Browsing by Author "Thompson, Andrew"
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Item Open Access Data for the paper: "Fructans redistribution prior to sprouting in stored onion bulbs is a potential marker for dormancy break"(Cranfield University, 2019-01-07 08:37) christian Ohanenye, Ikenna; del carmen Alamar Gavidia, Maria; Thompson, Andrew; Terry, LeonThe redistribution of fructans in stored onion bulbs as influenced by pre-harvest deficit irrigation and postharvest ethylene and 1-methylcyclopropene treatments.Item Open Access Dataset "BIFURCATE FLOWER TRUSS: a novel locus controlling inflorescence branching in tomato contains a defective MAP kinase gene"(Cranfield University, 2024-05-22 08:52) Thompson, Andrew; Kevei, Zoltan; Silva ferreira, Demetryus; Mohareb, Fady; Kurowski, TomaszData underlying manuscript entitled: "Identification and characterisation of bifuricate, a novel locus on chromosome 12 controlling truss branching and flower number in tomato"Item Open Access Developing a water strategy for sustainable irrigated agriculture in Mediterranean island communities – Insights from Malta(Sage, 2019-04-07) Papadimitriou, Lamprini; Hallett, Stephen; Sakrabani, Ruben; Borg, Malcolm; Thompson, Andrew; Knox, Jerry W.The future sustainability of irrigated agriculture in Mediterranean island communities faces a raft of economic, environmental and socio-economic challenges. Many of these are inextricably linked to the extreme levels of water scarcity that exist in the region. With a focus on Malta, we developed a water strategy to identify the priorities for action to support decision makers, practitioners and the agrifood industry in achieving agricultural and water resources sustainability. The methodology involved a combination of evidence synthesis, to inform the development of a Drivers-Pressures-State-Impact-Response framework. These priorities were then used to define a set of key actions under three thematic pillars of sustainability (environment, economy and society). Our analysis confirmed that irrigated agriculture in Malta is not only impacted by environmental factors such as the challenging climate and geography of the region but also strongly influenced by a range of economic (tourism development, European Union accession) and societal (population growth, environmental regulation) drivers of change. The developed strategy is underpinned by priority actions relating to improved water and soil management. The reduction of water and energy footprints in crop production, the establishment of demonstration farms and the support of policies that promote ‘value adding’ activities are examples of key priority actions for the environmental, economic and societal pillar, respectively. Regarding the scale of intervention, the analysis distinguishes research as being important for supporting many of the economy-focused actions.Item Open Access Fate and removal of pharmaceuticals during sewage treatment(Cranfield University, 2005-10) Thompson, Andrew; Cartmell, Elise; Stuetz, RichardPharmaceuticals, personal care products and their metabolites are continuously entering the environment through many routes, especially from the effluent of sewage treatment plants. The aim of this work was to examine the fate and removal of pharmaceuticals during sewage treatment, and establish ways in which current sewage treatment technologies could be optimised to improve removal. Based on an analysis of pharmaceutical usage and environmental effects, four compounds were selected for further study (triclosan, tetracycline, carbarnazeptrine, and caffeine). Reliable analytical methods Were developed, using . HPLC-UV, to detect these compounds in sewage samples. The amounts of removal of the four compounds were quantified using laboratory sorption and biodegradation tests. Both tetracycline and triclosan were shown to be readily biodegradable, and to sorb strongly to biomass, although sorption occurred at different rates. Caffeine degraded rapidly, but did not sorb to biomass, whilst carbarnazepine did not sorb or biodegrade. Grab samples were taken before and after every major process unit at four sewage treatment plants (STPs). Although tetracycline was not detected in any samples, triclosan was measured at concentrations up to 5115 rig I-1, caffeine was measured at concentrations up to 82,300 ng C., and carbarnazeptne was measured at concentrations up to 1461 rig 1-1. This is the first time carbarnazepine and caffeine concentrations have been reported in UK sewage. The grab samples showed that a wide range of pharmaceutical effluent concentrations can be expected. The concentrations of the pharmaceuticals detected in this research were not high enough to cause immediate harm (i.e. death) to aquatic organisms. However, there is insufficient information to determine whether exposure to these low concentrations, typically around PNEC levels, may have an effect over a long period of time. Further composite sampling conducted at one STP generated data, modelled using Toxchem-1-, which demonstrated how variations in a wide range of parameters were correlated with the removal of pharmaceuticals. These showed that whilst sludge age may be the most important parameter, pH, temperature, hydraulic retention time, and chemical oxygen demand could have a critical effect on the removal of pharmaceuticals. Several ways of optimising sewage treatment plants have been proposed, including pH adjustments and longer HRTs to enhance sorption, as well as a novel adaptation to activated sludge tanks incorporating two WAS type bioreactors to enhance biodegradation. The effects of plant operating events, such as aeration failures, were also investigated. These showed that a typical length of aeration loss (four hours) could result in reduced pharmaceutical removal (through decreases in both sorption and biodegradation) for up to twelve hours. Overall, this work has shown that it may be possible to adapt current sewage treatment technology