New Approaches to Phosphorus Regulation and Management

Phosphorus (P) conservation and the environmental, ecological and economic issues related to over-use and under-use of P on organic farms are addressed. Re-examination of Certification Standards is recommended to ensure the conservation and efficient use of P through adaptation of organic management to local conditions, ecology, culture and scale. Changes that will conserve P and minimise environmental risk are identified, along with the necessary research to make this possible

A Proposal for Improving Pastures in Subsistence Farming Systems on the East India Plateau

The East India Plateau (EIP) experiences deep poverty despite high rainfall (\u3e 1200 mm). Livelihoods, once derived from Sal (Shorea robusta) forest, now depend on agriculture. Subsistence farmers practice monoculture rice-fallow on small, fragmented landholdings (total \u3c 1 ha). Rice in the undulating landscape was traditionally grown in lowland drainage lines (Fig. 1) but population pressure has forced it onto adjacent terraced slopes (medium-uplands) that now comprise \u3e 80% of the rice area (\u3e 50% of land area). Rice is protected from grazing, but the watershed is otherwise grazed as common land with no pasture management. Grazed uplands are often degraded and unproductive, receiving no inputs. Livestock are limited to large animals providing draft power (males) and manure (fuel, compost), and goats for emergency finance. Rainfall is not the primary constraint to production from micro-watershed ecosystems of the EIP-improved rainfed cropping would deliver immediate substantial benefits, without watershed development (Cornish et al., 2015a); although low soil fertility requires attention (Agarwal et al., 2010). The next step in development requires a strategy for poor, risk-averse smallholders to improve grazing land. This paper develops a proposal for evaluation, using a soil fertility survey of seven watersheds combined with botanical observations and published work

Culture of airway epithelial cells from neonates sampled within 48-hours of birth

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Risk of death during and after opiate substitution treatment in primary care: prospective observational study in UK General Practice Research Database

Objective To investigate the effect of opiate substitution treatment at the beginning and end of treatment and according to duration of treatment

Single-molecule Detection in Nanogap-embedded Plasmonic Gratings

We introduce nanogap-embedded silver plasmonic gratings for single-molecule (SM) visualization using an epifluorescence microscope. This silver plasmonic platform was fabricated by a cost-effective nano-imprint lithography technique, using an HD DVD template. DNA/RNA duplex molecules tagged with Cy3/Cy5 fluorophores were immobilized on SiO2-capped silver gratings. Light was coupled to the gratings at particular wavelengths and incident angles to form surface plasmons. The SM fluorescence intensity of the fluorophores at the nanogaps showed approximately a 100-fold mean enhancement with respect to the fluorophores observed on quartz slides using an epifluorescence microscope. This high level of enhancement was due to the concentration of surface plasmons at the nanogaps. When nanogaps imaged with epifluorescence mode were compared to quartz imaged using total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) microscopy, more than a 30-fold mean enhancement was obtained. Due to the SM fluorescence enhancement of plasmonic gratings and the correspondingly high emission intensity, the required laser power can be reduced, resulting in a prolonged detection time prior to photobleaching. This simple platform was able to perform SM studies with a low-cost epifluorescence apparatus, instead of the more expensive TIRF or confocal microscopes, which would enable SM analysis to take place in most scientific laboratories

Processes influencing the destruction of microcystin-LR by TiO2 photocatalysis.

We have previously reported the effectiveness of TiO2 photocatalysis in the destruction of the cyanotoxin microcystin-LR [P.K.J. Robertson, L.A. Lawton, B. Münch, J. Rouzade, J. Chem. Soc., Chem. Commun., 4 (1997) 393; P.K.J. Robertson, L.A. Lawton, B. Münch, B.J.P.A. Cornish, J. Adv. Oxid. Technol., in press]. In this paper we report an investigation of factors which influence the rate of the toxin destruction at the catalyst surface. A primary kinetic isotope effect of approximately 3 was observed when the destruction was performed in a heavy water solvent. Hydroxylated compounds were observed as products of the destruction process. No destruction was observed when the process was investigated under a nitrogen atmosphere

Analyzing Array Manipulating Programs by Program Transformation

We explore a transformational approach to the problem of verifying simple array-manipulating programs. Traditionally, verification of such programs requires intricate analysis machinery to reason with universally quantified statements about symbolic array segments, such as "every data item stored in the segment A[i] to A[j] is equal to the corresponding item stored in the segment B[i] to B[j]." We define a simple abstract machine which allows for set-valued variables and we show how to translate programs with array operations to array-free code for this machine. For the purpose of program analysis, the translated program remains faithful to the semantics of array manipulation. Based on our implementation in LLVM, we evaluate the approach with respect to its ability to extract useful invariants and the cost in terms of code size