An investigation of selected soil properties influencing the management and playability of New Zealand cricket pitches : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Horticultural Science in soil science, Massey University

The 1980's has been a period of growth for New Zealand cricket. The advent of the one day game plus international success has developed spectator interest and support to an unprecedented level. Cricket is certainly one game where player performance is very much dependent on the surface provided. It is perhaps fair to say that the standard of many New Zealand first class pitches has not allowed the development of entertaining cricket. As a result, pitches have been the target of increasing criticism from spectators, administrators, and players 'alike. Cricket pitch preparation has been said to be an 'art'. But the groundsman has limited scope to practice the art if the suitability of the soil used for pitch preparation is wanting. In an attempt to gain an understanding of the contribution of soil properties to good pitch preparation, the New Zealand Cricket Council and Soil Bureau of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) provided funding for a research programme. It was hoped that improved playability and pitch performance could be achieved by combining the 'art' of pitch preparation with sound scientific principles. The objectives of the research programme were: 1. To develop and standardise a set of laboratory procedures aimed at selecting soils and characterizing their suitability for cricket pitches. 2. To establish a comprehensive inventory of physical and chemical soil properties for a number of current pitch soils which can be used as a reference for selection of new pitch soils. 3. To relate sound scientific principles to field management techniques and pitch performance in an attempt to assist the groundsman with pitch preparation. 4. To investigate the contributions of playability, and their interactions with soil properties. 5. To elucidate the value of the nuclear moisture-density method for in situ measurement of pitch soil water content and bulk density. 6. To develop and implement a soil monitoring system for groundsmen who can then use it to evaluate changes in soil properties during pitch preparation. This would allow the development of specific management programmes for individual venues. 7. To suggest areas for future research. To meet these objectives a preliminary study (Cameron-Lee, 1984) was carried out to identify three soil parameters, namely clay content, clay type, and pitch soil profile, which affect pitch performance. An expansion of the findings of the preliminary study form the basis of this research programme. This investigation incorporated a field trial using four soils commonly known as the Palmerston North1 , St John, Ward, and Kakanui. The soils have different chemical and physical properties. They are all currently in use throughout New Zealand on first class pitches. In addition, three pitch soils, namely the Marton, Redhill and Naike were evaluated, along with the field trial soils in the laboratory to provide a greater comparative analysis of pitch soil properties

Application of wavelet analysis in tool wear evaluation using image processing method

Tool wear plays a significant role for proper planning and control of machining parameters to maintain the product quality. However, existing tool wear monitoring methods using sensor signals still have limitations. Since the cutting tool operates directly on the work-piece during machining process, the machined surface provides valuable information about the cutting tool condition. Therefore, the objective of present study is to evaluate the tool wear based on the workpiece profile signature by using wavelet analysis. The effect of wavelet families, scale of wavelet and statistical features of the continuous wavelet coefficient on the tool wear is studied. The surface profile of workpiece was captured using a DSLR camera. Invariant moment method was applied to extract the surface profile up to sub-pixel accuracy. The extracted surface profile was analyzed by using continuous wavelet transform (CWT) written in MATLAB. The re-sults showed that average, RMS and peak to valley of CWT coefficients at all scale increased with tool wear. Peak to valley at higher scale is more sensitive to tool wear. Haar was found to be more effective and significant to correlate with tool wear with highest R2 which is 0.9301

Binary Decision Diagrams: from Tree Compaction to Sampling

Any Boolean function corresponds with a complete full binary decision tree. This tree can in turn be represented in a maximally compact form as a direct acyclic graph where common subtrees are factored and shared, keeping only one copy of each unique subtree. This yields the celebrated and widely used structure called reduced ordered binary decision diagram (ROBDD). We propose to revisit the classical compaction process to give a new way of enumerating ROBDDs of a given size without considering fully expanded trees and the compaction step. Our method also provides an unranking procedure for the set of ROBDDs. As a by-product we get a random uniform and exhaustive sampler for ROBDDs for a given number of variables and size

Organizational commitment of Vocational College Teachers in Malaysia

This study aimed to validate factors related to organizational commitment among teachers in vocational colleges in Malaysia. As we know, the commitment given to the organization will make the organization manageable. However, there are issues regarding the commitment given by the teachers in vocational colleges, which has led to poor performance of college organizations. Some studies have found that factors such as narrative commitment, affective commitment and ongoing commitment cause the overall commitment to the organization to be disrupted. In this study, a fully quantitative approach is used to determine factors in the organization commitment of vocational college teachers. The questionnaire was administered to 264 vocational college teachers in three states in Malaysia namely Negeri Sembilan, Melaka and Johor. The data obtained were then analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) using AMOS 21 application. Confirmatory Factor Analysis was performed to obtain factor loading for each element obtained namely narrative commitment, affective commitment and continuous commitment. The analysis results show that the factors reflect the appropriate fit and meet all the criteria for validation. Therefore, the findings of this study can further confirm previous findings on this issue

The Complexity of Surjective Homomorphism Problems -- a Survey

We survey known results about the complexity of surjective homomorphism problems, studied in the context of related problems in the literature such as list homomorphism, retraction and compaction. In comparison with these problems, surjective homomorphism problems seem to be harder to classify and we examine especially three concrete problems that have arisen from the literature, two of which remain of open complexity

