Determining consumer expectations and attitudes towards organic/lo-input food quality and safety. QLIF subproject 1: Consumer expectations and attitudes

The objective of QLIF subproject 1 was to deliver in-depth analyses of consumer expectations, attitudes and buying behaviours, with respect to quality and safety of foods from organic and low-input production systems. Results of the research showed that consumer attitudes towards quality and safety are not consistent - they are changeable, and linked to a whole bundle of assorted issues such as personal health, the natural environment, and ethics. Organic consumers appear to fall into two main types: regular and occasional purchasers. Regular consumers are committed insofar as the products satisfy their quality and safety requirements, but they are suspicious of over-processed organic foods sold in supermarkets. Occasional consumers of organic and low-input foods are more price and convenience sensitive. A key finding is that consumer behaviour has co-evolved with market development. Availability has constituted the main barrier to increasing demand, and limited assortment as well as the perceived relationship between quality and price account for much of the fluctuation in demand among occasional users

Dealing with messy problems: lessons from water harvesting systems for crop production in Burkina Faso

Despite the identification of areas exhibiting successful adoption and use of water harvesting technologies (WHTs) by small-scale farmers in SSA, on the whole WHT use remains low and hence impacts on crop production and livelihoods marginal. Past research has determined the importance of social factors in the adoption and use of WHTs, but little attempt has been made to fully understand their role. This paper presents qualitative, micro level research conducted in Botswana and Burkina Faso that has increased understanding of the effect of social factors. The main lesson learnt is that WHTs sit within a highly complex and dynamic system and the problem of low adoption and use cannot be solved using approaches that attempt to over-simplify it. Ensuring the sustainability of WHTs into the future requires that the complexity and messiness of the system is fully embraced by researchers and practitioners seeking solutions

Coronal heating distribution due to low-frequency wave-driven turbulence

The heating of the lower solar corona is examined using numerical simulations and theoretical models of magnetohydrodynamic turbulence in open magnetic regions. A turbulent energy cascade to small length scales perpendicular to the mean magnetic field can be sustained by driving with low-frequency Alfven waves reflected from mean density and magnetic field gradients. This mechanism deposits energy efficiently in the lower corona, and we show that the spatial distribution of the heating is determined by the mean density through the Alfven speed profile. This provides a robust heating mechanism that can explain observed high coronal temperatures and accounts for the significant heating (per unit volume) distribution below two solar radius needed in models of the origin of the solar wind. The obtained heating per unit mass on the other hand is much more extended indicating that the heating on a per particle basis persists throughout all the lower coronal region considered here.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figures. Accepted for publication in Ap

A sequential dynamic Bayesian network for pore pressure estimation with uncertainty quantification

Pore-pressure estimation is an important part of oil-well drilling, since drilling into unexpected highly pressured fluids can be costly and dangerous. However, standard estimation methods rarely account for the many sources of uncertainty, or for the multivariate nature of the system. We propose the pore pressure sequential dynamic Bayesian network (PP SDBN) as an appropriate solution to both these issues. The PP SDBN models the relationships between quantities in the pore pressure system, such as pressures, porosity, lithology and wireline log data, using conditional probability distributions based on geophysical relationships to capture our uncertainty about these variables and the relationships between them. When wireline log data is given to the PP SDBN, the probability distributions are updated, providing an estimate of pore pressure along with a probabilistic measure of uncertainty that reflects the data acquired and our understanding of the system. This is the advantage of a Bayesian approach. Our model provides a coherent statistical framework for modelling the pore pressure system. The specific geophysical relationships used can be changed to better suit a particular setting, or reflect geoscientists’ knowledge. We demonstrate the PP SDBN on an offshore well from West Africa. We also perform a sensitivity analysis, demonstrating how this can be used to better understand the working of the model and which parameters are the most influential. The dynamic nature of the model makes it suitable for real time estimation during logging while drilling. The PP SDBN models shale pore pressure in shale rich formations with mechanical compaction as the overriding source of overpressure. The PP SDBN improves on existing methods since it produces a probabilistic estimate that reflects the many sources of uncertainty present

A Model of Turbulence in Magnetized Plasmas: Implications for the Dissipation Range in the Solar Wind

