Mineral concentrations in soil extracts, forages, and blood sera of cattle grazing on reclaimed uranium-mined land in southeastern Wyoming

The Pathfinder Uranium Mine which is located in southeastern Wyoming, was actively mined during the 1960's-1980's. Reclamation involved returning the spoil/overburden and replacing the salvaged topsoil. The area was revegetated in 1974-1977, but was not grazed until 1980-85. A grazing experiment was then conducted to determine solubility of mineral elements in soil, uptake by plants and absorption by grazing animals. Blood sera were collected at 28-30 day intervals during the three grazing/growing seasons in 1980-1982. Blood sera samples were frozen and later analyzed by ICP. When compared to published data, plants on the reclaimed site contained lower concentrations of Ca, Mg, Mn, P, and Zn; but higher concentrations of Cd, Cr and Ni than plants on adjacent undisturbed sites. When compared to expected blood sera data, animals grazing on the reclaimed site had lower concentrations of B. Ca, Cu, Mg, and Na; but higher concentrations of Cr and Fe than would be expected for most grazing animals. Livestock producers are advised to provide supplements of Ca, Mg, Mn, P, and Zn to minimize deficiency of these elements in livestock nutrition when grazing these reclaimed lands

Semigroup Closures of Finite Rank Symmetric Inverse Semigroups

We introduce the notion of semigroup with a tight ideal series and investigate their closures in semitopological semigroups, particularly inverse semigroups with continuous inversion. As a corollary we show that the symmetric inverse semigroup of finite transformations $\mathscr{I}_\lambda^n$ of the rank $\leqslant n$ is algebraically closed in the class of (semi)topological inverse semigroups with continuous inversion. We also derive related results about the nonexistence of (partial) compactifications of classes of semigroups that we consider.Comment: With the participation of the new coauthor - Jimmie Lawson - the manuscript has been substantially revised and expanded. Accordingly, we have also changed the manuscript titl

The importance of comprehensive parameter sampling and multiple observations for robust constraint of aerosol radiative forcing

© 2018 Author(s). Observational constraint of simulated aerosol and cloud properties is an essential part of building trustworthy climate models for calculating aerosol radiative forcing. Models are usually tuned to achieve good agreement with observations, but tuning produces just one of many potential variants of a model, so the model uncertainty cannot be determined. Here we estimate the uncertainty in aerosol effective radiative forcing (ERF) in a tuned climate model by constraining 4 million variants of the HadGEM3-UKCA aerosol-climate model to match nine common observations (top-of-atmosphere shortwave flux, aerosol optical depth, PM2.5, cloud condensation nuclei at 0.2% supersaturation (CCN0.2), and concentrations of sulfate, black carbon and organic carbon, as well as decadal trends in aerosol optical depth and surface shortwave radiation.) The model uncertainty is calculated by using a perturbed parameter ensemble that samples 27 uncertainties in both the aerosol model and the physical climate model, and we use synthetic observations generated from the model itself to determine the potential of each observational type to constrain this uncertainty. Focusing over Europe in July, we show that the aerosol ERF uncertainty can be reduced by about 30% by constraining it to the nine observations, demonstrating that producing climate models with an observationally plausible base state can contribute to narrowing the uncertainty in aerosol ERF. However, the uncertainty in the aerosol ERF after observational constraint is large compared to the typical spread of a multi-model ensemble. Our results therefore raise questions about whether the underlying multi-model uncertainty would be larger if similar approaches as adopted here were applied more widely. The approach presented in this study could be used to identify the most effective observations for model constraint. It is hoped that aerosol ERF uncertainty can be further reduced by introducing process-related constraints; however, any such results will be robust only if the enormous number of potential model variants is explored

Localization by disorder in the infrared conductivity of (Y,Pr)Ba2Cu3O7 films

The ab-plane reflectivity of (Y{1-x}Prx)Ba2Cu3O7 thin films was measured in the 30-30000 cm-1 range for samples with x = 0 (Tc = 90 K), x = 0.4 (Tc = 35 K) and x = 0.5 (Tc = 19 K) as a function of temperature in the normal state. The effective charge density obtained from the integrated spectral weight decreases with increasing x. The variation is consistent with the higher dc resistivity for x = 0.4, but is one order of magnitude smaller than what would be expected for x = 0.5. In the latter sample, the conductivity is dominated at all temperatures by a large localization peak. Its magnitude increases as the temperature decreases. We relate this peak to the dc resistivity enhancement. A simple localization-by-disorder model accounts for the optical conductivity of the x = 0.5 sample.Comment: 7 pages with (4) figures include

Probabilistic models to evaluate effectiveness of steel bridge weld fatigue retrofitting by peening

