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The shift in Indian Ocean sea surface temperatures in 1976 led to a change in rainfall for the broad-scale winter annual grain cropping and pasture region in the south-west of Western Australia (the WA wheatbelt). Agriculture in the eastern part the WA wheatbelt was particularly sensitive to the change in rainfall because it is a marginal area for agronomic production, with low rainfall before changes in sea surface temperature. A second shift in sea surface temperature occurred in 2000, but there has been no analysis of the resulting impact on rainfall in the eastern WA wheatbelt. An analysis of rainfall pre- and post-2000 was performed for sites in the eastern WA wheatbelt in three groups: 19 sites in the west, 56 central, and 10 east. The analysis found a decline in growing-season rainfall (i.e. April–October), especially during May–July, post-2000. Rainfall declines of 49.9 mm (west group), 39.1 mm (central group) and 28.0 mm (east group) represented respective losses of 20.1%, 17.4% and 14.2% of growing-season rainfall. Increases in out-of-season rainfall in the respective groups of 31.0, 33.6, and 50.7 mm (57.8%, 60.8% and 87.6%) meant that annual rainfall changes were smaller than growing-season losses. The west and central groups lost 17.5 and 6.16 mm annual rainfall, whereas the east group gained 15.6 mm. Analysis of wheat yield indicated reductions of 13.5% (west) and 9.90% (central) in the eastern WA wheatbelt; the small group of east sites had a potential yield gain of 8.9% arising from the increased out-of-season rainfall. Further, increased out-of-season rainfall will exacerbate weed and disease growth over the summer fallow.

* At the risk of being tarred and feathered by the victim culture and its celebrity status, I wish to challenge NCR's stand on those allegedly abused by priests. In [...]

This paper presents transient aero-thermal analysis for a gas turbine disk and the surrounding air flows through a transient slam acceleration/deceleration “square cycle” engine test, and compares predictions with engine measurements. The transient solid–fluid interaction calculations were performed with an innovative coupled finite element (FE) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) approach. The computer model includes an aero-engine high pressure turbine (HPT) disk, adjacent structure, and the surrounding internal air system cavities. The model was validated through comparison with the engine temperature measurements and is also compared with industry standard standalone FE modelling. Numerical calculations using a 2D FE model with axisymmetric and 3D CFD solutions are presented and compared. Strong coupling between CFD solutions for different air system cavities and the FE solid model led to some numerical difficulties. These were addressed through improvement of the coupling algorithm. Overall performance of the coupled approach is very encouraging giving temperature predictions as good as a traditional model that had been calibrated against engine measurements.

Contrary to Stafford Betty's diatribe about intelligent design (NCR, Oct. 21), I say intelligent design has no place in any science curriculum. Such 'design' concepts, intelligent or otherwise, may make [...]

* Shortly after the recent referendum in Venezuela, I discussed it with a colleague who took it for granted that the election was a fraud simply because Chavez is a [...]

Jere Lipps's article 'Judging Authority' (January/February 2004) was well timed relative to an argument I've been having with some friends who are psychotherapists. I have repeatedly challenged their 'authority' to [...]

While I generally agree with Colman McCarthy, I was apparently not the only one who challenged his pro-Ralph Nader stand (NCR, Letters, April 2). Two of the three letters dealing [...]

To develop a flow-sensitive dephasing (FSD) preparative scheme to facilitate multidirectional flow-signal suppression in 3-dimensional balanced steady-state free precession imaging and to validate the feasibility of the refined sequence for noncontrast magnetic resonance angiography (NC-MRA) of the hand.

Presents several letters to the editor. Information on Robert Sherrill's comprehensive report on the health care marketplace; Information on dubious psychiatric institutions; Information on the greed of hospitals, doctors, drug companies, insurance industries and health care conglomerates.