Henry Toke Munn (1864-1952)

[Munn] came to Canada at the age of 22 and was nearly killed in a shoot-up in the streets of Montreal on the very day of his landing. He became a farmer and then a horse-breeder in Manitoba, and by 1894 he was hunting muskoxen and wood buffalo in the far northwest. He subsequently prospected around Kootenay, joined the Yukon gold-rush as a storekeeper, and acquired the title of "Captain" while serving in the South African war. ... In 1914 Albert dropped off Munn and another man to trade and to search for gold just north of Baffin: that year was enough to convince Munn that there was no gold. Munn shifted his energies to trade. In 1916 he was left for a two-year stay on Southampton Island with six Eskimo families; in 1919 he visited his agents at several arctic posts but did not stay himself; and he spent the winter of 1920-1921 at Button Point, his original station north of Baffin Island. At the end of that stay, he found the Hudson's Bay Company moving north from Hudson Strait in such force that he could not compete, and Munn's backers soon convinced him to sell out .... In the summer of 1923 he sailed in the HBC steamer to turn his Syndicate's assets over to its new owners, and a series of incidents intensified his long-standing dislike of the Company to a deep resentment, mixed with remorse at having to commit "his" Eskimos to the mercy of those he could not trust. ... In the early years of his retirement Munn not only encouraged others to break the monopoly of the Hudson's Bay Company, but he waged a constant propaganda war against it. ..

Hector Pitchforth (1886-1927)

... Although deaf from a very early age, he qualified as an engineer and in the First World War served with the fishing fleet. In 1918 he sailed for Baffin Island in the auxiliary schooner Erme for the Sabellum Trading Company, which was quite the most irresponsible of the various concerns trading between the end of whaling and the entry to the farther north of the Hudson's Bay Company. ... Pitchforth traded through the winter of 1920-1921 and, unusually for a trader, made a number of sledge journeys, naming one fiord after himself. He was removed by Vera in 1921, but in 1922 the vessel was crushed by ice and, more disastrously, James Mutch retired. He had been the only man who really knew the trade, and in 1922 the Eskimo agents were not supplied with goods and their furs were not collected. Furthermore, the agent at Kivitoo went mad and had two people killed before being killed himself. And it was at Kivitoo that Pitchforth was settled by Sabellum's new vessel, Rosie, in 1923. ... But, as Pitchforth wrote that summer, Kivitoo was a poor place for trade, and he was moving back to Cape Henry Kater. ... By this time Pitchforth was not only deaf but suffering from snow-blindness, though, according to impartial witnesses, otherwise fit and competent for his work. But when the Canadian government offered to have him removed by their ship in 1925, the London manager of Sabellum said Pitchforth was "endeavouring to magnify some hardship he has voluntarily undertaken". At that point they might have expected Rosie to remove Pitchforth, but she met heavy ice in 1925, Pearson fell ill, and he landed stores for Pitchforth 480 km to the south, together with the unfortunate Nauyapik, who was also ill. Sabellum was virtually without any revenue for that year, and the London manager was reduced to assuring Pitchforth's brother that supplies had been left at an alternative point on the coast and that Pitchforth would have moved there, although he had no way of knowing what had been done and no way of getting there in any case. The manager did arrange for the Hudson's Bay Company ship to collect Pitchforth and his furs from Kivitoo in 1927, but the plans fell through, and Pitchforth was at Kater anyway. ... On Christmas Day 1926 he wrote in his diary: "Sky a bit clearer to the Southward, a beautiful ruddy flash tinted the ice and snow most beautifully. Not in the least like Xmas to myself and I feel so ill as to be nearly helpless." A few weeks later a traveller noted snow drifted over his doorway, and in due course the Mounted Police investigated and took his body to Pond Inlet for burial. Astonishingly, Pitchforth's death made the headlines when a ship reached Pond Inlet in the following summer: "World's Loneliest Man", and "Alone in the Arctic; Fate of a Gallant Englishman; Deserted and Starved in a Far Northern Island; Hector Pitchforth in War and Peace." Meanwhile Sabellum refused to pay Pitchforth's wages to his heirs until they gave up his diary, which it was hoped would tell where his furs were stored. It did not, and Sabellum collapsed. In fact the publicity was so unfavourable that this was the end of almost all the small trading concerns of that period. Pitchforth might have revived Sabellum had he lived, but in dying he destroyed it and changed the pattern of arctic trade for a generation

