The credit restraint program in perspective

Excerpts from a speech to the Assembly for Bank Directors, Southhampton Princess, Bermuda, May 26, 1980

Disposal of Household Wastewater in Soils of High Stone Content (1981-1983)

Four experimental filter fields were constructed with built-in monitoring equipment in Nixa soils. These soils contain many chert fragments and a fragipan about 60 cm below the soil surface. The fragipan restricts downward movement of water and is the designlimitingfeature. The four filter fields were: 1. A standard filter field, 76 cm deep. The bottom of the trench was in the fragipan. 2. A modified standard filter field, 30 cm deep. The bottom of the trench was above the fragipan. 3. A modified pressure filter field, 40 cm deep. The bottom of the trench was above the fragipan. In addition, a pressure-distribution system was used to insure uniform distribution of effluent in the trench. Inadvertently, this field was installed in a different soil, and the results cannot be compared directly with the other three. 4. Another modified pressure filter field with the bottom of the trench only 6 cm below the soil surface. Observation of these systems confirms that placing filter fields higher in the soil above the hydraulically limiting horizon results in improved hydraulic performance. The presence of the fragipan amplified the adverse effects attributable to climatic stress. The seepage beds which are higher in the soil profile are able to handle the effluent load and climate load with less danger of surfacing

What causes the irregular cycle of the atmospheric tape recorder signal in HCN?

Variations in the mixing ratio of long-lived trace gases entering the stratosphere in the tropics are carried upward with the rising air with the signal being observable throughout the tropical lower stratosphere. This phenomenon, referred to as "atmospheric tape recorder" has previously been observed for water vapor, CO2, and CO which exhibit an annual cycle. Recently, based on Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) and the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment Fourier Transform Spectrometer (ACE-FTS) satellite measurements, the tape recorder signal has been observed for hydrogen cyanide (HCN) but with an approximately two-year period. Here we report on a model simulation of the HCN tape recorder for the time period 2002-2008 using the Chemical Lagrangian Model of the Stratosphere (CLaMS). The model can reproduce the observed pattern of the HCN tape recorder signal if time-resolved emissions from fires in Indonesia are used as lower boundary condition. This finding indicates that inter-annual variations in biomass burning in Indonesia, which are strongly influenced by El Nino events, control the HCN tape recorder signal. A longer time series of tropical HCN data will probably exhibit an irregular cycle rather than a regular biannual cycle. Citation: Pommrich, R., R. Muller, J.-U. Grooss, G. Gunther, P. Konopka, M. Riese, A. Heil, M. Schultz, H.-C. Pumphrey, and K. A. Walker (2010), What causes the irregular cycle of the atmospheric tape recorder signal in HCN?, Geophys. Res. Lett., 37, L16805, doi:10.1029/2010GL044056

Disposal of Household Wastewater in Soils of High Stone Content (1977-1980)

Two experimental septic tank filter fields were constructed with built-in monitoring equipment in Nixa soils. These soils contain many chert fragments and a fragipan about 60 cm deep which restricts downward water movement and is the design-limiting feature. The standard filter field (76 cm deep) was built into the fragipan and the modified standard filter field (30 cm deep) was placed above it. During 30 months\u27 observation, the modified standard performed better than the standard filter field. Maximum rise of effluent in the standard and modified standard came within 11 and 19 cm of the soil surface, respectively. Performance of these systems indicates filter fields should be designed to function during climatic stresses, i.e. when the soil has a maximum hydraulic load and surfacing may occur. Filter fields should be designed to withstand a stress period of specified intensity. The filter fields in this study were observed under less than normal stress. Therefore, their long range performance is less clear. Our observations indicate that filter field performance is related more to rates of water movement than to stone content. Major influences on filter field performance are rates and directions of water movement, stress period intensity, designs, and construction techniques

Selection for Intramuscular Fat in Duroc Swine – An Update

Long-term progress or improvement in many economically important traits is ultimately the responsibility of the seedstock supplier. If selection progress is to be made in traits of economic importance, the trait must: 1) be accurately measurable, 2) show sufficient heritability, and 3) display an adequate level of variation. For such reasons, tremendous progress has been made in the swine industry toward increasing lean meat percentage over the past quarter century. However, in more recent years, meat quality traits have received more attention and have become more important in breeding programs as producers and processors try to meet consumer demands for high quality, nutritious products

Circadian Organization in Hemimetabolous Insects

The circadian system of hemimetabolous insects is reviewed in respect to the locus of the circadian clock and multioscillatory organization. Because of relatively easy access to the nervous system, the neuronal organization of the clock system in hemimetabolous insects has been studied, yielding identification of the compound eye as the major photoreceptor for entrainment and the optic lobe for the circadian clock locus. The clock site within the optic lobe is inconsistent among reported species; in cockroaches the lobula was previously thought to be a most likely clock locus but accessory medulla is recently stressed to be a clock center, while more distal part of the optic lobe including the lamina and the outer medulla area for the cricket. Identification of the clock cells needs further critical studies. Although each optic lobe clock seems functionally identical, in respect to photic entrainment and generation of the rhythm, the bilaterally paired clocks form a functional unit. They interact to produce a stable time structure within individual insects by exchanging photic and temporal information through neural pathways, in which serotonin and pigment-dispersing factor (PDF) are involved as chemical messengers. The mutual interaction also plays an important role in seasonal adaptation of the rhythm

The extreme melt across the Greenland ice sheet in 2012

The discovery of the 2012 extreme melt event across almost the entire surface of the Greenland ice sheet is presented. Data from three different satellite sensors – including the Oceansat-2 scatterometer, the Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, and the Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder – are combined to obtain composite melt maps, representing the most complete melt conditions detectable across the ice sheet. Satellite observations reveal that melt occurred at or near the surface of the Greenland ice sheet across 98.6% of its entire extent on 12 July 2012, including the usually cold polar areas at high altitudes like Summit in the dry snow facies of the ice sheet. This melt event coincided with an anomalous ridge of warm air that became stagnant over Greenland. As seen in melt occurrences from multiple ice core records at Summit reported in the published literature, such a melt event is rare with the last significant one occurring in 1889 and the next previous one around seven centuries earlier in the Medieval Warm Period. Given its rarity, the 2012 extreme melt across Greenland provides an exceptional opportunity for new studies in broad interdisciplinary geophysical research