A review of knowledge: inter-row hoeing & its associated agronomy in organic cereal & pulse crops

The aim of this project was to establish the “state of the art” for inter-row hoeing and its associated agronomic practices in organic cereal and pulse crops. To achieve this a detailed review of literature was undertaken. • To facilitate inter-row cultivation in cereal and pulse crops, some adjustment of row spacing may be required. For cereals, drilling crops in 25 cm rows can reduce yield compared with normal drilling practice, primarily due to greater intra-specific competition amongst the crop (i.e. competition between crop plants). • The yield penalty resulting from widely spaced crop rows can be minimised using a number of approaches, depending on the drill: 1. Reducing the seed rate in widely spaced crop rows can help to minimise excessive intra-specific competition. 2. Band sowing the crop in wide rows can also help to minimise intra-specific competition as the seed is distributed over a greater area. 3. Using a twin-row arrangement can completely overcome the yield penalty. • The recommended row spacing for peas (up to 20 cm) and beans (up to 35 cm) does not require any further adjustment for inter-row hoeing. • Recent developments in automated guidance of inter-row hoeing equipment mean that weeding operations can now be conducted a much higher speeds (10 km h-1). This has highlighted the limitations of some of the cultivators currently used (e.g. ‘A’ blades), as excessive soil throw can occur at this high speed. Rolling cultivators may prove to be the most suitable at high forward speeds. For manually guided hoes working at slower speeds (5 km h-1), ‘A’ and ‘L’ blades offer an effective low cost solution. • In terms of the timing of inter-row hoeing, it is suggested that weeding operations should be conducted at an early stage in the growing season, as the weeds that emerge with or shortly after the crop are the ones that pose the most significant threat for crop yield. Weeding on two occasions can provide better levels of weed control than weeding once, but weeding more frequently offered little additional benefit. Reductions of weed biomass of up to 99 % have been reported as a result of inter-row hoeing, although this has not always resulted in a positive crop yield response. This is probably due to crop damage resulting from inaccurate hoeing, a problem that can be overcome with automated guidance. • There is some evidence to suggest that mechanical weeding operations can mineralise soil bound nitrogen. • The impact of inter-row hoeing on ground nesting birds is uncertain. Early indications suggest that skylarks prefer to nest directly adjacent to or in the crop row rather than between rows. The information contained within this review should enable farmers to make best use of inter-row hoeing in their arable crops. There are a number of areas that require further research and development: • The interaction of seed rate and row spacing needs to be confirmed in organic systems. • Relatively little is known about the mechanisms of weed kill and the detailed interaction between the cultivator blade, the weed and the soil. This is particularly important with the new automated guidance equipment that allows weeding at high forward speeds. • The timing and frequency of inter-row hoeing has received very little attention. The optimum weed control timings are based on small-plot crop:weed competition studies and need to be verified under field scale management with inter-row hoeing equipment. • Finally, the impact of inter-row hoeing and widely spaced crop rows on ground-nesting birds has not been looked at directly, but is of importance. Please see the main report for a more detailed summary before the full text

On a Site of X-ray Emission in AE Aquarii

An analysis of recently reported results of XMM-Newton observations of AE Aqr within a hypothesis that the detected X-ray source is located inside the Roche lobe of the white dwarf is presented. I show this hypothesis to be inconsistent with the currently adopted model of mass-transfer in the system. Possible solutions of this problem are briefly discussed.Comment: 4 pages, accepted for publication in ApJ Letter

Logarithmic corrections in the free energy of monomer-dimer model on plane lattices with free boundaries

Using exact computations we study the classical hard-core monomer-dimer models on m x n plane lattice strips with free boundaries. For an arbitrary number v of monomers (or vacancies), we found a logarithmic correction term in the finite-size correction of the free energy. The coefficient of the logarithmic correction term depends on the number of monomers present (v) and the parity of the width n of the lattice strip: the coefficient equals to v when n is odd, and v/2 when n is even. The results are generalizations of the previous results for a single monomer in an otherwise fully packed lattice of dimers.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Trends in U.S. Public Awareness of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities (1999-2010): Study Brief

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Trends in U.S. Public Awareness of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities (1999-2010): 2009 General Population Toplines

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Higher spin vertex models with domain wall boundary conditions

We derive determinant expressions for the partition functions of spin-k/2 vertex models on a finite square lattice with domain wall boundary conditions.Comment: 14 pages, 12 figures. Minor corrections. Version to appear in JSTA

Therapeutic depletion of natural killer cells controls persistent infection

Persistent viral infections are associated with host and viral factors that impair effective antiviral immunity. Natural killer (NK) cells contribute to establishment of persistent lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) infection in mice through suppression of virus-specific T cell responses during the first few days of infection, but NK cell depletion during those early time points can enable severe T cell-mediated immune pathology and death of the host. Here we show that long after their peak in cytolytic activation, NK cells continue to support viral persistence at later times of infection. Delayed depletion of NK cells, 2 to 3 weeks after infection, enhanced virus-specific T cell responses and viral control. This enhancing effect of delayed NK cell depletion on antiviral immunity, in contrast to early NK cell depletion, was not associated with increased morbidity and mortality, and mice quickly regained weight after treatment. The efficacy of the depletion depended in part upon the size of the original virus inoculum, the viral load at the time of depletion, and the presence of CD4 T cells. Each of these factors is an important contributor to the degree of CD8 T cell dysfunction during viral persistence. Thus, NK cells may continuously contribute to exhaustion of virus-specific T cells during chronic infection, possibly by depleting CD4 T cells. Targeting of NK cells could thus be considered in combination with blockade of other immunosuppressive pathways, such as the interleukin-10 (IL-10) and programmed death 1 (PD-1) pathways, as a therapy to cure chronic human infections, including those with HIV or hepatitis C virus. IMPORTANCE: Persistent virus infections are a major threat to global human health. The capacity of viruses, including HIV and hepatitis C virus, to overwhelm or subvert host immune responses contributes to a prolonged state of dampened antiviral immune functionality, which in turn facilitates viral persistence. Recent efforts have focused on therapeutics that can restore the effector functions of these functionally exhausted virus-specific T cells in order to expedite viral clearance. Here we establish that natural killer (NK) cells actively contribute to immune dysfunction and viral persistence at later stages of infection. This previously undescribed mechanism of immune suppression during chronic infection provides a vital clue for the design of novel therapeutic strategies targeting NK cell immunosuppressive activity in order to restore immune function and enhance viral control in chronically infected individuals

Spanning Trees on Lattices and Integration Identities

For a lattice $\Lambda$ with $n$ vertices and dimension $d$ equal or higher than two, the number of spanning trees $N_{ST}(\Lambda)$ grows asymptotically as $\exp(n z_\Lambda)$ in the thermodynamic limit. We present exact integral expressions for the asymptotic growth constant $z_\Lambda$ for spanning trees on several lattices. By taking different unit cells in the calculation, many integration identities can be obtained. We also give $z_{\Lambda (p)}$ on the homeomorphic expansion of $k$-regular lattices with $p$ vertices inserted on each edge.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl