55,893 research outputs found

    Effect of Land Application of Poultry Waste on Pesticide Loss

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    The poultry industry in Arkansas is a large, concentrated, growing industry that produces a high volume of fecal waste. Most of this waste is surface applied as pasture fertilizer. Pesticides are commonly used in the poultry industry for fly and litter beetle contro land are often a component of the surface-applied poultry waste. No information exists in the scientific literature regarding the transport of this pesticide component to nearby water supplies.Our research focused on cyromazine, a feed-through larvicide used to control flies in caged-layer hen houses. Tetrachlorvinphos and carbaryl are also used in poultry waste, but these pesticides have a relatively low solubility in water and rapid decomposition rate. Cyromazine, however, is highly soluble and stable in water. Since it may be readily washed from the pasture by heavy rainfall and may persist in surface and soil water, cyromazine appears to be potentially a much greater long-term threat to water quality than either carbaryl or tetrachlorvinphos. Therefore, the objective of this investigation was to examine the extent of cyromazine loss as a result of land application of caged layer manure. To quantify cyromazine loss from pasture plots treated with caged layer manure,research was conducted at the University of Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station at Fayetteville. Plots of uniform slope were bordered to isolate surface runoff, fitted with runoff collectors, and established in fescue pasture. Suction lysimeters were placed at the 60 cm depth to sample soil water in the unsaturated zone. Caged layer manure was analyzed for cyromazine concentration and applied to the plots at three different rates. Rainfall was applied by simulator at two intensities. Surface runoff and lysimeter samples were measured and analyzed for cyromazine concentration. A solid phase extraction procedure was used to separate the cyromazine from the water samples and analysis was done by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Results showed that a heavier manure application increased both the runoff and cyromazine concentration. Higher rainfall intensity also increased total cyromazine loss in the runoff, but provided enough runoff volume to decrease the cyromazine concentration. Soil water from the unsaturated zone was monitored for a year following the manure application, but neither cyromazine nor its metabolite, melamine, were detected

    Evaluation of the Water Quality Impacts of Land Application of Poultry Litter

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    Evaluating the effect of land application of animal waste on water quality is fraught with inherent variability due to differing infiltration rates, slope, rainfall intensity and etc . Simulated rainfall technology has been used in erosion research for decades. Generally, this technology is used on plots of sufficient size (25 x 5 m) to develop rill and interrill erosion. The object of this investigation was to adapt and modify existing rainfall simulation technology used in soil erosion research for use in evaluating water quality impacts of land application of animal waste, and to test, evaluate and demonstrate it\u27s scientific validity. State of the art simulation technology was obtained from the National Soil Erosion Research Laboratory located on the campus of Purdue University. The technology was scaled (2 x 6 m) and modified to fit into field research programs having several treatments and rep 1 i cated p 1 ots . The technology was shown to meet specification needed to produce the required raindrop size and velocity, flexibility in storm intensity, while maintaining uniformity(\u3e 0.8). Equally important, the unit is portable and fits well into labor intensive runoff work requiring replication of a variety of treatments

    Theoretical and experimental investigations of upper atmosphere dynamics

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    A brief overview of the significant contributions made to the understanding of the dynamics of the Earth's upper atmosphere is presented, including the addition of winds and diffusion to the semi-empirical Global Reference Atmospheric Model developed for the design phase of the Space Shuttle, reviews of turbulence in the lower thermosphere, the dynamics of the equatorial mesopause, stratospheric warming effects on mesopause level dynamics, and the relevance of these studies to the proposed Middle Atmosphere Program (1982-85). A chronological bibliography, with abstracts of all papers published, is also included

    Nonclassical shallow water flows

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    This paper deals with violent discontinuities in shallow water flows with large Froude number FF. On a horizontal base, the paradigm problem is that of the impact of two fluid layers in situations where the flow can be modelled as two smooth regions joined by a singularity in the flow field. Within the framework of shallow water theory we show that, over a certain timescale, this discontinuity may be described by a delta-shock, which is a weak solution of the underlying conservation laws in which the depth and mass and momentum fluxes have both delta function and step functioncomponents. We also make some conjectures about how this model evolves from the traditional model for jet impacts in which a spout is emitted. For flows on a sloping base, we show that for flow with an aspect ratio of \emph{O}(F2F^{-2}) on a base with an \emph{O(1)} or larger slope, the governing equations admit a new type of discontinuous solution that is also modelled as a delta-shock. The physical manifestation of this discontinuity is a small `tube' of fluid bounding the flow. The delta-shock conditions for this flow are derived and solved for a point source on an inclined plane. This latter delta-shock framework also sheds light on the evolution of the layer impact on a horizontal base

