Cadellia pentastylis (Surianaceae) is an Australian endemic threatened rainforest tree. Irregular flowering and fruiting events coupled with high rates of infertility and insect predation has meant that seed testing has not been possible for this species. Seeds were opportunistically collected from a wild population in early 2021, which allowed for the first germination tests to be conducted. In this study, the presence of physical dormancy was examined by performing an imbibition test using scarified and non-scarified seeds. We also investigated whether a 5-min heat shock treatment at temperatures ranging from 60 to 120°C improved germination success. The presence of physiological dormancy was also examined by recording germination success following a gibberellic acid or smoke-water pre-treatment. Both scarified and non-scarified seeds readily imbibed water over a 72-h period, and several seeds had germinated in both treatments after 48 h. Final germination proportion and t50 following a heat shock, gibberellic acid or smoke-water pre-treatment did not significantly differ from the controls. We conclude that C. pentastylis seeds are non-dormant. Although a palisade cell layer has been reported in the endocarp, our results suggest that this layer may not be sufficiently formed to restrict germination. We recommend that seeds are collected from populations following dispersal and propagated shortly after or stored as conservation collections in ex situ Seedbanks.

For physiologically dormant (PD) species in fire-prone environments, dormancy can be both complex due to the interaction between fire and seasonal cues, and extremely deep due to long intervals between recruitment events. Due to this complexity, there are knowledge gaps particularly surrounding the dormancy depth and cues of long-lived perennial PD species. This can be problematic for both in situ and ex situ species management. We used germination experiments that tested seasonal temperature, smoke, dark and heat for 18 PD shrub species distributed across temperate fire-prone Australia and assessed how germination was correlated with environmental factors associated with their home environments. We found extremely high levels of dormancy, with only eight species germinating above 10% and three species producing no germination at all. Seven of these eight species had quite specific seasonal temperature requirements and/or very strong responses to smoke cues. The maximum germination for each species was positively correlated with the mean temperature of the source population but negatively correlated with rainfall seasonality and driest months. The strong dependence on a smoke cue for some of the study species, along with examples from other studies, provides evidence that an obligate smoke response could be a fire-adapted germination cue. Germination response correlated with rainfall season of the source populations is a pattern which has often been assumed but little comparative data across sites with different rainfall seasonality exists. Further investigation of a broader range of species from different rainfall season environments would help to elucidate this knowledge gap.

Protichnites eremita from the Cambrian Elk Mound Group of Wisconsin is reinterpreted based on new material and trackway experiments. Two new forms of P. eremita suggest that the discrete medial imprints of these traces could be produced by the segmented postabdomen of euthycarcinoids from the same deposit. Form 1 could have been produced by a pair of euthycarcinoids traveling together, like in limulid amplexus, where both individuals made imprints with their postabdomens. In this scenario, if one individual held its postabdomen to the left side, it is possible to produce left-handed shingling in trackways and angled segmentation of each medial imprint. Form 2 could have been produced by a single animal traveling in arcing or tightly looping paths. Experimentally-produced medial imprints yield morphologies that are consistent with both trackway forms. Thus, it seems more likely that P. eremita was produced directly by the animal's body (alone or paired) rather than by employing hermit-like behavior.

Two arthropod specimens assigned to Anabarochilina australis (Hinz-Schallreuter, 1993) from the late middle Cambrian (Guzhangian Stage, Lejopyge acantha Biozone) Karsha Formation, Zanskar Valley, northern India comprise the first record of the Bradoriida from the Himalaya. These Indian specimens cannot be distinguished statistically from other A. australis material based on valve length and height ratios, and differ only slightly in other characters. These observations justify the synonymy of a number of similar forms worldwide that previously have been only questionably attributed to A. australis. The occurrence of the species in Australia, India, Laurentia, and Kazakhstan encompassed an equatorial distribution from approximately 20° north to 20° south during late middle Cambrian time and indicates that A. australis had the ability to disperse across deep ocean basins. Such a distribution is consistent with a planktonic lifestyle. In contrast, other congeneric species of Anabarochilina apparently had more localized occurrence or, in the case of A. primordialis, were distributed across several paleocontinents and climatic zones.

