Hydrological landscape settings of base-rich fen mires and fen meadows:an overview

Question: Why do similar fen meadow communities occur in different landscapes? How does the hydrological system sustain base-rich fen mires and fen meadows? Location: Interdunal wetlands and heathland pools in The Netherlands, percolation mires in Germany, Poland, and Siberia, and calcareous spring fens in the High Tatra, Slovakia. Methods: This review presents an overview of the hydrological conditions of fen mires and fen meadows that are highly valued in nature conservation due to their high biodiversity and the occurrence of many Red List species. Fen types covered in this review include: (1) small hydrological systems in young calcareous dune areas, and (2) small hydrological systems in decalcified old cover sand areas in The Netherlands; (3) large hydrological systems in river valleys in Central-Europe and western-Siberia, and (4) large hydrological systems of small calcareous spring fens with active precipitation of travertine in mountain areas of Slovakia. Results: Different landscape types can sustain similar nutrient poor and base-rich habitats required by endangered fen meadow species. The hydrological systems of these landscapes are very different in size, but their groundwater flow pattern is remarkably similar. Paleo-ecological research showed that travertine forming fen vegetation types persisted in German lowland percolation mires from 6000 to 3000 BP. Similar vegetation types can still be found in small mountain mires in the Slovak Republic. Small pools in such mires form a cascade of surface water bodies that stimulate travertine formation in various ways. Travertine deposition prevents acidification of the mire and sustains populations of basiphilous species that elsewhere in Europe are highly endangered. Conclusion: Very different hydrological landscape settings can maintain a regular flow of groundwater through the top soil generating similar base-rich site conditions. This is why some fen species occur in very different landscape types, ranging from mineral interdunal wetlands to mountain mires

Active microwave users working group program planning

A detailed programmatic and technical development plan for active microwave technology was examined in each of four user activities: (1) vegetation; (2) water resources and geologic applications, and (4) oceanographic applications. Major application areas were identified, and the impact of each application area in terms of social and economic gains were evaluated. The present state of knowledge of the applicability of active microwave remote sensing to each application area was summarized and its role relative to other remote sensing devices was examined. The analysis and data acquisition techniques needed to resolve the effects of interference factors were reviewed to establish an operational capability in each application area. Flow charts of accomplished and required activities in each application area that lead to operational capability were structured

Trials, Truth-telling and the Performing Body

In this thesis, I examine the role performance plays in the adversarial criminal jury trial. The initial motivation behind this inquiry was the pervasiveness of a metaphor: why is the courtroom so frequently compared to a theatre? Most writings on this topic see the courtroom as bearing what might be termed a cosmetic resemblance to a theatre, making comparisons, for instance, between elements of costume and staging. I pursue a different line of argument. I argue that performance is not simply an embellishment of the trial process but rather a constitutive feature of the criminal jury trial. It is by means of what I call the performance of tradition that the trial acquires its social significance as a (supposedly) timeless bulwark of authority and impartiality. In the first three chapters I show that popular usage of the term ‘theatrical’ (whether it be to describe the practice of a flamboyant lawyer, or a misbehaving defendant) is frequently laden with pejorative connotations and invariably (though usually only implicitly) invokes comparison to a presupposed authentic or natural way of behaviour (‘not-performing’). Drawing on the work of Michel Foucault and Pierre Bourdieu I argue that, whatever legal agents see as appropriate trial conduct (behaviour that is ‘not-performing’), they are misrecognising the performative accomplishments and demands required of both legal agents and laypersons in the trial. This performance constructs and maintains a gap between legal practitioners and laypersons which is essential to maintaining the status of the legal profession, and which continually positions the trial in legal and popular belief. I then look at specific moments of ‘anxiety’ where alterations to traditional procedure provoke debate as to the otherwise unnoticed or unarticulated value of live performance. In Chapter 4, I examine the growth of the private advocacy training industry that frequently positions lawyers as actors. Resistance to the idea of acting demonstrates the tainted status of performance terminology as well as legal agents’ belief that lawyers are acting naturally. I argue instead that lawyers have always been trained in acting: an habituated performance style I term legal naturalism. In Chapter 5, I examine the television broadcasting of trials. Some legal agents argue that broadcasting risks ‘theatricalising’ the trial—causing participants to ‘act up’. However, this overlooks the fact that the court has a long history as a source of popular entertainment. I argue that resistance to broadcasting also stems from a reluctance to remit control of the trial to external producers. Broadcasting invites greater scrutiny into a process that if not always fair, needs to be believed in as fair and has historically been tightly self-regulated by the legal field, through its reliance on live performance’s ‘essential’ quality—its inability to be captured and subsequent disappearance. In Chapter 6, I examine the debates around CCTV testimony, which demonstrate a consistency of belief in live or ‘face-to-face’ confrontation to produce juridical ‘Truth’ that can be traced back over 800 years. The final chapter of this thesis examines sexual assault trials. This chapter brings together all of these sources of anxiety. Although often termed ‘exceptional’, sexual assault trials highlight how essential live performance is to manufacturing the authority of ‘The Law’ through the weight given to demeanour assessment, and because these trials make visible the sustained symbolic violence characteristic of adversarial criminal trials that is particularly traumatic for sexual assault complainants. Examination of sexual assault trials also reveals the double-edged position of performance in the trial. The exploitation of the symbolic value of live performance is the source of much trauma, yet the performance of tradition is also essential to maintaining popular belief in the adversarial criminal jury trial

