Low-temperature combustion (LTC) engine concepts such as homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) offer the potential of improved efficiency and reduced emissions of NOₓ and particulates. However, engines can only successfully operate in HCCI mode for limited operating ranges that vary depending on the fuel composition. Unfortunately, traditional ratings such as...
A new metric for ranking the suitability of fuels in LTC engines was recently introduced, based on the fraction of potential fuel savings achieved in the FTP-75 light-duty vehicle driving cycle. In the current study, this LTC fuel performance index was calculated computationally and analyzed for a number of fuel...
Because invasive annual grasses can strongly influence soil resource availability and disturbance regimes to favor their own
persistence, there is a great need to understand the interrelationships among invasive plant abundance, resource availability, and
desirable species prominence. These interrelationships were studied in two salt desert sites where the local abundance...
Models of ecosystem carbon (C) balance
generally assume a strong relationship between NPP,
litter inputs, and soil C accumulation, but there is little
direct evidence for such a coupled relationship. Using a
unique 50-year detrital manipulation experiment in a
mixed deciduous forest and in restored prairie grasslands
in Wisconsin, combined...
Sexual conflict over mating can result in sex specific morphologies and behaviors that
allow each sex to exert control over the outcome of reproduction. Genital traits, in
particular, are often directly involved in conflict interactions. Via genital manipulation,
we experimentally investigated whether genital traits in red-sided garter snakes influence
copulation...
Mycobacteriosis is a common disease of laboratory zebrafish Danio rerio. Different infection patterns occur in zebrafish depending on mycobacterial species. Mycobacterium marinum and M. haemophilum produce virulent infections associated with high mortality, whereas M. chelonae is more widespread and is not associated with high mortality. Identification of mycobacterial infections to...
Plants are constantly exposed to a large and diverse array of microbes; however, most plants are immune to the majority of potential invaders and susceptible to only a small subset of pathogens. The cytoskeleton comprises a dynamic intracellular framework that responds rapidly to biotic stresses and supports numerous fundamental cellular...
Background: Barn Swallows (Hirundo rustica) breed almost exclusively in the Northern Hemisphere. However, since the early 1980's, a small disjunct breeding population has become established in eastern Argentina, presumably by birds previously derived from those breeding in North America. Currently, it is unknown where these individuals go following breeding and...
Over a 3.5-year period, 4 Rocky Mountain goats (Oreamnos americanus), housed at a single facility, developed clinical disease attributed to infection by Caprine arthritis encephalitis virus (CAEV). Ages ranged from 1 to 10 years. Three of the goats, a 1-year-old female, a 2-year-old male, and a 5-year-old male, had been...
Two ocean general circulation models are used to test the ability of geostrophic velocity measurement systems to observe the meridional overturning circulation (MOC) and meridional heat transport (MHT) in the South Atlantic. Model sampling experiments are conducted at five latitudes (between 15° and 34.5°S) spanning the range of extratropical current...