73,327 research outputs found
Coloured mulch as a weed control technology and yield booster for summer savory
An investigation into the effect of coloured mulch technology as a technique to control weeds when growing the essential oil plant, summer savory (Satureja hortensis) was made. As well as weed control, the effects on the production of crop biomass and essential oil content and quality were also considered. The mulch treatments produced significantly more biomass than either of the control treatments (which used no mulch either with or without herbicide). The white mulch treatment produced the greatest biomass, closely followed by the red mulch treatment. The blue mulch treatment was third in ranking, although not significantly greater than the black mulch. Estimates of the quantity of essential oil produced by each treatment followed a similar trend to that shown by biomass production
Control of common scab without the use of water
The most effective way to control common scab is by irrigating a potato crop at tuber initiation. With the introduction of legislation such as the Water Framework Directive this will become increasingly difficult. In this field experiment, we assessed the potential of a number of non-water measures for controlling this disease. Common scab on daughter tubers at harvest was reduced by applying rapeseed meal at 1 t ha-1 to the beds and then incorporating it into the soil, and adding a mixture of Trichoderma viride isolates into the furrow at planting. None of these treatments was as effective as using water
The effects on health of a publicly funded domestic heating programme: a prospective controlled study
<b>Objective</b>: To assess the effect of a publicly funded domestic heating programme on self-reported health.
<b>Design, setting and participants</b>: A prospective controlled study of 1281 households in Scotland receiving new central heating under a publicly funded initiative, and 1084 comparison households not receiving new heating. The main outcome measures were self-reported diagnosis of asthma, bronchitis, eczema, nasal allergy, heart disease, circulatory problems or high blood pressure; number of primary care encounters and hospital contacts in the past year; and SF-36 Health Survey scores.
<b>Results</b>: Usable data were obtained from 61.4% of 3849 respondents originally recruited. Heating recipients reported higher scores on the SF-36 Physical Functioning scale (difference 2.51; 95% CI 0.67 to 4.37) and General Health scale (difference 2.57; 95% CI 0.90 to 4.34). They were less likely to report having received a first diagnosis of heart disease (OR 0.69; 95% CI 0.52 to 0.91) or high blood pressure (OR 0.77; 95% CI 0.61 to 0.97), but the groups did not differ significantly in use of primary care or hospital services.
<b>Conclusions</b>: Provision of central heating was associated with significant positive effects on general health and physical functioning; however, effect sizes were small. Evidence of a reduced risk of first diagnosis with heart disease or high blood pressure must be interpreted with caution, due to the self-reported nature of the outcomes, the limited time period and the failure to detect any difference in health service use
Thermal protection of reentry vehicles by actively cooled nosetips
Analytical modeling efforts and clear-air ground test results of a transportation-cooled nosetips (TCNT) design are presented. The discrete water injection platelet TCNT described was conceived and created to achieve the performance requirements for severe reentry vehicle trajectories. Thermal performance computer modeling techniques, combing both local heat blockage and boundary layer recovery enthalpy reduction are outlined
Forecasting Aggregate Period Specific Birth Rates: The Time Series Properties of a Microdynamic Neoclassical Model of Fertility
This article demonstrates the value of microdata for understanding the effect of wages on life cycle fertility dynamics. Conventional estimates of neoclassical economic fertility models obtained from linear aggregate time series regressions are widely criticized for being nonrobust when adjusted for serial correlation. Moreover, the forecasting power of these aggregative neoclassical models has been shown to be inferior when compared with conventional time series models that assign no role to wages. This article demonstrates, that when neoclassical models of fertility are estimated on microdata using methods that incorporate key demographic restrictions and when they are properly aggregated, they have considerable forecasting power.
