Immediate changes in organic matter and plant available nutrients of Haplic Luvisol soils following different experimental burning intensities in Damak Forest, Hungary

One of the major pedological changes produced by wildfires is the drastic modification of forest soil systems properties. To our knowledge, large research gaps are currently present concerning the effect of such fires on forest Haplic Luvisols soils in Central Europe. In this study, the effects of experimental fires on soil organic matter and chemical properties at different burning intensities in a Central European forest were examined. The study was conducted at Damak Forest, in Hungary, ecosystem dominated by deciduous broadleaf trees, including the rare Hungarian oak Quercus frainetto Ten. The experimental fires were carried out in nine different plots on Haplic Luvisol soils transferred from Damak Forest to the burning site. Three types of fuel load were collected from the forest: litter layer, understorey and overstorey. Groups of three plots were burned at low (litter layer), medium intensity (litter and understorey) and high intensity (litter, understorey and overstorey). Pre-fire and post-fire soil samples were taken from each plot, analysed in the laboratory and statistically compared. Key plant nutrients of organic matter, carbon, potassium, calcium, magnesium and phosphorus were analysed from each sample. No significant differences in soil organic matter and carbon between pre- and post-fire samples were observed, but high intensity fires did increase soil pH significantly. Calcium, magnesium and phosphorus availability increased significantly at all fire intensity levels. Soil potassium levels significantly decreased (ca. 50%) for all intensity treatments, in contrast to most literature. Potassium is a key nutrient for ion transport in plants, and any loss of this nutrient from the soil could have significant effects on local agricultural production. Overall, our findings provide evidence that support the maintaining of the current Hungarian fire prevention policy. © 2019 by the authors

Spectral stability of noncharacteristic isentropic Navier-Stokes boundary layers

Building on work of Barker, Humpherys, Lafitte, Rudd, and Zumbrun in the shock wave case, we study stability of compressive, or "shock-like", boundary layers of the isentropic compressible Navier-Stokes equations with gamma-law pressure by a combination of asymptotic ODE estimates and numerical Evans function computations. Our results indicate stability for gamma in the interval [1, 3] for all compressive boundary-layers, independent of amplitude, save for inflow layers in the characteristic limit (not treated). Expansive inflow boundary-layers have been shown to be stable for all amplitudes by Matsumura and Nishihara using energy estimates. Besides the parameter of amplitude appearing in the shock case, the boundary-layer case features an additional parameter measuring displacement of the background profile, which greatly complicates the resulting case structure. Moreover, inflow boundary layers turn out to have quite delicate stability in both large-displacement and large-amplitude limits, necessitating the additional use of a mod-two stability index studied earlier by Serre and Zumbrun in order to decide stability

Pilot study to investigate the effect of long-term exposure to high pCO2 on adult cod (Gadus morhua) otolith morphology and calcium carbonate deposition

Funding was provided by the Bonus Baltic Sea research and development programme (Art 185) BIO-C3 project, funded jointly by the EU and the BMBF (Grant No. 03F0682A), BIOACID project (Biological Impacts of Ocean Acidification: Grant No. 03F0655K) funded by the German Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF), and the EU AQUAEXCEL transnational access grant for aquaculture infrastructures. Part of the work was supported by the FINEAQUA-project (Grant Number 12212001) funded by the Program for the Future Economy (financed by the European Regional Development Fund, the Federal Republic of Germany and the state of Schleswig–Holstein), the Centre for Marine Aquaculture, Tromsø, and the Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland (MASTS) Small Grant initiative (SG330 and SG407), and their support especially by the staff of the centre for Marine Aquaculture is gratefully acknowledged. MASTS is funded by the Scottish Funding Council (grant reference HR09011) and contributing institutions. PBW would like to thank the Royal Society for the award of an Industry Fellowship. DGS is a Serra Húnter Tenure-Track lecturer.To date the study of ocean acidification on fish otolith formation has been mainly focused on larval and juvenile stages. In the present pilot study, wild-captured adult Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) were exposed to two different levels of pCO2, 422µatm (ambient, low pCO2) or 1091µatm (high pCO2), for a period of 30 weeks (from mid-October to early April 2014–2015) in order to study the effects on otolith size, shape and CaCO3 crystallization amongst other biological parameters. We found that otoliths from cod exposed to high pCO2 were slightly smaller (− 3.4% in length; − 3.3% in perimeter), rounder (− 2.9% circularity and + 4% roundness) but heavier (+ 5%) than the low pCO2 group. Interestingly, there were different effects in males and females; for instance, male cods exposed to high pCO2 exhibited significant changes in circularity (− 3%) and roundness (+ 4%) compared to the low pCO2 males, but without significant changes on otolith dimensions, while females exposed to high pCO2 had smaller otoliths as shown for length (− 5.6%), width (− 2%), perimeter (− 3.5%) and area (− 4.8%). Furthermore, while the majority of the otoliths analysed showed normal aragonite deposition, 10% of fish exposed to 1091µatm of pCO2 had an abnormal accretion of calcite, suggesting a shift on calcium carbonate polymorph crystallization in some individuals under high pCO2 conditions. Our preliminary results indicate that high levels of pCO2 in adult Atlantic cod might affect otolith growth in a gender-specific way. Our findings reveal that otoliths from adult cod are affected by ocean acidification, and we believe that the present study will prompt further research into this currently under-explored areaPublisher PDFPeer reviewe

Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Artificial Pancreas Systems for Type 1 Diabetes: Perspectives of Two Adult Users, Parent of a User and Healthcare Professionals

The artificial pancreas system or an automated insulin dosing system has been the ‘holy grail’ for patients with type 1 diabetes and their caregivers who have over the years wanted to ‘close the loop’ between monitoring of glucose and delivery of insulin. The launch of the Medtronic MiniMed 670G system in 2017 and the subsequent release of the Tandem t:slim with Control-IQ system, the DANA RS pump compatible-CamAPS FX app and the more recent announcement of the Medtronic MiniMed 780G system have come as answers to their prayers. However, in the time taken to develop and launch these commercial systems, creative and ebullient parents of young patients with type 1 diabetes, along with other patients, technologists and healthcare professionals have developed mathematical models as software solutions to determine insulin delivery that in conjunction with compatible hardware have helped ‘close the loop’. Under an umbrella movement #WeAreNotWaiting, they have, as a community, refined and disseminated technologies that are open source and ubiquitously available as do-it-yourself (DIY) closed-loop systems or DIY artificial pancreas systems (APS). There are presently three systems—OpenAPS, AndroidAPS and Loop. We present perspectives of two patients, parent of a patient, and their healthcare providers; the users spanning an age spectrum most likely to use this technology—a child, an adolescent in transitional care and a 31-yr old adult patient, highlighting how looping has helped them self-manage diabetes within the routine of their lives and the challenges they faced

Lunar Volatile and Mineralogy Mapping Orbiter (VMMO): Viable Science from Lunar CubeSats

The Volatile and Mineralogy Mapping Orbiter (VMMO) is a low-cost 12U CubeSat concept that was originally selected by the European Space Agency (ESA) as one of the two winners of the 2018 SysNova Challenge. The VMMO spacecraft will carry out a volatiles and mineralogical survey of the lunar South Pole permanently shadowed regions using the Lunar Volatile and Mineralogy Mapper (LVMM) multi-wave chemical Lidar payload to detect and map volatiles and other resources such as ilmenite (FeTiO3) down to a Ground Sample Distance (GSD) of approximately 100m. The exploitation of valuable lunar resources, such as water ice and other volatiles, will be crucial to the sustainability of future manned lunar bases. Although water ice has already been detected and mapped around the poles of the Moon by previous lunar missions, there is still considerable uncertainty with regards to the precise distribution of volatile content within the lunar regolith. There are a number of planned future missions to further locate and map water ice deposits around the lunar poles, but the spatial resolution of these observations is still expected to be on the order of kilometres. This paper will describe the VMMO mission and CubeSat spacecraft design work that was carried out in the recent Phase A study for ESA. It also aims to address some of the key objectives and challenges involved in designing a low-cost, semi-autonomous CubeSat for beyond-Earth orbit

Growth reference charts for children with hypochondroplasia

Hypochondroplasia (HCH) is a rare skeletal dysplasia causing mild short stature. There is a paucity of growth reference charts for this population. Anthropometric data were collected to generate height, weight, and head circumference (HC) growth reference charts for children with a diagnosis of HCH. Mixed longitudinal anthropometric data and genetic analysis results were collected from 14 European specialized skeletal dysplasia centers. Growth charts were generated using Generalized Additive Models for Location, Scale, and Shape. Measurements for height (983), weight (896), and HC (389) were collected from 188 (79 female) children with a diagnosis of HCH aged 0-18 years. Of the 84 children who underwent genetic testing, a pathogenic variant in FGFR3 was identified in 92% (77). The data were used to generate growth references for height, weight, and HC, plotted as charts with seven centiles from 2nd to 98th, for ages 0-4 and 0-16 years. HCH-specific growth charts are important in the clinical care of these children. They help to identify if other comorbidities are present that affect growth and development and serve as an important benchmark for any prospective interventional research studies and trials

The Process and Product of Coherence Monitoring in Young Readers:Effects of Reader and Text Characteristics

We examined sixth graders’ detection of inconsistencies in narrative and expository passages, contrasting participants who were monolingual speakers (N=85) or Spanish-English DLLs (N=94) when recruited in pre-kindergarten (PK). We recorded self-paced reading times and judgements about whether the text made sense, and took an independent measure of word reading. Main findings were that inconsistency detection was better for narratives, for participants who were monolingual speakers in PK, and for those who were better word readers. When the text processing demands were increased by separating the inconsistent sentence and its premise with filler sentences there was a stronger signal for inconsistency detection during reading for better word readers. Reading patterns differed for texts for which children reported an inconsistency compared to those for which they did not, indicating a failure to adequately monitor for coherence while reading. Our performance measures indicate that narrative and expository texts make different demands on readers

The Origin of the Universe as Revealed Through the Polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background

Modern cosmology has sharpened questions posed for millennia about the origin of our cosmic habitat. The age-old questions have been transformed into two pressing issues primed for attack in the coming decade: How did the Universe begin? and What physical laws govern the Universe at the highest energies? The clearest window onto these questions is the pattern of polarization in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), which is uniquely sensitive to primordial gravity waves. A detection of the special pattern produced by gravity waves would be not only an unprecedented discovery, but also a direct probe of physics at the earliest observable instants of our Universe. Experiments which map CMB polarization over the coming decade will lead us on our first steps towards answering these age-old questions.Comment: Science White Paper submitted to the US Astro2010 Decadal Survey. Full list of 212 author available at http://cmbpol.uchicago.ed