BIRD DAMAGE IN FRUIT CROPS

I don\u27t see any solution in sight for fruit damage caused by birds. I think that one of the reasons is that there has been very little research done concerning the relationship between birds and fruit crops. Probably the reason is that those birds responsible are protected species, and they are highly desirable birds in the eyes of the public. For instance, one of the species that is responsible for heavy losses in fruit crops is the robin. It is the state bird in Michigan, yet it causes a number of problems there each year. Another problem is that growing fruit isn\u27t as common as grain production. Wherever you do have fruit in any concentration, the losses are severe in most cases. Every district in which I\u27ve been stationed I\u27ve run into this kind of problem. I\u27ve seen it in New England, the Southeast, and now the Midwest. Each time the question is: How do I keep birds from eating cherries, blueberries, grapes, and so forth. And I just don\u27t know. For the most part the problem is birds eating ripe fruit. In two instances, I\u27ve seen large roosts of starlings in apple orchards, contaminating fruit through their roosting habits. In Massachusetts, we had trouble with grouse damaging apple orchards by eating the fruit buds. Many of the state game departments would love to have this problem. For the most part my comments will be limited to those experiences which I\u27ve had in Maine, Massachusetts, South Carolina, Michigan, and Ohio. My first association with bird damage concerned seagulls eating blueberries. I ran into seagulls eating cranberries, and recently I hear that they have been caught eating tomatoes. These gull problems took place in Maine. In Massachusetts I had experience with songbirds taking blueberries and peaches; in South Carolina it was starlings in grapes; Ohio has had problems with songbirds in blueberries, cherries, and grapes, and Michigan, again, songbirds in cherries and blueberries

Application of DR4 and BM100 Biodegradability tests to treated and untreated organic wastes

The aerobic DR4 and anaerobic BM100 biodegradability tests are currently applied in England and Wales for monitoring the reduction in biological municipal waste (BMW) achieved by mechanical biological treatment (MBT) plants (Environment Agency 2005). The protocol is applied only when outputs are landfilled and is based on estimating the reduction in potential biogas production between the MBT input, municipal solid waste (MSW), and all of the landfilled outputs, using the BM100 test. As this is a long term 100 day test the more rapid 4 day DR4 test may also be applied as this has been shown to correlate with the BM100 test. We have now applied the DR4 and BM100 tests to 132 organic waste samples including untreated and treated BMW and specific organic wastes. The results indicate that the correlation between the DR4 and BM100 tests has proved valid for mixed MSW derived BMW wastes. However when both tests are applied to specific organic wastes such as turkey feathers, cardboard packaging waste and pizza food wastes the correlation between the tests is less strong. It is concluded that the use of the DR4 and BM100 test correlation is valid for its designed application (monitoring MBT processes treating MSW derived mixed BMW), but that caution should be exercised when applying both tests to specific single component organic wastes

Characterisation of untreated and treated biodegradable wastes

As part of a Defra sponsored project (WRT220), approximately 40 biodegradable wastes were characterised according to biodegradability (DR4 and BM100), total PTE content, C:N ratio and biochemical composition. Two leaching tests were employed; upflow percolation test and a one step LS10 test; eluates were analysed for TOC, pH, electrical conductivity, PTEs and a range of cations and anions. This paper contains a limited set of data for a selection of untreated and treated waste types representing four waste treatment processes (composting, MBT, MHT, anaerobic digestion). The DR4 and BM100 tests were found to be appropriate for a wide range of waste types but where possible they should be used in conjunction with other related tests. Longer-term MBT composting processes appeared to produce compost material with reduced ammonium concentrations and extractability of some PTEs. Carbon content (carbon analyzer - LECO) could be estimated as C = LOI/1.9 which is a routine operation. N LECO values were approximately 12% greater than the equivalent N Kjeldahl values

Laser-boosted lightcraft technology demonstrator

The detailed description and performance analysis of a 1.4 meter diameter Lightcraft Technology Demonstator (LTD) is presented. The launch system employs a 100 MW-class ground-based laser to transmit power directly to an advanced combined-cycle engine that propels the 120 kg LTD to orbit - with a mass ratio of two. The single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) LTD machine then becomes an autonomous sensor satellite that can deliver precise, high quality information typical of today's large orbital platforms. The dominant motivation behind this study is to provide an example of how laser propulsion and its low launch costs can induce a comparable order-of-magnitude reduction in sensor satellite packaging costs. The issue is simply one of production technology for future, survivable SSTO aerospace vehicles that intimately share both laser propulsion engine and satellite functional hardware

Survival of a diffusing particle in an expanding cage

We consider a Brownian particle, with diffusion constant D, moving inside an expanding d-dimensional sphere whose surface is an absorbing boundary for the particle. The sphere has initial radius L_0 and expands at a constant rate c. We calculate the joint probability density, p(r,t|r_0), that the particle survives until time t, and is at a distance r from the centre of the sphere, given that it started at a distance r_0 from the centre.Comment: 5 page

Effects of chronic carbon monoxide exposure on fetal growth and development in mice

