Relationships between motion on isentropic surfaces from 3-H rawinsonde data and radar echoes

Vertical motion in insentropic surfaces obtained at 3-h intervals conducted on 11 and 12 May, 1974 is related to convection indicated by radar echoes. Temporal and spatial changes in vertical motion are shown and demonstrated to be associated with areas of convection. Large vertical motion was calculated, and it is shown that vertical motion changes as much as 20 cm s (-1) in a horizontal distance of 300 km. The rate of change of vertical motion is demonstrated to be as large a 8 cm s (-1)h(-1) from data taken at 3-h intervals, while data taken at 12-h intervals the same day displayed a maximum rate of change of 2 cm s(-1)n(-1). Radar observations confirmed that the intensity of convection varies as a result of the atmospheric variability as detected by 3-h data but is invisible in data taken at 12-h intervals

Clean-Up after Territorial Oil Spills in the Arctic

… The nature of a spill will depend on the local weather conditions, including the presence or absence of snow, the absorptive capacity of the ground (which is influenced by the prevailing groundwater level), and local topography. … In clean-up operations after oil spills, the first requirement is to contain the spill in as small an area as possible, and to prevent it from reaching water courses and thus contaminating their environments. Devices and techniques can then be employed to remove oil from the contaminated region and convey it to temporary storage. Thirdly, the area can be treated to remove residual oil and promote its early restoration through the use of chemical and biological techniques. … In temperate regions, terrestrial spills are most readily contained by artificial dykes or dams constructed by means of earth-moving equipment, and it is also possible to dig trenches and ditches into which oil will flow and be retained. In areas of permafrost, however, suitable damming material may not be readily available, or may be obtained only if considerable areas of permafrost are exposed - that is, at the cost of additional environmental damage. The use of heavy vehicles, even if they are available, will compact the insulating active layer of permafrost and thereby cause eventual melting of the permafrost. Containment should involve a minimum of disturbance of the area, with no removal or compaction of the active layer and exposure of permafrost. A method of containment which may be feasible is to use damming material that can be quickly transported to the site and installed without the aid of machinery. For example, corrugated metal sheeting in sections about three feet high by ten feet long (1 m x 3 m approximately), with vertical corrugations, could be driven through the active layer down to the water table or frost level or thawed clay soil, all of which provide a basement to vertical oil penetration, and retained in position by T-bar stakes driven into the ground. … The presence of permafrost ironically brings the substantial benefit of there being little of the infiltration of oil into porous soils, with subsequent ground-water contamination, which constitutes such a severe problem in temperate regions; that is, clean-up operations can be facilitated by the presence of permafrost. Another approach to containment, which was tested briefly during the summer of 1974 on wet tundra on Richards Island in the Mackenzie Delta, is to cut a trench, 30 cm wide, to permafrost level across the path of the flowing oil. The trench successfully intercepts the flow of oil, both on and below the surface, and drains it to a low-level point from where it can be pumped to storage or for disposal. … A dam or trench of the type just described, which would necessarily have to be located on the downslope side of the area of spillage, would interfere with natural drainage, and so it would be necessary to control drainage from the area while oil and water were being separated. The present authors suggest that this control could be effected by the installation of an API (American Petroleum Institute) type of oil-water separator which can be constructed easily from prefabricated metal sheeting, usually about 5 feet deep by 10 feet wide by 30 feet long (1.5 m x 3 m x 9 m approximately). … Another possibility would be the use of a compact plate-type oil-water separator. … A significant further advantage of the general technique just explained is the possibility of controlling, and even accelerating, the flow from the area of spillage. … Small-scale laboratory tests have demonstrated that significant proportions of the absorbed oil can be floated out of detritus by gravity alone and without agitation. It is likely that, due to its slow rate of evaporation, the sub-surface oil would maintain a viscosity sufficiently low for it to be floated out by water. It is generally recognized, also, that the toxic constituents of oil are the most volatile and water-soluble. Thus, it is likely that the oil would exhibit toxicity only during the first few months after spillage, and then be permanently absorbed in the vegetation and soil and become immobilized. … As a final stage of restoration of an affected area, it may prove beneficial to fertilize it and promote the growth of oil-degrading microorganisms. Since the albedo of the area will be reduced, and so there will be greater absorption of radiation and increased depth of active layer, it may be desirable to increase the albedo artificially be sprinkling the area with reflective materials. In conclusion, the present authors contend that new techniques must be developed for the clean-up of terrestrial spills in the Arctic, since methods used in temperate regions are inappropriate. &hellip

