Wireless multimedia sensor network for plant disease detections

International audienceTo minimize pesticide use it is necessary to detect at the early stage the present of plant disease and perform local treatment instead of global systematic treatment. To achieve this goal, one of the techniques may be used is image processing through the deployment of WMSN in the cultivated field. However, transmitting massive image data wirelessly will increase significantly network traffic and particularly energy consumption. In this paper, we propose a plant disease detection approach which is designed to run on the resource-constrained WMSN nodes. Through the analysis of plant images acquired by the node, this new approach is able to make a preliminary local decision on the health condition of the plant and determine the necessity of sending back images to the control centre for further inspection, thus improving the efficiency of the monitoring network. The complete method includes image segmentation based on both color and shape, and uses 2D histogram as the feature for classification. Experiments on the plant images with nutrient deficiency symptoms show the classification accuracy of the new method reaches 87.5%

USO DE DOSES DE NITROGÊNIO EM COBERTURA NO MILHO SAFRINHA EM NAVIRAÍ-MS

O nitrogênio (N) é o nutriente exigido em maiores quantidades pela cultura do milho e sua baixa disponibilidade é observada na maioria dos solos tropicais. Desta forma, este trabalho teve como objetivo avaliar o efeito de doses de N em cobertura no milho safrinha sobre a altura da planta, altura de inserção de espiga e diâmetro do colmo da cultura em Naviraí - MS. O experimento foi conduzido na área experimental do Instituto Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul - IFMS campus Naviraí - MS. Os tratamentos foram compostos por (0, 50, 100, 150 e 200 kg de N ha-1), utilizando como fonte o sulfato de amônio. As variáveis biométricas foram avaliadas aos 83 dias após o plantio. As maiores médias estimadas foram de 197,96 cm obtida com uma dose de 130,7 kg de N ha-1 para altura da planta, 104,01 cm obtida com a dose de 135,7 kg ha-1 para altura de inserção da espiga e 2,37 cm com a dose de 205 kg de N ha-1 para o diâmetro do colmo. A equação polinomial de 2ª grau apresentou os melhores ajustes em relação ao coeficiente de determinação (R2) para todas as variáveis obtidas até o momento nessa pesquisa

Simultaneous eradications of Black Rat (Rattus rattus) and Ice plants (Carpobrotus spp.) on Bagaud Island (Port-Cros National Park, Provence, France): preliminary results on their impacts on Athropods communities

