610 research outputs found
Improving irrigation management through better information: Testing practical options in Indonesia
Information services / Irrigable land / Performance evaluation / Monitoring / Water users' associations / Water allocation / Irrigation management / Irrigated sites / Water delivery / Economic aspects / Benefits / Mapping / Labor / Indonesia / West Java / Cerebon
Irrigation system performance assessment and diagnosis
Performance evaluation / Irrigation programs / Irrigation management / Irrigation systems / Case studies / Hydraulics / Management / Environmental effects / Asia / Africa / South America
Improving irrigation performance through the use of management information systems: The case of Mahi Kadana, Gujarat, India
Water management / Water distribution / Cropping systems / Rotation / Performance evaluation / Performance indexes / Data collection / Databases / Canal irrigation / Management Information Systems / India / Gujarat
The Evolution of Sunspot Magnetic Fields Associated with a Solar Flare
Solar flares occur due to the sudden release of energy stored in
active-region magnetic fields. To date, the pre-cursors to flaring are still
not fully understood, although there is evidence that flaring is related to
changes in the topology or complexity of an active region's magnetic field.
Here, the evolution of the magnetic field in active region NOAA 10953 was
examined using Hinode/SOT-SP data, over a period of 12 hours leading up to and
after a GOES B1.0 flare. A number of magnetic-field properties and low-order
aspects of magnetic-field topology were extracted from two flux regions that
exhibited increased Ca II H emission during the flare. Pre-flare increases in
vertical field strength, vertical current density, and inclination angle of ~
8degrees towards the vertical were observed in flux elements surrounding the
primary sunspot. The vertical field strength and current density subsequently
decreased in the post-flare state, with the inclination becoming more
horizontal by ~7degrees. This behaviour of the field vector may provide a
physical basis for future flare forecasting efforts.Comment: Accepted for Publication in Solar Physics. 16 pages, 4 figure
3D MHD Flux Emergence Experiments: Idealized models and coronal interactions
This paper reviews some of the many 3D numerical experiments of the emergence
of magnetic fields from the solar interior and the subsequent interaction with
the pre-existing coronal magnetic field. The models described here are
idealized, in the sense that the internal energy equation only involves the
adiabatic, Ohmic and viscous shock heating terms. However, provided the main
aim is to investigate the dynamical evolution, this is adequate. Many
interesting observational phenomena are explained by these models in a
self-consistent manner.Comment: Review article, accepted for publication in Solar Physic
On Wayfaring in Social Machines
In this paper, we concern ourselves with the ways in which humans inhabit social machines: the structures and techniques which allow the enmeshing of multiple life traces within the flow of online interaction. In particular, we explore the distinction between transport and journeying, between networks and meshworks, and the different attitudes and modes of being appropriate to each. By doing this, we hope to capture a part of the sociality of social machines, to build an understanding of the ways in which lived lives relate to digital structures, and the emergence of the communality of shared work. In order to illustrate these ideas, we look at several aspects of existing social machines, and tease apart the qualities which relate to the different modes of being. The distinctions and concepts outlined here provide another element in both the analysis and development of social machines, understanding how people may joyfully and directedly engage with collective activities on the web
Open Babel: An open chemical toolbox
Background: A frequent problem in computational modeling is the interconversion of chemical structures between different formats. While standard interchange formats exist (for example, Chemical Markup Language) and de facto standards have arisen (for example, SMILES format), the need to interconvert formats is a continuing problem due to the multitude of different application areas for chemistry data, differences in the data stored by different formats (0D versus 3D, for example), and competition between software along with a lack of vendorneutral formats. Results: We discuss, for the first time, Open Babel, an open-source chemical toolbox that speaks the many languages of chemical data. Open Babel version 2.3 interconverts over 110 formats. The need to represent such a wide variety of chemical and molecular data requires