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At least 19 records

Isoflavone supplementation, via red clover hay, alters the rumen microbial community and promotes weight gain of steers grazing mixed grass pastures

Biochanin A, an isoflavone present in the pasture legume red clover (Trifloium pratense L.), alters fermentation in the rumen of cattle and other ruminants. Biochanin A inhibits hyperammonia-producing bacteria and promotes cellulolytic bacteria and fiber catalysis in vitro and ex vivo. Consequently, biochanin A supplementation improves weight gain in grazing steers. Red clover contains biologically active isoflavones that may act synergistically. Therefore, the objective was to evaluate the effect of two levels of red clover hay on growth performance and the microbial community in growing steers grazing mixed grass pastures. A grazing experiment was conducted over 2 early growing seasons (2016 and 2017) with 36 cross-bred steers and twelve rumen-fistulated, growing Holstein steers for evaluation of average daily gain and rumen microbiota, respectively. Steers were blocked by body weight and assigned to pastures with one of four treatments: 1) pasture only, 2) pasture + dry distillers’ grains (DDG), 3) pasture + DDG + low level of red clover hay (~15% red clover diet), or 4) pasture + DDG + high level of red clover hay (~30% red clover diet). DDG were added to treatments to meet protein requirements and to balance total protein supplementation between treatments. All supplementation strategies (DDG ± red clover hay) increased average daily gains in comparison to pasture-only controls (P < 0.05), with a low level of red clover supplementation being the most effective (+0.17 kg d-1 > DDG only controls; P < 0.05). Similarly, hyper-ammonia-producing bacteria inhibition (10–100-fold; P < 0.05), fiber catalysis (+10–25%; P < 0.05) and short chain fatty acid concentrations were greatest with the low red clover supplement (+~25%; P < 0.05). These results provide evidence that lower levels or red clover supplementation may be optimal for maximizing overall microbial community function and animal performance in grazing steers.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

AmeriFlux FLUXNET-1F US-A32 ARM-SGP Medford hay pasture

This is the AmeriFlux Management Project (AMP) created FLUXNET-1F version of the carbon flux data for the site US-A32 ARM-SGP Medford hay pasture. This is the FLUXNET version of the carbon flux data for the site US-A32 ARM-SGP Medford hay pasture produced by applying the standard ONEFlux (1F) software. Site Description - This site is located at the ARM SGP Extended Facility E32, 8 km West of Medford, OK

Billesbach, Dave↗

AmeriFlux US-A32 ARM-SGP Medford hay pasture

This is the AmeriFlux version of the carbon flux data for the site US-A32 ARM-SGP Medford hay pasture. Site Description - This site is located at the ARM SGP Extended Facility E32, 8 km West of Medford, OK

Billesbach, Dave↗

Camelina Seed Yield and Fatty Acids as Influenced by Genotype and Environment

Camelina (Camelina sativa L. Crantz) is an alternative oilseed crop with potential for fallow replacement in dryland cereal-based crop production systems in the semiarid Great Plains. The interaction between genotype and environment was investigated on camelina seed yield, oil content, and fatty acid composition across two locations in the U.S. Great Plains. Treatments were three spring camelina genotypes (cultivars Blaine Creek, Pronghorn, and Shoshone), three growing seasons (2013, 2014, and 2015) and two locations (at Hays, KS, and Moccasin, MT). Our results showed camelina grown at Hays yielded 54% less than that at Moccasin. Blaine Creek yielded 17 and 42% more than Pronghorn and Shoshone at Hays but yields were not different among genotypes at Moccasin. Oil content ranged from 262 g kg -1 at Hays to 359 g kg -1 at Moccasin. The proportion of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) ranged from 51% at Hays to 55% at Moccasin, whereas monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA) and saturated fatty acid (SFA) contents were greater at Hays. The linolenic acid content ranged from 26% when Pronghorn was planted at Hays to 35% when planted at Moccasin. In general, the variations in seed yield and fatty acid profile corresponded well with growing season precipitation and temperatures at each environment.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Endotoxin enhances respiratory effects of phthalates in adults: Results from NHANES 2005-6

