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We provide a set of atomic lines which are suitable for the description of ultracool dwarf spectra from 10 000 to 25 000 Å. This atomic linelist was made using both synthetic spectra calculations and existing atlases of infrared spectra of Arcturus and Sunspot umbra. We present plots which show the comparison of synthetic spectra and observed Arcturus and Sunspot umbral spectra for all atomic lines likely to be observable in high resolution infrared spectra. Peer reviewed

In The ‘Postmodern Turn’ in the Social Sciences, Simon Susen traces the epistemological shift from modern to postmodern thought and the influence of this transformation on the social sciences. While admiring of his comprehensive descriptive accounts of the projects of modernity and postmodernism, Sarah Burton is left feeling that the lack of penetrating critique or analytical ‘bite’ may be symptomatic of the very postmodern perspective that Susen sets out to interrogate.

Geodiversity is the variety of rocks, minerals, fossils, landforms sediments and soils, together with the natural processes which form and alter them. It delivers important ecosystem services through its influence on landscape, habitats and species, economic activities, historical and cultural heritage and people’s health and well-being. Understanding of geodiversity also has a key part to play in climate change adaptation and in sustainable management of the land, river catchments and the coast. The aim of this study was to undertake an assessment of the value and status of geodiversity in Scotland and to develop the basis for a national framework to enable better integration of geodiversity within relevant policy areas, including helping to deliver the Scottish Government’s Strategic Objectives. Main findings  The geological development of Scotland has given rise to a remarkable geodiversity for a country of its size. Many sites in Scotland are of great importance to geoscience for their rocks, fossils and landforms, demonstrating important geological processes or events. Scotland’s marine geodiversity is less well known, but also includes outstanding features.  Geodiversity is important both as an intrinsic part of the natural heritage and because it provides ecosystem services and functions for the benefit of Scotland’s people and environment. In doing so, it contributes to the delivery of the Scottish Government’s 5 Strategic Objectives, National Outcomes and the 5 key themes for a Greener Scotland. The ‘ecosystem approach’ provides a potentially powerful framework for developing better integration of geodiversity and biodiversity, as well as a means of demonstrating the wider values and benefits of geodiversity through its contribution to delivering ecosystem services.  Understanding geodiversity has a key part to play in adapting to climate change and sea-level rise. Changes in geomorphological processes are likely to have significant implications for most ecosystems. Effective conservation strategies for managing ecosystem responses will need to work in sympathy with natural processes. The iv concepts of working with nature and making space for natural processes have broader value to society as a whole.  Pressures on geodiversity arise principally from planning developments and land-use changes. These may damage key features, impair their visibility and accessibility or fragment the interest. Sites located on the coast, adjacent to rivers or on active slopes are most likely to be impacted by climate change, sea-level rise and increased erosion or flooding. The human responses to these changes, in the form of ‘hard’ coastal protection or river and slope engineering are, however, likely to have the greatest impact on geodiversity.  A separate commissioned review of the current Scottish policy environment concluded that there was limited recognition of the value of geodiversity in a range of relevant key areas such as economic development, landscape, climate change adaptation, health, recreation and education. The following conclusions were reached:  There is a responsibility to ensure that the best geodiversity sites and features continue to be protected not only as part of our geoheritage, but also as an essential resource for field education, training and lifelong learning.  The concept of biodiversity and our need to protect this component of the natural heritage at local, national and global scales is relatively well developed and understood at a strategic level. It forms the basis for much of the effort and activities in nature conservation and is relatively well integrated into the wider policy framework. Conversely, the concept and values of geodiversity are less well appreciated and, by comparison, relatively undervalued and poorly integrated.  Proposals for the vision, aim and outcomes for a ‘Scottish Geodiversity Framework’ are set out for discussion. Such a framework would help to ensure that geodiversity is recognised as an integral and vital part of our environment, economy and heritage to be safeguarded for existing and future generations. It would instigate a process through which key stakeholders would work together to identify strategic priorities for geodiversity action, in a similar way to ‘The Scottish Soil Framework’. It would help to achieve an environment in which the rich geodiversity of Scotland can be understood, valued and conserved, and make geodiversity relevant to the way we work and live, as well as the decisions we make about a sustainable future for our environment, for both people and nature. In doing so, it should contribute to delivering the Scottish Government’s National Outcome on Natural Resource Protection and Enhancement.  It is proposed that a ‘Scottish Geodiversity Framework’ covers the following areas of activity: 1. ‘Future-proofing’ ecosystem services, particularly in a context of climate change and sea-level rise. 2. Integration of geodiversity into all relevant policies. 3. Sustainable management of geodiversity for the wider benefit of Scotland’s people, environment and economy. 4. Conservation of geodiversity. 5. Raising awareness of the values and benefits of geodiversity and their contribution to ecosystem services. 6. Improving understanding of geodiversity and key knowledge gaps.  Promoting wider awareness, understanding and involvement is also crucial. At policy, planning and decision-making levels, there is a need to make understanding v of the way the Earth works one of the cornerstones of sustainable development. Improving public awareness and engagement at a community level is also essential.  In the present economic climate there is a need to strengthen links with the business community to generate financial returns as well as real benefits for geodiversity from geoconservation and use of the Earth’s resources in a sustainable way.  It is recommended that the framework outlined in this report provides a starting point and should be developed and formalised through the mechanism of a ‘Scottish Geodiversity Forum’ or Working Group, set up with the support of the Scottish Government with clear leadership and appropriate convening power and involving appropriate partners and stakeholders. This should also be tasked with preparing a prioritised implementation plan, targets and actions.

