The social construction of production externalities in contemporary agriculture: Process <Emphasis Type="Italic">versus</Emphasis> product standards as the basis for defining “organic”

The analysis distinguishes two types of standards for defining organic produce; process standards and product standards. Process standards define organic products by the method and means of production. Product standards define organic by the physical quality of the end product. The National Organic Program (NOP) uses process standards as the basis for defining organic. However, the situation is complicated by agricultural production practices, which sometimes result in the migration of NOP prohibited substances from conventional to organic fields. When this interaction alters the value of the product or the costs of production, a production externality is said to exist. Defining organic using process, rather than product standards, influences the burden and character of production externalities. The NOPs emphasis on process standards reduces the likelihood that production externalities will emerge.B. James Deaton is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Business and Agricultural Economics, University of Guelph, Canada. His research examines environmental and natural resource issues. He is particularly interested in the manner in which laws, rules, and standards influence environmental quality, natural resource use, and economic development. Additional research examines the relationship between different forms of private property and economic development, public support for various criteria used to preserve farmland, and the social construction of production externalities in agriculture. Prior to his PhD training, he worked on economic development projects in Lesotho (Southern Africa) and the Appalachian region of eastern Kentucky.John P. Hoehn is a Professor of Environmental and Natural Resource Economics in the Department of Agricultural Economics, Michigan State University. His teaching and research activities address environmental and natural resource policies, benefit-cost analysis of environmental improvements, methods for valuing non-market goods, improved institutions for protecting, managing, and using environmental resources, and the economics of ecological resources. He teaches core courses in the departmental and university-wide graduate programs in environmental and resource economics.     

南疆铁路风沙流结构特征研究

通过对南疆铁路戈壁风沙流进行现场观测研究,提出了关于风沙流密度的计算方法,将大风所携沙粒定量化,解决了风沙运动研究中如何利用现场定时观测研究风沙流动态变化的技术难题.根据现场实测资料分析,揭示了南疆铁路风沙流密度随高度和风速的变化关系.从中可以看出,风沙流密度随高度变化显现斜"L"形,以3m高为分界点;而相对的风沙流密...     

Spray drift as influenced by meteorological and technical factors

BACKGROUND: The objective of this study was to investigate spray drift from a conventional field sprayer as influenced by meteorological and technical factors, and to provide spray operators with data on which to base sound judgements when applying pesticides. The study was conducted in grazing fields and cereal crops. RESULTS: Interpreting the results from 15 field trials under varying meteorological conditions using different boom heights and driving speeds indicates that, during normal spraying conditions, the most decisive factors influencing the total spray drift (TSD) will be boom height and wind speed, followed by air temperature, driving speed and vapour pressure deficit. One important finding was that TSD (within the encompassed range of meteorological conditions and a boom height of 0.4 m) could be expressed as a simple function of the fraction of droplets ≤ 100 µm. In cereal crops: TSD = 0.36 + 0.11× [fr. (d ≤ 100 µm)] and in grazing fields, TSD = 1.02 + 0.10× [fr. (d ≤ 100 µm)]. In most cases a fraction of the airborne drift passed over the 6 m sampling mast located 5 m downwind of the spray swath. CONCLUSIONS: Under specified conditions, the present results indicate a simple relation between the total spray drift and volume fractions of droplets ≤ 100 µm. Given the nozzle type, it was concluded that the most decisive factors determining TSD are wind speed and boom height. Evaluating the relative importance of the meteorological and technical factors contributes to increasing knowledge in this field of research. Copyright © 2011 Society of Chemical Industry     

风沙过渡区土地利用变化及其驱动因素分析--以陕北榆阳区为例

在GIS技术的支持下，依据土地利用动态度模型、区域差异模型和土地利用程度模型，全面分析了榆林市榆阳区1988～2001年土地利用的时空变化，并对土地利用变化的驱动因素进行了详尽分析。结果表明：林地、园地、耕地、居民点及工矿用地、交通用地均呈增长趋势，未利用地、牧草地和水域星减少趋势113年来，榆阳区土地利用变化速度较快，年变化率为0．45％。大于榆林市的土地利用变化速度；榆阳区土地利用变化存在着显著的区域差异；榆阳区土地利用处于发展期，并在榆林市的土地利用变化中发展较快。榆阳区土地利用变化过程中。自然因素的作用并不明显，社会、经济、技术等人文因素则在短期内具有决定性的影响。其中以总人口、工业总产值、乡镇企业个数和城市化水平等因子的作用最大。     

