Evaluating business models for e-books through usage data analysis: a case study from the University of Westminster

As part of a review of e-book suppliers, usage data were analysed to determine which of the business models on offer gave best value for money. Two analyses were carried out. The first compared a range of subscription options from a single supplier, and the second compared business models from two different suppliers

A Short Non-Saline Sprinkling Increases the Tuber Weights of Saline Sprinkler Irrigated Potatoes

© 2017 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Previous work has shown that a short non-saline sprinkling, following saline sprinkling, increased crop growth. We incorporated this finding into an investigation of two approaches to the conjunctive use of saline and non-saline water sources for sprinkler irrigation of potatoes viz., (i) mixing waters prior to application, and (ii) keeping waters temporally separate, that is commencing each irrigation with saline water and finishing it with non-saline sprinkling. The latter approach delayed canopy senescence and increased tuber weight by at least 150%. Under both approaches, soil salinities and leaf and tuber concentrations of Na+ and Cl− were similar. Thus, the advantages of a non-saline sprinkling cannot be explained in terms of its effect on either soil osmotic potential or bulk tissue concentrations of putatively toxic ions Na+ and Cl−. We propose that the positive effect of finishing irrigations with a non-saline sprinkling may be attributed to either dilution, and hence increase in osmotic potential, of the water film that remains on the leaf after each irrigation or its effect on the distribution of the putatively toxic ions Na+ and Cl− within tissue. View Full-Tex

Impact of Alfalfa in Lincoln County

Lincoln County is located 45 miles south of Lexington, Kentucky. It is part of 3 geographical regions of the state-the outer Bluegrass, the Knobs, and the Eastern Pennyroyal area. Thus the land ranges from moderate sloping fields that can be row cropped to fields that are nearly too steep to mow. The majority of the land is best suited for hay and pasture production. The soil fertility is moderately high with limestone, sandstone, shale and siltstone parent material. The land is very well suited to growing very productive forage crops

Grazing Alfalfa in Lincoln County

Alfalfa grazing is becoming an important practice for our county\u27s large livestock enterprise. Both dairy and beef producers use alfalfa grazing in various parts of their feeding operations. Lincoln County farmers have a reputation for being good forage producers and have over the years produced good yields and good quality alfalfa. Most producers realize that good forage leads to better profits for their livestock enterprises. That\u27s very important to us as the livestock business generates over $21 million in cash receipts annually

Interrogation of modern and ancient genomes reveals the complex domestic history of cattle

The analysis of mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequence polymorphisms from modern cattle populations has had a profound impact on our understanding of the events surrounding the domestication of cattle. From these studies, it has been possible to distinguish between pre- and post-domestic genetic differentiation, supporting previous assertions from archaeological studies and, in some cases, revealing novel aspects of the demographic history of cattle. Analyses of genetic material retrieved from the remains of extinct ancestral wild cattle have also added valuable layers of information pertaining to cattle domestic origins; however, information from these investigations have, in general, been limited to small, variable portions of the mitochondrial genome owing to technical challenges associated with the retrieval and amplification of ancient DNA. In recent years, however, new high-throughput, massively parallel genomics technology platforms, such as single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping arrays and next-generation sequencing (NGS), have provided a new impetus to the studies of genetic variation in extant and ancient cattle. Arrays of SNP have facilitated high-resolution genetic surveys of global cattle populations and detection of ancient and recent genomic selective sweeps. Next-generation sequencing analyses of modern and ancient cattle hold great promise for identifying and cataloging of pre- and post-domestication patterns of genomic variation and correlating this with natural and artificial selection processes

Carbon stable isotope analysis of cereal remains as a way to reconstruct water availability: preliminary results

Reconstructing past water availability, both as rainfall and irrigation, is important to answer questions about the way society reacts to climate and its changes and the role of irrigation in the development of social complexity. Carbon stable isotope analysis of archaeobotanical remains is a potentially valuable method for reconstructing water availability. To further define the relationship between water availability and plant carbon isotope composition and to set up baseline values for the Southern Levant, grains of experimentally grown barley and sorghum were studied. The cereal crops were grown at three stations under five different irrigation regimes in Jordan. Results indicate that a positive but weak relationship exists between irrigation regime and total water input of barley grains, but no relationship was found for sorghum. The relationship for barley is site-specific and inter-annual variation was present at Deir ‘Alla, but not at Ramtha and Khirbet as-Samra

Human Dental Microwear From Ohalo II (22,500–23,500 cal BP), Southern Levant

Dietary hardness and abrasiveness are inferred from human dental microwear at Ohalo II, a late Upper Palaeolithic site (22,500–23,500 cal BP) in the southern Levant. Casts of molar grinding facets from two human skeletons were examined with a scanning electron microscope. The size and frequency of microwear was measured, counted, and compared to four prehistoric human groups from successive chronological periods in the same region: pre-pottery Neolithic A, Chalcolithic (this study); Natufian, pre-pottery Neolithic B (Mahoney: Am J Phys Anthropol 130 (2006) 308–319). The Ohalo molars had a high frequency of long narrow scratches, and a few small pits, suggesting a tough abrasive diet that required more shearing rather than compressive force while chewing. These results imply that the diet of the two late Upper Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers did not focus on very hard foods. Aquatic foods with adherent contaminants, as well as grit from plant grinding tools seemed likely causal agents. The size of the pits and scratches on the Ohalo molars were most similar to microwear from the pre-pot- tery Neolithic A period, though they also compared well to the Chalcolithic period. These results contrasted with the larger pits and scratches from the Natufian hunter-gath- erers and pre-pottery Neolithic B farmers, implying that there is no simple increase or decrease in dietary hard- ness and abrasiveness across the late Upper Palaeolithic to Chalcolithic development in the Southern Levant

Dialect contact and distinctiveness: The social meaning of language variation in an island community

In this paper, we analyse linguistic variables which are well-established in British English, the vowels in the trap and bath lexical sets. We demonstrate that the social meanings of these variables are both historically substantiated and locally-elaborated. Our data is taken from the speech of individuals living on the Isles of Scilly, a group of islands off the south-west coast of England. Our initial analysis shows that trap and bath variants found on the islands are linked to contact with Standard English English, on the one hand, and the nearest neighbouring variety of Cornish English, on the other. The general distribution of variants is shown to reflect educational differences amongst our speakers. However, two case studies show speakers using forms atypical of their education type in order to position themselves in interactionally-dynamic ways. This reveals how speakers exploit the multidimensional meanings of linguistic variants to reflect and construct local practices and alignments