Academic literature on the topic 'Blackbutt'

We evaluated the integration of a spring forage brassica crop (Brassica campestris cv. Hunter) into a cereal–pasture rotation, as a means of assessing the effects of this practice on the subsequent establishment and grain yield of wheat and oat crops. A brassica crop was grown for lamb production on 0.2 ha plots prepared for dual-purpose cereals, in spring 2003 near Canberra, ACT, Australia. Mackellar winter wheat and Blackbutt oats were sown in the following autumn on the previously sown brassica plots and on plots left fallow over the spring–summer period. A factorial experiment was used to determine the effects of (i) cultivar, (ii) brassica v. fallow, and (iii) grazing on cereal establishment and grain yield. Lamb liveweight gains on brassica over 33 days were rapid (294 g/day) and provided 2141 grazing days/ha and 637 kg lamb weight gain/ha. Average grain yield of Mackellar on plots following brassica (2.8 t/ha) was reduced by 29% compared with plots following fallow. Average grain yield on grazed plots (2.6 t/ha) was reduced by 38% compared with ungrazed plots. In both Mackellar and Blackbutt, reduced numbers of kernels per spike and reduced kernel weight accounted for the reduction in grain yield under grazing. Two other experiments were conducted at a separate site to obtain data on the nutritive value of the cereal forages and to record phenological development of the two cereals and compare grain yield responses to cutting before and after stem elongation stages. In vitro and in vivo measurements of digestibility in the vegetative phase were similar in the two cereals (91–94%). Grain yield was significantly reduced following cutting at the post stem elongation stage in Mackellar and Blackbutt and, in Mackellar, was attributable to reduced kernel number per spike and kernel weight. The overall economic return, combining actual returns from lamb production on the forage brassica, and estimated returns from grazing and grain production, after variable costs of each phase were accounted for, were $1117/ha for Mackellar wheat and $1081/ha for Blackbutt oats. These returns were $583/ha and $910/ha more than the estimated return from the fallow, ungrazed treatments for wheat and oats, respectively.

Two newly registered cultivars of triticale, Tiga and Empat, were compared with existing commercial cultivars of triticale, cereal rye and forage oats, for grain yield and dry matter production. Their performance was evaluated at Armidale, New South Wales, over 3 years with varying defoliation regimes (uncut to grain yield, cut in late autumn, cut in autumn and winter, and cut in winter only). Phenological observations confirmed that Tiga and Empat were midseason cultivars, intermediate between Coolabah and Blackbutt oats. Autumn and winter forage production and organic matter digestibility of Tiga and Empat were equal to those obtained from Cooba and Blackbutt oats. Grain yields (up to 4.0 t/ha) of the highest yielding triticale cultivar (Empat) were equal to, or greater than, the best oats cultivar (Blackbutt). Generally, the highest winter growth rates, dry matter yield at maturity and grain yield were recorded from uncut plots, except in the early oats cultivar Coolabah which, in 1 experiment, lodged in spring if left undefoliated through autumn and winter. Cutting only in autumn had small effects (negative) on grain yields, but cutting in both autumn and winter reduced total dry matter yields at maturity by 30% and grain yields by 50%. Cutting only in winter resulted in higher vegetative forage yields than a double cut (autumn and winter), but the single winter cut subsequently produced lowest dry matter yields at maturity. The high grain yields of triticale were linked to rapid spring growth. Harvest indices of triticale cultivars were generally lower than those of the oat cultivars. The results indicate the potential of triticale, especially cv. Empat, as a dual-purpose forage and grain crop.

