Regional impacts of climate change

The chapter provides an overview of major climate change impacts, at the regional scale.

A refined LEED analysis of water on Ru{0001}: an experimental test of the partial dissociation model

Despite a number of earlier studies which seemed to confirm molecular adsorption of water on close-packed surfaces of late transition metals, new controversy has arisen over a recent theoretical work by Feibelman, according to which partial dissociation occurs on the Ru{0001} surface leading to a mixed (H2O + OH + H) superstructure. Here, we present a refined LEED-IV analysis of the (root3 x root3)R30degrees-D2O-Ru{0001} structure, testing explicitly this new model by Feibelman. Our results favour the model proposed earlier by Held and Menzel assuming intact water molecules with almost coplanar oxygen atoms and out-of-plane hydrogen atoms atop the slightly higher oxygen atoms. The partially dissociated model with an almost identical arrangement of oxygen atoms can, however, not unambiguously be excluded, especially when the single hydrogen atoms are not present in the surface unit cell. In contrast to the earlier LEED-IV analysis, we can, however, clearly exclude a buckled geometry of oxygen atoms.

Modelling of surface identifying characteristics using Fourier series

Texture and small-scale surface details are widely recognised as playing an important role in the haptic identification of objects. In order to simulate realistic textures in haptic virtual environments, it has become increasingly necessary to identify a robust technique for modelling of surface profiles. This paper describes a method whereby Fourier series spectral analysis is employed in order to describe the measured surface profiles of several characteristic surfaces. The results presented suggest that a bandlimited Fourier series can be used to provide a realistic approximation to surface amplitude profiles.

The Spanish Ambassador and Samuel Daniel's Vision of the Twelve Goddesses: A New Document [with text]

The performance of Samuel Daniel's masque The Vision of the Twelve Goddesses at court on January 8, 1604 took place in the midst of the preliminary negotiations that would lead to the signing of the Anglo-Spanish peace at Somerset House the following August. Philip III sent a special ambassador to England to congratulate James on his accession, and a series of tussles between Juan de Tassis and his French counterpart ensued. As a recently-discovered document in the Archivo General de Simancas reveals, Anna of Denmark intervened personally to insure that de Tassis, and not the Frenchman, attended the masque. This was a clear signal of James and Anna's peace aims, which de Tassis conveyed to the King of Spain; moreover, he enclosed in his dispatch a text of Daniel's masque which he clearly considered both political intelligence and of interest to the theater-loving Hapsburg monarch. The Simancas text of the Daniel masque is a new version, hitherto unknown, which adds to our knowledge of the circumstances in which the first Stuart masque was performed. Here we present a transcription and annotated translation of both de Tassis' letter and the text of the masque he had compiled for Philip III. (B. C.-E. and M. H.)

Euthydemoss of Bactria

Euthydemos I (ca. 260–200 bce) was king of Bactria from around 230. He founded a dynasty which, most notably under his son Demetrios I, extended the control of the Greco-Bactrian kings south of the Hindu Kush into Arachosia and India.

The credit relationship between Henry III and merchants of Douai and Ypres, 1247-70

This article looks at an important but neglected aspect of medieval sovereign debt, namely ‘accounts payable’ owed by the Crown to merchants and employees. It focuses on the unusually well-documented relationship between Henry III, King of England between 1216 and 1272, and Flemish merchants from the towns of Douai and Ypres, who provided cloth on credit to the royal wardrobe. From the surviving royal documents, we reconstruct the credit advanced to the royal wardrobe by the merchants of Ypres and Douai for each year between 1247 and 1270, together with the king's repayment history. The interactions between the king and the merchants are then analysed. The insights from this analysis are applied to the historical data to explain the trading decisions made by the merchants during this period, as well as why the strategies of the Yprois sometimes differed from those of the Douaissiens.

The effect of class size on student achievement: evidence from Bangladesh

This study examines the effect of class size on student achievement in Bangladesh using national secondary school survey data. A Ministry of Education rule regarding allocation of teachers to secondary grades is exploited to construct an instrument for class size. This rule causes a discontinuity between grade enrolment and class size thereby generating exogenous variation in the latter. It is found that OLS and IV estimates of class size effects have perverse signs: both yield a positive coefficient on the class size variable. The results suggest that reduction in class size in secondary grades is not efficient in a developing country like Bangladesh. Last, as by-product, some evidence is found suggesting that greater competition among schools improve student achievement.

