982 research outputs found
Effect of âstarterâ N and P on nodulation and seed yield in field pea, lentil, and chickpea in semiarid Canadian prairies
Non-Peer Reviewe
Estimating specific surface area of fine stream bed sediments from geochemistry
Specific surface area (SSA) of headwater stream bed sediments is a fundamental property which determines the nature of sediment surface reactions and influences ecosystem-level, biological processes. Measurements of SSA â commonly undertaken by BET nitrogen adsorption â are relatively costly in terms of instrumentation and operator time. A novel approach is presented for estimating fine (2.5 mg kgâ1), four elements were identified as significant predictors of SSA (ordered by decreasing predictive power): V > Ca > Al > Rb. The optimum model from these four elements accounted for 73% of the variation in bed sediment SSA (range 6â46 m2 gâ1) with a root mean squared error of prediction â based on leave-one-out cross-validation â of 6.3 m2 gâ1. It is believed that V is the most significant predictor because its concentration is strongly correlated both with the quantity of Fe-oxides and clay minerals in the stream bed sediments, which dominate sediment SSA. Sample heterogeneity in SSA â based on triplicate measurements of sub-samples â was a substantial source of variation (standard error = 2.2 m2 gâ1) which cannot be accounted for in the regression model.
The model was used to estimate bed sediment SSA at the other 1792 sites and at 30 duplicate sites where an extra sediment sample had been collected, 25 m from the original site. By delineating sub-catchments for the headwater sediment sites only those sub-catchments were selected with a dominant (>50% of the sub-catchment area) bedrock formation and land use type; the bedrock and land use classes accounted for 39% and 7% of the variation in bed sediment SSA, respectively. Variation in estimated, fine bed sediment SSA from the paired, duplicate sediment sites was small (2.7 m2 gâ1), showing that local variation in SSA at stream sites is modest when compared to that between catchments. How the approach might be applied in other environments and its potential limitations are discussed
Quantization and Compressive Sensing
Quantization is an essential step in digitizing signals, and, therefore, an
indispensable component of any modern acquisition system. This book chapter
explores the interaction of quantization and compressive sensing and examines
practical quantization strategies for compressive acquisition systems.
Specifically, we first provide a brief overview of quantization and examine
fundamental performance bounds applicable to any quantization approach. Next,
we consider several forms of scalar quantizers, namely uniform, non-uniform,
and 1-bit. We provide performance bounds and fundamental analysis, as well as
practical quantizer designs and reconstruction algorithms that account for
quantization. Furthermore, we provide an overview of Sigma-Delta
() quantization in the compressed sensing context, and also
discuss implementation issues, recovery algorithms and performance bounds. As
we demonstrate, proper accounting for quantization and careful quantizer design
has significant impact in the performance of a compressive acquisition system.Comment: 35 pages, 20 figures, to appear in Springer book "Compressed Sensing
and Its Applications", 201
Scattering of elastic waves by periodic arrays of spherical bodies
We develop a formalism for the calculation of the frequency band structure of
a phononic crystal consisting of non-overlapping elastic spheres, characterized
by Lam\'e coefficients which may be complex and frequency dependent, arranged
periodically in a host medium with different mass density and Lam\'e
coefficients. We view the crystal as a sequence of planes of spheres, parallel
to and having the two dimensional periodicity of a given crystallographic
plane, and obtain the complex band structure of the infinite crystal associated
with this plane. The method allows one to calculate, also, the transmission,
reflection, and absorption coefficients for an elastic wave (longitudinal or
transverse) incident, at any angle, on a slab of the crystal of finite
thickness. We demonstrate the efficiency of the method by applying it to a
specific example.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figures, Phys. Rev. B (in press
The Milky Way Bulge: Observed properties and a comparison to external galaxies
The Milky Way bulge offers a unique opportunity to investigate in detail the
role that different processes such as dynamical instabilities, hierarchical
merging, and dissipational collapse may have played in the history of the
Galaxy formation and evolution based on its resolved stellar population
properties. Large observation programmes and surveys of the bulge are providing
for the first time a look into the global view of the Milky Way bulge that can
be compared with the bulges of other galaxies, and be used as a template for
detailed comparison with models. The Milky Way has been shown to have a
box/peanut (B/P) bulge and recent evidence seems to suggest the presence of an
additional spheroidal component. In this review we summarise the global
chemical abundances, kinematics and structural properties that allow us to
disentangle these multiple components and provide constraints to understand
their origin. The investigation of both detailed and global properties of the
bulge now provide us with the opportunity to characterise the bulge as observed
in models, and to place the mixed component bulge scenario in the general
context of external galaxies. When writing this review, we considered the
perspectives of researchers working with the Milky Way and researchers working
with external galaxies. It is an attempt to approach both communities for a
fruitful exchange of ideas.Comment: Review article to appear in "Galactic Bulges", Editors: Laurikainen
E., Peletier R., Gadotti D., Springer Publishing. 36 pages, 10 figure
Superstrings on NS5 backgrounds, deformed AdS3 and holography
We study a non-standard decoupling limit of the D1/D5-brane system, which
interpolates between the near-horizon geometry of the D1/D5 background and the
near-horizon limit of the pure D5-brane geometry. The S-dual description of
this background is actually an exactly solvable two-dimensional (worldsheet)
conformal field theory: {null-deformed SL(2,R)} x SU(2) x T^4 or K3. This model
is free of strong-coupling singularities. By a careful treatment of the
SL(2,R), based on the better-understood SL(2,R) / U(1) coset, we obtain the
full partition function for superstrings on SL(2,R) x SU(2) x K3. This allows
us to compute the partition functions for the J^3 and J^2 current-current
deformations, as well as the full line of supersymmetric null deformations,
which links the SL(2,R) conformal field theory with linear dilaton theory. The
holographic interpretation of this setup is a renormalization-group flow
between the decoupled NS5-brane world-volume theory in the ultraviolet (Little
String Theory), and the low-energy dynamics of super Yang--Mills string-like
instantons in six dimensions.Comment: JHEP style, 59 pages, 1 figure; v2: minor changes, to appear in JHE
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