Nitrogen Response of Spring and Winter Wheat to Biosolids Compared to Chemical Fertiliser

Irish sewage sludge production was over 30,000 t/year in the 1990s (EPA, Ireland, 2003). Application to agricultural land is a management option for this organic material as it results in the recycling of the nutrients they contain for crop production. The EU Directive (91/271/EEC) encourages the recycling of sewage sludge as biosolids to agriculture. However, up to 1999, only about 5 % of biosolids produced was applied to agricultural land. In this study, several biosolids and a chemical fertiliser were used to assess N availability for spring and winter wheat (Triticum aestivum,) production in a pot experiment

The Role of the Indian Ocean Sector for Prediction of the Coupled Indo-Pacific System: Impact of Atmospheric Coupling

Indian Ocean (IO) dynamics impact ENSO predictability by influencing wind and precipitation anomalies in the Pacific. To test if the upstream influence of the IO improves ENSO validation statistics, a combination of forced ocean, atmosphere, and coupled models are utilized. In one experiment, the full tropical Indo-Pacific region atmosphere is forced by observed interannual SST anomalies. In the other, the IO is forced by climatological SST. Differences between these two forced atmospheric model experiments spotlight a much richer wind response pattern in the Pacific than previous studies that used idealized forcing and simple linear atmospheric models. Weak westerlies are found near the equator similar to earlier literature. However, at initialization strong easterlies between 30 deg. S to 10 deg. S and 0 deg. N to 25 deg. N and equatorial convergence of the meridional winds across the entire Pacific are unique findings from this paper. The large-scale equatorial divergence west of the dateline and northeasterly-to-northwesterly cross-equatorial flow converging on the equator east of the dateline in the Pacific are generated from interannual IO SST coupling. In addition, off-equatorial downwelling curl impacts large-scale oceanic waves (i.e., Rossby waves reflect as western boundary Kelvin waves). After 3 months, these downwelling equatorial Kelvin waves propagate across the Pacific and strengthen the NINO3 SST. Eventually Bjerknes feedbacks take hold in the eastern Pacific which allows this warm anomaly to grow. Coupled forecasts for NINO3 SST anomalies for 1993-2014 demonstrate that including interannual IO forcing significantly improves predictions for 3-9 month lead times

Multiple causes of interannual sea surface temperature variability in the equatorial Atlantic Ocean

The eastern equatorial Atlantic Ocean is subject to interannual fluctuations of sea surface temperatures, with climatic impacts on the surrounding continents. The dynamic mechanism underlying Atlantic temperature variability is thought to be similar to that of the El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) in the equatorial Pacific, where air-sea coupling leads to a positive feedback between surface winds in the western basin, sea surface temperature in the eastern basin, and equatorial oceanic heat content. Here we use a suite of observational data, climate reanalysis products, and general circulation model simulations to reassess the factors driving the interannual variability. We show that some of the warm events can not be explained by previously identified equatorial wind stress forcing and ENSO-like dynamics. Instead, these events are driven by a mechanism in which surface wind forcing just north of the equator induces warm ocean temperature anomalies that are subsequently advected toward the equator. We find the surface wind patterns are associated with long-lived subtropical sea surface temperature anomalies and suggest they therefore reflect a link between equatorial and subtropical Atlantic variability

Increasing compliance with wearing a medical device in children with autism

Health professionals often recommend the use of medical devices to assess the health, monitor the well-being, or improve the quality of life of their patients. Children with autism may present challenges in these situations as their sensory peculiarities may increase refusals to wear such devices. To address this issue, we systematically replicated prior research by examining the effects of differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO) to increase compliance with wearing a heart rate monitor in 2 children with autism. The intervention increased compliance to 100% for both participants when an edible reinforcer was delivered every 90 s. The results indicate that DRO does not require the implementation of extinction to increase compliance with wearing a medical device. More research is needed to examine whether the reinforcement schedule can be further thinned

A common p73 polymorphism is associated with a reduced incidence of oesophageal carcinoma

The incidence of oesophageal adenocarcinoma is rising; to date, no susceptibility genes have been identified. p73, a novel p53 homologue, maps to chromosome 1p36, a region commonly deleted in oesophageal cancers. p73 shares some p53-like activity, but in addition, may also play a role in gastrointestinal epithelial inflammatory responses. A non-coding p73 polymorphism (denoted AT or GC) may be functionally significant. We investigated whether this polymorphism might play a role in the aetiopathogenesis of oesophageal cancer. This was a case–control, retrospective study. 84 cases of oesophageal cancer (25 squamous and 59 adenocarcinoma) and 152 normal population controls were genotyped for this polymorphism. Informative cases were examined for p73 LOH within the tumour. AT/AT homozygotes were significantly less prevalent in the oesophageal cancer population (1/84 = 1.2%) compared to controls (15/152 = 9.9%) (P < 0.02), corresponding to an odds ratio of 0.11 (95% C.I. 0.02–0.6, P < 0.02), or 9-fold reduced risk. Moreover, AT/AT homozygotes were significantly less frequent in the cancer population than would be expected under the Hardy–Weinberg hypothesis (P = 0.0099). LOH at the p73 locus was observed in 37.8% (14/37) of the AT/GC heterozygotes studied; in all cases there was loss of the AT allele. Our findings indicate that p73 AT/AT homozygotes appear to be protected against the development of oesophageal cancer. Clinically, this observation could have implications in aiding identification of high-risk Barrett's oesophagus patients.© 2001 Cancer Research Campaign  http://www.bjcancer.co