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Carbon monoxide (CO) is produced endogenously, and can also be acquired from many exogenous sources: ie. cigarette smoking, automobile exhaust. Although toxic at high levels, low level production or exposure lends to normal physiologic functions: smooth muscle cell relaxation, control of vascular tone, platelet aggregation, anti- inflammatory and anti-apoptotic events. In pregnancy, it is unclear at what level maternal CO exposure becomes toxic to the fetus. In this study, we hypothesized that CO would be embryotoxic, and we sought to determine at what level of chronic CO exposure in pregnancy embryo/fetotoxic effects are observed.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Pregnant CD1 mice were exposed to continuous levels of CO (0 to 400 ppm) from conception to gestation day 17. The effect on fetal/placental growth and development, and fetal/maternal CO concentrations were determined.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Maternal and fetal CO blood concentrations ranged from 1.12- 15.6 percent carboxyhemoglobin (%COHb) and 1.0- 28.6%COHb, respectively. No significant difference was observed in placental histological morphology or in placental mass with any CO exposure. At 400 ppm CO vs. control, decreased litter size and fetal mass (p < 0.05), increased fetal early/late gestational deaths (p < 0.05), and increased CO content in the placenta and the maternal spleen, heart, liver, kidney and lung (p < 0.05) were observed.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Exposure to levels at or below 300 ppm CO throughout pregnancy has little demonstrable effect on fetal growth and development in the mouse.</p

Cosmic microwave background snapshots: pre-WMAP and post-WMAP

Abbreviated: We highlight the remarkable evolution in the CMB power spectrum over the past few years, and in the cosmological parameters for minimal inflation models derived from it. Grand unified spectra (GUS) show pre-WMAP optimal bandpowers are in good agreement with each other and with the one-year WMAP results, which now dominate the L < 600 bands. GUS are used to determine calibrations, peak/dip locations and heights, and damping parameters. These CMB experiments significantly increased the case for accelerated expansion in the early universe (the inflationary paradigm) and at the current epoch (dark energy dominance) when they were combined with `prior' probabilities on the parameters. A minimal inflation parameter set is applied in the same way to the evolving data. Grid-based and and Monte Carlo Markov Chain methods are shown to give similar values, highly stable over time and for different prior choices, with the increasing precision best characterized by decreasing errors on uncorrelated parameter eigenmodes. After marginalizing over the other cosmic and experimental variables for a weak+LSS prior, the pre-WMAP data of Jan03 cf. the post-WMAP data of Mar03 give Omega_{tot} =1.03^{+0.05}_{-0.04} cf. 1.02^{+0.04}_{-0.03}. Adding the flat prior, n_s =0.95^{+0.07}_{-0.04} cf. 0.97^{+0.02}_{-0.02}, with < 2\sigma evidence for a log variation of n_s. The densities have concordance values. The dark energy pressure-to-density ratio is not well constrained by our weak+LSS prior, but adding SN1 gives w_Q < -0.7. We find \sigma_8 = 0.89^{+0.06}_{-0.07} cf. 0.86^{+0.04}_{-0.04}, implying a sizable SZ effect; the high L power suggest \sigma_8 \sim 0.94^{+0.08}_{-0.16} is needed to be SZ-compatible.Comment: 36 pages, 5 figures, 5 tables, Jan 2003 Roy Soc Discussion Meeting on `The search for dark matter and dark energy in the Universe', published PDF (Oct 15 2003) is http://www.cita.utoronto.ca/~bond/roysoc03/03TA2435.pd

An improved ontological representation of dendritic cells as a paradigm for all cell types

The Cell Ontology (CL) is designed to provide a standardized representation of cell types for data annotation. Currently, the CL employs multiple is_a relations, defining cell types in terms of histological, functional, and lineage properties, and the majority of definitions are written with sufficient generality to hold across multiple species. This approach limits the CL’s utility for cross-species data integration. To address this problem, we developed a method for the ontological representation of cells and applied this method to develop a dendritic cell ontology (DC-CL). DC-CL subtypes are delineated on the basis of surface protein expression, systematically including both species-general and species-specific types and optimizing DC-CL for the analysis of flow cytometry data. This approach brings benefits in the form of increased accuracy, support for reasoning, and interoperability with other ontology resources. 104. Barry Smith, “Toward a Realistic Science of Environments”, Ecological Psychology, 2009, 21 (2), April-June, 121-130. Abstract: The perceptual psychologist J. J. Gibson embraces a radically externalistic view of mind and action. We have, for Gibson, not a Cartesian mind or soul, with its interior theater of contents and the consequent problem of explaining how this mind or soul and its psychological environment can succeed in grasping physical objects external to itself. Rather, we have a perceiving, acting organism, whose perceptions and actions are always already tuned to the parts and moments, the things and surfaces, of its external environment. We describe how on this basis Gibson sought to develop a realist science of environments which will be ‘consistent with physics, mechanics, optics, acoustics, and chemistry’

Acceleration management: the semiconductor industry confronts the 21st century

In the recent generations of semiconductor devices, the semiconductor industry has been accelerating towards the limits of the physical sciences. As a consequence, technology managers in that industry face seven major challenges, which will threaten progress: process, complexity, performance, power, density, productivity, and quality / reliability. We believe that confronting these challenges requires a new approach to technology management both within organizations and between organizations that form the backbone of the industry. We call this new approach Acceleration Management. Acceleration Management first requires that firms cultivate deep technical knowledge and inspire creative solutions to seemingly insoluble technical problems. The second stage of Acceleration Management requires the necessary expertise to be pooled, which often demands inter-organizational cooperation. This paper explores these managerial imperatives and analyzes how new semiconductor firms--particularly in China--have created niches in the value chain even during a tumultuous time in the industry\u27s history