Analysing and improving methods of horse and rider safety on roads through campaigns and design experiences

There continues to be a rise in the number of incidents involving horse and rider on the UK roads, sparking an increase in attempts to educate the UK’s car driving public to the presence of horses. Through the analysis and study of different road users andh ow they use the roads individually, campaigns can be created that are tailored to their needs and experiences on the roads. In this study I combine behavioural theories and horse physiology, to explain factors that increase risk to horse and rider safety using the research-through-design approach. The work created seeks to support those in the event of a dangerous situation, allowing them to be prepared and to provide preventative techniques. The research also creates a foundation for further campaigns to be created that can be tailored to raise awareness about key problem areas and target specific audiences such as car drivers, lorry drivers and cyclists. By using semi-structured interviews, local police reports and horse and rider safety events, Iam able to assess current campaigns; and the design decisions behind their communications,thus opening them up for further analysis and future development. Drawing from this analysis, I concluded that a new campaign needed to be created to develop and bridge the gaps in the education of the general public in relation to horses and their safety on the roads

Soil organic carbon and root distribution in a temperate arable agroforestry system

Aim To determine, for arable land in a temperate area, the effect of tree establishment and intercropping treatments, on the distribution of roots and soil organic carbon to a depth of 1.5 m. Methods A poplar (Populus sp.) silvoarable agroforestry experiment including arable controls was established on arable land in lowland England in 1992. The trees were intercropped with an arable rotation or bare fallow for the first 11 years, thereafter grass was allowed to establish. Coarse and fine root distributions (to depths of up to 1.5 m and up to 5 m from the trees) were measured in 1996, 2003, and 2011. The amount and type of soil carbon to 1.5 m depth was also measured in 2011. Results The trees, initially surrounded by arable crops rather than fallow, had a deeper coarse root distribution with less lateral expansion. In 2011, the combined length of tree and understorey vegetation roots was greater in the agroforestry treatments than the control, at depths below 0.9 m. Between 0 and 1.5 m depth, the fine root carbon in the agroforestry treatment (2.56 t ha-1) was 79% greater than that in the control (1.43 t ha-1). Although the soil organic carbon in the top 0.6 m under the trees (161 t C ha-1) was greater than in the control (142 t C ha-1), a tendency for smaller soil carbon levels beneath the trees at lower depths, meant that there was no overall tree effect when a 1.5 m soil depth was considered. From a limited sample, there was no tree effect on the proportion of recalcitrant soil organic carbon. Conclusions The observed decline in soil carbon beneath the trees at soil depths greater than 60 cm, if observed elsewhere, has important implication for assessments of the role of afforestation and agroforestry in sequestering carbon

The stability of interfaces in fluidised beds

Imperial Users onl

Economic Potential of Using High Tunnel Hoop Houses to Produce Fruits and Vegetables

Abstract Hoop house plasticulture has been promoted as a production technology that allows fruit and vegetable crops to be grown in the cool season months in early spring and late fall. At this time little information regarding the economics of hoop house plasticulture is available. Two fruit and vegetable production systems were developed for growing conditions in south-central Oklahoma. The first system has a spinach crop followed by field tomato, and the second system has annually produced strawberry followed by yellow and zucchini squash. Crop production data were collected in a three-year randomized and replicated experiment. The objectives were (1) to determine the expected cost of production for each crop and systems, (2) to determine the breakeven price for each crop in each system, and (3) to determine how robust breakeven prices are to a number of yield, expense and marketing scenarios. The expected total cost of production were $1,968 and$1,652 per house for spinach and tomato crops, respectively, and $2,749,$359 and $353 per house for yellow and zucchini squash crops, respectively. Breakeven prices for spinach and tomato were$3.32 and $0.83 per pound, respectively, and$6.16, $0.92, and$1.40 per pound for strawberry and yellow and zucchini squash, respectively. Breakeven prices for spinach and strawberry crops were most sensitive to assumptions about quantity of marketable yield sold and/or quantity of yield consumed by grower household.breakeven prices, economics, fruits and vegetables, hoop houses, plasticulture, Agribusiness, Farm Management, Labor and Human Capital, Marketing, Production Economics,

Humanics by Maxwell Upson, UND Commencement: June 9, 1931 (Advance Copy)

Advance copy of the speech delivered by Maxwell Upson at the UND Commencement on June 9, 1931. Upson, a member of the UND Class of 1896, entitled his remarks: Humanics

Humanics by Maxwell Upson, UND Commencement: June 9, 1931

Text of the speech delivered by Maxwell Upson at the UND Commencement on June 9, 1931. Upson, a member of the UND Class of 1896, entitled his remarks: Humanics

Encounters with Indigenous Forest and Intuitive Painting

Ko te mahinga toi ka hono i te hinengaro, te tinana me te waahi. The practice of art connects mind, body and place. Painting is a great connector of being and place. It can promote strong connection to a particular forest. The process of painting is ideal for thinking with and elaborating an expression of human-plant-life relations. It animates the intensity of every exchange; it is an expression of being with the conditions. Through a painting-based art practice I have become very close to a particular site inside a fragment of an old growth forest named the Rātāpihipihi Scenic Reserve on the edge of Ngāmotu/New Plymouth city. Here, on the west coast of Te Ika-a-Māui, the North Island of Aotearoa New Zealand. It is in this place that I have spent a number of years painting alongside a group of centuries-old kohekohe (Dysoxylum spectabile), pukatea (Laurelia novae-zelandiae) and tawa (Beilschmiedia tawa) trees. Through the materiality and process of painting and being with these trees, I have come to articulate a concept of forestness. It is a deepening of my art practice as kotahitanga: practising “togetherness with forest.

Effects of an Increasingly Precise Socioeconomic Match on Mean Score Differences in Nonverbal Intelligence Test Scores

Data consisting of 3,861 participants from the Universal Nonverbal Intelligence Test (UNIT) standardization and validity studies samples were used to examine the effects of increased socioeconomic refinement on cultural and racial mean difference scores. Groups were equated not only on age, sex, and highest parent education level, as reported in the UNIT manual, but on two additional socioeconomic status (SES) indicators: community setting and both parent education levels. Results suggest that additional refinement on socioeconomic variables does little to further reduce mean score IQ differences in UNIT Standard FSIQ scores between African Americans and Whites (n=168 in each group; mean difference = 8.51, effect size= .55); however, the 8.51 mean difference is considerably smaller than the 15-point difference typically observed between African American and Whites and is lower than the 11 point difference shown for WISC-III FSIQ scores, even after SES matching. There were no significant mean IQ score differences (n=162, p\u3e.05) between Hispanics and Non Hispanics indicating that additional socioeconomic status refinement does contribute to reductions in mean score differences in IQ between these populations. In fact, Hispanics scored higher than their Non Hispanic counterparts on several subscales. Findings offer support for the use of the UNIT with diverse populations, as this measure of intelligence may limit the influence of irrelevant cultural factors in assessment. Future research on the use of nonverbal intelligence measures to predict minority student achievement, progressive conceptualizations of intelligent behavior, and exploration of within racial-ethnic group factors that contribute to or inhibit cognitive growth and academic achievement in minorities is warranted

The electrocardiogram in the eucalcemic, hypercalcemic and hypocalcemic animal

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1962 U6