Effects of systematic errors on the mixing ratios of trace gases obtained from occulation spectra

The influence of systematic errors in the parameters of the models describing the geometry and the atmosphere on the profiles of trace gases retrieved from simulated solar occultation spectra, collected at satellite altitudes, is investigated. Because of smearing effects and other uncertainties, it may be preferable to calibrate the spectra internally by measuring absorption lines of an atmospheric gas such as CO2 whose vertical distribution is assumed rather than to relay on externally supplied information

The retrieval of atmospheric constituent mixing-ratio profiles from solar absorption spectra

Methods used to determine various atmospheric gas distributions are summarized. The experimentally determined mixing ratio profiles (the mixing ratio of a gas is the ratio of the number of gas molecules to the number of air molecules) of some atmospheric gases are shown. In most in situ experiments stratospheric gas samples are collected at several altitudes by balloon, aircraft, or rocket. These samples are then analyzed by various methods. Mixing ratio profiles of Ci, ClO, and OH were determined by laser induced fluorescence of samples. Others have analyzed gas samples by gas chromatography in order to determine the molecular abundances of CCl2F2, CCl4, CCl3F, CFCl3, CF2Cl2, CHClF2, CH3CCl3, CH4, CO, C2Cl3F3, C2Cl4, C2HCl3, C2H2, C2H4, C2H6, C3H8, C6H6, C7H8, H2, and N2O

A Strategic Approach to Agricultural Research Program Planning in Sub-Saharan Africa

Recent studies have shown that agricultural research can have high payoffs in Africa, but impact depends on how well technology fits with evolving needs and capacity in the agricultural sector and the rest of the economy. Structural adjustment policies (e.g., market liberalization, currency devaluation) and political change are transforming user demands for new technology and the economic environment in which technology must perform. The challenge is how to design agricultural research as a strategic input to promote broad-based economic growth, structural transformation, and food security in the increasingly market-driven, but fragile, economies of Africa.Food Security, Food Policy, Agricultural Research, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, Downloads May 2008-July 2009: 44, Q18,

A Strategic Approach to Agricultural Research Program Planning in Sub-Saharan Africa

Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, Downloads May 2008-July 2009: 13,

N-of-1 randomized trials for psychological and health behavior outcomes: a systematic review protocol

Background Randomized controlled trials are the sine qua non of causal inference; however, heterogeneity of treatment effects for many chronic conditions and for many symptoms often limits their utility. Single-patient studies in which patients select a treatment after trying a randomized sequence of treatments (i.e., multiple crossover trials) offer an alternative to traditional randomized controlled trials by providing scientifically valid results in a practical manner that can be used by patients and their providers to decide upon their personally optimal treatment. Although N-of-1 trials have been used in the medical literature, their use for interventions that consist of psychological or health behavior outcomes is unknown. This systematic review thus aims to describe the interventions and outcomes and assess the quality of N-of-1 trials for psychological or health behavior outcomes. Methods/Design Electronic databases (Ovid MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and the six databases in the Cochrane Library) will be searched using all relevant subject headings and free-text terms to represent N-of-1 trials and psychological or behavioral interventions. Full text review and bibliography searching will be conducted. Unpublished studies will be sought by searching trial registries and contacting authors of included studies. Eligibility criteria are the following: population, all human participants for whom N-of-1 trials with psychological or health behavior outcomes have been conducted; interventions, all interventions for which N-of-1 trials have been conducted; comparison, placebo or active treatment control; and outcome, psychological and health behavior outcomes including self-perceived disease severity and psychological phenomena such as mood and affect. Studies that do not contain sufficient trial detail, describe only design or statistical analytic issues in N-of-1 trials without presentation of an N-of-1 trial itself, and/or are not written in the English language are ineligible. Screening, data extraction, and quality assessment will be conducted by two independent reviewers with disagreements resolved through discussion. Discussion This systematic review will describe the interventions and outcomes and assess the quality of N-of-1 trials for psychological or health behavior outcomes. The results will clarify the use of this research methodology in the health psychology and behavioral medicine literature and may pave the way for additional N-of-1 trials to be conducted

1975 commercial grape spray schedule

"MP 263, 2/75/1.5M"PRE-BLOOM SPRAYS -- BLOOM SPRAYS -- POST-BLOOM SPRAYS -- SUMMER SPRAYSBy W.R. Enns and W.S. Craig (Department of Entomology), A.E. Gaus (Department of Horticulture) and P.W. Steiner, H.W. Shaffer, and E.W. Palm (Department of Plant Pathology

Sonoporation-mediated loading of trehalose in cells for cryopreservation.

Trehalose, a non-reducing disaccharide, is present in many microorganisms and metazoans. In these organisms, trehalose acts as a stress protectant and helps preserve lipid membranes of cells during states of desiccation and freezing. Trehalose is required on both sides of the cell membrane to achieve a significant cryoprotective effect. Specific loading methods for trehalose are required since this sugar is impermeant to mammalian cells. Trehalose loading in mammalian cells has been achieved by fluid-phase endocytosis and genetic modification for the expression of trehalose transporters, however cryoprotective outcomes are unable to compete with established methods of cryopreservation for mammalian cells. Sonoporation was achieved using a microfluidics device modified with an ultrasound emitter in the presence of microbubbles. Ultrasound frequencies emitted by the transducer result in a process called cavitation, which is the rapid expansion and collapse of lipid-coated gas-filled bubbles present in the solution. Cavitation of microbubbles creates small jets of liquid that can create membrane pores that are 150-300 nm in size and quickly reseal through budding and exocytosis allowing for uptake of impermeant compounds, such as trehalose

Low Frequency Tilt Seismology with a Precision Ground Rotation Sensor

We describe measurements of the rotational component of teleseismic surface waves using an inertial high-precision ground-rotation-sensor installed at the LIGO Hanford Observatory (LHO). The sensor has a noise floor of 0.4 nrad$/ \sqrt{\rm Hz}$ at 50 mHz and a translational coupling of less than 1 $\mu$rad/m enabling translation-free measurement of small rotations. We present observations of the rotational motion from Rayleigh waves of six teleseismic events from varied locations and with magnitudes ranging from M6.7 to M7.9. These events were used to estimate phase dispersion curves which shows agreement with a similar analysis done with an array of three STS-2 seismometers also located at LHO

Irreversibility and Polymer Adsorption

Physisorption or chemisorption from dilute polymer solutions often entails irreversible polymer-surface bonding. We present a theory of the non-equilibrium layers which result. While the density profile and loop distribution are the same as for equilibrium layers, the final layer comprises a tightly bound inner part plus an outer part whose chains make only fN surface contacts where N is chain length. The contact fractions f follow a broad distribution, P(f) ~ f^{-4/5}, in rather close agreement with strong physisorption experiments [H. M. Schneider et al, Langmuir v.12, p.994 (1996)].Comment: 4 pages, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let