The Hasty Pees in Sicily

Account given by Major A.R. Campbell Officer Commanding ‘A’ Company and Captain N.R. Waugh, MC, Officer Commanding ‘D’ Company, Hastings & Prince Edward Regiment, on 18 August 1943, at Battalion Rest Area near MILITELLO in val di CATANIA, SICILY

The Impact of In-House RP Upon Final Year Industrial Design Student Projects

A vital part of the Industrial Design and Technology degree course at Loughborough University is the development of appearance and functional prototypes. Previously, the use of rapid prototyping (RP) has been fairly limited because of the high cost and problematic timing issues of using external facilities. However, during 2003, the availability of an in-house FDM 2000 machine has greatly increased the use of RP models. This paper identifies the impact this has had upon a) the design approach, b) the characteristics of the models produced and c) the use of the models with user evaluation trials. Conclusions drawn show that RP has brought major benefits but that there are some pitfalls that must be avoided.Mechanical Engineerin

Stock Assessment of Common Coral Trout (Plectromomus leopardus) in Queensland

Queensland’s common coral trout (Plectropomus leopardus), a species of grouper, is a line caught fish forming a single population (stock) across the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). Common coral trout are protogynous hermaphrodites (born female, many later changing sex to male) and aggregate to spawn during spring and summer. They can grow to 5 kg and 18 years of age. The stock extends north from the GBR into the eastern Torres Strait where it is under Commonwealth jurisdiction. This assessment builds on previous assessments published in 2014 and 2019 and includes updates to the input data and methods. This stock assessment used a length-and-age structured population model with a yearly time step. The model contained two sub-populations: a sub-population associated with reefs in the Great Barrier Reef that remained open to fishing after the introduction of the Representative Areas Program in 2004, and a sub-population, associated with reefs that have been closed to fishing since the introduction of the Representative Areas Program. Model results suggested that biomass declined between 1953 and 2011 to 51% unfished biomass. In 2020, the stock level was estimated to be 59% unfished biomass. The recommended biological harvest in calendar year 2020 to achieve the Sustainable Fisheries Strategy longer term target of 60% unfished biomass is 1034t (420–1258 range across models)

Stock assessment of Queensland east coast saddletail snapper (Lutjanus malabaricus), Australia

In Queensland, east coast saddletail snapper (Lutjanus malabaricus) are mostly line-caught by commercial and recreational fishers, with some recreational spearfishing take. Saddletail snapper are believed to be a single stock (population) off Queensland’s east coast. This is the first stock assessment of the Queensland east coast stock. The assessment implemented a two-sex population model fit to age and length data, constructed within the Stock Synthesis modelling framework. The model incorporated data spanning the period from financial years 1988 to 2020 including commercial logbook harvest (1988–2020), recreational, charter and Indigenous survey harvest estimates (2000–2019), length distribution data from boat-ramp surveys (2017–2020) and age-length (2018–2020). Twenty-one model scenarios were run, covering a wide range of modelling assumptions. Base case (preferred) scenario results suggested that biomass declined between 1961 and 2017 to 19% unfished biomass. In 2020, the stock level was estimated to be 23% (13–73% range across scenarios) unfished biomass. The harvest consistent with a biomass ratio of 60%, the Sustainable Fisheries Strategy longer-term target, was estimated at 159 t (146–348 t range across scenarios and all sectors). The recommended harvest in the 2021 financial year is 12 t (0–494 t range across scenarios) to achieve this target by 2040

Dynamical study on polaron formation in a metal/polymer/metal structure

By considering a metal/polymer/metal structure within a tight-binding one-dimensional model, we have investigated the polaron formation in the presence of an electric field. When a sufficient voltage bias is applied to one of the metal electrodes, an electron is injected into the polymer chain, then a self-trapped polaron is formed at a few hundreds of femtoseconds while it moves slowly under a weak electric field (not larger than $$ V/cm). At an electric field between $1.0\times 10^4$ V/cm and $$ V/cm, the polaron is still formed, since the injected electron is bounded between the interface barriers for quite a long time. It is shown that the electric field applied at the polymer chain reduces effectively the potential barrier in the metal/polymer interface

