Specialisation through co-operation between farms in organic farming

Co-operation in organic production provides the potential for production specialisation with the help of co-operation in machinery use, input integration, crop rotation, shared buildings and marketing. Co-operation models provide the opportunity to optimise production between different lines of production from environmental, economic and functional perspectives

Kohn-Sham potential with discontinuity for band gap materials

We model a Kohn-Sham potential with a discontinuity at integer particle numbers derived from the GLLB approximation of Gritsenko et al. We evaluate the Kohn-Sham gap and the discontinuity to obtain the quasiparticle gap. This allows us to compare the Kohn-Sham gaps to those obtained by accurate many-body perturbation theory based optimized potential methods. In addition, the resulting quasiparticle band gap is compared to experimental gaps. In the GLLB model potential, the exchange-correlation hole is modeled using a GGA energy density and the response of the hole to density variations is evaluated by using the common-denominator approximation and homogeneous electron gas based assumptions. In our modification, we have chosen the PBEsol potential as the GGA to model the exchange hole, and add a consistent correlation potential. The method is implemented in the GPAW code, which allows efficient parallelization to study large systems. A fair agreement for Kohn-Sham and the quasiparticle band gaps with semiconductors and other band gap materials is obtained with a potential which is as fast as GGA to calculate.Comment: submitted to Physical Review

Fertility of frozen-thawed stallion semen cannot be predicted by the currently used laboratory methods

The aim of the project was to use current simple and practical laboratory tests and compare results with the foaling rates of mares inseminated with commercially produced frozen semen. In Exp. 1, semen was tested from 27 and in Exp. 2 from 23 stallions; 19 stallions participated in both experiments. The mean number of mares per stallion in both experiments was 37 (min. 7, max. 121). Sperm morphology was assessed and bacterial culture performed once per stallion. In Exp. 1, progressive motility after 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4 h of incubation using light microscopy, motility characteristics measured with an automatic sperm analyzer, plasma membrane integrity using carboxyfluorescein diacetate/propidium iodide (CFDA/PI) staining and light microscopy, plasma membrane integrity using PI staining and a fluorometer, plasma membrane integrity using a resazurin reduction test, and sperm concentration were evaluated. In Exp. 2, the same tests as in Exp. 1 and a hypo-osmotic swelling test (HOST) using both light microscopy and a fluorometer were performed immediately after thawing and after a 3-h incubation. Statistical analysis was done separately to all stallions and to those having ≥ 20 mares; in addition, stallions with foaling rates < 60 or ≥ 60% were compared. In Exp. 1, progressive motility for all stallions after a 2 – 4-h incubation correlated with the foaling rate (correlation coefficients 0.39 – 0.51), (p < 0.05). In stallions with > 20 mares, the artificial insemination dose showed a correlation coefficient of -0.58 (p < 0.05). In Exp. 2, the HOST immediately after thawing showed a negative correlation with foaling rate (p < 0.05). No single test was consistently reliable for predicting the fertilizing capacity of semen, since the 2 experiments yielded conflicting results, although the same stallions sometimes participated in both. This shows the difficulty of frozen semen quality control in commercially produced stallion semen, and on the other hand, the difficulty of conducting fertility trials in horses

Phosphorus in manure and sewage sludge more recyclable than in soluble inorganic fertilizer

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Ability of prehospital NEWS to predict 1-day and 7-day mortality is reduced in older adult patients

Background National Early Warning Score (NEWS) does not include age as a parameter despite age is a significant independent risk factor of death. The aim of this study was to examine whether age has an effect on predictive performance of short-term mortality of NEWS in a prehospital setting. We also evaluated whether adding age as an additional parameter to NEWS improved its short-term mortality prediction. Methods We calculated NEWS scores from retrospective prehospital electronic patient record data for patients 18 years or older with sufficient prehospital data to calculate NEWS. We used area under receiver operating characteristic (AUROC) to analyse the predictive performance of NEWS for 1 and 7 day mortalities with increasing age in three different age groups: = 80 years. We also explored the ORs for mortality of different NEWS parameters in these age groups. We added age to NEWS as an additional parameter and evaluated its effect on predictive performance. Results We analysed data from 35 800 ambulance calls. Predictive performance for 7-day mortality of NEWS decreased with increasing age: AUROC (95% CI) for 1-day mortality was 0.876 (0.848 to 0.904), 0.824 (0.794 to 0.854) and 0.820 (0.788 to 0.852) for first, second and third age groups, respectively. AUROC for 7-day mortality had a similar trend. Addition of age as an additional parameter to NEWS improved its ability to predict short-term mortality when assessed with continuous Net Reclassification Improvement. Conclusions Age should be considered as an additional parameter to NEWS, as it improved its performance in predicting short-term mortality in this prehospital cohort.Peer reviewe

Dipolar coupling of nanoparticle-molecule assemblies: An efficient approach for studying strong coupling

Strong light-matter interactions facilitate not only emerging applications in quantum and non-linear optics but also modifications of properties of materials. In particular, the latter possibility has spurred the development of advanced theoretical techniques that can accurately capture both quantum optical and quantum chemical degrees of freedom. These methods are, however, computationally very demanding, which limits their application range. Here, we demonstrate that the optical spectra of nanoparticle-molecule assemblies, including strong coupling effects, can be predicted with good accuracy using a subsystem approach, in which the response functions of different units are coupled only at the dipolar level. We demonstrate this approach by comparison with previous time-dependent density functional theory calculations for fully coupled systems of Al nanoparticles and benzene molecules. While the present study only considers few-particle systems, the approach can be readily extended to much larger systems and to include explicit optical-cavity modes

Baltic Ecological Recycling Agriculture and Society (BERAS project) - a case of Juva milk system

The aim of the study was to determine the potential, impact and prerequisites of localization and enhanced recycling in a rural food system, illustrated by the case of Juva milk. An interdisciplinary scenario based on the increase of local, organic milk to 50 % of milk comsumption was created and the sustainability was compared, on the basis of the statistics and data collected from the actors, with the present milk system