This article analyses the work of Richard Daintree as Agent-General for Emigration from the United Kingdom to Queensland when he held that role between 1872 and 1876. Daintree designed exhibitions in London to attract emigrants, placed advertisements in newspapers, wrote a guide to Queensland’s resources, liaised with shipping companies for passenger berths, lectured in the provinces to potential emigrants, and cooperated with emigration sub-agents provided by Queensland’s government for Scotland and Ireland. Daintree contended with two main problems during his period as Agent-General. One involved a serious case of fraud discovered in his London office, but he was not responsible for its occurrence. The other was that a change of Queensland premier from Arthur Hunter Palmer, with whom he had worked cordially, to Arthur Macalister, with whom he had fraught relations, adversely affected his work. Overall, however, the article shows that Daintree was successful in increasing net migration to Queensland during his incumbency as Agent-General.

This article analyses the musical work of the Brisbane Musical Union (BMU) between its founding in 1872 and the consolidation of its position by 1898. During this period, the BMU benefited from the dedicated leadership of its main conductor, R. T. Jefferies, who drew upon his high standing as a violinist, ensemble player and conductor in Brisbane to present regular choral concerts, mainly comprising oratorios, with an amateur choir. Despite financial challenges, difficulties over rehearsal and concert venues, periodic problems concerning the choice of repertoire, an insufficient number of available professional musicians and competition from rival local musical societies, Jefferies’ work with the BMU promoted an important aspect of high musical culture to the public and laid the foundations for further development of classical musical performance in Brisbane.

This paper reviews recent developments in the production and use of unconventional natural gas in the United States with a focus on water and greenhouse gas emission implications. If unconventional natural gas in the U.S. is produced responsibly, transported and distributed with little leakage, and incorporated into integrated energy systems that are designed for future resiliency, it could play a significant role in realizing a more sustainable energy future; however, the increased use of natural gas as a substitute for more carbon intensive fuels will alone not substantially alter world carbon dioxide concentration projections.

This paper reviews recent developments in the production and use of unconventional natural gas in the United States with a focus on environmental impacts. Specifically, we focus on water management and greenhouse gas emission implications. If unconventional natural gas in the United States is produced responsibly, transported and distributed with little leakage, and incorporated into integrated energy systems that are designed for future resiliency, it could play a significant role in realizing a more sustainable energy future. The cutting-edge of industry water management practices gives a picture of how this transition is unfolding, although much opportunity remains to minimize water use and related environmental impacts. The role of natural gas to mitigate climate forcing is less clear. While natural gas has low CO2 emissions upon direct use, methane leakage and long term climate effects lead to the conclusion that increased use of natural gas as a substitute for more carbon intensive fuels will not substantially alter world carbon dioxide concentration projections, and that other zero or low carbon energy sources will be needed to limit GHG concentrations. We conclude with some possible avenues for further work.

Objective: To examine the mental health effects of Hurricane Ike, the third costliest hurricane in US history, which devastated the upper Texas coast in September 2008.

Method: Structured telephone interviews assessing immediate effects of Hurricane Ike (damage, loss, displacement) and mental health diagnoses were administered via random digit-dial methods to a household probability sample of 255 Hurricane Ike–affected adults in Galveston and Chambers counties.

Results: Three-fourths of respondents evacuated the area because of Hurricane Ike and nearly 40% were displaced for at least one week. Postdisaster mental health prevalence estimates were 5.9% for posttraumatic stress disorder, 4.5% for major depressive episode, and 9.3% for generalized anxiety disorder. Bivariate analyses suggested that peritraumatic indicators of hurricane exposure severity—such as lack of adequate clean clothing, electricity, food, money, transportation, or water for at least one week—were most consistently associated with mental health problems.

Conclusions: The significant contribution of factors such as loss of housing, financial means, clothing, food, and water to the development and/or maintenance of negative mental health consequences highlights the importance of systemic postdisaster intervention resources targeted to meet basic needs in the postdisaster period.

(Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2012;6:26–32)

Aluminum nitride (AlN) boules larger than 2 inches in diameter were grown by the sublimation-recondensation technique. X-ray Laue diffraction was used to characterize the crystallinity and orientation of the boules, and 2” dia. substrates were sliced with typical thickness of ∼500 μm. The wafers were then polished in order to meet the common standards for wafer thickness and flatness. The Al-terminated surface was finished with a proprietary chemical-mechanical process and showed RMS roughness of 0.5 nm or less as measured by atomic force microscopy (5×5 μm area). Currently, the substrates have some polycrystalline regions that are highly textured but about 85% of the total area is monocrystalline. The dislocation density in the crystalline regions of the substrate was measured by preferential chemical etching and then determining the resulting etch pit density (EPD). The etching technique involves potassium hydroxide and has been qualified through correlation with x-ray topography measurements of the dislocations. Measured EPD varied from 250 cm−2 to 3×104 cm−2. Other structural defects such as low angle grain boundaries, prismatic slip bands, inversion domains, have also been observed. The rare appearance of these defects will be discussed even though their role in the epitaxial growth of GaN and AlGaN is yet to be clarified.

Nutrigenomics is the study of how constituents of the diet interact with genes, and their products, to alter phenotype and, conversely, how genes and their products metabolise these constituents into nutrients, antinutrients, and bioactive compounds. Results from molecular and genetic epidemiological studies indicate that dietary unbalance can alter gene–nutrient interactions in ways that increase the risk of developing chronic disease. The interplay of human genetic variation and environmental factors will make identifying causative genes and nutrients a formidable, but not intractable, challenge. We provide specific recommendations for how to best meet this challenge and discuss the need for new methodologies and the use of comprehensive analyses of nutrient–genotype interactions involving large and diverse populations. The objective of the present paper is to stimulate discourse and collaboration among nutrigenomic researchers and stakeholders, a process that will lead to an increase in global health and wellness by reducing health disparities in developed and developing countries.

cerebellar hypoplasia is a rare malformation caused by a variety of etiologies. it usually manifests clinically as non-progressive cerebellar ataxia with or without mental retardation. we further characterize a syndrome of autosomal recessive cerebellar hypoplasia in the hutterite population, referred to as dysequilibrium syndrome (des). we reviewed 12 patients (eight females, four males; age range 4 to 33y) with this syndrome. patients were examined and underwent a standard set of investigations to characterize better the clinical features, natural history, and neuroimaging of this syndrome. des is an autosomal recessive disorder with distinct clinical features including global developmental delay, late ambulation (after age 6y), truncal ataxia, and a static clinical course. neuroimaging is characterized by hypoplasia of the inferior portion of the cerebellar hemispheres and vermis, and mild simplification of cortical gyri.

This article considers the changing nature of remittance procedures in the eighteenth-century British slave trade. It explains why bills of exchange became the preferred form of making payment for slave sales, rather than specie or produce. It also indicates the legal and institutional practices that informed the circulation of bills of exchange in a notoriously risky form of long-distance trade. The growth and complexity of the British slave trade, which was conducted mainly by private merchants, led to procedures such as remitting bills “in the bottom” of ships that had supplied slaves to North American and Caribbean markets and the extension of lengthy credit periods to purchasers. Colonial factors played a role as well, acting as the agents for coordinating remittances, and secure British merchant houses were deployed as “guarantees” for payment by bills. The development of credit practices associated with the slave trade, including remittance procedures, helped to strengthen the British economy by providing sound, complex intermediary instruments for the realization of profits from international trade.