Eco-hydrological interactions within a sand dune system in South East England

The research was undertaken at a sand dune system located along the South East coast of England, known as Sandwich Bay. Sandwich Bay has attracted a number of environmental designations, including Special Areas of Conservation and a Site of Special Scientific Interest due to the presence of rare habitats and flora found predominantly at this single site, such as Himantoglossum hircinum (lizard orchid) and Orobanche caryophyllacea (bedstraw broomrape). The research focus centred on concerns surrounding ecological change resulting in the loss of grey dunes, an Annex 1 priority feature. Sandwich Bay has been classed as a Special Site of Scientific Interest in unfavourable condition (Natural England, 2014), based primarily upon the loss of fixed grey dune habitats to neutral grasslands (SD8 to MG1/MG12 NVC classifications). The aim was to identify causative factors that might account for the observed historic and any current changes in vegetation. The research was conducted between October 2011 and September 2014, and focused upon hydro-chemical interactions in the environment. Analysis was undertaken by the installation of 103 dipwells across the 520 ha site, in order to obtain groundwater samples. The hydro-chemical and botanical analysis indicated that the vegetation composition was not affected significantly by the chemical constituents within the groundwater. However vegetation composition was significantly modified by variable surface elevation and the related height of the water table. An additional investigation focused upon the identification of management techniques that are thought to be beneficial to dune vegetation restoration. Three management trials were located at three different sites, investigating four different management treatments. Analysis showed that there was a significant difference between the various management treatments and species composition. Vegetation analysis indicated that both cut and remove, and burning, as management treatments encouraged a greater diversity of species, particularly in sheltered eutrophic areas

Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) System for Ancient Documentary Artefacts

This tutorial summarises our uses of reflectance transformation imaging in archaeological contexts. It introduces the UK AHRC funded project reflectance Transformation Imaging for Anciant Documentary Artefacts and demonstrates imaging methodologies

Continuous-variable entanglement distillation and non-commutative central limit theorems

Entanglement distillation transforms weakly entangled noisy states into highly entangled states, a primitive to be used in quantum repeater schemes and other protocols designed for quantum communication and key distribution. In this work, we present a comprehensive framework for continuous-variable entanglement distillation schemes that convert noisy non-Gaussian states into Gaussian ones in many iterations of the protocol. Instances of these protocols include (a) the recursive-Gaussifier protocol, (b) the temporally-reordered recursive-Gaussifier protocol, and (c) the pumping-Gaussifier protocol. The flexibility of these protocols give rise to several beneficial trade-offs related to success probabilities or memory requirements, which that can be adjusted to reflect experimental demands. Despite these protocols involving measurements, we relate the convergence in this protocols to new instances of non-commutative central limit theorems, in a formalism that we lay out in great detail. Implications of the findings for quantum repeater schemes are discussed.Comment: published versio

A NEGATIVE-COST APPROACH TO THE FORMULATION OF A TRANSHIPMENT PROBLEM

Agribusiness,

Requirements for Diagnosis of Malaria at Different Levels of the Laboratory Network in Africa.

The rapid increase of resistance to cheap, reliable antimalarials, the increasing cost of effective drugs, and the low specificity of clinical diagnosis has increased the need for more reliable diagnostic methods for malaria. The most commonly used and most reliable remains microscopic examination of stained blood smears, but this technique requires skilled personnel, precision instruments, and ideally a source of electricity. Microscopy has the advantage of enabling the examiner to identify the species, stage, and density of an infection. An alternative to microscopy is the rapid diagnostic test (RDT), which uses a labeled monoclonal antibody to detect circulating parasitic antigens. This test is most commonly used to detect Plasmodium falciparum infections and is available in a plastic cassette format. Both microscopy and RDTs should be available at all levels of laboratory service in endemic areas, but in peripheral laboratories with minimally trained staff, the RDT may be a more practical diagnostic method

Workshop on Workload and Training, and Examination of their Interactions: Executive summary

The goal of the workshop was to bring together experts in the fields of workload and training and representatives from the Dept. of Defense and industrial organizations who are reponsible for specifying, building, and managing advanced, complex systems. The challenging environments and requirements imposed by military helicopter missions and space station operations were presented as the focus for the panel discussions. The workshop permitted a detailed examination of the theoretical foundations of the fields of training and workload, as well as their practical applications. Furthermore, it created a forum where government, industry, and academic experts were able to examine each other's concepts, values, and goals. The discussions pointed out the necessity for a more efficient and effective flow of information among the groups respresented. The executive summary describes the rationale of the meeting, summarizes the primary points of discussion, and lists the participants and some of their summary comments

Finite element methodology for integrated flow-thermal-structural analysis

Papers entitled, An Adaptive Finite Element Procedure for Compressible Flows and Strong Viscous-Inviscid Interactions, and An Adaptive Remeshing Method for Finite Element Thermal Analysis, were presented at the June 27 to 29, 1988, meeting of the AIAA Thermophysics, Plasma Dynamics and Lasers Conference, San Antonio, Texas. The papers describe research work supported under NASA/Langley Research Grant NsG-1321, and are submitted in fulfillment of the progress report requirement on the grant for the period ending February 29, 1988