3,565 research outputs found
An investigation into the fertilizer potential of slaughterhouse cattle paunch
In Australia, the red meat processing industry actively seeks approaches to improve the management of solid waste from processing operations and enhance the environmental performance. Recycling of paunch waste to farmland could be a cost-effective and practicable environmental option. However, little is known about the agronomic value of fresh and composted paunch, and the associated requirements for land application. Therefore, a short-term experimental work was undertaken to assess potential risks due to weed seed contamination and determine the agronomic response of ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) to soil incorporation of paunch. The risk of weed contamination from soil application of paunch appeared to be low; however, methods that account for viability of seeds may be required to fully discard such a risk. Soil application of paunch at field equivalent rates of 150-300 kg ha-1 of N increased dry matter yield by ≈30% on average compared with untreated grass, but was approximately 35% lower than a mineral fertilizer treatment applied at the same rates. Dry matter yield of paunch-treated grass was between 2000 and 3000 kg per ha over four consecutive cuts at 25-day intervals. Nitrogen use-efficiency of paunch was approximately 10% (range: 3% to 20%, depending on paunch type), and total N in harvested plant material showed values, which were between 2% and 3%. Overall, there appears to be potential for paunch-derived products to be used as a source of carbon and nutrients in crop production. Areas that merit a research priority within this space are also outlined in this paper. Such work is required to inform soil-, climate- and crop-specific land application rates, optimize agronomic performance, and minimize environmental concerns. There is also a requirement for the value proposition to industry to be determined, including reduced cost of disposal of material via gate fees and fertilizer replacement value
Spin Glasses on Thin Graphs
In a recent paper we found strong evidence from simulations that the
Isingantiferromagnet on ``thin'' random graphs - Feynman diagrams - displayed
amean-field spin glass transition. The intrinsic interest of considering such
random graphs is that they give mean field results without long range
interactions or the drawbacks, arising from boundary problems, of the Bethe
lattice. In this paper we reprise the saddle point calculations for the Ising
and Potts ferromagnet, antiferromagnet and spin glass on Feynman diagrams. We
use standard results from bifurcation theory that enable us to treat an
arbitrary number of replicas and any quenched bond distribution. We note the
agreement between the ferromagnetic and spin glass transition temperatures thus
calculated and those derived by analogy with the Bethe lattice, or in previous
replica calculations. We then investigate numerically spin glasses with a plus
or minus J bond distribution for the Ising and Q=3,4,10,50 state Potts models,
paying particular attention to the independence of the spin glass transition
from the fraction of positive and negative bonds in the Ising case and the
qualitative form of the overlap distribution in all the models. The parallels
with infinite range spin glass models in both the analytical calculations and
simulations are pointed out.Comment: 13 pages of LaTex and 11 postscript figures bundled together with
uufiles. Discussion of first order transitions for three or more replicas
included and similarity to Ising replica magnet pointed out. Some additional
reference
Critical Behavior of Random Bond Potts Models
The effect of quenched impurities on systems which undergo first-order phase
transitions is studied within the framework of the q-state Potts model. For
large q a mapping to the random field Ising model is introduced which provides
a simple physical explanation of the absence of any latent heat in 2D, and
suggests that in higher dimensions such systems should exhibit a tricritical
point with a correlation length exponent related to the exponents of the random
field model by \nu = \nu_RF / (2 - \alpha_RF - \beta_RF). In 2D we analyze the
model using finite-size scaling and conformal invariance, and find a continuous
transition with a magnetic exponent \beta / \nu which varies continuously with
q, and a weakly varying correlation length exponent \nu \approx 1. We find
strong evidence for the multiscaling of the correlation functions as expected
for such random systems.Comment: 13 pages, RevTeX. 4 figures included. Submitted to Phys.Rev.Let
Dynamic Critical Behavior of the Swendsen-Wang Algorithm: The Two-Dimensional 3-State Potts Model Revisited
We have performed a high-precision Monte Carlo study of the dynamic critical
behavior of the Swendsen-Wang algorithm for the two-dimensional 3-state Potts
model. We find that the Li-Sokal bound ()
is almost but not quite sharp. The ratio seems to diverge
either as a small power () or as a logarithm.Comment: 35 pages including 3 figures. Self-unpacking file containing the
LaTeX file, the needed macros (epsf.sty, indent.sty, subeqnarray.sty, and
eqsection.sty) and the 3 Postscript figures. Revised version fixes a
normalization error in \xi (with many thanks to Wolfhard Janke for finding
the error!). To be published in J. Stat. Phys. 87, no. 1/2 (April 1997
Comments on Sweeny and Gliozzi dynamics for simulations of Potts models in the Fortuin-Kasteleyn representation
We compare the correlation times of the Sweeny and Gliozzi dynamics for
two-dimensional Ising and three-state Potts models, and the three-dimensional
Ising model for the simulations in the percolation prepresentation. The results
are also compared with Swendsen-Wang and Wolff cluster dynamics. It is found
that Sweeny and Gliozzi dynamics have essentially the same dynamical critical
behavior. Contrary to Gliozzi's claim (cond-mat/0201285), the Gliozzi dynamics
has critical slowing down comparable to that of other cluster methods. For the
two-dimensional Ising model, both Sweeny and Gliozzi dynamics give good fits to
logarithmic size dependences; for two-dimensional three-state Potts model,
their dynamical critical exponent z is 0.49(1); the three-dimensional Ising
model has z = 0.37(2).Comment: RevTeX, 4 pages, 5 figure
Ising model on 3D random lattices: A Monte Carlo study
We report single-cluster Monte Carlo simulations of the Ising model on
three-dimensional Poissonian random lattices with up to 128,000 approx. 503
sites which are linked together according to the Voronoi/Delaunay prescription.
