Managing glyphosate resistance in Australian cotton farming: modelling shows how to delay evolution and maintain long-term population control

Glyphosate resistance is a rapidly developing threat to profitability in Australian cotton farming. Resistance causes an immediate reduction in the effectiveness of in-crop weed control in glyphosate-resistant transgenic cotton and summer fallows. Although strategies for delaying glyphosate resistance and those for managing resistant populations are qualitatively similar, the longer resistance can be delayed, the longer cotton growers will have choice over which tactics to apply and when to apply them. Effective strategies to avoid, delay, and manage resistance are thus of substantial value. We used a model of glyphosate resistance dynamics to perform simulations of resistance evolution in Sonchus oleraceus (common sowthistle) and Echinochloa colona (awnless barnyard grass) under a range of resistance prevention, delaying, and management strategies. From these simulations, we identified several elements that could contribute to effective glyphosate resistance prevention and management strategies. (i) Controlling glyphosate survivors is the most robust approach to delaying or preventing resistance. High-efficacy, high-frequency survivor control almost doubled the useful lifespan of glyphosate from 13 to 25 years even with glyphosate alone used in summer fallows. (ii) Two non-glyphosate tactics in-crop plus two in-summer fallows is the minimum intervention required for long-term delays in resistance evolution. (iii) Pre-emergence herbicides are important, but should be backed up with non-glyphosate knockdowns and strategic tillage; replacing a late-season, pre-emergence herbicide with inter-row tillage was predicted to delay glyphosate resistance by 4 years in awnless barnyard grass. (iv) Weed species' ecological characteristics, particularly seed bank dynamics, have an impact on the effectiveness of resistance strategies; S. oleraceus, because of its propensity to emerge year-round, was less exposed to selection with glyphosate than E. colona, resulting in an extra 5 years of glyphosate usefulness (18 v. 13 years) even in the most rapid cases of resistance evolution. Delaying tactics are thus available that can provide some or many years of continued glyphosate efficacy. If glyphosate-resistant cotton cropping is to remain profitable in Australian farming systems in the long-term, however, growers must adapt to the probability that they will have to deal with summer weeds that are no longer susceptible to glyphosate. Robust resistance management systems will need to include a diversity of weed control options, used appropriately.

Solutions of Boundary Layer Equations Governing Free Convective and Magnetohydrodynamic Flows through Parametric Differentiation

In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird die Methode der parametrischen Differentiation angewendet, um ein System nichtlinearer Gleichungen zu lösen, das zwei- und dreidimensionale freie, konvektive Grenzschichströmungen bzw. eine zweidimensionale magnetohydrodynamische Grenzschichtströmung beherrscht. Der Hauptvorteil dieser Methode besteht darin, daß die nichlinearen Gleichungen auf lineare reduziert werden und die Nichtlinearität auf ein System von Gleichungen erster Ordnung beschränkt wird, das, verglichen mit den ursprünglichen Nichtlinearen Gleichungen, viel leichter gelöst werden kann. Ein anderer Vorzug der Methode ist, daß sie es ermöglicht, die Lösung von einer bekannten, zu einem bestimmten Parameterwert gehörigen Lösung aus durch schrittweises Vorgehen die Lösung für den gesamten Parameterbereich zu erhalten. Die mit dieser Methode gewonnenen Ergebnisse stimmen gut mit den entsprechenden, mit anderen numerischen Verfahren erzielten überein.

Numerical studies on quasilinear and linear elliptic equations

We explore here the acceleration of convergence of iterative methods for the solution of a class of quasilinear and linear algebraic equations. The specific systems are the finite difference form of the Navier-Stokes equations and the energy equation for recirculating flows. The acceleration procedures considered are: the successive over relaxation scheme; several implicit methods; and a second-order procedure. A new implicit method—the alternating direction line iterative method—is proposed in this paper. The method combines the advantages of the line successive over relaxation and alternating direction implicit methods. The various methods are tested for their computational economy and accuracy on a typical recirculating flow situation. The numerical experiments show that the alternating direction line iterative method is the most economical method of solving the Navier-Stokes equations for all Reynolds numbers in the laminar regime. The usual ADI method is shown to be not so attractive for large Reynolds numbers because of the loss of diagonal dominance. This loss can however be restored by a suitable choice of the relaxation parameter, but at the cost of accuracy. The accuracy of the new procedure is comparable to that of the well-tested successive overrelaxation method and to the available results in the literature. The second-order procedure turns out to be the most efficient method for the solution of the linear energy equation.

Ignition delay studies on hydrocarbon fuel with and without additives

Single pulse shock tube facility has been developed in the High Temperature Chemical Kinetics Lab, Aerospace Engineering Department, to carry out ignition delay studies and spectroscopic investigations of hydrocarbon fuels. Our main emphasis is on measuring ignition delay through pressure rise and by monitoring CH emission for various jet fuels and finding suitable additives for reducing the delay. Initially the shock tube was tested and calibrated by measuring the ignition delay of C2H6-O2 mixture. The results are in good agreement with earlier published works. Ignition times of exo-tetrahdyrodicyclopentadiene (C10H16), which is a leading candidate fuel for scramjet propulsion has been studied in the reflected shock region in the temperature range 1250 - 1750 K with and without adding Triethylamine (TEA). Addition of TEA results in substantial reduction of ignition delay of C10H16.

