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Issues related to direct seeding of rice in rainfed cropping systems in northwest Bangladesh
Economic factors and developments in rice production technologies are the major drivers that have led to the adoption of direct seeding of rice in place of transplanting in Asia. The primary economic motives for a shift to direct seeding are the savings in labor cost and the possibility of crop intensification. A key development challenge in the drought-prone rainfed agriculture of the Barind Tract of northwest Bangladesh is to simultaneously improve the reliability and yield of monsoon rice while improving total system productivity by increasing the area planted to drought-tolerant postrice crops. Research trials and field-scale evaluation by farmers have demonstrated that dry direct seeding or wet seeding of pregerminated
rice seed reduces labor for crop establishment, results in rice yields similar to or higher than those from conventional transplanting, and advances harvest by
7-10 days. Earlier harvest has the potential to reduce the risk of terminal drought in rice when the monsoon ends abruptly and increases the opportunity for establishing
a postrice crop of chickpea on residual moisture. Herbicide use is essential with direct seeding and this further reduces rice production costs. This modified
rice/legume system using direct seeding is knowledge-intensive. Widespread sustained adoption will depend on farmers undertaking timely tillage, adequate land
leveling, and timely application of herbicides. Extension/farmer training supported by clear decision support frameworks will be needed to provide farmers with access to the knowledge needed to implement direct seeding effectively
The development of Cannabidiol as a psychiatric therapeutic:a review of its antipsychotic efficacy and possible underlying pharmacodynamic mechanisms
Cannabidiol (CBD), a once-considered inert cannabis constituent, is one of two primary constituents of cannabis, alongside delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (?9-THC/THC). In the last 30 years, CBD has become implicated with a range of pharmaceutical mechanisms of great therapeutic interest and utility. This review details the literature speculating CBD’s attenuation of psychotic symptoms, particularly in light of a marked elevation in mean THC concentrations, and a concomitant decline in CBD concentrations in the prevalent U.K street market cannabis derivatives since c. 2000. CBD is purported to exhibit pharmacology akin to established atypical antipsychotics, whilst THC has been implicated with the precipitation of psychosis, and the induction of associated symptoms. The aim of the review was to clarify the conjecture surrounding CBD’s antipsychotic efficacy, before going on to detail prominent theories about its associated pharmacodynamics. Were CBD’s antipsychotic efficacy established, then there is potential for major latent anthropological repercussions to manifest, such as significant elevations in psychosis manifestations in the U.K. The review found a largely affirmative body of evidence asserting CBD’s antipsychotic efficacy. CBD exhibited capacity to attenuate natural and artificially induced psychoses in both animal and human cohorts, the latter of which included individuals considered resistant to conventional treatment. CBD also shows promising potential for use as an antipsychotic drug for Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients with psychosis, owing to its low rate of extra-pyramidal side-effect induction. A range of potential pharmacological mechanisms behind CBD’s neuroleptic pharmacology are outlined, with particular emphasis on its prevention of the hydrolysis and reuptake of the endogenous cannabinoid, anandamide. However, given the nebular aetiological basis for psychoses, explicit conclusions on how CBD attenuates psychotic symptoms remains to be determined
Nitrogen fertilization management for no-till cereal production in the Canadian great plains
Non-Peer Reviewe
Uncorrelated scattering approximation revisited
The formalism to describe the scattering of a weakly bound projectile nucleus
by a heavy target is investigated, using the Uncorrelated Scattering
Approximation. The main assumption involved is to neglect the correlation
between the fragments of the projectile in the region where the interaction
with the target is important. It is shown that the angular momentum of each
fragment with respect to the target is conserved. Moreover, when suitable
