The influence of pulsed redox conditions on soil phosphorus

The effects of eleven pulsed reduction-oxidation cycles (20 and 2 days respectively) on soil phosphorus (P) dynamics are compared for 12 soils having contrasting properties and overfertilised with respect to P. Incubation conditions simulated transient waterlogging of the soil profile and involved repeated sampling and analysis of both the solution and solid phase P forms. An initial increase in P concentration occurred upto and including the fourth full cycle was followed by a sharp decline in concentration for all but one soil. Accompanying changes in the main extractable forms of P, which appeared to be cumulative, could be summarised as a general decline in the organic P fraction and an overall increase in amorphous associated inorganic forms of P. The fact that up to 60% of the total soil P was demonstrated to change its sensitivity for a particular extractant suggests that these operationally defined P forms can experience substantial transformations. There was also a suggestion that certain changes in P forms may not be reversible. While the laboratory conditions represent an extreme situation changes in timing and frequency of intense precipitation events, as predicted in many climate change scenarios, may increase the risk of episodic soil waterlogging. The potential onset of reducing conditions even for periods of less than twenty days will influence soil P dynamics and short-term bioavailable P. Various mechanisms are involved but the robustness of sequential extraction procedures and general soil test methods (e.g. Olsen) for quantifying and reliably distinguishing specific soil P forms/associations are questioned

Imaging in the European Heart Journal: the team of deputy and associate editors Chiara Bucciarelli-Ducci, JoAo L. Cavalcante, and Nina Ajmone-Marsan

Cardiolog

Metal release under anaerobic conditions of urban soils of four European cities

Urban soil contamination may represent an environmental threat in view of their proximity to humans. The ecological homogenization of urban areas has been postulated, and as the sources of pollution are the same in most European cities, it is possible that soil contamination is another factor of convergence. The current climate change with consequent increase of extreme rain events may affect the mobility of potentially toxic elements (PTE) thus increasing the risks. If the soil is submerged, Eh decreases and causes the solubilization of Fe and Mn oxides, which are important carriers of PTE. We compared the release of Cu, Pb, and Zn from 48 soils of four cities (namely Glasgow, Ljubljana, Sevilla, and Torino) when submerged for up to 30 days. A decrease of the redox potential was observed in all soils after a few days and an increase of Mn and then Fe in solution. Cu, Pb, and Zn were consequently released to the solution according to the general soil contamination. Despite the marked differences in soil properties, the reaction to anaerobiosis appeared to be similar in all samples indicating that waterlogging of urban soil contaminated with PTE may pose a serious environmental risk and substantiating the hypothesis of ecological convergence

Multiple-breed genomic evaluation by principal component analysis in small size populations

In this study, the effects of breed composition and predictor dimensionality on the accuracy of direct genomic values (DGV) in a multiple breed (MB) cattle population were investigated. A total of 3559 bulls of three breeds were genotyped at 54 001 single nucleotide polymorphisms: 2093 Holstein (H), 749 Brown Swiss (B) and 717 Simmental (S). DGV were calculated using a principal component (PC) approach for either single (SB) or MB scenarios. Moreover, DGV were computed using all SNP genotypes simultaneously with SNPBLUP model as comparison. A total of seven data sets were used: three with a SB each, three with different pairs of breeds (HB, HS and BS), and one with all the three breeds together (HBS), respectively. Editing was performed separately for each scenario. Reference populations differed in breed composition, whereas the validation bulls were the same for all scenarios. The number of SNPs retained after data editing ranged from 36 521 to 41 360. PCs were extracted from actual genotypes. The total number of retained PCs ranged from 4029 to 7284 in Brown Swiss and HBS respectively, reducing the number of predictors by about 85% (from 82% to 89%). In all, three traits were considered: milk, fat and protein yield. Correlations between deregressed proofs and DGV were used to assess prediction accuracy in validation animals. In the SB scenarios, average DGV accuracy did not substantially change when either SNPBLUP or PC were used. Improvement of DGV accuracy were observed for some traits in Brown Swiss, only when MB reference populations and PC approach were used instead of SB-SNPBLUP (+10% HBS, +16%HB for milk yield and +3% HBS and +7% HB for protein yield, respectively). With the exclusion of the abovementioned cases, similar accuracies were observed using MB reference population, under the PC or SNPBLUP models. Random variation owing to sampling effect or size and composition of the reference population may explain the difficulty in finding a defined pattern in the results

Milk Products in Bread Making

The topic was the usage of milk in bread making. Initial investigations in bread making using milk were aimed at learning how to prepare milk best suited for bread making and finding the proper quantities for optimum results. The convenience, economy, and uniformity of dry milk solids greatly increased their usage by bakers. These advantages have been further augmented by research and experimentation by the dry milk producers, which have resulted in a product which would appreciably improve bread quality. Milk may be altered both in physical and chemical properties by heating. The article goes on to give more information on milk usage in baking

Confluence reduction for Markov automata

Markov automata are a novel formalism for specifying systems exhibiting nondeterminism, probabilistic choices and Markovian rates. Recently, the process algebra MAPA was introduced to efficiently model such systems. As always, the state space explosion threatens the analysability of the models generated by such specifications. We therefore introduce confluence reduction for Markov automata, a powerful reduction technique to keep these models small. We define the notion of confluence directly on Markov automata, and discuss how to syntactically detect confluence on the MAPA language as well. That way, Markov automata generated by MAPA specifications can be reduced on-the-fly while preserving divergence-sensitive branching bisimulation. Three case studies demonstrate the significance of our approach, with reductions in analysis time up to an order of magnitude

Introduction to hemodynamic forces by echocardiography

Hemodynamic force (HDF) analysis represents a novel approach to quantify intraventricular pressure gradients, responsible for blood flow. A new mathematical model allows the derivation of HDF parameters from routine transthoracic echocardiography, making this tool more accessible for clinical use. HDF analysis is considered the fluid dynamics correlate of deformation imaging and may be even more sensitive to detect mechanical abnormalities. This has the potential to add incremental clinical value, allowing earlier detection of pathology or immediate evaluation of response to treatment. In this article, the theoretical background and physiological patterns of HDF in the left ventricle are provided. In pathological situations, the HDF pattern might alter, which is illustrated with a case of ST segment elevation myocardial infarction and non-ischemic cardiomyopathy with typical left bundle branch block