Mesozoic marine reptiles and modern marine mammals are often considered ecological analogs, but the extent of their similarity is largely unknown. Particularly important is the presence/absence of deep-diving suction feeders among Mesozoic marine reptiles because this would indicate the establishment of mesopelagic cephalopod and fish communities in the Mesozoic. A recent study suggested that d...

to measure soil water content (or soil matric suction) in thin layers of about 30mm, conventional gypsum blocks are not suitable. to carry out the task, mini-gypsum blocks were constructed using plaster of paris in an innovative fashion. a power relationship was found between the soil water content and the mini-gypsum blocks’ readings in kω. the calibration results showed that readings of m...

Proper N fertilizer and irrigation management can reduce nitrate leaching while maintaining crop yield, which is critical to enhance the sustainability of vegetable production on soils with poor water and nutrient-holding capacities. This study evaluated different methods to measure nitrate leaching in mulched drip-irrigated zucchini, pepper, and tomato production systems. Fertigation rates wer...

objectives the current study aimed to compare the two methods based on the perceptions of the nurses working in neonatal intensive care units (nicu). patients and methods a comparative-descriptive study carried out on 35 nicu nurses in taleghani and al-zahra teaching hospitals in tabriz, iran, in 2013. data were collected by self-administered questionnaire (13 items). data analysis, including t...

Commentaries on Viewpoint: Is left ventricular volume during diastasis the real equilibrium volume, and what is its relationship to diastolic suction? TO THE EDITOR: The Viewpoint by W. Zhang et al. (3) advances our understanding of the age-old question about the meaning of end diastole of the left ventricle as well as its corollary, diastolic suction. The discussion omits several additional me...

Suction feeding is pervasive among aquatic vertebrates, and our understanding of the functional morphology and biomechanics of suction feeding has recently been advanced by combining experimental and modeling approaches. Key advances include the visualization of the patterns of flow in front of the mouth of a feeding fish, the measurement of pressure inside their mouth cavity, and the employmen...