Sub-tropical exotic pine taxa, growth, form and wood properties comparisons across multiple sites in coastal Queensland in: thinning and clearfall age trials; in family and clonal hybrid pine trials and in a genetics x fertiliser x weed control trial.

This project supports improved management and deployment of sub-tropical pines for solid wood products. It had three major objectives, in respect of both growth rate and standing tree wood properties: 1) to compare major and potential pine species and hybrids for south-east Queensland; 2) to investigate selection strategies for identifying improved families and clones, and make selections; and, 3) to evaluate both the separate and combined effects of fertiliser application, weed control and genetic improvement in a young hybrid pine trial

Electromagnetic nucleon-delta transition in the perturbative chiral quark model

We apply the perturbative chiral quark model to the gamma N -> Delta transition. The four momentum dependence of the respective transverse helicity amplitudes A(1/2) and A(3/2) is determined at one loop in the pseudoscalar Goldstone boson fluctuations. Inclusion of excited states in the quark propagator is shown to result in a reasonable description of the experimental values for the helicity amplitudes at the real photon point.Comment: 25 page

The effect of initial spacing and thinning on wood quality and graded sawn recovery of mature Caribbean pine grown in Queensland.

A mature Caribbean pine (Pinus caribaea var. hondurensis) silviculture experiment provided initial square spacing treatments of 1.8 m2, 2.4 m2, 3.0 m2 and 3.6 m2 (equal to 3088, 1737, 1111 and 772 stems/ha) that were thinned at age 10 years to 600, 400 and 200 stems/ha, retaining an unthinned control for each initial spacing. The trial was destructively sampled at age of 28 years and discs taken along 8 various stem heights were analysed for variation in basic density and SilviScan wood properties. In addition, the logs from ten stocking × thinning treatments were processed in a sawing study. Results indicate thinning effects were generally more pronounced than initial spacing effects. Fast growing trees produced wood with significantly higher average wood densities and higher average stiffness values. Detailed SilviScan densitometry results obtained radially and at various stem heights enabled construction of tree maps for wood properties, providing insights into the variation in juvenile to mature wood proportion across the initial and post-thinning stocking treatments studied. Dried dressed recovery was strongly related to tree size, and log value decreased consistently from butt to top logs across all treatments. The estimated value per hectare was highest in unthinned plots due to values being multiplied by high stem numbers per hectare. However, a complete economic analysis considering all cost structures is required to investigate the optimal silviculture to maximise economic returns to growers and processors. Improved understanding of the relationship between initial spacing, post-thinning stocking and wood and end-product quality should help to customize future forest management strategies required to produce better quality wood and wood products