植保无人机旋翼风场模型与雾滴运动机理研究进展

近几年,植保无人机施药技术在中国获得广泛应用,并逐渐发展为国内主要植保技术之一。但由于对植保无人机施药技术基础理论研究不够深入,相关机理尚不明晰,且植保无人机作业平台的稳定性依然有待提高,导致国内植保无人机施药效果不够理想。深入研究植保无人机施药技术的基础理论,理论结合试验结果共同指导植保无人机田间施药是提高其施药效果的关键。该研究综述了植保无人机旋翼风场分布特性、雾滴与无人机旋翼风场交互机理、雾滴沉降与飘移机理、雾滴与叶片表面的交互作用机理及雾滴分散和蒸发特性等植保无人机施药技术基础理论及其模型构建的国内外研究现状,并结合其基础理论与模型构建的国内外研究现状,给出植保无人机施药技术的未来发展建议,以期为植保无人机施药技术的发展提供参考。     

配筋混凝土砌块砌体剪力墙位移延性设计方法

提出了配筋混凝土砌块砌体剪力墙基于位移延性的设计方法．通过对两片不同长度的矩形配筋混凝土砌块砌体剪力墙墙肢的计算分析，研究了轴压比、高宽比、配筋率和灌孔率对墙体受力性能的影响，结果表明上述几种因素对配筋混凝土砌块砌体剪力墙结构的延性性能起着重要的作用．提出了配筋混凝土砌块砌体剪力墙结构位移延性比的计算方法和配筋混凝土砌块砌体剪力墙弹塑性层间位移角限值1／300的建议，供设计时参考．     

基于不同地表曲面模型预测土壤有机碳含量

Local terrain attributes,which are derived directly from the digital elevation model,have been widely applied in digital soil mapping.This study aimed to evaluate the mapping accuracy of soil organic carbon (SOC) concentration in 2 zones of the Heihe River in China,by combining prediction methods with local terrain attributes derived from different polynomial models.The prediction accuracy was used as a benchmark for those who may be more concerned with how accurately the variability of soil properties is modeled in practice,rather than how morphometric variables and their geomorphologic interpretations are understood and calculated.In this study,2 neighborhood types (square and circular) and 6 representative algorithms (Evans-Young,Horn,Zevenbergen-Thorne,Shary,Shi,and Florinsky algorithms) were applied.In general,35 combinations of first-and second-order derivatives were produced as candidate predictors for soil mapping using two mapping methods (i.e.,kriging with an external drift and geographically weighted regression).The results showed that appropriate local terrain attribute algorithms could better capture the spatial variation of SOC concentration in a region where soil properties are strongly influenced by the topography.Among the different combinations of first-and second-order derivatives used,there was a best combination with a more accurate estimate.For different prediction methods,the relative improvement in the two zones varied between 0.30％ and 9.68％.The SOC maps resulting from the higher-order algorithms (Zevenbergen-Thorne and Florinsky) yielded less interpolation errors.Therefore,it was concluded that the performance of predictive methods,which incorporated auxiliary variables,could be improved by attempting different terrain analysis algorithms.     

沙漠地区风沙活动特征——以中国科学院风沙观测场为例

运用中国科学院风沙科学观测场的实测资料,对腾格里沙漠风沙环境特征进行初步分析,内容包括起沙风、风沙活动强度、风沙流结构和沙漠边界层的风速廓线.该地区的起沙风以6～8 m/s为主,占总起沙风的71.63%,其次为8～10 m/s,占19.24%,两者之和占90.87%;大风日数为4天;风向以W-N组风向为主;占全年的53.14%.年输沙势为36.56VU,风能属于低风能环境,单一主风向和单风态风环境.风沙流主要集中在地表的0.1 m,占总输沙量的95.46%.观测场近地层厚度大于50 m.     

Concentrations and environmental risk of chlorothalonil in air near potato fields in Prince Edward Island, Canada

BACKGROUND: Chlorothalonil is used extensively in Prince Edward Island for the control of blight on potatoes, and has been measured throughout summer months in ambient air monitoring studies. This study was designed to characterize near-field drift of chlorothalonil, and to evaluate how exposure to measured air concentrations might impact upon local wildlife species. RESULTS: Air samples were collected using high-volume samplers at three distances downwind of sprayed potato fields, and at four different time intervals. Chlorothalonil was detected in 73% of prespray samples (from < 0.013 to 0.440 µg m⁻³). The mean air concentration 0 m away from the field edge during spray was 5.8 µg m⁻³, which was 7–41 times higher than concentrations measured in similar studies. Air concentrations were found to decline exponentially both with distance and time, although 0 m and 30 m concentrations at 2 h post-spray remained significantly (3 times) higher than prespray (P < 0.05). Wind speed was not found to be significantly correlated with air concentration; however, increases in temperature were found to be significantly correlated with increases in air concentrations at all sample times, at 0 m and 30 m distances. CONCLUSION: Frequent prespray detections and high post-spray concentrations suggest that both chronic and acute exposures to non-target species are occurring; however, risk calculations suggest a relatively low risk of effects to representative species. One measurement showed that a human-health-based short-term guideline had been exceeded, indicating that potential impacts to humans from chlorothalonil under current application conditions cannot be discounted. Copyright © 2011 Crown in the right of Canada. Published by JohnWiley & Sons, Ltd