Impact of seeding rate on weed-free field peas

Non-Peer ReviewedThe impact of seed placement and seeding rate on crop yield is not clearly understood for field pea (Pisum sativum L.). A field experiment was conducted at seven sites across Saskatchewan in 2001 to examine the influence of a wide range of seeding rates (20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100, and 120 target plants m-2). Yield component compensation occurred where increased plant density from higher seeding rates reduced seed weight. Seed yield benefits were small at seeding rates greater than 50 target plants m-2. There was a tendency for lower yields with seeding rates less than 50, especially at sites with higher yield potential. Yields of field peas grown under relatively weed-free conditions should be optimized with a seeding rate of 50 to 75 seeds m-2

A Living Wage for The Bahamas: Estimates, Potentials, and Problems

This report describes how living wage estimates were calculated for New Providence and Grand Bahama. This report uses primary and secondary sources and is inspired by the Anker methodology. We calculated that $2625 and$3550 were needed each month as the gross living wage for a full-time worker who must sustain a family of four in New Providence and Grand Bahama, respectively. We estimated the net living wage to be $2500 per month for New Providence and$3400 for Grand Bahama. Our estimates are almost 200% higher than the minimum wage and nearly 130% higher than the poverty line for New Providence; for Grand Bahama, they are almost 300% higher than the minimum wage and 160% higher than the poverty line. The study should inform national discussions on public policy matters related to reducing the country’s cost of living, improving its income equity, and pursuing economic justice for all

Understanding the structure of changes in the Southern Ocean eddy field

The Southern Ocean is riddled with mesoscale eddies. Although just a few km in size, these loops and vortices are key parts of the climate system, and are important in controlling how ocean circulation responds to changes in forcing. Observations reveal that changes in the intensity of these eddies vary significantly around the Southern Ocean. This contrasts with the nature of the atmospheric forcing, which is more zonally symmetric. Recent progress using high-resolution modeling has pinpointed where intrinsic variability dominates over wind-driven variability, and hence the areas where future responses to climatic changes in forcing are likely to be clearest

Stellar and Planetary Properties of K2 Campaign 1 Candidates and Validation of 17 Planets, Including a Planet Receiving Earth-like Insolation

The extended Kepler mission, K2, is now providing photometry of new fields every three months in a search for transiting planets. In a recent study, Foreman-Mackey and collaborators presented a list of 36 planet candidates orbiting 31 stars in K2 Campaign 1. In this contribution, we present stellar and planetary properties for all systems. We combine ground-based seeing-limited survey data and adaptive optics imaging with an automated transit analysis scheme to validate 21 candidates as planets, 17 for the first time, and identify 6 candidates as likely false positives. Of particular interest is K2-18 (EPIC 201912552), a bright (K=8.9) M2.8 dwarf hosting a 2.23 \pm 0.25 R_Earth planet with T_eq = 272 \pm 15 K and an orbital period of 33 days. We also present two new open-source software packages which enable this analysis. The first, isochrones, is a flexible tool for fitting theoretical stellar models to observational data to determine stellar properties using a nested sampling scheme to capture the multimodal nature of the posterior distributions of the physical parameters of stars that may plausibly be evolved. The second is vespa, a new general-purpose procedure to calculate false positive probabilities and statistically validate transiting exoplanets.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figures, 5 tables, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal. Updated to closely reflect published version in ApJ (2015, 809, 25

Does advance care planning in addition to usual care reduce hospitalisation for patients with advanced heart failure: A systematic review and narrative synthesis

BACKGROUND: People with advanced heart failure have repeated hospital admissions. Advance care planning can support patient preferences, but studies in people with heart failure have not been assessed.AIM: To evaluate the literature regarding advance care planning and hospitalisation in heart failure.DESIGN: Systematic review and narrative analysis.(PROSPEROCRD42017059190)DATA SOURCES: Electronic databases were searched (1990 to23.03.2017); MEDLINE(R), Cochrane Library, CINAHL, and Scopus. Four journals were hand searched. Two independent researchers screened against eligibility criteria. One reviewer extracted all data and a sample by a second. Quality was assessed by Cochrane Risk of Bias or the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme Tool for Cohort Studies.RESULTS: 8/1713 articles were included representing 14,357 participants from in/outpatient settings from five countries. Two randomised-controlled trials and one observational study assessed planning as part of a specialist palliative care intervention; one randomised-controlled trial assessed planning in addition to usual cardiology care; one randomised-controlled trial and one observational study assessed planning in an integrated cardiology-palliative care model; one observational study assessed evidence of planning (advance directive) as part of usual care, and one observational study was a secondary analysis of trial participants coded Do Not Attempt Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation. Advance care planning i) reduced hospitalisation(5/7 studies), ii) increased referral/use of palliative services (4/4 studies), iii) supported deaths in the patient-preferred place (2/2 studies).CONCLUSIONS:Advance care planning as part of a specialist palliative care careintervention reduces hospitalisation. Preliminary studies of planning integrated into generic care, accessing specialist palliative care support if needed, are promising

Using a Multi-Level Process Comparison for Process Change Analysis in Cancer Pathways

The area of process change over time is a particular concern in healthcare, where patterns of care emerge and evolve in response to individual patient needs. We propose a structured approach to analyse process change over time that is suitable for the complex domain of healthcare. Our approach applies a qualitative process comparison at three levels of abstraction: a holistic perspective (process model), a middle-level perspective (trace), and a fine-grained detail (activity). Our aim was to detect change points, localise and characterise the change, and unravel/understand the process evolution. We illustrate the approach using a case study of cancer pathways in Leeds where we found evidence of change points identified at multiple levels. In this paper, we extend our study by analysing the miners used in process discovery and providing a deeper analysis of the activity of investigation in trace and activity levels. In the experiment, we show that this qualitative approach provides a useful understanding of process change over time. Examining change at three levels provides confirmatory evidence of process change where perspectives agree, while contradictory evidence can lead to focused discussions with domain experts. This approach should be of interest to others dealing with processes that undergo complex change over time

Long-period changes in the bottom water fLowing through Vema Channel

Further details of the “warming” of bottom water flowing through the Vema Channel, first reported by Zenk and Hogg [1996], are given. Because cross‐channel gradients of temperature are large and the channel is narrow, careful analysis is required to determine whether or not the bottom water temperature minimum was adequately sampled by a particular station or cruise. During a period from 1972 to 1996, at least 14 visits with quality hydrographic measurements have been made to the region. Of these, 11 were judged successful, and their data indicate an abrupt rise in potential temperature by 0.03°C from −0.18°C to −0.15°C in the early 1990s that has remained until the latest observation in the spring of 1996. Although this observation is consistent with the report of warming of Antarctic Bottom Water in the Argentine Basin by Coles et al [1996], their associated conclusion that this water mass has also freshened by 0.008 psu (on potential density surfaces) is in contradiction with our finding of no measurable change