Responsive in-season nitrogen management for cereals

Current nitrogen (N) management strategies for worldwide cereal production systems are characterized by low N use efficiency (NUE), environmental contamination, and considerable ongoing debate regarding what can be done to improve N fertilizer management. Development of innovative strategies that improve NUE and minimize off-field losses is crucial to sustaining cereal-based farming. In this paper, we review the major managerial causes for low NUE, including (1) poor synchrony between fertilizer N and crop demand, (2) uniform field applications to spatially variable landscapes that commonly vary in crop N need, and (3) failure to account for temporally variable influences on crop N needs. Poor synchronization is mainly due to large pre-plant applications of fertilizer N, resulting in high levels of inorganic soil N long before rapid crop uptake occurs. Uniform applications within fields discount the fact that N supplies from the soil, crop N uptake, and crop response are spatially variable. Current N management decisions also overlook year-to-year weather variations and sometimes fail to account for soil N mineralized in warm, wet years, ignoring indigenous N supply. The key to optimizing tradeoffs amongst yield, profit, and environmental protection is to achieve synchrony between N supply and crop demand, while accounting for spatial and temporal variability in soil N. While some have advocated a soil-based management zones (MZ) approach as a means to direct variable N applications and improve NUE, this method disregards yearly variation in weather. Thus, it seems unlikely that the soil-based MZ concept alone will be adequate for variable application of crop N inputs. Alternatively, we propose utilizing emerging computer and electronic technologies that focus on the plant to assess N status and direct in-season spatially variable N applications. Several of these technologies are reviewed and discussed. One technology showing promise is ground-based active-light reflectance measurements converted to NDVI or other similar indices. Preliminary research shows this approach addresses the issue of spatial variability and is accomplished at a time within the growing season so that N inputs are synchronized to match crop N uptake. We suggest this approach may be improved by first delineating a field into MZ using soil or other field properties to modify the decision associated with ground-based reflectance sensing. While additional adaptive research is needed to refine these newer technologies and subsequent N management decisions, preliminary results are encouraging.We expect N use efficiency can be greatly enhanced using this plant-based responsive strategy for N management in cereals

Genome-Wide Meta-Analyses of Smoking Behaviors in African Americans

The identification and exploration of genetic loci that influence smoking behaviors have been conducted primarily in populations of the European ancestry. Here we report results of the first genome-wide association study meta-analysis of smoking behavior in African Americans in the Study of Tobacco in Minority Populations Genetics Consortium (n=32 389). We identified one non-coding single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP; rs2036527[A]) on chromosome 15q25.1 associated with smoking quantity (cigarettes per day), which exceeded genome-wide significance ($\beta$=0.040, s.e.=0.007, P=1.84 × 10$^{−8}$). This variant is present in the 5′-distal enhancer region of the CHRNA5 gene and defines the primary index signal reported in studies of the European ancestry. No other SNP reached genome-wide significance for smoking initiation (SI, ever vs never smoking), age of SI, or smoking cessation (SC, former vs current smoking). Informative associations that approached genome-wide significance included three modestly correlated variants, at 15q25.1 within PSMA4, CHRNA5 and CHRNA3 for smoking quantity, which are associated with a second signal previously reported in studies in European ancestry populations, and a signal represented by three SNPs in the SPOCK2 gene on chr10q22.1. The association at 15q25.1 confirms this region as an important susceptibility locus for smoking quantity in men and women of African ancestry. Larger studies will be needed to validate the suggestive loci that did not reach genome-wide significance and further elucidate the contribution of genetic variation to disparities in cigarette consumption, SC and smoking-attributable disease between African Americans and European Americans

Cosmology with clusters of galaxies

In this Chapter I review the role that galaxy clusters play as tools to constrain cosmological parameters. I will concentrate mostly on the application of the mass function of galaxy clusters, while other methods, such as that based on the baryon fraction, are covered by other Chapters of the book. Since most of the cosmological applications of galaxy clusters rely on precise measurements of their masses, a substantial part of my Lectures concentrates on the different methods that have been applied so far to weight galaxy clusters. I provide in Section 2 a short introduction to the basics of cosmic structure formation. In Section 3 I describe the Press--Schechter (PS) formalism to derive the cosmological mass function, then discussing extensions of the PS approach and the most recent calibrations from N--body simulations. In Section 4 I review the methods to build samples of galaxy clusters at different wavelengths. Section 5 is devoted to the discussion of different methods to derive cluster masses. In Section 6 I describe the cosmological constraints, which have been obtained so far by tracing the cluster mass function with a variety of methods. Finally, I describe in Section 7 the future perspectives for cosmology with galaxy clusters and the challenges for clusters to keep playing an important role in the era of precision cosmology.Comment: 49 pages, 19 figures, Lectures for 2005 Guillermo Haro Summer School on Clusters, to appear in "Lecture notes in Physics" (Springer

A meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies of multiple myeloma among men and women of African ancestry

