Identifying Locations Of Highly Eroded Agricultural Land In The Devils Lake Basin, ND Using GIS Terrain Analysis Modeling

Soil erosion modeling using terrain analysis holds great potential due to the simplicity of the models, and the ease in running the analysis in a GIS. Terrain analysis of the upper Devils Lake basin was conducted using a 3-meter Light Detection and Ranging-derived digital elevation model. Portions of the Mauvais Coulee and Calio Coulee watersheds in the basin were analyzed to evaluate soil erosion potential and determine if terrain analysis was an accurate tool for modeling erosion in this fairly flat landscape. The analysis used slope, flow accumulation, and stream power index (SPI) within a GIS to identify highly eroded areas. The study found that 1.5% of the 262.8 km2 study area exhibited channelized erosion. It was determined that the terrain analysis accurately identified 92 (79%) of the 116 survey points established for field verification. Finally, the findings support that the use of terrain analysis for erosion modeling in the Devils Lake basin is highly accurate, and can be a useful tool in locating and implementing best management practices (BMPs) to aid in the reduction of surface runoff entering Mauvais and Calio Coulees from channelized erosion

Klauder's coherent states for the radial Coulomb problem in a uniformly curved space and their flat-space limits

First a set of coherent states a la Klauder is formally constructed for the Coulomb problem in a curved space of constant curvature. Then the flat-space limit is taken to reduce the set for the radial Coulomb problem to a set of hydrogen atom coherent states corresponding to both the discrete and the continuous portions of the spectrum for a fixed \ell sector.Comment: 10 pages, no figure

Relative Intensities of Fluorescence at Low Temperatures

The change in intensity of fluorescence of ZnSiO3, CaWO4, CdB2O5, was measured at various temperatures between room temperature and the temperature of liquid oxygen. The fluorescence was excited by means of the 2537 Å line of a mercury arc. Microphotometric measurements were made on photographs of the fluorescent spectra. The results indicate a decrease in intensity with decrease in temperature of the CdB2O5 and the fluorescence of ZnSiO3 passes through a maximum of intensity between room temperature and liquid oxygen temperature

Characterizing early-seral competitive mechanisms influencing Douglas-fir seedling growth, vegetation community development, and physiology of selected weedy plant species

