The dissipative quantum dynamics of an anharmonic oscillator coupled to a bath is studied with the purpose of elucidating the differences between the relaxation to a spin bath and to a harmonic bath. Converged results are obtained for the spin bath by the surrogate Hamiltonian approach. This method is based on constructing a system-bath Hamiltonian, with a finite but large number of spin bath m...

Bioprospecting, defined as the systematic search for valuable, molecules, genes and organisms in nature, has the potential to offer island countries a means to use biodiversity without disrupting nature; to add value to their natural resources; to ensure that such resources are protected and used in a sustainable manner; and to build the necessary skills to apply biotechnology in improving qual...

Do we need an international regime on access to genetic resources and benefit sharing (ABS) ? The Seventh Conference of the Parties (COP) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD, 2003) to be held in February 2004 will probably give a political answer to this question. However, we would hope there is time for further legal, technical and economic analysis of this proposal before a definit...

Outstanding among the global environmental issues that have emerged since the 1980s is the issue of the rapid loss of biodiversity. This is an issue that is urgent from the ecological standpoint and strategic from the economic, political and social standpoints. With the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD, 1992) a new global framework was introduced, together with a new international code o...

BACKGROUND The quantities of Legionella vary considerably from natural waters to water in contaminated domestic hot water supplies, whirlpool spas and cooling towers, with the risk for LD rising as the Legionella counts grow. We currently report the results from our Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment (QMRA) model evaluation. We developed the LD QMRA model to better understand Legionella exp...

self-assembly of densely packed zno nanorods were grown on porous silicon (ps) substrate by low-temperature chemical bath deposition. the structural and optical properties of the obtained zno nanostructures on ps substrate were systematically studied. the strong and sharp (002) peak compared with other peaks in the x-ray diffraction (xrd) indicated thatzno nanorods formed with superior orientat...

AIMS To investigate the problem of children drowning in bath seats by examining case reports, by looking at the epidemiology of bath drowning in children under two years of age and by reviewing the literature. METHODS We describe two babies: one who drowned and one nearly drowned in the bath whilst in a bath seat. We examined the RoSPA/RLSS UK database of cases of children under two years dro...

However, LNG carriers are expensive ships, and the contractual supply of cargo is usually tied by strict charterparty conditions. Therefore, the market has been hesitant to look at and accept other propulsion systems. Now this has changed. With the market launch of electronically controlled low speed diesels and reliable independent reliquefaction technology, all the traditional reasons not to ...