The impact of the variability in timber properties has been a challenge for companies involved in drying timber, which have to handle these variations and at the same time meet the requirements stated in the Australian/New Zealand Standard for the assessment of dried timber quality (2001). The definition of quality considered in this study is to both minimize the dispersion of the final moisture contents in dried timber boards, and to reduce cracking/checking. Anecdotal evidence also suggests that the timber properties of plantation timber appear to be more variable compared with the properties of old growth or regrowth timber. Therefore, this thesis focuses on measuring the amount of variability of timber properties by conducting drying experiments using timber boards taken from different locations within a single tree and between trees, for regrowth and plantation blackbutt timber (Eucalyptus pilularis Sm.). The quantified variabilities were then used to develop optimized timber drying schedules that are intended to dry regrowth and plantation blackbutt boards as quickly as possible (highest productivity) without cracking (quality loss) in the presence of large biological variability. Blackbutt (Eucalyptus pilularis Sm.) was the chosen species for this thesis because of its abundance in New South Wales. It is considered to be one of the most important eucalypts for planting in NSW. It has superior growth and high survival rates compared with other eucalyptus species, and the timber is marketable. Lastly, conventional kiln drying was considered in this thesis compared with other drying methods such as air drying and solar kilns due to (arguably) better control of the drying conditions and faster throughput in conventional drying. The higher costs of conventional kiln drying are compensated, relative to open—air drying, by the reduction in stock level and faster turnaround of green to dried timber. Firstly, an overview of previous work on the development and evaluation of different drying schedules was given. Previous work either developed optimized drying schedules to minimize the dispersion of the final moisture contents, or reduced cracking/checking. No schedule has been developed to satisfy both aspects of quality. In addition, only one report has taken into consideration biological variability in the development of an optimized drying schedule, but this approach has not been tested experimentally. In addition, the information on the variability of biological parameters was very limited, was assumed to be normally distributed, and the parameters were assumed to be uncorrelated with one another. There is little information about the variability in timber properties with respect to drying, including how strongly they are correlated. This thesis has particularly addressed this aspect of the problem. Drying experiments using conventional kiln drying were conducted. The properties of two regrowth blackbutt logs (36 boards) and two plantation blackbutt logs (24 boards), have been measured and analysed for the within—tree variation of timber properties. In a separate set of experiments, two boards were taken from each log, from a total of 12 regrowth logs and 10 plantation logs, to study the between—tree variability of the timber properties of blackbutt timber. The timber properties measured consisted of the basic density, the initial moisture content, the diffusion coefficient, the failure strain, the failure stress, the modulus of elasticity and the shrinkage. The amount of cracking or checking and the dispersion of final moisture contents were assessed. 90% of the regrowth timber and 90% of the plantation timber fell in the Class C quality for surface checking, regrowth timber fell in Class B for end checking, while the end checks in the plantation timber fell in Class C for quality. Regrowth timber therefore appeared here to have slightly better quality than plantation material when dried with the same drying schedule, as here, in agreement with anecdotal suggestions that plantation material is more difficult to dry well. 95% of both the regrowth and the plantation timber fell in Class E quality for internal checking. Overall, along with the assessment that both regrowth and plantation timber was Class C quality for the variation of final moisture contents, these regrowth timber boards and the plantation timber boards fell in the lower quality classes for the criteria of checking and target moisture content for appearance products. Quality Classes A and B are higher quality categories, for appearance—grade products. The dispersion of the final moisture contents was greater with the plantation blackbutt timber (0.24 within; 0.36 between) than with the regrowth blackbutt timber (0.19 within; 0.15 between) for both within—tree and between—trees variability, respectively. In general, the diffusion coefficients for the timber in this thesis ranged between 1.14×10—10 and 6.77×10—10 m2s—1. There was a significant difference between the diffusion coefficients of the plantation and regrowth blackbutt timber for the within—tree test at a 0.05 significance level. The variation in the diffusion coefficients within a single plantation blackbutt log was higher than the variation in the diffusion coefficients within a regrowth blackbutt log. In addition, there was also a significant difference between the diffusion coefficients of regrowth and plantation blackbutt timber at a 0.05 significance level for between—trees variability. The initial moisture contents, the diffusion coefficient, and shrinkage decreased from pith to bark and the basic density and the modulus of elasticity (MOE) increased in the same direction, within a tree, for both regrowth and plantation blackbutt. The results of the analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that radial and circumferential effects were significant sources of the within—tree variations for the diffusion coefficient, the initial moisture content, the basic density, the failure strain, the failure stress, the modulus of elasticity and shrinkage. A similar result was found for the ANOVA between trees. The ANOVA results also indicated that the smaller—sized samples used for the analysis (i.e. sub—samples of eight boards for the within—tree test of regrowth blackbutt, sub—samples of four boards for the between—trees test of regrowth blackbutt, sub—samples of six boards for the within—tree test of plantation blackbutt, and sub—samples of six boards for the between—trees test of plantation timber) were sufficient to measure the key effects adequately for the variabilities of the physical, transport, and mechanical properties, provided that all combinations of sub—samples were considered. There