The Effect of a Varying Moisture Supply at Different Periods of Growth on the Development, Yield and Quality of Flax

In the flaxseed producing section of the United States consisting of the states of North Dakota, South Dakota, and Minnesota and Montana, periods of drought frequently occur during some part of the growing season. The time of occurrence varies from early spring to fall. Such periods have a profound effect on the normal growth of the plant

Contraintes d’adoption des technologies de gestion de la fertilite des sols en riziculture irriguee au Sud Togo

La baisse de fertilité des sols, l’une des principales contraintes du secteur agricole au Togo, sévit encore plus dans la riziculture irriguée où les terres sont exploitées chaque année sans jachère. Face à cette situation, diverses solutions comme les technologies de gestion de la fertilité des sols ont été proposées. Afin d’évaluer le taux d’adoption des technologies et les contraintes d’adoption, une étude a été réalisée dans les périmètres irrigués de la région Maritime auprès de 250 riziculteurs dans quatre villages. Les résultats de l’étude ont montré que les technologies comme l’apport d’engrais, (quatre sacs NPK 15-15- 15 et deux sacs d’Urée 46 %) et l’apport fractionné de l’urée en deux temps sont adoptées à plus de 60 % en raison du niveau de fertilité des sols et de leur pratique peu couteuse. Par contre, le placement profond d’urée et l’enfouissement de la paille du riz ont été moins adoptés avec un taux d’adoption inférieur à 15 %. Les raisons évoquées sont entre autres le coût élevé des technologies, le manque d’équipements, la pénibilité des activités et le manque d’informations.Il ressort donc que les paquets de technologies vulgarisées sont parfois incomplètes et répondent peu aux conditions socioéconomiques des riziculteurs.Mots clés : Niveau d’adoption, technologiques, fertilité des sols, riziculture irriguée, Sud TogoEnglish AbstractConstraints to the adoption of soil fertility management technologies in irricated rice farming in the South TogoThe decline in soil fertility, one of the main constraints of the agricultural sector in Togo, is even more prevalent in irrigated rice farming where land is harvested every year without fallow.These falling in soil fertility, the main constraints of the agricultural sector, are even more prevalent in irrigated rice farming where land is harvested each year without fallow. Faced with this situation, various solutions have been proposed, including technologies for the management of soil fertility. In order to determine the rate of adoption of technologies and contraints of adoption, a study was carried out in the irrigated perimeters of the Maritime region with 250 rice farmers in four villages. The results of the study showed that technologies such as fertilizer supply four bags NPK 15-15-15 and two bags urea 46 % and fractional intake of urea in two stages are adopted to more than 60 % in because of the level of soil fertility and their inexpensive practice. On the other hand, technologies such as the deep placement of urea and the burial of rice straw have been very little adopted, with an adoption rate of less than 15%. Reasons evoke are high technology costs, lack of equipment, hardship and lack of information.It thus appears that the packages of popularized technologies are sometimes incomplete and answer little to the socio-economic conditions of rice farmers.Keywords : Adoption level, technologies, soil fertility, irrigated rice farming, south Tog

Formation of submarine lava channel textures : insights from laboratory simulations

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2006. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research 111 (2006): B03104, doi:10.1029/2005JB003796.Laboratory simulations using polyethylene glycol (PEG) extruded at a constant rate and temperature into a tank with a uniform basal slope and filled with a cold sucrose solution generate channels that are defined by stationary levees and mobile flow interiors. These laboratory channels consistently display the following surface textures in the channel: smooth, folded, lineated, and chaotic. In the simulations, we can observe specific local conditions including flow rate, position within the channel, and time that combine to develop each texture. The textures in PEG flows form due to relative differences in shear forces between the PEG crust and the underlying liquid wax. Minimal shear forces form smooth crust, whereas folded crust forms when the shear is sufficiently high to cause ductile deformation. Brittle deformation of solid PEG creates a chaotic texture, and lineated crust results from shear forces along the channel-levee margin. We observe similar textures in submarine lava channels with sources at or near the Axial Summit Trough of the East Pacific Rise between 9° and 10°N. We mapped the surface textures of nine submarine lava channels using high-resolution digital images collected during camera tows. These textural maps, along with observations of the formation of similar features in analog flows, reveal important information about the mechanisms occurring across the channel during emplacement, including relative flow velocity and shear stress.The cruise was funded by a grant to WHOI from the National Science Foundation (NSF) OCE-9819261, with additional funding provided by WHOI thorough the Vetlesen Foundation. The PEG experiments were funded by NSF OCE-0425073 in a grant to Tracy Gregg

