Monitoring Productivity of A UK Dairy System Aiming to Increase Soil Carbon, based on Diverse Swards and Incorporating Mob Grazing

There is interest in increasing soil organic matter (SOM), both to improve plant productivity, and augment carbon sequestration. One practice that may contribute to increasing SOM is a “mob grazing” approach. This involves high stocking density for a short period of time, and often grazing more mature swards, leaving higher cover and longer recovery times between grazings than is typical in the UK. This approach is likely to be best suited to swards that include a wide variety of grass and herb species, giving greater resilience than a purely ryegrass sward. The performance of dairy herds on such swards under this type of management in the UK has not been documented. This paper describes how a participatory approach is used to gather sward and animal production data from a farm where diverse swards and a “mob grazing” system have been developed over seven years, with the aim of increasing the return of organic matter to the soil

Energy Regulation in Quebec

This report characterizes the regulation of energy markets in general and focuses on the electricity and natural gas markets of Québec. Markets are regulated if they are deemed to represent natural monopoly situations or if unregulated firms would not take into account externalities that they might generate. Energy market regulation has been justified with the claim that regulation represents the “second-best” alternative. That is, given a situation in which there is market failure, the outcome derived under regulation may be better than the outcome that would arise if the market were unregulated. Government intervention may be required in order to protect the interests of consumers. Energy markets have been considered natural monopoly situations in large part because of the enormous fixed costs associated with production and distribution. Furthermore, electricity and natural gas are generally considered essential goods, or more accurately, goods with significant positive externalities from reliable supply. A reliable supply is necessary for the proper functioning of any modern economy and a private market might not provide equally for all people in a service area. In recent years, however, certain segments of some energy markets have been liberalized, since these segments might not actually be natural monopoly situations and/or because the market may provide means to ensure that firms internalize externalities. We describe the experiences of a number of jurisdictions that have experimented with energy market liberalization and show that restructuring is feasible and may provide an improvement over the status quo if market power can be limited. We consider the potential for restructuring in Québec’s energy markets which are currently mainly regulated by the Régie de l’énergie du Québec. Québec’s electricity market does not represent a typical case for the restructuring of the production side since the vast majority of its generating capacity comes from hydro projects. Over 90% of Québec’s installed electrical capacity is hydro generated, making Québec the second most hydro-dominated market in the world after Norway. Furthermore, this capacity is highly concentrated on three river systems. The usual model of forced divestiture by hydrologic system is therefore likely to introduce market power in a restructured market, and may lead to greater inefficiencies than those present under regulation. In order for any market restructuring to succeed, (at least) one of two approaches must be undertaken. A system of tradable water rights could be established in parallel with a competitive power pool in order to allow divestiture of individual plants within a river system and/or Québec’s markets could be opened to foreign production. The retail segment of Québec’s energy markets could potentially benefit from liberalization. The only obvious difference between Québec’s energy markets and those in other jurisdictions is Québec’s price-equalization policy. Lower prices could prevail if competition were introduced to the markets for electricity and natural gas, but not for all consumers. Québec’s insistence on uniform prices throughout the province means that some consumers are currently paying below market price for energy. Prices for these consumers could rise if the market is restructured.

After the accord : reminiscences on the birth of the modern Fed

Treasury-Federal Reserve Accord

The Treasury-Fed Accord : a new narrative account

Treasury-Federal Reserve Accord

Organopalladium approaches to bicyclic heteraotom containing prostaglandin analogues

A method for the synthesis of thiophene-containing bicyclic prostaglandin analogues has been developed. Thienylpalladation of bicyclic olefins provides isolable (sigma)-palladium compounds which can be readily transformed into the desired bicylic prostaglandin analogues. Unfortunately, application of this approach to the synthesis of the analogous furans was unsuccessful. An approach has also been developed for the introduction of the trans-allylic alcohol side chain of a number of bicyclic prostaglandin analogues. The thiophene-containing bicyclic prostaglandin analogues could be hydrogenated to the completely saturated prostanoic acid analogues;A method has been developed for the synthesis of 7-oxa bicyclic prostaglandin analogues. Silver acetate assisted alkoxypalladation of norbornadienepalladium dichloride by t-butyl 6-hydroxyhexanoate affords an alkoxypalladium complex. Although this cannot be isolated, it can be carbonylated in methanol to afford either one of two diesters, which are useful intermediates in the synthesis of 7-oxa bicyclic and tricyclic prostaglandin analogues. These syntheses were completed by a sequence involving selective ester hydrolysis, Wittig olefination, and enone reduction. The synthesis of similar analogues through the reaction of an alkoxypalladium complex with a substituted lithium acetylide was unsuccessful;A general method for carbon-carbon bond formation between organomercurials and organocopper reagents has been discovered. Optimal conditions for the cross-coupling of a variety of aryl-, alkenyl-, and alkylmercurials with primary and secondary alkyl- and alkenylcuprate reagents have been examined. Lithium diorganocuprates and dilithium triorganocuprates give the best results with yields tending to decrease in the order methyl \u3e vinyl \u3e primary alkyl \u3e secondary alkyl. With organomercurials, yields tend to decrease as follows: aryl \u3e vinyl \u3e primary alkyl \u3e secondary alkyl. These reactions seem to proceed via mercury-copper transmetalation to generate a mixed organocopper species which then thermally or oxidatively eliminates the cross-coupled product. Consistent with this picture is the fact than an organic group originally attached to mercury can be readily added in conjugate fashion to (alpha),(beta)-unsaturated ketones, a reaction typical of an organocopper species