Sensoria: An exploratory interdisciplinary framework for researching multimodal & sensory experiences

This paper describes the development and salience of an original and innovative interdisciplinary approach, Sensoria, that combines methods and techniques from social science and performance to address the methodological challenges of researching sensory/multimodal experiences. It sets out the core components and methodological principles that underpin the approach and uses an illustrative example to show how it can facilitate research on hard to access sensorial experiences, to access, understand and analyse people’s experiences and perspectives of touch, a highly tacit sensory mode. The paper discusses the methodological contribution and challenges of this approach to sensory research for social science and artistic practice and ‘more-than-representational’ research more generally. It concludes by making a case for more critical research spaces at the intersection of these disciplines to foster multi-dimensional research dialogues and to advance the exploration and understanding of the relationship between the sensory, social and the digital

The control of PVY in Dutch seed potato culture

Over the recent years Potato virus Y presents a growing problem in Dutch seed potato culture. In recent years a significant % of seed potato lots was de-classified due to PVY infections. This apparent increase in PVY infections was unexpected since no increase in field symptoms were observed and the numbers of aphids caught in the yellow water traps and high suction traps showed a clear decline over the last 10 years http://www.aab.org.uk/images/VIRO_CONF_PROG.pd

Potato Yield and Yield Components as Affected by Positive Selection During Several Generations of Seed Multiplication in Southwestern Uganda

Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is an important crop in Uganda but production is low. There is not a well-functioning official seed system and farmers use potato tubers from a previous harvest as seed. This study investigated how effectively the seed technology positive selection enhanced yield and underlying crop characteristics across multiple seasons, compared to the farmers’ selection method. Positive selection is selecting healthy plants during crop growth for harvesting seed potato tubers to be planted in the next season. Farmers’ selection involves selection of seed tubers from the bulk of the ware potato harvest. Positive selection was compared to farmers’ seed selection for up to three seasons in three field trials in different locations in southwestern Uganda using seed lots from different origins. Across all experiments, seasons and seed lots, yields were higher under positive selection than under farmers’ selection. The average yield increase resulting from positive selection was 12%, but yield increases were variable, ranging from − 5.7% to + 36.9%, and in the individual experiments often not significant. These yield increases were due to higher yields per plant, and mostly higher weights per tuber, whereas the numbers of tubers per plant were not significantly different. Experimentation and yield assessment were hampered by a varying number of plants that could not be harvested because plants had to be rogued from the experimental plots because of bacterial wilt (more frequent under farmers’ selection than under positive selection), plants disappeared from the experimental field and sometimes plants did not emerge. Nevertheless, adoption of positive selection should be encouraged due to a higher production and less virus infection of seed tubers in positive selected plants, resulting in a lower degeneration rate of potato seed tubers.</p