Mapping--The Missing Link in Reducing Risk under SARA III

Dr. Dymon explains how maps can, e.g., hasten effective community responses to natural and artificial hazards and laments widespread failure to prepare and use hazard maps more extensively

Syntheses, crystal structures, and vibrational spectroscopic properties of MgCN2, SrCN2, and BaCN2

The alkaline-earth metal cyanamides MgCN* SrCN* and BaCN2 were prepared by the reaction of melamine with the metal nitrides (M&N2, Sr-jN, Ba3N2 ) at temperatures between 740 e C and 850 °C. MgCN2 was structurally characterized by X-ray analysis using powder methods (R3m, Ζ - 3 , a=327.34(1) pm, c-1412.82(5) pm). The crystal structures of SrCN2 and BaCN2 were determined from X-ray single crystal data (SrCN2 : Pnma, Ζ-A, 0-1241.0(2) pm, 6-396.3(2) pm, c-538.9(2) pm, BaCN2 : R3c, Z=18, e-1528.2(2) pm, c-70l.3(2) pm). All compounds consist of the respective cations and CN2 2~-anions with an increasing degree of distortion of the coordination polyhedra with increasing radii of the cations. The structural features are correlated with vibrational spectroscopic data

Entwicklung von Strategien zur Regulierung des Drahtwurmbefalls (Agriotes spp. L.) im Ökologischen Kartoffelanbau

Problemstellung/Ziele: Die Kartoffel ist die wichtigste Hackfrucht im Ökologischen Landbau. Sie eignet sich hervorragend für die Direktvermarktung und erbringt hohe Erlöse, allerdings nur dann, wenn das Erntegut keine Mängel aufweist. Drahtwürmer können durch Lochfraß an Kartoffelknollen das gesamte Erntegut vermarktungsunfähig machen. Der Befall ist an den 2 mm großen Löchern an der Knolle zu erkennen. Die 2,5 cm langen Drahtwürmer sind Schnellkäferlarven, deren Entwicklungszeit im Boden bis zu sechs Jahren andauern kann. Während dieser Zeit ernähren sie sich ausschließlich von organischem Material. Deutschlandweit gibt es zwölf pflanzenschädigende Schnellkäferarten, die hauptsächlich der Gattung Agriotes spp. L. zuzurechnen sind. Die adulten Schnellkäfer sind nicht pflanzenschädigend und leben etwa 8 Wochen. Sie legen zwischen Mai und Juli bis zu 160 Eier in feuchte und humose Böden mit dichtem niedrigem Bewuchs. Diese Verhältnisse werden in Kleegras, oftmals Vorfrucht der Kartoffeln, angetroffen. Immer mehr Ökologisch wirtschaftende Landwirte ernten Kartoffeln, die durch Drahtwürmer geschädigt sind. Daher wird an der Landwirtschaftskammer Rheinland im Rahmen des „Bundesprogramm Ökologischer Landbau“ eine bundesweite Statusquo-Analyse zur Drahtwurmproblematik im Ökologischen Kartoffelanbau durchgeführt. Das Projekt wird vom Bundesministerium für Verbraucherschutz, Ernährung und Landwirtschaft finanziert. Es begann im Juni 2002 und endet im Dezember 2003. Aus den Ergebnissen sollen wichtige Informationen und Empfehlungen für Beratung und Praxis zusammengetragen und bezeichnende Impulse für Politik und Forschung gegeben werden. Vom Fachbereich Ökologischer Landbau der Landwirtschaftskammer Rheinland werden im Gartenbauzentrum Köln – Auweiler schon seit mehreren Jahren Beobachtungen und Versuche zur Drahtwurmproblematik angestellt. Die Ergebnisse führten zu folgenden Hypothesen: Hypothesen: - Kleegras in der Fruchtfolge erhöht den Drahtwurmbesatz im Boden. Daher sollten Kartoffeln nach Kleegras- bzw. Grünlandumbruch nicht im ersten Jahr angebaut werden. - Winterungen und Sommerungen in der Fruchtfolge haben Einfluss darauf, in welcher Höhe das Erntegut durch Drahtwürmer geschädigt wird. - Die Intensität der Bodenbearbeitung hat Einfluss darauf, in welcher Höhe das Erntegut durch Drahtwürmer geschädigt wird. - Der Zeitpunkt der Bodenbearbeitung hat Einfluss darauf, in welcher Höhe das Erntegut durch Drahtwürmer geschädigt wird. Fazit: - Auf Flächen mit einem hohen Drahtwurmbesatz sollten keine Kartoffeln angebaut werden. - Auf drahtwurmbelasteten Flächen sollte die Fruchtfolge so gestaltet werden, dass möglichst wenig dichte, feuchte Bestände die Käfer im Juni zur Eiablage anlocken. - Starker Verunkrautung sollte entgegengewirkt werden. - Als Vorfrucht vor Kartoffeln sollte möglichst kein mehrjähriges Kleegras angebaut werden. - Es sollten möglichst keine Untersaaten, sondern Zwischenfrüchte angebaut werden. - Die Fruchtfolge sollte mit Sommerungen, die gehackt werden, gestaltet werden. - Es sollten regelmäßige Bestandskontrollen durchgeführt werden. Bei auftretendem Befall sollte möglichst schnell bei Schalenfestigkeit gerodet werden. - Eine Verfrühung des Rodetermins durch vorzeitiges Abschlegeln des Kartoffelkrautes kann den Drahtwurmbefall des Erntegutes mindern. - Gründliche Bodenbearbeitung vor dem Anbau und nach der Ernte können empfindliche Entwicklungszeiten der Schnellkäfer wie Eiablage, Eistadium, Larvenstadium und Puppenstadium schädigen

