Aggregating available soil water holding capacity data for crop yield models

The total amount of water available to plants that is held against gravity in a soil is usually estimated as the amount present at -0.03 MPa average water potential minus the amount present at -1.5 MPa water potential. This value, designated available water-holding capacity (AWHC), is a very important soil characteristic that is strongly and positively correlated to the inherent productivity of soils. In various applications, including assessing soil moisture status over large areas, it is necessary to group soil types or series as to their productivity. Current methods to classify AWHC of soils consider only total capacity of soil profiles and thus may group together soils which differ greatly in AWHC as a function of depth in the profile. A general approach for evaluating quantitatively the multidimensional nature of AWHC in soils is described. Data for 902 soil profiles, representing 184 soil series, in Indiana were obtained from the Soil Characterization Laboratory at Purdue University. The AWHC for each of ten 150-mm layers in each soil was established, based on soil texture and parent material. A multivariate clustering procedure was used to classify each soil profile into one of 4, 8, or 12 classes based upon ten-dimensional AWHC values. The optimum number of classes depends on the range of AWHC in the population of oil profiles analyzed and on the sensitivity of a crop to differences in distribution of water within the soil profile

Augmented Cocaine Seeking in Response to Stress or CRF Delivered into the Ventral Tegmental Area Following Long-Access Self-Administration Is Mediated by CRF Receptor Type 1 But Not CRF Receptor Type 2

Stressful events are determinants of relapse in recovering cocaine addicts. Excessive cocaine use may increase susceptibility to stressor-induced relapse through alterations in brain corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) regulation of neurocircuitry involved in drug seeking. We previously reported that the reinstatement of cocaine seeking by a stressor (footshock) is CRF dependent and is augmented in rats that self-administered cocaine under long-access (LgA; 6 h daily) conditions for 14 d when compared with rats provided shorter daily cocaine access [short access (ShA) rats; 2 h daily]. Further, we have demonstrated that reinstatement in response to intracerebroventricular CRF administration is heightened in LgA rats. This study examined the role of altered ventral tegmental area (VTA) responsiveness to CRF in intake-dependent increases in CRF- and stress-induced cocaine seeking. Bilateral intra-VTA administration of CRF (250 or 500 ng/side) produced reinstatement in LgA but not ShA rats. In LgA rats, intra-VTA CRF-induced reinstatement was blocked by administration of the CRF-receptor type 1 (CRF-R1) antagonist antalarmin (500 ng/side) or CP-376395 (500 ng/side), but not the CRF-R2 antagonist astressin-2B (500 ng or 1 μg/side) or antisauvagine-30(ASV-30; 500 ng/side) into the VTA. Likewise, intra-VTA antalarmin, but not astressin-2B, blocked footshock-induced reinstatement in LgA rats. By contrast, neither intra-VTA antalarmin nor CP-376395 altered food-reinforced lever pressing. Intra-VTA injection of the CRF-R1-selective agonist cortagine (100 ng/side) but not the CRF-R2-selective agonist rat urocortin II (rUCN II; 250 ng/side) produced reinstatement. These findings reveal that excessive cocaine use increases susceptibility to stressor-induced relapse in part by augmenting CRF-R1-dependent regulation of addiction-related neurocircuitry in the VTA

Population trends of resident and migratory Canada geese in relation to strikes with civil aircraft

Canada geese (Branta canadensis) are of particular concern to aviation in the USA because of their large size, flocking behavior, attraction to airports for grazing, and, for the resident population, year-round presence in urban environments. We documented trends in resident and migrant Canada goose populations in North America from 1970 to 2012, and for 1990 to 2012 examined these trends in relation to trends in reported civil aircraft collisions (strikes) with Canada geese. The overall Canada goose population increased 4.5 fold from 1.26 million in 1970 to 5.69 million in 2012. Most of this overall increase was due to a 15.6-fold increase in the population of resident geese (from 0.25 to 3.85 million), especially during the 1990s when the population increased at a mean annual rate of 12.7%. From 2000 to 2012, the resident population has stabilized, fluctuating between 3.36 and 3.85 million birds. The migrant population has remained relatively stable since 1990, with the population in 2012 estimated at 1.84 million. Resident geese comprised 68% of the total Canada goose population in 2012 compared to 41% in 1990 and 20% in 1970. From 1990 to 2012, 1,403 Canada goose strikes with civil aircraft were reported in the USA, of which 704 (50%) caused damage. The strike rate and damaging strike rate for all geese and for resident geese only (strikes in May to September) increased in parallel with the increase in the total Canada goose population (resident and migratory combined) and resident population, respectively, from 1990 to 1999. From 1999 to 2012, the strike rate and especially the damage strike rate exhibited a downward trend, especially for strikes involving resident geese during May to September. We hypothesize that this decline is due to Canada goose management programs implemented at many airports and in other urban areas

