Soldier operational performance is determined by their fitness, nutritional status, quality of rest/recovery, and remaining injury/illness free. Understanding large fluctuations in nutritional status during operations is critical to safeguarding health and well-being. There are limited data world-wide describing the effect of extreme climate change on nutrient profiles. This study investigated the effect of hot-dry deployments on vitamin D status (assessed from 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) concentration) of young, male, military volunteers. Two data sets are presented (pilot study, n 37; main study, n 98), examining serum 25(OH)D concentrations before and during 6-month summer operational deployments to Afghanistan (March to October/November). Body mass, percentage of body fat, dietary intake and serum 25(OH)D concentrations were measured. In addition, parathyroid hormone (PTH), adjusted Ca and albumin concentrations were measured in the main study to better understand 25(OH)D fluctuations. Body mass and fat mass (FM) losses were greater for early (pre- to mid-) deployment compared with late (mid- to post-) deployment (P<0·05). Dietary intake was well-maintained despite high rates of energy expenditure. A pronounced increase in 25(OH)D was observed between pre- (March) and mid-deployment (June) (pilot study: 51 (sd 20) v. 212 (sd 85) nmol/l, P<0·05; main study: 55 (sd 22) v. 167 (sd 71) nmol/l, P<0·05) and remained elevated post-deployment (October/November). In contrast, PTH was highest pre-deployment, decreasing thereafter (main study: 4·45 (sd 2·20) v. 3·79 (sd 1·50) pmol/l, P<0·05). The typical seasonal cycling of vitamin D appeared exaggerated in this active male population undertaking an arduous summer deployment. Further research is warranted, where such large seasonal vitamin D fluctuations may be detrimental to bone health in the longer-term.

1. Field trials suggest that 3-monthly operations against rats in sewers using either 0·25% sodium fluoracetate or 2% fluoracetamide as a direct poison are more effective than 6-monthly treatments with 2·5% zinc phosphide or 10% arsenious oxide using the pre-baiting method.

2. In six paired trials 2% fluoracetamide gave better results (an apparent 100% clearance in five instances) than 0·25% sodium fluoracetate.

3. There is no evidence, at present, that direct poisoning treatments with 2% fluoracetamide or 0·25% sodium fluoracetate are improved by the addition of mould inhibiting substances to the bait.

The work described above was made possible only by the co-operation of a large number of local authority councils and their staffs, to whom we are therefore much indebted. We wish to thank also, Mr J. D. Riley who gave considerable help during the early stages of the trials.

A computer-controlled four-roll mill is used to examine two transient modes of deformation of a liquid drop: elongation in a steady flow and interfacial-tension-driven motion which occurs after the flow is stopped abruptly. For modest extensions, drop breakup does not occur with the flow on, but may occur following cessation of the flow as a result of deterministic motions associated with internal pressure gradients established by capillary forces. These relaxation and breakup phenomena depend on the initial drop shape and the relative viscosities of the two fluids. Capillary-wave instabilities at the fluid-fluid interface are observed only for highly elongated drops. This study is a natural extension of G. I. Taylor's original studies of the deformation and burst of droplets in well-defined flow fields.

Analytical electron microscopy at high spatial resolution in a scanning-transmission mode has been used to investigate the effects of glassy or crystalline material additions on grain boundary chemistry in yttria-stabilized zirconia polycrystals. Powders of additive phase were mixed into 3-mol% yttria-stabilized tetragonal zirconia polycrystals (‘3Y-TZP’) or 8-mol% yttria-stabilized cubic zirconia polycrystals (‘8Y-CSZ’). Zirconias processed without additive phases were also examined

Without additives, grain boundaries were depleted in zirconium and enriched in yttrium. In 3Y-TZP with I wt% borosilicate glass, silicon was observed only at triple points, but not in grain boundaries. In 3Y-TZP with 1 wt% barium silicate glass, barium was observed both along grain boundaries and at triple points, whereas silicon was detected only within the triple points. This suggests either the composition of the additive phase at the grain boundary is different from that at the triple points, or that barium ions segregate to grain boundaries during processing. In 8Y-CSZ with I wt% silica, silicon was observed in grain boundaries by an EDS spatial differencing technique. In 8Y-CSZ with 10 wt% alumina, EDS revealed aluminum at all grain boundaries examined

We prove that a topological space X has a locally connected regular T1, extension if and only if X is the underlying topological space of a nearness space Y which is concrete, regular and uniformly locally uniformly connected.

Measurements of ice velocity, thickness, and surface topography on the large ice rise known as Roosevelt Island are consistent with Glen’s flow law, , for values of τ between 5 × 104 N m–2 and 1.4 × 105 N m–2, and there is no indication of a reduction in n at low stresses. If n = 3 there must be progressive softening of the ice towards the edge of the ice rise, and this probably represents the combined effects of warming and recrystallization leading to a fabric favoring shear. Assuming that near the centre of the ice rise, where the effects of recrystallization are probably negligible, the ice behaves in the same way as randomly-oriented polycrystalline ice, then the geothermal flux G in this area is approximately 0.06 W m–2. In the absence of measurements of deep-ice temperatures, the distribution of G across the ice rise cannot be determined. However, the simplest interpretation of the movement data requires:

• (1) a linear increase in G from 0.05 W m–2 on the north-east side of Roosevelt Island to 0.07 W m–2 in the south-west, and

• (2) strain-rate enhancement, due to recrystallization, that increases outward from the centre of the ice rise to reach a maximum value of approximately two near the edges.

The calculated values of G are larger than the world average, but this is consistent with the probably granitic core beneath Roosevelt Island. An increase in G of 0.02 W m–2 in a distance of 60 km would require an increase in granite thickness of about 5 km.

Biles has called a subring A of the ring C(X) a Wallman ring on X whenever Z(A), the zero sets of function belonging to A, forms a normal base on X in the sense of Frink (1964). In the following, we are concerned with the uniform topology of C(X). We formulate and prove some generalizations of the Stone–Weierstrass theorem in this setting.

Biles (1970) has called a subring A of the ring C(X), of all real valued continuous functions on a topological space X, a Wallman ring on X whenever Z(A), the zero sets of functions belonging to A, forms a normal base on X in the sense of Frink (1964). Previously, we have related algebraic properties of a Wallman ring A to topological properties of the Wallman compactification w(Z(A)) of X determined by the normal base Z(A). Here we introduce two different generalizations of the concept of “a C*-embedded subset” and study relationships between these and topological (respectively, algebraic) properties of w(Z(A)) (respectively, A).