Highlights: ●Phthalates are associated with allergy and asthma, but the potential mechanisms are unclear. ●Individuals living in homes with low endotoxin showed no association between phthalates and respiratory outcomes. ●An interaction was present for phthalates and endotoxin for respiratory symptoms of wheeze and asthma, but not rhinitis and hay fever. Phthalates have been associated with respiratory symptoms in adults; they may enhance effects of inflammatory compounds. To assess the potential interactions of phthalates and endotoxin on respiratory and allergic symptoms in adults, we used cross-sectional information from the 1091 adults with complete data on urinary phthalates and house dust endotoxin from NHANES 2005–2006. We used multivariable logistic regression to assess whether endotoxin levels modified the association between nine phthalate metabolites and four current allergic symptoms (asthma, wheeze, hay fever, and rhinitis). Endotoxin was classified into tertiles (>25 EU/mg dust). Urinary phthalate and dust endotoxin levels were not correlated (r < |0.02|). Under low endotoxin conditions, no associations between phthalates and respiratory outcomes were observed. Under medium or high endotoxin conditions, exposure-response relationships were observed between specific phthalates and wheeze and asthma. For wheeze, three phthalates (mono-benzyl phthalate (MBzP), mono(carboxyoctyl) phthalate (MCOP), and di-ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP) had significant interactions with endotoxin); for asthma, two phthalates (MCOP and mono(carboxyoctyl) phthalate (MCNP)) had significant interactions. Endotoxin did not modify the associations between phthalates and hay fever or rhinitis. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that endotoxin enhances the respiratory toxicity of phthalates; however this cross-sectional study cannot address key temporal issues. The lack of an association between wheeze or asthma and phthalates when endotoxin exposure was low suggests that phthalates alone may not increase these symptoms.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Profitability of Cellulosic Biomass Production in the Northern Great Lakes Region

Producing bioenergy feedstocks on non‐crop land can largely avoid the food price feedbacks of energy biomass production on cropland. The U.S. northern tier grassland‐to‐forest ecotone offers large areas of marginal land that is not currently cropped. In this ecological transition zone, the relative profitability of grassy vs. woody sources of energy biomass is little studied. This paper reports an exploratory investment analysis of cellulosic biomass production in the northern Great Lakes region. It compares two short‐rotation tree crops, willow ( Salix sachalinensis F. Schmidt)and hybrid poplar ( Populus nigra L. X P. maximowiczii A. Henry), and switchgrass ( Panicum virgatum L.) (a native prairie grass) to conventional mixed hay. Because biomass markets are not yet well developed, this study calculates threshold prices and yields at which biomass crops become at least as profitable as mixed grass hay. At 2010–2012 prices and available production technologies, none of the cellulosic crops is competitive with the hay baseline system. The breakeven price of energy biomass ranges from $90–100 per oven‐dry Mg −1 for all three energy crops. Breakeven yields are much more variable, due to the high cost of harvesting woody biomass. At 2010–2012 prices, necessary biomass yield increases range from 3.5‐fold for switchgrass and willow to over 25‐fold for poplar. While the ratio of input costs to revenue remains relatively constant between the northern and southern Great Lakes regions, the opportunity cost of active cropland in the southern zone is much higher, implying an economic comparative advantage for marginal land of the northern tier of the Great Lakes region.