Les invasions biologiques sont reconnues comme l’une des principales menaces pour la conservation de la biodiversité, et de nombreux travaux ont été conduits à travers la planète pour restaurer la biodiversité insulaire par des programmes d’éradication d’espèces invasives. Cependant, peu d’études scientifiques post-éradication ont été conduites notamment pour l’évaluation de la biodiversité des communautés d’Arthropodes. L’île de Bagaud, située dans l’archipel des îles d’Hyères (Var, France), est une réserve intégrale du Parc national de Port-Cros (PNPC) qui a notamment été soumise à deux perturbations majeures d’origine anthropique au cours des derniers siècles : l’invasion du Rat noir (Rattus rattus) et celle des Griffes de sorcière (Carpobrotus spp.). Ces espèces allochtones engendrent des effets particulièrement néfastes sur la flore et la faune des écosystèmes insulaires méditerranéens, notamment sur les Arthropodes. Le PNPC a ainsi lancé un programme décennal de restauration écologique qui implique l’éradication de ces deux taxons invasifs. La communauté des Arthropodes de l’île a fait l’objet d’un état initial au printemps 2011, les éradications ont été effectuées entre septembre 2011 et janvier 2013, et la première campagne d’échantillonnage post-éradication a été réalisée au printemps 2013. L’échantillonnage de la faune épigée a été réalisé au moyen de quatre transects fixes de pièges Barber répartis dans différents milieux écologiques de l’île. Cette première étude post-éradication révèle une augmentation de l’abondance des Arthropodes piégés entre 2011 (4868 individus dans 74 pièges) et 2013 (6892, n = 60). Les effectifs moyens par piège augmentent significativement dans les zones où les Carpobrotus spp. ont été arrachés, mais chutent dans la zone de maquis qui abritait une forte densité de R. rattus. La richesse spécifique reste globalement stable (220 morpho-espèces en 2011, 216 en 2013), cependant les communautés de décomposeurs explosent a contrario des populations de prédateurs. Les suivis doivent être poursuivis afin de mieux déterminer les impacts directs et indirects à long terme de ces éradications s’exerçant sur la biodiversité des communautés d’Arthropodes de l’île.Biological invasions are recognized as one of the major threats to island biodiversity conservation, and numerous studies have been conducted around the world to restore the biodiversity of islands submitted to invasive species impacts. However, few scientific post-eradication studies were piloted notably for the biodiversity assessment of Arthropod communities. Bagaud Island is an integral reserve of the Port-Cros National Park (PNPC), located in the îles d’Hyères Archipelago (Var, France). In the last centuries, it has undergone two major anthropogenic disturbances: the invasion of the Black Rat (Rattus rattus) and the Ice plants (Carpobrotus spp.), two alien taxa known for their particularly negative effects on the flora and fauna of the Mediterranean island ecosystems, including Arthropods. PNPC has launched a ten-year program of ecological restoration that involves the eradication of these two invasive taxa. The Arthropod communities of the island have been analysed in their initial state in spring 2011, eradications were conducted between September 2011 and January 2013, and the first post-eradication campaign began in spring 2013. The ground fauna was sampled using four transects of Barber traps distributed in different ecological contexts of the island. This first post-eradication study reveals an increase in the abundance of arthropods trapped between 2011 (4868 individuals in 74 traps) and 2013 (6892, n = 60). The average number of trapped Arthropods was significantly higher in areas where Carpobrotus spp. have been eradicated, but declined in the bush area that housed a high density of R. rattus. The communities of decomposers explode, in contrast to predator populations. However, the global specific richness remains stable (220 morphospecies in 2011, 216 in 2013). Scientific monitoring by the PNC must be continued to better determine the direct and indirect long-term impacts of these eradications upon the structure and the functioning of the Arthropods communities of the Bagaud Island

Distinct Behaviour of the Homeodomain Derived Cell Penetrating Peptide Penetratin in Interaction with Different Phospholipids

Penetratin is a protein transduction domain derived from the homeoprotein Antennapedia. Thereby it is currently used as a cell penetrating peptide to introduce diverse molecules into eukaryotic cells, and it could also be involved in the cellular export of transcription factors. Moreover, it has been shown that it is able to act as an antimicrobial agent. The mechanisms involved in all these processes are quite controversial.In this article, we report spectroscopic, calorimetric and biochemical data on the penetratin interaction with three different phospholipids: phosphatidylcholine (PC) and phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) to mimic respectively the outer and the inner leaflets of the eukaryotic plasma membrane and phosphatidylglycerol (PG) to mimic the bacterial membrane. We demonstrate that with PC, penetratin is able to form vesicle aggregates with no major change in membrane fluidity and presents no well defined secondary structure organization. With PE, penetratin aggregates vesicles, increases membrane rigidity and acquires an α-helical structure. With PG membranes, penetratin does not aggregate vesicles but decreases membrane fluidity and acquires a structure with both α-helical and β–sheet contributions.These data from membrane models suggest that the different penetratin actions in eukaryotic cells (membrane translocation during export and import) and on prokaryotes may result from different peptide and lipid structural arrangements. The data suggest that, for eukaryotic cell penetration, penetratin does not acquire classical secondary structure but requires a different conformation compared to that in solution

Design concepts for the Cherenkov Telescope Array CTA: an advanced facility for ground-based high-energy gamma-ray astronomy