William Laird McKinlay, 1889-1983

William Laird McKinlay, one of the scientific staff of the Canadian Arctic Expedition of 1913-18, died at G1asgow on 9 May 1983 at the age of 94. The son of a factory moulder in the industrial town of Clydebank downriver from Glasgow, he became a pupil-teacher at the age of 14 and subsequently studied at the University of Glasgow where he graduated both M.A. and B.Sc. in 1910. It was during his student days that his aid was enlisted by Dr. W.S. Bruce in classifying specimens brought home by the Scottish Antarctic Expedition, and this was to change his life. In 1913 he was teaching mathematics in a Glasgow school when Bruce recommended him to Viljhalmar Stefansson for appointment as meteorologist and magnetologist. McKinlay travelled to Esquimalt, B.C., where he joined the main party aboard Karluk, commanded by the veteran Newfoundlander Bob Bartlett, with Stefansson himself in overall charge. Discord made itself felt at an early stage. When Karluk was trapped in the ice off the north shore of Alaska, Stefansson and his companions went hunting ashore; weather separated them from the ship which drifted to the west while Stefansson occupied himself with the sledge travel, at which he was adept, and discovered new lands to the far north. Karluk turned out to be less than ideal for work in ice, while her crew had only been hired for a round trip and were largely unprepared for privations. After drifting with the ice for over six months, the ship was crushed and sank. Four men made their way to Herald Island where they died. Four others struck out on their own and were never seen again. The others, eleven crewmen and scientists with two Eskimo men, one Eskimo woman, and two Eskimo children, took what supplies they could to Wrangel Island 80 miles away. Then Bartlett and the Eskimo Kataktovik made an epic journey across the ice to the Siberian mainland in search of help. Those who remained on Wrangel Island divided into small groups and eked out a miserable existence in which two died, ...; one seemingly shot himself. The remainder were rescued, thanks to Bartlett, in September of 1914. And McKinlay went to war as an officer in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. Seriously wounded at Cambrai in 1917, he endured a long period of recuperation and limped for the rest of his life. ... He returned to teaching. It was only long after his retirement and the death of his wife, when he was moving with his daughter and her family to a new home in Glasgow, that his Arctic diaries and mementos aroused the curiosity of his granddaughters. He promised to write the story which turned into the book Karluk: The Great Untold Story of Arctic Exploration, published in 1976 when he was 87. Readers of that work, which was translated into many languages, will be aware that McKinlay was somewhat critical of Viljhalmar Stefansson. ... Perhaps his disappointment with Stefansson was heightened by McKinlay's being a scientist working in which he considered a scientific and thus a noble cause, with standards to which he felt Stefansson did not adhere. Yet it was not only in Stefansson that he was disappointed, for when he experienced comradeship in the army he "realized that this is what had been entirely missing up north: it was the lack of real comradeship that had left the scars, not the physical rigours and hazards of the ice pack, nor the deprivations on Wrangel Island." ... [After] ... Karluk had been published, McKinlay turned to the writing of his autobiography, a story which is frequently hilarious and utterly gripping, with the emphasis being placed upon teaching. But it would be wrong to suggest that in old age he slaved over his typewriter. He delayed the revision of Karluk for his publishers for most of a glorious summer in which he felt priority must go to his roses. And when he wrote his autobiography, in his nineties, he still did enough in his garden to win a neighbourhood prize. ..

El conflicto en Siria agrava la vulnerabilidad de los refugiados palestinos

Los refugiados palestinos en Siria se encuentran de nuevo envueltos en un ciclo de conflictos y desplazamiento que exacerba su vulnerabilidad subyacente y destaca la continua necesidad de encontrar soluciones duraderas

Progress towards omnidirectional transformation optics with lenses

We study, theoretically, omni-directional Euclidean transformation-optics (TO) devices comprising planar, light-ray-direction changing, imaging, interfaces. We initially studied such devices in the case when the interfaces are homogeneous, showing that very general transformations between physical and electromagnetic space are possible. We are now studying the case of inhomogeneous interfaces. This case is more complex to analyse, but the inhomogeneous interfaces include ideal thin lenses, which gives rise to the hope that it might be possible to construct practical omni-directional TO devices from lenses alone. Here we report on our progress in this direction

A system for determining Li-ion cell cooling coefficients

Current battery data sheets focus on battery energy and power density, neglecting thermal performance. This leads to reduced system level efficiency since cells with poor thermal performance require larger, heavier cooling systems to maintain cell temperatures in a suitable range. To address this a new metric, the Cell Cooling Coefficient (CCC), has been developed and it’s use as a tool for appropriate cell selection has been demonstrated. It also allows the pack designer to calculate which cooling direction method is most suitable by comparing CCC values for tab and surface cooling. The metric is the ratio between the heat rejected from the cell and the temperature difference between the hottest and coolest point. It therefore has units WK−1 and allows a pack designer to easily calculate the required amount of cooling power for the cell given a maximum acceptable temperature rise. In this paper we describe a system and method for the accurate determination of the CCC with the aim of facilitating wider adoption of the metric. The system is able to reliably quantify the surface and tab cooling CCC of any pouch cell

Systematic review of patients’ views on the quality of primary health care in sub-Saharan Africa

