The standard method of assessing the available portion of the nutrient reservoir of a forest soil is to use a neutral salt solution, such as NH4OAc, to extract the exchangeable plus dissolved ions, which are analyzed and considered available. This approach, designed for evaluating nutrients available for the short growth term of agricultural crops, is inadequate for assessing the nutrient pool of forests where tree growth term may reach 100 yr or more.

Soil nutrient reservoirs were evaluated in two forest soils for K, Na, Ca, Mg and Fe, using an approach based on continuous extraction of the elements and kinetic analyses of the extraction rate curves. The analyses of the curves indicate that K, Na, Ca and Fe are each released at four separateconstant rates, and Mg is released at three separate constant rates. By analogy with similar kinetic studies done on monomineralic layer silicate samples, each separate extraction rate is thought to correspond to a single type of bond site in the soil. Higher extraction rates indicate greater ease of removal and are interpreted as indicating a higher degree of availability relative to the extractant.

The available K reserves of the Everett soil evaluated by standard methods, compared with annual net K uptake rates of its forest system, indicates growth limiting K deficiency in 12–17 yr. K availability assessed by kinetic analyses indicates about 100 yr supply of K is available.

We describe an ultra-wide-bandwidth, low-frequency receiver recently installed on the Parkes radio telescope. The receiver system provides continuous frequency coverage from 704 to 4032 MHz. For much of the band ( ${\sim}60\%$ ), the system temperature is approximately 22 K and the receiver system remains in a linear regime even in the presence of strong mobile phone transmissions. We discuss the scientific and technical aspects of the new receiver, including its astronomical objectives, as well as the feed, receiver, digitiser, and signal processor design. We describe the pipeline routines that form the archive-ready data products and how those data files can be accessed from the archives. The system performance is quantified, including the system noise and linearity, beam shape, antenna efficiency, polarisation calibration, and timing stability.

Predictive analytics in health is a complex, transdisciplinary field requiring collaboration across diverse scientific and stakeholder groups. Pilot implementation of participatory research to foster team science in predictive analytics through a partnered-symposium and funding competition. In total, 85 stakeholders were engaged across diverse translational domains, with a significant increase in perceived importance of early inclusion of patients and communities in research. Participatory research approaches may be an effective model for engaging broad stakeholders in predictive analytics.

Recent trends in the southeastern states toward increased use of irrigation in agriculture may be attributed to risk aversion management by farmers in response to recent drought periods. Despite ample annual average rainfall in the Southeast during the growing season, the vicissitudes of rainfall patterns provide sufficient reason to consider irrigation for field crops as well as for vegetables and fruit (Ganguly). Increased use of irrigation additionally results in new demands for water in rural areas.

It is also well documented that nonmetropolitan areas are experiencing substantial rates of positive net immigration (Wardell and Gilchrist). In the Southeast, there is a trend for new manufacturing plants to locate in rural areas where wages, taxes, and union activity are at low levels. As growth occurs in these nonmetropolitan regions, industrial, residential, and commercial activities require additional supplies of water.

A wide variety of nanofillers of varying compositions have been used to create polymer nanocomposites, including tubes, wires, fibers, sheets, and particles. A new class of compounds has been identified for use as nanofillers, boron cage compounds. Boron cage compounds are discrete, icosahedral closed cage molecules of high boron content and examples include carboranes and dodecaborate salts. Several chemically modified boron cage compounds have been incorporated into polyolefin elastomers, such as poly(ethylene-co-vinyl acetate), poly(ethylene-co-vinyl acetate-co-vinyl alcohol), poly(ethylene-co-ethyl acrylate), and poly(ethylene-co-octene), among others. The resulting thermal and thermomechanical properties were evaluated in order to determine when plasticization and reinforcement occur to better understand the chemical structure/physical property relationships. Materials with a wide range of properties were produced, however under certain conditions, advanced materials were created with high boron contents, improved thermal stability, mechanical strength, and significant reinforcement.

Se is an essential element for animals. In man low dietary Se intakes are associated with health disorders including oxidative stress-related conditions, reduced fertility and immune functions and an increased risk of cancers. Although the reference nutrient intakes for adult females and males in the UK are 60 and 75 μg Se/d respectively, dietary Se intakes in the UK have declined from >60 μg Se/d in the 1970s to 35 μg Se/d in the 1990s, with a concomitant decline in human Se status. This decline in Se intake and status has been attributed primarily to the replacement of milling wheat having high levels of grain Se and grown on high-Se soils in North America with UK-sourced wheat having low levels of grain Se and grown on low-Se soils. An immediate solution to low dietary Se intake and status is to enrich UK-grown food crops using Se fertilisers (agronomic biofortification). Such a strategy has been adopted with success in Finland. It may also be possible to enrich food crops in the longer term by selecting or breeding crop varieties with enhanced Se-accumulation characteristics (genetic biofortification). The present paper will review the potential for biofortification of UK food crops with Se.

We investigate self-similar solutions of the thin film equation in the case of zero contact angle boundary conditions on a finite domain. We prove existence and uniqueness of such a solution and determine the asymptotic behaviour as the exponent in the equation approaches the critical value at which zero contact angle boundary conditions become untenable. Numerical and power-series solutions are also presented.

We have developed a novel approach for quantifying the microstructure of granular thin films using digital image processing and analysis. In the past, conventional scanning electron microscopy of thin films has generated qualitative information on the surface topography and film microstructure. However, when coupled to digital image analysis, the amount or degree of surface contours (i.e., granularity) in SEM micrographs can be quantified in a rapid and reproducible manner. Briefly, SEM micrographs are digitized and the edge boundaries on the film surface are enhanced by a gradient filter; granularity is then quantified by calculating the %AREA covered by the edges with respect to the entire field. Objects of a particular shape, such as phase impurity particles, can be selectively deleted from the image using a specific sequence of shape analysis algorithms and parameter values. In this manner, the contributions of edges from the phase impurity particles is minimized in the final measurement of real surface contours. Statistical analysis of the data yields quantitative information concerning variations in microdomains within single thin films and can detect statistically significant differences among samples. This method is being used in the characterization of the microstructure of superconducting thin films for optimization of their electrical and magnetic properties.