Atrazine Degradation, Sorption and Bioconcentration in Water Systems

The herbicide atrazine is used extensively to control broadleaf and grass weeds in such crops as sorghum and corn. A small portion of the atrazine may be lost from the area of application by surface runoff and could enter a stream or lake. The objective of this study was to evaluate atrazine degradation, sorption, and bioconcentration in watersediment systems. The results indicated that sediments with lower pH values and higher organic matter levels adsorbed higher levels of atrazine than sediments with neutral pH values and lower organic matter levels. Microbial decomposition of the herbicide was slow under the conditions of this study. Accumulation of atrazine by microorganisms in an aqueous system was demonstrated4 The results indicated that the organic fraction of a water system may be the most important adsorption ccmponent. Data from this study will be useful in assessing the ramifications of herbicides in aquatic ecosystems and provide a better understanding of the reactions of herbicides in sediment-water systans

Governing dynamics by squeezing in a system of cold trapped ions

We consider a system of laser-cooled ions in a linear harmonic trap and study the phenomenon of squeezing exchange between their internal and motional degrees of freedom. An interesting relation between the quantum noise reduction (squeezing) and the dynamical evolution is found when the internal and motional subsystems are prepared in properly squeezed (intelligent) states. Specifically, the evolution of the system is fully governed by the relative strengths of spectroscopic and motional squeezing, including the phenomenon of total cancellation of the interaction when the initial squeezing parameters are equal.Comment: REVTeX, 5 pages, 2 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Hairy black holes and the endpoint of AdS4_4 charged superradiance

We construct hairy black hole solutions that merge with the anti-de Sitter (AdS$_4$) Reissner-Nordstr\"om black hole at the onset of superradiance. These hairy black holes have, for a given mass and charge, higher entropy than the corresponding AdS$_4$-Reissner-Nordstr\"om black hole. Therefore, they are natural candidates for the endpoint of the charged superradiant instability. On the other hand, hairy black holes never dominate the canonical and grand-canonical ensembles. The zero-horizon radius of the hairy black holes is a soliton (i.e. a boson star under a gauge transformation). We construct our solutions perturbatively, for small mass and charge, so that the properties of hairy black holes can be used to testify and compare with the endpoint of initial value simulations. We further discuss the near-horizon scalar condensation instability which is also present in global AdS$_4$-Reissner-Nordstr\"om black holes. We highlight the different nature of the near-horizon and superradiant instabilities and that hairy black holes ultimately exist because of the non-linear instability of AdS.Comment: 41 pages, 6 figures. v2: Minor changes to match published versio

Test and evaluation of load converter topologies used in the Space Station Freedom Power Management and distribution DC test bed

Power components hardware in support of the Space Station Freedom dc Electrical Power System were tested. One type of breadboard hardware tested is the dc Load Converter Unit, which constitutes the power interface between the electric power system and the actual load. These units are dc to dc converters that provide the final system regulation before power is delivered to the load. Three load converters were tested: a series resonant converter, a series inductor switchmode converter, and a switching full-bridge forward converter. The topology, operation principles, and tests results are described, in general. A comparative analysis of the three units is given with respect to efficiency, regulation, short circuit behavior (protection), and transient characteristics

The asymptotic structure of nearly unstable non-negative integer-valued AR(1) models

This paper considers non-negative integer-valued autoregressive processes where the autoregression parameter is close to unity. We consider the asymptotics of this `near unit root' situation. The local asymptotic structure of the likelihood ratios of the model is obtained, showing that the limit experiment is Poissonian. To illustrate the statistical consequences we discuss efficient estimation of the autoregression parameter and efficient testing for a unit root.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.3150/08-BEJ153 the Bernoulli (http://isi.cbs.nl/bernoulli/) by the International Statistical Institute/Bernoulli Society (http://isi.cbs.nl/BS/bshome.htm

Local Asymptotic Equivalence of the Bai and Ng (2004) and Moon and Perron (2004) Frameworks for Panel Unit Root Testing

This paper considers unit-root tests in large n and large T heterogeneous panels with cross-sectional dependence generated by unobserved factors. We reconsider the two prevalent approaches in the literature, that of Moon and Perron (2004) and the PANIC setup proposed in Bai and Ng (2004). While these have been considered as completely different setups, we show that, in case of Gaussian innovations, the frameworks are asymptotically equivalent in the sense that both experiments are locally asymptotically normal (LAN) with the same central sequence. Using Le Cam's theory of statistical experiments we determine the local asymptotic power envelope and derive an optimal test jointly in both setups. We show that the popular Moon and Perron (2004) and Bai and Ng (2010) tests only attain the power envelope in case there is no heterogeneity in the long-run variance of the idiosyncratic components. The new test is asymptotically uniformly most powerful irrespective of possible heterogeneity. Moreover, it turns out that for any test, satisfying a mild regularity condition, the size and local asymptotic power are the same under both data generating processes. Thus, applied researchers do not need to decide on one of the two frameworks to conduct unit root tests. Monte-Carlo simulations corroborate our asymptotic results and document significant gains in finite-sample power if the variances of the idiosyncratic shocks differ substantially among the cross sectional units

ANALYSIS OF REPEATED MEASURES DATA

Data with repeated measures occur frequently in agricultural research. This paper is a brief overview of statistical methods for repeated measures data. Statistical analysis of repeated measures data requires special attention due to the correlation structure, which may render standard analysis of variance techniques invalid. For balanced data, multivariate analysis of variance methods can be employed and adjustments can be applied to univariate methods, as means of accounting for the correlation structure. But these analysis of variance methods do not apply readily with unbalanced data, and they overlook the regression on time. Regression curves for treatment groups can be obtained by fitting a curve to each experimental unit; and then averaging the coefficients over the units. Treatment groups can be compared by applying univariate and multivariate methods to the group means of the coefficients. This approach does not require knowledge of the correlation structure of the repeated measures, and an approximate version of it can be applied with unbalanced data

A Biblical Preaching Strategy For The Ministers Of The Seventh-day Adventist Central Dominican Conference

Problem The problem of preaching in the Central Dominican Conference seems to be one of sermon content. Weaknesses in hermeneutical principles as well as rules applied to the biblical sermon can be detected. Even when preachers quote the Bible and try to explain the message, the biblical text is not properly discussed or explained. This situation results in poor sermon content. To correct this anomaly, this study provides a guide on Biblical Preaching to help the minister produce a better sermon to feed the church. Method In order to investigate the content of sermons and the principles applied to preaching in the Central Dominican Conference, a request was sent to all ministers to submit a tape-recorded sermon which they had preached during a regular Sabbath service. The sermons were carefully studied and analyzed according to the hermeneutical criteria and homiletical rules which emerged from the review of biblical and current literature. Results It was found that the Dominican preachers do not use the rules of interpretation properly to build the content of their sermons, thus reflecting poor biblical sermon content. Conclusion The result of this study has created an awareness in the body of ministers of the Central Dominican Conference about the importance of analyzing, explaining, and applying in their sermons what the Bible says. By using the strategy recommended by this study, a follow-up workshop was conducted for the Dominican ministers in which it was found that eighteen of the twenty participants improved the content of their sermons. It can be theorized that the suggested sermonwriting techniques were proven to be helpful in improving the content of Biblical sermons