Where did all the irrigators go? Trends in irrigation and demographics in Kansas

Presented at the 2006 Central Plains irrigation conference on February 21-22 in Colby, Kansas.The 2000 United States Census indicated that Kansas had grown by 8.51 percent in population since 1990, compared to the national average growth rate of 13.15 percent. Only nine (9) of 105 counties in Kansas experienced growth equal to or greater than the national average growth rate. From 2000-2004 only 8 counties grew at or above the national average growth rate. In 1990, Kansans were 1.00 percent of the U.S. population, in 2004 only 0.94% of the population. The 2004 population estimates had 56 of 105 counties in Kansas declining in population since 2000. Of the 54 counties overlying the High Plains aquifer, only three (3) counties had equal or greater growth than the national average. In addition the census also indicated a cultural transition as many counties experienced domestic out-migration and foreign immigration. Agricultural Census data document a 5.26 percent decrease in the total market value of agricultural products from 1997 to 2002, while the total number of farms increased 4.58 percent in Kansas during the same period. The number of Irrigated farms decreased by 3.58 percent with total irrigated acres declining by only 1.07 percent to 2.678 million acres over the same five year period. Total acreage in crop production declined 1.59 percent, while the market value of crops sold decreasing 24.9% from $3.22 billion in 1997 to$2.42 billion in 2002. Since 1990, irrigation technology has dramatically changed to more efficient low pressure pivot and SDI (subsurface drip irrigation) systems. With more efficient water use, irrigators have been able to grow significantly more corn and other water intensive crops. Given the 3.5 percent decrease in the number of irrigated farms since 1997, the resulting 1.08 percent decline in irrigated acres indicates increased acreage efficiency by remaining irrigators. This presentation intends to demonstrate spatial and temporal trends in irrigation and demographics for Kansas, with focus on the 54 counties overlying the High Plains Aquifer

Beyond Strong Coupling in a Massively Multimode Cavity

The study of light-matter interaction has seen a resurgence in recent years, stimulated by highly controllable, precise, and modular experiments in cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED). The achievement of strong coupling, where the coupling between a single atom and fundamental cavity mode exceeds the decay rates, was a major milestone that opened the doors to a multitude of new investigations. Here we introduce multimode strong coupling (MMSC), where the coupling is comparable to the free spectral range (FSR) of the cavity, i.e. the rate at which a qubit can absorb a photon from the cavity is comparable to the round trip transit rate of a photon in the cavity. We realize, via the circuit QED architecture, the first experiment accessing the MMSC regime, and report remarkably widespread and structured resonance fluorescence, whose origin extends beyond cavity enhancement of sidebands. Our results capture complex multimode, multiphoton processes, and the emergence of ultranarrow linewidths. Beyond the novel phenomena presented here, MMSC opens a major new direction in the exploration of light-matter interactions.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures. References added, typos correcte

Effect of Fibrinogen and Ca 2+ on the Thrombin-Catalyzed Proteolytic Event That Triggers Activation of Factor XIII

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/75101/1/j.1749-6632.1986.tb34575.x.pd

Moduli Stacks of Vector Bundles and Frobenius Morphisms

We describe the action of the different Frobenius morphisms on the cohomology ring of the moduli stack of algebraic vector bundles of fixed rank and determinant on an algebraic curve over a finite field in characteristic p and analyse special situations like vector bundles on the projective line and relations with infinite Grassmannians.Comment: 19 page

Distinct ubiquitin binding modes exhibited by SH3 domains: Molecular determinants and functional implications

SH3 domains constitute a new type of ubiquitin-binding domains. We previously showed that the third SH3 domain (SH3-C) of CD2AP binds ubiquitin in an alternative orientation. We have determined the structure of the complex between first CD2AP SH3 domain and ubiquitin and performed a structural and mutational analysis to decipher the determinants of the SH3-C binding mode to ubiquitin. We found that the Phe-to-Tyr mutation in CD2AP and in the homologous CIN85 SH3-C domain does not abrogate ubiquitin binding, in contrast to previous hypothesis and our findings for the first two CD2AP SH3 domains. The similar alternative binding mode of the SH3-C domains of these related adaptor proteins is characterised by a higher affinity to C-terminal extended ubiquitin molecules. We conclude that CD2AP/CIN85 SH3-C domain interaction with ubiquitin constitutes a new ubiquitin-binding mode involved in a different cellular function and thus changes the previously established mechanism of EGF-dependent CD2AP/CIN85 mono-ubiquitination. © 2013 Ortega Roldan et al

The Search for Stellar Companions to Exoplanet Host Stars Using the CHARA Array

Most exoplanets have been discovered via radial velocity studies, which are inherently insensitive to orbital inclination. Interferometric observations will show evidence of a stellar companion if it sufficiently bright, regardless of the inclination. Using the CHARA Array, we observed 22 exoplanet host stars to search for stellar companions in low-inclination orbits that may be masquerading as planetary systems. While no definitive stellar companions were discovered, it was possible to rule out certain secondary spectral types for each exoplanet system observed by studying the errors in the diameter fit to calibrated visibilities and by searching for separated fringe packets.Comment: 26 pages, 5 tables, 8 figure

Extended envelopes around Galactic Cepheids III. Y Oph and alpha Per from near-infrared interferometry with CHARA/FLUOR

Unbiased angular diameter measurements are required for accurate distances to Cepheids using the interferometric Baade Wesselink method (IBWM). The precision of this technique is currently limited by interferometric measurements at the 1.5% level. At this level, the center-to-limb darkening (CLD) and the presence of circumstellar envelopes (CSE) seem to be the two main sources of bias. The observations we performed aim at improving our knowledge of the interferometric visibility profile of Cepheids. In particular, we assess the systematic presence of CSE around Cepheids in order determine accurate distances with the IBWM free from CSE biased angular diameters. We observed a Cepheid (Y Oph) for which the pulsation is well resolved and a non-pulsating yellow supergiant (alpha Per) using long-baseline near-infrared interferometry. We interpreted these data using a simple CSE model we previously developed. We found that our observations of alpha Per do not provide evidence for a CSE. The measured CLD is explained by an hydrostatic photospheric model. Our observations of Y Oph, when compared to smaller baseline measurements, suggest that it is surrounded by a CSE with similar characteristics to CSE found previously around other Cepheids. We have determined the distance to Y Oph to be d=491+/-18 pc. Additional evidence points toward the conclusion that most Cepheids are surrounded by faint CSE, detected by near infrared interferometry: after observing four Cepheids, all show evidence for a CSE. Our CSE non-detection around a non-pulsating supergiant in the instability strip, alpha Per, provides confidence in the detection technique and suggests a pulsation driven mass-loss mechanism for the Cepheids.Comment: accepted for publication in Ap

Solid State Physics

Contains reports on five research projects