Pasture condition guide for the Ord River Catchment

This guide has been produced as a tool for assessing pasture condition over a range of pasture types in the Ord River catchment. A pasture type is a distinctive mix of plant species, soil type and landscape position. For example, the Mitchell Grass Alluvial Plain Pasture type is a mixture of Mitchell grasses and other species occurring on black soil alluvial plains. Pasture condition is an important factor affecting the potential of the rangelands for animal production and is a useful indicator for the sustainability of production.https://researchlibrary.agric.wa.gov.au/bulletins/1202/thumbnail.jp

Pasture condition guide for the Kimberley

This interactive guide has been produced as a tool for assessing pasture condition over a range of pasture types in the Kimberley. A pasture type is a distinctive mix of plant species, soil type and landscape position. For example, the Mitchell Grass Alluvial Plain Pasture type is a mixture of Mitchell grasses and other species occurring on black soil alluvial plains. Pasture condition is an important factor affecting the potential of the rangelands for animal production and is a useful indicator for the sustainability of production.https://researchlibrary.agric.wa.gov.au/bulletins/1063/thumbnail.jp

The role of small specimen creep testing within a life assessment framework for high temperature power plant

The safe operation of components operating at high temperature and pressure faces numerous challenges associated with ageing materials and maintaining commercial viability whilst economies transition to a lower carbon future as part of their climate change commitments. Due to these challenges the plant operator faces increasing pressure to ensure that any capital or operational expenditures are optimised and must ensure that they duly recognise plant age, condition, operating regime and ultimately the planned closure date. This review, for the first time, describes how small specimen creep testing can be applied within a practical and deployable life assessment framework and in conjunction with other assessment techniques. The current state of the art for small specimen creep testing is critically reviewed; this also includes a review of traditional techniques used on site for the metallurgical assessment of material condition, with examples from site investigations and assessment campaigns in both conventional and nuclear plant applications. In order to enhance the current practice for assessing the condition of creep ageing components this review proposes the more proactive use of small specimen testing methods for the in-service condition assessment of power plant materials, notably earlier in the plant lifecycle and within a holistic life assessment framework. This is intended to provide a means of calibrating the time dependent response of the component or system being monitored, thereby providing a key reference in-service strain rate measurement, or material property evaluation, that can subsequently be used with other traditionally deployed assessment methods to define a more targeted and cost-effective forward inspection plan. The review describes how small specimen creep testing methods and other complementary tools can be use in a new and structured approach to life management. The current status of small specimen testing methods, for both conventional and nuclear applications, is described along with a detailed discussion on current practice for in-service creep life assessment, with a case study used to illustrate the main principals. A case study is presented for ageing CMV (0.5%Cr0.5%Mo0.25%V) main steam pipework due to the extensive amount of through life data available, which highlights the particular challenges associated with the interpretation of various types of site outage inspection data, in conjunction with on-load plant operational data. The current approach to the assessment of component condition follows well established inspection based practices defined in various industry good practice guides, with expert elicitation and experience used to judge the condition of the component, system and operational risk on return to service. This review proposes a new approach to the holistic life assessment of high temperature plant, with a particular emphasis on more proactive use of small specimen testing. In addition, the review has highlighted other aspects of the current approach to in-service condition assessment that could be improved to support the plant owner. This specifically refers to the potential to develop and implement novel life assessment models that can take advantage of the significant amount of site data currently routinely acquired during plant outage overhauls. There is a clear need to provide the plant owner with more reliable and effective life prediction tools, based on earlier and more rigorous assessment of life consumption. The proposed application of small specimen testing described in this paper is equally applicable to both conventional and nuclear plant applications and a range of components, from static pressure systems to high temperature turbine rotors

Influence of mouldboard ploughing and shallow tillage on soil physical properties and crop performance

This study was conducted in spring 2011 in a long-term field experiment with the objective of assessing the effect of shallow tillage and mouldboard ploughing on some soil physical properties and crop performance. In this field, different tillage experiments established in 1974. Five treatments were included in the experiment but this investigation considered only two treatments, shallow tillage and mouldboard ploughing. In these two treatments, undisturbed soil samples were taken before sowing the seeds at the depth of 15-20, 25-30 and 35-40 cm for the determination of saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks), bulk density (Bd), and water retention in laboratory condition. Penetrometer resistance (PR) were measured in the field one month after sowing. Plant density of barley was also counted one month after sowing. Significantly higher Ks value was found for shallow tillage at the depth of 15-20 and 25-30 cm. Bd was significantly lower for mouldboard ploughing for the first two investigating depth and it was higher at 35-40 cm but the difference was not statistically significant. Moreover, Bd was high in both treatments. Significant higher PR value was found for shallow tillage especially at the depth of 5-35 cm but the result was not so high to reduce the root growth. Water content determined parallel with PR measurement was similar for the two treatments. Plant density and crop yield were significantly higher in shallow tilled treatment than in moulboard ploughing. Field water content at 15-20 and 25-30 cm was significantly higher for moulboard ploughing. Water retention at 1 meter suction was also significantly higher in the treatment with mouldboard ploughing. However, the differences of the physical parameters due to tillage treatments was sufficient to markedly influence crop performanc and yield

A plant-based diet, atherogenesis, and coronary artery disease prevention.

