Journal articles on the topic 'Fairway mower'

Ataenius spretulus (Haldeman) (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) is the most common grub in golf course fairways in Michigan. Ataenius spretulus grubs are 3- to 10-fold more abundant in golf course fairways (mowed at a height of 1.5 cm) than in the roughs (mowed at a height of 5.0 cm or higher). Predation and infection by Paenibacillus sp. were previously reported to be greater in the rough, and may partially explain outbreaks of A. spretulus grubs in golf course fairways. In addition to natural enemies, cultural practices of irrigation and mowing could also be important factors, especially if A. spretulus prefers to oviposit in the fairway over the rough. In this paper we examine the impact of soil moisture and mowing height on oviposition and habitat selection. In a greenhouse experiment where A. spretulus adults were given a choice of turf maintained at fairway or rough height, no ovipositional preference for one or the other was observed. In three different growth chamber experiments where adults were allowed to choose among fairway or rough turf plugs held in soil at different moisture levels, adults preferred turf plugs in soil at a volumetric moisture content of 13% to 26% over turf plugs in soil at 8% to 9% moisture for their habitat selection. We conclude from these greenhouse and growth chamber experiments that A. spretulus adults do not choose turf habitat based on mowing height, but may be influenced by soil moisture levels.

Warm season turfgrasses can be grown successfully in the transition zone, but dormancy occurs to some extent during the winter. Overseeding with cool-season turfgrasses is necessary if winter dormancy of warm season turfgrasses is not tolerated. The increasing availability of zoysiagrass cultivars has enabled this genus to be considered suitable for low-maintenance golf courses, especially for golf tees and golf fairways. On the other hand, zoysiagrasses have the most rigid leaves of all turfgrass species, followed by bermudagrasses and by the other warm season turf species. Thus, to have a high mowing quality, mowers working constantly on zoysiagrasses require more sharpening than mowers working on other grasses. Rotary mowers are not suitable for mowing at low heights and often result in scalping, while reel mowers perform optimal mowing at a short height (below 2.5 cm) but require accurate management and frequent sharpening. Autonomous mowers have proven to produce a superior turf quality compared with traditional walk-behind rotary mowers, but no autonomous mower has ever been tested at a low mowing height on an overseeded warm season turfgrass. Because of this, the trial was carried out to simulate a golf tee overseeded with cool season turfgrasses, with low input fertilisation rates and with one of the most difficult turf species to mow; i.e. Zoysia matrella (L.) Merr. The trial was carried out in San Piero a Grado (Pisa, Italy) from October 2016 to October 2018. After a two-year period the best turf quality was achieved with Festuca rubra L. ssp. cultivars among the overseeded species, especially during fall. In many cases turf quality increased after manila grass green up since the combination of both cool season and warm season species gave a higher quality to the turfgrass, due to the finer leaf texture and higher shoot density of some cool season species. Moreover, recovery of manila grass ground cover was satisficing. In conclusion, a polystand of manila grass and Festuca rubra ssp. could be suitable for golf tees with low-input management.

Renovation is an opportune time for golf courses to address annual bluegrass (Poa annua L.) weed populations. Dazomet (tetrahydro-3,5-dimethyl-2H-1,3,5-thiadiazine-2-thione) is an effective fumigant, but without a tarp cover, it is only effective at the highest labeled rates. Fraise mowing cultivation could be used to help remove surface material and allow practitioners to effectively fumigate at lower rates. In Summer 2018 and Summer 2019, two cool-season fairway renovation experiments were conducted in East Lansing, MI. The objective of these experiments was to assess annual bluegrass control and creeping bentgrass establishment following dazomet applications to fraise mowed surfaces. In the first experiment (fraise mowing surface disturbance experiment), dazomet was applied at a fixed rate (294 kg·ha−1) to fraise mowed plots at varying levels of surface disturbance (0%, 15%, 50%, and 100%) to a depth of 1.9 cm. In the second experiment (dazomet rate experiment), fraise mowing removed 100% of surface material at a depth of 1.9 cm and dazomet was applied at five rates (0, 294, 588, 147 + 147, and 294 + 294 kg·ha−1). Both experiments were conducted on two soils (sand topdressed vs. native) and evaluated two methods of fumigant incorporation (solid-tine cultivation vs. tillage). Five days after treatments were applied, plots were seeded with ‘Pure Select’ creeping bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera L.). The level of fraise mowing surface disturbance had no effect on annual bluegrass emergence, and creeping bentgrass cover was poorest in native soils at the highest levels of surface disturbance. In the dazomet rate experiment, dazomet applied twice at 294 kg·ha−1 provided the most consistent control of annual bluegrass. With the exception to single applications of 294 in 2018, all dazomet treatments allowed for greater creeping bentgrass establishment than the nontreated control. Fraise mowing cultivation may simplify the removal of surface material from large areas; however, even when combined with dazomet applied at the highest rates, it fails to provide complete annual bluegrass control.

Investigations on the formation of fairy rings by <i>Agaricales</i> were performed in the year·s 1971-1974 in forest meadows and reserves in Dziekanów Leśny and on agricultural mowed ones in Kazuń near Warsaw. During 240 observations 378 maps were made. In forest meadows 15 species formed rings and on agricultural mowed meadows 22 species. Many species formed rings considerably affecting the growth of vascular plants. This caused the formation of distinct zone.s parallel to the lines of fructifications. Many more species formed rings without affecting the growth and species composition of vascular plants. The appearance of fairy rings and the analysis of the reasons for their occurrence may facilitate in a certain sense the investigation of the speed and way of growth of mycelium in the soil.

