Just add water and salt: the optimisation of petrogenic hydrocarbon biodegradation in soils from semi-arid Barrow Island, Western Australia

We investigated the potential of soil moisture and nutrient amendments to enhance the biodegradation of oil in the soils from an ecologically unique semi-arid island. This was achieved using a series of controlled laboratory incubations where moisture or nutrient levels were experimentally manipulated. Respired CO2 increased sharply with moisture amendment reflecting the severe moisture limitation of these porous and semi-arid soils. The greatest levels of CO2 respiration were generally obtained with a soil pore water saturation of 50–70%. Biodegradation in these nutrient poor soils was also promoted by the moderate addition of a nitrogen fertiliser. Increased biodegradation was greater at the lowest amendment rate (100 mg N kg−1 soil) than the higher levels (500 or 1,000 mg N kg−1 soil), suggesting the higher application rates may introduce N toxicity. Addition of phosphorous alone had little effect, but a combined 500 mg N and 200 mg P kg−1 soil amendment led to a synergistic increase in CO2 respiration (3.0×), suggesting P can limit the biodegradation of hydrocarbons following exogenous N amendment.

A review of Islamic mutual funds’ financial performance and investment style in Muslim and non-Muslim countries

Islamic finance has grown beyond its reputation of providing small-scale banking options and now provides investment and financing options for complex large-scale commercial transactions. Islamic investments are one area that has attracted the attention of investors due to its performance, especially during the economic downturn. The Shari’ah compliance nature of Islamic funds provides an opportunity for those Muslim investors to be part of the global investment sector who have previously been reluctant to invest in conventional mutual funds. The fact that the funds’ managers are prohibited from investing in activities such as weapons production, alcohol production and interest-bearing finance operations, makes Islamic mutual funds also attractive for those Non-Muslim investors who wish to invest ethically. Today there are hundreds of Islamic equity indices offered by Dow Jones, FTSE, MSCI and S&P. Despite the growing importance of Islamic funds, there have been limited studies exploring the performance of Islamic funds worldwide. Due to very limited data sets and not too rigorous analytical methods, these existent studies have neither investigated Islamic funds’ financial performance in noticeable detail nor analysed the investment style of more than six funds. For instance, relevant questions such as the financial performance of Islamic mutual funds’ beyond their investment styles or a difference in performance between funds from Muslim and non-Muslim countries have nearly not been investigated at all. Very recently, a study by Hoepner, Rammal and Rezec (2011) analysed the financial performance and investment style of 262 Islamic equity funds from 20 countries in five regions (Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe, Gulf Cooperative Council-GCC, and North America). As comparison, previous studies did not even analyse 60 funds. Hoepner et al.’s study sampled a period of two decades and was therefore able to test the performance of the funds during economic booms as well as economic downturns. The findings of the study provide new insights into the performance of Islamic mutual funds in Muslim and Western markets and during financial crisis.

Linguistic capital and the linguistic field for teachers unaccustomed to linguistic difference

Teachers in classrooms throughout England are facing a shifting demographic in their pupil intake. Where once the teaching of children whose first language was not English was considered an inner-city teachers’ role, more recent migration patterns have challenged this preconception (Andrews, 2009). In England in particular, this change sits against an historical backdrop of centralised control of the curriculum for English. This article explores how primary school teachers responded to the arrival of Polish children in county settings following EU accession in 2004. Interviews with a small sample of teachers in schools that had previously been mainly monolingual were coded using Bourdieu’s Logic of Practice. Analysis revealed a complex mix of experienced that appeared to rest on assumed pedagogical norms and professionally assimilated external pressures. Discussion centres on the author’s interpretation of teachers’ ownership of linguistic capital and its relationship to linguistic field.

Just another case of treaty interpretation? Reconciling humanitarian law and human rights law in the ICJ

This chapter offers a fresh critique of the approach taken by the International Court of Justice to the relationship between humanitarian law and human rights law. In so doing, it seeks to move beyond the intractable debates that have dominated this area, offering an original account of the relationship that is firmly grounded in general international law concepts of treaty interpretation.