Kells, Bradley J.↗

Experimental warming amplified opposite impacts of drought vs. wet extremes on ecosystem carbon cycle in a tallgrass prairie

Climate warming is leading to greater precipitation variability, resulting in increased frequency and intensity of both drought and wet extremes. However, how these extreme events interact with climate warming and hay-harvest in grasslands to impact ecosystem functions has not yet been well explored. In this study, we took advantage of a long-term experiment to examine how climate warming and clipping (i.e., mimicking hay harvest) regulated impacts of naturally occurring drought and wet extremes on ecosystem CO 2 fluxes of a tallgrass prairie in the Great Plains, USA. Warming resulted in net ecosystem carbon release (i.e., positive net ecosystem CO 2 exchange, NEE) in the extreme drought year of 2011, but significantly enhanced net carbon uptake in the extremely wet year of 2015 in comparison with NEE in normal years. Warming-induced carbon release in the drought year was due to significantly enhanced ecosystem respiration (ER) from mid-summer to early-autumn, whereas warming-enhanced NEE in the wet year was due to an increase in aboveground net primary production (ANPP) compared to those in normal years. Drought diminished warming-induced increases in ANPP to about one sixth of that in the wet year in the unclipped plots. Interestingly, clipping offset the drought-mediated ecosystem carbon loss by increasing GPP and weakened the wet-enhanced ANPP. Altogether, our results suggest that a future, warmer climate may exacerbate carbon losses in terrestrial ecosystems during drought extremes but stimulate the ecosystem carbon sink under wet extremes.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Comments on the optical lineshape function: Application to transient hole-burned spectra of bacterial reaction centers

The vibrational spectral density is an important physical parameter needed to describe both linear and non-linear spectra of multi-chromophore systems such as photosynthetic complexes. Low-temperature techniques such as hole burning (HB) and fluorescence line narrowing are commonly used to extract the spectral density for a given electronic transition from experimental data. We report here that the lineshape function formula reported by Hayes et al. [J. Phys. Chem. 98, 7337 (1994)] in the mean-phonon approximation and frequently applied to analyzing HB data contains inconsistencies in notation, leading to essentially incorrect expressions in cases of moderate and strong electron-phonon (el-ph) coupling strengths. A corrected lineshape function L(ω) is given that retains the computational and intuitive advantages of the expression of Hayes et al. [J. Phys. Chem. 98, 7337 (1994)]. Although the corrected lineshape function could be used in modeling studies of various optical spectra, we suggest that it is better to calculate the lineshape function numerically, without introducing the mean-phonon approximation. New theoretical fits of the P870 and P960 absorption bands and frequency-dependent resonant HB spectra of Rb. sphaeroides and Rps. viridis reaction centers are provided as examples to demonstrate the importance of correct lineshape expressions. Comparison with the previously determined el-ph coupling parameters [Johnson et al., J. Phys. Chem. 94, 5849 (1990); Lyle et al., ibid. 97, 6924 (1993); Reddy et al., ibid. 97, 6934 (1993)] is also provided. The new fits lead to modified el-ph coupling strengths and different frequencies of the special pair marker mode, ω{sub sp}, for Rb. sphaeroides that could be used in the future for more advanced calculations of absorption and HB spectra obtained for various bacterial reaction centers.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Landsat-based Irrigation Dataset (LANID): 30 m resolution maps of irrigation distribution, frequency, and change for the US, 1997–2017

Abstract. Data on irrigation patterns and trends at field-level detail across broad extents are vital for assessing and managing limited water resources. Until recently, there has been a scarcity of comprehensive, consistent, and frequent irrigation maps for the US. Here we present the new Landsat-based Irrigation Dataset (LANID), which is comprised of 30 m resolution annual irrigation maps covering the conterminous US (CONUS) for the period of 1997–2017. The main dataset identifies the annual extent of irrigated croplands, pastureland, and hay for each year in the study period. Derivative maps include layers on maximum irrigated extent, irrigation frequency and trends, and identification of formerly irrigated areas and intermittently irrigated lands. Temporal analysis reveals that 38.5×106 ha of croplands and pasture–hay has been irrigated, among which the yearly active area ranged from ∼22.6 to 24.7×106 ha. The LANID products provide several improvements over other irrigation data including field-level details on irrigation change and frequency, an annual time step, and a collection of ∼10 000 visually interpreted ground reference locations for the eastern US where such data have been lacking. Our maps demonstrated overall accuracy above 90 % across all years and regions, including in the more humid and challenging-to-map eastern US, marking a significant advancement over other products, whose accuracies ranged from 50 % to 80 %. In terms of change detection, our maps yield per-pixel transition accuracy of 81 % and show good agreement with US Department of Agriculture reports at both county and state levels. The described annual maps, derivative layers, and ground reference data provide users with unique opportunities to study local to nationwide trends, driving forces, and consequences of irrigation and encourage the further development and assessment of new approaches for improved mapping of irrigation, especially in challenging areas like the eastern US. The annual LANID maps, derivative products, and ground reference data are available through https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5548555 (Xie and Lark, 2021a).

