291 research outputs found
Response of Sonchus arvensis to mechanical and cultural weed control
In order to study the biology and physical control of Sonchus arvensis, a 3-year field experiment was established in 2001 at Vihti, southern Finland
Sonchus arvensis - a challenge for organic farming
Perennial sow-thistle (Sonchus arvensis L.) represents an increasing problem in Finland. Options for mechanical and cultural control of S. arvensis were studied in a 3 year field experiment on clay soil under organic production
Simultaneous Triggered Collapse of the Presolar Dense Cloud Core and Injection of Short-Lived Radioisotopes by a Supernova Shock Wave
Cosmochemical evidence for the existence of short-lived radioisotopes (SLRI)
such as Al and Fe at the time of the formation of primitive
meteorites requires that these isotopes were synthesized in a massive star and
then incorporated into chondrites within yr. A supernova shock wave
has long been hypothesized to have transported the SLRI to the presolar dense
cloud core, triggered cloud collapse, and injected the isotopes. Previous
numerical calculations have shown that this scenario is plausible when the
shock wave and dense cloud core are assumed to be isothermal at K,
but not when compressional heating to K is assumed. We show here
for the first time that when calculated with the FLASH2.5 adaptive mesh
refinement (AMR) hydrodynamics code, a 20 km/sec shock wave can indeed trigger
the collapse of a 1 cloud while simultaneously injecting shock wave
isotopes into the collapsing cloud, provided that cooling by molecular species
such as HO, CO, and H is included. These calculations imply that
the supernova trigger hypothesis is the most likely mechanism for delivering
the SLRI present during the formation of the solar system.Comment: 12 pages, 4 color figures. Astrophysical Journal Letters (in press
Impaired neural discrimination of emotional speech prosody in children with autism spectrum disorder and language impairment
Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are characterized by deficient social and communication skills, including difficulties in perceiving speech prosody. The present study addressed processing of emotional prosodic changes (sad, scornful and commanding) in natural word stimuli in typically developed school aged children and in children with ASD and language impairment. We found that the responses to a repetitive word were diminished in amplitude in the children with ASD, reflecting impaired speech encoding. Furthermore, the amplitude of the MMN/LDN component, reflecting cortical discrimination of sound changes, was diminished in the children with ASD for the scornful deviant. In addition, the amplitude of the P3a, reflecting involuntary orienting to attention-catching changes, was diminished in the children with ASD for the scornful deviant and tended to be smaller for the sad deviant. These results suggest that prosody processing in ASD is impaired at various levels of neural processing, including deficient pre-attentive discrimination and involuntary orientation to speech prosody. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.Peer reviewe
Terminating ley with mid-summer bare fallow controls Elymus repens
The results of this study suggest that mid-summer bare fallow is a relative effective way to reduce the amount of Elymus repens when terminating ley. Early started stubble cultivation is also less sensitive to moist weather, leaving more time for exhausting the rhizome reserves of E. repens. Stubble cultivation and catch crop do increase the costs but not as much as bare fallowing for the whole summer would do. Additionally, mid summer bare fallow allows harvesting one forage yield prior to bare fallowing
The gap between behavioral risk status and willingness to change behavior among healthcare professionals
Aims: This study explored behavioral health risk factors among healthcare professionals and investigated the at-risk persons' satisfaction with their health habits and ongoing change attempts. Methods: The study was based on a cross-sectional web-based survey directed at the nurses and physicians (N = 1233) in Finnish healthcare. Obesity, low physical activity, smoking, and risky alcohol drinking were used as behavioral health risk factors. Results: In all, 70% of the participants had at least one behavioral risk factor, and a significant number of at-risk persons were satisfied with their health habits and had no ongoing change process. Good self-rated health and good self-rated work ability were significantly associated with whether a participant had a behavioral health risk factor. Conclusion: Overall, unhealthy behaviors and a lack of ongoing change attempts were commonly observed among healthcare professionals. Work in healthcare is demanding, and healthy lifestyles can support coping. Thus, healthy lifestyle programs should also be targeted to healthcare professionals.Peer reviewe
Triggering Collapse of the Presolar Dense Cloud Core and Injecting Short-Lived Radioisotopes with a Shock Wave. I. Varied Shock Speeds
The discovery of decay products of a short-lived radioisotope (SLRI) in the
Allende meteorite led to the hypothesis that a supernova shock wave transported
freshly synthesized SLRI to the presolar dense cloud core, triggered its
self-gravitational collapse, and injected the SLRI into the core. Previous
multidimensional numerical calculations of the shock-cloud collision process
showed that this hypothesis is plausible when the shock wave and dense cloud
core are assumed to remain isothermal at ~10 K, but not when compressional
heating to ~1000 K is assumed. Our two-dimensional models (Boss et al. 2008)
