Short-term hunter-gatherer residential camps have been a central feature of human settlement patterns and social structure for most of human evolutionary history. Recent analyses of ethnohistoric hunter-gatherer data show that across different environments, the average size of hunter-gatherer bands is remarkably constant and that bands are commonly formed by a small number of coresident families. Using ethnoarchaeological data, we examine the relationship between the physical infrastructure of camps and their social organization. We compiled a dataset of 263 ethnoarchaeologically observed hunter-gatherer camps from 13 studies in the literature. We focus on both the scale of camps, or their average size, structure, and composition, and the dynamics that governed their variation. Using a combination of inferential statistics and linear models, we show that the physical infrastructure of camps, measured by the number of household features, reflects the internal social organization of hunter-gatherer bands. Using scaling analyses, we then show that the variation among individual camps is related to a predictable set of dynamics between camp area, infrastructure, the number of occupants, and residence time. Moreover, the scale and dynamics that set the statistical variance in camp sizes are similar across different environments and have important implications for reconstructing prehistoric hunter-gatherer social organization and behavior from the archaeological record.

The Numeniini is a tribe of 13 wader species (Scolopacidae, Charadriiformes) of which seven are Near Threatened or globally threatened, including two Critically Endangered. To help inform conservation management and policy responses, we present the results of an expert assessment of the threats that members of this taxonomic group face across migratory flyways. Most threats are increasing in intensity, particularly in non-breeding areas, where habitat loss resulting from residential and commercial development, aquaculture, mining, transport, disturbance, problematic invasive species, pollution and climate change were regarded as having the greatest detrimental impact. Fewer threats (mining, disturbance, problematic native species and climate change) were identified as widely affecting breeding areas. Numeniini populations face the greatest number of non-breeding threats in the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, especially those associated with coastal reclamation; related threats were also identified across the Central and Atlantic Americas, and East Atlantic flyways. Threats on the breeding grounds were greatest in Central and Atlantic Americas, East Atlantic and West Asian flyways. Three priority actions were associated with monitoring and research: to monitor breeding population trends (which for species breeding in remote areas may best be achieved through surveys at key non-breeding sites), to deploy tracking technologies to identify migratory connectivity, and to monitor land-cover change across breeding and non-breeding areas. Two priority actions were focused on conservation and policy responses: to identify and effectively protect key non-breeding sites across all flyways (particularly in the East Asian- Australasian Flyway), and to implement successful conservation interventions at a sufficient scale across human-dominated landscapes for species’ recovery to be achieved. If implemented urgently, these measures in combination have the potential to alter the current population declines of many Numeniini species and provide a template for the conservation of other groups of threatened species.

Previously, the single nucleotide polymorphism in alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH1C c.-64T>C) was shown to have an association with intramuscular fat (IMF) in the longissimus thoracis (LT) muscle when vitamin A was limited in finishing rations of beef steers. The purpose of this study was to determine the optimum vitamin A supplementation level, in combination with ADH1C genotype, to increase IMF of the LT muscle. In total, 45 TT genotype, 45 CT and 27 CC Black Angus crossbred steers were backgrounded on a commercial ration containing 3360 IU vitamin A/kg dry matter (DM). During finishing, the steers were randomly assigned to one of three vitamin A treatments at 25%, 50% and 75% of the National Research Council recommendation of 2200 IU/kg DM. Treatments were administered via an oral bolus. Carcass quality was evaluated and a sample from the LT muscle was collected for analysis of IMF. A treatment×genotype interaction (P=0.04) was observed for IMF; TT steers on the 75% treatment had higher IMF relative to CT and CC steers on the same treatment. Western blot analysis showed that TT steers had higher (P=0.02) ADH1C protein expression in hepatic tissue. Previously, TT steers exhibited increased IMF when fed limited vitamin A. In the current study, the lack of variation in IMF between treatments and genotypes at the lower vitamin A treatment levels was likely due to the majority of the steers grading Canada AAA (USDA Choice). However, the western blot data supports that TT steers are expected to have higher IMF deposition, due to an increased production of ADH1C. The interaction between ADH1C genotype and vitamin A supplementation level has the potential for use in marker-assisted management programs to target niche markets based on increased marbling.

