Wildfires as a Weathering Agent of Carbonate Rocks

While most of the scientific effort regarding wildfires has predominantly focused on fire effects on vegetation and soils, the role of fire as an essential weathering agent has been largely overlooked. This study aims to evaluate rock decay processes during wildfires, in relation to ground temperatures and rock morphologies of limestone, dolomite, and chalk. In 2010, a major forest fire in Israel caused massive destruction of the exposed rocks and accelerated rock weathering over the burned slopes. While a detailed description of the bedrock exfoliation phenomenon was previously reported, here, we conducted an experimental open fire to determine the temperature and gradients responsible for boulder shattering. The results show ground temperatures of 700 °C after 5 min from ignition, while the peak temperature (880 °C) was reached after 9 min. Temperature gradients show a rapid increase during the first 5 min (136 °C/min), moderate increase during the next 4 min (43 °C/min), and slow decrease for the next 9 min (25 °C/min). After 12 min, all boulders of all formations were cracked or completely shattered. The behaviour of carbonate rocks upon heating was studied to identify the erosive effects of fire, namely the formation of new cracks and matrix deterioration.

The Slow Decrease of Active Substance Candidates for Substitution in the Framework of the European Pesticide Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009

The specific status of active substance candidates for substitution (CfS) is detailed by Article 24 of plant protection Commission Regulation EC No 1107/2009 (PPP Regulation). The criteria of candidates for substitution are now clearly defined: low acceptable daily intake/acute reference dose/acceptable operator exposure level or two persistent, bio-accumulative or toxic criteria, or by nature of the critical effects: non-active isomers, carcinogen 1A/1B, toxic for reproduction 1A/1B or endocrine disruption properties, with these later properties now being well characterised. The total number of active substances CfS has been in constant evolution since 2011, with the first batch of candidates for substitution being published in 2015 and updated since then. After a slow decrease, growth is again observed, with another list of active substances being granted this status. CfS are substances targeted by the PPP Regulation that are supposed to be cancelled or non-renewed at the active substance level or substituted at the market authorisation level. CfS are also supposed to be replaced by substances with better toxicological profiles. However, after five years of implementation of the status, their number, which is intended to decrease, remains high, at sixty residual CfS. We exhibit here their evolution.

COVID-19-related Fake News in Social Media

This study analyzes N=125 prominent fake news related to the COVID-19 pandemic spread in social media from 29 January to 11 April 2020. The five parameters of the analysis are themes, content types, sources, coverage, and intentions. First, the six major themes of fake news are health, religiopolitical, political, crime, entertainment, religious, and miscellaneous. Health-related fake news (67.2%) dominates the others. Second, the seven types of fake news contents have four main types: text, photo, audio and video, and three combined types: text & photo; text & video; and text & photo & video. More fake news takes the forms of text & video (47.2%), while the main types of content are less popular. Third, the two main sources of fake news are online media and mainstream media, where online-produced fake news (94.4%) prevails. Fourth, the main two types of coverages are international and national, and more fake news has an international connection (54.4%). Fifth, the intention of fake news has three types: positive, negative, and unknown. Most of the COVID-19-related fake news is negative (63.2%). Although fake news cases are unevenly distributed and repeatedly fluctuates during the period, a slow decrease of daily cases is noticed toward the end.

Шумовые характеристики оптического отклика феррожидкостей на воздействие магнитного поля

The noise, produced by different ferrofluidic samples under their probing by optical fiber method, investigated. It is shown that the magnetic field switching on leads to its significant enhancement, which presumably connected with fluctuations, accompanying the process of aggregates formation. The dependencies of root mean square value of the noise on the field strength and the probing light intensity are obtained. The slow decrease of the noise root mean square value after the field switching off, reflecting the field formatted aggregates relaxation, revealed.

Rapid Increase and Long-Term Slow Decrease in Soil C stock Due to Agricultural Development in Hokkaido Tokachi District

Soil properties and functions are dramatically altered by changes in agricultural land use. However, little is known about how ecosystem C stock and its partitioning change with deforestation for agricultural land use, especially in cold humid areas. In this study, we investigated how agricultural development influences temporal changes in soil C pools in upland crop fields using a paired-plot approach. Ten pairs of control forest and agricultural development plots (2 to more than 80 years) were selected with the same crop rotation under humid temperate climate in Northeast Japan. We detected a net gain in soil C during the first 2 years of agricultural land development under the flat field condition. This gain in soil C was caused by an increase in the light fraction soil C, which represents plant residue derived-C due to agricultural development. Agricultural development resulted in the loss of soil C in fields without manure application. There was no difference in the ecosystem C stock among soil types or with the amount of manure applied. Agricultural development resulted in a slow decrease in soil C storage, indicating a slow rate of C decomposition under cool climate conditions.

Blood Pressure Measurements during Exercise Testing

``The chapter Blood Pressure Measurement During Exercise reviews the 3 methods of sphygmomanometry to measure blood pressure and normal and abnormal blood pressure responses to exercise. Mercury, aneroid, and oscillometric assessment of Korotkoff sounds provide accurate measurement. Periodic calibration is important for aneroid and oscillometric devices. With verification, automated oscillometric measurements during exercise can be accurate. The normal blood pressure response to exercise testing is an incremental increase in systolic blood pressure with minimal change in diastolic blood pressure. Exercise induced hypotension, particularly early in exercise, is predictive of severe coronary artery disease (CAD). Its occurrence at peak exercise at a high level of exertion may occur in normal individuals secondary to exhaustion. An exaggerated systolic response to exercise is modestly predictive of future hypertension. A slow decrease is systolic blood pressure during recovery is suggestive of CAD, likely secondary to less vagal tone, analogous to a slow decrease in heart rate during recovery.