Persons of African ancestry (AA) have a twofold higher risk for multiple myeloma (MM) compared with persons of European ancestry (EA). Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) support a genetic contribution to MM etiology in individuals of EA. Little is known about genetic risk factors for MM in individuals of AA. We performed a meta-analysis of 2 GWASs ofMMin 1813 cases and 8871 controls and conducted an admixture mapping scan to identify risk alleles. We fine-mapped the 23 known susceptibility loci to find markers that could better capture MM risk in individuals of AA and constructed a polygenic risk score (PRS) to assess the aggregated effect of known MM risk alleles. In GWAS meta-analysis, we identified 2 suggestive novel loci located at 9p24.3 and 9p13.1 at P < 1 × 10-6; however, no genome-wide significant association was noted. In admixture mapping, we observed a genome-wide significant inverse association between local AA at 2p24.1-23.1 and MM risk in AA individuals. Of the 23 known EA risk variants, 20 showed directional consistency, and 9 replicated at P < .05 in AA individuals. In 8 regions, we identified markers that better captureMMrisk in persons with AA. AA individuals with a PRS in the top 10% had a 1.82-fold (95% confidence interval, 1.56-2.11) increased MM risk compared with those with average risk (25%-75%). The strongest functional association was between the risk allele for variant rs56219066 at 5q15 and lower ELL2 expression (P = 5.1 × 10-12). Our study shows that common genetic variation contributes to MM risk in individuals with AA

Identification of multiple risk loci and regulatory mechanisms influencing susceptibility to multiple myeloma

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have transformed our understanding of susceptibility to multiple myeloma (MM), but much of the heritability remains unexplained. We report a new GWAS, a meta-analysis with previous GWAS and a replication series, totalling 9974 MM cases and 247,556 controls of European ancestry. Collectively, these data provide evidence for six new MM risk loci, bringing the total number to 23. Integration of information from gene expression, epigenetic profiling and in situ Hi-C data for the 23 risk loci implicate disruption of developmental transcriptional regulators as a basis of MM susceptibility, compatible with altered B-cell differentiation as a key mechanism. Dysregulation of autophagy/apoptosis and cell cycle signalling feature as recurrently perturbed pathways. Our findings provide further insight

Ninth Workshop on Geothermal Reservoir Engineering: Proceedings

The attendance at the Workshop was similar to last year's with 123 registered participants of which 22 represented 8 foreign countries. A record number of technical papers (about 60) were submitted for presentation at the Workshop. The Program Committee, therefore, decided to have several parallel sessions to accommodate most of the papers. This format proved unpopular and will not be repeated. Many of the participants felt that the Workshop lost some of its unique qualities by having parallel sessions. The Workshop has always been held near the middle of December during examination week at Stanford. This timing was reviewed in an open discussion at the Workshop. The Program Committee subsequently decided to move the Workshop to January. The Tenth Workshop will be held on January 22-24, 1985. The theme of the Workshop this year was ''field developments worldwide''. The Program Committee addressed this theme by encouraging participants to submit field development papers, and by inviting several international authorities to give presentations at the Workshop. Field developments in at least twelve countries were reported: China, El Salvador, France, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, New Zealand, the Philippines, and the United States. There were 58 technical presentations at the Workshop, of which 4 were not made available for publication. Several authors submitted papers not presented at the Workshop. However, these are included in the 60 papers of these Proceedings. The introductory address was given by Ron Toms of the U.S. Department of Energy, and the banquet speaker was A1 Cooper of Chevron Resources Company. An important contribution was made to the Workshop by the chairmen of the technical sessions. Other than Stanford Geothermal Program faculty members, they included: Don White (Field Developments), Bill D'Olier (Hydrothermal Systems), Herman Dykstra (Well Testing), Karsten Pruess (Well Testing), John Counsil (Reservoir Chemistry), Malcolm Mossman (Reservoir Chemistry), Greg Raasch (Production), Manny Nathenson (Injection), Susan Petty (Injection), Subir Sanyal (Simulation), Marty Molloy (Petrothermal), and Allen Moench (Reservoir Physics). The Workshop was organized by the Stanford Geothermal Program faculty, staff and students. We would like to thank Jean Cook, Joanne Hartford, Terri Ramey, Amy Osugi, and Marilyn King for their valued help with the Workshop arrangements and the Proceedings. We also owe thanks to the program students who arranged and operated the audio-visual equipment. The Ninth Workshop was supported by the Geothermal and Hydropower Technologies Division of the U . S . Department of Energy through contract DE-AT03-80SF11459. We deeply appreciate this continued support. H. J. Ramey, Jr., R. N. Horne, P. Kruger, W. E. Brigham, F. G. Miller, J. S . Gudmundsson -vi

Immunotherapy with Mycobacterium vaccae and Peripheral Blood Flow in Long-treated Leprosy Patients, a Randomised, Placebo-controlled Trial

AbstractObjective: to evaluate immunotherapy as a means of improving peripheral blood flow in chronic leprosy patients.Design: this was a double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled, clinical trial.Materials: heat-killed Mycobacterium vaccae 1mg plus 0.02μg Tuberculin protein per 0.1ml dose in borate buffer, with saline as placebo. Those studied were 92 long-treated residents of a leprosy centre in Iran, 10 of their healthy children and 10 staff members. Evaluation employed the Perimed PF2, Laser–Doppler Flowmeter, a platinum skin thermistor, and a thermal sensibility tester.Methods: single intradermal injections of test or placebo were given to 103 patients 18 months before the blinded evaluation. Fingerpulp blood flux was measured in controlled conditions and vasomotor reflexes and skin sensation to touch, pain and heat were evaluated in 45 and 47 patients in the placebo and M. vaccae groups, respectively, and in 20 healthy control persons.Results: Laser–Doppler flux, skin temperature, vasomotor reflexes and sensation were impaired in leprosy patients. Immunotherapy improved (p < 0.05) Laser–Doppler flux, skin temperature and temperature sensation.Conclusions: immunotherapy, given 18 months earlier, significantly improved blood flow and temperature sensation, in fully-treated, chronic, leprosy patients. The same principles might be employed in other conditions of reduced peripheral blood flow