Three studies were conducted to characterize and present early-seral competition between Douglas-fir seedlings and the surrounding vegetation communities during Pacific Northwest forest establishment. The first experiment served as the foundation for this dissertation and was designed to quantify tradeoffs associated with delaying forest establishment activities by introducing a fallow year in order to provide longer-term management of competing vegetation. A range of six operationally relevant treatments were applied over two growing seasons that included in the first (1) a no-action control, (2) a spring release only, (3) a fall site preparation without sulfometuron methyl followed by a spring release, as well as (4) a fall site preparation with sulfometuron methyl and a spring release. In the second year, there was (5) a fall site preparation without sulfometuron methyl followed by a spring release and also in the second year (6) a fall site preparation with sulfometuron methyl and a spring release. Treatments 5 and 6 were left fallow without planting during the first year. These treatments were applied in two replicated experiments within the Oregon Coast Range. After adjusting for initial seedling size, year-3 results indicated that plantation establishment and competition control immediately after harvest (i.e. no fallow period) enabled seedlings to be physically larger than those planted after a one year delay. At the Boot study site, limiting vegetation below 20% for the first growing season improved year-3 Douglas-fir seedling stem volume over 273 cm³. Delaying establishment activities one year and reducing competing vegetation below 11% enabled seedling volume after two years to be statistically the same as three year old seedlings in the no-action control, a volume range of between 148 to 166 cm³. Delaying forest establishment at Jackson Mast improved seedling survivorship over 88% when a spring heat event reduced survivorship of trees planted a year earlier to less than 69%. The combined effect of applying a fall site preparation and spring release was necessary to reduce competitive cover below 10% in the year following treatment and provided longer-lasting control of woody/semi-woody plants. Less intense control measures (i.e. no-action control and treatment 2) were not able to restrain woody/semi-woody plant cover which grew to nearly 40% at Boot and over 24% at Jackson Mast in three years. No treatment regime provided multi-year control of herbaceous species. Including sulfometuron methyl in the fall site preparation tank-mix did not have a negative effect on seedling growth or provide significant reductions in plant community abundance in the year following application when compared to similar regimes that did not include the chemical. Delaying establishment lengthened the amount of time associated with forest regeneration except on a site that accentuated a spring heat event. In the second study, horizontal distance and azimuth readings provided by a ground-based laser were used to stem map seedling locations and experimental unit features at Boot. These data were used to create a relative Cartesian coordinate system that defined spatially explicit polygons enabling, for the first time, the ability to collect positional data on competing forest vegetation within an entire experimental unit. Deemed "vixels" or vegetation pixels, these polygons were assessed for measures of total cover and cover of the top three most abundance species during the initial three years of establishment. An alternate validity check of research protocols was provided when total cover resulting from this vixel technique was compared to a more traditional survey of four randomly located subplots. The resulting linear regression equation had an adjusted R² of 0.90 between these two techniques of assessing total cover. When compared within a treatment and year, total cover differed by less than 12 percentage points between the two techniques. Analysis of year-3 woody/semi-woody plant cover produced by the techniques led to identical treatment differences. Two treatments resulted in woody/semi-woody cover of approximately 1500 ft² by the vixel method and nearly 40% cover by the subplot method while the remaining four treatments were grouped below 600 ft² or 20% cover, respectively. With continued refinement, these techniques could visually present forest development through all phases and provide long-term information used to bolster growth and yield models, measures of site productivity, as well as community ecology research. The third study evaluated the season-long gas exchange and biomass partitioning of four weedy plant species capable of rapidly colonizing Pacific Northwest regenerating forests. Cirsium arvense, Cirsium vulgare, Rubus ursinus and Senecio sylvaticus were studied at two sites. A greenhouse was used to introduce two levels of irrigation (well-watered and droughty). These species were also studied while growing among a larger vegetation community at a field site. Irrigation treatments had little impact on gas exchange rates. Species achieved maximum photosynthetic rates of 30, 20, 15 and 25 μmol CO₂ m⁻² s⁻¹ (respectively) prior to mid-July coinciding with an active phase of vegetative growth. As the season progressed, photosynthetic rates declined in spite of well-watered conditions while transpiration rates remained relatively consistent even when soil water decreased below 0.25 m³ H₂O/m³ soil. Water use efficiency was high until late-July for all study species, after which time it decreased below 5 μmol CO₂ · mmol H₂O⁻¹. Multi-leaf gas exchange measurements as well as biomass data provided a holistic view of plantlevel mechanisms used to shunt activity toward developing tissues. Herbaceous species had assimilation rates that differed vertically (within each species) by as much as 10 to 20 μmol CO₂ m⁻² s⁻¹ from July to September as lower leaves senesced in favor of those higher on study plants. Specific leaf area was greatest in June for all species then declined indicating species placed little effort into sacrificial early season leaves when compared to those higher on the plant that could continue to support flowering or vegetative growth. The study of seasonal gas exchange in the presence of declining water availability has helped to describe competitive mechanisms at work during forest regeneration as well as provide physiologic support for the application of vegetation management regimes

Cytochrome P450 inhibition potential of new psychoactive substances of the tryptamine class

New psychoactive substances (NPS) are not tested for their cytochrome P450 (CYP) inhibition potential before consumption. Therefore, this potential was explored for tryptamine-derived NPS (TDNPS) including alpha-methyl tryptamines (AMTs), dimethyl tryptamines (DMTs), diallyl tryptamines (DALTs), and diisopropyl tryptamines (DiPTs) using test substrates preferred by the Food and Drug Administration in a cocktail assay. All tested TDNPS with the exception of DMT inhibited CYP2D6 activity with IC50 values below 100 μM. DALTs inhibited CYP2D6 activity similar to paroxetine and quinidine and CYP1A2 activity comparable to fluvoxamine. 5-Methoxy-N,N-diallyltryptamine reduced in vivo the caffeine metabolism in rats consistent with in vitro results. Five of the AMTs also inhibited CYP1A2 activity comparable to amiodarone. AMT and 6-F-AMT inhibited CYP2A6 activity in the range of the test inhibitor tranylcypromine. CYP2B6 activity was inhibited by 19 tryptamines, but weakly compared to efavirenz. CYP2C8 activity was inhibited by five of the tested TDNPS and three showed values comparable to trimethoprim and gemfibrozil. Six tryptamines inhibited CYP2C9 and seven CYP2C19 activities comparable to fluconazole and chloramphenicol, respectively. Nineteen compounds showed inhibition of CYP2E1 and 18 of CYP3A activity, respectively. These results showed that the CYP inhibition by TDNPS might be clinically relevant, but clinical studies are needed to explore this further

