The aim of this paper is to present a unified treatment of certain theorems in Combinatorial Analysis (particularly in enumerative graph theory), and their relations to various results concerning symmetric functions and the characters of the symmetric groups. In particular, it treats of the simplification that is achieved by working with S-functions in preference to other symmetric functions when dealing with combinatorial problems. In this way it helps to draw closer together the two subjects of Combinatorial Analysis and the theory of Finite Groups. The paper is mainly expository; it contains little that is really new, though it displays several old results in a new setting.

In this paper we shall derive a concise formula for the number of Euler graphs on n labelled nodes and k edges. An Euler graph is a connected graph in which every node has even valency, where by the valency of a node is meant the number of edges which are incident with that node. Throughout most of the paper we shall be dealing with graphs whose nodes have even valencies but which may or may not be connected. For convenience we shall refer to these graphs as Euler graphs, although the usage is not, strictly speaking, correct. We shall impose the condition of connectedness in § 4.

The cell growth problem is a combinatorial problem which may be stated as follows: A plane animal is made up of cells, each of which is a square of unit area. It starts as a single cell, and grows by adding cells one at a time in such a way that the new cell has at least one side in contact with a side of a cell already present in the animal. The problem is to find the number of different animals of area n, it being understood that animals which can be transformed into each other by reflections or rotations of the plane will be regarded as the same animal.

By a labelled graph we shall mean a set of “nodes,“ distinguishable from one another and denoted by A1, A2 , …, and a collection of “edges” viz., pairs of nodes. We say that an edge “joins” the pair of nodes which specifies it. We further stipulate that at most one edge joins any two nodes, and that no edge joins a node to itself.

By a “colouring” of a graph in k colours we shall mean a mapping of the nodes of the graph onto a set of k colours C1, C2, …, Ck such that no two nodes which are joined by an edge are mapped onto the same colour. A graph so coloured in exactly k colours will be called a k-coloured graph. Since it is usually possible to colour a graph in more than one way, there will, in general, be many k-coloured graphs corresponding to a given graph.

Cambodia supports populations of three Critically Endangered vulture species that are believed to have become isolated from the rest of the species’ global range. Until recently Cambodia’s vulture populations had remained stable. However a recent spike in the number of reports of the use of poisons in hunting practices suggests the need to re-evaluate the conservation situation in Cambodia. Population trend analysis showed that since 2010 populations of the White-rumped Vulture Gyps bengalensis and Red-headed Vulture Sarcogyps calvus have declined, while the Slender-billed Vulture Gyps tenuirostris may also have started to decline since 2013. These trends are supported by evidence of reduced nesting success. A survey of veterinary drug availability revealed that diclofenac, the non-steroid anti-inflammatory drug responsible for vulture declines in South Asia was not available for sale in any of the 74 pharmacies surveyed. However, a poisoned Slender-billed Vulture tested positive for carbofuran in toxicology tests. This provides the first evidence of a vulture mortality resulting from carbofuran in Cambodia. The findings suggest the urgent need to tackle use of carbamate pesticides in hunting. Proposed conservation actions are: a) prevention of poisoning through national bans on harmful carbamate pesticides and diclofenac and education campaigns to reduce demand and use; b) training of personnel in priority protected areas in detection and response to poisoning incidents; c) maintenance of a safe and reliable food source through vulture restaurants to ensure short-term survival, and d) protection and restoration of large areas of deciduous dipterocarp forests to enable long-term species recovery.

The Virtual Personalities Model is a motive-based neural network model that provides both a psychological model and a computational implementation that explicates the dynamics and often large within-person variability in behavior that arises over time. At the same time the same model can produce—across many virtual personalities—between-subject variability in behavior that when factor analyzed yields familiar personality structure (e.g., the Big Five). First, we describe our personality model and its implementation as a neural network model. Second, we focus on detailing the neurobiological underpinnings of this model. Third, we examine the learning mechanisms, and their biological substrates, as ways that the model gets “wired up,” discussing Pavlovian and Instrumental conditioning, Pavlovian to Instrumental transfer, and habits. Finally, we describe the dynamics of how initial differences in propensities (e.g., dopamine functioning), wiring differences due to experience, and other factors could operate together to develop and change personality over time, and how this might be empirically examined. Thus, our goal is to contribute to the rising chorus of voices seeking a more precise neurobiologically based science of the complex dynamics underlying personality.

