The environmental qualities of lowcost housing schemes: A case study of the environment of a typical superblock at Hanover Park, Phillip, Cape, in February, 1973

All the coloured townships are located in the Cape Flats, between the Southern and Northern suburbs, which are located along the major transportation routes. 11 For a long time the Cape Flats acted as a formidable barrier to urban expansion and its special character was a major determinant in the growth process of metropolitan Cape Town in its formative stages. During most of this period it remained as unalienated Government waste land, being unsuitable for normal farming operations of the time owing to the sandy nature of its topsoil and its thin clothing of vegetation. It was inaccessible to wagon transport in the absence of hard roads. Overgrazing and firewood collection upset the delicate natural ecology. The removal of the Mediterranean-type flora resulted in shifting sands of the true desert

Pesquisas em reprodução fomentam mudanças tecnológicas na suinocultura.

Projeto: 11.11.11.111

A combined FEG-SEM and TEM study of silicon nanodot assembly

Nanodots forming dense assembly on a substrate are difficult to characterize in terms of size, density, morphology and cristallinity. The present study shows how valuable information can be obtained by a combination of electron microscopy techniques. A silicon nanodots deposit has been studied by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) to estimate essentially the dot size and density, quantities emphasized because of their high interest for application. High resolution SEM indicates a density of 1.6 × 1012 dots/cm2 for a 5 nm to 10 nm dot size. TEM imaging using a phase retrieval treatment of a focus series gives a higher dot density (2 × 1012 dots/cm2) for a 5 nm dot size. High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy (HRTEM) indicates that the dots are crystalline which is confirmed by electron diffraction. According to HRTEM and electron diffraction, the dot size is about 3 nm which is significantly smaller than the SEM and TEM results. These differences are not contradictory but attributed to the fact that each technique is probing a different phenomenon. A core-shell structure for the dot is proposed which reconcile all the results. All along the study, Fourier transforms have been widely used under many aspects

Parity shift and beat staggering structure of octupole bands in a collective model for quadrupole-octupole deformed nuclei

We propose a collective model formalism which describes the strong parity shift observed in low-lying spectra of nuclei with octupole deformations together with the fine rotational band structure developed at higher angular momenta. The parity effect is obtained by the Schroedinger equation for oscillations of the reflection asymmetric (octupole) shape between two opposite orientations in an angular momentum dependent double-well potential. The rotational structure is obtained by a collective quadrupole-octupole rotation Hamiltonian. The model scheme reproduces the complicated beat staggering patterns observed in the octupole bands of light actinide nuclei. It explains the angular momentum evolution of octupole spectra as the interplay between the octupole shape oscillation (parity shift) mode and the stable quadrupole-octupole rotation mode.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figure

Chinese medicine in the West 2009

In January 1985 The Journal of Chinese Medicine published an edited transcript of a discussion called ‘Acupuncture in the West’ between Peter Deadman, Ted Kaptchuk, Giovanni Maciocia and Felicity Moir. It was a particularly popular article and to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the JCM we decided to convene another discussion, in London in March 2009. Present this time were Peter Deadman (PD), Hugh MacPherson (HM), Daniel Maxwell (DM), Felicity Moir (FM) and Volker Scheid (VS). All are past or present practitioners of acupuncture and/or herbal medicine

HIV-1 antibody 3BNC117 suppresses viral rebound in humans during treatment interruption

Interruption of combination antiretroviral therapy (ART) in HIV-1-infected individuals leads to rapid viral rebound. Here we report the results of a phase IIa open label clinical trial evaluating 3BNC117, a broad and potent neutralizing antibody (bNAb) against the CD4 binding site of HIV-1 Env1, in the setting of analytical treatment interruption (ATI) in 13 HIV-1-infected individuals. Participants with 3BNC117-sensitive virus outgrowth cultures were enrolled. Two or four 30 mg/kg infusions of 3BNC117, separated by 3 or 2 weeks, respectively, were generally well tolerated. The infusions were associated with a delay in viral rebound for 5-9 weeks after 2 infusions, and up to 19 weeks after 4 infusions, or an average of 6.7 and 9.9 weeks respectively, compared with 2.6 weeks for historical controls (p=<1e-5). Rebound viruses arose predominantly from a single provirus. In most individuals, emerging viruses showed increased resistance indicating escape. However, 30% of participants remained suppressed until antibody concentrations waned below 20 μg/ml, and the viruses emerging in all but one of these individuals showed no apparent resistance to 3BCN117, suggesting failure to escape over a period of 9-19 weeks. We conclude that administration of 3BNC117 exerts strong selective pressure on HIV-1 emerging from latent reservoirs during ATI in humans

Influence of the 6^1S_0-6^3P_1 Resonance on Continuous Lyman-alpha Generation in Mercury

Continuous coherent radiation in the vacuum-ultraviolet at 122 nm (Lyman-alpha) can be generated using sum-frequency mixing of three fundamental laser beams in mercury vapour. One of the fundamental beams is at 254 nm wavelength, which is close to the 6^1S_0-6^3P_1 resonance in mercury. Experiments have been performed to investigate the effect of this one-photon resonance on phasematching, absorption and the nonlinear yield. The efficiency of continuous Lyman-alpha generation has been improved by a factor of 4.5.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figure