The Symptoms of Varicose Veins: Difficult to Determine and Difficult to Study

ObjectivesTo investigate the activities which may exacerbate symptoms in patients with varicose veins.MethodsQuestionnaires sent to patients before clinics and at least six months later.ResultsBoth questionnaires were returned by 149 of 203 patients (74%) but only 124 contained adequate data for comparison – 55 from patients who had surgical treatment and 69 who had no surgery. At initial presentation, worsening of discomfort attributed to varicose veins was common during (58%) or after (48%) standing and in hot weather (44%), but less when sitting with the feet down (31%), and after (31%) or when walking (19%). Surgery significantly reduced the total number of symptoms reported by patients at follow-up (p<0.02). However, none of the symptoms reported during specific activities was significantly lessened by surgery compared with no treatment – possibly because the attrition of patients during the study resulted in small numbers for analysis.ConclusionsSymptoms are a common indication for treating varicose veins and it is therefore important to be sure that they are due to the veins, rather than other causes. This report highlights traditional and logical questions which may help to identify symptoms caused by varicose veins but illustrates the difficulty of validating them

Differences between tree species in hydraulic press calibration of leaf water potential are correlated with specific leaf area

. To determine the usefulness of the J-14 Hydraulic Press (Campbell Scientific, Inc., Logan, Utah, U.S.A.) in estimating leaf water potential, we calibrated the J-14 Press against a Scholander-type pressure chamber for leaves of various tree species. The species tested were: Acer saccharum, Acer negundo, Acer rubrum. Populus tremuloides, Populus grandidentata, Quercus rubra , and Brassaia actinophylla (Schefflera). The regression calibrations were linear with standard errors about the regression less than 0.1 MPa. The regression equations for the four genera were significantly different, with the y- intercept increasing and the slope decreasing in order of decreasing specific leaf area (SLA). There were no significant differences between species of the calibration lines within the genera Acer and Populus. These data may indicate that leaves with lower SLA resist mechanical compression by the hydraulic press, causing the J-14 Press to be less sensitive to differences of leaf water potential. Therefore the J-14 Press is only a relative measure of leaf water status and does not measure leaf water potential.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73416/1/1365-3040.ep11591871.pd

Discovery of a filamentary synchrotron structure connected to the coherent magnetic field in the outer galaxy

Using data from the Galactic Arecibo L-band Feed Array Continuum Transit Survey, we report the discovery of two previously unidentified, very compressed, thin, and straight polarized filaments approximately centered at Galactic coordinates, (l, b) = (182°. 5, − 4°. 0), which we call G182.5–4.0. Using data from the Isaac Newton Telescope Galactic Plane Survey, we also find straight, long, and extremely thin Hα filaments coincident with the radio emission. These filaments are positioned in projection at the edge of the Orion-Eridanus superbubble and we find evidence indicating that the filaments align with the coherent magnetic field of the outer Galaxy. We find a lower limit on the total radio flux at 1.4 GHz to be 0.7 ± 0.3 Jy with an average linearly polarized fraction of 40 %20 30 - +. We consider various scenarios that could explain the origin of these filaments, including a shell type supernova remnant (SNR), a bow shock nebula associated with a pulsar, or relic fragments from one or more supernova explosions in the adjacent superbubble, with a hybrid scenario being most likely

General Relativity as an Attractor in Scalar-Tensor Stochastic Inflation

Quantum fluctuations of scalar fields during inflation could determine the very large-scale structure of the universe. In the case of general scalar-tensor gravity theories these fluctuations lead to the diffusion of fundamental constants like the Planck mass and the effective Brans--Dicke parameter, $\omega$. In the particular case of Brans--Dicke gravity, where $\omega$ is constant, this leads to runaway solutions with infinitely large values of the Planck mass. However, in a theory with variable $\omega$ we find stationary probability distributions with a finite value of the Planck mass peaked at exponentially large values of $\omega$ after inflation. We conclude that general relativity is an attractor during the quantum diffusion of the fields.Comment: LaTeX (with RevTex) 11 pages, 2 uuencoded figures appended, also available on WWW via http://star.maps.susx.ac.uk/index.htm

Cyclical vomiting syndrome secondary to a Chiari I malformation - a case report

Background: Cyclical vomiting syndrome is a disorder characterised by recurrent episodes of profuse vomiting. There are no cases in the literature on the management of children with presenting with cyclical vomiting syndrome and a Chiari malformation type I. Discussion: We report the case of a 12-year-old child diagnosed with cyclical vomiting syndrome and a Chiari malformation type I. The patient received symptomatic relief following a craniocervical decompression