Ruth Weiss nee Stern with Annette, Meir, and David Weiss at Mortimer Hill Farm; Mortimer, England..

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Management of the invasive hill raspberry (Rubus niveus) on Santiago Island, Galapagos: Eradication or indefinite control?

The eradication of an invasive plant species can provide substantial ecological and economic benefits by eliminating completely the negative effects of the weed and reducing the high cost of continuing control. A 5-yr program toward the eradication of hill raspberry (Rubus niveus Thunb.) in Santiago Island is evaluated using delimitation and extirpation criteria, as well as assessment of the ecological community response to management techniques. Currently, hill raspberry is located in the humid zone of Santiago island. It is distributed over three main infestations, small patches, and many scattered individuals within an area of approximately 1,000 ha. New infestations are constantly being found; every year, new detections add an area of approximately 175 ha. Adult and juvenile individuals are still found, both beyond and within known infestations. Both plant and seed bank density of hill raspberry decreased over time where infestations were controlled. Species composition in the seed bank and existing vegetation were significantly different between areas under intensive control and adjacent uninvaded forest. After 5 yr of intensive management, delimitation of hill raspberry has not been achieved; new populations are found every year, increasing the infested area that requires management. Off-target effects on native species resulting from control efforts seem to be substantial. Although a vast increase in economic investment would allow intensive searching that might enable all individuals to be found and controlled, the resultant disturbance and off-targets effects could outweigh the conservation benefits of eradication.

Optimizing Hill Seeding Density for High-Yielding Hybrid Rice in a Single Rice Cropping System in South China

Mechanical hill direct seeding of hybrid rice could be the way to solve the problems of high seeding rates and uneven plant establishment now faced in direct seeded rice; however, it is not clear what the optimum hill seeding density should be for high-yielding hybrid rice in the single-season rice production system. Experiments were conducted in 2010 and 2011 to determine the effects of hill seeding density (25 cm 615 cm, 25 cm 617 cm, 25 cm 619 cm, 25 cm 621 cm, and 25 cm 623 cm; three to five seeds per hill) on plant growth and grain yield of a hybrid variety, Nei2you6, in two fields with different fertility (soil fertility 1 and 2). In addition, in 2012 and 2013, comparisons among mechanical hill seeding, broadcasting, and transplanting were conducted with three hybrid varieties to evaluate the optimum seeding density. With increases in seeding spacing from 25 cm615 cm to 25 cm623 cm, productive tillers per hill increased by 34.2% and 50.0% in soil fertility 1 and 2. Panicles per m2 declined with increases in seeding spacing in soil fertility 1. In soil fertility 2, no difference in panicles per m2 was found at spacing ranging from 25 cm617 cm to 25 cm623 cm, while decreases in the area of the top three leaves and aboveground dry weight per shoot at flowering were observed. Grain yield was the maximum at 25 cm 617 cm spacing in both soil fertility fields. Our results suggest that a seeding density of 25 cm617 cm was suitable for high-yielding hybrid rice. These results were verified through on-farm demonstration experiments, in which mechanical hill-seeded rice at this density had equal or higher grain yield than transplanted rice

Request that remains of Mrs. Miriam Levy be buried in New York or Newport

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On the relationship of thermodynamic parameters with the buried surface area in protein-ligand complex formation

Prediction of thermodynamic parameters of protein-protein and antigen-antibody complex formation from high resolution structural parameters has recently received much attention, since an understanding of the contributions of different fundamental processes like hydrophobic interactions, hydrogen bonding, salt bridge formation, solvent reorganization etc. to the overall thermodynamic parameters and their relations with the structural parameters would lead to rational drug design. Using the results of the dissolution of hydrocarbons and other model compounds the changes in heat capacity (DeltaCp), enthalpy (DeltaH) and entropy (DeltaS) have been empirically correlated with the polar and apolar surface areas buried during the process of protein folding/unfolding and protein-ligand complex formation. In this regard, the polar and apolar surfaces removed from the solvent in a protein-ligand complex have been calculated from the experimentally observed values of changes in heat capacity (DeltaCp) and enthalpy (DeltaH) for protein-ligand complexes for which accurate thermodynamic and high resolution structural data are available, and the results have been compared with the x-ray crystallographic observations. Analyses of the available results show poor correlation between the thermodynamic and structural parameters. Probable reasons for this discrepancy are mostly related with the reorganization of water accompanying the reaction which is indeed proven by the analyses of the energetics of the binding of the wheat germ agglutinin to oligosaccharides.

