DESIGNING MIXED HORTICULTURAL SYSTEMS

The necessary ecologization of agriculture in the developed countries has recently resulted in the research of innovative systems that are both economically viable and environmentally friendly, with sustainable objectives at mid and long terms. The sylvoarable systems, mixing trees and crops on the same plot, are ecologically intensive systems that allow a better use of natural resources, hence increase production on the same land area. The vegetable orchard is a sylvoarable system mixing fruit trees and vegetable crops that disappeared in the 1950’s for economic reasons. Its possible reintroduction becomes a new research topic for ecological purposes, with agronomic bases to ensure its viability. The vegetable orchards’ agronomic bases are a combination of scientific results and feedback from farmers on the interactions between fruit trees and vegetable crops. These bases are the common knowledge to be harnessed during vegetable orchards’ co-design processes, especially for developing decision-support tools, such as models. A proof of concept is built for modelling the vegetable orchard with constraint satisfaction problems (CSP), proposing layouts of fruit trees and vegetable crops that take maximum advantage of a set of interactions between them. This proof of concept is the core of a more exhaustive model to be built, with CSP formalism or another, which could be used to support the design of systems mixing trees and crops

The effective conductivity of a periodic lattice of circular inclusions

We determine the effective conductivity of a two-dimensional composite consisting of a doubly periodic array of identical circular cylinders within a homogeneous matrix. We obtain an exact analytic expression for the effective conductivity tensor as well as its expansion in terms of volume fraction of the cylinders. Results are illustrated by examples.Comment: 21 pages, 5 figure

Atmospheric neutron measurements with the SONTRAC science model

–The SOlar Neutron TRACking (SONTRAC) telescope was originally developed to measure the energy spectrum and incident direction of neutrons produced in solar flares, in the energy range 20 - 250 MeV. While developed primarily for solar physics, the SONTRAC detector may be employed in virtually any application requiring both energy measurement and imaging capabilities. The SONTRAC Science Model (SM) is presently being operated at the University of New Hampshire (UNH) as a ground-based instrument to investigate the energy spectrum, zenith and azimuth angle dependence of the cosmic-ray induced sea-level atmospheric neutron flux. SONTRAC measurements are based on the non-relativistic double scatter of neutrons off ambient protons within a block of scintillating fibers. Using the n-p elastic double-scatter technique, it is possible to uniquely determine the neutron’s energy and direction on an event-by-event basis. The 3D SM consists of a cube of orthogonal plastic scintillating fiber layers with 5 cm sides, read out by two CCD cameras. Two orthogonal imaging chains allow full 3D reconstruction of scattered proton tracks

Gully Formation at the Haughton Impact Structure (Arctic Canada) Through the Melting of Snow and Ground Ice, with Implications for Gully Formation on Mars

The formation of gullies on Mars has been the topic of active debate and scientific study since their first discovery by Malin and Edgett in 2000. Several mechanisms have been proposed to account for gully formation on Mars, from dry mass movement processes, release of water or brine from subsurface aquifers, and the melting of near-surface ground ice or snowpacks. In their global documentation of martian gullies, report that gullies are confined to ~2783S and ~2872N latitudes and span all longitudes. Gullies on Mars have been documented on impact crater walls and central uplifts, isolated massifs, and on canyon walls, with crater walls being the most common situation. In order to better understand gully formation on Mars, we have been conducting field studies in the Canadian High Arctic over the past several summers, most recently in summer 2018 and 2019 under the auspices of the Canadian Space Agency-funded Icy Mars Analogue Program. It is notable that the majority of previous studies in the Arctic and Antarctica, including our recent work on Devon Island, have focused on gullies formed on slopes generated by regular endogenic geological processes and in regular bedrock. How-ever, as noted above, meteorite impact craters are the most dominant setting for gullies on Mars. Impact craters provide an environment with diverse lithologies including impact-generated and impact-modified rocks and slope angle, and thus greatly variable hill slope processes could occur within a localized area. Here, we investigate the formation of gullies within the Haughton impact structure and compare them to gullies formed in unimpacted target rock in the nearby Thomas Lee Inle

Solar H2_2 evolution in water with modified diketopyrrolopyrrole dyes immobilised on molecular Co and Ni catalyst–TiO2_2 hybrids

