353 research outputs found
Comparing Profitability and Cash Flows of Agroforestry and Agriculture on Australian Farms
This paper is a summary of a project that compared the relative profitability of existing, emerging and prospective agroforestry systems with profitability of conventional agricultural land uses in the cropping zones of Western Australia and New South Wales. The project explored the economic boundary conditions under which several promising agroforestry systems may be viable in the lower rainfall zones. Partial budgeting and discounted cash flow techniques were used to conduct the comparative analysis of alternative land use scenarios. The profitability, cash flows and debt associated with each of the scenario are reported. The analysis underpinning this research provides estimates of the economic value of the temporal and spatial interaction effects of trees on agricultural crops and pastures.Farm Management,
EverFarmÂŽ - Climate adapted perennial-based farming systems for dryland agriculture in southern Australia
AbstractAustralian dryland agriculture will be affected by climate change in a number of ways. First, higher temperatures and changes to rainfall are likely to create greater variability of crop yields and livestock productivity. Second, government policies introduced to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions are likely to influence production costs and commodity prices. Third, global trade patterns are likely to alter as populations increase, and as climate change continues to affect producers and consumers worldwide. This will create both challenges and opportunities for Australian agriculture.Farmers will have to respond to the additional challenge of climate change even when it is compounded by existing long term stresses associated with declining terms of trade, climate variability and existing environmental issues. Investing in new land-use options to combat climate change, with their associated risks, is made more difficult by being set against a backdrop of declining profitability. The opportunity to create transformational change in farming enterprises was tested by combining the multiple components of the potential future perennialâbased dryland farming systems and assessing their expected contribution to climate change adaptation. This project has found that adopting perennial pastures for livestock grazing and tree crops for biomass production, when planted on appropriate soils, can improve profitability when compared to the existing land uses facing a changing climate. In some farming systems increased cropping is likely to result in improved future farm profits.This work demonstrated that Mallees as a biomass tree crop can be cohesively integrated into existing farming systems with minimal interruption to normal operations of livestock and cropping enterprises. A woody biomass crop can be profitable and diversify revenue risk by enabling farmers to supply biomass and sequester carbon to relevant markets. This work demonstrates suitable designs of a mallee belt planting layout that minimizes costs and maximizes benefits when planted in appropriate agroâclimatic zones and where there are adequate soil conditions. Knowledge developed from this work will help build farmers capacity about climate change adaptation and assist in achieving positive social, environmental and economic outcomes.Please cite this report as:Farquharson, R, Abadi, A, Finlayson, J, Ramilan, T, Liu, DL, Muhaddin, A, Clark, S, Robertson, S, Mendham, D, Thomas, Q, McGrath, J 2013 EverFarmÂŽ â Climate adapted perennial-based farming systems for dryland agriculture in southern Australia, National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility, Gold Coast, pp. 159.AbstractAustralian dryland agriculture will be affected by climate change in a number of ways. First, higher temperatures and changes to rainfall are likely to create greater variability of crop yields and livestock productivity. Second, government policies introduced to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions are likely to influence production costs and commodity prices. Third, global trade patterns are likely to alter as populations increase, and as climate change continues to affect producers and consumers worldwide. This will create both challenges and opportunities for Australian agriculture.Farmers will have to respond to the additional challenge of climate change even when it is compounded by existing long term stresses associated with declining terms of trade, climate variability and existing environmental issues. Investing in new land-use options to combat climate change, with their associated risks, is made more difficult by being set against a backdrop of declining profitability. The opportunity to create transformational change in farming