Crop protection in organic agriculture - a simple matter?

This report was presented at the UK Organic Research 2002 Conference. Crop protection strategies in organic agriculture and horticulture aim to prevent pest, disease and weed problems through optimisation of the cropping system as a whole. Choice of crops and varieties within the rotation and use of appropriate husbandry practices are critical to the success of the system and direct curative action against pests and diseases is rarely necessary. Research is urgently needed to determine strategies for control of key pests and diseases in organic systems if UK organic agriculture is to expand to meet increasing consumer demand. This paper describes current prevention and control strategies for pests, diseases and weeds in UK organic agriculture and identifies problems that are currently limiting expansion of the industry

Robustness of the nodal d-wave spectrum to strongly fluctuating competing order

We resolve an existing controversy between, on the one hand, convincing evidence for the existence of competing order in underdoped cuprates, and, on the other hand, spectroscopic data consistent with a seemingly homogeneous d-wave superconductor in the very same compounds. Specifically, we show how short-range fluctuations of the competing order essentially restore the nodal d-wave spectrum from the qualitatively distinct folded dispersion resulting from homogeneous coexisting phases. The signatures of the fluctuating competing order can be found mainly in a splitting of the antinodal quasi-particles and, depending of the strength of the competing order, also in small induced nodal gaps as found in recent experiments on underdoped La{2-x}SrxCuO4.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Some implications of changing the tax basis for pension funds

Governments in many developed economies provide private pension plans with significant taxation incentives. However, as many retirement income systems are now being reviewed due to demographic, social and economic pressures, these taxation arrangements are also under scrutiny. This paper discusses some of the implications of the differences between the traditional taxation treatment adopted by most OECD nations and that adopted by Australia, where there is a tax on contributions, a tax on investment earnings and a tax on benefits. The results show that there are significant differences in the net value of the benefits received by individuals and the taxation revenue received by the government. On the other hand, it is shown that there is remarkably little to distinguish between the two tax structures in terms of summary measures of lifetime income, although the form in which the benefit is taken in retirement is significant in influencing intragenerational equity.

Predictive monitoring research: Summary of the PREMON system

Traditional approaches to monitoring are proving inadequate in the face of two important issues: the dynamic adjustment of expectations about sensor values when the behavior of the device is too complex to enumerate beforehand, and the selective but effective interpretation of sensor readings when the number of sensors becomes overwhelming. This system addresses these issues by building an explicit model of a device and applying common-sense theories of physics to model causality in the device. The resulting causal simulation of the device supports planning decisions about how to efficiently yet reliably utilize a limited number of sensors to verify correct operation of the device

Diagnosing faults in autonomous robot plan execution

A major requirement for an autonomous robot is the capability to diagnose faults during plan execution in an uncertain environment. Many diagnostic researches concentrate only on hardware failures within an autonomous robot. Taking a different approach, the implementation of a Telerobot Diagnostic System that addresses, in addition to the hardware failures, failures caused by unexpected event changes in the environment or failures due to plan errors, is described. One feature of the system is the utilization of task-plan knowledge and context information to deduce fault symptoms. This forward deduction provides valuable information on past activities and the current expectations of a robotic event, both of which can guide the plan-execution inference process. The inference process adopts a model-based technique to recreate the plan-execution process and to confirm fault-source hypotheses. This technique allows the system to diagnose multiple faults due to either unexpected plan failures or hardware errors. This research initiates a major effort to investigate relationships between hardware faults and plan errors, relationships which were not addressed in the past. The results of this research will provide a clear understanding of how to generate a better task planner for an autonomous robot and how to recover the robot from faults in a critical environment

Remote Sensing of Arctic Vegetation: Relations between the NDVI, Spatial Resolution and Vegetation Cover on Boothia Peninsula, Nunavut

