The Court and Councils of Philip III of Spain

This study is concerned with the Administration of Philip III of Spainp and suggests that it was with that Administration rather than with the Duke of Lerma that real power lay. Lerma himself is seen as a courtier, concerned to enrich himself and his family and quite unconcerned with affairs of state - save where they impinged upon his own cupidity or upon his relationship with the King. It is therefore argued that he had no faction and hardly any interest in policymaking. The councils themselves are seen as being composed of independent, properly professional men, and the study is particularly concerned to analyse the councils of State, War and Finance; attendance registers for these councils are used here. Philip himself is described as a man at once reliant personally upon the superficially brilliant Lerma and also, and more profoundly, as a man who needed and valued enormously the advice of his councils. He separated Court and Government, relaxing with Lerma while leaving the business of government to the councils. Such policy as he had beyond this is generally described as being belligerent

Retention of native-like structure in an acyclic counterpart of a β-sheet antibiotic

AbstractAn acyclic derivative of the cyclic peptide antibiotic, ramoplanin, has been prepared. In aqueous solution, two-dimensional NMR spectroscopy indicates that the acyclic form adopts a threshold population of conformers in which at least part of the β-sheet characteristic of the intact ramoplanin persists. Thus, despite losing the entropic benefit which the macrocycle must lend to β-sheet formation, the polypeptide chain of the acyclic ramoplanin appears to display an innate tendency to adopt a native-like conformation

Chapter 12: Vulnerability of fishes of the Great Barrier Reef to climate change

Climate change has already caused significant impacts to Earth’s ecosystems. Shifts in plant and animal biogeographic ranges, changes to population abundance, adjustments in the timing of seasonal activities and the establishment of invasive species have all been attributed to climate change. Most examples of biological impacts from climate change involve terrestrial species, however, similar effects have been observed in marine species, especially from temperate regions. The impact of climate change on coral reefs has also been widely considered, mostly with regard to coral bleaching and the degradation of coral communities. Much less attention has been given to the impact that climate change will have on other organisms that are associated with coral reefs. Fish are one of the most conspicuous and diverse components of tropical marine ecosystems, yet how they will be affected by climate change has not been comprehensively assessed.This is Chapter 12 of Climate change and the Great Barrier Reef: a vulnerability assessment. The entire book can be found at http://hdl.handle.net/11017/13

Linear response of vibrated granular systems to sudden changes in the vibration intensity

The short-term memory effects recently observed in vibration-induced compaction of granular materials are studied. It is shown that they can be explained by means of quite plausible hypothesis about the mesoscopic description of the evolution of the system. The existence of a critical time separating regimes of ``anomalous'' and ``normal'' responses is predicted. A simple model fitting into the general framework is analyzed in the detail. The relationship between this work and previous studies is discussed.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures; fixed errata, updtated reference

Detection & identification of hazardous narcotics and new psychoactive substances using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR)

According to the latest World Drug Report, released by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), drug use is up 30% over the past decade and there are more drugs, and more types of drugs, than ever. Herein we use Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) for the rapid ID of narcotics in a range of concentrations – from pure forms (as it is likely to be smuggled & transported) to street forms, often mixed with conventional cutting agents. Using FTIR, 75% of “street sample” narcotics were rapidly identified, and the effects of cutting agents on identification (ID) were also investigated. The limit of detection of MDMA was assessed, with a correct ID shown from 25% w/v. Concentration was correlated with Hit Quality Index, showing the capability of FTIR use in concentration estimation

Exact steady state solution of the Boltzmann equation: A driven 1-D inelastic Maxwell gas

The exact nonequilibrium steady state solution of the nonlinear Boltzmann equation for a driven inelastic Maxwell model was obtained by Ben-Naim and Krapivsky [Phys. Rev. E 61, R5 (2000)] in the form of an infinite product for the Fourier transform of the distribution function $f(c)$. In this paper we have inverted the Fourier transform to express $f(c)$ in the form of an infinite series of exponentially decaying terms. The dominant high energy tail is exponential, $f(c)\simeq A_0\exp(-a|c|)$, where $a\equiv 2/\sqrt{1-\alpha^2}$ and the amplitude $A_0$ is given in terms of a converging sum. This is explicitly shown in the totally inelastic limit ($\alpha\to 0$) and in the quasi-elastic limit ($\alpha\to 1$). In the latter case, the distribution is dominated by a Maxwellian for a very wide range of velocities, but a crossover from a Maxwellian to an exponential high energy tail exists for velocities $|c-c_0|\sim 1/\sqrt{q}$ around a crossover velocity $c_0\simeq \ln q^{-1}/\sqrt{q}$, where $q\equiv (1-\alpha)/2\ll 1$. In this crossover region the distribution function is extremely small, $\ln f(c_0)\simeq q^{-1}\ln q$.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures; a table and a few references added; to be published in PR

Molecular-orbital theory for the stopping power of atoms in the low velocity regime:the case of helium in alkali metals

A free-parameter linear-combination-of-atomic-orbitals approach is presented for analyzing the stopping power of slow ions moving in a metal. The method is applied to the case of He moving in alkali metals. Mean stopping powers for He present a good agreement with local-density-approximation calculations. Our results show important variations in the stopping power of channeled atoms with respect to their mean values.Comment: LATEX, 3 PostScript Figures attached. Total size 0.54