2004 Cereals reveal an intriguing surprise: the performance of cereals on organic farms

The great variability in the performance of cereals on organic farms that we have highlighted from past research trials has been confirmed in a new and more widely based trial. Participation from 20 producers gives the results a robust character and has enabled us to spot something we had not previously noted. EFRC researchers Prof Martin Wolfe AND Kay Hinchsliffe set out the results. Introduction EFRC is currently working on a Defra-funded project designed to use participatory research and development methodology, and is conducted on sites across the country with the participation of 20 farmers, seed producers and more than 10 researchers (EFRC, NIAB, Middlesex University, University of Kingston & HDRA). The idea is to integrate the contributions of different stakeholders into developing a robust system for identifying, testing, multiplying and marketing cereal varieties, lines, mixtures, and populations best suited to organic production in different parts of the country . Three high quality winter wheat varieties, Hereward, Solstice and Xi 19 and their mixture, were selected for the trial based on their performance in previous years’ replicated variety trials. Participating farmers drilled each variety in strips (total area of 1/10 ha) surrounded by their own winter wheat crop. This article summarises data from the first year of field trials (2003-4); since this is the first year they should be treated with caution. The trial is being repeated and has already been planted by essentially the same group of participating farmers

EFRC Bulletin 76 January 2005. With technical Updates from the Organic Advisory Service

The regular report from Elm Farm Research Centre - the Organic Research Centre in the UK - covering its own research and information and that of other relevant issue

Impacts of warming, drought and sea level rise on ombrotrophic peatlands

Northern ombrotrophic peatlands have sequestered and stored carbon in their soils over millennia, during a period of relatively stable, long term climatic conditions. Global climate change, including increasing mean annual temperatures, increased frequency of summer droughts and increased likelihood of seawater flooding poses threats to the balance of conditions that peatlands require to continue performing these ecosystem services. This research was based at Cors Fochno lowland raised bog in Ceredigion, West Wales, UK. As a temperate maritime peatland on the edge of the ecosystem’s bioclimatic envelope and lying within one km of the coastline of the Irish Sea, it offers an ideal opportunity to investigate peatland responses to the impacts of climate change; in particular responses to seawater flooding, increased mean annual temperatures and drought events. In laboratory conditions, two Sphagnum moss species (Sphagnum pulchrum and Sphagnum cuspidatum) were immersed in seawater for 72 hours, in otherwise optimised growth conditions, in order to identify photosynthetic responses to inundation. Measurements following removal of the seawater showed both species’ photosynthetic rates declined sharply following treatment, with no signs of recovery. When in-situ peat monoliths with intact vegetation were flooded with seawater, the rate of net ecosystem CO2 exchange was reduced, and methane emissions to the atmosphere were also inhibited. Damage to vegetation was evident, resulting in an overall reduction of both CO2 and CH4 exchange from the peatland to the atmosphere. In another long-term field experiment manipulating peatland plots with passive warming and summer droughts, short-term carbon dioxide gas flux responses were measured during an enforced drought. Net ecosystem exchange flux rates were significantly lower in combined warm and drought treatments than controls, indicating that the longer-term effects of the treatment may lead to a shift from a CO2 sink to a CO2 source. This body of work provides new data for a baseline of peatland and Sphagnum responses to seawater inundation, adding to the developing body of evidence on combined temperature and hydrology impacts on carbon gas fluxes, which can aid in the development of management policies to mitigate the negative impacts of climate change

Fast Solvers for Cahn-Hilliard Inpainting

We consider the efficient solution of the modified Cahn-Hilliard equation for binary image inpainting using convexity splitting, which allows an unconditionally gradient stable time-discretization scheme. We look at a double-well as well as a double obstacle potential. For the latter we get a nonlinear system for which we apply a semi-smooth Newton method combined with a Moreau-Yosida regularization technique. At the heart of both methods lies the solution of large and sparse linear systems. We introduce and study block-triangular preconditioners using an efficient and easy to apply Schur complement approximation. Numerical results indicate that our preconditioners work very well for both problems and show that qualitatively better results can be obtained using the double obstacle potential

Pointing Control and Stabilization of the High-Energy UV Laser for Laser-Assisted Charge Exchange

Laser-Assisted Charge Exchange (LACE) is an experimental method of charge exchange injection into a proton accumulator ring that is being developed at the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) in Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) as an alternative to hazardous injection foils. The current scheme of LACE requires a high-energy, low-repetition-rate UV (355 nm) laser beam (140 mJ pulses at 10 Hz) to be transported over 65 meters to the laser-particle interaction point (IP) in a high-radiation area of the accelerator. Thermal effects and other disturbances along the free-space laser transport line cause the beam to slowly drift away from the IP and jitter at a frequency comparable to the pulse repetition rate. A control system was designed, simulated, and constructed to stabilize the pointing of the laser beam to allow stable operation of the experiment. The laser pointing stabilization system is based on feedback between Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS) cameras and a steering mirror with piezoelectric actuators. A PC running custom-made LabVIEW software acts a controller in open- and closed-loop modes, as well as a diagnostic tool. An analytical model of the system was used for optimization of the control law, and the system performs as well in the field as it did in laboratory tests. The laser pointing stabilization system eliminates the slow drift by keeping the beam aligned at the IP for an indefinite amount of time, and the jitter is reduced to the level of the pulse-to-pulse fluctuations

On with the Motley: Television Satire and Discursive Integration in the Post-Stewart/Colbert Era

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report became cultural phenomena in mid-2000s. Their influence on politics and the news media brought political satire on television to a new level of prominence as politicians, world leaders, authors, and journalists flocked to the Comedy Central shows to spread their messages. The shows greatly expanded the boundaries of previous television satire programs by offering in-depth analysis of important issues in creative, hilarious ways, while taking the news media to task when it failed to critically inquire into government claims. When Stephen Colbert ended his show in 2014 and Stewart departed The Daily Show the next year, they left a gap in television satire that has yet to be completely filled. This thesis explores the current state of satirical television news shows. The manuscript traces the emergence of political satire on television. Then, through the theory of discursive integration, the thesis takes an in-depth look at Stewart and Colbert’s satire, and investigates current political satire in the post-Stewart/Colbert era. The thesis explores current political satire in the context of the shows that came before it, again using discursive integration as a theoretical underpinning. The goal of the thesis is to gain an understanding of where current satire fits in the historical context of television satire, and how newer shows have pushed discursive boundaries established by The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report

Tax Perception: An empirical survey

This paper gives a survey of the experimental literature on the perception (bias) of individuals with respect to their own tax burden and its effect on economic decisions. Six strands of literature are discussed: (1) perception of marginal tax rates, (2) influence of tax complexity on tax perception, (3) taxation and incentives to work, (4) tax salience, (5) tax morale and fairness and (6) money illusion, perceived inflation and fiscal drag. The literature discussed contains more evidence for than against a perception bias. --taxation,tax perception,literature survey