Comparing Hemp Seed Yields (Cannabis sativa L.) of an On-Farm Scientific Field Experiment to an On-Farm Agronomic Evaluation Under Organic Growing Conditions in Lower Austria

Hemp seed yields of the variety Fedora-19 in an on-farm scientific field experiment on small plots and in an on-farm evaluation in 11 hemp fields under practical organic growing conditions in Lower Austria were compared to give a realistic view of the variability of yields. Dry matter seed yields from the on-farm field experiment ranged from 127 to 143 g/m2. Under practical growing conditions, yields ranged from 34 to 151 g/m2 in the sample plots. The reported hemp seed yield after combine harvesting, drying, and cleaning was between 324 kg/ha and 717 kg/ha. The results of the experiment show that harvesting by hand considerably influences yields. Yields of the manual harvest in sample plots indicate a high correlation with yields harvested by the combine harvester (R2 = 0.91). The commercial yield is 71% of the yields recorded in sample plots in the fields. Our data questions the transfer of results and conclusions drawn from the data of scientific field experiments that employ manual harvest to that of practical circumstances, and support the notion of on-farm research

Radar, Insect Population Ecology, and Pest Management

Discussions included: (1) the potential role of radar in insect ecology studies and pest management; (2) the potential role of radar in correlating atmospheric phenomena with insect movement; (3) the present and future radar systems; (4) program objectives required to adapt radar to insect ecology studies and pest management; and (5) the specific action items to achieve the objectives

Pricing in International Markets: Lessons From The Economist

Export firms are often assumed to stabilize destination market prices in the face of nominal exchange rate changes in order to protect market share. We show that standard tests of such pricing to market fail to discriminate against the alternative hypothesis of menu costs. As a case study, we examine the characteristics and determinants of changes in the cover prices of The Economist magazine in a sample of twelve countries over the floating rate period. We find that, while the law of one price fails, there is no evidence of systematic attempts to offset nominal exchange rate movements. Instead, the findings are consistent with menu cost driven pricing behavior.

Geographical and Sectoral Shocks in the U.S. Business Cycle

We examine whether the aggregate U.S. business cycle is driven mainly by geographical" shocks (affecting all sectors within a state), or by sectoral shocks (affecting the same sector in all" states). We find that, at the level of an individual sector in an individual state growth are driven by the sector, not by the state: textiles in Texas moves more with textiles" elsewhere in the U.S. than with other sectors in Texas. But shocks to sector growth rates exhibit" a lower correlation across sectors compared to the correlation of shocks to state growth rates" across states. As a result, geographical shocks gain greater importance at higher levels of" aggregation. Finally, we find that changes in the volatility of the aggregate U.S. business cycle" reflect, to a roughly comparable degree, both changes in the volatility of state and sector business" cycles, and changes in their correlation across sectors and states.

Revealing the role of electrons and phonons in the ultrafast recovery of charge density wave correlations in 1TT-TiSe2_2

Using time- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy with selective near- and mid-infrared photon excitations, we investigate the femtosecond dynamics of the charge density wave (CDW) phase in 1$T$-TiSe$_2$, as well as the dynamics of CDW fluctuations at 240 K. In the CDW phase, we observe the coherent oscillation of the CDW amplitude mode. At 240 K, we single out an ultrafast component in the recovery of the CDW correlations, which we explain as the manifestation of electron-hole correlations. Our momentum-resolved study of femtosecond electron dynamics supports a mechanism for the CDW phase resulting from the cooperation between the interband Coulomb interaction, the mechanism of excitonic insulator phase formation, and electron-phonon coupling.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figure

Electrically Conductive Paints for Satellites

A program was conducted to develop and test electrically conductive paint coatings for spacecraft. A wide variety of organic and inorganic coatings were formulated using conductive binders, conductive pigments, and similar approaches. Z-93, IITRI's standard specification inorganic thermal control coating, exhibits good electrical properties and is a very space-stable coating system. Several coatings based on a conductive pigment (antimony-doped tin oxide) in silicone and silicate binders offer considerable promise. Paint systems using commercially available conductive polymers also appear to be of interest, but will require substantial development. Evaluations were made based on electrical conductivity, paint physical properties, and the stability of spectral reflectance in space environment testing

Life at high Deborah number

In many biological systems, microorganisms swim through complex polymeric fluids, and usually deform the medium at a rate faster than the inverse fluid relaxation time. We address the basic properties of such life at high Deborah number analytically by considering the small-amplitude swimming of a body in an arbitrary complex fluid. Using asymptotic analysis and differential geometry, we show that for a given swimming gait, the time-averaged leading-order swimming kinematics of the body can be expressed as an integral equation on the solution to a series of simpler Newtonian problems. We then use our results to demonstrate that Purcell's scallop theorem, which states that time-reversible body motion cannot be used for locomotion in a Newtonian fluid, breaks down in polymeric fluid environments