Tiriamojo darbo objektas – žieminiai javai išauginti ekologinės ir intensyvios žemės ūkio gamybos ūkiuose Raseinių raj. Girkalnio ir Nemakščių seniūnijose. Tyrimo tikslas - ištirti javų žiemojimo ypatumus ekologinės ir intensyvios žemės ūkio gamybos ūkiuose. Tyrimo metodika. Tyrimas buvo atliktas 2008 – 2009 m. Raseinių rajono Girkalnio ir Nemakščių seniūnijos ūkiuose. Tyrimų dirvožemis – išplautžemis. Buvo pasirinkti 2 intensyvios ir 2 ekologinės žemės ūkio gamybos ūkiai. Šiuose ūkiuose buvo auginami žieminiai javai (rugiai, kviečiai ir kvietrugiai). Augalų skaičiavimo vietų skaičius buvo nustatomas pagal lauko dydį. Javų lauke atsitiktinai išskiriamos vietos po 0,25 m2 tyrimo laukelius kiekvieno lauko pradžioje, viduryje ir gale. Kiekvienoje vietoje suskaičiuojami augalai vegetacijos pradžioje ir prieš derliaus nuėmimą. Gauti duomenys perskaičiuojami į 1 m2. Pasinaudojant rudens ir pavasario augalų tankumo duomenimis buvo apskaičiuotas žiemojimo procentas. Tarp augalų skaičiaus rudenį ir peržiemojimo procento apskaičiuoti koreliaciniai ryšiai. Taip pat apskaičiuoti koreliaciniai ryšiai tarp augalų tankumo ir oro temperatūros. Tyrimo rezultatai. Atlikus tyrimus minėtuose laukuose suskaičiuota, kad ekologinės žemės ūkio gamybos ūkiuose tankiausi buvo žieminiai rugiai. Jų augalų skaičius įvairavo nuo 344 iki 580 vnt. m2, o intensyvios – žieminiai kvietrugiai, kurių priskaičiuota nuo 380 iki 568 augalų. Pavasarį tiek žieminių rugių, tiek ir žieminių kvietrugių išliko... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The study objective – to explore the characteristics of organic winter cereals and intensive agricultural production on farms. Objective – winter crops have been grown in organic and intensive agricultural production on farms Raseiniu region. Method of the work. The study was carried out in 2008 - 2009 on Raseiniu Girkalnio district and parish Nemakščių farms. Soil surveys - Luvisol. It was choice two and two intensive organic agricultural production of farms. These holdings have grown winter cereals (rye, wheat and triticale). Plant counting the number of sites were determined by field size. Cereal field identifies the local random 0.25 m2 for each field of study in the fields early, middle and rear. Each site counted at the beginning of vegetation and plants before harvest. The data obtained are converted into 1 m2. Through the autumn and spring plant density was estimated wintering percent. Among the number of plants in autumn and peržiemojimo calculate percent correlation. Also calculate the correlation between plant density and air temperature. The results of the work. After research in these fields has been calculated that organic agricultural farms were densest winter rye. Their number of plants varied from 344 to 580 units. m2, and intense - winter triticale, which counted from 380 to 568 plants. In spring and winter rye and winter triticale, and remained the least. Among the studies found an average variation - from 10 to 20 percent.Cereal hibernation depends on... [to full text]

This thesis research has attempted to address two challenging problems in winter road maintenance, namely road surface condition (RSC) estimation and forecasting. For RSC estimation, the goal of the research was to develop models to discriminate RSC classes based on continuous friction measurements (CFM) and other available data such as temperature and precipitation history. A systematic exploratory study was conducted on an extensive field data set to identify the categorical relationship between RSC and various aggregate CFM measures, such as those related to probability distribution and spatial correlation. A new multi-level model structure was designed, under which binary logistic regression models were calibrated and validated utilizing several carefully chosen aggregate measures to classify major RSC types. This model structure was found to be effective in capturing the overlapping nature of CFM ranges over different RSC types -- a problem which has not been addressed adequately in the past studies. An alternative model with support vector machine (SVM) was also developed for benchmarking the performance of the proposed logit model. It was found that the two types of models are comparative in performance, confirming the high performance of the proposed multi-level model. For road surface condition forecasting, a novel conceptual framework for short-term road surface condition forecasting is proposed, under which the short-term changing process of surface temperature, friction level and contaminant layer depths, is comprehensively explored and analyzed. This study framework is designed to consider all important conditional factors, including weather, traffic and maintenance operations. The maintenance operations, especially salting, are handled by loosening the strict Markovian assumption, i.e., a history instead of one single time interval of salting operations is considered. In this way, the variation of snow/ice melting speed caused by both residual salt amounts and salt/contaminant mixing states is incorporated in the forecasting model, which enables accurate short-term forecasting for contaminant layers. This approach practically circumvents a major limitation of previous studies, making the post-salting RSC forecasting more reliable and accurate. Under the proposed model framework, several advanced time series modelling methodologies are introduced into the analysis, which can capture the highly complex interactions between RSC measures and conditional factors simultaneously. Those methodologies, especially the univariate and multivariate ARIMA methods, are for the first time applied to the winter RSC evolution process. The forecasting errors of surface temperature, friction level and contaminant layer depths are all found to be small, implying that both the proposed study framework and the resulting solutions closely match the real-world observations. The proposed forecasting models are simple in structure, easy to interpret and mostly consistent with physical knowledge. Compared to the existing models, the proposed models provide extra flexibility for refactory, tuning and deployment. Furthermore, all the modelled RSC measures are numerical and the forecast errors are relatively small, suggesting empirical models could be an efficient alternative to physical models. With the well-designed modelling methods, the resulting empirical models as calibrated in our study can be implemented into a decision support and simulation tool with high temporal resolution and accuracy.

