Rapid Formation of Ice Giant Planets

The existence of Uranus and Neptune presents severe difficulties for the core accretion model for the formation of ice giant planets. We suggest an alternative mechanism, namely disk instability leading to the formation of gas giant protoplanets, coagulation and settling of dust grains to form ice/rock cores at their centers, and photoevaporation of their gaseous envelopes by a nearby OB star, as a possible means of forming ice giant planets.Comment: TeX file, 20 pages, no figures, 1 table, accepted by Icarus, Preprints available at http://www.ciw.edu/boss/ftp/planets/icaice.p

The Importance of Forming and Funding Collaborative Marketing Groups for the Survival of Smallholder Farmers in Asia

In developed countries such as the USA and Western Europe, the market share of fresh fruit and vegetable sales by the major supermarket chains can be as high as 80%. In China, with growth rates averaging between 30% and 40%, it is anticipated that supermarket chains will gain a greater market share in Asia. Because of their size, supermarket chains source their product globally and focus on maximizing returns for shareholders, keeping costs low for consumers, and providing a safe product. To be competitive, smallholder farmers need to supply a large volume of safe and high-quality fruit. However, unless they increase their bargaining power, they will become price-takers. Regrettably, most smallholder farmers in Asia lack the income to introduce new technologies such as fertilizing and irrigation to improve fruit quality. Sometimes these management inputs are funded by the trader and supermarket chains though outgrower schemes. However, this leaves the farmer vulnerable to exploitation. We suggest that the best means for smallholder farmers to remain viable in global supply chains is to establish economically sustainable collaborative marketing groups. We propose a new way to fund the establishment of these groups, whereby international aid agencies or national governments fund a core nucleus of farmers (10 to 50) and contract them to implement new technologies. This will deliver a greatly improved product and significantly increase grower returns, often in the order of 5 to 10 times their current net farm profit. We suggest that a portion of the improved profits from this core group be retained to provide short-term start-up funds for additional groups of farmers to implement new technologies. Consequently, the process of farmer improvement will become self-generating and self-sustainable without the need for additional support. Furthermore, we propose that the more successful farmers levy themselves to establish and maintain marketing infrastructure and activities such as training and cool chain management. Governments and aid agencies will need to support these marketing groups by providing long-term technical assistance as well as social facilitators to develop trust and maintain unity within the groups

The Carnegie Astrometric Planet Search Program

We are undertaking an astrometric search for gas giant planets and brown dwarfs orbiting nearby low mass dwarf stars with the 2.5-m du Pont telescope at the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile. We have built two specialized astrometric cameras, the Carnegie Astrometric Planet Search Cameras (CAPSCam-S and CAPSCam-N), using two Teledyne Hawaii-2RG HyViSI arrays, with the cameras' design having been optimized for high accuracy astrometry of M dwarf stars. We describe two independent CAPSCam data reduction approaches and present a detailed analysis of the observations to date of one of our target stars, NLTT 48256. Observations of NLTT 48256 taken since July 2007 with CAPSCam-S imply that astrometric accuracies of around 0.3 milliarcsec per hour are achievable, sufficient to detect a Jupiter-mass companion orbiting 1 AU from a late M dwarf 10 pc away with a signal-to-noise ratio of about 4. We plan to follow about 100 nearby (primarily within about 10 pc) low mass stars, principally late M, L, and T dwarfs, for 10 years or more, in order to detect very low mass companions with orbital periods long enough to permit the existence of habitable, Earth-like planets on shorter-period orbits. These stars are generally too faint and red to be included in ground-based Doppler planet surveys, which are often optimized for FGK dwarfs. The smaller masses of late M dwarfs also yield correspondingly larger astrometric signals for a given mass planet. Our search will help to determine whether gas giant planets form primarily by core accretion or by disk instability around late M dwarf stars.Comment: 48 pages, 9 figures. in press, Publ. Astron. Soc. Pacifi

Comparison of Branching Ratio and Sum-Rule Analyses of Magnetic Circular Dichroism in X-Ray-Absorption Spectroscopy

