Nudging or ‘choice architecture’ refers to strategic changes in the environment that are anticipated to alter people’s behaviour in a predictable way, without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives. Nudging strategies may be used to promote healthy eating behaviour. However, to date, the scientific evidence has not been systematically reviewed to enable practitioners and policymakers to implement, or argue for the implementation of, specific measures to support nudging strategies. This systematic review investigated the effect of positional changes of food placement on food choice. In total, seven scientific databases were searched using relevant keywords to identify interventions that manipulated food position (proximity or order) to generate a change in food selection, sales or consumption, among normal-weight or overweight individuals across any age group. From 2576 identified articles, fifteen articles comprising eighteen studies met our inclusion criteria. This review has identified that manipulation of food product order or proximity can influence food choice. Such approaches offer promise in terms of impacting on consumer behaviour. However, there is a need for high-quality studies that quantify the magnitude of positional effects on food choice in conjunction with measuring the impact on food intake, particularly in the longer term. Future studies should use outcome measures such as change in grams of food consumed or energy intake to quantify the impact on dietary intake and potential impacts on nutrition-related health. Research is also needed to evaluate potential compensatory behaviours secondary to such interventions.

The processes that led to the onset and evolution of the North Atlantic Igneous Province (NAIP) have been a theme of debate in the past decades. A popular theory has been that the impingement on the lower lithosphere of a hot mantle plume (the ‘Ancestral Iceland’ plume) initiated the first voluminous outbursts of lava and initiated rifting in the North Atlantic area in Early Palaeogene times. Here we review previous studies in order to set the NAIP magmatism in a time–space context. We suggest that global plate reorganizations and lithospheric extension across old orogenic fronts and/or suture zones, aided by other processes in the mantle (e.g. local or regional scale upwellings prior to and during the final Early Eocene rifting), played a role in the generation of the igneous products recorded in the NAIP for this period. These events gave rise to the extensive Paleocene and Eocene igneous rocks in W Greenland, NW Britain and at the conjugate E Greenland–NW European margins. Many of the relatively large magmatic centres of the NAIP were associated with transient and geographically confined doming in Early Paleocene times prior to the final break-up of the North Atlantic area.

The literature contains considerable disagreements on the relative stabilities of the members of the copper hydroxyl sulphate family. Titration of copper sulphate with sodium hydroxide is claimed by some to produce only brochantite, while other reports indicate that antlerite and a dihydrate of antlerite are produced in the titration. Most stability field diagrams show that antlerite is the more stable stoichiomer at pH 4 and sulphate activity of 0.05–1. We have reexamined this stoichiometric family by titration of aqueous copper sulphate with sodiumhydroxide and sodium carbonate, reverse titration of sodiumhydroxide with copper sulphate and simultaneous addition of copper sulphate and sodium hydroxide at a variety of mole ratios, concentrations, temperatures and reaction times. We have also explored the reaction of copper hydroxide with copper sulphate and the reaction of weak bases, such as sodiumacetate, sodiumcarbonate and urea, with copper sulphate. Our work indicates that: (1) antlerite is not formed in reactions of 0.05 to 1.2 M CuSO4 with 0.05–1.0 M NaOH or Na2CO3 at room temperature; (2) antlerite is formed in the addition of small concentrations of base (≤0.01 M) to 1 M CuSO4 at 80°C, but not at roomtem perature or with 0.01 M CuSO4 at 80°C; (3) the formation of Cu5(SO4)2(OH)6·4H2O occurs at large Cu2+ to base mole ratios; (4) the compound described in the literature as antlerite dihydrate is actually Cu5(SO4)2(OH)6.4H2O; (5) at mole ratios of Cu2+ to OH– ranging from 2:1 to 1:2 the predominant product is brochantite; and (6) brochantite and Cu5(SO4)2(OH)6.4H2O are converted to antlerite in the presence of 1 M CuSO4 (the latter requires temperatures of 80°C or greater).

The Ksp (ion activity product) values of antlerite and brochantite were determined to be 2.53 (0.01)⨯10−48 and 1.01 (0.01)⨯10−69, respectively, using atomic absorption spectroscopy and Visual MINTEQ after equilibration in solutions of varying ionic strength and pH for six days. These values are in good agreement with those from the literature. However, after 6 months, antlerite in contact with solution is partially converted to brochantite and hence is metastable with a relatively low conversion rate. The Ksp value for antlerite must therefore be considered approximate. The relative stabilities of the copper hydroxyl sulphates are rationalized using appropriate equations and Gibbs energy calculations. A Gibbs free energy of formation for Cu5(SO4)2(OH)6.4H2O of –3442 kJ/mol was obtained from the simple salt approximation.

There was a recent thread on the microscopy listserver by John McCaffrey (who hosted the discussion on TEM calibration at the 2001 M&M facility managers session) and Richard Beanland, dealing with the calibration of TEMs. This discussion was prompted by a calibration question from John Basgen, who was looking for more precision and more long-lived calibration specimens. The discussion complements and extends the one of the M&M 2001 managers meeting on EM calibration (Microscopy Today, January/February 2002, issue #02-1), and we are running this separately from that meeting discussion. (MT-ed.)

Low temperature measurements of differential conductivity in nanocrystalline Si – amorphous SiO2 superlattices surprisingly reveal a clear double-peak structure associated with tunneling via levels of light and heavy holes. Numerical simulations show not only detailed agreement with the experiment but also predict that the studied system has no stable solutions for carrier concentration higher than 1017 cm−3. According to this prediction, partial screening of the external electric field generates current instabilities and oscillations, and that is experimentally observed. The developed model also suggests that a more uniform electric field and stabilization of carrier transport at a higher level of carrier density can be achieved under transient carrier injection.

