International Lattice Data Grid: Turn on, plug in,and download

In the beginning there was the internet, then came the world wide web, and now there is the grid. In the future perhaps there will be the cloud. In the age of persistent, pervasive, and pandemic networks I review how the lattice QCD community embraced the open source paradigm for both code and data whilst adopting the emerging grid technologies, and why having your data persistently accessible via standardized protocols and services might be a good idea.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figur

The employment benefits of organic farming

Organic farming in the UK provides a range of economic and social benefi ts. In particular, it provides 32% more jobs per farm than equivalent non-organic farms. These new findings are based on the fi rst national survey of employment on UK organic farms, carried out by the University of Essex for the Soil Association. Organic farming is helping to reverse the decline in the UK’s agricultural workforce, which has fallen by 80% in the last 50 years. In contrast to the ageing overall farming population, organic farmers are, on average, seven years younger than their non-organic counterparts. Organic farmers are also three times more likely to be engaged in business innovations activities, such as direct marketing and on-farm processing. If all UK farmers adopted organic farming, it would produce an additional 93,000 on-farm jobs. These findings have significant implications for developing countries where a skilled agricultural workforce is vital to safeguard livelihoods and ensure global food security

Development of resins for composites by resin transfer molding

Designed to cover a wide range of resin technology and to meet the near-term and long-term needs of the aircraft industry, this research has three objectives: to produce resin transfer molding (RES) resins with improved processability, to produce prepreg systems with high toughness and service temperature, and to produce new resin systems. Progress on reaching the objectives is reported