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Using Prescribed Fire to Manage the Fernald On-Site Disposal Facility Vegetated Cap - 17401

The Fernald Preserve is a former uranium processing plant that underwent extensive remediation pursuant to the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). It is situated on a 425 ha (1,050 acre) tract of land, approximately 29 km (18 miles) northwest of Cincinnati, Ohio. Remedial activities and subsequent ecological restoration have converted the site from an industrial production facility to an undeveloped park, encompassing a series of wetlands, prairies, and forested communities. The remediation of buildings and soil contamination was completed in 2006, but aquifer remediation is ongoing. Since 2007, the site has been managed by the US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Legacy Management. Portions of the site are open to the public, with approximately 11 km (7 miles) of walking trails that are open year-round and a visitors center. Site remediation included the construction of an On-Site Disposal Facility (OSDF) for the long-term disposal of contaminated soil and building materials. The OSDF consists of eight disposal cells that encompass approximately 30 hectares (75 acres) on the eastern portion of the Fernald site. Cells are lined and capped, and each has a separate leak detection and leachate collection system. The integrated cap is vegetated with native grasses and forbs. Management of the Fernald Preserve includes the monitoring and maintenance of ecologically restored communities and the vegetated OSDF cap, as required by the site's institutional controls plan. Prescribed burning is recognized as the preferred method for prairie management. Prescribed fire has been used at the Fernald site since 2009 for established prairies in restored areas, but not on the OSDF cap. Stakeholders had reservations regarding the safety of using prescribed fire on the OSDF cap. Because of that, vegetation on the cap was managed as a grassland community. It was mowed, raked, and baled to remove thatch, and promote the continued establishment of native grasses and forbs. Since agricultural use is restricted at the site, the resulting hay bales were kept on property and reused as organic matter and mulch. Over time, more hay bales were being generated in a season than were reused. Therefore in 2015, DOE decided to revisit stakeholder acceptance of prescribed fire on the OSDF cap. Ongoing relationships with local stakeholders allowed for extensive discussions regarding the current management and proposed use of prescribed fire on the OSDF cap. The public was provided information about the planning and implementation of prescribed burns at the site and invited to observe the execution of a successful site burn. This approach led to stakeholder acceptance of DOE's proposal, and vegetation on the caps of cells 4, 5, and 6 was burned in late March 2016. The burn was successful and resulted in several benefits from a land stewardship and cost perspective. This paper details the stakeholder engagement approach and the resulting benefits from the use of prescribed fire on the OSDF cap. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

Growing neoclassical tearing modes seeded via transient-induced-multimode interactions

Nonlinear extended magnetohydrodynamics simulations demonstrating seeding of neoclassical tearing modes (NTMs) via magnetohydrodynamics-transient-induced multimode interactions are presented. Simulations of NTMs are enabled by two recent NIMROD code developments: the implementation of heuristic neoclassical stresses and the application of transient magnetic perturbations (MPs) at the boundary. NTMs are driven unstable by the inherently pressure driven kinetic bootstrap current, which arises due to collisional viscosity between passing and trapped electrons. These simulations use heuristic closures that model the neoclassical electron and ion stresses. NTM growth requires a seed island, which is generated by a transiently applied MP in simulations. The capability is demonstrated using kinetic-based reconstructions with flow of a DIII-D ITER Baseline Scenario discharge (La Haye et al., in Proceedings IAEA FEC, 2020). The applied MP seeds a 2/1 NTM that grows in two phases: a slow growth phase followed by a faster robust growth phase. Additionally, an evolving sequence of higher order core modes are excited at first. Power transfer analysis shows that nonlinear interactions between the core modes and the 2/1 helps drive the initial slow growth. Once the induced 2/1 magnetic island reaches a critical width, the NTM transitions to faster robust growth, which is well described by the nonlinear modified Rutherford equation. Furthermore, this work highlights the role of nonlinear mode coupling in seeding NTMs.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

