Tertiary magnetism in Northern Sardinia

Imperial Users onl

Public perceptions of recycled water: a survey of visitors to the London 2012 Olympic Park

The Old Ford Water Recycling Plant, operated by Thames Water, was used to supply non-potable recycled blackwater to some of the venues at the London 2012 Games. In an effort to learn from this experience, Thames Water commissioned a survey of visitors to the Olympic Park during the Games to explore public responses to the water recycling project. Results show a very high level of support for using non-potable recycled blackwater, both in public venues and in homes. Such findings may indicate a growing receptivity towards this technology, and show that Thames Water (and other private water companies) are well placed to encourage and even lead public discussion around the role of water reuse in the future of urban water supplies

Theory, design and application of gradient adaptive lattice filters

SIGLELD:D48933/84 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

The occurrence and pathogenicity of Clostridium oedematiens in animals

Clostridium oedematiens (Clostridium novyi) is an anaerobic spore forming bacillus. The organism is an important pathogen of sheep and cattle, and can be responsible for gas gangrene in humans. Four tykes designated A, B, C and D are recognised on the basis of serological neutralisation tests. Cl. oedematiens is generally regarded as being very difficult to handle in the laboratory; thus, the recent introduction of a commercially available fluorescent globulin for the identification of this organism has encouraged. workers to disregard the necessity for confirmatory isolation and typing procedures.Reliable techniques for the isolation and subculture of Ci. oedematiens are an essential prerequisite for a study of the occurrence of this organism, and my initial work soon confirmed that type B, C and D strains of Cl. oedematiens are Lifficul.t to subculture with confidence on solid media. It became clear that much preliminary laboratory work is necessary before a field investigation could yield meaningful data.The writer considered that the irregular growth of this organism on solid media might be related to (i) failures in the anaerobic environment; (ii) a requirement for a particularly complex nutritional medium; or (iii) the viability of the inoculu'E and each of these variables is carefully studied in the present work. The first part describes a reappraisal of the technique for setting up a modern anaerobic jar. Variations in the technique are assessed, and it is concluded that the irregular growth of these strains is not necessarily related to faults in normal anaerobic procedure.A variety of culture media are tested for the ability to support regular growth of Cl. oedematiens. The aim. of these experiments is to determine whether the organism crows better on complex media than on relatively simple media; it is found that irregular growth occurs on both types of media.The viability of a number of different inocula are studied in order to test the assumption that an inoculum containing spores shoul be viable. The results of these experiments are compatible with the view that consistent growth of Cl. oedematiens on solid media may be related to the spore content of the inoculum; however, it is likely that other factors are involved, and a theory is developed that a low redox potential in the mioroenvironment is also necessary for the successful outgrowth of viable particles.The epidemiological distribution of this organism can be assessed only if adequate descriptions and techniques of identification are available. Thus, the characters of the Cl. oedematiens group are confirmed and extended during the present work. These studies inelude (i) a critical evaluation of the fluorescent staining procedure (ii) a reappraisal of the fermentation reactions of the group; (iii) an assessment of the value of solid indicator media in the identification of this organism; (iv) an intensive study of the soluble products of Cl. oedematiens; and (v) the development of a practical system of typing with cultures grown in cooked-meet medium.The soluble products of the organism are investigated in various types of media, and particular attention is paid to the production of the factors that are responsible for the pathogenic effects in-vivo. Culture products of Ci. oedematiens are fractionated and it is found that the biological activities are readily separated. by Orel-filtration procedures. A thin-layer chromatographic technique is developed in an attempt to identify more precisely the factors that affect egg - yolk emulsion. A cytopathic effect that is produced by the soluble products of Cl. oedematiens is investigated, and is provisionally attributed to the presence of the alpha antigen.The experimental observations are discussed in relation to our present knowledge of Cl. oede .atiens e d future lines of research are indicated

Stability of hexagonal solidification patterns

We investigate the dynamics of cellular solidification patterns using three-dimensional phase-field simulations. The cells can organize into stable hexagonal patterns or exhibit unsteady evolutions. We identify the relevant secondary instabilities of regular hexagonal arrays and find that the stability boundaries depend significantly on the strength of crystalline anisotropy. We also find multiplet states that can be reached by applying well-defined perturbations to a pre-existing hexagonal array.Comment: Minor changes, mainly in introduction and conclusion, one reference adde

