A reconnaissance of pollution of the King River in the Comstock-Crotty area, west Tasmania

In November 1974 ,an investigation was made of the King River through the stretch from just above its junction with Comstock Creek to just above its junction with the Governor River. Sampling stations were selected at nine sites, six on the King River, one on Linda Creek, one on Comstock Creek and one on the Governor River. At each station, samples were taken of the water, of the sediments and of the benthic macro­invertebrates. Analysis of the sediment samples provided good evidence that the King River is polluted from Comstock Creek downstream, with copper and, to a lesser extent, lead and zinc. This pollution is clearly indicated in the distribution of the riffle-­dwelling macroinvertebrates and of trout. The Governor River and the King River up­stream of Comstock Creek are not polluted. A 24-hour sampling of the drift fauna in the King River just above and just below the entry of Comstock Creek showed a surprising drop in the abundance of the drift with the entry of pollution. The results of the survey are discussed in the light of overseas work on stream sediments and Australian and overseas work on the effects of metal pollution on stream fauna. The pollution, even if steps are made to abate it, is likely to persist for a very long time

Transposed-letter priming effects in reading aloud words and nonwords

A masked nonword prime generated by transposing adjacent inner letters in a word (e.g., jugde) facilitates the recognition of the target word (JUDGE) more than a prime in which the relevant letters are replaced by different letters (e.g., junpe). This transposed-letter (TL) priming effect has been widely interpreted as evidence that the coding of letter position is flexible, rather than precise. Although the TL priming effect has been extensively investigated in the domain of visual word recognition using the lexical decision task, very few studies have investigated this empirical phenomenon in reading aloud. In the present study, we investigated TL priming effects in reading aloud words and nonwords and found that these effects are of equal magnitude for the two types of items. We take this result as support for the view that the TL priming effect arises from noisy perception of letter order within the prime prior to the mapping of orthography to phonology.6 page(s

Extragalactic Radio Continuum Surveys and the Transformation of Radio Astronomy

Next-generation radio surveys are about to transform radio astronomy by discovering and studying tens of millions of previously unknown radio sources. These surveys will provide new insights to understand the evolution of galaxies, measuring the evolution of the cosmic star formation rate, and rivalling traditional techniques in the measurement of fundamental cosmological parameters. By observing a new volume of observational parameter space, they are also likely to discover unexpected new phenomena. This review traces the evolution of extragalactic radio continuum surveys from the earliest days of radio astronomy to the present, and identifies the challenges that must be overcome to achieve this transformational change.Comment: To be published in Nature Astronomy 18 Sept 201

African Challenges to the International Criminal Court: An Example of Populism?

Recent global efforts of the United States and England to withdraw from international institutions, along with recent challenges to human rights courts from Poland and Hungary, have been described as part of a growing global populist backlash against the liberal international order. Several scholars have even identified the recent threat of mass withdrawal of African states from the International Criminal Court (ICC) as part of this global populist backlash. Are the African challenges to the ICC part of a global populist movement developing in Africa? More fundamentally, how are the African challenges to the ICC examples of populism, if at all? In this paper, I show that, while there is considerable overlap between the strategies used by particular African leaders to challenge the ICC and those typically considered populist, as well as a discernible thin populist ideology to sustain them, there is insufficient evidence of a larger anti-ICC populist movement in Africa. Although Africa is not as united against the ICC as the populist narrative suggests, the recent challenges to the Court from Africa pose a significant challenge to the Court, as the institution is still in the early stages of building its legitimacy

The combined diabetes and renal control trial (C-DIRECT) - a feasibility randomised controlled trial to evaluate outcomes in multi-morbid patients with diabetes and on dialysis using a mixed methods approach

Background: This cluster randomised controlled trial set out to investigate the feasibility and acceptability of the “Combined Diabetes and Renal Control Trial” (C-DIRECT) intervention, a nurse-led intervention based on motivational interviewing and self-management in patients with coexisting end stage renal diseases and diabetes mellitus (DM ESRD). Its efficacy to improve glycaemic control, as well as psychosocial and self-care outcomes were also evaluated as secondary outcomes. Methods: An assessor-blinded, clustered randomised-controlled trial was conducted with 44 haemodialysis patients with DM ESRD and ≥ 8% glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c), in dialysis centres across Singapore. Patients were randomised according to dialysis shifts. 20 patients were assigned to intervention and 24 were in usual care. The C-DIRECT intervention consisted of three weekly chair-side sessions delivered by diabetes specialist nurses. Data on recruitment, randomisation, and retention, and secondary outcomes such as clinical endpoints, emotional distress, adherence, and self-management skills measures were obtained at baseline and at 12 weeks follow-up. A qualitative evaluation using interviews was conducted at the end of the trial. Results: Of the 44 recruited at baseline, 42 patients were evaluated at follow-up. One patient died, and one discontinued the study due to deteriorating health. Recruitment, retention, and acceptability rates of C-DIRECT were generally satisfactory HbA1c levels decreased in both groups, but C-DIRECT had more participants with HbA1c < 8% at follow up compared to usual care. Significant improvements in role limitations due to physical health were noted for C-DIRECT whereas levels remained stable in usual care. No statistically significant differences between groups were observed for other clinical markers and other patient-reported outcomes. There were no adverse effects. Conclusions: The trial demonstrated satisfactory feasibility. A brief intervention delivered on bedside as part of routine dialysis care showed some benefits in glycaemic control and on QOL domain compared with usual care, although no effect was observed in other secondary outcomes. Further research is needed to design and assess interventions to promote diabetes self-management in socially vulnerable patients

