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Mycoremediation, an aspect of bioremediation, has been investigated for some decades. However, there seems to be little progress on its commercial application to petroleum-contaminated soils despite some promising outcomes. In this review, mycoremediation is examined to identify development, limitations and perspectives for its optimal utilization on petroleum-contaminated soils. Mycoremediation agents and substrates that have been used for the treatment of petroleum contaminated soils have been identified, application methods discussed, recent advances highlighted and limitations for its applications accentuated. Possible solutions to the challenges in applying mycoremediation to petroleum-contaminated soils have also been discussed. From this review, we conclude that for optimal utilization of mycoremediation of petroleum-contaminated soils, ideal environmental, edaphic and climatic factors of a typical contaminated site must be incorporated into the approach from first principles. Development of application procedures that can easily translate laboratory results to field applications is also required.

Ghost crab (Ocypode species) burrow densities have previously been used as an indicator of anthropogenic impact. This study aimed to assess the burrow density of Ocypode species (O. ryderi and O. cordimanus) at four sites across Watamu Marine National Park, Kenya. Two sites were in front of hotel complexes (denoting a high degree of urbanisation), and two were in front of residential housing among coastal scrub (denoting a low degree of urbanisation). The findings reveal significantly higher burrow densities at sites in front of residential housing, which was the less developed area. This provides further evidence that Ocypode burrow densities can be used, where other methods would be impractical, to estimate the impact of some human activities along beach fronts, such as at Watamu Marine National Park.Keywords: anthropogenic factors, exposed sandy beach, hotel sites, marine protected area, Ocypode, residential environment

This essay examines the theme of masochism in the metapsychological work of French psychoanalyst Jean Laplanche. One of the most distinctive aspects of Laplanche's work as a whole is its recursiveness: it advances by repeatedly retraversing the same themes and rereading the same Freudian texts, often after intervals of years and each time from a deepened critical perspective. The approach taken in this essay is therefore diachronic. That is, rather than seeking to present a reduced summation of Laplanche's position on masochism, it tracks the recursive evolution of his thinking about masochism, from the 1960s through to the development of his celebrated "general theory of seduction." The essay locates each of Laplanche's key interventions on masochism within the broader frameworks of his theoretical enterprise, and positions masochism as a point of orientation for understanding a number of the essential claims of his metapsychology, particularly the relationships among fantasy, pain and the drives; the economic dimensions of human desire; and the intersubjective origins of psychosexuality. Finally, the essay suggests that masochism might have a particular pertinence to psychoanalytic thinking as Laplanche conceives and practices it: that is, as a pains-taking labor whose very stimulus is the "wound" of the Freudian breakthrough.

“On Denoting” is central to the analytic tradition, yet one of its key arguments (the Gray’s Elegy Argument) lacks a canonical reading. Some interpret the passage as rejecting denoting concepts as inconsistent, or the theory that posits them as incoherent. Such readings are too strong, and at odds with the passage. We interpret the argument as a set of considerations that leave the old view as a logically viable (though uneconomical and cumbersome) competitor to Russell’s new semantic theory.

Docking an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) is a critical part of many current and envisioned Navy, commercial, and scientific missions. Many missions require an AUV to dock with a subsea node that is not restrained through attachment to the seafloor or to a surface platform significantly larger than the system that is docking into it. Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific (SSC Pacific) recently performed a series of tests to characterize the docking process of an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) with a suspended dock. Two methods of docking were performed: a “soft” optical dock where the vehicle tracked and followed a suspended light emitting diode (LED) beacon and a “hard” physical dock where the vehicle entered a docking structure. This docking testing will provide design support information for future undersea systems.