Iterative solution of a class of linear equations with application to reconstruction of three-dimensional object arrays

An iterative algorithm baaed on probabilistic estimation is described for obtaining the minimum-norm solution of a very large, consistent, linear system of equations AX = g where A is an (m times n) matrix with non-negative elements, x and g are respectively (n times 1) and (m times 1) vectors with positive components.

Delay characteristics of a simple triggered vacuum gap

Firing delays of a simple triggered vacuum gap are reported in this paper. The effects of insulating materials in the auxiliary gap, auxiliary gap current, main gap current and electrode separation on the delay have been investigated. The presence of insulating material in the auxiliary gap having low auxiliary gap resistance appears to exhibit large delay. Delay decreases considerably with increase of current in the auxiliary and the main gaps, but it increases with increase of electrode separation. The scatter in the delay is less than 25 ps and 500 ps with supramica (Mycalex Corporation of America) and silicon carbide respectively at lower values of auxiliary gap current and it becomes negligible for supramica at auxiliary gap currents greater than 6A. This investigation appears to indicate that the simple device can be used as a fast switch.

Intrinsic equations of steady rotating, incompressible viscous fluid flow

The equations governing the flow of a steady rotating incompressible viscous fluid are expressed in intrinsic form along the vortex lines and their normals. Using these equations the effects of rotation on the geometric properties of viscous fluid flows are studied. A particular flow in which the vortex lines are right circular helices is discussed.

Approximation of the perturbation equations of a quasi-linear hyperbolic system in the neighborhood of a bicharacteristic

In 1956 Whitham gave a nonlinear theory for computing the intensity of an acoustic pulse of an arbitrary shape. The theory has been used very successfully in computing the intensity of the sonic bang produced by a supersonic plane. [4.] derived an approximate quasi-linear equation for the propagation of a short wave in a compressible medium. These two methods are essentially nonlinear approximations of the perturbation equations of the system of gas-dynamic equations in the neighborhood of a bicharacteristic curve (or rays) for weak unsteady disturbances superimposed on a given steady solution. In this paper we have derived an approximate quasi-linear equation which is an approximation of perturbation equations in the neighborhood of a bicharacteristic curve for a weak pulse governed by a general system of first order quasi-linear partial differential equations in m + 1 independent variables (t, x1,…, xm) and derived Gubkin's result as a particular case when the system of equations consists of the equations of an unsteady motion of a compressible gas. We have also discussed the form of the approximate equation describing the waves propagating upsteam in an arbitrary multidimensional transonic flow.

Analytical method for solving a set of inhomogeneous infinite simultaneous equations

It is shown that a method based on the principle of analytic continuation can be used to solve a set of inhomogeneous infinite simultaneous equations encountered in the analysis of surface acoustic wave propagation along the periodically perturbed surface of a piezoelectric medium.

An appendix to the paper "approximation of the perturbation equations of a quasi-linear hyperbolic system in the neighborhood of a bicharacteristic"

The theory of Varley and Cumberbatch [l] giving the intensity of discontinuities in the normal derivatives of the dependent variables at a wave front can be deduced from the more general results of Prasad which give the complete history of a disturbance not only at the wave front but also within a short distance behind the wave front. In what follows we omit the index M in Eq. (2.25) of Prasad [2].

Nonsimilar incompressible laminar boundary layers with magnetic field.

The solution of the steady laminar incompressible nonsimilar magneto-hydrodynamic boundary layer flow and heat transfer problem with viscous dissipation for electrically conducting fluids over two-dimensional and axisymmetric bodies with pressure gradient and magnetic field has been presented. The partial differential equations governing the flow have been solved numerically using an implicit finite-difference scheme. The computations have been carried out for flow over a cylinder and a sphere. The results indicate that the magnetic field tends to delay or prevent separation. The heat transfer strongly depends on the viscous dissipation parameter. When the dissipation parameter is positive (i.e. when the temperature of the wall is greater than the freestream temperature) and exceeds a certain value, the hot wall ceases to be cooled by the stream of cooler air because the ‘heat cushion’ provided by the frictional heat prevents cooling whereas the effect of the magnetic field is to remove the ‘heat cushion’ so that the wall continues to be cooled. The results are found to be in good agreement with those of the local similarity and local nonsimilarity methods except near the point of separation, but they are in excellent agreement with those of the difference-differential technique even near the point of separation.

Finite field computation technique for exact solution of systems of linear equations and interval linear programming problems

An error-free computational approach is employed for finding the integer solution to a system of linear equations, using finite-field arithmetic. This approach is also extended to find the optimum solution for linear inequalities such as those arising in interval linear programming probloms.

Analytical method for solving a set of infinite simultaneous equations

It is shown that a method based on the principle of analytic continuation can be used to solve a set of infinite simultaneous equations encountered in solving for the electric field of a periodic electrode structure.