The crude protein production of grassland and the utilization by milking cows.

An attempt was made with experimental data of various origins to quantify the intake of N from pasture grass by milking cows during the grazing period. It was also demonstrated how much of this N was removed by secretion in the milk as well as the conc. of N in the faeces and in the urine remaining on the pasture after grazing. From a fertilizer application to the pasture of 450 kg N/ha yr an equal conc. was taken up by the herbage. Of this herbage N about 75-80% remained on the pasture after grazing. The conc. remaining on the grassland increased sharply with increasing N rates and this went parallel with an increasing intensity in the N circulation in the system soil-plant-animal-soil and a rising NO3 content in the surface layer of ground water. (Abstract retrieved from CAB Abstracts by CABI’s permission

Vergelijkende studie naar alternatieve vormen van de boomkorvisserij

Als onderdeel van het VIP-project “Alternatief visplan duurzame platvisvisserij” is een vergelijkende studie uitgevoerd naar de traditionele boomkorvisserij en twee alternatieve vismethodes: outriggen en sumwing. Tijdens twee visreizen hebben onderzoekers gekeken naar verschillen in aanlandingen (maatse vis) en discards (benthos en (ondermaatse) vis) op drie verschillende schepen. De drie schepen die waren betrokken bij dit onderzoek zijn: de UK47 (outrig), de ST27 (boomkor) en de UK246 (sumwing). Daarnaast is de kwaliteit van schol van de verschillende vismethoden met elkaar vergeleken

Short-term efficacy and usage recommendations for a large-scale implementation of the math-whizz tutor

This paper adds to the evidence of the efficacy of intelligent tutoring systems (ITS) in mathematics learning by evaluating a large-scale intervention at the state of Aguascalientes, Mexico. We report the results of a quasi-experimental study, addressing at the same a particular request of the decision-makers responsible for the rollout to provide, from early stages of the intervention, independent evidence of the efficacy of Math-Whizz Tutor beyond its internal metrics, and recommendations in terms of the expected weekly usage levels to guide the blended learning approach

Eye–hand coordination during manual object transport with the affected and less affected hand in adolescents with hemiparetic cerebral palsy

In the present study we investigated eye–hand coordination in adolescents with hemiparetic cerebral palsy (CP) and neurologically healthy controls. Using an object prehension and transport task, we addressed two hypotheses, motivated by the question whether early brain damage and the ensuing limitations of motor activity lead to general and/or effector-specific effects in visuomotor control of manual actions. We hypothesized that individuals with hemiparetic CP would more closely visually monitor actions with their affected hand, compared to both their less affected hand and to control participants without a sensorimotor impairment. A second, more speculative hypothesis was that, in relation to previously established deficits in prospective action control in individuals with hemiparetic CP, gaze patterns might be less anticipatory in general, also during actions performed with the less affected hand. Analysis of the gaze and hand movement data revealed the increased visual monitoring of participants with CP when using their affected hand at the beginning as well as during object transport. In contrast, no general deficit in anticipatory gaze control in the participants with hemiparetic CP could be observed. Collectively, these findings are the first to directly show that individuals with hemiparetic CP adapt eye–hand coordination to the specific constraints of the moving limb, presumably to compensate for sensorimotor deficits

A global climatology of total columnar water vapour from SSM/I and MERIS

A global time series of total columnar water vapour from combined data of the Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) onboard ESA's Environmental Satellite (ENVISAT) and the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) onboard the satellite series of the US Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) is presented. The unique data set, generated in the framework of the ESA Data User Element (DUE) GlobVapour project, combines atmospheric water vapour observations over land and ocean, derived from measurements in the near- infrared and the microwave range, respectively. Daily composites and monthly means of total columnar water vapour are available as global maps on rectangular latitude–longitude grids with a spatial resolution of 0.05° × 0.05° over land and 0.5° × 0.5° over ocean for the years 2003 to 2008. The data are stored in NetCDF files and is fully compliant with the NetCDF Climate Forecast convention. Through the combination of high-quality microwave observations and near-infrared observations over ocean and land surfaces, respectively, the data set provides global coverage. The combination of both products is carried out such that the individual properties of the microwave and near-infrared products, in particular their uncertainties, are not modified by the merging process and are therefore well defined. Due to the global coverage and the provided uncertainty estimates this data set is potentially of high value for climate research. The SSM/I-MERIS TCWV data set is freely available via the GlobVapour project web page (www.globvapour.info) with associated doi:10.5676/DFE/WV_COMB/FP. In this paper, the details of the data set generation, i.e. the satellite data used, the retrieval techniques and merging approaches, are presented. The derived level 3 products are compared to global radiosonde data from the GCOS upper air network (GUAN), showing a high agreement with a root-mean-square deviation of roughly 4.4 kg m−2 and a small wet bias well below 1 kg m−2. Furthermore, the data set is shown to be free of seasonal biases. The consistency of the MERIS and SSM/I retrievals is demonstrated by applying the MERIS retrieval to sun glint areas over ocean