Impact of broom, Cytisus scoparius (Fabaceae), in naturally treeless sub-alpine frost-hollow vegetation communities at the Barrington Tops, south-eastern Australia

The exotic shrub Cytisus scoparius (L.) Link (family Fabaceae), known as broom, is having a major impact on native vegetation in naturally treeless sub-alpine frost-hollow areas (c. 32o 01’ 37” S, 151o 26’ 12” E’, 1440 m elevation) at the Barrington Tops, New South Wales, in south-eastern Australia. This vegetation is of limited extent and has significant biogeographical and ecological importance. Nine paired 10 m line transects were compared, with one of the pair in areas of almost 100% Cytisus scoparius and the other in adjacent areas without Cytisus scoparius. Results were compared with species recorded from this area in the 1930s. There are obvious differences in native vegetation in areas with and without Cytisus scoparius. On average there were 5.1 (range 2–10) species per 10 m in areas of almost 100% Cytisus scoparius cover and 17.0 (12–25) species per 10 m in areas adjacent to infested areas but without Cytisus scoparius. Other than Cytisus scoparius, the area surveyed had little in the way of exotic species and these were only present at low densities. Native species present in 2008 are similar to those recorded in the 1930s; there were no records of Cytisus scoparius in the area in the 1930s. The study suggests that control of Cytisus scoparius in naturally treeless areas at the Barrington Tops should be a priority to prevent a decline in the distribution and abundance of many plant species, many of which only occur in treeless areas of the Barrington Tops

Evaluation of SMAP Freeze/Thaw Retrieval Accuracy at Core Validation Sites in the Contiguous United States

Seasonal freeze-thaw (FT) impacts much of the northern hemisphere and is an important control on its water, energy, and carbon cycle. Although FT in natural environments extends south of 45°N, FT studies using the L-band have so far been restricted to boreal or greater latitudes. This study addresses this gap by applying a seasonal threshold algorithm to Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) data (L3_SM_P) to obtain a FT product south of 45°N (‘SMAP FT’), which is then evaluated at SMAP core validation sites (CVS) located in the contiguous United States (CONUS). SMAP landscape FT retrievals are usually in good agreement with 0–5 cm soil temperature at SMAP grids containing CVS stations (\u3e70%). The accuracy could be further improved by taking into account specific overpass time (PM), the grid-specific seasonal scaling factor, the data aggregation method, and the sampling error. Annual SMAP FT extent maps compared to modeled soil temperatures derived from the Goddard Earth Observing System Model Version 5 (GEOS-5) show that seasonal FT in CONUS extends to latitudes of about 35–40°N, and that FT varies substantially in space and by year. In general, spatial and temporal trends between SMAP and modeled FT were similar

Speciation of cadmium mixed ligand complexes in salt water lakes

Amalgam voltammetry has been used to study heavy metal interaction in model lake water in KNO3 at 23 oC at concentration levels of genuine lake water. The hanging drop amalgam electrode was prepared in situ before exchanging the medium for the sample solution. Half-wave potentials at two metal ion concentrations were measured, one at the actual concentration in the lake while the other at a much lower one. The experimentally determined shifts in half-wave potentials are used to compute several formation constants. At the natural [CO32-] of 0.5 M in the lake, the main contributor to the speciation of cadmium is [Cd(CO3Cl2)]2-. At high [Cd2+], the DPASV detects the presence of free Cd2+ ions, hence, potential polluting effect, while the amalgam reports [Cd(CO3)2Cl)]3- to be dominant above [CO32-] = 0.8 M. There is a variation in the number of complexes detected, their stabilities and percentage distribution in the two methods. Cd2+ ion concentration also affects the number of complexes formed and their stabilities. KEY WORDS: Heavy metals, Hanging drop electrode, Amalgam voltammetry, Speciation, Cadmium mixed ligand complexes  Bull. Chem. Soc. Ethiop. 2003, 17(1), 85-94

Clapping for Carers in the Covid-19 crisis: Carers’ reflections in a UK survey

This paper reports and discusses the weekly Clapping for Carers – described as ‘front-line heroes’ that took place across the United Kingdom during the first national lockdown of the coronavirus pandemic. Data are drawn from a UK-wide online survey of health and social care workers, completed in May to July 2020. The survey received 3,425 responses of which 2,541 were analysed; free-text comments were categorised. One question asked specifically: ‘Do you think the “Clap for Carers” was a helpful response from the public?’, and 815 comments were provided. Responses were extracted from these 815 free-text comments and categorised as follows: unequivocally Yes, predominantly Yes, mixed feelings, predominantly No and unequivocally No. Most comments revealed mixed feelings about the helpfulness of Clapping with only a minority being entirely supportive. The free-text comments offer some explanations for these views with many feeling that Clapping distracted from the severity of the pandemic and the inadequate resources. The free-text comments reveal workforce concerns that the support demonstrated for the frontline workforce in Clapping might be transitory and that it may not translate into workforce improvements and political commitment to further funding of health and social care. Some saw the value of Clapping as illustrative of community cohesion. There was little mention of Clapping for heroes, and where it was the notion of heroism was rejected. The demonstration of public support in Clapping for Carers may have directly benefitted the public, but only indirectly the workforce. Future recruitment data may help discern if public support has translated into a desire to join the workforce

Safety in maritime oil sector: Content analysis of machinery space fire hazards

An in-depth study of the practice within the maritime oil industry was undertaken to ascertain safety issues in seafaring vessels. It was more concentrated on the type of accidents that occur in machine spaces of seafaring vessels in this industry. The main focus of the research was streamlined to fire in machinery spaces. The literature review later concentrated on two of such incidences, they are oil spill and fire events. An investigation was done to assess those factors which actually contribute or are in association to fire outbreak. A content analysis methodology was used to investigate the associative relationships to fire outbreak with the aid of NVivo 9.0 software. The investigation focused on 15 key in-depth reports on machinery space incidences which were uploaded into the software. The results indicate that leakages on hot surfaces were the major causes of fire hazards in seafaring vessels. The results from using this methodology also highlighted two more fire hazards that were not so apparent in previous studies. They are generator fire and compressors fire. The results supported other studies about leakages on hot surfaces as a major contributor, but also clearly show that there are other hazardous factors of fire in machinery spaces that require further investigation

Artificial Light Increases Local Predator Abundance, Predation Rates, and Herbivory.

