FCS: at the crossroad, again

Agricultural credit

Reconnaissance of Pharmaceutical Chemicals in Urban Streams of the Tualatin River Basin, Oregon, 2002

A reconnaissance of pharmaceutical chemicals in urban streams of the Tualatin River basin was conducted in July 2002 in an effort to better understand the occurrence and distribution of such compounds, and to determine whether they might be useful indicators of human-related stream contamination. Of the 21 pharmaceutical chemicals and metabolites tested, only 6 (acetaminophen, caffeine, carbamazepine, codeine, cotinine, and sulfamethoxazole) were detected in filtered stream samples from 10 sites. The concentrations of most of the detected compounds were relatively low (less than 0.05 microgram per liter). The most frequently detected compounds were cotinine (a nicotine metabolite, 8 of 10 samples) and caffeine (a stimulant, 7 of 10 samples). More compounds were detected in urban stream samples than in samples from forested or agricultural drainages. Filtered water samples also were collected from four locations within an advanced wastewater treatment facility to quantify the relative amounts of these chemicals in a municipal waste stream and to determine the degree to which those chemicals are removed by treatment processes. Fifteen pharmaceutical chemicals or metabolites were detected in wastewater treatment facility influent, with concentrations far exceeding those measured in streams. Only five of those compounds, however, were detected in the treated effluent (carbamazepine, cotinine, ibuprofen, metformin, and sulfamethoxazole) and most of those were at concentrations less than 0.2 microgram per liter. The target pharmaceutical chemicals and metabolites showed limited potential for use as tracers of specific types of human-related contamination in Tualatin River basin streams because of widespread sources (caffeine, for example) or extremely low concentrations. Caffeine and cotinine are likely to be good indicators of sources that can occur in urban areas, such as sewage spills or leaks or the widespread use and careless disposal of tobacco products and caffeine-containing beverages. Neither compound, however, is likely to be a good tracer for a specific source unless that source is large. The presence of 1,7-dimethylxanthine (a caffeine metabolite) concurrently with caffeine might indicate the presence of untreated wastewater; in contrast, the absence of the metabolite might help rule out that source. Acetaminophen might make a good tracer for untreated wastewater because of its common usage, high concentration in raw wastewater, and effective removal via treatment. Carbamazepine and sulfamethoxazole have the potential to be good indicators of treated wastewater because of their incomplete removal in treatment facilities. Some of these pharmaceutical chemicals, either singly or in combination, might prove useful as tracers of contamination after further study

Multi-Modal Active Perception for Autonomously Selecting Landing Sites on Icy Moons

Selecting suitable landing sites is fundamental to achieving many mission objectives in planetary robotic lander missions. However, due to sensing limitations, landing sites which are both safe and scientifically valuable often cannot be determined reliably from orbit, particularly, in icy moon missions where orbital sensing data is noisy and incomplete. This paper presents an active perception approach to Entry Descent and Landing (EDL) which enables the lander to autonomously plan informative descent trajectories, acquire high quality sensing data during descent and exploit this additional information to select higher utility landing sites. Our approach consists of two components: probabilistic modeling of landing site features and approximate trajectory planning using a sampling based planner. The proposed framework allows the lander to plan long horizons paths and remain robust to noisy data. Results in simulated environments show large performance improvements over alternative approaches and show promise that our approach has strong potential to improve science return of not only icy moon missions but EDL systems in general

Schoolwide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports in an Alternative Education Setting: Examining the Risk and Protective Factors of Responders and Non-Responders

This research examined the risk and protective factors of responders and nonresponders to a schoolwide implementation of positive behavioral interventions and supports (SW-PBIS) within an alternative school. Students completed self-perception measures of individual, school, community, and home systems. Multivariate analysis of variance indicated a statistically significant difference between responders and nonresponders on the individual and school systems models. Direct logistic regression indicated that within these models, hostility, destructive expression of anger, depression, academic self-concept, attitude to teachers, and attitude to school each made a significant contribution in identifying responders and nonresponders. Findings suggest that factors at the individual and school levels may be crucial in identifying individuals who respond favorably to SW-PBIS. Interventions that target specific risk factors may improve responsiveness to SW-PBIS in alternative schools

Sensibilidade do carrapato Boophilus microplus a solventes.

A study was conducted to investigate the sensitivity of Boophilus microplus cattle ticks to different solvents. Larvae and engorged females of B. microplus were subjected to 7 solvents in 5 different concentrations in the presence and absence of olive oil. The utilization of olive oil did not produce different statistical results in the impregnated paper larval test. The same results were observed in the adult immersion test with hydrophilic compounds. The mean mortality caused by solvents was small in the larval test, and increased in immersion tests. Solvents with low molecular weight and viscosity such as alcohol and methyl alcohol did not affect the mortality of B. microplus in biological tests in concentrations below 76%.

