Spotless apples under roof

Is it possible to grow apples without spraying and without getting scabby fruit if you put a roof over the trees? This is investigated by Aarhus Universíty, and the results are very promising

Chornobyl as an Open Air Museum: A Polysemic Exploration of Power and Inner Self

This study focuses on nuclear tourism, which flourished a decade ago in the Exclusion Zone, a regimented area around the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant (Ukraine) established in 1986, where the largest recorded nuclear explosion in human history occurred. The mass pilgrimage movement transformed the place into an open air museum, a space that preserves the remnants of Soviet culture, revealing human tragedies of displacement and deaths, and the nature of state nuclear power. This study examines the impact of the site on its visitors and the motivations for their persistence and activities in the Zone, and argues that through photography, cartography, exploration, and discovery, the pilgrims attempt to decode the historical and ideological meaning of Chornobyl and its significance for future generations. Ultimately, the aesthetic and political space of the Zone helps them establish a conceptual and mnemonic connection between the Soviet past and Ukraine’s present and future. Their practices, in turn, help maintain the Zone’s spatial and epistemological continuity. Importantly, Chornobyl seems to be polysemic in nature, inviting interpretations and shaping people’s national and intellectual identities

Introduction to the arcopter arc wing and the Bertelsen effect for positive pitch stability and control

A brief report, offered on a wing design, new in geometry, construction, and flight characteristics. Preliminary wind tunnel data on a three-dimensional model was well as some full-scale man-carrying test results are included. There are photos of all phases of the experiments and some figures which serve to illustrate the Bertelsen Effect, a unique focus of aerodynamic forces in the arc wing system which allows the attainment of high lift coefficients with the maintenance of pitch stability and control

Coordination of European Transnational Research in Organic Farming Systems

Organic agriculture and food markets have grown considerably, and organic agriculture addresses important challenges of European agriculture, such as the sustainable production of high-quality food, reducing dependency on high energy inputs, improving environmental and nature conservation, climate change adaptation, animal welfare and rural livelihoods. Organic farming and food systems still have a huge potential for innovation and improved solutions. Research activities will be important for this

Methods for applying Activity Theory to HCI Design

Activity Theory (AT) has been a recognised framework for enhancing design practices in HCI and related disciplines for a couple of decades. In most cases, AT has been deployed as an analytical framework for conceptualising user and contextual perspectives during systems design. However, the popularity of this framework has not yet resulted in operational methods and techniques that can easily and readily be applied in HCI design. The purpose of this workshop is to examine current methods and techniques based on AT so as to establish the feasibility of using this framework in HCI for practical design purposes. Given this remit, the term ‘HCI design’ is used in a much broader sense so as to incorporate the whole range of activities involved in the systems development process

Approaches to Managing Complexity in Project Production

Since the seminal contribution by Shewhart, the dominating approach to production is to minimize all variation in order to get the productive activities into control. Thus, the goal is to avoid all such complexity and uncertainty which could disturb this tight control. This approach is applied in lean production,which is considered to be the superior production template of today.It has to be noted that usually our concepts, for example “waste”, are based on this understanding of production. However, there are production situations with inherent complexity and unpredictability not least in project production. The primary goal of the paper is to chart and analyze the different approaches available for coping with these situations. Four different strategies are identified and discussed: reducing complexity, codifying procedures, learning to improvise and buffering. A secondary goal of the paper is to discuss whether and how the conceptual framework in production management should be further developed for taking these different approaches to project complexity into account

Post-harvest sown catch crops – results from two years of organic field trials

Post-harvest sown catch crops should be sown as early as possible in order to obtain maximum biomass and nutrient uptake in the harvested crop, as biomass production decreased by 2-3.5 percent per day, when time of sowing was postponed throughout August. Furthermore, the winter hardy species included in these experiments had a tendency to yield less than the non-winter hardy catch crops. These experiments imply that early sown catch crops may become a biomass supplement for organic biogas production, provided sufficient yields are obtained and costs for harvest, transportation and storage are adequately low

Integration of Elymus repens control and post-harvest catch crop growing in organic cropping systems

In Northern Europe, Elymus repens (L.) Gould infestations are traditionally controlled by repeated stubble cultivation in the period from harvest to ploughing in autumn. However, in organic farming, post-harvest tillage is undesirable due to the need for retaining nutrients in the cropping system. The soil is mostly cropped in that period, limiting post-harvest tillage. Two control strategies against E. repens are presented that merge the objectives of achieving a significant reduction of E. repens while having the soil covered with plants during the post-harvest period. Strategy I is an integration of rhizome fragmentation by soil cultivation within two days after harvest in early August with subsequent sowing of a catch crop to suppress shoot growth from the rhizome fragments. Strategy II also includes growing a catch crop but is preceded by a mid-summer fallow period lasting 4-6 weeks where repeated soil cultivations are conducted to fragment, weaken and desiccate the rhizomes. Strategy II controlled 91-90% of the E. repens population while strategy I only controlled up to 40%, mainly because of the weakening and desiccation of rhizomes caused by repeated cultivations. However, the fallow period may lead to undesirable nutrient leaching from sandy soils and the grower will have to desist from growing a profitable maturing crop, aspects that should be counterbalanced against the urgency for E. repens control and other possible control options. Strategy I appears to be more relevant for low infestation levels of E. repens while strategy II would be more appropriate where infestations have become large

FINANCIAL RISK MANAGEMENT ALTERNATIVES IN A WHOLE-FARM SETTING

Risk programming and simulation methods are used to analyze the opportunity to reduce whole-farm risk in a diversified cash crop farm through reduced leverage and/or adjustments in rental arrangements. These two financial strategies are shown to extend the ability of the farm operator to manage downside risk beyond the singular effects of a diversified farm plan. The analysis indicates that a trade-off occurs between these strategies, but that the reduction of debt has a greater impact on the distributions of net cash flow (before taxes) and outstanding term debt.Agricultural Finance, Risk and Uncertainty,