The isotherm follower

The isotherm follower is an instrument that is capable of seeking out a given isotherm in the sea, locking on to the isotherm, following it up and down, and recording its depth with respect to time. This instrument has been employed singly and in triangular arrangements of three to provide the speed and direction of internal waves. It has proven to be valuable in determining the nature of vertical oscillations of sea temperature

Variations of sea level on the Pacific coast of the United States

Seasonal Sea Level Variations.----The mean sea level during any period can be derived from the average of the hourly tide heights. These tide heights are obtained from records of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey permanent tide gauges, which are located in the principal harbors along the west coast, except the La Jolla gauge which is situated on the open coast

Natural slicks on the ocean

Slicks are smooth glassy streaks or patches on the ocean. Prominent slicks are confined largely to near-shore areas where organic production is high. Experiments and observations are described which show that slicks are contaminate films of organic oil, probably derived primarily from diatoms which contain droplets of oil in their cells to assist in flotation and/or as an emergency food supply. Slicks are discernible because of their damping effect on small wavelets. The parallel slicks that develop in light to moderate winds result because the contaminate films pile up at the top of convergences in the homogeneous, wind-stirred layer above the thermocline

Physical oceanographic investigations in the Eastern Bering and Chukchi Seas during the summer of 1947

New information on the physical properties of the waters in the eastern Bering and Chukchi seas is discussed. It shows that, in summer, the water masses of this area are complicated by the circulation and advective processes. In general, the southern Bering Sea water flows northward and is modified by warm low-salinity water from rivers along the Alaskan coast and from intrusions of cold high-salinity water from the western Bering Sea. This mixture of water funn els through the Bering Strait principally at the surface on the eastern side...

Rotation des cultures annuelles et travail du sol en climat nordique : quelle combinaison semble la plus profitable au Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean?

Au Saguenay‒Lac-Saint-Jean, les cultures annuelles prennent de plus en plus d’ampleur au détriment des cultures pérennes. Toutefois, il y a peu d’information régionale sur les effets à long terme des pratiques culturales sur les rendements et les paramètres de la qualité des sols. L’objectif de cette étude a donc été de déterminer les effets des rotations des cultures annuelles et du travail du sol sur les rendements et les propriétés chimiques et physiques du sol. Trouver une combinaison de rotation et de travail du sol profitable dans le contexte nordique du Saguenay‒Lac-Saint-Jean est particulièrement important pour les producteurs de grandes cultures de la région

Best management practices in northern agriculture : a twelve-year rotation and soil tillage study in Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean

In the northern agroecosystem of Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean, cash crops such as barley, canola, and field pea are gaining popularity over traditional perennial crops like alfalfa. However, very little information is available on the relatively long-term effect of different crop rotations and soil tillage practices on crop yields and soil quality parameters. This study was conducted at the Normandin Research Farm of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. Five rotation types [1: Canola–Barley–Barley–Pea (C–B–B–P); 2: Canola–Pea–Barley–Barley (C–P–B–B); 3: Canola–Barley–Pea–Barley (C–B–P–B); 4: Pea monoculture; and 5: Barley monoculture] and two soil tillage practices [1: Chisel plough (CP) and 2: Moldboard plough (MP)] were evaluated. Canola monoculture of was not included. The study began in 1999 on a former alfalfa field and ended in 2010 after three four-year rotation cycles. Barley monoculture decreased yields by 600 kg ha−1 in the last five years, whereas field pea monoculture decreased yields by about 1000 kg ha−1 in most years. Barley monoculture did not significantly reduce grain yields compared to C–B–B–P and C–P–B–B, highlighting the importance of alternate crops every year. Soil tillage (CP versus MP) did not significantly affect yields for all crops in most years; and when it did have an effect, it showed inconsistencies by either increasing or decreasing grain yields. Soil tillage also had insignificant impact regardless of the rotation type involved. Rotation type and soil tillage had insignificant effect on soil organic matter content, whereas CP increased nitrate and phosphorus content in the 0–20 cm soil layer. Rotation type had insignificant impact on soil physical properties, whereas CP improved soil water conductivity by 0.03 cm h−1 for C–B–B–P and barley monoculture. Compared to MP, CP improved soil macro-aggregate (2–6 mm) stability to water as well as aggregate mean weight diameter by about 15% for most of the rotations

