The smoking ban: Perceptions of safety on Edinburgh’s scene

The smoking ban was introduced in Scotland on the 26th March, 2006 making smoking in enclosed public places illegal (Haw et al., 2006). Generally the ban has the support of the majority of Scotland’s population. For example, of the 1,040 individuals interviewed, 73% thought that the ban had been very successful or successful. A number of strategies have been set in motion to assess the significant health gains that the ban entails for the population of Scotland. However, one aspect of health that has not been considered in the evaluative process is that of personal safety as a consequence of standing outside public venues (Clearingtheairscotland.com, 2007). In Scotland, those studies aimed at evaluating the impact of the smoking ban have, to all intents and purposes, ignored members of Scotland’s LGB population, focusing primarily upon the impact of the ban for families and children. Thus, LGBs represent a silent group in this nationwide evaluation. Consequently, the aim of this exploratory (qualitative) study is to understand the effects of the new social regime on LGBs who smoke

The distribution of ctenophora in the Patuxent estuary during the summer of 1958

Investigation of Ctenophores in the Chesapeake Bay area, includes some aspects of their life history, growth, reproduction, feeding and food habits, abundance and distribution. the purpose of the entire project is to supplement and add to the biological knowledge and understanding of ctenophores as a group and of the several individual species found int he area to be studied. Includes possible factors involved and implications also being looked at. (PDF contains 33 pages

Criteria for vibration testing

Systematic application of response spectral analysis and other analyses determine damping sensitivity of flight environment and candidate laboratory tests. Computerized comparison is made between response spectrum for flight environment, or enveloping spectra for collection of flight events, and response spectrum for candidate laboratory test

Autonomous model protocell division driven by molecular replication

The coupling of compartmentalisation with molecular replication is thought to be crucial for the emergence of the first evolvable chemical systems. Minimal artificial replicators have been designed based on molecular recognition, inspired by the template copying of DNA, but none yet have been coupled to compartmentalisation. Here, we present an oil-in-water droplet system comprising an amphiphilic imine dissolved in chloroform that catalyses its own formation by bringing together a hydrophilic and a hydrophobic precursor, which leads to repeated droplet division. We demonstrate that the presence of the amphiphilic replicator, by lowering the interfacial tension between droplets of the reaction mixture and the aqueous phase, causes them to divide. Periodic sampling by a droplet-robot demonstrates that the extent of fission is increased as the reaction progresses, producing more compartments with increased self-replication. This bridges a divide, showing how replication at the molecular level can be used to drive macroscale droplet fission

A biomechanical analysis of the heavy sprint-style sled pull and comparison with the back squat

This study compared the biomechanical characteristics of the heavy sprint-style sled pull and squat. Six experienced male strongman athletes performed sled pulls and squats at 70% of their 1RM squat. Significant kinematic and kinetic differences were observed between the sled pull start and squat at the start of the concentric phase and at maximum knee extension. The first stride of the heavy sled pull demonstrated significantly (

Functional correlates of optic flow motion processing in Parkinson’s disease

The visual input created by the relative motion between an individual and the environment, also called optic flow, influences the sense of self-motion, postural orientation, veering of gait, and visuospatial cognition. An optic flow network comprising visual motion areas V6, V3A, and MT+, as well as visuo-vestibular areas including posterior insula vestibular cortex (PIVC) and cingulate sulcus visual area (CSv), has been described as uniquely selective for parsing egomotion depth cues in humans. Individuals with Parkinson’s disease (PD) have known behavioral deficits in optic flow perception and visuospatial cognition compared to age- and education-matched control adults (MC). The present study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate neural correlates related to impaired optic flow perception in PD. We conducted fMRI on 40 non-demented participants (23 PD and 17 MC) during passive viewing of simulated optic flow motion and random motion. We hypothesized that compared to the MC group, PD participants would show abnormal neural activity in regions comprising this optic flow network. MC participants showed robust activation across all regions in the optic flow network, consistent with studies in young adults, suggesting intact optic flow perception at the neural level in healthy aging. PD participants showed diminished activity compared to MC particularly within visual motion area MT+ and the visuo-vestibular region CSv. Further, activation in visuo-vestibular region CSv was associated with disease severity. These findings suggest that behavioral reports of impaired optic flow perception and visuospatial performance may be a result of impaired neural processing within visual motion and visuo-vestibular regions in PD.Published versio

