Looking Ahead at 1948 Farming and Ranching Prospects Another Good Year?

Guide for farming and ranching prospects for 1948. Discusses inflation, exports, demand, farm income, livestock prices, production, feed supplies, wheat prices, and the cost of living

Electrophoretic Clarification of Water

There is an ever growing need for new and superior water treatment methods which will remove the alarming growth and variety of pollutants present in our waters. Suspended particulate matter such as clay, algae, and bacteria are troublesome pollutants in almost all waters and particularly in surface water. This research project was primarily an investigation into the direct use of electric currents and electric fields to bring about water clarification and purification. Electrophoretic and electrochemical systems appear well adapted for removal of these electrically charged pollutants and in addition have the potential of being entirely automated. Numerous design concepts are advanced and tested through the use of laboratory models. These include a parallel plate model which was designed entirely for electrophoretic removal, and porous filter and electrode grid models which incorporated both electrophoretic and electrochemical capabilities. Successful water clarification was attained with the parallel plate model only when the influent water was of very low electrical conductivity. Electrolysis products at high conductivities caused sufficient turbulence to completely disrupt electrophoretic transport. In addition, primary and secondary chemical reactions took place due to electrolysis, which altered the characteristics of the suspension. It was also concluded that the ease of automation with an electrophoretic system does not justify the high cost of water treatment by this method. Water purification by electrochemical means overcame this problem and was successful both operationally and economically. As a result of the experimental testing, an example design of a small semiautomated electrochemical water system is offered which incorporates electrochemical flocculation, settling and electrochemical disinfection operations

New Irrigation System Design for Maximizing Irrigation Efficiency and Increasing Rainfall Utilization

A new concept in irrigation system design, which has the potential of significant savings in both water and energy requirements, has been developed and is under evaluation. The system is characterized by and has been labeled a low energy-precision application (LEPA) system, which rather than spraying water into the air at moderate to high pressures, distributes it directly to the furrow at very low pressure through drop tubes and orifice controlled emitters. This occurs as the system continuously moves through the field in a rectilinear fashion. The system is used in conjunction with micro-basin land preparation which also optimizes the utilization of rainfall. The combined system minimizes the effect of soil and climatic variables which adversely influence furrow and sprinkler irrigation efficiencies. Significant savings of both water and energy resources are indicated from results of the limited testing to date

Regional engagement and spatial modelling for natural resource management planning

Changing unsustainable natural resource use in agricultural landscapes is a complex social–ecological challenge that cannot be addressed through traditional reductionist science. More holistic and inclusive (or transdisciplinary) processes are needed. This paper describes a transdisciplinary project for natural resource management planning in two regions (Eyre Peninsula and South Australian Murray-Darling Basin) of southern Australia. With regional staff, we reviewed previous planning to gain an understanding of the processes used and to identify possible improvement in plan development and its operation. We then used an envisioning process to develop a value-rich narrative of regional aspirations to assist stakeholder engagement and inform the development of a land use management option assessment tool called the landscape futures analysis tool (LFAT). Finally, we undertook an assessment of the effectiveness of the process through semi-structured stakeholder interviews. The planning process review highlighted the opinion that the regional plans were not well informed by available science, that they lacked flexibility, and were only intermittently used after publication. The envisioning process identified shared values—generally described as a trust, language that is easily understood, wise use of resources, collaboration and inclusiveness. LFAT was designed to bring the best available science together in a form that would have use in planning, during community consultation and in assessing regional management operations. The LFAT provided spatially detailed but simple models of agricultural yields and incomes, plant biodiversity, weed distribution, and carbon sequestration associated with future combinations of climate, commodity and carbon prices, and costs of production. Stakeholders were impressed by the presentation and demonstration results of the software. While there was anecdotal evidence that the project provided learning opportunities and increased understanding of potential land use change associated with management options under global change, the direct evidence of influence in the updated regional plan was limited. This project had elements required for success in transdisciplinary research, but penetration seems limited. Contributing factors appear to be a complexity of climate effects with economic uncertainty, lack of having the project embedded in the plan revision process, limited continuity and capacity of end users and limited after project support and promotion. Strategies are required to minimise the controlling influence that these limitations can have.Wayne S. Meyer, Brett A. Bryan, David M. Summers, Greg Lyle, Sam Wells, Josie McLean, Mark Siebentrit

Spike-phase coupling patterns reveal laminar identity in primate cortex

The cortical column is one of the fundamental computational circuits in the brain. In order to understand the role neurons in different layers of this circuit play in cortical function it is necessary to identify the boundaries that separate the laminar compartments. While histological approaches can reveal ground truth they are not a practical means of identifying cortical layers in vivo. The gold standard for identifying laminar compartments in electrophysiological recordings is current-source density (CSD) analysis. However, laminar CSD analysis requires averaging across reliably evoked responses that target the input layer in cortex, which may be difficult to generate in less well-studied cortical regions. Further, the analysis can be susceptible to noise on individual channels resulting in errors in assigning laminar boundaries. Here, we have analyzed linear array recordings in multiple cortical areas in both the common marmoset and the rhesus macaque. We describe a pattern of laminar spike-field phase relationships that reliably identifies the transition between input and deep layers in cortical recordings from multiple cortical areas in two different non-human primate species. This measure corresponds well to estimates of the location of the input layer using CSDs, but does not require averaging or specific evoked activity. Laminar identity can be estimated rapidly with as little as a minute of ongoing data and is invariant to many experimental parameters. This method may serve to validate CSD measurements that might otherwise be unreliable or to estimate laminar boundaries when other methods are not practical

Imaging Complex Structure in Shallow Seismic-reflection Data Using Prestack Depth Migration

Prestack depth migration (PSDM) analysis has the potential to significantly improve the accuracy of both shallow seismic reflection images and the measured velocity distributions. In a study designed to image faults in the Alvord Basin, Oregon, at depths from 25–1000 m, PSDM produced a detailed reflection image over the full target depth range. In contrast, poststack time migration produced significant migration artifacts in the upper 100 m that obscured reflection events and limited the structural interpretation in the shallow section. Additionally, an abrupt increase from ~2500 to \u3e3000 m/s in the PSDM velocity model constrained the interpretation of the transition from sedimentary basin fill to basement volcanic rocks. PSDM analysis revealed a complex extensional history with at least two distinct phases of basin growth and a midbasin basement high that forms the division between two major basin compartments

Imaging Mismatch Repair and Cellular Responses to DNA Damage in Bacillus subtilis

Both prokaryotes and eukaryotes respond to DNA damage through a complex set of physiological changes. Alterations in gene expression, the redistribution of existing proteins, and the assembly of new protein complexes can be stimulated by a variety of DNA lesions and mismatched DNA base pairs. Fluorescence microscopy has been used as a powerful experimental tool for visualizing and quantifying these and other responses to DNA lesions and to monitor DNA replication status within the complex subcellular architecture of a living cell. Translational fusions between fluorescent reporter proteins and components of the DNA replication and repair machinery have been used to determine the cues that target DNA repair proteins to their cognate lesions in vivo and to understand how these proteins are organized within bacterial cells. In addition, transcriptional and translational fusions linked to DNA damage inducible promoters have revealed which cells within a population have activated genotoxic stress responses. In this review, we provide a detailed protocol for using fluorescence microscopy to image the assembly of DNA repair and DNA replication complexes in single bacterial cells. In particular, this work focuses on imaging mismatch repair proteins, homologous recombination, DNA replication and an SOS-inducible protein in Bacillus subtilis. All of the procedures described here are easily amenable for imaging protein complexes in a variety of bacterial species