Modellierung des regionalen Grundwasserhaushalts für das Gebiet der Heilbronner Mulde

A hydrogeological survey of the region 'Heilbronner Mulde' has been conducted, and forms the basis for a regional flow model in this area. Both steady state and transient water budgets have been analysed with the calibrated flow model. Groundwater recharge due to precipitation is considered to be an important factor, and was therefore computed on a daily base for different areas within the region. Evapotranspiration and the soil water budget were also calculated. Varying the hydrological boundary conditions showed that the current withdrawal is equal to the groundwater available. In times of normal and above average groundwater recharge, the withdrawal can be increased. It is limited only during long dry periods.     

Matrix versus fracture permeability in a regional sandstone aquifer (Wajid sandstone,SW Saudi Arabia)

Sandstones are often characterized as fractured aquifers. We present a case study of the Wajid sandstone, which forms a regional aquifer system in SW Saudi Arabia, where matrix, fracture, and large-scale hydraulic conductivities are coincident. The measurements deal with different scales and methods and are based on porosity and permeability measurements in the laboratory, as well as pumping tests in the field. Porosities of the sandstone samples in general are high and range between less than 5?% and more than 45?%. Gas permeabilities for strongly cemented samples are <?1 mD, whereas most samples range in between 500 and 5,000 mD. There is only a weak anisotropy with preference of the horizontal x-, y-directions. Hydraulic conductivities of the matrix samples (5.5?·?10^?6 m/s and 1.1?·?10^?5 m/s for the Upper and Lower Wajid sandstone, respectively) were in the same order of magnitude compared to hydraulic conductivities derived from pumping tests (8.3?·?10^?5 m/s and 2.2?·?10^?5 m/s for the Upper and Lower Wajid sandstone, respectively).     

Sensory memory for odors is encoded in spontaneous correlated activity between olfactory glomeruli

Sensory memory is a short-lived persistence of a sensory stimulus in the nervous system, such as iconic memory in the visual system. However, little is known about the mechanisms underlying olfactory sensory memory. We have therefore analyzed the effect of odor stimuli on the first odor-processing network in the honeybee brain, the antennal lobe, which corresponds to the vertebrate olfactory bulb. We stained output neurons with a calcium-sensitive dye and measured across-glomerular patterns of spontaneous activity before and after a stimulus. Such a single-odor presentation changed the relative timing of spontaneous activity across glomeruli in accordance with Hebb's theory of learning. Moreover, during the first few minutes after odor presentation, correlations between the spontaneous activity fluctuations suffice to reconstruct the stimulus. As spontaneous activity is ubiquitous in the brain, modifiable fluctuations could provide an ideal substrate for Hebbian reverberations and sensory memory in other neural systems.     

Psychometric evaluation of the Beck Depression Inventory-II with primary care medical patients.

This study evaluated the psychometric characteristics of the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II; A. T. Beck, R. A. Steer, & G. K. Brown, 1996) in a primary care medical setting. A principal-components analysis with Promax rotation indicated the presence of 2 correlated factors, Somatic-Affective and Cognitive, which explained 53.5% of the variance. A hierarchical, second-order analysis indicated that all items tap into a second-order construct of depression. Evidence for convergent validity was provided by predicted relationships with subscales from the Short-Form General Health Survey (SF-20; A. L. Stewart, R. D. Hayes, & J. E. Ware, 1988). A receiver operating characteristic analysis demonstrated criterion-related validity: BDI-II scores predicted a diagnosis of major depressive disorder (MDD), as determined by the Primary Care Evaluation of Mental Disorders (PRIME-MD) Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ). This study demonstrated that the BDI-II yields reliable, internally consistent, and valid scores in a primary care medical setting, suggesting that use of the BDI-II in this setting may improve detection and treatment of depression in these medical patients. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Choice between fixed and variable delays to reinforcement in the adjusting-delay procedure and concurrent chains.

A generalization of the contextual choice model ([CCM]; R. C. Grace, see record 1994-28397-001) is presented that describes preference between fixed and variable schedules in concurrent chains and the adjusting-delay procedure. In Exp 1A and 1B, fixed-delay indifference values for pigeons for a series of variable-delay schedules were obtained, using the adjusting-delay procedure, to test a Weber's law invariance and the effectiveness of several models. These data were then used to generate, in Exp 2, pairs of fixed and variable schedules that should have been equally preferred in concurrent chains. As predicted, deviation from indifference was small. These results indicate that (a) the determiners of value in the 2 procedures are the same, (b) the delay of reinforcement gradient is best represented as a power function with a delay threshold, and (c) a single model (CCM) can accurately describe data in the 3 most popular operant choice paradigms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hydrogeologie des Oberen Muschelkalks im Bereich hoher Keuperüberdeckung – Modell Schwäbisch-Fränkische Waldberge

A numerical groundwater model was developed for the aquifer of the Upper Muschelkalk between the rivers Neckar, Kocher and Murr. The investigation shoudl mainly serve a better understanding of the hydrogeological situation of this aquifer below the thick Keuper sediments of the Schwäbisch-Fränkischen Waldberge. Here we observe a general groundwater discharge in direction of the rivers with an average hydraulic gradient of 1%. The groundwater recharge from precipitation is estimated at 0.001 m ³ /s for the region below the Keuper mountains, which covers an area of 730 km ² , and 1 m ³ /s for the foreland with an area of 670 km ² . Similar conditions are found comparing the mean pore velocities of both areas (0.4 respectively 200 m/year) and the mean residence time (20000 respectively 20 years) of the groundwater. Thus, the aquifer of the Upper Muschelkalk below the Schwäbisch-Fränkischen Waldberge can be characerized as a fractured non karstified aquifer of low conductivity.