In situ tropical peatland ire emission factors and their variability, as determined by field measurements in peninsula Malaysia

Fires in tropical peatlands account for >25% of estimated total greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and degradation. Despite significant global and regional impacts, our understanding of specific gaseous fire emission factors (EFs) from tropical peat burning is limited to a handful of studies. Furthermore, there is substantial variability in EFs between sampled fires and/or studies. For example, methane EFs vary by 91% between studies. Here we present new fire EFs for the tropical peatland ecosystem; the first EFs measured for Malaysian peatlands, and only the second comprehensive study of EFs in this crucial environment. During August 2015 (under El Niño conditions) and July 2016, we embarked on field campaigns to measure gaseous emissions at multiple peatland fires burning on deforested land in Southeast Pahang (2015) and oil palm plantations in North Selangor (2016), Peninsula Malaysia. Gaseous emissions were measured using open-path Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The IR spectra were used to retrieve mole fractions of 12 different gases present within the smoke (including carbon dioxide and methane), and these measurements used to calculate EFs. Peat samples were taken at each burn site for physicochemical analysis and to explore possible relationships between specific physicochemical properties and fire EFs. Here we present the first evidence to indicate that substrate bulk density affects methane fire EFs reported here. This novel explanation of interplume, within-biome variability, should be considered by those undertaking greenhouse gas accounting and haze forecasting in this region and is of importance to peatland management, particularly with respect to artificial compaction

The simulation of action disorganisation in complex activities of daily living

Action selection in everyday goal-directed tasks of moderate complexity is known to be subject to breakdown following extensive frontal brain injury. A model of action selection in such tasks is presented and used to explore three hypotheses concerning the origins of action disorganisation: that it is a consequence of reduced top-down excitation within a hierarchical action schema network coupled with increased bottom-up triggering of schemas from environmental sources, that it is a more general disturbance of schema activation modelled by excessive noise in the schema network, and that it results from a general disturbance of the triggering of schemas by object representations. Results suggest that the action disorganisation syndrome is best accounted for by a general disturbance to schema activation, while altering the balance between top-down and bottom-up activation provides an account of a related disorder - utilisation behaviour. It is further suggested that ideational apraxia (which may result from lesions to left temporoparietal areas and which has similar behavioural consequences to action disorganisation syndrome on tasks of moderate complexity) is a consequence of a generalised disturbance of the triggering of schemas by object representations. Several predictions regarding differences between action disorganisation syndrome and ideational apraxia that follow from this interpretation are detailed

Rank Statistics in Biological Evolution

We present a statistical analysis of biological evolution processes. Specifically, we study the stochastic replication-mutation-death model where the population of a species may grow or shrink by birth or death, respectively, and additionally, mutations lead to the creation of new species. We rank the various species by the chronological order by which they originate. The average population N_k of the kth species decays algebraically with rank, N_k ~ M^{mu} k^{-mu}, where M is the average total population. The characteristic exponent mu=(alpha-gamma)/(alpha+beta-gamma)$ depends on alpha, beta, and gamma, the replication, mutation, and death rates. Furthermore, the average population P_k of all descendants of the kth species has a universal algebraic behavior, P_k ~ M/k.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

The D&D of the Experimental Boiling Water Reactor (EBWR)

Argonne National Laboratory has completed the D&D of the Experimental Boiling Water Reactor. The Project consisted of decontaminating and for packaging as radioactive waste the reactor vessel and internals, contaminated piping systems, miscellaneous tanks, pumps, and associated equipment. The D&D work involved dismantling process equipment and associated plumbing, ductwork drain lines, etc., performing size reduction of reactor vessel internals in the fuel pool, packaging and manifesting all radioactive and mixed waste, and performing a thorough survey of the facility after the removal of activated and contaminated material. Non-radioactive waste was disposed of in the ANL-E landfill or recycled. In January 1996 the EBWR facility was formally decommissioned and transferred from EM-40 to EM-30. This paper will discuss the details of this ten year effort

Explosives detection studies using Fast-Neutron Transmission Spectroscopy

Fast-Neutron Transmission Spectroscopy (FNTS) is being investigated for detection of explosives in luggage or air cargo. We present here the principle results of a two-year study of a few-view tomographic FNTS system using the Monte Carlo radiation transport code MCNP to simulate neutron transmission through simple luggage phantoms and Receiver Operator Characteristic (ROC) curves to determine system performance. Elemental distributions along projections through the interrogated object are obtained by analyzing MCNP generated neutron transmission data. Transmission data for few (3-5) angles and relatively coarse resolution ({approximately}2 cm) are used to create a tomographic reconstruction of elemental distributions within the object. The elemental unfolding and tomographic reconstruction algorithms and the concept of transmission-derived cross sections for use in elemental analysis have been validated by application to experimental data. Elemental distributions are combined in an explosives detection algorithm to provide an indication of the presence or absence of explosives. The algorithm in current use, termed the ``equivalent explosive`` algorithm, determines the quantity of explosive that can be formed using the measured amount of the constituent elements in each pixel. Reconstruction and explosives detection algorithms have been applied to a series of randomly packed suitcases to generated ROC that describe system performance in terms of the probability of detection and of false alarms. System studies have been performed to study the operational characteristics and limitations of a FNTS system, and to determine the system`s sensitivity to several important parameters such as neutron source reaction and incident particle energy, flight path length, and the position of the interrogated object

