The Tapanui region of New Zealand: Site of a Tunguska around 800 years ago?

Evidence is discussed that the wide-spread fires ca. 800 years ago which denuded the southern provinces of the South Island of New Zealand of the extensive forests present at that time were due to the entry of a large bolide into the atmosphere, the conflagration being ignited by the intense heat generated as this extraterrestrial projectile ablated/detonated in a similar manner to that of the Tunguska object of 1908. These fires led to the extinction of the giant terrestrial bird known as the Moa, and the end of the archaic epoch of Maori history known as the Moa Hunter period. This interpretation is well attested to in Maori myth and legend

Governing the regulators – applying experience

Emphsizing more effective law rather than more law, this paper provides a perpective from within government that argues for a better appreciation of what is required to ensure that regulation is effective in a New Zealand context. Using building controls, financial markets regulation and occupational health and safety as examples, this paper presents an analysis of the changes to the regulatory landscape, and in particular the role of regulators as a particular facet of regulatory design. • Gaye Searancke, Peter Mumford, Karl Simpson and Mark Steel are all members of the Labour and Commercial Environment Group in the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment

Bis(2-acetylpyridine-κ2 N,O)silver(I) tetra­fluoridoborate: a complex with silver in a seesaw coordination geometry

The reaction of 2-acetylpyridine with silver(I) tetra­fluorido­borate leads to the discrete title complex, [Ag(C7H7NO)2]BF4, in the cation of which the Ag atom is coordinated by two 2-acetylpyridine ligands, each of which is N,O-bidentate, albeit with stronger bonding to the N atoms [Ag—N = 2.2018 (15) and 2.2088 (14) Å; Ag—O = 2.5380 (13) and 2.5454 (13) Å]. The four-coordinate Ag atom has a seesaw coordination geometry with a τ4 index of 0.51. The tetra­fluoridoborate anion is disordered over two orientations with 0.568 (10):0.432 (10) occupancies

Targeting NIR Tissue Test Sampling Using Aerial Imagery And Identifying The Factors Causing Variable Rice Growth And Crop Yields.

The new precision agriculture tool, aerial infrared images has created an opportunity for rice farmers to assess crop variability. At ground level variability is difficult to assess. Aerial infrared images readily show crop variability. The images supplied by Terrabyte Services show 5 colour image zones of crop vigour from low vigour to high vigour. The identified zones can show farmers where to sample crops for the NIR Tissue Test at panicle initiation. Previously farmers randomly sampled not really knowing whether the sampled areas were really representative of the crop. The ability of the aerial images to show crop vigour differences has led to the issue of how farmer crops compare to each other and what factors cause variability within crops. This project reports on the use of spatial infrared aerial imagery in the rice industry. It reports on two sub-projects. The first is the introduction and farmer use and adoption of aerial infrared imaging for identifying variability. The second sub-project reports on the identification of factors causing crop growth and grain yield variability. The outcomes from the first sub-project have been very successful. After the first season there was great feedback. Farmer quotes include: “There was more crop variation than I thought” “I was surprised by cut and fill areas showing up after 20 years” “The aerial images are an excellent tool at PI meetings” “The variation is often not due to nitrogen” 2 Over the first 2 years the number of farmer participants increased from 270 to 549, crop numbers from 484 to 834 and crop area from 14000ha to 29500ha. Although the 2005 rice crop area was lower at 44,000 ha compared to 65000 ha in the 2004 season, 29000 ha was imaged representing 66% of the total area. This compares to 47% in 2003/04. Perhaps the key outcome from the project is that aerial imagery has been successfully adopted by rice farmers and is now seen as an essential tool for improving the management of rice crops. The second sub-project has shown there is large yield variability and large factor variability within crops and between crops. The yield coefficient of variation (CV) of the monitored crops ranged from 4% to 76% in the 2003/04 season. The variation of measured parameters within the one crop eg plant number, water depth, N uptake has been surprisingly high with the CV often as high as 60-80%. There is a need to gain an understanding of the reasons for this variability which will be the subject of further analysis of the data. The future challenge for the rice industry and rice farming systems is to identify all the factors contributing to rice growth and yield variability and finding ways of overcoming the variability leading to more uniform and higher yielding crops

A class of phylogenetic networks reconstructable from ancestral profiles

Rooted phylogenetic networks provide an explicit representation of the evolutionary history of a set $X$ of sampled species. In contrast to phylogenetic trees which show only speciation events, networks can also accommodate reticulate processes (for example, hybrid evolution, endosymbiosis, and lateral gene transfer). A major goal in systematic biology is to infer evolutionary relationships, and while phylogenetic trees can be uniquely determined from various simple combinatorial data on $X$, for networks the reconstruction question is much more subtle. Here we ask when can a network be uniquely reconstructed from its `ancestral profile' (the number of paths from each ancestral vertex to each element in $X$). We show that reconstruction holds (even within the class of all networks) for a class of networks we call `orchard networks', and we provide a polynomial-time algorithm for reconstructing any orchard network from its ancestral profile. Our approach relies on establishing a structural theorem for orchard networks, which also provides for a fast (polynomial-time) algorithm to test if any given network is of orchard type. Since the class of orchard networks includes tree-sibling tree-consistent networks and tree-child networks, our result generalise reconstruction results from 2008 and 2009. Orchard networks allow for an unbounded number $k$ of reticulation vertices, in contrast to tree-sibling tree-consistent networks and tree-child networks for which $k$ is at most $2|X|-4$ and $|X|-1$, respectively.Comment: 21 pages, 5 figure

