The most widely used procedure for determining the cation exhange capacity (CEC) of a clay involves ammonium ion exchange, followed by Kjeldahl measurement of the ammonia released on treatment with alkali (Grimshaw, 1971; Mackenzie, 1951). The method is experimentally quite difficult, prone to error and time consuming.

The commissioning and operation of apparatus for neutron diffraction at simultaneous high temperatures and pressures is reported. The basic design is based on the Paris-Edinburgh cell using opposed anvils, with internal heating. Temperature is measured using neutron radiography. The apparatus has been shown in both on-line and off-line tests to operate to a pressure of 7 GPa and temperature of 1700°C. The apparatus has been used in a neutron diffraction study of the crystal structure of deuterated brucite, and results for 520°C and 5.15 GPa are presented. The diffraction data that can be obtained from the apparatus are of comparable quality to previous high-pressure studies at ambient temperatures, and are clearly good enough for Rietveld refinement analysis to give structural data of reasonable quality.

Reconstruction of lake-level fluctuations from landform and outcrop evidence typically involves characterizing periods with relative high stands. We developed a new approach to provide water-level estimates in the absence of shoreline evidence for Owens Lake in eastern California by integrating landform, outcrop, and existing lake-core data with wind-wave and sediment entrainment modeling of lake-core sedimentology. We also refined the late Holocene lake-level history of Owens Lake by dating four previously undated shoreline features above the water level (1096.4 m) in AD 1872. The new ages coincide with wetter and cooler climate during the Neopluvial (~3.6 ka), Medieval Pluvial (~0.8 ka), and Little Ice Age (~0.35 ka). Dates from stumps below 1096 m also indicate two periods of low stands at ~0.89 and 0.67 ka during the Medieval Climatic Anomaly. The timing of modeled water levels associated with 22 mud and sand units in lake cores agree well with shoreline records of Owens Lake and nearby Mono Lake, as well as with proxy evidence for relatively wet and dry periods from tree-ring and glacial records within the watershed. Our integrated analysis provides a continuous 4000-yr lake-level record showing the timing, duration, and magnitude of hydroclimate variability along the south-central Sierra Nevada.

Benchmarking strategies are needed to promote the appropriate use of antibiotics. We have adapted a simple regressive method in Microsoft Excel that is easily implementable and creates predictive indices. This method trends consumption over time and can identify periods of over- and underuse at the hospital level.

Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2017;38:860–862

Energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometry was used to make quantitative determinations of the elemental composition of plasma-ashed apterous individuals of Rhopalosiphum padi (L.) and Metopolophium dirhodum (Walker). R. padi was reared on 24 plant–soil combinations and M. dirhodum on nine plant-soil combinations. Analyses were done for 12 elements: Na, Mg, Al, P, S, Cl, K, Ca, Mn, Fe, Cu and Zn. Principal components analyses of individuals showed no distinction, in either aphid species, between insects reared on any plant–soil combination, whether all elements, elemental sub-sets, soil sub-sets or host-plant sub-sets were considered. When group means (mean for all individuals from a particular plant-soil combination) were used in principal components analyses, five groups of R. padi could be distinguished from the other 19, although neither set could be further separated. Four of the five distinguishable groups were from plants that grew particularly poorly, and the fifth was from plants in a soil in which all host-plants grew less well than in other soils. There were no distinct separations between groups of M. dirhodum, though there were slight indications that soils were distinguishable. In both R. padi and M. dirhodum, elemental differences involved the minor elements, particularly Mn, Fe, Cu and Zn. The uniformity of elemental content in the apterae of both aphid species may be a consequence of genetic uniformity within clones of parthenogenetically reproducing species.