How to Avoid HR Nightmares in International M&A Deals

[Excerpt] What keeps human resources professionals and in-house attorneys up at night? Probably many things, but during a cross-border M&A deal, the nagging questions often revolve around “people” issues: How will the employees transfer from the seller to the acquirer? What are the timelines and gating items to reaching “day 1” with an in-tact workforce to carry out the business? What can be done to ensure employee retention, provide for a smooth transition of services and limit the loss of productivity? Are layoffs an option? Can employees effectively delay or stop the transaction? While people simply are not predictable in the way that corporate structures and tax solutions can be, there are tried and true methods for recognizing key issues and limiting their potential to become HR nightmares. Companies that have gone through cross-border transactions, whether on the seller or acquirer side, likely will be familiar with these issues, most of which arise during post-acquisition integration, that is, at that stage after close of the M&A on the U.S. level when the acquirer consolidates the newly acquired entity and preexisting foreign subsidiaries. That said, strategically addressing many of these issues before the U.S. acquisition closes can help avoid HR nightmares. To illustrate the importance of planning, the following is a snapshot of issues arising in, and tips to successfully maneuver through, an international M&A

Pitfall in the high-throughput quantification of whole blood cyclosporin A using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

In a growing number of laboratories the technique of liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry is used for the quantification of cyclosporin A in whole blood, employing cyclosporin D as the internal standard. Cyclosporin A is extensively metabolized in vivo; in liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry respective metabolites can give rise to both parent and product ions that are isobaric with ions commonly used for the detection of cyclosporin A and cyclosporin D, respectively. In this article it is demonstrated that limited chromatography with co-elution of such metabolites together with cyclosporin A and cyclosporin D can lead to incorrect results

Automated processing of whole blood samples for the determination of immunosuppressants by liquid chromatography tandem-mass spectrometry

Background: Liquid chromatography tandem-mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) is an efficient technology for routine determination of immunosuppressants in whole blood; however, time-consuming manual sample preparation remains a significant limitation of this technique. Methods: Using a commercially available robotic pipetting system (Tecan Freedom EVO), we developed an automated sample-preparation protocol for quantification of tacrolimus in whole blood by LC-MS/MS. Barcode reading, sample resuspension, transfer of whole blood aliquots into a deep-well plate, addition of internal standard solution, mixing, and protein precipitation by addition of an organic solvent is performed by the robotic system. After centrifugation of the plate, the deproteinized supernatants are submitted to on-line solid phase extraction, using column switching prior to LC-MS/MS analysis. The only manual actions within the entire process are decapping of the tubes, and transfer of the deep-well plate from the robotic system to a centrifuge and finally to the HPLC autosampler. Whole blood pools were used to assess the reproducibility of the entire analytical system for measuring tacrolimus concentrations. Results: A total coefficient of variation of 1.7% was found for the entire automated analytical process (n=40; mean tacrolimus concentration, 5.3 mu g/L). Close agreement between tacrolimus results obtained after manual and automated sample preparation was observed. Conclusions: The analytical system described here, comprising automated protein precipitation, on-line solid phase extraction and LC-MS/MS analysis, is convenient and precise, and minimizes hands-on time and the risk of mistakes in the quantification of whole blood immunosuppressant concentrations compared to conventional methods

Afivo: a framework for quadtree/octree AMR with shared-memory parallelization and geometric multigrid methods

Afivo is a framework for simulations with adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) on quadtree (2D) and octree (3D) grids. The framework comes with a geometric multigrid solver, shared-memory (OpenMP) parallelism and it supports output in Silo and VTK file formats. Afivo can be used to efficiently simulate AMR problems with up to about $10^{8}$ unknowns on desktops, workstations or single compute nodes. For larger problems, existing distributed-memory frameworks are better suited. The framework has no built-in functionality for specific physics applications, so users have to implement their own numerical methods. The included multigrid solver can be used to efficiently solve elliptic partial differential equations such as Poisson's equation. Afivo's design was kept simple, which in combination with the shared-memory parallelism facilitates modification and experimentation with AMR algorithms. The framework was already used to perform 3D simulations of streamer discharges, which required tens of millions of cells

The Evolution of Diversity

Since the beginning of time, the pre-biological and the biological world have seen a steady increase in complexity of form and function based on a process of combination and re-combination. The current modern synthesis of evolution known as the neo-Darwinian theory emphasises population genetics and does not explain satisfactorily all other occurrences of evolutionary novelty. The authors suggest that symbiosis and hybridisation and the more obscure processes such as polyploidy, chimerism and lateral transfer are mostly overlooked and not featured sufficiently within evolutionary theory. They suggest, therefore, a revision of the existing theory including its language, to accommodate the scientific findings of recent decades

Breakdown of the standard Perturbation Theory and Moving Boundary Approximation for "Pulled" Fronts

The derivation of a Moving Boundary Approximation or of the response of a coherent structure like a front, vortex or pulse to external forces and noise, is generally valid under two conditions: the existence of a separation of time scales of the dynamics on the inner and outer scale and the existence and convergence of solvability type integrals. We point out that these conditions are not satisfied for pulled fronts propagating into an unstable state: their relaxation on the inner scale is power law like and in conjunction with this, solvability integrals diverge. The physical origin of this is traced to the fact that the important dynamics of pulled fronts occurs in the leading edge of the front rather than in the nonlinear internal front region itself. As recent work on the relaxation and stochastic behavior of pulled fronts suggests, when such fronts are coupled to other fields or to noise, the dynamical behavior is often qualitatively different from the standard case in which fronts between two (meta)stable states or pushed fronts propagating into an unstable state are considered.Comment: pages Latex, submitted to a special issue of Phys. Rep. in dec. 9