Part of the Roy Newsome Brass Band Archive

Bayesian inference and Gaussian processes are widely used in applications ranging from robotics and control to biological systems. Many of these applications are safety-critical and require a characterization of the uncertainty associated with the learning model and formal guarantees on its predictions. In this paper we define a robustness measure for Bayesian inference against input perturbations, given by the probability that, for a test point and a compact set in the input space containing the test point, the prediction of the learning model will remain δ−close for all the points in the set, for δ > 0. Such measures can be used to provide formal probabilistic guarantees for the absence of adversarial examples. By employing the theory of Gaussian processes, we derive upper bounds on the resulting robustness by utilising the Borell-TIS inequality, and propose algorithms for their computation. We evaluate our techniques on two examples, a GP regression problem and a fully-connected deep neural network, where we rely on weak convergence to GPs to study adversarial examples on the MNIST dataset.

The paper presents an empirical analysis of e-mail based attacks against the University of Oxford. In particular, it analyses the malicious e-mails received over the period of four months for observable targeting behaviour. It is found that most malicious e-mails are not tailored to their victims. Timing analysis showed that most malicious e-mails are received within the European workday. The paper then introduces a novel way of analysing the distribution of malicious e-mails within an organisation and identifies organisational units that are particularly exposed. Finally, the paper discusses the absence of targeted attacks and suggests an improved way of studying them.

Recent research has proven that computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling in combination with a genetic algorithm (GA) algorithm is an effective methodology to optimize the design of internal combustion (IC) engines. However, this approach is time consuming, which limits the practical application of it. This study addresses this issue by using a quasi-dimensional (QD) model in combination with a GA to find optimal fuel composition in a spark ignition (SI) engine operated with CH4/H2/CO fuel blends. The QD model for the simulation of combustion of the fuel blends coupled with a chemical kinetics tool for ignition chemistry was validated with respect to measured pressure traces and NOx emissions of a small size single-cylinder SI engine operated with CH4/H2 blends. Calibration was carried out to assess the predictive capability of the QD model, and the effect of hydrogen addition on the lean limit extension of the methane fueled engine was studied. A GA approach was then used to optimize the blend composition and engine input parameters based on a fitness function. The QD-GA methodology was implemented to simultaneously investigate the effects of three input parameters, i.e., fuel composition, air–fuel equivalence ratio and spark timing on NOxemissions and indicated thermal efficiency (ITE) for the engine. The results found indicated that this approach could provide optimal fuel blends and operating conditions with considerable lower NOx emissions together with improved thermal efficiencies compared to the methane fueled engine. The presented computationally-efficient methodology can also be used for other fuel blends and engine configurations. © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This is the accepted manuscript version of an article which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2021.121281 Peer reviewed

