1,456 research outputs found

    Fruit Pest Events and Phenological Development According to Accumulated Heat Units

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    Mammals are "warm-blooded" and develop at a constant rate regardless of the environmental temperature, because they are able to maintain an internal temperature that allows their biochemical reactions to progress normally. Insects, which are "exothermic" (the same temperature as their environment; there is no such thing as "cold-blooded"), do not generate body heat, and are therefore limited in their development to periods of favorable external temperature. Below a certain temperature, which varies among species, the insect's biochemical reactions cannot proceed, and development stops. This temperature is known as the insect's developmental threshold ordevelopmental base. By charting the ambient temperature, it is possible to keep track of insect development, which is directly proportional to the amount of time accumulated above the developmental threshold (up to some maximum not often reached during the season). We arbitrarily divide this time into heat units, or degree-days (DD)

    Advanced crew procedures development techniques

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    The development of an operational computer program, the Procedures and Performance Program (PPP), is reported which provides a procedures recording and crew/vehicle performance monitoring capability. The PPP provides real time CRT displays and postrun hardcopy of procedures, difference procedures, performance, performance evaluation, and training script/training status data. During post-run, the program is designed to support evaluation through the reconstruction of displays to any point in time. A permanent record of the simulation exercise can be obtained via hardcopy output of the display data, and via magnetic tape transfer to the Generalized Documentation Processor (GDP). Reference procedures data may be transferred from the GDP to the PPP

    Crew procedures development techniques

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    The study developed requirements, designed, developed, checked out and demonstrated the Procedures Generation Program (PGP). The PGP is a digital computer program which provides a computerized means of developing flight crew procedures based on crew action in the shuttle procedures simulator. In addition, it provides a real time display of procedures, difference procedures, performance data and performance evaluation data. Reconstruction of displays is possible post-run. Data may be copied, stored on magnetic tape and transferred to the document processor for editing and documentation distribution

    Emotional and Adrenocortical Responses of Infants to the Strange Situation: The Differential Function of Emotional Expression

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    The aim of the study was to investigate biobehavioural organisation in infants with different qualities of attachment. Quality of attachment (security and disorganisation), emotional expression, and adrenocortical stress reactivity were investigated in a sample of 106 infants observed during Ainsworth’s Strange Situation at the age of 12 months. In addition, behavioural inhibition was assessed from maternal reports. As expected, securely attached infants did not show an adrenocortical response. Regarding the traditionally defined insecurely attached groups, adrenocortical activation during the strange situation was found for the ambivalent group, but not for the avoidant one. Previous ndings of increased adrenocortical activity in disorganised infants could not be replicated. In line with previous ndings, adrenocortical activation was most prominent in insecure infants with high behavioural inhibition indicating the function of a secure attachment relationship as a social buffer against less adaptive temperamental dispositions. Additional analyses indicated that adrenocortical reactivity and behavioural distress were not based on common activation processes. Biobehavioural associations within the different attachment groups suggest that biobehavioural processes in securely attached infants may be different from those in insecurely attached and disorganised groups. Whereas a coping model may be applied to describe the biobehavioural organisation of secure infants, an arousal model explanation may be more appropriate for the other groups

    Using pooled data for genomic prediction in a bivariate framework with missing data

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    Pooling samples to derive group genotypes can enable the economically efficient use of commercial animals within genetic evaluations. To test a multivariate framework for genetic evaluations using pooled data, simulation was used to mimic a beef cattle population including two moderately heritable traits with varying genetic correlations, genotypes and pedigree data. There were 15 generations (n = 32,000; random selection and mating), and the last generation was subjected to genotyping through pooling. Missing records were induced in two ways: (a) sequential culling and (b) random missing records. Gaps in genotyping were also explored whereby genotyping occurred through generation 13 or 14. Pools of 1, 20, 50 and 100 animals were constructed randomly or by minimizing phenotypic variation. The EBV was estimated using a bivariate single-step genomic best linear unbiased prediction model. Pools of 20 animals constructed by minimizing phenotypic variation generally led to accuracies that were not different than using individual progeny data. Gaps in genotyping led to significantly different EBV accuracies (p \u3c .05) for sires and dams born in the generation nearest the pools. Pooling of any size generally led to larger accuracies than no information from generation 15 regardless of the way missing records arose, the percentage of records available or the genetic correlation. Pooling to aid in the use of commercial data in genetic evaluations can be utilized in multivariate cases with varying relationships between the traits and in the presence of systematic and randomly missing phenotypes

    Models of OH Maser Variations in U Her

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    Arecibo spectra of the mainline OH maser emission from U Her over more than a decade show variations of the OH emission over these time scales. These observations are combined with high spatial resolution VLBA maps to investigate the causes of the variations in the velocities of the maser components. Global properties of the dust shell, such as accelerations, variations in the pump and shell-wide magnetic field changes are examined as possibilities, and eliminated. A possible solution to the problem involving plasma turbulence and the local magnetic field is introduced, and the relevant time scales of the turbulence are calculated. The turbulent velocity field yields time scales of the turbulence are calculated. The turbulent velocity field yields time scales that are too long (of order centuries), while the turbulent magnetic field produces variations on appropriate time scales of a few years. A line-of-sight model of the turbulence is developed and investigated. The complete exploration of this solution requires extensive theoretical and observational work. Possible avenues of investigation of the plasma turbulence model are presented.Comment: 23 pages, 17 figures, ApJ: accepted Sept, 199

    Interstellar Scintillation Observations of 146 Extragalactic Radio Sources

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    From 1979--1996 the Green Bank Interferometer was used by the Naval Research Laboratory to monitor the flux density from 146 compact radio sources at frequencies near 2 and 8 GHz. We filter the ``light curves'' to separate intrinsic variations on times of a year or more from more rapid interstellar scintilation (ISS) on times of 5--50 d. Whereas the intrinsic variation at 2 GHz is similar to that at 8 GHz (though diminished in amplitude), the ISS variation is much stronger at 2 than at 8 GHz. We characterize the ISS variation by an rms amplitude and a timescale and examine the statistics of these parameters for the 121 sources with significant ISS at 2 GHz. We model the scintillations using the NE2001 Galactic electron model assuming the sources are brightness-limited. We find the observed rms amplitude to be in general agreement with the model, provided that the compact components of the sources have about 50% of their flux density in a component with maximum brightness temperatures 101110^{11}--101210^{12}K. Thus our results are consistent with cm-wavelength VLBI studies of compact AGNs, in that the maximum brightness temperatures found are consistent with the inverse synchrotron limit at 3×10113 \times 10^{11} K, boosted in jet configurations by Doppler factors up to about 20. The average of the observed 2 GHz ISS timescales is in reasonable agreement with the model at Galactic latitudes above about 10\de. At lower latitudes the observed timescales are too fast, suggesting that the transverse plasma velocity increases more than expected beyond about 1 kpc.Comment: 32 pages, 16 figures. Submitted to Ap

    Confirmation of a Faraday Rotation Measure Anomaly in Cygnus

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    We confirm the reality of a reversal of the sign of the Faraday Rotation Measure in the Galactic plane in Cygnus (Lazio et al, 1990), possibly associated with the Cygnus OB1 association. The rotation measure changes by several hundred rad/m2^2 over an angular scale of 2−5∘2-5^{\circ}. We show that a simple model of an expanding plasma shell with an enhanced density and magnetic field, consistent with observations of Hα\alpha emission in this part of sky, and physically associated with a superbubble of the Cygnus OB1 association, can account for the magnitude and angular scale of this feature.Comment: Submitted to the Astrophysical Journa
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