Ground-based gamma-ray astronomy has had a major breakthrough with the impressive results obtained using systems of imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes. Ground-based gamma-ray astronomy has a huge potential in astrophysics, particle physics and cosmology. CTA is an international initiative to build the next generation instrument, with a factor of 5-10 improvement in sensitivity in the 100 GeV-10 TeV range and the extension to energies well below 100 GeV and above 100 TeV. CTA will consist of two arrays (one in the north, one in the south) for full sky coverage and will be operated as open observatory. The design of CTA is based on currently available technology. This document reports on the status and presents the major design concepts of CTA

Height and body-mass index trajectories of school-aged children and adolescents from 1985 to 2019 in 200 countries and territories: a pooled analysis of 2181 population-based studies with 65 million participants

Summary Background Comparable global data on health and nutrition of school-aged children and adolescents are scarce. We aimed to estimate age trajectories and time trends in mean height and mean body-mass index (BMI), which measures weight gain beyond what is expected from height gain, for school-aged children and adolescents. Methods For this pooled analysis, we used a database of cardiometabolic risk factors collated by the Non-Communicable Disease Risk Factor Collaboration. We applied a Bayesian hierarchical model to estimate trends from 1985 to 2019 in mean height and mean BMI in 1-year age groups for ages 5–19 years. The model allowed for non-linear changes over time in mean height and mean BMI and for non-linear changes with age of children and adolescents, including periods of rapid growth during adolescence. Findings We pooled data from 2181 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight in 65 million participants in 200 countries and territories. In 2019, we estimated a difference of 20 cm or higher in mean height of 19-year-old adolescents between countries with the tallest populations (the Netherlands, Montenegro, Estonia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina for boys; and the Netherlands, Montenegro, Denmark, and Iceland for girls) and those with the shortest populations (Timor-Leste, Laos, Solomon Islands, and Papua New Guinea for boys; and Guatemala, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Timor-Leste for girls). In the same year, the difference between the highest mean BMI (in Pacific island countries, Kuwait, Bahrain, The Bahamas, Chile, the USA, and New Zealand for both boys and girls and in South Africa for girls) and lowest mean BMI (in India, Bangladesh, Timor-Leste, Ethiopia, and Chad for boys and girls; and in Japan and Romania for girls) was approximately 9–10 kg/m2. In some countries, children aged 5 years started with healthier height or BMI than the global median and, in some cases, as healthy as the best performing countries, but they became progressively less healthy compared with their comparators as they grew older by not growing as tall (eg, boys in Austria and Barbados, and girls in Belgium and Puerto Rico) or gaining too much weight for their height (eg, girls and boys in Kuwait, Bahrain, Fiji, Jamaica, and Mexico; and girls in South Africa and New Zealand). In other countries, growing children overtook the height of their comparators (eg, Latvia, Czech Republic, Morocco, and Iran) or curbed their weight gain (eg, Italy, France, and Croatia) in late childhood and adolescence. When changes in both height and BMI were considered, girls in South Korea, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and some central Asian countries (eg, Armenia and Azerbaijan), and boys in central and western Europe (eg, Portugal, Denmark, Poland, and Montenegro) had the healthiest changes in anthropometric status over the past 3·5 decades because, compared with children and adolescents in other countries, they had a much larger gain in height than they did in BMI. The unhealthiest changes—gaining too little height, too much weight for their height compared with children in other countries, or both—occurred in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, New Zealand, and the USA for boys and girls; in Malaysia and some Pacific island nations for boys; and in Mexico for girls. Interpretation The height and BMI trajectories over age and time of school-aged children and adolescents are highly variable across countries, which indicates heterogeneous nutritional quality and lifelong health advantages and risks

