Improving Wildflower Longevity in Roadside Seeding Areas

Re-vegetation efforts on bare roadsides of newly-constructed highways are primarily focused on the stabilization of soil to reduce rates of erosion. The Nebraska Department of Transportation (NDOT) seeds roadsides with a diverse mixture of grasses and wildflowers for site stabilization as well as to enhance the visual quality of roadsides. Although grasses dominate roadside plantings in terms of cover and density, wildflowers are largely responsible for the visual enhancement of recently-seeded roadsides. In addition to the visual component, wildflowers provide essential ecological functions on roadsides. Wildflowers improve water and nutrient cycling in the compacted roadside soils by increasing water infiltration and nutrient availability. Leguminous wildflower species increase nitrogen content of soil. The variability of wildflower leaf size, shape and orientation provides a more continuous soil cover than grass alone. The diversity of wildflower growth habits and life cycles also allows for a greater range of stand establishment and persistence when compared to sites seeded to grasses alone. This article presents strategies for increasing wildflower success in roadside plantings

Better budgeting methods : a comparative effect analysis on traditional budgeting problems

In today´s business environment, companies are forced to constantly adapt to ever changing internal and external influences. Yet, the traditional budgeting process with its inherent flaws has remained relatively stable for decades. In order to stay competitive, companies need to improve their budgeting process by implementing Better Budgeting methods. The aim of this research was to develop a framework that helps companies to identify their budgeting problems and address them more efficiently with fitting Better Budgeting methods. Through a detailed literature review, a comprehensive list of budgeting problems was developed and explained, which can act as a checklist for companies to evaluate which problems they are facing. In addition, a theoretical framework was developed that matches Better Budgeting methods and the respective traditional budgeting problems they are able to solve/decrease. A survey that tested the framework with actual organizations was used to validate the theoretical results. The results proved a strong correlation between the implementation of certain Better Budgeting methods and the reduction of certain traditional budgeting problems and therefore supported the managerial and academic value of the developed framework; however additional layers, such as company size, industry, or quality of method implementation need to be evaluated in order to increase precision of the framework.No ambiente de negócios de hoje, as empresas são forçadas a adaptar-se constantemente para influências internas e externas sempre em mudança. No entanto, o processo orçamentário tradicional, com suas falhas inerentes, manteve-se relativamente estável ao longo de décadas. De forma a se manterem competitivas, as empresas precisam melhorar o seu processo orçamentário, através da aplicação de métodos de Melhoria de Orçamento. O objetivo desta pesquisa foi desenvolver uma estrutura, que auxilia as empresas a identificar os seus problemas de orçamento e resolvê-los de forma mais eficiente, com métodos de Melhoria de Orçamento apropriados. Através de uma revisão bibliográfica detalhada, uma lista abrangente de problemas de orçamento foi desenvolvida e explicada, que pode atuar como uma lista de verificação para as empresas para avaliar quais os problemas que eles estão enfrentando. Além disso, um quadro teórico de métodos foi desenvolvido, que corresponde os métodos de Melhoria de Orçamento e os problemas orçamentários tradicionais que são capazes de resolver/diminuir. Uma pesquisa que testou o quadro com organizações reais foi usada para validar os resultados teóricos. Os resultados comprovaram uma forte correlação entre a implementação de certos métodos de Melhoria de Orçamento e redução de certos problemas de orçamento tradicionais e portanto, apoiaram o valor gerencial e acadêmico do quadro desenvolvido; no entanto camadas adicionais, tais como o tamanho da empresa, a indústria, ou a qualidade de implementação do método, precisam ser avaliados, a fim de aumentar a precisão do enquadramento

Integrated dye lasers for all-polymer photonic Lab-on-a-Chip systems

Basierend auf integrierten Farbstofflasern wurden zwei optische Lab-on-a-Chip Systeme entwickelt. Zur effizienten Anregung von Fluoreszenzmarkern wurden optofluidische Farbstofflaser mit verteilter Rückkopplung (DFB Laser) untersucht. Für die markerfreie Moleküldetektion wurden Mikrokelchlaser entwickelt, die auf Flüstergaleriemoden basieren. Besonderes Augenmerk lag auf einer möglichen Großserienfertigung der Chips als kostengünstige Einwegartikel und auf einer einfachen Handhabung

