Theory, codes, and numerical simulation of heat transport in multicomponent systems

Heat transport is a topic that is fundamental in many fields, from materials engineering to planetary models. The calculation of the thermal transport coefficient with the Green-Kubo theory in multicomponent fluids, especially in ab-initio simulations, had a severe data analysis issue that this work solved. In this thesis, we derive the entire theory and data analysis framework for the multicomponent Green-Kubo. Then we show the computer codes we developed, allowing the user to apply the approach previously derived. We believe that in science, replicability and reproducibility are essential requirements. Every new technique must come with an open-source and reliable implementation. In the end, we demonstrate a significant application to superionic ammonia, fundamental to understanding the behavior of icy giant planets like Uranus and Neptune, providing an estimate for the thermal transport coefficient

Die gute alte Fruchtfolge als Bekämpfungsmethode gegen den Maiswurzelbohrer (Diabrotica virgifera virgifera LeConte)

Diabrotica virgifera virgifera (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), the western corn rootworm (WCR), is an immigrant from North America and one of the top ten global agricultural pest species. Within the last 15 years, WCR invaded Europe at 3 focal points, and has been steadily extending its domain soon threatening commercial maize production. After the first detection in Switzerland in 2000 near Lugano, careful observations by pheromone trap monitoring of this quarantine organism have been realized. Experiences with WCR whose populations dynamics are incompletely understood, have also been studied by installing a continuous maize field comparing population dynamics with rotated maize fields in the immediate surroundings. Our experiences with WCR populations in the Swiss territory are here briefly summarized: 1. Mandatory crop rotation in the canton Ticino slowed spread of WCR significantly. WCR infestations north of the main Alpine mountain chain were rare and eradicated by crop rotation. 2. In a continuous maize cropping system population of WCR can reach economic damage level, but can also be confined by unknown factors 3. Switzerland with its rigorous crop rotation program may serve as an example of farsighted WCR management preserving environment and saving money

Gambling in a remote Aboriginal setting - the good, the bad and the ugly

In 2009 the Ceduna Koonibba Aboriginal Health Service, an Indigenous-specific service, and Statewide Gambling Therapy Service joined together to investigate the impact that gambling was having on the Aboriginal people living in this region. Both organisations were funded through the state-based Office for Problem Gambling to provide gambling intervention. A number of signs indicate that the community development approach has proven effective. Towards the end of the first year of the project six people signed up for one-on-one therapy to address gambling; a small group of women met regularly to learn more about how to overcome gambling and provide support to each other. In general, there has been a notable improvement in the level of engagement with the program amongst health and welfare workers in the town, with the Project Officers regularly meeting with staff across agencies

Verification of a Synthesized Method for the Calculation of Low-Level Climatological Wind Fields Using a Mesoscale Boundary-Layer Model

Low-level climatological wind fields over the La Plata River region of South America are synthesized with a dry, hydrostatic mesoscale boundary-layer numerical model. The model is forced at the upper boundary with the 1200 UTC local radiosonde observations and at the lower boundary with a land-river differential heating function defined from the daily meteorological observations of the region. The climatological wind field is defined as the mean value of a series of individual daily forecasts, employing two methods. The simplified method considers a 192-member ensemble (16 wind directions and 12 wind-speed classes at the upper boundary). Each member has a probability of occurrence that is determined from the 1959-1984 observations; the daily method uses a total of 3,248 days with available data during the same period. In both methods each realization is a daily forecast from which the mean wind distributions at 0300, 0900, 1500 and 2100 local standard time are calculated and compared to the observations of five meteorological stations in the region. The validation of the climatological wind fields for both methods is evaluated by means of the root-mean-square error of the wind-direction frequency distribution and mean wind speed by wind sector. The results obtained with the two methods are similar, and the errors in wind speed are always smaller than those in wind direction. The combined errors of wind direction and wind speed show that the ensemble method is outperformed by the daily method, on average by meteorological station in only one out of five of them, and on average by the time of the day in only one out of 4 h. The conclusion of the study is that the ensemble method is an appropriate methodology for determining high resolution, low-level climatological wind fields, with the boundary-layer model applied to a region with a strong diurnal cycle of surface thermal contrast. The proposed methodology is of particular utility for synthesizing wind fields over regions with limited meteorological observations, since the 192-member matrix can be easily defined with few observing points, as well as in the case of relatively incomplete records.Fil: Berri, Guillermo Jorge. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Ministerio de Defensa. Secretaria de Planeamiento. Servicio Meteorológico Nacional; ArgentinaFil: Galli Nuin, Jorgelina Susana. Universidad de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Sraibman, Laura. Universidad de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Bertossa, German. Ministerio de Defensa. Secretaria de Planeamiento. Servicio Meteorológico Nacional; Argentin

