Tools for managing manure nutrients

Manures are a valuable source of nutrients (and organic matter), and can be seen as a method of transferring nutrients around the farm (for homeproduced manures) or as a method of importing fertility (imported manures or composts). Good manure management offers a ‘win-win’ opportunity: benefits to soil fertility and benefits to the environment (less pollution). This paper describes two tools for manure nutrient planning: the use of look-up tables to assess nutrient content, and the development of a Decision Support Tool for describing nutrient transformations during manure management

The effect of organic farming systems on aspects of the environment - desk study OF0123

Key Conclusions 1. The crop rotations of organic systems maintain landscape diversity and biodiversity whilst the maintenance of field boundaries on organic units produces benefits to a wide range of organisms. 2. Inorganic nitrogen fertilisation and herbicide treatments of conventionally managed grassland has reduced the floral diversity of permanent pastures and maintained the low diversity of re-seeded pastures, greatly reducing their value as wildlife habitats. 3. Pesticide use is responsible for the removal of food sourcesfor birds and mammals in the form of weeds and invertebrates, as well as removing whole populations of potentially beneficial insects. 4. The majority of water pollution incidents from farms are caused during storage and spreading of cattle and pig slurries. A higher proportion of organic cattle and virtually all organic pigs are kept on solid manure systems and therefore are les of a risk. 5. The nitrogen balance of individual 'conventional' and 'organic' systems will depend greatly on the circumstances and management practices of the individual farms. Consequently it is not possible to generalise that one system is always better than the other in terms of nitrate leaching risk. With this qualification the literature does indicate that generally, organic systems offer less risk of nitrate leaching. 6. Organic systems are less likely to cause loss of phosphate into surface and ground waters. Both leaching and loss in eroded soil are likely to be reduced. 7. Organic management practicess such as rotations, the regular use of manures and non-use of pesticides usually increase soil organic matter contents. 8. Organic practices are likely to increase earthworm numbers compared to conventional systems. The increased numbers are universally acknowledged to benefit soil fertility although such effects are difficult to quantify. 9. Soil erosion is less of a problem on organic units. 10. Accumulations of copper and zinc in soils are much reduced in organic systems because organic pig and poultry producers do not supplement feeds with these metals as growth promoters. Copper fungicides are more widely used on organic farms and their use should be carefully monitored to prevent harmful effects. 11. The practices adopted by organic farmers can reduce emissions of nitrous oxide and methane. Ammonia emissions will not necessarily be less in organic than in conventional farming. 12. Organic farmers adopt practices which benefit the landscape. They maintain and introduce features largely because they are required by the Organic Standards to do so. They introduce such management practices because they are technically necessary for successful organic production

Coherent control of nanomagnet dynamics via ultrafast spin torque pulses

The magnetization orientation of a nanoscale ferromagnet can be manipulated using an electric current via the spin transfer effect. Time domain measurements of nanopillar devices at low temperatures have directly shown that magnetization dynamics and reversal occur coherently over a timescale of nanoseconds. By adjusting the shape of a spin torque waveform over a timescale comparable to the free precession period (100-400 ps), control of the magnetization dynamics in nanopillar devices should be possible. Here we report coherent control of the free layer magnetization in nanopillar devices using a pair of current pulses as narrow as 30 ps with adjustable amplitudes and delay. We show that the switching probability can be tuned over a broad range by timing the current pulses with the underlying free-precession orbits, and that the magnetization evolution remains coherent for more than 1 ns even at room temperature. Furthermore, we can selectively induce transitions along free-precession orbits and thereby manipulate the free magnetic moment motion. We expect this technique will be adopted for further elucidating the dynamics and dissipation processes in nanomagnets, and will provide an alternative for spin torque driven spintronic devices, such as resonantly pumping microwave oscillators, and ultimately, for efficient reversal of memory bits in magnetic random access memory (MRAM).Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Nature Physic

How do Poor People Adapt to Weather Variability and Natural Disasters Today?

