Nearshore hydrodynamics and the behaviour of groynes on sandy beaches

Imperial Users onl

Social Quality and Health: Examining Individual and Neighbourhood Contextual Effects using a Multilevel Modelling Approach

Social quality focusses on the nature of ‘the social’, arguing that people are realised as social beings through interacting with a range of collectives, both from the formal world of systems and the informal lifeworld. Four conditional factors are necessary for this to occur, which at the same time are assumed to influence health and well-being: socio-economic security, social cohesion, social inclusion and social empowerment. In this paper we test the utility of social quality in explaining self-rated health as a response to arguments that the social determinants of health (SDH) framework often lacks a theoretical basis. We use multilevel models to analyse national English and Welsh data (the Citizenship Survey) to test for both individual- and neighbour-level affects. Our key findings are that 1) neighbourhood contextual (cross-level) effects are present with respect to collective action, personal trust, cross-cutting ties, income sufficiency, and income security; 2) measures of national, community and personal identity as indicators of social cohesion show clear associations with health alongside more common measures such as trust; 3) the security aspects of socioeconomic determinants are especially important (housing security, income sufficiency, and income security); 4) social rights, including institutional rights but especially civil rights have effects of particularly large magnitude. Social quality offers a theoretically-driven perspective on the SDH which has important policy implications and suggests a number of promising avenues for future research

Understory influence on leafroller pupunations in Hawke's bay organic apple orchard

Leafrollers (Tortricidae) were collected from apple foliage and understorey vegetation in six commercial organic apple orchards in Hawke’s Bay over one season. Assessments were made of plant species present in the understorey at the time of collection. All leafroller larvae were reared to adults on artificial diet to identify leafroller species and parasitoids. Nearly half (47%) of all leafrollers collected in these orchards were located in the understorey, highlighting the importance of understorey and its management for the control of leafroller. Dock, clover and dandeliontype plants contributed 25% to the overall understorey, yet hosted 75% of the leafrollers collected from the understorey. Dolichogenidea sp. was the most abundant parasitoid (79%) attacking leafrollers found amongst the apple foliage, whereas Glyptapanteles demeter was dominant in the understorey (61%). Generally the number of leafrollers in an orchard was proportional to the abundance of broadleaf weeds and inversely proportional to parasitis

The role of high growth temperature GaAs spacer layers in 1.3-/spl mu/m In(Ga)As quantum-dot lasers

We investigate the mechanisms by which high growth temperature spacer layers (HGTSLs) reduce the threshold current of 1.3-/spl mu/m emitting multilayer quantum-dot lasers. Measured optical loss and gain spectra are used to characterize samples that are nominally identical except for the HGTSL. We find that the use of the HGTSL leads to the internal optical mode loss being reduced from 15 /spl plusmn/ 2 to 3.5 /spl plusmn/ 2 cm/sup -1/, better defined absorption features, and more absorption at the ground state resulting from reduced inhomogenous broadening and a greater dot density. These characteristics, together with a reduced defect density, lead to greater modal gain at a given current density

Introduction to the issue on novel and specialty fibers

The fiber optical communication revolution has been fueled by well publicized and relentless improvements of transmission fiber. Since the demonstration of the first low-loss optical fiber in 1972, there has been a continual stream of technology improvements designed to reduce impairments due to propagation loss and pulse dispersion. This steam of fiber technology has led the industry from multimode fiber operated at 800 nm, to standard single-mode fiber used at 1310 nm, then on to transmission fibers that now have attributes tuned for particular applications such as terrestrial or submarine transmission. There is every reason to believe that advances in technology will continue at the accelerating pace we have seen in the past decade, adding to the family of available transmission fibers. The special issue is dedicated to the increasing family of specialty fibers, and includes exciting papers on fibers for gratings and a unique amplification fiber. Fibers for specialized transmission spanning a broad range of applications are also described in three important articles. As is appreciated by all optical scientists, progress can be made only as quickly as one can improve measurement capabilities, so the issue includes two excellent papers dealing with the important measurement of chromatic dispersion.We hope that you enjoy the papers of this issue as much as we the editors have enjoyed reading and reviewing them

Routine data linkage to identify and monitor diabetes in clozapine-treated patients with schizophrenia

No abstract available

Seed management by small-scale farmers in Zambia. A study of cowpea, groundnut and sorghum seed in the Southern and Western Provinces (NRI Bulletin 76)

Field surveys of on-farm cowpea, groundnut and sorghum management in two regions of Zambia are described. The survey included seed saved on-farm and seed sources off-farm. Samples of seeds were collected just prior to planting and assessed for germination potential. Conclusions are given on the general status and potential for improving seed quality and on farmer seed management

Hanford phosphate precipitation filtration process evaluation

The purpose of this filter study was to evaluate cross-flow filtration as effective solid-liquid separation technology for treating Hanford wastes, outline operating conditions for equipment, examine the expected filter flow rates, and determine proper cleaning. A proposed Hanford waste pre-treatment process uses sodium hydroxide at high temperature to remove aluminum from sludge. This process also dissolves phosphates. Upon cooling to 40 degrees centigrade the phosphates form a Na7(PO4)2F9H2O precipitate which must be removed prior to further treatment. Filter studies were conducted with a phosphate slurry simulant to evaluate whether 0.5 micron cross-flow sintered metal Mott filters can separate the phosphate precipitate from the wash solutions. The simulant was recirculated through the filters at room temperature and filtration performance data was collected

Oak Ridge National Laboratory Melton Valley Storage Tanks Waste filtration process evaluation

The purpose of this filter study was to evaluate cross-flow filtration as effective solid-liquid separation technology for treating Oak Ridge National Laboratory wastes, outline operating conditions for equipment, examine the expected filter flow rates, and determine proper cleaning.The Gunite Tanks at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory contain heels which are a mixture of sludge, wash water, and bentonite clay. The tanks are to be cleaned out with a variety of flushing techniques and the dilute mixture transferred to another storage tank. One proposal is to transfer this mixture into existing Melton Valley Storage Tanks (MVST), which already contain a large amount of sludge and supernate. The mixed aqueous phase will then be transferred to new MVST, which are prohibited from containing insoluble solids. To separate the solid from the liquid and thereby prevent solids transfer into the new MVST, a technique is needed that can cleanly separate the sludge and bentonite clay from the supernate. One proposed method for solid liquid separation is cross-flow filtration. Cross-flow filtration has been used at the Savannah River and West Valley sites for treatment of tank waste, and is being tested for applicability at other sites. The performance of cross-flow filters with sludge has been tested, but the impact of sludge combined with bentonite clay has not. The objective of this test was to evaluate the feasibility of using cross-flow filters to perform the solid liquid separation required for the mixture of Gunite and MVST tank wastes