CQESTR Simulation of Management Practice Effects on Long-Term Soil Organic Carbon

Management of soil organic matter (SOM) is important for soil productivity and responsible utilization of crop residues for additional uses. CQESTR, pronounced “sequester,” a contraction of “C sequestration” (meaning C storage), is a C balance model that relates organic residue additions, crop management, and soil tillage to SOM accretion or loss. Our objective was to simulate SOM changes in agricultural soils under a range of climate and management systems using the CQESTR model. Four long-term experiments (Champaign, IL, \u3e100 yr; Columbia, MO, \u3e100 yr; Lincoln, NE, 20 yr; Sidney, NE, 20 yr) in the United States under various crop rotations, tillage practices, organic amendments, and crop residue removal treatments were selected for their documented history of the long-term effects of management practice on SOM dynamics. CQESTR successfully simulated a substantial decline in SOM with 50 yr of crop residue removal under various rotations at Columbia and Champaign. The increase in SOM following addition of manure was simulated well; however, the model underestimated SOM for a fertilized treatment at Columbia. Predicted and observed values from the four sites were signifi cantly related (r2 = 0.94, n = 113, P \u3c 0.001), with slope not signifi cantly different from 1. Given the high correlation of simulated and observed SOM changes, CQESTR can be used as a reliable tool to predict SOM changes from management practices and offers the potential for estimating soil C storage required for C credits. It can also be an important tool to estimate the impacts of crop residue removal for bioenergy production on SOM level and soil production capacity

Induced CMB quadrupole from pointing offsets

Recent claims in the literature have suggested that the {\it WMAP} quadrupole is not primordial in origin, and arises from an aliasing of the much larger dipole field because of incorrect satellite pointing. We attempt to reproduce this result and delineate the key physics leading to the effect. We find that, even if real, the induced quadrupole would be smaller than claimed. We discuss reasons why the {\it WMAP} data are unlikely to suffer from this particular systematic effect, including the implications for observations of point sources. Given this evidence against the reality of the effect, the similarity between the pointing-offset-induced signal and the actual quadrupole then appears to be quite puzzling. However, we find that the effect arises from a convolution between the gradient of the dipole field and anisotropic coverage of the scan direction at each pixel. There is something of a directional conspiracy here -- the dipole signal lies close to the Ecliptic Plane, and its direction, together with the {\it WMAP} scan strategy, results in a strong coupling to the $Y_{2,\,-1}$ component in Ecliptic co-ordinates. The dominant strength of this component in the measured quadrupole suggests that one should exercise increased caution in interpreting its estimated amplitude. The {\it Planck} satellite has a different scan strategy which does not so directly couple the dipole and quadrupole in this way and will soon provide an independent measurement.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure

Distribution of Flux Vacua around Singular Points in Calabi-Yau Moduli Space

We study the distribution of type IIB flux vacua in the moduli space near various singular loci, e.g. conifolds, ADE singularities on P1, Argyres-Douglas point etc, using the Ashok- Douglas density det(R + omega). We find that the vacuum density is integrable around each of them, irrespective of the type of the singularities. We study in detail an explicit example of an Argyres-Douglas point embedded in a compact Calabi-Yau manifold.Comment: 27 pages, 1 figure; v2: minor change, references added ; v3: references added, published versio

Families index theorem in supersymmetric WZW model and twisted K-theory: The SU(2) case

The construction of twisted K-theory classes on a compact Lie group is reviewed using the supersymmetric Wess-Zumino-Witten model on a cylinder. The Quillen superconnection is introduced for a family of supercharges parametrized by a compact Lie group and the Chern character is explicitly computed in the case of SU(2). For large euclidean time, the character form is localized on a D-brane.Comment: Version 2: Essentially simplified proof of the main result using a map from twisted K-theory to gerbes modulo the twisting gerbe; references added + minor correction

Together, yet still not equal? Sex integration in equestrian sport

Sex segregation is a core organising principle of most modern sports and is a key element in the marginalisation and subordination of girls and women in sport and beyond. In this article I explore the only Olympic-level sport which is not organised around sex segregation – equestrian sport – in order to consider the implications of sex integration for female participants. I draw on a study conducted on elite riders that found that although sex integration in equestrian sport does not lead to female participants being excluded from high-level competition, men continue to perform disproportionately well. This suggests that although sex integration may be an important step towards breaking down gender hierarchies in sport, without accompanying wider changes in gender norms and expectations, sex integration alone will not be enough to achieve greater gender equality in equestrian sport

Observational Consequences of a Landscape

In this paper we consider the implications of the "landscape" paradigm for the large scale properties of the universe. The most direct implication of a rich landscape is that our local universe was born in a tunnelling event from a neighboring vacuum. This would imply that we live in an open FRW universe with negative spatial curvature. We argue that the "overshoot" problem, which in other settings would make it difficult to achieve slow roll inflation, actually favors such a cosmology. We consider anthropic bounds on the value of the curvature and on the parameters of inflation. When supplemented by statistical arguments these bounds suggest that the number of inflationary efolds is not very much larger than the observed lower bound. Although not statistically favored, the likelihood that the number of efolds is close to the bound set by observations is not negligible. The possible signatures of such a low number of efolds are briefly described.Comment: 21 pages, 4 figures v2: references adde

