The formation and drying out of liquid inclusions in crystals

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Intercalation events visualized in single microcrystals of graphite.

The electrochemical intercalation of layered materials, particularly graphite, is fundamental to the operation of rechargeable energy-storage devices such as the lithium-ion battery and the carbon-enhanced lead-acid battery. Intercalation is thought to proceed in discrete stages, where each stage represents a specific structure and stoichiometry of the intercalant relative to the host. However, the three-dimensional structures of the stages between unintercalated and fully intercalated are not known, and the dynamics of the transitions between stages are not understood. Using optical and scanning transmission electron microscopy, we video the intercalation of single microcrystals of graphite in concentrated sulfuric acid. Here we find that intercalation charge transfer proceeds through highly variable current pulses that, although directly associated with structural changes, do not match the expectations of the classical theories. Evidently random nanoscopic defects dominate the dynamics of intercalation

Clinical Supervision; beyond the first flush

Nearly two decades ago, Smith (1999) recognised that little had been published on the implementation and usefulness of clinical supervision in the operating theatre. Accordingly, she conducted a small action research project and reported its findings. These were deemed to have been in a positive direction and a number of benefits were listed, essentially clustered around better communication between operating department practitioners (ODPs). Prophetically, however, she thought ‘it would be interesting to observe if this enthusiasm and motivation continues after the project is completed’(p308). Two years later, Smith (2001) lamented that clinical supervision was no longer practised in theatres and that its introduction in other areas had ‘met with little success’ (p436). She believed the reasons to be the ‘culture of the NHS, the negative attitudes by enough members of staff to have an impact and hidden agendas and micro-politics’. </jats:p

unWISE tomography of Planck CMB lensing

MB lensing tomography, or the cross-correlation between CMB lensing maps and large-scale structure tracers over a well-defined redshift range, has the potential to map the amplitude and growth of structure over cosmic time, provide some of the most stringent tests of gravity, and break important degeneracies between cosmological parameters. In this work, we use the unWISE galaxy catalog to provide three samples at median redshifts $z \sim 0.6, 1.1$ and 1.5, fully spanning the Dark Energy dominated era, together with the most recent Planck CMB lensing maps. We obtain a combined cross-correlation significance $S/N = 79.3$ over the range of scales $100 < \ell < 1000$. We measure the redshift distribution of unWISE sources by a combination of cross-matching with the COSMOS photometric catalog and cross-correlation with BOSS galaxies and quasars and eBOSS quasars. We also show that magnification bias must be included in our analysis and perform a number of null tests. In a companion paper, we explore the derived cosmological parameters by modeling the non-linearities and propagating the redshift distribution uncertainties.Comment: 51 pages, 22 figures. Comments welcome! Revisions reflect version accepted by JCA

Ecological investigations on certain dung-inhabiting coleoptera, with special reference to the beetles of the genus aphodius (illiger)

This work was undertaken on an area of moorland in the northern Pennines, between 1954 and 1956. Here 16 species of dung-inhabiting beetles of the genus Aphodlus were found. The adult taxonomy of two closely related species, A. prodromus and A. sphacelatus, was examined in detail and the larval stages of three previously unknown species were identified. The biology of several species was studied, enabling the author to discover some of the factors which separated them ecologically. Attempts were made to assess the place of Aphodlus beetles in the utilisation of sheep dung, and with this end in view the distribution, form and condition of dung on several types of vegetation wore examined. Observations were also made on dung-inhabiting lumbricid worms and dipterous flies which were the other organisms of importance in the utilisation of dung. The worms were most effective in removing dung, but their activities varied on the different types of vegetation. Dipterous larvae were of second importance, and were not appreciably affected by vegetation type. Averaged over the whole year, only one-fifth of the sheep droppings were infested by Aphodius. The beetle infestation was not affected by vegetation type

Determining the temperature of hot solid bodies by means of photographic pyrometry, using the two-filter comparison method

At means of determining the temperature of a hot solid body by photographic means has been developed. For the purposes of this experiment, a General Electric tungsten ribbon filament lamp, with an operating range of 12 to 18 amperes was used as the object. From published curves, it was found that the color temperature of the filament varied from 2220K to 2990K over the above amperage range. It is therefore possible to vary the color temperature with a powerstat and to monitor it with an ammeter. Using two front surfaced mirrors, the lamp illuminated both sides of a photometric edge so that they both received equal initial illumination. Two different spectral transmission filters were placed in the system, one in the path of each beam, so that each side of the photometer edge was now illuminated by different wavelengths of radiation. One filter was a Kodak 89B wratten filter, which transmits radiation above 730 nm up to 900 nm, but blocks radiation below 730 nm. The second filter was a Kodak #301 infrared cutoff filter which transmits in the visible range from 400 to 730 nm but blocks infrared radiation above 730 nm. At a given lamp temperature, the edge was imaged onto Kodak 2481 High Speed Infrared film which was then processed according to a standardized method. The densities of each side of the image, each exposed by different wavelengths as explained above, are measured, and the corresponding log exposures and exposures are determined from a previously prepared characteristic curve of the film. From this data, a ratio R = E301/E89B was determined. Since this value varied with changing illumination (hence, color temperature), the above procedure was repeated for several color temperatures within the above-mentioned range. The result was a calibration curve of R as a function of color temperature. It was now possible to determine the value of an unknown temperature of the lamp. The above procedure was repeated with the lamp at an unknown setting. By extrapolating the R value for the unknown temperature on the calibration curve, it was possible to determine the color temperature of the lamp. The average percentage of error in this process was found to be below 1.0%

Recovering the Legal History of the Confederacy

Although the government of the Confederate States of America has been formally treated as a legal nullity since 1878, from February, 1861 to April, 1865 the Confederacy was a real government, with a Constitution, a Congress, district courts, and administrative offices. This Article seeks to recover the legal order of the Confederacy in its robust state, before the prospect of its obliteration came to pass. The Article explores the question why certain southern states would have considered seceding from the United States, and forming a separate nation, in late 1860 and early 1861. It then turns to the legal order of the Confederacy that was erected after secession. It focuses on two characteristics of that legal order: its architecture, including the drafting of the Confederate Constitution, the establishment of Confederate district courts, and the failure of the Confederate Congress to organize a Supreme Court for the Confederacy; and the central legal issues with which the Confederate government was preoccupied. The Article concludes that in the minds of contemporaries, the outcome of the Civil War and the dissolution of the Confederacy that accompanied it represented a transformative phase in American history, in which the way of life that the Confederacy symbolized was confined to oblivion