Anthropogenic nitrogen autotrophy and heterotrophy of the world's watersheds: Past, present, and future trends

Anthropogenic nitrogen autotrophy of a territory is defined as the nitrogen flux associated with local production of harvested crops and grass consumed by livestock grazing (in kg N/km(2)/yr). Nitrogen heterotrophy is the nitrogen flux associated with local food and feed consumption by humans and domestic animals. These two summarizing characteristics (anthropogenic nitrogen autotrophy and heterotrophy (ANAH)) indicate the degree of anthropogenic perturbation of the nitrogen cycle by agriculture and human consumption: their balance value provides information on either the potential for commercial export or the need to import agricultural goods; in a watershed, their vector sum is related to the nitrogen flux delivered to the sea. These indicators were calculated for all the watersheds in the Global Nutrient Export from Watersheds (NEWS) database for 1970 and 2000, as well as for 2030 and 2050, according to Millennium Ecosystem Assessment scenarios. During this 30 year period, many watersheds shifted from relatively balanced situations toward either more autotrophic or more heterotrophic conditions. This trend is predicted to become more pronounced over the next 50 year

N:P:Si nutrient export ratios and ecological consequences in coastal seas evaluated by the ICEP approach

The Indicator for Coastal Eutrophication Potential (ICEP) for river nutrient export of nitrogen, phosphorus, and silica at the global scale was first calculated from available measurement data. Positive values of ICEP indicate an excess of nitrogen and phosphorus over silica and generally coincide with eutrophication. The sign of ICEP based on measured nutrient fluxes was in good agreement with the corresponding one calculated from the Global-NEWS models for more than 5000 watersheds in the world. Calculated ICEP for the year 2050 based on Global NEWS data for the four Millennium Ecosystem Assessment scenarios show increasing values particularly in developing countries. For further evaluation of the ICEP at the outlet of the rivers of the world based on measurements, there is a need for additional determination silica fluxes and concentrations, which are scarcely documented

Percolation of Immobile Domains in Supercooled Thin Polymeric Films

We present an analysis of heterogeneous dynamics in molecular dynamics simulations of a thin polymeric film, supported by an absorbing structured surface. Near the glass transition "immobile" domains occur throughout the film, yet the probability of their occurrence decreasing with larger distance from the surface. Still, enough immobile domains are located near the free surface to cause them to percolate in the direction perpendicular to surface, at a temperature near the glass transition temperature. This result is in agreement with a recent theoretical model of glass transition

Distribution of nitrifying activity in the Seine River (France) from Paris to the estuary

The distribution of nitrification has been measured with the H14CO3- incorporation method in the Seine River and its estuary during summer conditions. The Seine River below Paris receives large amounts of ammonium through wastewater discharge. In the river itself, this ammonium is only slowly nitrified, while in the estuary nitrification is rapid and complete. We show that this contrasting behavior is related to the different hydrosedimentary conditions of the two systems, as nitrifying bacteria are associated with suspended particles. In the river, particles and their attached bacteria either rapidly settle or have a sestonic behavior. Because of the short residence times of the water masses, the dow growing nitrifying population has no time to develop sufficiently to nitrify the available ammonium. The estuary is characterized by strong tidal dynamics. Particles settle and are resuspended continuously with the strong current inversions of ebb and hood. As a result of these dynamics, particles and their attached nitrifying bacteria experience longer residence times in a temporary suspended state than the water masses themselves, providing to slow growing nitrifying bacteria the opportunity to develop a large population capable of nitrifying all the available ammonium

The impact of donor health and psychosocial factors on the donation experience and recovery

Donation of haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), either through bone marrow (BM) or peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC) collection, is a generally safe procedure for healthy donors, although adverse reactions (ARs) are a known and definable risk. The physical reactions to donation have been established for some time, but less is known about factors predicting poorer experiences. In my thesis, I explore the donation experience in a prospective study involving 275 PBSC and 37 BM donors and focus attention on health-related quality of life (HRQOL) factors associated with recovery. Detailed interviews of 14 PBSC donors explore these findings using qualitative methodology. In addition, I characterise donors at risk of not meeting the HSC dose requested by transplant centres and therefore at risk of additional procedures and associated ARs. My key finding was that pre-donation HRQOL markers were the strongest predictors of time to recovery; poorer pre-donation physical health was associated with longer recovery (p = 0.017) and certain side-effects in PBSC donors, and poorer mental health was associated with longer recovery in BM donors (p = 0.03) and pain following PBSC donation (p = 0.003). Physical HRQOL scores declined significantly from pre-donation to 4 weeks post-donation, but returned to pre-donation values at 3 months. This decline was greater for BM donors. Mental HRQOL scores remained high throughout for PBSC donors, this may be explained by the strong, intrinsic motivation as well as remarkable determination donors described in the qualitative analysis