to improve removal of pharmaceuticals which sorb or biodegrade readily. With further research, these adaptations could become a viable alternative to tertiary treatment technologies such as ozonation, granular activated carbon, or chlorine dioxideItem Open Access Improving soil and water management for agriculture: insights and innovation from Malta(Malta College of Arts, Science & Technology, 2017-11-30) Hallett, Stephen; Sakrabani, Ruben; Thompson, Andrew; Deeks, Lynda K.; Knox, Jerry W.Maltese soil resources are a precious and finite natural resource of great agricultural, environmental, and cultural value. They have been subject to human influence over a considerable time and, owing to prolonged intensive land use, have suffered from degradation by erosion, loss of organic matter, structural deterioration, and contamination from excess nitrates, agrochemicals, and salinity. Similarly, water resources (both quantity and quality) in Malta are also under severe stress owing to socio-economic development, over-abstraction for agricultural irrigation and from diffuse pollution. This paper briefly explores the key soil and water challenges facing farmers and the agricultural sector in Malta. Selected technology based and management innovations to improve resource use efficiency, sustain productivity, and support the agricultural sector are identified and discussed. The evidence forms part of FOWARIM ‘Fostering water-agriculture research and innovation in Malta’, an EC H2020-funded twinning project that is building research capacity, supporting knowledge exchange to practitioners, and providing evidence to inform policies for government and the agricultural sector in Malta.Item Open Access Improving the tea withering process using ethylene or UV-C(Cranfield University, 2021-12-13 11:24) del carmen Alamar Gavidia, Maria; Terry, Leon; Collings, Emma; Thompson, Andrew; Mohareb, Fady; Kourmpetli, Sofia; Kevei, Zoltan; Bogaerts Marquez, MariaThe data set contains objective colour, respiration rate, water loss data, as well as individual catechin and theobromine concentrations of Camellia sinensis shoots subjected to UV-C radiation and ethylene supplementation during simulated withering.Item Open Access Multi-stakeholder analysis to improve agricultural water management policy and practice in Malta(Elsevier, 2019-11-26) D’Agostino, D.; Borg, M.; Hallett, Stephen H.; Sakrabani, Ruben; Thompson, Andrew; Papadimitriou, Lamprini; Knox, Jerry W.Malta faces a raft of water challenges which are negatively impacting on the sustainability of irrigated agriculture, and creating serious tensions with other sectors competing for water, including urban development, tourism and the environment. In this paper we argue for a transparent process centred on participatory stakeholder engagement to agree on the most challenging water-related risks and to identify solutions that both support the water governance framework and improve on-farm water management practices. Given Malta’s dependence on freshwater, this study focused on outdoor field-scale irrigated production. A three staged stakeholder-driven approach was developed. The first stage included Delphi analyses to identify the key constraints on water management and fuzzy cognitive mapping to enable stakeholders to analyse their mental models and formalise conceptual and causal relationships between different components impacting on Maltese agriculture. Secondly, questionnaires were used to inform understanding of national policy gaps in water management and thirdly, a “backcasting” stakeholder workshop was used to identify policy actions to achieve a more sustainable future for agriculture on the island. The study confirmed that Malta’s core challenge is tied to poor water governance and the need to define policies that are socially and environmentally acceptable and geared to tackling the complex water challenges the agricultural sector faces. Developing support for farmer training, knowledge translation, greater public awareness of the importance and value of water for high-value crop production and multi-sector collaboration to promote shared opportunities for water infrastructure investment were highlighted as potential solutions. The findings have direct relevance to other island communities where water scarcity poses serious agronomic risks to production and where agriculture underpins rural livelihoods and the economy.Item Open Access New insights into the effects of ethylene on ABA catabolism, sweetening and dormancy in stored potato tubers(Cranfield University, 2020-12-09 18:00) del carmen Alamar Gavidia, Maria; Thompson, Andrew; Tosetti, Roberta; A. Chope, Gemma; Cools, Katherine; Waters, Amanda; McWilliam, S.; Terry, LeonUnderlying data for this paper includes: respiration rate, sprout assessment, sprout incidence, and abscisic acid (ABA) and ABA-metabolites concentration for potato tubers during postharvest storage.Item Open Access Physiological and hormone data for the paper entitled 'Transcriptome and phytohormone changes associated with ethylene-induced onion bulb dormancy'(Cranfield University, 2020-06-15 17:29) del carmen Alamar Gavidia, Maria; Terry, Leon; Anastasiadi, Maria; Thompson, Andrew; Mohareb, Fady; G.N. Turnbull, Colin; M. Lopez-Cobollo, Rosa; H. Bennett: mhbennett@imperial.ac.uk, MarkUnderlying data for this onion bulb dormancy paper which includes: respiration rate, sprout elongation and sprout incidence; abscisic acid (ABA) and ABA-metabolites concentration; cytokinins concentration; and differentially expressed genes for ABA, ethylene and cytokinins pathways.Item Open Access Promotion of germination using hydroxamic acid inhibitors of 9-cis-epoxycarotenoid dioxygenase(Cranfield University, 2017-03-29 15:11) Thompson, AndrewData underlying publication entitled: Promotion of germination using hydroxamic acid inhibitors of 9-cis-epoxycarotenoid dioxygenase. Consists of raw data points used in statistical analysis and production of graphs and table.