Commentary on International Copyright Act 1844

Legislation replacing the International Copyright Act 1838 (uk_1838) and providing that the British monarch could, by Order in Council, grant to foreign authors both copyright protection for works of literature, drama, music and art, as well as performance rights for dramatic pieces and musical compositions. The document contains the following associated material: Bill to amend Law relating to International Copyright 1844 (uk_1844a).
This Act addressed perceived inadequacies of the International Copyright Act 1838 (uk_1838) by expanding upon both the subject-matter and the nature of the rights that might be included in a reciprocal copyright arrangement with a foreign state. It also specifically linked the protections that foreign authors would enjoy within Britain to existing domestic copyright legislation. Following this legislation Britain successfully negotiated a series of bilateral international copyright treaties the first of which was concluded with Prussia in May 1846.
The commentary locates the Act within existing legislative provisions designed to address the problem of the market for cheap foreign imports of British books. It suggests that, regardless of the existence of stringent measures targeting unlawful foreign imports, the British government regarded a system of international copyright protection as integral in both addressing the import issue and in fostering a more secure overseas market in the interests of the British book trade.

Is big best? Queen size, usurpation and nest closure in a primitively eusocial sweat bee (Lasioglossum malachurum).

For primitively eusocial insects in which a single foundress establishes a nest at the start of the colony cycle, the solitary provisioning phase before first worker emergence represents a risky period when other, nestless foundresses may attempt to usurp the nest. In the primitively eusocial sweat bee Lasioglossum malachurum (Hymenoptera, Halictidae), spring foundresses compete for nests which are dug into hard soil. Nest-searching foundresses (‘floaters’) frequently inspected nests during this solitary phase and thereby exerted a usurpation pressure on resident queens. Usurpation has been hypothesised to increase across the solitary provisioning phase and favour closure of nests at an aggregation, marking the termination of the solitary provisioning phase by foundresses, before worker emergence. However, our experimental and observational data suggest that usurpation pressure may remain constant or even decrease across the solitary provisioning phase and therefore cannot explain nest closure before first worker emergence. Levels of aggression during encounters between residents and floaters were surprisingly low (9% of encounters across 2 years), and the outcome of confrontations was in favour of residents (resident maintains residency in 94% of encounters across 2 years). Residents were significantly larger than floaters. However, the relationship between queen size and offspring production, though positive, was not statistically significant. Size therefore seems to confer a considerable advantage to a queen during the solitary provisioning phase in terms of nest residency, but its importance in terms of worker production appears marginal. Factors other than intraspecific usurpation need to be invoked to explain the break in provisioning activity of a foundress before first worker emergence.

Analysis of DNA processing reactions in bacterial conjugation by using suicide oligonucleotides

Protein TrwC is the conjugative relaxase responsible for DNA processing in plasmid R388 bacterial conjugation. TrwC has two catalytic tyrosines, Y18 and Y26, both able to carry out cleavage reactions using unmodified oligonucleotide substrates. Suicide substrates containing a 30-Sphosphorothiolate linkage at the cleavage site displaced TrwC reaction towards covalent adducts and thereby enabled intermediate steps in relaxase reactions to be investigated. Two distinct covalent TrwC–oligonucleotide complexes could be separated from noncovalently bound protein by SDS–PAGE. As observed by mass spectrometry, one complex contained a single, cleaved oligonucleotide bound to Y18, whereas the other contained two cleaved oligonucleotides, bound to Y18 and Y26. Analysis of the cleavage reaction using suicide substrates and Y18F or Y26F mutants showed that efficient Y26 cleavage only occurs after Y18 cleavage. Strand-transfer reactions carried out with the isolated Y18–DNA complex allowed the assignment of specific roles to each tyrosine. Thus, only Y18 was used for initiation. Y26 was specifically used in the second transesterification that leads to strand transfer, thus catalyzing the termination reaction that occurs in the recipient cell.

