UK and EU policy for approval of pesticides suitable for organic systems: Implications for Wales

This study was commissioned by the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) to review the pesticide approval system in the UK and Europe as far as it affects the use of substances and techniques for crop protection by organic producers in Wales. WAG considers it important that the UK pesticide approval system does not present unnecessary barriers to the development of organic production in Wales. Key Recommendations and scope for further work · WAG should work with the Pesticides Safety Directorate to ensure that the development of pesticide regulatory policy at both National and European level takes full account of the needs of both conventional and organic agriculture and horticulture in the UK. · There is scope for WAG to support the development of a National Pesticide Policy so that regulatory and commercial barriers impeding the development of organic pesticides are minimised. Not only could greater availability of ‘organic pesticides’ have a significant impact on organic production in Wales but there could be important implications for conventional horticulture systems and the use of alternatives to conventional pesticides. · One important regulatory barrier to the registration of ‘organic pesticides’ is the MRL requirement(s) for their approval and this needs to be resolved. Suitable analytical techniques are required to determine firstly whether these substances result in residues, and secondly to identify the breakdown and residue pathways. So far, this issue has not received the attention of any EU Member State. · According to the proposed framework for the 4th Stage Review of EU Pesticides Directive 91/414, notifiers are required to produce a dossier, at their own expense, covering characterisation, human toxicity, ecotoxicity efficacy and other relevant data. The Review includes specific provision for companies notifying the same substance to submit a shared dossier. This will help those businesses (many of which are relatively small companies) to save on the high cost of producing the dossiers. It will also aid the Commission since it will reduce the number of dossiers that have to be considered, and ensure that all the available data is included. WAG should encourage and support the production of collective dossiers; although as yet there is no indication of how this will be done in practice, and further details from the Commission are awaited. · This study has concluded that access to a wider range of ‘organically acceptable pesticides’ would not have a dramatic impact on organic production in Wales. However, in developing an integrated organic policy, WAG should continue to address the pesticides issue. Some of the methods of pest & disease control in organic systems are either physical or multi-cellular e.g. micro-organisms used as biocontrol agents. WAG agri environment policy may provide a vehicle to promote these techniques much more actively. Further, it is important to recognise that while Wales alone is too small to have a major impact on commercial and regulatory pressures, WAG can have an impact by working pro-actively with others to make progress. · There are no published EU or national Member State criteria that can be used to evaluate the acceptability of pesticide substances for organic production. Identifying such criteria and promoting their acceptance at EU level and nationally would allow more active substances to be made available. WAG should work with PSD and others to identify appropriate criteria. · The specific provisions of Article 7 in Annex 2(b) of the Organic Regulation (2092/91) place potential barriers to the adoption of organically acceptable substances for crop protection. There are a number of potentially useful substances currently not included in the Organic Regulation e.g. potassium bicarbonate. WAG should work with PSD and others to identify such substances and support the production of appropriate dossiers. WAG could also encourage further dialogue between the organic sector and Defra to identify amendments in the Organic Regulations to facilitate the inclusion of new pesticides. · Organic pest and disease management is not just a question of inputs but it also relies crucially on advice and extension through initiatives such as Farming Connect and the work of Organic Centre Wales. Long-term commitment to supporting on going advice and extension activities is vital to promote and disseminate best practice in Welsh agriculture and horticulture. · Organic horticulture, vegetable and fruit production systems are particularly sensitive to pest and disease management. Successful control of pests, diseases (and weeds) in these sectors can be critical to the business, and is not assured even when all husbandry and management methods have been effectively applied. Consequently, the use of organically acceptable crop protection methods resulting from future developments (e.g. biopesticides, biological control agents) could have an important role in pest and disease management in these sectors. Both organic and conventional producers in Wales could benefit from having these options available to them and WAG could encourage the adoption of these approaches through appropriate Technology Transfer activities. · The way in which such substances will be regulated at a European level in future is evolving as the review of the Pesticide Directive 91/414 EEC enters the 4th Stage. This stage of the review includes (amongst others) those substances permitted for use in organic production. The guidance documents for the evaluation of applications on plant protection products made from plants or plant extracts and from chemical substances are currently at the draft stage. The response of the Pesticide Safety Directorate and Defra to these developments is not yet clear but this provides an excellent opportunity for WAG to have an input at an early stage in the review process