Southern African Large Telescope Spectroscopy of BL Lacs for the CTA project

In the last two decades, very-high-energy gamma-ray astronomy has reached maturity: over 200 sources have been detected, both Galactic and extragalactic, by ground-based experiments. At present, Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) make up about 40% of the more than 200 sources detected at very high energies with ground-based telescopes, the majority of which are blazars, i.e. their jets are closely aligned with the line of sight to Earth and three quarters of which are classified as high-frequency peaked BL Lac objects. One challenge to studies of the cosmological evolution of BL Lacs is the difficulty of obtaining redshifts from their nearly featureless, continuum-dominated spectra. It is expected that a significant fraction of the AGN to be detected with the future Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) observatory will have no spectroscopic redshifts, compromising the reliability of BL Lac population studies, particularly of their cosmic evolution. We started an effort in 2019 to measure the redshifts of a large fraction of the AGN that are likely to be detected with CTA, using the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT). In this contribution, we present two results from an on-going SALT program focused on the determination of BL Lac object redshifts that will be relevant for the CTA observatory

Worldwide trends in hypertension prevalence and progress in treatment and control from 1990 to 2019: a pooled analysis of 1201 population-representative studies with 104 million participants.

BACKGROUND: Hypertension can be detected at the primary health-care level and low-cost treatments can effectively control hypertension. We aimed to measure the prevalence of hypertension and progress in its detection, treatment, and control from 1990 to 2019 for 200 countries and territories. METHODS: We used data from 1990 to 2019 on people aged 30-79 years from population-representative studies with measurement of blood pressure and data on blood pressure treatment. We defined hypertension as having systolic blood pressure 140 mm Hg or greater, diastolic blood pressure 90 mm Hg or greater, or taking medication for hypertension. We applied a Bayesian hierarchical model to estimate the prevalence of hypertension and the proportion of people with hypertension who had a previous diagnosis (detection), who were taking medication for hypertension (treatment), and whose hypertension was controlled to below 140/90 mm Hg (control). The model allowed for trends over time to be non-linear and to vary by age. FINDINGS: The number of people aged 30-79 years with hypertension doubled from 1990 to 2019, from 331 (95% credible interval 306-359) million women and 317 (292-344) million men in 1990 to 626 (584-668) million women and 652 (604-698) million men in 2019, despite stable global age-standardised prevalence. In 2019, age-standardised hypertension prevalence was lowest in Canada and Peru for both men and women; in Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, and some countries in western Europe including Switzerland, Spain, and the UK for women; and in several low-income and middle-income countries such as Eritrea, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, and Solomon Islands for men. Hypertension prevalence surpassed 50% for women in two countries and men in nine countries, in central and eastern Europe, central Asia, Oceania, and Latin America. Globally, 59% (55-62) of women and 49% (46-52) of men with hypertension reported a previous diagnosis of hypertension in 2019, and 47% (43-51) of women and 38% (35-41) of men were treated. Control rates among people with hypertension in 2019 were 23% (20-27) for women and 18% (16-21) for men. In 2019, treatment and control rates were highest in South Korea, Canada, and Iceland (treatment >70%; control >50%), followed by the USA, Costa Rica, Germany, Portugal, and Taiwan. Treatment rates were less than 25% for women and less than 20% for men in Nepal, Indonesia, and some countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Oceania. Control rates were below 10% for women and men in these countries and for men in some countries in north Africa, central and south Asia, and eastern Europe. Treatment and control rates have improved in most countries since 1990, but we found little change in most countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Oceania. Improvements were largest in high-income countries, central Europe, and some upper-middle-income and recently high-income countries including Costa Rica, Taiwan, Kazakhstan, South Africa, Brazil, Chile, Turkey, and Iran. INTERPRETATION: Improvements in the detection, treatment, and control of hypertension have varied substantially across countries, with some middle-income countries now outperforming most high-income nations. The dual approach of reducing hypertension prevalence through primary prevention and enhancing its treatment and control is achievable not only in high-income countries but also in low-income and middle-income settings. FUNDING: WHO