Seasonal changes in the performance of a catch crop for mitigating diffuse agricultural pollution.

An in situ technology for mitigating diffuse agricultural pollution using catch crops was developed for simultaneously preventing nitrate groundwater pollution, reducing nitrous oxide (N2O) gas emissions, and removing salts from the topsoil. Seasonal changes in the performance of a catch crop were investigated using lysimeters in a full-scale greenhouse experiment with 50 d cultivation of dent corn. Catch crop cultivation significantly reduced the leached mineral nitrogen by 89-91% in summer, 87-89% in spring, and 61-82% in winter, and it also significantly reduced the N2O emission by 68-84% in summer. The amounts of nitrogen uptake by the catch crop were remarkably higher than those of leached nitrogen and N2O emission in each season. Catch crop cultivation is a promising technology for mitigating diffuse agricultural pollution.

The influence of affect on the achievement and behavior of students with learning disabilities.

Research indicates that students with learning disabilities are likely to be at greater risk for experiencing negative affect than their higher achieving counterparts. The purpose of this article is to review recent research on the effects of affect on thoughts, cognition, and behavior. This research finds that induced positive affects leads to more accurate performance on math, greater learning of new vocabulary, and better performance on a new learning task. Implications of and suggestions for follow-up studies of negative and positive affect in students with learning disabilities are presented.