LSST optical beam simulator

We describe a camera beam simulator for the LSST which is capable of illuminating a 60mm field at f/1.2 with realistic astronomical scenes, enabling studies of CCD astrometric and photometric performance. The goal is to fully simulate LSST observing, in order to characterize charge transport and other features in the thick fully depleted CCDs and to probe low level systematics under realistic conditions. The automated system simulates the centrally obscured LSST beam and sky scenes, including the spectral shape of the night sky. The doubly telecentric design uses a nearly unit magnification design consisting of a spherical mirror, three BK7 lenses, and one beam-splitter window. To achieve the relatively large field the beam-splitter window is used twice. The motivation for this LSST beam test facility was driven by the need to fully characterize a new generation of thick fully-depleted CCDs, and assess their suitability for the broad range of science which is planned for LSST. Due to the fast beam illumination and the thick silicon design [each pixel is 10 microns wide and over 100 microns deep] at long wavelengths there can be effects of photon transport and charge transport in the high purity silicon. The focal surface covers a field more than sufficient for a 40x40 mm LSST CCD. Delivered optical quality meets design goals, with 50% energy within a 5 micron circle. The tests of CCD performance are briefly described.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figure

Raman scattering mediated by neighboring molecules

Raman scattering is most commonly associated with a change in vibrational state within individual molecules, the corresponding frequency shift in the scattered light affording a key way of identifying material structures. In theories where both matter and light are treated quantum mechanically, the fundamental scattering process is represented as the concurrent annihilation of a photon from one radiation mode and creation of another in a different mode. Developing this quantum electrodynamical formulation, the focus of the present work is on the spectroscopic consequences of electrodynamic coupling between neighboring molecules or other kinds of optical center. To encompass these nanoscale interactions, through which the molecular states evolve under the dual influence of the input light and local fields, this work identifies and determines two major mechanisms for each of which different selection rules apply. The constituent optical centers are considered to be chemically different and held in a fixed orientation with respect to each other, either as two components of a larger molecule or a molecular assembly that can undergo free rotation in a fluid medium or as parts of a larger, solid material. The two centers are considered to be separated beyond wavefunction overlap but close enough together to fall within an optical near-field limit, which leads to high inverse power dependences on their local separation. In this investigation, individual centers undergo a Stokes transition, whilst each neighbor of a different species remains in its original electronic and vibrational state. Analogous principles are applicable for the anti-Stokes case. The analysis concludes by considering the experimental consequences of applying this spectroscopic interpretation to fluid media; explicitly, the selection rules and the impact of pressure on the radiant intensity of this process

Laser-controlled fluorescence in two-level systems

The ability to modify the character of fluorescent emission by a laser-controlled, optically nonlinear process has recently been shown theoretically feasible, and several possible applications have already been identified. In operation, a pulse of off-resonant probe laser beam, of sufficient intensity, is applied to a system exhibiting fluorescence, during the interval of excited- state decay following the initial excitation. The result is a rate of decay that can be controllably modified, the associated changes in fluorescence behavior affording new, chemically specific information. In this paper, a two-level emission model is employed in the further analysis of this all-optical process; the results should prove especially relevant to the analysis and imaging of physical systems employing fluorescent markers, these ranging from quantum dots to green fluorescence protein. Expressions are presented for the laser-controlled fluorescence anisotropy exhibited by samples in which the fluorophores are randomly oriented. It is also shown that, in systems with suitably configured electronic levels and symmetry properties, fluorescence emission can be produced from energy levels that would normally decay nonradiatively. © 2010 American Chemical Society

Effects of White Space in Learning via the Web

This study measured the effect of specific white space features on learning from instructional Web materials. The study also measured learners' beliefs regarding Web-based instruction. Prior research indicated that small changes in the handling of presentation elements can affect learning. Achievement results from this study indicated that in on-line materials, when content and overall structure are sound, minor differences regarding table borders and vertical spacing in text do not hinder learning. Beliefs regarding Web-based instruction and instructors who use it did not differ significantly between treatment groups. Implications of the study and cautions regarding generalizing from the results are discussed.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline

Juvenile southern elephant seals exhibit seasonal differences in energetic requirements and use of lipids and protein stores

