Quantifying nutrient cycling and fate within an abandoned feedlot and adjacent wetlands

Feedlot operations over the years have increased revenue and boosted economies of states and countries, but these operations have resulted in elevated concentrations of nutrients in soils, surface water, and groundwater. Feedlot operations generate large quantities of manure and other waste, which when not managed properly can result in environmental problems. It is hypothesized that nitrogen can cause a short-term contamination of soils and groundwater beneath abandoned feedlots, but phosphorus can cause both short- and long term contamination, especially in well-drained carbonate and iron-rich soils associated with Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations. It is also hypothesized that a spectral vegetation index can be used as an effective indicator of plant-available soil nutrients and optimum soil conditions for precise decision-making in fertilizer application. To test these hypotheses, analysis of soils, graminoid tissues, aerial spectral images, surface water, and groundwater samples from a former feedlot in northwest Minnesota were used to quantify the phosphorus budget, characterize nutrients movement and plant vigor, and determine the fate of nutrients. Soil analysis revealed elevated concentrations of sequestered phosphorus at the confined animal holding areas, in contrast to varying concentrations of nitrate in the wetlands. Groundwater analysis indicated a steady decline in nitrate concentration due to denitrification, leaching, and plant uptake, with sequestered phosphorus released in soluble form due to reduction conditions. These nutrients are transported into the wetlands for consumption by plants and microbes. Although there was no relationship observed between spectral vegetation indices and plant tissue nutrients, the indices correlated with soil-available nutrient and soil properties. Modified soil-adjusted vegetation index (MSAVI) was the best index for characterizing plant vigor and soil relationships due to its reduced sensitivity to atmospheric conditions and the changes in vegetative cover as compared to the other indices. The lack of any relationship between plant tissue and the spectral indices suggests that acid digestion approach used in plant tissue nutrient analysis may be problematic due to the volatility of some of the nutrients. This research provides insight into the viability of feedlots abandoned more than a decade as a source of phosphorus to supplement the primary sources of phosphorus used in fertilizer. It is estimated that crops remove approximately 2 to 15 mg kg-1 of phosphorus for growth. Phosphorus concentrations in some areas exceed 50 mg kg-1, which implies no soil phosphorus fertilization is required for plant growth. Agronomists and stakeholders in agriculture and food security should take a holistic approach and conduct feasibility studies on using sequestered phosphorus in abandoned feedlot soils as alternative source of phosphorus fertilizer

Bayesian Analysis

After making some general remarks, I consider two examples that illustrate the use of Bayesian Probability Theory. The first is a simple one, the physicist's favorite "toy," that provides a forum for a discussion of the key conceptual issue of Bayesian analysis: the assignment of prior probabilities. The other example illustrates the use of Bayesian ideas in the real world of experimental physics.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, Workshop on Confidence Limits, CERN, 17-18 January, 200

Schalmont Central School District and Schalmont Teachers Association

In the Matter of the Fact-Finding Between SCHALMONT CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT AND SCHALMONT TEACHERS ASSOCIATION. PERB Case No. M2006-107. Before: Peter A. Prosper, Fact Finder

Conversion of hydrocarbons to biosurfactants : an insight into the bioprocess optimisation of biosurfactant production using alkanes as inducers

