The precision of satellite-based net irrigation quantification in the Indus and Ganges basins

Even though irrigation is the largest direct anthropogenic interference in the natural terrestrial water cycle, limited knowledge of the amount of water applied for irrigation exists. Quantification of irrigation via evapotranspiration (ET) or soil moisture residuals between remote-sensing models and hydrological models, with the latter acting as baselines without the influence of irrigation, have successfully been applied in various regions. Here, we implement a novel ensemble methodology to estimate the precision of ET-based net irrigation quantification by combining different ET and precipitation products in the Indus and Ganges basins. A multi-model calibration of 15 models independently calibrated to simulate rainfed ET was conducted before the irrigation quantification. Based on the ensemble average, the 2003–2013 net irrigation amounts to 233 mm yr−1 (74 km3 yr−1) and 101 mm yr−1 (67 km3 yr−1) in the Indus and Ganges basins, respectively. Net irrigation in the Indus Basin is evenly split between dry and wet periods, whereas 70 % of net irrigation occurs during the dry period in the Ganges Basin. We found that, although annual ET from remote-sensing models varied by 91.5 mm yr−1, net irrigation precision was within 25 mm per season during the dry period for the entire study area, which emphasizes the robustness of the applied multi-model calibration approach. Net irrigation variance was found to decrease as ET uncertainty decreased, which is related to the climatic conditions, i.e., high uncertainty under arid conditions. A variance decomposition analysis showed that ET uncertainty accounted for 73 % of the overall net irrigation variance and that the influence of precipitation uncertainty was seasonally dependent, i.e., with an increase during the monsoon season. The results underline the robustness of the framework to support large-scale sustainable water resource management of irrigated land.</p

Laudatores Temporis Acti, or Why Cosmology is Alive and Well - A Reply to Disney

A recent criticism of cosmological methodology and achievements by Disney (2000) is assessed. Some historical and epistemological fallacies in the said article have been highlighted. It is shown that---both empirically and epistemologically---modern cosmology lies on sounder foundations than it is portrayed. A brief historical account demonstrates that this form of unsatisfaction with cosmology has had a long tradition, and rather meagre results in the course of the XX century.Comment: 11 pages, no figures; a criticism of astro-ph/0009020; Gen. Rel. Grav., accepted for publicatio

Spin - or, actually: Spin and Quantum Statistics

The history of the discovery of electron spin and the Pauli principle and the mathematics of spin and quantum statistics are reviewed. Pauli's theory of the spinning electron and some of its many applications in mathematics and physics are considered in more detail. The role of the fact that the tree-level gyromagnetic factor of the electron has the value g = 2 in an analysis of stability (and instability) of matter in arbitrary external magnetic fields is highlighted. Radiative corrections and precision measurements of g are reviewed. The general connection between spin and statistics, the CPT theorem and the theory of braid statistics are described.Comment: 50 pages, no figures, seminar on "spin

The LHC Prototype Full-Cell: Design Study

As a continuation of the experimental program carried-out with String 1, project management decided toward the end of 1995 to construct an LHC prototype Full-Cell, also known as String 2. The present document reports on the outcome of the one-year design effort by the community of specialists contributing to the LHC Prototype Full-Cell: it informs specialists on the boundary areas with other syste ms and conveys to the general public a description of the facility

A perspective on the landscape problem

I discuss the historical roots of the landscape problem and propose criteria for its successful resolution. This provides a perspective to evaluate the possibility to solve it in several of the speculative cosmological scenarios under study including eternal inflation, cosmological natural selection and cyclic cosmologies.Comment: Invited contribution for a special issue of Foundations of Physics titled: Forty Years Of String Theory: Reflecting On the Foundations. 31 pages, no figure

FAS-dependent cell death in α-synuclein transgenic oligodendrocyte models of multiple system atrophy

