10,319 research outputs found
Crassulacean acid metabolism in the Gesneriaceae
The occurrence of the Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) was studied in four epiphytic species of the Gesneriaceae: two neotropical species, Codonanthe crassifolia and Columnea linearis, and two paleotropical species, Aoschynanthus pulcher and Saintpaulia ionantha. Gas exchange parameters, enzymology, and leaf anatomy, including mesophyll succulence and rel ative percent of the mesophyll volume occupied by airspace, were studied for each species. Codonanthe crassifolia was the only species to show nocturnal CO2 uptake and a diurnal organic acid fluctuation. According to these results, Codonanthe crassifolia shows CAM-cycling under well-watered conditions and when subjected to drought, it switches to CAM-idling. Other characteristics, such as leaf anatomy, mesophyll succulence, and PEP carboxylase and NADP malic enzyme activity, indicate attributes of the CAM pathway. All other species tested showed C3 photosynthesis. The most C3-like species is Columnea linearis, according to the criteria tested in this investigation. The other two species show mesophyll succulence and relative percent of the leaf volume occupied by airspace within the CAM range, but no other characters of the CAM pathway. The leaf structure of certain genera of the Gesneriaceae and of the genus Peperomia in the Piperaceae are similar, both having an upper succulent, multiple epidermis, a medium palisade of one or a few cell layers, and a lower, succulent spongy parenchyma not too unlike CAM photosynthetic tissue. We report ecophysiological similarities between these two distantly related families. Thus, the occurrence of CAM-cycling may be more common among epiphytic species than is currently known
Annual Report Readership: A Study of an Agricultural Supply Cooperative
Recent corporate collapses have focussed attention on the (un)reliability of financial information. However, although the agricultural sector, which is significant globally, is run primarily using the cooperative form, there is scant research on these users' perception of financial information. Therefore this paper examines members' readership and understanding of the annual reports of a large, fertiliser cooperative. The findings show that there is a lack of readership of the annual report, due to a lack of understanding and a lack of time. A minority of non-readers trust directors to "do a good job". Preparers of information should focus on making reports more user-friendly and evidence suggests that financial information could be released more strategically using other sources of communication, namely other print media and the internet.cooperatives, annual reports, readership, understanding, Agribusiness,
Quantum Reciprocity Conjecture for the Non-Equilibrium Steady State
By considering the lack of history dependence in the non-equilibrium steady
state of a quantum system we are led to conjecture that in such a system, there
is a set of quantum mechanical observables whose retarded response functions
are insensitive to the arrow of time, and which consequently satisfy a quantum
analog of the Onsager reciprocity relations. Systems which satisfy this
conjecture can be described by an effective Free energy functional. We
demonstrate that the conjecture holds in a resonant level model of a multi-lead
quantum dot.Comment: References revised to take account of related work on Onsager
reciprocity in mesoscopics by Christen, and in hydrodynamics by Mclennan,
Dufty and Rub
The Role of Subsurface Flows in Solar Surface Convection: Modeling the Spectrum of Supergranular and Larger Scale Flows
We model the solar horizontal velocity power spectrum at scales larger than
granulation using a two-component approximation to the mass continuity
equation. The model takes four times the density scale height as the integral
(driving) scale of the vertical motions at each depth. Scales larger than this
decay with height from the deeper layers. Those smaller are assumed to follow a
Kolomogorov turbulent cascade, with the total power in the vertical convective
motions matching that required to transport the solar luminosity in a mixing
length formulation. These model components are validated using large scale
radiative hydrodynamic simulations. We reach two primary conclusions: 1. The
model predicts significantly more power at low wavenumbers than is observed in
the solar photospheric horizontal velocity spectrum. 2. Ionization plays a
minor role in shaping the observed solar velocity spectrum by reducing
convective amplitudes in the regions of partial helium ionization. The excess
low wavenumber power is also seen in the fully nonlinear three-dimensional
radiative hydrodynamic simulations employing a realistic equation of state.
This adds to other recent evidence suggesting that the amplitudes of large
scale convective motions in the Sun are significantly lower than expected.
