Response of wheat to fertilizer in the southwest

Non-Peer Reviewe

Effect of spring moisture and monthly rainfall on wheat yields in southwestern Saskatchewan

Non-Peer Reviewe

Miracle chemicals – can they aid salinity?

Non-Peer Reviewe

Mapping soil salinity using four-probe resistance techniques

Non-Peer Reviewe

Predictive Model for Design of a 3D Developmental Neurotoxicity Platform

Exposure to developmental toxins during gestation have been shown to be linked to neurological disorders such as epilepsy, schizophrenia, and dyslexia [1] . In this report we describe efforts that represent the ground work to develop a predictive neurotoxicity model to test developmental toxicity on early neuronal differentiation from drugs and toxins for human consumption or exposure. Developmental toxins are toxins that prevent stem cell differentiation into neurons by impacting neural development [2] . Currency technologies used to evaluate a compound\u27s potential as a developmental toxin are centered around culturing stem cells in a two-dimensional environment or exposing animal models to the compound. The stem cells are then monitored for changes in proliferation, differentiation, and death. These classes of experiments proved not only to be expensive, but also extremely time consuming and ineffective in some cases. These technologies do not accurately mimic the in vivo environment, which uses ECM proteins and cell-cell interactions to regulate cellular functions such as migration, apoptosis, and gene expression. Our predictive model would provide a more biologically accurate alternative of the human system compared to two-dimensional cell culture and animal models. Our model would further improve the quality and relevance of developmental neurotoxicity research, reduce the number of animal experiments and overall cost to evaluate the potential for a compound to act as a developmental toxin

Primitive decompositions of Johnson graphs

A transitive decomposition of a graph is a partition of the edge set together with a group of automorphisms which transitively permutes the parts. In this paper we determine all transitive decompositions of the Johnson graphs such that the group preserving the partition is arc-transitive and acts primitively on the parts.Comment: 35 page

Development and validation of a complementary map to enhance the existing 1998 to 2008 Abbreviated Injury Scale map

INTRODUCTION: Many trauma registries have used the Abbreviated Injury Scale 1990 Revision Update 98 (AIS98) to classify injuries. In the current AIS version (Abbreviated Injury Scale 2005 Update 2008 - AIS08), injury classification and specificity differ substantially from AIS98, and the mapping tools provided in the AIS08 dictionary are incomplete. As a result, data from different AIS versions cannot currently be compared. The aim of this study was to develop an additional AIS98 to AIS08 mapping tool to complement the current AIS dictionary map, and then to evaluate the completed map (produced by combining these two maps) using double-coded data. The value of additional information provided by free text descriptions accompanying assigned codes was also assessed. METHODS: Using a modified Delphi process, a panel of expert AIS coders established plausible AIS08 equivalents for the 153 AIS98 codes which currently have no AIS08 map. A series of major trauma patients whose injuries had been double-coded in AIS98 and AIS08 was used to assess the maps; both of the AIS datasets had already been mapped to another AIS version using the AIS dictionary maps. Following application of the completed (enhanced) map with or without free text evaluation, up to six AIS codes were available for each injury. Datasets were assessed for agreement in injury severity measures, and the relative performances of the maps in accurately describing the trauma population were evaluated. RESULTS: The double-coded injuries sustained by 109 patients were used to assess the maps. For data conversion from AIS98, both the enhanced map and the enhanced map with free text description resulted in higher levels of accuracy and agreement with directly coded AIS08 data than the currently available dictionary map. Paired comparisons demonstrated significant differences between direct coding and the dictionary maps, but not with either of the enhanced maps. CONCLUSIONS: The newly-developed AIS98 to AIS08 complementary map enabled transformation of the trauma population description given by AIS98 into an AIS08 estimate which was statistically indistinguishable from directly coded AIS08 data. It is recommended that the enhanced map should be adopted for dataset conversion, using free text descriptions if available

Truthmakers and modality

This paper attempts to locate, within an actualist ontology, truthmakers for modal truths: truths of the form or . In section 1 I motivate the demand for substantial truthmakers for modal truths. In section 2 I criticise Armstrong’s account of truthmakers for modal truths. In section 3 I examine essentialism and defend an account of what makes essentialist attributions true, but I argue that this does not solve the problem of modal truth in general. In section 4 I discuss, and dismiss, a theistic account of the source of modal truth proposed by Alexander Pruss. In section 5 I offer a means of (dis)solving the problem

Tragic but brave or just crips with chips? Songs and their lyrics in the Disability Arts Movement in Britain

Disability culture is a site within which social and positional identities are struggled for and dominant discourses rejected; in which mainstream representations of people with impairments – as victims of personal tragedy – are held to the light and revealed as hegemonic constructions within a disabling society. Drawing upon styles that range from jazz, blues and folk to reggae, performance poetry and punk, disabled singers and bands in the Disability Arts Movement in Britain have been central to the development of an affirmative disability discourse rooted in ideas of pride, anger and strength. Examining lyrics by Johnny Crescendo, Ian Stanton and the Fugertivs – performers emerging as part of this movement in the 1980s and 1990s – this article considers the dark humour which runs through much of this work. It is suggested that these lyrics' observational reflections on everyday experiences of being oppressed as disabled people have been overlooked within critical disability studies to date, but are important in developing an understanding of positive disability identity as a tool available to disabled people in order to make sense of, and express themselves within, the world in which they find themselves

Meridional circulation dynamics in a cyclic convective dynamo

Surface observations indicate that the speed of the solar meridional circulation in the photosphere varies in anti-phase with the solar cycle. The current explanation for the source of this variation is that inflows into active regions alter the global surface pattern of the meridional circulation. When these localized inflows are integrated over a full hemisphere, they contribute to slowing down the axisymmetric poleward horizontal component. The behavior of this large-scale flow deep inside the convection zone remains largely unknown. Present helioseismic techniques are not sensitive enough to capture the dynamics of this weak large-scale flow. Moreover, the large time of integration needed to map the meridional circulation inside the convection zone, also masks some of the possible dynamics on shorter timescales. In this work we examine the dynamics of the meridional circulation that emerges from a 3D MHD global simulation of the solar convection zone. Our aim is to assess and quantify the behavior of meridional circulation deep inside the convection zone where the cyclic large-scale magnetic field can reach considerable strength. Our analyses indicate that the meridional circulation morphology and amplitude are both highly influenced by the magnetic field via the impact of magnetic torques on the global angular momentum distribution. A dynamic feature induced by these magnetic torques is the development of a prominent upward flow at mid-latitudes in the lower convection zone that occurs near the equatorward edge of the toroidal bands and that peaks during cycle maximum. Globally, the dynamo-generated large-scale magnetic field drives variations in the meridional flow, in stark contrast to the conventional kinematic flux transport view of the magnetic field being advected passively by the flow.Centra-ISTGRPS-UdeMNatural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of CanadaNational Science FoundationUniversity of the Algarveinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio