Field Research in Bacterial Transport

The objective of the final phase of this project is to incorporate new understanding and practical insights derived from interdisciplinary field studies by DOE and other agencies into a broader research framework to address DOE remediation problems. This effort will lend unique strength to Environmental Remediation Sciences Division (ERSD) strategic planning and offer real linkages to remediation problems faced in the field at DOE sites nationwide

Caracterização da área queimada à escala global (1982-1999) e análise de alguns dos seus impactos climáticos e ecológicos

Doutoramento em Engenharia Florestal - Instituto Superior de AgronomiaThe recent awareness to what would be the climate change consequences, namely in the observed changes in the fire regimes, highlight the urgency for piro-climatic studies. The lack of an historical burnt area dataset to complement recent products, covering the global extent and its full variability,makes it difficult to detect significant trends. Due to the lack of global information before year-2000, a burned area product based on the NOAA Pathfinder AVHRR land (8km) dataset was developed covering the period from 1981 to 1999. As reference we screened the World Fire Atlas dataset, by removing all the non wildfires and false alarm information and we addressed the expected detectable area made by the coarser sensor. Data pre-processing was prefomed by removing the satellite orbital drift trends with empirical mode decomposition and a burned area classification was done based on the Random Forest classification algorithm. Although the developed methodologies allowed to overcome many of the technical difficulties and the results showed high flexibility to cover the full extent of possible fire occurrences, burned areas were characterised by large underestimation. This is mainly explained by the PAL re-sampling procedure and by the limitations of the coarser sensor to detect certain burned scar spatial patterns

An overview of stressors common to stepchildren and appropriate counseling interventions

Despite the recent research on the effects of divorce on adults and children, much less attention has been given to the effects of parental remarriage and stepfamily issues (Prosen & Farmer, 1982). With an estimated one-half million adults becoming stepparents every year and one out of every six American children under the age of eighteen living in a stepfamily, stepfamilies could be more prevalent than nuclear families by 1990 (Prosen & Farmer, 1982; Visher & Visher, 1979)

Blueberry establishment calendar

1 online resource (PDF, 4 pages)This archival publication may not reflect current scientific knowledge or recommendations. Current information available from the University of Minnesota Extension: https://www.extension.umn.edu

Performance of Landscape Plants from Yugoslavia in the North Central United States

From 1975 through 1979, 38 new, landscape plant introductions from Yugoslavia were distributed for testing in the NC-7 Regional Landscape Plant Trials. Twenty-seven of these introductions were evaluated for 10 years at seven or more sites, representing a broad range of environmental conditions in the north central United States. For these 27 introductions, first-year survival averaged 71%. Only four introductions had less than 50% first-year survival. Tenth-year survival varied widely among introductions and trial sites. Eight populations were adapted to most trial sites, ten populations were adapted to some sites, and nine populations were not adapted to any site. The most promising and broadly adapted introductions were Viburnum opulus, Pinus sylvestris, and Pinus nigra. Temperature and moisture data from Yugoslavia and from trial sites were used to examine relationships between plant adaptation and climate. Statistically significant. multiple-regression models were calculated that describe the functional relationships of low temperatures and moisture conditions at trial sites with adaptation. The models predict that these plants are best adapted to sites with winters milder than those typical in the north central United States and with precipitation in excess of potential evapotranspiration

Comparative genomics of Czech vaccine strains of Bordetella pertussis.

Bordetella pertussis is a strictly human pathogen causing the respiratory infectious disease called whooping cough or pertussis. B. pertussis adaptation to acellular pertussis vaccine pressure has been repeatedly highlighted, but recent data indicate that adaptation of circulating strains started already in the era of the whole cell pertussis vaccine (wP) use. We sequenced the genomes of five B. pertussis wP vaccine strains isolated in the former Czechoslovakia in the pre-wP (1954-1957) and early wP (1958-1965) eras, when only limited population travel into and out of the country was possible. Four isolates exhibit a similar genome organization and form a distinct phylogenetic cluster with a geographic signature. The fifth strain is rather distinct, both in genome organization and SNP-based phylogeny. Surprisingly, despite isolation of this strain before 1966, its closest sequenced relative appears to be a recent isolate from the US. On the genome content level, the five vaccine strains contained both new and already described regions of difference. One of the new regions contains duplicated genes potentially associated with transport across the membrane. The prevalence of this region in recent isolates indicates that its spread might be associated with selective advantage leading to increased strain fitness

Rapid diffusion method for physicochemical characterization of metal ligands in soils and sediments

A diffusion method is described that allows preliminary characterization of metals in soils and sediments while minimizing the potential for alteration of metal form. In addition, examples of the application of the method to model compounds of Pu in the soil are given. (ERB