PYTHIA hadronization process tuning in the GENIE neutrino interaction generator

9 pages, 7 figures, proceedings of the CETUP*-Workshop on Neutrino Interactions, July 22-31, 2014 at Lead/Dead Wood, South Dakota, USA9 pages, 7 figures, proceedings of the CETUP*-Workshop on Neutrino Interactions, July 22-31, 2014 at Lead/Dead Wood, South Dakota, USAv1: 9 pages, 7 figures, proceedings of the CETUP*-Workshop on Neutrino Interactions, July 22-31, 2014 at Lead/Dead Wood, South Dakota, USA. v2: 15 pages, 8 figures, 1 table, will be published by Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics (IoP

Do Two Symmetry Breaking Transitions in Photosynthetic Light Harvesting Complexes Form One, Two or More Kibble Zurek Model Topological Defects?

Kibble and Zurek proposed that rapid symmetry breaking transitions in the hot, early universe could result in causally disconnected topological defects such as cosmic strings. This type of first order transition has analogues in certain second order transitions present in condensed matter such as liquid crystals, super fluids, and charge density waves in terms of flux tubes or vortices. Recently, we discovered that Rhodopseudomonas acidophilus photosynthetic light harvesting complex might have different types of coherent ground and excited states, suggesting that there are two different symmetry breaking transitions. The B 850 ground states comprise eight identical rings each containing 18 bacteriochlorophyll components, and each ring has undergone a Bose Einstein phase transition to a charge density wave that lowers the energy. The excited state coherence results from polariton formation from the non-crossing of bosons, here an extension of exciton theory. The result is short-lived quasi-particles with very low mass that can form an unusual BEC. We suggest the oriented, circular B 850 and enclosed singlet B 875 compounds create a new cavity structure with some attributes of a nano pillar. Since both the ground and excited states should contain solitons, we envisage three fast light pulse experiments could be able to map both the Kibble Zurek Model phase transitions and energy transfers as a function of light intensity and time in this complex at room temperature

Seasonal and Nonseasonal Longitudinal Variation of Immune Function

Different components of the immune response show large variability between individuals, but they also vary within the same individual because of host and environmental factors. In this study, we report an extensive analysis of the immune characteristics of 56 individuals over four timepoints in 1 single year as part of the Human Functional Genomics Project. We characterized 102 cell subsets using flow cytometry; quantified production of eight cytokines and two chemokines in response to 20 metabolic, bacterial, fungal, and viral stimuli; and measured circulating markers of inflammation. Taking advantage of the longitudinal sampling, both seasonal and nonseasonal sources of variability were studied. The circulating markers of inflammation IL-18, IL-18 binding protein, and resistin displayed clear seasonal variability, whereas the strongest effect was observed for alpha-1 antitrypsin. Cytokine production capacity also showed strong seasonal changes, especially after stimulation with the influenza virus, Borrelia burgdorferi, and Escherichia coli. Furthermore, we observed moderate seasonality effects on immune cell counts, especially in several CD4(+)/CD8(+) T cell subpopulations. Age of the volunteers was an important factor influencing IFN-gamma and IL-22 production, which matched the strong impact of age on several T cell subsets. Finally, on average, genetics accounted for almost 50% of the interindividual variance not already explained by age, sex, and body mass index, although this varies strongly for different parameters. In conclusion, seasonality is an important environmental factor that influences immune responses, in addition to specific genetic and nongenetic host factors, and this may well explain the seasonal variation in the incidence and severity of immune-mediated diseases