The effect of mowing regime on lateral spread and rhizome growth of dallisgrass and bahiagrass was determined in field studies conducted in 2003 and 2004 in North Carolina over 5 mo. Treatments were selected to simulate mowing regimes common to intensively managed common bermudagrass turfgrass and include 1.3-, 5.2-, and 7.6-cm heights at frequencies of three, two, and two times per week, respectively. A nonmowed check was included for comparison. Lateral spread of dallisgrass was reduced 38 to 47% regardless of mowing regime when compared with the nonmowed check. Rhizome fresh weight of dallisgrass was reduced 49% in 2003 and 30% in 2004 when mowed at the 7.6-cm regime after 5 mo, whereas the 5.2-cm mowing regime caused a reduction of 31%. Rhizome fresh weight of dallisgrass was most negatively affected by the 1.3-cm regime, which caused reductions of 57% in 2003 and 37% in 2004. Lateral spread of bahiagrass was more strongly affected by mowing height and frequency than dallisgrass, with reductions of 21 to 27%, 40%, and 44 to 62% when mowed at 7.6, 5.2, and 1.3-cm regimes, respectively. Rhizome fresh weight of bahiagrass was reduced 24 to 33%, 55%, and 70 to 73% when mowed at 7.6, 5.2, and 1.3 cm, respectively. Based upon these results, areas mowed at a golf course rough height (≥ 5.2 cm) may be more conducive to bahiagrass spread, whereas dallisgrass may tolerate areas mowed at a fairway height (1.3 cm). Mowing at the shorter heights examined in this study clearly reduced the potential ofPaspalumspp. vegetative spread and may help to explain observed distributions ofPaspalumspp. infestations in bermudagrass turfgrass.

ABSTRACT: Auditors often receive summary information or conclusions from management about account balances or internal controls. They must then gather evidence to assess whether this information is fairly stated. In such situations, management can be considered the “first mover” and the auditor the “second mover.” When auditors are the second mover, they are vulnerable to the curse of knowledge bias—the inability to ignore previously processed information (Fischhoff 1977). Specifically, because information from management could be incorrect or biased, auditors must arrive at an independent evaluation of the item in question (e.g., year-end book values, accounting estimates, or internal controls). This study examines the general issue of auditors being “second movers” by investigating how their awareness of management’s severity classifications of internal control problems influences auditors’ initial assessments of internal control over financial reporting (ICFR) under Auditing Standard No. 2. Our experimental design allows us to determine that management’s “first mover” influence on auditors’ judgments is an unintentional cognitive effect, rather than an intentional use of management’s classifications. We further examine whether cognitively restructuring the ICFR assessment task reduces management’s influence on auditors’ judgments by asking auditors to evaluate and explicitly document the likelihood and magnitude of the effect of an ICFR problem on the financial statements. We find that cognitively restructuring the task mitigates management’s “first mover” influence on auditors’ judgments.

In this paper, a multibody model of the automated people mover, PisaMover, is presented. PisaMover is a rope-driven small train, composed of a few cabins, which makes use of train-inspired bogies. The aim of the model was to support the design of the architecture of the suspensions and to select the proper characteristics of the elastic and damping elements in order to fulfill comfort needs of passengers and to resolve the constraints related to the layout of the vehicle and the guide-ways. For this purpose, attention was especially focussed on the definition of the railway path and the modeling of the forces of the supporting and guidance wheels. A simplified model of the rope was implemented, which neglects the rope elasticity and computes the rope force direction taking account of the different positions of the sheaves along the path. The multibody simulation allowed to select the most appropriate suspension system and to properly define the elastic and damping characteristics of the shock absorbers, with respect to the technical constraints. A modal analysis was performed, and several dynamic on-track simulations were carried out to infer the effect of dampers’ design on the comfort of passengers. Within the validity of the simplifying assumptions, the multibody simulation also allowed to obtain a fairly good estimate of the loads necessary for the design of the main structural components.

This study is primarily concerned with the background to "DerKreidekreis", Zemlinsky's setting of a Chinese drama by Alfred Henschke (pen name 'Klabund', 1890-1928). This was the last of Zemlinsky's stage works to be performed during his lifetime. Indeed, it was the last to be performed anywhere (apart from a solitary production at Nuremberg in 1955) until the slow revival of interest in his music. In terms of scholarship, Horst Weber's monograph, published in 1974, was the first landmark in this process, as well as the first-ever biography and academic study of Zemlinsky in any language. Unlike Schreker, who benefitedfrom three biographies by the time he was 43, Zemlinsky was given only a special issue of the Prague music journal Auftakt for his fiftieth birthday in 1921. A year later the Universal Edition house journal Ausbruch published three short tributes to Zemlinsky as composer (by Franz Werfel) as conductor (by Heinrich Jalowetz) and as teacher (by Erich Korngold) - certainly a distinguished trio. But the general accounts of contemporary music of the time, such as those by Rudolf Louis, Oscar Bie, H. J. Moser and Adolf Weissmann either refer fleetingly to Zemlinsky or ignore him altogether.