Cholesteatoma and family history: An international survey

Objective To explore the relative frequency of a family history of cholesteatoma in patients with known cholesteatoma, and whether bilateral disease or earlier diagnosis is more likely in those with a family history. Associations between cleft lip or palate and bilateral disease and age of diagnosis were also explored. Design An online survey of patients with diagnosed cholesteatoma was conducted between October 2017 and April 2019. Participants The sample consisted of patients recruited from two UK clinics and self‐selected respondents recruited internationally via social media. Main outcome measures Side of cholesteatoma, whether respondents had any family history of cholesteatoma, age of diagnosis and personal or family history of cleft lip or palate were recorded. Results Of 857 respondents, 89 (10.4%) reported a positive family history of cholesteatoma. Respondents with a family history of cholesteatoma were more likely to have bilateral cholesteatoma (P = .001, odds ratio (OR) 2.15, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.35‐3.43), but there was no difference in the age of diagnosis (P = .23). Those with a history of cleft lip or palate were not more likely to have bilateral disease (P = .051, OR 2.71, CI 1.00‐7.38), and there was no difference in age of diagnosis (P = .11). Conclusion The relatively high proportion of respondents that reported a family history of cholesteatoma offers supporting evidence of heritability in cholesteatoma. The use of social media to recruit respondents to this survey means that the results cannot be generalised to other populations with cholesteatoma. Further population‐based research is suggested to determine the heritability of cholesteatoma

Defining phylogenetic networks using ancestral profiles

Rooted phylogenetic networks provide a more complete representation of the ancestral relationship between species than phylogenetic trees when reticulate evolutionary processes are at play. One way to reconstruct a phylogenetic network is to consider its `ancestral profile' (the number of paths from each ancestral vertex to each leaf). In general, this information does not uniquely determine the underlying phylogenetic network. A recent paper considered a new class of phylogenetic networks called `orchard networks' where this uniqueness was claimed to hold. Here we show that an additional restriction on the network, that of being `stack-free', is required in order for the original uniqueness claim to hold. On the other hand, if the additional stack-free restriction is lifted, we establish an alternative result; namely, there is uniqueness within the class of orchard networks up to the resolution of vertices of high in-degree.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1901.0406

catena-Poly[[silver(I)-μ-4-aminopyridine] perchlorate]: a 1-D staircase coordination polymer

Reaction of 4-amino­pyridine with silver(I) perchlorate leads to a one-dimensional coordination polymer, {[Ag(C5H6N2)]ClO4}n, in which the amino­pyridine binds through both N atoms. The perchlorate anion is hydrogen bonded to the amino H atoms and inter­acts weakly with the silver(I) atoms (Ag—O > 2.70 Å), both located on inversion centres, and some aromatic H atoms (O—H > 2.55 ÅA), thereby extending the dimensionality of the assembly. This is the first silver complex in which this ligand acts in a bridging mode

Drawing signs

This photographic essay creates an experimental parallel flow between ethnographic observation and polyptychal photographs, in order to align artistic and anthropological borders between African Brazilian cosmograms – pontos-riscados – and airport markings. The polyptychs explore similarities between a ‘visual vocabulary’ prevalent in cosmograms and airport signs to create lines of flight between between these liminal spaces. Text and images suggest imagining new ways of relating diametrically opposed worlds: umbanda temple / airport; trance / being-in-transit; cosmogram/ airport markings; cure / covid-19. And to open up to multiple temporal dimensions that enable us to dislocate, to perceive anew through an artistic-academic manifestation.Este ensaio fotográfico cria um movimento paralelo entre a observação etnográfica e um arranjo fotográfico políptico, a fim de alinhar fronteiras artísticas e antropológicas entre cosmogramas afro-brasileiros – pontos-riscados – e marcações aeroportuárias. Essas fotografias exploram semelhanças entre vocabulários visuais simbólicos que predominam em cosmogramas e sinais de aeroporto para criar linhas fuga entre estes espaços liminares. O texto e imagens convidam a imaginar formas inéditas de relacionar mundos diametricamente opostos: terreiro/aeroporto; transe/estar-em-trânsito; cosmografia/sinalização aeroportuária; cura/covid-19. E desta fusão abrir para múltiplas dimensões temporais que nos possibilitam deslocar e visionar por meio de uma manifestação artística-acadêmica

Trauma exposure, PTSD and psychotic-like symptoms in post-conflict Timor Leste: an epidemiological survey.

BACKGROUND: Studies in developed countries indicate that psychotic-like symptoms are prevalent in the community and are related to trauma exposure and PTSD. No comparable studies have been undertaken in low-income, post-conflict countries. This study aimed to assess the prevalence of psychotic-like symptoms in conflict-affected Timor Leste and to examine whether symptoms were associated with trauma and PTSD. METHODS: The Psychosis Screening Questionnaire and the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (assessing trauma exposure and PTSD) were administered in an epidemiological survey of 1245 adults (response rate 80.6%) in a rural and an urban setting in Timor Leste. We defined PSQ screen-positive cases as those people reporting at least one psychotic-like symptom (paranoia, hallucinations, strange experiences, thought interference, hypomania). RESULTS: The prevalence of PSQ screen-positive cases was 12 percent and these persons were more disabled. PSQ cases were more likely to reside in the urban area, experienced higher levels of trauma exposure and a greater prevalence of PTSD. PTSD only partially mediated the relationship between trauma exposure and psychotic-like symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: Psychotic-like symptoms may be prevalent in countries exposed to mass conflict. The cultural and contextual meaning of psychotic-like symptoms requires further inquiry in low-income, post-conflict settings such as Timor Leste.RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are