with the FLASH2.5 adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) hydrodynamics code have shown
that a 20 km/sec shock front can simultaneously trigger collapse of a 1 solar
mass core and inject shock wave material, provided that cooling by molecular
species such as H2O, CO, and H2 is included. Here we present the results for
similar calculations with shock speeds ranging from 1 km/sec to 100 km/sec. We
find that shock speeds in the range from 5 km/sec to 70 km/sec are able to
trigger the collapse of a 2.2 solar mass cloud while simultaneously injecting
shock wave material: lower speed shocks do not achieve injection, while higher
speed shocks do not trigger sustained collapse. The calculations continue to
support the shock-wave trigger hypothesis for the formation of the solar
system, though the injection efficiencies in the present models are lower than
desired.Comment: 39 pages, 14 figures. in press, Ap
Legal protection of plant biotechnological inventions
Within biotechnology, plant production is regarded as one of the most promising adaptations. New plant breeding methods are considered to better fulfil the requirements set on patentability than the traditional breeding methods. In Europe, a plant variety can be protected by special legislation. The present patent laws in Europe are not applied to plant biotechnological inventions. The United States has three systems under which new varieties of plants may be protected. These include The 1930 Plant Patent Act, The 1970 Plant Variety Protection Act and The 1952 Patent Statute. Companies that have specialized in plant breeding and organizations representing the industrial countries recommend improvements to the legal protection. On the other hand, farmers and the developing countries are against better protection
Metabolomic Profiling of Statin Use and Genetic Inhibition of HMG-CoA Reductase
Background Statins are first-line therapy for cardiovascular disease prevention, but their systemic effects across lipoprotein subclasses, fatty acids, and circulating metabolites remain incompletely characterized. Objectives This study sought to determine the molecular effects of statin therapy on multiple metabolic pathways. Methods Metabolic profiles based on serum nuclear magnetic resonance metabolomics were quantified at 2 time points in 4 population-based cohorts from the United Kingdom and Finland (N = 5,590; 2.5 to 23.0 years of follow-up). Concentration changes in 80 lipid and metabolite measures during follow-up were compared between 716 individuals who started statin therapy and 4,874 persistent nonusers. To further understand the pharmacological effects of statins, we used Mendelian randomization to assess associations of a genetic variant known to mimic inhibition of HMG-CoA reductase (the intended drug target) with the same lipids and metabolites for 27,914 individuals from 8 population-based cohorts. Results Starting statin therapy was associated with numerous lipoprotein and fatty acid changes, including substantial lowering of remnant cholesterol (80% relative to low-density lipoprotein cholesterol [LDL-C]), but only modest lowering of triglycerides (25% relative to LDL-C). Among fatty acids, omega-6 levels decreased the most (68% relative to LDL-C); other fatty acids were only modestly affected. No robust changes were observed for circulating amino acids, ketones, or glycolysis-related metabolites. The intricate metabolic changes associated with statin use closely matched the association pattern with rs12916 in the HMGCR gene (R2 = 0.94, slope 1.00 ± 0.03). Conclusions Statin use leads to extensive lipid changes beyond LDL-C and appears efficacious for lowering remnant cholesterol. Metabolomic profiling, however, suggested minimal effects on amino acids. The results exemplify how detailed metabolic characterization of genetic proxies for drug targets can inform indications, pleiotropic effects, and pharmacological mechanisms
Injection of Radioactivities into the Forming Solar System
Meteorite studies have revealed the presence of short-lived radioactivities
in the early solar system. The current data suggests that the origin of at
least some of the radioactivities requires contribution from recent
nucleosynthesis at a stellar site. This sets a strict time limit on the time
available for the formation of the solar system and argues for the theory of
the triggered origin of the solar system. According to this scenario, the
formation of our planetary system was initiated by the impact of an
interstellar shock wave on a molecular cloud core. The shock wave originated
from a nearby explosive stellar event and carried with it radioactivities
produced in the stellar source. In addition to triggering the collapse of the
molecular cloud core, the shock wave also deposited some of the freshly
synthesized radioactivities into the collapsing system. The radioactivities
were then incorporated into the first solar system solids, in this manner
leaving a record of the event in the meteoritic material. The viability of the
scenario can be investigated through numerical simulations studying the
processes involved in mixing shock wave material into the collapsing system.
The high-resolution calculations presented here show that injection occurs
through Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities, the injection efficiency is
approximately 10%, and temporal and spatial heterogeneities in the abundances
of the radioactivities existed at the time of their arrival in the forming
solar system.Comment: 13 pages, including 3 figures. Better-quality figures available at
http://www.public.asu.edu/~hvanhal/pubs
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