was no significant difference between the ANOVA results for these smaller sized samples (less than 1% change), considering all combinations, and the ANOVA results for the ‘full’ board cases. Though the sample sizes were unusually small to represent population statistics by most standards, all combinations of the sub-sets were assessed and an averaged picture of the situation with smaller sample sizes was given. Moreover, MOEs (both green and kiln—dried states) of plantation blackbutt were lower compared with the MOE of regrowth blackbutt. It is possible that the MOE was correlated with the basic density, and the basic density of regrowth blackbutt was higher than the basic density of plantation blackbutt. The shrinkage in the tangential direction was approximately twice the amount of radial shrinkage. The ranges of the measured radial shrinkage values were 0.024 – 0.094 mm mm-1 for regrowth blackbutt and 0.037 – 0.125 mm mm-1 for plantation blackbutt. The higher shrinkage values for plantation blackbutt timber show that plantation material is less stable dimensionally, and this situation is possibly due to the high juvenile wood content and low basic density. These differential (tangential:radial) shrinkage values ranged from 1.12 – 2.93 for regrowth blackbutt and 1.09 – 2.92 for plantation blackbutt. Tests were conducted to determine the degree of statistical normality for the distribution of each property (physical, transport, and mechanical). The results of the normality tests showed that most timber properties for regrowth and plantation blackbutt timber were distributed normally on a linear scale based on the W test, both within and between—trees. On the other hand, some timber properties showed a better fit with the three—parameter lognormal distribution, such as the diffusion coefficient and the green failure strain for within—tree variability of regrowth timber. The means and standard deviations of these distributions were further analysed by applying significance tests at a 0.05 level. For regrowth blackbutt, the data for the initial moisture content, the basic density, the diffusion coefficient, and shrinkage showed no significant differences, comparing the cases within and between—trees. The mechanical behaviour, however, was significantly different between each group and suggested that the two regrowth trees used for the within—tree test were stiffer than the 12 trees used for the between—trees test. It was possible that the mechanical properties were dependent on the geographic location where the tree was felled, and the heartwood content of each log. On the other hand, since all the plantation logs used for the within and between—trees tests were taken from one location, the mechanical properties were not significantly different within the plantation sample. The silviculture and the age of all the plantation trees were the same, which might have contributed to the small variation of the timber properties between the within—tree and between—trees cases for plantation material. Lastly, a significance test was conducted to compare the properties of regrowth and plantation blackbutt timber. Most timber properties (except for the initial moisture content) were significantly different between regrowth and plantation blackbutt. Plantation blackbutt timber had a lower basic density, higher diffusion coefficient and shrinkage, and the modulus of elasticity (both in its green and dried states) was lower compared with regrowth blackbutt timber. In addition to geographic location, heartwood/juvenile content, maturity (age), and differences in microfibril angle may have affected these timber properties in plantation blackbutt timber. For all the experiments, the possibility that there is a correlation between high initial moisture contents, higher diffusion coefficients, low basic densities, and low green modulus of elasticity’s (MOE) was assessed using principal components analysis (PCA). A principal components analysis was performed on the four parameters: the basic density, the initial moisture content, the diffusion coefficient, and the green MOE. The results of the PCA showed that the principal component for the within—tree and between—trees test accounted for 93% and 94% (for regrowth), and 92% and 90% (for plantation), respectively, of the total amount of variation within these parameters, giving some support for the mentioned correlation between the parameters. The strong correlation between the diffusion coefficient and the basic density, D; the diffusion coefficient and the initial moisture content, Xi; and the diffusion coefficient, D, and the modulus of elasticity, EG were represented by empirical equations. The F significance test was conducted to determine if the equations from the within—tree and between—trees tests, and the regrowth blackbutt and plantation blackbutt tests, were significantly different. The difference between the equations for the within—tree and between—trees variability of plantation blackbutt timber (Factual= 1.35  Fexpected= 2.13) was the only result that showed no significant difference. A possible reason for this finding is that the boards from the within—tree and between—tree variability tests, hence the trees, were all felled from one location. On the other hand, the other tests compared boards that were taken from trees felled from different locations, including the regrowth blackbutt within trees, compared with between trees. The results of the significance tests imply that boards taken from one location, whether they are within—tree and between—tree samples, have probably come from the same overall population. Hence using any of the correlations (within—tree or between—trees for plantation blackbutt) would be suitable to estimate the diffusion coefficient of other plantation blackbutt samples at the same location. Overall, these empirical equations can be used to estimate important drying properties of other regrowth and plantation blackbutt samples, such as the diffusion coefficient, using easily measured properties, like the initial moisture content or the basic density, as long as the boards are taken from the same age group (i.e. regrowth or plantation) and the same location. Thereafter, the blackbutt timber boards may be segregated based on the range of diffusion coefficients as estimated from the densities or the initial moisture contents. Hence a suitable drying schedule should be chosen for each segregated group. Collapse was not significant for blackbutt samples studied in this thesis, and possibly this timber species in general, but it may be significant for other eucalyptus species such as collapse—prone Eucalyptus regnans F. Muell (mountain ash) This potential