Despite the utility of RNAi for defining gene function in Caenorhabditis elegans and early successes reported in parasitic nematodes, RNAi has proven to be stubbornly inconsistent or ineffective in the animal parasitic nematodes examined to date. Here, we summarise some of our experiences with RNAi in parasitic nematodes affecting animals and discuss the available data in the context of our own unpublished work, taking account of mode of delivery, larval activation, site of gene transcription and the presence/absence of essential RNAi pathway genes as defined by comparisons to C. elegans. We discuss future directions briefly including the evaluation of nanoparticles as a means to enhance delivery of interfering RNA to the target worm tissue.

Compact linear collider (CLIC) is a study for a future electron–positron collider that would allow physicists to explore a new energy region beyond the capabilities of today's particle accelerators. The demanding transverse and vertical beam sizes and emittance specifications are resulting in stringent alignment and a nanometre stability requirement. In the current feasibility study, the main beam quadrupole magnets have to be actively pre-aligned with a precision of 1 µm in five degrees of freedom before being mechanically stabilized to the nanometre scale above 1 Hz. This contribution describes the approach of performing this active pre-alignment based on an eccentric cam system. In order to limit the amplification of the vibration sources at resonant frequencies, a sufficiently high eigenfrequency is required. Therefore, the contact region between cam and support was optimized for adequate stiffness based on the Hertzian theory. Furthermore, practical tests performed on a single-degree-of-freedom mockup will show the limitation factors and further improvements required for successful integration in a full-scale quadrupole mockup presently under design.

This paper provides a review of active control strategies used to isolate high-precisionmachines (e.g. telescopes, particle colliders, interferometers, lithography machines or atomic force microscopes) from external disturbances. The objective of this review is to provide tools to develop the best strategy for a given application. Firstly, the main strategies are presented and compared, using single degree of freedom models. Secondly, the case of huge structures constituted of a large number of elements, like particle colliders or segmented telescopes, is considered.

A set of six new two-photon engineered diethylamino-substituted styryl pyrazine (DEASP) dyes have been developed as chemically responsive chromophores. This work employs UV/Vis spectroscopy to draw structure-optical property relationships and to quantify the solvatochromic effect observed for these dyes. Absorbance profiles for each of these dyes have been measured in 22 solvents ranging from very nonpolar (TMS) to very polar (water). Absorbance maxima of the longest wavelength π→π transitions have been correlated to nine empirical scales of solvent polarity, and a comparative analysis is presented. Dimroth & Reichardt's and Kamlet & Taft's single parameter scales have been recalculated with spectral data obtained for the six DEASP dyes. The correlation of these established and recalculated scales are shown and discussed. DEASP chromophores are found to exhibit high sensitivity to their chemical environment and exceptional range as solvatochromic probes. Current models of solvatochromism, based on dipolar probes, cannot account for the solvatochromism observed in our quadrupolar dyes, and fail to describe the effect of the chemical environment on this family of twophoton dyes. The need to develop a more universal model of solvation incorporating higher order moment contributions is apparent.

Le premier janvier 1923, un nouveau Code pénal militaire et une nouvelle loi sur la discipline militaire, applicables à l'armée de terre ainsi que la marine, sont entrés en vigueur en Hollande.

Il nous semble que quelques dispositions de ces lois pourraient avoir quelque intérêt pour ceux qui s'occupent de l'étude des Conventions internationales relatives au droit de la guerre. Nous envisageons la Convention de Genève (1906), la Convention concernant les lois et coutumes de la guerre sur terre (la Haye, 1907, convention no IV, Annexe: Règlement) et la Convention concernant les droits et les devoirs des puissances et des personnes neutres en cas de guerre sur terre (Convention no V, la Haye, 1907), dont les deux premières ont été l'objet d'une étude spéciale à la Xme Conférence internationale de la Croix-Rouge (1921).