Unsteady Natural Convection Flow over a Heated Cylinder Buried in a Fluid Saturated Porous Medium

Transient natural convection flow on a heated cylinder buried in a semi-infinite liquid-saturated porous medium has been studied. The unsteadiness in the problem arises due to the cylinder which is heated (cooled) suddenly and then maintained at that temperature. The coupled partial differential equations governing the flow and heat transfer are cast into stream function-temperature formulation, and the solutions are obtained from the initial time to the time when steady state is reached. The heat transfer is found to change significantly with increasing time in a small time interval immediately after the start of the impulsive change, and steady state is reached after some time. The average Nusselt number is found to increase with Rayleigh number When the surface of the cylinder is suddenly cooled, there is a change in the direction of the heat transfer in a small time interval immediately after the start of the impulsive change in the surface temperature;however when the surface temperature is suddenly increased, no such phenomenon is observed.

Transient NEMP Field Coupling With Buried Shielded Cables

The interaction of transient electromagnetic field due to an NEMP with buried cables has been studied in this paper. The cables studied were of two types: shielded as well as unshielded cables. Using transmission line analysis, the induced voltage and current are computed at the load end of the cable for different soil conductivities, different depths of burial of cable and for different lengths of the cable. Effect of shielding on the induced voltage on the cable inner conductor as well as the dependence of the induced voltage on the shield thickness are also studied.

Field performance of in-service cast iron gas reticulation pipe buried in reactive clay

Field instrumentation of an in-service cast iron gas pipe buried in a residential area is detailed in this paper. The aim of the study was to monitor the long-term pipe behavior to understand the mechanisms of pipe bending in relation to ground movement as a result of seasonal fluctuation of soil moisture content. Field data showed that variation of soil temperature, suction, and moisture content are closely related to the prevailing climate. Change of soil temperature is generally related to the ambient air temperature, with a variation of approximately −3°C −3°C per meter depth from the ground surface in summer (decrease with depth) and winter (increase with depth). Seasonal cyclic variation in moisture content was observed with maxima in February and March, and a minimum around September. The pipe top was under tensile strain during summer and subsequently subjected to compressive strain as soil swelling occurred as a result of increase in moisture content. The study suggests that downward pipe bending occurs in summer because of soil shrinkage, while upward pipe bending occurs in winter when the soil swells.

A PPCA based non-parametric modeling and retrieval of PD signal buried in excessive noise

The problem of on-line recognition and retrieval of relatively weak industrial signals such as partial discharges (PD), buried in excessive noise, has been addressed in this paper. The major bottleneck being the recognition and suppression of stochastic pulsive interference (PI) due to the overlapping broad band frequency spectrum of PI and PD pulses. Therefore, on-line, onsite, PD measurement is hardly possible in conventional frequency based DSP techniques. The observed PD signal is modeled as a linear combination of systematic and random components employing probabilistic principal component analysis (PPCA) and the pdf of the underlying stochastic process is obtained. The PD/PI pulses are assumed as the mean of the process and modeled instituting non-parametric methods, based on smooth FIR filters, and a maximum aposteriori probability (MAP) procedure employed therein, to estimate the filter coefficients. The classification of the pulses is undertaken using a simple PCA classifier. The methods proposed by the authors were found to be effective in automatic retrieval of PD pulses completely rejecting PI.

High power microwave coupling with a buried twisted pair cable

This paper deals with the coupling of High Power Microwaves with a buried twisted pair cable. The electric field at a distance of 1km from the HPM antenna has been computed and is used for further computation of induced voltage and current. It is found that the peak of the induced current and voltage in a buried unshielded twisted pair cable at a distance of 1km from an HPM antenna of power level 10GW is 20A and 2kV respectively.

A landscape-level assessment of Asian elephant habitat, its population and elephant-human conflict in the Anamalai hill ranges of southern Western Ghats, India

Spatial information at the landscape scale is extremely important for conservation planning, especially in the case of long-ranging vertebrates. The biodiversity-rich Anamalai hill ranges in the Western Ghats of southern India hold a viable population for the long-term conservation of the Asian elephant. Through rapid but extensive field surveys we mapped elephant habitat, corridors, vegetation and land-use patterns, estimated the elephant population density and structure, and assessed elephant-human conflict across this landscape. GIS and remote sensing analyses indicate that elephants are distributed among three blocks over a total area of about 4600 km(2). Approximately 92% remains contiguous because of four corridors; however, under 4000 km2 of this area may be effectively used by elephants. Nine landscape elements were identified, including five natural vegetation types, of which tropical moist deciduous forest is dominant. Population density assessed through the dung count method using line transects covering 275 km of walk across the effective elephant habitat of the landscape yielded a mean density of 1.1 (95% Cl = 0.99-1.2) elephant/km(2). Population structure from direct sighting of elephants showed that adult male elephants constitute just 2.9% and adult females 42.3% of the population with the rest being subadults (27.4%), juveniles (16%) and calves (11.4%). Sex ratios show an increasing skew toward females from juvenile (1:1.8) to sub-adult (1:2.4) and adult (1:14.7) indicating higher mortality of sub-adult and adult males that is most likely due to historical poaching for ivory. A rapid questionnaire survey and secondary data on elephant-human conflict from forest department records reveals that villages in and around the forest divisions on the eastern side of landscape experience higher levels of elephant-human conflict than those on the western side; this seems to relate to a greater degree of habitat fragmentation and percentage farmers cultivating annual crops in the east. We provide several recommendations that could help maintain population viability and reduce elephant-human conflict of the Anamalai elephant landscape. (C) 2013 Deutsche Gesellschaft far Saugetierkunde. Published by Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

