Vigorous propagation material and organic breeding in the Netherlands

Organic cultivation depends on robust and healthy propagation material and the availability of suitable plant varieties. To be able to facilitate organic farmers and growers, Wageningen UR and the Louis Bolk Institute carry out a variety of research aimed specifically at organic propagation and breeding. The report contains sector facts, sector aspirations, current affairs and research projects

A description of odd mass W-isotopes in the Interacting 2 Boson-Fermion Model

The negative and positive parity low-spin states of the even-odd Tungsten isotopes, 183,185,187W are studied in the frame work of the Interacting Boson-Fermion Approximation (IBFA) model. The fermion that is coupled to the system of bosons is taken to be in the negative parity 2f_7|2, 2f_5\2, 3p_3\2, 3p_1\2 and in the positive parity 1i_13\2 single-particle orbits. The calculated energies of low-spin energy levels of the odd isotopes are found to agree well with the experimental data. Also B(E2) values and spectroscopic factors for single-neutron transfer are calculated and found to be in good agreement with experimental data

Exploration of portfolio characteristics for the recognition of prior learning : the identification, assessment and recognition of actual competencies of highly-skilled immigrants

This research study explores the characteristics of the portfolio as an instrument for highly-skilled immigrants to facilitate the identification, assessment and recognition of their actual competencies in order to define guidelines for portfolio design and implementation. The two research questions that guided the research process are:\ud 1. What are the characteristics of the portfolio instrument and its use by highly-skilled immigrants\ud that facilitate the identification, assessment and recognition of their actual competencies?\ud 2. What are the characteristics of portfolio design and implementation that enhance the acceptability and prospective use of the portfolio instrument in the current evaluation and recognition practice

Organic-industrial complex or herbal remedy? A case near Seattle and Vancouver

This report was presented at the UK Organic Research 2002 Conference. Organic conversion can help maintain property and lifestyle. But organic is not always local. Based on long-term contacts this poster notes market, global and policy implications of an American family farm which converted to organic herbs with a multinational partner. Is the family’s affiliation with corporate macro-actors the happy human face of globalisation? Or does it support Pollan’s (2001) warning that an ‘organic-industrial complex’ will dominate organic movements in the US, UK and world-wide

Livestock farming with care : summaries of essays

Wageningen UR is the country’s major research organisation in the field of livestock farming, providing the knowledge base for innovative livestock farming in our country and beyond and, as such, keen to play a role in the above mentioned debate. To this end an interdisciplinary task force was formed embodying a range of expertise, from livestock technology to system analysis and from economics to public administration. As one of the task force activities, Wageningen UR colleagues were invited to write an essay with their vision on specific aspects of this debate, based on their views and expertise. The result was a series of 30 essays, providing a wide overview of relevant issues with possible directions for solutions

Real-Time Communication in Wireless Home Networks

This paper describes a medium access protocol for real-time communication in wireless networks. Medium access is controlled by a scheduler, which utilizes a pre-emptive earliest deadline first (PEDF) scheduling algorithm. The scheduler prevents collisions in the network, where normally only collisions are avoided. PEDF is the scheduler of choice, because it has excellent properties with respect to bandwidth utilization, dynamic behaviour and feasibily analysis. The scheduler can be deployed in managed networks, where it resides in the base station, as well as in peer to peer or ad hoc networks, were it is distributed over the stations. The protocol is simulated and an implementation based on IEEE 802.11b is realized

Opportunistic Sensing in Train Safety Systems

Train safety systems are complex and expensive, and changing them requires huge investments. Changes are evolutionary and small. Current developments, like faster - high speed - trains and a higher train density on the railway network, have initiated research on safety systems that can cope with the new requirements. This paper presents a novel approach for a safety subsystem that checks the composition of a train, based on opportunistic sensing with a wireless sensor network. Opportunistic sensing systems consist of changing constellations sensors that, for a limited amount of time, work together to achieve a common goal. Such constellations are selforganizing and come into being spontaneously. The proposed opportunistic sensing system selects a subset of sensor nodes from a larger set based on a common context.We show that it is possible to use a wireless sensor network to make a distinction between carriages from different trains. The common context is acceleration, which is used to select the subset of carriages that belong to the same train out of all the carriages from several trains in close proximity. Simulations based on a realistic set of sensor data show that the method is valid, but that the algorithm is too complex for implementation on simple wireless sensor nodes. Downscaling the algorithm reduces the number of processor execution cycles as well as memory usage, and makes it suitable for implementation on a wireless sensor node with acceptable loss of precision. Actual implementation on wireless sensor nodes confirms the results obtained with the simulations