A study was designed to compare the performance of six spatial interpolation methods to estimate soil properties at unvisited points. These methods were global mean, moving average, nearest neighbour, inverse squared distance, Laplacian smoothing splines and ordinary point kriging. These methods were also applied in combination with a choropleth map (soil map) by stratifying the area. The soil ...

This study aimed at examining effective sample treatments and spectral processing for an alternate method of soil nitrate determination using the attenuated total reflectance (ATR) of Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. Prior to FTIR measurements, soil samples were prepared as paste to enhance adhesion between the ATR crystal and sample. The similar nitrate peak heights of soil past...

This paper presents a sparse, remote sensing-based sampling approach making use of conditioned Latin Hypercube Sampling (cLHS) to assess variability in soil properties at regional scale. The method optimizes the sampling scheme for a defined spatial population based on selected covariates, which are assumed to represent the variability of the target variables. The optimization also accounts for...

Arctic tundra and boreal forest soils have globally relevant functions that affect atmospheric chemistry and climate, yet the bacterial composition and diversity of these soils have received little study. Serial analysis of ribosomal sequence tags (SARST) and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) were used to compare composite soil samples taken from boreal and arctic biomes. This stud...

The Oak Ridge Reservation, established in 1942, was the designated site for the construction of the atomic bomb. During a 20-year period from 1944-1963 radioactive and toxic chemical pollutants, especially mercury compounds were released into the surrounding waterways. Mercury in the soil environment can undergo numerous chemical transformations. Conventional methods for detection of total soil...

The 4.69-Mb genome sequence of Arcticibacter svalbardensis strain MN12-7(T), isolated from an Arctic soil sample, is reported.

BACKGROUND To determine patterns of childhood lead exposure in a community living near a lead and zinc smelter in North Lake Macquarie, Australia between 1991 and 2002. METHODS An analysis of serial blood lead levels (BLL) of children less than 13 years of age in North Lake Macquarie participating in voluntary blood lead screening. Distance to the smelter and soil lead concentration of the ch...

A sensitive PCR based detection of Bacillus anthracis spores from environnment was standardized. Specific 1247bp amplicon could be detected with template concentration as low as 13 pg. Sensitivity was enhanced to 10 fold by nesting with second set of primers, forming 208bp amplicon. Extraction of DNA from spores purified from soil samples by aqueous polymer two-phase system followed by partial ...

Since its first announcement by P. Sensi et at. in 19591}, the rifamycin complex has been extensively studied by a number of workers2). The type culture Nocardia mediterranea (Margalith et Beretta) Thiemann et at. 1969*, then known as Streptomyces mediterranei^ was isolated from a soil sample collected in France. Sugawara et al.l) culturing an isolate (4107 A2) from a Japanese soil sample, repo...

This paper describes a series of experiments that were performed on the Rocky III rob0t.l Rocky III is a small autonomous rover capable of navigating through rough outdoor terrain to a predesignated area, searching that area for soft soil, acquiring a soil sample, and depositing the sample in a container at its home base. The robot is programmed according to a reactive behaviorcontrol paradigm ...