Time separation as a hidden variable to the Copenhagen school of quantum mechanics

The Bohr radius is a space-like separation between the proton and electron in the hydrogen atom. According to the Copenhagen school of quantum mechanics, the proton is sitting in the absolute Lorentz frame. If this hydrogen atom is observed from a different Lorentz frame, there is a time-like separation linearly mixed with the Bohr radius. Indeed, the time-separation is one of the essential variables in high-energy hadronic physics where the hadron is a bound state of the quarks, while thoroughly hidden in the present form of quantum mechanics. It will be concluded that this variable is hidden in Feynman's rest of the universe. It is noted first that Feynman's Lorentz-invariant differential equation for the bound-state quarks has a set of solutions which describe all essential features of hadronic physics. These solutions explicitly depend on the time separation between the quarks. This set also forms the mathematical basis for two-mode squeezed states in quantum optics, where both photons are observable, but one of them can be treated a variable hidden in the rest of the universe. The physics of this two-mode state can then be translated into the time-separation variable in the quark model. As in the case of the un-observed photon, the hidden time-separation variable manifests itself as an increase in entropy and uncertainty.Comment: LaTex 10 pages with 5 figure. Invited paper presented at the Conference on Advances in Quantum Theory (Vaxjo, Sweden, June 2010), to be published in one of the AIP Conference Proceedings serie

Discrimination in lexical decision.

In this study we present a novel set of discrimination-based indicators of language processing derived from Naive Discriminative Learning (ndl) theory. We compare the effectiveness of these new measures with classical lexical-distributional measures-in particular, frequency counts and form similarity measures-to predict lexical decision latencies when a complete morphological segmentation of masked primes is or is not possible. Data derive from a re-analysis of a large subset of decision latencies from the English Lexicon Project, as well as from the results of two new masked priming studies. Results demonstrate the superiority of discrimination-based predictors over lexical-distributional predictors alone, across both the simple and primed lexical decision tasks. Comparable priming after masked corner and cornea type primes, across two experiments, fails to support early obligatory segmentation into morphemes as predicted by the morpho-orthographic account of reading. Results fit well with ndl theory, which, in conformity with Word and Paradigm theory, rejects the morpheme as a relevant unit of analysis. Furthermore, results indicate that readers with greater spelling proficiency and larger vocabularies make better use of orthographic priors and handle lexical competition more efficiently

Reconstructing CNV genotypes using segregation analysis: combining pedigree information with CNV assay

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Repeated blocks of genome sequence have been shown to be associated with genetic diversity and disease risk in humans, and with phenotypic diversity in model organisms and domestic animals. Reliable tests are desirable to determine whether individuals are carriers of copy number variants associated with disease risk in humans and livestock, or associated with economically important traits in livestock. In some cases, copy number variants affect the phenotype through a dosage effect but in other cases, allele combinations have non-additive effects. In the latter cases, it has been difficult to develop tests because assays typically return an estimate of the sum of the copy number counts on the maternally and paternally inherited chromosome segments, and this sum does not uniquely determine the allele configuration. In this study, we show that there is an old solution to this new problem: segregation analysis, which has been used for many years to infer alleles in pedigreed populations.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Segregation analysis was used to estimate copy number alleles from assay data on simulated half-sib sheep populations. Copy number variation at the Agouti locus, known to be responsible for the recessive self-colour black phenotype, was used as a model for the simulation and an appropriate penetrance function was derived. The precision with which carriers and non-carriers of the undesirable single copy allele could be identified, was used to evaluate the method for various family sizes, assay strategies and assay accuracies.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Using relationship data and segregation analysis, the probabilities of carrying the copy number alleles responsible for black or white fleece were estimated with much greater precision than by analyzing assay results for animals individually. The proportion of lambs correctly identified as non-carriers of the undesirable allele increased from 7% when the lambs were analysed alone to 80% when the lambs were analysed in half-sib families.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>When a quantitative assay is used to estimate copy number alleles, segregation analysis of related individuals can greatly improve the precision of the estimates. Existing software for segregation analysis would require little if any change to accommodate the penetrance function for copy number assay data.</p

A stochastic automaton shows how enzyme assemblies may contribute to metabolic efficiency

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The advantages of grouping enzymes into metabolons and into higher order structures have long been debated. To quantify these advantages, we have developed a stochastic automaton that allows experiments to be performed in a virtual bacterium with both a membrane and a cytoplasm. We have investigated the general case of transport and metabolism as inspired by the phosphoenolpyruvate:sugar phosphotransferase system (PTS) for glucose importation and by glycolysis.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We show that PTS and glycolytic metabolons can increase production of pyruvate eightfold at low concentrations of phosphoenolpyruvate. A fourfold increase in the numbers of enzyme EI led to a 40% increase in pyruvate production, similar to that observed <it>in vivo </it>in the presence of glucose. Although little improvement resulted from the assembly of metabolons into a hyperstructure, such assembly can generate gradients of metabolites and signaling molecules.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p><it>in silico </it>experiments may be performed successfully using stochastic automata such as HSIM (Hyperstructure Simulator) to help answer fundamental questions in metabolism about the properties of molecular assemblies and to devise strategies to modify such assemblies for biotechnological ends.</p