Factors influencing biodiversity within organic and conventional systems of arable farming – methodologies and preliminary results

This report was presented at the UK Organic Research 2002 Conference. This paper describes the approaches and preliminary results of a study that is designed to provide a large amount of data at a range of scales in order to investigate the potential factors influencing biodiversity on arable farmland on comparable organic and conventional farms. In particular, the study examines the role of non-crop habitats within the different farming systems and how the extent and management of non-crop habitats differs between them. A detailed description of the methodologies being employed to establish differences in non-crop habitat, plant, invertebrate and bird diversity is given. The study remains in its early stages as a result of the impact of Foot and Mouth disease on the fieldwork schedule during 2001. The process of setting up the study revealed that the numbers of farmers growing cereals organically are low as a proportion of the organic sector as a whole, despite recent large increases in numbers of farmers converting to organic production. Preliminary results from the first year of fieldwork on plants reveal significant differences between organic and conventional farms in terms of the numbers of weed species on fields and non-significant differences in numbers of species found on non-crop habitats

User's guide for atmospheric carbon monoxide transport model

In the winter months of Fairbanks, Alaska, a highly stable air temperature inversion creates high levels of carbon monoxide (CO) concentrations. As an aid to understanding this problem, a CO transport computer model has been created which provides a useful tool when used in conjunction with other measurement and analytic studies of traffic, meteorology, emissions control, zoning, and parking management. The model is completely documented and illustrated with several examples. Named ACOSP (Atmospheric CO Simulation Program), it predicts expected CO concentrations within a specific geographic area for a defined set of CO sources. At the present time, the model is programmed to consider automobile emissions as the major CO source and may include estimates of stationary sources. The model is coded for computer solution in the FORTRAN programming language and uses the finite-element method of numerical solution of the basic convective-diffusion equations. Although it has a potential for real-time analysis and control, at the present time the model will be most valuable for investigating and understanding the physical processes which are responsible for high CO levels and for testing remedial control measures at high speed and low cost

Short period eclipsing binary candidates identified using SuperWASP

We present light curves and periods of 53 candidates for short period eclipsing binary stars identified by SuperWASP. These include 48 newly identified objects with periods <2 × 10^4 s (~0.23 d), as well as the shortest period binary known with main sequence components (GSC2314–0530 = 1SWASP J022050.85 + 332047.6) and four other previously known W UMa stars (although the previously reported periods for two of these four are shown to be incorrect). The period distribution of main sequence contact binaries shows a sharp cut-off at a lower limit of around 0.22 d, but until now, very few systems were known close to this limit. These new candidates will therefore be important for understanding the evolution of low mass stars and to allow investigation of the cause of the period cut-off

Thruster maintenance system Patent

System for removing and repairing spacecraft control thrusters by use of portable air lock

Interferometer

A high resolution interferometer is described. The interferometer is insensitive to slight misalignment of its elements, avoids channeling in the spectrum, generates a maximum equal path fringe contrast, produces an even two sided interferogram without critical matching of the wedge angles of the beamsplitter and compensator wedges, and is optically phase tunable. The interferometer includes a mirror along the path of each beam component produced by the beamsplitter, for reflecting the beam component from the beamsplitter, for reflecting the beam component from the beamsplitter to a corresponding retroreflector and for reflecting the beam returned by the retroreflector back to the beamsplitter. A wedge located along each beam component path, is large enough to cover the retroreflector, so that each beam component passes through the wedge during movement towards the retroreflector and away therefrom

An investigation of surface albedo variations during the recent sahel drought

Applications Technology Satellite 3 green sensor data were used to measure surface reflectance variations in the Sahara/Sahel during the recent drought period; 1967 to 1974. The magnitude of the seasonal reflectance change is shown to be as much as 80% for years of normal precipitation and less than 50% for drought years. Year to year comparisons during both wet and dry seasons reveal the existence of a surface reflectance cycle coincident with the drought intensity. The relationship between the green reflectance and solar albedo is examined and estimated to be about 0.6 times the reflectance change observed by the green channel

Properties of non-stoichiometric metallic carbides final report

Nonstoichiometric transition metal carbide propertie

VAMP: A computer program for calculating volume, area, and mass properties of aerospace vehicles

A computerized procedure developed for analyzing aerospace vehicles evaluates the properties of elemental surface areas with specified thickness by accumulating and combining them with arbitrarily specified mass elements to form a complete evaluation. Picture-like images of the geometric description are capable of being generated

Self-recording portable soil penetrometer

A lightweight portable penetrometer for testing soil characteristics is described. The penetrometer is composed of a handle, data recording, and probe components detachably joined together. The data recording component has an easily removed recording drum which rotates according to the downward force applied on the handle, and a stylus means for marking the drum along its height according to the penetration depth of probe into the soil