ExoMol line lists - III. An improved hot rotation-vibration line list for HCN and HNC

A revised rotation-vibration line list for the combined hydrogen cyanide (HCN)/hydrogen isocyanide (HNC) system is presented. The line list uses ab initio transition intensities calculated previously and extensive data sets of recently measured experimental energy levels. The resulting line list has significantly more accurate wavelengths than previous ones for these systems. An improved value for the separation between HCN and HNC is adopted, leading to an approximately 25 per cent lower predicted thermal population of HNC as a function of temperature in the key 2000 to 3000 K region. Temperature-dependent partition functions and equilibrium constants are presented. The line lists are validated by comparison with laboratory spectra and are presented in full as supplementary data to the article and at www.exomol.com

The macrofossil record of Proteaceae in Tasmania: a review with new species

About ten taxa of Proteaceae are known from the Early Eocene in Tasmania, one from a Late Eocene site, 22 from four Early Oligocene sites, one from a Late Oligocene/Early Miocene site, 12 or 13 from two Early Pleistocene sites, and five or six from the Middle and Late Pleistocene. Most of the Tertiary fossils are of extinct species, but the extant species Lomatia fraxinifolia and Telopea truncata have been recorded from the Early Oligocene as well as apparent close relatives of the subalpine rainforest species Orites milliganii, and the sub-tropical rainforest species, O. excelsa. None of the Early Oligocene species are known from more than one site, implying very high regional diversity, and floristic differentiation among the sites. High diversity of Proteaceae at some sites may be associated with oligotrophic soils. There is no evidence of any of the modern species-rich scleromorphic groups of Proteaceae except Banksiinae. Scleromorphy was well established in Oriteae, Embothrieae and Banksiinae by the Early Oligocene. The Early Eocene fossils have very small stomata, sparsely distributed on the leaf, which may have been due to elevated atmospheric CO2. All extant Tasmanian genera and many extant species were present by the Early Pleistocene as well as some extinct species. The specific diversity within the region was probably higher than it is now. In order to resolve a nomenclatural problem with the genus Proteaciphyllum, Euproteaciphyllum G.J.Jord., R.J.Carp. & R.S.Hill, gen. nov. is proposed and this name is applied to 10 previously described species. The Tasmanian fossil taxa include three new records, and nine new species: Euproteaciphyllum brookerensis G.J.Jord., R.J.Carp. & R.S.Hill, sp. nov., and E. tasmanicum G.J.Jord., R.J.Carp. & R.S.Hill, sp. nov. from Early Eocene sediments; and Orites milliganoides G.J.Jord., R.J.Carp. & R.S.Hill, sp. nov., O. scleromorpha G.J.Jord., R.J.Carp. & R.S.Hill, sp. nov., E. papillosum G.J.Jord., R.J.Carp. & R.S.Hill, sp. nov., E. polymorphum G.J.Jord., R.J.Carp. & R.S.Hill, sp. nov., E. microlobium G.J.Jord., R.J.Carp. & R.S.Hill, sp. nov., E. falcatum G.J.Jord., R.J.Carp. & R.S.Hill, sp. nov., and E. serratum G.J.Jord., R.J.Carp. & R.S.Hill, sp. nov. from Early Oligocene sediments

Exploring the effects of demonstration and enactment in facilitating recall of instructions in working memory

Across the lifespan the ability to follow instructions is essential for the successful completion of a multitude of daily activities. This ability will often rely on the storage and processing of information in working memory, and previous research in this domain has found that self-enactment at encoding or observing other-enactment at encoding (demonstration) improves performance at recall. However, no working memory research has directly compared these manipulations. Experiment 1 explored the effects of both self-enactment and demonstration on young adults’ (N=48) recall of action-object instruction sequences (e.g. ‘spin the circle, tap the square’). Both manipulations improved recall, with demonstration providing relatively larger boosts to performance across conditions. More detailed analyses suggested that this improvement was driven by improving the representations of actions, rather than objects, in these action-object sequences. Experiment 2 (N=24) explored this further, removing the objects from the physical environment and comparing partial demonstration (i.e. action-only or object-only) with no or full demonstration. The results showed that partial demonstration only benefitted features that were demonstrated, while full demonstration improved memory for actions, objects and their pairings. Overall these experiments indicate how self-enactment, and particularly demonstration, can benefit verbal recall of instruction sequences through the engagement of visuo-motor processes that provide additional forms of coding to support working memory performance

Extensive past distributions for major gondwanic floral elements: macrofossil evidence

The past geographical positions and climates of the high latitude Southern Hemisphere land masses (New Zealand and the southern parts of South America and Australia) are crucial to an understanding of plant evolution and migration in the region. A review of the macrofossil record reveals many examples of taxa which are present as fossils on one or two of these land masses but now occur elsewhere in the Southern Hemisphere. The main examples include Austrocedrus, Libocedrus (Cupressaceae), Araucaria sectionColumbea (Araucariaceae) and Nothofagus subgenera Nothofagus and Fuscaspora in Australia, Eucalyptus (Myrtaceae) and mn-Gymnostoma Casuarinaceae in New Zealand and probably South America, Araucaria section Intermedia in New Zealand and Akania (Akaniaceae) and Dacrycarpus (Podocarpaceae) in South America. The local extinction of these taxa is probably due to a variety of factors, including climatic change, microsite changes due to the northward movement of land masses, and changes in the frequency of catastrophic disturbance

