Efficient Methods for Predicting Soil Hydraulic Properties

Both empirical and process-simulation models are useful for evaluating the effects of management practices on environmental quality and crop yield. The use of these models is limited, however, because they need many soil property values as input. The first step towards modelling is the collection of input data. Soil properties can be highly variable spatially and temporally, and measuring them is time-consuming and expensive. Efficient methods, which consider the uncertainty and cost of measurements, for estimating soil hydraulic properties form the main thrust of this study. Hydraulic properties are affected by other soil physical, and chemical properties, therefore it is possible to develop empirical relations to predict them. This idea quantified is called a pedotransfer function. Such functions may be global or restricted to a country or region. The different classification of particle-size fractions used in Australia compared with other countries presents a problem for the immediate adoption of exotic pedotransfer functions. A database of Australian soil hydraulic properties has been compiled. Pedotransfer functions for estimating water-retention and saturated hydraulic conductivity from particle size and bulk density for Australian soil are presented. Different approaches for deriving hydraulic transfer functions have been presented and compared. Published pedotransfer functions were also evaluated, generally they provide a satisfactory estimation of water retention and saturated hydraulic conductivity depending on the spatial scale and accuracy of prediction. Several pedotransfer functions were developed in this study to predict water retention and hydraulic conductivity. The pedotransfer functions developed here may predict adequately in large areas but for site-specific applications local calibration is needed. There is much uncertainty in the input data, and consequently the transfer functions can produce varied outputs. Uncertainty analysis is therefore needed. A general approach to quantifying uncertainty is to use Monte Carlo methods. By sampling repeatedly from the assumed probability distributions of the input variables and evaluating the response of the model the statistical distribution of the outputs can be estimated. A modified Latin hypercube method is presented for sampling joint multivariate probability distributions. This method is applied to quantify the uncertainties in pedotransfer functions of soil hydraulic properties. Hydraulic properties predicted using pedotransfer functions developed in this study are also used in a field soil-water model to analyze the uncertainties in the prediction of dynamic soil-water regimes. The use of the disc permeameter in the field conventionally requires the placement of a layer of sand in order to provide good contact between the soil surface and disc supply membrane. The effect of sand on water infiltration into the soil and on the estimate of sorptivity was investigated. A numerical study and a field experiment on heavy clay were conducted. Placement of sand significantly increased the cumulative infiltration but showed small differences in the infiltration rate. Estimation of sorptivity based on the Philip's two term algebraic model using different methods was also examined. The field experiment revealed that the error in infiltration measurement was proportional to the cumulative infiltration curve. Infiltration without placement of sand was considerably smaller because of the poor contact between the disc and soil surface. An inverse method for predicting soil hydraulic parameters from disc permeameter data has been developed. A numerical study showed that the inverse method is quite robust in identifying the hydraulic parameters. However application to field data showed that the estimated water retention curve is generally smaller than the one obtained in laboratory measurements. Nevertheless the estimated near-saturated hydraulic conductivity matched the analytical solution quite well. Th author believes that the inverse method can give a reasonable estimate of soil hydraulic parameters. Some experimental and theoretical problems were identified and discussed. A formal analysis was carried out to evaluate the efficiency of the different methods in predicting water retention and hydraulic conductivity. The analysis identified the contribution of individual source of measurement errors to the overall uncertainty. For single measurements, the inverse disc-permeameter analysis is economically more efficient than using pedotransfer functions or measuring hydraulic properties in the laboratory. However, given the large amount of spatial variation of soil hydraulic properties it is perhaps not surprising that lots of cheap and imprecise measurements, e.g. by hand texturing, are more efficient than a few expensive precise ones

Evaluation of Muscle Imbalances and the Presence of Upper- and Lower-Crossed Syndromes among Powerlifters

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Myocardial injury associated with coronavirus disease 2019 in pregnancy.

