Weed Control for Reduced Tillage Systems

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A length scale for the superconducting Nernst signal above Tc_{c} in Nb0.15_{0.15}Si0.85_{0.85}

We present a study of the Nernst effect in amorphous superconducting thin films of Nb$_{0.15}$Si$_{0.85}$. The field dependence of the Nernst coefficient above T$_{c}$ displays two distinct regimes separated by a field scale set by the Ginzburg-Landau correlation length. A single function $F(\xi)$, with the correlation length as its unique argument set either by the zero-field correlation length (in the low magnetic field limit) or by the magnetic length (in the opposite limit), describes the Nernst coefficient. We conclude that the Nernst signal observed on a wide temperature ($30 \times T_c$) and field ($4 \times B_{c2}$) range is exclusively generated by short-lived Cooper pairs.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Clonal integration in Ludwigia hexapetala under different light regimes

Physiological integration among ramets of invasive plant species may support their colonization and spread in novel aquatic environments where growth-limiting resources are spatially heterogeneous. Under contrasting light conditions, we investigated how clonal integration influences growth, biomass allocation and morphology of Ludwigia hexapetala, an emergent floating-leaved macrophyte that is highly invasive in a range of wetland habitat types. In aquatic mesocosms, stolons of offspring ramets were either connected or severed from parent plants, with the pairs exposed to homogenous or heterogeneous combinations of sun or 85% shade. Morphological traits of all ramets were strongly influenced by light environment, and low light availability decreased plant growth, regardless of integration status. Allocation patterns varied with light regime; shaded plants increased allocation to leaf biomass while sun plants allocated more resources to belowground growth. Offspring ramets integrated with parents produced more biomass, suggesting a fitness advantage through integration. However, parent ramet performance declined with stoloniferous integration; integrated parents produced fewer ramets and allocated more resources to belowground biomass. For most response variables measured, there was no significant interactive effect between light treatment and integration, although parents growing in the shade attached to an offspring in the sun increased root mass ratio. The ability to establish and spread into new environments is a key trait of invasive plants, and physiological integration of resources may improve the establishment of juvenile ramets across variable light environments during early colonization. Physiological integration in patchy light environments may contribute to the invasiveness of Ludwigia hexapetala

Dynamic Collection Scheduling Using Remote Asset Monitoring: Case Study in the UK Charity Sector

Remote sensing technology is now coming onto the market in the waste collection sector. This technology allows waste and recycling receptacles to report their fill levels at regular intervals. This reporting enables collection schedules to be optimized dynamically to meet true servicing needs in a better way and so reduce transport costs and ensure that visits to clients are made in a timely fashion. This paper describes a real-life logistics problem faced by a leading UK charity that services its textile and book donation banks and its high street stores by using a common fleet of vehicles with various carrying capacities. Use of a common fleet gives rise to a vehicle routing problem in which visits to stores are on fixed days of the week with time window constraints and visits to banks (fitted with remote fill-monitoring technology) are made in a timely fashion so that the banks do not become full before collection. A tabu search algorithm was developed to provide vehicle routes for the next day of operation on the basis of the maximization of profit. A longer look-ahead period was not considered because donation rates to banks are highly variable. The algorithm included parameters that specified the minimum fill level (e.g., 50%) required to allow a visit to a bank and a penalty function used to encourage visits to banks that are becoming full. The results showed that the algorithm significantly reduced visits to banks and increased profit by up to 2.4%, with the best performance obtained when the donation rates were more variable

Carbon in different phases ([CII], [CI], and CO) in infrared dark clouds: Cloud formation signatures and carbon gas fractions

