Potato late blight caused by Phytophthora infestans:From molecular interactions to integrated management strategies

Over 170 years after the infamous Irish Potato Famine,potato late blight(PLB)caused by Phytophthora infestans remains the single most devastating disease of global potato production,causing up to 10 billion USD in yield loss and management costs.Through decades of research,growers and agronomists in the field as well as laboratory scientists have made significant progress in understanding the molecular pathogenesis process of this critical pathosystem and effective management strategies to control PLB.Yet,the need to feed an ever-increasing global population under changing climate demands continued improvement in efficient and sustainable PLB management schemes that can be implemented across a broad economic spectrum.In this review,we briefly summarize the current understanding of the molecular interaction between P.infestans and its host plants,highlight the current integrated pest management strategy to control PLB on local and continental scales,and discuss the potential of further improvement of sustainable PLB control through genetic enhancement of crop resistance and emerging crop protection technologies.

Green High-yield and High-efficiency Cultivation Techniques of Integrated Management of Water and Fertilizer for Maize under Mulch Drip Irrigation

The green high-yield and high-efficiency cultivation techniques of integrated management of water and fertilizer for maize under mulch drip irrigation are described from the aspects of high yield target of maize and its component factor indexes,pre-sowing preparation,sowing,post-sowing management,field management at the seedling stage,integrated management of water and fertilizer for target yield of maize,rational application of micro-fertilizer,comprehensive prevention and control of diseases and pests,timely harvest,etc.,in order to provide a reference for agricultural technicians,maize farmers and maize industry development in northern Xinjiang.

Interactions of Water Management and Nitrogen Fertilizer on Nitrogen Absorption and Utilization in Rice

The interactions of water management and nitrogen fertilizer on nitrogen absorption and utilization were studied in rice with Wuxiangjing9 (japonica). The results showed that the nitrogen uptake and remaining in straw increased and the percentage of nitrogen translocation (PNT) from vegetative organs, nitrogen dry matter production efficiency (NDMPE) and nitrogen grain production efficiency (NGPE) decreased with nitrogen increasing. The nitrogen uptake and NGPE decreased when severe water stressed. However, rice not only decreased the nitrogen uptake but also increased the PNT from vegetative organs, NDMPE and NGPE when mild water stressed. There were obvious interactions between nitrogen fertilizer and water management, such as with water stress increasing the effect of nitrogen on increasing nitrogen uptake was reduced and that on decreasing NDMPE was intensified.

Highly integrated sulfur cathodes with strong sulfur/high-strength binder interactions enabling durable high-loading lithium-sulfur batteries

The development of high-sulfur-loading Li-S batteries is a key prerequisite for their commercial applications.This requires to surmount the huge polarization,severe polysulfide shuttling and drastic volume change caused by electrode thickening.High-strength polar binders are ideal for constructing robust and long-life high-loading sulfur cathodes but show very weak interfacial interaction with non-polar sulfur materials.To address this issue,this work devises a highly integrated sulfur@polydopamine/highstrength binder composite cathodes,targeting long-lasting and high-sulfur-loading Li-S batteries.The super-adhesion polydopamine(PD)can form a uniform nano-coating over the graphene/sulfur(G-S)surface and provide strong affinity to the cross-linked polyacrylamide(c-PAM)binder,thus tightly integrating sulfur with the binder network and greatly boosting the overall mechanical strength/conductivity of the electrode.Moreover,the PD coating and c-PAM binder rich in polar groups can form two effective blockades against the effusion of soluble polysulfides.As such,the 4.5 mg cm−2 sulfur-loaded G-S@PD-c-PAM cathode achieves a capacity of 480 mAh g−1 after 300 cycles at 1 C,while maintaining a capacity of 396 mAh g−1 after 50 cycles at 0.2 C when the sulfur loading rises to 9.1 mg cm−2.This work provides a system-wide concept for constructing high-loading sulfur cathodes through integrated structural design.

Integrated management strategy for improving the grain yield and nitrogen-use efficiency of winter wheat

