Economic Potential of Compost Amendment as an Alternative to Irrigation in Maine Potato Production Systems

Potato productivity in the northeastern US has been relatively constant for over 50 years, raising questions about what factors are limiting productivity. Research was initiated in 2004 to identify key constraints to potato productivity by evaluating Status Quo (SQ), Soil Conserving (SC), and Soil Improving (SI) cropping systems under both rainfed and irrigated management, and it was found that addition of compost or irrigation substantially increased yield. In this study, we employed partial budgeting to determine cost differences and their impact on net revenue for these cropping systems. Differences in systems were primarily associated with rotation length, tillage operations, compost and application expenses, and water management practices. When compost (as composted dairy manure) was annually applied at 19 Mg haf-1 and evaluated over the entire 3-year crop rotation cycle, the compost-amended rainfed SI system was more expensive to maintain than the irrigated SC system if compost cost exceeded $3.63 Mg-1. Average marketable yields were used to calculate gross and net revenue for each system. Because average potato yield for the irrigated SQ system (28.4 Mg·ha-1) equaled that in the rainfed SI system (28.3 Mg·ha-1), we were able to compare cost of irrigation versus compost for achieving comparable yield. The compost-amended SI system under rainfed management generated more net revenue from the potato crop than the irrigated SQ system when compost costs were less than $7.42 Mg-1. When compared to the commonly used rainfed SQ system, rainfed SI achieved higher net revenue as long as compost cost was less than $22.95 Mg-1. The rainfed SI system achieved higher net revenue than the irrigated SC system when compost cost was $9.43 Mg-1or less, but generated greater net revenue than the rainfed SC system regardless of compost costs, due to substantially higher yields associated with compost amendment. This investigation demonstrates that compost is a potentially viable substitute to irrigation for potato in the northeastern US;however, such potential is highly dependent on suitable compost sources and application costs.

Model informed precision medicine of Chinese herbal medicines formulas-A multi-scale mechanistic intelligent model

Recent trends suggest that Chinese herbal medicine formulas(CHM formulas)are promising treatments for complex diseases.To characterize the precise syndromes,precise diseases and precise targets of the precise targets between complex diseases and CHM formulas,we developed an artificial intelligence-based quantitative predictive algorithm(DeepTCM).DeepTCM has gone through multilevel model calibration and validation against a comprehensive set of herb and disease data so that it accurately captures the complex cellular signaling,molecular and theoretical levels of traditional Chinese medicine(TCM).As an example,our model simulated the optimal CHM formulas for the treatment of coronary heart disease(CHD)with depression,and through model sensitivity analysis,we calculated the balanced scoring of the formulas.Furthermore,we constructed a biological knowledge graph representing interactions by associating herb-target and gene-disease interactions.Finally,we experimentally confirmed the therapeutic effect and pharmacological mechanism of a novel model-predicted intervention in humans and mice.This novel multiscale model opened up a new avenue to combine“disease syndrome”and“macro micro”system modeling to facilitate translational research in CHM formulas.

Assessing Suitability of Irrigation Scheduling Decision Support Systems for Lowland Rice Farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa—A Review

Irrigation in lowland rice production systems in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is mainly based on traditional surface irrigation methods with continuous flooding practices. This irrigation method ends up using a lot more water that would have otherwise been used to open more land and be used in other water-requiring sectors. Various studies suggest Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD) as an alternative practice for water management that reduces water use without significantly affecting yield. However, this practice has not been well adopted by the farmers despite its significant benefits of reduced total water use. Improving the adoption of AWD using irrigation Decision Support Systems (DSSs) helps the farmer on two fronts;to know “how much water to apply” and “when to irrigate”, which is very critical in maximizing productivity. This paper reviews the applicability of DSSs using AWD in lowland rice production systems in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Layering Precision Land Leveling and Furrow Irrigated Raised Bed Planting: Productivity and Input Use Efficiency of Irrigated Bread Wheat in Indo-Gangetic Plains