Two localized picture methods of analyzing the magnetic circular dichroism in x-ray absorption will be applied to experimental results: the branching ratio (BR) and sum rule (SR) approaches. A derivation of the BR formulas and detailed comparison to the SR expressions will be made, including error estimations. The BR approach will be seen to be a limiting case form of the SR spin-moment expression and provide a simple picture of the underlying physics in magnetic x-ray circular dichroism absorption in 3d magnetic materials

Beef production from feedstuffs conserved using new technologies to reduce negative environmental impacts

End of project reportMost (ca. 86%) Irish farms make some silage. Besides directly providing feed for livestock, the provision of grass silage within integrated grassland systems makes an important positive contribution to effective grazing management and improved forage utilisation by grazing animals, and to effective feed budgeting by farmers. It can also contribute to maintaining the content of desirable species in pastures, and to livestock not succumbing to parasites at sensitive times of the year. Furthermore, the optimal recycling of nutrients collected from housed livestock can often be best achieved by spreading the manures on the land used for producing the conserved feed. On most Irish farms, grass silage will remain the main conserved forage for feeding to livestock during winter for the foreseeable future. However, on some farms high yields of whole-crop (i.e. grain + straw) cereals such as wheat, barley and triticale, and of forage maize, will be an alternative option provided that losses during harvesting, storage and feedout are minimised and that input costs are restrained. These alternative forages have the potential to reliably support high levels of animal performance while avoiding the production of effluent. Their production and use however will need to advantageously integrate into ruminant production systems. A range of technologies can be employed for crop production and conservation, and for beef production, and the optimal options need to be identified. Beef cattle being finished indoors are offered concentrate feedstuffs at rates that range from modest inputs through to ad libitum access. Such concentrates frequently contain high levels of cereals such as barley or wheat. These cereals are generally between 14% to 18% moisture content and tend to be rolled shortly before being included in coarse rations or are more finely processed prior to pelleting. Farmers thinking of using ‘high-moisture grain’ techniques for preserving and processing cereal grains destined for feeding to beef cattle need to know how the yield, conservation efficiency and feeding value of such grains compares with grains conserved using more conventional techniques. European Union policy strongly encourages a sustainable and multifunctional agriculture. Therefore, in addition to providing European consumers with quality food produced within approved systems, agriculture must also contribute positively to the conservation of natural resources and the upkeep of the rural landscape. Plastics are widely used in agriculture and their post-use fate on farms must not harm the environment - they must be managed to support the enduring sustainability of farming systems. There is an absence of information on the efficacy of some new options for covering and sealing silage with plastic sheeting and tyres, and an absence of an inventory of the use, re-use and post-use fate of plastic film on farms. Irish cattle farmers operate a large number of beef production systems, half of which use dairy bred calves. In the current, continuously changing production and market conditions, new beef systems must be considered. A computer package is required that will allow the rapid, repeatable simulation and assessment of alternate beef production systems using appropriate, standardised procedures. There is thus a need to construct, evaluate and utilise computer models of components of beef production systems and to develop mathematical relationships to link system components into a network that would support their integration into an optimal system model. This will provide a framework to integrate physical and financial on-farm conditions with models for estimating feed supply and animal growth patterns. Cash flow and profit/loss results will be developed. This will help identify optimal systems, indicate the cause of failure of imperfect systems and identify areas where applied research data are currently lacking, or more basic research is required

Effects of Exogenous Antioxidants on Dietary Iron Overload

In dietary iron overload, excess hepatic iron promotes liver damage. The aim was to attenuate free radical-induced liver damage using vitamins. Four groups of 60 Wistar rats were studied: group 1 (control) was fed normal diet, group 2 (Fe) 2.5% pentacarbonyl iron (CI) followed by 0.5% Ferrocene, group 3 (Fe + V gp) CI, Ferrocene, plus vitamins A and E (42× and 10× RDA, respectively), group 4 (Fe – V gp) CI, Ferrocene diet, minus vitamins A and E. At 20 months, glutathione peroxidase (GPx), superoxide dismutase (SOD), Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC), Ames mutagenicity test, AST, ALT and 4-hydroxynonenal (4-HNE) immunohistochemistry were measured. 8OHdG levels of the Fe + V and Fe – V groups were 346 ± 117 and 455 ± 151, ng/g w.wt, respectively. Fe + V and Fe – V differences were significant (p<0.005). A positive correlation between DNA damage and mutagenesis existed (p<0.005) within the iron-fed gps. AST levels for Fe + V and Fe – V groups were 134.6 ± 48.6 IU and 202.2 ± 50.5 IU, respectively. Similarly, ALT levels were 234.6 ± 48.3 IU and 329.0 ± 48.6 IU, respectively. However, Fe – V and Fe + V groups transaminases were statistically insignificant. 4-HNE was detected in Fe + V and Fe – V gp livers. Vitamins A and E could not prevent hepatic damage

