Observations of Coronal Mass Ejections with the Coronal Multichannel Polarimeter

The Coronal Multichannel Polarimeter (CoMP) measures not only the polarization of coronal emission, but also the full radiance profiles of coronal emission lines. For the first time, CoMP observations provide high-cadence image sequences of the coronal line intensity, Doppler shift and line width simultaneously in a large field of view. By studying the Doppler shift and line width we may explore more of the physical processes of CME initiation and propagation. Here we identify a list of CMEs observed by CoMP and present the first results of these observations. Our preliminary analysis shows that CMEs are usually associated with greatly increased Doppler shift and enhanced line width. These new observations provide not only valuable information to constrain CME models and probe various processes during the initial propagation of CMEs in the low corona, but also offer a possible cost-effective and low-risk means of space weather monitoring.Comment: 6 figures. Will appear in the special issue of Coronal Magnetism, Sol. Phy

Produção da cenoura e efeito na fertilidade do solo e nutrição decorrente da solarização do solo para controle da tiririca.

Dentre os desafios do cultivo orgânico de hortaliças destaca-se o controle de plantas daninhas, devido à proibição do uso de herbicidas. Entre as invasoras, a tiririca (Cyperus rotundus L.) é de difícil controle pela sua alta competitividade. A solarização é uma alternativa para desinfestação do solo, a qual consiste em cobri-lo com plástico transparente, com bons resultados no controle da tiririca. A fim de avaliar a influência do preparo e do revolvimento do solo sobre a eficiência da solarização no controle da tiririca, bem como seu posterior efeito sobre o cultivo da cenoura, foi realizado um experimento na Fazendinha Agroecológica, em Seropédica (RJ). O experimento foi disposto em blocos ao acaso com três repetições, em arranjo fatorial 2 x 3 mais uma testemunha adicional, sendo: 1) solo solarizado, preparado (com grade aradora) e revolvido 30 dias após a solarização (manualmente com auxílio de uma enxada); 2) solo solarizado, preparado e revolvido aos 60 dias; 3) solo solarizado, preparado e não revolvido; 4) solo solarizado, não preparado e revolvido aos 30 dias; 5) solo solarizado, não preparado e revolvido aos 60 dias; 6) solo solarizado, não preparado e não revolvido; solo não solarizado, não preparado e não revolvido (testemunha). A solarização iniciou-se em 29/1/2002, e durou cem dias. A solarização reduziu em 86% a infestação de tiririca no cultivo da cenoura. Até 10 cm de profundidade, a temperatura do solo foi superior nas parcelas solarizadas, porém a 5 cm, a solarização foi mais eficiente quando associada ao preparo do solo, não havendo efeito do revolvimento. A solarização aumentou os valores da biomassa microbiana e dos teores de Ca, Mg e P do solo. O desenvolvimento da cenoura foi influenciado pela solarização que resultou em maior produtividade

Results from recent detachment experiments in alternative divertor configurations on TCV

Divertor detachment is explored on the TCV tokamak in alternative magnetic geometries. Starting from typical TCV single-null shapes, the poloidal flux expansion at the outer strikepoint is varied by a factor of 10 to investigate the X-divertor characteristics, and the total flux expansion is varied by 70% to study the properties of the super-X divertor. The effect of an additional X-point near the target is investigated in X-point target divertors. Detachment of the outer target is studied in these plasmas during Ohmic density ramps and with the ion ∇B drift away from the primary X-point. The detachment threshold, depth of detachment, and the stability of the radiation location are investigated using target measurements from the wall-embedded Langmuir probes and two-dimensional CIII line emissivity profiles across the divertor region, obtained from inverted, toroidally-integrated camera data. It is found that increasing poloidal flux expansion results in a deeper detachment for a given line-averaged density and a reduction in the radiation location sensitivity to core density, while no large effect on the detachment threshold is observed. The total flux expansion, contrary to expectations, does not show a significant influence on any detachment characteristics in these experiments. In X-point target geometries, no evidence is found for a reduced detachment threshold despite a 2-3 fold increase in connection length. A reduced radiation location sensitivity to core plasma density in the vicinity of the target X-point is suggested by the measurements

Internal representations of smell in the Drosophila brain

Recent advances in sensory neuroscience using Drosophila olfaction as a model system have revealed brain maps representing the external world. Once we understand how the brain's built-in capability generates the internal olfactory maps, we can then elaborate how the brain computes and makes decision to elicit complex behaviors. Here, we review current progress in mapping Drosophila olfactory circuits and discuss their relationships with innate olfactory behaviors

Developing a predictive modelling capacity for a climate change-vulnerable blanket bog habitat: Assessing 1961-1990 baseline relationships

Aim: Understanding the spatial distribution of high priority habitats and developing predictive models using climate and environmental variables to replicate these distributions are desirable conservation goals. The aim of this study was to model and elucidate the contributions of climate and topography to the distribution of a priority blanket bog habitat in Ireland, and to examine how this might inform the development of a climate change predictive capacity for peat-lands in Ireland. Methods: Ten climatic and two topographic variables were recorded for grid cells with a spatial resolution of 1010 km, covering 87% of the mainland land surface of Ireland. Presence-absence data were matched to these variables and generalised linear models (GLMs) fitted to identify the main climatic and terrain predictor variables for occurrence of the habitat. Candidate predictor variables were screened for collinearity, and the accuracy of the final fitted GLM was evaluated using fourfold cross-validation based on the area under the curve (AUC) derived from a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) plot. The GLM predicted habitat occurrence probability maps were mapped against the actual distributions using GIS techniques. Results: Despite the apparent parsimony of the initial GLM using only climatic variables, further testing indicated collinearity among temperature and precipitation variables for example. Subsequent elimination of the collinear variables and inclusion of elevation data produced an excellent performance based on the AUC scores of the final GLM. Mean annual temperature and total mean annual precipitation in combination with elevation range were the most powerful explanatory variable group among those explored for the presence of blanket bog habitat. Main conclusions: The results confirm that this habitat distribution in general can be modelled well using the non-collinear climatic and terrain variables tested at the grid resolution used. Mapping the GLM-predicted distribution to the observed distribution produced useful results in replicating the projected occurrence of the habitat distribution over an extensive area. The methods developed will usefully inform future climate change predictive modelling for Irelan