Forage legume impact on soil fertility and N balance

Dairy production systems in Europe are to a large extent based on ley-arable rotations. In the ley phase of such rotations nitrogen accumulation occurs as a result of (1) organic carbon accumulation in soil not disturbed by tillage operations and (2) a considerable nitrogen surplus in grasslands, particularly under grazing regimes where a large part of the N in ingested grass is recycled to soil via urine and faeces. The accumulation of N and C in grasslands starts soon after establishment, the rate asymptotically declining with age and depends on practices such as fertiliser level, animal feed composition, stocking density, length of grazing and the botanical composition of the sward. In these pasture systems, key perennial legumes are white clover (Trifolium repens L.) red clover (Trifolium pratense L.) and lucerne (Medicago sativa). They are used because of their valuable contribution to production, feed quality and N inputs via biological fixation of atmospheric N2 (Ledgard et al., 2010) Grassland cultivation almost always results in a substantial residual effect and the mineralization of N often exceeds the requirement of the succeeding crop. Thus, there is a high risk of nitrate leaching following sward cultivation. Management practices to control nitrate losses include delayed ploughing until late winter or spring, the use of efficient catch crops after ploughing and a reduction in fertilizer N application to cereals after ploughing. The objective of this paper is to illustrate by examples the importance of management for N fertility building and efficient utilization in crop rotations containing forage legumes

Classification of protein interaction sentences via gaussian processes

The increase in the availability of protein interaction studies in textual format coupled with the demand for easier access to the key results has lead to a need for text mining solutions. In the text processing pipeline, classification is a key step for extraction of small sections of relevant text. Consequently, for the task of locating protein-protein interaction sentences, we examine the use of a classifier which has rarely been applied to text, the Gaussian processes (GPs). GPs are a non-parametric probabilistic analogue to the more popular support vector machines (SVMs). We find that GPs outperform the SVM and na\"ive Bayes classifiers on binary sentence data, whilst showing equivalent performance on abstract and multiclass sentence corpora. In addition, the lack of the margin parameter, which requires costly tuning, along with the principled multiclass extensions enabled by the probabilistic framework make GPs an appealing alternative worth of further adoption

Modeling of the condyle elements within a biomechanical knee model

The development of a computational multibody knee model able to capture some of the fundamental properties of the human knee articulation is presented. This desideratum is reached by including the kinetics of the real knee articulation. The research question is whether an accurate modeling of the condyle contact in the knee will lead to reproduction of the complex combination of flexion/extension, abduction/adduction and tibial rotation ob-served in the real knee? The model is composed by two anatomic segments, the tibia and the femur, whose characteristics are functions of the geometric and anatomic properties of the real bones. The biomechanical model characterization is developed under the framework of multibody systems methodologies using Cartesian coordinates. The type of approach used in the proposed knee model is the joint surface contact conditions between ellipsoids, represent-ing the two femoral condyles, and points, representing the tibial plateau and the menisci. These elements are closely fitted to the actual knee geometry. This task is undertaken by con-sidering a parameter optimization process to replicate experimental data published in the lit-erature, namely that by Lafortune and his co-workers in 1992. Then, kinematic data in the form of flexion/extension patterns are imposed on the model corresponding to the stance phase of the human gait. From the results obtained, by performing several computational simulations, it can be observed that the knee model approximates the average secondary mo-tion patterns observed in the literature. Because the literature reports considerable inter-individual differences in the secondary motion patterns, the knee model presented here is also used to check whether it is possible to reproduce the observed differences with reasonable variations of bone shape parameters. This task is accomplished by a parameter study, in which the main variables that define the geometry of condyles are taken into account. It was observed that the data reveal a difference in secondary kinematics of the knee in flexion ver-sus extension. The likely explanation for this fact is the elastic component of the secondary motions created by the combination of joint forces and soft tissue deformations. The proposed knee model is, therefore, used to investigate whether this observed behavior can be explained by reasonable elastic deformations of the points representing the menisci in the model.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - PROPAFE – Design and Development of a Patello-Femoral Prosthesis (PTDC/EME-PME/67687/2006), DACHOR - Multibody Dynamics and Control of Hybrid Active Orthoses MIT-Pt/BSHHMS/0042/2008, BIOJOINTS - Development of advanced biological joint models for human locomotion biomechanics (PTDC/EME-PME/099764/2008)