limitation means that care is needed in applying the relationships found in this thesis to collapse—prone species. The same drying model was used to assess the effects of different drying schedules (i.e. increasing and decreasing the dry—bulb and wet—bulb temperatures of the original drying schedule by 5oC and 10oC) and of the potential correlations between the diffusion coefficient, the green MOE, the shrinkage coefficient (calculated from the tangential shrinkage), and the initial moisture content on the variability of final moisture contents, when the average moisture content within a stack of timber reached 15%. In addition, the maximum strain attained by the timber boards was also predicted. The results show that for regrowth blackbutt timber and accounting for within—tree variability, there was no relationship between the length of the drying schedule and the dispersion of final moisture contents. As the temperatures increased, the dispersion of the final moisture contents showed no consistent trend. The absence of a clear trend may be due to the different locations where the logs used for the within—tree test of regrowth variability were taken. On the other hand, the between—tree variability sensitivity tests for both regrowth and plantation blackbutt timber and the within—tree variability sensitivity test for plantation blackbutt timber show a relationship between the length of the drying schedule and the dispersion of final moisture contents. The dispersion of the final moisture contents decreased as temperatures increased. Generally, the ‘+10oC’ drying schedule gave the shortest time for the stack of timber to reach the target average moisture content, and its conditions produced the smallest dispersion of final moisture contents. It was also observed, however, for all sensitivity tests, that as the temperature of the drying schedule increased, the average predicted values decreased for the maximum strains reached. This is a very unusual result, because normally the strains and stresses would be expected to increase with increasing temperature. A possible reason for this is that within a piece of timber, as the temperatures increase, the diffusion coefficient will increase because the internal average temperature increases, so the internal resistance to mass transfer decreases, which leads to the moisture content gradient decreasing, even though the drying rate may slightly increase. This decreases both the drying time and the maximum strain reached as the temperature increases. There are limitations, however, associated when using high temperatures in kiln drying such as collapse and timber discolouration. The optimization technique created by Pordage (2006) was improved by using a large number of measurements to quantify the variability in the properties of blackbutt timber. The first simulation accounted for the between—tree variability of the biological parameters in regrowth blackbutt, and the second simulation accounted for both the within and between—tree variability of the timber properties in plantation blackbutt. Since location was observed as a main source of variability, the timber properties used for each simulation were taken from the logs that were felled from the same location. The mean and the standard deviations of the initial moisture content, the reference diffusion coefficient, and the shrinkage coefficient of regrowth and plantation blackbutt timber boards measured in the actual drying experiments, along with the covariance between these properties represented by a covariance matrix, were used for each simulation. The total drying time of the optimized drying schedule of plantation blackbutt timber was longer (an additional 168 hours, i.e. 472 hours) compared with the total drying time of the optimized drying schedule of regrowth blackbutt timber (304 hours). Due to the greater variability present in plantation blackbutt, slower drying is required. Moreover, the total drying times from the ‘regrowth blackbutt’ optimization and the ‘plantation blackbutt’ optimization (which both accounted for variability) were shorter compared with the total drying time of the original drying schedule for 28 mm—thick mixed—sawn blackbutt boards, i.e. 504 hours. On the other hand, the total drying times of the optimized drying schedules of regrowth and plantation blackbutt timber were greater than the total drying time (152 hours) predicted by Pordage’s (2006) optimized drying schedule accounting for the variability of Eucalyptus paniculata (grey ironbark). He had limited information on the variability of the parameters of grey ironbark and thus used an estimate from another eucalyptus species, Eucalyptus obliqua (messmate), whereas in this thesis, the variabilities for regrowth and plantation blackbutt used for the optimization technique were measured and part of the scope for this study. Overall, this is a typical application of the data obtained in this thesis to the optimization of drying schedules.

Doctor of Philosophy
The impact of the variability in timber properties has been a challenge for companies involved in drying timber, which have to handle these variations and at the same time meet the requirements stated in the Australian/New Zealand Standard for the assessment of dried timber quality (2001). The definition of quality considered in this study is to both minimize the dispersion of the final moisture contents in dried timber boards, and to reduce cracking/checking. Anecdotal evidence also suggests that the timber properties of plantation timber appear to be more variable compared with the properties of old growth or regrowth timber. Therefore, this thesis focuses on measuring the amount of variability of timber properties by conducting drying experiments using timber boards taken from different locations within a single tree and between trees, for regrowth and plantation blackbutt timber (Eucalyptus pilularis Sm.). The quantified variabilities were then used to develop optimized timber drying schedules that are intended to dry regrowth and plantation blackbutt boards as quickly as possible (highest productivity) without cracking (quality loss) in the presence of large biological variability. Blackbutt (Eucalyptus pilularis Sm.) was the chosen species for this thesis because of its abundance in New South Wales. It is considered to be one of the most important eucalypts for planting in NSW. It has superior growth and high survival rates compared with other eucalyptus species, and the timber is marketable. Lastly, conventional kiln drying was considered in this thesis compared with other drying methods such as air drying and solar kilns due to (arguably) better control of the drying conditions and