The influence of legume cropping sequences on above and below ground carbon and nitrogen inputs

Non-Peer ReviewedPulse crops included in cereal and oilseed crop rotations can provide environmental and economic benefits such as reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and a reduced dependence on synthetic nitrogen (N) fertilizers. Pulse crop rotations have shown positive impacts on soil nutrient cycling and crop yields due to contributions of bioavailable carbon (C) and N to soils. Pulse crops in symbiosis with rhizobia can input N to soils from atmospheric N fixation. Soil C inputs are derived from aboveground crop residue inputs and below ground root exudates. Stable isotope (13C and 15N) methodologies are being utilized to quantify above and belowground contributions (roots and rhizodeposits) of both C and N inputs from chickpea, pea and lentil residues to soil. 15N is introduced into the stem of plants using a stem feeding technique (stem wick method). 13C is introduced using atmospheric pulse 13CO2 labeling. The more precise nutrient budgets can be used to determine the best pulse crop rotations to improve GHG budgets, reduce farmer dependence on N fertilizers and therefore improve environmental and economic sustainability of the system. Preliminary results will be discussed

Immunoregulatory effects of testosterone supplementation combined with exercise training in men with Inclusion Body Myositis: A double‐blind, placebo‐controlled, cross‐over trial

Objectives Sporadic Inclusion Body Myositis (IBM) is an inflammatory muscle disease affecting individuals over the age of 45, leading to progressive muscle wasting, disability and loss of independence. Histologically, IBM is characterised by immune changes including myofibres expressing major histocompatibility complex molecules and invaded by CD8+ T cells and macrophages, and by degenerative changes including protein aggregates organised in inclusion bodies, rimmed vacuoles and mitochondrial abnormalities. There is currently no cure, and regular exercise is currently the only recognised treatment effective at limiting muscle weakening, atrophy and loss of function. Testosterone exerts anti-inflammatory effects, inhibiting effector T-cell differentiation and pro-inflammatory cytokine production. Methods We conducted a double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over trial in men with IBM, to assess whether a personalised progressive exercise training combined with application of testosterone, reduced the inflammatory immune response associated with this disease over and above exercise alone. To assess intervention efficacy, we immunophenotyped blood immune cells by flow cytometry, and measured serum cytokines and chemokines by Luminex immunoassay. Results Testosterone supplementation resulted in modest yet significant count reduction in the classical monocyte subset as well as eosinophils. Testosterone-independent immunoregulatory effects attributed to exercise included altered proportions of some monocyte, T- and B-cell subsets, and reduced IL-12, IL-17, TNF-α, MIP-1β and sICAM-1 in spite of interindividual variability. Conclusion Overall, our findings indicate anti-inflammatory effects of exercise training in IBM patients, whilst concomitant testosterone supplementation provides some additional changes. Further studies combining testosterone and exercise would be worthwhile in larger cohorts and longer testosterone administration periods

The Van der Waals interaction of the hydrogen molecule - an exact local energy density functional

We verify that the van der Waals interaction and hence all dispersion interactions for the hydrogen molecule given by: W"= -{A/R^6}-{B/R^8}-{C/R^10}- ..., in which R is the internuclear separation, are exactly soluble. The constants A=6.4990267..., B=124.3990835 ... and C=1135.2140398... (in Hartree units) first obtained approximately by Pauling and Beach (PB) [1] using a linear variational method, can be shown to be obtainable to any desired accuracy via our exact solution. In addition we shall show that a local energy density functional can be obtained, whose variational solution rederives the exact solution for this problem. This demonstrates explicitly that a static local density functional theory exists for this system. We conclude with remarks about generalising the method to other hydrogenic systems and also to helium.Comment: 11 pages, 13 figures and 28 reference

Magnetic Ordering, Orbital Ordering and Resonant X-ray Scattering in Perovskite Titanates

The effective Hamiltonian for perovskite titanates is derived by taking into account the three-fold degeneracy of $t_{2g}$ orbitals and the strong electron-electron interactions. The magnetic and orbital ordered phases are studied in the mean-field approximation applied to the effective Hamiltonian. A large degeneracy of the orbital states in the ferromagnetic phase is found in contrast to the case of the doubly degenerate $e_g$ orbitals. Lifting of this orbital degeneracy due to lattice distortions and spin-orbit coupling is examined. A general form for the scattering cross section of the resonant x-ray scattering is derived and is applied to the recent experimental results in YTiO$_3$. The spin wave dispersion relation in the orbital ordered YTiO$_3$ is also studied.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure

Unscreened Hartree-Fock calculations for metallic Fe, Co, Ni, and Cu from ab-initio Hamiltonians