Donation of peripheral blood stem cells to unrelated strangers:A thematic analysis

BackgroundDonation of haematopoietic stem cells, either through bone marrow (BM) or peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC) collection, is a generally safe procedure for healthy donors, although side effects are a known risk. Previous research, including our recent quantitative study, has shown that the psychosocial response to donating is usually a positive one and most donors would be willing to donate again in the future. This is often despite experiencing significant side effects during the donation process. Due to the relative recent introduction of PBSC, a comprehensive understanding of the range of physical and emotional issues donors may experience is lacking, as well as an understanding of specific donor characteristics Qualitative research can provide rich narrative data into these areas. This study was set up in order to identify specific donor characteristics and to further explore the relationship between pre-donation physical health and the donation experience, as previously identified in our quantitative study.MethodsIt involved in-depth telephone interviews with 14 PBSC donors who participated in our original quantitative study. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the findings and the results provide a summary of participants’ characteristics using themes and constituent codes.ResultsWe identified several donor characteristics, including strong intrinsic motivation, altruism, sense of duty, determination, low levels of ambivalence and the ability to develop a strong emotional relationship with an (unknown/anonymous) recipient whilst being able to manage strong feelings and emotions.ConclusionsThese personality traits may explain the resilience that has been observed previously in haematopoietic stem cells donors. Significant feelings of grief were reported after a recipient’s death. Possibilities to alleviate these symptoms may include raising awareness of potential poor outcomes in the recipient and offering improved counselling services if the recipient dies. We acknowledge several limitations including the sampling frame

Nitrogen leaching from organic agriculture and conventional crop rotations (France)

A great challenge to science is to elucidate how agriculture can feed the increasing world population without damaging the environment, while preserving other resources such as freshwater. In the Seine basin, characterised by intensive agriculture, most of surface and underground water is contaminated by nitrate. Conventional agriculture has regularly increased the use of industrial fertilisers since the WWII, leading to high nitrogen leaching, as shown by lysimeters or suction cup measurements. Such measurements are very scarce for other agricultural systems such as organic farming (Hansen et al. 2000; Haas et al. 2002; Mondelaers et al. 2009). The goal of our study is to investigate nitrogen leaching from organic agriculture, taking into account complete organic rotations (6-9 years). We hypothesize that leaching for organic farming is less than for conventional farming, although factors such as different practices, types of soil and age of conversion need to be taken into consideration. This work should have an impact on nitrogen sufficiency and management of organic practices

The LHC Logging Service : Handling terabytes of on-line data

Based on previous experience with LEP, a long-term data logging service for the LHC was developed and put in place in 2003, several years before beam operation. The scope of the logging service covers the evolution over time of data acquisitions on accelerator equipment and beam related parameters. The intention is to keep all this time-series data on-line for the lifetime of LHC, allowing easy data comparisons with previous years. The LHC hardware commissioning has used this service extensively prior to the first beams in 2008 and even more so in 2009. Current data writing rates exceed 15TB/year and continue to increase. The high data volumes and throughput rates, in writing as well as in reading, require special arrangements on data organization and data access methods

The RF system for the National Spallation Neutron Source linac

The National Spallation Neutron Source (NSNS) system has been proposed to dramatically improve the neutron capabilities for science applications in the US. The NSNS is a fast pulse neutron source that would consist of a 1000 MeV H-linac, an accumulator ring, a neutron target, and an experimental area. Although the NSNS is to be built at Oak Ridge, the design responsibility is delegated to five US national laboratories, and the Los Alamos National Laboratory is responsible for the linac portion of this machine, from the output of the radio frequency quadrupole (RFQ) accelerator, to the entrance to the accumulator ring. In the baseline design, a total of 59 klystrons are used to provide the RF power for a 1-MW average power beam in the accumulator ring, and a 1.04 ms pulse length, 6.24% duty factor beam in the linac. The frequencies chosen are 402.5 MHz for the RFQ and drift tube linac (DTL) portions of the machine, and 805 MHz for the coupled-cavity DTL (CCDTL) and coupled cavity (CCL) portions of the linac. The baseline 805 MHz klystron is capable of 2.5 MW peak power into a flat load, and it contains a modulating anode. The backup 805 MHz klystron is cathode pulsed, and has a 5 MW peak output power. The modulators for these two klystrons are vastly different. The challenges and compromises for the two klystrons and their associated modulators and RF systems are discussed. The baseline design RF system is presented in detail