Destination Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a prototypical neurodegenerative disease characterized by progressive degeneration of motor neurons both in the brain and spinal cord. The constantly evolving nature of ALS represents a fundamental dimension of individual differences that underlie this disorder, yet it involves multiple levels of functional entities that alternate in different directions and finally converge functionally to define ALS disease progression. ALS may start from a single entity and gradually becomes multifactorial. However, the functional convergence of these diverse entities in eventually defining ALS progression is poorly understood. Various hypotheses have been proposed without any consensus between the for-and-against schools of thought. The present review aims to capture explanatory hierarchy both in terms of hypotheses and mechanisms to provide better insights on how they functionally connect. We can then integrate them within a common functional frame of reference for a better understanding of ALS and defining future treatments and possible therapeutic strategies. Here, we provide a philosophical understanding of how early leads are crucial to understanding the endpoints in ALS, because invariably, all early symptomatic leads are underpinned by neurodegeneration at the cellular, molecular and genomic levels. Consolidation of these ideas could be applied to other neurodegenerative diseases (NDs) and guide further critical thinking to unveil their roadmap of destination ALS

The Effect of Turfgrass Maintenance on Surface-Water Quality in a Suburban Watershed, Inner Blue Grass, Kentucky

Nutrients and pesticides applied during routine maintenance or establishment of turfgrass could result in nonpoint-source pollution. Nutrient and pesticide concentrations in water exiting a turfgrass management area in the Sinking Creek watershed, a suburban watershed in the Inner Blue Grass Region of central Kentucky, were monitored. This watershed was selected because it contains multiple land uses: agricultural, residential, and recreational (golf course). A survey was conducted to determine the extent to which lawn-care products are used in the residential sector of the watershed. For the golf-course portion, the golf-course superintendent recorded chemical application daily. Runoff from the golf course was sampled in 1993 where the stream exits the golf-course property. Sinking Creek was sampled upstream and downstream of the Tashamingo subdivision from April through October 1996 and January through February 1997. Weekly grab samples and three storm sample sequences (spring, summer, and fall) were analyzed to determine pesticide and nutrient concentrations. The analysis results revealed that few instances of pesticide concentrations in Sinking Creek exceeded minimum detectable levels and none exceeded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency drinking-water limits during the sampling period. The herbicide 2,4-D was detected in Sinking Creek at both sample locations. In addition to 2,4-D, the insecticide chlorpyrifos was detected at the golf-course exit. Increases in pesticides and nutrients in Sinking Creek coincided with spring application of turfgrass chemicals in the suburban portion of the watershed. Concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus were low and similar to what would be expected for the land use

Destination Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a prototypical neurodegenerative disease characterized by progressive degeneration of motor neurons both in the brain and spinal cord. The constantly evolving nature of ALS represents a fundamental dimension of individual differences that underlie this disorder, yet it involves multiple levels of functional entities that alternate in different directions and finally converge functionally to define ALS disease progression. ALS may start from a single entity and gradually becomes multifactorial. However, the functional convergence of these diverse entities in eventually defining ALS progression is poorly understood. Various hypotheses have been proposed without any consensus between the for-and-against schools of thought. The present review aims to capture explanatory hierarchy both in terms of hypotheses and mechanisms to provide better insights on how they functionally connect. We can then integrate them within a common functional frame of reference for a better understanding of ALS and defining future treatments and possible therapeutic strategies. Here, we provide a philosophical understanding of how early leads are crucial to understanding the endpoints in ALS, because invariably, all early symptomatic leads are underpinned by neurodegeneration at the cellular, molecular and genomic levels. Consolidation of these ideas could be applied to other neurodegenerative diseases (NDs) and guide further critical thinking to unveil their roadmap of destination ALS