Pest-predator spatial relationships in winter rape: implications for integrated crop management

Douglas Warner, Les J Allen-Williams, Andrew W Ferguson, and Ingrid H Williams, 'Pest–predator spatial relationships in winter rape: implications for integrated crop management', Pest Management Science, Vol. 56 (11): 977-982, November 2000, doi: 10.1002/1526-4998(200011)56:113.0.CO;2-U. Copyright © 2000 Society of Chemical IndustryThe brassica pod midge (Dasineura brassicae) is an important and widespread pest of winter and spring oilseed rape throughout Europe. Pods infested by D brassicae larvae split prematurely, releasing seeds, and the larvae drop to the soil into which they burrow to pupate. At this stage in its lifecycle D brassicae is potentially vulnerable to predation by carabid beetles foraging on the soil surface. This is the first study in the UK to focus on carabid beetles as predators of D brassicae in the oilseed rape crop. The spatio-temporal distributions of larvae of D brassicae dropping to the soil from the crop canopy and of adult carabid beetles active on the soil surface were analysed in two consecutive years. Insect samples were collected from spatially referenced sampling points across each crop. Counts of insects were mapped and analysed, and the degree of spatial association between predator and prey determined using Spatial Analysis by Distance Indices (SADIE). Carabid species abundant and active during peak drop of first generation D brassicae larvae included Agonum dorsale, Amara similata, Harpalus rufipes and Nebria brevicollis. The larvae of D brassicae had a marked edge distribution within the crop. SADIE analysis revealed significant spatial association between larvae of D brassicae and adult H rufipes (P <0.05) in 1998, but not with adults of A dorsale, A similata or N brevicollis. In 1999, there was strong spatial association only between larvae of D brassicae and adult A dorsale (P <0.01). Aggregation of N brevicollis adults occurred in some areas of greatest D brassicae larval counts in 1999, but overall spatial association was not signi®cant. The distributions are discussed in terms of their relevance to integrated crop management (ICM) strategies and spatial targeting of insecticides.Peer reviewe

Overview study of Space Power Technologies for the advanced energetics program

Space power technologies are reviewed to determine the state-of-the-art and to identify advanced or novel concepts which promise large increases in performance. The potential for incresed performance is judged relative to benchmarks based on technologies which have been flight tested. Space power technology concepts selected for their potentially high performance are prioritized in a list of R & D topical recommendations for the NASA program on Advanced Energetics. The technology categories studied are solar collection, nuclear power sources, energy conversion, energy storage, power transmission, and power processing. The emphasis is on electric power generation in space for satellite on board electric power, for electric propulsion, or for beamed power to spacecraft. Generic mission categories such as low Earth orbit missions and geosynchronous orbit missions are used to distinguish general requirements placed on the performance of power conversion technology. Each space power technology is judged on its own merits without reference to specific missions or power systems. Recommendations include 31 space power concepts which span the entire collection of technology categories studied and represent the critical technologies needed for higher power, lighter weight, more efficient power conversion in space

Composition mechanisms for retrenchment

Retrenchment is a flexible model evolution formalism that arose as a reaction to the limitations imposed by refinement, and for which the proof obligations feature additional predicates for accommodating design data. Composition mechanisms for retrenchment are studied. Vertical, horizontal, dataflow, parallel and fusion compositions are described. Of particular note are the means by which the additional predicates compose. It is argued that all of the compositions introduced are associative, and that they are mutually coherent. Composition of retrenchment with refinement, so important for the smooth interworking of the two techniques, is discussed. Decomposition, allowing finer grained retrenchments to be extracted from a single large grained retrenchment, is also investigated

Nucleation and phase selection in undercooled melts: Magnetic alloys of industrial relevance (MAGNEPHAS)

Studies of phase selection and microstructure evolution in high-performance magnetic materials are an urgent need for optimization of production routes. Containerless solidification experiments by electromagnetic levitation and drop tube solidification were conducted in undercooled melts of Fe-Co, Fe-Ni soft magnetic, and Nd-Fe-B hard magnetic alloys. Melt undercooling under microgravity was achieved in the TEMPUS facility during parabolic flight campaigns. For Fe-Co and Fe-Ni alloys significant effects of microgravity on metastable phase formation were discovered. Microstructure modifications as well as metastable phase formation as function of undercooling and melt flow were elucidated in Nd-Fe-B. Modeling of solidification processes, fluid flow and heat transfer provide predictive tools for microstructure engineering from the melt. They were developed as a link between undercooling experiments under terrestrial and microgravity conditions and the production routes of magnetic materials

Affordable In-Space Transportation

Current and proposed launch systems will provide access to low-Earth orbit (LEO), and destinations beyond LEO, but the cost of delivering payloads will preclude the use of these services by many users. To develop and encourage revolutionary commercial utilization of geosynchronous orbit (GEO) and to provide an affordable means to continue NASA space science and exploration missions, the transportation costs to in-space destinations must be reduced. The principal objective of this study was to conceptually define three to four promising approaches to in-space transportation for delivery of satellites and other payloads, 3,000- to 10,000-lb class, to GEO destinations. This study established a methodology for evaluating in-space transportation systems based on life-cycle cost. The reusable concepts seemed to fare better in the evaluation than expendable, since a major driver in the life-cycle cost was the stage production cost

