Dynamic features of successive upwelling events in the Baltic Sea - a numerical case study

Coastal upwelling often reveals itself during the thermal stratification season as an abrupt sea surface temperature (SST) drop. Its intensity depends not only on the magnitude of an upwelling-favourable wind impulse but also on the temperature stratification of the water column during the initial stage of the event. When a "chain" of upwelling events is taking place, one event may play a part in forming the initial stratification for the next one; consequently, SST may drop significantly even with a reduced wind impulse. Two upwelling events were simulated on the Polish coast in August 1996 using a three-dimensional, baroclinic prognostic model. The model results proved to be in good agreement with in situ observations and satellite data. Comparison of the simulated upwelling events show that the first one required a wind impulse of 28000 kg m-1 s-1 to reach its mature, full form, whereas an impulse of only 7500 kg m-1 s-1 was sufficient to bring about a significant drop in SST at the end of the second event. In practical applications like operational modelling, the initial stratification conditions prior to an upwelling event should be described with care in order to be able to simulate the coming event with very good accuracy

Production of Hay milk

The investigation carried out in this thesis is based on data collected on three organic dairy farms in southern Jutland in Denmark. Two of these farms supplied feedstuff analyses of their hay, and one additional farmer besides these three took part in an interview on their use of hay feeding and production of haymilk. The sale of dairy products made of haymilk has increased substantially in Austria over the past few years to 4,200 tons of cheese sold in 2011. Haymilk based dairy products are currently being sold in Germany and the interest is increasing in Switzerland. 83 tons of haymilk based cheeses were sold in Denmark in 2011, and there appears to be a market potential haymilk based dairy products in Denmark. The main objective of this thesis was to improve the decision basis for farmers considering switching from silage feeding to hay feeding of their lactating dairy cows. A semi-structured group interview with four haymilk producing farmers showed that they had been inspired by other farmers abroad, who produce haymilk, and motivated by a belief in hay being healthier for their cows as well as the ability to obtain a premium for their milk. The interview furthermore showed that their workload was increased in summer and decreased in winter, although the overall workload was more enjoyable now. No clear effect of conservation method on chemical composition of hays and silages were found, although a trend for lower CP and higher NDF content per kg of DM were seen in hay compared with silage. Structural properties measured with peNDF and CT was found to be more related to TCL and season, which was indicated by cutting number, than used conservation method. The analysis of lactation curves, which was based on data obtained from three of the haymilk producing farmers, showed that DH cows in parity one and parity three or greater had achieved a higher persistency by switching to hay feeding, albeit their peak yields were reduced with 1.1 and 0.4 kg ECM per day respectively. No difference was found for DH cows in parity two and Jersey cows in parity one and parity two, but Jersey cows in parity three or greater had their peak yield reduced by 1.1 kg ECM per day. Fat and protein percentage increased for DH cows in parity one and parity three or greater. Protein percentage furthermore increased for Jersey cows in parity one whereas no difference was found for the other groups of cows. The feeding software NorFor predicted hay fed cows to have a lower DMI and ECM production per day when compared with silage fed cows. This clear effect could not be confirmed in the literature as both an increasing and decreasing as well as an unchanged effect was seen. The somatic cell count was decreased for all groups of cows by switching to hay feeding except for DH cows in parity three or greater, which increased, and DH cows in parity one where no difference was found. The cost of producing one FU of hay was estimated to be 0.70 kroner larger compared with silage (2.77 versus 2.07 kroner per FU). This resulted in a difference in feed cost between 0.19 and 0.56 kroner per kg ECM depending on the ration and the assumed effect of switching to hay feeding on DMI and daily ECM production. The simulated difference between hay and silage feeding was between a loss of 0.01 and a gain of 0.04 kroner per kg ECM across six scenarios tested on seven different types of herds or between -161 and 450 kroner per annual cow

Approaches to deal with the coypu (Myocastor coypus) in urban areas - an example of practice in southern Brandenburg, Germany

Walther, B., Lehmann, M., Fuelling, O

Single tree-effects on denitrification and soil microbial biomass in agroforestry systems and natural forests of the Amazon region.

The aim of the present study was to find the effect of tree species used in agroforestry system in Amazonian region and natural forests on the total biomass of heterotrophic microorganisms (BH), which is mainly responsible for CO2 emission, and on the biomass of denitrifiers (BD), which control N2O emission

High-density magnetomyography is superior to high-density surface electromyography for motor unit decomposition: a simulation study

Objective. Studying motor units is essential for understanding motor control, the detection of neuromuscular disorders and the control of human-machine interfaces. Individual motor unit firings are currently identified in vivo by decomposing electromyographic (EMG) signals. Due to our body’s properties and anatomy, individual motor units can only be separated to a limited extent with surface EMG. Unlike electrical signals, magnetic fields do not interact with human tissues. This physical property and the emerging technology of quantum sensors make magnetomyography (MMG) a highly promising methodology. However, the full potential of MMG to study neuromuscular physiology has not yet been explored. Approach. In this work, we perform in silico trials that combine a biophysical model of EMG and MMG with state-of-the-art algorithms for the decomposition of motor units. This allows the prediction of an upper-bound for the motor unit decomposition accuracy. Main results. It is shown that non-invasive high-density MMG data is superior over comparable high-density surface EMG data for the robust identification of the discharge patterns of individual motor units. Decomposing MMG instead of EMG increased the number of identifiable motor units by 76%. Notably, MMG exhibits a less pronounced bias to detect superficial motor units. Significance. The presented simulations provide insights into methods to study the neuromuscular system non-invasively and in vivo that would not be easily feasible by other means. Hence, this study provides guidance for the development of novel biomedical technologies

Self-Trapped Exciton Defects in a Charge Density Wave: Electronic Excitations of BaBiO3

In the previous paper, it was shown that holes doped into BaBiO3 self-trap as small polarons and bipolarons. These point defects are energetically favorable partly because they undo locally the strain in the charge-density-wave (Peierls insulator) ground state. In this paper the neutral excitations of the same model are discussed. The lowest electronic excitation is predicted to be a self-trapped exciton, consisting of an electron and a hole located on adjacent Bi atoms. This excitation has been seen experimentally (but not identified as such) via the Urbach tail in optical absorption, and the multi-phonon spectrum of the ``breathing mode'' seen in Raman scattering. These two phenomena occur because of the Franck-Condon effect associated with oxygen displacement in the excited state.Comment: 5 pages with 7 embedded figures. See also cond-mat/0108089 on polarons and bipolarons in BaBiO3 contains background informatio

A quantitative analysis of measures of quality in science

Condensing the work of any academic scientist into a one-dimensional measure of scientific quality is a difficult problem. Here, we employ Bayesian statistics to analyze several different measures of quality. Specifically, we determine each measure's ability to discriminate between scientific authors. Using scaling arguments, we demonstrate that the best of these measures require approximately 50 papers to draw conclusions regarding long term scientific performance with usefully small statistical uncertainties. Further, the approach described here permits the value-free (i.e., statistical) comparison of scientists working in distinct areas of science.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures, 4 table