The effect of mowing regimens on lateral spread of khakiweed (Alternanthera pungens Kunth) was determined through field studies conducted over a 3-month period in Texas during 2009 and 2010. Treatments were selected to simulate mowing regimens common to intensively managed common bermudagrass [Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers.] turf and included heights of 1.3 cm (three times/wk), 2.5 cm (two times/week), and 5.1 cm (two times/week). A non-mowed control was included for comparison. Differences in lateral spread of khakiweed among mowing regimens were apparent 4 weeks after initial treatment (WAIT). However, plant diameter increased for all mowing regimens over the course of the trial. Khakiweed plants subjected to the 1.3-cm mowing regimen did not increase in diameter from Week 2 through Week 12, whereas the other two mowing regimens exhibited steady increases in plant diameter over the same time period. By 12 WAIT, non-mowed control plots measured 80.8 cm in diameter, whereas those maintained at 1.3 cm measured 55.3 cm. Comparatively, plants subjected to the 2.5- and 5.1-cm mowing regimens measured 64.7 and 68.8 cm, respectively. Therefore, khakiweed infestations may be more prevalent in bermudagrass mowing heights commonly used for golf course roughs, athletic fields, and home lawns (2.5 cm or greater). However, the production of a thick taproot high in carbohydrate content may enable khakiweed to regenerate from frequent defoliation common to fairway mowing regimes (2.5 cm or less). Adjustments in mowing height may not be enough to effectively reduce khakiweed populations in bermudagrass turf.

Dollar spot, caused by Sclerotinia homoeocarpa F.T. Bennett, is an important disease of creeping bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera L.) on golf courses in the northern United States. Canopy moisture in the form of dew plays an important role in the development of dollar spot and routine displacement has been shown to reduce disease severity. The use of plant growth regulators (PGRs) is a common management practice for maintaining creeping bentgrass fairways, but their influence on dollar spot is unclear. The objective of this field study was to elucidate the influence of dew removal at the time of fungicide application on dollar spot control in creeping bentgrass regulated by trinexapac-ethyl (TE). Main factors in the study included three dew removal strategies (non-treated, dew removed–mowed, and dew removed–not mowed) before the application of four fungicide treatments (non-treated, chlorothalonil, propiconazole, and iprodione). All fungicide treatments were applied once to turfgrass previously treated with TE or not treated. The presence or absence of dew at the time of fungicide application generally had no influence on fungicide performance with respect to dollar spot control. Based on the results of this study, dew removal before the application of fungicides targeting dollar spot is unnecessary. Applications of TE before fungicides reduced dollar spot severity in some cases, but reductions in symptom expression were limited and did not result in markedly improved dollar spot control.

Management of dollar spot (incited by Sclerotinia homoeocarpa) on golf course fairways is increasingly challenging. The objectives of this study were to determine the influence of mowing frequency and plant growth regulators (PGRs) on dollar spot severity and on the residual efficacy of fungicides for control of dollar spot. Two 4-month-long studies were conducted on ‘Putter’ creeping bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera) maintained as a fairway at the University of Connecticut. Treatments were arranged in a three-by-three-by-five factorial that assessed the influence of mowing frequency (2, 4, or 6 days week–1) and PGRs (paclobutrazol, trinexapac-ethyl, or none) on dollar spot control by five fungicide treatments (boscalid, chlorothalonil, iprodione, propiconazole, or none). Turf was mowed in the afternoon hours to minimize the confounding effect of mowing frequency on leaf wetness duration. Treatments were initiated in the late spring of 2007 and 2008, and each fungicide treatment was reapplied only when dollar spot exceeded a threshold of five infection centers plot–1. In the absence of fungicides, dollar spot severity was reduced by 63 to 90% in plots treated with paclobutrazol and by 13 to 55% in plots treated with trinexapac-ethyl. Dollar spot severity was 23 to 50% lower in plots mown 2 days week–1 compared with those mown 6 days week–1. In cases where a significant interaction was observed between mowing frequency and PGRs, dollar spot was reduced on most rating dates in plots treated with trinexapacethyl that were mown 2 days week–1 compared with those mown 6 days week–1. Survival analysis of days until threshold was met revealed that duration of control of fungicides in plots receiving paclobutrazol were 28 to 84% longer compared with plots not receiving PGR. Duration of control by fungicides was generally similar between plots treated with trinexapac-ethyl and no PGR. In general, mowing frequency did not influence duration of control. Results from this study indicate that paclobutrazol could be used to increase the treatment interval of fungicides and that mowing frequency in the absence of dew is likely to have little influence on fungicide residual efficacy. When used without fungicides, PGRs and less frequent mowing may reduce dollar spot in situations where fungicide use is limited.

Bispyribac-sodium is an efficacious herbicide for annual bluegrass control in creeping bentgrass fairways, but turf tolerance and growth inhibition may be exacerbated by low mowing heights on putting greens. We conducted field and greenhouse experiments to investigate creeping bentgrass putting green tolerance to bispyribac-sodium. In greenhouse experiments, creeping bentgrass discoloration from bispyribac-sodium was exacerbated by reductions in mowing height from 24 to 3 mm, but mowing height did not influence clipping yields or root weight. In field experiments, discoloration of creeping bentgrass putting greens was greatest from applications of 37 g/ha every 10 d, compared to 74, 111, or 222 g/ha applied less frequently. Chelated iron effectively reduced discoloration of creeping bentgrass putting greens from bispyribac-sodium while trinexapac-ethyl inconsistently reduced these effects. Overall, creeping bentgrass putting greens appear more sensitive to bispyribac-sodium than higher mowed turf, but chelated iron and trinexapac-ethyl could reduce discoloration.

This academic paper is devoted to the analysis of a specific feature which could be found in K. Balmont’s translation of A. Tennyson’s poem «The Lady of Shalott». The aim of the work is to study the reasons why Balmont uses the word «волшебница» to describe the heroine in his translation while there is no word with such semantics in the original text. (This word is put in the name of the translated work and it is found in almost every stanza).English analogue of the word «volshebnitsa» (that is, the word «enchantress», which, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is closest to this word in semantics), while in the original text of the poem this word is not mentioned, the neutral word «lady» is used andonce (in the speech of the mower who hears the heroine singing, but does not see her) there is the word «fairy». This article, on the one hand, summarizes existing studies on the topic; on the other hand, complements them. The study highlights and considers several reasons for the above-mentioned discrepancy between the original text and its translation: emphasizing the connection with a fairy tale, revealing a number of motifs which play an important role in the work of Balmont himself (namely, motifs of music and creativity as magic) and an indication of the main heroine’s charming beauty.

