Yield losses caused by late blight (Phytophthora infestans (Mont.) de Bary) in potato crops in Ireland

peer-reviewedField experiments, using foliage blight susceptible cultivars, were conducted at Oak Park, Carlow from 1983 to 2007 to determine the loss in potato production caused by crop infection with Phytophthora infestans. In each of the 25 years an untreated control was compared with protectant and with systemic fungicide programmes to determine the effect of late blight on the defoliation percentage at the end of the season, the area under the disease progress curve, marketable tuber yield, total tuber yield and yield of blighted tubers. The earliest date of first recorded late blight was 22 June and the latest was 15 September, but in 15 of the 25 years, blight was first recorded between 17 July and 13 August. Disease reached epidemic proportions in all but 4 of the years. Yields varied considerably among years. The mean loss in total yield from not using a fungicide was 10.1 t/ha. Differences in yield were significant across the 25 seasons. No overall increase in aggressiveness of the pathogen could be detected over the 25-year period

Engineered mineralogical interfaces as radionuclide repositories

Effective capture of fugitive actinides and daughter radionuclides constitutes a major remediation challenge at legacy or nuclear accident sites globally. The ability of double-layered, anionic clay minerals known as hydrotalcites (HTC) to contemporaneously sequester a range of contaminants from solution offers a unique remedy. However, HTC do not provide a robust repository for actinide isolation over the long term. In this study, we formed HTC by in-situ precipitation in a barren lixiviant from a uranium mine and thermally transformed the resulting radionuclide-laden, nanoscale HTC. Atomic-scale forensic examination of the amorphized/recrystallised product reveals segregation of U to nanometre-wide mineral interfaces and the local formation of interface-hosted mineral grains. This U-phase is enriched in rare earth elements, a geochemical analogue of actinides such as Np and Pu, and represents a previously unreported radionuclide interfacial segregation. U-rich phases associated with the mineral interfaces record a U concentration factor of ~ 50,000 relative to the original solute demonstrating high extraction and concentration efficiencies. In addition, the co-existing host mineral suite of periclase, spinel-, and olivine-group minerals that equate to a lower mantle, high P–T mineral assemblage have geochemical and geotechnical properties suitable for disposal in a nuclear waste repository. Our results record the efficient sequestering of radionuclides from contaminated water and this novel, broad-spectrum, nanoscale HTC capture and concentration process constitutes a rapid solute decontamination pathway and solids containment option in perpetuity

Direct Drive Heavy-Ion-Beam Inertial Fusion at High Coupling Efficiency

Issues with coupling efficiency, beam illumination symmetry and Rayleigh Taylor (RT) instability are discussed for spherical heavy-ion-beam-driven targets with and without hohlraums. Efficient coupling of heavy ion beams to compress direct-drive inertial fusion targets without hohlraums is found to require ion range increasing several-fold during the drive pulse. One-dimensional implosion calculations using the LASNEX ICF target physics code shows the ion range increasing four-fold during the drive pulse to keep ion energy deposition following closely behind the imploding ablation front, resulting in high coupling efficiencies (shell kinetic energy/incident beam energy of 16 to 18%). Ways to increase beam ion range while mitigating Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities are discussed for future work

Nonorientable spacetime tunneling

Misner space is generalized to have the nonorientable topology of a Klein bottle, and it is shown that in a classical spacetime with multiply connected space slices having such a topology, closed timelike curves are formed. Different regions on the Klein bottle surface can be distinguished which are separated by apparent horizons fixed at particular values of the two angular variables that eneter the metric. Around the throat of this tunnel (which we denote a Klein bottlehole), the position of these horizons dictates an ordinary and exotic matter distribution such that, in addition to the known diverging lensing action of wormholes, a converging lensing action is also present at the mouths. Associated with this matter distribution, the accelerating version of this Klein bottlehole shows four distinct chronology horizons, each with its own nonchronal region. A calculation of the quantum vacuum fluctuations performed by using the regularized two-point Hadamard function shows that each chronology horizon nests a set of polarized hypersurfaces where the renormalized momentum-energy tensor diverges. This quantum instability can be prevented if we take the accelerating Klein bottlehole to be a generalization of a modified Misner space in which the period of the closed spatial direction is time-dependent. In this case, the nonchronal regions and closed timelike curves cannot exceed a minimum size of the order the Planck scale.Comment: 11 pages, RevTex, Accepted in Phys. Rev.