New macrofossils of the Australian cycad bowenia and their significance in reconstructing the past morphological range of the genus

Premise of research:This study describes a new fossil species of Bowenia and reconsiders known fossil species and their evolutionary significance.Methodology:The fossils we describe here were collected for this study or were available from previous collections made over several decades. The fossils were identified by direct comparisons with extant and fossil species.Pivotal results:A reexamination of known and newly discovered Bowenia macrofossils confirms the presence of at least three fossil species in Australia. A new species, Bowenia johnsonii, is described from the southernmost location, the Early Eocene Lowana Road site in southwest Tasmania. When compared with the two extant species, the three fossil species demonstrate two distinct pinnule morphologies: relatively small with distinct serrations in Bowenia eocenica and Bowenia papillosa and larger pinnules with minute serrations in B. johnsonii. When considered together, the stomata of the extant species are denser and larger than those of the fossil taxa.Conclusions:The cycad genus Bowenia has a restricted extant distribution along the east coast of Queensland but is known more widely within Australia from fossils. The fossil record of Bowenia is important in documenting the past distribution of this genus, and aspects of its pinnule morphology provide insights into its environmental interactions. The possible relationship of the fossil Bowenia species with the Aptian Argentinian genus Eobowenia is considered, along with some fragmentary Australian fossils of probable Bowenia

Post transition metal substituted Keggin POMs as thin film chemiresistive sensors for H2O and CO2 detection

Chemiresitive sensing allows the affordable and facile detection of small molecules such as H2O and CO2. Herein, we report a novel class of earth abundant post transition metal substituted Keggin polyoxometalates (POMs) for chemiresistive sensing applications, with conductivies up to 0.01 S cm-1 under 100% CO2 and 65% Relative Humidity (RH)

Evaluating a new generation of wearable high-density diffuse optical tomography (HD-DOT) technology via retinotopic mapping in the adult brain

We investigated the performance of a novel HD-DOT system by replicating a series of classic visual stimulation paradigms. Haemodynamic response functions and cortical activation maps replicated the results obtained with larger fibre-based systems

Rett syndrome: Establishing a novel outcome measure for walking activity in an era of clinical trials for rare disorders

Background: Rett syndrome is a pervasive neurological disorder with impaired gait as one criterion. This study investigated the capacity of three accelerometer-type devices to measure walking activity in Rett syndrome. Methods: Twenty-six participants (mean 18 years, SD 8) wore an Actigraph, ActivPAL and StepWatch Activity Monitor (SAM) during a video-taped session of activities. Agreement was determined between step-counts derived from each accelerometer and observation. Repeatability of SAM-derived step counts was determined using pairs of one-minute epochs during which the same participant was observed to walk with the same cadence. Results: The mean difference (limit of agreement) for the Actigraph, ActivPAL and SAM were −41 (SD 33), −16 (SD 21) and −1 (SD 16) steps/min, respectively. Agreement was influenced by a device/cadence interaction (p < 0.001) with greater under-recording at higher cadences. For SAM data, repeatability of step-count pairs was excellent (intraclass correlation coefficient 0.91, 95% CI 0.79–0.96). The standard error of measurement was 6 steps/min and we would be 95% confident that a change ≥17 steps/min would be greater than within-subject measurement error. Conclusions: The capacity of the SAM to measure physical activity in Rett syndrome allows focus on participation-based activities in clinical practice and clinical trials

Precise measurement of positronium hyperfine splitting using the Zeeman effect

Positronium is an ideal system for the research of the quantum electrodynamics (QED) in bound state. The hyperfine splitting (HFS) of positronium, $\Delta_{\mathrm{HFS}}$, gives a good test of the bound state calculations and probes new physics beyond the Standard Model. A new method of QED calculations has revealed the discrepancy by 15\,ppm (3.9$\sigma$) of $\Delta_{\mathrm{HFS}}$ between the QED prediction and the experimental average. There would be possibility of new physics or common systematic uncertainties in the previous all experiments. We describe a new experiment to reduce possible systematic uncertainties and will provide an independent check of the discrepancy. We are now taking data and the current result of $\Delta_{\mathrm{HFS}} = 203.395\,1 \pm 0.002\,4 (\mathrm{stat.}, 12\,\mathrm{ppm}) \pm 0.001\,9 (\mathrm{sys.}, 9.5\,\mathrm{ppm})\,\mathrm{GHz}$ has been obtained so far. A measurement with a precision of $O$(ppm) is expected within a year.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables, proceeding of LEAP2011, accepted by Hyperfine Interaction