The Behaviour of Crude Oil Spilled on Snow

Field and laboratory studies of the behavior of isothermal and hot oil spills on snow are described. Alberta crude oil spilled at 0° C is readily absorbed by snow and contaminates an area of about 0.01 square metres per litre. A hot oil spill melts a channel in the snow and flows along the ground under the snow contaminating an area of about 0.024 square metres per litre. There may be considerable spreading of the oil during thaw. The flow regimes by which oil permeates into snow and the clean-up implications are discussed

Sexual Orientation, Sexual Arousal, and Finger Length Ratios in Women

In general, women show physiological sexual arousal to both sexes. However, compared with heterosexual women, homosexual women are more aroused to their preferred sex, a pattern typically found in men. We hypothesized that homosexual women’s male-typical arousal is due to their sex-atypical masculinization during prenatal development. We measured the sexual responses of 199 women (including 67 homosexual women) via their genital arousal and pupil dilation to female and male sexual stimuli. Our main marker of masculinization was the ratio of the index to ring finger, which we expected to be lower (a masculine pattern) in homosexual women due to increased levels of prenatal androgens. We further measured observer- and self-ratings of psychological masculinity–femininity as possible proxies of prenatal androgenization. Homosexual women responded more strongly to female stimuli than male stimuli and therefore had more male-typical sexual responses than heterosexual women. However, they did not have more male-typical digit ratios, even though this difference became stronger if analyses were restricted to white participants. Still, variation in women's digit ratios did not account for the link between their sexual orientation and their male-typical sexual responses. Furthermore, homosexual women reported and displayed more masculinity than heterosexual women, but their masculinity was not associated with their male-typical sexual arousal. Thus, women’s sexual and behavioral traits, and potential anatomical traits, are possibly masculinized at different stages of gestation

Patterns of Genital Sexual Arousal in Transgender Men

Most men show genital sexual arousal to one preferred gender. Most women show genital arousal to both genders, regardless of their sexual preferences. There is limited knowledge of whether this difference is driven by biological sex or gender identity. Transgender individuals, whose birth sex and gender identity are incongruent, provide a unique opportunity to address this question. We tested whether the genital responses of 25 (female-to-male) transgender men followed their female birth sex or male gender identity. Depending on their surgical status, arousal was assessed with penile gauges or vaginal plethysmographs. Transgender men’s sexual arousal showed both male-typical and female-typical patterns. Across measures, they responded more strongly to their preferred gender than to the other gender, similar to (but not entirely like) 145 cisgender (nontransgender) men. However, they still responded to both genders, similar to 178 cisgender women. In birth-assigned women, both gender identity and biological sex may influence sexual-arousal patterns

Insect vectors of Pierce's disease in Oklahoma vineyards

The Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service periodically issues revisions to its publications. The most current edition is made available. For access to an earlier edition, if available for this title, please contact the Oklahoma State University Library Archives by email at [email protected] or by phone at 405-744-6311

