Biomass sorghum and maize have similar water-use-efficiency under non-drought conditions in the rain-fed, Midwest US

Biomass sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench.] is a candidate bioenergy feedstock in the Midwest, US. Research suggests that biomass sorghum is more drought tolerant and has higher water-use-efficiency (WUE; the ratio of cumulative biomass production to total evapotranspiration; g kg-1) than Zea mays (maize) in water-limiting environments. However, comparisons of the seasonal evapotranspiration (total ET) and WUE of biomass sorghum and maize have focused on irrigated systems and are scarce for the rain-fed, Midwest. We conducted a side-by-side comparison of the total ET and WUE of maize and biomass sorghum at a site within the US Corn Belt. Total ET was estimated using a micrometeorological method and aboveground plant biomass was determined using destructive hand harvests. Theoretical ethanol yield (EY; l m-2) and ethanol water requirement (EWR; l water l ethanol-1) were also determined for each species. Over two non-drought growing seasons, we found similar mean WUE for maize (3.51 ± 0.26 g kg-1) and biomass sorghum (3.47 ± 0.22 g kg-1). Total ET was 567 ± 26 mm and 600 ± 20 mm, for maize and biomass sorghum, respectively. The total ET and WUE of maize and biomass sorghum were not significantly different in this study (p \u3e 0.1). Maize had significantly greater EY and less EWR, relative to biomass sorghum (p \u3c 0.1). Since drought was not encountered during this experiment, our results do not capture the response of total ET and WUE to the full range of climate variability in the Midwest, US

Air pollution, physical activity, and markers of acute airway oxidative stress and inflammation in adolescents

Background: The airway inflammatory response is likely the mechanism for adverse health effects related to exposure to air pollution. Increased ventilation rates during physical activity in the presence of air pollution increases the inhaled dose of pollutants. However, physical activity may moderate the relationship between air pollution and the inflammatory response. The present study aimed to characterize, among healthy adolescents, the relationship between dose of inhaled air pollution, physical activity, and markers of lung function, oxidative stress, and airway inflammation. Methods: With a non-probability sample of adolescents, this observational study estimated the association between air pollution dose and outcome measures by use of general linear mixed models with an unstructured covariance structure and a random intercept for subjects to account for repeated measures within subjects. Results: A one interquartile range (IQR) (i.e., 345.64 µg) increase in ozone (O3) inhaled dose was associated with a 29.16% average decrease in the percentage of total oxidized compounds (%Oxidized). A one IQR (i.e., 2.368E+10 particle) increase in total particle number count in the inhaled dose (PNT) was associated with an average decrease in forced expiratory flow (FEF25-75) of 0.168 L/second. Increasing activity levels attenuated the relationship between PNT inhaled dose and exhaled nitric oxide (eNO). The relationship between O3 inhaled dose and percent oxidized exhaled breath condensate cystine (%CYSS) was attenuated by activity level, with increasing activity levels corresponding to smaller changes from baseline for a constant O3 inhaled dose. Conclusions: The moderating effects of activity level suggest that peaks of high concentration doses of air pollution may overwhelm the endogenous redox balance of cells, resulting in increased airway inflammation. Further research that examines the relationships between dose peaks over time and inflammation could help to determine whether a high concentration dose over a short period of time has a different effect than a lower concentration dose over a longer period of time

A Novel Method for Quantifying the Inhaled Dose of Air Pollutants Based on Heart Rate, Breathing Rate and Forced Vital Capacity

To better understand the interaction of physical activity and air pollution exposure, it is important to quantify the change in ventilation rate incurred by activity. In this paper, we describe a method for estimating ventilation using easily-measured variables such as heart rate (HR), breathing rate (fB), and forced vital capacity (FVC). We recruited healthy adolescents to use a treadmill while we continuously measured HR, fB, and the tidal volume (VT) of each breath. Participants began at rest then walked and ran at increasing speed until HR was 160–180 beats per minute followed by a cool down period. The novel feature of this method is that minute ventilation (V_ E) was normalized by FVC. We used general linear mixed models with a random effect for subject and identified nine potential predictor variables that influence either V_ E or FVC. We assessed predictive performance with a five-fold cross-validation procedure. We used a brute force selection process to identify the best performing models based on cross-validation percent error, the Akaike Information Criterion and the p-value of parameter estimates. We found a two-predictor model including HR and fB to have the best predictive performance (V_ E/FVC = -4.247+0.0595HR+0.226fB, mean percent error = 8.1±29%); however, given the ubiquity of HR measurements, a one-predictor model including HR may also be useful (V_ E/FVC = -3.859+0.101HR, mean percent error = 11.3±36%)

'Authoritarian Neoliberalism': Crisis, the state, and the challenge of periodisation

