Does road salt affect groundwater in Denmark?

Chloride (Cl) from dissolved salt is a major threat to groundwater quality in many regions of the world. In arid regions near present-day coastlines, where old seawater occurs in deeper sediments and where road salt is frequently used, Cl can be a significant pollutant (European Environmental Agency 2009). European Union member states have recently reported that next to nitrogen, Cl is the most commonly found pollutant and is often responsible for groundwater bodies being at risk or having a poor ecological status (European Commission 2010)

State-space models' dirty little secrets: even simple linear Gaussian models can have estimation problems

State-space models (SSMs) are increasingly used in ecology to model time-series such as animal movement paths and population dynamics. This type of hierarchical model is often structured to account for two levels of variability: biological stochasticity and measurement error. SSMs are flexible. They can model linear and nonlinear processes using a variety of statistical distributions. Recent ecological SSMs are often complex, with a large number of parameters to estimate. Through a simulation study, we show that even simple linear Gaussian SSMs can suffer from parameter- and state-estimation problems. We demonstrate that these problems occur primarily when measurement error is larger than biological stochasticity, the condition that often drives ecologists to use SSMs. Using an animal movement example, we show how these estimation problems can affect ecological inference. Biased parameter estimates of a SSM describing the movement of polar bears (\textit{Ursus maritimus}) result in overestimating their energy expenditure. We suggest potential solutions, but show that it often remains difficult to estimate parameters. While SSMs are powerful tools, they can give misleading results and we urge ecologists to assess whether the parameters can be estimated accurately before drawing ecological conclusions from their results

Partial Cross-Sections And Photoelectron Angular-Distributions In The Region Of The 4S- 5P And 5S- 6P Resonances In Krypton And Xenon

Using synchrotron radiation and photoelectron spectrometry, we have examined the 4s4p (6)5p resonance region in krypton and the 5s5p (6)6p resonance region in xenon. We have obtained partial and total cross sections, intensity ratios, and photoelectron angular distribution parameters for the energy regions 20.6-21.5 eV in xenon and 24.6-25.3 eV in krypton. We also report Shore parameters for all cross-section data taken. In addition to the anticipated single-electron transition, we clearly resolve features attributable to two-electron transitions in both species. Characteristics of these autoionizing states may differ considerably in the two available exit channels

Magneto-optical Trapping of Cadmium

We report the laser-cooling and confinement of Cd atoms in a magneto-optical trap, and characterize the loading process from the background Cd vapor. The trapping laser drives the 1S0-1P1 transition at 229 nm in this two-electron atom and also photoionizes atoms directly from the 1P1 state. This photoionization overwhelms the other loss mechanisms and allows a direct measurement of the photoionization cross section, which we measure to be 2(1)x10^(-16)cm^(2) from the 1P1 state. When combined with nearby laser-cooled and trapped Cd^(+) ions, this apparatus could facilitate studies in ultracold interactions between atoms and ions.Comment: 8 pages, 11 figure

The Endowment Effect in Orangutans

The endowment effect is the tendency to, seemingly irrationally, immediately value a possessed item more than the opportunity to acquire the identical item when one does not already possess it. Although endowment effects are reported in chimpanzees (Brosnan, Jones, Lambeth, Mareno, Richardson, & Shapiro, 2007) and capuchin monkeys (Lakshminarayanan, Chen, & Santos, 2008), both species share social traits with humans that make convergence as likely an evolutionary mechanism as homology. Orangutans (Pongo spp.) provide a unique insight into the evolution of the endowment effect, along with other apparently irrational behaviors, because their less frequent social interactions and relatively more solitary social organization distinguishes them from the more gregarious apes, allowing a test of evolutionary homology. In the present study, we used pairs of both food and non-food objects, as in an earlier test on chimpanzees (Brosnan et al., 2007). We established the apes’ preferences in forced-choice tasks, then tested whether they showed an endowment effect in an exchange task, in which subjects were given one of the objects, followed by the option to exchange it for the other. Here, we report the first evidence of the endowment effect in a relatively less social primate, the orangutan. This indicates that this behavior may have evolved as a homology within the primates, rather than being due to convergent social pressures. These findings provide stronger evidence for the hypothesis that at least one bias, the endowment effect, may be common in primates and, potentially, other species

Reconstitution of the complete pathway of ITS2 processing at the pre-ribosome

Removal of internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) from pre-ribosomal RNA is essential to make functional ribosomes. This complicated processing reaction begins with a single endonucleolytic cleavage followed by exonucleolytic trimming at both new cleavage sites to generate mature 5.8S and 25S rRNA. We reconstituted the 7S -> 5.8S processing branch within ITS2 using purified exosome and its nuclear cofactors. We find that both Rrp44's ribonuclease activities are required for initial RNA shortening followed by hand over to the exonuclease Rrp6. During the in vitro reaction, ITS2-associated factors dissociate and the underlying 'foot' structure of the pre-60S particle is dismantled. 7S pre-rRNA processing is independent of 5S RNP rotation, but 26S -> 25S trimming is a precondition for subsequent 7S -> 5.8S processing. To complete the in vitro assay, we reconstituted the entire cycle of ITS2 removal with a total of 18 purified factors, catalysed by the integrated activities of the two participating RNA-processing machines, the Las1 complex and nuclear exosome

