A 7000 yr perspective on volcanic ash clouds affecting northern Europe

The ash cloud resulting from the 2010 eruption of Eyjafjöll caused severe disruption to air travel across Europe but as a geological event, it is not unprecedented. Analysis of peat and lake sediments from northern Europe has revealed the presence of microscopic layers of Icelandic volcanic ash (tephra). These sedimentary records, together with historical records of Holocene ash falls, demonstrate that Icelandic volcanoes have generated substantial ash clouds that reached northern Europe many times. Here we present the first comprehensive compilation of sedimentary and historical records of ash-fall events in northern Europe, spanning the last 7000 years. Within this period ten tephra layers have been identified in the Faroe Islands, 14 in Great Britain, 11 in Germany, 38 in Scandinavia and 33 in Ireland. Seven ash fall events have been historically documented prior to the Eyjafjöll 2010 event. Ash fall events appear to be more frequent in the last 1500 years, but it is unclear whether this reflects a true increase in eruption frequency or dispersal, or is an artefact of the records themselves or the way they have been generated. In the last 1,000 years, volcanic ash clouds reached Northern Europe with a mean return interval of 53 ± 8 years (the range of return intervals is between 6 and 112 years). Modelling using the ash records for the last millennium indicates that for any 10 year period there is a 17% probability of tephra fallout event in Northern Europe. These values must be considered as conservative estimates due to the nature of tephra capture and preservation in the sedimentary record.

A scheme for entanglement extraction from a solid

Some thermodynamical properties of solids, such as heat capacity and magnetic susceptibility, have recently been shown to be linked to the amount of entanglement in a solid. However, this entanglement may appear a mere mathematical artefact of the typical symmetrization procedure of many-body wavefunction in solid state physics. Here we show that this entanglement is physical, demonstrating the principles of its extraction from a typical solid-state system by scattering two particles off the system. Moreover, we show how to simulate this process using present day optical lattice technology. This demonstrates not only that entanglement exists in solids but also that it can be used for quantum information processing or as a test of Bell's inequalities.

Reinforced concrete wall construction formed with OSB:First published use in the United Kingdom and acknowledged by Terry Pawson Architects as the source of inspiration for the internal concrete finish of the 2010 Carlow VISUAL Centre for Contemporary Art.

The artefact was published in the following :

Bennett, D., (October 2007), Architectural Insitu Concrete, RIBA Publishing, London, , ISBN 124-3671-245, pp 101-103

Bennett, D., (2008), Concrete Elegance Four, London, Concrete Centre and RIBA Publishing, pp cover, c, 4, 9-12 & back.

Stacey, Professor M., (2011) Concrete: a studio design guide, London, Concrete Centre and RIBA Publishing, pp74-75.

Textbook (non-) adoption motives, legitimizing strategies and academic field configuration

Textbooks are an integral part of structured syllabus coverage in higher education. The argument advanced in this article is that textbooks are not simply products of inscription and embodied scholarly labour for pedagogical purposes, but embedded institutional artefacts that configure entire academic subject fields. Empirically, this article shows the various ways that motives of the (non-) adoption of textbooks have field institutional configuration effects. The research contribution of our study is threefold. First, we re-theorise the textbook as an artefact that is part of the institutional work and epistemic culture of academia. Second, we empirically show that the vocabularies of motive of textbook (non-) adoption and rhetorical strategies form the basis for social action and configuration across micro, meso and macro field levels. Our final contribution is a conceptualization of the ways that textbook (non-) adoption motives ascribe meaning to the legitimating processes in the configuration of whole subject fields.

On the relativistic iron line and soft excess in the Seyfert 1 galaxy Markarian 335

We report a 133-ks XMM-Newton observation of the Seyfert 1 galaxy Markarian 335. The 0.4-12 keV spectrum contains an underlying power-law continuum, a soft excess below 2 keV, and a double-peaked iron emission feature in the 6-7 keV range. We investigate the possibility that the double-peaked emission might represent the characteristic signature of the accretion disc. Detailed investigations show that a moderately broad accretion disc line is most likely present, but that the peaks may be due to narrower components from more distant material. The peaks at 6.4 and 7 keV can be identified, respectively, with the molecular torus in active galactic nucleus unification schemes, and very highly ionized, optically thin gas filling the torus. The X-ray variability spectra on both long (~100 ks) and short (~1 ks) time-scales do not support the recent suggestion that the soft excess is an artefact of variable, moderately ionized absorption. © 2007 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2007 RAS.

Bord Gais Above Ground Installation:Flow

The objective was to design a treatment that would dematerialise an above ground gas installation on the Liffey quayside while still meeting the functional requirement to ventilate the pressure reducing chamber inside. To do this we wrapped the installation in a skin of glass that allows the air to enter below the skin and to escape behind the parapet. The installation building is covered in plastic sequins and the glass is treated with alternating bands of dichroic film. The flow of air causes the sequins to shimmer reflecting spots of coloured light back onto the glass. At night a similar effect is created by lighting concealed within the outer skin. This project won a commendation in the RIAI Awards 2010, and an AAI award in 2011. It was published in New Irish Architecture 26. The British architectural historian William JR Curtis described it as ‘a beautiful understated little kiosk.’

The IQGAP-myosin light chain interaction: what is its function?

The first members of the IQGAP family of proteins were
characterised over 15 years ago. It is now known that these molecules act
at the interface between cellular signalling pathways and the actin
cytoskeleton. They bind to a diverse range of signalling molecules –
including those involved in calcium, GTPase, kinase and growth factor
signalling. One intriguing interaction is that between mammalian
IQGAP1 and the myosin essential light chain isoform, Mlc1sa. Although
this has been demonstrated in vitro, its in vivo role is not known. Indeed,
it would be tempting to dismiss it as an experimental artefact, except for
the existence of a parallel interaction in the budding yeast,
Saccharomyces cerevisae. In this organism, the IQGAP-like protein
(Iqg1p) interacts with a myosin essential light chain (Mlc1p). This interaction is critical for the correct execution of cytokinesis. IQGAP-like
proteins also play key roles in cytokinesis in other fungi. Recent work
implicating mammalian IQGAP1 in cytokinesis may help explain the role
of the interaction in higher eukarytotes.

Electrostatic supersolitons in three-species plasmas

Superficially, electrostatic potential profiles of supersolitons look like those of traditional solitons. However, their electric field profiles are markedly different, having additional extrema on the wings of the standard bipolar structure. This new concept was recently pointed out in the literature for a plasma model with five species. Here, it is shown that electrostatic supersolitons are not an artefact of exotic, complicated plasma models, but can exist even in three-species plasmas and are likely to occur in space plasmas. Further, a methodology is given to delineate their existence domains in a systematic fashion by determining the specific limiting factors. © 2013 American Institute of Physics.