A preliminary 3D model of post-Permian bedrock geology in the Vale of Pickering, North Yorkshire, UK

The British Geological Survey (BGS), together with a number of partners is undertaking an independent environmental monitoring programme to characterise baseline conditions across the Vale of Pickering in North Yorkshire, in the vicinity of a site close to Kirby Misperton (Third Energy, KM8) proposed for shale-gas exploration and production. The monitoring will include measurement of: water quality (groundwater and surface water), seismicity, ground motion, air quality including radon, and soil gas. The programme aims to establish the environmental baseline before any shale-gas explorations begin. This report presents the results of a desk study to develop an initial summary of the post-Permian bedrock geology across the Vale of Pickering. It is a component and specific deliverable of the environmental baseline project. The bedrock deposits form a number of shallow aquifers that are used locally for drinking water supply and agriculture. A separate report considers the superficial geology. The geological information in this report will form the basis for identifying aquifer dimensions and configurations, groundwater flow paths and potential contaminant migration pathways, as well as determining optimum locations for sampling and monitoring. It will also provide information to support the locating of new borehole infrastructure (suitable for groundwater sampling and seismometers) and will underpin the interpretation of acquired hydrogeochemical data

Could biodiversity loss have increased Australia’s bushfire threat

Ecosystem engineers directly or indirectly affect the availability of resources through changing the physical state of biotic and/or abiotic materials. Fossorial ecosystem engineers have been hypothesized as affecting fire behaviour through altering litter accumulation and breakdown, however, little evidence of this has been shown to date. Fire is one of the major ecological processes affecting biodiversity globally. Australia has seen the extinction of 29 of 315 terrestrial mammal species in the last 200 years and several of these species were ecosystem engineers whose fossorial actions may increase the rate of leaf litter breakdown. Thus, their extinction may have altered the rate of litter accumulation and therefore fire ignition potential and rate of spread. We tested whether a reduction in leaf litter was associated with sites where mammalian ecosystem engineers had been reintroduced using a pair-wise, cross-fence comparison at sites spanning the Australian continent. At Scotia (New South Wales), Karakamia (Western Australia) and Yookamurra (South Australia) sanctuaries, leaf litter mass ( 24%) and percentage cover of leaf litter ( 3%) were significantly lower where reintroduced ecosystem engineers occurred compared to where they were absent, and fire behaviour modelling illustrated this has substantial impacts on flame height and rate of spread. This result has major implications for fire behaviour and management globally wherever ecosystem engineers are now absent as the reduced leaf litter volumes where they occur will lead to decreased flame height and rate of fire spread. This illustrates the need to restore the full suite of biodiversity globally.http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1469-17952017-12-31hb2016Centre for Wildlife Managemen

A novel nitrogen removal technology pre-treating chicken manure, prior to anaerobic digestion

Chicken manure is an agricultural by-product that is a problematic feedstock for anaerobic digestion due to its high nitrogen content inhibiting methane yields. This research examines a novel pilot-scale method of ammonia stripping, the nitrogen recovery process (NRP) developed by Alchemy Utilities Ltd. The NRP was designed to remove and recover nitrogen from chicken manure and two different operating conditions were examined. Both operating conditions demonstrated successful nitrogen removal and recovery. The biochemical methane potential assays were used to compare the digestibility of the NRP-treated chicken manures to that of a fresh chicken manure control. Overall, the biochemical methane potential assays demonstrated that some NRP-treated chicken manure treatments produced significantly more methane compared to untreated manure, with no inhibition occurring in relation to ammonium. However, some of the NRP-treated chicken manures produced similar or lower methane yields compared to fresh chicken manure. The NRP requires further development to improve the efficiency of the pilot-scale unit for commercial-scale operation and longer-term continuous anaerobic digestion trials are required to determine longer-term methane yield and ammonium inhibition effects. However, these initial results clearly demonstrate the technology’s potential and novel application for decentralised, on-farm nitrogen recovery and subsequent anaerobic digestion of chicken manure

Proposal for a Joint German-British Interferometric Gravitational Wave Detector

For many years there has been steady progress towards the detection of gravitational radiation. It has now become clear that the next major step should be the construction of a number of long-baseline detectors around the world. An array of detectors of this type is expected to allow the observation of gravitational waves from a range of astrophysical sources, leading to improved insight in many areas including stellar collapse, binary coalescence and the expansion of the Universe. We propose that one of these detectors be built by a collaboration formed around the gravitational wave groups in Britain and Germany. In this document we present our case for this collaborative venture and outline the design philosophy of our proposed instrument - an interferometric detector with arms of length close to 3km. Two detectors of the same general type are planned for the USA (LIGO project), one is planned for Italy (Italian/French VIRGO project) and another is proposed for Australia (AIGO project). It is expected that all the long baseline detectors to be built will operate as part of a coordinated worldwide network

Efeito do tratamento com aminoetoxivinilglicina (AVG) na queda pré-colheita e na maturação dos frutos em macieiras