Game Workers and the Empire: Unionisation in the UK Video Game Industry

This article investigates some of the key debates that have emerged within the nascent union organising project Game Workers Unite, with a specific focus on its UK branch (GWU UK). The analysis is based on a period of participatory observation and a series of interviews with board members of GWU UK. This article evaluates Game Workers Unite (GWU) in relation to other recent attempts at unionising the game industry. It concludes that the strategies adopted to counter the hyper-visibility and individualisation of the game worker are key contributions of GWU in contemporary video game labour. This article draws on the work of Dyer-Witheford and de Peuter (2009) Games of empire: Global capitalism and video games to evaluate the historical specificity of GWU and the importance of the organisation for the contemporary video game industry

Scenarios of cycling to school in England, and associated health and carbon impacts: Application of the ‘Propensity to Cycle Tool’

© 2019 The Authors Background: The Propensity to Cycle Tool (PCT) is a freely available, interactive tool help prioritise cycling initially launched in England in 2017 and based on adult commuting data. This paper applies the method to travel to school data, and assesses health and carbon benefits based on nationwide scenarios of cycling uptake. Methods: The 2011 National School Census provides origin-destination data for all state-funded schools in England (N = 7,442,532 children aged 2–18 in 21,443 schools). Using this dataset, we modelled propensity to cycle as a function of route distance and hilliness between home and school. We generated scenarios, including ‘Go Dutch’ – in which English children were as likely to cycle as Dutch children, accounting for trip distance and hilliness. We estimated changes in the level of cycling, walking, and driving, and associated impacts on physical activity and carbon emissions. Results: In 2011, 1.8% of children cycled to school (1.0% in primary school, 2.7% in secondary school). If Dutch levels of cycling were reached, under the Go Dutch scenario, this would rise to 41.0%, a 22-fold increase. This is larger than the 6-fold increase in Go Dutch for adult commuting. This would increase total physical activity among pupils by 57%, and reduce transport-related carbon emissions by 81 kilotonnes/year. These impacts would be substantially larger in secondary schools than primary schools (a 96% vs. 9% increase in physical activity, respectively). Conclusion: Cycling to school is uncommon in England compared with other Northern European countries. Trip distances and hilliness alone cannot explain the difference, suggesting substantial unmet potential. We show that policies resulting in substantial uptake of cycling to school would have important health and environmental benefits. At the level of road networks, the results can inform local investment in safe routes to school to help realise these potential benefits.. JW and AA's contributions were supported by the Centre for Diet and ActivityResearch (CEDAR), a UKCRC Public Health Research Centre of Excellence funded by the British Heart Foundation, Cancer ResearchUK, Economic and Social Research Council, Medical Research Council, the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), andthe Wellcome Trust

Estimating city-level travel patterns using street imagery: A case study of using Google Street View in Britain.

BACKGROUND: Street imagery is a promising and growing big data source providing current and historical images in more than 100 countries. Studies have reported using this data to audit road infrastructure and other built environment features. Here we explore a novel application, using Google Street View (GSV) to predict travel patterns at the city level. METHODS: We sampled 34 cities in Great Britain. In each city, we accessed 2000 GSV images from 1000 random locations. We selected archived images from time periods overlapping with the 2011 Census and the 2011-2013 Active People Survey (APS). We manually annotated the images into seven categories of road users. We developed regression models with the counts of images of road users as predictors. The outcomes included Census-reported commute shares of four modes (combined walking plus public transport, cycling, motorcycle, and car), as well as APS-reported past-month participation in walking and cycling. RESULTS: We found high correlations between GSV counts of cyclists ('GSV-cyclists') and cycle commute mode share (r = 0.92)/past-month cycling (r = 0.90). Likewise, GSV-pedestrians was moderately correlated with past-month walking for transport (r = 0.46), GSV-motorcycles was moderately correlated with commute share of motorcycles (r = 0.44), and GSV-buses was highly correlated with commute share of walking plus public transport (r = 0.81). GSV-car was not correlated with car commute mode share (r = -0.12). However, in multivariable regression models, all outcomes were predicted well, except past-month walking. The prediction performance was measured using cross-validation analyses. GSV-buses and GSV-cyclists are the strongest predictors for most outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: GSV images are a promising new big data source to predict urban mobility patterns. Predictive power was the greatest for those modes that varied the most (cycle and bus). With its ability to identify mode of travel and capture street activity often excluded in routinely carried out surveys, GSV has the potential to be complementary to new and traditional data. With half the world's population covered by street imagery, and with up to 10 years historical data available in GSV, further testing across multiple settings is warranted both for cross-sectional and longitudinal assessments

Cumulative and Differential Effects of Early Child Care and Middle Childhood Out-of-School Time on Adolescent Functioning.

Effects associated with early child care and out-of-school time (OST) during middle childhood were examined in a large sample of U.S. adolescents (N&nbsp;=&nbsp;958). Both higher quality early child care AND more epochs of organized activities (afterschool programs and extracurricular activities) during middle childhood were linked to higher academic achievement at age 15. Differential associations were found in the behavioral domain. Higher quality early child care was associated with fewer externalizing problems, whereas more hours of early child care was linked to greater impulsivity. More epochs of organized activities was associated with greater social confidence. Relations between early child care and adolescent outcomes were not mediated or moderated by OST arrangements in middle childhood, consistent with independent, additive relations of these nonfamilial settings