Understanding of how combinations of agronomic options can be used to improve the grain yield and nitrogen use efficiency（NUE） of winter wheat is limited. A three-year experiment involving four integrated management strategies was conducted from 2013 to 2015 in Tai＇an, Shandong Province, China, to evaluate changes in grain yield and NUE. The integrated management treatments were as follows： current practice（T1）; improvement of current practice（T2）; high-yield management（T3）, which aimed to maximize grain yield regardless of the cost of resource inputs; and integrated soil and crop system management（T4） with a higher seeding rate, delayed sowing date, and optimized nutrient management. Seeding rates increased by 75 seeds m^-2 with each treatment from T1（225 seeds m^-2） to T4（450 seeds m^-2）. The sowing dates were delayed from T1（5 th Oct.） to T2 and T3（8 th Oct.）, and to T4 treatment（12 th Oct.）. T1, T2, T3, and T4 received 315, 210, 315, and 240 kg N ha^-1, 120, 90, 210 and 120 kg P2O5 ha^-1, 30, 75, 90, and 45 kg K2O ha^-1, respectively. The ratio of basal application to topdressing for T1, T2, T3, and T4 was 6：4, 5：5, 4：6, and 4：6, respectively, with the N topdressing applied at regreening for T1 and at jointing stage for T2, T3, and T4. The P fertilizers in all treatments were applied as basal fertilizer. The K fertilizer for T1 and T2 was applied as basal fertilizer while the ratio of basal application to topdressing（at jointing stage） of K fertilizer for both T3 and T4 was 6：4. T1, T2, T3, and T4 were irrigated five, four, four and three times, respectively. Treatment T3 produced the highest grain yield among all treatments over three years and the average yield was 9 277.96 kg ha^-1. Grain yield averaged across three years with the T4 treatment（8 892.93 kg ha^-1） was 95.85% of that with T3 and was 21.72 and 6.10% higher than that with T1（7 305.95 kg ha^-1） and T2（8 381.41 kg ha^-1）, respectively. Treatment T2 produced the highest NUE of all the integrated treatments. The NUE with T4 was 95.36% of that with T2 and was 51.91 and 25.62% higher than that with T1 and T3, respectively. The N uptake efficiency（UPE） averaged across three years with T4 was 50.75 and 16.62% higher than that with T1and T3, respectively. The N utilization efficiency（UTE） averaged across three years with T4 was 7.74% higher than that with T3. The increased UPE with T4 compared with T3 could be attributed mostly to the lower available N in T4, while the increased UTE with T4 was mainly due to the highest N harvest index and low grain N concentration, which consequently led to improved NUE. The net profit for T4 was the highest among four treatments and was 174.94, 22.27, and 28.10% higher than that for T1, T2, and T3, respectively. Therefore, the T4 treatment should be a recommendable management strategy to obtain high grain yield, high NUE, and high economic benefits in the target region, although further improvements of NUE are required.

An efficient method for train-track-substructure dynamic interaction analysis by implicit-explicit integration and multi-time-step solution

In this work,a method is put forward to obtain the dynamic solution efficiently and accurately for a large-scale train-track-substructure(TTS)system.It is called implicit-explicit integration and multi-time-step solution method(abbreviated as mI-nE-MTS method).The TTS system is divided into train-track subsystem and substruc-ture subsystem.Considering that the root cause of low effi-ciency of obtaining TTS solution lies in solving the alge-braic equation of the substructures,the high-efficient Zhai method,an explicit integration scheme,can be introduced to avoid matrix inversion process.The train-track system is solved by implicitly Park method.Moreover,it is known that the requirement of time step size differs for different sub-systems,integration methods and structural frequency response characteristics.A multi-time-step solution is pro-posed,in which time step size for the train-track subsystem and the substructure subsystem can be arbitrarily chosen once satisfying stability and precision demand,namely the time spent for m implicit integral steps is equal to n explicit integral steps,i.e.,mI=nE as mentioned above.The numeri-cal examples show the accuracy,efficiency,and engineering practicality of the proposed method.

Treatment Conditions of Building Wastes in China and Its Integrated Management Measures

The status of utilization and disposal of the building wastes are introduced on the basis of analysis of its compositions, genera- tion and effects on urban environment. The basic framework of the integrated building waste management, including control of the sources, reduction of the integrated process and final disposal, are proposed in view of the problems existing in recovery of the building wastes and the experiences from the developed countries.

Current advances in pathogen-plant interaction between Verticillium dahliaeand cotton provide new insight in the disease management

Verticillium wilt is the second serious vascular wilt caused by the phytopathogenic fungus Verticillium dahliae Kleb.It has distributed worldwide,causing serious yield losses and fiber quality reduction in cotton production.The pathogen has developed different mechanisms like the production of cell wall degrading enzymes,activation of virulence genes and protein effectors to succeed in its in fection.Cott on plant has also evolved multiple mechanisms in response to the fungus infection,including a strong production of lignin and callose deposition to strengthen the cell wall,burst of reactive oxygen species,accumulation of defene hormones,expression of defense-related genes,and target-directed strategies like cross-kingdom RNAi for specific virulent gene silencing.This review summarizes the recent progress made over the past two decades in understanding the interactions between cotton plant and the pathogen Verticillium dahliae during the infection process.The review also discusses the achievements in the control practices of cotton verticillium wilt in recent years,including cultivation practices,biological control,and molecular breeding strategies.These studies reveal that effective management strategies are needed to control the disease,while cultural practices and biological control approaches show promising results in the future.Furthermore,the biological control approaches developed in recent years,including antagonistic fungi,endophytic bacteria,and host induced gene sile ncing strategies provide efficie nt choices for in teg rated disease management.

