No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Kochia and biennial wormwood are two weeds sometimes found growing in sunflower fields that may be difficult to control. Weed management in sunflowers is usually conducted using a combination of herbicides and mechanical weed control methods. Some farmers are growing sunflowers in reduced tillage systems, which may rely solely on herbicides to manage weeds; however, the spectrum of broadleaf weeds that can be controlled with herbicides is limited. Field experiments were conducted across southern Manitoba to determine the effect of kochia and biennial wormwood density and relative time of weed seedling recruitment on sunflower growth and development, yield and seed quality and to determine action thresholds for each weed. Early emerging kochia (plants that emerged at about the same time as the sunflowers) reduced sunflower yield by as much as 82%, which was greater than early emerging biennial wormwood plants, which reduced yield by as much as 27%. At low weed densities, each kochia plant reduced sunflower yield by 0.52% and each biennial wormwood plant reduced sunflower yield by 0.17%. As the density of early emerging kochia plants increased, sunflower height, stem diameter, leaf counts and head diameter were reduced in some of the experiments. Increasing densities of early emerging biennial wormwood plants had minimal effect on sunflower growth and development. Early emerging kochia and biennial wormwood plants both had the potential to reduce sunflower seed size and seed weight, while late emerging kochia and biennial wormwood (plants that emerged after the 4-leaf stage of the sunflowers) did not affect sunflower seed quality. The action threshold (5% sunflower yield loss) for early emerging kochia was 10 plants per metre square and the action threshold for early emerging biennial wormwood was 36 plants per square metre in the combined site-year analysis. Kochia or biennial wormwood plants that recruited after the 4-leaf stage of the sunflower crop did not affect sunflower yield, or seed quality.

No description available.

No description available.

Today's consumer attitude and behaviour are increasingly driven by quality, safety and health consciousnessF. rom the producer viewpoint, quality control has evolved from an efficiency challenge to a tremendous opportunity by building competitive advantages through pursuing relationships based on an integrated chain approach with quality guarantees. To succeed in today's competitive agri-food marketplace, two options are available: organise production more efficiently and work more consumeroriented in order to meet consumer requirements. During recent years, several concepts like Organic and PDO/PGI labels, and the ISO and HACCP schemes, embodied into the wider Supply Chain Management, or Total Quality Management initiatives, have been introduced. All these concepts share the objectives of adding value to the entire chain, of releasing competitive advantages and a better performance of the chain through increasedr esponsivenessto consumern eeds,w ants and demands. The research at hand addresses questions related to collecting valuable information at consumer level, since this is the prerequisite for the practical application of the aforementioned concepts by industries such as the olive oil industry. The work focuses on assessing both the quality perception of olive oil and the attitude of consumers to olive oil quality assurance schemes. The central theme of the study is the domestic consumer as an alternative source of profit and competitiveness for the high quality olive oil firms. This is be achieved through the identification of a quality and healthconscious urban segment and the explanation of its purchasing motives and behaviour by relating quality olive oil attributes to its personal values. Instead of following a "positivistic" way of clearly presenting the research hypotheses, a description of the wider environment surrounding the quality-conscious consumer internationally is chosen. In this mostly "phenomenological" way, ideas about the quality consumer are implied through induction from data. The methodological nature of the study is two-dimensional. The horizontal "conjoint analysis" dimension is used to quantitatively prove the findings of the vertical "laddering method" qualitative dimension, which develops quality consumers' psychographic profile and predicts purchase behaviour.

