Perennial biofuel and cover crops systems are important for enhancing soil health and can provide numerous soil, agricultural, and environmental benefits. The study objective was to investigate the effects of cover crops and biofuel crops on soil hydraulic properties relative to traditional management for claypan soils. The study site included selected management practices: cover crop (CC) and no cover crop (NC) with corn/soybean rotation, switchgrass (SW), and miscanthus (MI). The CC mixture consisted of cereal rye, hairy vetch, and Austrian winter pea. The research site was located at Bradford Research Center in Missouri, USA, and was implemented on a Mexico silt loam. Intact soil cores (76‐mm diam. by 76‐mm long) were taken from the 0–10, 10–20, 20–30, and 30–40 cm depths with three plot replicates and two sub‐samples per plot replicate per depth. Soil hydraulic properties evaluated for each sample included: saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ksat), water retention, bulk density, and pore size distributions. Results showed with the test of Duncan's least significant differences that treatments of MI (1.18 Mg m−3) and SW (1.21 Mg m−3) had lower values of bulk density averaging across soil depth than CC (1.27 Mg m−3) and NC (1.31 Mg m). Management systems significantly increased Ksat with the biofuel treatments at 0–10 cm compared to NC system. The MI management showed a significant increase in macroporosity and fine mesoporosity as compared to other management systems. Slight changes have occurred in the measured soil physical properties for CC system compared to NC plots. Overall, increasing soil organic matter from more plant roots from long‐term biofuel cropping systems can improve soil water storage and crop productivity.
Here we present the results of experiments involving cynomolgus macaques, in which a model of traumatic spinal cord injury (TSCI) was created by using a balloon catheter inserted into the epidural space. Prior to the creation of the lesion, we inserted an EMG recording device to facilitate measurement of tail movement and muscle activity before and after TSCI. This model is unique in that the impairment is limited to the tail: the subjects do not experience limb weakness, bladder impairment, or bowel dysfunction. In addition, 4 of the 6 subjects received a combination treatment comprising thyrotropin releasing hormone, selenium, and vitamin E after induction of experimental TSCI. The subjects tolerated the implantation of the recording devi
... Show MoreWellbore instability is one of the most common issues encountered during drilling operations. This problem becomes enormous when drilling deep wells that are passing through many different formations. The purpose of this study is to evaluate wellbore failure criteria by constructing a one-dimensional mechanical earth model (1D-MEM) that will help to predict a safe mud-weight window for deep wells. An integrated log measurement has been used to compute MEM components for nine formations along the studied well. Repeated formation pressure and laboratory core testing are used to validate the calculated results. The prediction of mud weight along the nine studied formations shows that for Ahmadi, Nahr Umr, Shuaiba, and Zubair formations
... Show MoreThe Taylor series is defined by the f and g series. The solution to the satellite's equation of motion is expanding to generate Taylor series through the coefficients f and g. In this study, the orbit equation in a perifocal system is solved using the Taylor series, which is based on time changing. A program in matlab is designed to apply the results for a geocentric satellite in low orbit (height from perigee, hp= 622 km). The input parameters were the initial distance from perigee, the initial time, eccentricity, true anomaly, position, and finally the velocity. The output parameters were the final distance from perigee and the final time values. The results of radial distance as opposed to time were plotted for dissimilar times in
... Show MoreIn this study a concentration of uranium was measured for twenty two samples of soil distributed in many regions (algolan, almoalmeen, alaskary and nasal streets) from Falluja Cityin AL-Anbar Governorate in addition to other region (alandlos street) as a back ground on the Falluja City that there is no military operations happened on it. The uranium concentrations in soil samples measured by using fission tracks registration in (PM-355) track detector that caused by the bombardment of (U) with thermal neutrons from (241Am-Be) neutron source that has flux of (5×103n cm-2 s-1). The concentrations values were calculated by a comparison with standard samples. The results shows that the uranium concentrations algolan street varies from(1.
... Show MoreCatalytic reduction is considered an effective approach for the reduction of toxic organic pollutants from the environment, but finding an active catalyst is still a big challenge. Herein, Ag decorated CeO2 catalyst was synthesized through polyol reduction method and applied for catalytic reduction (conversion) of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) to 4-aminophenol (4-AP). The Ag decorated CeO2 catalyst displayed an outstanding reduction activity with 99% conversion of 4-NP in 5 min with a 0.61 min−1 reaction rate (k). A number of structural characterization techniques were executed to investigate the influence of Ag on CeO2 and its effect on the catalytic conversion of 4-NP. The outstanding catalytic performances of the Ag-CeO2 catalyst can be assigne
... Show MoreA Raman spectroscopy method was optimised to examine the chemical changes of aspirin tablets after interaction with helium temperatures. Several aspirin tablets were exposed to plasma-assisted desorption ionisation flame for different times (10, 30, 50, 60, 180 and 300s) and then analysed by Raman spectroscopy using optimal conditions. The changes in chemistry between exposed and fresh (without exposure to plasma) tablets were compared. The vibrational peaks of the aspirin molecule in the Raman spectrum were identified by checking the peak position. The results showed clear spectra with increases in intensity of vibrational peaks until 30s, whereas no spectra were measured for the exposed tablets to plasma flame after 50s. It can, the
... Show MoreThis paper provides an attempt for modeling rate of penetration (ROP) for an Iraqi oil field with aid of mud logging data. Data of Umm Radhuma formation was selected for this modeling. These data include weight on bit, rotary speed, flow rate and mud density. A statistical approach was applied on these data for improving rate of penetration modeling. As result, an empirical linear ROP model has been developed with good fitness when compared with actual data. Also, a nonlinear regression analysis of different forms was attempted, and the results showed that the power model has good predicting capability with respect to other forms.