Photosynthetic pigment concentrations, gas exchange and vegetative growth for selected monocots and dicots treated with two contrasting coal fly ashes

There is uncertainty as to the rates of coal fly ash needed for optimum physiological processes and growth. In the current study we tested the hypothesis that photosynthetic pigments concentrations and CO2 assimilation (A) are more sensitive than dry weights in plants grown on media amended with coal fly ash. We applied the Terrestrial Plant Growth Test (Guideline 208) protocols of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to monocots [barley (Hordeum vulgare) and ryegrass (Secale cereale)] and dicots [canola (Brasica napus), radish (Raphanus sativus), field peas (Pisum sativum), and lucerne (Medicago sativa)] on media amended with fly ashes derived from semi-bituminous (gray ash) or lignite (red ash) coals at rates of 0, 2.5, 5.0, 10, or 20 Mg ha-1. The red ash had higher elemental concentrations and salinity than the gray ash. Fly ash addition had no significant effect on germination by any of the six species. At moderate rates (≤ 10 Mg ha-1) both ashes increased (p < 0.05) growth rates and concentrations of chlorophylls a and b, but reduced carotenoid concentrations. Addition of either ash increased A in radish and transpiration in barley. Growth rates and final dry weights were reduced for all of the six test species when addition rates exceeded 10 Mg ha-1 for gray ash and 5 Mg ha -1 for red ash. We concluded that plant dry weights, rather than pigment concentrations and/or instantaneous rates of photosynthesis, are more consistent for assessing subsequent growth in plants supplied with fly ash. Copyright © 2009 by the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America. All rights reserved

Regional controls on holocene sedminentation patterns along the Peru contonental margin; long term implications for El Niño-Southern Oscillation

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Secondary literacy across the curriculum: Challenges and possibilities

This paper discusses the challenges and possibilities attendant upon successfully implementing literacy across the curriculum initiatives – or ‘school language policies’ as they have come to be known - particularly at the secondary or high school level. It provides a theoretical background to these issues, exploring previous academic discussions of school language policies, and highlights key areas of concern as well as opportunity with respect to school implementation of such policies. As such, it provides a necessary conceptual background to the subsequent papers in this special issue, which focus upon the Secondary Schools’ Literacy Initiative (SSLI) – a New Zealand funded programme that aims to establish cross-curricular language and literacy policies in secondary schools

Cultural landscapes of tourism in New South Wales and Victoria

The field of cultural landscapes tourism is under-developed in Australia at the level of theory, research and policy development. Yet international research suggests that cultural landscapes tourism has significant potential in attracting new tourists. This research project is a scoping study designed to set out the parameters involved in cultural landscapes tourism research in Australia. It aims to identify how cultural heritage and contemporary cultural diversity impact on visitor experience and on local communities. The objective is to assist the Australian tourism industry particularly those located in regional and rural areas in understanding the growing importance of cultural tourism, by developing a number of case studies of cultural landscapes tourism in two Australia states. These case studies provide examples of existing tourism in a range of different cultural landscape sites, enabling the development of a process by which to identify change in cultural heritage tourism regions, including examining how multicultural precincts can operate as sustainable tourism destinations. Fieldwork with tourists and stakeholders will enable the development of industry strategies to increase tourism in the future. In addition, this fieldwork will facilitate the development of an innovative, multi-disciplinary theory of cultural landscapes tourism. This will set the stage for future research and policy development

Is it feasible to conduct a randomised controlled trial of pretransplant exercise (prehabilitation) for patients with multiple myeloma awaiting autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplantation? Protocol for the PREeMPT study

Introduction While myeloma is an incurable malignancy, developments in disease management have led to increased life expectancy in recent years. Treatment typically involves stem-cell transplantation. Increased survival rates equate to more patients living with the burden of both the disease and its treatment for increasing number of years, rendering myeloma a long-term condition. Evidence exists to demonstrate the benefits of exercise for patients recovering from stem-cell transplantation, and prehabilitation—exercise before treatment—has been shown to be effective in other disease areas. To date there has been no research into prehabilitation in patients with myeloma awaiting transplantation treatment. Our objective is to determine whether it is feasible to conduct a randomised controlled trial into pretransplant exercise for patients with multiple myeloma who are awaiting autologous stem-cell transplantation. Methods and analysis This mixed methods study identifies patients with diagnosis of multiple myeloma who have been assigned to the autologous transplantation list and invites them to participate in six weekly sessions of individualised, supervised exercise while awaiting transplantation. Quantitative data to determine feasibility targets include rates of recruitment, adherence and adverse events, and outcome measures including 6 min walking distance test and quality of life. Qualitative interviews are undertaken with a purposive sample of patients to capture their experiences of the study and the intervention

An open-source high-frequency lock-in amplifier

We present characterization of a lock-in amplifier based on a field programmable gate array capable of demodulation at up to 50 MHz. The system exhibits 90 nV/sqrt(Hz) of input noise at an optimum demodulation frequency of 500 kHz.The passband has a full-width half-maximum of 2.6 kHz for modulation frequencies above 100 kHz. Our code is opensource and operates on a commercially available platform

Whatever happened to curriculum theory? Critical realism and curriculum change

In the face of what has been characterised as a ‘crisis’ in curriculum – an apparent decline of some aspects of curriculum studies combined with the emergence of new types of national curriculum which downgrade knowledge – some writers have been arguing for the use of realist theory to address these issues. This paper offers a contribution to this debate, drawing upon critical realism, and especially upon the social theory of Margaret Archer. The paper first outlines the supposed crisis in curriculum, before providing an overview of some of the key tenets of critical realism. The paper concludes by speculating on how critical realism may offer new ways of thinking to inform policy and practice in a key curricular problematic. This is the issue of curriculum change

Global Discourses and national reconstruction: the impact of globalization on curriculum policy

Globalization has been widely discussed and much contested. It has been claimed that the process of globalization has impacted greatly on the capacity of the nation-state to formulate policy (e.g. Reich, 1992). Moreover, globalization has been accompanied by, or at least runs parallel to, a seemingly endless process of change within education. This process has assumed a worldwide character, as policies have migrated around the world; thus there have existed many similarities in terms of, for instance, curriculum provision, or school governance, between New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom and the USA. This article examines the nature and extent of education change in general terms, and the concept of globalization, before analysing the links between globalization and the process of change in one area of education, that is, the development of national frameworks for curriculum and assessment within anglophone nations

Seismic and geochemical evidence for large-scale mantle upwelling beneath the eastern Atlantic and western and central Europe

Seismic tomography and the isotope geochemistry of Cenozoic volcanic rocks suggest the existence of a large, sheet-like region of upwelling in the upper mantle which extends from the eastern Atlantic Ocean to central Europe and the western Mediterranean. A belt of extension and rifting in the latter two areas appears to lie above the intersection of the centre of the upwelling region with the base of the lithosphere. Lead, strontium and neodymium isotope data for all three regions converge on a restricted composition, inferred to be that of the upwelling mantle