This paper explores winter patios in Edmonton through the lens of place and climate sensitive design, then reflects upon the existing regulations that influence the design and management of winter patios in Edmonton. The City of Edmonton provides this research opportunity because it is currently pursuing the creation of a four-season patio culture in the city, and has created a strong WinterCity agenda. The introduction explores Edmonton’s local climate and its winter city strategy. This is followed by an explanation of the study’s methodology. The purpose of this thesis is to study how climate sensitive design principles can be applied to create places that attract winter activity. The research questions ask how climate sensitive design principles are currently incorporated in patios, what barriers exist to creating these spaces, and how to overcome these barriers in municipal processes. Many cities in cold climates seek ways to create vibrant, active cities through all seasons, and this study explores how climate sensitive planning principles can help create environments that invite winter activity. To answer the research question, a qualitative methodology was used to examine the case study of Edmonton winter patios using Eliasson’s (2007) concept of place and microclimate. The study identifies design weaknesses in Edmonton patios with little provision of shelter from wind, snow and rain, as well as limited consideration of snow storage and removal. Interviews and document review identify lack of interest and a lack of attention to the physical component of place as barriers to the creation of winter patios. Finally, the use of analytical tools such as urban climatic maps are suggested, as well as the introduction of microclimate standards so information about weather and microclimate can influence how physical components of place are planned and evaluated.

LD2668 .T4 1962 M25

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MSc (Med), Dept of Pathology, Division of Human Genetics, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand / Keratolytic winter erythema (KWE) or Oudtshoorn skin disease is a rare monogenic autosomal dominant condition with an unknown cause. KWE is a disorder of epidermal keratinisation that involves the necrobiosis of the Malpigihian layer of the palmoplantar skin with the consequent dissection of the stratum corneum. This cutaneous disorder was first described by Findlay et al. (1977) and occurs with a high prevalence of 1/7200 in the South African Afrikaans-speaking white population and with a lower, but unspecified prevalence in the Coloured population. The primary objective of this study was to identify and characterise the causative gene for KWE, by examining plausible positional candidate genes. The KWE gene has been localized to chromosome 8p23.1-p22 in a region of 1.2 Mb. In order to identify a potentially causative KWE mutation, the coding regions of each candidate gene was sequenced from genomic DNA. Each of the genetic variants identified was also observed in the control group or had previously been shown to be polymorphic, eliminating them all from causing KWE. The cDNA of the two most likely candidates, FDFT1 and CTSB, was sequenced in order to identify deep intronic variants that might affect splicing and that would not be identified at a genomic DNA level. No such variation was observed. The relative expression profiles of CTSB and FDFT1 in affected and non-affected palmoplantar skin was analysed using real-time RT-PCR. The relative expression of CTSB in the skin of patients did not differ significantly from controls (p=0.68). However, a trend was observed towards increased expression of FDFT1 in the skin of KWE affected individuals (p=0.063). This observation prompted the analysis of the FDFT1 promoter region through genomic sequencing. No genetic variants identified within the promoter region segregated with the KWE phenotype. The increased FDFT1 expression is therefore unlikely to result from a mutation within the promoter region of this gene and may be in response to the disruption of the epidermal barrier in affected skin. There is a strong correlation between the severity of the KWE phenotype and the level of FDFT1 expression. Although none of the chosen positional candidate genes appear to harbour the KWE-causing mutation, they can be excluded from the list of possible positional candidates for KWE, taking us one step closer to discovering the molecular cause of KWE.