An EU Asia-Link grant offered the opportunity to examine the appropriate sequence of teaching and learning for architecture students working in developing countries. That process is more or less taken for granted wherever architecture is taught as a discipline, yet its premises are seldom examined in any detail. Following a suggestion by A. N. Whitehead, a sequence of learning is described, which gives a proper place to design. The thinking of the American philosopher Donald Schön is re-examined to see if it throws light on the practice of architecture and the principles to be adopted in teaching it. I argue that, properly constituted, a studio-based programme of architectural education remains an appropriate methodology for the teaching of design in the context of developing countries, even as it acts as a critique of the conventional pedagogic methodologies of parent institutions in both west and east.

Nuclear fission produces fission and activation products, including iodine-129, which could evolve into used fuel reprocessing facility off-gas systems, and could require off-gas control to limit air emissions to levels within acceptable emission limits. Deep-bed methyl iodide adsorption testing has continued in Fiscal Year 2015 according to a multi-laboratory methyl iodide adsorption test plan. Updates to the deep-bed test system have also been performed to enable the inclusion of evaporated HNO3 and increased NO2 concentrations in future tests. This report summarizes the result of those activities. Test results showed that iodine adsorption from gaseous methyl iodide using reduced silver zeolite (AgZ) resulted in initial iodine decontamination factors (DFs, ratios of uncontrolled and controlled total iodine levels) under 1,000 for the conditions of the long-duration test performed this year (45 ppm CH3I, 1,000 ppm each NO and NO2, very low H2O levels [3 ppm] in balance air). The mass transfer zone depth exceeded the cumulative 5-inch depth of 4 bed segments, which is deeper than the 2-4 inch depth estimated for the mass transfer zone for adsorbing I2 using AgZ in prior deep-bed tests. The maximum iodine adsorption capacity for the AgZ under the conditions of this test was 6.2% (6.2more » g adsorbed I per 100 g sorbent). The maximum Ag utilization was 51%. Additional deep-bed testing and analyses are recommended to (a) expand the data base for methyl iodide adsorption and (b) provide more data for evaluating organic iodide reactions and reaction byproducts for different potential adsorption conditions.« less

This short piece seeks to introduce the reader unfamiliar with Laplanche to the scope of his work, and to the extraordinary evolution of his thought. It indicates the place of “Interpreting (with) Freud” and “Exigency and Going Astray” within the chronological and theoretical itinerary of Laplanche's enterprise, and attempts to “bridge” the two texts by indicating the lines of continuity between them, and by clarifying the points of development which take place from the one to the other.

The practice of architecture, a discipline that is inescapably contingent on the particular, but that is also required by society in some way to represent an ideal, raises a number of specific ethical issues. Following an essay by the philosopher Thomas Nagel, this paper argues that it is intrinsic to professional judgement that this involves the prioritizing of unquantifiable ‘goods’. A twentieth-century case study is examined, which exhibits the choices made by a well-known architect. The changed nature of architectural practice in the United Kingdom in the twenty-first century is then described, whereby the privilege of making such judgements has been severely limited by the substitution of managerial values for professional values. In the face of different ethical imperatives – most obviously to design responsibly within pressing ecological concerns – it is argued that the task for architects now is to re-establish a context within which sound judgements can be made, which of course implies a degree of professional trust. Their ability to balance managerial values (technical competence for example) with ethical decision-making is what may prove to be most valuable. There are implications for architectural education, which in the past has either pretended to be a science or has retreated into aesthetic speculation, providing training in the skills of persuasion rather than relationship-building. The conclusion is that ethical thinking is inescapable for the profession of architecture in the twenty-first century.

The nature of architectural design in the early twenty-first century is considered through a comparison between the author's recent design for a university hostel and earlier examples of the genre.This project was designed by a Lecturer in Architecture at Cambridge for one of its Colleges. It is occupied by undergraduates, some of them architecture students, and during its construction it was used as a teaching case study. The design is somewhat ‘didactic’ in nature, attempting to be quite explicit in its thematic and formal procedures; stylistically, it can be seen as an examination of the possibilities inherent in a late modernist tradition. For this reason, and because of its privileged site and budget, it offers an opportunity for some reflections on architectural composition at the beginning of the twenty-first century, in relation to earlier traditions of formal manipulation.