This is the first systematic review of patient views on the quality of primary health care services in sub-Saharan Africa using studies identified from MEDLINE, CINAHL Plus, EMBASE and PsycINFO. In total, 20 studies (3 qualitative, 3 mixed method and 14 quantitative) were included. Meta-analysis was done using quantitative findings from facility- and community-based studies of patient evaluation of primary health care. There was low use of validated measures, and the most common scales assessed were humanness (70%) and access (70%). While 66% (standard deviation = 21%) of respondents gave favourable feedback, there were discrepancies between surveys in community and facility contexts. Findings suggest that patient views could vary with subject recruitment site. We recommend improvement in the methods used to examine patient views on quality of primary health care

Novel Methods for Measuring the Thermal Diffusivity and the Thermal Conductivity of a Lithium-Ion Battery

Thermal conductivity is a fundamental parameter in every battery pack model. It allows for the calculation of internal temperature gradients which affect cell safety and cell degradation. The accuracy of the measurement for thermal conductivity is directly proportional to the accuracy of any thermal calculation. Currently the battery industry uses archaic methods for measuring this property which have errors up to 50 %. This includes the constituent material approach, the Searle’s bar method, laser/Xeon flash and the transient plane source method. In this paper we detail three novel methods for measuring both the thermal conductivity and the thermal diffusivity to within 5.6 %. These have been specifically designed for bodies like lithium-ion batteries which are encased in a thermally conductive material. The novelty in these methods comes from maintaining a symmetrical thermal boundary condition about the middle of the cell. By using symmetric boundary conditions, the thermal pathway around the cell casing can be significantly reduced, leading to improved measurement accuracy. These novel methods represent the future for thermal characterisation of lithium-ion batteries. Continuing to use flawed measurement methods will only diminish the performance of battery packs and slow the rate of decarbonisation in the transport sector

Influence of processing on starch digestibility and gut morphology in the weaned piglet

To overcome the `post-weaning growth check' commonly seen at weaning, the incorporation of antibiotic growth promoters (AGPs) to the diet has been a useful management tool. Recent legislation within the European Union banning the use of AGPs at sub-therapeutic levels in animal feed means that the quality of dietary ingredients used in weaner diets has assumed a much more fundamental role. In order to improve the availability of starch in the piglet diet, processing of cereals is widely practised. However, descriptions of processing techniques used in many studies are simply referred to by name, with no regard of the precise variables used. In addition, many of the feed materials are simply referred to as `cooked' which gives little indication of nutritional value. Five trials were conducted in order to assess the use of raw and processed cereals on diet component digestion, digesta properties and gut morphology in newly-weaned piglets. The main objective was to examine the use of precisely controlled processing variables, such that starch digestibility was maximised with benefits for the gastrointestinal environment. A second aspect of the programme of work reported was the application of a number of analytical tests commonly used in the field of human food science, to examine the physicochemical properties of starch granules, and the changes they undergo upon processing. Using this approach, a comparison could be made between in-vitro (rheological) results and in-vivo (biological) responses. Trials 1 and 2 examined variability between raw cereals. Wheat, barley, rye and triticale were assessed in Trial 1. Wheat (identical batch), naked oats, whole oats and maize were evaluated in Trial 2. Coefficients of apparent digestibility (CAD) for starch and nitrogen revealed considerable variation between the cereals. In Trial 1, there was a strong trend (P = 0.051) for starch digestion to be highest for the rye diet and lowest for triticale. CAD for starch was not significantly affected by cereal type in Trial 2. Despite having more viscous intestinal digesta than other animals (P = <0.001), pigs fed the rye-based diet did not experience any detrimental effects to animal performance. Trial 3 examined the use of raw wheat, of either hard or soft endosperm texture. From 5 days post-weaning, piglets fed the soft wheat diet had a tendency (P = 0.063) to have higher feed intakes. In addition, pigs fed soft wheat diets had significantly less viscous tract digesta (P = 0.029) than those animals fed the diet based on hard wheat. There was no significant difference in CAD for starch between the two dietary treatments but CAD for nitrogen was found to be significantly higher (P = 0.006) in the distal region of the small intestine for pigs fed the soft wheat diet. The results from Trial 3 suggest that endosperm texture of wheat can have an effect on nutritional value, and that wheat of soft endosperm texture is more beneficial than hard wheat for the young piglet. Trial 4 was a 2x2 factorial study examining wheat endosperm texture (hard vs. soft) and degree of micronisation (high cook vs. low cook). CAD for starch was not affected by endosperm texture, although degree of cook was an important factor with significantly higher starch digestion for the high cook diets, compared to low cook (P = 0.047). The use of micronised wheat lessened the reduction in starch digestibility seen on day 4 post-weaning in the small intestine, compared against the decline seen using raw wheat diets in Trial 3. In summary, Trial 4 demonstrated that micronisation can enhance the nutritional value of wheat for the weaned piglet, with degree of cook, a more significant factor than wheat endosperm texture. Trial 5 assessed wheat endosperm texture (hard vs. soft) and degree of extrusion (high cook vs. low cook). Raw soft wheat was used as a control. Results showed that CAD for starch in the small intestine was noticeably higher than in the other animal trials. Starch digestion was significantly affected by endosperm texture (greater coefficients for soft than hard; P <0.001) and by degree of cook (high SME greater than low SME; P <0.001). The use of extruded wheat diets almost eliminated the drop in starch digestion at the 0.5 intestinal site seen on day 4 post-weaning. Wheat of soft endosperm texture responded better to extrusion processing than hard wheat under the conditions of Trial 5. The use of computer modelling was able to demonstrate a correlation between in-vitro starch parameters and in-vivo starch digestion in the small intestine of the piglet