The Preliminary Research on Integrated Management Systems Standards in China

The modern history of management systems is almost the same as the history of modern management science. Implicit management systems have been in existence for many 100s of years. ISO has paid attention to the issue of the integrated management systems since the ISO 9000 family standards for quality management systems (QMS) and ISO 14000 series standards for environment management syste(EMS) were published. ISO/TAG(Technical Advisory Group)12 was formed by the ISO/TM(Technical Management Board) in early 1997 with the mandate to achieve greater compatibility between the relevant ISO/TC 176 and ISO/TC 207 standards in the field of management systems, auditing, terms and definitions. The report was submitted to TMB by TAG 12 in 1999.

Differential advantages of musical backgrounds on binaural integration and interaction skills in instrumentalists,vocalists,and non-musicians

Background:Musical perception requires a host of skills.Instrumental musicians place greater emphasis on motor coordination,whereas vocal musicians rehearse vocal sounds.The study explored the differential advantages of musical background on binaural integration and interaction in musicians(instrumentalists,vocalists)and compared them with age-matched non-musicians.Methods:Eight six participants aged 20e40 y with normal hearing sensitivity were subjected to binaural tests using a standard group comparison research design.The participants were segregated into three groups e Group 1 included instrumentalists(n?26,mean age:17.73±2.83 y),while Group 2 and Group 3 consisted of vocalists(n?30,mean age:19.30±2.47 y)and non-musicians(n?30,mean age:18.20±3.02 y)respectively.The binaural processes namely integration(Dichotic syllable test,DST;and virtual acoustic space identification-VASI)and interaction(Interaural difference thresholds for time and level:ITD&ILD),were administered on all the participants.Results:Statistical analyses showed the main effect of musicianship.Bonferroni pair-wise test revealed that the musicians(instrumentalists and vocalists)outperformed(p<0.05)non-musicians in all the tests.The differential advantage of the musical background was seen on the binaural integration test with instrumentalists performing better in the VASI test compared to vocalists,and vice-versa for DST.No difference was observed in interaction tasks(ITD&ILD)between vocalists and instrumentalists(p>0.05).Conclusion:Musical background-induced differential advantages can be reasonably noted in the binaural skills of instrumentalists and vocalists(compared to non-musicians).

Application of engineered compressible inclusions to mitigating soilstructure interaction issues in integral bridge abutments

The thermally induced cyclic loading on integral bridge abutments causes soil deformation and lateral stress ratcheting behind the abutment wall due to the expansion and contraction of the bridge deck.The forward and backward movements of the abutment in response to the expansion/contraction of the bridge deck lead to the formation of settlement trough and surface heaving,frequently creating a bump at the bridge approach and increasing the lateral earth pressure behind the abutment.Measures to reduce the bump at the bridge approach,including several treatment methods,such as compaction of selected backfill materials,grout injection,installation of approach slab,and using a layer of compressible inclusion material behind the abutment were proposed.However,these guidelines still lack sufficient design details and there are limited experimental findings to validate design assumptions.In this paper,the use of engineered compressible materials to alleviate the lateral earth pressure ratcheting and settlement at the bridge approach is investigated.The comparative study is presented for the soil-inclusion,material-structure and soil-structure interactions for an integral bridge under three different backfill conditions,i.e.(a)sand,(b)sand and EPS geofoam,and(c)sand and Infinergy®.The study was conducted in a special large-scale test chamber with a semi-scale abutment to gain better insights into the soil-structure interaction(SSI).The kinematics and rearrangement of the soil during the cyclic loading have been investigated to identify the mitigating effects of compressible inclusions.The comparative study indicates that both compressible inclusions perform comparatively well,however,Infinergy®is a better alternative than the medium-density EPS geofoam,as it works more effectively to reduce the backfill settlement and heaving as well as soil ratcheting effects under cyclic translational movement.

Research progress of “shared nurses” under the family community hospital integrated management mode

In order to meet the diverse and multilevel health service needs of the people,following the implementation of the“multi-point practice”of registered physicians by the government in 2009,many pilot projects on the legality of“shared nurses”have been carried out,but there are many difficulties in the process.Through reviewing and researching the relevant literature inland and abroad,this study explores the application of family-community-hospital integrated medical and nursing management model in order to provide a reference for the development and management of“shared nurses”in China.

