Renovation of Nitrogenous Wastewater Via Land Application

Removal of inorganic and organic nitrogen from wastewater prior to recharge of ground and surface waters can be accomplished by judicious land application. This study focused attention upon the feasibility of using sprinkler irrigation as the wastewater delivery system with coastal bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon L.,var. coastal) pasture as the wastewater sink. One site was located on a Sawyer soil near El Dorado, while the other was located on a Savannah soil near Malvern. This report is limited to the renovation of surface waters. Results revealed that nitrogen concentration in runoff water from rainfall was substantially less than nitrogen concentration of the wastewater applied to the soil and similar to background levels. Such results support the consideration of land application as a viable wastewater disposal method

Vergleich verschiedener Arten und Saatzeiten bei Futterleguminosen

Sowing date of fodder legumes and type of legume may influence yield and preceding crop effect. Field trials were conducted at two sites in Upper Bavaria in 2010-2012. Seven types of clover in pure stands or clover/grass leys were compared for one main production year. Sowing dates were undersowing triticale in spring, stubble seeds after harvest of preceding crop triticale and spring seed in the main production year. Dry matter and crude protein yields were strongly affected by sowing date and by type of clover. Earlier sowings lead to higher yield of fodder legumes. Crude protein yield for clover/grass ley dominated by lucerne, red and white clover undersown in triticale was nearly twice as high as for spring seed in the main production year. Among this clover/grass ley, red clover in pure stands achieved highest yields at species level

Einfluss der Futterleguminosenart, deren Saatzeit und Nutzung auf die Nachfrucht Winterweizen

The preceding crop effect of fodder legumes concerning sowing date, type of legume and utilization were conducted in field trials at two sites in Upper Bavaria in 2012- 2013. All in all, seven types of clover in pure stands or clover/grass leys were grown one main production year. Sowing dates were undersowings in triticale in spring, stubble seeds after harvest of preceding crop triticale and spring seed in the main production year. Utilization variants were mulching or cutting without organic fertilization in the subsequent crop winter wheat. Mulching of fodder legumes resulted in higher yields and mostly higher baking quality (crude protein content, wet gluten content and baking volume) of the succeeding wheat. Earlier sowings leaded mostly to higher yields and higher baking quality. At species level, a mixture of white clover and black medic showed highest yield as well as highest crude protein and wet gluten contents. It is concluded, that fodder legume management strongly affected the preceding crop effect

Saltkraft : ei teoretisk innføring og utgreiing av eit minikraftverk

Målet med denne rapporten er å gje ei teoretisk innføring i trykkretardert osmose og reversert elektrodialyse, som er to av dei mest brukte teknologiane bak saltkraft. Energipotensialet er stort, saltkraft kan utvinnas i heile verda der ferskvatn frå elver renn ut i salt hav. Krafta frå ei elv kan samanliknas med eit fossefall på over 100 meter. Vi nyttar og teorien til å greie ut eit minikraftverk i Storelva i Vevring, Sogn og Fjordane. Utgreiinga viser at det er eit betydeleg effektpotensiale, med ein teoretisk årsproduksjon på i underkant av 1 GWh frå ei elv med nytteleg vassføring på 0,14 m3/s

Antibubbles enable tunable payload release with low-intensity ultrasound

The benefits of ultrasound are its ease-of-use and its ability to precisely deliver energy in opaque and complex media. However, most materials responsive to ultrasound show a weak response, requiring the use of high powers, which are associated with undesirable streaming, cavitation, or temperature rise. These effects hinder response control and may even cause damage to the medium where the ultrasound is applied. Moreover, materials that are currently in use rely on all-or-nothing effects, limiting the ability to fine-tune the response of the material on the fly. For these reasons, there is a need for materials that can respond to low intensity ultrasound with programmable responses. Here it is demonstrated that antibubbles are a low-intensity-ultrasound-responsive material system that can controllably release a payload using acoustic pressures in the kPa range. Varying their size and composition tunes the release pressure, and the response can be switched between a single release and stepwise release across multiple ultrasound pulses. Observations using confocal and high-speed microscopy revealed different ways that can lead to release. These findings lay the groundwork to design antibubbles that controllably respond to low-intensity ultrasound, opening a wide range of applications ranging from ultrasound-responsive material systems to carriers for targeted delivery.Comment: Main Text: 14 pages, 4 figures. Embedded SI: 4 pages, 5 figure

Module networks revisited: computational assessment and prioritization of model predictions

The solution of high-dimensional inference and prediction problems in computational biology is almost always a compromise between mathematical theory and practical constraints such as limited computational resources. As time progresses, computational power increases but well-established inference methods often remain locked in their initial suboptimal solution. We revisit the approach of Segal et al. (2003) to infer regulatory modules and their condition-specific regulators from gene expression data. In contrast to their direct optimization-based solution we use a more representative centroid-like solution extracted from an ensemble of possible statistical models to explain the data. The ensemble method automatically selects a subset of most informative genes and builds a quantitatively better model for them. Genes which cluster together in the majority of models produce functionally more coherent modules. Regulators which are consistently assigned to a module are more often supported by literature, but a single model always contains many regulator assignments not supported by the ensemble. Reliably detecting condition-specific or combinatorial regulation is particularly hard in a single optimum but can be achieved using ensemble averaging.Comment: 8 pages REVTeX, 6 figure

Discriminative and informative features for biomolecular text mining with ensemble feature selection

Motivation: In the field of biomolecular text mining, black box behavior of machine learning systems currently limits understanding of the true nature of the predictions. However, feature selection (FS) is capable of identifying the most relevant features in any supervised learning setting, providing insight into the specific properties of the classification algorithm. This allows us to build more accurate classifiers while at the same time bridging the gap between the black box behavior and the end-user who has to interpret the results

Calcium plays an essential role in early-stage dendrite injury detection and regeneration

Dendrites are injured in a variety of clinical conditions such as traumatic brain and spinal cord injuries and stroke. How neurons detect injury directly to their dendrites to initiate a pro-regenerative response has not yet been thoroughly investigated. Calcium plays a critical role in the early stages of axonal injury detection and is also indispensable for regeneration of the severed axon. Here, we report cell and neurite type-specific differences in laser injury-induced elevations of intracellular calcium levels. Using a human KCNJ2 transgene, we demonstrate that hyperpolarizing neurons only at the time of injury dampens dendrite regeneration, suggesting that inhibition of injury-induced membrane depolarization (and thus early calcium influx) plays a role in detecting and responding to dendrite injury. In exploring potential downstream calcium-regulated effectors, we identify L-type voltage-gated calcium channels, inositol triphosphate signaling, and protein kinase D activity as drivers of dendrite regeneration. In conclusion, we demonstrate that dendrite injury-induced calcium elevations play a key role in the regenerative response of dendrites and begin to delineate the molecular mechanisms governing dendrite repair