One potential solution to the rising threat of antibacterial drug resistance is the application of therapeutic clays to treat wound infections. Clays with antibacterial activity have been identified from a range of sources with their antibacterial properties often attributed to the release of toxic metal ions such as Fe(II) and Al(III). Here, clays from Afghanistan, Azerbaijan and Bangladesh that are utilized for washing and healing purposes were examined. Their antibacterial activities were assessed in suspension and as aqueous leachates against representative Gram-negative, Escherichia coli, and Gram-positive, Bacillus subtilis, bacteria. The majority of the clays conferred no deleterious effect and, in fact, tended to promote bacterial growth, likely as a result of released organic and inorganic nutrients. However, one of the clays, obtained from the Dhaka region of Bangladesh, displayed significant bactericidal activity against E. coli and B. subtilis as a clay suspension but not as an aqueous leachate. Further experiments confirmed that contact between clay and the bacteria was necessary for most of the antibacterial effects. Detailed analysis of bulk and <2 μm clay fraction mineralogy and geochemistry revealed no single defining parameter or mineral component that could be used to easily distinguish natural clays with antibacterial properties from those without. Overall, the results suggest a mechanism of antibacterial action of the Dhaka clay that arises from acidic conditions, likely enabled by the absence of calcite in the bulk clay, metal release, the presence of interstratified chlorite-smectite, and direct clay–bacteria interactions.

Waterfall Bluff is a rock shelter in eastern Pondoland, South Africa, adjacent to a narrow continental shelf that limited coastline movements across glacial/interglacial cycles. The archaeological deposits are characterized by well-preserved stratigraphy, faunal, and botanical remains alongside abundant stone artifacts and other materials. A comprehensive dating protocol consisting of 5 optically stimulated luminescence ages and 51 accelerator mass spectrometry 14C ages shows that the record of hunter-gatherer occupations at Waterfall Bluff persisted from the late Pleistocene to the Holocene, spanning the last glacial maximum and the transition from the Pleistocene to the Holocene. Here, we provide detailed descriptions about the sedimentary sequence, chronology, and characteristics of the archaeological deposits at Waterfall Bluff. Remains of marine mollusks and marine fish also show, for the first time, that coastal foraging was a component of some hunter-gatherer groups’ subsistence practices during glacial phases in the late Pleistocene. The presence of marine fish and shellfish further demonstrates that hunter-gatherers selectively targeted coastal resources from intertidal and estuarine habitats. Our results therefore underscore the idea that Pondoland's coastline remained a stable and predictable point on the landscape over the last glacial/interglacial transition being well positioned for hunter-gatherers to access resources from the nearby coastline, narrow continental shelf, and inland areas.

Cognitive deficits are viewed as core symptoms and among the major disabilities of schizophrenia. Among these deficits, memory impairments are likely to play a crucial role, and more specifically, memory for personal episodes, is disproportionately impaired. Schizophrenia is associated with a reduction of specific autobiographical memories which are marked after the onset of the disease (e.g., Riutort et al., 2003). This impairment is consistent with the existence of an abnormal development of personal identity in patients with schizophrenia. Williams and colleagues (1996) suggest that the specificity with which people retrieve episodes from their past determines the specificity with which they imagine the future. The aim of the present study was to investigate this hypothesis in patients with schizophrenia. A French adaptation of the Autobiographical Memory Test (AMT, Williams & Broadbent, 1986) was administrated to 12 patients with schizophrenia (4 men) and 12 control participants. In this version (TeMA, Neumann & Philippot, 2006), participants had to recollect specific past events or to imagine specific future scenarios in response to cue words. Results showed that patients retrieved fewer specific autobiographical memories and generated fewer specific future events than controls. In addition, their difficulty to imagine the future was correlated to their lack of specificity in the retrieval of past memories. The possibility that memory impairments could affect imageability of the future might have central clinical implications. Indeed, it suggests that cognitive deficits may play an important role in the feelings of hopelessness about the future often encountered in schizophrenia.

