Nitrogen and phosphorus fluxes in three soils fertigated with decentralised wastewater treatment effluent to field capacity

The Decentralised Wastewater Treatment System (DEWATS) provides low cost onsite sanitation to residents living in informal settlements. Wastewater management through agriculture prevents environmental pollution and promotes sustainable agriculture. This study investigated the effects of fertigation with DEWATS effluent to field capacity in three South African soils under a banana crop. The experiment was conducted as a complete randomised design in a greenhouse with two irrigation water treatments (DEWATS effluent vs municipal tap water irrigation þ fertiliser) × three soil types (Ia, Cf and Se) and four replicates over 728 days. Data were collected on crop growth, nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) uptake and dynamics in the soil. The DEWATS effluent significantly (p<0.05) increased N and P uptake and soil NHþ4 -N and extractable P concentrations. Furthermore, DEWATS effluent fertigation significantly (p <0.05) increased N leaching from the Ia soil and P leaching from the Cf soil. Nitrogen and phosphorus leaching from DEWATS was lower than the tap water irrigation þ fertiliser treatment. There was, however, excess N and P accumulation from the DEWATS than the irrigation þ fertiliser treatment, which would cause environmental concerns from runoff and leaching losses in the medium to long term.The Water Research Commission, South Africahttp://jwrd.iwaponline.comam2020Plant Production and Soil Scienc

PRASEJARAH AUSTRONESIA DI NUSA TENGGARA TIMUR: SEBUAH PANDANGAN AWAL

Abstrak. Tulisan ini menguraikan gambaran awal tentang kehidupan Penutur Austronesia dan karakter budaya neolitiknya di wilayah Nusa Tenggara Timur, berdasarkan penemuan-penemuan data baru yang dilengkapi dengan hasil-hasil penelitian terdahulu. Setidaknya di sekitar 3.000 – 2.000 BP berbagai pulau di wilayah ini sudah dihuni Penutur Austronesia. Mereka menghuni wilayah pantai dengan mata pencarian berburu dan meramu dengan penekanan pada pemanfaatan biota laut; mempraktekkan penguburan tempayan dan tanpa wadah; menggunakan peralatan beliung persegi dan peralatan litik lainnya; membuat alat-alat perhiasan (dari cangkang kerang, koral, dan biji-bijian); dan membuat kain dari kulit kayu. Kemiripan bentuk, pola serta variasi tinggalan arkeologis dari situs-situs neolitik di wilayah ini memperlihatkan komunitas antar-pulau telah terlibat kontak dan interaksi yang intensif di kala itu. Abstract. Prehistoric Austronesian in East Nusa Tenggara Timur: a preliminary view. This article discusses a preliminary insight on the presence of the Austronesian Speakers and its neolithic culture in East Nusa Tenggara, based on our new discoveries completed with results from previous studies.At least around 3,000 – 2,000 BP most of islands in this region have been inhabited by Austronesian speaking people. They inhabited coastal areas; practicing hunting and gathering with an emphasison the exploitation of marine resources; practicing burial with and without jar; using polished stone adzes and other lithic tools; manufacturing body ornaments made from shells, coral, and seeds;and making cloth from barks. The similarity observed among the shapes, patterns and variations on archaeological remains from neolithic sites in this area reveal an intensive inter-island contacts and interactions between coastal communities during that period

Association of visit-to-visit variability in blood pressure with cognitive function in old age: prospective cohort study

