Studies on the decomposition of plant material in soil .I. Losses of carbon from 14C labelled ryegrass incubated with soil in the field

A new method for determining I4C in soil is described. Ryegrass roots and tops uniformly labelled with 14C were allowed to decompose for 4 years in soil under field conditions. About one‐third of the labelled (ryegrass) C was left in the soil after 6 months but thereafter decomposition was much slower, about one fifth of the labelled C remaining after 4 years. Throughout the period, labelled C was less resistant to decomposition than unlabelled C, i.e. the C present in the soil before the labelled ryegrass was added. Even in the fourth year after addition of the ryegrass, the percentage of labelled C in the soil decomposing per year was four times that of unlabelled C. Initially, ryegrass tops decomposed more quickly than roots but after I year the differences disappeared and the same amount of residual C remained from each. For periods of I year and over, the percentage of labelled C retained in a soil with 2.4 per cent organic C was the same as in a soil containing 1 per cent organic C. The percentage C retained was the same when either 0.3 per cent ryegrass tops or 0.6 per cent ryegrass tops were added to the soil. Similar amounts of labelled plant C were retained in soils incubated for 1 year in two contrasting seasons (1959 and 1962)

The 2020 IDS release of the Antwerp COR*-database. Evaluation, development and transformation of a pre-existing database

The Antwerp COR*-IDS database 2020 is a transformed and harmonized historical demographic database in a cross-nationally comparable format designed to be open and easy to use for international researchers. The database is constructed from the 2010 release of the Antwerp COR*-historical demographic database, which was created using a letter sample of the whole district of Antwerp (Flanders, Belgium). It has a total sample size of +/- 33,000 residents of Antwerp. The sample spans nearly seven decades. The data is collected from historical records: including population registers and vital registration records covering births, marriages, in/external migrations and deaths. The database covers up to three linked generations (in some cases more), and contains micro-data on individual level life courses, and relationships deriving from addressbased household composition methods. An important characteristic is the sample's large migrant population, including the timings of their demographic events and living arrangements, whilst resident in the district of Antwerp. In addition, the sample also contains a large array of occupational level information. This paper presents the processes, methodologies and documentation regarding the evaluation and development of a pre-existing historical database. This includes the systematic evaluation of the original samples, methodologies for address based reconstructing of households, and the geocoding of a historical database which took place during the current development of this new version of the database.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The impact of transport infrastructure projects on sustainable development within a major logistics gateway in North West England

In the North West of England the issue of a perceived infrastructure gap is of increasing concern. Investment needs to be made to improve the transport infrastructure of the region if it is to be expected to promote the development of its own regional logistics gateway. Funding tools have been set up to address the challenges arising from the imbalance in infrastructure development that exists between regions in the north of the United Kingdom and those in the south. For regions with well developed economies the outlook is promising as the availability of modern transport infrastructure looks set to improve. However, some sources believe that the development of new transport infrastructure will have a negative impact upon sustainable development. It is expected that this will occur in a range of both direct and indirect ways. As a result, it is critical that planning for the creation of new intermodal transport infrastructure, or the upgrading of that which already exists, takes into account the impact that these developments will have on the sustainable development of the host region. A scenario based development methodology is proposed in this paper. It was developed to provide a way to identify potential scenarios that may arise within a given region as a result of transport infrastructure projects. To create significant scenarios the methodology is dependent on the availability of a sufficient quantity of quality data. For this paper that data was collected through a focus group composed of stakeholders from the region in question. This was further supported by the performance of an impact survey using the same group of stakeholders

The Lagrange and Markov spectra from the dynamical point of view

This text grew out of my lecture notes for a 4-hours minicourse delivered on October 17 \& 19, 2016 during the research school "Applications of Ergodic Theory in Number Theory" -- an activity related to the Jean-Molet Chair project of Mariusz Lema\'nczyk and S\'ebastien Ferenczi -- realized at CIRM, Marseille, France. The subject of this text is the same of my minicourse, namely, the structure of the so-called Lagrange and Markov spectra (with an special emphasis on a recent theorem of C. G. Moreira).Comment: 27 pages, 6 figures. Survey articl

Free versus total serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D in a murine model of colitis

Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease have been linked to vitamin D-deficiency. Using a dextran sodium sulphate (DSS)-induced model of IBD we have shown previously that mice raised on vitamin D-deficient diets from weaning have lower serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD) levels and develop more severe colitis compared to vitamin D-sufficient counterparts. We have also shown in vitro that immune responses to 25OHD may depend on 'free' rather than total serum concentrations of 25OHD. To investigate the possible effects of free versus total 25OHD on anti-inflammatory immune responses in vivo we have studied DSS-induced colitis in wild type C57BL/6 mice raised from weaning on diets containing vitamin D2 (D2) or vitamin D3 (D3) only (both 1000 IU/kg feed). 25OHD2 has lower binding affinity for the vitamin D binding protein than 25OHD3 which results in higher levels of free 25OHD2 relative to free 25OHD3 in mice raised on a D2-only diet. Total serum 25OHD concentrations, measured by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), showed that D2 mice had significantly lower levels of 25OHD than D3 mice (6.85 ± 2.61 nmol/L vs. 49.16 ± 13.8 nmol/L for D2 and D3 respectively). Despite this, direct ELISA measurement showed no difference in free serum 25OHD levels between D2 and D3 mice (13.62 ± 2.26 pmol/L vs. 14.11 ± 2.24 pmol/L for D2 and D3 respectively). Analysis of DSS-induced colitis also showed no difference in weight loss or disease progression between D2 and D3 mice. These data indicate that despite D2-fed mice being vitamin D-deficient based on serum total 25OHD concentrations, these mice showed no evidence of increased inflammatory colitis disease relative to vitamin D-sufficient D3 mice. We therefore propose that free, rather than total serum 25OHD, may be a better marker of immune responses to vitamin D in vivo