RFID tags for identifying and verifying agrochemicals in food traceability systems

The objective of this paper is to identify what data should be stored in an automatic recording system to trace the use of agrochemicals. RFID tags are proposed as the most appropriate storage systems. The essential information to store on an RFID tag is as follows: country of registration, chemical type, unique registration number of an agrochemical, container size, specific gravity, unit of measure, and a digital signature. Digital signatures address issues of verification of data integrity and security—a major concern of the agrochemical industry. Detailed data will be drawn from publicly available databases of approved pesticides. Encoding schemes have been designed which can record all of the essential information on commonly available cheap RFID labels. A prototype system to record and transfer data in a traceability system is developed, including hardware and software aspects. The user interface of the system is presented with a sample sequence of user screens to assist the loading of a full pack of agrochemical tagged with an RFID transponder. An experimental trial with practicing agrochemical professionals was undertaken. The user interface proved effective and acceptable. During the trial, more than 250 product identification cycles with RFID were carried out without failure.     

Long-range incommensurate charge fluctuations in (Y,Nd)Ba2Cu3O(6+x)

The concept that superconductivity competes with other orders in cuprate superconductors has become increasingly apparent, but obtaining direct evidence with bulk-sensitive probes is challenging. We have used resonant soft x-ray scattering to identify two-dimensional charge fluctuations with an incommensurate periodicity of ~3.2 lattice units in the copper-oxide planes of the superconductors (Y,Nd)Ba(2)Cu(3)O(6+)(x), with hole concentrations of 0.09 to 0.13 per planar Cu ion. The intensity and correlation length of the fluctuation signal increase strongly upon cooling down to the superconducting transition temperature (T(c)); further cooling below T(c) abruptly reverses the divergence of the charge correlations. In combination with earlier observations of a large gap in the spin excitation spectrum, these data indicate an incipient charge density wave instability that competes with superconductivity.     

Improving grass silage production with controlled traffic farming (CTF): agronomics,system design and economics

Grassland silage management is generally semi-organised with no conscious attempt to re-use wheel ways as with arable fields. The total number of machine passes can be 15 or more with normal traffic (NT) systems resulting in potentially large areas of a field suffering from direct damage to the crop and soil. Literature suggests there can be grass dry matter yield reductions of 5 to 74% under NT through compaction and sward damage, with a mean of 13% in the UK. Commercially available grass forage equipment with widths of 3 to 12 m set up for controlled traffic farming (CTF) could reduce trafficked areas (which is typically 90% to 80% for NT) to 40% to 13% for CTF. This study compared grass dry matter yield between CTF and NT for a three-cut silage system based on a 9 m working width in a permanent silage field in the southwest of Scotland, UK in 2015. Results showed a 13.5% (0.80 t ha^?1) increase in yield for CTF for the 2nd and 3rd cuts combined. The CTF trafficked area covered was 57% less than the NT system (30.4% compared to 87.4%) over the three silage cuts. An economic analysis based on a 13% increase in dry matter yield (for 2- and 3-cut systems) and a reduction in trafficked area from 80% (for NT) to between 45% and 15% (for CTF), increased the yield by between 0.53 t ha^?1 and 1.36 t ha^?1 for 2- and 3-cut systems, respectively with an equivalent grass value of between £38 ha^?1 and £98 ha^?1. Introducing CTF for a multi-cut grass silage system is cost-effective by increasing yields due to a reduction in compaction and sward damage.