Developing improved varieties of subterranean clover

Subterranean clover is widely recognised as the most important pasture legume species in southern Australia, having been sown over about 20 million hectares. Together with superphosphate and trace elements, it has been a key factor in improving and maintaining soil fertility, and has resulted in dramatic increases in crop, livestock and wool production. While the value of subterranean clover is well established, it does have some shortcomings. Many varieties grown today are not sufficiently adapted to the environments and management systems in use. Others lack sufficient pest and disease resistance. Improved subterranean clovers are being bred with better adaptation and greater productivity for a range of environments and farming systems across southern Australia and in New Zealand. This article outlines the breeding and selection processes and highlights recent developments

Strong and weak lensing united III: Measuring the mass distribution of the merging galaxy cluster 1E0657-56

The galaxy cluster 1E0657-56 (z = 0.296) is remarkably well-suited for addressing outstanding issues in both galaxy evolution and fundamental physics. We present a reconstruction of the mass distribution from both strong and weak gravitational lensing data. Multi-color, high-resolution HST ACS images allow detection of many more arc candidates than were previously known, especially around the subcluster. Using the known redshift of one of the multiply imaged systems, we determine the remaining source redshifts using the predictive power of the strong lens model. Combining this information with shape measurements of "weakly" lensed sources, we derive a high-resolution, absolutely-calibrated mass map, using no assumptions regarding the physical properties of the underlying cluster potential. This map provides the best available quantification of the total mass of the central part of the cluster. We also confirm the result from Clowe et al. (2004,2006a).Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ; Version with full-resolution figures available at http://www.slac.stanford.edu/~marusa/Work/bradac_strong_weak_III.pd

Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA): Giant Planets, Oscillations, Rotation, and Massive Stars

We substantially update the capabilities of the open source software package Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA), and its one-dimensional stellar evolution module, MESA Star. Improvements in MESA Star's ability to model the evolution of giant planets now extends its applicability down to masses as low as one-tenth that of Jupiter. The dramatic improvement in asteroseismology enabled by the space-based Kepler and CoRoT missions motivates our full coupling of the ADIPLS adiabatic pulsation code with MESA Star. This also motivates a numerical recasting of the Ledoux criterion that is more easily implemented when many nuclei are present at non-negligible abundances. This impacts the way in which MESA Star calculates semi-convective and thermohaline mixing. We exhibit the evolution of 3-8 Msun stars through the end of core He burning, the onset of He thermal pulses, and arrival on the white dwarf cooling sequence. We implement diffusion of angular momentum and chemical abundances that enable calculations of rotating-star models, which we compare thoroughly with earlier work. We introduce a new treatment of radiation-dominated envelopes that allows the uninterrupted evolution of massive stars to core collapse. This enables the generation of new sets of supernovae, long gamma-ray burst, and pair-instability progenitor models. We substantially modify the way in which MESA Star solves the fully coupled stellar structure and composition equations, and we show how this has improved MESA's performance scaling on multi-core processors. Updates to the modules for equation of state, opacity, nuclear reaction rates, and atmospheric boundary conditions are also provided. We describe the MESA Software Development Kit (SDK) that packages all the required components needed to form a unified and maintained build environment for MESA. [Abridged]Comment: Accepted for publication in The ApJ Supplement Series. Extra informations required to reproduce the calculations in this paper are available at http://mesastar.org/results/mesa

Water Quality in Pleasant Valley, Utah

Pollution of shallow groundwater due to wastewater disposal in Pleasant Valley, Utah, was investigated from October 1979 through August 1980. Water samples were collected from 23 wells and 5 stream sampling sites. Water quality analysis revealed pollution at several sites. Groundwater pollution caused by man’s activities in the area was observed in Bolotas and Scofield Campsite subdivisions. Severe shallow groundwater pollution measured in wells which were located in south and north profiles of the town of Scofield, Utah, could have originated from the municipal waste disposal practice in the town. Natural phenomena, however, such as pyrite oxidation, could possible have been the cause of the depletion of dissolved oxygen in the groundwater near Scofield. In the town of Scofield the shallow water table, less than 1.22 m (4 ft) below ground throughout the whole study period, could limit septic tank use in the study area. The seasonally variable nitrate and phosphate concentration in the surface stream reached its maximum value in May (i.e. 1.12 mg/1 NO3-N and 3.37 mg/1 total phosphorus) when the stream flow reached a maximum flow of 9.06 m3/s (370 cfs). These increases in nitrate and phosphorus content in the stream, sresulting from spring thawing, could increase the nutrient level in the Scofield Reservoir. Natural phenomena produced a high concentration of mercury, averaging 2.55 ug/1 during the study period. It is possible that the water in Scofield Reservoir might have a similar level of mercury. The maximum contamination level of mercury accepted by the State of Utah and U.S. EPA for drinking water is 2.0 ug/1. Therefore, potential health problems may exist for the people who depend on the Scofield Reservoir for their source of drinking water. Fluoride concentration ranged from 0.06 mg/1 to 0.42 mg/1 natural processes are responsible for fluoride in the water

Come-See-Me Festival Interview

In this April 21, 1978 interview, the origins and history of the Come-See-Me Festival are discussed. Included is an overview of the events for the 1978 event. This interview was conducted for inclusion into the Louise Pettus Archives and Special Collections Oral History Programhttps://digitalcommons.winthrop.edu/oralhistoryprogram/1265/thumbnail.jp

Marine optical characterizations

During the past three months, the MOCE Team conducted two field experiments in Mill Creek,Chesapeake Bay, from July 24 to August 4, and at the MOBY operations site at Snug Harbor, Honolulu, Hawaii, from August 15-30, prepared two technical memoranda, and continued MOCE-2 and MOCE-3 data reduction. The primary purposes of the experiments were to test the SeaWiFS 'remote sensing reflectance' protocol, obtain turbid water data for ocean color satellite algorithm development, perform calibration for both Near Infrared (NIR) and Visible Rainbow Spectrometer system, continue assembling the operational Marine Optical Buoy, and to test the MOBY cellular phone communications link at the Lanai mooring site

Las maestras de Luxemburgo. ¿Una nueva cara de Grisi Siksnis? Un abordaje multicultural y multidisciplinario

El instituto de Medicina Tradicional y Desarrollo Comunitario (IMTRADEC) es una estructura entre otras cosas del estudio de las diferentes percepciones del proceso de salud-enfermedad y las respuestas que se dan en las comunidades para mantener o restaurar la salud de los pobladores. El presente estudio presenta los resultados de la investigación realizada por un equipo multidisciplinario que trabajó con diez casos del sexo femenino afectadas por Grisi Siknis

Framework for productivity

The author's look at skills shortages and careers pathways in the agrifood industry