Testing the use of viscous remanent magnetisation to date flood events

© 2015 Muxworthy, Williams and Heslop. Using erratics associated with large flood events, this paper assesses whether their viscous remanent magnetisation (VRM) can be used to date the flood events. We tested this method using flood erratics from three large events: (1) the Late Pleistocene Bonneville mega-flood in Idaho, USA, (~14–18 ka), (2) the 1918 A.D. Mt. Katla, Iceland, eruption and associated jökulhaup (meltwater flood) at Mýrdalssandur, and (3) the Markarfljót jökulhaup due to an earlier eruption of Mt. Katla (~2.5 ka). We measured 236 specimens, 66 of which yielded clear identifiable and measurable viscous magnetisation signals from erratics with clustered VRM directions. From the VRM unblocking temperatures, age estimates were made. The age estimate for the most recent event (Mýrdalssandur) worked well, with a median estimated age of 80 years (with individual erratic estimates distributed between 61–105 years) compared to the known age of 91 years. The ages of the other two events were over-estimated. The estimates for Markarfljót [15 ka (7–33 ka)] were based on the results of just one erratic. For the Bonneville flood the estimates were too old, however, this locality had the largest uncertainty in the ambient temperature used in the age determination; the VRM acquired is strongly dependent on the ambient temperature, the older the event the greater the uncertainty. Southern Idaho currently has hot summers, with average summer maximum temperatures of ~31°C, but a mean annual temperature of only ~ 9°C. It is suggested that the VRM dating method works best for recent events (<2–3 ka) where the ambient temperature history can be constrained

Molecular production at a wide Feshbach resonance in Fermi-gas of cooled atoms

The problem of molecular production from degenerate gas of fermions at a wide Feshbach resonance, in a single-mode approximation, is reduced to the linear Landau-Zener problem for operators. The strong interaction leads to significant renormalization of the gap between adiabatic levels. In contrast to static problem the close vicinity of exact resonance does not play substantial role. Two main physical results of our theory is the high sensitivity of molecular production to the initial value of magnetic field and generation of a large BCS condensate distributed over a broad range of momenta in inverse process of the molecule dissociation.Comment: 4 pages, no figure

Prediction of peak oxygen uptake using the modified shuttle test — Methodological concerns and implications for clinical practice

This is the author accepted manuscrip

Operating theatre photography for orthopaedics and aesthetic surgery.

The aim of this paper is to examine the author's personal experience and practice in operating theatre photography. The ways of working are personal to the author but hopefully will help others in undertaking this type of work

Cardiac autonomic function, cardiovascular risk and physical activity in adolescents.

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from the publisher via the DOI in this record.The aims of this study were to investigate in adolescents: 1) the relationships of physical activity (PA) and cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) to traditional CVD risk factors, rest and recovery autonomic function; and 2) whether autonomic function strengthens the associations between PA, CRF and CVD risk. Fifty-four (22 girls) adolescents had traditional CVD risk factors, rest and recovery autonomic function evaluated. CRF was measured using a steep ramp cycle test and PA was assessed with accelerometers. Resting HRV (and RMSSD30) and heart rate recovery (T30, HHRτ) were used. Clustered traditional (CVDRtrad) and autonomic (CVDRauto) risk scores were created and added to form a composite clustered CVD risk score (CVDRcom). PA and CRF were significantly and negatively associated with traditional CVD risk factors. Moderate (MPA) and vigorous (VPA) were positively related to resting RMSSD, and negatively related to T30 and HHRτ (all P<0.05). RMSSD30 recovered faster in the high compared to low median split for VPA. Stronger associations for CVDRcom compared to CVDRtrad were observed for MPA (CVDRcom: r2=0.32, P=<0.001; CVDRtrad: r2=0.17, P=0.002), and VPA (CVDRcom: r2=0.18, P=0.001; CVDRtrad: r2=0.06, P=0.08). These findings strengthen the proposed additional beneficial effects of PA on autonomic function above traditional CVD risk factors.RSO is funded by Science Without Borders, CAPES, Brazil, under the process number:10423-13-3

Technologies for Migration and Population Analysis: Spatial Interaction Data Applications

This initial chapter has two aims. Firstly, it seeks to clarify definitional and conceptual issues relating to the key interaction phenomena, migration and commuting, on which we concentrate in this book and for which we strive to obtain information to enhance our understanding of the processes that are taking place in the real world. The chapter explains the conceptual distinction between migrants and migrations, the importance of which becomes clear when the difference between transition and movement data is outlined, and it considers the alternative units of migrant measurement that are used such as individuals, wholly moving households and moving groups. Whilst migration tends to be measured over a period of time, typically a year, commuting is an activity that occurs on a much more frequent basis and consequently is usually measured as the numbers making a journey on one day. The chapter indicates how commuting to work and commuting to study are defined and measured. Secondly, the chapter contains the summary of an audit of interaction data sources, outlining the characteristics of the different types of data that are available from censuses, registers and surveys. Particular emphasis is placed on the former, the Census of Population, for which there are a number of data products providing migration and commuting counts at different spatial scales and disaggregated by various attributes; micro data are distinguished from macro data. However, the chapter also introduces a range of other interaction data sources such as the registers of National Health Service patients, the Pupil Level Annual School Census, the databases of the Higher Education Statistics Agency, various national level surveys such as the Labour Force Survey and the International Passenger Survey. In some cases, the data are exemplified using tables or maps. The chapter concludes with a reflection on the importance of the census as a key data source for small area analysis and a plea that, in a post-census world, sufficient steps be taken by central government to ensure the creation and provision of information systems for monitoring migration and commuting in an effective way, providing accurate and reliable intelligence on trends and creating opportunities for new research projects that develop explanations