Seedbed Effects on Grass Establishment on Abandoned Nebraska Sandhills Cropland

Perennial grass establishment on abandoned cropland in the Nebraska Sandhills difficult due to low soil fertility, organic matter, and water holding capacity and high potential erodibility. Establishment is further complicated by unpredictable precipitation and weed competition. Two warm-season grasses: sand bluestem [Andropogon gerardii var. paucipilus (Nash) Fern.] and switchgrass (Panicam virgatum L.); and 2 cool-season grasses: smooth brome (Bromus inermis Leyss.) and intermediate wheat-grass [Thinopyrum intermedium (Host) Barkw. & D.R. Dewey subsp. were evaluated with spring-seeded field trials. Seedbed preparation [untilled, disced, and dead oat (Avena sativa L.) cover (DOC)] effect on seeded grass and nonseeded species densities was evaluated in 1985 and 1986 at 2 locations on Valentine sands (Aquic Ustipsamment). In 1985 1 site was irrigated. Both sites were dryland in 1986. Stand failure (\u3c 5 seedlings/m2) occurred on the dryland rite in 1985 due to low, erratic precipitation. Stands evaluated in June 1986 on plots established with irrigation in 1985 had 38, 46, and 61 plants/m2 for the untilled, disced, and DOC seedbeds, respectively. The disced or DOC seedbeds were required for successful (\u3e plants/m2) dryland seedings in 1986 at both locations. Irrigation the establishment year minimized risk of stand failure and allowed the use of my seedbed preparation or grass species studied. Sand bluestem was the only species to establish both years. However, if a dryland seedling of a cool-season species is desired, intermediate wheatgrass appeared more adapted than smooth brome

IPD—the Immuno Polymorphism Database

The Immuno Polymorphism Database (IPD) (http://www.ebi.ac.uk/ipd/) is a set of specialist databases related to the study of polymorphic genes in the immune system. IPD currently consists of four databases: IPD-KIR, contains the allelic sequences of Killer-cell Immunoglobulin-like Receptors; IPD-MHC, a database of sequences of the Major Histocompatibility Complex of different species; IPD-HPA, alloantigens expressed only on platelets; and IPD-ESTAB, which provides access to the European Searchable Tumour Cell-Line Database, a cell bank of immunologically characterized melanoma cell lines. The IPD project works with specialist groups or nomenclature committees who provide and curate individual sections before they are submitted to IPD for online publication. The IPD project stores all the data in a set of related databases. Those sections with similar data, such as IPD-KIR and IPD-MHC share the same database structure. The sharing of a common database structure makes it easier to implement common tools for data submission and retrieval. The data are currently available online from the website and ftp directory; files will also be made available in different formats to download from the website and ftp server. The data will also be included in SRS, BLAST and FASTA search engines at the European Bioinformatics Institute

The impact of believing you have had COVID-19 on self-reported behaviour: Cross-sectional survey.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate whether people who think they have had COVID-19 are less likely to report engaging with lockdown measures compared with those who think they have not had COVID-19. DESIGN: On-line cross-sectional survey. SETTING: Data were collected between 20th and 22nd April 2020. PARTICIPANTS: 6149 participants living in the UK aged 18 years or over. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Perceived immunity to COVID-19, self-reported adherence to social distancing measures (going out for essential shopping, nonessential shopping, and meeting up with friends/family; total out-of-home activity), worry about COVID-19 and perceived risk of COVID-19 to oneself and people in the UK. Knowledge that cough and high temperature / fever are the main symptoms of COVID-19. We used logistic regression analyses and one-way ANOVAs to investigate associations between believing you had had COVID-19 and binary and continuous outcomes respectively. RESULTS: In this sample, 1493 people (24.3%) thought they had had COVID-19 but only 245 (4.0%) reported having received a positive test result. Reported test results were often incongruent with participants' belief that they had had COVID-19. People who believed that they had had COVID-19 were: more likely to agree that they had some immunity to COVID-19; less likely to report adhering to lockdown measures; less worried about COVID-19; and less likely to know that cough and high temperature / fever are two of the most common symptoms of COVID-19. CONCLUSIONS: At the time of data collection, the percentage of people in the UK who thought they had already had COVID-19 was about twice the estimated infection rate. Those who believed they had had COVID-19 were more likely to report leaving home. This may contribute to transmission of the virus. Clear communications to this growing group are needed to explain why protective measures continue to be important and to encourage sustained adherence

The beginning of time? Evidence for catastrophic drought in Baringo in the early nineteenth century

New developments in the collection of palaeo-data over the past two decades have transformed our understanding of climate and environmental history in eastern Africa. This article utilises instrumental and proxy evidence of historical lake-level fluctuations from Baringo and Bogoria, along with other Rift Valley lakes, to document the timing and magnitude of hydroclimate variability at decadal to century time scales since 1750. These data allow us to construct a record of past climate variation not only for the Baringo basin proper, but also across a sizable portion of central and northern Kenya. This record is then set alongside historical evidence, from oral histories gathered amongst the peoples of northern Kenya and the Rift Valley and from contemporary observations recorded by travellers through the region, to offer a reinterpretation of human activity and its relationship to environmental history in the nineteenth century. The results reveal strong evidence of a catastrophic drought in the early nineteenth century, the effects of which radically alters our historical understanding of the character of settlement, mobility and identity within the Baringo–Bogoria basin

Population-based burden of COPD-related visits in the ED: Return ED visits, hospital admissions, and comorbidity risks

Little is known about the population-based burden of ED care for COPD