608 research outputs found
Methanotrophy potential versus methane supply by pore water diffusion in peatlands
Journal ArticlePublished by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences UnionAuthor(s) 2009.Low affinity methanotrophic bacteria consume a significant quantity of methane in wetland soils in the vicinity of plant roots and at the oxic-anoxic interface. Estimates of the efficiency of methanotrophy in peat soils vary widely in part because of differences in approaches employed to quantify methane cycling. High resolution profiles of dissolved methane abundance measured during the summer of 2003 were used to quantity rates of upward methane flux in four peatlands situated in Wales, UK. Aerobic incubations of peat from a minerotrophic and an ombrotrophic mire were used to determine depth distributions of kinetic parameters associated with methane oxidation. The capacity for methanotrophy in a 3 cm thick zone immediately beneath the depth of nil methane abundance in pore water was significantly greater than the rate of upward diffusion of methane in all four peatlands. Rates of methane diffusion in pore water at the minerotrophic peatlands were small (<10%) compared to surface emissions during June to August. The proportions were notably greater in the ombrotrophic bogs because of their typically low methane emission rates. Methanotrophy appears to consume entirely methane transported by pore water diffusion in the four peatlands with the exception of 4 of the 33 gas profiles sampled. Flux rates to the atmosphere regardless are high because of gas transport through vascular plants, in particular, at the minerotrophic sites. Cumulative rainfall amount 3-days prior to sampling correlated well with the distance between the water table level and the depth of 0 μmol l-1 methane, indicating that precipitation events can impact methane distributions in pore water. Further work is needed to characterise the kinetics of methane oxidation spatially and temporally in different wetland types in order to determine generalized relationships for methanotrophy in peatlands that can be incorporated into process-based models of methane cycling in peat soils.Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)Royal Societ
Methanotrophy potential versus methane supply by pore water diffusion in peatlands
International audienceLow affinity methanotrophic bacteria consume a significant quantity of methane in wetland soils in the vicinity of plant roots and at the oxic-anoxic interface. Estimates of the efficiency of methanotrophy in peat soils vary widely in part because of differences in approaches employed to quantify methane cycling. High resolution profiles of dissolved methane abundance measured during the summer of 2003 were used to quantify rates of upward methane flux in four peatlands situated in Wales, UK. Aerobic incubations of peat from a minerotrophic and an ombrogenous mire were used to determine depth distributions of kinetic parameters associated with methane oxidation. The capacity for methanotrophy in a 3 cm thick zone immediately beneath the depth of nil methane abundance in pore water was significantly greater than the rate of upward diffusion of methane in all four peatlands. Rates of methane diffusion in pore water at the minerotrophic peatlands were small (?mol l?1 methane, indicating that precipitation events can impact methane distributions in pore water. Further work is needed to characterise the kinetics of methane oxidation spatially and temporally in different wetland types in order to determine generalized relationships for methanotrophy in peatlands that can be incorporated into process-based models of methane cycling in peat soils
Baryogenesis from baryon number violating scalar interactions
In the following work we consider the possibility of explaining the observed
baryon number asymmetry in the universe from simple baryon number violating
modifications, involving massive scalar bosons, to the Standard Model. In these
cases baryon number violation is mediated through a combination of Yukawa and
scalar self-coupling interactions. Starting with a previously compiled
catalogue of baryon-number violating extensions of the Standard Model, we
identify the minimal subsets which can induce a asymmetry and thus be
immune to sphaleron washout. For each of these models, we identify the region
of parameter space that leads to the production of a baryon number asymmetry of
the correct order of magnitude.Comment: 14 pages, 3 Postscript figure
How should we measure psychological resilience in sport performers?
Psychological resilience is important in sport because athletes must constantly withstand a wide range of pressures to attain and sustain high performance. To advance psychologists’ understanding of this area, there exists an urgent need to develop a sport-specific measure of resilience. The purpose of this paper is to review psychometric issues in resilience research and to discuss the implications for sport psychology. Drawing on the wider general psychology literature to inform the discussion, the narrative is divided into three main sections relating to resilience and its assessment: adversity, positive adaptation, and protective factors. The first section reviews the different ways that adversity has been measured and considers the potential problems of using items with varying degrees of controllability and risk. The second section discusses the different approaches to assessing positive adaptation and examines the issue of circularity pervasive in resilience research. The final section explores the various issues related to the assessment of protective factors drawing directly from current measures of resilience in other psychology sub-disciplines. The commentary concludes with key recommendations for sport psychology researchers seeking to develop a measure of psychological resilience in athletes
Dense genotyping of immune-related loci in idiopathic inflammatory myopathies confirms HLA alleles as the strongest genetic risk factor and suggests different genetic background for major clinical subgroups
OBJECTIVES: The idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIMs) are a heterogeneous group of rare autoimmune diseases characterised by muscle weakness and extramuscular manifestations such as skin rashes and interstitial lung disease. We genotyped 2566 IIM cases of Caucasian descent using the Immunochip; a custom array covering 186 established autoimmune susceptibility loci. The cohort was predominantly comprised of patients with dermatomyositis (DM, n=879), juvenile DM (JDM, n=481), polymyositis (PM, n=931) and inclusion body myositis (n=252) collected from 14 countries through the Myositis Genetics Consortium. RESULTS: The human leucocyte antigen (HLA) and PTPN22 regions reached genome-wide significance (
Culture change in elite sport performance teams: Examining and advancing effectiveness in the new era
Reflecting the importance of optimizing culture for elite teams, Fletcher and Arnold (2011) recently suggested the need for expertise in culture change. Acknowledging the dearth of literature on the specific process, however, the potential effectiveness of practitioners in this area is unknown. The present paper examines the activity's precise demands and the validity of understanding in sport psychology and organizational research to support its delivery. Recognizing that sport psychologists are being increasingly utilized by elite team management, initial evidence-based guidelines are presented. Finally, to stimulate the development of ecologically valid, practically meaningful knowledge, the paper identifies a number of future research directions
Baryogenesis with Scalar Bilinears
We show that if a baryon asymmetry of the universe is generated through the
out-of-equilibrium decays of heavy scalar bilinears coupling to two fermions of
the minimal standard model, it is necessarily an asymmetry conserving
which cannot survive past the electroweak phase transition because of
sphalerons. We then show that a surviving asymmetry may be generated if
the heavy scalars decay into two fermions, \underline {and into two light
scalars} (which may be detectable at hadron colliders). We list all possible
such trilinear scalar interactions, and discuss how our new baryogenesis
scenario may occur naturally in supersymmetric grand unified theories.Comment: LATEX, 14 pages, one figure include
Within-River Phosphorus Retention: Accounting for a Missing Piece in the Watershed Phosphorus Puzzle
Sterile Neutrinos in E_6 and a Natural Understanding of Vacuum Oscillation Solution to the Solar Neutrino Puzzle
If Nature has chosen the vacuum oscillation solution to the Solar neutrino
puzzle, a key theoretical challenge is to understand the extreme smallness of
the () required for the purpose.
We find that in a class of models such as [SU(3)]^3 or its parent group E_6,
which contain one sterile neutrino, for each family, the is proportional to the cube of the lepton Yukawa
coupling. Therefore fitting the atmospheric neutrino data then predicts the
mass difference square to be , where the atmospheric neutrino data is assumed to be
solved via the oscillation. This provides a natural
explanation of the vacuum oscillation solution to the solar neutrino problem.Comment: 7 pages, UMD-PP-99-109; new references added; no other chang
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