Report on a visit to Sri Lanka to evaluate performance of traditional furnace/heat exchanger systems used in the tea industry: 10 to 29 November 1992

Under a project entitled "Fuel efficient wood-fired furnace systems" NRI has developed a fuel efficient wood fired furnace/heat exchanger system suitable for application in developing countries. To gauge its effectiveness in both economic and technical terms a comparative study of a typical system used in the Sri Lankan tea industry was carried out. This was coupled to a detailed energy audit of a tea processing factory in order to assess the relative importance of process heat within the entire manufacturing operation. This exercise was carried out in close collaboration with Browns Engineering, a long established Sri Lankan company which sells and maintains tea furnace/dryer equipment both to the Sri Lankan industry and for export. On the evidence of detailed trial results at one factory, observations in other factories, and discussion with equipment suppliers; there are clearly significant energy savings that could be achieved in the industry. Servicing of existing furnace equipment and furnace operator training should be given high priority. Production scheduling within the new factory groupings·also offers scope for reduced specific energy consumption. It was also established from the assignment that there exists a desire to upgrade furnace equipment in the tea industry. The NRI unit is competitively priced and offers significantly improved wood fuel utilization. Changes in the industry and the plans of new management groups to improve efficiency and update manufacturing techniques makes this an opportune time for introduction of the NRI design. A simple payback financial analysis shows that there are financial benefits in replacing old and inefficient units. A suitable venue for field testing and techno-economic evaluation of performance under prolonged operation has been identified

Deep proteogenomics; high throughput gene validation by multidimensional liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry of proteins from the fungal wheat pathogen Stagonospora nodorum

BACKGROUND: Stagonospora nodorum, a fungal ascomycete in the class dothideomycetes, is a damaging pathogen of wheat. It is a model for necrotrophic fungi that cause necrotic symptoms via the interaction of multiple effector proteins with cultivar-specific receptors. A draft genome sequence and annotation was published in 2007. A second-pass gene prediction using a training set of 795 fully EST-supported genes predicted a total of 10762 version 2 nuclear-encoded genes, with an additional 5354 less reliable version 1 genes also retained. RESULTS: In this study, we subjected soluble mycelial proteins to proteolysis followed by 2D LC MALDI-MS/MS. Comparison of the detected peptides with the gene models validated 2134 genes. 62% of these genes (1324) were not supported by prior EST evidence. Of the 2134 validated genes, all but 188 were version 2 annotations. Statistical analysis of the validated gene models revealed a preponderance of cytoplasmic and nuclear localised proteins, and proteins with intracellularassociated GO terms. These statistical associations are consistent with the source of the peptides used in the study. Comparison with a 6-frame translation of the S. nodorum genome assembly confirmed 905 existing gene annotations (including 119 not previously confirmed) and provided evidence supporting 144 genes with coding exon frameshift modifications, 604 genes with extensions of coding exons into annotated introns or untranslated regions (UTRs), 3 new gene annotations which were supported by tblastn to NR, and 44 potential new genes residing within un-assembled regions of the genome. CONCLUSION: We conclude that 2D LC MALDI-MS/MS is a powerful, rapid and economical tool to aid in the annotation of fungal genomic assemblies

Temperature dependence of the resonance and low energy spin excitations in superconducting FeTe0.6_{0.6}Se0.4_{0.4}

We use inelastic neutron scattering to study the temperature dependence of the low-energy spin excitations in single crystals of superconducting FeTe$_{0.6}$Se$_{0.4}$ ($T_c=14$ K). In the low-temperature superconducting state, the imaginary part of the dynamic susceptibility at the electron and hole Fermi surfaces nesting wave vector $Q=(0.5,0.5)$, $\chi^{\prime\prime}(Q,\omega)$, has a small spin gap, a two-dimensional neutron spin resonance above the spin gap, and increases linearly with increasing $\hbar\omega$ for energies above the resonance. While the intensity of the resonance decreases like an order parameter with increasing temperature and disappears at temperature slightly above $T_c$, the energy of the mode is weakly temperature dependent and vanishes concurrently above $T_c$. This suggests that in spite of its similarities with the resonance in electron-doped superconducting BaFe$_{2-x}$(Co,Ni)$_x$As$_2$, the mode in FeTe$_{0.6}$Se$_{0.4}$ is not directly associated with the superconducting electronic gap.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure

Nodal Landau Fermi-Liquid Quasiparticles in Overdoped La1.77_{1.77}Sr0.23_{0.23}CuO4_4

Nodal angle resolved photoemission spectra taken on overdoped La$_{1.77}$Sr$_{0.23}$CuO$_4$ are presented and analyzed. It is proven that the low-energy excitations are true Landau Fermi-liquid quasiparticles. We show that momentum and energy distribution curves can be analyzed self-consistently without quantitative knowledge of the bare band dispersion. Finally, by imposing Kramers-Kronig consistency on the self-energy $\Sigma$, insight into the quasiparticle residue is gained. We conclude by comparing our results to quasiparticle properties extracted from thermodynamic, magneto-resistance, and high-field quantum oscillation experiments on overdoped Tl$_2$Ba$_2$CuO$_{6+\delta}$.Comment: Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Anisotropic Neutron Spin Resonance in Superconducting BaFe1.9_{1.9}Ni0.1_{0.1}As2_2