The Orion-KL nebula is the closest (450pc) site of high-mass star formation and exhibits powerful outflows associated with protostars. It is also one of only three known star forming regions to exhibit SiO maser emission. Emission in three SiO maser transitions (v=1 J=1 → 0, v=1 J=2 → 1, and v=2 J=1 → 0) imaged by VLBI exhibits an “X” morphology suggesting that the Orion masers form along the outlines of two opposing conical outflows to the NW and SE. At the center of this “X”, VLA observations find emission from an HII region presumably associated with a young star whose wind drives the outflow. The SiO masers probably form along the interface between the stellar wind and surrounding parent cloud. We find that SiO maser emission from different transitions preferentially occurs at different radii from the central star implying that the masers are tracers for physical conditions in the wind-cloud interaction region. On the smallest scales, some individual maser features in each transition overlap both spatially and in velocity providing strong evidence that more than one transition can mase within the same volume of gas.

Rectangular specimens of ice (c. 5 cm × 2 cm × 0.5 cm) were cut from large single crystals (c, 10 cm × 5 cm2) grown from pure water by a modified Bridgman technique. When these specimens were deformed under controlled conditions, slip lines which were predominantly parallel to the basal plane became visible. In some cases short. perpendicular segments were also seen which can be interpreted as evidence for cross-slip in ice. Measurements of slip-band spacings were made on silvered “formvar” replicas of some deformed crystals. These measurements showed that “coarse” slip occurred when the resolved shear stress on the basal plane. σ, was greater than about 0.2 bars, and that the average thickness of the slip lamellae, d (cm) was approximately given by Wakahama’s relationship. (σ−0.2) d = 0.45 × 10−3. At lower stresses “fine” slip occurred, and the relationship between the average thickness of the lamellae and the resolved shear stress was more adequately described by Taylor’s formula, σd = 7.2 × 10−5. It is. however, possible that both coarse and fine slip occurred at higher stresses, but that the fine slip was then below the limit of resolution.

The technique of image sharpening which allows high resolution images to be produced from ground-based telescopes is applied to the problem of photometry in crowded field regions - such as close to the cores of globular clusters. The conditions for image sharpening are discussed and the technique is demonstrated using simple objects (close double stars). Preliminary results from image sharpening of M15 are presented.

The rapid rise in syphilis cases has prompted a number of public health campaigns to assist men who have sex with men (MSM) recognize and present early with symptoms. This study aimed to investigate the temporal trend of the duration of self-report symptoms and titre of rapid plasma reagin (RPR) in MSM with infectious syphilis. Seven hundred and sixty-one syphilis cases in MSM diagnosed at the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre (MSHC) from 2007–2013 were reviewed. Median duration of symptoms and RPR titres in each year were calculated. The median durations of symptoms with primary and secondary syphilis were 9 [interquartile range (IQR) 6–14] days and 14 (IQR 7–30) days, respectively. The overall median titre of RPR in secondary syphilis (median 128, IQR 64–256) was higher than in primary syphilis (median 4, IQR 1–32) and in early latent syphilis (median 32, IQR 4–64). The median duration of symptoms for primary syphilis, secondary syphilis and titre of RPR level did not change over time. Public health campaigns were not associated with a significant shorter time from onset of symptoms to treatment. Alternative strategies such as more frequent testing of MSM should be promoted to control the syphilis epidemic in Australia.

There is little known regarding the transmissibility of human papillomavirus (HPV) between different sites in men who have sex with men (MSM) and heterosexual individuals. We conducted a retrospective analysis investigating all new patients attending the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre in Australia between 2002 and 2013. We describe the prevalence and ratio of the first episode of anogenital warts in MSM and heterosexual males and females. The proportion of new MSM clients with anal and penile warts was 4·0% (362/8978) and 1·6% (141/8978), respectively; which gave an anal-to-penile wart ratio of 1:2·6. About 13·7% (1656/12112) of heterosexual males had penile warts and 10·0% (1121/11166) of females had vulval warts, which yielded a penile-to-vulval wart ratio of 1:0·7. Penile–anal transmission has a higher ratio than penile–vulval transmission, suggesting that the anal epithelium may be more susceptible to HPV infection than the vulval epithelium in females; these ratios are important in modelling the control of HPV in MSM.

