Variability in Herbage Mass and Chemical Composition within a Timothy Sward

Variability in herbage mass (HM) and chemical composition of timothy (Phleum pratense L.) sward was studied in a three-hectare field. The field, which was flat, was divided into twelve sections and a sampling site was randomly selected in each. The study was carried out in Sotkamo (64o 01’N, 28o22’E) research station in Finland. Snow depth and frost conditions were measured in winter and soil water content was monitored in the growing season at each sampling site. Observations on the crop included assessment of herbage ground cover and winter damage percentage, stand height and HM and analysis of neutral detergent fibre (NDF) and nitrogen concentration. Forage was harvested twice during the experiment and the first cut was made at ear emergence. Winter damage varied from 0 to 68% and herbage ground cover in spring from 30 to 100%. Variability in HM was higher at the first cut (from 1767 to 4390 kg DM ha-1) than at the second cut (from 3890 to 4348 kg DM ha-1). NDF content varied from 601 to 688 g kg-1 at the first cut and from 582 to 632 g kg-1 from at the second cut. The 95% confidence limits for NDF at the first cut were from 635 to 663 g kg-1 and at the second cut from 589 to 604 g kg-1

Interaction of small size wave packet with hadron target

We calculate in QCD the cross section for the scattering of an energetic small-size wave packet off a hadron target. We use our results to study the small-$\sigma$ behaviour of $P_{\pi}(\sigma)$, the distribution over cross section for the pion, in the leading $\alpha_{s}$-order.Comment: Revised version of the report CEBAF-TH-96-0

Dual neutral variables and knot solitons in triplet superconductors

In this paper we derive a dual presentation of free energy functional for spin-triplet superconductors in terms of gauge-invariant variables. The resulting equivalent model in ferromagnetic phase has a form of a version of the Faddeev model. This allows one in particular to conclude that spin-triplet superconductors allow formation of stable finite-length closed vortices (the knotted solitons).Comment: Replaced with version published in PRL (added a discussion of the effect of the coupling of the fields {\vec s} and {\vec C} on knot stability). Latest updates of the paper and miscellaneous links related to knotted solitons are also available at the homepage of the author http://www.teorfys.uu.se/PEOPLE/egor/ . Animations of knotted solitons by Hietarinta and Salo are available at http://users.utu.fi/h/hietarin/knots/c45_p2.mp

Diffractive photon dissociation in the saturation regime from the Good and Walker picture

Combining the QCD dipole model with the Good and Walker picture, we formulate diffractive dissociation of a photon of virtuality Q^2 off a hadronic target, in the kinematical regime in which Q is close to the saturation scale and much smaller than the invariant mass of the diffracted system. We show how the obtained formula compares to the HERA data and discuss what can be learnt from such a phenomenology. In particular, we argue that diffractive observables in these kinematics provide useful pieces of information on the saturation regime of QCD.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures, revte

Terpene Composition Complexity Controls Secondary Organic Aerosol Yields from Scots Pine Volatile Emissions

Secondary organic aerosol (SOA) impact climate by scattering and absorbing radiation and contributing to cloud formation. SOA models are based on studies of simplified chemical systems that do not account for the chemical complexity in the atmosphere. This study investigated SOA formation from a mixture of real Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) emissions including a variety of monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes. SOA generation was characterized from different combinations of volatile compounds as the plant emissions were altered with an herbivore stress treatment. During active herbivore feeding, monoterpene and sesquiterpene emissions increased, but SOA mass yields decreased after accounting for absorption effects. SOA mass yields were controlled by sesquiterpene emissions in healthy plants. In contrast, SOA mass yields from stressed plant emissions were controlled by the specific blend of monoterpene emissions. Conservative estimates using a box model approach showed a 1.5- to 2.3-fold aerosol enhancement when the terpene complexity was taken into account. This enhancement was relative to the commonly used model monoterpene, "alpha-pinene". These results suggest that simplifying terpene complexity in SOA models could lead to underpredictions in aerosol mass loading.Peer reviewe

The XXL Survey IX. Optical overdensity and radio continuum analysis of a supercluster at z=0.43

We present observations with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) at 3 GHz (10 cm) toward a sub-field of the XXL-North 25 deg(2) field targeting the first supercluster discovered in the XXL Survey. The structure has been found at a spectroscopic redshift of 0.43 and extending over 0.degrees 35x0.degrees 1 on the sky. The aim of this paper is twofold. First, we present the 3 GHz VLA radio continuum observations, the final radio mosaic and radio source catalogue, and, second, we perform a detailed analysis of the supercluster in the optical and radio regimes using photometric redshifts from the CFHTLS survey and our new VLA-XXL data. Our final 3 GHz radio mosaic has a resolution of 3 ''.2 x 1 ''.9, and encompasses an area of 41'x41' with rms noise level lower than similar to 20 mu Jy beam(-1). The noise in the central 15'x15' region is approximate to 11 mu Jy beam(-1). From the mosaic we extract a catalogue of 155 radio sources with signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) >= 6, eight of which are large, multicomponent sources, and 123 (79%) of which can be associated with optical sources in the CFHTLS W1 catalogue. Applying Voronoi tessellation analysis (VTA) in the area around the X-ray identified supercluster using photometric redshifts from the CFHTLS survey we identify a total of seventeen overdensities at z(phot) = 0.35-0.50, 7 of which are associated with clusters detected in the XMM-Newton XXL data. We find a mean photometric redshift of 0.43 for our overdensities, consistent with the spectroscopic redshifts of the brightest cluster galaxies of seven X-ray detected clusters. The full VTA-identified structure extends over similar to 0.degrees 6x0.degrees 2on the sky, which corresponds to a physical size of similar to 12x4 Mpc(2) at z = 0.43. No large radio galaxies are present within the overdensities, and we associate eight (S/N > 7) radio sources with potential group/cluster member galaxies. The spatial distribution of the red and blue VTA-identified potential group member galaxies, selected by their observed g -r colours, suggests that the clusters are not virialised yet, but are dynamically young, as expected for hierarchical structure growth in a Lambda CDM universe. Further spectroscopic data are required to analyse the dynamical state of the groups

NQO2 is a reactive oxygen species generating off-target for acetaminophen

[Image: see text] The analgesic and antipyretic compound acetaminophen (paracetamol) is one of the most used drugs worldwide. Acetaminophen overdose is also the most common cause for acute liver toxicity. Here we show that acetaminophen and many structurally related compounds bind quinone reductase 2 (NQO2) in vitro and in live cells, establishing NQO2 as a novel off-target. NQO2 modulates the levels of acetaminophen derived reactive oxygen species, more specifically superoxide anions, in cultured cells. In humans, NQO2 is highly expressed in liver and kidney, the main sites of acetaminophen toxicity. We suggest that NQO2 mediated superoxide production may function as a novel mechanism augmenting acetaminophen toxicity

Using Comparative Preference Statements in Hypervolume-Based Interactive Multiobjective Optimization

International audienceThe objective functions in multiobjective optimization problems are often non-linear, noisy, or not available in a closed form and evolutionary multiobjective optimization (EMO) algorithms have been shown to be well applicable in this case. Here, our objective is to facilitate interactive decision making by saving function evaluations outside the "interesting" regions of the search space within a hypervolume-based EMO algorithm. We focus on a basic model where the Decision Maker (DM) is always asked to pick the most desirable solution among a set. In addition to the scenario where this solution is chosen directly, we present the alternative to specify preferences via a set of so-called comparative preference statements. Examples on standard test problems show the working principles, the competitiveness, and the drawbacks of the proposed algorithm in comparison with the recent iTDEA algorithm