An Assessment of the Global Soybean Industry: An Application of Stochastic Equilibrium Displacement Model

This study uses stochastic equilibrium displacement model (SEDM) to investigate the impact on the soybean and its joint products (soymeal and soyoil) sectors of different countries and regions from transportation cost reduction in Brazil incorporating assumptions of decrease in the U.S. loan deficiency payment.International Trade, Loan Deficiency Payment, Soybean, Soybean Joint Products, Stochastic Equilibrium Displacement Model, Transportation Costs, International Relations/Trade,

Parametric survey of longitudinal prominence oscillation simulations

It is found that both microflare-sized impulsive heating at one leg of the loop and a suddenly imposed velocity perturbation can propel the prominence to oscillate along the magnetic dip. An extensive parameter survey results in a scaling law, showing that the period of the oscillation, which weakly depends on the length and height of the prominence, and the amplitude of the perturbations, scales with $\sqrt{R/g_\odot}$, where $R$ represents the curvature radius of the dip, and $g_\odot$ is the gravitational acceleration of the Sun. This is consistent with the linear theory of a pendulum, which implies that the field-aligned component of gravity is the main restoring force for the prominence longitudinal oscillations, as confirmed by the force analysis. However, the gas pressure gradient becomes non-negligible for short prominences. The oscillation damps with time in the presence of non-adiabatic processes. Compared to heat conduction, the radiative cooling is the dominant factor leading to the damping. A scaling law for the damping timescale is derived, i.e., $\tau\sim l^{1.63} D^{0.66}w^{-1.21}v_{0}^{-0.30}$, showing strong dependence on the prominence length $l$, the geometry of the magnetic dip (characterized by the depth $D$ and the width $w$), and the velocity perturbation amplitude $v_0$. The larger the amplitude, the faster the oscillation damps. It is also found that mass drainage significantly reduces the damping timescale when the perturbation is too strong.Comment: 17 PAGES, 8FIGURE

Total bacterial number concentration in free tropospheric air above the Alps

Over a period from June to October 2010, we carried out four short campaigns on the northern alpine ridge (High Altitude Research Station Jungfraujoch, 3,450m above sea level) to determine bacterial number concentrations by collecting aerosol with liquid impingers, followed by filtration, fluorescent staining and counting with a microscope. Impinger liquid was also subjected to drop freeze tests to determine the number of ice nucleators. Parallel measurements of 222Rn enabled us to distinguish air masses with no, or little, recent land surface contact (free troposphere, 222Rn≤0.50Bqm−3) from air masses influenced by recent contact with land surface (222Rn>0.50Bqm−3). In free tropospheric air, concentration of total bacteria was on average 3.4×104cellsm−3 (SD=0.8×104cellsm−3). When wind conditions preceding sampling were calm, or when the station was in clouds during sampling, there was no detectable difference in bacterial number concentrations between free tropospheric air and air influenced by recent land surface contact. One campaign was preceded by a storm. Here, recent land surface contact had enriched the air in bacterial cells (up to 7.5×104cellsm−3). Very few of these bacteria may act as ice nucleators in clouds. The median ratio of ice nucleators to the number of bacterial cells in our study was 1.0×10−5. We conclude that injection of bacterial cells into the free troposphere is an intermittent process. Conditions controlling the release of bacteria into near surface air are probably more of a limiting factor than vertical transport and mixing of near surface air into the free tropospher

Tests of a Novel Design of Resistive Plate Chambers

A novel design of Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs), using only a single resistive plate, is being proposed. Based on this design, two large size prototype chambers were constructed and were tested with cosmic rays and in particle beams. The tests confirmed the viability of this new approach. In addition to showing an improved single-particle response compared to the traditional 2-plate design, the novel chambers also prove to be suitable for calorimetric applications