&lt;p&gt;Objective To investigate the association between visit-to-visit variability in blood pressure and cognitive function in old age (&#62;70 years).&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Design Prospective cohort study.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;etting PROSPER (PROspective Study of Pravastatin in the Elderly at Risk) study, a collaboration between centres in Ireland, Scotland, and the Netherlands.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Participants 5461 participants, mean age 75.3 years, who were at risk of cardiovascular disease. Blood pressure was measured every three months during an average of 3.2 years. Visit-to-visit variability in blood pressure was defined as the standard deviation of blood pressure measurements between visits.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Main outcome measures Four domains of cognitive function, testing selective attention, processing speed, and immediate and delayed memory. In a magnetic resonance imaging substudy of 553 participants, structural brain volumes, cerebral microbleeds, infarcts, and white matter hyperintensities were measured.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Results Participants with higher visit-to-visit variability in systolic blood pressure had worse performance on all cognitive tests: attention (mean difference high versus low thirds) 3.08 seconds (95% confidence interval 0.85 to 5.31), processing speed −1.16 digits coded (95% confidence interval −1.69 to −0.63), immediate memory −0.27 pictures remembered (95% confidence interval −0.41 to −0.13), and delayed memory −0.30 pictures remembered (95% confidence interval −0.49 to −0.11). Furthermore, higher variability in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure was associated with lower hippocampal volume and cortical infarcts, and higher variability in diastolic blood pressure was associated with cerebral microbleeds (all P&#60;0.05). All associations were adjusted for average blood pressure and cardiovascular risk factors.&lt;/p&gt; Conclusion Higher visit-to-visit variability in blood pressure independent of average blood pressure was associated with impaired cognitive function in old age

Higher Order Evaluation of the Critical Temperature for Interacting Homogeneous Dilute Bose Gases

We use the nonperturbative linear \delta expansion method to evaluate analytically the coefficients c_1 and c_2^{\prime \prime} which appear in the expansion for the transition temperature for a dilute, homogeneous, three dimensional Bose gas given by T_c= T_0 \{1 + c_1 a n^{1/3} + [ c_2^{\prime} \ln(a n^{1/3}) +c_2^{\prime \prime} ] a^2 n^{2/3} + {\cal O} (a^3 n)\}, where T_0 is the result for an ideal gas, a is the s-wave scattering length and n is the number density. In a previous work the same method has been used to evaluate c_1 to order-\delta^2 with the result c_1= 3.06. Here, we push the calculation to the next two orders obtaining c_1=2.45 at order-\delta^3 and c_1=1.48 at order-\delta^4. Analysing the topology of the graphs involved we discuss how our results relate to other nonperturbative analytical methods such as the self-consistent resummation and the 1/N approximations. At the same orders we obtain c_2^{\prime\prime}=101.4, c_2^{\prime \prime}=98.2 and c_2^{\prime \prime}=82.9. Our analytical results seem to support the recent Monte Carlo estimates c_1=1.32 \pm 0.02 and c_2^{\prime \prime}= 75.7 \pm 0.4.Comment: 29 pages, 3 eps figures. Minor changes, one reference added. Version in press Physical Review A (2002

Faster visual reaction times in elite athletes are not linked to better gaze stability

YesThe issue of whether visually-mediated, simple reaction time (VRT) is faster in elite athletes is contentious. Here, we examined if and how VRT is afected by gaze stability in groups of international cricketers (16 females, 28 males), professional rugby-league players (21 males), and non-sporting controls (20 females, 30 males). VRT was recorded via a button-press response to the sudden appearance of a stimulus (circular target—diameter 0.8°), that was presented centrally, or 7.5° to the left or right of fxation. The incidence and timing of saccades and blinks occurring from 450 ms before stimulus onset to 225 ms after onset were measured to quantify gaze stability. Our results show that (1) cricketers have faster VRT than controls; (2) blinks and, in particular, saccades are associated with slower VRT regardless of the level of sporting ability; (3) elite female cricketers had steadier gaze (fewer saccades and blinks) compared to female controls; (4) when we accounted for the presence of blinks and saccades, our group comparisons of VRT were virtually unchanged. The stability of gaze is not a factor that explains the difference between elite and control groups in VRT. Thus we conclude that better gaze stability cannot explain faster VRT in elite sports players.Biotechnology and Biological Science Research Council (BBSRC, grant references: BB/J018163/1, BB/J016365/1 and BB/J018872/1

Asymptotically Improved Convergence of Optimized Perturbation Theory in the Bose-Einstein Condensation Problem

