Characterisation of acid mine drainage in a high rainfall mountain environment, New Zealand

The Stockton coal mine lies at 700-1100 m above sea level in a mountainous orographic precipitation zone on the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand. Rainfall exceeds 6000 mm/year and arrives with frequent flood events that can deliver > 200 mm/day. Streams vary in discharges by up to two orders of magnitude over a time scale of hours. Pyritic waste rock at the mine interacts chemically with even the most intense rainfall, and almost all runoff is acidic to some degree. In the most intense rain event recorded in this study (> 10 mm/hour), dilution of acid mine drainage (AMD) occurred and pH rose from 3 to > 5 over several hours, with stream discharge at a monitoring point rising from < 0.5 to > 100 cumecs. However, most rain events of similar magnitude are less intense, longer duration, and only raise AMD pH to ~ 4 with similar high discharges. Results presented here for Stockton confirm that it is the intensity of rain events on the hourly scale, rather than the total amount of rainwater delivered to the site, that governs the amount and composition of AMD generated during flood events. Stream discharge loads of dissolved iron and aluminium range from ~ 20 to 1000 kg/hour. Dissolved sulfate and acidity loads are typically ~ 500 kg/hour but can exceed 20 tonnes/hour in rain events.First flush effects observable elsewhere around the world involving peak metal loads following dry periods or seasonal changes are not obvious at Stockton due to the high and variable rainfall environment. Dissolved Fe concentrations may be limited in runoff waters by precipitation of jarosite and schwertmannite, especially when rainfall is sufficiently intense to raise pH to 4 or higher. These minerals are widespread in the exposed waste rock on site. Likewise, precipitation of alunite may occur as pH rises in rain events, but no field evidence for this has been observed.     

The Delphi outer detector decision module: Lucifer

Lucifer, a fastbus module functioning as part of the Delphi track trigger hardware in the first- and second-level trigger sequences, is described. This module is designed for flexibility, ease of testing, and usage. These aims are achieved in limited area by extensive use of application-specific IC devices. Hardware implementation, control requirements, and data bus architecture are described     

Does nominal lineup size matter?

The minimum number of distractors required in a lineup varies across jurisdictions. However, available data do not support the importance of nominal lineup size as a criterion of lineup fairness. Two staged-crime experiments were conducted in which the central manipulation was lineup size. In the 1st experiment (N?=?192), lineup structure was varied by adding 0, 3, or 6 poor foils (persons not resembling the suspect) to a relatively good lineup containing the suspect (guilty or innocent) and 3 good foils (persons resembling the suspect). This manipulation did not significantly influence the rates of either correct or false identification. A 2nd experiment (N?=?270) was conducted in which 4, 8, 12, or 16 and 20 people were presented with all good foils. Once again, nominal size was found to have no significant effect on the rates of correct and false identification. The importance of nominal lineup size relative to other aspects of lineup procedure is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adolescent pregnancy and parenthood: Recent evidence and future directions.

An overview of recent research on adolescent sexual activity, pregnancy, and parenthood is presented, with a focus on the dearth of knowledge concerning psychological precursors and consequences. Although the rate of teenage childbearing has decreased substantially this century, increasing rates of sexual activity, illegitimacy, and welfare receipt raise public concerns. New research is discussed that suggests that many negative outcomes previously ascribed to mothers' age are as much causes or correlates of teenage pregnancy as effects of it, although this claim is less substantiated regarding effects on children of teenage mothers. Literature on fathers and grandmothers is summarized, and suggestions are made for furthering this research. An overview is given of recent successes among intervention programs, and policy implications of the new federal welfare law are considered for teenage mothers and their children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Subject Choice and Occupational Aspirations among Pupils at Girls' Schools

Various studies have found that British girls' curriculum subject preferences and future aspirations have changed and diversified in recent years. Other work has suggested that girls educated in single-sex schools might have a different (perhaps less gender-stereotypical) experience of education in comparison with their contemporaries at co-educational schools. This article draws on a study of the preferences of girls in English single-sex schools to explore these issues of subject choice and occupational aspiration further. It is argued that, like girls in mixed-sex secondary schools, single-sex schoolgirls' subject preferences have become more diverse and less gender-stereotypical than was the case twenty years ago. But where single-sex schoolgirls might have been expected to rate maths and science more highly than their counterparts in mixed-sex schools, the reverse was the case. Our findings support the argument that girls are now significantly more academically focused and ambitious for their future occupations than they were twenty years ago. However, we argue that a gender dichotomy remains evident in the types of future occupation chosen by girls.     

Detection of postoperative myocardial ischemia by bedside ST-segment analysis in coronary artery bypass graft patients

INTRODUCTION: Inherited long QT syndrome (LQTS) recently has been associated with mutations in genes coding for potassium (KVLQT1, KCNE1, and HERG) or sodium (SCN5A) ion channels involved in regulating either sodium inward or potassium outward currents of heart cells, resulting in prolongation of the repolarization period. We describe a new mutation, a -1 donor splice site mutation in a kindred with two affected members (QTc = 0.61 and 0.54 sec). METHODS AND RESULTS: Single stranded conformation polymorphism (SSCP) analyses were performed on DNA fragments amplified by polymerase chain reaction from DNA extracted from whole blood. Aberrant conformers were analyzed by DNA sequencing. SSCP analysis of the KVLQT1 gene revealed an aberrant conformer in the affected family members. DNA sequencing confirmed the presence of a G-->A change in the last nucleotide of codon 344. This mutation does not cause an amino acid change, but a change of the splice site characteristics at the 3' end of exon 6. The mutation may affect, through deficient splicing, the putative sixth transmembrane segment of the K+ channel, and this type of mutation has not previously been described in KVLQT1. CONCLUSION: The clinical course of LQTS in the affected family members, in whom no deaths occurred despite 20 to 30 syncopes, can be explained by the ability of the cellular machinery to perform partial correct splicing in the mutant allele. This type of mutation may be misinterpreted as a normal variant, since it is a point mutation causing neither an amino acid change nor the introduction of a stop codon.     

Junior doctors and clinical audit

OBJECTIVES: To assess the extent of junior doctor involvement in clinical audit, the degree of support from audit staff, and the perceived value of the resulting audits. DESIGN: Postal survey of National Health Service (NHS) junior doctors. SUBJECTS AND SETTINGS: 704 junior doctors in central Leeds hospitals, June 1996. RESULTS: Questionnaires were returned by 232 respondents (33%), 211 (31%) were completed; 157 respondents (74%) had personally performed audit. Mean (+/- SD) duration since last audit project was 14.9 (14.1) (range 0-84) months. Of the respondents who had personally performed audit, 88 (56%) did not use the hospital audit department, 60 (38%) received no guidance and only 19 (12%) were involved in re-auditing the same project. Mean (+/- SD) time spent per audit project was 27.8 (37.7), (range 2-212) hours. Seventy-five junior doctors (48%) were aware of subsequent change in clinical practice, 41 (26%) perceived a negative personal benefit from audit, 33 (21%) perceived a negative departmental benefit, and 42 (27%) felt that audit was a waste of time. CONCLUSIONS: A large proportion of junior doctors are involved in audit projects that do not conform to established good practice and which have a low impact on clinical behaviour. Although junior doctors feel that there is inadequate assistance and poor supervision whilst performing audit, they still support the principle of audit. There is a need to improve the quality and supervision of audit projects performed by junior doctors.