This paper studies the turbulent cascade of magnetic energy in weakly collisional magnetized plasmas. A cascade model is presented, based on the assumptions of local nonlinear energy transfer in wavenumber space, critical balance between linear propagation and nonlinear interaction times, and the applicability of linear dissipation rates for the nonlinearly turbulent plasma. The model follows the nonlinear cascade of energy from the driving scale in the MHD regime, through the transition at the ion Larmor radius into the kinetic Alfven wave regime, in which the turbulence is dissipated by kinetic processes. The turbulent fluctuations remain at frequencies below the ion cyclotron frequency due to the strong anisotropy of the turbulent fluctuations, k_parallel << k_perp (implied by critical balance). In this limit, the turbulence is optimally described by gyrokinetics; it is shown that the gyrokinetic approximation is well satisfied for typical slow solar wind parameters. Wave phase velocity measurements are consistent with a kinetic Alfven wave cascade and not the onset of ion cyclotron damping. The conditions under which the gyrokinetic cascade reaches the ion cyclotron frequency are established. Cascade model solutions imply that collisionless damping provides a natural explanation for the observed range of spectral indices in the dissipation range of the solar wind. The dissipation range spectrum is predicted to be an exponential fall off; the power-law behavior apparent in observations may be an artifact of limited instrumental sensitivity. The cascade model is motivated by a programme of gyrokinetic simulations of turbulence and particle heating in the solar wind.Comment: 29 pages, 14 figure

Communication with media in nuclear or radiological emergencies : General and practical recommendations for improvement

Communication with mass media during and after a nuclear emergency presents both a challenge and an opportunity for emergency management. The challenge lies with the different motivations and types of process applied by mass media and emergency management; the opportunity arises from the power of mass media to reach out to an audience with information important for compliance with protective actions. This article summarises recommendations for improved media communication by nuclear emergency management professionals. Recommendations address both the traditional and new media, and are the result of empirical and qualitative research conducted in the context of the FP7 PREPARE project, including: (i) a media content analysis of newspapers articles reporting about Fukushima (N = 1340); (ii) a content analysis of tweets about Fukushima (N = 914); and (iii) a qualitative approach - round table discussions with stakeholders (N > 100) involved in communication about nuclear emergencies. Results show that although challenging, nuclear emergency communication can be improved by using mass media and developing skills, training and resources during the preparedness phase of a nuclear emergency cycle. Some general recommendations and practical advice for communication with media is given

Dissipative Dynamics of Collisionless Nonlinear Alfven Wave Trains

The nonlinear dynamics of collisionless Alfven trains, including resonant particle effects is studied using the kinetic nonlinear Schroedinger (KNLS) equation model. Numerical solutions of the KNLS reveal the dynamics of Alfven waves to be sensitive to the sense of polarization as well as the angle of propagation with respect to the ambient magnetic field. The combined effects of both wave nonlinearity and Landau damping result in the evolutionary formation of stationaryOA S- and arc-polarized directional and rotational discontinuities. These waveforms are freqently observed in the interplanetary plasma.Comment: REVTeX, 6 pages (including 5 figures). This and other papers may be found at http://sdphpd.ucsd.edu/~medvedev/papers.htm

Scholarship of Teaching & Learning 2017 Directory

Welcome to the 2017 directory for the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) at West Virginia University! This inaugural SoTL directory began as a collaboration between the Teaching and Learning Commons and the Digital Publishing Institute. We began the academic year defining the broad scope of research that we wanted faculty instructors to include under the heading of SoTL work--from peer-reviewed publications to presentations and poster sessions--anything that included thoughtful reflection on and research of teaching practices that was distributed to audiences in a formal way. We hope this inaugural directory introduces you to a few of the scholars on campus doing outstanding pedagogical research. In part through the Faculty Associates program of the TLC, the editorial team worked to produce this booklet as an open-access resource for faculty instructors to learn about each others\u27 scholarly–pedagogical work and to build collaborations where possible. We hope to continue producing this book on an annual or biennial basis and to possibly create a database for additions, updates, and more easy searching of colleagues. If you would like to be included in future iterations of this directory for your pedagogical research, please contact the Teaching and Learning Commons.https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/dpi-textbooks/1001/thumbnail.jp

On the Conductivity of a Magnetoactive Turbulent Plasma

The problem of determining the effective conductivity tensor of a magnetoactive turbulent plasma is considered in the approximation of isolated particles. Additional gyrotropicterms are shown to appear in the conductivity tensor in the presence of mean, nonzero magnetic helicity. The dispersion of propagating electro- magnetic waves changes, additional modes and additional rotation of the polarization plane appear, and the waves can be amplified. The properties acquired by plasma with helicity are similar those observed in chiral and bianisotropic electrodynamic media.Comment: 15 page