151 research outputs found

    Farmer Perception of Technology and its Impact on Technology Uptake: The Case of Fodder Legume in Central Kenya Highlands.

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    Technology adoption by farmers is crucial to increasing agricultural productivity hence meeting food and nutrition challenges in Africa. Economists investigating consumer demand have accumulated considerable evidence showing that consumers generally have subjective preferences for product attributes. However, when investigating adoption of new agricultural technologies, economists have lagged behind in analysing how farmers' (the consumer of agricultural technologies) subjective perceptions of technology characteristics affect their adoption decisions. Focusing on farmer perceptions of technologies may provide a better understanding of technology adoption since they deal with the technologies and probably perceive technologies differently from researchers and extension agents. The objective of this paper is to investigate farmers' perception of technology and its impact on adoption using a case study of legume forages in central Kenya highlands. Data from a random sample of 131 farm households in four districts in central Kenya was used. Using participatory techniques, four most important fodder legume attributes to farmers in their adoption decision were identified. These were then used in conjoint analysis. An ordered probit model was estimated to assess relative importance of each attribute to the farmer. A tobit model was also estimated to show the effect of farmers' perception of calliandra and desmodium on probability and intensity of adoption. Results showed that dry season tolerance and economy on land are most important characteristics of fodder legumes to the farmers. It was also found that Calliandra and desmodium were more relevant to the farmers in the area than other fodders. Farmers' perception of the two fodders had a significant impact on their adoption. Consequently, it was recommended that before introducing a technology in an area, it is necessary that the farmers' perception of the technology be analysed Conjoint analysis, ordered probit and tobit estimates, fodder legume adoption.Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

    Velocity-space sensitivity of the time-of-flight neutron spectrometer at JET

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    The velocity-space sensitivities of fast-ion diagnostics are often described by so-called weight functions. Recently, we formulated weight functions showing the velocity-space sensitivity of the often dominant beam-target part of neutron energy spectra. These weight functions for neutron emission spectrometry (NES) are independent of the particular NES diagnostic. Here we apply these NES weight functions to the time-of-flight spectrometer TOFOR at JET. By taking the instrumental response function of TOFOR into account, we calculate time-of-flight NES weight functions that enable us to directly determine the velocity-space sensitivity of a given part of a measured time-of-flight spectrum from TOFOR

    On the mechanisms governing gas penetration into a tokamak plasma during a massive gas injection

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    A new 1D radial fluid code, IMAGINE, is used to simulate the penetration of gas into a tokamak plasma during a massive gas injection (MGI). The main result is that the gas is in general strongly braked as it reaches the plasma, due to mechanisms related to charge exchange and (to a smaller extent) recombination. As a result, only a fraction of the gas penetrates into the plasma. Also, a shock wave is created in the gas which propagates away from the plasma, braking and compressing the incoming gas. Simulation results are quantitatively consistent, at least in terms of orders of magnitude, with experimental data for a D 2 MGI into a JET Ohmic plasma. Simulations of MGI into the background plasma surrounding a runaway electron beam show that if the background electron density is too high, the gas may not penetrate, suggesting a possible explanation for the recent results of Reux et al in JET (2015 Nucl. Fusion 55 093013)

    Measurement of the View the tt production cross-section using eÎŒ events with b-tagged jets in pp collisions at √s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

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    This paper describes a measurement of the inclusive top quark pair production cross-section (σttÂŻ) with a data sample of 3.2 fb−1 of proton–proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of √s = 13 TeV, collected in 2015 by the ATLAS detector at the LHC. This measurement uses events with an opposite-charge electron–muon pair in the final state. Jets containing b-quarks are tagged using an algorithm based on track impact parameters and reconstructed secondary vertices. The numbers of events with exactly one and exactly two b-tagged jets are counted and used to determine simultaneously σttÂŻ and the efficiency to reconstruct and b-tag a jet from a top quark decay, thereby minimising the associated systematic uncertainties. The cross-section is measured to be: σttÂŻ = 818 ± 8 (stat) ± 27 (syst) ± 19 (lumi) ± 12 (beam) pb, where the four uncertainties arise from data statistics, experimental and theoretical systematic effects, the integrated luminosity and the LHC beam energy, giving a total relative uncertainty of 4.4%. The result is consistent with theoretical QCD calculations at next-to-next-to-leading order. A fiducial measurement corresponding to the experimental acceptance of the leptons is also presented

    Search for TeV-scale gravity signatures in high-mass final states with leptons and jets with the ATLAS detector at sqrt [ s ] = 13TeV

