The Effects of SO2 on N2-Fixation, Carbon Partitioning, and Yield Components in Snapbean, Phaseolus Vulgaris L.

The primary air pollutant sulfur dioxide has been shown to affect plant biochemistry and physiology, although very little is known about its effects on N2-fixation in legumes. This study was designed to determine if N2-fixation, carbon partitioning , and productivity are affected under short term low level, so2 exposures. Greenhouse grown snapbeans (P has eo lus vulgaris L. cv. Ear l iwax), 29 days from planting, were exposed to 0.0, 0.4, and 0.8 parts per million sulfur dioxide for 4 hours day-l for 5 days in a fumigation chamber. At these concentrations there was no visible damage of the plant tissue and no significant changes in dry weight or yield components. Only t he 0.8 parts per million sulfur dioxide treatment reduced acetylene reduction rates but rates returned to control levels with in 2 days after the removal of the stress. Sulfur dioxide treatment increased the total carbon -14 exported from the leaves of 0.4 parts per million sulfur dioxide treated plants while the 0.8 parts per million sulfur dioxide treated plants were found to retain more of their total carbon -1 4. This retention of carbon-14 at the 0.8 parts per million level may account for the inhibit ion of acetylene reduction due to lower photosynthate supplies arriving at the root - nodules. These data suggest that low sulfur dioxide levels that would not cause any visible injury, may be interacting with carbohydrate assimilation and/or transport in P. vulgaris

Mitigation of Shallow Groundwater Nitrate in a Poorly Drained Riparian Area and Adjacent Cropland

Riparian ecosystems, through their unique position in the agricultural landscape and ability to influence nutrient cycles, can potentially reduce NO3 loading to surface and ground waters. The purpose of this study was to determine the fate of NO3 in shallow groundwater moving along a lateral flowpath from a grass seed cropping system through an undisturbed mixed-species herbaceous riparian area. Soil A (30–45 cm) and C horizon (135–150 cm) NO3, dissolved oxygen, and nitrous oxide concentrations were significantly higher in the cropping system than the adjacent riparian area. Nitrate concentrations in both horizons of the riparian soil were consistently at or below 0.05 mg NL-1 while cropping system concentrations ranged from 1 to 12 mg N L-1. Chloride data suggested that NO3 dilution occurred from recharge by precipitation. However, a sharp decrease in NO3/Cl ratios as water moved into the riparian area indicated that additional dilution of NO3 concentrations was unlikely. Riparian area A horizon soil water had higher dissolved organic carbon than the cropping system and when the riparian soil became saturated, available electron acceptors (O2, NO3) were rapidly reduced. Dissolved inorganic carbon was significantly higher in the riparian area than the cropping system for both horizons indicating high biological activity. Carbon limitation in the cropping system may have led to microbial respiration using primarily O2 and to a lesser degree NO3. Within 6 m of the riparian/cropping system transition, NO3 was virtually undetectable

A Survey of Genomic Properties for the Detection of Regulatory Polymorphisms

Advances in the computational identification of functional noncoding polymorphisms will aid in cataloging novel determinants of health and identifying genetic variants that explain human evolution. To date, however, the development and evaluation of such techniques has been limited by the availability of known regulatory polymorphisms. We have attempted to address this by assembling, from the literature, a computationally tractable set of regulatory polymorphisms within the ORegAnno database (http://www.oreganno.org). We have further used 104 regulatory single-nucleotide polymorphisms from this set and 951 polymorphisms of unknown function, from 2-kb and 152-bp noncoding upstream regions of genes, to investigate the discriminatory potential of 23 properties related to gene regulation and population genetics. Among the most important properties detected in this region are distance to transcription start site, local repetitive content, sequence conservation, minor and derived allele frequencies, and presence of a CpG island. We further used the entire set of properties to evaluate their collective performance in detecting regulatory polymorphisms. Using a 10-fold cross-validation approach, we were able to achieve a sensitivity and specificity of 0.82 and 0.71, respectively, and we show that this performance is strongly influenced by the distance to the transcription start site

Radio Observations of the Supernova Remnant Candidate G312.5-3.0

The radio images from the Parkes-MIT-NRAO (PMN) Southern Sky Survey at 4850 MHz have revealed a number of previously unknown radio sources. One such source, G312.5-3.0 (PMN J1421-6415), has been observed using the multi-frequency capabilities of the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) at frequencies of 1380 MHz and 2378 MHz. Further observations of the source were made using the Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope (MOST) at a frequency of 843 MHz. The source has an angular size of 18 arcmin and has a distinct shell structure. We present the reduced multi-frequency observations of this source and provide a brief argument for its possible identification as a supernova remnant.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, Accepted for publication in MNRA

Rapid Fabrication of Flat Plate Cavity Phosphor Thermography Test Models for Shuttle Return-to-Flight Aero-Heating