Surfactants are chemical compounds that are able to alter interfacial properties, particularly surface tension. When they are biologically produced, the term biosurfactant is used. One of the most important groups of biosurfactants is a family of chemical compounds known as glycolipids, whose structure consists of a sugar group and a lipid tail. Glycolipids are subdivided into three main groups: rhamnolipids, sophorolipids and trehalolipids, named following their sugar moieties, respectively rhamnose, trehalose and sophorose. Biosurfactants exhibit attractive advantages over chemical surfactants. Examples of these are biodegradability, low toxicity, and effectiveness at extreme temperature, pH and salinity. The objective of the present research project was, first, to investigate the potential of liquid aliphatic hydrocarbons to induce biosurfactant production by the bacterium Ps. aeruginosa 2Bf isolated based on its ability to metabolise alkanes. The second objective was to optimise biosurfactant production using alkanes as sole carbon and energy source, through optimising the mixing & aeration conditions, media conditions as well as provision of alkane, in a stirred tank batch reactor system. The final objective was to describe the biosurfactant formed. Experiments were organised in three major series: the exploratory shake flask based experiments, the bioreactor-based experiments to optimise biosurfactant production and characterise biokinetics and performance, and the biosurfactant characterisation experiments. Following review of a number of methods, microbial cell counts were selected as the most reproducible measure of biomass formation in the presence of alkanes. The presence of biosurfactant was quantified functionally in terms of the emulsification index and alteration of surface tension. Using a shake flask-based study, nitrogen source was investigated in terms of biomass and biosurfactant synthesis. Four pre-selected nitrogen sources were tested in order to select the best for bioreactor based study. These nitrogen sources consisted of specific combinations of three nitrogen compounds, NH4NO3, NaNO3 and (NH4)2SO4. During the study, long chain liquid n-alkanes were used as sole carbon source and the C/N ratio maintained at the value of 18.6 in mass terms. Results confirmed that both a combination of NO3 ' and NH4+ ions or a nitrogen source composed solely of NH4+ ions were suitable for biomass growth and biosurfactant production. (NH4)SO4 was used as the N-source of choice in the remainder of the study. While the C14-C17 alkanes cut was the carbon source of interest in the study, two pure alkanes, n-C12 and n-C16 were tested and compared to the C14-C17 blend. The C14-C17 fraction, sourced as an industrial byproduct, compared favourably as a carbon source with respect to hexadecane and dodecane. ii Biosurfactant production was not observed in Ps. aeruginosa 2Bf cultures where glucose was the sole carbon source and the bacteria were not previously exposed to linear alkanes. Using a mixed carbon source of glucose and alkane, or on pre-exposure of the bacteria to alkane, biosurfactant production was induced. Induction was optimised where alkane was the sole carbon source over a period of four sub-culture steps. In the quantitative optimisation of biosurfactant production through the bioreactor based study, mixing and aeration were optimised; agitation and aeration proved to be equally important, the first at intermediate rates, the second at lower rates. Their interaction, when maximum biomass was used as the variable for response, was found to be important for agitation rates up to 500 rpm. Beyond this range of agitation speed, the interaction between aeration and agitation became negligible. In the case of Eindex as the variable for response, similar results were obtained with regard to the impact of the interaction between aeration and agitation on the process. It was significant from lower to intermediate agitation rates, and negligible from intermediate to higher rates of agitation. Lower aeration rate was found to enhance the oxygen utilisation rate, while mass transfer was relatively favoured by high aeration rate. Regarding the emulsification power of the product, quantitative tests were carried out on culture suspension, supernatant prepared by centrifugation and supernatant prepared by centrifugation and filtration at 0.22μm pore size filters. Results showed that some emulsification effect was lost through centrifugation and filtration. This loss of emulsification effect was more pronounced in the filtration case, thus showing that some biosurfactant was removed along some other material or substance through sticking on filter paper. Foam control was required, and two mechanical foam breakers were compared to anti-foam reagent. It was experimentally established that mechanical foam breakers are preferable to chemical anti-foam reagents. On comparing the two different mechanical foam breakers, the modified two blade paddle with three slits, FB-2, performed better than the simple two blade paddle foam breaker, FB-1. Further investigations showed that the interaction between type of foam control and agitation rate was negligible throughout the process. The Biosurfactant was characterised at the structural level and the antibiotic potential of Ps. aeruginosa 2Bf's biosurfactant was analysed. In addition to the thin layer chromatography, three different spectroscopic methods (mass, infrared & nuclear magnetic resonance) were used to study the chemical structure of the biosurfactant produced. Up to six rhamnolipid structures were tentatively identified with spectrometric analysis whereas only four to five structures could be detected with thin layer chromatography. Possession of an anti-microbial activity by the rhamnolipids produced was confirmed with the B. subtilis inhibition test

On word-representability of polyomino triangulations

A graph $G=(V,E)$ is word-representable if there exists a word $w$ over the alphabet $V$ such that letters $x$ and $y$ alternate in $w$ if and only if $(x,y)$ is an edge in $E$. Some graphs are word-representable, others are not. It is known that a graph is word-representable if and only if it accepts a so-called semi-transitive orientation. The main result of this paper is showing that a triangulation of any convex polyomino is word-representable if and only if it is 3-colorable. We demonstrate that this statement is not true for an arbitrary polyomino. We also show that the graph obtained by replacing each $4$-cycle in a polyomino by the complete graph $K_4$ is word-representable. We employ semi-transitive orientations to obtain our results

Bulk contribution to magnetotransport properties of low defect-density Bi2_2Te3_3 topological insulator thin films

An important challenge in the field of topological materials is to carefully disentangle the electronic transport contribution of the topological surface states from that of the bulk. For Bi$_2$Te$_3$ topological insulator samples, bulk single crystals and thin films exposed to air during fabrication processes are known to be bulk conducting, with the chemical potential in the bulk conduction band. For Bi$_2$Te$_3$ thin films grown by molecular beam epitaxy, we combine structural characterization (transmission electron microscopy), chemical surface analysis as function of time (x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy) and magnetotransport analysis to understand the low defect density and record high bulk electron mobility once charge is doped into the bulk by surface degradation. Carrier densities and electronic mobilities extracted from the Hall effect and the quantum oscillations are consistent and reveal a large bulk carrier mobility. Because of the cylindrical shape of the bulk Fermi surface, the angle dependence of the bulk magnetoresistance oscillations is two-dimensional in nature.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figure