faster throughput in conventional drying. The higher costs of conventional kiln drying are compensated, relative to open—air drying, by the reduction in stock level and faster turnaround of green to dried timber. Firstly, an overview of previous work on the development and evaluation of different drying schedules was given. Previous work either developed optimized drying schedules to minimize the dispersion of the final moisture contents, or reduced cracking/checking. No schedule has been developed to satisfy both aspects of quality. In addition, only one report has taken into consideration biological variability in the development of an optimized drying schedule, but this approach has not been tested experimentally. In addition, the information on the variability of biological parameters was very limited, was assumed to be normally distributed, and the parameters were assumed to be uncorrelated with one another. There is little information about the variability in timber properties with respect to drying, including how strongly they are correlated. This thesis has particularly addressed this aspect of the problem. Drying experiments using conventional kiln drying were conducted. The properties of two regrowth blackbutt logs (36 boards) and two plantation blackbutt logs (24 boards), have been measured and analysed for the within—tree variation of timber properties. In a separate set of experiments, two boards were taken from each log, from a total of 12 regrowth logs and 10 plantation logs, to study the between—tree variability of the timber properties of blackbutt timber. The timber properties measured consisted of the basic density, the initial moisture content, the diffusion coefficient, the failure strain, the failure stress, the modulus of elasticity and the shrinkage. The amount of cracking or checking and the dispersion of final moisture contents were assessed. 90% of the regrowth timber and 90% of the plantation timber fell in the Class C quality for surface checking, regrowth timber fell in Class B for end checking, while the end checks in the plantation timber fell in Class C for quality. Regrowth timber therefore appeared here to have slightly better quality than plantation material when dried with the same drying schedule, as here, in agreement with anecdotal suggestions that plantation material is more difficult to dry well. 95% of both the regrowth and the plantation timber fell in Class E quality for internal checking. Overall, along with the assessment that both regrowth and plantation timber was Class C quality for the variation of final moisture contents, these regrowth timber boards and the plantation timber boards fell in the lower quality classes for the criteria of checking and target moisture content for appearance products. Quality Classes A and B are higher quality categories, for appearance—grade products. The dispersion of the final moisture contents was greater with the plantation blackbutt timber (0.24 within; 0.36 between) than with the regrowth blackbutt timber (0.19 within; 0.15 between) for both within—tree and between—trees variability, respectively. In general, the diffusion coefficients for the timber in this thesis ranged between 1.14×10—10 and 6.77×10—10 m2s—1. There was a significant difference between the diffusion coefficients of the plantation and regrowth blackbutt timber for the within—tree test at a 0.05 significance level. The variation in the diffusion coefficients within a single plantation blackbutt log was higher than the variation in the diffusion coefficients within a regrowth blackbutt log. In addition, there was also a significant difference between the diffusion coefficients of regrowth and plantation blackbutt timber at a 0.05 significance level for between—trees variability. The initial moisture contents, the diffusion coefficient, and shrinkage decreased from pith to bark and the basic density and the modulus of elasticity (MOE) increased in the same direction, within a tree, for both regrowth and plantation blackbutt. The results of the analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that radial and circumferential effects were significant sources of the within—tree variations for the diffusion coefficient, the initial moisture content, the basic density, the failure strain, the failure stress, the modulus of elasticity and shrinkage. A similar result was found for the ANOVA between trees. The ANOVA results also indicated that the smaller—sized samples used for the analysis (i.e. sub—samples of eight boards for the within—tree test of regrowth blackbutt, sub—samples of four boards for the between—trees test of regrowth blackbutt, sub—samples of six boards for the within—tree test of plantation blackbutt, and sub—samples of six boards for the between—trees test of plantation timber) were sufficient to measure the key effects adequately for the variabilities of the physical, transport, and mechanical properties, provided that all combinations of sub—samples were considered. There was no significant difference between the ANOVA results for these smaller sized samples (less than 1% change), considering all combinations, and the ANOVA results for the ‘full’ board cases. Though the sample sizes were unusually small to represent population statistics by most standards, all combinations of the sub-sets were assessed and an averaged picture of the situation with smaller sample sizes was given. Moreover, MOEs (both green and kiln—dried states) of plantation blackbutt were lower compared with the MOE of regrowth blackbutt. It is possible that the MOE was correlated with the basic density, and the basic density of regrowth blackbutt was higher than the basic density of plantation blackbutt. The shrinkage in the tangential direction was approximately twice the amount of radial shrinkage. The ranges of the measured radial shrinkage values were 0.024 – 0.094 mm mm-1 for regrowth blackbutt and 0.037 – 0.125 mm mm-1 for plantation blackbutt. The higher shrinkage values for plantation blackbutt timber show that plantation material is less stable dimensionally, and this situation is possibly due to the high juvenile wood content and low basic density. These differential (tangential:radial) shrinkage values ranged from 1.12 – 2.93 for regrowth blackbutt and 1.09 – 2.92 for plantation blackbutt. Tests were conducted to determine the degree of statistical normality for the distribution of each property (physical, transport, and mechanical). The results of the normality tests showed that most timber properties for regrowth and plantation blackbutt timber were distributed normally on a linear scale based on the W test, both within and between—trees. On the other hand, some timber