Both acute (AP) and chronic (CP) pancreatitis are complex diseases, with a number of aetiologies and complex pathogeneses. A number of contributing factors are assessed here. Genetic studies were performed looking at a high activity polymorphism of the alcohol metabolising enzyme cytochrome P450 2E l. Assessing a role in alcohol abuse and end organ disease; alcohol abusers (n= 239) and controls (n= 208) were studied. A significantly lower number of alcohol consumers (2.1 %) had the polymorphism than controls (5.8%); p= 0.049, Fisher's exact test. Any association with end organ disease could not be further elucidated due to the rarity of the polymorphism in this population. In another genetic study, looking at a polymorphism in interleukin-1a, no associations were found with CP; of note no associations were found with genotypes implicated in AP. A double-blind, placebo controlled crossover trial of a leukotriene receptor antagonist in chronic pancreatitis revealed no benefit. Studies of production of arachidonic acid metabolites leukotriene E4 (LTE4), prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) and (a known marker of mast cell activation) prostaglandin D2 (11β-PGF2a) were performed. Analysis looked at both acute (n= 19) and chronic pancreatitis (n= 19), employing age and sex matched controls. The LTE4 studies did not reveal any significant difference in levels. PGE2 levels were not different between CP patients and controls while they were significantly higher in AP than controls; p= 0.006, independent samples t-test. The variation appeared most marked for mild disease; one way ANOVA p= 0.024 and direct comparison of patients with mild disease and their matched controls; p= 0.011. The 11β-PGF2a study conversely showed no difference in AP but significantly higher levels in CP in comparison to their matched controls; p= 0.001, Mann Whitney U test. Based on a previous pilot study in CP and a difference in variance of LTE4 in AP in the above study, a genetic study of the known functional polymorphism in the gene of leukotriene C4 synthase (the first dedicated enzyme in the formation of the cysteinyl leukotrienes) was performed. Controls totalled 108 subjects; AP 238 (mild= 169 patients; severe= 69) and CP 57 subjects; no difference in the genotype or allele frequencies were found. In summary: A possible role for a functional polymorphism in cytochrome P450 2E1 (not previously examined in patient groups) in protection against alcoholism has been identified. Perhaps analogous to the protection associated with high activity forms of alcohol dehydrogenase and low activity forms of aldehyde dehydrogenase. PGE2 is elevated in acute pancreatitis in humans consistent with the majority of the data in animals. Again consistent with the bulk of animal data this appears to be most marked in mild disease, possibly indicating a protective, and therefore potentially therapeutic, role. 11β-PGF2a, a metabolite of PGD2 and marker of mast cell activation, is elevated in chronic but not acute pancreatitis. This implicates mast cells in chronic pancreatitis and would be consistent with their known role in fibrosis and tissue remodelling and suggests a possible therapeutic target.

Extracorporeal Life Support (ECLS) is saving an increasing number of lives worldwide, 1 so it is a great pleasure to welcome for the first time in Qatar the South and West Asia Chapter (SWAC) of the Extracorporeal Life Support Organisation (ELSO). The conference organizing and scientific committees have worked tirelessly under the leadership of Dr Ibrahim Fawzy Hassan (2017 Conference Chair) to make ELSO SWAC 2017 an enriching event that will help progress ECLS in the region. For this special occasion, the SWAC ELSO 2017 submission editorial team (AAH, AS, GA, CC, TM) is pleased to have been able to publish all accepted abstracts in this special issue of the Qatar Medical Journal (QMJ) as a legacy of everyone's efforts and commitment to contribute to saving lives. The vast majority of the abstracts are invited contributions from selected clinicians who are bringing specific knowledge and expertise to the conference and to the pre-conference workshops. The submissions received as part of the call for abstracts are presented at the end of this QMJ issue and been presented either as short oral or poster presentations during the conference. All submissions have been subjected to a rigorous peer review process involving a team of reviewers with a range of subject expertise and to whom we are grateful. Overall, this QMJ special issue represents the scientific contributions from over 150 authors from 17 countries. © 2017 Alinier, Campbell, Labib, Mehta, Hssain, Almomani, Hassan, licensee HBKU Press. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution license CC BY 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Alinier G, Campbell C, Labib A, Mehta T, Hssain AA, Almomani EAH, Hassan IF. 'Qatar welcomes the Extracorporeal Life Support Organisation of the South and West Asia Chapter 2017 Conference', Qatar Medical Journal, 4th Annual ELSO-SWAC Conference Proceedings 2017:1 http://dx.doi.org/10.5339/qmj.2017.swacelso.1 Peer reviewed

Let O be a closed geodesic polygon in S 2 . Maps from O into S 2 are said to satisfy tangent boundary conditions if the edges of O are mapped into the geodesics which contain them. Taking O to be an octant of S 2 , we compute the infimum Dirichlet energy, E(H), for continuous maps satisfying tangent boundary conditions of arbitrary homotopy type H. The expression for E(H) involves a topological invariant – the spelling length – associated with the (nonabelian) fundamental group of the n-times punctured two-sphere, π1 (S 2 − {s1 , . . . , sn }, ∗). The lower bound for E(H) is obtained from combinatorial group theory arguments, while the upper bound is obtained by constructing explicit representatives which, on all but an arbitrarily small subset of O, are alternatively locally conformal or anticonformal. For conformal and anticonformal classes (classes containing wholly conformal and anticonformal representatives respectively), the expression for E(H) reduces to a previous result involving the degrees of a set of regular values s1 , . . . , sn in the target S 2 space. These degrees may be viewed as invariants associated with the abelianization of π1 (S 2 − {s1 , . . . , sn }, ∗). For nonconformal classes, however, E(H) may be strictly greater than the abelian bound. This stems from the fact that, for nonconformal maps, the number of preimages of certain regular values may necessarily be strictly greater than the absolute value of their degrees. This work is motivated by the theoretical modelling of nematic liquid crystals in confined polyhedral geometries. The results imply new lower and upper bounds for the Dirichlet energy (one-constant Oseen-Frank energy) of reflection-symmetric tangent unit-vector fields in a rectangular prism.