New ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar dating of the Grande Ronde lavas, Columbia River Basalts, USA: Implications for duration of flood basalt eruption episodes

Grande Ronde Basalt (GRB) lavas represent the most voluminous eruptive pulse of the Columbia River-Snake River-Yellowstone hotspot volcanism. With an estimated eruptive volume of 150,000 km3, GRB lavas form at least 66% of the total volume of the Columbia River Basalt Group. New 40Ar/39Ar dates for GRB lavas reveal they were emplaced within a maximum period of 0.42 ± 0.18 My. A well-documented stratigraphy indicates at least 110 GRB flow fields (or individual eruptions), and on this basis suggests an average inter-eruption hiatus of less than 4,000 years. Isotopic age-dating cannot resolve time gaps between GRB eruptions, and it is difficult to otherwise form a picture of the durations of eruptions because of non-uniform weathering in the top of flow fields and a general paucity of sediments between GR lavas. Where sediment has formed on top of the GRB, it varies in thickness from zero to 20-30 cm of silty to fine-sandy material, with occasional diatomaceous sediment. Individual GRB eruptions varied considerably in volume but many were greater than 1000 km3 in size. Most probably eruptive events were not equally spaced in time; some eruptions may have followed short periods of volcanic repose (perhaps 102 to 103 of yrs), whilst others could have been considerably longer (many 1000 s to > 104 yrs). Recent improvements in age-dating for other continental flood basalt (CFB) lava sequences have yielded estimates of total eruptive durations of less than 1 My for high-volume pulses of lava production. The GRB appears to be a similar example, where the main pulse occupied a brief period. Even allowing for moderate to long-duration pahoehoe flow field production, the amount of time the system spends in active lava-producing mode is small – less than c. 2.6% (based on eruption durations of approximately 10,000 yrs, as compared to the duration of the entire eruptive pulse of c. 420,000 yrs). A review of available 40Ar/39Ar data for the major voluminous phases of the Columbia River Basalt Group suggests that activity of the Steens Basalt-Imnaha Basalt-GRB may have, at times, been simultaneous, with obvious implications for climatic effects. Resolving intervals between successive eruptions during CFB province construction, and durations of main eruptive pulses, remains vital to determining the environmental impact of these huge eruptions

On the design of an energy-efficient low-latency integrated protocol for distributed mobile sensor networks

Self organizing, wireless sensors networks are an emergent and challenging technology that is attracting large attention in the sensing and monitoring community. Impressive progress has been done in recent years even if we need to assume that an optimal protocol for every kind of sensor network applications can not exist. As a result it is necessary to optimize the protocol for certain scenarios. In many applications for instance latency is a crucial factor in addition to energy consumption. MERLIN performs its best in such WSNs where there is the need to reduce the latency while ensuring that energy consumption is kept to a minimum. By means of that, the low latency characteristic of MERLIN can be used as a trade off to extend node lifetimes. The performance in terms of energy consumption and latency is optimized by acting on the slot length. MERLIN is designed specifically to integrate routing, MAC and localization protocols together. Furthermore it can support data queries which is a typical application for WSNs. The MERLIN protocol eliminates the necessity to have any explicit handshake mechanism among nodes. Furthermore, the reliability is improved using multiple path message propagation in combination with an overhearing mechanism. The protocol divides the network into subsets where nodes are grouped in time zones. As a result MERLIN also shows a good scalability by utilizing an appropriate scheduling mechanism in combination with a contention period

A Field Trial with the Insect Growth Regulator Oms-1390 Against Culex Pipiens Fatigans in Jakarta, Indonesia

Pemakaian "insect growth regulator" OMS-1390 dengan dosis 1 ppm untuk menahan perkembangan larvae Culex pipiens fatigans dalam 1 aplikasi penyemprotan memberikan efektifitas selama enam minggu.Percobaan ini diselenggarakan pada musim kemarau, di daerah yang padat penduduknya, seluas 1 km persegi di Jakarta, Indonesia

Object Detection for Agricultural and Construction Environments Using an Ultrasonic Sensor

This study tested an ultrasonic sensor‘s ability to detect several objects commonly encountered in outdoor agricultural or construction environments: a water jug, a sheet of oriented strand board (OSB), a metal fence post, a human model, a wooden fence post, a Dracaena plant, a juniper plant, and a dog model. Tests were performed with each target object at distances from 0.01 to 3 m. Five tests were performed with each object at each location, and the sensor‘s ability to detect the object during each test was categorized as undetected, intermittent, incorrect distance, good. Rigid objects that presented a larger surface area to the sensor, such as the water jug and OSB, were better detected than objects with a softer surface texture, which were occasionally not detected as the distance approached 3 m. Objects with extremely soft surface texture, such as the dog model, could be undetected at almost any distance from the sensor. The results of this testing should help designers of future systems for outdoor environments, as the target objects tested can be found in nearly any agricultural or construction environment