Stagnating yield and declining input use efficiency in irrigated wheat of the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) coupled with diminishing availability of water for agriculture is a major concern of food security in South Asia. The objective of our study was to establish an understanding of how wheat yield and input use efficiency can be improved and how land leveling and crop establishment practices can be modified to be more efficient in water use through layering of precision-conservation crop management techniques. The “precision land leveling with raised bed” planting can be used to improve crop yield, water and nutrient use efficiency over the existing “traditional land leveling with flat” planting practices. We conducted a field experiment during 2002-2004 at Modipuram, India to quantify the benefits of alternate land leveling (precision land leveling) and crop establishment (furrow irrigated raised bed planting) techniques alone or in combination (layering precision-conservation) in terms of crop yield, water savings, and nutrient use efficiency of wheat production in IGP. The wheat yield was about 16.6% higher with nearly 50% less irrigation water with layering precision land leveling and raised bed planting compared to traditional practices (traditional land leveling with flat planting). The agronomic (AE) and uptake efficiency (UE) of N, P and K were significantly improved under precision land leveling with raised bed planting technique compared to other practices.

Effect of pulse drip irrigation and mulching systems on yield, quality traits and irrigation water use efficiency of soybean under sandy soil conditions

Two field experiments were carried out during growing seasons 2010 and 2011, it executed in research farm of national research center in Nubaryia region, Egypt to study the effect of pulse drip irrigation and mulching systems for saving water, increasing and improving yield of soybean. The study factors were, pulse drip irrigation technology (adding of daily water requirements on 4 times, 8 times, 12 times compared with adding of daily water requirements on 1 time) and mulching systems (covering the soil with black plastic mulch “BPM”, rice straw mulch “RSM” and the control treatment was soil surface without mulch “WM”). The following parameters were studied to evaluate the effect of pulse drip irrigation and mulching systems: 1) Soil moisture distribution in root zone, 2) Growth characters of soybean plant, 3) Yield of soybean, 4) Irrigation water use efficiency of soybean “IWUE soybean”, and 5) Oil content and oil yield, 6) Protein content and protein yield, 7) Economical parameter. According to the economical view and the results of statistical analysis for effect of pulse drip irrigation and mulching systems on yield, quality traits and IWUE soybean indicated that, applying the irrigation requirements on 8 pulses/day with using BPM is the best conditions because under these conditions was occurred the highest value of yield, quality traits and IWUE soybean and there was significant deference between this case and other treatments. Where, pulse irrigation technique increase from water movement in horizontal direction than vertical direction hence improve from soil moisture distribution and wetted soil volume in root zone and using BPM decrease from evaporation process rate from soil surface hence decreasing of salts accumulation in addition to decreasing of weed growth in the root zone. All traits at AIR on 12 pulses/ day are decreased by increasing of pulses, this may be due to irrigation water was very small with every pulse at AIR on 12 pulses/day in addition increasing the total time of time-off, this mean, un-sufficient application for irrigation water to remove water stress in the root zone.

Cotton Response to Variable Nitrogen Rate Fertigation through an Overhead Irrigation System

Recent increases in irrigated hectares in the Southeastern US have enabled growers to obtain higher yields through applying nutrients through irrigation water. Therefore, many growers apply nutrients through irrigation systems, known as fertigation. Currently, there are no practical decision-making tools available for variable-rate application of nitrogen (N) through overhead sprinkler irrigation systems. Therefore, field tests were conducted on cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) during the 2016 and 2017 growing seasons to 1) adapt the Clemson sensor-based N recommendation algorithms from a single side-dress application to multiple applications through an overhead irrigation system;and 2) to compare sensor-based VRFS with conventional nutrient management methods in terms of N use efficiency (NUE) and crop responses on three soil types. Two seasons of testing Clemson N prediction algorithms to apply multiple applications of N were very promising. The multiple applications of N compared to the grower’s conventional methods (even though less N was applied) had no impact on yields in either growing season. There was no difference in cotton yields between 101 and 135 kg/ha N applications in either management zone. Also, there were no differences in yield between sensor-based, multiple N applications and conventional N management techniques. In relation to comparisons of the sensor methods only applying N in three or four applications, statistically increased yields compared to single or split applications in 2016. Applying N in four applications, statistically increased yields compared to single, split or triple applications in 2017. When the sensor-based methods were compared to the grower’s conventional methods averaged over four treatments, the sensor-based N applications reduced fertilizer requirement by 69% in 2016 and 57% in 2017 compared to grower’s conventional methods. When comparing N rates among the four sensor-based methods (three or four) applications, increased N rates by 22 kg/ha in 2016 and 26 kg/ha in 2017 compared to single or split applications but increased the cotton lint yields by 272 and 139 kg/ha, for 2016 and 2017, respectively.

