1,459 research outputs found

    The Fighting Tenth: The Tenth Submarine Flotilla and the Siege of Malta

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    The Iowan Terrace and Terrace Soils of the Nishnabotna Valley in Western Iowa

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    Smith and Riecken (1947) in their revision of the Iowan-drift border in northwestern Iowan, extended a sublobe of the Iowandrift southward to near Roselle and Halbur in Carroll County. During field studies in Carroll County in 1953, the margin of the Iowan-drift sublobe was found to extend as far southward as Manning and Templeton in Carroll County (Figure 1). The Iowan drift is delineated from the loess-mantled Kansan drift on the basis of four lines of evidence: (1) in topographic positions that preclude significant erosion on the Iowan-drift surface, calcareous loess overlies calcareous till. (2) In topographic positions that preclude significant erosion on the Kansan-drift surface, calcareous loess overlies a leached, buried soil in the uppermost part of the Kansan till. (3) An abrupt change in topography occurs at the margin of the Iowan-drift. (4) A discontinuity in loess thickness occurs at the margin of the Iowan-drift

    Linear stability analysis of capillary instabilities for concentric cylindrical shells

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    Motivated by complex multi-fluid geometries currently being explored in fibre-device manufacturing, we study capillary instabilities in concentric cylindrical flows of NN fluids with arbitrary viscosities, thicknesses, densities, and surface tensions in both the Stokes regime and for the full Navier--Stokes problem. Generalizing previous work by Tomotika (N=2), Stone & Brenner (N=3, equal viscosities) and others, we present a full linear stability analysis of the growth modes and rates, reducing the system to a linear generalized eigenproblem in the Stokes case. Furthermore, we demonstrate by Plateau-style geometrical arguments that only axisymmetric instabilities need be considered. We show that the N=3 case is already sufficient to obtain several interesting phenomena: limiting cases of thin shells or low shell viscosity that reduce to N=2 problems, and a system with competing breakup processes at very different length scales. The latter is demonstrated with full 3-dimensional Stokes-flow simulations. Many N>3N > 3 cases remain to be explored, and as a first step we discuss two illustrative N→∞N \to \infty cases, an alternating-layer structure and a geometry with a continuously varying viscosity

    Obligate Biotroph Pathogens of the Genus Albugo Are Better Adapted to Active Host Defense Compared to Niche Competitors

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    Recent research suggested that plants behave differently under combined versus single abiotic and biotic stress conditions in controlled environments. While this work has provided a glimpse into how plants might behave under complex natural conditions, it also highlights the need for field experiments using established model systems. In nature, diverse microbes colonize the phyllosphere of Arabidopsis thaliana, including the obligate biotroph oomycete genus Albugo, causal agent of the common disease white rust. Biotrophic, as well as hemibiotrophic plant pathogens are characterized by efficient suppression of host defense responses. Lab experiments have even shown that Albugo sp. can suppress non-host resistance, thereby enabling otherwise avirulent pathogen growth. We asked how a pathogen that is vitally dependent on a living host can compete in nature for limited niche space while paradoxically enabling colonization of its host plant for competitors? To address this question, we used a proteomics approach to identify differences and similarities between lab and field samples of Albugo sp.-infected and -uninfected A. thaliana plants. We could identify highly similar apoplastic proteomic profiles in both infected and uninfected plants. In wild plants, however, a broad range of defense-related proteins were detected in the apoplast regardless of infection status, while no or low levels of defense-related proteins were detected in lab samples. These results indicate that Albugo sp. do not strongly affect immune responses and leave distinct branches of the immune signaling network intact. To validate our findings and to get mechanistic insights, we tested a panel of A. thaliana mutant plants with induced or compromised immunity for susceptibility to different biotrophic pathogens. Our findings suggest that the biotroph pathogen Albugo selectively interferes with host defense under different environmental and competitive pressures to maintain its ecological niche dominance. Adaptation to host immune responses while maintaining a partially active host immunity seems advantageous against competitors. We suggest a model for future research that considers not only host–microbe but in addition microbe–microbe and microbe–host environment factors

    An algorithm to obtain global solutions of the double confluent Heun equation

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    A procedure is proposed to construct solutions of the double confluent Heun equation with a determinate behaviour at the singular points. The connection factors are expressed as quotients of Wronskians of the involved solutions. Asymptotic expansions are used in the computation of those Wronskians. The feasibility of the method is shown in an example, namely, the Schroedinger equation with a quasi-exactly-solvable potential