Seasonal Abundance of Adult and Immature Aedes Aegypti (L.) in Jakarta

Dari bulan Mei 1973 sampai bulan Juni 1974 telah dilakukan pengamatan nyamuk Aedes aegypti stadium dewasa dan larva di keempat daerah kota yang berpenduduk padat di Jakarta Raya. Pengamatan dikerjakan 2 kali dalam satu bulan Daya tarik nyamuk terhadap manusia rata-rata 1.2 induk betina dan 1.6 untuk nyamuk jantan tiap orang tiap jam. Dalam 100 rumah diketemukan rata-rata 180 buah bejana berisi air, dimana 58 buah positif; Container index (persentasi bejana yang tositif) 32 persen House index (persentasi rumah yang positif) adalah 47 persen dan Breteau index jumlah bejana positif dalam 100 rumah) adalah 58. Kepadatan nyamuk baik larva maupun dewasa rata-rata hampir sama sepanjang tahun, (tidak ada perbedaan pada musim hujan dan musim panas), temperatur dan kelembaban juga rata-rata hampir sama sepanjang tahun. hampir semua tempat perindukan terdapat didalam rumah, hingga sedikit sekali bejana diluar rumah yang terisi oleh air hujan dalam musim hujan

Informing the development of services supporting self-care for long term mental health conditions: A mixed method study of community based mental health initiatives in England

Background Supporting self-care is being explored across health care systems internationally as an approach to improving care for long term conditions in the context of ageing populations and economic constraint. UK health policy advocates a range of approaches to supporting self-care, including the application of generic self-management type programmes across conditions. Within mental health, the scope of self-care remains poorly conceptualised and the existing evidence base for supporting self-care is correspondingly disparate. This paper aims to inform the development of support for self-care in mental health by considering how generic self-care policy guidance is implemented in the context of services supporting people with severe, long term mental health problems. Methods A mixed method study was undertaken comprising standardised psychosocial measures, questionnaires about health service use and qualitative interviews with 120 new referrals to three contrasting community based initiatives supporting self-care for severe, long term mental health problems, repeated nine months later. A framework approach was taken to qualitative analysis, an exploratory statistical analysis sought to identify possible associations between a range of independent variables and self-care outcomes, and a narrative synthesis brought these analyses together. Results Participants reported improvement in self-care outcomes (e.g. greater empowerment; less use of Accident and Emergency services). These changes were not associated with level of engagement with self-care support. Level of engagement was associated with positive collaboration with support staff. Qualitative data described the value of different models of supporting self-care and considered challenges. Synthesis of analyses suggested that timing support for self-care, giving service users control over when and how they accessed support, quality of service user-staff relationships and decision making around medication are important issues in supporting self-care in mental health. Conclusions Service delivery components – e.g. peer support groups, personal planning – advocated in generic self-care policy have value when implemented in a mental health context. Support for self-care in mental health should focus on core, mental health specific qualities; issues of control, enabling staff-service user relationships and shared decision making. The broad empirical basis of our research indicates the wider relevance of our findings across mental health settings

韓国の水田の蚊幼虫捕食性魚類に対する農薬の毒性

An important consideration regarding the maintenance or increase of fish populations in rice field areas in relation to Japanese encephalitis is whether the agricultural chemicals applied to rice fields are harmful to fish. This study has shown that the herbicide PCP, which is commonly used in South Korea during the rice-transplanting period, is highly toxic to Aplocheilus latipes and Zacco platypus. Both species are larvivorous and offer promise in integrated vector control. On the other hand, certain organophosphorus materials applied for rice pest control and the herbicide 2-4 D did not appear to be toxic to fish populations.水田地域における魚類個体群の維持と増加にとって,水田に撒布される農薬が魚に有害かどうかゞ重要である.韓国南部で田植時期に普通に使用される除草剤PCPは,Aplocheilus latipesメダカ及びZacco platypusオイカワに対して強い毒性を示す.両種は蚊の幼虫を捕食するので,蚊の総合防除に当り考慮されるべきものである.一方,稲作害虫に対して撒布される有機燐剤や除草剤2-4Dは魚類個体群に有毒ではないようであった