A series of diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP) dyes with a terminal phosphonic acid group for attachment to metal oxide surfaces were synthesised and the effect of side chain modification on their properties investigated. The organic photosensitisers feature strong visible light absorption ($\lambda$ = 400 to 575 nm) and electrochemical and fluorescence studies revealed that the excited state of all dyes provides sufficient driving force for electron injection into the TiO$_2$ conduction band. The performance of the DPP chromophores attached to TiO$_2$ nanoparticles for photocatalytic H$_2$ evolution with co-immobilised molecular Co and Ni catalysts was subsequently studied, resulting in solar fuel generation with a dye-sensitised semiconductor nanoparticle system suspended in water without precious metal components. The performance of the DPP dyes in photocatalysis did not only depend on electronic parameters, but also on properties of the side chain such as polarity, steric hinderance and hydrophobicity as well as the specific experimental conditions and the nature of the sacrificial electron donor. In an aqueous pH 4.5 ascorbic acid solution with a phosphonated DuBois-type Ni catalyst, a DPP-based turnover number (TON$_{DPP}$) of up to 205 was obtained during UV-free simulated solar light irradiation (100 mW cm$^{-2}$ , AM 1.5G, $\lambda$ > 420 nm) after 1 day. DPP-sensitised TiO$_2$ nanoparticles were also successfully used in combination with a hydrogenase or platinum instead of the synthetic H$_2$ evolution catalysts and the platinum-based system achieved a TON$_{DPP}$ of up to 2660, which significantly outperforms an analogous system using a phosphonated Ru tris(bipyridine) dye (TON$_{Ru}$ = 431). Finally, transient absorption spectroscopy was performed to study interfacial recombination and dye regeneration kinetics revealing that the different performances of the DPP dyes are most likely dictated by the different regeneration efficiencies of the oxidised chromophores.Support by the Christian Doppler Research Association (Austrian Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy and National Foundation for Research, Technology and Development), the OMV Group and the Ministry of Education (Singapore) is gratefully acknowledged. RG is grateful to FRQNT for a Postdoctoral Fellowship and JRD thanks the European Science Foundation project Intersolar (291482) for support

Anticipated regret to increase uptake of colorectal cancer screening (ARTICS):a randomised controlled trial

Objective. Screening is key to early detection of colorectal cancer. Our aim was to determine whether a simple anticipated regret (AR) intervention could increase colorectal cancer screening uptake. Methods. We conducted a randomised controlled trial of a simple, questionnaire-based AR intervention, delivered alongside existing pre-notification letters. 60,000 adults aged 50-74 from the Scottish National Screening programme were randomised to: 1) no questionnaire (control), 2) Health Locus of Control questionnaire (HLOC) or 3) HLOC plus anticipated regret questionnaire (AR). Primary outcome was guaiac Faecal Occult Blood Test (FOBT) return. Secondary outcomes included intention to return test kit and perceived disgust (ICK). Results. 59,366 people were analysed as allocated (Intentionto- treat (ITT)); there were no overall differences between treatment groups on FOBT uptake (control: 57.3%, HLOC: 56.9%, AR: 57.4%). 13,645 (34.2%) people returned questionnaires. Analysis of the secondary questionnaire measures showed that AR had an indirect effect on FOBT uptake via intention, whilst ICK had a direct effect on FOBT uptake over and above intention. The effect of AR on FOBT uptake was also moderated by intention strength: for less than strong intenders only, uptake was 4.2% higher in the AR (84.6%) versus the HLOC group (80.4%) (95% CI for difference (2.0, 6.5)). Conclusion. The findings show that psychological concepts including anticipated regret and perceived disgust (ICK) are important factors in determining FOBT uptake. However, there was no simple effect of the AR intervention in the ITT. We conclude that exposure to AR in those with low intentions may be required to increase FOBT uptake. Current controlled trials: www.controlledtrials. com number: ISRCTN74986452

The impact of asking intention or self-prediction questions on subsequent behavior: a meta-analysis

The current meta-analysis estimated the magnitude of the impact of asking intention and self-prediction questions on rates of subsequent behavior, and examined mediators and moderators of this question–behavior effect (QBE). Random-effects meta-analysis on 116 published tests of the effect indicated that intention/prediction questions have a small positive effect on behavior (d+ = 0.24). Little support was observed for attitude accessibility, cognitive dissonance, behavioral simulation, or processing fluency explanations of the QBE. Multivariate analyses indicated significant effects of social desirability of behavior/behavior domain (larger effects for more desirable and less risky behaviors), difficulty of behavior (larger effects for easy-to-perform behaviors), and sample type (larger effects among student samples). Although this review controls for co-occurrence of moderators in multivariate analyses, future primary research should systematically vary moderators in fully factorial designs. Further primary research is also needed to unravel the mechanisms underlying different variants of the QBE