728 research outputs found
Sediment management for Southern California mountains, coastal plains and shoreline
The Environmental Quality Laboratory at Caltech and the Shore
Processes Laboratory at Scripps Institution of Oceanography have jointly
undertaken a study of regional sediment balance problems in coastal
southern California (see map in Figure 1). The overall objective in
this study is to define specific alternatives in sediment management that
may be implemented to alleviate a) existing sediment imbalance problems
(e.g. inland debris disposal, local shoreline erosion) and b) probable
future problems that have not yet manifested themselves. These
alternatives will be identified through a consideration of economic,
legal, and institutional issues as well as an analysis of governing
physical processes and engineering constraints.
The first part of this study (Phase I), which is currently under
way, involves a compilation and analysis of all available data in
an effort to obtain an accurate definition of the inland/coastal
regional sediment balance under natural conditions, and specific
quantitative effects man-made controls have on the overall natural process.
During FY77, substantial progress was made at EQL and SPL in
achieving the objectives of the initial Planning and Assessment Phase
of the CIT/SIO Sediment Management Project. Financial support came
from Los Angeles County, U.S. Geological Survey, Orange County,
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and discretionary funding provided by
a grant from the Ford Foundation. The current timetable for completion
of this phase is Fall 1978.
This report briefly describes the project status, including
general administration, special activities, and research work as of
January 1978
Effects of dams on beach sand supply
In 1975 a regional sediment management study was initiated as a joint applied research project of the Environmental Quality Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, and the Shore Processes Laboratory, Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The project is a broad-based, long-term multidisciplinary effort intended to define the regional
sediment budget for coastal Southern California (Figure 1), and to quantify the effects of various human activities on changes in that budget
Genetic Characterization of the Tick-Borne Orbiviruses
The International Committee for Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) recognizes four species of tick-borne orbiviruses (TBOs): Chenuda virus, Chobar Gorge virus, Wad Medani virus and Great Island virus (genus Orbivirus, family Reoviridae). Nucleotide (nt) and amino acid (aa) sequence comparisons provide a basis for orbivirus detection and classification, however full genome sequence data were only available for the Great Island virus species. We report representative genome-sequences for the three other TBO species (virus isolates: Chenuda virus (CNUV); Chobar Gorge virus (CGV) and Wad Medani virus (WMV)). Phylogenetic comparisons show that TBOs cluster separately from insect-borne orbiviruses (IBOs). CNUV, CGV, WMV and GIV share low level aa/nt identities with other orbiviruses, in 'conserved' Pol, T2 and T13 proteins/genes, identifying them as four distinct virus-species. The TBO genome segment encoding cell attachment, outer capsid protein 1 (OC1), is approximately half the size of the equivalent segment from insect-borne orbiviruses, helping to explain why tick-borne orbiviruses have a ~1 kb smaller genome
Magnetoroton scattering by phonons in the fractional quantum Hall regime
Motivated by recent phonon spectroscopy experiments in the fractional quantum
Hall regime we consider processes in which thermally excited magnetoroton
excitations are scattered by low energy phonons. We show that such scattering
processes can never give rise to dissociation of magnetorotons into unbound
charged quasiparticles as had been proposed previously. In addition we show
that scattering of magnetorotons to longer wavelengths by phonon absorption is
possible because of the shape of the magnetoroton dispersion curve and it is
shown that there is a characteristic cross-over temperature above which the
rate of energy transfer to the electron gas changes from an exponential
(activated) to a power law dependence on the effective phonon temperature.Comment: LaTex document, 3 eps figures. submitted to Phys Rev
Enhanced neutralising antibody response to bovine viral diarrhoea virus (BVDV) induced by DNA vaccination in calves
DNA vaccination is effective in inducing potent immunity in mice; however it appears to be less so in large animals. Increasing the dose of DNA plasmid to activate innate immunity has been shown to improve DNA vaccine adaptive immunity. Retinoic acid-inducible gene I (RIG-I) is a critical cytoplasmic double-stranded RNA pattern receptor required for innate immune activation in response to viral infection. RIG-I recognise viral RNA and trigger antiviral response, resulting in type I interferon (IFN) and inflammatory cytokine production. In an attempt to enhance the antibody response induced by BVDV DNA in cattle, we expressed BVDV truncated E2 (E2t) and NS3 codon optimised antigens from antibiotic free-plasmid vectors expressing a RIG-I agonist and designated either NTC E2t(co) and NTC NS3(co). To evaluate vaccine efficacy, groups of five BVDV-free calves were intramuscularly injected three times with NTC E2t(co) and NTC NS3(co) vaccine plasmids individually or in combination. Animals vaccinated with our (previously published) conventional DNA vaccines pSecTag/E2 and pTriExNS3 and plasmids expressing RIG-I agonist only presented both the positive and mock-vaccine groups. Our results showed that vaccines coexpressing E2t with a RIG-I agonist induced significantly higher E2 antigen specific antibody response (p < 0.05). Additionally, E2t augmented the immune response to NS3 when the two vaccines were delivered in combination. Despite the lack of complete protection, on challenge day 4/5 calves vaccinated with NTC E2t(co) alone or NTC E2t(co) plus NTC NS3(co) had neutralising antibody titres exceeding 1/240 compared to 1/5 in the mock vaccine control group. Based on our results we conclude that co-expression of a RIG-I agonist with viral antigen could enhance DNA vaccine potency in cattle
