Factors influencing basal area growth of yellow-poplar ( Liriodendron tulipifera L.) in central West Virginia

This paper uses data from continuous forest inventory (CFI) plots to evaluate basal area growth of yellow-poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera L.) as related to four topographic factors (aspect, slope position, steepness, and landform), two competition variables (basal area per acre and trees per acre) and four tree characteristics (age, diameter, total height, and crown diameter). These variables were plotted against basal area growth per year using simple linear regression on 69 yellow-poplar trees. The four tree characteristics all had a highly significant (p \u3c .01) relationship with basal area growth. While the other variables did not exhibit a significant relationship, the two competition variables did have a significant (p \u3c .05) relationship with each other

Portland State University Solid Waste Assessment Report

In January of 2013, the Campus Sustainability Office (CSO) of Portland State University (PSU) contacted Community Environmental Services (CES) with the request to conduct a landfill-bound waste assessment for the University’s 50-acre downtown campus, located in Portland, Oregon. CES is a research and service unit within the Center for Urban Studies at Portland State University. PSU is a state university that was founded in 1946, is home to Oregon’s largest undergraduate and graduate enrollment, and is the only public university in the state located in a major metropolitan city. Portland State is world-renowned for its sustainability initiatives, and has had this status reflected in the numerous green rankings achieved through the campus’s efforts

Schadelijke stoffen in scholekstereieren; responsmetingen in bioassays ter bepaling van risico's van contaminanten in eieren van scholeksters uit het Zeehavenkanaal

In het verleden zijn door het RIKZ in het Zeehavenkanaal te Delfzijl hoge hexachloorbenzeengehalten gemeten. Na sanering voldeed de onderwaterbodem voor hexachloorbenzeen echter nog steeds niet aan de normen voor het baggerbeheer. In eieren van scholeksters die foerageren in het met hexachloorbenzeen verontreinigde gebied, zijn ook verhoogde concentraties gemeten. De vraag is of deze verhoogde concentraties hexachloorbenzeen en eventuele andere verontreinigingen nadelige effecten hebben op de scholeksters. Uit het onderzoek waarvan de resultaten in dit rapport beschreven staan, blijkt dat de in de eieren aanwezige stoffen in staat zijn om effecten bij vogels te veroorzaken

A mathematical model of low-head oxygenators

AbstractA mathematical model is presented that predicts the performance of low-head oxygenators (LHO). Experimentally determined values of G20 for a single hole in a flooded orifice plate were used as the basis to develop a mathematical model that can be used to predict LHO performance under a variety of design and operating conditions. Model predictions were compared to two published studies. The model predicted the published data for dissolved oxygen levels in the departing effluent within 2–3%, oxygen absorption efficiencies within 5–6%, and total gas pressures within 1%. The mathematical model is thoroughly developed including an analysis of numerical stability and necessary restrictions to assure stability and accuracy. Convergence based solely upon effluent values was not sufficient to produce accurate results, but required additional criteria of requiring a minimum number of chamber flushings prior to convergence checking. The model was used to demonstrate its utility in predicting the effects of G/L ratio on gas absorption efficiency, effluent gas conditions and the effects of number of LHO chambers used. This model allows the designer or operator of an LHO to easily make design and operational decisions by modifying the input parameters and observing the exit conditions and performance indicators

A Novel Multi-parameter Family of Quantum Systems with Partially Broken N-fold Supersymmetry

We develop a systematic algorithm for constructing an N-fold supersymmetric system from a given vector space invariant under one of the supercharges. Applying this algorithm to spaces of monomials, we construct a new multi-parameter family of N-fold supersymmetric models, which shall be referred to as "type C". We investigate various aspects of these type C models in detail. It turns out that in certain cases these systems exhibit a novel phenomenon, namely, partial breaking of N-fold supersymmetry.Comment: RevTeX 4, 28 pages, no figure

The Heun equation and the Calogero-Moser-Sutherland system V: generalized Darboux transformations

We obtain isomonodromic transformations for Heun's equation by generalizing Darboux transformation, and we find pairs and triplets of Heun's equation which have the same monodromy structure. By composing generalized Darboux transformations, we establish a new construction of the commuting operator which ensures finite-gap property. As an application, we prove conjectures in part III.Comment: 24 page

Catechol-O-Methyltransferase moderates effect of stress mindset on affect and cognition

There is evidence that altering stress mindset—the belief that stress is enhancing vs. debilitating—can change cognitive, affective and physiological responses to stress. However individual differences in responsiveness to stress mindset manipulations have not been explored. Given the previously established role of catecholamines in both placebo effects and stress, we hypothesized that genetic variation in catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT), an enzyme that metabolizes catecholamines, would moderate responses to an intervention intended to alter participants’ mindsets about stress. Participants (N = 107) were exposed to a stress mindset manipulation (videos highlighting either the enhancing or debilitating effects of stress) prior to engaging in a Trier Social Stress task and subsequent cognitive tasks. The associations of the COMT rs4680 polymorphism with the effect of stress mindset video manipulations on cognitive and affective responses were examined. Genetic variation at rs4680 modified the effects of stress mindset on affective and cognitive responses to stress. Individuals homozygous for rs4680 low-activity allele (met/met) were responsive to the stress-is-enhancing mindset manipulation as indicated by greater increases in positive affect, improved cognitive functioning, and happiness bias in response to stress. Conversely, individuals homozygous for the high-activity allele (val/val) were not as responsive to the stress mindset manipulation. These results suggest that responses to stress mindset intervention may vary with COMT genotype. These findings contribute to the understanding of gene by environment interactions for mindset interventions and stress reactivity and therefore warrant further investigations

CRUMBLER: a tool for the prediction of ancestry in cattle.

In many beef and some dairy production systems, cross breedingis used to take advan-tage of breed complementarity and heterosis. Admixed animals are frequently identified by their coat color and body conformation phenotypes, however, without pedigree informa-tionit is not possible to identify the expected breed composition of an admixed animal and in the presence of selection, the actual composition may differ from expectation.On-line first

Initial Laboratory-Scale Melter Test Results for Combined Fission Product Waste

This report describes the methods and results used to vitrify a baseline glass, CSLNTM-C-2.5 in support of the AFCI (Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative) using a Quartz Crucible Scale Melter at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Document number AFCI-WAST-PMO-MI-DV-2009-000184

Automatic quality control of cardiac MRI segmentation in large-scale population imaging

The trend towards large-scale studies including population imaging poses new challenges in terms of quality control (QC). This is a particular issue when automatic processing tools such as image segmentation methods are employed to derive quantitative measures or biomarkers for further analyses. Manual inspection and visual QC of each segmentation result is not feasible at large scale. However, it is important to be able to detect when an automatic method fails to avoid inclusion of wrong measurements into subsequent analyses which could otherwise lead to incorrect conclusions. To overcome this challenge, we explore an approach for predicting segmentation quality based on reverse classification accuracy, which enables us to discriminate between successful and failed cases. We validate this approach on a large cohort of cardiac MRI for which manual QC scores were available. Our results on 7,425 cases demonstrate the potential for fully automatic QC in the context of large-scale population imaging such as the UK Biobank Imaging Study