Heat capacity uncovers physics of a frustrated spin tube

We report on refined experimental results concerning the low-temperature specific heat of the frustrated spin tube material [(CuCl2tachH)3Cl]Cl2. This substance turns out to be an unusually perfect spin tube system which allows to study the physics of quasi-one dimensional antiferromagnetic structures in rather general terms. An analysis of the specific heat data demonstrates that at low enough temperatures the system exhibits a Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid behavior corresponding to an effective spin-3/2 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg chain with short-range exchange interactions. On the other hand, at somewhat elevated temperatures the composite spin structure of the chain is revealed through a Schottky-type peak in the specific heat located around 2 K. We argue that the dominating contribution to the peak originates from gapped magnon-type excitations related to the internal degrees of freedom of the rung spins.Comment: 4+ pages, 6 figure

Integrated digital/electric aircraft concepts study

The integrated digital/electrical aircraft (IDEA) is an aircraft concept which employs all electric secondary power systems and advanced digital flight control systems. After trade analysis, preferred systems were applied to the baseline configuration. An additional configuration, the alternate IDEA, was also considered. For this concept the design ground rules were relaxed in order to quantify additional synergistic benefits. It was proposed that an IDEA configuration and technical risks associated with the IDEA systems concepts be defined and the research and development required activities to reduce these risks be identified. The selected subsystems include: power generation, power distribution, actuators, environmental control system and flight controls systems. When the aircraft was resized, block fuel was predicted to decrease by 11.3 percent, with 7.9 percent decrease in direct operating cost. The alternate IDEA shows a further 3.4 percent reduction in block fuel and 3.1 percent reduction in direct operating cost

Impact and collisional processes in the solar system

As impact cratered terrains have been successively recognized on certain planets and planetary satellites, it has become clear that impact processes are important to the understanding of the accretion and evolution of all solid planets. The noble gases in the normalized atmospheric inventories of the planets and the normalized gas content of meteorites are grossly similar, but demonstrate differences from each other which are not understood. In order to study shock devolatilization of the candidate carrier phases which are principally thought to be carbonaceous or hydrocarbons in planetesimals, experiments were conducted on noble gase implantation in various carbons: carbon black, activated charcoal, graphite, and carbon glass. These were candidate starting materials for impact devolatilization experiments. Initial experiments were conducted on vitreous amorphous carbon samples which were synthesized under vapor saturated conditions using argon as the pressurizing medium. An amino acid and surface analysis by laser ionization analyses were performed on three samples of shocked Murchison meteorite. A first study was completed in which a series of shock loading experiments on a porous limestone and on a non-porous gabbro in one and three dimensions were performed. Also a series of recovery experiments were conducted in which shocked molten basalt a 1700 C is encapsulated in molybdenum containers and shock recovered from up to 6 GPa pressures

Learning in stomatopod crustaceans

The stomatopod crustaceans, or mantis shrimps, are marine predators that stalk or ambush prey and that have complex intraspecific communication behavior. Their active lifestyles, means of predation, and intricate displays all require unusual flexibility in interacting with the world around them, implying a well-developed ability to learn. Stomatopods have highly evolved sensory systems, including some of the most specialized visual systems known for any animal group. Some species have been demonstrated to learn how to recognize and use novel, artificial burrows, while others are known to learn how to identify novel prey species and handle them for effective predation. Stomatopods learn the identities of individual competitors and mates, using both chemical and visual cues. Furthermore, stomatopods can be trained for psychophysical examination of their sensory abilities, including demonstration of color and polarization vision. These flexible and intelligent invertebrates continue to be attractive subjects for basic research on learning in animals with relatively simple nervous systems