properties showed a better fit with the three—parameter lognormal distribution, such as the diffusion coefficient and the green failure strain for within—tree variability of regrowth timber. The means and standard deviations of these distributions were further analysed by applying significance tests at a 0.05 level. For regrowth blackbutt, the data for the initial moisture content, the basic density, the diffusion coefficient, and shrinkage showed no significant differences, comparing the cases within and between—trees. The mechanical behaviour, however, was significantly different between each group and suggested that the two regrowth trees used for the within—tree test were stiffer than the 12 trees used for the between—trees test. It was possible that the mechanical properties were dependent on the geographic location where the tree was felled, and the heartwood content of each log. On the other hand, since all the plantation logs used for the within and between—trees tests were taken from one location, the mechanical properties were not significantly different within the plantation sample. The silviculture and the age of all the plantation trees were the same, which might have contributed to the small variation of the timber properties between the within—tree and between—trees cases for plantation material. Lastly, a significance test was conducted to compare the properties of regrowth and plantation blackbutt timber. Most timber properties (except for the initial moisture content) were significantly different between regrowth and plantation blackbutt. Plantation blackbutt timber had a lower basic density, higher diffusion coefficient and shrinkage, and the modulus of elasticity (both in its green and dried states) was lower compared with regrowth blackbutt timber. In addition to geographic location, heartwood/juvenile content, maturity (age), and differences in microfibril angle may have affected these timber properties in plantation blackbutt timber. For all the experiments, the possibility that there is a correlation between high initial moisture contents, higher diffusion coefficients, low basic densities, and low green modulus of elasticity’s (MOE) was assessed using principal components analysis (PCA). A principal components analysis was performed on the four parameters: the basic density, the initial moisture content, the diffusion coefficient, and the green MOE. The results of the PCA showed that the principal component for the within—tree and between—trees test accounted for 93% and 94% (for regrowth), and 92% and 90% (for plantation), respectively, of the total amount of variation within these parameters, giving some support for the mentioned correlation between the parameters. The strong correlation between the diffusion coefficient and the basic density, D; the diffusion coefficient and the initial moisture content, Xi; and the diffusion coefficient, D, and the modulus of elasticity, EG were represented by empirical equations. The F significance test was conducted to determine if the equations from the within—tree and between—trees tests, and the regrowth blackbutt and plantation blackbutt tests, were significantly different. The difference between the equations for the within—tree and between—trees variability of plantation blackbutt timber (Factual= 1.35  Fexpected= 2.13) was the only result that showed no significant difference. A possible reason for this finding is that the boards from the within—tree and between—tree variability tests, hence the trees, were all felled from one location. On the other hand, the other tests compared boards that were taken from trees felled from different locations, including the regrowth blackbutt within trees, compared with between trees. The results of the significance tests imply that boards taken from one location, whether they are within—tree and between—tree samples, have probably come from the same overall population. Hence using any of the correlations (within—tree or between—trees for plantation blackbutt) would be suitable to estimate the diffusion coefficient of other plantation blackbutt samples at the same location. Overall, these empirical equations can be used to estimate important drying properties of other regrowth and plantation blackbutt samples, such as the diffusion coefficient, using easily measured properties, like the initial moisture content or the basic density, as long as the boards are taken from the same age group (i.e. regrowth or plantation) and the same location. Thereafter, the blackbutt timber boards may be segregated based on the range of diffusion coefficients as estimated from the densities or the initial moisture contents. Hence a suitable drying schedule should be chosen for each segregated group. Collapse was not significant for blackbutt samples studied in this thesis, and possibly this timber species in general, but it may be significant for other eucalyptus species such as collapse—prone Eucalyptus regnans F. Muell (mountain ash) This potential limitation means that care is needed in applying the relationships found in this thesis to collapse—prone species. The same drying model was used to assess the effects of different drying schedules (i.e. increasing and decreasing the dry—bulb and wet—bulb temperatures of the original drying schedule by 5oC and 10oC) and of the potential correlations between the diffusion coefficient, the green MOE, the shrinkage coefficient (calculated from the tangential shrinkage), and the initial moisture content on the variability of final moisture contents, when the average moisture content within a stack of timber reached 15%. In addition, the maximum strain attained by the timber boards was also predicted. The results show that for regrowth blackbutt timber and accounting for within—tree variability, there was no relationship between the length of the drying schedule and the dispersion of final moisture contents. As the temperatures increased, the dispersion of the final moisture contents showed no consistent trend. The absence of a clear trend may be due to the different locations where the logs used for the within—tree test of regrowth variability were taken. On the other hand, the between—tree variability sensitivity tests for both regrowth and plantation blackbutt timber and the within—tree variability sensitivity test for plantation blackbutt timber show a relationship between the length of the drying schedule and the dispersion of final moisture contents. The dispersion of the final moisture contents decreased as temperatures increased. Generally, the ‘+10oC’ drying schedule gave the shortest time for the stack of timber to reach the target average moisture content, and its conditions produced