35,192 research outputs found
Five-year financial analysis of two commercial farms converting to organic: 2000-2005
The financial performance including input and output costs were analysed for two commercial Scottish farms converting to organic production. A comparative analysis for a five year period is provided using data from the Scottish Farm Accounts scheme, and demonstrates that both conversions had positive financial outcomes. Both farms applied strategic changes to their businesses
The use of computer-generated color graphic images for transient thermal analysis
Color computer graphics techniques were investigated as a means of rapidly scanning and interpreting large sets of transient heating data. The data presented were generated to support the conceptual design of a heat-sink thermal protection system (TPS) for a hypersonic research airplane. Color-coded vector and raster displays of the numerical geometry used in the heating calculations were employed to analyze skin thicknesses and surface temperatures of the heat-sink TPS under a variety of trajectory flight profiles. Both vector and raster displays proved to be effective means for rapidly identifying heat-sink mass concentrations, regions of high heating, and potentially adverse thermal gradients. The color-coded (raster) surface displays are a very efficient means for displaying surface-temperature and heating histories, and thereby the more stringent design requirements can quickly be identified. The related hardware and software developments required to implement both the vector and the raster displays for this application are also discussed
Dynamical aspects of inextensible chains
In the present work the dynamics of a continuous inextensible chain is
studied. The chain is regarded as a system of small particles subjected to
constraints on their reciprocal distances. It is proposed a treatment of
systems of this kind based on a set Langevin equations in which the noise is
characterized by a non-gaussian probability distribution. The method is
explained in the case of a freely hinged chain. In particular, the generating
functional of the correlation functions of the relevant degrees of freedom
which describe the conformations of this chain is derived. It is shown that in
the continuous limit this generating functional coincides with a model of an
inextensible chain previously discussed by one of the authors of this work.
Next, the approach developed here is applied to a inextensible chain, called
the freely jointed bar chain, in which the basic units are small extended
objects. The generating functional of the freely jointed bar chain is
constructed. It is shown that it differs profoundly from that of the freely
hinged chain. Despite the differences, it is verified that in the continuous
limit both generating functionals coincide as it is expected.Comment: 15 pages, LaTeX 2e + various packages, 3 figures. The title has been
changed and three references have been added. A large part of the manuscript
has been rewritten to improve readability. Chapter 4 has been added. It
contains the construction of the generating functional without the
shish-kebab approximation and a new derivation of the continuous limit of the
freely jointed bar chai
Resistive flow in a weakly interacting Bose-Einstein condensate
We report the direct observation of resistive flow through a weak link in a
weakly interacting atomic Bose-Einstein condensate. Two weak links separate our
ring-shaped superfluid atomtronic circuit into two distinct regions, a source
and a drain. Motion of these weak links allows for creation of controlled flow
between the source and the drain. At a critical value of the weak link
velocity, we observe a transition from superfluid flow to superfluid plus
resistive flow. Working in the hydrodynamic limit, we observe a conductivity
that is 4 orders of magnitude larger than previously reported conductivities
for a Bose-Einstein condensate with a tunnel junction. Good agreement with
zero-temperature Gross-Pitaevskii simulations and a phenomenological model
based on phase slips indicate that the creation of excitations plays an
important role in the resulting conductivity. Our measurements of resistive
flow elucidate the microscopic origin of the dissipation and pave the way for
more complex atomtronic devices.Comment: Version published in PR
Scaling function for the noisy Burgers equation in the soliton approximation
We derive the scaling function for the one dimensional noisy Burgers equation
in the two-soliton approximation within the weak noise canonical phase space
approach. The result is in agreement with an earlier heuristic expression and
exhibits the correct scaling properties. The calculation presents the first
step in a many body treatment of the correlations in the Burgers equation.Comment: Replacement: Several corrections, 4 pages, Revtex file, 3 figures. To
appear in Europhysics Letter
The nature of the long time decay at a second order transition point
We show that at a second order phase transition, of \phi^4 like system, a
necessary condition for streched exponential decay of the time structure factor
is obeyed. Using the ideas presented in this proof a crude estimate of the
decay of the structure factor is obtained and shown to yield stretched
exponential decay under very reasonable conditions.Comment: 7 page
Elastic Energy, Fluctuations and Temperature for Granular Materials
We probe, using a model system, elastic and kinetic energies for sheared
granular materials. For large enough (pressure/Young's modulus) and
(kinetic energy density) elastic dominates kinetic energy, and
energy fluctuations become primarily elastic in nature. This regime has likely
been reached in recent experiments. We consider a generalization of the
granular temperature, , with both kinetic and elastic terms and that
changes smoothly from one regime to the other. This is roughly consistent
with a temperature adapted from equilibrium statistical mechanics.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Force correlations and arches formation in granular assemblies
In the context of a simple microscopic schematic scalar model we study the
effects of spatial correlations in force transmission in granular assemblies.
We show that the parameters of the normalized weights distribution function,
, strongly depend on the spatial extensions,
, of such correlations. We show, then, the connections between
measurable macroscopic quantities and microscopic mechanisms enhancing
correlations. In particular we evaluate how the exponential cut-off,
, and the small forces power law exponent, , depend
on the correlation length, . If correlations go to infinity, weights are
power law distributed.Comment: 6 page
Are Topological Charge Fluctuations in QCD Instanton Dominated?
We consider a recent proposal by Horv\'ath {\em et al.} to address the
question whether topological charge fluctuations in QCD are instanton dominated
via the response of fermions using lattice fermions with exact chiral symmetry,
the overlap fermions. Considering several volumes and lattice spacings we find
strong evidence for chirality of a finite density of low-lying eigenvectors of
the overlap-Dirac operator in the regions where these modes are peaked. This
result suggests instanton dominance of topological charge fluctuations in
quenched QCD.Comment: LaTeX, 15 pages, 8 postscript figures, minor improvements, version to
appear in PR
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