Context: How do molecular clouds form out of the atomic phase? And what are the relative fractions of carbon in the ionized, atomic and molecular phase? These are questions at the heart of cloud and star formation. Methods: Using multiple observatories from Herschel and SOFIA to APEX and the IRAM 30m telescope, we mapped the ionized, atomic and molecular carbon ([CII]@1900GHz, [CI]@492GHz and C18O(2-1)@220GHz) at high spatial resolution (12"-25") in four young massive infrared dark clouds (IRDCs). Results: The three carbon phases were successfully mapped in all four regions, only in one source the [CII] line remained a non-detection. Both the molecular and atomic phases trace the dense structures well, with [CI] also tracing material at lower column densities. [CII] exhibits diverse morphologies in our sample, from compact to diffuse structures probing the cloud environment. In at least two out of the four regions, we find kinematic signatures strongly indicating that the dense gas filaments have formed out of a dynamically active and turbulent atomic/molecular cloud, potentially from converging gas flows. The atomic-to-molecular carbon gas mass ratios are low between 7% and 12% with the lowest values found toward the most quiescent region. In the three regions where [CII] is detected, its mass is always higher by a factor of a few than that of the atomic carbon. The ionized carbon emission depends as well on the radiation field, however, we also find strong [CII] emission in a region without significant external sources, indicating that other processes, e.g., energetic gas flows can contribute to the [CII] excitation as well.Comment: 15 pages, 18 figures, accepted by Astronomy & Astrophysics, a higher resolution version can be found at http://www.mpia.de/homes/beuther/papers.htm

Color-Octet Fragmentation and the psi' Surplus at the Tevatron

The production rate of prompt $\psi'$'s at large transverse momentum at the Tevatron is larger than theoretical expectations by about a factor of 30. As a solution to this puzzle, we suggest that the dominant $\psi'$ production mechanism is the fragmentation of a gluon into a $c \bar c$ pair in a pointlike color-octet S-wave state, which subsequently evolves nonperturbatively into a $\psi'$ plus light hadrons. The contribution to the fragmentation function from this process is enhanced by a short-distance factor of $1/\alpha_s^2$ relative to the conventional color-singlet contribution. This may compensate for the suppression by $v^4$, where $v$ is the relative momentum of the charm quark in the $\psi'$. If this is indeed the dominant production mechanism at large $p_T$, then the prompt $\psi'$'s that are observed at the Tevatron should almost always be associated with a jet of light hadrons.Comment: 9 pages, LaTe

Localisation of partial discharge sources using radio fingerprinting technique

Partial discharge (PD) is a well-known indicator of the failure of insulators in electrical plant. Operators are pushing toward lower operating cost and higher reliability and this stimulates a demand for a diagnostic system capable of accurately locating PD sources especially in ageing electricity substations. Existing techniques used for PD source localisation can be prohibitively expensive. In this paper, a cost-effective radio fingerprinting technique is proposed. This technique uses the Received Signal Strength (RSS) extracted from PD measurements gathered using RF sensors. The proposed technique models the complex spatial characteristics of the radio environment, and uses this model for accurate PD localisation. Two models were developed and compared: k-nearest neighbour and a feed-forward neural network which uses regression as a form of function approximation. The results demonstrate that the neural network produced superior performance as a result of its robustness against noise

From the warm magnetized atomic medium to molecular clouds

{It has recently been proposed that giant molecular complexes form at the sites where streams of diffuse warm atomic gas collide at transonic velocities.} {We study the global statistics of molecular clouds formed by large scale colliding flows of warm neutral atomic interstellar gas under ideal MHD conditions. The flows deliver material as well as kinetic energy and trigger thermal instability leading eventually to gravitational collapse.} {We perform adaptive mesh refinement MHD simulations which, for the first time in this context, treat self-consistently cooling and self-gravity.} {The clouds formed in the simulations develop a highly inhomogeneous density and temperature structure, with cold dense filaments and clumps condensing from converging flows of warm atomic gas. In the clouds, the column density probability density distribution (PDF) peaks at \sim 2 \times 10^{21} \psc and decays rapidly at higher values; the magnetic intensity correlates weakly with density from $n \sim 0.1$ to 10^4 \pcc, and then varies roughly as $n^{1/2}$ for higher densities.} {The global statistical properties of such molecular clouds are reasonably consistent with observational determinations. Our numerical simulations suggest that molecular clouds formed by the moderately supersonic collision of warm atomic gas streams.}Comment: submitted to A&