Canonical Generations and the British Left: The Narrative Construction of the Miners’ Strike 1984–85
‘Generations’ have been invoked to describe a variety of social and cultural relationships, and to understand the development of self-conscious group identity. Equally, the term can be an applied label and politically useful construct; generations can be retrospectively produced. Drawing on the concept of ‘canonical generations’ – those whose experiences come to epitomise an event of historic and symbolic importance – this article examines the narrative creation and functions of ‘generations’ as collective memory shapes and re-shapes the desire for social change. Building a case study of the canonical role of the miners’ strike of 1984–85 in the narrative history of the British left, it examines the selective appropriation and transmission of the past in the development of political consciousness. It foregrounds the autobiographical narratives of activists who, in examining and legitimising their own actions and prospects, (re)produce a ‘generation’ in order to create a relatable and useful historical understanding
Transient psychosis due to painless thyroiditis in a patient with anxiety disorder: a case report
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>There are few reports on thyrotoxic psychosis caused by diseases other than Graves' disease or toxic nodular goiter.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>A 64-year-old Japanese woman was treated for anxiety disorder in our clinic for 10 years. She had five episodes of transient psychosis during the first five years. When she developed psychosis without neck pain 10 years after her first visit, a laboratory reexamination revealed that she had subclinical hyperthyroidism, and tested positive for antithyroid autoantibodies, negative for thyroid stimulating hormone receptor antibody and had decreased radioactive iodine uptake. She was diagnosed as having painless thyroiditis. The hyperthyroidism disappeared within a month, and the psychosis lasted for three months.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of psychosis due to painless thyroiditis-induced hyperthyroidism. Physical symptoms of painless thyroiditis are often so mild that careful differential diagnosis is necessary in the cases of transient psychosis.</p
Sediment Management for Southern California Mountains, Coastal Plains, and Shoreline
The Environmental Quality Laboratory at Caltech and the Shore Processes Laboratory at Scripps Institution of Oceanography have jointly undertaken a study of regional sediment balance problems in coastal southern California (see map in Figure 1). The overall objective in this study is to define specific alternatives in sediment management that may be implemented to alleviate existing sediment imbalance problems (e.g. inland debris disposal, local shoreline erosion) and possible future problems that have not yet manifested themselves. These alternatives will be identified through a consideration of economic, legal, and institutional issues as well as an analysis of governing
physical processes and engineering constraints
Mars oxygen production system design
The design and construction phase is summarized of the Mars oxygen demonstration project. The basic hardware required to produce oxygen from simulated Mars atmosphere was assembled and tested. Some design problems still remain with the sample collection and storage system. In addition, design and development of computer compatible data acquisition and control instrumentation is ongoing
Prime beef cuts : culinary images for thinking 'men'
The paper contributes to scholarship theorising the sociality of the brand in terms of subject positions it makes possible through drawing upon the generative context of circulating discourses, in this case of masculinity, cuisine and celebrity. Specifically, it discusses masculinity as a socially constructed gender practice (Bristor and Fischer, 1993), examining materialisations of such practice in the form of visualisations of social relations as resources for 'thinking gender' or 'doing gender'. The transformative potential of the visualisations is illuminated by exploring the narrative content choreographed within a series of photographic images positioning the market appeal of a celebrity chef through the medium of a contemporary lifestyle cookery book. We consider how images of men 'doing masculinity'are not only channelled into reproducing existing gender hierarchy and compulsory heterosexuality in the service of commercial ends, but also into disrupting such enduring stereotyping through subtle reframing. We acknowledge that masculinity is already inscribed within conventionalised representations of culinary culture. In this case we consider how traces of masculinity are exploited and reinscribed through contemporary images that generate resources for rethinking masculine roles and identities, especially when viewed through the lens of stereotypically feminised pursuits such as shopping, food preparation, cooking, and the communal intimacy of food sharing. We identify unsettling tensions within the compositions, arguing that they relate to discursive spaces between the gendered positions written into the images and the popular imagination they feed off. Set against landscapes of culinary culture, we argue that the images invoke a brand of naively roughish "laddishness" or "blokishness", rendering it in domesticated form not only as benign and containable, but fashionable, pliable and, importantly, desirable. We conclude that although the images draw on stereotypical premeditated notions of a feral, boisterous and untamed heterosexual masculinity, they also set in motion gender-blending narratives
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