Chloro Nitroso Terpenes and the Cotton Effect with an Additional Paper on Photochemical Experiments with Nitrosyl Chloride

The photochemical action of nitrosyl chloride on compounds of the type R1- C - R1 has proved to be of very limited application. Although isopropyl chloride gave beta-chloro-beta-nitroso propane, sec-butyl chloride gave not the desired beta-chloro-beta-nitroso butane but betagamma-di-chloro-beta-nitroso butane. Other compounds such as isopropyl bromide and betagamma-dichloro butane did not react. The possibility of using pinacolyl chloride has been discussed and has been ruled out owing to the inability of obtaining the substance readily and in its active form

Occurrence of Microalgae in Southwestern Louisiana Coastal Salt Flats

A descriptive analysis of the edaphic algal flora in salt flats along the coastline of southwestern Louisiana is provided. Six salt flats containing the angiosperm Salicornia were surveyed in November 1978, and April 1979, for microalgae. Seven genera of Chrysophycophyta, eleven genera of Cyanochloronta, and eighteen genera of the Chlorophycophyta were found. The most abundant alga was Oscillatoria (sensu Drouet). The most common green alga was Chlorosarcinopsis

Introduction to the political economy of the sub-prime crisis in Britain : constructing and contesting competence

It is almost always inadvisable to try to second-guess the character of a General Election campaign before it begins in earnest. Yet, even in today’s shadow-boxing phase in advance of the British General Election due to be called in 2010, a number of important campaign contours are already in evidence. It is one of the unwritten laws of British electoral politics that governments unravel – particularly those of a certain longevity – as events appear ever more to have spiralled out of their control. The task for the Brown Government in the upcoming General Election campaign is to try to convince voters that there is still life left within Labour despite its current travails with the credit crunch and British banks’ self-imposed entrapment in the subprime crisis. Claim and counter-claim are likely to pass between the Government and the opposition parties as to where the blame lies for the current disarray of the banking sector, whose model of regulation is most responsible and who is best placed to ensure a successful clean-up operation. Whoever is perceived to have come out on top in this debate is likely to stand a very good chance of winning the election

The Athletic Profile of Fast Bowling in Cricket : A Review

Cricket is a global sport played in over 100 countries with elite performers attracting multimillion dollar contracts. Therefore, performers maintaining optimum physical fitness and remaining injury free is important. Fast bowlers have a vital position in a cricket team, and there is an increasing body of scientific literature that has reviewed this role over the past decade. Previous research on fast bowlers has tended to focus on biomechanical analysis and injury prevention in performers. However, this review aims to critically analyze the emerging contribution of physiological-based literature linked to fast bowling in cricket, highlight the current evidence related to simulated and competitive in-match performance, and relate this practically to the conditioning coach. Furthermore, the review considers limitations with past research and possible avenues for future investigation. It is clear with the advent of new applied mobile monitoring technology that there is scope for more ecologically valid and longitudinal exploration capturing in-match data, providing quantification of physiological workloads, and analysis of the physical demands across the differing formats of the game. Currently, strength and conditioning specialists do not have a critical academic resource with which to shape professional practice, and this review aims to provide a starting point for evidence in the specific areaPeer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Uncomputability of phase diagrams.

The phase diagram of a material is of central importance in describing the properties and behaviour of a condensed matter system. In this work, we prove that the task of determining the phase diagram of a many-body Hamiltonian is in general uncomputable, by explicitly constructing a continuous one-parameter family of Hamiltonians H(φ), where [Formula: see text], for which this is the case. The H(φ) are translationally-invariant, with nearest-neighbour couplings on a 2D spin lattice. As well as implying uncomputablity of phase diagrams, our result also proves that undecidability can hold for a set of positive measure of a Hamiltonian's parameter space, whereas previous results only implied undecidability on a zero measure set. This brings the spectral gap undecidability results a step closer to standard condensed matter problems, where one typically studies phase diagrams of many-body models as a function of one or more continuously varying real parameters, such as magnetic field strength or pressure

The Structure of High Strehl Ratio Point-Spread Functions

We describe the symmetries present in the point-spread function (PSF) of an optical system either located in space or corrected by an adaptive o to Strehl ratios of about 70% and higher. We present a formalism for expanding the PSF to arbitrary order in terms of powers of the Fourier transform of the residual phase error, over an arbitrarily shaped and apodized entrance aperture. For traditional unapodized apertures at high Strehl ratios, bright speckles pinned to the bright Airy rings are part of an antisymmetric perturbation of the perfect PSF, arising from the term that is first order in the residual phase error. There are two symmetric second degree terms. One is negative at the center, and, like the first order term, is modulated by the perfect image's field strength -- it reduces to the Marechal approximation at the center of the PSF. The other is non-negative everywhere, zero at the image center, and can be responsible for an extended halo -- which limits the dynamic range of faint companion detection in the darkest portions of the image. In regimes where one or the other term dominates the speckles in an image, the symmetry of the dominant term can be exploited to reduce the effect of those speckles, potentially by an order of magnitude or more. We demonstrate the effects of both secondary obscuration and pupil apodization on the structure of residual speckles, and discuss how these symmetries can be exploited by appropriate telescope and instrument design, observing strategies, and filter bandwidths to improve the dynamic range of high dynamic range AO and space-based observations. Finally, we show that our analysis is relevant to high dynamic range coronagraphy.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ; 20 pages, 4 figure

