15,761 research outputs found
Rotations, Risk and Reward: Farming system choice on the Eyre Peninsula of South Australia
A farming systems and rotations trial was conducted at Minnipa on the Eyre Peninsula of South Australia between 1995 and 2001. The results have been presented to local farmers as simple gross margin comparisons (with a relatively low value for the pasture phase if present) in extension publications. The results are reassessed in terms of increased livestock return, and allowing for permanent/family labour and machinery overheads. The relative risk vs return is also considered to explain the acceptance of the research by local farmers.Farm Management, Land Economics/Use,
Helices at Interfaces
Helically coiled filaments are a frequent motif in nature. In situations
commonly encountered in experiments coiled helices are squeezed flat onto two
dimensional surfaces. Under such 2-D confinement helices form "squeelices" -
peculiar squeezed conformations often resembling looped waves, spirals or
circles. Using theory and Monte-Carlo simulations we illuminate here the
mechanics and the unusual statistical mechanics of confined helices and show
that their fluctuations can be understood in terms of moving and interacting
discrete particle-like entities - the "twist-kinks". We show that confined
filaments can thermally switch between discrete topological twist quantized
states, with some of the states exhibiting dramatically enhanced
circularization probability while others displaying surprising
hyperflexibility
QED corrections to isospin-related decay rates of charged and neutral B mesons
We estimate the isospin-violating QED radiative corrections to the
charged-to-neutral ratios of the decay rates for B^+ and B^0 in non-leptonic B
meson decays. In particular, these corrections are potentially important for
precision measurement of the charged-to-neutral production ratio of B meson in
e^+e^- annihilation. We calculate explicitly the QED corrections to the ratios
of two different types of decay rates \Gamma(B^+ \to J/\psi K^+)/\Gamma(B^0 \to
J/\psi K^0) and \Gamma(B^+ \to D^+_S \bar{D^0})/\Gamma(B^0 \to D^+_S D^-)
taking into account the form factors of the mesons based on the vector meson
dominance model, and compare them with the results obtained for the point-like
mesons.Comment: 7 pages, 9 eps figure
Ab initio insights into the interaction mechanisms between H, HO, and O molecules with diamond surfaces
Diamond displays outstanding chemical, physical, and tribological properties,
making it attractive for numerous applications ranging from biomedicine to
tribology. However, the reaction of the materials with molecules present in the
air, such as oxygen, hydrogen, and water, could significantly change the
electronic and tribological properties of the films. In this study, we
performed several density functional theory calculations to construct a
database for the adsorption energies and dissociation barriers of these
molecules on the most relevant diamond surfaces, including C(111), C(001), and
C(110). The adsorption configurations, reaction paths, activation energies, and
their influence on the structure of diamond surfaces are discussed. The results
indicate that there is a strong correlation between adsorption energy and
surface energy. Moreover, we found that the dissociation processes of oxygen
molecules on these diamond surfaces can significantly alter the surface
morphology and may affect the tribological properties of diamond films. These
findings can help to advance the development and optimization of devices and
antiwear coatings based on diamond
An effective thermodynamic potential from the instanton with Polyakov-loop contributions
We derive an effective thermodynamic potential (Omega_eff) at finite
temperature (T>0) and zero quark-chemical potential (mu_R=0), using the
singular-gauge instanton solution and Matsubara formula for N_c=3 and N_f=2 in
the chiral limit. The momentum-dependent constituent-quark mass is also
obtained as a function of T, employing the Harrington-Shepard caloron solution
in the large-N_c limit. In addition, we take into account the imaginary quark
chemical potential mu_I = A_4, translated as the traced Polayakov-loop (Phi) as
an order parameter for the Z(N_c) symmsetry, characterizing the confinement
(intact) and deconfinement (spontaneously broken) phases. As a result, we
observe the crossover of the chiral (chi) order parameter sigma^2 and Phi. It
also turns out that the critical temperature for the deconfinment phase
transition, T^Z_c is lowered by about (5-10)% in comparison to the case with a
constant constituent-quark mass. This behavior can be understood by
considerable effects from the partial chiral restoration and nontrivial QCD
vacuum on Phi. Numerical calculations show that the crossover transitions occur
at (T^chi_c,T^Z_c) ~ (216,227) MeV.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figure
Inverse velocity statistics in two dimensional turbulence
We present a numerical study of two-dimensional turbulent flows in the
enstrophy cascade regime, with different large-scale forcings and energy sinks.
In particular, we study the statistics of more-than-differentiable velocity
fluctuations by means of two recently introduced sets of statistical
estimators, namely {\it inverse statistics} and {\it second order differences}.
We show that the 2D turbulent velocity field, , cannot be simply
characterized by its spectrum behavior, . There
exists a whole set of exponents associated to the non-trivial smooth
fluctuations of the velocity field at all scales. We also present a numerical
investigation of the temporal properties of measured in different
spatial locations.Comment: 9 pages, 12 figure
Kaluza-Klein towers for real vector fields in flat space
We consider a free real vector field propagating in a five dimensional flat
space with its fifth dimension compactified either on a strip or on a circle
and perform a Kalaza Klein reduction which breaks SO(4,1) invariance while
reserving SO(3,1) invariance. Taking into account the Lorenz gauge condition,
we obtain from the most general hermiticity conditions for the relevant
operators all the allowed boundary conditions which have to be imposed on the
fields in the extra-dimension. The physical Kaluza-Klein mass towers, which
result in a four-dimensional brane, are determined in the different distinct
allowed cases. They depend on the bulk mass, on the parameters of the boundary
conditions and on the extra parameter present in the Lagrangian. In general,
they involve vector states together with accompanying scalar states.Comment: 28 pages, 4 independent table
Risk Management Strategies by Australian Farmers
Australian farmers operate in one of the most risky environment in the world. They have to cope with various sources of risk in their businesses. This paper reports results of two case studies undertaken to examine the issues of farming risks and risk management strategies in Australia. The first case study found that climate variability, financial risk, marketing risk, and personal risk were regarded as the major sources of farming risk in the Upper Eyre Peninsula of South Australia. The main management strategies used by farmers included diversifying varieties, minimising tillage, minimising area of risky crops and maximising area of the least-risky crop, having high equity, having farm management deposits and other off-farm investments, and "leaving marketing to experts". The second case study revealed that climate variability was ranked as the most important source of farming risk in southwest Queensland. This was then followed by financial risks, government policy, and marketing risks. The main management strategies used were enterprise diversification (having predominantly cattle and farming cash crops), conserving moisture, using zero till planting, diversified sales (selling only part of the farm's production at any one time), and having off-farm investments. The paper then attempts to reconcile the two case studies by comparing the results with studies from the United States of America, Canada, Netherlands, and New Zealand.risk, risk management, strategies, farmers, Australia, Farm Management, Risk and Uncertainty,
- …