The impact of coastal landfills on shoreline management plans

This paper reports preliminary results of a study that investigated the issues that old landfills located within a coastal setting in southeast England present to future shoreline management plans. The study was based on three case study sites, selected from a total of over 148 historic landfill sites that intersected the 1 in 200 year tidal floodplain in the study area and 61 sites threatened by erosion (under a no active intervention policy scenario) in the next century. One site is currently on a cliff top and is eroding into the sea. The second landfill sitsbehind an existing coastal defence structure and is constraining options for managing and adapting the shoreline management plan. The final site is an example where a landfill is protected by informal coastal defence structures in a low wave energy environment. The impact of potential sea level rises over the next 100 years are considered in the context of landfill management and shoreline management planning

The UK needs an open data portal dedicated to coastal flood and erosion hazard risk and resilience

In the UK, coastal flooding and erosion are two of the primary climate-related hazards to communities, businesses, and infrastructure. To better address the ramifications of those hazards, now and into the future, the UK needs to transform its scattered, fragmented coastal data resources into a systematic, integrated portal for quality-assured, publicly accessible open data. Such a portal would support analyses of coastal risk and resilience by hosting, in addition to data layers for coastal flooding and erosion, a diverse array of spatial datasets for building footprints, infrastructure networks, land use, population, and various socio-economic measures and indicators derived from survey and census data. The portal would facilitate novel combinations of spatial data layers to yield scientifically, societally, and economically beneficial insights into UK coastal systems

Exoplanet Detection and Its Dependence on Stochastic Sampling of the Stellar Initial Mass Function

Young moving groups (YMGs) are close (<100 pc), coherent collections of young (<100 Myr) stars that appear to have formed in the same star-forming molecular cloud. As such we would expect their individual initial mass functions (IMFs) to be similar to other star-forming regions, and by extension the Galactic field. Their close proximity to the Sun and their young ages means that YMGs are promising locations to search for young forming exoplanets. However, due to their low numbers of stars, stochastic sampling of the IMF means their stellar populations could vary significantly. We determine the range of planet-hosting stars (spectral types A, G, and M) possible from sampling the IMF multiple times, and find that some YMGs appear deficient in M-dwarfs. We then use these data to show that the expected probability of detecting terrestrial magma ocean planets is highly dependent on the exact numbers of stars produced through stochastic sampling of the IMF

Serial measurement of M. tuberculosis in blood from critically-ill patients with HIV-associated tuberculosis

BACKGROUND: Despite being highly prevalent in hospitalised patients with severe HIV-associated tuberculosis (TB) and sepsis, little is known about the mycobacteriology of Mycobacterium tuberculosis bloodstream infection (MTBBSI). We developed methods to serially measure bacillary load in blood and used these to characterise MTBBSI response to anti-TB therapy (ATT) and relationship with mortality. METHODS: We established a microscopy method for direct visualisation of M. tuberculosis bacilli in blood using a novel lysis-concentration protocol and the fluorescent probe, 4-N,N-dimethylaminonaphthalimide-trehalose (DMN-Tre). We tested blood using GeneXpert® MTB/RIF-Ultra (Xpert-ultra) and Myco/F lytic culture after processing blood through lysis-wash steps to remove PCR inhibitors and anti-microbial drug carry-over. HIV-positive patients predicted to have MTBBSI gave blood samples 0, 4, 24, 48 and 72 h after ATT initiation. Bacillary loads were quantified using microscopy, Xpert-ultra cycle threshold, and culture time-to-positivity. Pharmacodynamics were modelled using these measures combined on an ordinal scale, including association with 12-week mortality. FINDINGS: M. tuberculosis was detected in 27 of 28 recruited participants; 25 (89%) by blood Xpert-ultra, 22 (79%) by DMN-Tre microscopy, and 21 (75%) by Myco/F lytic blood culture. Eight (29%) participants died by 12-week follow-up. In a combined pharmacodynamic model, predicted probabilities of negative DMN-Tre microscopy, blood Xpert-ultra, or blood culture after 72 h treatment were 0·64, 0·27, and 0·94, respectively, in those who survived, compared with 0·23, 0·06, and 0·71 in those who died (posterior probability of slower clearance of MTBBSI in those that died >0·99). DMN-Tre microscopy of blood demonstrated heterogenous bacillary morphologies, including microcolonies and clumps. Bacillary cell-length varied significantly with ATT exposure (mean cell-length increase 0·13 log-µm/day; 95%CrI 0·10-0·16). INTERPRETATION: Pharmacodynamics of MTBBSI treatment can be captured using DMN-Tre microscopy, blood Xpert-ultra and culture. This could facilitate interventional trials in severe HIV-associated TB. FUNDING: Wellcome Trust, NIH Fogarty International Center, South African MRC, NIHR(UK), National Research Foundation of South Africa

A high-resolution versatile focused ion implantation platform for nanoscale engineering