Employing the same feature tracking algorithm used with observational data on
the simulation output, we show that the observed low wavenumber power can be
reproduced in hydrodynamic models if the amplitudes of large scale modes in the
deep layers are artificially reduced. Since the large scale modes have reduced
amplitudes, modes on the scale of supergranulation and smaller remain important
to convective heat flux even in the deep layers, suggesting that small scale
convective correlations are maintained through the bulk of the solar convection
zone.Comment: 36 pages, 6 figure
Ion-induced nucleation in polar one-component fluids
We present a Ginzburg-Landau theory of ion-induced nucleation in a gas phase
of polar one-component fluids, where a liquid droplet grows with an ion at its
center. By calculating the density profile around an ion, we show that the
solvation free energy is larger in gas than in liquid at the same temperature
on the coexistence curve. This difference much reduces the nucleation barrier
in a metastable gas.Comment: 9 pagers, 9 figures, to be published in J. Chem. Phy
Effectiveness of the ADEC as a level 2 screening test for young children with suspected autism spectrum disorders in a clinical setting
Background The Autism Detection in Early Childhood (ADEC) is a clinician-administered, Level 2 screening tool. A retrospective file audit was used to investigate its clinical effectiveness.
Method Toddlers referred to an Australian child development service between 2008 and 2010 (N?=?53, M age?=?32.2 months) were screened with the ADEC. Their medical records were reviewed in 2013 when their mean age was 74.5 months, and the original ADEC screening results were compared with later diagnostic outcomes.
Results The ADEC had good sensitivity (87.5%) and moderate specificity (62%). Three behaviours predicted autism spectrum disorders (ASDs): response to name, gaze switching, and gaze monitoring (p???.001).
Conclusions The ADEC shows promise as a screening tool that can discriminate between young children with ASDs and those who have specific communication disorders or developmental delays that persist into middle childhood but who do not meet the criteria for ASDs
Letters between Geo. P. Lord and W. J. Kerr
Letters concerning recommendation for a teacher of Gregg Shorthand and Touch Typewriting at Utah Agricultural College
Suppression of Kelvon-induced decay of quantized vortices in oblate Bose-Einstein Condensates
We study the Kelvin mode excitations on a vortex line in a three-dimensional
trapped Bose-Einstein condensate at finite temperature. Our stochastic
Gross-Pitaevskii simulations show that the activation of these modes can be
suppressed by tightening the confinement along the direction of the vortex
line, leading to a strong suppression in the vortex decay rate as the system
enters a regime of two-dimensional vortex dynamics. As the system approaches
the condensation transition temperature we find that the vortex decay rate is
strongly sensitive to dimensionality and temperature, observing a large
enhancement for quasi-two-dimensional traps. Three-dimensional simulations of
the recent vortex dipole decay experiment of Neely et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett.
104, 160401 (2010)] confirm two-dimensional vortex dynamics, and predict a
dipole lifetime consistent with experimental observations and suppression of
Kelvon-induced vortex decay in highly oblate condensates.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figure
Stratified shear flow instabilities at large Richardson numbers
Numerical simulations of stratified shear flow instabilities are performed in
two dimensions in the Boussinesq limit. The density variation length scale is
chosen to be four times smaller than the velocity variation length scale so
that Holmboe or Kelvin-Helmholtz unstable modes are present depending on the
choice of the global Richardson number Ri. Three different values of Ri were
examined Ri =0.2, 2, 20. The flows for the three examined values are all
unstable due to different modes namely: the Kelvin-Helmholtz mode for Ri=0.2,
the first Holmboe mode for Ri=2, and the second Holmboe mode for Ri=20 that has
been discovered recently and it is the first time that it is examined in the
non-linear stage. It is found that the amplitude of the velocity perturbation
of the second Holmboe mode at the non-linear stage is smaller but comparable to
first Holmboe mode. The increase of the potential energy however due to the
second Holmboe modes is greater than that of the first mode. The
Kelvin-Helmholtz mode is larger by two orders of magnitude in kinetic energy
than the Holmboe modes and about ten times larger in potential energy than the
Holmboe modes. The results in this paper suggest that although mixing is
suppressed at large Richardson numbers it is not negligible, and turbulent
mixing processes in strongly stratified environments can not be excluded.Comment: Submitted to Physics of Fluid
Offside goals and induced breaches of contract
An analysis of Global Resources Group Ltd v Mackay which explores the possibility of building links between the offside goals rule and nominate delict of inducing breach of contract
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