Tomography of pairing symmetry from magnetotunneling spectroscopy -- a case study for quasi-1D organic superconductors

We propose that anisotropic $p$-, $d$-, or $f$-wave pairing symmetries can be distinguished from a tunneling spectroscopy in the presence of magnetic fields, which is exemplified here for a model organic superconductor ${(TMTSF)}_{2}X$. The shape of the Fermi surface (quasi-one-dimensional in this example) affects sensitively the pairing symmetry, which in turn affects the shape (U or V) of the gap along with the presence/absence of the zero-bias peak in the tunneling in a subtle manner. Yet, an application of a magnetic field enables us to identify the symmetry, which is interpreted as an effect of the Doppler shift in Andreev bound states.Comment: 4 papegs, 4 figure

Gluino Contribution to Radiative B Decays: Organization of QCD Corrections and Leading Order Results

The gluino-induced contributions to the decay b-> s gamma are investigated in supersymmetric frameworks with generic sources of flavour violation. It is shown that, when QCD corrections are taken into account, the relevant operator basis of the Standard Model effective Hamiltonian gets enlarged to contain: i) magnetic and chromomagnetic operators with a factor of alpha_s and weighted by a quark mass m_b or m_c; ii) magnetic and chromomagnetic operators of lower dimensionality, also containing alpha_s; iii) four-quark operators weighted by a factor alpha_s^2. Numerical results are given, showing the effects of the leading order QCD corrections on the inclusive branching ratio for b-> s gamma. Constraints on supersymmetric sources of flavour violation are derived.Comment: 36 pages including 16 postscript figures; uses epsf; journal version: one ref. added; rephrasing of a couple of paragraph

Tradable Credits Scheme on Urban Travel Demand: A Linear Expenditure System Approach and Simulation in Beijing

Using a linear expenditure system (LES) approach, we investigate the influences of a new mobility management measure, a tradable credits scheme (TCS), on the pattern of daily trips measured in kilometres. Generally, we assume that an individuals’ travel consists of a car mode and a non-car mode. The effects of the TCS are discussed from a microeconomic perspective and using a scenario simulation study for the municipality of Beijing. Whilst other research has shown that travellers trade their credits and are generally inclined to non-car mode, the implementation of the tradable credits scheme demonstrated here is that travellers are likely to restrain their use of both car and non-car travel modes. Furthermore, both car and non-car mode trips are shown to be price inelastic, whilst the cross-price elasticity for different districts demonstrates a complementary relationship between car and bus modes

Zero-bias conductance peak splitting due to multiband effect in tunneling spectroscopy

We study how the multiplicity of the Fermi surface affects the zero-bias peak in conductance spectra of tunneling spectroscopy. As case studies, we consider models for organic superconductors $\kappa$-(BEDT-TTF)$_2$Cu(NCS)$_2$ and (TMTSF)$_2$ClO$_4$. We find that multiplicity of the Fermi surfaces can lead to a splitting of the zero-bias conductance peak (ZBCP). We propose that the presence/absence of the ZBCP splitting is used as a probe to distinguish the pairing symmetry in $\kappa$-(BEDT-TTF)$_2$Cu(NCS)$_2$.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figure

The effects of smoking on whisker movements: a quantitative measure of exploratory behaviour in rodents

Nicotine, an important component of cigarette smoke, is a neurotransmitter that contributes to stress, depression and anxiety in smokers. In rodents, it increases anxiety and reduces exploratory behaviours. However, so far, the measurements of exploratory behaviour in rodents have only been semi-quantitative and lacking in sufficient detail to characterise the temporal effect of smoking cessation. As rodents, such as mice and rats, primarily use whiskers to explore their environment, we studied the effect of 3 months smoking with 1 and 2 weeks smoking cessation on whisker movements in mice, using high-speed video camera footage and image analysis. Both protraction and retraction whisker velocities were increased in smoking mice (p<0.001) and returned to normal following just one week of smoking cessation. In addition, locomotion speeds were decreased in smoking mice, and returned to normal following smoking cessation. Lung function was also impacted by smoking and remained impaired even following smoking cessation. We suggest that the increased whisker velocities in the smoking mice reflect reduced exploration and impeded tactile performance. The increase in whisker velocity with smoking, and its reduction following smoking cessation, also lends support to acetylcholine being involved in awareness, attention and alertness pathways. It also shows that smoking-induced behavioural changes can be reversed with smoking cessation, which may have implications for human smokers