Agricultural water management in a water stressed catchment: Lessons from the RIPARWIN Project

irrigation management / water stress / river basins / water rights / water fees / water allocation / irrigation efficiency / economic aspects / decision support tools / wetlands / water use / water users associations

Use of record-linkage to handle non-response and improve alcohol consumption estimates in health survey data: a study protocol

<p>Introduction: Reliable estimates of health-related behaviours, such as levels of alcohol consumption in the population, are required to formulate and evaluate policies. National surveys provide such data; validity depends on generalisability, but this is threatened by declining response levels. Attempts to address bias arising from non-response are typically limited to survey weights based on sociodemographic characteristics, which do not capture differential health and related behaviours within categories. This project aims to explore and address non-response bias in health surveys with a focus on alcohol consumption.</p> <p>Methods and analysis: The Scottish Health Surveys (SHeS) aim to provide estimates representative of the Scottish population living in private households. Survey data of consenting participants (92% of the achieved sample) have been record-linked to routine hospital admission (Scottish Morbidity Records (SMR)) and mortality (from National Records of Scotland (NRS)) data for surveys conducted in 1995, 1998, 2003, 2008, 2009 and 2010 (total adult sample size around 40 000), with maximum follow-up of 16 years. Also available are census information and SMR/NRS data for the general population. Comparisons of alcohol-related mortality and hospital admission rates in the linked SHeS-SMR/NRS with those in the general population will be made. Survey data will be augmented by quantification of differences to refine alcohol consumption estimates through the application of multiple imputation or inverse probability weighting. The resulting corrected estimates of population alcohol consumption will enable superior policy evaluation. An advanced weighting procedure will be developed for wider use.</p> <p>Ethics and dissemination: Ethics approval for SHeS has been given by the National Health Service (NHS) Multi-Centre Research Ethics Committee and use of linked data has been approved by the Privacy Advisory Committee to the Board of NHS National Services Scotland and Registrar General. Funding has been granted by the MRC. The outputs will include four or five public health and statistical methodological international journal and conference papers.</p&gt

Effect of surface conditions on internal oxidation and nitridation of HVOF MCrAlY coatings

This study deals with the isothermal oxidation behaviour of high velocity oxy-fuel sprayed MCrAlY coatings. Both free-standing coatings and coatings attached to IN738 and CMSX4 substrates undergo isothermal oxidation at 1100°C for up to 100h. The effect of surface conditions (as-sprayed and polished) has been investigated. Scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray analysis were used to characterise the details of oxidation behaviour. The results have shown that both surface conditions and substrate type have a pronounced effect on oxidation behaviour. Extensive internal oxidation and nitridation is observed for polished coatings on Inconel 738 and is attributed to the combined effects of titanium diffusion from the substrate and enhanced surface diffusion due to polishing

Working wetlands: classifying wetland potential for agriculture

Wetlands / Ecology / Natural resources / Social aspects / Case studies / Zanzibar / Tanzania / Zimbabwe / Swaziland

Fabrication and microstrain evolution of Al-TiB2 composite coating by cold spray deposition

This paper investigates the microstructure evolution of Al-TiB2 coatings prepared by cold spraying. In situ Al-TiB2 composite powders containing uniformly distributed titanium diboride (TiB2) particles with a size range of 5 to 100 nm in the Al matrix and Al/Al-TiB2 blended powders were used as the cold spray feedstock for coating fabrication on aluminium alloy substrates. The microstructures of the feedstock powders and as-deposited coatings were characterised using scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Al/Al-TiB2 blended powder coatings, compromising closely packed powder particles, were sprayed to an approximate thickness of 500 μm. Al-TiB2 composite coatings (approximately 50 μm thick) were obtained retaining the microstructure of the composite powders being sprayed and no evidence of detrimental phase transformation was found. However, micro-cracks were found to exist in the Al-TiB2 coating due to the hardly deformable powder particles. Little or no microstrain was revealed in the as-sprayed Al-TiB2 coating, indicating that annealing may have occurred due to the localised adiabatic heating during the spraying process. It is demonstrated that it is possible to fabricate the Al-TiB2 composite coating by cold spray deposition but further improvements to eliminate coating cracking are required

Strengthening Cross-border Law Enforcement Cooperation: the Prüm Network of Information Exchange