First-Order Melting and Dynamics of Flux Lines in a Model for YBa2_2Cu3_3O7−δ_{7-\delta}

We have studied the statics and dynamics of flux lines in a model for YBCO, using both Monte Carlo simulations and Langevin dynamics. For a clean system, both approaches yield the same melting curve, which is found to be weakly first order with a heat of fusion of about $0.02 k_BT_m$ per vortex pancake at a field of $50 {\rm kG}.$ The time averaged magnetic field distribution experienced by a fixed spin is found to undergo a qualitative change at freezing, in agreement with NMR and $\mu {\rm SR}$ experiments. Melting in the clean system is accompanied by a proliferation of free disclinations which show a clear B-dependent 3D-2D crossover from long disclination lines parallel to the c-axis at low fields, to 2D ``pancake'' disclinations at higher fields. Strong point pins produce a logarithmical $\ln t$ relaxation which results from slow annealing out of disclinations in disordered samples.Comment: 31 pages, latex, revtex, 12 figures available upon request, No major changes to the original text, but some errors in the axes scale for Figures 6 and 7 were corrected(new figures available upon request), to be published in Physical Review B, July 199

Vortex merger near a topographic slope in a homogeneous rotating fluid

This work is a contribution to the PHYSINDIEN research program. It was supported by CNRS-RFBR contract PRC 1069/16-55-150001.The effect of a bottom slope on the merger of two identical Rankine vortices is investigated in a two dimensional, quasi-geostrophic, incompressible fluid. When two cyclones initially lie parallel to the slope, and more than two vortex diameters away from the slope, the critical merger distance is unchanged. When the cyclones are closer to the slope, they can merge at larger distances, but they lose more mass into filaments, thus weakening the efficiency of merger. Several effects account for this: the topographic Rossby wave advects the cyclones, reduces their mutual distance and deforms them. This along shelf wave breaks into filaments and into secondary vortices which shear out the initial cyclones. The global motion of fluid towards the shallow domain and the erosion of the two cyclones are confirmed by the evolution of particles seeded both in the cyclone sand near the topographic slope. The addition of tracer to the flow indicates that diffusion is ballistic at early times. For two anticyclones, merger is also facilitated because one vortex is ejected offshore towards the other, via coupling with a topographic cyclone. Again two anticyclones can merge at large distance but they are eroded in the process. Finally, for taller topographies, the critical merger distance is again increased and the topographic influence can scatter or completely erode one of the two initial cyclones. Conclusions are drawn on possible improvements of the model configuration for an application to the ocean.PostprintPeer reviewe

On the representation error in data assimilation

Representation, representativity, representativeness error, forward interpolation error, forward model error, observation operator error, aggregation error and sampling error are all terms used to refer to components of observation error in the context of data assimilation. This paper is an attempt to consolidate the terminology that has been used in the earth sciences literature and was suggested at a European Space Agency workshop held in Reading in April 2014. We review the state-of-the-art, and through examples, motivate the terminology. In addition to a theoretical framework, examples from application areas of satellite data assimilation, ocean reanalysis and atmospheric chemistry data assimilation are provided. Diagnosing representation error statistics as well as their use in state-of-the-art data assimilation systems is discussed within a consistent framework

Background Light in Potential Sites for the ANTARES Undersea Neutrino Telescope

The ANTARES collaboration has performed a series of {\em in situ} measurements to study the background light for a planned undersea neutrino telescope. Such background can be caused by $^{40}$K decays or by biological activity. We report on measurements at two sites in the Mediterranean Sea at depths of 2400~m and 2700~m, respectively. Three photomultiplier tubes were used to measure single counting rates and coincidence rates for pairs of tubes at various distances. The background rate is seen to consist of three components: a constant rate due to $^{40}$K decays, a continuum rate that varies on a time scale of several hours simultaneously over distances up to at least 40~m, and random bursts a few seconds long that are only correlated in time over distances of the order of a meter. A trigger requiring coincidences between nearby photomultiplier tubes should reduce the trigger rate for a neutrino telescope to a manageable level with only a small loss in efficiency.Comment: 18 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in Astroparticle Physic