The study aimed to determine the geographical diversity in seasonality of major diarrhoeal pathogens among 21 138 patients enrolled between 2010 and 2012 in two urban and two rural sites in Bangladesh under the surveillance system of the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b). Distinct patterns in seasonality were found for rotavirus diarrhoea which peaked in winter across the sites (December and January) and dipped during the rainy season (May) in urban Dhaka, August in Mirpur and July in Matlab, equated by time-series analysis using quasi-Poisson regression model. Significant seasonality for shigellosis was observed in Dhaka and rural Mirzapur. Cholera had robust seasonality in Dhaka and Matlab in the hot and rainy seasons. For enterotoxogenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) diarrhoea, clearly defined seasonality was observed in Dhaka (summer). Understanding the seasonality of such pathogens can improve case management with appropriate therapy, allowing policy-makers to identify periods of high disease burden.

The study identified the common aetiological agents and prominent clinical features of dysentery cases in children aged <5 years and compared this to non-dysentery diarrhoeal cases from the same population. From January 2010 to December 2011, 2324 children aged <5 years received treatment at Kumudini Hospital, of which 682 (29%) presented with dysentery. Of the dysenteric children, aetiology could not be determined for over half (61%). Shigella spp. accounted for 32% of dysentery cases. Significant associations were found between presence of blood in stool and: child age (24–59 months) [odds ratio (OR) 2·21, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1·49–3·27], no treatment of drinking water at home (OR 2·00, 95% CI 1·09–3·67), vomiting (OR 0·19, 95% CI 0·14–0·25), abdominal pain (OR 4·68, 95% CI 3·24–6·77), straining (OR 16·45, 95% CI 11·92–22·69), wasting (OR 1·66, 95% CI 1·15–2·41), and presence of Shigella in stool (OR 6·25, 95% CI 4·20–9·29) after controlling for confounders. This study makes it clear that appropriate public health strategies are needed to reduce the burden of dysentery in Bangladesh.

We present an analysis of three years of precision radial velocity measurements of 160 metal-poor stars observed with Keck/HIRES. We report on variability and long-term velocity trends for each star in our sample. We identify several long-term, low-amplitude radial-velocity variables worthy of follow-up with direct imaging techniques. We place lower limits on the detectable companion mass as a function of orbital period. None of the stars in our sample exhibits radial-velocity variations compatible with the presence of Jovian planets with periods shorter than the survey duration (3 yr). The resulting average frequency of gas giants orbiting metal-poor dwarfs with −2.0≤[Fe/H]≤ −0.6 is fp < 0.67%. By combining our dataset with the Fischer & Valenti (2005) uniform sample, we confirm that the likelihood of a star to harbor a planet more massive than Jupiter within 2 AU is a steeply rising function of the host's metallicity. However, the data for stars with −1.0≤[Fe/H]≤ 0.0 are compatible, in a statistical sense, with a constant occurrence rate fp≃1%. Our results usefully inform theoretical studies of the process of giant planet formation across two orders of magnitude in metallicity.

The mixed buffer salts of artificial saliva were incorporated at three rates: 0 (diet 1), 5·7 (diet 2) and 11·4% (diet 3) (w/w) in pelleted diets prepared from60% ground flaked maize and 40% dried ground grass. The control and mineral-supplemented diets were fed to sheep hourly (Expt 1) or twice daily (Expt 2).

When the sheep were fed hourly or twice daily the pattern of fermentation in the rumen was altered from a predominantly propionate to mainly acetate fermentation. Dilution rate in the rumen increased from 0·036 to 0·053 to 0·064 when diets 1, 2 and 3 were fed hourly, and dilution rate was negatively related to the molar proportion of propionic acid (P < 0·05) and positively related (P < 0·05) to the molar proportion of acetic acid in rumen fluid, but these relationships were not apparent in Expt 2.

Nitrogen retention was higher for lambs fed diet 2 than for those fed diets 1 and 3 (P < 0·05) in Expt 1.

In sheep fed hourly, selenomonads and bacteroides were the predominant rumen bacteria associated with the control diet but the inclusion of mineral salts resulted in the bacteroides being replaced by large number of chain-forming cocci. Numbers of protozoa were variable. The relationship of these changes to the fermentation pattern is discussed. In sheep fed twice daily there was much variation between animals.

We summarize the results of two experiments to address important issues related to the correlation between planet frequencies and properties and the metallicity of the hosts. Our results can usefully inform formation, structural, and evolutionary models of gas giant planets.

The circular hydraulic jump commonly forms on a horizontal plate struck by a vertical jet of liquid. New observations of this phenomenon are described.

