Turnover of passerine birds on islands in the Aegean Sea (Greece)

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73442/1/j.1365-2699.2007.01695.x.pd

The roles of the formal and informal sectors in the provision of effective science education

For many years, formal school science education has been criticised by students, teachers, parents and employers throughout the world. This article presents an argument that a greater collaboration between the formal and the informal sector could address some of these criticisms. The causes for concern about formal science education are summarised and the major approaches being taken to address them are outlined. The contributions that the informal sector currently makes to science education are identified. It is suggested that the provision of an effective science education entails an enhanced complementarity between the two sectors. Finally, there is a brief discussion of the collaboration and communication still needed if this is to be effective

On the mechanisms governing gas penetration into a tokamak plasma during a massive gas injection

A new 1D radial fluid code, IMAGINE, is used to simulate the penetration of gas into a tokamak plasma during a massive gas injection (MGI). The main result is that the gas is in general strongly braked as it reaches the plasma, due to mechanisms related to charge exchange and (to a smaller extent) recombination. As a result, only a fraction of the gas penetrates into the plasma. Also, a shock wave is created in the gas which propagates away from the plasma, braking and compressing the incoming gas. Simulation results are quantitatively consistent, at least in terms of orders of magnitude, with experimental data for a D 2 MGI into a JET Ohmic plasma. Simulations of MGI into the background plasma surrounding a runaway electron beam show that if the background electron density is too high, the gas may not penetrate, suggesting a possible explanation for the recent results of Reux et al in JET (2015 Nucl. Fusion 55 093013)

Velocity-space sensitivity of the time-of-flight neutron spectrometer at JET

The velocity-space sensitivities of fast-ion diagnostics are often described by so-called weight functions. Recently, we formulated weight functions showing the velocity-space sensitivity of the often dominant beam-target part of neutron energy spectra. These weight functions for neutron emission spectrometry (NES) are independent of the particular NES diagnostic. Here we apply these NES weight functions to the time-of-flight spectrometer TOFOR at JET. By taking the instrumental response function of TOFOR into account, we calculate time-of-flight NES weight functions that enable us to directly determine the velocity-space sensitivity of a given part of a measured time-of-flight spectrum from TOFOR

Relationship of edge localized mode burst times with divertor flux loop signal phase in JET

A phase relationship is identified between sequential edge localized modes (ELMs) occurrence times in a set of H-mode tokamak plasmas to the voltage measured in full flux azimuthal loops in the divertor region. We focus on plasmas in the Joint European Torus where a steady H-mode is sustained over several seconds, during which ELMs are observed in the Be II emission at the divertor. The ELMs analysed arise from intrinsic ELMing, in that there is no deliberate intent to control the ELMing process by external means. We use ELM timings derived from the Be II signal to perform direct time domain analysis of the full flux loop VLD2 and VLD3 signals, which provide a high cadence global measurement proportional to the voltage induced by changes in poloidal magnetic flux. Specifically, we examine how the time interval between pairs of successive ELMs is linked to the time-evolving phase of the full flux loop signals. Each ELM produces a clear early pulse in the full flux loop signals, whose peak time is used to condition our analysis. The arrival time of the following ELM, relative to this pulse, is found to fall into one of two categories: (i) prompt ELMs, which are directly paced by the initial response seen in the flux loop signals; and (ii) all other ELMs, which occur after the initial response of the full flux loop signals has decayed in amplitude. The times at which ELMs in category (ii) occur, relative to the first ELM of the pair, are clustered at times when the instantaneous phase of the full flux loop signal is close to its value at the time of the first ELM

‘Weihing’ Great Northern Disease-resistant Dry Bean

Nebraska is the leading provider in the United States of Great Northern (GN) dry beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.). Rust [(Uromyces appendiculatus (Pers.) Unger], common bacterial blight [(Xanthomonas campestris pv. phaseoli (Smith) Dye] (Xcp), and white mold [Sclerotinia sclerotiorum (Lib.) de Bary] diseases cause serious reductions in bean yield and seed quality in Nebraska. Halo blight (Pseudomonas syringae pv. syringae van Hall) has been observed in some years, but is not considered a major problem. Diseaseresistant cultivars should ensure improved seed yields and yield stability, and seed quality, and reduce pesticide application. Upright growth habit, combined with a porous plant canopy, can provide an avoidance mechanism to reduce white mold by improving air circulation, resulting in rapid drying of dew on the foliage (Deshpande et al., 1995). An adapted, highyielding Great Northern cultivar with resistance to strains of the above bacterial and rust pathogens prevailing in Nebraska is needed. An architectural avoidance of white mold is also required because there is no high level of physiological resistance in common beans to that pathogen. Presently, there is no Great Northern variety with this combination of desirable traits. The Great Northern ‘Weihing’ cultivar released in 1998 has the above combination of traits, and should reduce production costs. Origin ‘Weihing’ was derived from intercrosses of advanced lines developed from crosses of adapted and exotic dry bean parents possessing desired traits (Fig. 1). Pedigree selection was used to develop near-homozygous lines for intercrossing cycles. The advanced lines used for intercrossing possessed resistance to rust and levels of resistance to common bacterial blight and halo blight, as well as some avoidance of white mold disease because of upright and more open architecture. Multiple parents were used in the crosses. GN Nebr. #1 sel. 27 was a source of resistance to common blight and halo blight (Coyne and Schuster, 1974). ‘Tacaragua’ (black bean) (source: N.E. Valladares-Sanchez, Universidad de Oriente, Jusepin, Venezuela), ‘Aurora’ (small white), and Pinto 12689 (source: D. Wood, Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, Colo.) provided resistance to rust. Pinto ‘UI 111’ and GN ‘1140’ contributed genes for earliness. GN ‘Emerson’ and ‘Bulgarian White’ possessed bright white seedcoats (Korban et al., 1981a), and were resistant to seedcoat cracking (Korban et al., 1981b). The upright and porous plant habit of ‘Tacaragua’, ‘Aurora’ (Anderson et al., 1974), and lines A222 and A51-1 [Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT), Cali, Colombia] provided some architectural avoidance to the white mold pathogen. Fuller et al. (1984), using plastic-covered ground beds in greenhouse tests, also found that ‘Tacaragua’ had partial resistance to white mold