Experimental Air-Broadened Line Parameters in the nu2 Band of CH3D

In this study we report the first experimental measurements of air-broadening and air-induced pressure-shift coefficients for approximately 378 transitions in the nu2 fundamental band of CH3D. These results were obtained from analysis of 17 room temperature laboratory absorption spectra recorded at 0.0056 cm(exp -1) resolution using the McMath-Pierce Fourier transform spectrometer located on Kitt Peak, Arizona. Three absorption cells with path lengths of 10.2, 25 and 150 cm were used to record the spectra. The total sample pressures ranged from 0.129x10(exp -2) to 52.855x10(exp -2) atm with CH3D volume mixing ratios of approximately 0.0109 in air. The spectra were analyzed using a multispectrum non-linear least-squares fitting technique. We report measurements for air pressure-broadening coefficients for transitions with quantum numbers as high as J" = 20 and K = 15, where K" = K' equivalent to K (for a parallel band). The measured air broadening coefficients range from 0.0205 to 0.0835 cm(exp -1) atm(exp -1) at 296 K. All the measured pressure-shift coefficients are negative and are found to vary from about -0.0005 to -0.0080 cm(exp -1) atm(exp -1) at the temperature of the spectra. We have examined the dependence of the measured broadening and shift parameters on the J" and K quantum numbers and also developed empirical expressions to describe the broadening coefficients in terms of m (m = -J", J" and J" + 1 in the (sup Q)P- (sup Q)Q-, and (sup Q)R-branch, respectively) and K. On average, the empirical expressions reproduce the measured broadening coefficients to within 4.4%

Fern spore extracts can damage DNA

The carcinogenicity of the vegetative tissues of bracken fern (Pteridium) has long been established. More recently, the carcinogenic effects of the spores of bracken have also been recognized. Both vegetative tissues and spores of bracken can induce adducts in DNA in animal tissues, but the possible genotoxic or carcinogenic effects of spores from fern species other than bracken are unknown. The single-cell gel electrophoresis (‘comet’) assay was used to investigate whether fern spores can cause DNA damage in vitro. Extracts of spores from six fern species were administered to cultured human premyeloid leukaemia (K562) cells. Spore extracts of five fern species: Anemia phyllitidis, Dicksonia antarctica, Pteridium aquilinum, Pteris vittata and Sadleria pallida, induced significantly more DNA strand breaks than those in the control groups. Only in one species, Osmunda regalis, was the effect no different from that in the control groups. Using extracts from A. phyllitidis and P. vittata, the extent of DNA damage was increased by increasing the original dose 10 times, whereas an experiment in which exposure times were varied suggested that the highest levels of strand breaks appear after 2 h exposure. Simultaneous incubation with human S9 liver enzyme mix ablated the damaging effect of the extracts. Our data show that fern spore extracts can cause DNA damage in human cells in vitro. Considering the strong correlation between DNA damage and carcinogenic events, the observations made in this report may well have some implications for human health. © 2000 Cancer Research Campaig

A women’s worker in court: A more appropriate service for women defendants with mental health issues?

Aims Court liaison services aim to reduce mental illness in prison through early treatment and/or diversion into care of defendants negotiating their court proceedings. However, liaison services may inadvertently contribute to gender inequalities in mental health in the prison system. This is because women often do not access liaison services. This is attributed to services failing to recognise that women have different needs from men. To address this, it is essential that the needs of women in contact with the criminal justice system (CJS) are clearly articulated. However, there is a dearth of research that considers women’s needs at this stage of their journey through the CJS. This paper aims to identify these needs before women enter prison. It does so through an analysis of a pilot Women’s Support Service based at a Magistrates’ Court, a response to concerns that women were not accessing the local liaison service. Characteristics of women defendants attending the service are described, specifically their home environments, general and mental health needs. Their support needs when in contact with the CJS and the links the service must forge with local community organisations to provide this, are also presented. This knowledge will develop/ tailor existing services available to women defendants to improve their access to these and optimise the benefits they can derive from them. Methods Proformas were completed by a women specialist worker for 86 women defendants assessed in 4 months. Information was collected on characteristics including education, domestic violence, accommodation, physical and mental health.. This specialist worker recorded the range of needs identified by defendants at assessment and the services to which women were referred. Results Access to the Women’s Support Service is high, with only 11.3% of women refusing to use the service. Women attending have high levels of physical and mental health issues. Their mental health issues have not being addressed prior to accessing the service. Women often come from single households and environments high in domestic abuse. Women have multiple needs related to benefits, finance, housing, domestic abuse, education and career guidance. These are more frequent than those that explicitly link to mental health. The women’s worker providing the service referred women to 68 services from a wide variety of statutory and voluntary organisations. Conclusions The Women’s Support Service is accessed by a higher number of women, many more than access the local liaison service. It is suggested that this is due to their multiple and gender specific needs being adequately addressed by the former service and the organisations to whom they are referred. Mental health needs may also be secondary to other more basic needs, that makes the generic service provided but the Women’s support Service more appropriate than a liaison service that deals with mental health support alone

Engaging with issues of emotionality in mathematics teacher education for social justice

This article focuses on the relationship between social justice, emotionality and mathematics teaching in the context of the education of prospective teachers of mathematics. A relational approach to social justice calls for giving attention to enacting socially-just relationships in mathematics classrooms. Emotionality and social justice in teaching mathematics variously intersect, interrelate or interweave. An intervention, usng creative action methods, with a cohort of prospective teachers addressing these issues is described to illustrate the connection between emotionality and social justice in the context of mathematics teacher education. Creative action methods involve a variety of dramatic, interactive and experiential tools that can promote personal and group engagement and embodied reflection. The intervention aimed to engage the prospective teachers with some key issues for social justice in mathematics education through dialogue about the emotionality of teaching and learning mathematics. Some of the possibilities and limits of using such methods are considered

Diffusion of In0.53Ga0.47As elements through hafnium oxide during post deposition annealing

Diffusion of indium through HfO2 after post deposition annealing in N-2 or forming gas environments is observed in HfO2/In0.53Ga0.47As stacks by low energy ion scattering and X-ray photo electron spectroscopy and found to be consistent with changes in interface layer thickness observed by transmission electron microscopy. Prior to post processing, arsenic oxide is detected at the surface of atomic layer deposition-grown HfO2 and is desorbed upon annealing at 350 degrees C. Reduction of the interfacial layer thickness and potential densification of HfO2, resulting from indium diffusion upon annealing, is confirmed by an increase in capacitance. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC

CRONOS: the cross-reference navigation server

Summary: Cross-mapping of gene and protein identifiers between different databases is a tedious and time-consuming task. To overcome this, we developed CRONOS, a cross-reference server that contains entries from five mammalian organisms presented by major gene and protein information resources. Sequence similarity analysis of the mapped entries shows that the cross-references are highly accurate. In total, up to 18 different identifier types can be used for identification of cross-references. The quality of the mapping could be improved substantially by exclusion of ambiguous gene and protein names which were manually validated. Organism-specific lists of ambiguous terms, which are valuable for a variety of bioinformatics applications like text mining are available for download

Mathematical stories: Why do more boys than girls choose to study mathematics at AS-level in England?

Copyright @ 2005 Taylor & FrancisIn this paper I address the question: How is it that people come to choose mathematics and in what ways is this process gendered? I draw on the findings of a qualitative research study involving interviews with 43 young people all studying mathematics in post-compulsory education in England. Working within a post-structuralist framework, I argue that gender is a project and one that is achieved in interaction with others. Through a detailed reading of Toni and Claudia’s stories I explore the tensions for young women who are engaging in mathematics, something that is discursively inscribed as masculine, while (understandably) being invested in producing themselves as female. I conclude by arguing that seeing ‘doing mathematics’ as ‘doing masculinity’ is a productive way of understanding why mathematics is so male dominated and by looking at the implications of this understanding for gender and mathematics reform work.This work is funded by the ESR