The Fundamental Plane of star formation in galaxies revealed by the EAGLE hydrodynamical simulations

We investigate correlations between different physical properties of star-forming galaxies in the ‘Evolution and Assembly of GaLaxies and their Environments’ (EAGLE) cosmological hydrodynamical simulation suite over the redshift range 0 ≤ z ≤ 4.5. A principal component analysis reveals that neutral gas fraction (fgas,neutral), stellar mass (Mstellar) and star formation rate (SFR) account for most of the variance seen in the population, with galaxies tracing a two-dimensional, nearly flat, surface in the three-dimensional space of fgas, neutral–Mstellar–SFR with little scatter. The location of this plane varies little with redshift, whereas galaxies themselves move along the plane as their fgas, neutral and SFR drop with redshift. The positions of galaxies along the plane are highly correlated with gas metallicity. The metallicity can therefore be robustly predicted from fgas, neutral, or from the Mstellar and SFR. We argue that the appearance of this ‘Fundamental Plane of star formation’ is a consequence of self-regulation, with the plane's curvature set by the dependence of the SFR on gas density and metallicity. We analyse a large compilation of observations spanning the redshift range 0 ≲ z ≲ 3, and find that such a plane is also present in the data. The properties of the observed Fundamental Plane of star formation are in good agreement with EAGLE's predictions

Subhalo abundance matching and assembly bias in the EAGLE simulation

Subhalo abundance matching (SHAM) is a widely used method to connect galaxies with dark matter structures in numerical simulations. SHAM predictions agree remarkably well with observations, yet they still lack strong theoretical support. We examine the performance, implementation, and assumptions of SHAM using the ‘Evolution and Assembly of Galaxies and their Environment’ (EAGLE) project simulations. We find that Vrelax, the highest value of the circular velocity attained by a subhalo while it satisfies a relaxation criterion, is the subhalo property that correlates most strongly with galaxy stellar mass (Mstar). Using this parameter in SHAM, we retrieve the real-space clustering of EAGLE to within our statistical uncertainties on scales greater than 2 Mpc for galaxies with 8.77 < log 10(Mstar[M⊙]) < 10.77. Conversely, clustering is overestimated by 30 per cent on scales below 2 Mpc for galaxies with 8.77 < log 10(Mstar[M⊙]) < 9.77 because SHAM slightly overpredicts the fraction of satellites in massive haloes compared to EAGLE. The agreement is even better in redshift space, where the clustering is recovered to within our statistical uncertainties for all masses and separations. Additionally, we analyse the dependence of galaxy clustering on properties other than halo mass, i.e. the assembly bias. We demonstrate assembly bias alters the clustering in EAGLE by 20  per cent and Vrelax captures its effect to within 15  per cent. We trace small differences in the clustering to the failure of SHAM as typically implemented, i.e. the Mstar assigned to a subhalo does not depend on (i) its host halo mass, (ii) whether it is a central or a satellite. In EAGLE, we find that these assumptions are not completely satisfied

The EAGLE simulations of galaxy formation: the importance of the hydrodynamics scheme

We present results from a subset of simulations from the "Evolution and Assembly of GaLaxies and their Environments" (EAGLE) suite in which the formulation of the hydrodynamics scheme is varied. We compare simulations that use the same subgrid models without re-calibration of the parameters but employing the standard GADGET flavour of smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) instead of the more recent state-of-the-art ANARCHY formulation of SPH that was used in the fiducial EAGLE runs. We find that the properties of most galaxies, including their masses and sizes, are not significantly affected by the details of the hydrodynamics solver. However, the star formation rates of the most massive objects are affected by the lack of phase mixing due to spurious surface tension in the simulation using standard SPH. This affects the efficiency with which AGN activity can quench star formation in these galaxies and it also leads to differences in the intragroup medium that affect the X-ray emission from these objects. The differences that can be attributed to the hydrodynamics solver are, however, likely to be less important at lower resolution. We also find that the use of a time step limiter is important for achieving the feedback efficiency required to match observations of the low-mass end of the galaxy stellar mass function

The link between the assembly of the inner dark matter halo and the angular momentum evolution of galaxies in the EAGLE simulation

We explore the co-evolution of the specific angular momentum of dark matter haloes and the cold baryons that comprise the galaxies within. We study over 2000 galaxies within the reference cosmological hydrodynamical simulation of the ‘Evolution and Assembly of GaLaxies and their Environments’ (EAGLE) project. We employ a methodology within which the evolutionary history of a system is specified by the time-evolving properties of the Lagrangian particles that define it at z = 0. We find a strong correlation between the evolution of the specific angular momentum of today's stars (cold gas) and that of the inner (whole) dark matter halo they are associated with. This link is particularly strong for the stars formed before the epoch of maximum expansion and subsequent collapse of the central dark matter halo (turnaround). Spheroids are assembled primarily from stars formed prior to turnaround, and suffer a net loss of angular momentum associated with the strong merging activity during the assembly of the inner dark matter halo. Stellar discs retain their specific angular momentum since they are comprised of stars formed mainly after turnaround, from gas that mostly preserves the high specific angular momentum it acquired by tidal torques during the linear growth of the halo. Since the specific angular momentum loss of the stars is tied to the galaxy's morphology today, it may be possible to use our results to predict, statistically, the maximum loss of specific angular momentum of the inner part of a halo given the morphology of the galaxy it host

Making a home, finding a job: investigating early housing and employment outcomes for young people leaving care

This paper presents findings from a new study of outcomes for young people leaving care funded by the Department for Education and Skills. It reports findings for a sample of 106 young people in relation to progress made in housing and employment some 12-15 months after leaving care. The generally poor employment outcomes of care leavers are acknowledged, but ingredients that make for success are also highlighted, including the value of settled care and post-care careers, sound career planning and, significantly, the value of delaying young people's transitions from care. Early career paths also interconnect with how young people fare in housing, in developing life skills and with other problems in their lives after leaving care. Housing outcomes were more encouraging and predominantly shaped by events after leaving care, and faring well in housing was the factor most closely associated with positive mental well-being in young people. Some groups that are at risk of faring badly are identified, including young people with mental-health problems, young people with persistent offending or substance misuse problems and, in some respects, young disabled people. The implications of these findings for leaving care services are considered