Spatial Analysis and Actor-Network Theory: A multi-scalar analytical study of the Chumash rock art of South-Central California

The aim of this research is to provide a more holistic approach to study Chumash rock art throughout their entire geographic region within South-Central California by applying geographic information systems (GIS), incorporating ethnohistoric and ethnographic data and utilising associated archaeological material under an Actor-Network Theory (ANT) framework. Through a review of past Chumash archaeological and rock art studies, I discuss where previous research is lacking and how that research was fragmentary due to focusing only on specific geographic areas or linguistic regions. As rock art is an artefact fixed within the terrain, I further argue it has a potential connection to the topography--particularly its relationship to Chumash landscapes and taskscapes by applying both formal and informed methodologies at multiple scales. By modifying the tenets of ANT to create a framework that uses the rock art data to define space, analyse its heterogeneity and connectivity and study its topographic entrenchment, this research conceptualises rock art’s networks. To conduct this research, I collated a large body of spatial and descriptive information for 254 rock art sites and associated archaeology. Spatial analyses were performed at multiple scales using GIS as a heuristic to conceptualise site clustering, landscape entrenchment and anisotropic movement for the collated data. While the rock art sites were used to define the multi-scalar spaces, results show that the identity of the sites change throughout space and time where rock art itself is a network and not exclusive to one specific Chumash network. Analysis of the data shows that the topographic setting entrenches the rock art and begins to represent the dynamic assembly of its heterogeneous network relations. Movement through the landscape reflects how the sites were connected or structured within their landscapes and taskscapes. Overall it reflects rock art’s interrelationships to the networked economic, social, ideological and political organisations of the Chumash and their rich ceremonial practices. Therefore, the Chumash rock art networks were as complex, dynamic, variable and heterogeneous as Chumash society and the rock art panels themselves

Nitrogen Mineralization Responses to Cropping, Tillage, and Nitrogen Rate in the Northern Great Plains

Nitrogen-mineralization rates are needed to accurately determine N fertilization requirements to meet plant needs while minimizing environmental contamination. A spring wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)-fallow (SW-F) system was compared with a spring wheat-winter wheat-sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) (SW-WW-SF) system on a Temvik-Wilton silt loam (fine-silty, mixed Typic and Pachic Haploborolls) at three N rates (0, 22, and 45 kg ha‒1 for SW-F and 34, 67, and 101 kg ha‒1 for SW-WW-SF) under conventional, minimum, and no-tillage. After 10 yr, soil samples were incubated to determine N mineralization rates. Cropping intensity, N rate, and tillage intensity interacted to affect N-mineralization rates. Within the SW-F system N-mineralization rates in 0- to 0.05-m depth were 8.2 ± 0.8 kg ha‒1 wk‒1 in the fallow phase vs. 5.0 ± 0.7 kg ha‒1 wk‒1 in the crop phase under conventional tillage and were 6.2 ± 0.3 kg ha‒1 wk‒1 under minimum and no-tillage in both phases. The N-mineralization rates were 2.3 ± 0.4 kg ha‒1 wk‒1 in 0.05- to 0.15-m depth soils of the SW-F system. In spring wheat, N-mineralization rates in 0- to 0.05-m depth soil were 9.9 ± 0.8 kg ha‒1 wk‒1 in the SW-WW-SF system vs. 5.6 ± 0.4 kg ha‒1 wk‒1 in the SW-F system and in the 0.05- to 0.15-m depth were 3.6 ± 0.1 kg ha‒1 wk‒1 in the SW-WW-SF system vs. 2.4 ± 0.2 kg ha‒1 wk‒1 in the SW-F system Within the SW-WW-SF system, N-mineralization rates in the 0- to 0.05-m soil layer were 6.8 ± 0.5 kg ha‒1 wk‒1 under winter wheat vs. 9.9 ± 0.8 kg ha‒1 wk‒1 under spring wheat and 9.2 ± 0.6 kg ha‒1 wk‒1 under sunflower. In the 0.05- to 0.15-m soil layer, N-mineralization rates were 3.3 ± 1.0 kg ha‒1 wk‒1. More intensive cropping and conservation tillage increased N-mineralization rates in this soil and may ameliorate the decline in N fertility associated with crop-fallow systems

