chemotaxis of rhizobium phaseoli towards flavones and other related compounds

The formation of nitrogen-fixing nodules on leguminous plants is the result of a highly specific interaction between the host plant and the soil bacterium Rhizobium. Two observations suggest that chemotaxis may play a role in the establishment of the legume-Rhizobium symbiosis: 1) The widespread occurence of Rhizobium species with flagella (Gotz, 1982; Carlile. 1980)2) The copious exudation into the soil surrounding legume roots of a wide variety of potentially chemotactic compounds which include amino acids, sugars and sugar-acids. (Beringer et.al.,1979). Recently the plant flavones luteolin (3,44,7 - Tetra - hydroxyflavone) and apigenin (4,5,7 - Trihydroxy-flavone) have been reported as inducers of Rhizobium nodulation genes (Peters, 1986, Rolfe 1986). We report here that R. phaseoli (RP8002) exhibits positive chemotaxis toward both flavones. Other diverse compounds tested elicited different responses. An understanding of the influence of flavones in two events such as chemotaxis and nodulation efficiency can be valuable to clarify their action in the intricate legume-rhizobia interaction

Object-Based Greenhouse Classification from GeoEye-1 and WorldView-2 Stereo Imagery

Remote sensing technologies have been commonly used to perform greenhouse detection and mapping. In this research, stereo pairs acquired by very high-resolution optical satellites GeoEye-1 (GE1) and WorldView-2 (WV2) have been utilized to carry out the land cover classification of an agricultural area through an object-based image analysis approach, paying special attention to greenhouses extraction. The main novelty of this work lies in the joint use of single-source stereo-photogrammetrically derived heights and multispectral information from both panchromatic and pan-sharpened orthoimages. The main features tested in this research can be grouped into different categories, such as basic spectral information, elevation data (normalized digital surface model; nDSM), band indexes and ratios, texture and shape geometry. Furthermore, spectral information was based on both single orthoimages and multiangle orthoimages. The overall accuracy attained by applying nearest neighbor and support vector machine classifiers to the four multispectral bands of GE1 were very similar to those computed from WV2, for either four or eight multispectral bands. Height data, in the form of nDSM, were the most important feature for greenhouse classification. The best overall accuracy values were close to 90%, and they were not improved by using multiangle orthoimages

Developing Allometric Equations for Teak Plantations Located in the Coastal Region of Ecuador from Terrestrial Laser Scanning Data

Traditional studies aimed at developing allometric models to estimate dry above-ground biomass (AGB) and other tree-level variables, such as tree stem commercial volume (TSCV) or tree stem volume (TSV), usually involves cutting down the trees. Although this method has low uncertainty, it is quite costly and inefficient since it requires a very time-consuming field work. In order to assist in data collection and processing, remote sensing is allowing the application of non-destructive sampling methods such as that based on terrestrial laser scanning (TLS). In this work, TLS-derived point clouds were used to digitally reconstruct the tree stem of a set of teak trees (Tectona grandis Linn. F.) from 58 circular reference plots of 18 m radius belonging to three different plantations located in the Coastal Region of Ecuador. After manually selecting the appropriate trees from the entire sample, semi-automatic data processing was performed to provide measurements of TSCV and TSV, together with estimates of AGB values at tree level. These observed values were used to develop allometric models, based on diameter at breast height (DBH), total tree height (h), or the metric DBH2 × h, by applying a robust regression method to remove likely outliers. Results showed that the developed allometric models performed reasonably well, especially those based on the metric DBH2 × h, providing low bias estimates and relative RMSE values of 21.60% and 16.41% for TSCV and TSV, respectively. Allometric models only based on tree height were derived from replacing DBH by h in the expression DBH2 x h, according to adjusted expressions depending on DBH classes (ranges of DBH). This finding can facilitate the obtaining of variables such as AGB (carbon stock) and commercial volume of wood over teak plantations in the Coastal Region of Ecuador from only knowing the tree height, constituting a promising method to address large-scale teak plantations monitoring from the canopy height models derived from digital aerial stereophotogrammetry

Object-Based Greenhouse Mapping Using Very High Resolution Satellite Data and Landsat 8 Time Series

Greenhouse mapping through remote sensing has received extensive attention over the last decades. In this article, the innovative goal relies on mapping greenhouses through the combined use of very high resolution satellite data (WorldView-2) and Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) time series within a context of an object-based image analysis (OBIA) and decision tree classification. Thus, WorldView-2 was mainly used to segment the study area focusing on individual greenhouses. Basic spectral information, spectral and vegetation indices, textural features, seasonal statistics and a spectral metric (Moment Distance Index, MDI) derived from Landsat 8 time series and/or WorldView-2 imagery were computed on previously segmented image objects. In order to test its temporal stability, the same approach was applied for two different years, 2014 and 2015. In both years, MDI was pointed out as the most important feature to detect greenhouses. Moreover, the threshold value of this spectral metric turned to be extremely stable for both Landsat 8 and WorldView-2 imagery. A simple decision tree always using the same threshold values for features from Landsat 8 time series and WorldView-2 was finally proposed. Overall accuracies of 93.0% and 93.3% and kappa coefficients of 0.856 and 0.861 were attained for 2014 and 2015 datasets, respectively

High Resolution Viscosity Measurement by Thermal Noise Detection

An interferometric method is implemented in order to accurately assess the thermal fluctuations of a micro-cantilever sensor in liquid environments. The power spectrum density (PSD) of thermal fluctuations together with Sader's model of the cantilever allow for the indirect measurement of the liquid viscosity with good accuracy. The good quality of the deflection signal and the characteristic low noise of the instrument allow for the detection and corrections of drawbacks due to both the cantilever shape irregularities and the uncertainties on the position of the laser spot at the fluctuating end of the cantilever. Variation of viscosity below 0.03 mPa$\cdot$s was detected with the alternative to achieve measurements with a volume as low as 50 $\mu$L.Comment: Sensors, MDPI, 201

La huella de la beneficencia en los servicios sociales

Los Servicios Sociales contemporáneos, máxime tras la aprobación de la nueva generación de leyes de Servicios Sociales en esta década, se presentan a menudo como una ruptura con la tradición de la beneficencia, contraponiéndose el derecho subjetivo a los Servicios Sociales con el carácter graciable que se atribuye a aquel sistema. Este artículo analiza algunos de los rasgos institucionales fundamentales de la beneficencia pública, especialmente en el siglo XIX, y pone de manifiesto en qué medida la ruptura entre ambos modelos no es tan evidente. Al contrario, el autor muestra cómo, en el marco de una transformación que afirma hacer tabla rasa del pasado, se mantienen elementos estructurales importantes del régimen precedente, como la frag- mentación competencial o la reticencia -al menos hasta la aprobación de la Ley de Dependencia y de algunas de las nuevas leyes autonómicas de Servicios Sociales- al reconocimiento de derechos espe- cíficos a la ciudadanía, más allá de las obligaciones asignadas al Estado, sobre todo en el ejercicio de su función tutelar

Los servicios sociales en la tormenta

Los servicios sociales están sufriendo el impacto de la crisis tanto en forma de un incremento de la demanda como de una reducción de los recursos disponibles. Sin embargo, la relativa tranquilidad de los años de expansión económica ocultaban algunos problemas estructurales del modelo de servicios sociales modernos configurado en España desde la Transición, y que aparecen en toda su crudeza ahora. El artículo analiza tres aspectos problemáticos de este modelo, a saber, la insuficiente definición del objeto de los servicios sociales, el carácter discrecional de muchas de sus acciones y su complicada estructuración territorial. Finalmente se proponen algunas líneas de reforma para una posible redefinición