Reducing Crop Nutrient Applications: The Yield Reserve Program

A proposed Yield Reserve Program designed to compensate farmers for any reduced yields resulting from reduced nitrogen (N) application rates below recommended rates is evaluated. Assuming that farmers currently follow extension recommendations for applying N, Yield Reserve Program participation reduces expected net revenue by $10 to$13/ha. The Yield Reserve Program reduces expected net revenue by $17 to$20/ha for farmers who apply N to maximize expected net revenue. Farmers costs of participation increase with lower probabilities of inadequate rainfall and higher corn prices and decline with higher N prices. The Yield Reserve Program can significantly reduce N applications to cropland, which may reduce N content of surface waters, but the costs to taxpayers and farmers will depend on how the program is implemented.compliance cost, nitrogen fertilizer, nonpoint source pollution, policy, yield response function, Crop Production/Industries,

Understanding radionuclide migration from the D1225 Shaft, Dounreay, Caithness, UK

A 65 m vertical shaft was sunk at Dounreay in the 1950s to build a tunnel for the offshore discharge of radioactive effluent from the various nuclear facilities then under construction. In 1959, the Shaft was licensed as a disposal facility for radioactive wastes and was routinely used for the disposal of ILW until 1970. Despite the operation of a hydraulic containment scheme, some radioactivity is known to have leaked into the surrounding rocks. Detailed logging, together with mineralogical and radiochemical analysis of drillcore has revealed four distinct bedding-parallel zones of contamination. The data show that Sr-90 dominates the bulk beta/gamma contamination signal, whereas Cs-137 and Pu-248/249 are found only to be weakly mobile, leading to very low activities and distinct clustering around the Shaft. The data also suggest that all uranium seen in the geosphere is natural in origin. At the smaller scale, contamination adjacent to fracture surfaces is present within a zone of enhanced porosity created by the dissolution of carbonate cements from the Caithness flagstones during long-term rockwater interactions. Quantitative modelling of radionuclide migration, using the multiphysics computer code QPAC shows the importance of different sorption mechanisms and different mineralogical substrates in the Caithnesss flagstones in controlling radionuclide migration

Yield Reserve Program Costs in the Virginia Coastal Plain

A proposed Yield Reserve Program designed to compensate farmers for any reduced yields resulting from nitrogen (N) application rates reduced to below recommended rates is evaluated. Assuming that farmers currently follow Extension recommendations for applying N, Yield Reserve Program participation reduces expected net revenue by $10 to$13/ha. The Yield Reserve Program reduces expected net revenue by $17 to$20/ha for farmers who apply N to maximize expected net revenue. Farmers’ costs of participation increase with lower probabilities of inadequate rainfall and higher corn prices and decline with higher N prices. The Yield Reserve Program can significantly reduce N applications to cropland, which may reduce N content of surface waters, but the costs to taxpayers and farmers will depend on how the program is implemented.compliance cost, nitrogen fertilizer, nonpoint source pollution, policy, yield response function, Agricultural and Food Policy, Crop Production/Industries,

The Dukeries Ascendant: migration, affluence, and community cohesion in the north Nottinghamshire coalfield 1920-1974

The Dukeries Ascendant investigates the impact of industrial migration and community formation in the north Nottinghamshire coalfield, during its most intensive periods of development and consolidation. The work explores how differing conditions and motivations in the Dukeries pit villages produced variations in opinion and outcome, significant as the coalfield entered decades of dispute and challenge in the later decades of the twentieth century. It explores thematic questions during the period to evaluate this hypothesis, with emphasis placed on migration history, the role of prosperity and security in occupational communities, ownership and labour-industrial cultural norms, community infrastructure, and interrelationships between place, industry, economics, and political action. The thesis concludes that, whilst ‘particular’ circumstances did influence economic and sociopolitical behaviour in the coalfield, these were not in themselves ‘peculiar’, or unique, to the area. These particular circumstances influenced workers and their families - themselves part of a long history of migration and transformation within the mining industry - to react in largely predictable and rational ways. Understanding the place of the north Nottinghamshire miners within the wider industrial community, rather than alienating their experience as a discordant ‘other’, could aid a greater understanding of the later trajectories of deindustrialisation and political change across coalfield Britain

A web-based resource for radiation safety courses

CQU runs regular courses for intending Radiation Safety Officers from a variety of industry sectors. Participants have varying levels of prior knowledge to bring to the intensive three day program. To cater for those students whose prior knowledge of radiation physics is weak the print-based media for the course have been converted into a CD-ROM incorporating animations, worked examples, progress checks and self-assessment items. This allows the students who need extra study time on the basic physics concepts to cover as much as possible of the material before commencement of the course. The first course sessions can then concentrate on students’ individual problems and the required program content. This approach also allows the student with strong prior learning to submit an assessment test and be awarded a partial course exemption. Although the material selection is specifically for Radiation Safety training the CD-ROM has also been used in bridging courses, as reinforcement for first year students, and within our Engineering Technology Instrumentation program. The number of students who have used the CD-ROM is not statistically significant but student feedback on the material is very positive