A plant-based diet is increasingly becoming recognized as a healthier alternative to a diet laden with meat. Atherosclerosis associated with high dietary intake of meat, fat, and carbohydrates remains the leading cause of mortality in the US. This condition results from progressive damage to the endothelial cells lining the vascular system, including the heart, leading to endothelial dysfunction. In addition to genetic factors associated with endothelial dysfunction, many dietary and other lifestyle factors, such as tobacco use, high meat and fat intake, and oxidative stress, are implicated in atherogenesis. Polyphenols derived from dietary plant intake have protective effects on vascular endothelial cells, possibly as antioxidants that prevent the oxidation of low-density lipoprotein. Recently, metabolites of L-carnitine, such as trimethylamine-N-oxide, that result from ingestion of red meat have been identified as a potential predictive marker of coronary artery disease (CAD). Metabolism of L-carnitine by the intestinal microbiome is associated with atherosclerosis in omnivores but not in vegetarians, supporting CAD benefits of a plant-based diet. Trimethylamine-N-oxide may cause atherosclerosis via macrophage activation. We suggest that a shift toward a plant-based diet may confer protective effects against atherosclerotic CAD by increasing endothelial protective factors in the circulation while reducing factors that are injurious to endothelial cells. The relative ratio of protective factors to injurious endothelial exposure may be a novel approach to assessing an objective dietary benefit from a plant-based diet. This review provides a mechanistic perspective of the evidence for protection by a plant-based diet against atherosclerotic CAD

The Cost of Roaming Free: Assessing the Effects of Plant Secondary Metabolites on Diet Selection and Nutritional Condition in a Free-Ranging Generalist Herbivore

Large vertebrate herbivores have a wide variety of browsing options available. However, most plants contain a suite of plant secondary metabolites (PSMs) that can have toxic effects when ingested. Herbivores must therefore make dietary choices that minimize the potentially harmful effects of PSM ingestion and maximize the use of available nutrients and protein. During winter months, in northern latitudes, climatological factors restrict browsing options and many populations of herbivores must subsist primarily on forage that is relatively poor in nutritional quality and high in PSMs. Many species of herbivores have developed a suite of behavioral and physiological adaptations to cope with increased PSM exposure, including selective foraging and increased detoxification efficiency of potentially harmful PSMs. However, detoxification of PSMs may be energetically costly, exacerbating the effects of winter nutritional deficits, which in turn further decreases nutritional condition of free-ranging populations. As a result, PSMs may directly influence diet selection and winter nutritional condition of free-ranging herbivores. We used moose (Alces alces) on Isle Royale National Park, Michigan, to test how PSMs influence the diet selection, rates of intake and the physiological consequences of diet selection in a large mammalian herbivore during winter. We identified browsing patches and bite marks on balsam fir (Abies balsamia) trees and examined the PSM chemical profile and protein content of browsed and unbrowsed trees. We found that both diet selection and rate of intake by moose was directly influenced by PSMs. However, environmental conditions (e.g. snow depth) were the primary governing factor of intake rate. We also examined the effect of PSMs on nutritional condition of island moose using urine collected from snow. We quantified the concentrations of three metabolites found in urine: Glucuronic Acid (GA) as a biomarker of PSM exposure, Urea Nitrogen (UN) as a biomarker of overall nutritional condition, and Creatinine (C) to correct for individual sample dilution from snow volume or relative hydration of individual animals. We found that UN:C was positively correlated with increased GA:C, indicating higher PSM exposure which may reduce nutritional condition of moose. Furthermore, we found that increased ingestion of monoterpenes, a primary class of PSMs in fir, also directly correlated with decreased nutritional condition of moose. By employing techniques that can be applied generally to test the consequences of PSMs on nutritional ecology of herbivores, this research contributes to our understanding of herbivore foraging ecology and the potential nutritional consequences of “bottom-up” regulation of natural populations of herbivores by plants. The methods detailed here-in are applicable to testing consequences of PSMs in multiple species and habitat types. Specifically, measuring GA from urine collected snow provides managers and wildlife scientists with a simple, effective, non-invasive, and relatively inexpensive means by which to monitor the link between diet quality, behavioral and physiological adaptations to PSMs, and the nutritional consequences of diet quality. Finally, increased ability to utilize biomarkers of diet quality and nutritional condition may considerably contribute to the understanding of the health and population dynamics of difficult to manage or economically important herbivores

On-line partial discharge analysis of transmission and distribution assets

It is becoming increasingly clear that methodologies for PD classification based on standard laboratory experimental data are not readily applicable when assessing online PD data measured in the field. It is not just that field data is corrupted by noise and disturbance, but also the significant differences between typical laboratory experiments to generate PD data and the generation of PDs in high voltage plant due to degradation of the insulation system. In this paper, the use of nonlinear time-series analysis on field data is shown to yield useful information, methods involving dimension reduction techniques are shown to allow identification of different sources and finally a method for designing standard finite impulse response filters that approximate the nonlinear analytical approach and are easy to implement in condition monitoring systems are discussed