Abstract This article addresses the transposition of H.C. Andersen’s literary production to comics and graphic novels; a vast, though little explored, field of research. It furnishes a brief overview of the work done by comic art creators in approaching the adaptation of Andersen, and proceeds to analyse Historien om en mor, Peter Madsen’s 2004 graphic novel adaptation of Andersen’s Historien om en Moder from 1848. As Madsen’s version is predominantly visual, employing images and sequences rather than words in the re-telling of the fairy tale, the investigation is presented as a semiotic analysis drawing on the tools provided by Thierry Groensteen’s The System of Comics (2007; ed. orig. Système de la bande dessinée, 1999). Categories scrutinised as meaning makers include gridding, braiding, page layout, and the handling of the dimension of time, with the ultimate aim of describing how the media affordances of comics, in the hands of a true craftsman, add depth and complexity to the re-narration of Andersen’s original.

A simulation model for a prismatic hard-chine planing hull watercraft (V-shaped keel with constant deadrise) with propulsion based on a 3-phase induction motor connected directly to surface-piercing propeller (SPP) and outfitted with a motor rotational speed controller was investigated, tested, and tuned. The modularity of the model developed enables straightforward substitution of diverse and more refined modules, or even attachment of additional ones to obtain greater level of detail or simulate more complicated processes. Industry trends do suggest an increasing interest in all-electric ship development as well as the use of surface-piercing propellers for small or medium-size craft. All-electric drive plants offer distinct advantages due to their flexibility in arrangements, ability to eliminate reduction gears in many cases, low maintenance requirements and wide range of available sizes as well superb load acceptance and dynamic matching to changing operational conditions. Employing electric drives onboard small craft with planing-hulls that achieve significantly higher velocities where arrangements and maneuverability are of critical design issues is a theme that has received increased attention by designers in recent years. Refined speed regulation and tracking compounded by the feature to produce fairly constant torque across a broad speed (rpm) range enables using of unconventional thrusters such as surface-piercing propellers to small craft. By investigating towing tank test data series for a surface-piercing propeller, development of a numerical simulation tool for unconventional thrusters was demonstrated. The surface-piercing propeller simulation model, as an artificial neural network (ANN), was coupled with a 3-phase induction motor as prime mover as well as dynamic propulsion shaft model and proportional-integral-differential (PID) controller. The various sub-models were finally integrated with a sub-model implementing Savitsky’s propulsion resistance method and calculation of equilibrium trim for planing hull modeling. Simulations were conducted using full-scale real-world conditions for a high-speed small craft developed for leisure and sporting activities, rapid close-range transit, reconnaissance and surveying etc. The planing-hull watercraft considered is amenable to minor hull modifications in order to house a 50 kW electric motor and a four bladed surface-piercing propeller. Simulations performed allowed a full assessment of model functionality as well as level of detail.

1. In this study, the movement-related activity of putamen neurons was investigated in behaving monkeys. The objective of the study was to examine whether the activity occurring in phase with body movements is directly related to the movement per se by encoding movement parameters or whether it is dependent on the circumstances in which the movement is performed. 2. Sensorially triggered arm movements were used as a behavioral task. A sequence of three visually triggered repetitive flexion-extensions of the elbow joint across the target were followed by the delivery of a juice reward. 3. There are two classes of putamen cells: type I, with tonic spontaneous discharges (2-7 Hz) and broad extracellularly recorded action potentials, and type II, with very low spontaneous discharge rate (less than 1 Hz). The movement-related phasic discharges occur exclusively in type II cells. 4. The movement-related activity of type II cells is classified into two contrasting types of cells: type IIa that exhibit burst discharges preceding the first movement of a sequence of repetitive arm or orofacial movements but that are almost inactive during succeeding movements, and type IIb that show movement-locked burst discharges with one-to-one correspondence. The somatotopic location of the cells was identified by microstimulation and/or sensory responses to passive somatosensory manipulation of the periphery. 5. The activities of type IIa cells occur with a short and fairly constant latency after the visual trigger stimulus and cease as soon as the sequence of the learned movements is initiated. In the condition in which the monkey attended to the visual trigger stimulus without initiating learned movements and waited for the delivery of juice reward at a fixed time after the stimulus, type IIa cells exhibited slight but consistent phasic discharges after the visual stimulus with short latency. This indicates that the type IIa cells have a visuomovement property. The type IIb cells, on the other hand, have a longer latency of activity after the visual trigger than type IIa cells and do not have the visuomovement property. 6. The type IIa cells change their activity pattern depending on whether the direction of initial movement is predictable before the trigger stimulus or not. 7. The activities of type IIa cells in the arm area of the putamen precede the electromyogram (EMG) of prime mover muscles by greater than 100 ms on average, whereas most type IIb cells are activated after the EMG during a learned arm-movement task.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Organizational values are beliefs held by organizational members regarding the means and ends that organizations �ought to� identify in the running of the enterprise. The most basic level of commonality that provides a common identity and shared sense of purpose is reflected in the company's vision. Research suggests that when employees share organizational values, they feel more loyal, committed, identify more strongly with the organization, and are more likely to stay. Espoused values that are expressed on behalf of the organization or attributed to an organization by its senior managers in public statements may be distinct from practised values. While the relationship between espoused values and organizational practices continues being researched, espoused values are also used to enhance organizations' images. Espousing socially relevant values and corporate social responsibility (CSR) is gaining enormous importance today. The main objective of this study was to investigate organizational values (both espoused and practised), vision, and CSR. It also aimed to assess employees' awareness and understanding of core values, vision, and CSR. Further, it also aimed to investigate differences among employees' awareness of core values, vision, and CSR according to gender, age, department, hierarchy, and tenure. The sample comprised 90 executives in one of India's largest automobile company, Maruti Suzuki India Limited. Maruti is a market leader, enjoying a market share of 55 per cent in the car segment. The measures included: (1) Understanding organizational values questionnaire" (self-constructed); (2) Semi-structured interviews with 20 executives; and (3) Document analysis of five years� Annual Reports and Chairman�s speeches at Annual General Meetings. Results showed that: The espoused values were: customer obsession, fast/flexible/first mover, innovation and creativity, networking and partnership and openness and learning. Employees� awareness of espoused values, vision, and CSR was moderate, very low, and fairly high, respectively. Only age and tenure influenced awareness of CSR and one core value, respectively. Older employees had better awareness of CSR than younger employees. More experienced employees were more aware of ‘customer obsession’ as compared to the less experienced ones. Awareness and understanding of vision among employees was very inadequate, with 50 per cent of employees unable to state or explain it. In contrast, the awareness of CSR was very high (95%). A small gap existed between espoused and practised values; e.g., the most important core value of customer obsession was not mentioned by even one employee as important for success in the organization. These findings have implications for making efforts towards value internalization by holding workshops, training programmes and implementing values in performance appraisal systems. It is suggested that CSR be reconceptualized as a corporate social necessity, and may even replace organizational vision as a powerful tool for managing employee-relevant outcomes. It is also recommended that organizations' strategy on CSR must be in line with their core competency to provide them with a competitive edge.