Corn Cobs On Deck for Cellulosic Feedstock

When energy officials proposed using crop residues to produce cellulosic ethanol, concerned soil scientists took to the fields to learn more about how these residues protect soil from erosion and enhance soil quality. Agricultural Research Service soil scientist Brian Wienhold focused on a single component of residue— the corncob. “We didn’t have data on how postharvest cob residues might protect soil quality,” says Wienhold, who works in the ARS Agroecosystem Management Research Unit in Lincoln, Nebraska. “But corncobs make up 20 percent of residue by weight, which means that the average U.S. production of corn could provide 40 to 50 million tons of cobs for feedstock every year.” Wienhold led colleagues in studies that compared runoff from no-till corn fields where postharvest crop residues were either removed or retained. The scientists also removed the cobs from half of the test plots that were protected by the residues. Then they generated two simulated rainfall events; the first occurred when the fields were dry, and the next occurred 24 hours later when the soils were almost completely saturated. During the first event, on plots where residue was removed, runoff began around 200 seconds after the “rain” began, whereas runoff in the residueprotected plots didn’t start until around 240 seconds after it started to “rain.” Runoff from the residue-free plots contained 30 percent more sediment than runoff from all the residue-protected plots. The presence or absence of cobs on the residue-protected plots did not affect sediment loss rates

Electronic and magnetic properties of the ionic Hubbard model on the striped triangular lattice at 3/4 filling

We report a detailed study of a model Hamiltonian which exhibits a rich interplay of geometrical spin frustration, strong electronic correlations, and charge ordering. The character of the insulating phase depends on the magnitude of Delta/|t| and on the sign of t. We find a Mott insulator for Delta >> U >> |t|; a charge transfer insulator for U >> \Delta >> |t|; and a correlated covalent insulator for U >> \Delta ~ |t|. The charge transfer insulating state is investigated using a strong coupling expansion. The frustration of the triangular lattice can lead to antiferromagnetism or ferromagnetism depending on the sign of the hopping matrix element, t. We identify the "ring" exchange process around a triangular plaquette which determines the sign of the magnetic interactions. Exact diagonalization calculations are performed on the model for a wide range of parameters and compared to the strong coupling expansion. The regime U >> \Delta ~ |t| and t<0 is relevant to Na05CoO2. The calculated optical conductivity and the spectral density are discussed in the light of recent experiments on Na05CoO2.Comment: 15 pages, 15 figure

Towards Inhaled Phage Therapy in Western Europe

The emergence of multidrug-resistant bacteria constitutes a great challenge for modern medicine, recognized by leading medical experts and politicians worldwide. Rediscovery and implementation of bacteriophage therapy by Western medicine might be one solution to the problem of increasing antibiotic failure. In some Eastern European countries phage therapy is used for treating infectious diseases. However, while the European Medicines Agency (EMA) advised that the development of bacteriophage-based therapies should be expedited due to its significant potential, EMA emphasized that phages cannot be recommended for approval before efficacy and safety have been proven by appropriately designed preclinical and clinical trials. More evidence-based data is required, particularly in the areas of pharmacokinetics, repeat applications, immunological reactions to the application of phages as well as the interactions and effects on bacterial biofilms and organ-specific environments. In this brief review we summarize advantages and disadvantages of phage therapy and discuss challenges to the establishment of phage therapy as approved treatment for multidrug-resistant bacteria

Volatilization of Alachlor and Atrazine as Influenced by Surface Litter

A basic knowledge of how herbicide volatilization is influenced by agronomic practices is necessary if long-term detrimental impacts from herbicides are to be minimized. We measured cumulative herbicide volatilization losses in glass agroecosystem chambers to assess how surface residue conditions, simulated rainfall, temperature, and herbicide formulation affect volatilization of atrazine and alaehlor. Research results demonstrated that herbicide volatilization before water application was greater under mulched conditions, but decreased dramatically after the first irrigation. As a result, after 35 d cumulative volatilization of atrazine from a mulched soil surface was less than half that from bare soil for both formulations. Plant litter on the soft surface and encapsulated herbicides may be viable alternatives for reducing volatilization of some herbicides in humid regions