Methods, materials and equipment are documented for fabricating flat plate test models at NASA Langley Research Center for Shuttle return-to-flight aeroheating experiments simulating open and closed cavity interactions in Langley s hypersonic 20-Inch Mach 6 air wind tunnel. Approximately 96 silica ceramic flat plate cavity phosphor thermography test models have been fabricated using these methods. On one model, an additional slot is machined through the back of the plate and into the cavity and vented into an evacuated plenum chamber to simulate a further opening in the cavity. After sintering ceramic to 2150 F, and mounting support hardware, a ceramic-based two-color thermographic phosphor coating is applied for global temperature and heat transfer measurements, with fiducial markings for image registration

ORegAnno 3.0: A community-driven resource for curated regulatory annotation

The Open Regulatory Annotation database (ORegAnno) is a resource for curated regulatory annotation. It contains information about regulatory regions, transcription factor binding sites, RNA binding sites, regulatory variants, haplotypes, and other regulatory elements. ORegAnno differentiates itself from other regulatory resources by facilitating crowd-sourced interpretation and annotation of regulatory observations from the literature and highly curated resources. It contains a comprehensive annotation scheme that aims to describe both the elements and outcomes of regulatory events. Moreover, ORegAnno assembles these disparate data sources and annotations into a single, high quality catalogue of curated regulatory information. The current release is an update of the database previously featured in the NAR Database Issue, and now contains 1 948 307 records, across 18 species, with a combined coverage of 334 215 080 bp. Complete records, annotation, and other associated data are available for browsing and download at http://www.oreganno.org/

Trace gas emissions from savanna fires in northern Australia

We present analyses of near‐infrared ground‐based Fourier transform infrared solar absorption spectra recorded from a site in Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia (12.4°S, 130.9°E) from August 2005 to June 2008. Total column amounts of carbon monoxide derived from these spectra show a very clear annual cycle, with evidence of transported pollution from Indonesian fires in 2006. Aerosol optical depth measurements from the same site show a similar annual cycle but without exceptional values in 2006, suggesting significant loss of aerosol loading in the transported and aged smoke. In addition, we report the first ever measurements by remote sensing solar Fourier transform infrared of emission ratios with respect to carbon monoxide for formaldehyde (0.022 ± 0.007), acetylene (0.0024 ± 0.0003), ethane (0.0020 ± 0.0003), and hydrogen cyanide (0.0018 ± 0.0003) from Australian savanna fires. These are derived from mid‐infrared spectra recorded through smoke plumes over Darwin on 20 separate days. The only previous measurements of emission ratios for formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide from Australian savanna fires involved cryogenic trapping and storage of samples that were gathered in very fresh smoke. The results reported here are nearly an order of magnitude higher (but in agreement with laboratory studies), suggesting losses in the collection, storage, or transfer of the gases in the earlier measurements and/or chemical production of these reactive gases within the smoke plumes. Emission ratios for acetylene and ethane from this work are in broad agreement with other literature values

Text-mining assisted regulatory annotation

Text-mining technologies can be integrated with genome annotation systems, increasing the availability of annotated cis-regulatory data

Living with a left ventricular assist device:Capturing recipients experiences using group concept mapping software

BackgroundLeft ventricular assist device (LVAD) implantation significantly impacts on a recipient's symptoms and quality of life. Capturing their experiences and post implant journey is an important part of clinical practice, research and device design evolution. Patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) are a useful tool for capturing that experience. However, patient reported outcome measures need to reflect recipients' experiences. Discussions with a patient partner group found that none of the frequently used cardiology PROMs captured their unique experiences.AimsTo capture the experiences and important issues for LVAD recipients. Develop a conceptual map of domains and items that should be reflected in patient reported outcomes.MethodsGroup concept mapping (GCM) web-based software was used to remotely capture and structure recipients' experiences across a wide geographical area. GCM is a semi-quantitative mixed method consisting of 3 stages: item generation, item sorting and rating (importance, relevance and frequency). Patient partners were involved in all aspects of the study design and development.Results18 LVAD recipients consented to take part. 101 statements were generated and multi-dimensional scaling, and hierarchical cluster analysis identified 9 clusters. Cluster themes included: Activities, Partner/family support, Travel, Mental wellbeing, Equipment and clothing, Physical and cognitive limitations, LVAD Restrictions, LVAD Challenges and positive impact of the LVAD (LVAD Positives). LVAD Positives were scored highest across all the rating variables, e.g., frequency (2.85), relevance (2.44) and importance (2.21). Other domains rated high for importance included physical and cognitive limitations (2.19), LVAD restrictions (2.11), Partner/family support (2.02), and Equipment and clothing (2.01).ConclusionOnline GCM software facilitated the inclusion of geographically dispersed recipients and provided useful insights into the experiences of LVAD recipients. The conceptual framework identifies important domains and items that should be prioritised and included in patient reported outcomes in future research, LVAD design evolution, and clinical practice