Commentary: not just genes - reclaiming a role for environmental influences on aetiology and outcome in autism. A commentary on Mandy and Lai (2016)

Mandy and Lai (2015) do the field a service in 'reclaiming' the role of pre- and postnatal environmental influences on the aetiology and course of autism spectrum conditions (ASC). This follows several decades where now discredited theories about putative psychogenic and biological disease models held sway, not least in the public mind. We discuss issues that arise from their review; including the need to identify how large the environmental influences on ASC are likely to be; the specificity of these environmental influences to ASC as opposed to a broader range of neurodevelopmental conditions and outcomes; how best to study complex interactions between genetic and environmental influences; and the promise of novel insights into their mechanisms of action. The review highlights current research that aims to better our understanding of the role of environmental factors in the aetiology and course of ASC and, in the near future, may offer the potential for personalised medicine approaches to intervention based on these discoveries.

Terminology matters! Why difference is not incompleteness and how early child bilinguals are heritage speakers

This paper integrates research on child simultaneous bilingual (2L1) acquisition more directly into the heritage language (HL) acquisition literature. The 2L1 literature mostly focuses on development in childhood, whereas heritage speakers (HSs) are often tested at an endstate in adulthood. However, insights from child 2L1 acquisition must be considered in HL acquisition theorizing precisely because many HSs are the adult outcomes of child 2L1 acquisition. Data from 2L1 acquisition raises serious questions for the construct of incomplete acquisition, a term broadly used in HL acquisition studies to describe almost any difference HSs display from baseline controls (usually monolinguals). We offer an epistemological discussion related to incomplete acquisition, highlighting the descriptive and theoretical inaccuracy of the term. We focus our discussion on two of several possible causal factors that contribute to variable competence outcomes in adult HSs, input (e.g., Sorace, 2004; Rothman, 2007; Pascual y Cabo & Rothman, 2012) and formal instruction (e.g., Kupisch, 2013; Kupisch et al., 2014) in the HL. We conclude by offering alternative terminology for HS outcomes.

Working at night and work ability among nursing personnel: when precarious employment makes the difference

To test the association between night work and work ability, and verify whether the type of contractual employment has any influence over this association. Permanent workers (N = 642) and workers with precarious jobs (temporary contract or outsourced; N = 552) were interviewed and filled out questionnaires concerning work hours and work ability index. They were classified into: never worked at night, ex-night workers, currently working up to five nights, and currently working at least six nights/2-week span. After adjusting for socio-demography and work variables, current night work was significantly associated with inadequate WAI (vs. day work with no experience in night work) only for precarious workers (OR 2.00, CI 1.01-3.95 and OR 1.85, CI 1.09-3.13 for those working up to five nights and those working at least six nights in 2 weeks, respectively). Unequal opportunities at work and little experience in night work among precarious workers may explain their higher susceptibility to night work.

End-of-life practices in seven Brazilian pediatric intensive care units

Objective: To evaluate the incidence of life support limitation and medical practices in the last 48 hrs of life of children in seven Brazilian pediatric intensive care units (PICUs). Design. Cross-sectional multicenter retrospective study based on medical chart review. Setting: Seven PICUs belonging to university and tertiary hospitals located in three Brazilian regions: two in Porto Alegre (southern region), two in Sao Paulo (southeastern region), and three in Salvador (northeastern region). Patients. Medical records of all children who died in seven PICUs from January 2003 to December 2004. Deaths in the first 24 hrs of admission to the PICU and brain death were excluded. Interventions: Two pediatric intensive care residents from each PICU were trained to fill out a standard protocol (K = 0.9) to record demographic data and all medical management provided in the last 48 hrs of life (inotropes, sedatives, mechanical ventilation, full resuscitation maneuvers or not). Student`s t-test, analysis of variance, chi-square test, and relative risk were used for comparison of data. Measurements and Main Results. Five hundred and sixty-one deaths were identified; 97 records were excluded (61 because of brain death and 36 due to <24 hrs in the PICU). Thirty-six medical charts could not be found. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation was performed in 242 children (57%) with a significant difference between the southeastern and northeastern regions (p =.0003). Older age (p = .025) and longer PICU stay (p = .001) were associated with do-not-resuscitate orders. In just 52.5% of the patients with life support limitation, the decision was clearly recorded in the medical chart. No ventilatory support was provided in 14 cases. Inotropic drug infusions were maintained or increased in 66% of patients with do-not-resuscitate orders. Conclusions. The incidence of life support limitation has increased among Brazilian PICUs but with significant regional differences. Do-not-resuscitate orders are still the most common practice, with scarce initiatives for withdrawing or withholding life support measures.