Abstract Aim The aim of this study was to examine if simulating an unknown competition terrain with the computer game Catching Features improved orienteers performance in the real terrain compared to a terrain they had not simulated. Method This study examined the effect of simulation by asking elite level orienteers to simulate an unknown terrain with a computer programme for approximately one hour per day, for six days prior to an orienteering test. The participants were divided into two matched groups and one group simulated one forest terrain while the other group simulated another forest terrain. On the test day the participants ran one course in each forest terrain, in a crossover-type design. Results This study shows that simulation of an unknown terrain did not statistically significant increase an orienteers performance, however it had a small effect on orienteering and navigational performance indices. The use of simulation also had a large impact on how well the participants felt they prepared for the race. Conclusions Although simulation of an unknown terrain increases an orienteer’s self-rating of prior knowledge of the terrain, there was no clear improvement in race performance. Terrain simulation had a small effect on navigational performance, possibly at the cost of a slower running speed. This may have been as a result of an increased awareness of the difficulty to relocate in the terrain after simulation, which may have prompted orienteers to try to follow a more detailed terrain model to avoid navigational errors. Following a more detailed model may have cost them as much time as they gained from not making mistakes and this resulted in no change in race performance. In the flat terrain that was tested there were not many challenging route choices and it was not possible to detect any effect on the route choice performance by simulation.

Šiame baigiamajame magistro darbe, analizuojant Lietuvos teisės aktus, mokslinę literatūrą bei Lietuvos ir ETT praktikoje suformuotas su darbo tema susijusias atitinkamų klausimų ir teisės aktų nuostatų aiškinimo ir taikymo taisykles, atskleidžiamas nesąžiningos konkurencijos sąvokos turinys ir įvardijami atskirų nesąžiningos konkurencijos atvejų kvalifikavimo ypatumai. Šio tyrimo tikslas – išanalizuoti nesąžiningos konkurencijos reglamentavimo Lietuvos konkurencijos teisėje ypatumus bei nustatyti taikymo praktikoje problemas – pasiektas įgyvendinus tokius uždavinius: pirmiausia, išanalizavus mokslinę literatūrą, Lietuvos teismų praktiką, Lietuvos Respublikos teisės aktus, aptariančius nesąžiningos konkurencijos sampratą, atskleidžiant jos turinį; po to yra nustatoma nesąžiningos konkurencijos instituto Lietuvos teisės aktuose įtvirtinimo raida ir reikšmė, aptarti pagrindiniai unifikavimo su ES teise aspektai; ir galiausiai identifikuojami nesąžiningos konkurencijos atvejų kvalifikavimo ypatumai, įvertinamas nesąžiningą konkurenciją reglamentuojančių teisės normų veiksmingumas bei atskleidžiami teisinio reguliavimo netikslumai ir dėl to iškylančios problemos. Magistrinio baigiamojo darbo temai atskleisti buvo naudojami loginis-analitinis, lingvistinis, lyginamasis, istorinis, sisteminės analizės metodai, kurių pagalba darbo tema buvo išanalizuota, pateiktos išvados bei įvertintas hipotezės teisingumas. Remiantis padarytomis išvadomis, manytina, jog darbo hipotezė – „Siekiant... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / In this master thesis the concept of unfair competition is revealed and qualification features of individual cases of unfair competition are presented by analyzing the Lithuanian legislation, scientific and legal literature as well as analysing Lithuanian and ECJ juridictions’ legal acts, legislation and legal practice. The objective of this master thesis - to analyze the regulation of unfair competition in Lithuanian’s competition law and to determine practical application problems- has been achieved through the following tasks. First, scientific literature, legal practice, legal acts of the Republic of Lithuania discussing the concept of unfair competition and its content are analyzed, then the development and the importance of unfair competence institute setting in Lithuanian legal acts is determined, the main aspects of unification with EU law are discussed, finally, classification features of cases of unfair competition are identified and the efficiency of unfair competition legislation is evaluated, also regulatory uncertainties and the problems it may cause are indicated. Logical and analytical, linguistic, comparative, historical, systematic analysis methods were used to analyze the topic, present the conclusions and to find out if the hypothesis was right. On the basis of the thesis conclusions, it must be held that the hypothesis - In order to make a proper legal classification of actions of unfair competition, in practice encounter problems due to lack of a clear... [to full text]

No description available.