Satellite Derived Geospatial Irrigation Performance Indicators for Benchmarking Studies of Irrigation Systems

Development of irrigation infrastructure and its efficient management is the primary concern for sustainable food production. The assessment of irrigation infrastructure creation, its utilization, diagnostic evaluation of the various performance indices (monitoring) are important to measure the efficiency. Benchmarking of Irrigation Systems (BIS) is for the diagnostic analysis of irrigation performance indicators comprising of Irrigation Infrastructure System (IIS), Agricultural System (AS), Water Delivery Dynamics (WDD). Since, the performance of an irrigation command varies with space and time, utilization of spatial information technologies viz. Remote Sensing (RS), Geographical Information Systems (GIS), Global Positioning Systems (GPS) useful to provide spatial information on several indices in the process of benchmarking (BM). Information requirements for BIS at different stages, utilization of spatial information technologies to derive irrigation performance indicators was discussed with suitable examples and demonstrated in this study. The studies carried out indicates that the geospatial approach for BIS enabled the improvements in data collection methods, diagnostic analysis, spatio-temporal visualisation of BM indicators at disaggregated canal level which would be useful for decision support during the corrective management measures. The conjunctive use of multi-date (medium resolution) satellite data, high spatial resolution data, field data on water deliveries was found to be an alternative to the conventional non-spatial approaches for BIS and thereby better water resources planning and management.

Performance of a Horizontal Flow Constructed Reed Bed Filter for Municipal Wastewater Treatment: The Case Study of the Prototype Installed at Gaston Berger University, Saint-Louis, Senegal

In Saint-Louis, Senegal, a constructed wetland with horizontal flow reed beds (FHa and FHb) has demonstrated significant efficacy in treating municipal wastewater. Analyzing various treatment stages, the system showed only a slight temperature variation, from an influent average of 26.3°C to an effluent of 24.7°C. Electrical conductivity decreased from 1331 mS/cm to 974.5 mS/cm post-primary treatment, with suspended solids (SS) dramatically reduced from 718.9 mg/L to 5.7 mg/L in the final effluent. Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) saw a notable decrease, from initial levels of 655.6 mg/L and 1240 mg/L to 2.3 mg/L and 71.3 mg/L, respectively. Nitrogenous compounds (N-TN) and phosphates () also decreased significantly, indicating the system’s nutrient removal capacity. Microbiological analysis revealed a reduction in fecal coliforms from 7.5 Ulog/100ml to 1.8 Ulog/100ml and a complete elimination of helminth eggs. The presence of Phragmites and Typha was instrumental in enhancing these reductions. The system’s compliance with the Senegalese standards for disposal into natural environments, WHO recommendations for unrestricted water reuse in irrigation, and the European legislation for water reuse was established. The effluent quality met the stringent criteria for various classes of agricultural reuse, illustrating the system’s potential for sustainable water management. This wetland model presents a robust solution for water-stressed regions, ensuring environmental protection while supporting agricultural needs. The study calls for ongoing research to further refine the system for optimal, reliable wastewater treatment and water resource sustainability.

