A new genus of Rhynchonellid Brachiopod from the Lower Triassic of South China and Implications for timing the recovery of Brachiopoda after the end-Permian mass extinction

A new genus, Meishanorhynchia, is proposed based on new material from the Lower Triassic of the Meishan section, South China. It is of a late Griesbachian age based on both associated biozones (ammonoids and
bivalves) and radiometric dates of the intercalated volcanic ash beds. Comparison with both Palaeozoic and Mesozoic-Cenozoic-related genera suggests that it may represent the first radiation of progenitor brachiopods in the aftermath of the end-Permian extinction. The lowest brachiopod horizon that contains the genus is estimated to be about 250.1±0.3 Ma. This implies that the initial stage of recovery of Brachiopoda in the Early Triassic was probably about 1.3±0.3 myr after the major pulse of the end-Permian mass extinction (dated as 251.4±0.3 Ma). This is in agreement with Hallam's expectancy that biotic recovery typically begins within one million years or so of major mass extinctions, in contrast to current views on the end-Permian extinction event which propose that the recovery of most if not all biotic groups in the Early Triassic was severely delayed and only began about five million years after the end-Permian extinction.

At the sharp end : journal ranking and the dreams of academics

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to review and comment on the Australian Government's entry into the journal ranking domain.

Design/methodology/approach – A review and reflection on the approach and potential impact of the direction taken.

Findings – This project is arguably the largest of its type and the effects on academic publishing and the survival of journals could be far reaching.

Originality/value – The article draws together current material on the Australian Government's activities and provides details of the scope of the journal ranking project.

Material flow forming the shoulder flow zone using scroll shoulder tool during friction stir welding of thick section aluminum alloys

Scroll shoulder tools are widely used and they do not need to be tilted during friction stir welding (FSW). However, the detailed material flow, which is important for proper scroll shoulder tool design and subsequently for forming the defect-free shoulder flow zone, has not been fully explained. In the present study, features of material flow in shoulder flow zone, during FSW of thick 6061 aluminium (Al) plates using a scroll shoulder tool were investigated. It was observed that there is a simple layer-to-layer banded structure which appears in the bottom portion of shoulder flow zone, but disappears in the top portion of this weld zone. When the scroll shoulder tool is plunged into the workpiece to a determined depth, the workpiece material is extruded by the tool pin, and pushed up into the scroll groove beneath the shoulder forming the pick-up material. During the forward movement of the tool, the central portion of pick-up material was driven downward by the root portion of pin and then it detaches from the tip portion of pin in a layer-to-layer manner to form the weld.

Internet cognitive behavioural therapy for panic disorder : does the inclusion of stress management information improve end-state functioning?

Previous research has established Internet-based cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) for panic disorder (PD) as effective in reducing panic severity and frequency. There is evidence, however, that such programs are less effective at improving overall end-state functioning, defined by a PD clinician severity rating of ≤2 and panic free. In order to test the effect on end-state functioning of the incorporation of stress management material within a CBT program for PD, 32 people with PD were randomised to either Internet-based CBT (PO1), Internet-based CBT plus stress management (PO2) or an Internet-based information-only control condition (IC). Both CBT treatments were more effective at posttreatment assessment than the control condition in reducing PD severity, panic and agoraphobia-related cognition, negative affect and self-ratings of health. PO2 was more effective than PO1 at posttreatment assessment on PD severity and general anxiety, although at 3-month follow-up these differences were no longer apparent. This study provides further support for the efficacy of Internet-based CBT for PD and suggests that although the incorporation of stress management material confers short-term advantages over a standard program, it is not associated with any longer term improvements on panic severity and related cognitions, negative affect, general wellbeing and end-state functioning.

Extraordinary television time travel and the wonderful end to the working day

In this article I will present two arguments. First, the argument that the time travel television series historically provided viewers with a spectacular temporal and spatial alternative to the routine of everyday life, the regulation of television scheduling, and the small-world confines of domestic subjectivity. Taking the decades of the 1970s and 1980s, predominantly in a UK viewing environment, I will suggest that the special effect rendering of the time travel sequence expanded the viewer’s material universe, and affectively wrenched the television set free from the strictures of scheduling and realist programming. Further, the time travel series readily and regularly took the domestic space, the ordinary day and the everyman/ person into awesome environments and situations that suggested alternative lifestyles and behaviours, with a different existential tempo and rhythm. At a narrative, thematic, meta- textual, and aesthetically spectacular level, television time travel saw to the wonderful end of the working day. Case studies include Sapphire and Steal, Dr Who, and Quantum Leap. Second, the article will argue that rather than the contemporary time travel television series being an extraordinary alternative to ordinary life, they instead articulate convergence culture, deregulation, multiple channel viewing, and time-shift culture where there is no such thing as an ordinary working day or domestic viewing context.

A comparative study of guided wave propagation in timber poles with isotropic and transversely isotropic material models

Guided wave (GW) has been used for many years in non-destructive testing (NDT). There are various ways to generate the guided wave, including impact or impulse either manually or using devices. Although the method of impact or impulse is considered to be simple and practical in guided wave generation, it produces waves with broadband frequencies, which often make analysis much more difficult. The frequency bandwidth produced by manual impacts is usually at the low end, and is therefore justified when dealing with one dimensional wave propagation assumption in low strain integrity testing of cylindrical structures. Under such assumption if the velocity is known accurately, NDTs can produce reasonably good results for the condition assessment of the structure. However, for guided wave propagation in timber pole-like structures, it is rather complicated as timber is an orthotropic material and wave propagation in an orthotropic medium exhibits different characteristics from that in isotropic medium. It is possible to obtain solutions for guided wave propagation in orthotropic media for cylindrical structures, even though the orthotropic material greatly complicates GW propagation. In this paper, timber has been considered as a transversely isotropic (i.e. simplified orthotropic) material and a comparative study of GW propagation in a timber pole is conducted considering isotropic and transversely isotropic modelling. Phase velocity, group velocity and attenuation are the main parameters for this comparative study. Moreover, tractionfree situation and embedded geotechnical condition are also taken into consideration to evaluate the effect of boundary. Displacement profile, wave propagation pattern and power flow at particular frequency are utilized to determine different displacement components of longitudinal and flexural waves along and across the timber pole. Effect of temperature and moisture content (in terms of modulus of elasticity) in timber pole is also compared to show the variation in phase velocity.