1,556 research outputs found
Knowledge development for organic systems: An example of weed management
Despite the large amount information on weed biology and specific weed control measures produced by researchers, organic farmers still prioritise weeds as an important area for further research. A recent project investigating weed management in organic farming systems has established that knowledge and learning are key requirements for this to be effective. Development of relevant, practically useful knowledge depends on access to information generated âscientificallyâ by researchers and also to knowledge generated as a result of farmer experience with weeds. This requires that farmers, advisors and researchers take a participatory approach to collecting and processing information on weed management, using it to develop new and relevant knowledge. The appropriate framework for knowledge development is thus a collegiate one in which all stakeholdersâ value and learn from the observations and experience of others. These findings have implications for the way in which research is conducted and funded
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Composite drill stem of epoxy fiber glass reinforced with boron filaments and a retrievable core liner/sample return container for the Apollo lunar surface drill
Composite drill stem of epoxy fiber glass and boron filaments and lunar core sampling system for Apollo lunar surface dril
Consistency of pacing and metabolic responses during 2000-m rowing ergometry
PURPOSE: This study investigated the pacing strategy adopted and the consistency of performance and related physiological parameters across three 2000-m rowing-ergometer tests.
METHODS: Fourteen male well-trained rowers took part in the study. Each participant performed three 2000-m rowing-ergometer tests interspersed by 3-7 d. Throughout the trials, respiratory exchange and heart rate were recorded and power output and stroke rate were analyzed over each 500 m of the test. At the completion of the trial, assessments of blood lactate and rating of perceived exertion were measured.
RESULTS: Ergometer performance was unchanged across the 3 trials; however, pacing strategy changed from trial 1, which featured a higher starting power output and more progressive decrease in power, to trials 2 and 3, which were characterized by a more conservative start and an end spurt with increased power output during the final 500 m. Mean typical error (TE; %) across the three 2000-m trials was 2.4%, and variability was low to moderate for all assessed physiological variables (TE range = 1.4-5.1%) with the exception of peak lactate (TE = 11.5%).
CONCLUSIONS: Performance and physiological responses during 2000-m rowing ergometry were found to be consistent over 3 trials. The variations observed in pacing strategy between trial 1 and trials 2 and 3 suggest that a habituation trial is required before an intervention study and that participants move from a positive to a reverse-J-shaped strategy, which may partly explain conflicting reports in the pacing strategy exhibited during 2000-m rowing-ergometer trials
Lagrangian analysis of alignment dynamics for isentropic compressible magnetohydrodynamics
After a review of the isentropic compressible magnetohydrodynamics (ICMHD)
equations, a quaternionic framework for studying the alignment dynamics of a
general fluid flow is explained and applied to the ICMHD equations.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures, submitted to a Focus Issue of New Journal of
Physics on "Magnetohydrodynamics and the Dynamo Problem" J-F Pinton, A
Pouquet, E Dormy and S Cowley, editor
Depletion of Nonlinearity in Magnetohydrodynamic Turbulence: Insights from Analysis and Simulations
We build on recent developments in the study of fluid turbulence [Gibbon
\textit{et al.} Nonlinearity 27, 2605 (2014)] to define suitably scaled,
order- moments, , of , where
and are, respectively, the vorticity and current density in
three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamics (MHD). We show by mathematical analysis,
for unit magnetic Prandtl number , how these moments can be used to
identify three possible regimes for solutions of the MHD equations; these
regimes are specified by inequalities for and . We then
compare our mathematical results with those from our direct numerical
simulations (DNSs) and thus demonstrate that 3D MHD turbulence is like its
fluid-turbulence counterpart insofar as all solutions, which we have
investigated, remain in \textit{only one of these regimes}; this regime has
depleted nonlinearity. We examine the implications of our results for the
exponents that characterize the power-law dependences of the energy
spectra on the wave number , in the inertial range of
scales. We also comment on (a) the generalization of our results to the case
and (b) the relation between and the order- moments
of gradients of hydrodynamic fields, which are used in characterizing
intermittency in turbulent flows.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figure
Estimates for the two-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations in terms of the Reynolds number
The tradition in Navier-Stokes analysis of finding estimates in terms of the
Grashof number \bG, whose character depends on the ratio of the forcing to
the viscosity , means that it is difficult to make comparisons with other
results expressed in terms of Reynolds number \Rey, whose character depends
on the fluid response to the forcing. The first task of this paper is to apply
the approach of Doering and Foias \cite{DF} to the two-dimensional
Navier-Stokes equations on a periodic domain by estimating
quantities of physical relevance, particularly long-time averages
\left, in terms of the Reynolds number \Rey = U\ell/\nu, where
U^{2}= L^{-2}\left and is the forcing scale. In
particular, the Constantin-Foias-Temam upper bound \cite{CFT} on the attractor
dimension converts to a_{\ell}^{2}\Rey(1 + \ln\Rey)^{1/3}, while the estimate
for the inverse Kraichnan length is (a_{\ell}^{2}\Rey)^{1/2}, where
is the aspect ratio of the forcing. Other inverse length scales,
based on time averages, and associated with higher derivatives, are estimated
in a similar manner. The second task is to address the issue of intermittency :
it is shown how the time axis is broken up into very short intervals on which
various quantities have lower bounds, larger than long time-averages, which are
themselves interspersed by longer, more quiescent, intervals of time.Comment: 21 pages, 1 figure, accepted for publication from J. Math. Phys. for
the special issue on mathematical fluid mechanic
A macroscopic multifractal analysis of parabolic stochastic PDEs
It is generally argued that the solution to a stochastic PDE with
multiplicative noise---such as , where denotes
space-time white noise---routinely produces exceptionally-large peaks that are
"macroscopically multifractal." See, for example, Gibbon and Doering (2005),
Gibbon and Titi (2005), and Zimmermann et al (2000). A few years ago, we proved
that the spatial peaks of the solution to the mentioned stochastic PDE indeed
form a random multifractal in the macroscopic sense of Barlow and Taylor (1989;
1992). The main result of the present paper is a proof of a rigorous
formulation of the assertion that the spatio-temporal peaks of the solution
form infinitely-many different multifractals on infinitely-many different
scales, which we sometimes refer to as "stretch factors." A simpler, though
still complex, such structure is shown to also exist for the
constant-coefficient version of the said stochastic PDE.Comment: 41 page
The southern African poultry value chain : corporate strategies, investments and agro-industrial policies
Abstract: Following various regional investments in the last decade, production and participation in the poultry value chain in southern Africa has increased. One of the factors that determines entry into, and success in, a global value chain is the governance structure. This paper adopts a modular approach to analyse the governance structures in the poultry value chains in Botswana, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. A key finding is that various stakeholders have an influence on the regional poultry value chain in southern Africa, with the sources of influence depending on the formality of structures within the value chain
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