Development of a planar multi-body model of the human knee joint

The aim of this work is to develop a dynamic model for the biological human knee joint. The model is formulated in the framework of multibody systems methodologies, as a system of two bodies, the femur and the tibia. For the purpose of describing the formulation, the relative motion of the tibia with respect to the femur is considered. Due to their higher stiffness compared to that of the articular cartilages, the femur and tibia are considered as rigid bodies. The femur and tibia cartilages are considered to be deformable structures with specific material characteristics. The rotation and gliding motions of the tibia relative to the femur can not be modeled with any conventional kinematic joint, but rather in terms of the action of the knee ligaments and potential contact between the bones. Based on medical imaging techniques, the femur and tibia profiles in the sagittal plane are extracted and used to define the interface geometric conditions for contact. When a contact is detected, a continuous non-linear contact force law is applied which calculates the contact forces developed at the interface as a function of the relative indentation between the two bodies. The four basic cruciate and collateral ligaments present in the knee are also taken into account in the proposed knee joint model, which are modeled as non-linear elastic springs. The forces produced in the ligaments, together with the contact forces, are introduced into the system’s equations of motion as external forces. In addition, an external force is applied on the center of mass of the tibia, in order to actuate the system mimicking a normal gait motion. Finally, numerical results obtained from computational simulations are used to address the assumptions and procedures adopted in this study.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT

Flerårigt sædskifte med tætning som alternativ til pligtige efterafgrøder

Dette er en rapport om anvendelsen af N-fikserende efterafgrøder som pligtige efterafgrøder, skrevet på foranledning af en bestilling fra Landbrugsstyrelsen. Det vurderes, at der gennemsnitligt set ikke er risiko for øget kvælstofudvaskning (på kort og længere sigt) ved anvendelse kvælstoffikserende efterafgrøder i artsblanding med ikke-fikserende arter i forhold til anvendelse af ikke-fikserende efterafgrøder. Dette er under forudsætning af, at der indregnes en gødningsmæssig eftervirkning på ca. 50 kg N/ha både på bedrifter under og over 80 kg N/ha i husdyrgødning

Velocity-space sensitivity of the time-of-flight neutron spectrometer at JET

The velocity-space sensitivities of fast-ion diagnostics are often described by so-called weight functions. Recently, we formulated weight functions showing the velocity-space sensitivity of the often dominant beam-target part of neutron energy spectra. These weight functions for neutron emission spectrometry (NES) are independent of the particular NES diagnostic. Here we apply these NES weight functions to the time-of-flight spectrometer TOFOR at JET. By taking the instrumental response function of TOFOR into account, we calculate time-of-flight NES weight functions that enable us to directly determine the velocity-space sensitivity of a given part of a measured time-of-flight spectrum from TOFOR

Clustering Algorithms: Their Application to Gene Expression Data

Gene expression data hide vital information required to understand the biological process that takes place in a particular organism in relation to its environment. Deciphering the hidden patterns in gene expression data proffers a prodigious preference to strengthen the understanding of functional genomics. The complexity of biological networks and the volume of genes present increase the challenges of comprehending and interpretation of the resulting mass of data, which consists of millions of measurements; these data also inhibit vagueness, imprecision, and noise. Therefore, the use of clustering techniques is a first step toward addressing these challenges, which is essential in the data mining process to reveal natural structures and iden-tify interesting patterns in the underlying data. The clustering of gene expression data has been proven to be useful in making known the natural structure inherent in gene expression data, understanding gene functions, cellular processes, and subtypes of cells, mining useful information from noisy data, and understanding gene regulation. The other benefit of clustering gene expression data is the identification of homology, which is very important in vaccine design. This review examines the various clustering algorithms applicable to the gene expression data in order to discover and provide useful knowledge of the appropriate clustering technique that will guarantee stability and high degree of accuracy in its analysis procedure

Accessible and reliable neurometric testing in humans using a smartphone platform

Tests of human brain circuit function typically require fixed equipment in lab environments. We have developed a smartphone-based platform for neurometric testing. This platform, which uses AI models like computer vision, is optimized for at-home use and produces reproducible, robust results on a battery of tests, including eyeblink conditioning, prepulse inhibition of acoustic startle response, and startle habituation. This approach provides a scalable, universal resource for quantitative assays of central nervous system function.</p

Global gene flow releases invasive plants from environmental constraints on genetic diversity

When plants establish outside their native range, their ability to adapt to the new environment is influenced by both demography and dispersal. However, the relative importance of these two factors is poorly understood. To quantify the influence of demography and dispersal on patterns of genetic diversity underlying adaptation, we used data from a globally distributed demographic research network comprising 35 native and 18 nonnative populations of Plantago lanceolata. Species-specific simulation experiments showed that dispersal would dilute demographic influences on genetic diversity at local scales. Populations in the native European range had strong spatial genetic structure associated with geographic distance and precipitation seasonality. In contrast, nonnative populations had weaker spatial genetic structure that was not associated with environmental gradients but with higher within-population genetic diversity. Our findings show that dispersal caused by repeated, long-distance, human-mediated introductions has allowed invasive plant populations to overcome environmental constraints on genetic diversity, even without strong demographic changes. The impact of invasive plants may, therefore, increase with repeated introductions, highlighting the need to constrain future introductions of species even if they already exist in an area