We compared helminth communities in spiny mice (Acomys dimidiatus) from 4 wadis in the arid montane region of the southern Sinai in Egypt, in a 4-week period in late summer. Total helminth species richness was 14 (8 nematodes, 5 cestodes and 1 acanthocephalan) with 94% of mice carrying at least 1 species and an overall mean species richness of 1·85. The most prevalent parasites were Protospirura muricola (47·8%) and Dentostomella kuntzi (46·3%). One larval cestode, Joyeuxiella rossicum, represents a new host record. The helminth community was dominated by intestinal nematodes (88·7%) of which 58·2% were arthropod-transmitted heteroxenic species. At the component community level, 70% of the worms were recovered from mice in just two wadis (Gharaba and Tlah) and 48·6% of intestinal nematodes were from Wadi Gharaba. Although only 7 species of helminths were recorded from Wadi Gharaba, this site gave the highest Berger-Parker dominance index because of P. muricola. P. muricola was also dominant in Wadi El Arbaein whilst Syphacia minuta was the dominant species in Wadis Gebal and Tlah. At the infracommunity level, mean species richness and Brillouin's index of diversity were highest in Wadi Tlah and lowest in Wadi Gebal, and the former was age dependent. Whilst mice from different wadis differed in the nematodes that were most common, those from Wadi Gharaba carried the highest mean number of worms/mouse. The abundance of P. muricola in particular varied markedly between sites: Wadi Gharaba was distinct as the site showing the highest mean worm burden whereas mice from Wadi Gebal were uninfected. None of the directly transmitted oxyuroid nematodes showed significant variation in abundance between wadis, or host sex or age classes. Overall, the single extrinsic factor in the study, site of capture, was more important than the intrinsic factors in explaining variation in helminth communities in the region. We conclude that in the high mountains of southern Sinai, each wadi is distinct in terms of its rodent parasites, and hence we expect spatially different coevolutionary pressures on their hosts, with resultant variation in life-histories.

An outbreak of nosocomial ringworm involved five infants in a neonatal intensive care unit. The index case was a nurse infected with Microsporum canis by her cat. After standard infection control measures were initiated, the outbreak was resolved successfully by an interdisciplinary professional collaboration of physician and veterinary dermatologists and infection control personnel.

The title of the paper may suggest to readers that the authors are about to enter into a highly moralistic debate comparing those persons who take the ‘evil weed’ against those that lead ‘clean wholesome lives’. Whilst this is obviously not the case, the inference of competition is totally relevant. As the U.K. life insurance market moves slowly but surely to a smoker/non-smoker division, new dimensions of competition could open up between those offices who adopt a differential system and those who do not. One purpose of this paper is to comment on this feature.

The main purpose of the paper, however, is to highlight the financial and underwriting problems involved in this type of market which represents a highly significant departure from previous practice. Many readers will have already debated these problems within their offices and perhaps with their reassurer. However, to our knowledge, no discussion has yet taken place across the British actuarial profession as a whole, and we believe it highly desirable that such debate takes place. This paper, therefore, should be seen as offering nothing new or conceptually original, but as merely the catalyst for discussion.

1. The phospholipids of skim-milk, buttermilk and butter prepared from one bulk of Friesian milk were examined, using chromatographic methods. No major differences were found between the three products.

2. The phospholipids of buttermilk contained (in moles %) phosphatidylethanolamine 29, phosphatidylserine 10, phosphatidylcholine 33, sphingomyelin 19. The content of lipid-bound inositol was 5 moles % and of plasmalogens 3 moles %. Nitrogen, associated with the kephalin fraction, equivalent to 14 moles % of the lipid P was not identified. No lysoglycerophospholipids were present.

3. Unsaturated fatty acids were present in both the α'- and β-positions of the milk glycerophospholipids, in contrast to those from other animal sources which have usually been found to contain unsaturated acids in the α'-position and predominantly saturated acids in the β-position.

The authors are indebted to Prof. H. D. Kay for providing facilities at the National Institute for Research in Dairying, Reading; to Dr R. H. Smith for advice on processing, and to Miss H. R. Chapman and the staff of the Experimental Dairy for carrying out the dairy work.

This work forms part of the programme of the Food Investigation Organization of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. Mr P. Whiteley contributed to the experimental work.