Methane Emissions from Rice Production on a Silt-loam Soil in Arkansas

Methane (CH4) emissions from rice (Oryza sativa L.) production are a source of concern in the environmental and agricultural communities. New and/or revised agronomic methodologies will be needed to identify production practice combinations that reduce CH4 emissions without decreasing yields. The objective of this multi-year study was to evaluate the effects of water management (i.e., full-season flood and mid-season drain) (2015), cultivar (i.e., pure-line cultivar ‘LaKast’ and the RiceTec hybrid “XP753”) (2015), soil organic matter (SOM) concentration (2016), and tillage [conventional tillage (CT) and no-tillage (NT)] and urea-based fertilizers [N-(n-butyl) thiophosphoric triamide (NBPT)-coated urea and non-coated urea] (2017) on CH4 fluxes over the growing season, season-long emissions, and emissions intensity from rice grown in the direct-seeded, delayed-flood production system on silt-loam soils in east-central Arkansas. Vented, non-flow-through, non-steady-state chambers were used to collect gas samples over a 60-min sampling interval for weekly measurements of CH4 fluxes between flooding and harvest in each year of the study. During the 2015 sampling season, the full-season-flood (77.7 CH4-C ha-1season-1) produced the greatest (P \u3c 0.01), while the mid-season-drain (42.8 kg CH4-C ha-1season-1) treatment produced the lowest season-long CH4 emissions. The mid-season-drain/hybrid combination exhibited the lowest (P \u3c 0.05) emissions intensity (2.5 kg CH4-C Mg grain-1). In the 2016 growing season, rice grown in the soil with the largest SOM content, a managed grassland, produced the second largest CH4 emissions (1166 kg CH4-C ha-1 season-1). Methane emissions increased linearly (P \u3c 0.05) with increasing SOM and total carbon concentrations (R2 = 0.81 and 0.85, respectively). In the 2017 study, CH4 fluxes differed (P \u3c 0.01) between tillage treatments over time and when averaged across tillage, mean season-long CH4 emissions were 33.4 and 37.2 kg CH4-C ha-1 season-1 from NBPT-coated and non-coated urea, respectively, but were unaffected (P \u3e 0.05) by fertilizer treatment. Properly matching water management scheme with cultivar selection and other agronomic management options and soil properties can provide a means to reduce CH4 emissions and reduce emissions intensity from rice production in the direct-seeded, delayed-flood production system on silt-loam soils

Effect of swine diets supplemented with magnesium sulfate and electroytes on pork quality

The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file.Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on October 29, 2007)Vita.Includes bibliographical references.Thesis (M.S.) University of Missouri-Columbia 2007.Dissertations, Academic -- University of Missouri--Columbia -- Food science.Market hogs (n = 160) were allotted into four dietary treatments to evaluate the effectiveness of magnesium sulfate and electrolytes on improving pork quality. The experiment was conducted in four seasons to evaluate seasonality (temperature) as an environmental stressor. Duroc and Berkshire x Duroc market hogs were grouped by weight, sex and breed into one of four dietary treatments. The dietary treatments were: 1) control (corn/SBM based; 13.5% CP and 0.8% total lysine), 2) control + 3.2g/pig/d of magnesium sulfate (MgSO[subscript 4]) for a minimum of 14 d prior to slaughter, 3) control + 1.5% electrolytes (sodium bicarbonate; NaHCO[subscript 4]) fed for 48 h prior to slaughter, and 4) control + 3.2 g/pig/d MgSO[subscript 4] + 1.5% NaHCO[subscript 4]. No differences (P [greater than] 0.05) in pork quality were found between dietary treatments. Live weight, gain, carcass weight and dressing percentage did not differ (P [greater than] 0.05) by trial. Trial 4 had the highest 24 h loin and ham pH (P [less than] 0.05) while hogs processed in Trial 2 had the lowest 24 h pH of the four trials. Trial 4 hogs had the lowest L values in the ham and loin while Trial 3 had the highest L values in the loin and Trial 2 had the highest L values in the ham (P [less than] 0.05). Trial 4 loins had the lowest drip loss (P [less than] 0.05) which corresponded to the highest pH and lowest L values. The highest values for Warner-Bratzler Shear force (P [less than] 0.05) were found in Trials 1 and 2 while Trials 3 and 4 both had the lowest values. Overall, dietary treatment had no effect on pork quality. However, seasonal temperature had an impact on pork quality

The Impact of Equity Engagement Evaluating the Impact of Shareholder Engagement in Public Equity Investing

