REGIONAL DRAINWATER MANAGEMENT: SOURCE CONTROL, AGROFORESTRY, AND EVAPORATION PONDS

Source control is one way to address salinity and drainage problems in irrigated agriculture, and reuse of drainage flows on salt-tolerant crops or trees in agroforestry production is another. A regional model of agricultural production with drainwater reuse and disposal is developed. Deep percolation flows are controlled through choice of crop areas, irrigation systems, and applied-water quantities. Crop drainwater may by reused in agroforestry production, and residual emissions are disposed of in an evaporation pond. A significant role for both source control and reuse is found. Sensitivity to various cost and revenue parameters is also analyzed.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Reflections of Reflections of Reflections: A Multi-Case Study of Women Educators\u27 Callings to the High Arctic

This study examines the stories of six women educators who were called to teach in remote Aboriginal communities in the Northwest Territories, Canada, from 1970 to 1985. Placed within a historical context, I set out to understand what called each educator to teach in a cultural context so different from her own in Canada\u27s Arctic. In order to arrive at a deeper, more intrinsic understanding of her career decisions, I explored each educators calling through three, increasingly deeper levels of reflection. In Reflections, as “in an instance of reflecting,” I explored each participant\u27s call to teach, specifically her calling to teach within another cultural context in Aboriginal communities in the High Arctic. Their explicit stories revealed the challenges each faced in teaching within another culture which embraced differing values about life and the importance of education. Each tells of her fears, failures, triumphs, and passions experienced during her years in classrooms in the Arctic. In Reflections of Reflections, as in “An effect produced by an influence,” the educators considered why they had stepped out of the classroom to enter the world of administration. Through administration, each disclosed stories of leadership and influence: assisting novice teachers, buoying up disheartened administrators and mid-career teachers, and becoming part of the greater educational plan for the future of education in the Northwest Territories. Then in Reflections of Reflections of Reflections, as “A transformation that involves reflection in more than one axis…,” each presented stories revealing the even deeper, more philosophical view of her life\u27s work through calling by peering even more intimately into the looking glass of her past. Each felt transformed through and by her calling as educator in the High Arctic, becoming one with people of differing cultural backgrounds and beliefs. Each also feels she has given something back—she has made a difference in the lives of others within the greater educational community of the North. Using a cross-case analysis as yet another angle of reflection from which to view the stories individually and collectively as “Something produced by reflecting,” I found further insights which suggested what the Department of Education could do today to support and renew its most precious resource—its educators

A new approach to CALL content authoring

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The relationship between sagittal curvature and extensor muscle volume in the lumbar spine.

This is the peer reviewed version of the article, which has been published in final form at doi: 10.1111/joa.12047. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.A previous modelling study predicted that the forces applied by the extensor muscles to stabilise the lumbar spine would be greater in spines that have a larger sagittal curvature (lordosis). Because the force-generating capacity of a muscle is related to its size, it was hypothesised that the size of the extensor muscles in a subject would be related to the size of their lumbar lordosis. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data were obtained, together with age, height, body mass and back pain status, from 42 female subjects. The volume of the extensor muscles (multifidus and erector spinae) caudal to the mid-lumbar level was estimated from cross-sectional area measurements in axial T1-weighted MRIs spanning the lumbar spine. Lower lumbar curvature was determined from sagittal T1-weighted images. A stepwise linear regression model was used to determine the best predictors of muscle volume. The mean lower lumbar extensor muscle volume was 281 cm(3) (SD = 49 cm(3)). The mean lower lumbar curvature was 30 ° (SD = 7 °). Five subjects reported current back pain and were excluded from the regression analysis. Nearly half the variation in muscle volume was accounted for by the variables age (standardised coefficient, B = -3.2, P = 0.03) and lower lumbar curvature (B = 0.47, P = 0.002). The results support the hypothesis that extensor muscle volume in the lower lumbar spine is related to the magnitude of the sagittal curvature; this has implications for assessing muscle size as an indicator of muscle strength

Target gene selectivity of the myogenic basic helix–loop–helix transcription factor myogenin in embryonic muscle

AbstractThe myogenic regulatory factors MyoD and myogenin are crucial for skeletal muscle development. Despite their importance, the mechanisms by which these factors selectively regulate different target genes are unclear. The purpose of the present investigation was to compare embryonic skeletal muscle from myogenin+/+ and myogenin−/− mice to identify genes whose expression was dependent on the presence of myogenin but not MyoD and to determine whether myogenin-binding sites could be found within regulatory regions of myogenin-dependent genes independent of MyoD. We identified a set of 140 muscle-expressed genes whose expression in embryonic tongue muscle of myogenin−/− mice was downregulated in the absence of myogenin, but in the presence of MyoD. Myogenin bound within conserved regulatory regions of several of the downregulated genes, but MyoD bound only to a subset of these same regions, suggesting that many downregulated genes were selective targets of myogenin. The regulatory regions activated gene expression in cultured myoblasts and fibroblasts overexpressing myogenin or MyoD, indicating that expression from exogenously introduced DNA could not recapitulate the selectivity for myogenin observed in vivo. The results identify new target genes for myogenin and show that myogenin's target gene selectivity is not based solely on binding site sequences

Centerscope

Centerscope, formerly Scope, was published by the Boston University Medical Center "to communicate the concern of the Medical Center for the development and maintenance of improved health care in contemporary society.

Clouds in the Coldest Brown Dwarfs: FIRE Spectroscopy of Ross 458C

Condensate clouds are a salient feature of L dwarf atmospheres, but have been assumed to play little role in shaping the spectra of the coldest T-type brown dwarfs. Here we report evidence of condensate opacity in the near-infrared spectrum of the brown dwarf candidate Ross 458C, obtained with the Folded-Port Infrared Echellette (FIRE) spectrograph at the Magellan Telescopes. These data verify the low-temperature nature of this source, indicating a T8 spectral classification, log Lbol/Lsun = -5.62+/-0.03, Teff = 650+/-25 K, and a mass at or below the deuterium burning limit. The data also reveal enhanced emission at K-band associated with youth (low surface gravity) and supersolar metallicity, reflecting the properties of the Ross 458 system (age = 150-800 Myr, [Fe/H] = +0.2 to +0.3). We present fits of FIRE data for Ross 458C, the T9 dwarf ULAS J133553.45+113005.2, and the blue T7.5 dwarf SDSS J141624.08+134826.7B, to cloudless and cloudy spectral models from Saumon & Marley. For Ross 458C we confirm a low surface gravity and supersolar metallicity, while the temperature differs depending on the presence (635 [+25,-35] K) or absence (760 [+70,-45] K) of cloud extinction. ULAS J1335+1130 and SDSS J1416+1348B have similar temperatures (595 [+25,-45] K), but distinct surface gravities (log g = 4.0-4.5 cgs versus 5.0-5.5 cgs) and metallicities ([M/H] ~ +0.2 versus -0.2). In all three cases, cloudy models provide better fits to the spectral data, significantly so for Ross 458C. These results indicate that clouds are an important opacity source in the spectra of young cold T dwarfs, and should be considered when characterizing the spectra of planetary-mass objects in young clusters and directly-imaged exoplanets. The characteristics of Ross 458C suggest it could itself be regarded as a planet, albeit one whose cosmogony does not conform with current planet formation theories.Comment: Accepted for publication to ApJ: 18 pages, 11 figures in emulateapj forma