First-Stage Development of the Pitjantjatjara Translation of the World Health Organization’s Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST)

Substance use is a leading contributor to global disease, illness and death. Compared with non-Indigenous Australians, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians are at an increased risk of substance-related harms due to the experience of additional social, cultural, and economic factors. While preventive approaches, including screening and early interventions are promising, currently there are limited options available to healthcare workers that are culturally appropriate for use in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations. Therefore, the aim of this research was to translate and culturally adapt the World Health Organization endorsed, Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST) into Pitjantjatjara. This paper first describes the process of translation and adaptation of the instrument (Phase 1). The process of focus-group testing the translated instrument for accuracy and cultural appropriateness is also discussed (Phase 2). Key findings from both phases are presented in the context of how the research team worked with key stakeholders in the community to identify facilitators and work through barriers to implementation. The findings from this paper will be used to inform the development of a digital, app-based version of the instrument for the purposes of pilot-testing and validation

Initializing a Mesoscale Boundary-Layer Model with Radiosonde Observations

A mesoscale boundary-layer model is used to simulate low-level regional wind fields over the La Plata River of South America, a region characterized by a strong daily cycle of land–river surface-temperature contrast and low-level circulations of sea–land breeze type. The initial and boundary conditions are defined from a limited number of local observations and the upper boundary condition is taken from the only radiosonde observations available in the region. The study considers 14 different upper boundary conditions defined from the radiosonde data at standard levels, significant levels, level of the inversion base and interpolated levels at fixed heights, all of them within the first 1500 m. The period of analysis is 1994–2008 during which eight daily observations from 13 weather stations of the region are used to validate the 24-h surface-wind forecast. The model errors are defined as the root-mean-square of relative error in wind-direction frequency distribution and mean wind speed per wind sector. Wind-direction errors are greater than wind-speed errors and show significant dispersion among the different upper boundary conditions, not present in wind speed, revealing a sensitivity to the initialization method. The wind-direction errors show a well-defined daily cycle, not evident in wind speed, with the minimum at noon and the maximum at dusk, but no systematic deterioration with time. The errors grow with the height of the upper boundary condition level, in particular wind direction, and double the errors obtained when the upper boundary condition is defined from the lower levels. The conclusion is that defining the model upper boundary condition from radiosonde data closer to the ground minimizes the low-level wind-field errors throughout the region.Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísica

Effect of the Gene doublesex of Anastrepha on the Somatic Sexual Development of Drosophila