BOUT++ is a 3D nonlinear finite-difference plasma simulation code, capable of solving quite general systems of Partial Differential Equations (PDEs), but targeted particularly on studies of the edge region of tokamak plasmas. BOUT++ is publicly available, and has been adopted by a growing number of researchers worldwide. Here we present improvements which have been made to the code since its original release, both in terms of structure and its capabilities. Some recent applications of these methods are reviewed, and areas of active development are discussed. We also present algorithms and tools which have been developed to enable creation of inputs from analytic expressions and experimental data, and for processing and visualisation of output results. This includes a new tool Hypnotoad for the creation of meshes from experimental equilibria. Algorithms have been implemented in BOUT++ to solve a range of linear algebraic problems encountered in the simulation of reduced Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) and gyro-fluid models: A preconditioning scheme is presented which enables the plasma potential to be calculated efficiently using iterative methods supplied by the PETSc library (the Portable, Extensible Toolkit for Scientific Computation) (Balay et al. 2014), without invoking the Boussinesq approximation. Scaling studies are also performed of a linear solver used as part of physics-based preconditioning to accelerate the convergence of implicit time-integration schemes.

The Sahel in West Africa is a major wintering area for many western Palearctic migrants. The breeding populations of many of these have declined over the past 50 years. However, there have been few intensive field studies on migrant ecology in the Sahel and these were generally within a very restricted area. Consequently our knowledge of the distribution of species within this extensive area and the habitat associations of these species is limited. Understanding these habitat associations is essential for the effective conservation management of populations. We brought together a group of experts and consulted a wider group by email to assess the main Sahelian habitat types used by 68 African-Eurasian migrant bird species. Those species that showed strongest declines during 1970–1990 were associated with more open habitats than those newly declining during 1990–2000, when declining species were associated with habitats with more shrubs and trees. Populations of species that winter in the Sahel are generally stable or increasing now as rainfall has increased and is now near the long-term average for the Sahel. Those which use the Sahel only as a staging area are, in many cases, in rapid decline at present.

Hafnium dioxide gate dielectrics, prepared by DC magnetron with low-power sputtering deposition followed by a low-temperature thermal oxidation, show greatly improved interfacial and electrical properties. Ellipsometry and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurements show a good stoichiometric HfO2 thin films with a refractive index of 1.9 and an Hf:O ratio of 1:2. The results obtained after analysis, quantification and calculation through XPS depth profile method, angle resolved XPS and interface modeling by XPS data processing software suggest a development of a complex three layer dielectric stack, including hafnium dioxide layer, a narrow interface of hafnium silicate and broad region of oxygen diffusion into silicon wafer. The measured dielectric constant of the HfO2 was about 22. The film band-gap was found to be ∼ 5.2 eV.

We document patterns of distribution and relative abundance of marine megavertebrate fauna around Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly from a combination of aerial and boat-based surveying. Between January 2006 and November 2007, 20 aerial surveys were undertaken, comprising over 40 hours of on-effort flying time. In April to October of these years, 27 effort-corrected ferry surveys were also conducted from a passenger ferry travelling between Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. Opportunistic sightings were also logged by the crew members of the ferry and another vessel travelling regularly along the same route on 155 days. Ten megavertebrate species were sighted: basking sharks Cetorhinus maximus, sunfish Mola mola, common dolphins Delphinus delphis, harbour porpoise Phocoena phocoena, grey seals Halichoerus grypus, Risso's dolphins Grampus griseus, bottlenose dolphins Tursiops truncatus, minke whales Balaenoptera acutorostrata, long-finned pilot whales Globicephala melas and killer whale Orcinus orca. During aerial surveys, 206 sighting events of seven species were made, compared with 145 sighting events of eight species during ferry surveys and 293 sighting events of 10 species from opportunistic ship-board data collection efforts. Seasonal and spatial patterns in species occurrence were evident. Basking sharks were the most commonly-sighted species in the region and were relatively abundant throughout the estimated 5 km-wide strip of coastal waters covered by the aerial surveys, during spring and summer. Ferry surveys and opportunistic vessel-based sightings data confirmed that the distribution of surface-feeding aggregations of this species was largely around the coasts. Despite the limited scope of this study, it has provided valuable baseline data, and possible insights into the marine biodiversity of the region.

Ordered mesoporous silicas continue to find widespread use as supports for diverse applications such as catalysis, separations, and sensors. They provide a versatile platform for these studies because of their high surface area and the ability to control pore size, topology, and surface properties over wide ranges. Furthermore, there is a diverse array of synthetic methodologies for tailoring the pore surface with organic, organometallic, and inorganic functional groups. In this paper, we will discuss two examples of tailored mesoporous silicas and the resultant impact on chemical reactivity. First, we explore the impact of pore confinement on the thermochemical reactivity of phenethyl phenyl ether (PhCH2CH2OPh, PPE), which is a model of the dominant β-aryl ether linkage present in lignin derived from woody biomass. The influence of PPE surface immobilization, grafting density, silica pore diameter, and presence of a second surface-grafted inert “spacer” molecule on the product selectivity has been examined. We will show that the product selectivity can be substantially altered compared with the inherent gas-phase selectivity. Second, we have recently initiated an investigation of mesoporous silica supported, heterobimetallic oxide materials for photocatalytic conversion of carbon dioxide. Through surface organometallic chemistry, isolated M-O-M’ species can be generated on mesoporous silicas that, upon irradiation, form metal to metal charge transfer bands capable of converting CO2 into CO. Initial results from studies of Ti(IV)-O-Sn(II) on SBA-15 will be presented.

