CHEMICALS IN AGRICULTURE AND FOOD

Agribusiness,

There is nothing like an oat

The items reports on first year trials in of the “Quoats” project. It’s well known that oats are generally a good fit in organic rotations and the “Quoats” project – Harnessing new technologies for sustainable oat production and utilisation – aims to make them even better. This five year (2009 – 2014) research project, led by IBERS, Aberystwyth University, brings together a wide range of organisations in the supply chain, from breeders to end-users, to improve the quality and performance of oats. As part of the project, ORC is carrying out field trials to assess the suitability of new oat lines for organic management systems, with particular emphasis on nutrient use efficiency. Eight varieties are being trialled at Wakelyns Agroforestry, Suffolk, including some naked oats, i.e. hull-less oats. The paper reports some first results

Bedding down the embedding : IL reality in a teacher education programme

Queensland University of Technology (QUT) is one of Australia's largest universities,enrolling 30,000 students. Our Information Literacy Framework and Syllabus wasendorsed as university policy in Feb 2001. QUT Library uses the AustralianInformation Literacy Standards as the basis and entry point for our syllabus. Theuniversity wide information literacy programme promotes critical thinking and equipsindividuals for lifelong learning (Peacock, 2002a). Information literacy has developedas a premium agenda within the university community; as documented by JudithPeacock, the university’s Information Literacy Coordinator (Peacock, 2002b).The Faculties at QUT have for the last few years, started to work through how theinformation literacy syllabus will be enacted in their curricula, and within theorientations of their subject areas. Attitudinal change is happening alongside arealisation that discipline content must be taught within a broader framework.Curricula and pedagogical reforms are a characteristic of the teaching environment.Phrases such as lifelong learning, generic skills, information revolution, learningoutcomes and information literacy standards are now commonplace in facultydiscussion. Liaison librarians are strategically placed to see the "big picture" ofcurricula across large scale faculties in a large scale university. We work withfaculty in collaborative and consultative partnerships, in order to implement reform. QUT Librarians offer three levels of information literacy curriculum to the university.The generic programme is characterised by free classes, offered around the start ofsemesters. The next level is integrated teaching, developed to answer a specificneeds for classes of students. The third level of information literacy is that ofembedding throughout a programme. This involves liaison librarians working toensure that information literacy is a developmental and assessed part of thecurriculum, sequenced through a programme in a similar way to traditional disciplineknowledge, and utilising the IL syllabus. This paper gives a glimpse of what ishappening as we attempt the process of embedding information literacy into theBachelor of Education programme

Scaling the Digital Divide: Home Computer Technology and Student Achievement

Assesses the effect of access to home computers and broadband Internet on students' math and reading test scores and its potential to close the achievement gap for the disadvantaged. Considers the role of parental monitoring

Internet sources for nursing and allied health

Lists and describes available Internet resources for nursing and allied health professionals. Procedure for subscribing and unsubscribing from the discussion lists; Newsgroups available for nurses; Accessing to gopher servers

Public School Choice And Integration: Evidence from Durham, North Carolina

Using evidence from Durham, North Carolina, we examine the impact of school choice programs on racial and class-based segregation across schools. Theoretical considerations suggest that how choice programs affect segregation will depend not only on the family preferences emphasized in the sociology literature but also on the linkages between student composition, school quality and student achievement emphasized in the economics literature. Reasonable assumptions about the distribution of preferences over race, class, and school characteristics suggest that the segregating choices of students from advantaged backgrounds are likely to outweigh any integrating choices by disadvantaged students. The results of our empirical analysis are consistent with these theoretical considerations. Using information on the actual schools students attend and on the schools in their assigned attendance zones, we find that schools in Durham are more segregated by race and class as a result of school choice programs than they would be if all students attended their geographically assigned schools. In addition, we find that the effects of choice on segregation by class are larger than the effects on segregation by race

EVALUATING NEW FOOD TECHNOLOGIES IN PORK PRODUCTION

Pork products, fat modification, feeding experiment, profitability, Livestock Production/Industries,

City Taxes and Property Tax Bases

This paper investigates the simultaneous relationship between tax rates and city property tax bases using data for 86 large U.S. cities in 1967, 1972, 1977, and 1982. We find that a 10 percent increase in the city's property tax rate decreases the city's tax base by about 1.5 percent. In addition, local income taxes and taxes levied by overlying jurisdictions (such as county and state governments) also have negative impacts on the city's property tax base. Local sales taxes, in contrast, appear to have little impact. We conclude that taxes affect local property values more than is typically implied by previous studies that have investigated the impacts of state and local taxes on firms' location decisions.

Phytoplankton production in Agulhas bank waters (South Africa)

Carbon-14 measurements of community and size- fractionated production in continental shelf waters of the Agulhas Bank (South Africa) are presented. Auxiliary measurements included chlorophyll α, nitrate concentrations and thermal profiling of the water column. During the winter and spring surveys, the mixed layer extended deeper than the euphotic zone, with nitrate and phytoplankton biomass being evenly distributed through the euphotic zone. Production maxima occurred at the 40 - 90 % surface irradiance light depths, with some evidence of surface photoinhibition. All surveys during summer months (December - March) showed a thermally stratified euphotic zone (ZeuO.5%/Zm = 1.1 - 2.2), with a well deformed nitracline within the thermocline. A subsurface chlorophyll maximum closely associated with the region of maximum nitrate gradient (3 - 10 % surface irradiance) was typical of summer measurements. Subsurface chlorophyll α concentrations were lower in western Agulhas Bank waters (0.5- 6 μg.l⁻¹) than in eastern Agulhas Bank waters (l- 15 μg.l⁻¹). Highest subsurface chlorophyll α concentrations (15- 40 μg.l⁻¹) were measured during the late summer survey (March 1986) at the Alhard Banks station in a strongly stratified water column. For profiles showing a very well developed subsurface chlorophyll maximum, the production maximum occurred at or slightly shallower than the depth of the chlorophyll maximum. In western Agulhas Bank waters, during surveys when a shallow (<30m) thermocline persisted, production maxima at 90 and 100% surface irradiance intensities were frequently observed. Integrated production values ranged between 70 and 1390 mgC.m⁻².h⁻¹. Minimum areal production rates were observed during winter (July), whilst maximum rates were measured during late summer (March). High euphotic zone production was also measured during the spring survey in western Agulhas Bank waters (347 mgC.m⁻².h⁻¹), associated with the stabilising of the water column after winter mixing. The <15 μm size-fraction was observed to account for much of total production (62-97%) during conditions of deep mixing in winter and a deep upper mixed layer during summer. During the spring survey and those surveys where a shallow (<35m) thermocline persisted, production was predominantly by the netplankton > 15 μm size-fraction (60- 87 %). Periods of enhanced netplankton growth may be crucial for the sustaining of the large biomass of spawning anchovy present in western Agulhas Bank waters. Vertical profiles, the subsurface chlorophyll and production maximum and size-fractionated production measurements are discussed with relevance to the control of phytoplankton production and potential trophic fluxes in Agulhas Bank waters