Effects of no-tillage and subsoil loosening on soil physical properties and crop performance : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Applied Science in Soil Science at Massey University

Much of New Zealand's lowland agriculture integrates animal and crop production on poorly drained, easily compacted soils. Over the years, conventional cultivation has given rise to degraded soil structure on many farms. No-tillage has been shown to avoid many of these problems but the question remains: "Where soils are compact, what combination of deep tillage and/or drainage systems and no-tillage allow for the most efficient transition from conventional cultivation to no-tillage crop establishment?" The objective of this study was to ascertain if soil properties, and crop (Brassica campestis x Brassica napus cv "Pasja" followed by wheat Triticum aestivum cv "Kohika") establishment and yield on land converted from a conventionally tilled system to a no-tillage system could be improved by various subsoiling and mole plough operations. Plots on a Milson silt loam (Argillic Perch-Gley Pallic Soil) (Typic Ochraqualf) were paraplowed (PP), straight-legged subsoiled (SL), mole ploughed (M) or were left as non-subsoiled controls (C) in the autumn of 1997. Forage brassica was then sown with a Cross-Slot™ no-tillage drill. Wheat was established on the same plots with the same no-tillage drill in the spring of 1997. Subsoiling initially reduced soil strength by a significant amount. Shortly after subsoiling cone indices showed disruption to 300 mm with PP, 350 mm with SL and 100 mm with M. At the same time, approximately 20% of profile cone indices from subsoiled treatments were greater than 2 MPa, compared to approximately 52% for C and M. At 267 days after subsoiling, PP continued to have lower cone index values than C and M. Subsoiling initially reduced bulk density. When measured in May, the bulk density of PP plots was significantly lower than SL, M and C although reconsolidation in all plots was observed in February 1998 after the wheat was harvested. Air permeability in PP, SL and M was significantly greater than in C. Despite the differences in soil strength and bulk density (but not air permeability), subsoiling and mole ploughing did not produce differences in plant populations or yield for either the winter brassica or spring-sown wheat crops. The lack of any differences for brassica crop performance criteria were in spite of the vertical rooting depth being greater in the PP treatment. The lack of differences in plant establishment and yield was thought to be due to the relatively dry autumn and winter soil conditions and the use of the Cross-Slot™ no-tillage opener which is reported to be tolerant of variable soil conditions

Optimizing In-Place Density of Asphalt Pavements During Cold Weather Paving in Nebraska

Late season paving is common and often performed in colder temperatures, which is the most challenging environment for attaining optimal in-place density/compaction The in-place density of asphalt pavement greatly affects the lifespan of the pavement. It is also a key factor in preventing major pavement distresses, such as rutting, cracking, stripping (due to water damage) and aging. This research project aims to evaluate and compare the effectiveness of different compaction, delivery, and mix design characteristics to ensure the optimization of in-place asphalt pavement density. To this end, various laydown methods (i.e., Standard Pick-up Machine (SPM) and Material Transfer Vehicle (MTV)) and compaction equipment (i.e., double drum steel rollers, pneumatic rollers, and combination rollers with both steel and pneumatic tires), using both static and vibratory modes were employed. In addition, the effect of different aggregate blend combinations (i.e., using less coarse ledge rock) and asphalt binders (i.e., PG 58V-34, PG 40-40, and PG 52-40) on in-place density were studied. Four test sections were constructed over four separate days of paving, during cold weather conditions. The in- place density was measured using four methods: 1) Conventional/traditional cut roadway cores, 2) Combination of Infrared Continuous Thermal Scanning (ICTS) with conventional/traditional cut roadway cores, 3) Pavement Quality Indicator (PQI), and 4) Rolling Density Meter (RDM) utilizing Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR). The obtained results were compared and contrasted to the current testing, acceptance and construction methods system at Nebraska Department of Transportation (NDOT) and recommendations for future construction specifications and best practices were presented

Friction material (metal reinforcement) analysis of brake pad for light rail train system

Brake friction material is very important in braking system where they convert kinetic energy of moving vehicles to thermal energy by friction during braking process. The purpose of this research is to determine the optimal friction materials composition of brake pad for light rail train system. Currently all the component of the train system including brake pad is imported from overseas such as Germany. Hence, this research is use to find the new formulation of the mixture ratio that may replace or compete with the commercial available brake pad. Three different testing which are density and porosity test, shore hardness test and wear test were done in order to select which metal is the most suitable for railway application. Different composition were used, (Cu30%BaSO430%), (Cu25%BaSO435%), (Cu20%BaSO440%), (Steel30% BaSO430%), (Steel25% BaSO435%), (Steel20% BaSO440%), (Al30% BaSO430%), (Al25% BaSO435%), and (Al20% BaSO440%) this study to determine the optimal properties with lower wear rate. The selected material were mixed and compacted into desired mould with 5 tons of pressure. The compacted samples were sintered using two different temperatures which is 600oC and 800oC. Steel30% BaSO430% results in the optimal composition since the result shows the lowest porosity, highest SD reading of shore hardness and the lowest wear rate. The samples were analysed by using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) with an Energy Dispersive Spectrometry (EDS) system to determine the morphology surface and overall composition of the samples. Comparing different sintering temperature, the sintered sample of 800oC shows lower wear rate than the sample sintered at 600oC. This is due to dense sample without crack showing by the samples sintered at 800oC than at 600oC