Thermal performance of a photographic laboratory process: Solar Hot Water System
The thermal performance of a solar process hot water system is described. The system was designed to supply 22,000 liters (5,500 gallons) per day of 66 C (150 F) process water for photographic processing. The 328 sq m (3,528 sq. ft.) solar field has supplied 58% of the thermal energy for the system. Techniques used for analyzing various thermal values are given. Load and performance factors and the resulting solar contribution are discussed
Quantifying the Fragility of Galactic Disks in Minor Mergers
We perform fully self-consistent stellar dynamical simulations of the
accretion of a companion ("satellite") galaxy by a large disk galaxy to
investigate the interaction between the disk, halo, and satellite components of
the system during a merger. Our fiducial encounter begins with a satellite in a
prograde, circular orbit inclined thirty degrees with respect to the disk plane
at a galactocentric distance of six disk scalelengths. The satellite's mass is
10% of the disk's mass and its half-mass radius is about 1.3 kpc. The system is
modelled with 500 000 particles, sufficient to mitigate numerical relaxation
noise over the merging time. The satellite sinks in only ~1 Gyr and a core
containing ~45% of its initial mass reaches the centre of the disk. With so
much of the satellite's mass remaining intact, the disk sustains significant
damage as the satellite passes through. At the solar circle we find that the
disk thickens ~60%, the velocity dispersions increase by
\Delta\mbox{\boldmath\sigma} \simeq (10,8,8) km/s to km/s, and the asymmetric drift is
unchanged at ~18 km/s. Although the disk is not destroyed by these events
(hence "minor" mergers), its final state resembles a disk galaxy of earlier
Hubble type than its initial state, thicker and hotter, with the satellite's
core enhancing the bulge. Thus minor mergers continue to be a promising
mechanism for driving galaxy evolution.Comment: LaTeX with AASTeX macros; text only. For PostScript with figures
embedded, go to http://www.ucolick.org/~iwalker/ss
Evidence from the Very Long Baseline Array that J1502SE/SW are Double Hotspots, not a Supermassive Binary Black Hole
SDSS J150243.09+111557.3 is a merging system at z = 0.39 that hosts two
confirmed AGN, one unobscured and one dust-obscured, offset by several
kiloparsecs. Deane et al. recently reported evidence from the European VLBI
Network (EVN) that the dust-obscured AGN exhibits two flat-spectrum radio
sources, J1502SE/SW, offset by 26 mas (140 pc), with each source being
energized by its own supermassive black hole (BH). This intriguing
interpretation of a close binary BH was reached after ruling out a
double-hotspot scenario, wherein both hotspots are energized by a single,
central BH, a configuration occuring in the well-studied Compact Symmetric
Objects. When observed with sufficient sensitivity and resolution, an object
with double hotspots should have an edge-brightened structure. We report
evidence from the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) for just such a structure in
an image of the obscured AGN with higher sensitivity and resolution than the
EVN images. We thus conclude that a double-hotspot scenario should be
reconsidered as a viable interpretation for J1502SE/SW, and suggest further
VLBA tests of that scenario. A double-hotspot scenario could have broad
implications for feedback in obscured AGNs. We also report a VLBA detection of
high-brightness-temperature emssion from the unobscured AGN that is offset
several kiloparsecs from J1502SE/SW.Comment: 12 pages, 1 figure, accepted by ApJL on 2014 July 2
Electron transport in Coulomb- and tunnel-coupled one-dimensional systems
We develop a linear theory of electron transport for a system of two
identical quantum wires in a wide range of the wire length L, unifying both the
ballistic and diffusive transport regimes. The microscopic model, involving the
interaction of electrons with each other and with bulk acoustical phonons
allows a reduction of the quantum kinetic equation to a set of coupled
equations for the local chemical potentials for forward- and backward-moving
electrons in the wires. As an application of the general solution of these
equations, we consider different kinds of electrical contacts to the
double-wire system and calculate the direct resistance, the transresistance, in
the presence of tunneling and Coulomb drag, and the tunneling resistance. If L
is smaller than the backscattering length l_P, both the tunneling and the drag
lead to a negative transresistance, while in the diffusive regime (L >>l_P) the
tunneling opposes the drag and leads to a positive transresistance. If L is
smaller than the phase-breaking length, the tunneling leads to interference
oscillations of the resistances that are damped exponentially with L.Comment: Text 14 pages in Latex/Revtex format, 4 Postscript figure
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