In the Dnipro area, Veronica arguteserrata is a new adventitious species of Asian origin from the family Plantaginaceae Juss., growing in the same ecological conditions – in shaded areas with moderate anthropogenic impact due to trampling, on loose soils and on parchment plots. The species is ephemeral: begins to grow in the second half of April, blooms in mid-May, bears fruit at the end of the same month, turns yellow in June and dies. We used 160 plants to study the morphological and ecological variability of Veronica arguteserrata. For analysis, we measured plant height, root length, length of the first and second internodes, length and width of leaf blade, number of peduncles, number of flowers, width and length of bract, corolla diameter, length and width of the fruits, number of seeds in the nest and number of fruits on the plant. The average values of all components were determined, the errors and population density, the number of individuals per 0.01 m2 were determined. Using a grid of 20 × 10 cm, divided into eight squares 5 × 5 cm, calculated the density of plants in tenfold repetition. The accuracy of density estimation, calculated as the ratio of error of the arithmetic mean to the arithmetic mean and expressed as a percentage, was 3.8–6.3%. The accuracy of assessment of other traits ranged from 2.2 to 7.5%, which is quite acceptable for field research. Analysis of the data showed that Veronica arguteserrata in the study area forms a fairly dense density of grasses, in which almost no other species are immersed. With increasing density, there is a tendency to increase the length of the first internode and reduce the area of the leaf blade, the number of peduncles, flowers and fruits on individuals. Within the parks, the plants were mowed at the end of the growing season. Probably due to mowing, as well as a slightly greater impact of trampling, the density of park populations is lower than on the highway near buildings. Synecological analysis showed that in the conditions of Dnipro area Veronica arguteserrata is a xeromesophyte, mesotroph, sciogeliophyte and ruderant. In the studied phytocenoses with increasing population of Veronica arguteserrata there is a tendency to decrease plant height, length of the second internode, length and width of the leaf blade, number of peduncles and flowers, length and width of bracts, peduncle length, corolla diameter and corolla diameter increase and box length. The highest variability was observed in the following signs from the vegetative sphere of Veronica arguteserrata plants: root length, leaf blade length, in the generative sphere: the number of flowers and of fruit on the plant. It is these features that make the largest share in the morphological variability of the studied species and determine its overall ecological and morphological plasticity. As a result of analysis of variance, the influence of population density on morphometric characteristics of plants was statistically proved. The population density has the greatest influence on the following features of the vegetative sphere: the length of the first internode and the length of the leaf blade; in the generative sphere: the diameter of the corolla and the length of the bract. Thus, the variability of these traits can be considered as a mechanism of intra-population morphological adaptations of the new adventitious species Veronica arguteserrata in the Dnipro area. The new adventitious species needs further monitoring studies to assess the level of impact on the ecosystems of Dnipro area.

