Under conditions of sufficiently slow flow, foams, colloids, granular matter, and various pastes have been observed to exhibit shear localization, i.e., regions of flow coexisting with regions of solidlike behavior. The details of such shear localization can vary depending on the system being studied. A number of the systems of interest are confined so as to be quasi two-dimensional, and an important issue in these systems is the role of the confining boundaries. For foams, three basic systems have been studied with very different boundary conditions: Hele-Shaw cells (bubbles confined between two solid plates); bubble rafts (a single layer of bubbles freely floating on a surface of water); and confined bubble rafts (bubbles confined between the surface of water below and a glass plate on top). Often, it is assumed that the impact of the boundaries is not significant in the "quasistatic limit," i.e., when externally imposed rates of strain are sufficiently smaller than internal kinematic relaxation times. In this paper, we directly test this assumption for rates of strain ranging from 10(-3) to 10(-2) s(-1). This corresponds to the quoted rate of strain that had been used in a number of previous experiments. It is found that the top plate dramatically alters both the velocity profile and the distribution of nonlinear rearrangements, even at these slow rates of strain. When a top is present, the flow is localized to a narrow band near the wall, and without a top, there is flow throughout the system.

This paper examines the spatial and institutional characteristics of the emerging trend of inland port development in China. The paper analyses a sample of 18 major inland ports in three geographical clusters, comparing observed issues with similar developments in Europe, the United States and Africa. It highlights the issues of customs clearance and intermodal transport, before an extended discussion on conflicting models of development based on the priorities of inland and port actors.The aim is first to provide a descriptive account of this development, and second to provide tentative explanations for these results by comparing the findings with similar developments in other countries. This task is aided by use of a conceptual framework drawn from the literature, in which port-driven and inland-driven inland ports are contrasted. Thus a supplementary aim of the paper is to develop the conceptual model of directional development in a new geographical context.Findings reveal the need to align development priorities of central and local governments, as well as clarifying the use of subsidies to a number of different inland ports which may potentially split economies of scale through increased competition for an overlapping hinterland. The paper demonstrates that, while in the past China's seaports had less inland penetration compared to more mature systems, emerging trends suggest some similarities to patterns observed in more integrated networks such as Europe and North America.

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We isolated a bacterial strain JQ135 from municipal wastewater, which was capable of efficiently degrading picolinic acid (PA). Based on the physico-biochemical characteristics and 16S rDNA analysis, strain JQ135 was identified as Alcaligenes faecalis. In addition, strain JQ135 produced an orange pigment when cultured in the Luria-Bertani medium, which is different from the previously reported strains of A. faecalis. During the degradation of PA by the resting strain JQ135 cells, only one intermediate, 6-hydroxypicolinic acid (6HPA), was detected by ultraviolet spectrophotometry, high-pressure liquid chromatography, and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. A random transposon mutagenesis library of strain JQ135 was constructed. One mutant, Mut-G31, could convert PA into 6HPA without further degradation. The disrupted gene (orf2) was amplified from Mut-G31, and its product showed 32% identity to the 3-deoxy-D-manno-octulosonic acid kinase (KdkA) from Haemophilus influenzae. Results from complementation analysis confirmed that GTG was the initiation codon of the kdkA-like orf2, and that it was essential for PA biodegradation by strain JQ135. This study provides the first genetic evidence for the bacterial degradation of PA.

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