We prove existence and uniqueness of a stationary distribution and absolute regularity for nonlinear GARCH and INGARCH models of order (p, q). In contrast to previous work we impose, besides a geometric drift condition, only a semi-contractive condition which allows us to include models which would be ruled out by a fully contractive condition. This results in a subgeometric rather than the more usual geometric decay rate of the mixing coefficients. The proofs are heavily based on a coupling of two versions of the processes.

Excavations at the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B ritual site of Naḥal Roded 110 in the Southern Negev, Israel, have revealed evidence—unique to this region—for on-site flint knapping and abundant raptor remains.

We derive mass changes of the Greenland ice sheet (GIS) for 2003–07 from ICESat laser altimetry and compare them with results for 1992–2002 from ERS radar and airborne laser altimetry. The GIS continued to grow inland and thin at the margins during 2003–07, but surface melting and accelerated flow significantly increased the marginal thinning compared with the 1990s. The net balance changed from a small loss of 7 ± 3 Gt a−1 in the 1990s to 171 ± 4 Gt a−1 for 2003–07, contributing 0.5 mm a−1 to recent global sea-level rise. We divide the derived mass changes into two components: (1) from changes in melting and ice dynamics and (2) from changes in precipitation and accumulation rate. We use our firn compaction model to calculate the elevation changes driven by changes in both temperature and accumulation rate and to calculate the appropriate density to convert the accumulation-driven changes to mass changes. Increased losses from melting and ice dynamics (17–206 Gt a−1) are over seven times larger than increased gains from precipitation (10–35 Gt a−1) during a warming period of ∼2 K (10 a)−1 over the GIS. Above 2000 m elevation, the rate of gain decreased from 44 to 28 Gt a−1, while below 2000 m the rate of loss increased from 51 to 198 Gt a−1. Enhanced thinning below the equilibrium line on outlet glaciers indicates that increased melting has a significant impact on outlet glaciers, as well as accelerating ice flow. Increased thinning at higher elevations appears to be induced by dynamic coupling to thinning at the margins on decadal timescales.

We derive a central limit theorem for triangular arrays of possibly nonstationary random variables satisfying a condition of weak dependence in the sense of Doukhan and Louhichi [Stoch. Proc. Appl. 84 (1999) 313–342]. The proof uses a new variant of the Lindeberg method: the behavior of the partial sums is compared to that of partial sums of dependent Gaussian random variables. We also discuss a few applications in statistics which show that our central limit theorem is tailor-made for statistics of different type.

The present study examines the effect of animal-source-food (ASF) intake on arm muscle area growth as part of a larger study examining causal links between ASF intake, growth rate, physical activity, cognitive function and micronutrient status in Kenyan schoolchildren. This randomised, controlled feeding intervention study was designed with three isoenergetic feeding interventions of meat, milk, and plain traditional vegetable stew (githeri), and a control group receiving no snack. A total of twelve elementary schools were randomly assigned to interventions, with three schools per group, and two cohorts of 518 and 392 schoolchildren were enrolled 1 year apart. Children in each cohort were given feedings at school and studied for three school terms per year over 2 years, a total of 9 months per year: cohort I from 1998 to 2000 and cohort II from 1999 to 2001. Food intake was assessed by 24 h recall every 1–2 months and biochemical analysis for micronutrient status conducted annually (in cohort I only). Anthropometric measurements included height, weight, triceps skinfold (TSF) and mid-upper-arm circumference (MUAC). Mid-upper-arm muscle area (MAMA) and mid-upper-arm fat area (MAFA) were calculated. The two cohorts were combined for analyses. The meat group showed the steepest rates of gain in MUAC and MAMA over time, and the milk group showed the next largest significant MUAC and MAMA gain compared with the plain githeri and control groups (P< 0·05). The meat group showed the least increase in TSF and MAFA of all groups. These findings have implications for increasing micronutrient intake and lean body mass in primary schoolchildren consuming vegetarian diets.

Extended abstract of a paper presented at Microscopy and Microanalysis 2011 in Nashville, Tennessee, USA, August 7–August 11, 2011.

Extended abstract of a paper presented at Microscopy and Microanalysis 2011 in Nashville, Tennessee, USA, August 7–August 11, 2011.

Extended abstract of a paper presented at Microscopy and Microanalysis 2009 in Richmond, Virginia, USA, July 26 – July 30, 2009