The situation in berry growing has considerably

changed in Estonia compared to the one at the beginning of the 1990s. The ownership

reform, where the unlawfully expropriated land was returned to its legal successors,

caused an increase of the number of the small farms. The above mentioned small

farms became interested in development and prevalence of berry cultivation. The

general plantation area of berry growing farms kept constantly growing until

2001, though started to decrease after that year. As a result of a

questionnaire organized by the economists of Estonian University of Life Sciences

(EMÜ), it became apparent that the major causes for that decrease were; scanty experience

of the berry growers, small profitability of production, small cultivation

areas; lack of finance for investing, lack of workforce during the harvesting period,

growth of competition, etc. (EMÜ, 2007).

In Nordic countries, berry growing has always been

risky and the risk is mainly caused by climatic conditions that influence the

yield and its quality. However, there is a possibility to decrease those risks by

selecting the cultures, which are, primarily, less affected by the ambient factors.

It is important to continue enriching the list of berry cultures, selecting the

species and cultivars that are tolerant to harsh Northern weather.

The purpose of my

experiment was to compare the growth rates of a salt crystal and sugar crystal.

I chose this experiment because I was interested in why and how these crystals

were formed; I also wanted to know how these two crystals were different. I had

two hypotheses based on these questions and they were; if the growth of a sugar

crystal is related to its solubility, then the sugar crystal will be larger

than the salt crystal. My other hypothesis was; if the growth of a salt crystal

is related to the process of ionic bonding, then the salt crystal will grow

faster. I had considerable challenges throughout the process of harvesting

these crystals. First, I used nylon string instead of cotton; therefore the

crystal would not grow. Once I solved that issue, I saw the sugar crystal was

not growing while the salt one had already been growing continuously. Despite

efforts taken to make the crystal grow, no matter how many times I started over

or reheated the water while adding more sugar, the crystal never grew. Because

of this, I was unable to compare the growth of the two crystals but I was able

to learn more about the process in which the salt crystals grew and other

aspects of science. These included learning about ionic bonds, and capillary

action.

Previous research has provided various measurements of effectiveness and studied trends in program costs and changes in the number of Supplemental Security Income (SSI) beneficiaries. However, those studies do not specifically analyze how the demographic

characteristics, sources of income, and poverty status of SSI beneficiaries have changed over time and the implications of those changes in relation to the SSI program’s effectiveness. To assess the SSI program’s effectiveness we use administrative

records from the Social Security Administration (SSA) matched to the 1984 and 1996 panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). The SSA-SIPP matched data improves the accuracy of the data we use to calculate estimates of SSI beneficiaries

and their characteristics. We find substantial changes in the marital status, family size, home ownership, education level, family income, and labor force participation status of SSI beneficiaries between 1984 and 1999. Those changes, in the context

of legislative and programmatic changes, are used to conclude that the SSI program was more effective in 1999 than in 1984.

There have been relatively few studies concerning the receptivity of

stigmas to pollination in the genus

.

Rigby and Dana's (1972) study of stigma receptivity in large cranberry,

however, provides evidence that receptivity begins before the flower becomes

completely open. Their pollination experiments clearly demonstrate that stigmas

of large cranberry are receptive to pollen at petal separation, just prior to

anthesis. Galen and Plowright (1987) found that peroxidase activity is an

indicator of stigma receptivity. Assuming the validity of this conclusion, the

present study is the first to report stigma receptivity before anthesis in both

lowbush and velvet-leaf blueberry. Although preliminary in scope, the

peroxidase activity test results for lowbush blueberry demonstrate a gradual

increase in the number of receptive stigmas during flower bud maturation from

stage one to stage four. In contrast, the results of the same test for

velvet-leaf blueberry suggest an abrupt increase in the number of receptive

stigmas between petal elongation in stage two and petal spread in stage three.

In both experimental species the stigma receptivity increased by the petal

spread stage of bud development, having relatively high numbers of receptive

stigmas; these observations agree with those from large cranberry at the same

stage of flower bud maturation. Further research, however, concerning the final

stages of flower bud maturation and their significance in the reproductive

biology of both lowbush and velvet-leaf blueberry is required before any definitive

conclusion can be reached.

Investigations carried out in different types of wetlands show that the

microbial respiration rate is low on exhausted peatlands. The microbial biomass

and the activity of microorganisms is dependent on several factors, including

available carbon, which is the fraction of soil organic carbon that

heterotrophic microorganisms can easily use as carbon and energy sources. If

the uppermost part of the peat area is invaded by vascular plants, their roots,

depending on species, are distributed in the 0-15 cm layer, in woody plants

somewhat deeper. This process usually leads to aeration of soil by root

activity and, in the case of cultivation, to additional fertilizer input. Both

situations lead to a large increase in microbial decay rates. In this research, peat soil microbial activity was increased, facilitating nutrient conversion in poor substrates. The presence of

and its decomposing litter, in

natural peatlands, gives C available to microorganisms. The results of the study of Croft

(2001) demonstrated that peat mining decreased the bacterial population as well as the populations of hemicellulolytic and cellulolytic microorganisms

of peatlands for microbial decomposition. It has been emphasised that only by liming, fertilizing, and planting, can the dormant microflora be reactivated. The experiments made in Estonia confirm that in the case of liming, plant invasion is activated

in an ombrotrophic peat bog.

The article „How to farm a better fish“ by Joel K. Bourne is about aquaculture management. Asian

producers use antibiotics and pesticides to cure fish. This sort of treatment

is banned in Europe, USA and Japan. In China, farmers grow fast-growing species

and feed them high quality food. The main species that are raised are tilapia

and different carps. One Asian fish-farmer said that he wanted to raise good

quality fish, get rich by doing that and feed people in the world. Bill Martin

said that people should raise fish in tanks, not in lakes and seas, by doing

that we would not pollute the nature that much. Bill Martin raises his fish in

recirculating systems to save water and prevent the fish from getting diseases.

Feeding fish is much cheaper than feeding land animals because they need fewer

calories for growing. For example, it takes 1.1 pound of feed to raise 1 pound

of fish, pigs for example use 2.9 pounds of feed and cattle use 6.8 pounds of

feed, which is about 6 times more than the fish need. Fish meal is the main

component for carnivorus fish feed and it is made from small fish, such as

sardines and anchovies. If we catch that many „trashfish“, we can ruin the

lives of other mammals and carnivores. To fight this problem, fish farmers try

to raise omnivorous species, such as tilapia and carp.

Ethnoveterinary practices are locally available and affordable to Fulani pastoralists in Niger State. Nigeria, to whom conventional veterinary

services are often not readily available and are relatively expensive. This

study was designed to identify and document medicinal plant and nonplant

materials used by this group in the management of cattle diseases.

Participatory rural appraisal tools of checklist, semistructured interview,

probing, transect, and triangulations were used to assess Fulani pastoralists

existing knowledge on traditional veterinary practices in nine pastoral

communities spread across the state. Fifty medicinal materials and seven traditional

preventive practices are in use against CBPP and other cattle disease conditions.

Of these, 38 (76.0%) are medicinal plants and L2 (24.0%) are nonplant materials

(edible earth materials and minerals). Family Fabaceae was most commonly mentioned

while leaves were the most common parts used. Most of these materials are administered

by drenching with few others mixed with feed. Proportions of plant parts used

include leaves (47.4%), barks (31.6%), roots (10.6%), and 2.6% of each of rhizomes,

fruits, seeds, and whole plants. Of recently used ingredients are kerosene and

spent engine oil. Further research into the active ingredients of

ethnoveterinary materials and dosages is necessary to guide their usage.