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Notes: Balancing the sediment budget of the Atlantic shoreline of Long Island has proved to be problematic because more sediment has been found to be moving westward in littoral drift than was estimated to be supplied by wave erosion of the Ronkonkoma terminal moraine at Montauk Point. There is a need for the existence of an additional, possibly offshore source. As part of a larger Atlantic shore study, 11 beach samples from Fire Island were compared with samples representing the known glacial source at Montauk Point, and also with four offshore samples to the south. Comparisons were based upon quartz sand grain surface texture patterns derived by scanning electron microscope checklist analysis. Initial evidence of an offshore-onshore link was provided by qualitative results examining surface texture variability between samples, illustrated by photographic evidence and written notes. This evidence was confirmed consistently during quantitative analysis. In particular, canonical variate analysis grouped two offshore samples representing deposits of buried glacial to fluvioglacial lobes with beach samples from Fire Island in adjacent onshore locations or slightly downdrift. In addition, canonical variate analysis and factor analysis using the spssx package, together with cluster analysis using the ARTHUR package, depicted the main factors and texture variables largely responsible for sample discrimination. The significance of both the offshore-onshore link and the associated factors influencing quartz grain surface texture was revealed by the fact that they are strongly related to each other and to the regional geomorphology.

Notes: The effects of transfusing cores of grass silage with mixtures of oxygen and nitrogen containing 0%, 0·2%, 2%, 5% and 20% oxygen were investigated. Changes in populations of yeasts, lactobacilli and streptococci were measured and the relationship between populations after 7 days' transfusion and oxygen concentration were tested against the predictions of two models, based on Monod and logistic growth functions. Yeasts were related to oxygen by the Monod model, while lactobacilli and streptococci were related by the logistic model. The differences were ascribed to yeasts initiating deterioration by growing aerobically, while lactobacilli and streptococci grew fermentatively once the environment had changed following yeast growth. Dry-matter losses were related to oxygen by the Monod model. Changes in temperature were related to dry matter loss (through measurements of CO2 evolution) using a simple heat balance model.

Notes: In a double-blind study, the effects of positive intra-operative suggestions on the incidence and severity of postoperative nausea and vomiting were studied in 60 patients randomly selected to undergo routine major gynaecological surgery. Patients who received positive suggestions suffered significantly less nausea and vomiting in the 24 h after surgery.

Notes: A chromosomal locus, lic3, one of several involved in lipopolysaccharide (LPS) biosynthesis by Haemophilus influenzae, was cloned and its DNA sequence determined. Iic3 comprises four closely apposed open reading frames (ORFs). ORF1 includes tandem repeats of the tetramer CAAT and two start codons out of frame with each other are found upstream of the repeats. ORF1 encodes a protein with no known homologues. 0RF2 encodes the UDP-galactose-4-epimerase (galE) gene. ORF3 encodes a hydrophobic protein with no known homologues. 0RF4 encodes the adenylate kinase (adk) gene. A deletion/insertion mutation lacking the 3′ end of ORF1, all of galE, and the 5′ end of ORF3 was constructed in the parent Hib strain (RM7004). These mutants had a galE phenotype, as evidenced by galactose sensitivity, altered LPS when grown in the absence of exogenous galactose, and reduced virulence in infant rats.

Notes: So a frenzied matron cries out to Phoebus as she rushes through an appalled Rome. In CQ 34 (1984), 454f. I pointed out that the words primos in ortus could not here bear their normal sense ‘to the far east’ (as taken by Duff, similarly Bourgery-Ponchont, and others), which in view of the next line would be geographically absurd, and, distraught as the lady was, even so highly improbable. I did, however, then think R. J. Getty right in taking the expression primos ortus as simply = ‘the east’, and adding ‘the epithet primos appears to be otiose’. But I now feel very doubtful about the epithet being viewed as otiose in order that the words may denote Egypt; quite different are the passages noted in OLD primus 6 ‘belonging to the rising sun, eastern’, as Stat. Silv. 1.4.73 ‘occidiias primasque domos’ in the cited Sen. Oed. 116 ‘miles... ausus Eois equitare campis / figere et mundo tua signa primo’ the literal meaning is no doubt ‘on the world's first edge’ (Miller, Loeb), but its development into ‘eastern’ is readily seen. Egypt, however, as viewed by Rome, is but the bare beginning of the east, and that is what primos must indicate above (note emphatic position): see OLD primus 10 b ‘the nearest part of, the entrance, threshold, or sim., of, noting e.g. Ov. Fast. 1.717 ‘horreat Aeneadas et primus et ultimus orbis’, Cic. Fam. 3.6.2. ‘te in prima prouincia uelle esse, ut quam primum decederes’. In a characteristic departure from their stock meaning Lucan's words primos in ortus must then mean ‘to the threshold of the east’, i.e. the delta of the Nile, as explained in the next line (684): contrast 7.360 primo gentes oriente = ‘the nations of the far east’ (Duff). For Egypt viewed as the beginning of the east, cf. Mela 1.9 ‘Asiae prima pars Aegyptus’, Plin. Nat. 5.47 ‘[Africae] adhaeret Asia, quam patere a Canopico ostio [Nili] ad Ponti ostium Timosthenes...tradidit’, Mart. Cap. 6.675 ‘Aegyptus... Asiae caput, 3 quae una ab ostio Canopi ad ostium Ponti habet... milia passuum’; cf. the close association of Egypt with the east in Virg. Aen. 8.687 ‘Aegyptum uiresque Orientis’. For the varied use of the word primus should be noted too Luc. 9.413f. ‘nee... plus litora Nili / quam Scythicus Tanais primis a Gadibus absunt’, ‘from Gades in the far west’ (Duff), ‘Gades the first place in the west’ (Haskins), i.e. the threshold of the Mediterranean.