Arctic tundra environments are thought to be particularly sensitive to changes in climate, whereby alterations in ecosystem functioning are likely to be expressed through shifts in vegetation phenology, species composition, and net ecosystem productivity (NEP). Remote sensing has shown potential as a tool to quantify and monitor biophysical variables over space and through time. This study explores the relationship between the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and percent-vegetation cover in a tundra environment, where variations in soil moisture, exposed soil, and gravel till have significant influence on spectral response, and hence, on the characterization of vegetation communities. IKONOS multispectral data (4 m spatial resolution) and Landsat 7 ETM+ data (30 m spatial resolution) were collected for a study area in the Lord Lindsay River watershed on Boothia Peninsula, Nunavut. In conjunction with image acquisition, percent cover data were collected for twelve 100 m × 100 m study plots to determine vegetation community composition. Strong correlations were found for NDVI values calculated with surface and satellite sensors, across the sample plots. In addition, results suggest that percent cover is highly correlated with the NDVI, thereby indicating strong potential for modeling percent cover variations over the region. These percent cover variations are closely related to moisture regime, particularly in areas of high moisture (e.g., water-tracks). These results are important given that improved mapping of Arctic vegetation and associated biophysical variables is needed to monitor environmental change.On croit que les environnements de la toundra arctique sont particulièrement sensibles aux changements climatiques, en ce sens que toute altération du fonctionnement de l’écosystème est susceptible d’être exprimée dans le réarrangement de la phénologie de la végétation, de la composition des espèces et de la productivité nette de l’écosystème (PNÉ). La télédétection s’avère un outil efficace de quantification et de surveillance des variables biophysiques dans le temps et dans l’espace. Cette étude explore la relation entre l’indice d’activité végétale et le pourcentage de couverture végétale en milieu de toundra, où les variations propres à l’humidité du sol, au sol exposé et au till de gravier ont une influence considérable sur la réponse spectrale et, par conséquent, sur la caractérisation des communautés végétales. Des données multispectrales IKONOS (résolution spatiale de 4 m) et des données ETM+ de Landsat 7 (résolution spatiale de 30 m) ont été recueillies pour une zone d’étude visée par la ligne de partage des eaux à la hauteur de la rivière Lord Lindsay, dans la péninsule de Boothia, au Nunavut. De concert avec l’acquisition d’images, les données relatives au pourcentage de couverture ont été recueillies pour douze terrains d’étude de 100 m sur 100 m dans le but de déterminer la composition de la communauté végétale. De fortes corrélations ont été dénotées dans le cas des valeurs de l’indice d’activité végétale calculées à l’aide de détecteurs de surface et de détecteurs satellisés et ce, à l’échelle des terrains ayant servi d’échantillon. Par ailleurs, les résultats laissent entendre que le pourcentage de couverture est hautement corrélé avec l’indice d’activité végétale, ce qui indique une forte possibilité de modélisation des variations de pourcentage de couverture dans la région. Ces variations du pourcentage de couverture sont étroitement liées au régime d’humidité, particulièrement dans les régions où l’humidité est élevée (comme les traces d’eau). Ces résultats revêtent de l’importance étant donné qu’il y a lieu d’améliorer le mappage de la végétation arctique et les variables biophysiques connexes afin de surveiller la modification de l’environnement

Leadership, Partisan Loyalty, and Issue Salience: The 2011 Provincial Election in Saskatchewan

This article seeks to provide an understanding of the historic success of the Saskatchewan Party and the historic failure of the NDP in the 2011 Saskatchewan provincial election. Drawing on telephone survey data from the 2011 Saskatchewan Election Study, we argue that leadership, partisan loyalty, and issue salience best explain the Saskatchewan Party’s dominance over the NDP. On election day, the Saskatchewan Party benefitted from the carefully cultivated popularity of Brad Wall, the development of a loyal base of voters who believed in the party’s vision of a ‘New Saskatchewan’, and the confidence of the electorate with the party’s handling of key issues. The NDP’s loss of seats and the drop in its popular vote can be attributed to the unpopularity of the party’s leader, its overreliance on a relatively small base of party loyalists, and its inability to connect with voters on issues that were of most importance to them