Aquatic ecosystems - lakes, ponds and streams - are hotspots of biodiversity in the cold and arid environment of Continental Antarctica. Environmental change is expected to increasingly alter Antarctic aquatic ecosystems and modify the physical characteristics and interactions within the habitats that they support. Here, we describe physical and biological features of the peripheral ‘moat’ of a closed-basin Antarctic lake. These moats mediate connectivity amongst streams, lake and soils. We highlight the cyclical moat transition from a frozen winter state to an active open-water summer system, through refreeze as winter returns. Summer melting begins at the lakebed, initially creating an ice-constrained lens of liquid water in November, which swiftly progresses upwards, creating open water in December. Conversely, freezing progresses slowly from the water surface downwards, with water at 1 m bottom depth remaining liquid until May. Moats support productive, diverse benthic communities that are taxonomically distinct from those under the adjacent permanent lake ice. We show how ion ratios suggest that summer exchange occurs amongst moats, streams, soils and sub-ice lake water, perhaps facilitated by within-moat density-driven convection. Moats occupy a small but dynamic area of lake habitat, are disproportionately affected by recent lake-level rises and may thus be particularly vulnerable to hydrological change.

We derive an accurate estimate for the diffusive evaporation rates of multiple droplets of different sizes and arbitrary contact angles placed on a horizontal substrate. The derivation, which is based on a combination of Green's second identity and the method of reflections, simply makes use of the solution for the evaporation of a single droplet. The theoretical results can serve as a guide for future computational and experimental studies on the collective evaporation of arrays of droplets, as well as similar multi-body, diffusion-dominated transport problems.

The entry into force on 1st March 2001 of Regulation 1347/2000 on Jurisdiction and the Recognition and Enforcement of Judgments in Matrimonial Matters and in Matters of Parental Responsibility for Children of Both Spouses (‘the Matrimonial Regulation’) amounts to a landmark in the harmonisation of private international law at European Community level. It deals with direct judicial jurisdiction, and the mutual recognition and enforcement of judgments, but not choice of law, in respect of divorce, separation and annulment of marriage, and of custody (in a broad sense) of children of both spouses when determined on the occasion of matrimonial proceedings. It is the first EC measure to enter into force dealing with private international law in family matters, and is likely to be followed up by further such measures, especially in relation to child custody when dealt with independently of any matrimonial proceedings.

The study aims to assess whether supplementation with the probiotic Lactobacillus rhamnosus HN001 (HN001) can reduce the prevalence of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). A double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled parallel trial was conducted in New Zealand (NZ) (Wellington and Auckland). Pregnant women with a personal or partner history of atopic disease were randomised at 14–16 weeks’ gestation to receive HN001 (6×109 colony-forming units) (n 212) or placebo (n 211) daily. GDM at 24–30 weeks was assessed using the definition of the International Association of Diabetes and Pregnancy Study Groups (IADPSG) (fasting plasma glucose ≥5·1 mmol/l, or 1 h post 75 g glucose level at ≥10 mmol/l or at 2 h ≥8·5 mmol/l) and NZ definition (fasting plasma glucose ≥5·5 mmol/l or 2 h post 75 g glucose at ≥9 mmol/l). All analyses were intention-to-treat. A total of 184 (87 %) women took HN001 and 189 (90 %) women took placebo. There was a trend towards lower relative rates (RR) of GDM (IADPSG definition) in the HN001 group, 0·59 (95 % CI 0·32, 1·08) (P=0·08). HN001 was associated with lower rates of GDM in women aged ≥35 years (RR 0·31; 95 % CI 0·12, 0·81, P=0·009) and women with a history of GDM (RR 0·00; 95 % CI 0·00, 0·66, P=0·004). These rates did not differ significantly from those of women without these characteristics. Using the NZ definition, GDM prevalence was significantly lower in the HN001 group, 2·1 % (95 % CI 0·6, 5·2), v. 6·5 % (95 % CI 3·5, 10·9) in the placebo group (P=0·03). HN001 supplementation from 14 to 16 weeks’ gestation may reduce GDM prevalence, particularly among older women and those with previous GDM.

Preamble: Executive Order (EO) 13112—defines an invasive species as “an alien species whose introduction does or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health.” In the Executive Summary of the National Invasive Species Management Plan (NISMP) the term invasive species is further clarified and defined as “a species that is non-native to the ecosystem under consideration and whose introduction causes or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health.” To provide guidance for the development and implementation of the NISMP, the National Invasive Species Council (NISC) and the Invasive Species Advisory Committee (ISAC) adopted a set of principles outlined in Appendix 6 of the NISMP. Guiding Principle #1 provides additional context for defining the term invasive species and states “many alien species are non-invasive and support human livelihoods or a preferred quality of life.”

Tomonori Morikawa, James E. Hanley, and John Orbell have argued that natural selection leads populations who play Hawk-Dove, a game-theoretic stylization of confrontation, to develop the capacity for various “orders of recognition.” Such an argument requires a model linking game play to the presence or absence of various cognitive mechanisms. Morikawa and colleagues present such a model but, I argue, leave it incomplete, unable to sustain the conclusions they wish to defend. The development of a more fully specified model would significantly assist future studies of cognitive structures related to game play.

Forty-six specimens of Nautilus pompilius Linnaeus were captured in depths varying between 100 and 500 m outside of the fringing reef near Suva, Fiji Islands. Thirty-eight of the specimens were male. Air weight per individual varied between 347 and 630 g. Sexual dimorphism in size is indicated, since mature shell modifications (approximated septa, blackened aperture) were present in two females weighing about 350 g (soft parts plus shell) and one weighing slightly over 400 g; the smallest male showing mature shell modifications weighed 496 g. All newly captured specimens were heavier than seawater, with mean weight in seawater of 1.87 g determined for twenty-five specimens. Total volumes of cameral liquid ranged between 13.5 and 0 ml. Thirteen of twenty-five sampled specimens showed less than 1.0 ml of cameral liquid from all chambers. Average cameral liquid osmolarity was lower than that observed in sampled populations of N. macromphalus from New Caledonia and N. pompilius from the Philippine Islands. Maximum swimming rates were 0.25 m/sec. N. pompilius exhibits two common color polymorphs.

We consider the stability of a long free film of liquid composed of two immiscible layers of differing viscosities, where each layer experiences a van der Waals force between its interfaces. We analyse the different ways in which the system can exhibit interfacial instability when the liquid layers are sufficiently thin. For an excess of surfactant on one gas–liquid interface, the coupling between the layers is relatively weak and the instability is manifested as temporally separated rupture events in each layer. Conversely, in the absence of surfactant, the coupling between the layers is much stronger and the instability is manifested as rupture of both layers simultaneously. These features are consistent with recent experimental observations.

Ongoing software developments for creating three-dimensional (3D) printed crystallographic models seamlessly from Crystallographic Information Framework (CIF) data (*.cif files) are reported. Color versus monochrome printing is briefly discussed. Recommendations are made on the basis of our preliminary printing efforts. A brief outlook on new materials for 3D printing is given.