Electrification of precipitating systems over the Amazon: Physical processes of thunderstorm development

This study investigated the physical processes involved in the development of thunderstorms over southwestern Amazon by hypothesizing causalities for the observed cloud-to-ground lightning variability and the local environmental characteristics. Southwestern Amazon experiences every year a large variety of environmental factors, such as the gradual increase in atmospheric moisture, extremely high pollution due to biomass burning, and intense deforestation, which directly affects cloud development by differential surface energy partition. In the end of the dry period it was observed higher percentages of positive cloud-to-ground (+CG) lightning due to a relative increase in +CG dominated thunderstorms (positive thunderstorms). Positive (negative) thunderstorms initiated preferentially over deforested (forest) areas with higher (lower) cloud base heights, shallower (deeper) warm cloud depths, and higher (lower) convective potential available energy. These features characterized the positive (negative) thunderstorms as deeper (relatively shallower) clouds, stronger (relatively weaker) updrafts with enhanced (decreased) mixed and cold vertically integrated liquid. No significant difference between thunderstorms (negative and positive) and nonthunderstorms were observed in terms of atmospheric pollution, once the atmosphere was overwhelmed by pollution leading to an updraft-limited regime. However, in the wet season both negative and positive thunderstorms occurred during periods of relatively higher aerosol concentration and differentiated size distributions, suggesting an aerosol-limited regime where cloud electrification could be dependent on the aerosol concentration to suppress the warm and enhance the ice phase. The suggested causalities are consistent with the invoked hypotheses, but they are not observed facts; they are just hypotheses based on plausible physical mechanisms.

Putative antinociceptive action of nitric oxide in the caudal part of the spinal trigeminal nucleus during chronic carrageenan-induced arthritis in the rat temporomandibular joint

In order to investigate a putative role for nitric oxide (NO) in the central nociceptive processing following carrageenan-induced arthritis in the rat temporomandibular joint (TMJ), we analyzed the immunoreactivity, gene expression and activity of nitric oxide synthases (NOS) in the caudal part of the spinal trigeminal nucleus (Sp5C) during the acute (24 h), chronic (15 days) and chronic-active (14 days-24 h) arthritis. In addition, evaluation of head-withdrawal threshold was carried out in all phases of arthritis under chronic inhibition of nNOS with the selective inhibitor 7-nitroindazole (7-NI). Neurons with nNOS-like immunoreactivity (nNOS-LI) were concentrated mainly in the lamina II of the Sp5C, showing no significant statistical difference during arthritis. Only a discrete percentage of nNOS-LI neurons expressed Fos immunoreactivity. The mRNA expression for both nNOS and endothelial nitric oxide synthases (eNOS) presented no noticeable differences among the groups. No expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) was detected in the Sp5C by either immunohistochemistry or reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RTPCR). Ca(2+)-dependent NOS activity in the ipsilateral Sp5C was significantly higher (108.3 +/- 49.2%; P<0.01) in animals during the chronic arthritis. Interestingly, this increased activity was completely abolished 24 h later, in the chronic-active arthritis. Finally, head-withdrawal threshold decreased significantly in the chronic arthritis in animals under 7-NI chronic inhibition. In conclusion, nNOS immunoreactivity and mRNA expression are stable in the Sp5C during TMJ arthritis evolution, but its activity significantly increases in the chronic-phases supporting an antinociceptive role of the nNOS as evidenced by pain threshold experiment. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Jämförande analys mellan svenska och portugisiska reklambyråer. : Saker som är bra att veta om man ska arbeta som grafisk formgivare i Sverige eller i Portugal

