Organic farming and biodiversity – how to create a viable farm business including conservation issues

The extension of organic farming (OF), the increasing recognition of the advantages for improving agro-biodiversity, and the fact that the protection of nature and natural species cannot be taken for granted, has resulted in several interdisciplinary activities. The first of these was the Brodowin Nature Conservation Farm project. Conflicts between nature conservation and modern, large-scale OF, focusing on arable land use systems, were identified, evaluated and solved. Suggestions for adequate financial reward for ecological performance were worked out. The tested optimisation strategies were implemented in a second project: preparing a whole farm management plan based on maps marked with fields having a high potential for specific target species. The aim was to achieve the highest benefit for nature conservation issues with the least expenditure by the farm. A manual is being produced as a third project, with a series of examples for the integration of nature conservation measures, based on the results of our own projects and data sourced in literature, along with different experts. The manual will allow the user to see immediately either how target species/groups can be directly promoted or how measures can be se-lected, and what effects these have on the business

Incomplete spectrum QSM using support information

INTRODUCTION: Reconstructing a bounded object from incomplete k-space data is a well posed problem, and it was recently shown that this incomplete spectrum approach can be used to reconstruct undersampled MRI images with similar quality to compressed sensing approaches. Here, we apply this incomplete spectrum approach to the field-to-source inverse problem encountered in quantitative magnetic susceptibility mapping (QSM). The field-to-source problem is an ill-posed problem because of conical regions in frequency space where the dipole kernel is zero or very small, which leads to the kernel's inverse being ill-defined. These "ill-posed" regions typically lead to streaking artifacts in QSM reconstructions. In contrast to compressed sensing, our approach relies on knowledge of the image-space support, more commonly referred to as the mask, of our object as well as the region in k-space with ill-defined values. In the QSM case, this mask is usually available, as it is required for most QSM background field removal and reconstruction methods. METHODS: We tuned the incomplete spectrum method (mask and band-limit) for QSM on a simulated dataset from the most recent QSM challenge and validated the QSM reconstruction results on brain images acquired in five healthy volunteers, comparing incomplete spectrum QSM to current state-of-the art-methods: FANSI, nonlinear dipole inversion, and conventional thresholded k-space division. RESULTS: Without additional regularization, incomplete spectrum QSM performs slightly better than direct QSM reconstruction methods such as thresholded k-space division (PSNR of 39.9 vs. 39.4 of TKD on a simulated dataset) and provides susceptibility values in key iron-rich regions similar or slightly lower than state-of-the-art algorithms, but did not improve the PSNR in comparison to FANSI or nonlinear dipole inversion. With added (ℓ1-wavelet based) regularization the new approach produces results similar to compressed sensing based reconstructions (at sufficiently high levels of regularization). DISCUSSION: Incomplete spectrum QSM provides a new approach to handle the "ill-posed" regions in the frequency-space data input to QSM

Ochrana přírody v ekologickém zemědělství - praktická příručka pro ekologické polní zemědělství v severovýchodním regionu Německa

Praktická příručka pro ekologické zemědělství v severovýchodním regionu Německa aplikovatelná na české podmínky. Jak lze při produkci potravin lépe chránit volně žijící zvířata a rostliny? Jaké možnosti má ekologické zemědělství? Příručka se těmto otázkám věnuje soustředěnou formou orientovanou na praxi. Obsah byl intenzivně diskutován a odsouhlasen s odborníky z praxe, poradenství, vědy a státní správy. Mohly tak být vzaty v úvahu podněty a námitky ze strany zemědělců a vyjasněny jak administrativní problémy, tak otázky přenositelnosti obsahu na celé severovýchodní Německo. V první části příručky jsou ukázány výhody a potenciály ekologického zemědělství pro ochranu přírody a situace podniků v severovýchodním Německu. Je zde vysvětleno, proč jsou zvláště v polní produkci nutná opatření na ochranu přírody. Je popsán ekologický význam biotopů jetelotráva, zrniny a krajinné prvky a jsou představeny základní strategie ochrany. Následující praktická část obsahuje stručné, snadno srozumitelné návody zaměřené na ochranu zvířat a rostlin. 20 záložek opatření a 17 záložek druhů, stejně jako i krátké popisy dalších relevantních opatření a druhů pomůžou zemědělci v rozhodování, na kterých pozemcích se vyplatí chránit určité druhy a jaké to bude mít zemědělské dopady. Uživatel rychle uvidí, jak lze typické nebo vzácné druhy zvířat a rostlin podporovat. I podniky, které nemají k dispozici konkrétní informace o výskytu jednotlivých druhů, si pro vlastní pozemky mohou vybrat vhodná opatření. Kromě toho jsou na základě praktických příkladů vysvětleny konkrétní možnosti celopodnikové optimalizace ochrany přírody

Mehr Naturschutz mit der Landwirtschaft – Praxisbeispiele aus Brandenburg –

Strategies to enhance and improve biodiversity on farms in the Schorfheide-Chorin Biosphere Reserve, Brandenburg, Germany are presented. Based on scientific results and experiences gained in the five year BfN Project “Nature Conservation Farm Brodowin” a manual for farmers, advisors and authorities has been developed that describes successfully tested nature conservation measures for threatened species of agrarian landscapes. In addition, instructions are given for developing the whole farm from a nature conservation viewpoint. This knowledge will be applied, adapted and further expanded in course of the elaboration of conservation management plans for fifteen farms with approx. 11,000 ha in total. Special focus is given on the requirements for managing and protecting Natura 2000 sites and species. Together with the farmers we provide nature conservation plans as decision support concerning the following issues: which species should be supported and which fields are the most suitable, where are particularly valuable sites and species, which measures achieve the comparatively greatest success for the species concerned and what effort is required by the farm considering potential yield and quality losses