OBJECTIVE:Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is associated with cardiac injury1-3 and bradycardia4 in the non-pregnant population. The incidence of these complications in pregnancy is unknown. The objective of this study was to determine the rate of abnormal serum cardiac biomarkers or bradycardia among pregnant and immediately postpartum women admitted for treatment of severe or critical COVID-19 in a large integrated health system in New York. STUDY DESIGN:This is a retrospective review of all pregnant and immediately postpartum women hospitalized for COVID-19 at 7 hospitals within Northwell Health, the largest academic health system in New York state, from March 1 to April 30, 2020. Women who tested positive for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay and who met the National Institute of Health (NIH) criteria for severe or critical illness5 were included. Women with a positive PCR test who were admitted for a reason other than treatment of COVID-19 (eg, labor) were excluded. The Northwell Health Institutional Review Board approved the study as minimal-risk research using data collected for routine clinical practice and waived the requirement for informed consent. Clinical records were manually reviewed. Data collected included demographics, medical comorbidities, pregnancy characteristics, laboratory and imaging results, medications administered, and clinical outcomes. Laboratory and imaging studies were ordered at the discretion of the attending physician. The primary outcomes evaluated were elevated cardiac troponins (I, T, or high sensitivity), elevated brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), bradycardia (defined as \u3c 60 beats per minute, bpm), and maternal heart rate (HR) nadir. Descriptive statistics were used to characterize the data. RESULTS:A total of 31 women met inclusion criteria; 20 (65%) had cardiac biomarkers measured during hospitalization (Table). Cardiac troponins and BNP were elevated in 22% (n=4/18) and 30% (n=3/10) of these patients, respectively. Four patients had transthoracic echocardiograms performed and all were reported as normal. No patients had preexisting cardiovascular disease or hypertension. Two maternal mortalities in this cohort were previously reported;6 both patients had elevated cardiac troponins and one also had an elevated BNP. The nadir HR ranged from 30-92 bpm and bradycardia occurred in one-third of patients (n=10/31). Half of women with elevated troponin and three-fourths of women with elevated BNP had an episode of bradycardia recorded during their hospital course. CONCLUSION:Myocardial injury as demonstrated by abnormal cardiac biomarkers and bradycardia may be common among pregnant women with severe or critical COVID-19. In this study, one-fifth of patients who had troponin levels measured were found to have elevations (one-eighth of the overall study population). Among patients who had brain natriuretic peptide levels measured, 30% were elevated (10% of the overall study population). One third of women had bradycardia. This study is limited by a small sample size. Laboratory testing and imaging was not uniform due to the retrospective nature of the study. Sampling bias was unavoidable because the decision to measure cardiac markers or perform imaging studies was made by the patient\u27s care team, based on clinical presentation rather than a formal protocol. Few studies have evaluated the risk of cardiac injury or arrhythmia among pregnant women with COVID-19. It is also unknown whether there are long-term sequelae that affect maternal health or future pregnancy outcomes. This is an important area of focus for future research

Increasing Short-Stay Unplanned Hospital Admissions among Children in England; Time Trends Analysis '97-'06

BACKGROUND: Timely care by general practitioners in the community keeps children out of hospital and provides better continuity of care. Yet in the UK, access to primary care has diminished since 2004 when changes in general practitioners' contracts enabled them to 'opt out' of providing out-of-hours care and since then unplanned pediatric hospital admission rates have escalated, particularly through emergency departments. We hypothesised that any increase in isolated short stay admissions for childhood illness might reflect failure to manage these cases in the community over a 10 year period spanning these changes. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We conducted a population based time trends study of major causes of hospital admission in children 2 days. By 2006, 67.3% of all unplanned admissions were isolated short stays <2 days. The increases in admission rates were greater for common non-infectious than infectious causes of admissions. CONCLUSIONS: Short stay unplanned hospital admission rates in young children in England have increased substantially in recent years and are not accounted for by reductions in length of in-hospital stay. The majority are isolated short stay admissions for minor illness episodes that could be better managed by primary care in the community and may be evidence of a failure of primary care services