Data were extracted from the case records of UK patients admitted with laboratory-confirmed influenza A(H1N1)pdm09. White and non-White patients were characterized by age, sex, socioeconomic status, pandemic wave and indicators of pre-morbid health status. Logistic regression examined differences by ethnicity in patient characteristics, care pathway and clinical outcomes; multivariable models controlled for potential confounders. Whites (n = 630) and non-Whites (n = 510) differed by age, socioeconomic status, pandemic wave of admission, pregnancy, recorded obesity, previous and current smoking, and presence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. After adjustment for a priori confounders non-Whites were less likely to have received pre-admission antibiotics [adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 0·43, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0·28–0·68, P < 0·001) but more likely to receive antiviral drugs as in-patients (aOR 1·53, 95% CI 1·08–2·18, P = 0·018). However, there were no significant differences by ethnicity in delayed admission, severity at presentation for admission, or likelihood of severe outcome.

The likely consequences of disturbance of the mycorrhizal mycelial network in soil are considered, emphasis being placed on the impact of small-scale events upon infection in vesicular-arbuscular and ectomycorrhizal systems. The importance of the intact network is stressed and the effects of its disruption upon infection processes and upon the nutrition of natural plant communities and of crops is analysed. It is considered that the most serious effect of disturbance will be to reduce the inoculum potential of the fungi and hence to decrease the vigour of infections that occur. The impact of these effects is likely to be felt most seriously at the stage of seedling establishment, and the interactions between disturbance events, mycorrhizal infection and plant successional processes are discussed.

The important series of antiquities that forms the subject of this communication was discovered at Hallstatt in the Salzkammergut, Austria, about the year 1869. The exploration was undertaken at the instance of Sir John Lubbock (afterwards Lord Avebury), and it is believed that a journal was kept of the daily results, as appears to have been the case in all instances where authorized digging took place on the site. Unluckily in the interval between 1869 and the present time the journal referring to Lord Avebury's exploration has disappeared, and we thus lack an important part of the information that it should have furnished, viz. the indications as to what objects were associated together, and whether the interments to which they belonged were by cremation or by inhumation. While this loss is much to be regretted, yet the absolute value and importance of the series is still very great, both as typical of the period which stands prominent as the classical example of a cultural turning-point in the history of the arts, and as filling a very serious gap in the evolutionary series in the national collection.

Existing work in the mechanical behavior of thin films focuses mainly on measurement of macroscopic properties without strong correlation to microstructural features. We used transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to characterize the microstructures of free-standing copper thin films both before and after monotonic tensile deformation in an ex-situ thin film tensile testing system, as well as during in-situ loading in the TEM. The defect structures contributing to plastic deformation were investigated with an emphasis on comparison to mechanisms known to operate in bulk copper. The thin film exhibited much lower ductility (approximately 1%) than that normally observed in bulk form (greater than 40%). The predominant plastic deformation mechanisms did not include the typical dislocation activity that occurs in bulk copper, but rather greatly inhibited dislocation interactions typical of stages I and II hardening only. The absence of those structures normally found in tensile-deformed bulk copper is attributed to the differences in characteristic sizes of features within the microstructure available for deformation in bulk versus evaporated thin film material, that is, grain size and film thickness. The thin film ductility is an order of magnitude lower than what has been observed in bulk, ultrafine-grained copper, implying that a pure thin film effect on ductility exists and is significant. Microstructural features both near to and far from the fracture surface regions will be presented.

The Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory at NIST has augmented its laboratory-based research in support of the U.S. commercial microelectronics industry by expanding its efforts in electronics packaging, interconnection and assembly (P/I/A) materials technologies. In conjunction with industry, university and other government agency partners, these new NIST efforts target materials technology issues that underlie the priorities contained within the various electronics industry technology roadmaps. A dominant aspect of the laboratory P/I/A program focuses on the in-situ metrology and data needs associated with the materials and complex material assemblies which comprise today's microelectronic components and circuits.