Sleep deprivation causes memory deficits by negatively impacting neuronal connectivity in hippocampal area CA1

Brief periods of sleep loss have long-lasting consequences such as impaired memory consolidation. Structural changes in synaptic connectivity have been proposed as a substrate of memory storage. Here, we examine the impact of brief periods of sleep deprivation on dendritic structure. In mice, we find that five hours of sleep deprivation decreases dendritic spine numbers selectively in hippocampal area CA1 and increased activity of the filamentous actin severing protein cofilin. Recovery sleep normalizes these structural alterations. Suppression of cofilin function prevents spine loss, deficits in hippocampal synaptic plasticity, and impairments in long-term memory caused by sleep deprivation. The elevated cofilin activity is caused by cAMP-degrading phosphodiesterase-4A5 (PDE4A5), which hampers cAMP-PKA-LIMK signaling. Attenuating PDE4A5 function prevents changes in cAMP-PKA-LIMK-cofilin signaling and cognitive deficits associated with sleep deprivation. Our work demonstrates the necessity of an intact cAMP-PDE4-PKA-LIMK-cofilin activation-signaling pathway for sleep deprivation-induced memory disruption and reduction in hippocampal spine density

Short-wavelength enrichment of polychromatic light enhances human melatonin suppression potency.

The basic goal of this research is to determine the best combination of light wavelengths for use as a lighting countermeasure for circadian and sleep disruption during space exploration, as well as for individuals living on Earth. Action spectra employing monochromatic light and selected monochromatic wavelength comparisons have shown that short-wavelength visible light in the blue-appearing portion of the spectrum is most potent for neuroendocrine, circadian, and neurobehavioral regulation. The studies presented here tested the hypothesis that broad spectrum, polychromatic fluorescent light enriched in the short-wavelength portion of the visible spectrum is more potent for pineal melatonin suppression in healthy men and women. A total of 24 subjects were tested across three separate experiments. Each experiment used a within-subjects study design that tested eight volunteers to establish the full-range fluence-response relationship between corneal light irradiance and nocturnal plasma melatonin suppression. Each experiment tested one of the three types of fluorescent lamps that differed in their relative emission of light in the short-wavelength end of the visible spectrum between 400 and 500 nm. A hazard analysis, based on national and international eye safety criteria, determined that all light exposures used in this study were safe. Each fluence-response curve demonstrated that increasing corneal irradiances of light evoked progressively increasing suppression of nocturnal melatonin. Comparison of these fluence-response curves supports the hypothesis that polychromatic fluorescent light is more potent for melatonin regulation when enriched in the short-wavelength spectrum

p75 neurotrophin receptor regulates energy balance in obesity

Obesity and metabolic syndrome reflect the dysregulation of molecular pathways that control energy homeostasis. Here, we show that the p75 neurotrophin receptor (p75NTR) controls energy expenditure in obese mice on a high-fat diet (HFD). Despite no changes in food intake, p75NTR-null mice were protected from HFD-induced obesity and remained lean as a result of increased energy expenditure without developing insulin resistance or liver steatosis. p75NTR directly interacts with the catalytic subunit of protein kinase A (PKA) and regulates cAMP signaling in adipocytes, leading to decreased lipolysis and thermogenesis. Adipocyte-specific depletion of p75NTR or transplantation of p75NTR-null white adipose tissue (WAT) into wild-type mice fed a HFD protected against weight gain and insulin resistance. Our results reveal that signaling from p75NTR to cAMP/PKA regulates energy balance and suggest that non-CNS neurotrophin receptor signaling could be a target for treating obesity and the metabolic syndrome