enterprises was tested by combining the multiple components of the potential future perennialâbased dryland farming systems and assessing their expected contribution to climate change adaptation. This project has found that adopting perennial pastures for livestock grazing and tree crops for biomass production, when planted on appropriate soils, can improve profitability when compared to the existing land uses facing a changing climate. In some farming systems increased cropping is likely to result in improved future farm profits.This work demonstrated that Mallees as a biomass tree crop can be cohesively integrated into existing farming systems with minimal interruption to normal operations of livestock and cropping enterprises. A woody biomass crop can be profitable and diversify revenue risk by enabling farmers to supply biomass and sequester carbon to relevant markets. This work demonstrates suitable designs of a mallee belt planting layout that minimizes costs and maximizes benefits when planted in appropriate agroâclimatic zones and where there are adequate soil conditions. Knowledge developed from this work will help build farmers capacity about climate change adaptation and assist in achieving positive social, environmental and economic outcomes
Deep tillage : keep an eye on costs as well as yields
Deep tillage overcomes compaction of sandy soils caused by movement of heavy machinery. Many experiments since 1981 have shown cereal yields improve as a result of deep tillage. However, the increased yield does not necessarily mean more profit when costs are taken into account. To determine the profitability of deep tillage farmers must consider its impact on other farm operations. A whole-farm analysis is needed to accurately determine the increase in profit resulting from deep tillag
Analysis of the Elementary School Students Difficulties of in Solving Perimeter and Area Problems
The purpose of this study was to analyze the types (concepts, principles, and verbal) and forms of difficulties that elementary school students did in solving problems of perimeter and area of plane figures based on their level of completion ability. This research method is qualitative with a case study type. The technique of taking research subjects used purposive sampling by selecting three subjects of fifth-grade elementary school students based on the level of mathematical ability (low, moderate, and high) in solving perimeter and area of plane figures. Data collection techniques using tests and interviews. Data analysis techniques include data reduction, data presentation, and concluding. The results showed that students with low levels of ability experienced verbal difficulties in not working on the questions according to the instructions. Students with a moderate level of ability face conceptual difficulties in the form of being unable to make relevant decisions according to the requirements of the questions. In addition, students experience principle difficulties in the form of an inability to determine the relevant factors and incorrectly using the perimeter unit for the area unit. Students with a high level of ability experience principle difficulties in using formulas, so they tend to experience inaccuracies in solving problems. Other findings in this study provide that elementary school students have difficulty solving problems of perimeter and area of a plane figure because of basic problems, namely experiencing obstacles in verbal problems and inadequate conceptual knowledge
Head Trauma in Children: An Epidemiological Study
Introduction: Brain injury is one of the most common causes of death among victims of trauma in various accidents. The type of accident and outcome could be different in children from adults. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the epidemiology of traumatic head injury in children.
Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 114 patients (ageâ¤15 years) with head trauma, who were admitted to trauma ward of Imam Reza hospital in 2018 were enrolled in the study. Data regarding the demographic characteristics, mechanism of trauma, season of trauma, hemodynamic findings and outcome of the patients were collected.
Results: The mean age amongst victims of trauma was 6.52Âą3.95 years and majority of them (70.2%) were male. Most of traumatic accidents took place in the spring (27.2%) and summer (32.5%). Traffic accidents (pedestrians or passenger) (55.3%) and falling (39.5%) were the most common mechanism of trauma. Also, epidural hematoma (EDH) and brain contusion were the most encountered type of brain injury (1.75%). Nine patients (7.89%) underwent brain surgery. Eventually, eight patients (7.17%) died.
Conclusion: Falling and vehicle accidents are the main causes of head injury among children. Increasing the parentsâ awareness toward these types of accidents and proper preventive measures can reduce traumatic brain injury