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    A search for physics beyond the Standard Model, in final states with at least one high transverse momentum charged lepton (electron or muon) and two additional high transverse momentum leptons or jets, is performed using 3.2 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider in 2015 at √s = 13 TeV. The upper end of the distribution of the scalar sum of the transverse momenta of leptons and jets is sensitive to the production of high-mass objects. No excess of events beyond Standard Model predictions is observed. Exclusion limits are set for models of microscopic black holes with two to six extra dimensions

    Search for dark matter produced in association with a hadronically decaying vector boson in pp collisions at sqrt (s) = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

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    A search is presented for dark matter produced in association with a hadronically decaying W or Z boson using 3.2 fb−1 of pp collisions at View the MathML sources=13 TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Events with a hadronic jet compatible with a W or Z boson and with large missing transverse momentum are analysed. The data are consistent with the Standard Model predictions and are interpreted in terms of both an effective field theory and a simplified model containing dark matter

    Measurement of the cross section for isolated-photon plus jet production in pp collisions at √s=13 TeV using the ATLAS detector

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    The dynamics of isolated-photon production in association with a jet in proton–proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV are studied with the ATLAS detector at the LHC using a dataset with an integrated luminosity of 3.2 fb−1. Photons are required to have transverse energies above 125 GeV. Jets are identified using the anti- algorithm with radius parameter and required to have transverse momenta above 100 GeV. Measurements of isolated-photon plus jet cross sections are presented as functions of the leading-photon transverse energy, the leading-jet transverse momentum, the azimuthal angular separation between the photon and the jet, the photon–jet invariant mass and the scattering angle in the photon–jet centre-of-mass system. Tree-level plus parton-shower predictions from Sherpa and Pythia as well as next-to-leading-order QCD predictions from Jetphox and Sherpa are compared to the measurements

    Search for high-mass new phenomena in the dilepton final state using proton–proton collisions at View the MathML sources=13TeV with the ATLAS detector

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    A search is conducted for both resonant and non-resonant high-mass new phenomena in dielectron and dimuon final states. The search uses View the MathML source3.2fb−1 of proton–proton collision data, collected at View the MathML sources=13TeV by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC in 2015. The dilepton invariant mass is used as the discriminating variable. No significant deviation from the Standard Model prediction is observed; therefore limits are set on the signal model parameters of interest at 95% credibility level. Upper limits are set on the cross-section times branching ratio for resonances decaying to dileptons, and the limits are converted into lower limits on the resonance mass, ranging between 2.74 TeV and 3.36 TeV, depending on the model. Lower limits on the ℓℓqqℓℓqq contact interaction scale are set between 16.7 TeV and 25.2 TeV, also depending on the mode

    A search for resonances decaying into a Higgs boson and a new particle X in the XH → qqbb final state with the ATLAS detector

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    A search for heavy resonances decaying into a Higgs boson (H) and a new particle (X) is reported, utilizing 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data at collected during 2015 and 2016 with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The particle X is assumed to decay to a pair of light quarks, and the fully hadronic final state is analysed. The search considers the regime of high XH resonance masses, where the X and H bosons are both highly Lorentz-boosted and are each reconstructed using a single jet with large radius parameter. A two-dimensional phase space of XH mass versus X mass is scanned for evidence of a signal, over a range of XH resonance mass values between 1 TeV and 4 TeV, and for X particles with masses from 50 GeV to 1000 GeV. All search results are consistent with the expectations for the background due to Standard Model processes, and 95% CL upper limits are set, as a function of XH and X masses, on the production cross-section of the resonance

    Measurement of the top quark mass in the tt→ dilepton channel from √s = 8 TeV ATLAS data

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    The top quark mass is measured in the ttÂŻ → dilepton channel (lepton = e,ÎŒ) using ATLAS data recorded in the year 2012 at the LHC. The data were taken at a proton proton centre-of-mass energy of √s = 8 TeV and correspond to an integrated luminosity of about 20.2 fb−1. Exploiting the template method, and using the distribution of invariant masses of lepton–b-jet pairs, the top quark mass is measured to be mtop = 172.99±0.41 (stat) ±0.74 (syst) GeV, with a total uncertainty of 0.84 GeV. Finally, a combination with previous ATLAS mtop measurements from √s = 7 TeV data in the ttÂŻ → dilepton and ttÂŻ → lepton + jets channels results in mtop = 172.84±0.34 (stat)±0.61 (syst) GeV, with a total uncertainty of 0.70 GeV
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