Fate of dispersants associated with the Deepwater Horizon oil spill

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2011. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of American Chemical Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Environmental Science & Technology 45 (2011):1298–1306, doi:10.1021/es103838p.Response actions to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill included the injection of ~771,000 gallons (2,900,000 L) of chemical dispersant into the flow of oil near the seafloor. Prior to this incident, no deepwater applications of dispersant had been conducted and thus no data exists on the environmental fate of dispersants in deepwater. We used ultrahigh resolution mass spectrometry and liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) to identify and quantify one key ingredient of the dispersant, the anionic surfactant DOSS (dioctyl sodium sulfosuccinate), in the Gulf of Mexico deepwater during active flow and again after flow had ceased. Here we show that DOSS was sequestered in deepwater hydrocarbon plumes at 1000-1200m water depth and did not intermingle with surface dispersant applications. Further, its concentration distribution was consistent with conservative transport and dilution at depth and it persisted up to 300 km from the well, 64 days after deepwater dispersant applications ceased. We conclude that DOSS was selectively associated with the oil and gas phases in the deepwater plume, yet underwent negligible, or slow, rates of biodegradation in the affected waters. These results provide important constraints on accurate modeling of the deepwater plume and critical geochemical contexts for future toxicological studies.The authors gratefully acknowledge funding from the National Science Foundation’s RAPID program (OCE-1045811 to EBK, OCE-1042097 to DLV, OCE-1042650 to J. D. Kessler for R/V Cape Hatteras cruise) and from the WHOI Director of Research. Instrumentation in the WHOI FT-MS facility was funded by the National Science Foundation MRI program (OCE-0619608) and by the Gordon and Betty T. Moore Foundation. Stipend support for A. Boysen was provided by the WHOI Summer Student Fellow Program

Navigational infrastructure at the East Pacific Rise 9°50′N area following the 2005–2006 eruption : seafloor benchmarks and near-bottom multibeam surveys

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2008. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems 9 (2008):Q11T04, doi:10.1029/2008GC002070.Four seafloor benchmarks were deployed with ROV Jason2 at frequently visited areas along the northern East Pacific Rise (NEPR) ridge crest near 9°50′N, within the Ridge2000 EPR integrated study site (ISS) bull's eye. When used in concert with established deep-ocean acoustic positioning techniques, these benchmarks provide navigational infrastructure to facilitate the integration of near-bottom data at this site by allowing efficient and quantitative coregistration of data and observations collected on multiple dives and over multiple cruises. High-resolution, near-bottom multibeam bathymetric surveys also were conducted along and across the ridge crest to provide a morphological and geological context for the benchmark areas. We describe the navigation and data processing techniques used to constrain the benchmark positions and outline operational details to effectively use benchmarks at this and other deep-ocean sites where multidisciplinary time series studies are conducted. The well-constrained positions of the benchmarks provide a consistent geospatial framework that can be used to limit navigational uncertainties during seafloor sampling and mapping programs and enable accurate spatial coregistration and integration of observations. These data are important to test a range of multidisciplinary hypotheses that seek to link geological, chemical, and biological processes associated with crustal accretion and energy transfer from the mantle to the hydrosphere at mid-ocean ridges

First direct observation of Dirac fermions in graphite

Originating from relativistic quantum field theory, Dirac fermions have been recently applied to study various peculiar phenomena in condensed matter physics, including the novel quantum Hall effect in graphene, magnetic field driven metal-insulator-like transition in graphite, superfluid in 3He, and the exotic pseudogap phase of high temperature superconductors. Although Dirac fermions are proposed to play a key role in these systems, so far direct experimental evidence of Dirac fermions has been limited. Here we report the first direct observation of massless Dirac fermions with linear dispersion near the Brillouin zone (BZ) corner H in graphite, coexisting with quasiparticles with parabolic dispersion near another BZ corner K. In addition, we report a large electron pocket which we attribute to defect-induced localized states. Thus, graphite presents a novel system where massless Dirac fermions, quasiparticles with finite effective mass, and defect states all contribute to the low energy electronic dynamics.Comment: Nature Physics, in pres

Hypokalemic Periodic Paralysis: a case report and review of the literature

Hypokalemic Periodic Paralysis is one form of Periodic Paralysis, a rare group of disorders that can cause of sudden onset weakness. A case of a 29 year old male is presented here. The patient presented with sudden onset paralysis of his extremities. Laboratory evaluation revealed a markedly low potassium level. The patient's paralysis resolved upon repletion of his low potassium and he was discharged with no neurologic deficits. An association with thyroid disease is well established and further workup revealed Grave's disease in this patient. Although rare, Periodic Paralysis must differentiated from other causes of weakness and paralysis so that the proper treatment can be initiated quickly

Beyond the androgen receptor II: New approaches to understanding and treating metastatic prostate cancer; Report from the 2017 Coffey‐Holden Prostate Cancer Academy Meeting

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138883/1/pros23424.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138883/2/pros23424_am.pd