8 pages, 4 figures and 2 tables.[Background] The gene doublesex (dsx) is at the bottom of the sex determination genetic cascade and is transcribed in both sexes, but gives rise to two different proteins, DsxF and DsxM, which impose female and male sexual development respectively via the sex-specific regulation of the so-called sexual cyto-differentiation genes. The present manuscript addressed the question about the functional conservation of the tephritid Anastrepha DsxF and DsxM proteins to direct the sexual development in Drosophila (Drosophilidae).[Methodology] To express these proteins in Drosophila, the GAL4-UAS system was used. The effect of these proteins was monitored in the sexually dimorphic regions of the fly: the foreleg basitarsus, the 5th, 6th and 7th tergites, and the external terminalia. In addition, we analysed the effect of Anastrepha DsxF and DsxM proteins on the regulation of Drosophila yolk protein genes, which are expressed in the fat body of adult females under the control of dsx.Conclusions The Anastrepha DsxF and DsxM proteins transformed doublesex intersexual Drosophila flies into females and males respectively, though this transformation was incomplete and the extent of their influence varied in the different sexually dimorphic regions of the adult fly. The Anastrepha DsxF and DsxM proteins also behaved as activators and repressors, respectively, of the Drosophila yolk protein genes, as do the DsxF and DsxM proteins of Drosophila itself. Finally, the Anastrepha DsxF and DsxM proteins were found to counteract the functions of Drosophila DsxM and DsxF respectively, reflecting the normal behaviour of the latter proteins towards one another. Collectively, these results indicate that the Anastrepha DsxF and DsxM proteins show conserved female and male sex-determination function respectively in Drosophila, though it appears that they cannot fully substitute the latter's own Dsx proteins. This incomplete function might be partly due to a reduced capacity of the Anastrepha Dsx proteins to completely control the Drosophila sexual cyto-differentiation genes, a consequence of the accumulation of divergence between these species resulting in the formation of different co-adapted complexes between the Dsx proteins and their target genes.This work was financed by grant BFU2005-03000 awarded to L. Sa´nchez by the D.G.I.C.Y.T. (Spanish Government).Peer reviewe

Factors of wheat grain resistance to Fusarium head blight

Fusarium head blight (FHB), caused by Fusarium graminearum, is an important wheat disease that affects grain yield and conformation, and contaminates grains with mycotoxins, including the trichothecene deoxynivalenol (DON). The impacts of Fusarium infections on grain filling, grain deformation and rheological properties were assessed under different environmental conditions. Genotypes with elevated grain anthocyanin content were used. Resistance of seven wheat varieties and breeding lines was assessed with artificial infections in the field. Grains from infected and control plots were assessed for proportion of Fusarium damaged kernels, grain filling (thousand kernel weight) and DON accumulation. Biochemical and rheological properties of harvested grain were also assessed. Grain resistance to Fusarium has several components, including resistance against DON accumulation, deformation and stability of grain filling. These mechanisms are interdependent but act independently. Resistance against DON contamination was highly influenced by environmental conditions, but environment had little effect on the other resistance components. Anthocyanins and protein concentrations were unchanged in infected grains, suggesting that FHB does not affect grain biosynthesis processes but impacts the transport of assimilates caused by changes in grain composition. We suggest that this is the reason for the alterations of rheological properties. The greater the grain resistance, the less was the impact on dough properties. This study suggests that the resilience of rheological properties under FHB infection pressure is an additional component of grain resistance to the disease

Phylogeny and oscillating expression of period and cryptochrome in short and long photoperiods suggest a conserved function in Nasonia vitripennis

Photoperiodism, the ability to respond to seasonal varying day length with suitable life history changes, is a common trait in organisms that live in temperate regions. In most studied organisms, the circadian system appears to be the basis for photoperiodic time measurement. In insects this is still controversial: while some data indicate that the circadian system is causally involved in photoperiodism, others suggest that it may have a marginal or indirect role. Resonance experiments in the parasitic wasp Nasonia vitripennis have revealed a circadian component in photoperiodic time measurement compatible with a mechanism of internal coincidence where a two components oscillator system obtains information from dawn and dusk, respectively. The identity of this oscillator (or oscillators) is still unclear but possible candidates are the oscillating molecules of the auto-regulatory feedback loops in the heart of the circadian system. Here, we show for the first time the circadian oscillation of period and cryptochrome mRNAs in the heads of Nasonia females kept under short and long photoperiods. Period and cryptochrome mRNA levels display a synchronous oscillation in all conditions tested and persist, albeit with reduced amplitude, during the first day in constant light as well as constant darkness. More importantly, the signal for the period and cryptochrome oscillations is set by the light-on signal. These results, together with phylogenetic analyses, indicate that Nasonia’s period and cryptochrome display characteristics of homologous genes in other hymenopteran species