Catch crop strategy and nitrate leaching following grazed grass-clover

Cultivation of grassland presents a high risk of nitrate leaching. This study aimed to determine if leaching could be reduced by growing spring barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) as a green crop for silage with undersown Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum Lam.) compared with barley grown to maturity with or without an undersown conventional catch crop of perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.). All treatments received 0,60 or 120 kg of ammonium-N ha-1 in cattle slurry. In spring 2003, two grass-clover fields (3 and 5 years old, respectively, with different management histories) were ploughed. The effects of the treatments on yield and nitrate leaching were determined in the first year, while the residual effects of the treatments were determined in the second year in a crop of spring barley⁄perennial ryegrass. Nitrate leaching was estimated in selected treatments using soil water samples from ceramic cups. The experiment showed that compared with treatments without catch crop, green barley⁄Italian ryegrass reduced leaching by 163–320 kg Nha-1, corresponding to 95–99%, and the perennial ryegrass reduced leaching to between 34 and 86 kg Nha-1, corresponding to a reduction of 80 and 66%. Also, in the second growing season, leaching following catchcrops was reduced compared with the bare soil treatment. It was concluded that the green barley⁄Italian ryegrass offers advantages not only for the environment but also for farmers, for whom it provides a fodder high in roughage and avoids the difficulties with clover fatigue increasingly experienced by Danish farmers

Improved limits on the tensor-to-scalar ratio using BICEP and Planck data

We present constraints on the tensor-to-scalar ratio r using a combination of BICEP/Keck 2018 (BK18) and Planck PR4 data allowing us to fit for r consistently with the six parameters of the ? CDM model. We discuss the sensitivity of constraints on r to uncertainties in the ? CDM parameters as defined by the Planck data. In particular, we are able to derive a constraint on the reionization optical depth ? and thus propagate its uncertainty into the posterior distribution for r . While Planck sensitivity to r is slightly lower than the current ground-based measurements, the combination of Planck with BK18 and baryon-acoustic-oscillation data yields results consistent with r = 0 and tightens the constraint to r < 0.032 at 95% confidence.Planck is a project of the European Space Agency (ESA) with instruments provided by two scientific consortia funded by ESA member states and led by Principal Investigators from France and Italy, telescope reflectors provided through a collaboration between ESA and a scientific consortium led and funded by Denmark, and additional contributions from NASA (USA). We gratefully acknowledge support from the CNRS/IN2P3 Computing Center for providing computing and data-processing resources needed for this work. This research used resources of the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, which is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02- 05CH11231. Part of the research was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Grant No. 80NM0018D0004)

Novel Druggable Hot Spots in Avian Influenza Neuraminidase H5N1 Revealed by Computational Solvent Mapping of a Reduced and Representative Receptor Ensemble

The influenza virus subtype H5N1 has raised concerns of a possible human pandemic threat because of its high virulence and mutation rate. Although several approved anti-influenza drugs effectively target the neuraminidase, some strains have already acquired resistance to the currently available anti-influenza drugs. In this study, we present the synergistic application of extended explicit solvent molecular dynamics (MD) and computational solvent mapping (CS-Map) to identify putative ‘hot spots’ within flexible binding regions of N1 neuraminidase. Using representative conformations of the N1 binding region extracted from a clustering analysis of four concatenated 40-ns MD simulations, CS-Map was utilized to assess the ability of small, solvent-sized molecules to bind within close proximity to the sialic acid binding region. Mapping analyses of the dominant MD conformations reveal the presence of additional hot spot regions in the 150- and 430-loop regions. Our hot spot analysis provides further support for the feasibility of developing high-affinity inhibitors capable of binding these regions, which appear to be unique to the N1 strain

Cascade and anti-cascade production in central Pb+Pb collisions at 158 GeV/c per nucleon

Results of the production of Xi and Xi-bar hyperons in central Pb+Pb interactions at 158 GeV/c per nucleon are presented. This analysis utilises a global reconstruction procedure, which allows a measurement of 4pi integrated yields to be made for the first time. Inverse slope paramters, which are determined from an exponential fit to the transverse mass spectra, are shown. Central rapidity densities are found to be 1.49 +- 0.08 and 0.33 +- 0.04 per event per unit of rapidity for Xi and Xi-bar respectively. Yields integrated to full phase space are 4.12 +- 0.02 and 0.77 +- 0.04 for Xi and Xi-bar. The ratio of Xi-bar/Xi at mid-rapidity is 0.22 +- 0.03.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figure

Estimated intake of benzoic and sorbic acids in Denmark

International audienceThe monitoring of food additives and recent dietary surveys carried out in Denmark have earlier been used to estimate the intake of sweeteners and nitrite in relation to ADI values. The ubiquitous use of the preservatives benzoic and sorbic acid raises the question of the magnitude of the intake of these preservatives in relation to ADI values, which is explored in the present investigation. The content of benzoic and sorbic acid in all food groups, where they are allowed, has been monitored in Denmark 17 times from 2001 to 2006 with a total of 1526 samples. Transgressions of maximum limits, illegal use or declaration faults have been found in about 3% of the samples. From repeated investigations on fat based foods (salads and dressings), marmalade and stewed fruit it can be concluded that the amounts used by the industry have been relatively stable through the whole period, although limited data for marmalade show some variation. Most foods in the categories soft drinks, dressing, fat based salads, pickled herrings and marmalade contain benzoic and sorbic acid, and sliced bread contain in some cases also sorbic acid. The median daily intake and intake distribution of benzoic and sorbic acid have been calculated with data from the Danish National Survey of Dietary Habits and Physical Activity (age: 4-75 years) conducted in 2000-04 with 5785 participants.The median intakes of both benzoic acid and sorbic acid are well below the acceptable daily intake (ADI) values of 0-5 mg/kg bw/day and 0-25 mg/kg bw/day for benzoic and sorbic acid respectively. However, the 90th percentile based on the average of the samples with a content of benzoic acid is higher than the ADI value for both men and women with the highest value of 16 mg/kg bw/day for both boys and girls in the age group 4-6 year old.. Based on the average of all the samples the 95th percentile is over the ADI value for men up to 34 years and for women up to 24 years and the 90th percentile for men up to 18 years and for women up to 10 years. Soft drinks, salads and dressing are the main contributors to the benzoic acid intake.The sorbic acid intake based on the average of all samples is well below the ADI value. However, for the intake based on the average of samples with content the 95th percentile exceeds the ADI . This is caused by the dominating contribution to the intake of sorbic acid from sliced bread, but since only 7 out of 42 samples have added sorbic acid, the calculation based on the average of samples with content will exaggerate the intake. With the built in safety factor of 100 in the ADI values and judging from the literature the high intakes of benzoic acid should not cause any concern for ill effects. However, there must be reason to reconsider the maximum limits especially for benzoic acid in soft drinks, dressing and salads and for sorbic acid in sliced bread