The current context is one marked by twin crises: a crisis of neoliberal capitalism, and a crisis of the liberal-democratic state. The failure of the western economies to overcome deflation, rising public and private debt, high unemployment and low investment rates in the post-Global Financial Crisis has fuelled debate on whether neoliberalism remains viable way to organise the economy. Concurrently, the aspiration of democracy is facing multiple challenges: from the failure of referenda to instigate democratic change, as seen in Greece; and conversely the success of referenda to limit political freedoms, as seen in Turkey. We are seeing rising anti-establishment and anti-statist movements across the world, alongside the use of constitutional and legal mechanisms to limit the scope of democratic politics. Responding to these material conditions, the concept of ‘authoritarian neoliberalism’ has been presented as a way to understand the current conjuncture. But surely neoliberalism – and capitalism more generally – always presented with authoritarian tendencies? On what grounds can it be argued, that there has been a ‘qualitative change’ in the way the state attempts to cohere the neoliberal project post-2007? This thesis argues that by separating the current moment of authoritarianism from a broader history of authoritarian tendencies, a ‘violent abstraction’ is made; the actual causal mechanisms producing the current crisis are obscured. If this periodisation is jettisoned, however, ‘authoritarian neoliberalism’ presents the potential to refocus attention on the way that authoritarian state transformations across neoliberal history have dialectically strengthened and weakened the state. This dialectic offers a new perspective on the origins of the current crisis of the state, as apparent in countries as diverse as Britain, the US, and Hungary. By moving past the ‘violent abstraction’ of this periodisation, a renewed focus on state violence under neoliberalism offers a real contribution to our understanding of the current moment

Transport and environmental innovation

Transport gives rise to considerable C02 emissions, which are rising with little policy effect. Transport policy is a socio-technical regime ordered around the state funding large transport capital projects. This is supported by a professional skills and information structure that serves the logic of this regime. However, an innovative form of transport planning practice has tentatively emerged. Instead of the state implementing measures, it shifts to a supporting and enabling role with the devolution of responsibility to transport users. This is a very different rationale about what constitutes transport policy and its structures. This can be understood as a policy niche within the existing regime. This paper reports research on two areas that seek to apply this niche approach: travel planning and the Milton Keynes electric vehicle project. These research suggest that rather than the ‘new’ transport policy niche leading to regime transformation, it is appears to be migrating to other policy regime structures that are more compatible to its approach

Myocarditis Secondary to Mesalamine-Induced Cardiotoxicity in a Patient with Ulcerative Colitis

Development of cardiac manifestations in patients diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease undergoing treatment with mesalamine is a rare. When this occurs, it can be difficult to tease out the primary etiology, as both IBD and mesalamine can cause cardiac manifestations independently of each other. The exact mechanism of mesalamine-induced cardiotoxicity is yet to be determined although several mechanisms have been described. We present the case of a gentleman with nonexertional chest pain in the setting of ulcerative colitis exacerbation believed to have occurred secondary to mesalamine

Exploring the role of intermediaries in smart grid developments

Smart grid pilot projects have been initiated in a number of locations across the UK. Innovations considered in these projects include various technologies such as smart meters and electrical energy storage devices, as well as novel institutional arrangements which form the basis of commercial Demand Side Response (DSR) initiatives. This paper reports research into DSR using multiple case studies from Low Carbon Network Fund projects in the UK. The role of Aggregator companies in DSR is reported, their role of a key intermediary analysed and conceptualised using the Accessibility, Mobility and Receptivity (AMR) framework

SMOS Optical Thickness Changes in Response to the Growth and Development of Crops, Crop Management, and Weather

The Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) remote sensing satellite was launched by the European Space Agency in 2009. The L-band brightness temperature observed by SMOS has been used to produce estimates of both soil moisture and τ, the optical thickness of the land surface. Although τ should theoretically be proportional to the amount of vegetation present within a SMOS pixel, several initial investigations have not been able to confirm this expected behavior. However, when the noise in the SMOS τ product is removed, τ in the U.S. Corn Belt, a region of extensive row-crop agriculture, has a distinct shape that mirrors the growth and development of crops. We find that the peak value of SMOS τ occurs at approximately 1000 °C day (base 10 °C) growing degree days after the mean planting date of maize (corn). We can explain this finding in the following way: τ is directly proportional to the water column density of vegetation; maize contributes the most to growing season changes in τ in the Corn Belt; and maize reaches its maximum water column density at its third reproductive stage of development, at about 1000 °C day growing degree days. Consequently, SMOS τ could be used to monitor the phenology of crops in the Corn Belt at a spatial resolution similar to a U.S. county and a temporal frequency on the order of days. We also examined the magnitude of the change in SMOS τ over the growing season and hypothesized it would be related to the amount of accumulated solar radiation, but found this not to be the case. On the other hand, the change in magnitude was smallest for the year in which the most precipitation fell. These findings are rational since SMOS τ at the satellite scale is in fact a function of both vegetation and soil surface roughness, and soil surface roughness is reduced by precipitation. To fully explain changes in SMOS τ in the Corn Belt it appears that it will be necessary to use in situ and remotely-sensed observations along with agro-ecosystem models to account for land management decisions made by farmers that affect changes in soil surface roughness and all of the relevant biophysical processes that affect the growth and development of crops