Soil acidity, nutrient availability and livestock density have a major influence on the belowground ecological community. As fast decomposition rates are due mostly to bacterial-based pathways and slower decomposition rates mostly to fungal-based pathways, it is helpful to condense empirical information in the so-called Nematode Channel Ratio (NCR). The NCR is shown to be a good indicator of efficiency in soil decomposition processes. We argue that in intensive agroecosystems, other fungivore members of the decomposer food web may outcompete the hyphal-feeding nematodes. We demonstrate how the NCR can be used to set ecological standards for sustainable use of the soil in agroecosystems. To summarize the interactions between the microbial resources and the decomposer nematofauna according to increasing land management, we propose the use of the fifth percentile as proxy for a sustainable environmental quality of grasslands on sandy soils, and the NCR mean as the upper threshold for low-stocked farms.

Absbaa A new and very simple test for uniformity is proposed. An exact formula for the distribution under Ho of the corresponding test statistic is derived. This formula is only suitable for computeroriented use. For other circumstances a table of critical values is given. The power of the test is compared with that of two well-known alternatives: the ?-test and the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test.Mi is e = n / k for each cell. So this hypothesis can be tested with A well-known test for uniformity is the following. Under Ho the expectation of 2 will be approximately distributed as d-l, and the approximation will be reasonable if e>5. Therefore n should be at least 10. The next sections will offer tests that allow smaller samples.

Eleven different, filler-free polymers were depth profiled until all secondary ion signals were stable. Discriminant function analysis and principal components analysis were performed on a dataset containing the intensities of noncharacteristic hydrocarbon secondary ions, measured in this steady state. Discriminant function analysis showed that these secondary ions were sufficient to correctly identify all polymers using leave-one-out correction. Even with principal components analysis, which uses no prior knowledge about the origin of a data point, identification was shown to be possible.

Interdependencies of accumulated solutes, analyzed by liquid chromatography in dialyzed and non-dialyzed patients, were studied by multivariate statistical analysis. In principal component analysis, three principal components (PC1-PC3) were retained from the data on 22 accumulated compounds in dialyzed patients, whereas only one principal component was retained from analogous data of a non-dialyzed patient group. PC1 in the dialyzed patient group comprises concentrations of hippuric acid, p-hydroxyhippuric acid, tryptophan, and five unidentified fluorescent solutes in serum. Concentrations of the classical markers urea, uric acid, creatinine, and phosphate were closely related to PC2 in these patients. Indoleacetic acid and two unidentified fluorescent compounds constitute PC3. The compounds associated with the groups found by principal component analysis may be characterized by chemical structure and by the mechanism of their excretion via the remaining nephrons of dialyzed patients. In the non-dialyzed group, most of the solutes could be described by a single PC. This PC and PC1 from the dialyzed group correlated significantly with residual renal function, and with total ultraviolet absorbance and total fluorescence emission. The data suggest that it is of value to introduce a marker of uremic solute retention in addition to urea, to account for renal-function-related "organic-acid-like" compounds that are excreted by renal tubular secretion in dialyzed patients. The hippurates may serve this purpose.

No abstract