A previously unreported instability of the jump is examined. This is shown to arise when the local Reynolds number Rj just ahead of the jump exceeds a critical value of 147. Prior to this instability, the flow behind the jump contains a closed eddy, the length of which decreases to zero as Rj increases towards its critical value. Physical explanations for this flow structure and instability are proposed.

Accurate measurements of liquid depths were made using a light-absorption technique, in which a laser was shone through water containing a strong dye. Liquid depths ahead of and behind the jump were so determined and depth profiles of the jump in the stable regime were obtained.

As the outer depth was increased, the jump closed in on the jet and eventually disappeared: this extinction of the jump is also investigated.

The moisture content of keratinous materials such as hoof horn is important as the presence of moisture has an inverse relationship on the mechanical properties of hoof horn and may have a subsequent effect on the function of the hoof. Methods previously used to dehydrate samples to calculate the moisture content of hoof horn vary considerably (Hopegood, 2002). Subsequent comparison of results is therefore unreliable. A comparison of different methods of dehydrating hoof horn was therefore carried out to establish a standardised protocol for dehydrating hoof horn to assess its moisture content. The moisture content of donkey hoof horn from normal animals and those with laminitis has not been reported. Maclean (1971) established that the moisture content of cattle suffering from laminitis was significantly higher than normal hooves. The resultant standardised protocol from the first part of this study was then used to compare the moisture content of hoof horn samples taken from horses, donkeys and those donkeys that had suffered from laminitis.

Because of the procedures associated with the deconvolution of the data present in an EXAFS spectrum, the experimental XAFS spectra also include both the edge and XANES regions. It is possible to obtain additional structural and chemical information from the data associated with these regions of the XAFS spectrum and in this work we have re-examined the XAFS spectra for a series of polymer electrolytes. These spectra were originally recorded for EXAFS analysis. The XANES spectra for PEOn:CaBr2 electrolytes confirm that the behaviour of calcium polymer electrolytes appears to be very different from that of other divalent based electrolytes. We have also examined the edge features for PEO8:NiBr2 samples which were subject to different thermal histories and evidence for phase separation is presented.

The field dwarf sample is from the original Carney-Latham survey plus its recent extension to about 500 additional stars, a total of about 1450 stars. We have chosen a conservative criterion to isolate halo stars, namely retrograde orbits in the Galaxy, to minimize contamination by thin and thick disk stars, giving a halo sample of 144 stars.

For the past 9 years we have been monitoring the radial velocities of 13 blue stragglers in the old open cluster M67. For the 9 blue stragglers with rotational velocities no larger than about 100 km s−1 we have used the CfA digital speedometers to measure more than 500 radial velocities. To get reliable velocity correlations we use synthetic rotating templates computed from a grid of Kurucz model atmospheres. Four of the blue stragglers rotate too rapidly to allow successful velocity correlations with the CfA instruments. For three of these we have used a CCD spectrograph at Kitt Peak and similar reduction procedures (Morse et al. 1991.

In 1971 Roger Griffin and Jim Gunn began monitoring the radial velocities of most of the members brighter than the main-sequence turnoff in the old open cluster M67, primarily using the 200-inch Hale Telescope. In 1982 the torch was passed to Dave Latham and Bob Mathieu, who began monitoring many of the same stars with the 1.5-meter Tillinghast Reflector and the Multiple-Mirror Telescope on Mt. Hopkins. We have successively combined these two sets of data, plus some additional CORAVEL velocities kindly provided by Michel Mayor, to obtain 20 years of time coverage (e.g. Mathieu et al. 1986). Among the stars brighter than magnitude V = 12.7 we have already published orbits for 22 spectroscopic binaries (Mathieu et al. 1990). At Mt. Hopkins an extension of this survey to many of the cluster members down to magnitude V = 15.5 has already yielded thirteen additional orbital solutions, with the promise of many more to come.

For almost 400 members of M67 we have accumulated about 5,000 precise radial velocities. Already we have orbital solutions for more than 32 spectroscopic binaries in M67. Many of these orbits were derived by combining the Palomar and CfA observations, thus extending the time coverage to more than 20 years. The distribution of eccentricity versus period shows evidence for tidal circularization on the main sequence. The transition from circular orbits is fairly clean. Excluding the blue stragglers, the first eccentric orbit has a period of 11.0 days, while the last circular orbit has a period of 12.4 days. For longer periods the distribution of eccentricity is the same as for field stars. The blue straggler S1284 has an eccentric orbit despite its short period of 4.2 days.