Winter Wheat Response to Weed Control and Residual Herbicides

Italian ryegrass has become one of the most common and troublesome weeds of wheat production in the Southern United States. There are multiple reports in this region of Italian ryegrass herbicide resistance to acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACCase), acetolactate synthase (ALS), and glyphosate herbicides. One commonality for Italian ryegrass resistance in this area is that most of these mechanisms of action for these herbicides are all postemergence (POST) applied. In order to have profitable soft red winter wheat production, applications of preemergence (PRE) herbicides with residual control of Italian ryegrass and other winter weed species would benefit growers. There are a very limited number of herbicides that can be applied at the time of wheat planting, primarily only when pyroxasulfone is registered for this timing. Research was conducted to establish weed control information when herbicides were applied to soft red winter wheat PRE, at wheat emergence (AE), or POST at Feekes stages 1.0–1.9, depending on herbicide label recommendations. Injury from any pyroxasulfone PRE treatments up to 120 g a.i. ha−1 was transient and did not affect wheat yield for any experiment. Italian ryegrass control was variable depending on location and year. Susceptible and diclofop-resistant Italian ryegrass control was 86% or greater with pyroxasulfone at 60 g a.i. ha−1 and greater with applied PRE. Italian ryegrass control was variable ranging from 27 to 49% with pendimethalin ME-applied PRE, diclofop at Feekes sage 1.0, and pinoxaden applied at Feekes stage 1.9

Realistic atomistic structure of amorphous silicon from machine-learning-driven molecular dynamics

Amorphous silicon (a-Si) is a widely studied noncrystalline material, and yet the subtle details of its atomistic structure are still unclear. Here, we show that accurate structural models of a-Si can be obtained using a machine-learning-based interatomic potential. Our best a-Si network is obtained by simulated cooling from the melt at a rate of 1011 K/s (that is, on the 10 ns time scale), contains less than 2% defects, and agrees with experiments regarding excess energies, diffraction data, and 29Si NMR chemical shifts. We show that this level of quality is impossible to achieve with faster quench simulations. We then generate a 4096-atom system that correctly reproduces the magnitude of the first sharp diffraction peak (FSDP) in the structure factor, achieving the closest agreement with experiments to date. Our study demonstrates the broader impact of machine-learning potentials for elucidating structures and properties of technologically important amorphous materials

Solid Electrolyte Interphase Growth and Capacity Loss in Silicon Electrodes.

The solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) of the high capacity anode material Si is monitored over multiple electrochemical cycles by (7)Li, (19)F, and (13)C solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopies, with the organics dominating the SEI. Homonuclear correlation experiments are used to identify the organic fragments -OCH2CH2O-, -OCH2CH2-, -OCH2CH3, and -CH2CH3 contained in both oligomeric species and lithium semicarbonates ROCO2Li, RCO2Li. The SEI growth is correlated with increasing electrode tortuosity by using focused ion beam and scanning electron microscopy. A two-stage model for lithiation capacity loss is developed: initially, the lithiation capacity steadily decreases, Li(+) is irreversibly consumed at a steady rate, and pronounced SEI growth is seen. Later, below 50% of the initial lithiation capacity, less Si is (de)lithiated resulting in less volume expansion and contraction; the rate of Li(+) being irreversibly consumed declines, and the Si SEI thickness stabilizes. The decreasing lithiation capacity is primarily attributed to kinetics, the increased electrode tortuousity severely limiting Li(+) ion diffusion through the bulk of the electrode. The resulting changes in the lithiation processes seen in the electrochemical capacity curves are ascribed to non-uniform lithiation, the reaction commencing near the separator/on the surface of the particles.This work was partially supported by the Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Office of Vehicle Technologies of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231, under the Batteries for Advanced Transportation Technologies (BATT) Program subcontract #7057154 and the European Commission (EC), through the project EuroLion. G.D. and C.D. acknowledge funding from the ERC under Grants 259619 PHOTO EM and 312483 ESTEEM2. A.L.M. is an awardee of a Schiff Foundation Studentship and a nanoDTC Associate. M.L. is an awardee of the Weizmann Institute of Science - National Postdoctoral Award for Advancing Women in Science and thanks the EU Marie Curie intra-European fellowship for funding.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from the American Chemical Society via http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/jacs.6b0288

Interviewer: 'Are women and girls ever responsible for the domestic violence they encounter?' Student: 'No, well, unless they did something really, really bad …'

Research shows the ‘gendered nature’ of domestic violence, with Women’s Aid (a UK-based charity) estimating that 1 in 4 women are affected (2014). This paper reports on a project - funded by Comic Relief, completed by Nottinghamshire Domestic Violence Forum (now known as Equation) and evaluated by Nottingham Trent University. The project adopts a Whole School Approach in seeking to prevent domestic violence. Students at three secondary schools attended between one and five blocks of work, and special events. There is evidence of positive developments - with young people showing understanding of domestic violence as well as the margins between healthy and unhealthy relationships. However, not all students could reply ‘never’ to the question of ‘are women and girls to blame for the domestic violence they experience?’, remarking that if the woman had done something ‘really, really bad’ then violence might be justified. We argue that young people’s uncertainties need to be situated within the gender-unequal socio-contexts of contemporary society, and further call for a WSA to domestic violence prevention to be a compulsory part of the UK national curriculum

Performance assessment of a novel active mooring system for load reduction in marine energy converters

The full text of this paper is available via the ICOE Library link in this record.Mooring systems affect extreme and fatigue loading in moored wave and tidal stream energy converters driving reliability, device survival and energy extraction efficiency. A novel mooring system referred to as the Intelligent Active Mooring System (IAMS) combines a load-extension curve which can be actively varied in response to the prevailing met-ocean conditions with a high minimum breaking load. Prototype test results demonstrate the working principle and validate the performance characteristics. The tests have established the component behaviour for different design settings and load profiles show that the system allows a wide range of response characteristics and reliable operation under single system failure mode. Numerical model studies comparing IAMS performance against existing solutions show potential for significant overall system cost reduction.This project was co-funded by the Technology Strategy Board (now Innovate UK), grant number 10197