Testing Taylor’s Power Law association of maize interplant variation with mean grain yield

Plant-to-plant variability is a crop stability component.The objective of this study in maize(Zea mays L.)was to test the validity of the theoretical background of the hypothesis that the coefficient of variation(CV)for grain yield per plant and mean yield are connected exponentially,following the Taylor’s Power Law(TPL)Model.Field experimentation was conducted across two sites,two seasons,and two planting densities.Densities were the main plots,corresponding to the typical practice of 8.89 plants m–2(TCD)and the low-input optimal of 5.33 plants m–2(LCD),while hybrids were the subplots.Data from 26 subplots in the first site averaged CV values of 22.6%at the TCD and 21.9%at the LCD,and mean yields of 19.1 and 13.9 t ha–1,respectively,following the TPL Model.The same was true for the second site,with average CVs and means of 41.5%and 14.3 t ha–1 at the TCD and 36.8%and 11.5 t ha–1 at the LCD.A test was performed on the simple correlation between the logarithms of variances and their respective means to investigate whether there is a systematic variance dependence on mean,thus questioning the reliability of TPL.The validity of TPL was verified in the first site.Nevertheless,there was a systematic dependence of yield variance on mean yield in the second site,implying that the CV-yield correlation might be not biologically meaningful.Conversion of the variance to remove its dependence on the mean did not validate the CV-yield negative relationship,meaning that caution is needed when interpreting the CV as a stability index for intra-crop variation.Whether the determinant factor of invalidity of TPL was the extensive intra-crop variation in the lower yielding second site can be assessed in future research.

A Decision Support System Web—Application for the Management of Forest Road Network

The present study contributes to the development of an online FRMP(Forest Road Management Platform)that aims to assist in the management of forest road network in a holistic way.This is achieved by the proposed methodology which serves as a database using geoprocessing and geospatial technologies for the handling,and the identification of critical issues in the infrastructure of forest road networks,visualization of forest roads,and the optimization of the management of the forest road network by proposing alternative strategies.In this paper,the development of the decision making web-tool,and presented examples to demonstrate effectively its application and resulting advantages are described.The developed web-application may provide assistance to various forest organizations in the management of forest road networks and associated problems in an effective and sustainable way.

Possibility of Socio-economic Attributes and ICT Application in Improving Quality of Farmers

Evaluation on the diversified Information and Communication Technologies( ICTs) application along their association in socio-economic attributes can provide valuable insights about the trends of farmers towards improvement.Therefore,analytical research design and descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data collected from 400 respondents within different regions of Punjab Province in Pakistan.Based on the findings,it is recommended that government in collaboration with all stakeholders should launch regular,holistic and modern ICTs programs like applications of robo calls,SMS,etc.services at central level to ensure timely availability of agricultural information to improving the quality of young farmers.Furthermore,it is recommended to launch effective monitoring and evaluation mechanism of ICTs for agricultural development.

Effectiveness of tertiary treatment processes in removing different classes of emerging contaminants from domestic wastewater

In this work,38 different organic emerging contaminants(ECs),belonging to various chemical classes such as pharmaceuticals(PhCs),endocrine-disrupting chemicals(EDCs),benzotriazoles(BTRs),benzothiazoles(BTHs),and perfluorinated compounds(PFCs),were initially identified and quantified in the biologically treated wastewater collected from Athens’(Greece)Sewage Treatment Plant(STP).Processes already used in existing STPs such as microfiltration(MF),nanofiltration(NF),ultrafiltration(UF),UV radiation,and powdered activated carbon(PAC)were assessed for ECs’removal,under the conditions that represent their actual application for disinfection or advanced wastewater treatment.The results indicated that MF removed only one out of the 38 ECs and hence it was selected as pretreatment step for the other processes.UV radiation in the studied conditions showed low to moderate removal for 5 out of the 38 ECs.NF showed better results than UF due to the smaller pore sizes of the filtration system.However,this enhancement was observed mainly for 8 compounds originating from the classes of PhCs and PFCs,while the removal of EDCs was not statistically significant.Among the various studied technologies,PAC stands out due to its capability to sufficiently remove most ECs.In particular,removal rates higher than 70%were observed for 9 compounds,22 were partially removed,while 7 demonstrated low removal rates.Based on our screening experiments,future research should focus on scaling-up PAC in actual conditions,combining PAC with other processes,and conduct a complete economic and environmental assessment of the treatment.