approximations are assumed, the kinetic energy of each fragment is also shown
to be conserved. The S-matrix for the scattering of the composite system can be
written as a combination of terms, each one being proportional to the product
of the S-matrices of the fragments.Comment: 27 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Nucl. Phys. A (v2: minor misprints
and grammatical errors corrected
Generalized Pearson distributions for charged particles interacting with an electric and/or a magnetic field
The linear Boltzmann equation for elastic and/or inelastic scattering is
applied to derive the distribution function of a spatially homogeneous system
of charged particles spreading in a host medium of two-level atoms and
subjected to external electric and/or magnetic fields. We construct a
Fokker-Planck approximation to the kinetic equations and derive the most
general class of distributions for the given problem by discussing in detail
some physically meaningful cases. The equivalence with the transport theory of
electrons in a phonon background is also discussed.Comment: 24 pages, version accepted on Physica
Generalized Complex Spherical Harmonics, Frame Functions, and Gleason Theorem
Consider a finite dimensional complex Hilbert space \cH, with dim(\cH)
\geq 3, define \bS(\cH):= \{x\in \cH \:|\: ||x||=1\}, and let \nu_\cH be
the unique regular Borel positive measure invariant under the action of the
unitary operators in \cH, with \nu_\cH(\bS(\cH))=1. We prove that if a
complex frame function f : \bS(\cH)\to \bC satisfies f \in \cL^2(\bS(\cH),
\nu_\cH), then it verifies Gleason's statement: There is a unique linear
operator A: \cH \to \cH such that for every u \in
\bS(\cH). is Hermitean when is real. No boundedness requirement is
thus assumed on {\em a priori}.Comment: 9 pages, Accepted for publication in Ann. H. Poincar\'
Stable Postnikov data of Picard 2-categories
Picard 2-categories are symmetric monoidal 2-categories with invertible 0-, 1-, and 2-cells. The classifying space of a Picard 2-category is an infinite loop space, the zeroth space of the -theory spectrum . This spectrum has stable homotopy groups concentrated in levels 0, 1, and 2. In this paper, we describe part of the Postnikov data of in terms of categorical structure. We use this to show that there is no strict skeletal Picard 2-category whose -theory realizes the 2-truncation of the sphere spectrum. As part of the proof, we construct a categorical suspension, producing a Picard 2-category from a Picard 1-category , and show that it commutes with -theory in that is stably equivalent to
The prevalence of, and factors associated with, paying for sex among men resident in Britain: findings from the third national survey of sexual attitudes and lifestyles (Natsal-3)
Objectives Men who pay for sex (MPS) are considered a bridging population for sexually transmitted infections (STI). However, the extent, characteristics and role of MPS in transmission is poorly understood. We investigate these questions using data from Britain's third National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal-3).
Methods We performed complex survey analyses of data from 6293 men aged 16–74 years resident in Britain who completed Natsal-3, a probability sample survey undertaken during 2010–2012, using computer-assisted personal interviewing and computer-assisted self-interview.
Results 11.0% (95% CI10.1% to 11.9%) of all men reported ever paying for sex. Among MPS, 18.4% (95% CI 18.2% to 18.7%) of their lifetime sexual partners were paid. 3.6% (95% CI 3.1% to 4.2%) of men had paid for sex in the past 5 years. Partners of MPS constitute 14.7% of all reported partners and MPS report 15.6% of all reported STI diagnoses in the past 5 years. Paying for sex in the past 5 years was strongly associated with reporting larger numbers of sexual partners (adjusted OR, AOR for 5+ partners, past 5 years, 31.50, 95% CI 18.69 to 53.09). After adjusting for partner numbers, paying for sex remained strongly associated with reporting new foreign partners outside the UK (AOR 7.96; 95% CI 4.97 to 12.73) and STI diagnosis/es (AOR 2.34; 95% CI 1.44 to 3.81), all in the past 5 years. Among men ever paying for sex, 62.6% (95% CI 58.3% to 66.8%) reported paying for sex outside the UK, most often in Europe and Asia.
Conclusions MPS in Britain remain at greater risk of STI acquisition and onward transmission than men who do not. They report high numbers of partners, but the minority are paid partners. They are an important core group in STI transmission
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