Using body mapping as part of the risk assessment process - a case study

This paper reports on a study undertaken to identify levels of MSD in relation to methods of waste collection. The need to quantify and eliminate ill health arising out of work is vital to reduce workplace absence leading to debate on associated relationships between the methods of waste collection and musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). Body mapping is a participatory research tool that has been successfully used to investigate workplace ill health problems. Participatory body mapping exercises were carried out using staff at a UK District Council 2 years before and after the move from boxes and baskets to a wheeled bin recycling service. The study introduces the concept of Average Pain Count (APC). The data, supports previous studies showing wheeled bin based services (APC 2.07 & 2.80) are associated with less MSD outcomes than services including boxes, baskets and sacks (APC 4.02).The surveys provided compelling evidence to suggest that there are associations between age and self-reported pain although there appeared to be no patterns with regards length of service. These findings should help Local Authorities better understand critical factors regarding waste collection strategies and self-reported pain. There are recommendations regarding the use of body mapping and for industry practice

Magnetic Structure of Rapidly Rotating FK Comae-Type Coronae

We present a three-dimensional simulation of the corona of an FK Com-type rapidly rotating G giant using a magnetohydrodynamic model that was originally developed for the solar corona in order to capture the more realistic, non-potential coronal structure. We drive the simulation with surface maps for the radial magnetic field obtained from a stellar dynamo model of the FK Com system. This enables us to obtain the coronal structure for different field topologies representing different periods of time. We find that the corona of such an FK Com-like star, including the large scale coronal loops, is dominated by a strong toroidal component of the magnetic field. This is a result of part of the field being dragged by the radial outflow, while the other part remains attached to the rapidly rotating stellar surface. This tangling of the magnetic field,in addition to a reduction in the radial flow component, leads to a flattening of the gas density profile with distance in the inner part of the corona. The three-dimensional simulation provides a global view of the coronal structure. Some aspects of the results, such as the toroidal wrapping of the magnetic field, should also be applicable to coronae on fast rotators in general, which our study shows can be considerably different from the well-studied and well-observed solar corona. Studying the global structure of such coronae should also lead to a better understanding of their related stellar processes, such as flares and coronal mass ejections, and in particular, should lead to an improved understanding of mass and angular momentum loss from such systems.Comment: Accepted to ApJ, 10 pages, 6 figure

Hydrologic controls on seasonal and inter-annual variability of Congo River particulate organic matter source and reservoir age

We present dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations, particulate organic matter (POM) composition (δ13C, δ15N, ∆14C, N/C), and particulate glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraether (GDGT) distributions from a 34-month time-series near the mouth of the Congo River. An end-member mixing model using δ13C and N/C indicates that exported POM is consistently dominated by C3 rainforest soil sources, with increasing contribution from C3 vegetation and decreasing contribution from phytoplankton at high discharge. Large C4 inputs are never observed despite covering ≈ 13% of the catchment. Low and variable ∆14C values during 2011 [annual mean = (− 148 ± 82) ‰], when discharge from left-bank tributaries located in the southern hemisphere reached record lows, likely reflect a bias toward pre-aged POM derived from the Cuvette Congolaise swamp forest. In contrast, ∆14C values were stable near − 50‰ between January and June 2013, when left-bank discharge was highest. We suggest that headwater POM is replaced and/or diluted by C3 vegetation and pre-aged soils during transit through the Cuvette Congolaise, whereas left-bank tributaries export significantly less pre-aged material. GDGT distributions provide further evidence for seasonal and inter-annual variability in soil provenance. The cyclization of branched tetraethers and the GDGT-0 to crenarchaeol ratio are positively correlated with discharge (r ≥ 0.70; p-value ≤ 4.3 × 10− 5) due to the incorporation of swamp-forest soils when discharge from right-bank tributaries located in the northern hemisphere is high. Both metrics reach record lows during 2013, supporting our interpretation of increased left-bank contribution at this time. We conclude that hydrologic variability is a major control of POM provenance in the Congo River Basin and that tropical wetlands can be a significant POM source despite their small geographic coverage

The first WASP public data release

The WASP (wide angle search for planets) project is an exoplanet transit survey that has been automatically taking wide field images since 2004. Two instruments, one in La Palma and the other in South Africa, continually monitor the night sky, building up light curves of millions of unique objects. These light curves are used to search for the characteristics of exoplanetary transits. This first public data release (DR1) of the WASP archive makes available all the light curve data and images from 2004 up to 2008 in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres. A web interface () to the data allows easy access over the Internet. The data set contains 3 631 972 raw images and 17 970 937 light curves. In total the light curves have 119 930 299 362 data points available between them

The Angular Momentum Evolution of Very Low Mass Stars

We present theoretical models of the angular momentum evolution of very low mass stars (0.1 - 0.5 M_sun) and solar analogues (0.6 - 1.1 M_sun). We investigate the effect of rotation on the effective temperature and luminosity of these stars. We find that the decrease in T_eff and L can be significant at the higher end of our mass range, but becomes negligible below 0.4 M_sun. Formulae for relating T_eff to mass and v_rot are presented. We compare our models to rotational data from young open clusters of different ages to infer the rotational history of low mass stars, and the dependence of initial conditions and rotational evolution on mass. We find that the qualitative conclusions for stars below 0.6 M_sun do not depend on the assumptions about internal angular momentum transport, which makes these low mass stars ideal candidates for the study of the angular momentum loss law and distribution of initial conditions. We find that neither models with solid body nor differential rotation can simultaneously reproduce the observed stellar spin down in the 0.6 to 1.1 M_sun mass range and for stars between 0.1 and 0.6 M_sun. The most likely explanation is that the saturation threshold drops more steeply at low masses than would be predicted with a simple Rossby scaling. In young clusters there is a systematic increase in the mean rotation rate with decreased temperature below 3500 K (0.4 M_sun). This suggests either inefficient angular momentum loss or mass-dependent initial conditions for stars near the fully convective boundary. (abridged)Comment: To appear in the May 10, 2000 Ap