Tiger Sharks Eat Songbirds: Reply

In response to our recent paper (Drymon et al. 2019), Yosef (2019) questions the mechanism proposed to explain interactions between tiger sharks (Galeocerdo cuvier) and migratory songbirds, while offering an alternative mechanism based on a single observation. We appreciate the comments from Yosef and the opportunity to respond

Do pharmacy practice standards effectively describe behaviour? Reviewing practice standards using a behavioural specificity framework

BACKGROUND: Guidelines and practice standards exist to communicate the conduct and behaviour expected of health care professionals and ensure consistent quality practice. It is important that they describe behaviours explicitly so they can be interpreted, enacted and measured with ease. The AACTT framework specifies behaviour in terms of the: Action to be performed, Actor who performs the action, Context where the action occurs, Target who the action is performed with/for and Time when the action is performed (AACTT). It provides the most up to date framework for specifying behaviours and is particularly relevant to complex behavioural problems that involve sequences of behaviours performed by different people. Behavioural specificity within pharmacy practice standards has not been explored. AIM: To determine if behaviours described in the Professional Practice Standards for Australian Pharmacists specify Action, Actor, Context, Target and Time. METHODS: Two researchers independently reviewed the scope and structure of the practice standards and one extracted action statements (behaviours) verbatim. Through an iterative process, the researchers modified and developed the existing AACTT definitions to operationalise them for application to review of the action statements in the practice standards. The operational definitions, decision criteria and curated examples were combined in a codebook. The definitions were consistently applied through a directed content analysis approach to evaluate all extracted action statements by one researcher. For consistency 20% was independently checked for agreement by a second researcher. RESULTS: A novel codebook to apply AACTT criteria to evaluate practice standards was developed. Application of this codebook identified 768 independent behaviours. Of these, 300 (39%) described at least one discrete observable action, none specified an actor, 25 (3%) specified context, 131 (17%) specified target and 88 (11%) specified time. CONCLUSION(S): The behaviours detailed in practice standards for Australian pharmacists do not consistently specify behaviours in terms of Action, Actor, Context, Target and Time. Developers in the pharmacy profession, and beyond, should consider the behavioural specificity of their documents to improve interpretability, usability and adherence to the behaviours detailed. This also has implications for the development and evaluation of interventions to change such behaviours and improve quality of care

ODS-materials for high temperature applications in advanced nuclear systems

AbstractA ferritic ODS-alloy (Fe-14Cr-1W-0.25Ti) has been manufactured by application of the powder metallurgical production route involving at first mechanical alloying of ∼10kg pre-alloyed steel powder together with an Y2O3 addition for 12h in a high energy industrial ball mill under hydrogen atmosphere at the company ZOZ GmbH. As a next step, one part of the alloyed powder was hot extruded into rods while another portion was hot isostatically pressed into plates. Both materials were then heat treated. A characterization program on these ODS-alloy production forms included microstructural and mechanical investigations: SANS and TEM assume the existence of Y2Ti2O7 nano clusters and show a bimodal distribution of ODS-particle sizes in both ODS variants. EBSD maps showed a strong 〈110〉 texture corresponding to the α fiber for the hot extruded ODS and a slight 〈001〉 texture for the hipped ODS material. Fracture toughness tests in different specimen orientations (extruded ODS) with mini 0.2T C(T) specimens together with Charpy impact tests revealed anisotropic mechanical properties: Promising (fracture) toughness levels were obtained in the specimen orientation perpendicular to the extrusion direction, while the toughness levels remained low in extrusion direction and generally for the hipped ODS material at all test temperatures. The fracture toughness tests were performed according to ASTM E 1921 and 1820 standards

COBALT CoOperative Blending of Autonomous Landing Technology

COBALT is a terrestrial test platform for development and maturation of GN&C (Guidance, Navigation and Control) technologies for PL&HA (Precision Landing and Hazard Avoidance). The project is developing a third generation, Langley Navigation Doppler Lidar (NDL) for ultra-precise velocity and range measurements, which will be integrated and tested with the JPL Lander Vision System (LVS) for Terrain Relative Navigation (TRN) position estimates. These technologies together provide navigation that enables controlled precision landing. The COBALT hardware will be integrated in 2017 into the GN&C subsystem of the Xodiac rocket-propulsive Vertical Test Bed (VTB) developed by Masten Space Systems (MSS), and two terrestrial flight campaigns will be conducted: one open-loop (i.e., passive) and one closed-loop (i.e., active)

Tumor cell-derived Timp-1 is necessary for maintaining metastasis-promoting Met-signaling via inhibition of Adam-10.

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