The legacy of stockless organic conversion strategies

Huxham et al. (2005) reported the impacts of seven conversion strategies on the first organic crop (winter wheat). This paper investigates the effect of the conversion strategies on the second (winter beans) and third (winter oats) organic crops, thereby extending the analysis throughout the fi rst complete rotation. Conversion strategy had a significant impact on organic bean yield, which ranged from 2.84 to 3.62 t ha-1 and organic oat yield, which ranged from 3.24 to 4.17 t ha-1. In the organic bean crop, weed abundance prior to harvest, along with soil texture, accounted for 70% of yield variation. For the oats, soil mineral nitrogen in November together with weed abundance in April, accounted for 72% of the variation in yield. Annual average gross margins, calculated over the two year conversion period and the first three organic crops, ranged from £274 to £459 ha-1

Observations in 3D of Tensile Twinning and Slip in Zr

Low symmetry crystals and polycrystals have anisotropic mechanical properties which, given better understanding of their deformation modes, could lead to development of next generation materials. Understanding how grains in a bulk polycrystal interact will guide and improve material modeling. Here, we show that tensile twins, in hexagonal close-packed metals, form where the macroscopic stress does not generate appropriate shear stress and vice versa. In other way, Schmid factors are not a reliable guide for predicting the onset of twinning. We use nondestructive near-field High Energy X-ray Diffraction Microscopy to map local crystal orientations in three dimensions over a series of tensile strain states in a zirconium polycrystal. Twins and intragranular orientation variations are observed and it is found that deformation induced rotations in neighbor grains are spatially correlated with many twins. We conclude that deformation twinning involves complex multigrain interactions. Comparisons are made with self-consistent and full-field polycrystal plasticity models

Tools for linking modeling and experiments to enable materials design at the mesoscale

There have been substantial advances in modeling and simulation of microstructure in 3D. These have been accompanied by equally significant advances in characterization techniques, with serial sectioning, synthetic microstructure generation, and synchrotron radiation all contributing strongly. Image-based methods for solving elastic, viscoplastic and elasto-viscoplastic problems are now available to complement finite element methods. The image-based methods sidestep the difficulty of generating meshes that conform to 3D microstructures while preserving mesh quality. The resolution available permits many aspects of heterogeneity in deformation to be investigated. Materials can also be orientation mapped nondestructively in 3D thanks to penetrating radiation at synchrotrons, which permits microstructural evolution to be characterized. Synthetic microstructure generation now accounts for distributions of orientation, grain boundary character, and grain morphology, even fitting the tails of distributions. Software packages such as Dream3D substantially facilitate the exchange of 3D data between experimental systems and simulation programs. Examples of applications are drawn from a number of different projects including one on understanding the origins of void nucleation under dynamic loading

How specific is synchronous neuronal firing? : Poster presentation

Background Synchronous neuronal firing has been discussed as a potential neuronal code. For testing first, if synchronous firing exists, second if it is modulated by the behaviour, and third if it is not by chance, a large set of tools has been developed. However, to test whether synchronous neuronal firing is really involved in information processing one needs a direct comparison of the amount of synchronous firing for different factors like experimental or behavioural conditions. To this end we present an extended version of a previously published method NeuroXidence [1], which tests, based on a bi- and multivariate test design, whether the amount of synchronous firing above the chance level is different for different factors

Basic Approaches to the Simulation of Recrystallization and Grain Growth

Simulations: Why? How? Discrete simulation methods; Examples; Conclusion

Schools as differential environments for students’ development: How tracking and school composition affect students’ transition after the end of compulsory education

Tracking leads to differential developmental environments resulting in educational inequalities. We investigated whether tracking and school composition affect students’ transition to post-compulsory education. Based on two Swiss school-leavers’ cohorts from 2000 and 2016, multilevel analyses showed that the social and achievement-related school composition and track affiliation predicted successful transitions beyond student characteristics. Compositional effects were in part differentially predictive depending on students’ track affiliation

Effect of vision therapy on measures of oculomotor function of patients presenting with post-concussion syndrome

Oculomotor dysfunction is a common symptom of post-concussion syndrome (PCS). By use of a retrospective analysis approach, the efficacy of Vision Therapy (VT) for the treatment of PCS related symptoms of the visual system was investigated. Overall, 56 patients were selected for inclusion in this study, all of which presented with clinical impairment of at least one measure of oculomotor functioning. Activities related to VT were wide-ranging and case-dependent, but all aimed to improve one of the five main areas of visual function. Following completion of VT, all patients demonstrated statistically or clinically significant improvements, as defined by use of Morgan’s Norms, in at least one measure of oculomotor functioning related to PCS. In general, improvements in measures of oculomotor functioning were greatest for near point of convergence, vergence facility and accommodative facility. Patients receiving 20 sessions of VT had improved and less variable outcomes when compared to those receiving 5-10 sessions of VT. In addition, VT was found to improve symptoms of visual discomfort in patients presenting with PCS. Results of this retrospective analysis demonstrate significant improvements in measured outcomes for all patients receiving VT and support VT as a treatment option for symptoms of PCS

Influence of the ambient solar wind flow on the propagation behavior of interplanetary CMEs

We study three CME/ICME events (2008 June 1-6, 2009 February 13-18, 2010 April 3-5) tracked from Sun to 1 AU in remote-sensing observations of STEREO Heliospheric Imagers and in situ plasma and magnetic field measurements. We focus on the ICME propagation in IP space that is governed by two forces, the propelling Lorentz force and the drag force. We address the question at which heliospheric distance range the drag becomes dominant and the CME gets adjusted to the solar wind flow. To this aim we analyze speed differences between ICMEs and the ambient solar wind flow as function of distance. The evolution of the ambient solar wind flow is derived from ENLIL 3D MHD model runs using different solar wind models, namely Wang-Sheeley-Arge (WSA) and MHD-Around-A-Sphere (MAS). Comparing the measured CME kinematics with the solar wind models we find that the CME speed gets adjusted to the solar wind speed at very different heliospheric distances in the three events under study: from below 30 Rs, to beyond 1 AU, depending on the CME and ambient solar wind characteristics. ENLIL can be used to derive important information about the overall structure of the background solar wind, providing more reliable results during times of low solar activity than during times of high solar activity. The results from this study enable us to get a better insight into the forces acting on CMEs over the IP space distance range, which is an important prerequisite in order to predict their 1 AU transit times.Comment: accepted for publication in Ap