Haloperidol and Ziprasidone for Treatment of Delirium in Critical Illness

BACKGROUND: There are conflicting data on the effects of antipsychotic medications on delirium in patients in the intensive care unit (ICU). METHODS: In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, we assigned patients with acute respiratory failure or shock and hypoactive or hyperactive delirium to receive intravenous boluses of haloperidol (maximum dose, 20 mg daily), ziprasidone (maximum dose, 40 mg daily), or placebo. The volume and dose of a trial drug or placebo was halved or doubled at 12-hour intervals on the basis of the presence or absence of delirium, as detected with the use of the Confusion Assessment Method for the ICU, and of side effects of the intervention. The primary end point was the number of days alive without delirium or coma during the 14-day intervention period. Secondary end points included 30-day and 90-day survival, time to freedom from mechanical ventilation, and time to ICU and hospital discharge. Safety end points included extrapyramidal symptoms and excessive sedation. RESULTS: Written informed consent was obtained from 1183 patients or their authorized representatives. Delirium developed in 566 patients (48%), of whom 89% had hypoactive delirium and 11% had hyperactive delirium. Of the 566 patients, 184 were randomly assigned to receive placebo, 192 to receive haloperidol, and 190 to receive ziprasidone. The median duration of exposure to a trial drug or placebo was 4 days (interquartile range, 3 to 7). The median number of days alive without delirium or coma was 8.5 (95% confidence interval [CI], 5.6 to 9.9) in the placebo group, 7.9 (95% CI, 4.4 to 9.6) in the haloperidol group, and 8.7 (95% CI, 5.9 to 10.0) in the ziprasidone group (P=0.26 for overall effect across trial groups). The use of haloperidol or ziprasidone, as compared with placebo, had no significant effect on the primary end point (odds ratios, 0.88 [95% CI, 0.64 to 1.21] and 1.04 [95% CI, 0.73 to 1.48], respectively). There were no significant between-group differences with respect to the secondary end points or the frequency of extrapyramidal symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: The use of haloperidol or ziprasidone, as compared with placebo, in patients with acute respiratory failure or shock and hypoactive or hyperactive delirium in the ICU did not significantly alter the duration of delirium. (Funded by the National Institutes of Health and the VA Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center; MIND-USA ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01211522 .)

Analysis and Optimisation of Hierarchically Scheduled Multiprocessor Embedded Systems

We present an approach to the analysis and optimisation of heterogeneous multiprocessor embedded systems. The systems are heterogeneous not only in terms of hardware components, but also in terms of communication protocols and scheduling policies. When several scheduling policies share a resource, they are organised in a hierarchy. In this paper, we first develop a holistic scheduling and schedulability analysis that determines the timing properties of a hierarchically scheduled system. Second, we address design problems that are characteristic to such hierarchically scheduled systems: assignment of scheduling policies to tasks, mapping of tasks to hardware components, and the scheduling of the activities. We also present several algorithms for solving these problems. Our heuristics are able to find schedulable implementations under limited resources, achieving an efficient utilisation of the system. The developed algorithms are evaluated using extensive experiments and a real-life example. © 2007 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.</p

Cosmological parameters from SDSS and WMAP

We measure cosmological parameters using the three-dimensional power spectrum P(k) from over 200,000 galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) in combination with WMAP and other data. Our results are consistent with a ``vanilla'' flat adiabatic Lambda-CDM model without tilt (n=1), running tilt, tensor modes or massive neutrinos. Adding SDSS information more than halves the WMAP-only error bars on some parameters, tightening 1 sigma constraints on the Hubble parameter from h~0.74+0.18-0.07 to h~0.70+0.04-0.03, on the matter density from Omega_m~0.25+/-0.10 to Omega_m~0.30+/-0.04 (1 sigma) and on neutrino masses from <11 eV to <0.6 eV (95%). SDSS helps even more when dropping prior assumptions about curvature, neutrinos, tensor modes and the equation of state. Our results are in substantial agreement with the joint analysis of WMAP and the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey, which is an impressive consistency check with independent redshift survey data and analysis techniques. In this paper, we place particular emphasis on clarifying the physical origin of the constraints, i.e., what we do and do not know when using different data sets and prior assumptions. For instance, dropping the assumption that space is perfectly flat, the WMAP-only constraint on the measured age of the Universe tightens from t0~16.3+2.3-1.8 Gyr to t0~14.1+1.0-0.9 Gyr by adding SDSS and SN Ia data. Including tensors, running tilt, neutrino mass and equation of state in the list of free parameters, many constraints are still quite weak, but future cosmological measurements from SDSS and other sources should allow these to be substantially tightened.Comment: Minor revisions to match accepted PRD version. SDSS data and ppt figures available at http://www.hep.upenn.edu/~max/sdsspars.htm

Influence of Residual Nitrogen on Wheat Straw Decomposition in the Field

Plant material decomposition appears to be mainly controlled by the C/N ratio of the plant material under soil moisture, temperature, and aeration conditions that support plant growth in the field. Harmsen and VanSchreven (4) reported, "Numerous earlier papers were devoted to the study of this problem .... Fairly close agreement was obtained by all these investigators as to the N content limits of the added material, below which no N mineralization may be expected. This is 1.5 to 2.0 per cent of the dry matter, corresponding to a C/N ratio of 20 to 25." Similar values were also reported by Broadbent (2) from laboratory studies; and Allison (1), in a recent review, cited several reports that are in general agreement