Fat mobilization in water restricted Awassi ewes supplemented with vitamin C

The current study was designed to assess the effect of water restriction on fat metabolism in Awassi ewes orally supplemented with different levels of vitamin C. Experiment 1 (24 days) included four groups, four animals in each, with one group as control receiving daily water. The three remaining groups were watered once every four days, with the third and fourth groups receiving a daily oral dose of 3 g and 5 g vitamin C, respectively. Experiment 2 (21 days) was similarly designed except that the last group was administered one 10 g vitamin C oral dose at the beginning and at the middle of the experiment. Water restriction induced a reduction in feed intake and consequently weight loss in both experiments. Fat cell diameter, insulin, leptin, T3 and T4 concentrations tended to decrease in water restricted animals with or without vitamin C, while fatty acids and cholesterol increased. The observed changes reflect fat mobilization in water restricted Awassi ewes, which seemed to be correlated with insulin and leptin levels. Furthermore, fat mobilization reflected by high fatty acid and low leptin concentrations seemed to be more enhanced by daily supplementation of vitamin C than by the singular high dosages repeated twice, however further research is needed to confirm this observation.     

Mobility of major ions and nutrients in the unsaturated zone during paddy cultivation: a field study and solute transport modelling approach

Study of the movement of water and solute within soil profiles is important for a number of reasons. Accumulation of prominent contaminants from agricultural chemicals in the unsaturated zone over the years is a major concern in many parts of the world. As a result, the unsaturated zone has been a subject of great research interest during the past decade. Hence, an intensive field study was conducted in a part of Palar and Cheyyar river basins to understand the variation of major ions and nutrients in the soil zone during paddy cultivation. The chloride and nitrate data were used to model the movement of these chemicals in the unsaturated zone using the HYDRUS‐2D model. The field study shows that fertilizer application and irrigation return flow increases the major ions and nutrients concentration in the unsaturated zone. Further, the nutrient concentrations are regulated by plant uptake, fertilizer application and infiltration rate. Additionally, denitrification and soil mineralization processes also regulate the nitrogen concentration in the unsaturated zone. The solute transport modelling study concluded that the simulated results match reasonably with the observed trends. Simulated concentrations of chloride and nitrate for a 5‐year period indicate that the concentrations of these ions fluctuate in a cyclic manner (from 60 to 68 mg l^?1 and from 3·4 to 3·5 mg l^?1 respectively in groundwater) with no upward and downward trend. The influence of excessive fertilizer application on groundwater was also modelled. The model predicts an increase of about 17 mg l^?1 of chloride and 2·3 mg l^?1 of nitrogen in the groundwater of this area when the application of fertilizers is doubled. The model indicates that the present level of use of agrochemicals is no threat to the groundwater quality. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Steady infiltration from buried point source into heterogeneous cross‐anisotropic unsaturated soil

The paper presents the analytical solution for the steady‐state infiltration from a buried point source into two types of heterogeneous cross‐anisotropic unsaturated half‐spaces. In the first case, the heterogeneity of the soil is modelled by an exponential relationship between the hydraulic conductivity and the soil depth. In the second case, the heterogeneous soil is represented by a multilayered half‐space where each layer is homogeneous. The hydraulic conductivity varies exponentially with moisture potential and this leads to the linearization of the Richards equation governing unsaturated flow. The analytical solution is obtained by using the Hankel integral transform. For the multilayered case, the combination of a special forward and backward transfer matrix techniques makes the numerical evaluation of the solution very accurate and efficient. The correctness of both formulations is validated by comparison with alternative solutions for two different cases. The results from typical cases are presented to illustrate the influence on the flow field of the cross‐anisotropic hydraulic conductivity, the soil heterogeneity and the depth of the source. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The PIRLA project (Paleoecological Investigation of Recent Lake Acidification): an introduction to the synthesis of the project

Collected sets of papers synthesizing data derived from the PIRLA project (Paleoecological Investigation of Recent Lake Acidification) will appear in coming issues of the Journal of Paleolimnology. This paper is designed to highlight these forthcoming papers, review the development and objectives of PIRLA, and acknowledge the many who have supported PIRLA in so many crucial ways.This is the first of a series of papers to be published by this journal which is a contribution of the Paleoecological Investigation of Recent Lake Acidification (PIRLA) project. Drs. D.F. Charles and D.R. Whitehead are guest editors for this series.     

Development of a technique for modelling clay liner desiccation

This paper presents a model for the analysis of clay liner desiccation in a landfill barrier system due to temperature effects. The model incorporates consideration of fully coupled heat‐moisture‐air flow, a non‐linear constitutive relationship, the dependence of void ratio and volumetric water content on stress, capillary pressure and temperature, and the effect of mechanical deformation on all governing equations. Mass conservative numerical schemes are proposed to improve the accuracy of the finite element solution to the governing equations. The application of the model is then demonstrated by examining three test problems, including isothermal infiltration, heat conduction and non‐isothermal water and heat transport. Comparisons are made with results from literature, and good agreement is observed. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The auxin concentration in sixteen Chinese marine algae

1 INTRODUCTION Auxins are plant hormones. They play impor- tant roles in regulating plant activities, including phototropism, fruit development, root initiation and so on. In early 1940, Thirmann and Scoog (1940) found that auxin was present in more than …     

Humic Acid and Iron Chelation Modified Anode Improves the Electrochemical Performance of Marine Sediment Microbial Fuel Cell

Marine sediment microbial fuel cell(MSMFCs)can be utilized as a long lasting power source to drive small instruments to work for long time on ocean floor and its higher power has a significant meaning for practical application.Anode modification can greatly improve the performance of MSMFCs.Herein,humic acid(HA)and humic acid-iron ion complex(HA-Fe)were used to modify the anode for constructing a better MSMFCs.The results indicated that HA-Fe modified anode,better than HA modification,significantly improved the MSMFCs cell power output.The maximum power density of HA-Fe modified MSMFCs is 165.3 mW m?2,which are 6.5-folds of blank MSMFCs.The number of microorganisms on anode,redox activity,and relative kinetic activity were 1.8-,6.1-,and 13.1-folds of blank MSMFCs,respectively.The MSMFCs improvement would be attributed to the electron transfer media of HA and the valence conversion of Fe ions.A synergistic interaction between the naturally occurring HA and Fe ions on the anodic surface in marine sediments would make the modified anodes have‘renewable’characteristics,which is beneficial for the MSMFCs to maintain its long-term higher power.     

变荷载下层状非饱和土地基全耦合固结特性研究

非饱和土是地球表层土体一种常见的存在形式。与经典的饱和土Biot固结理论相比,非饱和土固结理论还亟待发展。基于Fredlund非饱和土双应力变量固结理论,放弃传统理论固结过程中骨架总应力不变的假设,推导出变荷载作用下非饱和土全耦合轴对称固结理论的控制方程组。通过Laplace-Hankel变换处理变量t和r,所得的控制方程被处理为常微分方程组;扩展的精细积分法将被进一步运用求解方程组以得到层状非饱和土地基在变换域内的固结解答,而最终的解答将通过Laplace-Hankel逆变换技术求得。将非饱和土地基退化为饱和土地基,与现有文献结果进行对比,验证所提方法结果的可靠性;最后,提供3个数值算例,以讨论加载时间T0、孔隙水关于净应力的体积变化系数m1w以及土体分层性对非饱和土固结特性的影响。