Multi-physics ensemble snow modelling in the western Himalaya

Combining multiple data sources with multi-physics simulation frameworks offers new potential to extend snow model inter-comparison efforts to the Himalaya. As such, this study evaluates the sensitivity of simulated regional snow cover and runoff dynamics to different snowpack process representations. The evaluation is based on a spatially distributed version of the Factorial Snowpack Model (FSM) set up for the Astore catchment in the upper Indus basin. The FSM multi-physics model was driven by climate fields from the High Asia Refined Analysis (HAR) dynamical downscaling product. Ensemble performance was evaluated primarily using MODIS remote sensing of snow-covered area, albedo and land surface temperature. In line with previous snow model inter-comparisons, no single FSM configuration performs best in all of the years simulated. However, the results demonstrate that performance variation in this case is at least partly related to inaccuracies in the sequencing of inter-annual variation in HAR climate inputs, not just FSM model limitations. Ensemble spread is dominated by interactions between parameterisations of albedo, snowpack hydrology and atmospheric stability effects on turbulent heat fluxes. The resulting ensemble structure is similar in different years, which leads to systematic divergence in ablation and mass balance at high elevations. While ensemble spread and errors are notably lower when viewed as anomalies, FSM configurations show important differences in their absolute sensitivity to climate variation. Comparison with observations suggests that a subset of the ensemble should be retained for climate change projections, namely those members including prognostic albedo and liquid water retention, refreezing and drainage processes

Medullary thyroid cancer in a 9-week-old infant with familial MEN 2B: Implications for timing of prophylactic thyroidectomy

BACKGROUND: Patients with Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia type 2 (MEN 2) are at high risk of developing aggressive medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) in childhood, with the highest risk in those with MEN type 2B (of whom >95% have an M918T RET proto-oncogene mutation). Metastatic MTC has been reported as young as 3 months of age. Current guidelines recommend prophylactic thyroidectomy within the first year of life for MEN 2B. PATIENT FINDINGS: We report a 9-week-old infant with MTC due to familial MEN 2B. A full-term male infant, born to a mother with known MEN 2B and metastatic MTC, had an M918T RET proto-oncogene mutation confirmed at 4 weeks of age. He underwent prophylactic total thyroidectomy at 9 weeks of age. Pathology showed a focal calcitonin-positive nodule (2.5 mm), consistent with microscopic MTC. SUMMARY: This case highlights the importance of early prophylactic thyroidectomy in MEN 2B. Although current guidelines recommend surgery up to a year of life, MTC may occur in the first few weeks of life, raising the question of how early we should intervene. In this report, we discuss the risks, benefits and barriers to performing earlier thyroidectomy, soon after the first month of life, and make suggestions to facilitate timely intervention. Prenatal anticipatory surgical scheduling could be considered in familial MEN 2B. Multidisciplinary collaboration between adult and pediatric specialists is key to the optimal management of the infant at risk

How young people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds experience mental health: some insights for mental health nurses

This article reports on a part of a study which looked at the mental health of culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) young people. The research sought to learn from CALD young people, carers, and service providers experiences relevant to the mental health of this group of young people. The ultimate goal was to gain insights that would inform government policy, service providers, ethnic communities and most importantly the young people themselves. To this end, qualitative interviews were undertaken with 123 CALD young people, 41 carers and 14 mental health service providers in Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia. Only one aspect of the study will be dealt with here, namely the views of the young CALD participants, which included risk factors, coping strategies and recommendations about how they could be supported in their struggle to maintain mental health. One of the most important findings of the study relates to the resilience of these young people and an insight into the strategies that they used to cope. The efforts of these young people to assist us in our attempts to understand their situation deserve to be rewarded by improvements in the care that we provide. To this end this article sets out to inform mental health nurses of the results of the study so that they will be in a position to better understand the needs and strengths of their CALD clients and be in a better position to work effectively with them

Devil's staircase in kinetically limited growth of Ising model

The devil's staircase is a term used to describe surface or an equilibrium phase diagram in which various ordered facets or phases are infinitely closely packed as a function of some model parameter. A classic example is a 1-D Ising model [bak] wherein long-range and short range forces compete, and the periodicity of the gaps between minority species covers all rational values. In many physical cases, crystal growth proceeds by adding surface layers which have the lowest energy, but are then frozen in place. The emerging layered structure is not the thermodynamic ground state, but is uniquely defined by the growth kinetics. It is shown that for such a system, the grown structure tends to the equilibrium ground state via a devil's staircase traversing an infinity of intermediate phases. It would be extremely difficult to deduce the simple growth law based on measurement made on such an grown structure.Comment: 4 pages, PRL submitte