Modification of smooth muscle Ca2+-sparks by tetracaine: evidence for sequential RyR activation.

Spontaneous Ca(2+)-sparks were imaged using confocal line scans of fluo-4 loaded myocytes in retinal arterioles. Tetracaine produced concentration-dependent decreases in spark frequency, and modified the spatiotemporal characteristics of residual sparks. Tetracaine (10 microM) reduced the rate of rise but prolonged the average rise time so that average spark amplitude was unaltered. The mean half-time of spark decay was also unaffected, suggesting that spark termination, although delayed, remained well synchronized. Sparks spread transversely across the myocytes in these vessels, and the speed of spread within individual sparks was slowed by approximately 60% in 10 microM tetracaine, as expected if the spark was propagated across the cell but the average P(o) for RyRs was reduced. Staining of isolated vessels with BODIPY-ryanodine and di-4-ANEPPS showed that RyRs were located both peripherally, adjacent to the plasma membrane, and in transverse extensions of the SR from one side of the cell to the other. Immuno-labelling of retinal flat mounts demonstrated the presence RyR(2) in arteriole smooth muscle but not RyR(1). We conclude that Ca(2+)-sparks in smooth muscle can result from sequential activation of RyRs distributed over an area of several microm(2), rather than from tightly clustered channels as in striated muscle.

2.4 GHz Class-E power amplifier with transmissionline harmonic terminations

The design procedure, fabrication and measurement of a Class-E power amplifier with excellent second- and third-harmonic suppression levels are presented. A simplified design technique offering compact physical layout is proposed. With a 1.2 mm gate-width GaAs MESFET as a switching device, the amplifier is capable of delivering 19.2 dBm output power at 2.41 GHz, achieves peak PAE of 60% and drain efficiency of 69%, and exhibits 9 dB power gain when operated from a 3 V DC supply voltage. When compared to the classical Class-E two-harmonic termination amplifier, the Class-E amplifier employing three-harmonic terminations has more than 10% higher drain efficiency and 23 dB better third-harmonic suppression level. Experimental results are presented and good agreement with simulation is obtained. Further, to verify the practical implementation in communication systems, the Bluetooth-standard GFSK modulated signal is applied to both two- and three-harmonic amplifiers. The measured RMS FSK deviation error and RMS magnitude error were, for the three-harmonic case, 1.01 kHz and 0.122%, respectively, and, for the two-harmonic case, 1.09 kHz and 0.133%. © 2007 The Institution of Engineering and Technology.

Exploring the perspective of midwives involved in offering serum screening for Down's syndrome in Northern Ireland

Aims. To explore the perspective of midwives offering serum screening for Down’s syndrome.

Background. Previous literature has indicated that the offer and discussion of prenatal serum screening tests with women is complex, and health professionals may influence women’s decisions to accept or decline screening. Midwives are usually the key professional to offer serum screening for Down’s syndrome in the UK but their perspective is relatively neglected in the literature.

Design. An explorative qualitative interview study with 15 midwives employed in a maternity unit in Northern Ireland involved in offering prenatal screening to pregnant women. Data were collected from 1 July 2005–31 October 2005.

Methods. A focused ethnographic approach was used to explore the perspective of midwives.

Results. Midwives reported difficulty in explaining the test to women and felt unable to provide the necessary information to adequately inform women within their appointment time. The test offered (the triple test) and potential pathway of subsequent care, were identified as sources of professional and personal conflict by midwives. The expectation that midwives would provide a universal offer of Down’s syndrome serum screening but be unable to support women regarding termination of pregnancy also created dissonance.

Conclusions. The feasibility of proceeding with a universal serum screening programme for Down’s syndrome is questionable in countries which legally or culturally oppose termination of pregnancy. Professionals practising within environments such as this experience conflict in their role, which affects communication with women when discussing screening tests.

Relevance to clinical practice. As midwives are often, the primary health professional providing information to women, it is important that midwives are key participants in ongoing planning and discussions about screening policy to ensure programmes are implemented successfully.

