Irrigation management with remote sensing

Two visible/near IR hand held radiometers and a hand held thermoradiometer were used along with soil moisture and lysimetric measurements in a study of soil moisture distribution in afalfa fields on the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project near farmington, New Mexico. Radiances from irrigated plots were measured and converted to reflectances. Surface soil water contents (o cm to 4 cm) were determined gravimetrically on samples collected at the same time as the spectral measurements. The relationship between the spectral measurements and the crop coefficient were evaluated to demonstrate potential for using spectral measurement to estimate crop coefficient

Evaluation of HCMM data for assessing soil moisture and water table depth

Soil moisture in the 0-cm to 4-cm layer could be estimated with 1-mm soil temperatures throughout the growing season of a rainfed barley crop in eastern South Dakota. Empirical equations were developed to reduce the effect of canopy cover when radiometrically estimating the soil temperature. Corrective equations were applied to an aircraft simulation of HCMM data for a diversity of crop types and land cover conditions to estimate the soil moisture. The average difference between observed and measured soil moisture was 1.6% of field capacity. Shallow alluvial aquifers were located with HCMM predawn data. After correcting the data for vegetation differences, equations were developed for predicting water table depths within the aquifer. A finite difference code simulating soil moisture and soil temperature shows that soils with different moisture profiles differed in soil temperatures in a well defined functional manner. A significant surface thermal anomaly was found to be associated with shallow water tables

Evaluation of HCMM data for assessing soil moisture and water table depth

Data were analyzed for variations in eastern South Dakota. Soil moisture in the 0-4 cm layer could be estimated with 1-mm soil temperatures throughout the growing season of a rainfed barley crop (% cover ranging from 30% to 90%) with an r squared = 0.81. Empirical equations were developed to reduce the effect of canopy cover when radiometrically estimating the 1-mm soil temperature, r squared = 0.88. The corrective equations were applied to an aircraft simulation of HCMM data for a diversity of crop types and land cover conditions to estimate the 0-4 cm soil moisture. The average difference between observed and measured soil moisture was 1.6% of field capacity. HCMM data were used to estimate the soil moisture for four dates with an r squared = 0.55 after correction for crop conditions. Location of shallow alluvial aquifers could be accomplished with HCMM predawn data. After correction of HCMM day data for vegetation differences, equations were developed for predicting water table depths within the aquifer (r=0.8)

Noninfectious retrovirus particles drive the APOBEC3/Rfv3 dependent neutralizing antibody response.

Members of the APOBEC3 family of deoxycytidine deaminases counteract a broad range of retroviruses in vitro through an indirect mechanism that requires virion incorporation and inhibition of reverse transcription and/or hypermutation of minus strand transcripts in the next target cell. The selective advantage to the host of this indirect restriction mechanism remains unclear, but valuable insights may be gained by studying APOBEC3 function in vivo. Apobec3 was previously shown to encode Rfv3, a classical resistance gene that controls the recovery of mice from pathogenic Friend retrovirus (FV) infection by promoting a more potent neutralizing antibody (NAb) response. The underlying mechanism does not involve a direct effect of Apobec3 on B cell function. Here we show that while Apobec3 decreased titers of infectious virus during acute FV infection, plasma viral RNA loads were maintained, indicating substantial release of noninfectious particles in vivo. The lack of plasma virion infectivity was associated with a significant post-entry block during early reverse transcription rather than G-to-A hypermutation. The Apobec3-dependent NAb response correlated with IgG binding titers against native, but not detergent-lysed virions. These findings indicate that innate Apobec3 restriction promotes NAb responses by maintaining high concentrations of virions with native B cell epitopes, but in the context of low virion infectivity. Finally, Apobec3 restriction was found to be saturable in vivo, since increasing FV inoculum doses resulted in decreased Apobec3 inhibition. By analogy, maximizing the release of noninfectious particles by modulating APOBEC3 expression may improve humoral immunity against pathogenic human retroviral infections

Remote sensing applications to resource problems in South Dakota

Cooperative projects between RSI and numerous South Dakota agencies have provided a means of incorporating remote sensing techniques into operational programs. Eight projects discussed in detail are: (1) detection of high moisture zones near interstate 90; (2) thermal infrared census of Canada geese in South Dakota; (3) dutch elm disease detection in urban environment; (4) a feasibility study for monitoring effective precipitation in South Dakota using TIROS-N; (5) open and abandoned dump sites in Spink county; (6) the influence of soil reflectance on LANDSAT signatures of crops; (7) A model implementation program for Lake Herman watershed; and (8) the Six-Mile Creek investigation follow-on

Move of a large but delicate apparatus on a trailer with air-ride suspension

When valuable delicate goods are shipped by truck, attention must be paid to vibrations that may cause damage. We present a case study of moving an extremely delicate 6230-kg superconducting magnet, immersed in liquid nitrogen, from Livermore, CA to Seattle, WA showing the steps of fatigue analysis of the load, a test move, and acceleration monitoring of the final move to ensure a successful damage-free transport

Detecting level crossings without looking at the spectrum

In many physical systems it is important to be aware of the crossings and avoided crossings which occur when eigenvalues of a physical observable are varied using an external parameter. We have discovered a powerful algebraic method of finding such crossings via a mapping to the problem of locating the roots of a polynomial in that parameter. We demonstrate our method on atoms and molecules in a magnetic field, where it has implications in the search for Feshbach resonances. In the atomic case our method allows us to point out a new class of invariants of the Breit-Rabi Hamiltonian of magnetic resonance. In the case of molecules, it enables us to find curve crossings with practically no knowledge of the corresponding Born-Oppenheimer potentials.Comment: 4 pages, new title, no figures, accepted by Phys. Rev. Let

A qualitative exploration of the effect of visual field loss on daily life in home-dwelling stroke survivors

Objective: To explore the effect of visual field loss on the daily life of community-dwelling stroke survivors. Design: A qualitative interview study. Participants: Adult stroke survivors with visual field loss of at least six months’ duration. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a non-purposive sample of 12 stroke survivors in their own homes. These were recorded, transcribed verbatim and analyzed with the framework method, using an inductive approach. Results: Two key analytical themes emerged. ‘Perception, experience and knowledge’ describes participant’s conflicted experience of having knowledge of their impaired vision but lacking perception of that visual field loss and operating under the assumption that they were viewing an intact visual scene when engaged in activities. Inability to recognize and deal with visual difficulties, and experiencing the consequences, contributed to their fear and loss of self-confidence. ‘Avoidance and adaptation’ were two typologies of participant response to visual field loss. Initially, all participants consciously avoided activities. Some later adapted to vision loss using self-directed head and eye scanning techniques. Conclusions: Visual field loss has a marked impact on stroke survivors. Stroke survivors lack perception of their visual loss in everyday life, resulting in fear and loss of confidence. Activity avoidance is a common response, but in some, it is replaced by self-initiated adaptive techniques