We investigate the convergence properties of optimized perturbation theory, or linear $\delta$ expansion (LDE), within the context of finite temperature phase transitions. Our results prove the reliability of these methods, recently employed in the determination of the critical temperature T_c for a system of weakly interacting homogeneous dilute Bose gas. We carry out the explicit LDE optimized calculations and also the infrared analysis of the relevant quantities involved in the determination of $T_c$ in the large-N limit, when the relevant effective static action describing the system is extended to O(N) symmetry. Then, using an efficient resummation method, we show how the LDE can exactly reproduce the known large-N result for $T_c$ already at the first non-trivial order. Next, we consider the finite N=2 case where, using similar resummation techniques, we improve the analytical results for the nonperturbative terms involved in the expression for the critical temperature allowing comparison with recent Monte Carlo estimates of them. To illustrate the method we have considered a simple geometric series showing how the procedure as a whole works consistently in a general case.Comment: 38 pages, 3 eps figures, Revtex4. Final version in press Phys. Rev.

Delivery of antimicrobial stewardship competencies in UK pre-registration nurse education programmes: a national cross-sectional survey

Background: Registered nurses perform numerous functions critical to the success of antimicrobial stewardship but only 63% of pre-registration nursing programmes include any teaching about stewardship. Updated nursing standards highlight nurses require antimicrobial stewardship knowledge and skills. Aim: To explore the delivery of key antimicrobial stewardship competencies within updated pre-registration nursing programmes. Method: A cross-sectional survey design. Data was collected between March and June 2021. Findings: Lecturers from 35 universities responsible for teaching antimicrobial stewardship participated. The provision of antimicrobial stewardship teaching and learning was inconsistent across programmes with competencies in infection prevention and control, patient centred care, and interprofessional collaborative practice taking precedent over those pertaining to the use, management, and monitoring of antimicrobials. On-line learning and teaching surrounding hand hygiene, personal protective equipment, and immunisation theory was reported to have increased during the pandemic. Only a small number of respondents reported that students shared taught learning with other healthcare professional groups. Conclusion: There is a need to ensure consistency in antimicrobial stewardship across programmes, and greater knowledge pertaining to the use, management and monitoring of antimicrobials should be included. Programmes need to adopt teaching strategies and methods that allow nurses to develop interprofessional skill in order to practice collaboratively

Search for displaced vertices arising from decays of new heavy particles in 7 TeV pp collisions at ATLAS

We present the results of a search for new, heavy particles that decay at a significant distance from their production point into a final state containing charged hadrons in association with a high-momentum muon. The search is conducted in a pp-collision data sample with a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV and an integrated luminosity of 33 pb^-1 collected in 2010 by the ATLAS detector operating at the Large Hadron Collider. Production of such particles is expected in various scenarios of physics beyond the standard model. We observe no signal and place limits on the production cross-section of supersymmetric particles in an R-parity-violating scenario as a function of the neutralino lifetime. Limits are presented for different squark and neutralino masses, enabling extension of the limits to a variety of other models.Comment: 8 pages plus author list (20 pages total), 8 figures, 1 table, final version to appear in Physics Letters

Measurement of the polarisation of W bosons produced with large transverse momentum in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS experiment

This paper describes an analysis of the angular distribution of W->enu and W->munu decays, using data from pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2010, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 35 pb^-1. Using the decay lepton transverse momentum and the missing transverse energy, the W decay angular distribution projected onto the transverse plane is obtained and analysed in terms of helicity fractions f0, fL and fR over two ranges of W transverse momentum (ptw): 35 < ptw < 50 GeV and ptw > 50 GeV. Good agreement is found with theoretical predictions. For ptw > 50 GeV, the values of f0 and fL-fR, averaged over charge and lepton flavour, are measured to be : f0 = 0.127 +/- 0.030 +/- 0.108 and fL-fR = 0.252 +/- 0.017 +/- 0.030, where the first uncertainties are statistical, and the second include all systematic effects.Comment: 19 pages plus author list (34 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables, revised author list, matches European Journal of Physics C versio