    Transient study using LoTSS -- framework development and preliminary results

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    We present a search for transient radio sources on time-scales of seconds to hours at 144 MHz using the LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey (LoTSS). This search is conducted by examining short time-scale images derived from the LoTSS data. To allow imaging of LoTSS on short time-scales, a novel imaging and filtering strategy is introduced. This includes sky model source subtraction, no cleaning or primary beam correction, a simple source finder, fast filtering schemes and source catalogue matching. This new strategy is first tested by injecting simulated transients, with a range of flux densities and durations, into the data. We find the limiting sensitivity to be 113 and 6 mJy for 8 second and 1 hour transients respectively. The new imaging and filtering strategies are applied to 58 fields of the LoTSS survey, corresponding to LoTSS-DR1 (2% of the survey). One transient source is identified in the 8 second and 2 minute snapshot images. The source shows one minute duration flare in the 8 hour observation. Our method puts the most sensitive constraints on/estimates of the transient surface density at low frequencies at time-scales of seconds to hours; <4.0⋅10−4  deg−2<4.0\cdot 10^{-4} \; \text{deg}^{-2} at 1 hour at a sensitivity of 6.3 mJy; 5.7⋅10−7  deg−25.7\cdot 10^{-7} \; \text{deg}^{-2} at 2 minutes at a sensitivity of 30 mJy; and 3.6⋅10−8  deg−23.6\cdot 10^{-8} \; \text{deg}^{-2} at 8 seconds at a sensitivity of 113 mJy. In the future, we plan to apply the strategies presented in this paper to all LoTSS data.Comment: submitted to MNRA

    Impact of Comorbid Personality Disorders on Depression Treatment in Routine Outpatient Care

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    Item does not contain fulltextObjective: The impact of personality disorder on treatment effectiveness for depression has been debated, and study results have been inconsistent. However, studies that report a negative impact of personality disorders on depression treatment outcomes are often characterized by uncontrolled treatment designs. Within such contexts, individuals with depression and personality disorders are at risk to receive suboptimal treatment. The aim of this retrospective observational study was to investigate whether and to what extent comorbid personality disorders were associated with the type and amount of depression treatment received in routine outpatient care. Methods: Retrospectively extracted data from electronic records of 1,455 outpatients treated for depression at several sites of a nationwide mental health provider in the Netherlands were included. The type and number of treatment sessions and visits were analyzed by using regression models. Results: Individuals with depression and comorbid personality disorders received more psychotherapy sessions than individuals without personality disorders, irrespective of depression severity. The number of pharmacotherapy sessions and supportive and crisis visits did not differ between individuals with and without comorbid personality disorders. Conclusions: Individuals with depression and personality disorders received more intensive treatment than individuals without comorbid personality disorders. These results conflict with treatment guidelines and recommendations from high-quality studies and may be indicative of overtreatment among this large group of patients.7 p

    Pain relief is associated with decreasing postural sway in patients with non-specific low back pain

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    Background Increased postural sway is well documented in patients suffering from non-specific low back pain, whereby a linear relationship between higher pain intensities and increasing postural sway has been described. No investigation has been conducted to evaluate whether this relationship is maintained if pain levels change in adults with non-specific low back pain. Methods Thirty-eight patients with non-specific low back pain and a matching number of healthy controls were enrolled. Postural sway was measured by three identical static bipedal standing tasks of 90 sec duration with eyes closed in narrow stance on a firm surface. The perceived pain intensity was assessed by a numeric rating scale (NRS-11). The patients received three manual interventions (e.g. manipulation, mobilization or soft tissue techniques) at 3-4 day intervals, postural sway measures were obtained at each occasion. Results A clinically relevant decrease of four NRS scores in associated with manual interventions correlated with a significant decrease in postural sway. In contrast, if no clinically relevant change in intensity occurred ([less than or equal to]1 level), postural sway remained similar compared to baseline. The postural sway measures obtained at follow-up sessions 2 and 3 associated with specific NRS level showed no significant differences compared to reference values for the same pain score. Conclusions Alterations in self-reported pain intensities are closely related to changes in postural sway. The previously reported linear relationship between the two variables is maintained as pain levels change. Pain interference appears responsible for the altered sway in pain sufferers. This underlines the clinical use of sway measures as an objective monitoring tool during treatment or rehabilitation
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