基于ZigBee无线传感器网络的农业环境监测系统研究与设计

针对目前农业环境在线监测的需要,提出了一种基于ZigBee无线传感器网络的农业环境监测系统设计方案,该监测系统由无线监测网络和远程监控中心组成,可对影响作物生长的温度、湿度、光照等环境变量进行实时监测。介绍了系统的总体架构,设计开发了无线传感器网络节点、基站以及软件流程。由于采用了无线传输方式,该系统解决了有线通信方式存在的难以扩展、难以升级等问题,具有低功耗、低成本、扩展灵活等优点,其应用前景非常广阔。

粪肠球菌牙本质黏附及其影响因素的研究进展

粪肠球菌是难治性根尖周炎(refractory apical periodontitis,RAP)的主要致病菌,该细菌可耐受严苛环境,引发根尖周免疫炎症反应,造成根管内外持续性感染。粪肠球菌黏附于根管牙本质壁形成生物膜,其耐药和抗冲刷能力显著增强,是介导其致病的关键因素。粪肠球菌与牙本质的黏附包括非特异性和特异性黏附,后者由黏附相关毒力因子介导,主要包括肠球菌胶原结合蛋白(adhesin of collagen from enterococci,Ace)、表面蛋白(extracellular surface protein,Esp)、明胶酶(gelatinase,GelE)和丝氨酸蛋白酶(serine prtease,SprE)、菌毛以及聚集物质,且受到多个双组份系统调控。Fsr双组份系统在群体密度增加时可以促进gelE及sprE的表达,GelE进一步减少表面肠球菌胶原结合蛋白Ace,而GrvRS双组份系统则在响应血清环境时直接下调ace的表达。CroRS双组份系统及WalRK双组份系统也可能分别促进和抑制包括ace及gelE在内的多种毒力因子的表达,进而影响粪肠球菌的黏附性。此外,根管机械/化学预备、根管内环境因素等均可对粪肠球菌牙本质黏附产生影响。根管治疗中避免粪肠球菌的引入和使用干扰黏附的药物可以有效预防粪肠球菌的黏附,而多种活化荡洗方法也可以有效增加根管内粪肠球菌的清除率。针对粪肠球菌牙本质黏附关键因子与调控因素为靶点设计合理药物,有望为根管感染控制提供新的思路与手段。本文就粪肠球菌与牙本质的黏附性及其影响因素进行综述。

Re-evaluating the role of pelvic radiation in the age of modern precision medicine and systemic therapy

The efficacy of pelvic radiation in the management of locally advanced stage rectal cancer has come under scrutiny in the context of modern precision medicine and systemic therapy as evidenced by recent clinical trials such as FOWARC(J Clin Oncol 2019;37:3223-3233),NCT04165772(N Engl J Med 2022;386:2363-2376),and PROSPECT(N Engl J Med 2023;389:322-334).In this review,we comprehensively assess these pivotal trials and offer additional insights into the evolving role of pelvic radiation in contemporary oncology.

Coping with the Impact of Climate Change: A Dive into Precision Agriculture in the United States

With the continued increase in the number of people that are food insecure globally, which could be increasing because of the ongoing Ukraine-Russia war, leading to reduction in international agribusinesses, coupled with drastic climate change exacerbating the problem of food insecurity, there is a constant need to come up with innovative approaches to solve this global issue. In this article, we articulated how precision agriculture can be a tool for ensuring food security in the United States. This study aims to reiterate the significance of precision agriculture in solving global food insecurity.

基于WebGIS的灌区水资源管理信息化方法与实现

以西北干旱地区疏勒河灌区为例,提出了将WebGIS应用于灌区水资源管理,构建和设计了系统结构、功能,并对灌区渠系水资源管理数据进行分类,分析了动态访问数据库技术,实现了灌区所需信息的采集、传输、处理与分析的现代化与自动化。

Exogenous application of glycine betaine improved water use efficiency in winter wheat(Triticum aestivum L.) via modulating photosynthetic efficiency and antioxidative capacity under conventional and limited irrigation conditions

