Phosphorus and Potassium Fertilizer Placement for Corn and Soybeans Managed with No-till and Chisel-Disk Tillage

Iowa research has provided much information about P and K management for corn and soybeans, but it has been mostly based on broadcast fertilization for tilled soils. No-till management results in little or no incorporation of residues and fertilizers with soil. Subsurface banding of phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) fertilizers with planter attachments or before planting could be more effective because both nutrients accumulate at or near the soil surface. A long-term study was initiated in 1994 at this farm and at other farms to evaluate P and K fertilizer placement for corn and soybeans managed with no-till and chisel-plow tillage

Broadcast and Banded Phosphorus and Potassium Fertilization for Corn and Soybeans Managed with No-Till and Chisel-Disk Tillage

No-till management results in little or no incorporation of crop residues and fertilizer into the soil. Subsurface banding of phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) fertilizers with planter attachments or before planting may be more effective than broadcast fertilization because both nutrients accumulate near the soil surface. A long-term study was initiated in 1994 to evaluate P and K fertilizer placement for corn and soybeans managed with no-till and chisel-plow tillage

Use of core and drilling data for selective stimulation selection in the Caney Shale

Completion of shale plays are costly and require intelligent optimization techniques for an effective cost-saving means of production. An optimization technique is presented that utilizes raw drilling data from existing wells to enhance the completion performance. The objective of this work is to integrate the core and drilling data from existing wells to create petrophysical and geomechanical correlations between unconfined rock strength (UCS), porosity, permeability, Poisson's Ratio, and Young's Modulus to model in a complete geomechanical property log. The proposed method is based on an inverted ROP and torque and drag friction models that have been field-tested and proven with other published data. Raw drilling data that consist of ROP, RPM, mud weight, etc. were collected from two existing wells in the Caney Shale drilled in 2014. The D-Series software was applied with the drag and inverted ROP models to the raw drilling data to obtain the downhole weight on bit (DWOB) and formation UCS for every foot of the well. The ROP model's output data consist of the UCS which is correlated to Young's Modulus, porosity, permeability, and Poisson's Ratio which were developed in this study. These correlations can then be implemented to new wells in the same geographic area to provide the optimal selective perforation criteria that will yield the highest rate of return and hydrocarbon production

Sustainable Sourcing of Global Agricultural Raw Materials: Assessing Gaps in Key Impact and Vulnerability Issues and Indicators.

Understanding how to source agricultural raw materials sustainably is challenging in today's globalized food system given the variety of issues to be considered and the multitude of suggested indicators for representing these issues. Furthermore, stakeholders in the global food system both impact these issues and are themselves vulnerable to these issues, an important duality that is often implied but not explicitly described. The attention given to these issues and conceptual frameworks varies greatly--depending largely on the stakeholder perspective--as does the set of indicators developed to measure them. To better structure these complex relationships and assess any gaps, we collate a comprehensive list of sustainability issues and a database of sustainability indicators to represent them. To assure a breadth of inclusion, the issues are pulled from the following three perspectives: major global sustainability assessments, sustainability communications from global food companies, and conceptual frameworks of sustainable livelihoods from academic publications. These terms are integrated across perspectives using a common vocabulary, classified by their relevance to impacts and vulnerabilities, and categorized into groups by economic, environmental, physical, human, social, and political characteristics. These issues are then associated with over 2,000 sustainability indicators gathered from existing sources. A gap analysis is then performed to determine if particular issues and issue groups are over or underrepresented. This process results in 44 "integrated" issues--24 impact issues and 36 vulnerability issues--that are composed of 318 "component" issues. The gap analysis shows that although every integrated issue is mentioned at least 40% of the time across perspectives, no issue is mentioned more than 70% of the time. A few issues infrequently mentioned across perspectives also have relatively few indicators available to fully represent them. Issues in the impact framework generally have fewer gaps than those in the vulnerability framework

