Life just got complicated

The fossil record of ancient life is, in general, poor. Certainly, fossils are abundant in many rock successions and may reveal remarkable details about evolution and environmental change, but they typically consist of disarticulated or broken skeletal material, such as shells, bones and teeth. Even worse, the record of entirely (or largely) soft-bodied organisms, such as jellyfish and worms, is extremely scant, despite the fact that such animals dominate modern marine environments and presumably did so in the past. The reason is obvious — such organisms are highly susceptible to post-mortem decay and typically decompose more rapidly than the ‘normal’ processes of fossilisation operate. This significantly blurs our view of ancient life, with obvious consequences for those interested in understanding evolution and past ecosystems

Micro-experimental analysis of the small-group reading lesson : social and cognitive consequences of silent reading

Includes bibliographical references (p. 18-20

The stratigraphical distribution of Mid-Cretaceous foraminifera near Ventor, Isle of Wight

Ventnor No. 2 Borehole, located near Ventnor, Isle of Wight, penetrated the basal part of the Chalk Group and the Selborne Group before terminating in the upper part of the Lower Greensand Group (Sandrock Formation). The borehole was examined for Foraminifera, and although they were not seen in the Sandrock Formation and Monks Bay Sandstone Formation, the remainder of the borehole yielded moderately low diversity assemblages dominated by agglutinated species. Foraminiferal zones 3–6 (H dentatus to M. fallax/M. rostratum macrofaunal zones) were identified in the Gault Formation and zones 6 (lower) to 6a (M. fallax/M. rostratum to A. briacensis macrofaunal zones) were identified in the Upper Greensand Formation. Assemblages from the overlying West Melbury Marly Chalk Formation were used to identify foraminiferal zones BGS1-BGS3 (M. mantelli and M. dixoni macrofaunal zones)

Social Networks of Researchers in Business To Business Marketing: A Case Study of the IMP Group 1984-1999

Science is a social process that functions through social networks of researchers that form invisible colleges. Analysis of these social networks provides a means for examining the structure of relations among researchers. The Industrial Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) group, "an informal international group of scholars concerned with developing concepts and knowledge in the field of business-to-business marketing and purchasing," is used as a case study of a network of researchers because it has been responsible for considerable research over the last decades in the area of business-to-business marketing, yet its structure remains hidden because of its informal network characteristics. The results of a social network analysis of the IMP group is described based on the pattern of co-authorship at annual IMP conferences. The results reveal a power law distribution of paper co-authorship and a small world network that conforms to the results of studies of other types of social networks. A core network of 57 researchers is identified and its network properties are described, including how it has evolved over time. The study provides the basis for further studies of the social networks of marketing and business researchers.informal networks, business-to-business marketing

Micropalaeontology reveals the source of building materials for a defensive earthwork (English Civil War?) at Wallingford Castle, Oxfordshire

Microfossils recovered from sediment used to construct a putative English Civil War defensive bastion at Wallingford Castle, south Oxfordshire, provide a biostratigraphical age of Cretaceous (earliest Cenomanian) basal M. mantelli Biozone. The rock used in the buttress – which may have housed a gun emplacement – can thus be tracked to the Glauconitic Marl Member, base of the West Melbury Marly Chalk Formation. A supply of this rock is available on the castle site or to the east of the River Thames near Crowmarsh Gifford. Microfossils provide a unique means to provenance construction materials used at the Wallingford site. While serendipity may have been the chief cause for use of the Glauconitic Marl, when compacted, it forms a strong, almost ‘road base’-like foundation that was clearly of use for constructing defensive works. Indeed, use of the Glauconitic Marl was widespread in the area for agricultural purposes and its properties may have been well-known locally

Preliminary Sunyaev Zel'dovich Observations of Galaxy Clusters with OCRA-p

We present 30 GHz Sunyaev Zel'dovich (SZ) observations of a sample of four galaxy clusters with a prototype of the One Centimetre Receiver Array (OCRA-p) which is mounted on the Torun 32-m telescope. The clusters (Cl0016+16, MS0451.6-0305, MS1054.4-0321 and Abell 2218) are popular SZ targets and serve as commissioning observations. All four are detected with clear significance (4-6 sigma) and values for the central temperature decrements are in good agreement with measurements reported in the literature. We believe that systematic effects are successfully suppressed by our observing strategy. The relatively short integration times required to obtain these results demonstrate the power of OCRA-p and its successors for future SZ studies.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures. Accepted by MNRAS, online earl

A Systematic Review of the Patient- and Carer-Related Factors Affecting the Experience of Pain for Advanced Cancer Patients Cared for at Home

Context: Effective pain management is a priority in the palliative care of advanced cancer patients. A body of research is emerging examining the factors that influence the management and experience of pain for such individuals. Identifying such factors should allow for the development of targeted interventions to improve pain management in the home while ultimately reducing unnecessary suffering for the patient. Objectives: The objective of this study was to identify relevant patient- and carer-related factors which have an effect on the pain experienced by advanced cancer patients cared for at home. Method: This is a systematic review following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta Analyses (PRISMA) statement guidelines. Studies were retrieved from the CINAHL, MEDLINE, and Web of Science and assessed independently by two reviewers with discrepancies assessed by a third before quality assessment and data extraction. A narrative synthesis was produced. Results: Our search strategy produced 720 hits, of which 10 studies were retained for the final analysis. The factors identified included carer knowledge of cancer pain management, carer burden, carer and patient distress, pain rating disparity, patient well-being, patient depression, patient affective experience, patient body image, and satisfaction with palliative/medical care. All factors identified are supported by only some evidence with many having only been explored in single studies. Conclusions: There is a lack of quantitative research in the area of factors influencing the experience of pain for advanced cancer patients cared for at home. Such findings would be useful in developing theories of change that would underpin interventions aimed at improving pain outcomes for this population.</p

HI intensity mapping with FAST

We discuss the detectability of large-scale HI intensity fluctuations using the FAST telescope. We present forecasts for the accuracy of measuring the Baryonic Acoustic Oscillations and constraining the properties of dark energy. The FAST $19$-beam L-band receivers ($1.05$--$1.45$ GHz) can provide constraints on the matter power spectrum and dark energy equation of state parameters ($w_{0},w_{a}$) that are comparable to the BINGO and CHIME experiments. For one year of integration time we find that the optimal survey area is $6000\,{\rm deg}^2$. However, observing with larger frequency coverage at higher redshift ($0.95$--$1.35$ GHz) improves the projected errorbars on the HI power spectrum by more than $2~\sigma$ confidence level. The combined constraints from FAST, CHIME, BINGO and Planck CMB observations can provide reliable, stringent constraints on the dark energy equation of state.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, submitted to "Frontiers in Radio Astronomy and FAST Early Sciences Symposium 2015" conference proceedin