the smallest dispersion of final moisture contents. It was also observed, however, for all sensitivity tests, that as the temperature of the drying schedule increased, the average predicted values decreased for the maximum strains reached. This is a very unusual result, because normally the strains and stresses would be expected to increase with increasing temperature. A possible reason for this is that within a piece of timber, as the temperatures increase, the diffusion coefficient will increase because the internal average temperature increases, so the internal resistance to mass transfer decreases, which leads to the moisture content gradient decreasing, even though the drying rate may slightly increase. This decreases both the drying time and the maximum strain reached as the temperature increases. There are limitations, however, associated when using high temperatures in kiln drying such as collapse and timber discolouration. The optimization technique created by Pordage (2006) was improved by using a large number of measurements to quantify the variability in the properties of blackbutt timber. The first simulation accounted for the between—tree variability of the biological parameters in regrowth blackbutt, and the second simulation accounted for both the within and between—tree variability of the timber properties in plantation blackbutt. Since location was observed as a main source of variability, the timber properties used for each simulation were taken from the logs that were felled from the same location. The mean and the standard deviations of the initial moisture content, the reference diffusion coefficient, and the shrinkage coefficient of regrowth and plantation blackbutt timber boards measured in the actual drying experiments, along with the covariance between these properties represented by a covariance matrix, were used for each simulation. The total drying time of the optimized drying schedule of plantation blackbutt timber was longer (an additional 168 hours, i.e. 472 hours) compared with the total drying time of the optimized drying schedule of regrowth blackbutt timber (304 hours). Due to the greater variability present in plantation blackbutt, slower drying is required. Moreover, the total drying times from the ‘regrowth blackbutt’ optimization and the ‘plantation blackbutt’ optimization (which both accounted for variability) were shorter compared with the total drying time of the original drying schedule for 28 mm—thick mixed—sawn blackbutt boards, i.e. 504 hours. On the other hand, the total drying times of the optimized drying schedules of regrowth and plantation blackbutt timber were greater than the total drying time (152 hours) predicted by Pordage’s (2006) optimized drying schedule accounting for the variability of Eucalyptus paniculata (grey ironbark). He had limited information on the variability of the parameters of grey ironbark and thus used an estimate from another eucalyptus species, Eucalyptus obliqua (messmate), whereas in this thesis, the variabilities for regrowth and plantation blackbutt used for the optimization technique were measured and part of the scope for this study. Overall, this is a typical application of the data obtained in this thesis to the optimization of drying schedules.

A study of the literacies used by two groups participating in Health Walks run by Blackburn with Darwen Council. In this study, I examine the literacy practices that took place during participation in group led walks organised by Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council as part of their Health Walks provision. My focus was on how participation in Health Walks effects changes in individuals. The study found its focus in anthropological participant observation with two groups of walkers. Data took the form of observational field notes, recordings of talk generated whilst walking and written accounts of walks completed by some participants. My analysis of the data included the arts based processes of creating trail maps and transcribing recorded talk onto Ordnance Survey maps. I used these processes as a heuristic to help draw out the properties of the literacies encountered and their relationship to place. The study is rooted in an understanding of literacy as an everyday activity that permeates people’s lives and through which power relationships are expressed and sustained. I foreground oral storytelling practices and term these practices mobile literacies. I examined how mobile literacies emerge in mobility and are shaped by the landscapes through which the walkers move. I aimed to demonstrate that participation in mobile literacies is a significant transformational aspect of the experience of participating in Health Walks. The study introduces the concept of mobile literacies as a discrete literacy practice. I characterise Mobile Literacies as emplaced, embodied collective storytelling practices that are generated by affectual response to moving through landscape. I describe how the practice offers opportunities to interrogate, extend and re – calibrate identities, express resistance and participate in collaborative acts of generation and transformation. The study offers policy makers and practitioners an alternative lens by which to view how walkers experience their involvement in Health Walks and new tools by which to measure impact and design further initiatives. In terms of education it offers a glimpse of the affordances of walking and the local environment in developing strategies by which to involve learners in meaningful and creative language and literacy learning.

This thesis reports laboratory and field investigations on the aspects of biology of the Stethorus vagans, an Australian ladybird that feeds on all stages of two-spotted mite, Tetranychus urticae. Aspects of the biology of S. vagans were studied in the laboratory at constant and fluctuating temperatures. They regularly fed on all stages of T. urticae and there was no significant difference in male and female longevity at different temperatures. For field studies potted French bean plants infested with T. urticae were exposed in the field. Adult S. vagans was found to consume a range of alternative prey if the primary host was not available, but only one of the alternative hosts had the potential to support reproduction. Time partitioning behaviour and prey consumption rates were assessed, and how S. vagans located their prey was investigated. S. vagans exhibited many of the attributes of an effective biological control agent such as high reproductive level, location of prey at low levels, reproduction at low densities, and ability to feed on alternative hosts. It is concluded that S. vagans has a number of characteristics likely make them useful as a natural enemy of T. urticae