Vertical Uplift Resistance of Pipes Buried in Sand

By incorporating the variation of peak soil friction angle (phi) with mean principal stress (sigma(m)), the effect of pipe diameter (D) on the vertical uplift resistance of a long horizontal pipeline embedded in sand has been investigated. The analysis has been performed by using the lower bound finite-element limit analysis in combination with nonlinear optimization. Three well-defined phi versus sigma(m) curves reported from literature for different sands have been used. It is observed that for a given embedment ratio, with an increase in pipe diameter, the magnitude of the uplift factor (F-gamma) reduces quite significantly, which indicates the importance of considering scale effects while designing buried pipe lines. The scale effects have been found to become even more substantial with an increase in the embedment ratio. The analysis compares well with various theoretical results reported from literature. On the other hand, as compared to available centrifuge test results, the present analysis has been found to provide quite a higher magnitude of the uplift resistance when the theoretical prediction is based on peak soil friction angle. However, if the theoretical analysis is performed by using the friction angle that accounts for the progressive shear failure, the difference between the theoretical and centrifuge test results decreases quite significantly.(C) 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.

Effect of Groundwater Seepage on Uplift Resistance of Buried Pipelines

The uplift resistance of pipelines buried in sands, in the presence of inclined groundwater flow, considering both upward and downward flow directions, has been determined by using the lower bound finite elements limit analysis in conjunction with nonlinear optimization. A correction factor (f (gamma) ), which needs to be multiplied with the uplift factor (F (gamma) ), has been computed to account for groundwater seepage. The variation of f (gamma) has been obtained as a function of i(gamma (w) /gamma (sub) ) for different horizontal inclinations (theta) of groundwater flow; where i = absolute magnitude of hydraulic gradient along the direction of flow, gamma (w) is the unit weight of water and gamma (sub) is the submerged unit weight of soil mass. For a given magnitude of i, there exists a certain critical value of theta for which the magnitude of f (gamma) becomes the minimum. An example has also been presented to illustrate the application of the results obtained for designing pipelines in presence of groundwater seepage.

Experimental and numerical studies on protection of buried pipelines and underground utilities using geocells

This paper presents the results of the laboratory model tests and the numerical studies conducted on small diameter PVC pipes, buried in geocell reinforced sand beds. The aim of the study was to evaluate the suitability of the geocell reinforcement in protecting the underground utilities and buried pipelines. In addition to geocells, the efficacy of only geogrid and geocell with additional basal geogrid cases were also studied. A PVC (Poly Vinyl Chloride) pipe with external diameter 75 mm and thickness 1.4 mm was used in the experiments. The vehicle tire contact pressure was simulated by applying the pressure on the top of the bed with the help of a steel plate. Results suggest that the use of geocells with additional basal geogrid considerably reduces the deformation of the pipe as compared to other types of reinforcements. Further, the depth of placement of pipe was also varied between 1B to 2B (B is the width of loading plate) below the plate in the presence of geocell with additional basal geogrid. More than 50% reduction in the pressure and more than 40% reduction in the strain values were observed in the presence of reinforcements at different depths as compared to the unreinforced beds. Conversely, the performance of the subgrade soil was also found to be marginally influenced by the position of the pipe, even in the presence of the relatively stiff reinforcement system. Further, experimental results were validated with 3-dimensional numerical studies using FLAC(3D) (Fast Lagrangian Analysis of Continua in 3D). A good agreement in the measured pipe stain values were observed between the experimental and numerical studies. Numerical studies revealed that the geocells distribute the stresses in the lateral direction and thus reduce the pressure on the pipe. In addition, the results of the 1-g model tests were scaled up to the prototype case of the shallow buried pipeline below the pavement using the appropriate scaling laws. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.