We use polarized inelastic neutron scattering to show that the neutron spin resonance below $T_c$ in superconducting BaFe$_{1.9}$Ni$_{0.1}$As$_2$ ($T_c=20$ K) is purely magnetic in origin. Our analysis further reveals that the resonance peak near 7~meV only occurs for the planar response. This challenges the common perception that the spin resonance in the pnictides is an isotropic triplet excited state of the singlet Cooper pairs, as our results imply that only the $S_{001}=\pm1$ components of the triplet are involved

Middle leading in Australian schools: professional standards, positions, and professional development

In Australia, there is a national education agenda for school improvement with an increasing focus on how school leaders can fulfil this agenda. As school principals are arguably faced with increasing demands, the importance of school middle leaders is increasing. This article presents the initial findings from a larger project on middle leadership in Australian schools, the first phase of which is a documentary analysis of significant texts including policy documents, websites and reports. The purpose of the document analysis was to examine expectations placed on, and support provided for, school middle leaders in Australian schools to make explicit the potential implications for policymakers, leaders and researchers investigating this field. We argue there is a lack of clarity about the role of middle leadership across Australia, with unclear policies, and variations in expectations, titles and levels of support. What is evident is that middle leaders play a pivotal role as they lead teaching, learning, and pastoral care. They carry out these roles in subject areas, key stages and classrooms, and among teachers. While there are a range of professional development provisions for middle leaders across different states, middle leadership needs to be an area of increased focus across Australia

Spin fluctuations associated with the collapse of the pseudogap in a cuprate superconductor

Theories of the origin of superconductivity in cuprates are dependent on an understanding of their normal state which exhibits various competing orders. Transport and thermodynamic measurements on La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$ show signatures of a quantum critical point, including a peak in the electronic specific heat $C$ versus doping p, near the doping p*, where the pseudogap collapses. The fundamental nature of the fluctuations associated with this peak is unclear. Here we use inelastic neutron scattering to show that close to $T_c$ and near p*, there are low-energy collective spin excitations with characteristic energies $\approx$ 5 meV. The correlation length of the spin fluctuations does not diverge in spite of the low energy scale and we conclude that the underlying quantum criticality is not due to antiferromagnetism but most likely to a collapse of the pseudogap. We show that the large specific heat near p* can be understood in terms of collective spin fluctuations. The spin fluctuations we measure exist across the superconducting phase diagram and may be related to the strange metal behaviour observed in overdoped cuprates

A Right to ‘Dying Well’ with Dementia? Capacity, ‘Choice’ and Relationality.

A right to 'dying well' with dementia? Capacity, 'choice' and relationalit

Proteomic analysis revealed that the oomyceticide phosphite exhibits multi-modal action in an oomycete pathosystem

Phytopathogenic oomycetes constitute some of the most devastating plant pathogens and cause significant crop and horticultural yield and economic losses. The phytopathogen Phytophthora cinnamomi causes dieback disease in native vegetation and several crops. The most commonly used chemical to control P. cinnamomi is the oomyceticide phosphite. Despite its widespread use, the mode of action of phosphite is not well understood and it is unclear whether it targets the pathogen, the host, or both. Resistance to phosphite is emerging in P. cinnamomi isolates and other oomycete phytopathogens. The mode of action of phosphite on phosphite-sensitive and resistant isolates of the pathogen and through a model host was investigated using label-free quantitative proteomics. In vitro treatment of sensitive P. cinnamomi isolates with phosphite hinders growth by interfering with metabolism, signalling and gene expression; traits that are not observed in the resistant isolate. When the model host Lupinus angustifolius was treated with phosphite, proteins associated with photosynthesis, carbon fixation and lipid metabolism in the host were enriched. Increased production of defence-related proteins was also observed in the plant. We hypothesise the multi-modal action of phosphite and present two models constructed using comparative proteomics that demonstrate mechanisms of pathogen and host responses to phosphite. Significance: Phytophthora cinnamomi is a significant phytopathogenic oomycete that causes root rot (dieback) in a number of horticultural crops and a vast range of native vegetation. Historically, areas infected with phosphite have been treated with the oomyceticide phosphite despite its unknown mode of action. Additionally, overuse of phosphite has driven the emergence of phosphite-resistant isolates of the pathogen. We conducted a comparative proteomic study of a sensitive and resistant isolate of P. cinnamomi in response to treatment with phosphite, and the response of a model host, Lupinus angustifolius, to phosphite and its implications on infection. The present study has allowed for a deeper understanding of the bimodal action of phosphite, suggested potential biochemical factors contributing to chemical resistance in P. cinnamomi, and unveiled possible drivers of phosphite-induced host plant immunity to the pathogen