Human activity is rapidly increasing the radiance and geographic extent of artificial light at night (ALAN) leading to alterations in the development, behavior, and physiological state of many organisms. A limited number of community-scale studies investigating the effects of ALAN have allowed for spatial aggregation through positive phototaxis, the commonly observed phenomenon of arthropod movement toward light. We performed an open field study (without restricted arthropod access) to determine the effects of ALAN on local arthropod community composition, plant traits, and local herbivory and predation rates. We found strong positive phototaxis in 10 orders of arthropods, with increased (159% higher) overall arthropod abundance under ALAN compared to unlit controls. The arthropod community under ALAN was more diverse and contained a higher proportion of predaceous arthropods (15% vs 8%). Predation of immobilized flies occurred 3.6 times faster under ALAN; this effect was not observed during the day. Contrary to expectations, we also observed a 6% increase in herbivory under ALAN. Our results highlight the importance of open experimental field studies in determining community-level effects of ALAN

Spectroscopy of Globular Clusters in M81

We present moderate-resolution spectroscopy of globular clusters (GCs) around the Sa/Sb spiral galaxy M81 (NGC 3031). Sixteen candidate clusters were observed with the Low Resolution Imaging Spectrograph on the Keck I telescope. All are confirmed as bona fide GCs, although one of the clusters appears to have been undergoing a transient event during our observations. In general, the M81 globular cluster system (GCS) is found to be very similar to the Milky Way (MW) and M31 systems, both chemically and kinematically. A kinematic analysis of the velocities of 44 M81 GCS, (the 16 presented here and 28 from previous work) strongly suggests that the red, metal-rich clusters are rotating in the same sense as the gas in the disk of M81. The blue, metal-poor clusters have halo-like kinematics, showing no evidence for rotation. The kinematics of clusters whose projected galactocentric radii lie between 4 and 8 kpc suggest that they are rotating much more than those which lie outside these bounds. We suggest that these rotating, intermediate-distance clusters are analogous to the kinematic sub-population in the metal-rich, disk GCs observed in the MW and we present evidence for the existence of a similar sub-population in the metal-rich clusters of M31. With one exception, all of the M81 clusters in our sample have ages that are consistent with MW and M31 GCs. One cluster may be as young as a few Gyrs. The correlations between absorption-line indices established for MW and M31 GCs also hold in the M81 cluster system, at least at the upper end of the metallicity distribution (which our sample probes). On the whole, the mean metallicity of the M81 GCS is similar to the metallicity of the MW and M31 GCSs. The projected mass of M81 is similar to the masses of the MW and M31. Its mass profile indicates the presence of a dark matter halo.Comment: 35 pages, including 11 figures and 9 tables. Accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journa

Data-driven normalization strategies for high-throughput quantitative RT-PCR

Background: High-throughput real-time quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) is a widely used technique in experiments where expression patterns of genes are to be profiled. Current stage technology allows the acquisition of profiles for a moderate number of genes (50 to a few thousand), and this number continues to grow. The use of appropriate normalization algorithms for qPCR-based data is therefore a highly important aspect of the data preprocessing pipeline

Keck Spectroscopy of Candidate Proto-globular Clusters in NGC 1275

Keck spectroscopy of 5 proto-globular cluster candidates in NGC 1275 has been combined with HST WFPC2 photometry to explore the nature and origin of these objects and discriminate between merger and cooling flow scenarios for globular cluster formation. The objects we have studied are not HII regions, but rather star clusters, yet their integrated spectral properties do not resemble young or intermediate age Magellanic Cloud clusters or Milky Way open clusters. The clusters' Balmer absorption appears to be too strong to be consistent with any of the standard Bruzual & Charlot evolutionary models at any metallicity. If these models are adopted, an IMF which is skewed to high masses provides a better fit to the data. A truncated IMF with a mass range of 2-3 Mo reproduces the observed Balmer equivalent widths and colors at about 450 Myr. Formation in a continuous cooling flow appears to be ruled out since the age of the clusters is much larger than the cooling time, the spatial scale of the clusters is much smaller than the cooling flow radius, and the deduced star formation rate in the cooling flow favors a steep rather than a flat IMF. A merger would have to produce clusters only in the central few kpc, presumably from gas in the merging galaxies which was channeled rapidly to the center. Widespread shocks in merging galaxies cannot have produced these clusters. If these objects are confirmed to have a relatively flat, or truncated, IMF it is unclear whether or not they will evolve into objects we would regard as bona fide globular clusters.Comment: 30 pages (AAS two column style, including 9 tables and 7 figures) to appear in the AJ (August issue), also available at http://www.ucolick.org/~mkissler/Sages/sages.html (with a full resolution Fig.1) Revised Version: previous posted version was an uncorrect ealier iteration, parts of the text, tables and figures changed. The overall conclusions remain unchange