Pricing decisions in a two-echelon decentralized supply chain using bi-level programming approach
Abstract Pricing is one of the major aspects of decision making in supply chain. In the previous works mostly a centralized environment is considered indicating the retailers cannot independently apply their decisions on the pricing strategy. Although in a two-echelon decentralized environment it may be possible that supply chain contributors have encountered with different market power situations which provide that some of them try to impose their interests in pricing and/or volume of the products. In such situations the leader-follower Stackelberg game or more specifically bi-level programming seems to be the best approach to overcome the problem. Furthermore, in this study we consider the impacts of disruption risk caused by foreign exchange uncertainty on pricing decisions in a multi-product two-echelon supply chain. Also it is assumed that the market is partitioned to domestic and international retailers with segmented market for each retailer. The purpose of this paper is to introduce decisions policy on the pricing such that the utility of both manufacturer and retailers is met. Since the proposed bi-level model is NP-hard, a simulated annealing method combining with Tabu search is proposed to solve the model. A numerical example is presented to investigate the effect of foreign exchange variation on the decision variables through different scenarios. The results from numerical example indicate that the international retailers are indifferent to the manufacture undergoes changes where the domestic retailers react to changes, dramatically
SEMI-BLIND SIGNAL SEPARATION AND CHANNEL ESTIMATION IN MIMO COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS BY TENSOR FACTORIZATION
ABSTRACT In this paper, we introduce a tensor-factorization method for signal detection in MIMO applications. We address the detection problem through a 3-way tensor analysis. We represent the 4 Ă 4 MIMO received signals as a third-order tensor with modes: receiver antennas, user data symbols at each packet, and finally number of packets. Then, we demonstrate that by multi-way analysis using PARAFAC2 we can successfully solve the blind MIMO signal detection problem. In order to solve the permutation and scaling ambiguities of the detected signals we used different M-Sequence training symbols are used. For evaluating the method we compared our BER results with those of MMSE-VBLAST signal detection method
Effect of temperature, heating rate and zeolite-based catalysts on the pyrolysis of high impact polystyrene (HIPS) waste to produce fuel-like products
Pyrolysis of high impact polystyrene (HIPS) waste has been investigated under different process parameters, such as temperature, heating rate and types of zeolitic catalysts to produce valuable liquid products. Liquid, gas and coke as products of pyrolysis and aromatic, naphthene, olefin and paraffin as liquid components were obtained and their molecular weight distributions were studied with changing the process parameters in a stirred reactor. Aromatic-rich hydrocarbons within the gasoline range were the main pyrolysis products. Type of zeolitic catalysts, temperature and heating rate had significant effects on the products quality and quantity. Non-isothermal mass losses of high impact polystyrene were measured using a thermo-gravimetric analyzer (TGA) at heating rates of 5, 15, 30, 45 and 90°C min-1 until the furnace wall temperature reached 600°C. The DTG (differential thermal gravimetric) curves showed that heating rate had no obvious effect on the degradation trends in the studied range, and by increasing heating rate, the activation energies were decreased obviously from 222.5 to183.6 kJ mol-1
On generalization based on Bi et al. Iterative methods with eighth-order convergence for solving nonlinear equations
The primary goal of this work is to provide a general optimal three-step class of iterative methods based on the schemes designed by Bi et al. (2009). Accordingly, it requires four functional evaluations per iteration with eighth-order convergence. Consequently, it satisfies Kung and Traub's conjecture relevant to construction optimal methods without memory. Moreover, some concrete methods of this class are shown and implemented numerically, showing their applicability and efficiency.The authors thank the anonymous referees for their valuable comments and for the suggestions to improve the readability of the paper. This research was supported by Islamic Azad University, Hamedan Branch, and Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnologia MTM2011-28636-C02-02.Lotfi, T.; Cordero Barbero, A.; Torregrosa SĂĄnchez, JR.; Abadi, MA.; Zadeh, MM. (2014). On generalization based on Bi et al. Iterative methods with eighth-order convergence for solving nonlinear equations. The Scientific World Journal. 