The Language of Russian Orthodoxy through the Prism of Lexicography

The article was submitted on 27.09.2018.Review of: Sklyarevskaya, G. N. (2016). [Leksika sovremennogo russkogo pravoslaviya : tolkovo-entsikl. slovar’]. The Vocabulary of Modern Russian Orthodoxy: An Explanatory Encyclopaedic Dictionary. St Petersburg, Kontrast. 688 p. The Dictionary reviewed has filled a lacuna in Russian lexicography, presenting the vocabulary of Orthodoxy as a natural component of the modern Russian language that functions not only in the religious sphere, but also in the everyday lives of Russians. The analysis of the Dictionary is preceded by a short essay on the lexicographic sources describing the vocabulary of Orthodoxy and on the ideological deformation of the religious subsystem of vocabulary during totalitarianism. The book represents a new genre of lexicographical works defined by the author as an Explanatory Encyclopaedic Dictionary. The dual nature of the Dictionary is manifested both in the vocabulary and in the structure of the dictionary entries. The linguistic component combines interpretation, etymology, and stylistic features, as the object of description is the word as a unit of language. The encyclopaedic focus of the Dictionary is shown in the commentary and illustrations, as the object of interpretation is the referent of the word described. The reviewers carry out an analysis of the vocabulary, including the basic concepts of religious and theological terms, names of representatives of the Celestial and church hierarchy, words of different thematic groups connected with church life, and the lexicon of Christian morals. Additionally, the article describes the principles of representing entry words and the stylistic and semantic connections of lexical units included in the Dictionary. Special attention is paid to the illustrations that supplement and deepen the interpretation of entries, as well as to the author’s commentary, which has undoubted cultural value and contains information of an encyclopaedic nature. The Dictionary has great practical value: while being aimed at a wide secular audience, it may also be useful for a church audience.Рецензия на: Скляревская Г. Н. Лексика современного русского православия : толково-энцикл. словарь. СПб. : Контраст, 2016. 688 с. Рецензируемый словарь восполнил лакуну в отечественной лексикографии, представив лексику православия как естественную составную часть современного русского языка, функционирующую не только в церковной среде, но и в повседневной жизни россиян. Анализ словаря в рецензии предваряется кратким очерком о лексикографических источниках разных лет, описывающих лексику православия, об идеологической деформации религиозной подсистемы лексики в период тоталитаризма. Книга представляет собой новый жанр лексикографических трудов, обозначенный автором как «толково-энциклопедический словарь». Двойственный характер словаря проявляется как в словнике, так и в структуре словарной статьи, включающей несколько зон. Лингвистическая составляющая объединяет зоны толкования, этимологии и стилистической характеристики, поскольку предметом описания здесь является слово как единица языка. Энциклопедическая направленность издания проявлена в зонах комментария и иллюстраций, так как здесь объектом интерпретации становится референт описываемого слова. В рецензии дан анализ словника, включающего основные понятия вероисповедания и богословские термины, наименования представителей небесной и церковной иерархии, слова разных тематических групп, связанные с реалиями церковной жизни, и лексику христианской морали. Описаны принципы подачи заголовочных слов, показаны представленные в словаре стилистические и семантические связи лексических единиц. Особое внимание уделяется иллюстрациям, которые дополняют и углубляют толкование заголовочного слова, а также обладающему несомненной культурологической ценностью авторскому комментарию, в котором приводятся сведения энциклопедического характера. Рецензируемый словарь имеет большую практическую ценность: рассчитанный на широкую светскую аудиторию, он, вместе с тем, может быть полезен и для аудитории церковной.Исследование поддержано программой 211 Правительства Российской Федерации, соглашение № 02.A03.21.0006. Исследование выполнено при финансовой поддержке РФФИ в рамках научного проекта №18-012-00382 А «Речевой быт семьи: аксиологическая реальность и методы исследования (на материале живой речи уральского города)»

Metadata for ATLAS

This document provides an overview of the metadata, which are needed to characterize ATLAS event data at different levels (a complete run, data streams within a run, luminosity blocks within a run, individual events)

Respiratory syncytial virus: diagnosis, prevention and management.

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is responsible for a large burden of disease globally and can present as a variety of clinical syndromes in children of all ages. Bronchiolitis in infants under 1 year of age is the most common clinical presentation hospitalizing 24.2 per 1000 infants each year in the United Kingdom. RSV has been shown to account for 22% of all episodes of acute lower respiratory tract infection in children globally. RSV hospitalization, that is, RSV severe disease, has also been associated with subsequent chronic respiratory morbidity. Routine viral testing in all children is not currently recommended by the United Kingdom National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) or the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) guidance and management is largely supportive. There is some evidence for the use of ribavirin in severely immunocompromised children. Emphasis is placed on prevention of RSV infection through infection control measures both in hospital and in the community, and the use of the RSV-specific monoclonal antibody, palivizumab, for certain high-risk groups of infants. New RSV antivirals and vaccines are currently in development. Ongoing work is needed to improve the prevention of RSV infection, not only because of the acute morbidity and mortality, but also to reduce the associated chronic respiratory morbidity after severe infection

Observation of Hadronic W Decays in t-tbar Events with the Collider Detector at Fermilab

We observe hadronic W decays in t-tbar -> W (-> l nu) + >= 4 jet events using a 109 pb-1 data sample of p-pbar collisions at sqrt{s} = 1.8 TeV collected with the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF). A peak in the dijet invariant mass distribution is obtained that is consistent with W decay and inconsistent with the background prediction by 3.3 standard deviations. From this peak we measure the W mass to be 77.2 +- 4.6 (stat+syst) GeV/c^2. This result demonstrates the presence of two W bosons in t-tbar candidates in the W (-> l nu) + >= 4 jet channel.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figures, submitted to PR

Bottom Production

We review the prospects for bottom production physics at the LHC.Comment: 74 pages, Latex, 71 figures, to appear in the Report of the ``1999 CERN Workshop on SM physics (and more) at the LHC'', P. Nason, G. Ridolfi, O. Schneider G.F. Tartarelli, P. Vikas (conveners