ArrayInitiative - a tool that simplifies creating custom Affymetrix CDFs

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Probes on a microarray represent a frozen view of a genome and are quickly outdated when new sequencing studies extend our knowledge, resulting in significant measurement error when analyzing any microarray experiment. There are several bioinformatics approaches to improve probe assignments, but without in-house programming expertise, standardizing these custom array specifications as a usable file (e.g. as Affymetrix CDFs) is difficult, owing mostly to the complexity of the specification file format. However, without correctly standardized files there is a significant barrier for testing competing analysis approaches since this file is one of the required inputs for many commonly used algorithms. The need to test combinations of probe assignments and analysis algorithms led us to develop ArrayInitiative, a tool for creating and managing custom array specifications.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>ArrayInitiative is a standalone, cross-platform, rich client desktop application for creating correctly formatted, custom versions of manufacturer-provided (default) array specifications, requiring only minimal knowledge of the array specification rules and file formats. Users can import default array specifications, import probe sequences for a default array specification, design and import a custom array specification, export any array specification to multiple output formats, export the probe sequences for any array specification and browse high-level information about the microarray, such as version and number of probes. The initial release of ArrayInitiative supports the Affymetrix 3' IVT expression arrays we currently analyze, but as an open source application, we hope that others will contribute modules for other platforms.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>ArrayInitiative allows researchers to create new array specifications, in a standard format, based upon their own requirements. This makes it easier to test competing design and analysis strategies that depend on probe definitions. Since the custom array specifications are easily exported to the manufacturer's standard format, researchers can analyze these customized microarray experiments using established software tools, such as those available in Bioconductor.</p

BBGD: an online database for blueberry genomic data

BACKGROUND: Blueberry is a member of the Ericaceae family, which also includes closely related cranberry and more distantly related rhododendron, azalea, and mountain laurel. Blueberry is a major berry crop in the United States, and one that has great nutritional and economical value. Extreme low temperatures, however, reduce crop yield and cause major losses to US farmers. A better understanding of the genes and biochemical pathways that are up- or down-regulated during cold acclimation is needed to produce blueberry cultivars with enhanced cold hardiness. To that end, the blueberry genomics database (BBDG) was developed. Along with the analysis tools and web-based query interfaces, the database serves both the broader Ericaceae research community and the blueberry research community specifically by making available ESTs and gene expression data in searchable formats and in elucidating the underlying mechanisms of cold acclimation and freeze tolerance in blueberry. DESCRIPTION: BBGD is the world's first database for blueberry genomics. BBGD is both a sequence and gene expression database. It stores both EST and microarray data and allows scientists to correlate expression profiles with gene function. BBGD is a public online database. Presently, the main focus of the database is the identification of genes in blueberry that are significantly induced or suppressed after low temperature exposure. CONCLUSION: By using the database, researchers have developed EST-based markers for mapping and have identified a number of "candidate" cold tolerance genes that are highly expressed in blueberry flower buds after exposure to low temperatures

Hydrolases in GtoPdb v.2023.1

Listed in this section are hydrolases not accumulated in other parts of the Concise Guide, such as monoacylglycerol lipase and acetylcholinesterase. Pancreatic lipase is the predominant mechanism of fat digestion in the alimentary system; its inhibition is associated with decreased fat absorption. CES1 is present at lower levels in the gut than CES2 (P23141), but predominates in the liver, where it is responsible for the hydrolysis of many aliphatic, aromatic and steroid esters. Hormone-sensitive lipase is also a relatively non-selective esterase associated with steroid ester hydrolysis and triglyceride metabolism, particularly in adipose tissue. Endothelial lipase is secreted from endothelial cells and regulates circulating cholesterol in high density lipoproteins

Hydrolases (version 2019.4) in the IUPHAR/BPS Guide to Pharmacology Database

Listed in this section are hydrolases not accumulated in other parts of the Concise Guide, such as monoacylglycerol lipase and acetylcholinesterase. Pancreatic lipase is the predominant mechanism of fat digestion in the alimentary system; its inhibition is associated with decreased fat absorption. CES1 is present at lower levels in the gut than CES2 (P23141), but predominates in the liver, where it is responsible for the hydrolysis of many aliphatic, aromatic and steroid esters. Hormone-sensitive lipase is also a relatively non-selective esterase associated with steroid ester hydrolysis and triglyceride metabolism, particularly in adipose tissue. Endothelial lipase is secreted from endothelial cells and regulates circulating cholesterol in high density lipoproteins