Passing crisis and emergency risk communications: the effects of communication channel, information type, and repetition.

Three experiments explore several factors which influence information transmission when warning messages are passed from person to person. In Experiment 1, messages were passed down chains of participants using five different modes of communication. Written communication channels resulted in more accurate message transmission than verbal. In addition, some elements of the message endured further down the chain than others. Experiment 2 largely replicated these effects and also demonstrated that simple repetition of a message eliminated differences between written and spoken communication. In a final field experiment, chains of participants passed information however they wanted to, with the proviso that half of the chains could not use telephones. Here, the lack of ability to use a telephone did not affect accuracy, but did slow down the speed of transmission from the recipient of the message to the last person in the chain. Implications of the findings for crisis and emergency risk communication are discussed

Some oxidation reactions utilizing hydrogen peroxide adducts in combination with carboxylic anhydrides

Interest grew in the development of new oxidising agents as a replacement for high purity meta-chloroperbenzoic acid (mCPBA) and avoiding the difficulty in obtaining high strength hydrogen peroxide. Magnesium monoperoxyphthalate (MMPP) has been advertised as a replacement. However due to problems of solubility of this oxidant in a number of solvents, it cannot be considered as a complete substitute for mCPBA. An oxidising agent is required to either complement MMPP, or succeed mCPBA entirely. This thesis describes the investigation of some hydrogen peroxide adducts as a possible contender to the extremely versatile oxidant, mCPBA. Urea-hydrogen peroxide adduct (UHP) in combination with either trifluoroacetic or acetic anhydride was used for the in situ formation of percarboxylic acids. Oxidations of various functional groups were carried out using these peracids. Reactions include: the epoxidation of terminal, electron deficient alkenes, such as octene, by trifluoroperacetic acid; the epoxidation of electron rich alkenes, such as styrenes and cyclohexenes, by peracetic acid; Baeyer-Villiger reactions of both aliphatic and alkyl aryl ketones by trifluoroperacetic acid; the conversion of anilines into nitrobenzenes; the oxidation of tertiary amines and sulphides; and the oxidative cleavage of dimethylhydrazones. A number of other hydrogen peroxide adducts were produced and their performance in various oxidation reactions was compared to that of ureahydrogen peroxide. Experiments in the formation of adducts to induce chirality in epoxidation reactions were also undertaken

Comparison of bacterioneuston and bacterioplankton dynamics during a phytoplankton bloom in a fjord mesocosm

The bacterioneuston is the community of Bacteria present in surface microlayers, the thin surface film that forms the interface between aquatic environments and the atmosphere. In this study we compared bacterial cell abundance and bacterial community structure of the bacterioneuston and the bacterioplankton (from the subsurface water column) during a phytoplankton bloom mesocosm experiment. Bacterial cell abundance, determined by flow cytometry, followed a typical bacterioplankton response to a phytoplankton bloom, with Synechococcus and high nucleic acid (HNA) bacterial cell numbers initially falling, probably due to selective protist grazing. Subsequently HNA and low nucleic acid (LNA) bacterial cells increased in abundance but Synechococcus did not. There was no significant difference between bacterioneuston and bacterioplankton cell abundances during the experiment. Conversely, distinct and consistent differences between the bacterioneuston and the bacterioplankton community structure were observed. This was monitored simultaneously by Bacteria 16S rRNA gene terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE). The conserved patterns of community structure observed in all of the mesocosms indicate that the bacterioneuston is distinctive and non-random

Chemical Spectral Analysis through Sonification

Chemical spectra are an important part of how research chemists analyse the outcomes of experiments. However these complex spectra can be very difficult and time consuming to analyse. This paper outlines an investigation into using sonification to improve the understanding and ease of analysis of chemical spectral data. The project specifically uses sonification techniques to display Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectra. Two sonification methods were designed to offer different perspectives on the data; "Spectral Audification" allows a quick overview of the data while maintaining its subtleties whereas a simple parameter mapping method allows more in-depth analysis of the spectra such as the use of rhythmic patterns to make sets of peaks easily identifiable

Human-dominated land uses favour species affiliated with more extreme climates, especially in the tropics

Rapid human population growth has driven conversion of land for uses such as agriculture, transportation and buildings. The removal of natural vegetation changes local climate, with human‐dominated land uses often warmer and drier than natural habitats. Yet, it remains an open question whether land‐use changes influence the composition of ecological assemblages in a direction consistent with the mechanism of local climatic change. Here, we used a global database of terrestrial vertebrates (mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians) to test whether human‐dominated land uses systematically favour species with distinctive realised climatic niches. We 1) explored the responses of community‐average temperature and precipitation niches to different types of land use, 2) quantified the abundances of species with distinctive climatic niches across land uses and 3) tested for differences in emergent patterns in communities from tropical versus temperate latitudes. We found that, in comparison to species from undisturbed natural habitats, the average animal found in human‐altered habitats lives in areas with higher maximum and lower minimum temperatures and higher maximum and lower minimum precipitation levels. We further found that tropical assemblages diverged more strongly than temperate assemblages between natural and human‐altered habitats, possibly because tropical species are more sensitive to climatic conditions. These results strongly implicate the role of land‐use change in favouring species affiliated with more extreme climatic conditions, thus systematically reshaping the composition of terrestrial biological assemblages. Our findings have the potential to inform species' vulnerability assessments and highlight the importance of preserving local climate refugia

Musical Expectancy in Squat Sonification For People Who Struggle With Physical Activity

Physical activity is important for a healthy lifestyle. However, it can be hard to stay engaged with exercise and this can often lead to avoidance. Sonification has been used to support physical activity through the optimisation/correction of movement. Though previous work has shown how sonification can improve movement execution and motivation, the specific mechanisms of motivation have yet to be investigated in the context of challenging exercises. We investigate the role of music expectancy as a way to leverage people’s implicit and embodied understanding of music within movement sonification to provide information on technique while also motivating continuation of movement and rewarding its completion. The paper presents two studies showing how this musically informed sonification can be used to support the squat movement. The results show how musical expectancy impacted people’s perception of their own movement, in terms of reward, motivation and movement behaviour and the way in which they moved

The thermal stability of the tryptic fragment of bovine microsomal cytochrome b5 and a variant containing six additional residues

AbstractThermally induced denaturation has been measured for both oxidised and reduced forms of the tryptic fragment or bovine microsomal cytochrome b5 using spectrophotometric methods. In the oxidised state, the tryptic fragment of cytochrome b5 (Ala7-Lys90) denatures in a single cooperative transition with a midpoint temperature (Tm) of ∼ 67°C (pH 7.0). The reduced form of the tryptic fragment of cytochrome b5 shows a higher transition temperature of ∼ 73°C at pH 7.0 and this is reflected in the values of ΔHm, ΔSm, and Δ(ΔG) of ∼ 310kJ · mol−1, 900J · mol−1 · K−1 and 5 kJ · mol−1. Increased thermal stability is demonstrated for a variant protein that contains the first 90 amino acid residues of cytochrome b5. These novel increases in stability are observed in both redox states and result from the presence of six additional residues at the amino-terminus. The two forms of cytochrome b5 do not differ significantly in structure with the results suggesting that the reorganisation energy (λ) of the variant protein, as measured indirectly from redox-linked differences in conformational stability, is small. Consequently the reported subtle differences in reactivity between variants of cytochrome b5 may result from the presence of additional N-terminal residues on the surface of the protein