Discretization Approach in Integrated Hydrologic Model for Surface and Groundwater Interaction

The commonly used discretization approaches for distributed hydrological models can be broadly categorized into four types,based on the nature of the discrete components:Regular Mesh,Triangular Irregular Networks(TINs),Representative Elementary Watershed(REWs) and Hydrologic Response Units(HRUs).In this paper,a new discretization approach for landforms that have similar hydrologic properties is developed and discussed here for the Integrated Hydrologic Model(IHM),a combining simulation of surface and groundwater processes,accounting for the interaction between the systems.The approach used in the IHM is to disaggregate basin parameters into discrete landforms that have similar hydrologic properties.These landforms may be impervious areas,related areas,areas with high or low clay or organic fractions,areas with significantly different depths-to-water-table,and areas with different types of land cover or different land uses.Incorporating discrete landforms within basins allows significant distributed parameter analysis,but requires an efficient computational structure.The IHM integration represents a new approach interpreting fluxes across the model interface and storages near the interface for transfer to the appropriate model component,accounting for the disparate discretization while rigidly maintaining mass conservation.The discretization approaches employed in IHM will provide some ideas and insights which are helpful to those researchers who have been working on the integrated models for surface-groundwater interaction.

Integrated management of natural resources in the Ecuador Highlands

The Andean region of Ecuador is characterized by extreme poverty caused by low agricultural productivity, limited off-farm opportunities, and lack of access to markets. Poverty is related to degradation of natural resources as lagging agricultural productivity leads to incursions into fragile areas and use of erosive farming techniques on steeply sloped hillsides. Food production in fragile areas degrades soil and water resources, contributes to deforestation and loss of biodiversity, and reduces productive potential over time. This article discusses an agricultural development project designed to reduce the long-term downward development spiral in a watershed in Bolivar, Ecuador. The applied research program began with analysis of the state of soil resources, water, and biodiversity in the Chimbo sub-watershed. This information was used to design a plan with the input of local stakeholders to introduce environmentally friendly farming practices, soil and water conservation techniques, and various institutional innovations to promote resource conservation. This adaptive management program has been a solid success. This article describes the project, the challenges it faced, and how the process of adaptive management led to consensus among stakeholders about the appropriateness of sustainable management practices. We show how implementation of enhanced management practices contribute to reduced environmental vulnerability and improved welfare.

Study on the Interaction of Water Waves with Semi-Circular Breakwater

The present study investigates the interaction of steep waves with semi-circular breakwater with the complex plane's Cauchy boundary integral theorem. The boundary integral method is used to transform the calculation in fluid domain into its boundary alone. In the calculation the computation domain is moved with the propagation of waves. A numerical solution is obtained for incident Stokes waves passing the submerged obstacles. This method has been extended to the calculation of wave run-up on a slope for estimating wave overtopping.

Dynamic interaction of twin vertically overlapping lined tunnels in an elastic half space subjected to incident plane waves

The scattering of plane harmonic P and SV waves by a pair of vertically overlapping lined tunnels buried in an elastic half space is solved using a semi-analytic indirect boundary integration equation method. Then the effect of the distance between the two tunnels, the stiffness and density of the lining material, and the incident frequency on the seismic response of the tunnels is investigated. Numerical results demonstrate that the dynamic interaction between the twin tunnels cannot be ignored and the lower tunnel has a significant shielding effect on the upper tunnel for high-frequency incident waves, resulting in great decrease of the dynamic hoop stress in the upper tunnel; for the low-frequency incident waves, in contrast, the lower tunnel can lead to amplification effect on the upper tunnel. It also reveals that the frequency-spectrum characteristics of dynamic stress of the lower tunnel are significantly different from those of the upper tunnel. In addition, for incident P waves in low-frequency region, the soft lining tunnels have significant amplification effect on the surface displacement amplitude, which is slightly larger than that of the corresponding single tunnel.

Grey information coverage interaction relational decision making and its application

This study aims to reflect the information coverage grey number and the interaction between attributes in grey relational decision making. Therefore, a multi-attribute decision method based on the grey information coverage interaction relational degree(GIRD) is proposed. Firstly, this paper defines the information coverage grey number, and establishes the GIRD model by using the Choquet fuzzy integral and grey relational principle. It proves that the proposed model not only is the general and unified form of the point relational degree, interval relational degree, mixed relational degree and grey fuzzy integral relational degree, but also can effectively deal with the interaction between attributes. Further,a decision making example of evaluating the industrial operation quality for 14 cities in Hunan province of China is provided to highlight the implementation, availability, and feasibility of the proposed decision model.

Interaction between supply chain risk and organizational performance

To offer a theoretic guidance to practice, on the basis of the work in an emerging strand of supply chain management and by matching the constructs of performance and risk together, a framework between supply chain risk management and organizational performance is developed. The framework includes a series of mutually associated processes as follows: risk sources and profiles, risk and performance drives, risk and performance consequences, risk management responses, and risk and performance outcomes. Furthermore, every process is elaborated on in detail. Thereinto, organizational performance consists of efficiency and effectiveness which is linked to risk drivers and risk management responses. Finally, some necessary discussions and supplements are put forward from a practical point of view. This study is to some extent expected to be conducive to the theories and the practice of supply chain management for contemporary enterprises.