National Spherical Torus Experiment Upgrade Collaborative Research on Configuration Optimization of Advanced Operating Scenarios and Control Including Macroscopy Stability EOG for Period 3/1/14 through 2/28/18

General Atomics has collaborated with PPPL since 1999 in support of NSTX and NSXT-U by leveraging DIII-D program expertise. John Ferron was the principal investigator (PI) for the first nine years (to 2008) and Rob La Haye since then. The research effort evolved over a number of three-year grants and originally included both the core (control, stability, resonant error fields) and the boundary (ELMs, divertor, error fields). In 2014 the current and last grant extension was stretched to four years and split into a core grant (advanced scenarios and control, macroscopic plasma stability and extending 3D magnetics diagnostics) and a boundary grant. Todd Evans is the PI for the new boundary grant which while also for four years expires later than the core grant; a separate end of grant (EOG) report for that is due in July 2018.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

SPECTROPOLARIMETRY CONFIRMS CENTRAL POWERING IN A Lyα NEBULA AT z = 3.09

We present a follow-up study to the imaging polarimetry performed by Hayes et al. on LAB1 in the SSA22 protocluster region. Arguably the most well-known Lyα “blob,” this radio-quiet emission-line nebula likely hosts a galaxy that either is undergoing significant star formation or hosts an active galactic nucleus, or both. We obtain deep, spatially resolved spectropolarimetry of the Lyα emission and detect integrated linear polarization of 9%–13% ± 2%–3% at a distance of approximately 15 kpc north and south of the peak of the Lyα surface brightness with polarization vectors lying tangential to the galactic central source. In these same regions, we also detect a wavelength dependence in the polarization that is low at the center of the Lyα line profile and rises substantially in the wings of the profile. These polarization signatures are easily explained by a weak outflowing shell model. The spectral dependence of the polarization presented here provides a framework for future observations and interpretations of the southern portion of LAB1 in that any model for this system must be able to reproduce this particular spectral dependence. However, questions still remain for the northernmost spur of LAB1. In this region we detect total linear polarization of between 3% and 20% at the 5% significance level. Simulations predict that polarization should increase with radius for a symmetric geometry. That the northern spur does not suggests either that this region is not symmetric (which is likely) and exhibits variations in columns density or that it is kinematically distinct from the rest of LAB1 and powered by another mechanism altogether.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Modeling the formation and aging of secondary organic aerosols in Los Angeles during CalNex 2010