human development, climate change

The Aquatic Biota and Groundwater Quality of Springs in the Lincoln Hills, Wisconsin Driftless, and Northern till Plains Sections of Illinois

ID: 8307INHS Technical Report prepared for Environmental Protection Trust Fund Commission and Illinois Department of Natural Resources Division of Energy and Environmental AssessmentU of I OnlyRestriction applied due to concern over geolocation information of springs on private property

Conformational photoswitching of a synthetic peptide foldamer bound within a phospholipid bilayer

The dynamic properties of foldamers, synthetic molecules that mimic folded biomolecules, have mainly been explored in free solution.We report on the design, synthesis, and conformational behavior of photoresponsive foldamers bound in a phospholipid bilayer akin to a biological membrane phase. These molecules contain a chromophore, which can be switched between two configurations by different wavelengths of light, attached to a helical synthetic peptide that both promotes membrane insertion and communicates conformational change along its length. Light-induced structural changes in the chromophore are translated into global conformational changes, which are detected by monitoring the solid-state 19 F nuclear magnetic resonance signals of a remote fluorine-containing residue located 1 to 2 nanometers away. The behavior of the foldamers in the membrane phase is similar to that of analogous compounds in organic solvents

The dependence of radiative forcing and feedback on evolving patterns of surface temperature change in climate models

Experiments with CO2 instantaneously quadrupled and then held constant are used to show that the relationship between the global-mean net heat input to the climate system and the global-mean surface-air-temperature change is nonlinear in Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 5 (CMIP5) Atmosphere-Ocean General Circulation Models (AOGCMs). The nonlinearity is shown to arise from a change in strength of climate feedbacks driven by an evolving pattern of surface warming. In 23 out of the 27 AOGCMs examined the climate feedback parameter becomes significantly (95% confidence) less negative – i.e. the effective climate sensitivity increases – as time passes. Cloud feedback parameters show the largest changes. In the AOGCM-mean approximately 60% of the change in feedback parameter comes from the topics (30N-30S). An important region involved is the tropical Pacific where the surface warming intensifies in the east after a few decades. The dependence of climate feedbacks on an evolving pattern of surface warming is confirmed using the HadGEM2 and HadCM3 atmosphere GCMs (AGCMs). With monthly evolving sea-surface-temperatures and sea-ice prescribed from its AOGCM counterpart each AGCM reproduces the time-varying feedbacks, but when a fixed pattern of warming is prescribed the radiative response is linear with global temperature change or nearly so. We also demonstrate that the regression and fixed-SST methods for evaluating effective radiative forcing are in principle different, because rapid SST adjustment when CO2 is changed can produce a pattern of surface temperature change with zero global mean but non-zero change in net radiation at the top of the atmosphere (~ -0.5 Wm-2 in HadCM3)

How to use coping strategies and become more resilient

It is well recognised that the transition period from medical student to qualified doctor is a particularly demanding time. However, the life course of a doctor presents its own challenges of equal or greater significance and the job of a doctor is becoming increasingly difficult (Figley, Huggard and Rees 2013). Evidence for this relates to organisational, system, societal and clinical factors. Specifically: pressure of patient through-put; patient expectations; lack of organisational and social support; increasing isolation - no time to develop teams and communities of practice; and increasingly complex cases and patient co-morbidities. As doctors progress in their career they become increasingly responsible for the coordination of care in response to traumatic events and patient outcomes, while also managing outside pressures. Such factors can lead to an increase in errors (Jackson and Moreton 2013). Errors may be linked to patient diagnosis and treatment, performance of skills and errors in equipment use. Furthermore, the incidence of errors increases along with the amount of sick leave, with the performance of a growing number of doctors attracting scrutiny from the General Medical Council (GMC 2014). The topic of stress management and resilience has therefore attracted a great deal of attention. This ‘How to’ is a guide to strategies that can be used to relieve immediate physiological stress responses and when practised assist in the development of your resilience