The Doppler Shadow of WASP-3b: A tomographic analysis of Rossiter-McLaughlin observations

Hot-Jupiter planets must form at large separations from their host stars where the temperatures are cool enough for their cores to condense. They then migrate inwards to their current observed orbital separations. Different theories of how this migration occurs lead to varying distributions of orbital eccentricity and the alignment between the rotation axis of the star and the orbital axis of the planet. The spin-orbit alignment of a transiting system is revealed via the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect, which is the anomaly present in the radial velocity measurements of the rotating star during transit due to the planet blocking some of the starlight. In this paper we aim to measure the spin-orbit alignment of the WASP-3 system via a new way of analysing the Rossiter-McLaughlin observations. We apply a new tomographic method for analysing the time variable asymmetry of stellar line profiles caused by the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect. This new method eliminates the systematic error inherent in previous methods used to analyse the effect. We find a value for the projected stellar spin rate of v sin i = 13.9 \pm 0.03 km/s which is in agreement with previous measurements but has a much higher precision. The system is found to be well aligned which favours an evolutionary history for WASP-3b involving migration through tidal interactions with a protoplanetary disc. Using gyrochronology we estimate the age of the star to be ~300 Myr with an upper limit of 2 Gyr from comparison with isochrones.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A, 8 pages, 4 figures, 2 table

Green Fluorescent Protein in the sea urchin: new experimental approaches to transcriptional regulatory analysis in embryos and larvae

The use of Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) as a reporter for expression transgenes opens the way to several new experimental strategies for the study of gene regulation in sea urchin development. A GFP coding sequence was associated with three different previously studied cis-regulatory systems, viz those of the SM50 gene, expressed in skeletogenic mesenchyme, the CyIIa gene, expressed in archenteron, skeletogenic and secondary mesenchyme, and the Endo16 gene, expressed in vegetal plate, archenteron and midgut. We demonstrate that the sensitivity with which expression can be detected is equal to or greater than that of whole-mount in situ hybridization applied to detection of CAT mRNA synthesized under the control of the same cis-regulatory systems. However, in addition to the important feature that it can be visualized nondestructively in living embryos, GFP has other advantages. First, it freely diffuses even within fine cytoplasmic cables, and thus reveals connections between cells, which in sea urchin embryos is particularly useful for observations on regulatory systems that operate in the syncytial skeletogenic mesenchyme. Second, GFP expression can be dramatically visualized in postembryonic larval tissues. This brings postembryonic larval developmental processes for the first time within the easy range of gene transfer analyses. Third, GFP permits identification and segregation of embryos in which the clonal incorporation of injected DNA has occurred in any particular desired region of the embryo. Thus, we show explicitly that, as expected, GFP transgenes are incorporated in the same nuclei together with other transgenes with which they are co-injected

Influence of Cytomatrix Proteins on Water and on Ions in Cells

This review concerns the influence that cytomatrix proteins have on the motional properties of water and on the major inorganic ions in cells. The techniques we used for study of water in cells and on the cytomatrix proteins include: pulsed NMR of water protons, quench cooled ice crystal imprint size, and osmotic behavior. The technique for study of ions involved use of electron-probe X-ray microanalysis of thin cryosections of cells. The cytomatrix was found to play the major role in determining the extent of hydration water in cells, The amount of hydration water varied greatly between cell types (e.g., lens fiber cells have no detectable bulk water) and varied in the same cell type studied under different states (e.g., unfertilized and fertilized sea urchin eggs). Aggregation of cytomatrix proteins (actin in particular) is a determinant of the extent of hydration water in cells. Hydration water appears not to participate in the ideal osmotic equation of van\u27t Hoff. The ionic content of cells does not accurately predict the chemical activity of the ions in cytoplasm. A major proportion of intracellular K+ and a substantial fraction of Cl- was found to be influenced by the cytomatrix such that their diffusion was impaired. The cytomatrix is responsible for the decreased motional properties of a substantial portion of cellular water and ions

Foam nest components of the túngara frog: a cocktail of proteins conferring physical and biological resilience

The foam nests of the túngara frog (Engystomops pustulosus) form a biocompatible incubation medium for eggs and sperm while resisting considerable environmental and microbiological assault. We have shown that much of this behaviour can be attributed to a cocktail of six proteins, designated ranaspumins (Rsn-1 to Rsn-6), which predominate in the foam. These fall into two discernable classes based on sequence analysis and biophysical properties. Rsn-2, with an amphiphilic amino acid sequence unlike any hitherto reported, exhibits substantial detergent-like surfactant activity necessary for production of foam, yet is harmless to the membranes of eggs and spermatozoa. A further four (Rsn-3 to Rsn-6) are lectins, three of which are similar to fucolectins found in teleosts but not previously identified in a land vertebrate, though with a carbohydrate binding specificity different from previously described fucolectins. The sixth, Rsn-1, is structurally similar to proteinase inhibitors of the cystatin class, but does not itself appear to exhibit any such activity. The nest foam itself, however, does exhibit potent cystatin activity. Rsn-encoding genes are transcribed in many tissues of the adult frogs, but the full cocktail is present only in oviduct glands. Combinations of lectins and cystatins have known roles in plants and animals for defence against microbial colonization and insect attack. Túngara nest foam displays a novel synergy of selected elements of innate defence plus a specialized surfactant protein, comprising a previously unreported strategy for protection of unattended reproductive stages of animals