Conurbation [f. CON- + L. urb- and urbs city + -ation] An aggregation of urban areas. (OED) Beyond the urban, further and lower even than the suburban, lies the con-urban. The conurban: with the urban, partaking of the urbane, lying against but also perhaps pushing against or being contra the urban. Conurbations stretch littorally from Australian cities, along coastlines to other cities, joining cities through the passage of previously outlying rural areas. Joining the dots between cities, towns, and villages. Providing corridors between the city and what lies outside. The conurban is an accretion, an aggregation, a piling up, or superfluity of the city: Greater London, for instance. It is the urban plus, filling the gaps between cities, as Los Angeles oozing urbanity does for the dry, desert areas abutting it (Davis 1990; Soja 1996). I wish to propose that the conurban imaginary is a different space from its suburban counterpart. The suburban has provided a binary opposition to what is not the city, what lies beneath its feet, outside its ken. Yet it is also what is greater than the urban, what exceeds it. In modernism, the city and its denizens define themselves outside what is arrayed around the centre, ringing it in concentric circles. In stark relief to the modernist lines of the skyscraper, contrasting with the central business district, central art galleries and museums, is to be found the masses in the suburbs. The suburban as a maligned yet enabling trope of modernism has been long revalued, in the art of Howard Arkeley, and in photography of suburban Gothic. It comes as no surprise to read a favourable newspaper article on the Liverpool Regional Art Gallery, in Sydney's Western Suburbs, with its exhibition on local chicken empires, Liverpool sheds, or gay and lesbians living on the city fringe. Nor to hear in the third way posturing of Australian Labor Party parliamentarian Mark Latham, the suburbs rhetorically wielded, like a Victa lawn mover, to cut down to size his chardonnay-set inner-city policy adversaries. The politics of suburbia subtends urban revisionism, reformism, revanchism, and recidivism. Yet there is another less exhausted, and perhaps exhaustible, way of playing the urban, of studying the metropolis, of punning on the city's proper name: the con-urban. World cities, as Saskia Sassen has taught us, have peculiar features: the juxtaposition of high finance and high technology alongside subaltern, feminized, informal economy (Sassen 1998). The Australian city proudly declared to be a world city is, of course, Sydney while a long way from the world's largest city by population, it is believed to be the largest in area. A recent newspaper article on Brisbane's real estate boom, drew comparisons with Sydney only to dismiss them, according to one quoted commentator, because as a world city, Sydney was sui generis in Australia, fairly requiring comparison with other world cities. One form of conurbanity, I would suggest, is the desire of other settled areas to be with the world city. Consider in this regard, the fate of Byron Bay a fate which lies very much in the balance. Byron Bay is sign that circulates in the field of the conurban. Craig MacGregor has claimed Byron as the first real urban culture outside an Australian city (MacGregor 1995). Local residents hope to keep the alternative cultural feel of Byron, but to provide it with a more buoyant economic outlook. The traditional pastoral, fishing, and whaling industries are well displaced by niche handicrafts, niche arts and craft, niche food and vegetables, a flourishing mind, body and spirit industry, and a booming film industry. Creative arts and cultural industries are blurring into creative industries. The Byron Bay area at the opening of the twenty-first century is attracting many people fugitive from the city who wish not to drop out exactly; rather to be contra wishes rather to be gently contrary marked as distinct from the city, enjoying a wonderful lifestyle, but able to persist with the civilizing values of an urban culture. The contemporary figure of Byron Bay, if such a hybrid chimera may be represented, wishes for a conurbanity. Citizens relocate from Melbourne, Canberra, and Sydney, seeking an alternative country and coastal lifestyle and, if at all possible, a city job (though without stress) (on internal migration in Australia see Kijas 2002): Hippies and hip rub shoulders as a sleepy town awakes (Still Wild About Byron, (Sydney Morning Herald, 1 January 2002). Forerunners of Byron's conurbanity leave, while others take their place: A sprawling $6.5 million Byron Bay mansion could be the ultimate piece of memorabilia for a wealthy fan of larrikin Australian actor Paul Hogan (Hoges to sell up at Byron Bay, Illawarra Mercury, 14 February 2002). The ABC series Seachange is one key text of conurbanity: Laura Gibson has something of a city job she can ply the tools of her trade as a magistrate while living in an idyllic rural location, a nice spot for a theme park of contemporary Australian manners and nostalgia for community (on Sea Change see Murphy 2002). Conurban designates a desire to have it both ways: cityscape and pastoral mode. Worth noting is that the Byron Shire has its own independent, vibrant media public sphere, as symbolized by the Byron Shire Echo founded in 1986, one of the great newspapers outside a capital city (Martin & Ellis 2002): <http://www.echo.net.au>. Yet the textual repository in city-based media of such exilic narratives is the supplement to the Saturday broadsheet papers. A case in point is journalist Ruth Ostrow, who lives in hills in the Byron Shire, and provides a weekly column in the Saturday Australian newspaper, its style gently evocative of just one degree of separation from a self-parody of New Age mores: Having permanently relocated to the hills behind Byron Bay from Sydney, it's interesting for me to watch friends who come up here on holiday over Christmas… (Ostrow 2002). The Sydney Morning Herald regards Byron Bay as another one of its Northern beaches, conceptually somewhere between Palm Beach and Pearl Beach, or should one say Pearl Bay. The Herald's fascination for Byron Bay real estate is coeval with its obsession with Sydney's rising prices: Byron Bay's hefty price tags haven't deterred beach-lovin' boomers (East Enders, Sydney Morning Herald 17 January 2002). The Australian is not immune from this either, evidence 'Boom Times in Byron', special advertising report, Weekend Australia, Saturday 2 March 2002. And plaudits from The Financial Review confirm it: Prices for seafront spots in the enclave on the NSW north coast are red hot (Smart Property, The Financial Review, 19 January 2002). Wacky North