Over the last decade, growing numbers of investors have become increasingly concerned with the environmental and social impact of their investments across asset classes. This trend has recently been driven by new waves of "impact investors" proactively seeking measurable social and environmental impact in addition to financial returns, and by "responsible investors" making commitments to engage on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues through initiatives such as the United Nations-backed Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI). At the same time, engaged shareholders have had long-standing experience using "the power of the proxy" and their voices as investors to hold companies accountable for the impacts they have on employees, stakeholders, communities, and ecosystems.While investor interest in shareholder engagement has grown, our understanding of the impacts associated with engagement activities remains largely anecdotal.In 2012, an important study on Total Portfolio Activation provided a new conceptual and analytical framework for investors to pursue environmental and social impact across all asset classes commonly found in a diversified investment portfolio. Building upon the insights of Total Portfolio Activation, the Impact of Equity Engagement (IE2) initiative seeks to deepen our understanding of the nature of impact in one specific asset class—public equities— where investors' engagement activities have generated meaningful social and environmental impacts.Given the large social and environmental footprints of publicly traded corporations and the persistently high allocation to public equities in most investor portfolios, public equity investing presents a major opportunity for impact investing. Yet impact investing, as currently practiced, has concentrated primarily on smallscale direct investments in private equity and debt, where many investors perceive that social and environmental impact can be more readily observed than in publicly traded companies where ownership is intermediated, diluted, and diffused through secondary capital markets.Indeed, the nature of impact within public equity investing remains poorly understood and insufficiently documented. Because of this, many investors may be overlooking readily available opportunities for generating impact within their existing investment portfolios.To address these misperceptions and missed opportunities, the IE2 initiative is developing a more rigorous framework for documenting the impact of engagement within the public equity asset class.

Total Portfolio Activation: A Framework for Creating Social and Environmental Impact across Asset Classes

Interest in investment that pursues social and environmental impact has exploded in recent years. Although opportunities for impact investing have emerged across asset classes, most impact-investment activity has remained largely confined to a limited array of private investments, touching only a small percentage of investor portfolios. For organizations and individuals seeking greater impact and better alignment between their investment activities and their mission or values, there remains a pressing need for tools to help investors identify and seize opportunities to activate more of their assets for social and environmental benefit. To help fill this gap, this paper introduces a simple conceptual framework: Total Portfolio Activation

Continuous-Variable Quantum Computing in Optical Time-Frequency Modes using Quantum Memories

We develop a scheme for time-frequency encoded continuous-variable cluster-state quantum computing using quantum memories. In particular, we propose a method to produce, manipulate and measure 2D cluster states in a single spatial mode by exploiting the intrinsic time-frequency selectivity of Raman quantum memories. Time-frequency encoding enables the scheme to be extremely compact, requiring a number of memories that is a linear function of only the number of different frequencies in which the computational state is encoded, independent of its temporal duration. We therefore show that quantum memories can be a powerful component for scalable photonic quantum information processing architectures.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures, and supplementary information. Updated to be consistent with published versio

Synthesis and characterisation of novel diketopyrrolopyrrole derivatives

The main goal of this thesis was to design new small molecule DPP derivatives, which could have a multitude of potential applications in areas such as organic electronics and sensors. Based on literature precedent, four factors were chosen to manipulate in the design of novel DPP systems: the electron richness of the aryl unit, π - π stacking, chirality and hydrogen bonding. The influence of these modifications to the DPP system on the optical, electronic and structural properties was then investigated to screen materials for potential applications in the aforementioned areas and to gain greater understanding for future molecular design in terms of structure–property relationships

Tomography of photon-number resolving continuous-output detectors

We report a comprehensive approach to analysing continuous-output photon detectors. We employ principal component analysis to maximise the information extracted, followed by a novel noise-tolerant parameterised approach to the tomography of PNRDs. We further propose a measure for rigorously quantifying a detector's photon-number-resolving capability. Our approach applies to all detectors with continuous-output signals. We illustrate our methods by applying them to experimental data obtained from a transition-edge sensor (TES) detector.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, also includes supplementary informatio

Towards more sustainable synthesis of diketopyrrolopyrroles

The alkylation of 1,4-diketo-3,6-arylpyrrolo[3,4-c]pyrroles (ArDPP) is one of the most important steps in the synthesis of soluble materials based on these molecules and the polymers derived from them (that are employed widely in putative organic solar cells). Here we report an improvement in their method of synthesis replacing habitual solvent and base. Compared with more usual conditions, we employed acetonitrile as solvent to give higher or similar yields, with less toxic and hazardous waste, lower reaction time and temperature, and allows recycling of unreacted starting materials. Unlike dimethylformamide and N-methylpyrrolidone, which are the most commonly employed solvents. Our reaction conditions have been tested on three different ArDPPs (Ar = thiophene, phenyl and 4-methoxyphenyl) with a variety of linear and branched alkyl reagents. The results show similar and improved results in comparison with the published reports while reducing the waste and hazard of the reaction, as well as simplifying the purification of the products in many cases. Overall this method has lower environmental impact, is more cost effective and requires neither the use of dry solvent nor inert atmosphere

Self-Association and Attentional Processing Regarding Perceptually Salient Items

Earlier work has demonstrated that attention is indirectly cognitively malleable by processes of self-association – processes by which agents explicitly associate an item with the self. We extend this work by considering the manipulation of attention to both salient and non-salient objects. We demonstrate that self-association impacts attentional processing not only of non-salient objects (i.e., shapes), but also regarding salient items known to command attention (i.e., images of food). This result indicates the flexibility and susceptibility of attentional processing to cognitive manipulation