Making Sustainable Agriculture Real in CAP 2020: The Role of Conservation Agriculture

Europe is about to redefine its Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) for the near future. The question is whether this redefinition is more a fine-tuning of the existing CAP or whether thorough changes can be expected. Looking back to the last revision of CAP the most notable change is, undoubtedly, the concern about EU and global food security. The revival of the interest in agricultural production already became evident during the Health Check as a consequence of climbing commodity prices in 2007/08. It is therefore no surprise that “rising concerns regarding both EU and global food security” is the first topic to appear in the list of justifications for the need for a CAP reform. Other challenges mentioned in this list such as sustainable management of natural resources, climate change and its mitigation, improvement of competitiveness to withstand globalization and rising price volatility, etc., while not new are considered worthwhile enough to be maintained and reappraised

Hydrodynamic limits for the free Kawasaki dynamics of continuous particle systems

An infinite particle system of independent jumping particles is considered. Their constructions is recalled, further properties are derived, the relation with hierarchical equations, Poissonian analysis, and second quantization are discussed. The hydrodynamic limit for a general initial distribution satisfying a mixing condition is derived. The large time asymptotic is computed under an extra assumption

Recent Developments in Arene Photocycloadditions

The photocycloaddition of alkenes with aromatic systems may proceed through three reaction modes, affording different types of products: ortho, meta, and para. These reactions generate a considerable increase in complexity, and yield products arduously attainable by classical synthetic steps. Whereas the meta-photocycloaddition has gained a lot of attention in the last decades because of its applicability in the total synthesis of numerous natural products, the ortho- and para-cycloadditions still have a great potential for further development. In this highlight, we review the latest advances in the field of photocycloaddition of alkenes to aromatic systems

No-Tillage in Europe - State of the Art: Constraints and Perspectives

No-tillage in Europe contains a review of developments over the last three decades beginning in the late 1960s. Reasons for attempts to introduce this soil conserving production method are outlined and obstacles affecting the uptake of no-tillage throughout Europe are identified. Updated data are provided for the uptake of both conservation tillage and no-tillage in the member countries of the European Conservation Agriculture Federation. Further explanations for the low uptake of no-tillage and even conservation tillage when compared to other regions in the world are explored. The specificity of European conditions whether natural, human or political are used to provide arguments against the successful adoption of no-tillage in Europe. However, increased awareness of farmers, politicians and society as a whole that soils are a non-renewable resource are leading to gradual changes in the overall approach to soil conservation. The implementation of a European Soil Framework Directive is considered to be an important step towards the recognition that conservation tillage and no-tillage is both an economical and ecological sustainable method for crop production. It is anticipated that this will promote the concept of Conservation Agriculture and increase adoption levels throughout Europe

Guide Me in Analysis: A Framework for Guidance Designers

Guidance is an emerging topic in the field of visual analytics. Guidance can support users in pursuing their analytical goals more efficiently and help in making the analysis successful. However, it is not clear how guidance approaches should be designed and what specific factors should be considered for effective support. In this paper, we approach this problem from the perspective of guidance designers. We present a framework comprising requirements and a set of specific phases designers should go through when designing guidance for visual analytics. We relate this process with a set of quality criteria we aim to support with our framework, that are necessary for obtaining a suitable and effective guidance solution. To demonstrate the practical usability of our methodology, we apply our framework to the design of guidance in three analysis scenarios and a design walk-through session. Moreover, we list the emerging challenges and report how the framework can be used to design guidance solutions that mitigate these issues

Diversity of coryneforms found in infections following prosthetic joint insertion and open fractures

Summary: In a 5-year period, 73 coryneform isolates from prosthetic joint and open fracture infections in 60 patients treated in a hospital specialized in orthopedic surgery were speciated. The most frequent species wereCorynebacterium amycolatum, Corynebacterium striatum, Corynebacterium diphtheriae biotypemitis, andCorynebacterium jeikeium. At least 14 isolates were deemed clinically significant as sole agents of infectio