China’s rise is ushering in a new era of geostrategic contestation involving foreign aid. In many traditional OECD donors, aid policy is changing as a result. We report on a survey experiment studying the impacts of rising Chinese aid on public opinion in traditional donors. We randomly treated people with vignettes emphasising China’s rise as an aid donor in the Pacific, a region of substantial geostrategic competition. We used a large, nationally-representative sample of Australians (Australia is the largest donor to the Pacific). As expected, treating participants reduced hostility to aid and increased support for more aid focused on the Pacific. Counter to expectations, however, treatment reduced support for using aid to advance Australian interests. These findings were largely replicated in a separate experiment in New Zealand. Knowledge of Chinese competition changes support for aid, but it does not increase support for using aid as a tool of geostrategy.

In this study, we have examined ceramic matrix composites with silicon carbide fibers in a melt-infiltrated silicon carbide matrix (SiC/SiC). We subjected samples to tensile loads while collecting micro X-ray computed tomography images. The results showed the expected crack slowing mechanisms and lower resistance to crack propagation where the fibers ran parallel and perpendicular to the applied load respectively. Cracking was shown to initiate not only from the surface but also from silicon inclusions. Post heat-treated samples showed longer fiber pull-out than the pristine samples, which was incompatible with previously proposed mechanisms. Evidence for oxidation was identified and new mechanisms based on oxidation or an oxidation assisted boron nitride phase transformation was therefore proposed to explain the long pull-out. The role of oxidation emphasizes the necessity of applying oxidation resistant coatings on SiC/SiC.

Leading-edge vortices (LEVs) can form and remain attached to a rotating wing indefinitely, but the mechanisms of stable attachment are not well understood. Taking for granted that such stable structures do form, a practical question arises: what is the trajectory of the LEV core? Noting that span-wise flow exists within the LEV core, it is apparent that a mean streamline aligned with the axis of the stable LEV must exist. The present work uses the Navier–Stokes equations along such a steady, axial streamline in order to consider the accelerations that act in the streamline-normal direction to affect its local curvature. With some simplifying assumptions, a coupled system of ordinary differential equations is derived that describes the trajectory of an axial streamline through the vortex core. The model is compared to previous work, and is found to predict the trajectory of the LEV core well at span-wise locations inboard of the midspan. This result suggests that Coriolis acceleration is responsible for limiting the span-wise extent of a stable LEV by tilting it into the wake within several chord lengths from the centre of rotation. The downwash due to the tip vortex also appears to play a role, as the only significant differences between model-predicted LEV trajectories and previous results are in the plate-normal direction.

Background: Low social rank and external shame have been found to be significantly associated with anxiety and depression. However, their relevance to experiences of psychosis has rarely been explored. Aims: This study aims to examine the relationship of social rank and external shame to personal recovery, depression and positive symptoms in psychosis. Method: A cross sectional correlational design was adopted to examine the relationship between all variables. Fifty-two service users, aged between 18 to 65 years, with experiences of psychosis were recruited for the study. Participants were administered outcome measures examining social rank, external shame, positive symptoms of psychosis, depression and personal recovery. Multiple regression analyses were conducted on the data. Results: Significant correlations were found between all variables. Low social rank was significantly associated with lower reported personal recovery, and higher levels of external shame and depression symptomology. The relationship between external shame and positive symptoms of psychosis and personal recovery was found to be mediated by participants’ level of depression. Conclusion: Findings suggest that social rank and external shame are relevant to those who experience psychosis. Therapeutic approaches may need to focus on perceptions of social rank and external shame in working with experiences of psychosis.

Modern experimental techniques, including LIF lifetime and FTS branching fraction measurements, have increased the reliability of atomic transition probabilities in the UV and visible. However, this combination is problematic in the increasingly important IR region, resulting in a significant gap between the capabilities to record new astronomical spectra and the data needed to sufficiently analyze them. To aid in closing this gap, we are incorporating alternative techniques to measure sets of Fe-group oscillator strengths in the near-IR.

In 2011 the Black-faced Spoonbill Platalea minor census recorded a 22% drop in numbers from 2010, particularly at the known large coastal wintering sites. During this period, we discovered two new inland wintering sites for the species using satellite telemetry data, one located in China, where the individual followed the Yangtze river as far as Wuhan (500 km inland), and the other across the Vietnam-Cambodia border (70–200 km inland). Long periods of concentrated use of various freshwater habitats were in evidence for these two tagged individuals (China: 79 days, Vietnam/Cambodia: 91 Days) and in the latter case visual confirmation indicated a larger group of at least five individuals. The importance and potential of inland freshwater environments is highlighted towards the further conservation of the recovering population.

Background: Policy developments in recent years have led to important changes in the level of access to evidence-based psychological treatments. Several methods have been used to investigate the effectiveness of these treatments in routine care, with different approaches to outcome definition and data analysis. Aims: To present a review of challenges and methods for the evaluation of evidence-based treatments delivered in routine mental healthcare. This is followed by a case example of a benchmarking method applied in primary care. Method: High, average and poor performance benchmarks were calculated through a meta-analysis of published data from services working under the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) Programme in England. Pre-post treatment effect sizes (ES) and confidence intervals were estimated to illustrate a benchmarking method enabling services to evaluate routine clinical outcomes. Results: High, average and poor performance ES for routine IAPT services were estimated to be 0.91, 0.73 and 0.46 for depression (using PHQ-9) and 1.02, 0.78 and 0.52 for anxiety (using GAD-7). Data from one specific IAPT service exemplify how to evaluate and contextualize routine clinical performance against these benchmarks. Conclusions: The main contribution of this report is to summarize key recommendations for the selection of an adequate set of psychometric measures, the operational definition of outcomes, and the statistical evaluation of clinical performance. A benchmarking method is also presented, which may enable a robust evaluation of clinical performance against national benchmarks. Some limitations concerned significant heterogeneity among data sources, and wide variations in ES and data completeness.

Interviews with local people and a survey were carried out in 23 counties of south-west Guangxi Province from April 2002 to June 2003 to evaluate the conservation status of François' langur Trachypithecus francoisi and assess the extent and nature of threats to the species' survival. François' langurs were found in only 10 counties compared with their presence in 23 counties before 1990. The total population size is estimated to be 307 individuals in 14 isolated populations. This represents a 90% decrease in population size since the early 1980s and an 85% decrease since the mid 1990s. The primary threat to the langur is hunting, mainly for traditional medicine. Our results suggest that conservation efforts for the species have been ineffectual during the last decade and, even within reserves, few direct management measures seem to have been taken to protect and conserve the langurs. Without the instigation of such measures it seems likely that François' langur will disappear both inside and outside reserves. To ensure the long-term survival of Francois' langur in Guangxi Province increased investment and improved management, planning, and training of reserve managers and staff is required, with a particular focus on the key remaining reserves and sites for the langur. Some of this work is now underway.