The ability to spatially control and modify material properties on the nanoscale, including within nanoscale objects themselves, is a fundamental requirement for the development of advanced nanotechnologies. The development of a platform for nanoscale advanced materials engineering (P-NAME) designed to meet this demand is demonstrated. P-NAME delivers a high-resolution focused ion beam system with a coincident scanning electron microscope and secondary electron detection of single-ion implantation events. The isotopic mass-resolution capability of the P-NAME system for a wide range of ion species is demonstrated, offering access to the implantation of isotopes that are vital for nanomaterials engineering and nanofunctionalization. The performance of the isotopic mass selection is independently validated using secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) for a number of species implanted into intrinsic silicon. The SIMS results are shown to be in good agreement with dynamic ion implantation simulations, demonstrating the validity of this simulation approach. The wider performance capabilities of P-NAME, including sub-10 nm ion beam imaging resolution and the ability to perform direct-write ion beam doping and nanoscale ion lithography, are also demonstrated

Through-Thickness Residual Stress Profiles in Austenitic Stainless Steel Welds: A Combined Experimental and Prediction Study

Economic and safe management of nuclear plant components relies on accurate prediction of welding-induced residual stresses. In this study, the distribution of residual stress through the thickness of austenitic stainless steel welds has been measured using neutron diffraction and the contour method. The measured data are used to validate residual stress profiles predicted by an artificial neural network approach (ANN) as a function of welding heat input and geometry. Maximum tensile stresses with magnitude close to the yield strength of the material were observed near the weld cap in both axial and hoop direction of the welds. Significant scatter of more than 200 MPa was found within the residual stress measurements at the weld center line and are associated with the geometry and welding conditions of individual weld passes. The ANN prediction is developed in an attempt to effectively quantify this phenomenon of ‘innate scatter’ and to learn the non-linear patterns in the weld residual stress profiles. Furthermore, the efficacy of the ANN method for defining through-thickness residual stress profiles in welds for application in structural integrity assessments is evaluated

A global classification of coastal flood hazard climates associated with large-scale oceanographic forcing

Coastal communities throughout the world are exposed to numerous and increasing threats, such as coastal flooding and erosion, saltwater intrusion and wetland degradation. Here, we present the first global-scale analysis of the main drivers of coastal flooding due to large-scale oceanographic factors. Given the large dimensionality of the problem (e.g. spatiotemporal variability in flood magnitude and the relative influence of waves, tides and surge levels), we have performed a computer-based classification to identify geographical areas with homogeneous climates. Results show that 75% of coastal regions around the globe have the potential for very large flooding events with low probabilities (unbounded tails), 82% are tide-dominated, and almost 49% are highly susceptible to increases in flooding frequency due to sea-level rise.A.R., F.J.M. and P.C. acknowledge the support of the Spanish ‘Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad’ under Grants BIA2014-59643-R and BIA2015-70644-R. This work was critically supported by the US Geological Survey under Grant/Cooperative Agreement G15AC00426 and from the US DOD Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP Project RC-2644) through the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI). Dynamic atmospheric corrections (storm surge) are produced by CLS Space Oceanography Division using the Mog2D model from Legos and distributed by Aviso, with support from CNES (http://www.aviso.altimetry.fr/). Marine data from global reanalysis are provided by IHCantabria and are available for research purposes upon request at [email protected]

Measurements of neutrino oscillation in appearance and disappearance channels by the T2K experiment with 6.6 x 10(20) protons on target

111 pages, 45 figures, submitted to Physical Review D. Minor revisions to text following referee comments111 pages, 45 figures, submitted to Physical Review D. Minor revisions to text following referee comments111 pages, 45 figures, submitted to Physical Review D. Minor revisions to text following referee commentsWe thank the J-PARC staff for superb accelerator performance and the CERN NA61/SHINE Collaboration for providing valuable particle production data. We acknowledge the support of MEXT, Japan; NSERC, NRC, and CFI, Canada; CEA and CNRS/IN2P3, France; DFG, Germany; INFN, Italy; National Science Centre (NCN), Poland; RSF, RFBR and MES, Russia; MINECO and ERDF funds, Spain; SNSF and SER, Switzerland; STFC, UK; and the U. S. Deparment of Energy, USA. We also thank CERN for the UA1/NOMAD magnet, DESY for the HERA-B magnet mover system, NII for SINET4, the WestGrid and SciNet consortia in Compute Canada, GridPP, UK, and the Emerald High Performance Computing facility in the Centre for Innovation, UK. In addition, participation of individual researchers and institutions has been further supported by funds from ERC (FP7), EU; JSPS, Japan; Royal Society, UK; and DOE Early Career program, USA

Measurement of the electron neutrino charged-current interaction rate on water with the T2K ND280 pi(0) detector

10 pages, 6 figures, Submitted to PRDhttp://journals.aps.org/prd/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevD.91.112010© 2015 American Physical Society11 pages, 6 figures, as accepted to PRD11 pages, 6 figures, as accepted to PRD11 pages, 6 figures, as accepted to PR

Current use and barriers and facilitators for implementation of standardised measures in physical therapy in the Netherlands

In many countries, the need for physical therapists to use standardised measures has been recognised and is recommended in clinical practice guidelines. Research has shown a lack of clinimetric knowledge and clinical application of measurement instruments in daily practice may hamper implementation of these guidelines. The aims of this study are 1) to investigate the current use of measurement instruments by Dutch physical therapists; 2) to investigate the facilitators and barriers in using measurement instruments