a library that implements a wide range of cheminformatics algorithms, from partial charge assignment and aromaticity detection, to bond order perception and canonicalization. We detail the implementation of Open Babel, describe key advances in the 2.3 release, and outline a variety of uses both in terms of software products and scientific research, including applications far beyond simple format interconversion. Conclusions: Open Babel presents a solution to the proliferation of multiple chemical file formats. In addition, it provides a variety of useful utilities from conformer searching and 2D depiction, to filtering, batch conversion, and substructure and similarity searching. For developers, it can be used as a programming library to handle chemical data in areas such as organic chemistry, drug design, materials science, and computational chemistry. It is freely available under an open-source license fro
Signatures of the slow solar wind streams from active regions in the inner corona
Some of local sources of the slow solar wind can be associated with
spectroscopically detected plasma outflows at edges of active regions
accompanied with specific signatures in the inner corona. The EUV telescopes
(e.g. SPIRIT/CORONAS-F, TESIS/CORONAS-Photon and SWAP/PROBA2) sometimes
observed extended ray-like structures seen at the limb above active regions in
1MK iron emission lines and described as "coronal rays". To verify the
relationship between coronal rays and plasma outflows, we analyze an isolated
active region (AR) adjacent to small coronal hole (CH) observed by different
EUV instruments in the end of July - beginning of August 2009. On August 1 EIS
revealed in the AR two compact outflows with the Doppler velocities V =10-30
km/s accompanied with fan loops diverging from their regions. At the limb the
ARCH interface region produced coronal rays observed by EUVI/STEREO-A on July
31 as well as by TESIS on August 7. The rays were co-aligned with open magnetic
field lines expanded to the streamer stalks. Using the DEM analysis, it was
found that the fan loops diverged from the outflow regions had the dominant
temperature of ~1 MK, which is similar to that of the outgoing plasma streams.
Parameters of the solar wind measured by STEREO-B, ACE, WIND, STEREO-A were
conformed with identification of the ARCH as a source region at the
Wang-Sheeley-Arge map of derived coronal holes for CR 2086. The results of the
study support the suggestion that coronal rays can represent signatures of
outflows from ARs propagating in the inner corona along open field lines into
the heliosphere.Comment: Accepted for publication in Solar Physics; 31 Pages; 13 Figure
Prevalence of Disorders Recorded in Dogs Attending Primary-Care Veterinary Practices in England
Purebred dog health is thought to be compromised by an increasing occurence of inherited diseases but inadequate prevalence data on common disorders have hampered efforts to prioritise health reforms. Analysis of primary veterinary practice clinical data has been proposed for reliable estimation of disorder prevalence in dogs. Electronic patient record (EPR) data were collected on 148,741 dogs attending 93 clinics across central and south-eastern England. Analysis in detail of a random sample of EPRs relating to 3,884 dogs from 89 clinics identified the most frequently recorded disorders as otitis externa (prevalence 10.2%, 95% CI: 9.1-11.3), periodontal disease (9.3%, 95% CI: 8.3-10.3) and anal sac impaction (7.1%, 95% CI: 6.1-8.1). Using syndromic classification, the most prevalent body location affected was the head-and-neck (32.8%, 95% CI: 30.7-34.9), the most prevalent organ system affected was the integument (36.3%, 95% CI: 33.9-38.6) and the most prevalent pathophysiologic process diagnosed was inflammation (32.1%, 95% CI: 29.8-34.3). Among the twenty most-frequently recorded disorders, purebred dogs had a significantly higher prevalence compared with crossbreds for three: otitis externa (P = 0.001), obesity (P = 0.006) and skin mass lesion (P = 0.033), and popular breeds differed significantly from each other in their prevalence for five: periodontal disease (P = 0.002), overgrown nails (P = 0.004), degenerative joint disease (P = 0.005), obesity (P = 0.001) and lipoma (P = 0.003). These results fill a crucial data gap in disorder prevalence information and assist with disorder prioritisation. The results suggest that, for maximal impact, breeding reforms should target commonly-diagnosed complex disorders that are amenable to genetic improvement and should place special focus on at-risk breeds. Future studies evaluating disorder severity and duration will augment the usefulness of the disorder prevalence information reported herein
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