A dynamic model of neurovascular coupling: Implications for blood vessel dilation and constriction

Neurovascular coupling in response to stimulation of the rat barrel cortex was investigated using concurrent multichannel electrophysiology and laser Doppler flowmetry. The data were used to build a linear dynamic model relating neural activity to blood flow. Local field potential time series were subject to current source density analysis, and the time series of a layer IV sink of the barrel cortex was used as the input to the model. The model output was the time series of the changes in regional cerebral blood flow (CBF). We show that this model can provide excellent fit of the CBF responses for stimulus durations of up to 16 s. The structure of the model consisted of two coupled components representing vascular dilation and constriction. The complex temporal characteristics of the CBF time series were reproduced by the relatively simple balance of these two components. We show that the impulse response obtained under the 16-s duration stimulation condition generalised to provide a good prediction to the data from the shorter duration stimulation conditions. Furthermore, by optimising three out of the total of nine model parameters, the variability in the data can be well accounted for over a wide range of stimulus conditions. By establishing linearity, classic system analysis methods can be used to generate and explore a range of equivalent model structures (e.g., feed-forward or feedback) to guide the experimental investigation of the control of vascular dilation and constriction following stimulation.

Anti-Slavic imagery in German radical nationalist discourse at the turn of the twentieth century: a prelude to Nazi ideology?

By applying methods of cognitive metaphor theory, Jaworska examines metaphorical scenarios employed in the discourse of anti-Slavism, which featured prominently in radical nationalist propaganda in Germany at the turn of the twentieth century. She does so by analysing metaphorical expressions used to refer to the Polish population living in the eastern provinces of Prussia, in the so-called Ostmark. Her article is based on an analysis of a range of pamphlets and newspaper articles written by some of the leading figures of two nationalist organizations: the Pan-German League (Alldeutscher Verband) and the Eastern Marches Society(Ostmarkenverein). The main research questions it addresses are: What kind of metaphoric scenarios were used to depict the Polish minority, and to what extent were the metaphorical patterns of anti-Slavic imagery similar to those employed in the antisemitic propaganda of the Nazi era? Is there a discursive continuity between the radical nationalism of imperial Germany and the National Socialism of the Third Reich at the level of metaphorical scenarios? Ultimately, Jaworska attempts to contribute to a better understanding of the cognitive mechanisms underlying radical and essentially racist attitudes.

Design, implementation and interpretation of in vitro batchculture experiments to assess enteric methane mitigation in ruminants—a review

In vitro fermentation techniques (IVFT) have been widely used to evaluate the nutritivevalue of feeds for ruminants and in the last decade to assess the effect of different nutritionalstrategies on methane (CH4) production. However, many technical factors may influencethe results obtained. The present review has been prepared by the ‘Global Network’ FACCE-JPI international research consortium to provide a critical evaluation of the main factorsthat need to be considered when designing, conducting and interpreting IVFT experimentsthat investigate nutritional strategies to mitigate CH4emission from ruminants. Given theincreasing and wide-scale use of IVFT, there is a need to critically review reports in the lit-erature and establish what criteria are essential to the establishment and implementationof in vitro techniques. Key aspects considered include: i) donor animal species and numberof animal used, ii) diet fed to donor animals, iii) collection and processing of rumen fluidas inoculum, iv) choice of substrate and incubation buffer, v) incubation procedures andCH4measurements, vi) headspace gas composition and vii) comparability of in vitro andin vivo measurements. Based on an evaluation of experimental evidence, a set of techni-cal recommendations are presented to harmonize IVFT for feed evaluation, assessment ofrumen function and CH4production.

Extensive microsatellite diversity in the human malaria parasite Plasmodium vivax

The population structure of Plasmodium vivax remains elusive. The markers of choice for large-scale population genetic studies of eukaryotes, short tandem repeats known as microsatellites, have been recently reported to be less polymorphic in R vivax. Here we investigate the microsatellite diversity and geographic structure in P vivax, at both local and global levels, using 14 new markers consisting of tri- or tetranucleotide repeats. The local-level analysis, which involved 50 field isolates from Sri Lanka, revealed unexpectedly high diversity (average virtual heterozygosity [H-E], 0.807) and significant multilocus linkage disequilibrium in this region of low malaria endemicity. Multiple-clone infections occurred in 60% of isolates sampled in 2005. The global-level analysis of field isolates or monkey-adapted strains identified 150 unique haplotypes among 164 parasites from four continents. Individual P. vivax isolates could not be unambiguously assigned to geographic populations. For example, we found relatively low divergence among parasites from Central America, Africa, Southeast Asia and Oceania, but substantial differentiation between parasites from the same continent (South Asia and Southeast Asia) or even from the same country (Brazil). Parasite relapses, which may extend the duration of P. vivax carriage in humans, are suggested to facilitate the spread of strains across continents, breaking down any pre-existing geographic structure. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.