Unscreened Hartree-Fock approximation (HFA) calculations for metallic Fe, Co, Ni, and Cu are presented, by using a quantum-chemical approach. We believe that these are the first HFA results to have been done for crystalline 3d transition metals. Our approach uses a linearized muffin-tin orbital calculation to determine Bloch functions for the Hartree one-particle Hamiltonian, and from these obtains maximally localized Wannier functions, using a method proposed by Marzari and Vanderbilt. Within this Wannier basis all relevant one-particle and two-particle Coulomb matrix elements are calculated. The resulting second-quantized multi-band Hamiltonian with ab-initio parameters is studied within the simplest many-body approximation, namely the unscreened, self-consistent HFA, which takes into account exact exchange and is free of self-interactions. Although the d-bands sit considerably lower within HFA than within the local (spin) density approximation L(S)DA, the exchange splitting and magnetic moments for ferromagnetic Fe, Co, and Ni are only slightly larger in HFA than what is obtained either experimentally or within LSDA. The HFA total energies are lower than the corresponding LSDA calculations. We believe that this same approach can be easily extended to include more sophisticated ab-initio many-body treatments of the electronic structure of solids.Comment: 11 papes, 7 figures, 5 table

Block bond-order potential as a convergent moments-based method

The theory of a novel bond-order potential, which is based on the block Lanczos algorithm, is presented within an orthogonal tight-binding representation. The block scheme handles automatically the very different character of sigma and pi bonds by introducing block elements, which produces rapid convergence of the energies and forces within insulators, semiconductors, metals, and molecules. The method gives the first convergent results for vacancies in semiconductors using a moments-based method with a low number of moments. Our use of the Lanczos basis simplifies the calculations of the band energy and forces, which allows the application of the method to the molecular dynamics simulations of large systems. As an illustration of this convergent O(N) method we apply the block bond-order potential to the large scale simulation of the deformation of a carbon nanotube.Comment: revtex, 43 pages, 11 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Variable G and Λ\Lambda: scalar-tensor versus RG-improved cosmology

We study the consequences due to time varying $G$ and $\Lambda$ in scalar-tensor theories of gravity for cosmology, inspired by the modifications introduced by the Renormalization Group (RG) equations in the Quantum Einstein Gravity. We assume a power-law scale factor in presence contemporarily of both the scalar field and the matter components of the cosmic fluid, and analyze a special case and its generalization, also showing the possibility of a phantom cosmology. In both such situations we find a negative kinetic term for the scalar field $Q$ and, possibly, an equation-of-state parameter $w_Q<-1$. A violation of dominant energy condition (DEC) for $Q$ is also possible in both of them; but, while in the first special case the $Q$-energy density then remains positive, in the second one we find it negative.Comment: 25 pages, to be published in Gen. Rel. Grav. 200

Toward an internally consistent astronomical distance scale

Accurate astronomical distance determination is crucial for all fields in astrophysics, from Galactic to cosmological scales. Despite, or perhaps because of, significant efforts to determine accurate distances, using a wide range of methods, tracers, and techniques, an internally consistent astronomical distance framework has not yet been established. We review current efforts to homogenize the Local Group's distance framework, with particular emphasis on the potential of RR Lyrae stars as distance indicators, and attempt to extend this in an internally consistent manner to cosmological distances. Calibration based on Type Ia supernovae and distance determinations based on gravitational lensing represent particularly promising approaches. We provide a positive outlook to improvements to the status quo expected from future surveys, missions, and facilities. Astronomical distance determination has clearly reached maturity and near-consistency.Comment: Review article, 59 pages (4 figures); Space Science Reviews, in press (chapter 8 of a special collection resulting from the May 2016 ISSI-BJ workshop on Astronomical Distance Determination in the Space Age

Anisotropy studies around the galactic centre at EeV energies with the Auger Observatory

Data from the Pierre Auger Observatory are analyzed to search for anisotropies near the direction of the Galactic Centre at EeV energies. The exposure of the surface array in this part of the sky is already significantly larger than that of the fore-runner experiments. Our results do not support previous findings of localized excesses in the AGASA and SUGAR data. We set an upper bound on a point-like flux of cosmic rays arriving from the Galactic Centre which excludes several scenarios predicting sources of EeV neutrons from Sagittarius $A$. Also the events detected simultaneously by the surface and fluorescence detectors (the `hybrid' data set), which have better pointing accuracy but are less numerous than those of the surface array alone, do not show any significant localized excess from this direction.Comment: Matches published versio

Measurement of the polarisation of W bosons produced with large transverse momentum in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS experiment

This paper describes an analysis of the angular distribution of W->enu and W->munu decays, using data from pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2010, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 35 pb^-1. Using the decay lepton transverse momentum and the missing transverse energy, the W decay angular distribution projected onto the transverse plane is obtained and analysed in terms of helicity fractions f0, fL and fR over two ranges of W transverse momentum (ptw): 35 < ptw < 50 GeV and ptw > 50 GeV. Good agreement is found with theoretical predictions. For ptw > 50 GeV, the values of f0 and fL-fR, averaged over charge and lepton flavour, are measured to be : f0 = 0.127 +/- 0.030 +/- 0.108 and fL-fR = 0.252 +/- 0.017 +/- 0.030, where the first uncertainties are statistical, and the second include all systematic effects.Comment: 19 pages plus author list (34 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables, revised author list, matches European Journal of Physics C versio