Field studies of grazing management have frequently concluded that the magnitude and direction of vegetation response is dependent on initial vegetation condition. On upland heath, this dependence reflects the importance of small-scale ecological processes (e.g. plant competition), and local neighbourhood effects (e.g. spatial distribution of plant species), in driving the vegetation dynamics. These small-scale effects, together with variation in grazing patterns, increase the difficulty of deriving general rules about the effect of grazing on vegetation change from field studies. However, we need to determine the impacts of such grazing-related vegetation change upon biodiversity, (e.g. birds). For many bird species it is impractical to use experimental approaches due to low breeding densities, and the influence of other site and management effects (e.g. predator control). To predict the effect of management changes on them requires an accurate assessment of the large-scale effects of grazing management on the ecological landscape using data from small-scale field studies. This paper sets out an approach that integrates field studies with theoretical models to investigate the large-scale effects of grazing management on plant and bird communities on upland heath.

Background. Working memory has been identified as a core cognitive deficit in schizophrenia that is associated with negative symptoms, but it is unclear whether it is impaired prior to onset of psychosis in symptomatic patients.

Method. Thirty-eight young people at ultra high-risk (UHR) of developing psychosis (of whom nine later became psychotic) were compared with 49 healthy controls on tests of spatial working memory (SWM) and delayed matching-to-sample (DMTS).

Results. Both SWM and DMTS performance was significantly poorer in the UHR groups. Those who later became psychotic generally performed more poorly than those who did not, although this did not reach significance for any measure. A significant association between SWM errors and negative symptoms was seen in the later-psychotic group only (P=0·02).

Conclusions. Spatial working memory abilities are impaired in those at high-risk for psychosis. The relationship between working memory and negative symptoms may be useful as a predictive tool.

Background. Despite a number of studies that have indicated impaired memory function in patients with schizophrenia, there have been few that have used a sensitive measure of right medial temporal lobe pathology. Given the reported findings of reduced hippocampal volume in schizophrenia, we used a theoretically sensitive test of the right medial temporal lobe to determine the nature of the visuospatial memory deficit in the disorder.

Methods. Seventy-six patients (37 with a first-episode schizophreniform psychosis, and 39 with established schizophrenia) were compared with 41 comparison subjects on a number of tests of visuospatial memory. These included spatial working memory, spatial and pattern recognition memory and a pattern-location associative learning test.

Results. Both patient groups displayed recognition memory deficits when compared to the comparison group. However, only those patients with established schizophrenia (of 9 years duration on average) were impaired on the associative learning test.

Conclusions. The results indicate either a progressive decline in visuospatial associative learning ability over the course of the disorder, or that poor visuospatial associative learning is a marker for poor prognosis. In addition, these results have implications for our understanding of the role of the right medial temporal lobe in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia.

Z-contrast imaging and electron energy-loss spectroscopy with a spatial resolution at the atomic scale provide evidence of an atomically abrupt Si-SiO2, interface. Th micrographs revealed no indication for an interface layer of crystalline oxide at this thermally grown interface. Theoretical ab-initio calculations of two different interface structures showed that even in the most ideal interface the local density of states extends into the region of the oxide band gap. The O-K energy-loss near-edge structure was simulated for both interface models. The comparison of theoretical and experimental results of the O-K near-edge structure agreed and showed that states below the conduction band of the oxide are caused by the dimer-like SiO-Si bridges present in all structural models.

Earlier growth studies on the rapid thermal oxidation of silicon in NO (RTNO) were not sufficiently comprehensive and were limited by temperature measurement uncertainty and thermal non-uniformity across the wafer. Using a state-of-the-art rapid thermal processing (RTP) system, the RTNO growth characteristics at 100 and 760 Torr, from 900 to 1200°C and from 0 to 480 s were investigated. It was found that the initial growth rate anomalously decreasedwith temperature and pressure. These anomalies were correlated to the evolution of the XPS N 1s spectrum of the RTNO film with oxidation time, temperature and pressure.