Recent results from Lattice QCD

Recent Lattice QCD results are reviewed with an emphasis on spectroscopic results concerning the charm quark. It is demonstrated that, with accurate computations from lattice QCD in recent years that can be compared with the existing or upcoming experiments, stringent test of the Standard Model can be performed which will greatly sharpen our knowledge on the strong interaction.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures. Plenary talk presented at The XXXIII international symposium on Physics in Collision (PIC2013), Institute of High Energy Physics, Beijing, P. R. China, 03 - 07 September 201

Producers’ perceptions of public good agricultural practices and their pesticide use: The case of MyGAP for durian farming in Pahang, Malaysia

This paper investigates the local implementation of Malaysian public GAP standard called MyGAP by examining its effectiveness in raising the awareness and improving the pesticide use practices of participant smallscale farmers toward better food safety and quality assurance. For this objective, 19 MyGAP certified and 57 uncertified durian farms in the state of Pahang, Malaysia were surveyed. The research found that certified farm managers have a much better understanding of the basic intent of the policy than uncertified farms, reflecting the individually oriented interests and motivations of participant farmers in the national scheme. Their interests in and assessment of the merits of the scheme are found to concentrate in economic realms rather than in the original policy goal of food safety and quality assurance. As regards pesticide use practices, certified farms showed a much better performance than uncertified farms in record keeping and pesticide use and management. There remains a question, however, whether it is due to the farming practices improved through MyGAP adoption or due to the participation of farms already well-performing prior to MyGAP adoption