage in the R-band. We also have a number of new K_s-band data points, which we use to constrain the infrared magnitude of the system. We model this with the Eclipsing Light Curve code (ELC). From the modelling with the ELC code we obtain colour information about the secondary at minimum light in BVRI and K. For our best fit model we are able to constrain the system inclination to 65 +/- 2 degrees for pulsar masses ranging from 1.3 -- 1.9 M_sun. The pulsar mass is unconstrained. We also find that the secondary star is not filling its Roche lobe. The temperature of the un-irradiated side of the companion is in agreement with previous estimates and we find that the observed temperature gradient across the secondary star is physically sustainable.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures & 3tables. Accepted for publication in MNRA

Bedload transport controls bedrock erosion under sediment-starved conditions

Fluvial bedrock incision constrains the pace of mountainous landscape evolution. Bedrock erosion processes have been described with incision models that are widely applied in river-reach and catchment-scale studies. However, so far no linked field data set at the process scale had been published that permits the assessment of model plausibility and accuracy. Here, we evaluate the predictive power of various incision models using independent data on hydraulics, bedload transport and erosion recorded on an artificial bedrock slab installed in a steep bedrock stream section for a single bedload transport event. The influence of transported bedload on the erosion rate (the "tools effect") is shown to be dominant, while other sediment effects are of minor importance. Hence, a simple temporally distributed incision model, in which erosion rate is proportional to bedload transport rate, is proposed for transient local studies under detachment-limited conditions. This model can be site-calibrated with temporally lumped bedload and erosion data and its applicability can be assessed by visual inspection of the study site. For the event at hand, basic discharge-based models, such as derivatives of the stream power model family, are adequate to reproduce the overall trend of the observed erosion rate. This may be relevant for long-term studies of landscape evolution without specific interest in transient local behavior. However, it remains to be seen whether the same model calibration can reliably predict erosion in future events

A Killing Disease Epidemic Among Displaced Sudanese Population Identified as Visceral Leishmaniasis.

A fatal disease epidemic affected the Bentiu area in southern Sudan and led to a mass migration of the Nuer tribe searching for treatment. The initially available information revealed a high mortality rate due to a possible occurrence of tuberculosis, malaria, enteric fever or visceral leishmaniasis (VL). Serological screening of 53 of the most severely affected patients in an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) or an improved direct agglutination test (DAT) revealed positivity for VL. In 39 of those patients, diagnosis was confirmed by identification of Leishmania donovani amastigotes in lymph node or bone-marrow aspirates. In a total of 2714 patients observed, 1195 (44.0%) had clinical symptoms suggesting VL: DAT positive titers (1:3200-greater than or equal to 1:12800) were obtained in 654 (24.1%), of whom 325 were confirmed parasitologically. Forty-two VL cases died before or during treatment, giving a mortality rate of 6.4%. Among the intercurrent infections diagnosed in the VL population (654), respiratory involvements (31.7%) and malaria (10.7%) were most prevalent. With the exception of four (0.6%), all other VL patients (509) responded readily to sodium stibogluconate. The factors initiating the outbreak are discussed. Malnutrition and nomadic movements to potential VL endemic areas appeared to be the most important. HIV infection as a possible predisposition seemed remote considering the clinical and epidemiological similarity to VL occurring in East Africa, adequate humoral response in DAT, and immediate positive response to specific anti-Leishmania chemotherapy