Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Suspended Solids Concentrations in Tributaries to the Great Bay Estuary Watershed in 2013

Nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment loads to the Great Bay Estuary are a growing concern. The Piscataqua Region Estuaries Partnership (PREP) calculates the nitrogen load from tributaries to the Great Bay Estuary for its State of Our Estuaries reports. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to collect representative data on nitrogen, phosphorus, and suspended sediment concentrations in tributaries to the Great Bay Estuary in 2013. The study design followed the tributary sampling design which was implemented by the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services between 2001 and 2007 and by the University of New Hampshire between 2008 and 2012, so as to provide comparable data to the previous loading estimates

Environmental statistics and optimal regulation

Any organism is embedded in an environment that changes over time. The timescale for and statistics of environmental change, the precision with which the organism can detect its environment, and the costs and benefits of particular protein expression levels all will affect the suitability of different strategies-such as constitutive expression or graded response-for regulating protein levels in response to environmental inputs. We propose a general framework-here specifically applied to the enzymatic regulation of metabolism in response to changing concentrations of a basic nutrient-to predict the optimal regulatory strategy given the statistics of fluctuations in the environment and measurement apparatus, respectively, and the costs associated with enzyme production. We use this framework to address three fundamental questions: (i) when a cell should prefer thresholding to a graded response; (ii) when there is a fitness advantage to implementing a Bayesian decision rule; and (iii) when retaining memory of the past provides a selective advantage. We specifically find that: (i) relative convexity of enzyme expression cost and benefit influences the fitness of thresholding or graded responses; (ii) intermediate levels of measurement uncertainty call for a sophisticated Bayesian decision rule; and (iii) in dynamic contexts, intermediate levels of uncertainty call for retaining memory of the past. Statistical properties of the environment, such as variability and correlation times, set optimal biochemical parameters, such as thresholds and decay rates in signaling pathways. Our framework provides a theoretical basis for interpreting molecular signal processing algorithms and a classification scheme that organizes known regulatory strategies and may help conceptualize heretofore unknown ones.Comment: 21 pages, 7 figure

The iron K line complex in NGC1068: implications for X-ray reflection in the nucleus

We report a new analysis of ASCA data on the iron K line complex in NGC1068. The line complex basically consists of three components, as previously reported. A weak red wing of the 6.4 keV fluoresence iron K line is found. A plausible explanation is Compton scattering in optically thick, cold matter which can be identified with an obscuring torus or cold gas in the host galaxy. We also show that this `Compton shoulder' should be observable with ASCA using a simulated reflection spectrum. In order to explain the two higher energy lines as well as the cold 6.4 keV line, we fit the ASCA data with a composite model of cold and warm reflection. This shows that cold reflection dominates the observed X-ray emission above 4 keV. The two higher energy lines have large equivalent width with respect to the warm-scattered continuum, suggesting that efficient resonant scattering operates. The line energies are systematically lower than those expected from resonant lines for FeXXV and FeXXVI by 100 eV. The redshifts may be due to either the ionized gas of the warm mirror receding at a radial velocity of 4000-5000 km/s, or effects of Compton scattering in a complicated geometry.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, to appear in MNRA

Dirty black holes: Symmetries at stationary non-static horizons

We establish that the Einstein tensor takes on a highly symmetric form near the Killing horizon of any stationary but non-static (and non-extremal) black hole spacetime. [This follows up on a recent article by the current authors, gr-qc/0402069, which considered static black holes.] Specifically, at any such Killing horizon -- irrespective of the horizon geometry -- the Einstein tensor block-diagonalizes into ``transverse'' and ``parallel'' blocks, and its transverse components are proportional to the transverse metric. Our findings are supported by two independent procedures; one based on the regularity of the on-horizon geometry and another that directly utilizes the elegant nature of a bifurcate Killing horizon. It is then argued that geometrical symmetries will severely constrain the matter near any Killing horizon. We also speculate on how this may be relevant to certain calculations of the black hole entropy.Comment: 21 pages; plain LaTe