7,578 research outputs found
Collectors of Rhodiola species on the Sichuan-Tibetan and Sichuan-Shaanxi borders
Medicinal Rhodiola species, including Rhodiola rosea L. and Rhodiola crenulata (Hook.f. & Thomson) H.Ohba, have been widely used as traditional herbal medicines with numerous claims for their therapeutic effects. Faced with resource depletion, environment destruction and higher demand, R. rosea and R. crenulata are becoming endangered, making them economically even more valuable, but also increasing the risk of adulteration and low quality - and raising awareness for the role of often unlicensed collectors and middlemen.
Although R. rosea is the most well known in Europe, R. crenulata is the recognised species in China. On the border of Sichuan and Tibet, members of the Yi minority collect R. crenulata in order to sell it to the “traditional” Chinese medicine market. Collection of this medicinal herb represents about one third of the annual income for the Yi. Three times a year they climb up to 5,000 metres in search of the plants. As it is stripped out, the Yi have to travel to more and more inhospitable places to ensure its supply.
At Taibai mountain along the border of Sichuan and Shaanxi, the same medicinal plant, hongjingtian in Chinese, is growing in the wild, too. Yet, in a socioeconomic context, collectors do not have a particular ethnic background such as Yi, Tibetan or Han collectors. Here, the collectors are various unlicensed providers-cum-prescribers 'caoyi'. (The term does not mean herb-physician, as one might assume from terms such as caoyao (herbals). It means unofficial or not following the scholarly standard.) Using neither an ethnic identity nor the general botanical terms in Latin, they claim Daoism and terroir of their mountain as a sign of good quality ‘Taibai hongjingtian’.
There appears to be no strategy in place to protect the species across all those socioeconomic, ethnic and provincial boundaries, and without some intervention it is likely that R. crenulata will eventually become so rare that it can no longer be collected in the current quantities. This will have consequences both for the livelihoods of the Yi and of various Caoyi, and also for the conservation of R. Crenulata and it’s sustainability
Complexified sigma model and duality
We show that the equations of motion associated with a complexified
sigma-model action do not admit manifest dual SO(n,n) symmetry. In the process
we discover new type of numbers which we called `complexoids' in order to
emphasize their close relation with both complex numbers and matroids. It turns
out that the complexoids allow to consider the analogue of the complexified
sigma-model action but with (1+1)-worldsheet metric, instead of
Euclidean-worldsheet metric. Our observations can be useful for further
developments of complexified quantum mechanics.Comment: 15 pages, Latex, improved versio
Transonic aerodynamic characteristics of a proposed wing-body reusable launch vehicle concept
A proposed wing-body reusable launch vehicle was tested in the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center's 14 x 14-inch trisonic wind tunnel during the winter of 1994. This test resulted in the vehicle's subsonic and transonic, Mach 0.3 to 1.96, longitudinal and lateral aerodynamic characteristics. The effects of control surface deflections on the basic vehicle's aerodynamics, including a body flap, elevons, ailerons, and tip fins, are presented
A shadowgraph study of Space Transportation System (STS): The Space Shuttle Launch Vehicle (SSLV)
A shadowgraph study of the space transportation system (STS), the space shuttle launch vehicle, is presented. The shadowgraphs presented in this study were obtained over the past 10 years from wind tunnel tests performed in the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center's 14-Inch Trisonic Wind Tunnel during the space shuttle development program. Shadowgraphs of the STS at various angles-of-attack and roll angles are shown for the Mach range of 0.6 to 4.96. The major flow field phenomena over the mated vehicle configuration are shown in these shadowgraphs. Shadowgraphs are also presented for the orbiter without the lower stack (reentry configuration) and the lower stack without the orbiter. A short study of external tank nose geometry effects on the mated vehicles flow field is presented. These shadowgraphs are used in the aerothermodynamic analysis of the external flow conditions the launch vehicle encounters during the ascent stage of flight
Application of Rapid Prototyping Methods to High-Speed Wind Tunnel Testing
This study was undertaken in MSFC's 14-Inch Trisonic Wind Tunnel to determine if rapid prototyping methods could be used in the design and manufacturing of high speed wind tunnel models in direct testing applications, and if these methods would reduce model design/fabrication time and cost while providing models of high enough fidelity to provide adequate aerodynamic data, and of sufficient strength to survive the test environment. Rapid prototyping methods utilized to construct wind tunnel models in a wing-body-tail configuration were: fused deposition method using both ABS plastic and PEEK as building materials, stereolithography using the photopolymer SL-5170, selective laser sintering using glass reinforced nylon, and laminated object manufacturing using plastic reinforced with glass and 'paper'. This study revealed good agreement between the SLA model, the metal model with an FDM-ABS nose, an SLA nose, and the metal model for most operating conditions, while the FDM-ABS data diverged at higher loading conditions. Data from the initial SLS model showed poor agreement due to problems in post-processing, resulting in a different configuration. A second SLS model was tested and showed relatively good agreement. It can be concluded that rapid prototyping models show promise in preliminary aerodynamic development studies at subsonic, transonic, and supersonic speeds
Particle and particle pair dispersion in turbulence modeled with spatially and temporally correlated stochastic processes
In this paper we present a new model for modeling the diffusion and relative
dispersion of particles in homogeneous isotropic turbulence. We use an
Heisenberg-like Hamiltonian to incorporate spatial correlations between fluid
particles, which are modeled by stochastic processes correlated in time. We are
able to reproduce the ballistic regime in the mean squared displacement of
single particles and the transition to a normal diffusion regime for long
times. For the dispersion of particle pairs we find a -dependence of the
mean squared separation at short times and a -dependence for long ones. For
intermediate times indications for a Richardson law are observed in
certain situations. Finally the influence of inertia of real particles on the
dispersion is investigated.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, 1 tabl
Cohomology of the minimal nilpotent orbit
We compute the integral cohomology of the minimal non-trivial nilpotent orbit
in a complex simple (or quasi-simple) Lie algebra. We find by a uniform
approach that the middle cohomology group is isomorphic to the fundamental
group of the sub-root system generated by the long simple roots. The modulo
reduction of the Springer correspondent representation involves the sign
representation exactly when divides the order of this cohomology group.
The primes dividing the torsion of the rest of the cohomology are bad primes.Comment: 29 pages, v2 : Leray-Serre spectral sequence replaced by Gysin
sequence only, corrected typo
A shadowgraph study of two proposed Shuttle-C launch vehicle configurations
A shadowgraph study concerning two of the proposed Shuttle-C launch vehicle configurations are presented. These shadowgraphs were obtained from a wind tunnel test performed in Marshall Space Flight Center's 14-in trisonic wind tunnel at various angles-of-attack and roll angles over the Mach range of 0.6 to 4.96. Variations in payload bay length were also evaluated. Major flow field phenomena can easily be seen in the shadowgraphs. Shadowgraphs are a valuable resource. They are used in the analysis of the external flow conditions the launch vehicle encounters through the ascent stage of flight. Subsequent reports will contain shadowgraph studies for other launch vehicle configurations also tested in the Marshall Space Flight Center's 14-in trisonic wind tunnel
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