For each lattice size quenched averages are performed over 96 realizations. By
using reweighting techniques and finite-size scaling analyses we investigate
the critical properties of the model in the close vicinity of the phase
transition point. Our random lattice data provide strong evidence that, for the
available system sizes, the resulting effective critical exponents are
indistinguishable from recent high-precision estimates obtained in Monte Carlo
studies of the Ising model and \phi^4 field theory on three-dimensional regular
cubic lattices.Comment: 35 pages, LaTex, 8 tables, 8 postscript figure
Monte Carlo Renormalization of the 3-D Ising model: Analyticity and Convergence
We review the assumptions on which the Monte Carlo renormalization technique
is based, in particular the analyticity of the block spin transformations. On
this basis, we select an optimized Kadanoff blocking rule in combination with
the simulation of a d=3 Ising model with reduced corrections to scaling. This
is achieved by including interactions with second and third neighbors. As a
consequence of the improved analyticity properties, this Monte Carlo
renormalization method yields a fast convergence and a high accuracy. The
results for the critical exponents are y_H=2.481(1) and y_T=1.585(3).Comment: RevTeX, 4 PostScript file
Evaluation of stem rot in 339 Bornean tree species: implications of size, taxonomy, and soil-related variation for aboveground biomass estimates
Fungal decay of heart wood creates hollows and areas of reduced wood density within the stems of living trees known as stem rot. Although stem rot is acknowledged as a source of error in forest aboveground biomass (AGB) estimates, there are few data sets available to evaluate the controls over stem rot infection and severity in tropical forests. Using legacy and recent data from 3180 drilled, felled, and cored stems in mixed dipterocarp forests in Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo, we quantified the frequency and severity of stem rot in a total of 339 tree species, and related variation in stem rot with tree size, wood density, taxonomy, and species’ soil association, as well as edaphic conditions. Predicted stem rot frequency for a 50 cm tree was 53% of felled, 39% of drilled, and 28% of cored stems, demonstrating differences among methods in rot detection ability. The percent stem volume infected by rot, or stem rot severity, ranged widely among trees with stem rot infection (0.1–82.8 %) and averaged 9% across all trees felled. Tree taxonomy explained the greatest proportion of variance in both stem rot frequency and severity among the predictors evaluated in our models. Stem rot frequency, but not severity, increased sharply with tree diameter, ranging from 13% in trees 10–30 cm DBH to 54%in stems ≥ 50 cm DBH across all data sets. The frequency of stem rot increased significantly in soils with low pH and cation concentrations in topsoil, and stem rot was more common in tree species associated with dystrophic sandy soils than with nutrient-rich clays. When scaled to forest stands, the maximum percent of stem biomass lost to stem rot varied significantly with soil properties, and we estimate that stem rot reduces total forest AGB estimates by up to 7% relative to what would be predicted assuming all stems are composed strictly of intact wood. This study demonstrates not only that stem rot is likely to be a significant source of error in forest AGB estimation, but also that it strongly covaries with tree size, taxonomy, habitat association, and soil resources, underscoring the need to account for tree community composition and edaphic variation in estimating carbon storage in tropical forests
The citric acid cough threshold and the ventilatory response to carbon dioxide on ascent to high altitude
SummaryVentilatory control undergoes profound changes on ascent to high altitude. We hypothesized that the fall in citric acid cough threshold seen on ascent to altitude is mediated by changes in the central control of cough and would parallel changes in central ventilatory control assessed by the hypercapnic ventilatory response (HCVR). Twenty-five healthy volunteers underwent measurements of HCVR and citric acid sensitivity at sea level and during a 9 day sojourn at 5200m. None of the subjects had any evidence of respiratory infection. Citric acid cough threshold fell significantly on ascent to 5200m. The slope, S, of the HCVR increased significantly on ascent to 5200m and during the stay at altitude. There was no correlation between citric acid sensitivity and HCVR. We conclude that the change in citric acid cough threshold seen on exposure to hypobaric hypoxia is unlikely to be mediated by changes in the central control of cough. Sensitivity to citric acid may be due to early subclinical pulmonary edema stimulating airway sensory nerve endings
Computing the Roughening Transition of Ising and Solid-On-Solid Models by BCSOS Model Matching
We study the roughening transition of the dual of the 2D XY model, of the
Discrete Gaussian model, of the Absolute Value Solid-On-Solid model and of the
interface in an Ising model on a 3D simple cubic lattice. The investigation
relies on a renormalization group finite size scaling method that was proposed
and successfully tested a few years ago. The basic idea is to match the
renormalization group flow of the interface observables with that of the
exactly solvable BCSOS model. Our estimates for the critical couplings are
, and for
the XY-model, the Discrete Gaussian model and the Absolute Value Solid-On-Solid
model, respectively. For the inverse roughening temperature of the Ising
interface we find . To the best of our knowledge,
these are the most precise estimates for these parameters published so far.Comment: 25 pages, LaTeX file, no figure
- …