What does “moderate pain” mean? Subgroups holding different conceptions of rating scales evaluate experimental pain differently

Background Pain ratings are almost ubiquitous in pain assessment, but their variability is high. Low correlations of continuous/numerical rating scales with categorical scales suggest that individuals associate different sensations with the same number on a scale, jeopardizing the interpretation of statistical results. We analysed individual conceptions of rating scales and whether these conceptions can be utilized in the analysis of ratings of experimental stimuli in pain‐free healthy individuals and people with reoccurring/persistent pain. Methods Using a free positioning task, healthy participants (N = 57) and people with reoccurring/persistent pain (N = 57) ad libitum positioned pain descriptors on lines representing intensity and un‐/pleasantness scales. Furthermore, participants rated experimental thermal stimuli on visual analogue scales with the same end anchors. A latent class regression approach was used to detect subgroups with different response patterns in the free positioning task, indicating different conceptions of pain labels, and tested whether these subgroups differed in their ratings of experimental stimuli. Results Subgroups representing different conceptions of pain labels could be described for the intensity and the un‐/pleasantness scale with in part opposing response patterns in the free positioning task. Response patterns did not differ between people with and without pain, but in people with pain subgroups showed differential ratings of high intensity experimental stimuli. Conclusions Individuals\u27 conceptions of pain labels differ. These conceptions can be quantified and utilized to improve the analysis of ratings of experimental stimuli. Identifying subgroups with different conceptions of pain descriptions could be used to improve predictions of responses to pain in clinical contexts. Significance The present results provide a novel approach to incorporate individual conceptualizations of pain descriptors, which can induce large distortions in the analysis of pain ratings, in pain assessment. The approach can be used to achieve better pain estimates, representing individual conceptions of pain and achieving a better comparability between individuals but also between pain‐free persons and patients with chronic pain. Particularly, in clinical settings this could improve quantification of perceived pain and the patient‐clinician communication

Ecological and agronomic evaluation of crop rotations in organic farming systems

The integration of nature conservation measures in organic farming requires special know-ledge about potential goal conflicts between ecological and agronomic requirements. The aim of this paper is to introduce a generation and evaluation tool for crop rotations that allows an assessment of the complex interdependencies of different biotic and abiotic parameters. The interdisciplinary ‘Nature Conserva-tion Farm Brodowin’ project provides the experimen-tal basis for developing practical solutions and compromises in this context. Two generated six-course crop rotations are presented as examples of this approach. The results show the sensitivity of the evaluation tool and its usability for improving crop rotations with regard to nature conservatio

The perception-production link in intonation: evidence from German learners of English

Investigations of the link between the perception and production of prosody by language learners can inform theories of prosody perception and production, especially with regard to Second Language Acquisition (SLA), and for the implementation of prosody in Foreign Language Teaching (FLT). The perception and production of prosody in L2 speech are often analyzed separately, but the link between the two is rarely the focus of investigation [e.g. 1, 2]. In a previous study [3], we analyzed the perception of prosody in read speech by German learners of English (n=20), who performed similarly to the British English (BrE) control group (n=25) for some sentence types (e.g. statements, yes/no-questions) and worse for others (e.g. open and closed tag questions, sarcasm). The present study extends this analysis by comparing the same learners' perception and production of prosody in read speech with the same sentence types. Overall, the learners (n=20) performed better in production and were more similar to the native speakers' (n=10) performance than in the perception task. However, the learners significantly differed from the native controls in production, i.e. closed tag questions and checking questions. Interestingly, the learners also performed significantly better in yes/no and statement questions than the native speakers

Incomplete spectrum QSM using support information

IntroductionReconstructing a bounded object from incomplete k-space data is a well posed problem, and it was recently shown that this incomplete spectrum approach can be used to reconstruct undersampled MRI images with similar quality to compressed sensing approaches. Here, we apply this incomplete spectrum approach to the field-to-source inverse problem encountered in quantitative magnetic susceptibility mapping (QSM). The field-to-source problem is an ill-posed problem because of conical regions in frequency space where the dipole kernel is zero or very small, which leads to the kernel's inverse being ill-defined. These “ill-posed” regions typically lead to streaking artifacts in QSM reconstructions. In contrast to compressed sensing, our approach relies on knowledge of the image-space support, more commonly referred to as the mask, of our object as well as the region in k-space with ill-defined values. In the QSM case, this mask is usually available, as it is required for most QSM background field removal and reconstruction methods.MethodsWe tuned the incomplete spectrum method (mask and band-limit) for QSM on a simulated dataset from the most recent QSM challenge and validated the QSM reconstruction results on brain images acquired in five healthy volunteers, comparing incomplete spectrum QSM to current state-of-the art-methods: FANSI, nonlinear dipole inversion, and conventional thresholded k-space division.ResultsWithout additional regularization, incomplete spectrum QSM performs slightly better than direct QSM reconstruction methods such as thresholded k-space division (PSNR of 39.9 vs. 39.4 of TKD on a simulated dataset) and provides susceptibility values in key iron-rich regions similar or slightly lower than state-of-the-art algorithms, but did not improve the PSNR in comparison to FANSI or nonlinear dipole inversion. With added (ℓ1-wavelet based) regularization the new approach produces results similar to compressed sensing based reconstructions (at sufficiently high levels of regularization).DiscussionIncomplete spectrum QSM provides a new approach to handle the “ill-posed” regions in the frequency-space data input to QSM