The Effects of Compost and Polyacrylamide Hydrogel on the Re-Vegetation of Eroded Southern Aspects in the Western Rangeland

MPG Ranch is a conservation-oriented organization in Montana’s Bitterroot valley. Since 2010, MPG has annually planted between 5,000 and 10,000 shrubs and trees with the goal of restoring native plant communities, beautifying the landscape, and providing habitat and forage for wildlife. Plant survival has been lowest on degraded south facing slopes, likely due to a combination of erosion and high solar radiation, which have left the soil with low nutrient content, soil moisture, and high soil temperatures. To resolve these issues, we partnered with MPG to test whether soil amendments can be used to increase plant establishment on degraded hillslopes. Soil amendments included a polyacrylamide hydrogel (Terra-sorb), compost, and Terra-sorb and compost combined. These amendments were tested on three different native shrub species: Cercocarpus ledifolius (curl leaf mountain mahogany), Juniperus scopulorum (Rocky Mountain juniper), and Purshia tridentata (antelope bitterbrush). We assessed the impact of these three soil amendments on plant growth, plant health/mortality rates, and soil chemical and physical properties. Overall results revealed few consistent patterns. Compost as a treatment resulted in the lowest levels of plant mortality whereas plants in the control plots suffered the highest. Plant growth was more dependent on the species in question rather than the amendment used. Mountain mahogany was the most successful in terms of growth both above and below ground with all living plants growing 0 – 1% throughout the course of the season. Our recommendation to MPG is that they continue to monitor these plants for multiple growing seasons in order to determine if they are more or less effective in the long run than what our experiment showed for short-term results

Scanning Electron Microscopy of 2,8-Dihydroxyadenine Crystals and Stones

The lack of purine salvage enzyme, adenine phosphoribosyltransferase (APRT), leads to 2,8-dihydroxyadenine stone formation and/or crystalluria because it is insoluble in urine. Urolithiasis composed of 2,8-dihydroxyadenine is not only formed in a complete defect of APRT, but also in a partial deficiency of this enzyme. The defect is inherited as an autosomal recessive trait, the homozygous state is associated with high urinary levels of 2,8-dihydroxyadenine and with crystalluria, calculus formation, and potential nephrotoxicity. Determination of the APRT activity will facilitate quantification of the enzyme deficiency and elucidation of the hereditary history. 2,8-dihydroxyadenine excretion in the 24-hour urine and its circadian rhythm were determined using a new method of high performance liquid chromatography determination. By means of a standard case presentation, we illustrate the analysis of urinary sediments and calculi as well as the scanning electron microscopic images of this kind of stone

Investigation and Assessment of Resource Consumption of Process Chains

AbstractMany different technologies and processes have been established in production within the last decades. These technologies have to be integrated into sophisticated process chains to achieve today's requirements of high performance products. For most of these products the costs can be determined or at least estimated accurately. However, resource intensive and thus cost intensive processes and their potential within the process chains are often neither identified nor quantified. For identifying, measuring and subsequently assessing the need of resources, like energy or material and their monetary as well as environmental impact, four different process chains of high industrial relevance have been chosen and investigated with regards to their resource consumption. These process chains are used for manufacturing turbine blades made of Inconel and titanium aluminide as well as for comparisons of a conventional and an innovative process chain to manufacture an insert for an injection mold. By measuring and assessing their resource consumption the most resource intensive and thus influential processes have been identified and their potential for resource reduction has been evaluated. Due to the change of single processes to reduce resource consumption and thus the conditions for subsequent processes, the requirements might change and lead to adaptions within the entire process chain. For the assessment of the process chains and the changes within the processes themselves, a scenario based assessment has been modelled. This results in an economic and ecologic evaluation of these process chains and enables a comparison of these to choose the most meaningful process chain

Blood Substitutes in Cardiac Surgery

A safe, inexpensive, noninfectious substitute for red blood cells has long been sought. Despite tremendous advances in blood banking, the logistics of collecting, transporting, and storing human red blood cells contin ues to create infection and shortage problems. The two basic types of blood substitutes currently under devel opment are hemoglobin based and fluorocarbon based. Although they each transport oxygen differently, the basic advantages and limitations are the same. Blood substitute advantages include the unique capacity for room temperature storage, noninfectivity, adequate supply, and low toxicity. Restrictions include limited dosing in the acute period, limited intravascular half-life and, for the fluorocarbons, a requirement for a high PaO2. In addition, there remain questions about the relationship of nitric oxide metabolism to hypertension in hemoglobin solutions. Early clinical and laboratory trials have shown that both types of solutions are effective oxygen-delivery agents, with acceptable side- effect profiles. Clinical trials are currently underway to determine the safety and efficacy of these solutions in patients undergoing cardiopulmonary bypass.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68576/2/10.1177_108925329800200403.pd

An Analytical Model to Predict and Minimize the Residual Stress of Laser Cladding Process

Laser Cladding is one of the advanced thermal techniques used to repair or modify the surface properties of high value components such as tools, military and aerospace parts. Tensile residual stresses are formed in the thermally treated area of this process. This work focuses on to find out key factors of formation and minimization of tensile residual stresses in dissimilar materials. In order to predict the tensile residual stress, one dimensional analytical model has been adopted. Four cladding materials (Al2O3, TiC, TiO2, ZrO2) on the H13 tool steel substrate and a range of preheating temperature of the substrate, from 300K to 1200K, have been investigated. The thermal strain and Young’s modulus are found as key factors of formation and minimization of residual stresses. Additionally, the investigation of preheating temperature of the substrate showed the reduction of residual stress with increasing the preheating temperature of the substrate

Physics–Dynamics Coupling in weather, climate and Earth system models: Challenges and recent progress

This is the final version. Available from American Meteorological Society via the DOI in this record.Numerical weather, climate, or Earth system models involve the coupling of components. At a broad level, these components can be classified as the resolved fluid dynamics, unresolved fluid dynamical aspects (i.e., those represented by physical parameterizations such as subgrid-scale mixing), and nonfluid dynamical aspects such as radiation and microphysical processes. Typically, each component is developed, at least initially, independently. Once development is mature, the components are coupled to deliver a model of the required complexity. The implementation of the coupling can have a significant impact on the model. As the error associated with each component decreases, the errors introduced by the coupling will eventually dominate. Hence, any improvement in one of the components is unlikely to improve the performance of the overall system. The challenges associated with combining the components to create a coherent model are here termed physics–dynamics coupling. The issue goes beyond the coupling between the parameterizations and the resolved fluid dynamics. This paper highlights recent progress and some of the current challenges. It focuses on three objectives: to illustrate the phenomenology of the coupling problem with references to examples in the literature, to show how the problem can be analyzed, and to create awareness of the issue across the disciplines and specializations. The topics addressed are different ways of advancing full models in time, approaches to understanding the role of the coupling and evaluation of approaches, coupling ocean and atmosphere models, thermodynamic compatibility between model components, and emerging issues such as those that arise as model resolutions increase and/or models use variable resolutions.Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)National Science FoundationDepartment of Energy Office of Biological and Environmental ResearchPacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL)DOE Office of Scienc