The purpose of this study was to evaluate, with two probabilistic analytical models, the effectiveness of several alternative fatigue management strategies for steel bridge welds. The investigated strategies employed, in various combinations, magnetic particle inspection, gouging and rewelding, and postweld treatment by peening. The analytical models included a probabilistic strain-based fracture mechanics model and a Markov chain model. For comparing the results obtained with the two models, the fatigue life was divided into a small, fixed number of condition states based on crack depth, similar to those often used by bridge management systems to model deterioration due to other processes, such as corrosion and road surface wear. The probabilistic strain-based fracture mechanics model was verified first by comparison with design S-N curves and test data for untreated welds. Next, the verified model was used to determine the probability that untreated and treated welds would be in each condition state in a given year; the probabilities were then used to calibrate transition probabilities for a much simpler Markov chain fatigue model. Then both models were used to simulate a number of fatigue management strategies. From the results of these simulations, the performance of the different strategies was compared, and the accuracy of the simpler Markov chain fatigue model was evaluated. In general, peening was more effective if preceded by inspection of the weld. The Markov chain fatigue model did a reasonable job of predicting the general trends and relative effectiveness of the different investigated strategies

Treatment-limiting renal tubulopathy in patients treated with tenofovir disoproxil fumarate.

OBJECTIVES: Tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) is widely used in the treatment or prevention of HIV and hepatitis B infection. TDF may cause renal tubulopathy in a small proportion of recipients. We aimed to study the risk factors for developing severe renal tubulopathy. METHODS: We conducted an observational cohort study with retrospective identification of cases of treatment-limiting tubulopathy during TDF exposure. We used multivariate Poisson regression analysis to identify risk factors for tubulopathy, and mixed effects models to analyse adjusted estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) slopes. RESULTS: Between October 2002 and June 2013, 60 (0.4%) of 15,983 patients who had received TDF developed tubulopathy after a median exposure of 44.1 (IQR 20.4, 64.4) months. Tubulopathy cases were predominantly male (92%), of white ethnicity (93%), and exposed to antiretroviral regimens that contained boosted protease inhibitors (PI, 90%). In multivariate analysis, age, ethnicity, CD4 cell count and use of didanosine or PI were significantly associated with tubulopathy. Tubulopathy cases experienced significantly greater eGFR decline while receiving TDF than the comparator group (-6.60 [-7.70, -5.50] vs. -0.34 [-0.43, -0.26] mL/min/1.73 m2/year, p < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: Older age, white ethnicity, immunodeficiency and co-administration of ddI and PI were risk factors for tubulopathy in patients who received TDF-containing antiretroviral therapy. The presence of rapid eGFR decline identified TDF recipients at increased risk of tubulopathy

Search for composite and exotic fermions at LEP 2

A search for unstable heavy fermions with the DELPHI detector at LEP is reported. Sequential and non-canonical leptons, as well as excited leptons and quarks, are considered. The data analysed correspond to an integrated luminosity of about 48 pb^{-1} at an e^+e^- centre-of-mass energy of 183 GeV and about 20 pb^{-1} equally shared between the centre-of-mass energies of 172 GeV and 161 GeV. The search for pair-produced new leptons establishes 95% confidence level mass limits in the region between 70 GeV/c^2 and 90 GeV/c^2, depending on the channel. The search for singly produced excited leptons and quarks establishes upper limits on the ratio of the coupling of the excited fermio

Search for charginos in e+e- interactions at sqrt(s) = 189 GeV

An update of the searches for charginos and gravitinos is presented, based on a data sample corresponding to the 158 pb^{-1} recorded by the DELPHI detector in 1998, at a centre-of-mass energy of 189 GeV. No evidence for a signal was found. The lower mass limits are 4-5 GeV/c^2 higher than those obtained at a centre-of-mass energy of 183 GeV. The (\mu,M_2) MSSM domain excluded by combining the chargino searches with neutralino searches at the Z resonance implies a limit on the mass of the lightest neutralino which, for a heavy sneutrino, is constrained to be above 31.0 GeV/c^2 for tan(beta) \geq 1.Comment: 22 pages, 8 figure

Search for lightest neutralino and stau pair production in light gravitino scenarios with stau NLSP

Promptly decaying lightest neutralinos and long-lived staus are searched for in the context of light gravitino scenarios. It is assumed that the stau is the next to lightest supersymmetric particle (NLSP) and that the lightest neutralino is the next to NLSP (NNLSP). Data collected with the Delphi detector at centre-of-mass energies from 161 to 183 \GeV are analysed. No evidence of the production of these particles is found. Hence, lower mass limits for both kinds of particles are set at 95% C.L.. The mass of gaugino-like neutralinos is found to be greater than 71.5 GeV/c^2. In the search for long-lived stau, masses less than 70.0 to 77.5 \GeVcc are excluded for gravitino masses from 10 to 150 \eVcc . Combining this search with the searches for stable heavy leptons and Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model staus a lower limit of 68.5 \GeVcc may be set for the stau mas