Long term sustainable product development at the packaging sector

This paper outlines the importance of sustainable product developments and their role in securing a sustainable future through current practices and procedures. It discusses the difficulties faced within organisations through the complexities and swamping of regulations when considering sustainability and the problems in policing such a system to ensure compliance. Focus is centred on the design stage, where large numbers of standards and interests must be factored in to create specifications that are highly compliant. Where there is a limited understanding of the complexities that are presented at this stage, less optimum specifications will be dispatched. This presents the need to think strategically with new systems and approaches which adapt to company behaviour, where decisions that are made at a design stage have impacts up and down the supply chain, changes that are made must be in line with company strategic objectives and provide influential returns on investment

A time dependent relation between EUV solar flare light-curves from lines with differing formation temperatures

Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) solar flare emissions evolve in time as the emitting plasma heats and then cools. Although accurately modeling this evolution has been historically difficult, especially for empirical relationships, it is important for understanding processes at the Sun, as well as for their influence on planetary atmospheres. With a goal to improve empirical flare models, a new simple empirical expression is derived to predict how cool emissions will evolve based on the evolution of a hotter emission. This technique is initially developed by studying 12 flares in detail observed by the EUV Variability Experiment (EVE) onboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). Then, over 1100 flares observed by EVE are analyzed to validate these relationships. The Cargill and Enthalpy Based Thermal Evolution of Loops (EBTEL) flare cooling models are used to show that this empirical relationship implies the energy radiated by a population of hotter formed ions is approximately proportional to the energy exciting a population of cooler formed ions emitting when the peak formation temperatures of the two lines are up to 72% of each other and above 2 MK. These results have practical implications for improving flare irradiance empirical modeling and for identifying key emission lines for future monitoring of flares for space weather operations; and also provide insight into the cooling processes of flare plasma.Comment: Final version accepted for publication by the Journal of Space Weather and Space Climate on 23 November 201

Industrializing the Corn Belt: Agriculture, Technology, and Environment, 1945–1972

Review of: "Industrializing the Corn Belt: Agriculture, Technology & Environment 1945–1972," by J. L. Anderson

Solar measurements from the Airglow-Solar Spectrometer Instrument (ASSI) on the San Marco 5 satellite

The analysis of the solar spectral irradiance from the Airglow-Solar Spectrometer Instrument (ASSI) on the San Marco 5 satellite is the focus for this research grant. A pre-print copy of the paper describing the calibrations of and results from the San Marco ASSI is attached to this report. The calibration of the ASSI included (1) transfer of photometric calibration from a rocket experiment and the Solar Mesosphere Explorer (SME), (2) use of the on-board radioactive calibration sources, (3) validation of the ASSI sensitivity over its field of view, and (4) determining the degradation of the spectrometers. We have determined that the absolute values for the solar irradiance needs adjustment in the current proxy models of the solar UV irradiance, and the amount of solar variability from the proxy models are in reasonable agreement with the ASSI measurements. This research grant also has supported the development of a new solar EUV irradiance proxy model. We expected that the magnetic flux is responsible for most of the heating, via Alfen waves, in the chromosphere, transition region, and corona. From examining time series of solar irradiance data and magnetic fields at different levels, we did indeed find that the chromospheric emissions correlate best with the large magnetic field levels

Instrumentation of sampling aircraft for measurement of launch vehicle effluents

An aircraft was selected and instrumented to measure effluents emitted from large solid propellant rockets during launch activities. The considerations involved in aircraft selection, sampling probes, and instrumentation are discussed with respect to obtaining valid airborne measurements. Discussions of the data acquisition system used, the instrument power system, and operational sampling procedures are included. Representative measurements obtained from an actual rocket launch monitoring activity are also presented

The effect of flowering stage in wheat on the infection efficiency of Ustilago tritici

Dans l'ouest du Canada, la détermination du niveau de résistance de lignées de blé (Triticum aestivum) à l’ Ustiiago tritici est habituellement faite par inoculation lorsque les plantes atteignent le stade mi-anthèse du développement de l'épi. Par contre, il n'est pas toujours possible de faire les inoculations à ce stade, ainsi des inoculations sont parfois faites quelques jours avant ou après la mi-anthèse. L'objectif de cette étude était de déterminer si l'inoculation, par la méthode du vide partiel, d'épis de blé avec l’U. tritici à différents stades du développement de l'épi pouvait avoir un effet sur le nombre de grains viables par épi et, ultérieurement, sur le pourcentage de plantes cariées issues de grains inoculés. À chaque année durant 5 ans, quatre lignées de blé ont été inoculées au champ à trois différents stades du développement de l'épi. Les stades du développement de l'épi étudiés étaient la pré-anthèse, la mi-anthèse (les anthères à chaque extrémité de l'épi sont déhiscentes alors que celles du centre sont jaunes) et la post-anthèse (toutes les anthères sont déhiscentes). Il y avait des différences significatives entre les quatre lignées de blé et les 5 années de l'étude quant au nombre de grains viables par épi et le pourcentage de plantes cariées. Un nombre de grains viables par épi plus grand et un pourcentage plus faible de plantes cariées ont été significativement obtenus avec l'inoculation post-anthèse. Nous concluons que l'inoculation de l’Ustilago tritici par la méthode du vide partiel doit être faite au stade préanthèse ou mi-anthèse du développement de l'épi de blé afin de minimiser les effets négatifs de la maturité sur l'efficacité d'infection.In general, in western Canada, the inoculation of wheat (Triticum aestivum) lines to determine the level of resistance to Ustiiago tritici occurs when the plants are at the mid-anthesis stage of spike development. However, it is not always possible to inoculate at this stage so occasionally inoculations are done a few days before or after mid-anthesis. The objective of this study was to determine if inoculation of wheat spikes with U. tritici at different stages of spike development using the partial-vacuum method affected the number of viable seed per spike and subsequent percentage of smutted plants grown from inoculated seed. Four lines of wheat were inoculated at three different stages of spike development in the field each year for 5 years. The stages of spike development studied were preanthesis, mid-anthesis (anthers at either end of the spike were dehisced while those in the middle of the spike were yellow), and post-anthesis (all anthers dehisced). There were significant differences among the four wheat lines and the 5 years of the study for the number of viable seed per spike and the percent of smutted plants. Inoculation at post-anthesis resulted in a significantly greater number of viable seed per spike and lower percentage of smutted plants. We conclude that the partial-vacuum method of inoculation with Ustiiago tritici should be done at the pre- or midanthesis stage of wheat head development to minimize the negative effect of maturity on infection efficiency