Power-Combining Class-E Amplifier With Finite Choke

A recently introduced power-combining scheme for a Class-E amplifier is, for the first time, experimentally validated in this paper. A small value choke of 2.2 nH was used to substitute for the massive dc-feed inductance required in the classic Class-E circuit. The power-combining amplifier presented, which operates from a 3.2-V dc supply voltage, is shown to be able to deliver a 24-dBm output power and a 9.5-dB gain, with 64% drain efficiency and 57% power-added efficiency at 2.4 GHz. The power amplifier exhibits a 350-MHz bandwidth within which a drain efficiency that is better than 60% and an output power that is higher than 22 dBm were measured. In addition, by adopting three-harmonic termination strategy, excellent second-and third-harmonic suppression levels of 50 and 46 dBc, respectively, were obtained. The complete design cycle from analysis through fabrication to characterization is explained. © 2010 IEEE.

Evidence for progressive Holocene aridification in southern Africa recorded in Namibian hyrax middens: Implications for African Monsoon dynamics and the

Presented here are stable nitrogen isotope data from a rock hyrax (Procavia capensis) middens from northwestern Namibia that record a series of rapid aridification events beginning at ca. 3800 cal yr BP, and which mark a progressive decrease in regional humidity across the Holocene. Strong correlations exist between this record and other terrestrial and marine archives from southern Africa, indicating that the observed pattern of climate change is regionally coherent. Combined, these data indicate hemispheric synchrony in tropical African climate change during the Holocene, with similar trends characterising the termination of the 'African Humid Period' (AHP) in both the northern and southern tropics. These findings run counter to the widely accepted model of direct low-latitude insolation forcing, which requires an antiphase relationship to exist between the hemispheres. The combined dataset highlights: 1) the importance of forcing mechanisms influencing the high northern latitudes in effecting low-latitude climate change in Africa, and 2) the potential importance of solar forcing and variations in the Earth's geomagnetic shield in determining both long-term and rapid centennial-scale climate changes, identifying a possible mechanism for the variations marking the AHP termination in both the southern and northern tropics. (C) 2010 University of Washington. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The vegetation and climate history of the last glacial cycle in a new pollen record from Lake Fimon (southern Alpine foreland, N-Italy)

The sediments of Like Fimon N Italy contain the first continuous archive of the Late Pleistocene environmental and climate history of the southern Alpine foreland We present here the detailed palynological record of the interval between Termination II and the List Glacial Maximum The age-depth model is obtained by radiocarbon dating in the uppermost part of the record Downward we con elated major forest expansion and contraction events to isotopic events in the Greenland Ice core records via a stepping-stone approach involving intermediate correlation to isotopic events dated by TIMS U/Th in Alpine and Apennine stalagmites and to pollen records from mime cores of the Iberian margin Modelled ages obtained by Bayesian analysis of deposition are thoroughly consistent with actual ages with maximum offset of +/- 1700 years Sharp expansion of broad-leaved temperate forest and of sudden water table rise mark the onset of the Last Interglacial after a treeless steppe phase at the end of penultimate glaciation This event is actually a two-step process which matches the two step rise observed in the isotopic record of the nearby Antro del Corchia stalagmite respectively dated to 132 5 +/- 2 5 and 129 +/- 1 5 ka At the interglacial decline mixed oak forests were replaced by oceanic mixed forests the latter persisting further for 7 ka till the end of the Eemian succession Warm-temperate woody species are still abundant at the Eemian end corroborating a steep gradient between central Europe and the Alpine divide at the inception of the last glacial After a stadial phase marked by moderate forest decline a new expansion of warm broad leaved forests interrupted by minor events and followed by mixed oceanic forests can be identified with the north-alpine Saint Germain I The spread of beech during the oceanic phase is a valuable circumalpine marker The subsequent stadial-interstadial succession lacking the telocratic oceanic phase is also consistent with the evidence at the north alpine foreland The Middle Wurmian (full glacial) is marked by persistence of mixed forests dominated by conifers but with significant lime and other broad leaved species A major Arboreal Pollen decrease is observed at modelled age of 38 7 +/- 0 5 ka (larch expansion and last occurrence of lime) which his been related to Heinrich Event 4 The evidence of afforestation persisting south of the Alps throughout most of MIS 3 contrasts with a boreal and continental landscape known for the northern alpine foreland pointing to a sharp rainfall boundary at the Alpine divide and to southern air circulation This is in agreement with the Alpine paleoglaciological record and is supported by the pressure and rainfall patterns designed by mesoscale paleoclimate simulations Strenghtening the continental high pressure during the full glacial triggered cyclogenesis in the middle latitude eastern Europe and orographic rainfall in the eastern Alps and the Balkanic mountains thus allowing forests development at current sea level altitudes (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved

