Birds, bogs and forestry: the peatlands of Caithness and Sutherland

NCC’s Upland Bird Survey had surveyed a significant area of the Flow Country between 1979 and 1986, and the 1987 report analysed and published the data from those surveys, together with those obtained from eight sites in Caithness surveyed by RSPB in 1985 using NCC methods. The results highlighted losses of up to 19% of the populations of Golden Plover, Greenshank and Dunlin in the Flow Country area as a result of then widespread and rapidly occurring afforestation of the peatlands. NCC considered that this land-use change represented “perhaps the most massive single loss of important wildlife habitat in Britain since the Second World War.” Although Birds, bogs and forestry also included summary results from other NCC surveys in Caithness and Sutherland, these studies of peatland vegetation were reported in more detail in the complementary report The Flow Country, published by NCC the following year. As a result of the case made by Birds, bogs and forestry and The Flow Country, a substantial proportion of the extent of these peatlands was designated as a Ramsar site and also classified under European nature Directives as a Special Protection Area and Special Area of Conservation

What influences healthcare professionals' treatment preferences for older women with operable breast cancer?: an application of the discrete choice experiment

Introduction Primary endocrine therapy (PET) is used variably in the UK as an alternative to surgery for older women with operable breast cancer. Guidelines state that only patients with “significant comorbidity” or “reduced life expectancy” should be treated this way and age should not be a factor. Methods A Discrete Choice Experiment (DCE) was used to determine the impact of key variables (patient age, comorbidity, cognition, functional status, cancer stage, cancer biology) on healthcare professionals' (HCP) treatment preferences for operable breast cancer among older women. Multinomial logistic regression was used to identify associations. Results 40% (258/641) of questionnaires were returned. Five variables (age, co-morbidity, cognition, functional status and cancer size) independently demonstrated a significant association with treatment preference (p < 0.05). Functional status was omitted from the multivariable model due to collinearity, with all other variables correlating with a preference for operative treatment over no preference (p < 0.05). Only co-morbidity, cognition and cancer size correlated with a preference for PET over no preference (p < 0.05). Conclusion The majority of respondents selected treatment in accordance with current guidelines, however in some scenarios, opinion was divided, and age did appear to be an independent factor that HCPs considered when making a treatment decision in this population

Discovery of a nonyrast Kπ=8+ isomer in Dy162, and the influence of competing K-mixing mechanisms on its highly forbidden decay

The Gd160(Be9,α3n)Dy162 reaction has been used to study high-spin states in Dy162. Pulsed beam conditions were utilized for enhanced isomer sensitivity. An isomer at 2188.1(3) keV with a half-life of 8.3(3) μs has been discovered and assigned Kπ= 8+ with a two-quasineutron configuration. Among 11 γ-ray decay branches, an E2, ΔK=8 transition to the ground-state band was observed with a reduced hindrance of fν=35, agreeing well with systematics correlating fν with the product of the valence neutron and proton numbers (NpNn) over an extended N,Z range. Small deviations from NpNn dependence are analyzed for a range of two-quasiparticle isomer decays and interpreted as arising from a weak dependence on the isomer excitation energy relative to the yrast line

Fibers and global geometry of functions

Since the seminal work of Ambrosetti and Prodi, the study of global folds was enriched by geometric concepts and extensions accomodating new examples. We present the advantages of considering fibers, a construction dating to Berger and Podolak's view of the original theorem. A description of folds in terms of properties of fibers gives new perspective to the usual hypotheses in the subject. The text is intended as a guide, outlining arguments and stating results which will be detailed elsewhere

Universality of Frequency and Field Scaling of the Conductivity Measured by Ac-Susceptibility of a Ybco-Film

Utilizing a novel and exact inversion scheme, we determine the complex linear conductivity $\sigma (\omega )$ from the linear magnetic ac-susceptibility which has been measured from 3\,mHz to 50\,MHz in fields between 0.4\,T and 4\,T applied parallel to the c-axis of a 250\,nm thin disk. The frequency derivative of the phase $\sigma ''/\sigma '$ and the dynamical scaling of $\sigma (\omega)$ above and below $T_g(B)$ provide clear evidence for a continuous phase transition at $T_g$ to a generic superconducting state. Based on the vortex-glass scaling model, the resulting critical exponents $\nu$ and $z$ are close to those frequently obtained on films by other means and associated with an 'isotropic' vortex glass. The field effect on $\sigma(\omega)$ can be related to the increase of the glass coherence length, $\xi_g\sim B$.Comment: 8 pages (5 figures upon request), revtex 3.0, APK.94.01.0

Two-band second moment model and an interatomic potential for caesium

A semi-empirical formalism is presented for deriving interatomic potentials for materials such as caesium or cerium which exhibit volume collapse phase transitions. It is based on the Finnis-Sinclair second moment tight binding approach, but incorporates two independent bands on each atom. The potential is cast in a form suitable for large-scale molecular dynamics, the computational cost being the evaluation of short ranged pair potentials. Parameters for a model potential for caesium are derived and tested

Impact of triaxiality on the rotational structure of neutron-rich rhenium isotopes

A number of 3-quasiparticle isomers have been found and characterised in the odd-mass, neutron-rich, 187Re, 189Re and 191Re nuclei, the latter being four neutrons beyond stability. The decay of the isomers populates states in the rotational bands built upon the 9/2-[514] Nilsson orbital. These bands exhibit a degree of signature splitting that increases with neutron number. This splitting taken together with measurements of the M1/E2 mixing ratios and with the changes observed in the energy of the gamma-vibrational band coupled to the 9/2-[514] state, suggests an increase in triaxiality, with γ values of 5°, 18° and 25° deduced in the framework of a particle-rotor model

Imprints of the Quantum World in Classical Mechanics

The imprints left by quantum mechanics in classical (Hamiltonian) mechanics are much more numerous than is usually believed. We show Using no physical hypotheses) that the Schroedinger equation for a nonrelativistic system of spinless particles is a classical equation which is equivalent to Hamilton's equations.Comment: Paper submitted to Foundations of Physic

Finite-temperature Fermi-edge singularity in tunneling studied using random telegraph signals

We show that random telegraph signals in metal-oxide-silicon transistors at millikelvin temperatures provide a powerful means of investigating tunneling between a two-dimensional electron gas and a single defect state. The tunneling rate shows a peak when the defect level lines up with the Fermi energy, in excellent agreement with theory of the Fermi-edge singularity at finite temperature. This theory also indicates that defect levels are the origin of the dissipative two-state systems observed previously in similar devices.Comment: 5 pages, REVTEX, 3 postscript figures included with epsfi

A probabilistic model for gene content evolution with duplication, loss, and horizontal transfer

We introduce a Markov model for the evolution of a gene family along a phylogeny. The model includes parameters for the rates of horizontal gene transfer, gene duplication, and gene loss, in addition to branch lengths in the phylogeny. The likelihood for the changes in the size of a gene family across different organisms can be calculated in O(N+hM^2) time and O(N+M^2) space, where N is the number of organisms, $h$ is the height of the phylogeny, and M is the sum of family sizes. We apply the model to the evolution of gene content in Preoteobacteria using the gene families in the COG (Clusters of Orthologous Groups) database