Large-Scale Forest Inventories Of The United States And China Reveal Positive Effects Of Biodiversity On Productivity

Background With the loss of species worldwide due to anthropogenic factors, especially in forested ecosystems, it has become more urgent than ever to understand the biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationship (BEFR). BEFR research in forested ecosystems is very limited and thus studies that incorporate greater geographic coverage and structural complexity are needed. Methods We compiled ground-measured data from approx. one half million forest inventory sample plots across the contiguous United States, Alaska, and northeastern China to map tree species richness, forest stocking, and productivity at a continental scale. Based on these data, we investigated the relationship between forest productivity and tree species diversity, using a multiple regression analysis and a non-parametric approach to account for spatial autocorrelation. Results In general, forests in the eastern United States consisted of more tree species than any other regions in the country. The highest forest stocking values over the entire study area were concentrated in the western United States and Central Appalachia. Overall, 96.4 % of sample plots (477,281) showed a significant positive effect of species richness on site productivity, and only 3.6 % (17,349) had an insignificant or negative effect. Conclusions The large number of ground-measured plots, as well as the magnitude of geographic scale, rendered overwhelming evidence in support of a positive BEFR. This empirical evidence provides insights to forest management and biological conservation across different types of forested ecosystems. Forest timber productivity may be impaired by the loss of species in forests, and biological conservation, due to its potential benefits on maintaining species richness and productivity, can have profound impacts on the functioning and services of forested ecosystems

Tests of an alternate mobile transporter and extravehicular activity assembly procedure for the Space Station Freedom truss

Results are presented from a ground test program of an alternate mobile transporter (MT) concept and extravehicular activity (EVA) assembly procedure for the Space Station Freedom (SSF) truss keel. A three-bay orthogonal tetrahedral truss beam consisting of 44 2-in-diameter struts and 16 nodes was assembled repeatedly in neutral buoyancy by pairs of pressure-suited test subjects working from astronaut positioning devices (APD's) on the MT. The truss bays were cubic with edges 15 ft long. All the truss joint hardware was found to be EVA compatible. The average unit assembly time for a single pair of experienced test subjects was 27.6 sec/strut, which is about half the time derived from other SSF truss assembly tests. A concept for integration of utility trays during truss assembly is introduced and demonstrated in the assembly tests. The concept, which requires minimal EVA handling of the trays, is shown to have little impact on overall assembly time. The results of these tests indicate that by using an MT equipped with APD's, rapid EVA assembly of a space station-size truss structure can be expected

Using conditional kernel density estimation for wind power density forecasting

Of the various renewable energy resources, wind power is widely recognized as one of the most promising. The management of wind farms and electricity systems can benefit greatly from the availability of estimates of the probability distribution of wind power generation. However, most research has focused on point forecasting of wind power. In this paper, we develop an approach to producing density forecasts for the wind power generated at individual wind farms. Our interest is in intraday data and prediction from 1 to 72 hours ahead. We model wind power in terms of wind speed and wind direction. In this framework, there are two key uncertainties. First, there is the inherent uncertainty in wind speed and direction, and we model this using a bivariate VARMA-GARCH (vector autoregressive moving average-generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedastic) model, with a Student t distribution, in the Cartesian space of wind speed and direction. Second, there is the stochastic nature of the relationship of wind power to wind speed (described by the power curve), and to wind direction. We model this using conditional kernel density (CKD) estimation, which enables a nonparametric modeling of the conditional density of wind power. Using Monte Carlo simulation of the VARMA-GARCH model and CKD estimation, density forecasts of wind speed and direction are converted to wind power density forecasts. Our work is novel in several respects: previous wind power studies have not modeled a stochastic power curve; to accommodate time evolution in the power curve, we incorporate a time decay factor within the CKD method; and the CKD method is conditional on a density, rather than a single value. The new approach is evaluated using datasets from four Greek wind farms

Marine fisheries and future ocean conflict

Conflict over marine fishery resources is a growing security concern. Experts expect that global changes in our climate, food systems and oceans may spark or exacerbate resource conflicts. An initial scan of 803 relevant papers and subsequent intensive review of 31 fisheries conflict studies, focused on subnational and international conflicts, suggests that four substantial scientific gaps need addressing to improve our understanding of the nature and drivers of fisheries conflict. First, fisheries conflict and levels of conflict intensity are not precisely defined. Second, complex adaptive systems thinking is underutilized but has the potential to produce more realistic causal models of fishery conflict. Third, comparative large‐scale data and suitably integrative methodologies are lacking, underscoring the need for a standardized and comparable database of fisheries conflict cases to aid extrapolation beyond single case‐studies. Fourth, there is room for a more widespread application of higher order concepts and associated terminology. Importantly, the four gaps highlight the homogenized nature of current methodological and theoretical approaches to understanding fishery conflict, which potentially presents us with an oversimplified understanding of these conflicts. A more nuanced understanding of the complex and dynamic nature of fishery conflict and its causes is not only scientifically critical, but increasingly relevant for policymakers and practitioners in this turbulent world