The microbial decomposition of cellulose

Thesis (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 1969Despite its economic importance, the process of cellulose decomposition by microorganisms is not well understood. Contributing to this lack of understanding are the structural complexity of the cellulose macromoIecule and its natural variability. Nevertheless, the importance of certain factors is clear. These include the degree of crystallinity of the cellulose fiber, its average degree of polymerization, the extent to which cellulose is associated with other materials in the plant cell wall, the amount of moisture available, and the extent of organism-substrate interaction . Laboratory experiments and an analytical evaluation of the roIe of diffusion in ceIIuIose decomposition have emphasized the fundamental importance of the last of these factors, particularly in the ease with which decomposition is initiated

Grandparenting as the resolution of kinship as experience

This article argues that a population of relatively affluent retired people in a small Irish town have employed the possibilities of grandparenting to resolve many of the tensions of contemporary kinship. This includes the tension between the obligations of prescriptive relationships as against the voluntarism of friendship. This is considered against a background shift in kinship studies towards a distinction between kinship as a category and kinship as experience. Kinship as experience often now comprises a series of deep fluctuations during the life course. Experience is also extended by the growth in life expectancy. This makes it still more important that the legacy of an individual's prior experiences of kinship may be partially resolved through the experience of grandparenting. The profound consequences of grandparenting lie not in the relationship to the grandchildren but in the possibilities that grandparenting offers to recalibrate all other kinship relations. These include the relationship with one's own children, the relationship with partners, the legacy of one's prior experience of being a parent, and even the memory of the way one was parented when a child

Ageing with Smartphones in Ireland

There are not many books about how people get younger. It doesn’t happen very often. But Ageing with Smartphones in Ireland documents a radical change in the experience of ageing. Based on two ethnographies, one within Dublin and the other from the Dublin region, the book shows that people, rather than seeing themselves as old, focus on crafting a new life in retirement. Our research participants apply new ideals of sustainability both to themselves and to their environment. They go for long walks, play bridge, do yoga, and keep as healthy as possible. As part of Ireland’s mainstream middle class, they may have more time than the young to embrace green ideals and more money to move to energy-efficient homes, throw out household detritus and protect their environment. The smartphone has become integral to this new trajectory. For some it is an intimidating burden linked to being on the wrong side of a new digital divide. But for most, however, it has brought back the extended family and old friends, and helped resolve intergenerational conflicts though facilitating new forms of grandparenting. It has also become central to health issues, whether by Googling information or looking after frail parents. The smartphone enables this sense of getting younger as people download the music of their youth and develop new interests. This is a book about acknowledging late middle age in contemporary Ireland. How do older people in Ireland experience life today? Praise for Ageing with Smartphones in Ireland 'An innovative and thorough description and analysis of how one small piece of technology has changed the way Irish people live their lives.' Tom Inglis, Professor Emeritus of Sociology in University College Dublin ; 'An innovative and thorough description and analysis of how one small piece of technology has changed the way Irish people live their lives.' Tom Inglis, Professor Emeritus of Sociology in University College Dubli

Reversible self-assembly of patchy particles into monodisperse icosahedral clusters

We systematically study the design of simple patchy sphere models that reversibly self-assemble into monodisperse icosahedral clusters. We find that the optimal patch width is a compromise between structural specificity (the patches must be narrow enough to energetically select the desired clusters) and kinetic accessibility (they must be sufficiently wide to avoid kinetic traps). Similarly, for good yields the temperature must be low enough for the clusters to be thermodynamically stable, but the clusters must also have enough thermal energy to allow incorrectly formed bonds to be broken. Ordered clusters can form through a number of different dynamic pathways, including direct nucleation and indirect pathways involving large disordered intermediates. The latter pathway is related to a reentrant liquid-to-gas transition that occurs for intermediate patch widths upon lowering the temperature. We also find that the assembly process is robust to inaccurate patch placement up to a certain threshold, and that it is possible to replace the five discrete patches with a single ring patch with no significant loss in yield.Comment: 12 pages, 12 figure

A robust surface matching technique for coastal geohazard monitoring

Coastal geohazards, such as landslides, mudflows, and rockfalls, represent a major driver for coastal change in many regions of the world, and often impinge on aspects of the human and natural environment. In such cases, there is a pressing need for the development of more effective monitoring strategies, particularly given the uncertainties associated with the impact of future climate change. Traditional survey approaches tend to suffer from limited spatial resolution, while contemporary techniques are generally unsuitable in isolation, due to the often complex coastal topography. To address these issues, this thesis presents the development and application of a strategy for integrated remote monitoring of coastal geohazards. The monitoring strategy is underpinned by a robust least squares surface matching technique, which has been developed to facilitate change detection through the reliable reconciliation of multi-temporal, multi-sensor datasets in dynamic environments. Specifically, this research has concentrated on integrating the developing techniques of airborne and terrestrial laser-scanning. In addition, archival aerial photography has been incorporated in order to provide a historical context for analysis of geohazard development. Robust surface matching provides a mechanism for reliable registration of DEM surfaces contaminated by regions of difference, which may arise through geohazard activity or vegetation change. The development of this algorithm has been presented, and its potential demonstrated through testing with artificial datasets. The monitoring strategy was applied to the soft-cliff test site of Filey Bay, North Yorkshire. This highlighted the viability of the robust matching algorithm, demonstrating the effectiveness of this technique for absolute orientation of DEMs derived from archival aerial photography. Furthermore, the complementary qualities of airborne and terrestrial laser scanning have been confirmed, particularly in relation to their value for multi-scale terrain monitoring. Issues of transferability were explored through application of the monitoring strategy to the hard rock environment of Whitby East Cliff. Investigations in this challenging environment confirmed the potential of the robust matching algorithm, and highlighted a number of valuable issues in relation to the monitoring techniques. Investigations at both test sites enabled in-depth assessment and quantification of geohazard activity over extended periods of time.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceEnglish Heritage : British Geological SurveyGBUnited Kingdo