2014. https://doi.org/10.1155/2014/272949S2014Behl, R., Kanwar, V., & Sharma, K. K. (2012). Another Simple Way of Deriving Several Iterative Functions to Solve Nonlinear Equations. Journal of Applied Mathematics, 2012, 1-22. doi:10.1155/2012/294086FernĂĄndez-Torres, G., & VĂĄsquez-Aquino, J. (2013). Three New Optimal Fourth-Order Iterative Methods to Solve Nonlinear Equations. Advances in Numerical Analysis, 2013, 1-8. doi:10.1155/2013/957496Kang, S. M., Rafiq, A., & Kwun, Y. C. (2013). A New Second-Order Iteration Method for Solving Nonlinear Equations. Abstract and Applied Analysis, 2013, 1-4. doi:10.1155/2013/487062Soleimani, F., Soleymani, F., & Shateyi, S. (2013). Some Iterative Methods Free from Derivatives and Their Basins of Attraction for Nonlinear Equations. Discrete Dynamics in Nature and Society, 2013, 1-10. doi:10.1155/2013/301718Bi, W., Ren, H., & Wu, Q. (2009). Three-step iterative methods with eighth-order convergence for solving nonlinear equations. Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics, 225(1), 105-112. doi:10.1016/j.cam.2008.07.004Bi, W., Wu, Q., & Ren, H. (2009). A new family of eighth-order iterative methods for solving nonlinear equations. Applied Mathematics and Computation, 214(1), 236-245. doi:10.1016/j.amc.2009.03.077Kung, H. T., & Traub, J. F. (1974). Optimal Order of One-Point and Multipoint Iteration. Journal of the ACM, 21(4), 643-651. doi:10.1145/321850.321860Cordero, A., Hueso, J. L., MartĂnez, E., & Torregrosa, J. R. (2010). New modifications of PotraâPtĂĄkâs method with optimal fourth and eighth orders of convergence. Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics, 234(10), 2969-2976. doi:10.1016/j.cam.2010.04.009Cordero, A., & Torregrosa, J. R. (2011). A class of Steffensen type methods with optimal order of convergence. Applied Mathematics and Computation, 217(19), 7653-7659. doi:10.1016/j.amc.2011.02.067Cordero, A., Torregrosa, J. R., & Vassileva, M. P. (2011). Three-step iterative methods with optimal eighth-order convergence. Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics, 235(10), 3189-3194. doi:10.1016/j.cam.2011.01.004DĹžuniÄ, J., & PetkoviÄ, M. S. (2012). A Family of Three-Point Methods of Ostrowskiâs Type for Solving Nonlinear Equations. Journal of Applied Mathematics, 2012, 1-9. doi:10.1155/2012/425867DĹžuniÄ, J., PetkoviÄ, M. S., & PetkoviÄ, L. D. (2011). A family of optimal three-point methods for solving nonlinear equations using two parametric functions. Applied Mathematics and Computation, 217(19), 7612-7619. doi:10.1016/j.amc.2011.02.055Heydari, M., Hosseini, S. M., & Loghmani, G. B. (2011). On two new families of iterative methods for solving nonlinear equations with optimal order. Applicable Analysis and Discrete Mathematics, 5(1), 93-109. doi:10.2298/aadm110228012hGeum, Y. H., & Kim, Y. I. (2010). A multi-parameter family of three-step eighth-order iterative methods locating a simple root. Applied Mathematics and Computation, 215(9), 3375-3382. doi:10.1016/j.amc.2009.10.030Geum, Y. H., & Kim, Y. I. (2011). A uniparametric family of three-step eighth-order multipoint iterative methods for simple roots. Applied Mathematics Letters, 24(6), 929-935. doi:10.1016/j.aml.2011.01.002Geum, Y. H., & Kim, Y. I. (2011). A biparametric family of eighth-order methods with their third-step weighting function decomposed into a one-variable linear fraction and a two-variable generic function. Computers & Mathematics with Applications, 61(3), 708-714. doi:10.1016/j.camwa.2010.12.020Kou, J., Wang, X., & Li, Y. (2010). Some eighth-order root-finding three-step methods. Communications in Nonlinear Science and Numerical Simulation, 15(3), 536-544. doi:10.1016/j.cnsns.2009.04.013Liu, L., & Wang, X. (2010). Eighth-order methods with high efficiency index for solving nonlinear equations. Applied Mathematics and Computation, 215(9), 3449-3454. doi:10.1016/j.amc.2009.10.040Wang, X., & Liu, L. (2010). New eighth-order iterative methods for solving nonlinear equations. Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics, 234(5), 1611-1620. doi:10.1016/j.cam.2010.03.002Wang, X., & Liu, L. (2010). Modified Ostrowskiâs method with eighth-order convergence and high efficiency index. Applied Mathematics Letters, 23(5), 549-554. doi:10.1016/j.aml.2010.01.009Sharma, J. R., & Sharma, R. (2009). A new family of modified Ostrowskiâs methods with accelerated eighth order convergence. Numerical Algorithms, 54(4), 445-458. doi:10.1007/s11075-009-9345-5Soleymani, F. (2011). Novel Computational Iterative Methods with Optimal Order for Nonlinear Equations. Advances in Numerical Analysis, 2011, 1-10. doi:10.1155/2011/270903Soleymani, F., Sharifi, M., & Somayeh Mousavi, B. (2011). An Improvement of Ostrowskiâs and Kingâs Techniques with Optimal Convergence Order Eight. Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, 153(1), 225-236. doi:10.1007/s10957-011-9929-9Soleymani, F., Karimi Vanani, S., & Afghani, A. (2011). A General Three-Step Class of Optimal Iterations for Nonlinear Equations. Mathematical Problems in Engineering, 2011, 1-10. doi:10.1155/2011/469512Soleymani, F., Vanani, S. K., Khan, M., & Sharifi, M. (2012). Some modifications of Kingâs family with optimal eighth order of convergence. Mathematical and Computer Modelling, 55(3-4), 1373-1380. doi:10.1016/j.mcm.2011.10.016Soleymani, F., Karimi Vanani, S., & Jamali Paghaleh, M. (2012). A Class of Three-Step Derivative-Free Root Solvers with Optimal Convergence Order. Journal of Applied Mathematics, 2012, 1-15. doi:10.1155/2012/568740Thukral, R. (2010). A new eighth-order iterative method for solving nonlinear equations. Applied Mathematics and Computation, 217(1), 222-229. doi:10.1016/j.amc.2010.05.048Thukral, R. (2011). Eighth-Order Iterative Methods without Derivatives for Solving Nonlinear Equations. ISRN Applied Mathematics, 2011, 1-12. doi:10.5402/2011/693787Thukral, R. (2012). New Eighth-Order Derivative-Free Methods for Solving Nonlinear Equations. International Journal of Mathematics and Mathematical Sciences, 2012, 1-12. doi:10.1155/2012/493456Thukral, R., & PetkoviÄ, M. S. (2010). A family of three-point methods of optimal order for solving nonlinear equations. Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics, 233(9), 2278-2284. doi:10.1016/j.cam.2009.10.012Wang, J. (2013). Heâs Max-Min Approach for Coupled Cubic Nonlinear Equations Arising in Packaging System. Mathematical Problems in Engineering, 2013, 1-4. doi:10.1155/2013/382509Babajee, D. K. R., Cordero, A., Soleymani, F., & Torregrosa, J. R. (2012). On a Novel Fourth-Order Algorithm for Solving Systems of Nonlinear Equations. Journal of Applied Mathematics, 2012, 1-12. doi:10.1155/2012/165452Montazeri, H., Soleymani, F., Shateyi, S., & Motsa, S. S. (2012). On a New Method for Computing the Numerical Solution of Systems of Nonlinear Equations. Journal of Applied Mathematics, 2012, 1-15. doi:10.1155/2012/751975Soleymani, F. (2012). A Rapid Numerical Algorithm to Compute Matrix Inversion. International Journal of Mathematics and Mathematical Sciences, 2012, 1-11. doi:10.1155/2012/134653Soleymani, F. (2013). A new method for solving ill-conditioned linear systems. Opuscula Mathematica, 33(2), 337. doi:10.7494/opmath.2013.33.2.337Thukral, R. (2012). Further Development of Jarratt Method for Solving Nonlinear Equations. Advances in Numerical Analysis, 2012, 1-9. doi:10.1155/2012/493707Cordero, A., & Torregrosa, J. R. (2007). Variants of Newtonâs Method using fifth-order quadrature formulas. Applied Mathematics and Computation, 190(1), 686-698. doi:10.1016/j.amc.2007.01.06
The clinicopathologic features of colorectal adenocarcinoma with respect to mismatch repair genes and KRAS status: a retrospective study
OBJECTIVE: KRAS and mismatch repair genes are two important molecular markers used in determining prognosis and probability of response to the targeted therapy in patients with colorectal cancer. In this study, the expression status of mismatch repair genes was investigated along with mutation in KRAS gene, and clinicopathologic features were also evaluated in these tumors.
PATIENTS AND METHODS: Clinical and pathological data were collected from 153 known cases of colorectal adenocarcinoma. Expression status of mismatch repair genes was assessed using immunohistochemistry (IHC) technique. Mutation in codons 12 and 13 of KRAS gene was evaluated using pyrosequencing technique. Relationship between clinical and pathologic features of the patients with status of MMR and KRAS markers was also investigated.
RESULTS: A total of 16.3% of tumors lacked expression at least in one of MLH1, MSH2, MSH6, and PMS2 proteins. KRAS was found to be mutated in 37.9% of the patients. Tumors were classified into four categories: dMMR + wild type KRAS (12.9%), dMMR + mutated KRAS (3.9%), pMMR + wild type KRAS (49.6%), and pMMR + mutated KRAS (33.9%). The dMMR tumors mostly had features, such as female gender, proximal location, mucinous production, increased number of lymph nodes, Signet ring cell, and vascular invasion. Compared to pMMR + wild type tumors, pMMR + mutated KRAS tumors were more associated with female gender, proximal location, mucinous component, and lymph node metastasis.
CONCLUSIONS: Results of this study indicated a relationship between MMR status and presence of mutated KRAS with clinicopathologic features of colorectal tumors. Knowledge about these markers along with pathological features can help us to predict metastatic progression and prognosis of the disease
- âŚ