Four different literature parameterizations for the formation and evolution of urban secondary organic aerosol (SOA) frequently used in 3-D models are evaluated using a 0-D box model representing the Los Angeles metropolitan region during the California Research at the Nexus of Air Quality and Climate Change (CalNex) 2010 campaign. We constrain the model predictions with measurements from several platforms and compare predictions with particle- and gas-phase observations from the CalNex Pasadena ground site. That site provides a unique opportunity to study aerosol formation close to anthropogenic emission sources with limited recirculation. The model SOA that formed only from the oxidation of VOCs (V-SOA) is insufficient to explain the observed SOA concentrations, even when using SOA parameterizations with multi-generation oxidation that produce much higher yields than have been observed in chamber experiments, or when increasing yields to their upper limit estimates accounting for recently reported losses of vapors to chamber walls. The Community Multiscale Air Quality (WRF-CMAQ) model (version 5.0.1) provides excellent predictions of secondary inorganic particle species but underestimates the observed SOA mass by a factor of 25 when an older VOC-only parameterization is used, which is consistent with many previous model–measurement comparisons for pre-2007 anthropogenic SOA modules in urban areas. Including SOA from primary semi-volatile and intermediate-volatility organic compounds (P-S/IVOCs) following the parameterizations of Robinson et al. (2007), Grieshop et al. (2009), or Pye and Seinfeld (2010) improves model–measurement agreement for mass concentration. The results from the three parameterizations show large differences (e.g., a factor of 3 in SOA mass) and are not well constrained, underscoring the current uncertainties in this area. Our results strongly suggest that other precursors besides VOCs, such as P-S/IVOCs, are needed to explain the observed SOA concentrations in Pasadena. All the recent parameterizations overpredict urban SOA formation at long photochemical ages (≈ 3 days) compared to observations from multiple sites, which can lead to problems in regional and especially global modeling. However, reducing IVOC emissions by one-half in the model to better match recent IVOC measurements improves SOA predictions at these long photochemical ages. Among the explicitly modeled VOCs, the precursor compounds that contribute the greatest SOA mass are methylbenzenes. Measured polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (naphthalenes) contribute 0.7% of the modeled SOA mass. The amounts of SOA mass from diesel vehicles, gasoline vehicles, and cooking emissions are estimated to be 16–27, 35–61, and 19–35%, respectively, depending on the parameterization used, which is consistent with the observed fossil fraction of urban SOA, 71(±3) %. The relative contribution of each source is uncertain by almost a factor of 2 depending on the parameterization used. In-basin biogenic VOCs are predicted to contribute only a few percent to SOA. A regional SOA background of approximately 2.1 μg m −3 is also present due to the long-distance transport of highly aged OA, likely with a substantial contribution from regional biogenic SOA. The percentage of SOA from diesel vehicle emissions is the same, within the estimated uncertainty, as reported in previous work that analyzed the weekly cycles in OA concentrations (Bahreini et al., 2012; Hayes et al., 2013). However, the modeling work presented here suggests a strong anthropogenic source of modern carbon in SOA, due to cooking emissions, which was not accounted for in those previous studies and which is higher on weekends. Lastly, this work adapts a simple two-parameter model to predict SOA concentration and O/C from urban emissions. This model successfully predicts SOA concentration, and the optimal parameter combination is very similar to that found for Mexico City. This approach provides a computationally inexpensive method for predicting urban SOA in global and climate models. We estimate pollution SOA to account for 26 Tg yr −1 of SOA globally, or 17% of global SOA, one-third of which is likely to be non-fossil.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Vickers Microhardness Studies for SmBa{sub 2}Cu{sub 3}O{sub 7-δ} Added with NiO Nanosized Particles

The effect of nanosized particles NiO addition on the Vickers microhardness of polycrystalline SmBa{sub 2}Cu{sub 3}O{sub 7-δ} was investigated. Various amounts of nanosized particles NiO (x = 0.00, 0.02, 0.04, 0.08, and 0.12 wt%) were added to SmBa{sub 2}Cu{sub 3}O{sub 7-δ} prepared by the solid-state reaction method. Sample characterizations were carried out using X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), particle induced X-ray emission (PIXE), Rutherford backscattering (RBS), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The nanosized particle addition does not influence the orthorhombic structure of SmBa{sub 2}Cu{sub 3}O{sub 7-δ}, whereas it affects the oxygen content δ. The electrical and mechanical properties of (NiO){sub x}SmBa{sub 2}Cu{sub 3}O{sub 7-δ} samples were measured using four-standard probe technique and Vickers microhardness in order to investigate the effect of NiO nanosized particles on superconducting transition temperature and Vickers microhardness number H{sub v}. The Vickers microhardness data were analyzed using Hays and Kendall (HK), elastic plastic deformation (EPD), and modified proportional specimen resistance (MPSR) models. The analysis showed that the MPSR model was found to be the best to describe the behavior of H{sub v}.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