An Investigation of the Relationship between Crime and Reported Incidents and the Built and Natural Environment in the Region of Waterloo, Ontario

In the study of crime and geography, many studies have investigated the spatial relationship between crime and the built and natural environment. However, these studies usually focus on specific environmental characteristics, such as alcohol serving businesses or the presence of vegetation. This study conducts a comprehensive analysis of the spatial relationship between crime and features of the built and natural environment in the sister cities of Kitchener and Waterloo, Ontario, taking into account many factors that may potentially affect crime and reported incidents. This includes built environment features, such as residential buildings, commercial buildings, drinking establishments, and bus stops. Natural environment features, such as parks and the presence of green vegetation were also considered. The measure of crime in this study was a geospatial record (aggregated to the nearest street intersection) of crime and reported incidents where police were called (e.g., emergency call and response) recorded by the Waterloo Regional Police Service (WRPS). Relationships between built and natural environment characteristics with crime and reported incidents were studied using linear regression and logistic regression modelling techniques based on three datasets. The first dataset involved creating a buffer around each street intersection and deriving the proportion of each building type and count of bus stops, streetlights, and alcohol licenses within a static or adaptive radius, which was subsequently compared with the number or presence of crime and reported incidents at each intersection. The second involved developing Adaptive Kernel Density Estimation (AKDE) rasters of each environmental feature and then conducting a regression analysis by comparing the number or presence of crime and reported incidents at each street intersection to its corresponding pixel values. The third involved using buffers to summarize the levels of vegetation cover detected from remote sensing imagery surrounding each street intersection, which was subsequently compared with the number of crime and reported incidents at each intersection. The results of this study identified overall low r-squared values for tested regression models, which suggests that important variables may be missing, such as socio-economic variables that may have a significant role in predicting crime incidents. The model also found that bus stops and alcohol licences were the most important urban environment factors in predicting crime and reported incidents in Kitchener-Waterloo

The Color-Magnitude Relation in Coma: Clues to the Age and Metallicity of Cluster Populations

We have observed three fields of the Coma cluster of galaxies with a narrow band (modified Stromgren) filter system. Observed galaxies include 31 in the vicinity of NGC 4889, 48 near NGC 4874, and 60 near NGC 4839 complete to M_5500=-18 in all three subclusters. Spectrophotometric classification finds all three subclusters of Coma to be dominated by red, E type (ellipticals/S0's) galaxies with a mean blue fraction, f_B, of 0.10. The blue fraction increases to fainter luminosities, possible remnants of dwarf starburst population or the effects of dynamical friction removing bright, blue galaxies from the cluster population by mergers. We find the color-magnitude (CM) relation to be well defined and linear over the range of M_5500=-13 to -22. After calibration to multi-metallicity models, bright ellipticals are found to have luminosity weighted mean [Fe/H] values between -0.5 and +0.5, whereas low luminosity ellipticals have [Fe/H] values ranging from -2 to solar. The lack of CM relation in our continuum color suggests that a systematic age effect cancels the metallicity effects in this bandpass. This is confirmed with our age index which finds a weak correlation between luminosity and mean stellar age in ellipticals such that the stellar populations of bright ellipticals are 2 to 3 Gyrs younger than low luminosity ellipticals.Comment: 26 pages AAS LaTeX, 6 figures, accepted for publication in A

Effects of In-Season Velocity- Versus Percentage-Based Training in Academy Rugby League Players

Purpose: To compare the effects of velocity-based training (VBT) versus percentage-based training (PBT) on strength, speed and jump performance in academy rugby league players during a 7-week in-season mesocycle. Methods: Twenty-seven rugby league players competing in the Super League U19s Championship were randomised to VBT (n = 12) or PBT (n = 15). Both groups completed a 7-week resistance training intervention (2x/week) that involved the back squat. The PBT group used a fixed load based on a percentage of one repetition maximum (1RM), whereas the VBT group used a modifiable load based on individualised velocity thresholds. Biomechanical and perceptual data were collected during each training session. Back squat 1RM, countermovement jump (CMJ), reactive strength index (RSI), sprint times, and back squat velocity at 40-90% 1RM were assessed pre- and post-training. Results: The PBT group showed likely to most likely improvements in 1RM strength and RSI, whereas the VBT group showed likely to very likely improvements in 1RM strength, CMJ height, and back squat velocity at 40 and 60% 1RM. Sessional velocity and power were most likely greater during VBT compared with PBT (standardised mean differences [SMDs] = 1.8 to 2.4), whilst time under tension and perceptual training stress were likely lower (SMDs = 0.49 to 0.66). The improvement in back squat velocity at 60% 1RM was likely greater following VBT compared with PBT (SMD = 0.50). Conclusion: VBT can be implemented during the competitive season, instead of traditional PBT, to improve training stimuli, decrease training stress, and promote velocity-specific adaptations