Pulsating or not? A search for hidden pulsations below the red edge of the ZZ Ceti instability strip

The location of the red edge of the ZZ Ceti instability strip is defined observationally as being the lowest temperature for which a white dwarf with a H-rich atmosphere (DA) is known to exhibit periodic brightness variations. Whether this cut-off in flux variations is actually due to a cessation of pulsation or merely due to the attenuation of any variations by the convection zone, rendering them invisible, is not clear. The latter is a theoretical possibility because with decreasing effective temperature, the emergent flux variations become an ever smaller fraction of the amplitude of the flux variations in the interior. In contrast to the flux variations, the visibility of the velocity variations associated with the pulsations is not thought to be similarly affected. Thus, models imply that were it still pulsating, a white dwarf just below the observed red edge should show velocity variations. In order to test this possibility, we used time-resolved spectra of three DA white dwarfs that do not show photometric variability, but which have derived temperatures only slightly lower than the coolest ZZ Ceti variables. We find that none of our three targets show significant periodic velocity variations, and set 95% confidence limits on amplitudes of 3.0, 5.2, and 8.8 km s(-1). Thus, for two out of our three objects, we can rule out velocity variations as large as 5.4 km s(-1) observed for the strongest mode in the cool white dwarf pulsator ZZ Psc. In order to verify our procedures, we also examined similar data of a known ZZ Ceti, HL Tau 76. Applying external information from the light curve, we detect significant velocity variations for this object with amplitudes of up to 4 km s(-1). Our results suggest that substantial numbers of pulsators having large velocity amplitudes do not exist below the observed photometric red edge and that the latter probably reflects a real termination of pulsations.

Multiculturalism, freedom of religion, equality, and the British constitution: The JFS case considered

In the JFS case, the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom held that the admissions policy of a Jewish faith school constituted unlawful racial discrimination because it used the Orthodox Jewish interpretation of who is Jewish as a criterion for determining admission to the school. A detailed discussion of the case is located in the context of two broader debates in Britain, which are characterized as constitutional in character or, at least, as possessing constitutional properties. The first is the debate concerning the treatment of minority groups, multiculturalism, and the changing perceptions in public policy of the role of race and religion in national life. It is suggested that this debate has become imbued with strong elements of what has been termed “post-multiculturalism”. The second debate is broader still, and pertains to shifting approaches to “constitutionalism” in Britain. It is suggested that, with the arrival of the European Convention on Human Rights and EU law, the U.K. has seen a shift from a pragmatic approach to constitutional thinking, in which legislative compromise played a key part, to the recognition of certain quasi-constitutional principles, allowing the judiciary greatly to expand its role in protecting individual rights while requiring the judges, at the same time, to articulate a principled basis for doing so. In both these debates, the principle of equality plays an important role. The JFS case is an important illustration of some of the implications of these developments.

