Bantu pottery of Southern Africa

Includes bibliographical references.The Bantu people of Southern Africa entered this region from the North in successive migratory waves and advanced to the regions which they, now inhabit. The first of the immigrants crossed the Zambezi at about the beginning of the Christian era. Pottery of a type belonging to the earliest Iron Age traditions, and found north of the Zambezi (Clark 1959), has been found at Zimbabwe where it has, been dated 330 A.D. by radio carbon tests (Robinson 1961b). Contact with different people and new environments resulted in changes in the way of life and material culture of the migrants. These changes became more pronounced and permanent with the settlement of the European in South Africa and are very evident in regard to pottery. We know from the observations of early travellers and anthropologists that pottery used to be made in large quantities throughout Southern Africa

The Topology of Parabolic Character Varieties of Free Groups

Let G be a complex affine algebraic reductive group, and let K be a maximal compact subgroup of G. Fix elements h_1,...,h_m in K. For n greater than or equal to 0, let X (respectively, Y) be the space of equivalence classes of representations of the free group of m+n generators in G (respectively, K) such that for each i between 1 and m, the image of the i-th free generator is conjugate to h_i. These spaces are parabolic analogues of character varieties of free groups. We prove that Y is a strong deformation retraction of X. In particular, X and Y are homotopy equivalent. We also describe explicit examples relating X to relative character varieties.Comment: 16 pages, version 2 includes minor revisions and some modified proofs, accepted for publication in Geometriae Dedicat

Iowa Soils Need Nitrogen

We are not doing a very good job of keeping up the available nitrogen content in Iowa soils. W e could step up our yields and we would get a lot more good from the phosphorus and potassium fertilizers which we use if we had more available nitrogen in our soils

Meeting need: realising opportunity: a socio-economic framework for the East Midlands to inform the delivery of EU structural funds (2014-2020)

This document has been produced as part of an EU funded Technical Assistance project led by East Midlands Councils, with support from Nottingham Trent University and Climate East Midlands, to inform the development of the 2014-2020 EU Structural Fund Programme. It tells the economic story of the local economies that make up the East Midlands, sets out a number of key investment opportunities highlighted during six well attended consultation events, and gives some practical advice for LEPs and others about how to make the most of future EU funding, learning from past experience

Why Trade Associations Matter: Exploring Function, Meaning, and Influence

We explore the organizational characteristics of trade associations (TAs) and suggest theoretical approaches for undertaking research into or involving TAs in management and organization studies. Through emphasizing the role of TAs within and between industries and at the interface of business and society, we consider how TAs generate meaning and influence

Biodesalination: an emerging technology for targeted removal of Na+and Cl−from seawater by cyanobacteria

Although desalination by membrane processes is a possible solution to the problem of freshwater supply, related cost and energy demands prohibit its use on a global scale. Hence, there is an emerging necessity for alternative, energy and cost-efficient methods for water desalination. Cyanobacteria are oxygen-producing, photosynthetic bacteria that actively grow in vast blooms both in fresh and seawater bodies. Moreover, cyanobacteria can grow with minimal nutrient requirements and under natural sunlight. Taking these observations together, a consortium of five British Universities was formed to test the principle of using cyanobacteria as ion exchangers, for the specific removal of Na+ and Cl− from seawater. This project consisted of the isolation and characterisation of candidate strains, with central focus on their potential to be osmotically and ionically adaptable. The selection panel resulted in the identification of two Euryhaline strains, one of freshwater (Synechocystis sp. Strain PCC 6803) and one of marine origin (Synechococcus sp. Strain PCC 7002) (Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen). Other work packages were as follows. Genetic manipulations potentially allowed for the expression of a light-driven, Cl−-selective pump in both strains, therefore, enhancing the bioaccumulation of specific ions within the cell (University of Glasgow). Characterisation of surface properties under different salinities (University of Sheffield), ensured that cell–liquid separation efficiency would be maximised post-treatment, as well as monitoring the secretion of mucopolysaccharides in the medium during cell growth. Work at Newcastle University is focused on the social acceptance of this scenario, together with an assessment of the potential risks through the generation and application of a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points plan. Finally, researchers in Imperial College (London) designed the process, from biomass production to water treatment and generation of a model photobioreactor. This multimodal approach has produced promising first results, and further optimisation is expected to result in mass scaling of this process

Do Hospitals Cross-Subsidize?

Despite its salience as a regulatory tool to ensure the delivery of unprofitable medical services, cross-subsidization of services within hospital systems has been notoriously difficult to detect and quantify. We use repeated shocks to a profitable service in the market for hospital-based medical care to test for cross-subsidization of unprofitable services. Using patient-level data from general short-term hospitals in Arizona and Colorado before and after entry by cardiac specialty hospitals, we study how incumbent hospitals adjusted their provision of three uncontested services that are widely considered to be unprofitable. We estimate that the hospitals most exposed to entry reduced their provision of psychiatric, substance-abuse, and trauma care services at a rate of about one uncontested-service admission for every four cardiac admissions they stood to lose. Although entry by single-specialty hospitals may adversely affect the provision of unprofitable uncontested services, these findings warrant further evaluation of service-line cross-subsidization as a means to finance them