Exact Scale Invariance in Mixing of Binary Candidates in Voting Model

We introduce a voting model and discuss the scale invariance in the mixing of candidates. The Candidates are classified into two categories $\mu\in \{0,1\}$ and are called as `binary' candidates. There are in total $N=N_{0}+N_{1}$ candidates, and voters vote for them one by one. The probability that a candidate gets a vote is proportional to the number of votes. The initial number of votes (`seed') of a candidate $\mu$ is set to be $s_{\mu}$. After infinite counts of voting, the probability function of the share of votes of the candidate $\mu$ obeys gamma distributions with the shape exponent $s_{\mu}$ in the thermodynamic limit $Z_{0}=N_{1}s_{1}+N_{0}s_{0}\to \infty$. Between the cumulative functions $\{x_{\mu}\}$ of binary candidates, the power-law relation $1-x_{1} \sim (1-x_{0})^{\alpha}$ with the critical exponent $\alpha=s_{1}/s_{0}$ holds in the region $1-x_{0},1-x_{1}<<1$. In the double scaling limit $(s_{1},s_{0})\to (0,0)$ and $Z_{0} \to \infty$ with $s_{1}/s_{0}=\alpha$ fixed, the relation $1-x_{1}=(1-x_{0})^{\alpha}$ holds exactly over the entire range $0\le x_{0},x_{1} \le 1$. We study the data on horse races obtained from the Japan Racing Association for the period 1986 to 2006 and confirm scale invariance.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures, 2 table

Detection of the PAX3-FKHR fusion gene in paediatric rhabdomyosarcoma: a reproducible predictor of outcome?

Rhabdomyosarcoma has 2 major histological subtypes, embryonal and alveolar. Alveolar histology is associated with the fusion genes PAX3-FKHR and PAX7-FKHR. Definition of alveolar has been complicated by changes in terminology and subjectivity. It is currently unclear whether adverse clinical behaviour is better predicted by the presence of these fusion genes or by alveolar histology. We have determined the presence of the PAX3/7-FKHR fusion genes in 91 primary rhabdomyosarcoma tumours using a combination of classical cytogenetics, FISH and RT-PCR, with a view to determining the clinical characteristics of tumours with and without the characteristic translocations. There were 37 patients with t(2;13)/PAX3-FKHR, 8 with t(1;13) PAX7-FKHR and 46 with neither translocation. One or other of the characteristic translocations was found in 31/38 (82%) of alveolar cases. Univariate survival analysis revealed the presence of the translocation t(2;13)/PAX3-FKHR to be an adverse prognostic factor. With the difficulties in morphological diagnosis of alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma on increasingly used small needle biopsy specimens, these data suggest that molecular analysis for PAX3-FKHR will be a clinically useful tool in treatment stratification in the future. This hypothesis requires testing in a prospective study. Variant t(1;13)/PAX7-FKHR appears biologically different, occurring in younger patients with more localised disease. © 2001 Cancer Research Campaignhttp://www.bjcancer.co

Lower edge of locked Main Himalayan Thrust unzipped by the 2015 Gorkha earthquake

Large earthquakes are thought to release strain on previously locked faults. However, the details of how earthquakes are initiated, grow and terminate in relation to pre-seismically locked and creeping patches is unclear ^1-4. The 2015 Mw 7.8 Gorkha, Nepal earthquake occurred close to Kathmandu in a region where the prior pattern of fault locking is well documented ^5. Here we analyze this event using seismological records measured at teleseismic distances and Synthetic Aperture Radar imagery. We show that the earthquake originated northwest of Kathmandu within a cluster of background seismicity that fringes the bottom of the locked portion of the Main Himalayan Thrust fault (MHT). The rupture propagated eastwards for about 140 km, unzipping the lower edge of the locked portion of the fault. High-frequency seismic waves radiated continuously as the slip pulse propagated at about 2.8 km s-1 along this zone of presumably high and heterogeneous pre-¬seismic stress at the seismic-aseismic transition. Eastward unzipping of the fault resumed during the Mw 7.3 aftershock on May 12. The transfer of stress to neighbouring regions during the Gorkha earthquake should facilitate future rupture of the areas of the MHT adjacent and up-dip of the Gorkha earthquake rupture.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Nature Publishing Group via http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ngeo251