Late Planting and Replanting Corn—June 2013 (Part 2)

Fifteen percent of Iowa’s 2013 corn crop remains unplanted as we write the last week of May. After early concerns about drought continuing to plague us, wet conditions have taken the spotlight. To add insult to injury, more rainfall forecast may refill field ‘ponds’ and re-submerge corn in flood plains of our rivers and streams

Regional Corn Re-plant Recommendations for Iowa

Each year in areas where corn (Zea mays L.) is grown, biotic and abiotic (living and nonliving) factors can prevent timely planting or reduce stands so severely that yield potential may be reduced to unsatisfactory levels. Once these threats are realized, producers must make quick and accurate decisions. Careful evaluation of the current situation in terms of projected yields and profitability is crucial. If projected profitability is not acceptable, replant options should be considered

High-fidelity real-time simulation on deployed platforms

We present a certified reduced basis method for high-fidelity real-time solution of parametrized partial differential equations on deployed platforms. Applications include in situ parameter estimation, adaptive design and control, interactive synthesis and visualization, and individuated product specification. We emphasize a new hierarchical architecture particularly well suited to the reduced basis computational paradigm: the expensive Offline stage is conducted pre-deployment on a parallel supercomputer (in our examples, the TeraGrid machine Ranger); the inexpensive Online stage is conducted “in the field” on ubiquitous thin/inexpensive platforms such as laptops, tablets, smartphones (in our examples, the Nexus One Android-based phone), or embedded chips. We illustrate our approach with three examples: a two-dimensional Helmholtz acoustics “horn” problem; a three-dimensional transient heat conduction “Swiss Cheese” problem; and a three-dimensional unsteady incompressible Navier–Stokes low-Reynolds-number “eddy-promoter” problem.United States. Air Force Office of Scientific Research (Grant FA9550-07-1-0425)United States. Air Force Office of Scientific Research (OSD Grant FA9550-09-1-0613)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (University of Texas at Austin. Texas Advanced Computing Center Grant TG-ASC100016

Continuous k-to-1 functions between complete graphs of even order

A function between graphs is k-to-1 if each point in the co-domain has precisely k pre-images in the domain. Given two graphs, G and H, and an integer k ≥ 1, and considering G and H as subsets of R 3, there may or may not be a k-to-1 continuous function (i.e. a k-to-1 map in the usual topological sense) from G onto H. In this paper we review and complete the determination of whether there are finitely discontinuous, or just infinitely discontinuous k-to-1 functions between two intervals, each of which is one of the following: ]0, 1[, [0, 1[and [0, 1]. We also show that for k even and 1 ≤ r < 2s, (r, s) 6= (1, 1) and (r, s) 6= (3, 2), there is a k-to-1 map from K2r onto K2s if and only if k ≥ 2s.peer-reviewe

Regional Corn Planting Date Recommendations for Iowa

Corn is planted earlier every year and thisis one important component in maximizing grain yield. In 2009, 47% of the statewide corn crop was planted by approximately April 26. This was four days earlier than the previous 5-year average (USDA NASS, 2009). Earlier planting dates are attributed to several causes: larger acreage per producer, less spring tillage, advancements in hybrids, increased tile drainage, and improved seed treatments. The start of corn planting is generally related to the date when the soil temperature reaches 50°F (10°C) or greater

A comparison of system monitoring methods, passive network monitoring and kernel instrumentation

This paper presents the comparison of two methods of system monitoring, passive network monitoring and kernel instrumentation. The comparison is made on the basis of passive network monitoring being used as a replacement for kernel instrumentation in some situations. Despite the fact that the passive network monitoring technique is shown to perform poorly as a direct replacement for kernel instrumentation, this paper indicates the areas where passive network monitoring could be used to the greatest advantage and presents methods by which the discrepancies between results of the two techniques could be minimised

Feeling safe at work:Development and validation of the Psychological Safety Inventory

Psychological safety, defined as perceptions that an individual within a team is supported and feels safe to take interpersonal risks, voice opinions, and share ideas, is vital for organizational effectiveness. However, there is no consensus on how workplace psychological safety should be measured. We developed the Psychological Safety Inventory (PSI) in response to organizational needs to accurately assess psychological safety. A 70-item version of the PSI was administered to 497 employees from Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Based on factor analytic findings, we reduced the preliminary PSI to a 30-item, five-factor scale. The PSI showed high reliability and correlated as anticipated with convergent measures. Overall, the PSI is a valid and reliable measure of workplace psychological safety.</p

Spectrum of cardiac disease in maternity in a low-resource cohort in South Africa