Reasoning about orchestrations of web services using partial correctness

A service is a remote computational facility which is made available for general use by means of a wide-area network. Several types of service arise in practice: stateless services, shared state services and services with states which are customised for individual users. A service-based orchestration is a multi-threaded computation which invokes remote services in order to deliver results back to a user (publication). In this paper a means of specifying services and reasoning about the correctness of orchestrations over stateless services is presented. As web services are potentially unreliable the termination of even finite orchestrations cannot be guaranteed. For this reason a partial-correctness powerdomain approach is proposed to capture the semantics of recursive orchestrations.

CHEMISTRY IN A PROTOPLANETARY NEBULA

In this paper we investigate gas-phase chemistry in the remnant 'superwind' of a carbon-rich red giant star, during its transition to a planetary nebula. The interacting stellar winds model is used. It is found that during the first few hundred years of transition, significant abundances of a few small molecules and ions (e.g. CH+, CH2+, CH3+, CH, CH2, NH) may occur in the thin, dense, shocked shell of gas predicted by thiS model, but that most molecules observed in protoplanetary nebulae will be rapidly destroyed, through photodissociation by strong UV from the central star. If dense clumps are present during transition, they may allow the gas-phase formation and/or survival of small amounts of some molecules, such as HCN, CN, C2H2, and HC3N, until about 2000 yr after termination of the superwind; and young, fully developed planetary nebulae may show observable amounts of polyatomic molecules by this means. Such clumping may explain the existence of, e.g., HCN in NGC 7027.

Individual and Public-Program Adaptation: Coping with Heat Waves in Five Cities in Canada

Heat Alert and Response Systems (HARS) are currently undergoing testing and implementation in Canada. These programs seek to reduce the adverse health effects of heat waves on human health by issuing weather forecasts and warnings, informing individuals about possible protections from excessive heat, and providing such protections to vulnerable subpopulations and individuals at risk. For these programs to be designed effectively, it is important to know how individuals perceive the heat, what their experience with heat-related illness is, how they protect themselves from excessive heat, and how they acquire information about such protections. In September 2010, we conducted a survey of households in 5 cities in Canada to study these issues. At the time of the survey, these cities had not implemented heat outreach and response systems. The study results indicate that individuals' recollections of recent heat wave events were generally accurate. About 21% of the sample reported feeling unwell during the most recent heat spell, but these illnesses were generally minor. Only in 25 cases out of 243, these illnesses were confirmed or diagnosed by a health care professional. The rate at which our respondents reported heat-related illnesses was higher among those with cardiovascular and respiratory illnesses, was higher among younger respondents and bore no relationship with the availability of air conditioning at home. Most of the respondents indicated that they would not dismiss themselves as

The addition of arsenic trioxide to low-dose Ara-C in older patients with AML does not improve outcome

Most patients with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) are older, with many unsuitable for conventional chemotherapy. Low-dose Ara-C (LDAC) is superior to best supportive care but is still inadequate. The combination of arsenic trioxide (ATO) and LDAC showed promise in an unrandomised study. We report a randomised trial of LDAC versus LDAC + ATO. Patients with AML according to WHO criteria or myelodysplastic syndrome with > 10% blasts, considered as unfit for conventional chemotherapy, were randomised between subcutaneous Ara-C (20mg b.d. for 10 days) and the same LDAC schedule with ATO (0.25 mg/kg) on days 1-5, 9 and 11, for at least four courses every 4 to 6 weeks. Overall 166 patients were entered; the trial was terminated on the advice of the DMC, as the projected benefit was not observed. Overall 14% of patients achieved complete remission (CR) and 7% CRi. Median survival was 5.5 months and 19 months for responders (CR: not reached; CRi: 14 months; non-responders: 4 months). There were no differences in response or survival between the arms. Grade 3/4 cardiac and liver toxicity, and supportive care requirements were greater in the ATO arm. This randomised comparison demonstrates that adding ATO to LDAC provides no benefit for older patients with AML. Leukemia (2011) 25, 1122-1127; doi:10.1038/leu.2011.59; published online 8 April 2011