Growing juvenile animals undergo many morphological, physiological, and behavioural changes that influence their energetic requirements, patterns of energy use, and ultimately, their survival and reproductive success. We examined changes in mass loss and body composition of juvenile southern elephant seals (1- and 2-yr-olds) during their two annual haul-outs. At the start and end of the midyear and molt haul-outs, we caught, weighed, and measured 41 and 14 seals, respectively. We measured blubber depth using ultrasound to estimate body composition ( lean and adipose tissue mass). Using energy densities of the adipose and lean tissue, we calculated total, lean, and adipose mass changes and energy expenditure. While molting, juvenile seals used more energy than during the midyear, which is related to the increased use of lean tissue for hair and skin regeneration. The amount of energy used increases with mass as individuals mature. We found sexual differences in energy use where females retained greater fat reserves than males by utilizing more lean tissue. These differences are most likely related to haul-out function and behavior, growth, and earlier development of females toward sexual maturity

Modelling the solar transition region using an adaptive conduction method

Funding: European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 647214); the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council through the consolidated grant ST/N000609/1.Modelling the solar Transition Region with the use of an Adaptive Conduction (TRAC) method permits fast and accurate numerical solutions of the field-aligned hydrodynamic equations, capturing the enthalpy exchange between the corona and transition region, when the corona undergoes impulsive heating. The TRAC method eliminates the need for highly resolved numerical grids in the transition region and the commensurate very short time steps that are required for numerical stability. When employed with coarse spatial resolutions, typically achieved in multi-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic codes, the errors at peak density are less than 5% and the computation time is three orders of magnitude faster than fully resolved field-aligned models. This paper presents further examples that demonstrate the versatility and robustness of the method over a range of heating events, including impulsive and quasi-steady footpoint heating. A detailed analytical assessment of the TRAC method is also presented, showing that the approach works through all phases of an impulsive heating event because (i) the total radiative losses and (ii) the total heating when integrated over the transition region are both preserved at all temperatures under the broadening modifications of the method. The results from the numerical simulations complement this conclusion.PostprintPeer reviewe

Resonance energy transfer: The unified theory revisited

Resonanceenergy transfer (RET) is the principal mechanism for the intermolecular or intramolecular redistribution of electronic energy following molecular excitation. In terms of fundamental quantum interactions, the process is properly described in terms of a virtual photon transit between the pre-excited donor and a lower energy (usually ground-state) acceptor. The detailed quantum amplitude for RET is calculated by molecular quantum electrodynamical techniques with the observable, the transfer rate, derived via application of the Fermi golden rule. In the treatment reported here, recently devised state-sequence techniques and a novel calculational protocol is applied to RET and shown to circumvent problems associated with the usual method. The second-rank tensor describing virtual photon behavior evolves from a Green’s function solution to the Helmholtz equation, and special functions are employed to realize the coupling tensor. The method is used to derive a new result for energy transfer systems sensitive to both magnetic- and electric-dipole transitions. The ensuing result is compared to that of pure electric-dipole–electric-dipole coupling and is analyzed with regard to acceptable transfer separations. Systems are proposed where the electric-dipole–magnetic-dipole term is the leading contribution to the overall rate

ECOLOGICAL-ECONOMIC MODELS OF SUSTAINABLE HARVEST FOR AN ENDANGERED BUT EXOTIC MEGAHERBIVORE IN NORTHERN AUSTRALIA

ABSTRACT. How can one manage wildlife under a suite of competing values? In isolation, the ecological economics of native wildlife harvest, threatened species conservation and control of exotic species are all well established sub-disciplines of wildlife management. However, the wild banteng (Bos javanicus) population of northern Australia represents an interesting combination of these aspirations. A native bovid of Southeast Asia now 'endangered' in its native range, banteng were introduced into northern Australia in 1849. Today, a population of 8,000 10,000 resides on one small, isolated peninsula in western Arnhem Land, Northern Territory and is harvested by both recreational (trophy) and aboriginal subsistence hunters. Indigenous, industry and conservationist stakeholders differ in their requirements for population management. Here we analyze the ecological and economic costs/benefits of a series of potential harvest management options for Australia's banteng population, with the aim being either to: (1) maximize sustainable yield (MSY); (2) maximize harvest of trophy males; (3) maximize indigenous off-take; (4) suppress density or completely eradicate the population; (5) minimize risk of extinction whilst limiting range expansion; (6) scenarios incorporating two or more of options 1 5. The modeling framework employed stochastic, density-regulated matrix population models with life-history parameters derived from (i) allometric relationships (for estimating r max , generation length, fecundity and densities for a banteng-sized mammal) and (ii) measured For each management option, we present a simple economic analysis that incorporates estimated costs of management implementation and associated profits projected. Results demonstrate that revenue of >AU$200,000 is possible from meat production and safari hunting without compromising long-term population stability or the conservation status of this endangered bovid