SACRUM LOAD-DISPLACEMENT BEHAVIOUR AND SI LOCKING MECHANISM IN WEIGHT LIFTERS

INTRODUCTION: The presence of movement at the SI joint has been increasingly investigated and discussed in the past, and even though it has been contested, the presence of movement at this articulation is now accepted. Furthermore, it has been shown that abnormal motion at the SI modifies performance in weightlifters. To better understand the relationship between SI joints and function, models were developed: The Erector spinae, Gluteus maximus, Biceps femoris, and Latissimus dorsi muscles form a kinetic chain permitting load transfer via the different layers of the thoracolumbar fascia. This mechanism is thought to increase the compressive forces, much as a pelvic belt might do, on the SI joint surfaces and provide greater pelvic stability during activity. We challenged this concept by 1) evaluating the capacity of the hip extensors to lock the SI; 2) inducing tension in the thoracolumbar fascia by placing the subjects in a hip flexion position. METHODS: 10 experienced weight lifters aged between 18 and 25 years old took part in the study. Subjects were first placed prone on a flat surface and again on a triangular support structure producing 30o hip flexion. A previously described loaddisplacement apparatus was used to apply a total of 250 N in 50 N increments on S1 and then on S5. The loads were applied 1) with muscles relaxed and at a minimum of 80 % maximal voluntary isometric contraction of the hip extensors. RESULTS: Generally, the range of motion increased significantly as the load applied increased. There was a significant difference in the results between movement in nutation and contra-nutation (

The Rooted SCJ Median with Single Gene Duplications

The median problem is a classical problem in genome rearrangements. It aims to compute a gene order that minimizes the sum of the genomic distances to  k>=3  given gene orders. This problem is intractable except in the related Single-Cut-or-Join and breakpoint rearrangement models. Here we consider the rooted median problem, where we assume one of the given genomes to be ancestral to the median, which is itself ancestral to the other genomes. We show that in the Single-Cut-or-Join model with single gene duplications, the rooted median problem is NP-hard. We also describe an Integer Linear Program for solving this problem, which we apply to simulated data, showing high accuracy of the reconstructed medians

The Distance and Median Problems in the Single-Cut-Or-Join Model with Single-Gene Duplications

Background. In the field of genome rearrangement algorithms, models accounting for gene duplication lead often to hard problems. For example, while computing the pairwise distance is tractable in most duplication-free models, the problem is NP-complete for most extensions of these models accounting for duplicated genes. Moreover, problems involving more than two genomes, such as the genome median and the Small Parsimony problem, are intractable for most duplication-free models, with some exceptions, for example the Single-Cut-or-Join (SCJ) model. Results. We introduce a variant of the SCJ distance that accounts for duplicated genes, in the context of directed evolution from an ancestral genome to a descendant genome where orthology relations between ancestral genes and their descendant are known. Our model includes two duplication mechanisms: single-gene tandem duplication and the creation of single-gene circular chromosomes. We prove that in this model, computing the directed distance and a parsimonious evolutionary scenario in terms of SCJ and single-gene duplication events can be done in linear time. We also show that the directed median problem is tractable for this distance, while the rooted median problem, where we assume that one of the given genomes is ancestral to the median, is NP-complete. We also describe an Integer Linear Program for solving this problem. We evaluate the directed distance and rooted median algorithms on simulated data. Conclusion. Our results provide a simple genome rearrangement model, extending the SCJ model to account for single-gene duplications, for which we prove a mix of tractability and hardness results. For the NP-complete rooted median problem, we design a simple Integer Linear Program. Our publicly available implementation of these algorithms for the directed distance and median problems allow to solve efficiently these problems on large instances

Partial Homology Relations - Satisfiability in terms of Di-Cographs

Directed cographs (di-cographs) play a crucial role in the reconstruction of evolutionary histories of genes based on homology relations which are binary relations between genes. A variety of methods based on pairwise sequence comparisons can be used to infer such homology relations (e.g.\ orthology, paralogy, xenology). They are \emph{satisfiable} if the relations can be explained by an event-labeled gene tree, i.e., they can simultaneously co-exist in an evolutionary history of the underlying genes. Every gene tree is equivalently interpreted as a so-called cotree that entirely encodes the structure of a di-cograph. Thus, satisfiable homology relations must necessarily form a di-cograph. The inferred homology relations might not cover each pair of genes and thus, provide only partial knowledge on the full set of homology relations. Moreover, for particular pairs of genes, it might be known with a high degree of certainty that they are not orthologs (resp.\ paralogs, xenologs) which yields forbidden pairs of genes. Motivated by this observation, we characterize (partial) satisfiable homology relations with or without forbidden gene pairs, provide a quadratic-time algorithm for their recognition and for the computation of a cotree that explains the given relations