RESOURCE QUALITY, AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY, AND FOOD SECURITY

USDA's Economic Research Service estimates that about 33 percent of the developing world's people suffer from insufficient food intake. Growth in agricultural productivity is critical to improvements in food security. We will examine the impact of changes in acreage and fertilizer response on production in 67 study countries and review the implications for food security.Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Productivity Analysis,

Superconductivity of lanthanum revisited: enhanced critical temperature in the clean limit

The thickness dependence of the superconducting energy gap $\Delta_{\rm{La}}$ of double hexagonally close packed (dhcp) lanthanum islands grown on W(110) is studied by scanning tunneling spectroscopy, from the bulk to the thin film limit. Superconductivity is suppressed by the boundary conditions for the superconducting wavefunction at the surface and W/La interface, leading to a linear decrease of the critical temperature $T_c$ as a function of the inverse film thickness. For thick, bulk-like films, $\Delta_{\rm{La}}$ and $T_c$ are 40% larger as compared to literature values of dhcp La measured by other techniques. This finding is reconciled by examining the effects of surface contamination as probed by modifications of the surface state, suggesting that the large $T_c$ originates in the superior purity of the samples investigated here.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figure

Laboratory measurement of the complex dielectric constant of soils

The dielectric constant of a material is an extremely important parameter when considering passive radiometric remote sensing applications. This is because the emitted energy measured by a microwave radiometer is dependent on the dielectric constant of the surface being scanned. Two techniques of measuring dielectric constants are described. The first method involves a dielectric located in air. The second method uses basically the same theoretical approach, but the dielectric under consideration is located inside a section of waveguide

The temporal dynamic of response inhibition in early childhood: An ERP study of partial and successful inhibition

Event-related potentials were recorded while five-year-old children completed a Go/No-Go task that distinguished between partial inhibition (i.e., response is initiated but cancelled before completion) and successful inhibition (i.e., response is inhibited before it is initiated). Partial inhibition trials were characterized by faster response initiation and later latency of the lateral frontal negativity (LFN) than successful Go and successful inhibition trials. The speed of response initiation was influenced by the response speed on previous trials and influenced the response speed on subsequent trials. Response initiation and action decision dynamically influenced each other, and their temporal interplay determined response inhibition success

Recurrent violent injury: magnitude, risk factors, and opportunities for intervention from a statewide analysis.

INTRODUCTION: Although preventing recurrent violent injury is an important component of a public health approach to interpersonal violence and a common focus of violence intervention programs, the true incidence of recurrent violent injury is unknown. Prior studies have reported recurrence rates from 0.8% to 44%, and risk factors for recurrence are not well established. METHODS: We used a statewide, all-payer database to perform a retrospective cohort study of emergency department visits for injury due to interpersonal violence in Florida, following up patients injured in 2010 for recurrence through 2012. We assessed risk factors for recurrence with multivariable logistic regression and estimated time to recurrence with the Kaplan-Meier method. We tabulated hospital charges and costs for index and recurrent visits. RESULTS: Of 53 908 patients presenting for violent injury in 2010, 11.1% had a recurrent violent injury during the study period. Trauma centers treated 31.8%, including 55.9% of severe injuries. Among recurrers, 58.9% went to a different hospital for their second injury. Low income, homelessness, Medicaid or uninsurance, and black race were associated with increased odds of recurrence. Patients with visits for mental and behavioral health and unintentional injury also had increased odds of recurrence. Index injuries accounted for $105 million in costs, and recurrent injuries accounted for another$25.3 million. CONCLUSIONS: Recurrent violent injury is a common and costly phenomenon, and effective violence prevention programs are needed. Prevention must include the nontrauma centers where many patients seek care

Estimation of biological parameters of marine organisms using linear and nonlinear acoustic scattering model-based inversion methods

Author Posting. © Acoustical Society of America, 2016. This article is posted here by permission of Acoustical Society of America for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 139 (2016): 2885, doi:10.1121/1.4948759.The linear inversion commonly used in fisheries and zooplankton acoustics assumes a constant inversion kernel and ignores the uncertainties associated with the shape and behavior of the scattering targets, as well as other relevant animal parameters. Here, errors of the linear inversion due to uncertainty associated with the inversion kernel are quantified. A scattering model-based nonlinear inversion method is presented that takes into account the nonlinearity of the inverse problem and is able to estimate simultaneously animal abundance and the parameters associated with the scattering model inherent to the kernel. It uses sophisticated scattering models to estimate first, the abundance, and second, the relevant shape and behavioral parameters of the target organisms. Numerical simulations demonstrate that the abundance, size, and behavior (tilt angle) parameters of marine animals (fish or zooplankton) can be accurately inferred from the inversion by using multi-frequency acoustic data. The influence of the singularity and uncertainty in the inversion kernel on the inversion results can be mitigated by examining the singular values for linear inverse problems and employing a non-linear inversion involving a scattering model-based kernel.This work was supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. OCE-0928801 and the NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service, Northwest Fisheries Science Center. G.L.L. was partially supported by NOAA Cooperative Agreement Nos. NA09OAR4320129 and NA14OAR4320158 through the NOAA Fisheries Quantitative Ecology and Socioeconomics Training (QUEST) program

Relationships between oceanic epizooplankton distributions and the seasonal deep chlorophyll maximum in the northwestern Atlantic Ocean

Also published as: Journal of Marine Research 38 (1980): 507-531The potential significance of the Deep Chlorophyll Maximum (DCM) as a food resource for pelagic food chains was studied in three hydrographic regimes of the Northwestern Atlantic Ocean: the Slope Water, the Northern Sargasso Sea and a Gulf Stream cold core ring. Samples for phytoplankton species, chlorophyll and related water chemistry were obtained with a series of water bottle casts from the upper 200 m; microzooplankton and macrozooplankton were also obtained in the upper 200 m with Clarke Bumpus (67 m mesh) and MOCNESS (333 m mesh) net systems. Samples were obtained in the summer when the DCM was well developed and in the fall when mixing had erased the DCM in most areas. Total zooplankton biomass was significantly enhanced within depth intervals including or adjacent to the seasonal thermocline in the three hydrographic areas. Hydrocast data show the DCM in these regions was predictably associated with the seasonal thermocline. Thus these data indicate zooplankton biomass was enhanced about the DCM when it was present. In some cases, the zooplankton assemblage at DCM depths was distinguishable from those both at deeper and more shallow depths and its composition appeared related to the food available at DCM depths. Overall, in environments ranging from moderately rich near-shore Slope Waters to the more oligotrophic open-ocean Sargasso Sea, our data suggest that the DCM signals a depth zone of particularly intense trophic activity.Prepared for the Office of Naval Research under Contracts N00014-66-C-0241; NR 083-004; N00014-74-C-0262; NR 083- 004 and the National Science Foundation under Grant DES 02?83A1