Infrastructure and technology constraints to agricultural development in the humid and subhumid tropics of Africa:

Green Revolution technologies have not been widely adopted in Africa. What are the chances that they will play a major role in the near future? This paper shows that the enabling infrastructure, especially rural roads and irrigation systems are not likely to be in place in the humid and sub-humid tropics of Africa in the next 20-30 years. Consequently a typology of the more appropriate set of technology that is input and infrastructure efficient, has high returns to seasonal labor and is sustainable is presented. Research institutions should be geared up now to produce them for use in 10-20 years.Green Revolution Africa., Infrastructure (Economics), Rural development Africa., Technological innovations., Irrigation., Africa.,

The open range system of pig farming

THERE are several satisfactory systems which can be employed in planning a piggery, but under West Australian conditions, the paddock system has much to commend it. Grazing admits an animal to the healthy influences of sunlight and stimulates exercise. The digestive processes of the pig are also stimulated and this helps to bring about more efficient utilisation of the feed

Thirsty cows are poor milkers

THE HOT summer weather is not far away, and now is a good time for the whole milk producer to attend to those points which will ensure that milk production is maintained at a high level during this period

The feeding of pigs in the wheatbelt

ONE of the biggest costs in pig-meat production is feeding, and it is of vital importance for the farmer to understand what presents a balanced and economic ration, in order that he can take steps to achieve maximum efficiency

Power, Threat, Meaning Framework informed audit: the ubiquitous experience of trauma in adults with psychosis

In the context of the Power, Threat, Meaning Framework and trauma-informed care, this audit attempted to identify experiences of trauma and adversity for clients on the caseload of an NHS community psychosis team. Histories of trauma were found for every client. The number of trauma experiences ranged from 1–9, giving a mean of 2.7 per client. This confirms clients with psychosis as a highly traumatised group and supports the trauma model of psychosis

Baconer carcase competitions

TO further the implementation of its policy to foster the production of high quality bacon, the Australian Meat Board in 1960 again conducted for pig growers in Western Australia, its annual Baconer Carcase Competition

Computation of Forced Premixed Flames Dynamics

Bluff body stabilised turbulent premixed flames subject to inlet velocity oscillation over a wide range of forcing frequency and amplitude are simulated using a flamelet-based combustion model. Two sets of detailed chemical kinetic schemes are used to model combustion chemistry. It is observed that the computed dynamics of forced flames agree reasonably well with experimental measurements. The flame elongation and shortening at a frequency of 40 Hz and strong flame-vortex interaction at a higher frequency of 160 Hz are captured well in the computations. The global flame describing function extracted from the computational results shows a linear response at 40 Hz and a nonlinear behaviour at 160 Hz as observed in the experiments. The nonlinear response is due to vortex roll-up and its subsequent shedding. The quantitative agreement of the computed flame describing function (FDF) with experimental measurement is uniformly good over a wide range of forcing frequency and amplitude. Some influence of chemical kinetics on the FDFs is observed, which mainly stems from the difference in laminar burning velocity and spatial heat release rate distribution.The support of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Takasago, Japan is acknowledged gratefully.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Taylor & Francis via http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00102202.2016.117411

Evaporation-driven convective flows in suspensions of non-motile bacteria

We report a novel form of convection in suspensions of the bioluminescent marine bacterium Photobacterium phosphoreum. Suspensions of these bacteria placed in a chamber open to the air create persistent luminescent plumes most easily visible when observed in the dark. These flows are strikingly similar to the classical bioconvection pattern of aerotactic swimming bacteria, which create an unstable stratification by swimming upwards to an air-water interface, but they are a puzzle since the strain of P. phosphoreum used does not express flagella and therefore cannot swim. When microspheres were used instead of bacteria, similar flow patterns were observed, suggesting that the convective motion was not driven by bacteria but instead by the accumulation of salt at the air-water interface due to evaporation of the culture medium. Even at room temperature and humidity, and physiologically relevant salt concentrations, the water evaporation was found to be sufficient to drive convection patterns. To prove this hypothesis, experiments were complemented with a mathematical model that aimed to understand the mechanism of plume formation and the role of salt in triggering the instability. The simplified system of evaporating salty water was first studied using linear stability analysis, and then with finite element simulations. A comparison between these three approaches is presented. While evaporation-driven convection has not been discussed extensively in the context of biological systems, these results suggest that the phenomenon may be broadly relevant, particularly in those systems involving microorganisms of limited motility