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This thesis reports laboratory and field investigations on the aspects of biology of the Stethorus vagans, an Australian ladybird that feeds on all stages of two-spotted mite, Tetranychus urticae. Aspects of the biology of S. vagans were studied in the laboratory at constant and fluctuating temperatures. They regularly fed on all stages of T. urticae and there was no significant difference in male and female longevity at different temperatures. For field studies potted French bean plants infested with T. urticae were exposed in the field. Adult S. vagans was found to consume a range of alternative prey if the primary host was not available, but only one of the alternative hosts had the potential to support reproduction. Time partitioning behaviour and prey consumption rates were assessed, and how S. vagans located their prey was investigated. S. vagans exhibited many of the attributes of an effective biological control agent such as high reproductive level, location of prey at low levels, reproduction at low densities, and ability to feed on alternative hosts. It is concluded that S. vagans has a number of characteristics likely make them useful as a natural enemy of T. urticae

A study of grey goral (Nemorhaedus goral) in the Margalla Hills National Park, Pakistan, was conducted to develop a management plan for this animal. Goral are listed as endangered in Pakistan and elsewhere. They are confined to the steep slopes and difficult terrain that cover 28 percent of the total park area. Another 21 percent of the park area has similar habitat, but currently no goral occur there. Forty to 60 animals are estimated to be living in the park. Groups of two to three animals are common. During observation, goral spent most of their time in feeding, moving, and surveillance . Juveniles spent less time in surveillance and more in resting and ruminating than the adults. Group size was inversely correlated with the time spent in surveillance. Goral foraged early in the morning and late in the evening and were rarely seen during the day. They changed their foraging activities from browsing during the winter to almost entirely grazing during the summer. The rutting period extended from October to December and the lambing period from March to May. Goral populations in the park were estimated to be increasing at a rate of 7 percent annually . They always escaped to a nearby ridge when danger was perceived. Adults and juveniles had dominant and subordinate interactions. In goral habitat, about 60 percent of the vegetation consists of plant species commonly eaten by the animals. These species include Themeda anathera, Chrysopogon aucheri, Carissa opaca, Acacia modesta, Mimosa rubicaulis, and Ipomoea hispida. Human and livestock populations differ significantly inside and outside goral habitat in the park. Lack of suitable habitat, predation, poaching, and human and livestock pressures affect the goral population and its range in the park. Reintroduction plans for blackbuck (Antilope cervicapra) and cheer pheasant (Catreus vallichii) were analyzed to determine the commonalities: source of animals, poaching, predation, and insufficient staff and funds. A goral management plan based on my field studies and the analysis of the other reintroduction plans are discussed. A general wildlife management strategy for Pakistan is discussed. The government should have a well-defined policy about wildlife and park management. Habitat remains the critical factor. Strong legislation, well-educated and well-equipped staff, and proper funding are required for this purpose. In addition, education and economic development of the public, especially those living in and around parks, are essential.

Abstract In this paper, we conducted a three-dimensional investigation of flow past a cylinder undergoing forced oscillation. The flow configuration is similar to the work of Blackburn & Henderson (1999) [1], in which Reynolds number equals to 500 and a fixed motion amplitude of A/D = 0.25. The oscillation frequencies are varied in the range near to the natural shedding frequency of a stationary cylinder. The flow dynamics are governed by Navier-Stokes equations and the solutions are obtained by employing high-order spectral/hp element method. It is found that the flow dynamics are significantly distinguished from the study of two-dimensional flow by Blackburn & Henderson (1999) [1]. The values of hydrodynamic forces are smaller compared to that in the two-dimensional study. However, lock-in boundary we identified is broader. In addition, a different type of hysteresis loop of energy transfer coefficient is obtained.

Some 10% of the antithrombin fromnormal human plasma can be isolated onthe basis of its higher affinity forheparin Sepharose. Not only does this ATIII beta have a higher heparinaffinity, but it is also less negatively charged and has a lower molecular weight than normal AT-III alpha.Neuraminidase and Endo F treatment suggest the loss of a single carbohydrate sidechain from beta AT-III (Peterson and Blackburn. J Biol Chem 1985,260, 610)Antithrombin has a single polypeptide chain with biantennary carbohydrate attachment sites at asparagines 96, 135, 155 and 172. The 25 kDA CNBr fragment of AT-III alpha (residues 104-251) runs at 22.5kDa in the case of AT-III beta yet they have the same N and C-terminal sequence. Tryptic peptide maps of theseCNBr fragments showed that a single neutral (glyco) peptide, Lys-Ala-Asn⋆-Lys was missing from AT-III beta and replaced by twobasic peptides, Lys, Ala, Asn, Lys and Ala, Asn, Lys; indicating the absence of an oligosaccharide sidechainon asparagine 135. This was confirmed by chromatography of tryptic peptides on Con A-Sepharose followed by mapping of the bound and unbound fractions. There were two new unbound peptides (Lys, Ala, Asn, Lys and Ala, Asn, Lys) in AT-III beta. The corresponding peptide Lys-Ala-Asn⋆-Lys was the only peptide missing from the bound glycopeptide fraction.The absence of carbohydrate at Asn 135 explains the increased heparinaffinity of beta AT-III as on the molecular model this oligosaccharide forms a negative and bulky shell on the perimeter of the positive bindingsite centred on Arg 47.Whether the loss of the sidechain is due to circulatory removal is not known but a recent variant identification confirmsthat it may alternatively be due to failure of attachment at the time ofsynthesis. Potentially the loss or modification of oligosaccharide 135 provides another level of control of coagulation by altering the avidity of AT-III for thrombin when heparin activation is suboptimal.