Influence of processing on starch digestibility and gut morphology in the weaned piglet

To overcome the `post-weaning growth check' commonly seen at weaning, the incorporation of antibiotic growth promoters (AGPs) to the diet has been a useful management tool. Recent legislation within the European Union banning the use of AGPs at sub-therapeutic levels in animal feed means that the quality of dietary ingredients used in weaner diets has assumed a much more fundamental role. In order to improve the availability of starch in the piglet diet, processing of cereals is widely practised. However, descriptions of processing techniques used in many studies are simply referred to by name, with no regard of the precise variables used. In addition, many of the feed materials are simply referred to as `cooked' which gives little indication of nutritional value. Five trials were conducted in order to assess the use of raw and processed cereals on diet component digestion, digesta properties and gut morphology in newly-weaned piglets. The main objective was to examine the use of precisely controlled processing variables, such that starch digestibility was maximised with benefits for the gastrointestinal environment. A second aspect of the programme of work reported was the application of a number of analytical tests commonly used in the field of human food science, to examine the physicochemical properties of starch granules, and the changes they undergo upon processing. Using this approach, a comparison could be made between in-vitro (rheological) results and in-vivo (biological) responses. Trials 1 and 2 examined variability between raw cereals. Wheat, barley, rye and triticale were assessed in Trial 1. Wheat (identical batch), naked oats, whole oats and maize were evaluated in Trial 2. Coefficients of apparent digestibility (CAD) for starch and nitrogen revealed considerable variation between the cereals. In Trial 1, there was a strong trend (P = 0.051) for starch digestion to be highest for the rye diet and lowest for triticale. CAD for starch was not significantly affected by cereal type in Trial 2. Despite having more viscous intestinal digesta than other animals (P = <0.001), pigs fed the rye-based diet did not experience any detrimental effects to animal performance. Trial 3 examined the use of raw wheat, of either hard or soft endosperm texture. From 5 days post-weaning, piglets fed the soft wheat diet had a tendency (P = 0.063) to have higher feed intakes. In addition, pigs fed soft wheat diets had significantly less viscous tract digesta (P = 0.029) than those animals fed the diet based on hard wheat. There was no significant difference in CAD for starch between the two dietary treatments but CAD for nitrogen was found to be significantly higher (P = 0.006) in the distal region of the small intestine for pigs fed the soft wheat diet. The results from Trial 3 suggest that endosperm texture of wheat can have an effect on nutritional value, and that wheat of soft endosperm texture is more beneficial than hard wheat for the young piglet. Trial 4 was a 2x2 factorial study examining wheat endosperm texture (hard vs. soft) and degree of micronisation (high cook vs. low cook). CAD for starch was not affected by endosperm texture, although degree of cook was an important factor with significantly higher starch digestion for the high cook diets, compared to low cook (P = 0.047). The use of micronised wheat lessened the reduction in starch digestibility seen on day 4 post-weaning in the small intestine, compared against the decline seen using raw wheat diets in Trial 3. In summary, Trial 4 demonstrated that micronisation can enhance the nutritional value of wheat for the weaned piglet, with degree of cook, a more significant factor than wheat endosperm texture. Trial 5 assessed wheat endosperm texture (hard vs. soft) and degree of extrusion (high cook vs. low cook). Raw soft wheat was used as a control. Results showed that CAD for starch in the small intestine was noticeably higher than in the other animal trials. Starch digestion was significantly affected by endosperm texture (greater coefficients for soft than hard; P <0.001) and by degree of cook (high SME greater than low SME; P <0.001). The use of extruded wheat diets almost eliminated the drop in starch digestion at the 0.5 intestinal site seen on day 4 post-weaning. Wheat of soft endosperm texture responded better to extrusion processing than hard wheat under the conditions of Trial 5. The use of computer modelling was able to demonstrate a correlation between in-vitro starch parameters and in-vivo starch digestion in the small intestine of the piglet