Gac is a dioecious tropical and perennial climber. The fruit is a rich source of carotenoids and is used in traditional cuisine and medicine. Improving propagation methods using simple techniques would increase production and improve conservation in regional areas. This study evaluated temperature requirements for seed germination, the use of rooting hormones to strike female cuttings and the grafting of female scions onto seedling rootstock. Seed germination was optimised between 25 and 35 °C, with a maximum germination percentage of 91% at 30 °C. However, increasing storage time from 6 to 18 months under laboratory conditions (21 ± 1°C and 60% relative humidity) reduced germination and this was associated with seed weight loss, highlighting the need to develop storage guidelines, particularly for the higher temperature and humidity conditions where Gac is grown. Survival of softwood cuttings was improved from 53 to 77% with indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) (3–5 g/L) and semi-hardwood cuttings did not require IBA treatment. Both splice and wedge grafting techniques achieved a survival rate > 53% and with the youngest rootstock (4 and 8 weeks) this increased to > 85%. Further work could investigate the production potential of crops using cuttings and grafted plants.

The stably stratified Taylor–Couette flow is investigated experimentally and numerically through linear stability analysis. In the experiments, the stability threshold and flow regimes have been mapped over the ranges of outer and inner Reynolds numbers: $-2000<Re_{o}<2000$ and $0<Re_{i}<3000$ , for the radius ratio $r_{i}/r_{o}=0.9$ and the Brunt–Väisälä frequency $N\approx 3.2~\text{rad}~\text{s}^{-1}$ . The corresponding Froude numbers $F_{o}$ and $F_{i}$ are always much smaller than unity. Depending on $Re_{o}$ (or equivalently on the angular velocity ratio $\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}=\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FA}_{o}/\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FA}_{i}$ ), three different regimes have been identified above instability onset: a weakly non-axisymmetric mode with low azimuthal wavenumber $m=O(1)$ is observed for $Re_{o}<0$ ( $\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}<0$ ), a highly non-axisymmetric mode with $m\sim 12$ occurs for $Re_{o}>840$ ( $\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}>0.57$ ) while both modes are present simultaneously in the lower and upper parts of the flow for $0\leqslant Re_{o}\leqslant 840$ ( $0\leqslant \unicode[STIX]{x1D707}\leqslant 0.57$ ). The destabilization of these primary modes and the transition to turbulence as $Re_{i}$ increases have been also studied. The linear stability analysis proves that the weakly non-axisymmetric mode is due to the centrifugal instability while the highly non-axisymmetric mode comes from the strato-rotational instability. These two instabilities can be clearly distinguished because of their distinct dominant azimuthal wavenumber and frequency, in agreement with the recent results of Park et al. (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 822, 2017, pp. 80–108). The stability threshold and the characteristics of the primary modes observed in the experiments are in very good agreement with the numerical predictions. Moreover, we show that the centrifugal and strato-rotational instabilities are observed simultaneously for $0\leqslant Re_{o}\leqslant 840$ in the lower and upper parts of the flow, respectively, because of the variations of the local Reynolds numbers along the vertical due to the salinity gradient.

We examined norovirus contamination on hands of ill patients during 12 norovirus outbreaks in 12 long-term care facilities (LTCFs). The higher frequency and norovirus titers on hands of residents compared to hands of heathcare workers highlights the importance of adhering to appropriate hand hygiene practices during norovirus outbreaks in LTCFs.

Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2018;39:219–221

Since the AD 775 and AD 994 Δ14C peak (henceforth M12) was first measured by Miyake et al. (2012, 2013), several possible production mechanisms for these spike have been suggested, but the work of Mekhaldi et al. (2015) shows that a very soft energy spectrum was involved, implying that a strong solar energetic particle (SEP) event (or series of events) was responsible. Here we present Δ14C values from AD 721–820 Sequoiadendron giganteum annual tree-ring samples from Sequoia National Park in California, USA, together with Δ14C in German oak from 650–670 BC. The AD 721–820 measurements confirm that a sharp Δ14C peak exists at AD 775, with a peak height of approximately 15‰ and show that this spike was preceded by several decades of rapidly decreasing Δ14C. A sharp peak is also present at 660 BC, with a peak height of about 10‰, and published data (Reimer et al. 2013) indicate that it too was preceded by a multi-decadal Δ14C decrease, suggesting that solar activity was very strong just prior to both Δ14C peaks and may be causally related. During periods of strong solar activity there is increased probability for coronal mass ejection (CME) events that can subject the Earth’s atmosphere to high fluencies of solar energetic particles (SEPs). Periods of high solar activity (such as one in October–November 2003) can also often include many large, fast CMEs increasing the probability of geomagnetic storms. In this paper we suggest that the combination of large SEP events and elevated geomagnetic activity can lead to enhanced production of 14C and other cosmogenic isotopes by increasing the area of the atmosphere that is irradiated by high solar energetic particles.

The stability of the Taylor–Couette flow is analysed when there is a stable density stratification along the axial direction and when the flow is centrifugally unstable, i.e. in the Rayleigh-unstable regime. It is shown that not only the centrifugal instability but also the strato-rotational instability can occur. These two instabilities can be explained and well described by means of a Wentzel–Kramers–Brillouin–Jeffreys asymptotic analysis for large axial wavenumbers in inviscid and non-diffusive limits. In the presence of viscosity and diffusion, numerical results reveal that the strato-rotational instability becomes dominant over the centrifugal instability at the onset of instability when the axial density stratification is sufficiently strong. Linear transient energy growth is next investigated for counter-rotating cylinders in the stable regime of the Froude number–Reynolds number parameter space. We show that there exist two types of transient growth mechanism analogous to the lift up and the Orr mechanisms in homogeneous fluids but with the additional effect of density perturbations. The dominant mechanism depends on the stratification: when the stratification is strong, non-axisymmetric three-dimensional perturbations achieve the optimal energy growth through the Orr mechanism while for moderate stratification, axisymmetric perturbations lead to the optimal transient growth by a lift-up mechanism involving internal waves.