ABSTRACTApple trees cultivars Gala and Fuji were sprayed four weeks before commercial harvest with aminoethoxyvinilglycine (AVG), at doses of 0, 125, or 250 mg L-1, and assessed for preharvest fruit drop, fruit growth, and maturation on tree. In 'Gala', 64 days after AVG spraying, fruit drop for control treatment was 85%, and AVG (at 125 and 250 mg L-1) reduced it to 10%. In 'Fuji', 64 days after AVG spraying, fruit drop for control was 6%, while treatments with AVG (at 125 and 250 mg L-1) increased fruit drop to 10%. AVG was a powerful retardant of fruit maturation for 'Gala' but not for 'Fuji'. In 'Gala', the most affected attribute was the skin background color, followed, in decreasing order, by soluble solids content, the starch index, skin red color, the flesh firmness, and titratable acidity. In 'Gala', only flesh firmness retention was improved by increasing AVG dose from 125 mg L-1 to 250 mg L-1. The AVG at 250 mg L-1 inhibited "Gala" late fruit growth but not 'Fuji'. __________________________________________________________________________________ RESUMOMacieiras, das cultivares Gala e Fuji, foram pulverizadas quatro semanas antes do início da colheita comercial dos frutos com aminoetoxivinilglicina (AVG), nas concentrações de 0; 125 ou 250 mg L-1, e avaliadas quanto à queda de frutos na pré-colheita, o crescimento e maturação dos frutos. Na cultivar Gala, 64 dias após a pulverização com AVG, a queda pré-colheita no tratamento-controle era de 85%, mas os tratamentos com AVG (125 e 250 mg L-1) reduziram esta queda para 10%. Na cultivar Fuji, 64 dias após a pulverização com AVG, a queda de frutos no tratamento-controle era de 6%, e os tratamentos com AVG (125 e 250 mg L-1) aumentaram esta queda para 10%. Tratamentos com AVG retardaram substancialmente a maturação dos frutos da cultivar Gala, mas não da 'Fuji'. Na cultivar Gala, o atributo mais afetado foi a cor de fundo da casca, seguido, em ordem decrescente, pelo conteúdo de sólidos solúveis totais, índice de iodo-amido, cor vermelha da casca, firmeza de polpa e acidez titulável. Na cultivar Gala, apenas a retenção de firmeza de polpa foi significativamente aumentada com o aumento na concentração de AVG de 125 mg L-1 para 250 mg L-1. A concentração de 250 mg L-1 inibiu o crescimento final de frutos na cultivar Gala, mas não na 'Fuji'

Tomato: a crop species amenable to improvement by cellular and molecular methods

Tomato is a crop plant with a relatively small DNA content per haploid genome and a well developed genetics. Plant regeneration from explants and protoplasts is feasable which led to the development of efficient transformation procedures. In view of the current data, the isolation of useful mutants at the cellular level probably will be of limited value in the genetic improvement of tomato. Protoplast fusion may lead to novel combinations of organelle and nuclear DNA (cybrids), whereas this technique also provides a means of introducing genetic information from alien species into tomato. Important developments have come from molecular approaches. Following the construction of an RFLP map, these RFLP markers can be used in tomato to tag quantitative traits bred in from related species. Both RFLP's and transposons are in the process of being used to clone desired genes for which no gene products are known. Cloned genes can be introduced and potentially improve specific properties of tomato especially those controlled by single genes. Recent results suggest that, in principle, phenotypic mutants can be created for cloned and characterized genes and will prove their value in further improving the cultivated tomato.

Detector Description and Performance for the First Coincidence Observations between LIGO and GEO

For 17 days in August and September 2002, the LIGO and GEO interferometer gravitational wave detectors were operated in coincidence to produce their first data for scientific analysis. Although the detectors were still far from their design sensitivity levels, the data can be used to place better upper limits on the flux of gravitational waves incident on the earth than previous direct measurements. This paper describes the instruments and the data in some detail, as a companion to analysis papers based on the first data.Comment: 41 pages, 9 figures 17 Sept 03: author list amended, minor editorial change

Measurement of Hadron and Lepton-Pair Production at 130GeV < \sqrt{s} < 189 GeV at LEP

We report on measurements of e+e- annihilation into hadrons and lepton pairs. The data have been collected with the L3 detector at LEP at centre-of-mass energies between 130 and 189 GeV. Using a total integrated luminosity of 243.7 pb^-1, 25864 hadronic and 8573 lepton-pair events are selected for the measurement of cross sections and leptonic forward-backward asymmetries. The results are in good agreement with Standard Model predictions

Search for displaced vertices arising from decays of new heavy particles in 7 TeV pp collisions at ATLAS

We present the results of a search for new, heavy particles that decay at a significant distance from their production point into a final state containing charged hadrons in association with a high-momentum muon. The search is conducted in a pp-collision data sample with a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV and an integrated luminosity of 33 pb^-1 collected in 2010 by the ATLAS detector operating at the Large Hadron Collider. Production of such particles is expected in various scenarios of physics beyond the standard model. We observe no signal and place limits on the production cross-section of supersymmetric particles in an R-parity-violating scenario as a function of the neutralino lifetime. Limits are presented for different squark and neutralino masses, enabling extension of the limits to a variety of other models.Comment: 8 pages plus author list (20 pages total), 8 figures, 1 table, final version to appear in Physics Letters