Surface Measure to Depth (SMeTD): a new low-budget system for 3D water temperature measurements for combining with UAV-based thermal infrared imagery

Acknowledgements This work was funded by the School of Geosciences, University of Aberdeen, and the Macaulay Development Trust. We would like to thank Dr. Katya Dimitrova Petrova, Dr. Irma Arts, Douglas Wardell-Johnson and Lucas Christie for their assistance in the field. Funding This work was funded by the School of Geosciences, University of Aberdeen, and the Macaulay Development Trust.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Self-Hypnosis for Intrapartum Pain management (SHIP) in pregnant nulliparous women: a randomised controlled trial of clinical effectiveness

Abstract Objective: (Primary): to establish the effect of antenatal group self-hypnosis for nulliparous women on intra-partum epidural use Design: Multi-method RCT Setting: Three NHS Trusts Population: Nulliparous women not planning elective caesarean, without medication for hypertension and without psychological illness. Methods: Randomisation at 28-32 weeks gestation to usual care, or to usual care plus brief self-hypnosis training (two x 90 minute groups at around 32 and 35 weeks gestation; daily audio self-hypnosis CD). Follow up at two and six weeks postnatal. Main outcome measures:- Primary: epidural analgesia Secondary: associated clinical and psychological outcomes; economic analysis. Results: 680 women were randomised. There was no statistically significant difference in epidural use: 27.9% (intervention), 30.3% (control), odds ratio (OR) 0.89 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.64 to 1.24), or in 27 of 29 pre-specified secondary clinical and psychological outcomes. Women in the intervention group had lower actual than anticipated levels of fear and anxiety between baseline and two weeks post natal (anxiety: OR -0.72, 95% CI -1.16 to -0.28, P= 0.001); fear (OR -0.62, 95% CI -1.08 to -0.16, p = 0.009) Postnatal response rates were 67% overall at two weeks. The additional cost of the intervention per woman was £4.83 (CI -£257.93 to £267.59). Conclusions: Allocation to two third-trimester group self-hypnosis training sessions did not significantly reduce intra-partum epidural analgesia use or a range of other clinical and psychological variables. The impact of women’s anxiety and fear about childbirth needs further investigation. Trial registration: ISRCTN27575146 http://www.controlled-trials.com/ISRCTN2757514

Age-specific incidence of A/H1N1 2009 influenza infection in England from sequential antibody prevalence data using likelihood-based estimation.

Estimating the age-specific incidence of an emerging pathogen is essential for understanding its severity and transmission dynamics. This paper describes a statistical method that uses likelihoods to estimate incidence from sequential serological data. The method requires information on seroconversion intervals and allows integration of information on the temporal distribution of cases from clinical surveillance. Among a family of candidate incidences, a likelihood function is derived by reconstructing the change in seroprevalence from seroconversion following infection and comparing it with the observed sequence of positivity among the samples. This method is applied to derive the cumulative and weekly incidence of A/H1N1 pandemic influenza in England during the second wave using sera taken between September 2009 and February 2010 in four age groups (1-4, 5-14, 15-24, 25-44 years). The highest cumulative incidence was in 5-14 year olds (59%, 95% credible interval (CI): 52%, 68%) followed by 1-4 year olds (49%, 95% CI: 38%, 61%), rates 20 and 40 times higher respectively than estimated from clinical surveillance. The method provides a more accurate and continuous measure of incidence than achieved by comparing prevalence in samples grouped by time period

Brief communication: landslide motion from cross correlation of UAV-derived morphological attributes

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can provide observations of high spatio-temporal resolution to enable operational landslide monitoring. In this research, the construction of digital elevation models (DEMs) and orthomosaics from UAV imagery is achieved using structure-from-motion (SfM) photogrammetric procedures. The study examines the additional value that the morphological attribute of "openness", amongst others, can provide to surface deformation analysis. Image-cross-correlation functions and DEM subtraction techniques are applied to the SfM outputs. Through the proposed integrated analysis, the automated quantification of a landslide's motion over time is demonstrated, with implications for the wider interpretation of landslide kinematics via UAV surveys