How Can I Drink Safely?; Perception Versus the Reality of Alcohol Consumption

This article investigates differences between perception and actual consumption of alcohol in young adults within the UK, suggesting that inaccurate information in the public domain may hamper those seeking to drink safely plus the development of moderate drinking cultures. Results confirm that inaccurate information may be preventing the development of safe drinking behaviours among certain groups. In addition, they indicate that some groups choose to ignore safe consumption limits in particular circumstances. Results indicate that many government strategies aimed at reducing unsafe drinking behaviour are inaccurately targeted; changing male public consumption behaviour may trigger changes in female behaviour

Peptide-Induced Lipid Flip-Flop in Asymmetric Liposomes Measured by Small Angle Neutron Scattering

© 2019 American Chemical Society. Despite the prevalence of lipid transbilayer asymmetry in natural plasma membranes, most biomimetic model membranes studied are symmetric. Recent advances have helped to overcome the difficulties in preparing asymmetric liposomes in vitro, allowing for the examination of a larger set of relevant biophysical questions. Here, we investigate the stability of asymmetric bilayers by measuring lipid flip-flop with time-resolved small-angle neutron scattering (SANS). Asymmetric large unilamellar vesicles with inner bilayer leaflets containing predominantly 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (POPC) and outer leaflets composed mainly of 1,2-dimyristoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DMPC) displayed slow spontaneous flip-flop at 37 -C (half-time, t1/2 = 140 h). However, inclusion of peptides, namely, gramicidin, alamethicin, melittin, or pHLIP (i.e., pH-low insertion peptide), accelerated lipid flip-flop. For three of these peptides (i.e., pHLIP, alamethicin, and melittin), each of which was added externally to preformed asymmetric vesicles, we observed a completely scrambled bilayer in less than 2 h. Gramicidin, on the other hand, was preincorporated during the formation of the asymmetric liposomes and showed a time resolvable 8-fold increase in the rate of lipid asymmetry loss. These results point to a membrane surface-related (e.g., adsorption/insertion) event as the primary driver of lipid scrambling in the asymmetric model membranes of this study. We discuss the implications of membrane peptide binding, conformation, and insertion on lipid asymmetry

The Lore of Low Methane Livestock:Co-Producing Technology and Animals for Reduced Climate Change Impact

Methane emissions from sheep and cattle production have gained increasing profile in the context of climate change. Policy and scientific research communities have suggested a number of technological approaches to mitigate these emissions. This paper uses the concept of co-production as an analytical framework to understand farmers’ evaluation of a 'good animal’. It examines how technology and sheep and beef cattle are co-produced in the context of concerns about the climate change impact of methane. Drawing on 42 semi-structured interviews, this paper demonstrates that methane emissions are viewed as a natural and integral part of sheep and beef cattle by farmers, rather than as a pollutant. Sheep and beef cattle farmers in the UK are found to be an extremely heterogeneous group that need to be understood in their specific social, environmental and consumer contexts. Some are more amenable to appropriating methane reducing measures than others, but largely because animals are already co-constructed from the natural and the technical for reasons of increased production efficiency

Global and local concerns: What attitudes and beliefs motivate farmers to mitigate and adapt to climate change?

In response to agriculture\u27s vulnerability and contribution to climate change, many governments are developing initiatives that promote the adoption of mitigation and adaptation practices among farmers. Since most climate policies affecting agriculture rely on voluntary efforts by individual farmers, success requires a sound understanding of the factors that motivate farmers to change practices. Recent evidence suggests that past experience with the effects of climate change and the psychological distance associated with people\u27s concern for global and local impacts can influence environmental behavior. Here we surveyed farmers in a representative rural county in California\u27s Central Valley to examine how their intention to adopt mitigation and adaptation practices is influenced by previous climate experiences and their global and local concerns about climate change. Perceived changes in water availability had significant effects on farmers\u27 intention to adopt mitigation and adaptation strategies, which were mediated through global and local concerns respectively. This suggests that mitigation is largely motivated by psychologically distant concerns and beliefs about climate change, while adaptation is driven by psychologically proximate concerns for local impacts. This match between attitudes and behaviors according to the psychological distance at which they are cognitively construed indicates that policy and outreach initiatives may benefit by framing climate impacts and behavioral goals concordantly; either in a global context for mitigation or a local context for adaptation