Coast customs are regularly covered by capital city press, the region functioning as a metonym for drugs. This is so with Nimbin especially, with regular coverage of the Nimbin Mardi Grass: Mardi Grass 2001, Nimbin's famous cannabis festival, began, as they say, in high spirits in perfect autumn weather on Saturday (Oh, how they danced a high old time was had by all at the Dope Pickers' Ball, Sydney Morning Herald, 7 May 2001). See too coverage of protests over sniffer dogs in Byron Bay in Easter 2001 showed (Peatling 2001). Byron's agony over its identity attracts wider audiences, as with its quest to differentiate itself from the ordinariness of Ballina as a typical Aussie seaside town (Buttrose 2000). There are national metropolitan audiences for Byron stories, readers who are familiar with the Shire's places and habits: Lismore-reared Emma Tom's 2002 piece on the politics of perving at King's beach north of Byron occasioned quite some debate from readers arguing the toss over whether wanking on the beach was perverse or par for the course: Public masturbation is a funny old thing. On one hand, it's ace that some blokes feel sexually liberated enough to slap the salami any old time… (Tom 2002). Brisbane, of course, has its own designs upon Byron, from across the state border. Brisbane has perhaps the best-known conurbation: its northern reaches bleed into the Sunshine Coast, while its southern ones salute the skyscrapers of Australia's fourth largest city, the Gold Coast (on Gold Coast and hinterland see Griffin 2002). And then the conburbating continues unabated, as settlement stretches across the state divide to the Tweed Coast, with its mimicking of Sanctuary Cove, down to the coastal towns of Ocean Shores, Brunswick Heads, Byron, and through to Ballina. Here another type of infrastructure is key: the road. Once the road has massively overcome the topography of rainforest and mountain, there will be freeway conditions from Byron to Brisbane, accelerating conurbanity. The caf is often the short-hand signifier of the urban, but in Byron Bay, it is film that gives the urban flavour. Byron Bay has its own International Film Festival (held in the near-by boutique town of Bangalow, itself conurban with Byron.), and a new triple screen complex in Byron: Up north, film buffs Geraldine Hilton and Pete Castaldi have been busy. Last month, the pair announced a joint venture with Dendy to build a three-screen cinema in the heart of Byron Bay, scheduled to open mid-2002. Meanwhile, Hilton and Castaldi have been busy organising the second Byron All Screen Celebration Film Festival (BASC), after last year's inaugural event drew 4000 visitors to more than 50 sessions, seminars and workshops. Set in Bangalow (10 minutes from Byron by car, less if you astral travel)… (Cape Crusaders, Sydney Morning Herald, 15 February 2002). The film industry is growing steadily, and claims to be the largest concentration of film-makers outside of an Australian capital city (Henkel 2000 & 2002). With its intimate relationship with the modern city, film in its Byron incarnation from high art to short video, from IMAX to multimedia may be seen as the harbinger of the conurban. If the case of Byron has something further to tell us about the transformation of the urban, we might consider the twenty-first century links between digital communications networks and conurbanity. It might be proposed that telecommunications networks make it very difficult to tell where the city starts and ends; as they interactively disperse information and entertainment formerly associated with the cultural institutions of the metropolis (though this digitization of urbanity is more complex than hyping the virtual suggest; see Graham & Marvin 1996). The bureau comes not just to the 'burbs, but to the backblocks as government offices are closed in country towns, to be replaced by online access. The cinema is distributed across computer networks, with video-on-demand soon to become a reality. Film as a cultural form in the process of being reconceived with broadband culture (Jacka 2001). Global movements of music flow as media through the North Coast, with dance music culture and the doof (Gibson 2002). Culture and identity becomes content for the information age (Castells 1996-1998; Cunningham & Hartley 2001; OECD 1998; Trotter 2001). On e-mail, no-one knows, as the conceit of internet theory goes, where you work or live; the proverbial refashioning of subjectivity by the internet affords a conurbanity all of its own, a city of bits wherever one resides (Mitchell 1995). To render the digital conurban possible, Byron dreams of broadband. In one of those bizarre yet recurring twists of Australian media policy, large Australian cities are replete with broadband infrastructure, even if by 2002 city-dwellers are not rushing to take up the services. Telstra's Foxtel and Optus's Optus Vision raced each other down streets of large Australian cities in the mid-1990s to lay fibre-coaxial cable to provide fast data (broadband) capacity. Cable modems and quick downloading of video, graphics, and large files have been a reality for some years. Now the Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) technology is allowing people in densely populated areas close to their telephone exchanges to also avail themselves of broadband Australia. In rural Australia, broadband has not been delivered to most areas, much to the frustration of the conurbanites. Byron Bay holds an important place in the history of the internet in Australia, because it was there that one of Australia's earliest and most important internet service providers, Pegasus Network, was established in the late 1980s. Yet Pegasus relocated to Brisbane in 1993, because of poor quality telecommunications networks (Peters 1998). As we rethink the urban in the shadow of modernity, we can no longer ignore or recuse ourselves from reflecting upon its para-urban modes. As we deconstruct the urban, showing how the formerly pejorative margins actually define the centre the suburban for instance being more citified than the grand arcades, plazas, piazzas, or malls; we may find that it is the conurban that provides the cultural imaginary for the urban of the present century. Work remains to be done on the specific modalities of the conurban. The conurban has distinct temporal and spatial coordinates: citizens of Sydney fled to Manly earlier in the twentieth century, as they do to Byron at the beginning of the twenty-first. With its resistance to the transnational commercialization and mass culture that Club Med, McDonalds, and tall buildings represent, and with its strict environment planning regulation which produce a litigious reaction (and