    A model-based constraint on CO<sub>2</sub> fertilisation

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    We derive a constraint on the strength of CO2 fertilisation of the terrestrial biosphere through a “top-down” approach, calibrating Earth system model parameters constrained by the post-industrial increase of atmospheric CO2 concentration. We derive a probabilistic prediction for the globally averaged strength of CO2 fertilisation in nature, for the period 1850 to 2000 AD, implicitly net of other limiting factors such as nutrient availability. The approach yields an estimate that is independent of CO2 enrichment experiments. To achieve this, an essential requirement was the incorpo- ration of a land use change (LUC) scheme into the GENIE Earth system model. Using output from a 671-member ensemble of transient GENIE simulations, we build an emulator of the change in atmospheric CO2 concentration change since the preindustrial period. We use this emulator to sample the 28-dimensional input parameter space. A Bayesian calibration of the emulator output suggests that the increase in gross primary productivity (GPP) in response to a doubling of CO2 from preindustrial values is very likely (90 % confidence) to exceed 20 %, with a most likely value of 40–60 %. It is important to note that we do not represent all of the possible contributing mechanisms to the terrestrial sink. The missing processes are subsumed into our calibration of CO2 fertilisation, which therefore represents the combined effect of CO2 fertilisation and additional missing processes. If the missing processes are a net sink then our estimate represents an upper bound. We derive calibrated estimates of carbon fluxes that are consistent with existing estimates. The present-day land–atmosphere flux (1990–2000) is estimated at −0.7 GTC yr−1 (likely, 66 % confidence, in the range 0.4 to −1.7 GTC yr−1). The present-day ocean–atmosphere flux (1990–2000) is estimated to be −2.3 GTC yr−1 (likely in the range −1.8 to −2.7 GTC yr−1). We estimate cumulative net land emissions over the post-industrial period (land use change emissions net of the CO2 fertilisation and climate sinks) to be 66 GTC, likely to lie in the range 0 to 128 GTC

    Position determination of a lander and rover at Mars with Earth-based differential tracking

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    The presence of two or more landed or orbiting spacecraft at a planet provides the opportunity to perform extremely accurate Earth-based navigation by simultaneously acquiring Doppler data and either Same-Beam Interferometry (SBI) or ranging data. Covariance analyses were performed to investigate the accuracy with which lander and rover positions on the surface of Mars can be determined. Simultaneous acquisition of Doppler and ranging data from a lander and rover over two or more days enables determination of all components of their relative position to under 20 m. Acquiring one hour of Doppler and SBI enables three dimensional lander-rover relative position determination to better than 5 m. Twelve hours of Doppler and either SBI or ranging from a lander and a low circular or half synchronous circular Mars orbiter makes possible lander absolute position determination to tens of meters

    Two-dimensional convolute integers for optical image data processing and surface fitting

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    An approach toward low-pass, high-pass and band-pass filtering is presented. Convolution coefficients possessing the filtering speed associated with a moving smoothing average without suffering a loss of resolution are discussed. Resolution was retained because the coefficients represented the equivalance of applying high order two-dimensional regression calculations to an image without considering the time-consuming summations associated with the usual normal equations. The smoothing (low-pass) and roughing (high-pass) aspects of the filters are a result of being derived from regression theory. The coefficients are universal integer valves completely described by filter size and surface order, and possess a number of symmetry properties. Double convolution lead to a single set of coefficients with an expanded mask which can yield band-pass filtering and the surface normal. For low order surfaces (0,1), the two-dimensional convolute integers were equivalent to a moving smoothing average

    Statistical Mechanics of Vibration-Induced Compaction of Powders

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    We propose a theory which describes the density relaxation of loosely packed, cohesionless granular material under mechanical tapping. Using the compactivity concept we develope a formalism of statistical mechanics which allows us to calculate the density of a powder as a function of time and compactivity. A simple fluctuation-dissipation relation which relates compactivity to the amplitude and frequency of a tapping is proposed. Experimental data of E.R.Nowak et al. [{\it Powder Technology} 94, 79 (1997) ] show how density of initially deposited in a fluffy state powder evolves under carefully controlled tapping towards a random close packing (RCP) density. Ramping the vibration amplitude repeatedly up and back down again reveals the existence of reversible and irreversible branches in the response. In the framework of our approach the reversible branch (along which the RCP density is obtained) corresponds to the steady state solution of the Fokker-Planck equation whereas the irreversible one is represented by a superposition of "excited states" eigenfunctions. These two regimes of response are analyzed theoretically and a qualitative explanation of the hysteresis curve is offered.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures, Latex. Revised tex
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