Multiple system atrophy is a parkinsonian neurodegenerative disorder. It is cytopathologically characterized by accumulation of the protein p25α in cell bodies of oligodendrocytes followed by accumulation of aggregated α-synuclein in so-called glial cytoplasmic inclusions. p25α is a stimulator of α-synuclein aggregation, and coexpression of α-synuclein and p25α in the oligodendroglial OLN-t40-AS cell line causes α-synuclein aggregate-dependent toxicity. In this study, we investigated whether the FAS system is involved in α-synuclein aggregate dependent degeneration in oligodendrocytes and may play a role in multiple system atrophy. Using rat oligodendroglial OLN-t40-AS cells we demonstrate that the cytotoxicity caused by coexpressing α-synuclein and p25α relies on stimulation of the death domain receptor FAS and caspase-8 activation. Using primary oligodendrocytes derived from PLP-α-synuclein transgenic mice we demonstrate that they exist in a sensitized state expressing pro-apoptotic FAS receptor, which makes them sensitive to FAS ligand-mediated apoptosis. Immunoblot analysis shows an increase in FAS in brain extracts from multiple system atrophy cases. Immunohistochemical analysis demonstrated enhanced FAS expression in multiple system atrophy brains notably in oligodendrocytes harboring the earliest stages of glial cytoplasmic inclusion formation. Oligodendroglial FAS expression is an early hallmark of oligodendroglial pathology in multiple system atrophy that mechanistically may be coupled to α-synuclein dependent degeneration and thus represent a potential target for protective intervention

Two-fermion relativistic bound states in Light-Front Dynamics

In the Light-Front Dynamics, the wave function equations and their numerical solutions, for two fermion bound systems, are presented. Analytical expressions for the ladder one-boson exchange interaction kernels corresponding to scalar, pseudoscalar, pseudovector and vector exchanges are given. Different couplings are analyzed separately and each of them is found to exhibit special features. The results are compared with the non relativistic solutions.Comment: 40 pages, to be published in Phys. Rev. C, .tar.gz fil

Environmental volunteer well-being: managers’ perception and actual well-being of volunteers

Environmental volunteering is known to be able to increase well-being but environmental volunteer well-being has rarely been compared to participant well-being associated with other types of volunteering or nature-based activities. This paper aims to use a multidimensional approach to well-being to explore the immediately experienced and later remembered well-being of environmental volunteers and to compare this to the increased well-being of participants in other types of nature-based activities and volunteering. Furthermore, it aims to compare volunteer managers’ perception of their volunteers’ well-being with the self-reported well-being of the volunteers. Onsite surveys were conducted of practical conservation and biodiversity monitoring volunteers as well as their control groups, walkers and fieldwork students, respectively, to measure general well-being before their nature-based activity and activity-related well-being immediately after their activity. Online surveys of current, former and potential volunteers and volunteer managers in environmental volunteering and other types of volunteering measured remembered volunteering-related well-being and volunteer managers’ perceptions of their volunteers’ well-being. Data were analysed based on Seligman’s multidimensional PERMA (‘Positive emotion’, ‘Engagement’, ‘positive Relationship’, ‘Meaning’, ‘Achievement’) model of well-being. Factor analysis recovered three of the five PERMA elements, ‘engagement’, ‘relationship’ and ‘meaning’, as well as ‘negative emotion’ and ‘health’ as factors. Environmental volunteering significantly improved positive elements and significantly decreased negative elements of participants’ immediate well-being and it did so more than walking or student fieldwork did. Even remembering their volunteering up to six months later, volunteers rated their volunteering-related well-being higher than volunteers rated their well-being generally in life. However, volunteering was not found to have an effect on overall mean well-being generally in life. Volunteer managers did not perceive the significant increase in well-being that volunteers reported during volunteering. Multidimensional well-being assessments offer the potential for volunteer organisations and managers to more systematically understand, support and enhance volunteer well-being

A line-of-sight electron cyclotron emission receiver for electron cyclotron resonance heating feedback control of tearing modes

An electron cyclotron emission (ECE) receiver inside the electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) transmission line has been brought into operation. The ECE is extracted by placing a quartz plate acting as a Fabry¿Perot interferometer under an angle inside the electron cyclotron wave (ECW) beam. ECE measurements are obtained during high power ECRH operation. Thisdemonstrates the successful operation of the diagnostic and, in particular, a sufficient suppression of the gyrotron component preventing it from interfering with ECE measurements. When integratedinto a feedback system for the control of plasma instabilities this line-of-sight ECE diagnosticremoves the need to localize the instabilities in absolute coordinates