In the Interests of clients or commerce? Legal aid, supply, demand, and 'ethical indeterminacy' in criminal defence work

As a professional, a lawyer's first duty is to serve the client's best interests, before simple monetary gain. In criminal defence work, this duty has been questioned in the debate about the causes of growth in legal aid spending: is it driven by lawyers (suppliers) inducing unnecessary demand for their services or are they merely responding to increased demand? Research reported here found clear evidence of a change in the handling of cases in response to new payment structures, though in ways unexpected by the policy's proponents. The paper develops the concept of 'ethical indeterminacy' as a way of understanding how defence lawyers seek to reconcile the interests of commerce and clients. Ethical indeterminacy suggests that where different courses of action could each be said to benefit the client, the lawyer will tend to advise the client to decide in the lawyer's own interests. Ethical indeterminacy is mediated by a range of competing conceptions of 'quality' and 'need'. The paper goes on to question the very distinction between 'supply' and 'demand' in the provision of legal services

Reconstruction of pre-Illinoian ice margins and glaciotectonic structures from airborne electromagnetic (AEM) surveys at the western limit of Laurentide glaciation, Midcontinent U.S.A.

Early and early Middle Pleistocene glaciations in midcontinental USA are poorly understood relative to more recent Illinoian and Wisconsinan glaciations, largely because pre-Illinoian glacial landforms and deposits are eroded and buried. In this paper, we present a new interpretation of buried, pre-Illinoian glacial features along the Laurentide glacial margin in northeastern Nebraska using Airborne ElectroMagnetics (AEM) supplemented with borehole logs and 2m LiDAR elevation data. We detect and map large-scale (101–102 km) geological features using contrasts in electrical resistivity. The Laurentide glacial limit is marked by a continuous (\u3e120 km) contrast between conductive (\u3c15 Ω-m), clayey tills and resistive (\u3e40 Ω-m) sandy sediments. Several smaller (102 km2) till salients extend 10s of km westward of this margin. We recognize a lithologically heterogeneous zone characterized by variable resistivity and complex geophysical structures extending as much as 17 km west of the glacial limit. This zone is interpreted as a glaciotectonic thrust complex, and it is analogous to a similar thrust complex in Denmark where structural analysis of co-located seismic and AEM surveys provides a standard for comparison. Our study suggests that the maximum advancement of pre-Illinoian glacial ice into Nebraska involved extensive deformation of sedimentary strata, local overriding of these deformed strata by smaller ice tongues, and emplacement of tills as much as 30 km west of the principal Laurentide ice margin. These insights provide the first glimpse of the large-scale stratigraphic architecture of glacial sediments in Nebraska and point to future clarifications of the geology and geomorphology of the Laurentide glacial limit

In Situ Detection of Active Edge Sites in Single-Layer MoS2_2 Catalysts

MoS2 nanoparticles are proven catalysts for processes such as hydrodesulphurization and hydrogen evolution, but unravelling their atomic-scale structure under catalytic working conditions has remained significantly challenging. Ambient pressure X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (AP-XPS) allows us to follow in-situ the formation of the catalytically relevant MoS2 edge sites in their active state. The XPS fingerprint is described by independent contributions to the Mo3d core level spectrum whose relative intensity is sensitive to the thermodynamic conditions. Density Functional Theory (DFT) is used to model the triangular MoS2 particles on Au(111) and identify the particular sulphidation state of the edge sites. A consistent picture emerges in which the core level shifts for the edge Mo atoms evolve counter-intuitively towards higher binding energies when the active edges are reduced. The shift is explained by a surprising alteration in the metallic character of the edge sites, which is a distinct spectroscopic signature of the MoS2 edges under working conditions

Offenders' Crime Narratives across Different Types of Crimes

The current study explores the roles offenders see themselves playing during an offence and their relationship to different crime types. One hundred and twenty incarcerated offenders indicated the narrative roles they acted out whilst committing a specific crime they remembered well. The data were subjected to Smallest Space Analysis (SSA) and four themes were identified: Hero, Professional, Revenger and Victim in line with the recent theoretical framework posited for Narrative Offence Roles (Youngs & Canter, 2012). Further analysis showed that different subsets of crimes were more like to be associated with different narrative offence roles. Hero and Professional were found to be associated with property offences (theft, burglary and shoplifting), drug offences and robbery and Revenger and Victim were found to be associated with violence, sexual offences and murder. The theoretical implications for understanding crime on the basis of offenders' narrative roles as well as practical implications are discussed