Improving water use efficiency(WUE)is an important subject in agricultural irrigation for alleviating the scarcity of water resources in semiarid regions of the North China Plain.Moreover,glycine betaine(GB)is one of the most effective compatible solutes synthesized naturally in plants for enhancing stress tolerance under abiotic stress,but little information is available on the involvement of GB in regulating crop WUE under field conditions.This study was conducted to explore the role of exogenously applied GB in improving WUE and plant physiological and biochemical responses inwinterwheat subjected to conventional or limited irrigation during the 2015–2016 and 2016–2017 growing seasons.Exogenous application of GB significantly enhanced antioxidant enzyme activities and reduced the accumulation ofmalondialdehyde and hydrogen peroxide under limited irrigation conditions.Furthermore,GB-treated plantsmaintained higher leaf relative water content andmembrane stability,which led to higher chlorophyll content and gas exchange attributes for better intrinsic and instantaneouswater use efficiencies compared to control plants under limited irrigation conditions.GB-treated plants had higher indole-acetic acid and zeatin riboside levels but lower ABA levels compared to control plants under conventional and limited irrigation conditions.Additionally,GB enhanced the grain filling rate and duration,grain number per spike,and final grainweight,which resulted in higher grain yield compared to the control.Interestingly,GB significantly improved the integrative and photosynthetic WUE under conventional and limited irrigation conditions,although GB treatment did not markedly affect total water consumption.These results suggest the involvement of GB in improving WUEs in winter wheat by modulating hormonal balance,membrane stability,photosynthetic performance and antioxidant systems to maintain higher grain yield under conventional and limited irrigation conditions.

Automated Irrigation System Using Improved Fuzzy Neural Network in Wireless Sensor Networks

Irrigation plays a significant role in various agricultural cropping methods deployed in semiarid and arid regions where valuable water applications and managing are considered crucial concerns.Multiple factors such as weather,soil,water,and crop data need to be considered for irrigation maintenance in an efficient besides uniform manner from multifaceted and different information-based systems.A Multi-Agent System(MAS)has been proposed recently based on diverse agent subsystems with definite objectives for attaining global MAS objective and is deployed on Cloud Computing paradigm capable of gathering information from Wireless Sensor Networks(WSNs)positioned in rice,cotton,cassava crops for knowledge discovery and decision making.The radial basis function network has been used for irrigation prediction.However,in recent work,the security of data has not focused on where intruder involvement might corrupt the data at the time of data transferring to the cloud,which would affect the accuracy of decision making.To handle the above mentioned issues,an efficient method for irrigation prediction is used in this work.The factors considered for decision making are soil moisture,temperature,plant height,root depth.The above-mentioned data will be gathered from the sensors that are attached to the cropfield.Sensed data will be forwarded to the local server,where data encryption will be performed using Adaptive Elliptic Curve Cryptography(AECC).After the encryption process,the data will be forwarded to the cloud.Then the data stored in the cloud will be decrypted key before being given to the deci-sion-making module.Finally,the uniform distribution-based fuzzy neural network is formulated based on the received data information in the decisionmaking module.Thefinal decision regarding the level of water required for cropfields would be taken.Based on this outcome,the water volve opening duration and the level of fertilizers required will be considered.Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model for the United States Geological Survey(USGS)database in terms of precision,accuracy,recall,and packet delivery ratio.

Realization of finite precision chaotic systems via internal perturbation

A method of controllable internal perturbation inside the chaotic map is proposed to solve the problem in chaotic systems caused by finite precision.A chaotic system can produce large amounts of initial-sensitive,non-cyclical pseudo-random sequences.However,the finite precision brings short period and odd points which obstruct application of chaos theory seriously in digital communication systems.Perturbation in chaotic systems is a possible efficient method for solving finite precision problems,but former researches are limited in uniform distribution maps.The proposed internal perturbation can work on both uniform and non-uniform distribution chaotic maps like Chebyshev map and Logistic map.By simulations,results show that the proposed internal perturbation extends sequence periods and eliminates the odd points,so as to improve chaotic performances of perturbed chaotic sequences.

地籍测量补测的方法及精度分析

基于地籍测量中存在界址点坐标未知、界址标志丢失,在初次查图阶段需要补测,且补测部分具有面积小、分布琐碎、精度要求高等问题;分析了地籍测量中对数据的精度要求,提出独立坐标系统测量数据,运用CASS软件转换数据的测量方法,与传统的补测方法进行比较并结合实例对误差进行精度分析。得出该方法省工、省资、省时,能够达到国家技术规程的精度要求。