In recent years, electron energy loss spectroscopy has provided high spatial resolution information on the elemental composition of interfacial reactions. with the use of field emission guns in conventional TEM or STEM, additional information on the chemical, structural and electronic state at grain boundaries and interfaces can also be obtained (e.g. Ref. 1 and 2). in the study of new types of materials for semiconductor applications such as high-K dielectrics, high spatial resolution information of this type is of critical importance as the dimensions of the structures are reduced and the ultimate electronic properties become size dependent. This paper discusses the analysis of near edge structure information obtained at the Si-Gd2O3 interface, a system with great potential for the next generation of gate material.

The preparation of the thin films and the sample preparation details are given elsewhere3 and only a summary of the characterization method and results are described here.

We use Raman spectroscopy to study the size, shape and crystallographic orientation of silicon nanocrystals formed by solid phase crystallization of amorphous Si/SiO2 superlattices (SLs) grown by radio-frequency sputtering. The first and second Raman peaks broadening, their relative positions and intensities indicate the presence of nanoscale Si objects with a degree of disorder (grain boundaries) and strain (Si/SiO2 interfaces). Shapes of Si nanocrystals sandwiched between SiO2 layers strongly influence the Si/SiO2 interface roughness, which is inferred from the intensities of folded acoustic phonon scattering. The averaged crystallographic orientation of Si nanocrystals is determined by polarized Raman analysis. The laterally elongated nanocrystals exhibit <111> preferred crystallographic orientation along the SL axis due to orientation-dependent crystallization rates. These results demonstrate that control over Si nanocrystals structural parameters has been achieved and that solid phase crystallization of nanometer-thick amorphous Si films remains one of the most promising techniques for Si-based nanoelectronic device fabrication.

Canola (Brassica napus L.), yellow mustard (Sinapis alba L.) and intergeneric crosses of S. alba×B. napus were assessed for resistance (antixenosis) to the cabbage seedpod weevil (Ceutorhynchus assimilis Paykull). Pod trichomes did not appear to be a major factor in the resistance of S. alba to weevils. The number of feeding punctures and eggs per pod in S. alba was not significantly different in pods with trichomes than in those where the trichomes had been removed. Choice and no-choice laboratory tests examining feeding punctures and eggs laid per pod suggested that resistance in S. alba is not conferred in the intergeneric cross, S. alba×B. napus. Similar data on feeding and weevil oviposition were found in field test plots. However, despite many eggs being laid in S. alba×B. napus hybrid plants, fewer cabbage seedpod weevil larvae developed to exit the intergeneric hybrid pods. Glucosinolate analyses of leaves, pods and seeds showed that S. alba plants have a high concentration of p-hydroxybenzyl glucosinolate in all three plant parts, but B. napus has no p-hydroxybenzyl. Interestingly the intergeneric hybrid examined in this study had 62% and 60% of p-hydroxybenzyl concentration in the leaves and seeds, respectively, than was found in the S. alba parent. However, pod tissues contained very little (3%) compared with the S. alba parent. It is possible, therefore, that the adult cabbage seedpod weevil feeds on the pods of the intergeneric hybrid and lays eggs in the pod, because of the low concentration of p-hydroxybenzyl glucosinolate, but the larvae then fail to develop as they feed on the seeds containing high concentrations of p-hydroxybenzyl glucosinolate. It should be noted also that this hybrid produced pods that were more similar in physical shape to canola pods and that this may also be a factor determining cabbage seedpod weevil feeding and subsequent egg laying. In addition, both B. napus and the intergeneric hybrid produced 3-butenyl and 4-pentenyl glucosinolates in their pods, and degradation products (3-butenyl, and 4-pentenyl isothiocyanates) from these glucosinolate types, are known to be stimulatory kairomones that attract cabbage seedpod weevil. Further studies are being conducted to examine these factors in more detail.

The effect of late season insect infestation on seed yield, yield components, oil content and oil quality of two canola species (Brassica napus L. and B. rapa L.) and two mustard species (B. juncea L. and Sinapis alba L.) was examined over 2 years. In each year, ten genotypes from each species were evaluated with late season insects controlled with either methyl parathion or endosulfan insecticides, and without insecticides. Major late season insect damage in 1992 was caused by cabbage seedpod weevil (Ceutorhynchus assimilis Paykull), while diamondback moth (Plutella xylostella L.) and aphids (primarily cabbage aphids, Brevicoryne brassicae L.) were major insect pests in 1993. Insecticide application was very effective in controlling diamondback moth larvae and adult cabbage seedpod weevils, but only partially effective in controlling aphids. Higher numbers of diamondback moth larvae were observed on mustard species compared to canola species. S. alba was completely resistant to cabbage seedpod weevil and there was no damage due to this pest observed. Aphid colonization was observed on plants from all species, but infestation on S. alba and B. rapa occurred too late to have a major effect on seed yield. Seed oil content of canola species was significantly reduced by insect damage although oil quality (indicated by fatty acid profile) was not affected by insect attack. Uncontrolled insect infestation reduced seed yield of canola species by 37 and 32% in B. napus and B. rapa, respectively. Least yield reduction occurred in S. alba, where average yield reduction from plants in untreated control plots was <10% of insecticide treated plants. S. alba, therefore, has good potential as an alternative crop suitable for northern Idaho because it can be grown with reduced late season insecticide application.