If you move from Sweden to Portugal to work as an Art Director at an Ad agency, there are certain things you ought to know. Perhaps even before you decide to move. There are a lot of things that are quite different if you compare Portugal to Sweden, not only the language, but also the design, software, working hours and much more. You have for example two month with double salary, you work till six p.m. and when it comes to maternity leave, you have 100% compensation with no taxes the first four months of every pregnancy. The tasks you have to handle as an Art Director in Portugal may, as in Sweden, be various. The difference is more how you solve your task and what the design looks like. As a Swede in Portugal the solution will probably look like a mixture between the Portuguese “expressive” and the Swedish “clean” design. This degree project discusses questions that might turn up when a Swede gets employed as an Art Director in Portugal. What will the salary be? When, in the morning, is it time to show up at the office? How many weeks of vacations are entitled? There are a lot of distinctions, but also a lot of similarities. The report is mainly based upon the author’s own experiences of the Ad agency McCann-Erickson in Lisbon. The history of McCann-Erickson starts in New York, 1930 and grew rapidly into one of the leading corporation with agencies all over the world. It is still today one of the world’s largest Ad company with clients like Coca-Cola and General Motors, and the slogan “truth well told” still lights up all their agencies after almost a century, just like a leading star.

Language Dominance in Early and Late Bilinguals

The proposed presentation is a progress report from a project which is aimed at establishing some phonetic correlates of language dominance in various kinds of bilingual situations. The current object of study is Swedish students starting in classes which prepare for the International Baccalaureate (IB) programme. The IB classes in Sweden are taught in English, except for classes in Swedish and foreign languages. This means that after they enter the programme the students are exposed to and speak a good deal more English than previously.The assumption made by many students that they will, on the one hand not “damage” their Swedish, and on the other will dramatically improve their English simply by attending an English-medium school will be tested. The linguistic background of the students studied and their reasons for choosing the IB programme will be established. Their English and Swedish proficiency will be tested according to various parameters (native-like syntax, perceived foreign accent, the timing of vowels and consonants in VC sequences, vocabulary mobilisation) on arrival at the school, and again after one and three years at the school. The initial recordings are now underway.In a preliminary study involving just three young people who were bilingual in Swedish and English, the timing of the pronunciation of (C)VC syllables in Swedish and English was studied. The results of this investigation indicate that it may be possible to establish language dominance in bilingual speakers using timing data. It was found that the three subjects differed systematically in their pronunciation of the target words. One subject (15 years old), who was apparently native-like in both languages, had the V-C timing of both Swedish and English words of a native speaker of English. His brother (17 years old), who had a noticeable Swedish accent in English, pronounced both Swedish and English words in this respect like a native speaker of Swedish. The boys’ sister (9 years old) apparently had native-like timing in both languages.

More than Just the Final Straw: Stolen Elections as Revolutionary Triggers

Stolen elections are triggering events that overcome barriers to revolutionary action against electoral authoritarian regimes. They mobilize ordinary citizens, strengthen the opposition, and divide the regime. As neo-institutionalist theories of revolution suggest, the relative openness of electoral authoritarianism inhibits mass protest. But when elections are stolen, regimes undergo “closure,” increasing the probability of protest. The failure of other potential revolutionary precipitants underlines that stolen elections are not merely replaceable final straws. Stolen elections have not only been crucial for the emergence of revolutionary situations, they have shaped outcomes as well. Linking popular mobilization to fraudulent elections has become part of the repertoire of contention of democratic revolutionaries.