Background: Lack of evidence-based data on the spectrum of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in pregnancy or in the postpartum period, as well as on maternal and fetal outcome, provides challenges for treating physicians, particularly in areas of low resources. The objectives of this study were to investigate the spectrum of disease, mode of presentation and maternal and fetal outcome of patients referred to a dedicated Cardiac Disease and Maternity Clinic (CDM). Methods: The prospective cohort study was conducted at a single tertiary care centre in South Africa. Two hundred and twenty-five women presenting with CVD in pregnancy, or within 6 months postpartum, were studied over a period of 2 years. Clinical assessment, echocardiography and laboratory tests were performed at baseline and follow-up visits. Prepartum, peripartum and postpartum complications were grouped into cardiac, neonatal and obstetric events. Results: Ethnicity was black African (45%), mixed ethnicity (32%), white (15%), Indian/others (8%) and 12% were HIV positive. Of the 225 consecutive women (mean age 28.8±6.4), 196 (86.7%) presented prepartum and 73 in modified WHO class I. The 152 women presenting in a higher risk group (modified WHO class II-IV) were offered close follow-up at the CDM clinic and were diagnosed with congenital heart disease (32%, 15 operated previously), valvular heart disease (26%, 15 operated previously), cardiomyopathy (27%) and other (15%). Women presenting with symptoms of CVD or heart failure postpartum (n=30) presented in a higher New York Heart Association, had higher heart rates (p42 days postpartum. Perinatal death occurred in 1/152 (0.7%) - translating to a perinatal mortality rate of 7/1000 live births. Conclusions: Disease patterns were markedly different to that seen in the developed world. However, joint obstetric-cardiac care in the low-resource cohort was associated with excellent survival outcome rates of pregnant mothers (even with complex diseases) and their offspring and was similar to that seen in the western world. Mortality typically occurred in the postpartum period, beyond the standard date of recording maternal death

Predicting microbial water quality with models: Over-arching questions for managing risk in agricultural catchments

The application of models to predict concentrations of faecal indicator organisms (FIOs) in environmental systems plays an important role for guiding decision-making associated with the management of microbial water quality. In recent years there has been an increasing demand by policy-makers for models to help inform FIO dynamics in order to prioritise efforts for environmental and human-health protection. However, given the limited evidence-base on which FIO models are built relative to other agricultural pollutants (e.g. nutrients) it is imperative that the end-user expectations of FIO models are appropriately managed. In response, this commentary highlights four over-arching questions associated with: (i) model purpose; (ii) modelling approach; (iii) data availability; and (iv) model application, that must be considered as part of good practice prior to the deployment of any modelling approach to predict FIO behaviour in catchment systems. A series of short and longer-term research priorities are proposed in response to these questions in order to promote better model deployment in the field of catchment microbial dynamics

Well-being of Canadian Veterans during the COVID-19 pandemic: cross-sectional results from the COVID-19 Veteran well-being study

Background: The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have disproportionally affected different population groups. Veterans are more likely to have pre-existing mental health conditions compared to the general Canadian population, experience compounded stressors resulting from disruptions to familial, social, and occupational domains, and were faced with changes in health-care delivery (e.g. telehealth). The objectives of this study are to assess (a) the mental health impact of COVID-19 and related life changes on the well-being of Veterans and (b) perceptions of and satisfaction with changes in health-care treatments and delivery during the pandemic. Methods: A total of 1136 Canadian Veterans participated in an online survey. Participants completed questions pertaining to their mental health and well-being, lifestyle changes, and concerns relating to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as experiences and satisfaction with health-care treatments during the pandemic. Results: Results showed that 55.9% of respondents reported worse mental health functioning compared to before the pandemic. The frequency of probable posttraumatic stress disorder, major depressive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, alcohol use disorder, and suicidal ideation were 34.2%, 35.3%, 26.8%, 13.0%, and 22.0%, respectively. Between 38.6% and 53.1% of respondents attributed their symptoms as either directly related to or exacerbated by the pandemic. Approximately 18% of respondents reported using telehealth for mental health services during the pandemic, and among those, 72.8% indicated a choice to use telehealth even after the pandemic. Conclusions: This study found that Veterans experienced worsening mental health as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The use of telehealth services was widely endorsed by mental health treatment-seeking Veterans who transitioned to virtual care during the pandemic. Our findings have important clinical and programmeadministrator implications, emphasizing the need to reach out to support veterans, especially those with pre-existing mental health conditions and to enhance and maintain virtual care even post-pandemic