The Prüm network was established to provide mechanisms and the infrastructure to achieve a closer cooperation between the EU member states in combating terrorism, organised crime and illegal immigration through the cross border exchange of DNA profiles, fingerprints and vehicle registration data. While Prüm offers clear benefits for cross-border policing, it continues to present challenges of a technical and scientific nature as well as legal, ethical and socioeconomic concerns. This article reviews these challenges as well as the existing safeguards. It argues that, in order to achieve Prüm benefits and maximise its potential, it is important to enhance the necessary dialogue and cooperation between member states so as to confront the above concerns and address challenges posed by Prüm through balanced measures

Bacteria isolated from Bengal cat (Felis catus × Prionailurus bengalensis) anal sac secretions produce volatile compounds potentially associated with animal signaling.

In social animals, scent secretions and marking behaviors play critical roles in communication, including intraspecific signals, such as identifying individuals and group membership, as well as interspecific signaling. Anal sacs are an important odor producing organ found across the carnivorans (species in the mammalian Order Carnivora). Secretions from the anal sac may be used as chemical signals by animals for behaviors ranging from defense to species recognition to signaling reproductive status. In addition, a recent study suggests that domestic cats utilize short-chain free fatty acids in anal sac secretions for individual recognition. The fermentation hypothesis is the idea that symbiotic microorganisms living in association with animals contribute to odor profiles used in chemical communication and that variation in these chemical signals reflects variation in the microbial community. Here we examine the fermentation hypothesis by characterizing volatile organic compounds (VOC) and bacteria isolated from anal sac secretions collected from a male Bengal cat (Felis catus × Prionailurus bengalensis), a cross between the domestic cat and the leopard cat. Both left and right anal sacs of a male Bengal cat were manually expressed (emptied) and collected. Half of the material was used to culture bacteria or to extract bacterial DNA and the other half was used for VOC analysis. DNA was extracted from the anal sac secretions and used for a 16S rRNA gene PCR amplification and sequencing based characterization of the microbial community. Additionally, some of the material was plated out in order to isolate bacterial colonies. Three taxa (Bacteroides fragilis, Tessaracoccus, and Finegoldia magna) were relatively abundant in the 16S rRNA gene sequence data and also isolated by culturing. Using Solid Phase Microextraction (SPME) gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), we tentatively identified 52 compounds from the Bengal cat anal sac secretions and 67 compounds from cultures of the three bacterial isolates chosen for further analysis. Among 67 compounds tentatively identified from bacterial isolates, 51 were also found in the anal sac secretion. We show that the bacterial community in the anal sac consists primarily of only a few abundant taxa and that isolates of these taxa produce numerous volatiles that are found in the combined anal sac volatile profile. Several of these volatiles are found in anal sac secretions from other carnivorans, and are also associated with known bacterial biosynthesis pathways. This is consistent with the fermentation hypothesis and the possibility that the anal sac is maintained at least in part to house bacteria that produce volatiles for the host

Use of a hydrological model for environmental management of the Usangu Wetlands, Tanzania

Wetlands / Rivers / Ecology / Environmental effects / Remote sensing / Hydrology / Simulation models / Water budget / Irrigated sites / Land cover / Time series analysis / Tanzania / Usangu Wetlands / Great Ruaha River

A physics-based life prediction methodology for thermal barrier coating systems

A novel mechanistic approach is proposed for the prediction of the life of thermal barrier coating (TBC) systems. The life prediction methodology is based on a criterion linked directly to the dominant failure mechanism. It relies on a statistical treatment of the TBC's morphological characteristics, non-destructive stress measurements and on a continuum mechanics framework to quantify the stresses that promote the nucleation and growth of microcracks within the TBC. The last of these accounts for the effects of TBC constituents' elasto-visco-plastic properties, the stiffening of the ceramic due to sintering and the oxidation at the interface between the thermally insulating yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ) layer and the metallic bond coat. The mechanistic approach is used to investigate the effects on TBC life of the properties and morphology of the top YSZ coating, metallic low-pressure plasma sprayed bond coat and the thermally grown oxide. Its calibration is based on TBC damage inferred from non-destructive fluorescence measurements using piezo-spectroscopy and on the numerically predicted local TBC stresses responsible for the initiation of such damage. The potential applicability of the methodology to other types of TBC coatings and thermal loading conditions is also discussed