an editorial rebuke from the Sydney Morning Herald [SMH 2002]), Byron recuperates the counter-cultural as counterpoint to the Gold Coast. Subtle differences may be discerned too between Byron and, say, Nimbin and Maleny (in Queensland), with the two latter communities promoting self-sufficient hippy community infused by new agricultural classes still connected to the city, but pushing the boundaries of conurbanity by more forceful rejection of the urban. Through such mapping we may discover the endless attenuation of the urban in front and beyond our very eyes; the virtual replication and invocation of the urban around the circuits of contemporary communications networks; the refiguring of the urban in popular and elite culture, along littoral lines of flight, further domesticating the country; the road movies of twenty-first century freeways; the perpetuation and worsening of inequality and democracy (Stilwell 1992) through the action of the conurban. Cities without bounds: is the conurban one of the faces of the postmetropolis (Soja 2000), the urban without end, with no possibility for or need of closure? My thinking on Byron Bay, and the Rainbow Region in which it is situated, has been shaped by a number of people with whom I had many conversations during my four years living there in 1998-2001. My friends in the School of Humanities, Media, and Cultural Studies, Southern Cross University, Lismore, provided focus for theorizing our ex-centric place, of whom I owe particular debts of gratitude to Baden Offord (Offord 2002), who commented upon this piece, and Helen Wilson (Wilson 2002). Thanks also to an anonymous referee for helpful comments. References Buttrose, L. (2000). Betray Byron at Your Peril. Sydney Morning Herald 7 September 2000. Castells, M. (1996-98). The Information Age. 3 vols. Blackwell, Oxford. Cunningham, S., & Hartley, J. (2001). Creative Industries from Blue Poles to Fat Pipes. Address to the National Humanities and Social Sciences Summit, National Museum of Canberra. July 2001. Davis, M. (1990). City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles. Verso, London. Gibson, C. (2002). Migration, Music and Social Relations on the NSW Far North Coast. Transformations, no. 2. <http://www.ahs.cqu.edu.au/transformation...>. Graham, S., and Marvin, S. (1996). Telecommunications and the City: Electronic Spaces, Urban Places. Routledge, London & New York. Griffin, Graham. (2002). Where Green Turns to Gold: Strip Cultivation and the Gold Coast Hinterland. Transformations, no. 2. <http://www.ahs.cqu.edu.au/transformation...> Henkel, C. (2002). Development of Audiovisual Industries in the Northern Rivers Region of NSW. Master thesis. Queensland University of Technology. . (2000). Imagining the Future: Strategies for the Development of 'Creative Industries' in the Northern Rivers Region of NSW. Northern Rivers Regional Development Board in association with the Northern Rivers Area Consultative Committee, Lismore, NSW. Jacka, M. (2001). Broadband Media in Australia Tales from the Frontier, Australian Film Commission, Sydney. Kijas, J. (2002). A place at the coast: Internal migration and the shift to the coastal-countryside. Transformations, no. 2. <http://www.ahs.cqu.edu.au/transformation...>. MacGregor, Craig. (1995). The Feral Signifier and the North Coast. In The Abundant Culture: Meaning And Significance in Everyday Australia, ed. Donald Horne & Jill Hooten. Allen and Unwin, Sydney. Martin, F., & Ellis, R. (2002). Dropping in, not out: the evolution of the alternative press in Byron Shire 1970-2001. Transformations, no. 2. <http://www.ahs.cqu.edu.au/transformation...>. Mitchell, W.J. (1995). City of Bits: Space, Place, and the Infobahn. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass. Molnar, Helen. (1998). 'National Convergence or Localism?: Rural and Remote Communications.' Media International Australia 88: 5-9. Moyal, A. (1984). Clear Across Australia: A History of Telecommunications. Thomas Nelson, Melbourne. Murphy, P. (2002). Sea Change: Re-Inventing Rural and Regional Australia. Transformations, no. 2. <http://www.ahs.cqu.edu.au/transformation...>. Offord, B. (2002). Mapping the Rainbow Region: Fields of belonging and sites of confluence. Transformations, no. 2. <http://www.ahs.cqu.edu.au/transformation...>. Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). (1998). Content as a New Growth Industry: Working Party for the Information Economy. OECD, Paris. Ostrow, R. (2002). Joyous Days, Childish Ways. The Australian, 9 February. Peatling, S. (2001). Keep Off Our Grass: Byron stirs the pot over sniffer dogs. Sydney Morning Herald. 16 April. <http://www.smh.com.au/news/0104/14/natio...> Peters, I. (1998). Ian Peter's History of the Internet. Lecture at Southern Cross University, Lismore. CD-ROM. Produced by Christina Spurgeon. Faculty of Creative Industries, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane. Productivity Commission. (2000). Broadcasting Inquiry: Final Report, Melbourne, Productivity Commission. Sassen, S. (1998). Globalisation and its Contents: Essays on the New Mobility of People and Money. New Press, New York. Soja, E. (2000). Postmetropolis: critical studies of cities and regions. Blackwell, Oxford. . (1996). Thirdspace: journeys to Los Angeles and other real-and-imagined places. Blackwell, Cambridge, Mass. Stilwell, F. (1992). Understanding Cities and Regions: Spatial Political Economy. Pluto Press, Sydney. Sydney Morning Herald (SMH). (2002). Byron Should Fix its own Money Mess. Editorial. 5 April. Tom, E. (2002). Flashing a Problem at Hand. The Weekend Australian, Saturday 12 January. Trotter, R. (2001). Regions, Regionalism and Cultural Development. Culture in Australia: Policies, Publics and Programs. Ed. Tony Bennett and David Carter. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 334-355. Wilson, H., ed. (2002). Fleeing the City. Special Issue of Transformations journal, no. 2. < http://www.ahs.cqu.edu.au/transformation...>. Links http://www.echo.net.au http://www.smh.com.au/news/0104/14/national/national3.html http://www.ahs.cqu.edu.au/transformations/journal/issue2/issue.htm Citation reference for this article MLA Style Goggin, Gerard. "Conurban" M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 5.2 (2002). [your date of access] < http://www.media-culture.org.au/0205/conurban.php>. Chicago Style Goggin, Gerard, "Conurban" M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 5, no. 2 (2002), < http://www.media-culture.org.au/0205/conurban.php> ([your date of access]). APA Style Goggin, Gerard. (2002) Conurban. M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 5(2). < http://www.media-culture.org.au/0205/conurban.php> ([your date of access]).