Irrigation in the Mediterranean is of vital importance for food security, employment and economic development. This study systematically assesses how climate change and increases in atmospheric CO2 concentrations may affect irrigation requirements in the Mediterranean region by 2080–2090. Future demographic change and technological improvements in irrigation systems are taken into account, as i...

Invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) is a severe bacterial infectious disease with high mortality and morbidity rates worldwide. In recent years, industrialised countries have implemented vaccines targeting IMD in their National Immunisation Programmes (NIPs). In 2002, the Netherlands successfully implemented a single dose of meningococcal serogroup C conjugate vaccine at the age of 14 months a...

AIM To compare the ability of syringe irrigation and ultrasonic irrigation to remove artificially placed dentine debris from simulated canal irregularities within prepared root canals. METHODOLOGY After canal enlargement, twelve canines were split longitudinally into two halves. On the wall of one half of each root canal a standard groove of 4 mm in length, 0.2 mm in width and 0.5 mm in depth...

Encoding is a fundamental part of any EA. The solution encoding, and its interactions with the EA’s operators, should be designed to minimise arbitrary search bias. A multidimensional encoding suitable for fully specified fuzzy logic rulebases is investigated, and is shown to have better convergence than traditional single-dimensional encoding. By comparison with 2-point and uniform crossover, ...

The effects of cultivar mixture cropping on yield, biomass, and water use efficiency (WUE) in winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) were investigated under non-irrigation (W0, no irrigation during growth stage), one time irrigation (W1, irrigation applied at stem elongation) and two times irrigation (W2, irrigation applied at stem elongation and anthesis) conditions. Nearly 90% of cultivar mixtur...

Loess Plateau is a typical rain-fed farming region, facing the threat of drought. Irrigation method is among the most important factors affecting jujube quality. This study investigated the response of Ziziphus jujuba Mill. cv. Lizao quality to three different irrigation methods (drip-, pipe- and surge spring root irrigation) combining two water levels (20 m(3)/hm(2) and 120 m(3)/hm(2)). The ef...

This paper presents a systematic study of the relation between the size of irrigation systems and the management of uncertainty. We specifically focus on studying, through a stylized theoretical model, how stochasticity in water availability and taxation interacts with the stochastic behavior of the population within irrigation systems. Our results indicate the existence of two key population t...

In this study, a regional climate model (RCM) is employed to investigate the effect of irrigation on hydrology over California through implementing a “realistic irrigation” scheme. Our results indicate that the RCMwith a realistic irrigation scheme commonly practiced in California can capture the soil moisture and evapotranspiration (ET) variation very well in comparison with the available in s...

1. The efficacy of whole bowel irrigation with a solution containing either polyethylene glycol (PEG) with electrolyte or an adsorbent (Kayexalate with a cathartic (sorbitol) was investigated in 18 dogs who had been given 250 mg kg-1 paraquat dichloride via a jejunal tube to eliminate the influence of gastric absorption. 2. Plasma paraquat concentrations 2 and 3 h after the initiation of bowel ...

Surgical wound irrigation has long been debated as a potentially critical intraoperative measure taken to prevent the development of surgical site infection (SSI). Unlike many other SSI prevention efforts, there are no official practice guidelines or recommendations from any major medical group for the practice of surgical irrigation. As a result, practitioner implementation of the 3 major irri...