45 research outputs found
Taro in west Africa: status, challenges, and opportunities
Open Access JournalTaro is an ancient nutritional and medicinal crop woven into the fabric of the socio-economic life of those living in the tropics and sub-tropics. However, West Africa (WA), which has been a major producer of the crop for several decades, is experiencing a significant decline in production as a result of taro leaf blight (TLB), a disease caused by Phytophthora colocasiae Raciborski. A lack of research on taro in WA means that available innovative technologies have not been fully utilized to provide solutions to inherent challenges and enhance the status of the crop. Improvement through plant breeding remains the most economically and environmentally sustainable means of increasing the productivity of taro in WA. With this review, we provide insights into the importance of the taro crop in WA, evaluate taro research to date, and suggest how to address research gaps in order to promote taro sustainability in the region
Transport across nanogaps using semiclassically consistent boundary conditions
Charge particle transport across nanogaps is studied theoretically within the
Schrodinger-Poisson mean field framework and the existence of limiting current
investigated. It is shown that the choice of a first order WKB wavefunction as
the transmitted wave leads to self consistent boundary conditions and gives
results that are significantly different in the non-classical regime from those
obtained using a plane transmitted wave. At zero injection energies, the
quantum limiting current density, J_c, is found to obey the local scaling law
J_c ~ (V_g)^alpha/(D)^{5-2alpha} with the gap separation D and voltage V_g. The
exponent alpha > 1.1 with alpha --> 3/2 in the classical regime of small de
Broglie wavelengths. These results are consistent with recent experiments using
nanogaps most of which are found to be in a parameter regime where classical
space charge limited scaling holds away from the emission dominated regime.Comment: 4 pages, 4 ps figure
Ethnobotany and Perceptions on the Value of Taro (Colocasia esculenta) among farmers in the Benin Republic
Open Access ArticleTaro (Colocasia esculenta) is a widely grown vegetatively propagated food crop in the Benin Republic. The taro leaf blight (TLB) epidemic in 2009, caused by Phytophthora colocasiae, has destroyed taro production and wiped out many taro landraces in West Africa. A survey was conducted in the southern region of Benin to assess the status of taro and TLB, ethnobotany, farmers' perceptions of taro, and identify production constraints. A structured questionnaire was used to collect information from 24 farmers in 17 villages across six departments, and the TLB incidence was assessed in the same fields. The results revealed the prevalence of TLB across all the villages and a sharp reduction in production since the TLB epidemic. The TLB incidence ranged from 25 to 100%, however, the mean symptom severity score per field assessed on a 1 to 5 rating scale varied between 0.25 and 2.8. Awareness about the TLB or good crop management practices was low. Integrated methods for TLB control and improved agronomic management are crucial to enhance taro yields. In the long term, introducing resistant varieties is critical for the sustainable management of TLB and taro production in Benin
A Simple Model for the DNA Denaturation Transition
We study pairs of interacting self-avoiding walks on the 3d simple cubic
lattice. They have a common origin and are allowed to overlap only at the same
monomer position along the chain. The latter overlaps are indeed favored by an
energetic gain.
This is inspired by a model introduced long ago by Poland and Sheraga [J.
Chem. Phys. {\bf 45}, 1464 (1966)] for the denaturation transition in DNA
where, however, self avoidance was not fully taken into account. For both
models, there exists a temperature T_m above which the entropic advantage to
open up overcomes the energy gained by forming tightly bound two-stranded
structures.
Numerical simulations of our model indicate that the transition is of first
order (the energy density is discontinuous), but the analog of the surface
tension vanishes and the scaling laws near the transition point are exactly
those of a second order transition with crossover exponent \phi=1. Numerical
and exact analytic results show that the transition is second order in modified
models where the self-avoidance is partially or completely neglected.Comment: 29 pages, LaTeX, 20 postscript figure
Antagonistic and plant growth promotion of rhizobacteria against Phytophthora colocasiae in taro
Open Access Article; Published online: 02 Dec 2022Taro leaf blight caused by Phytophthora colocasiae adversely affects the growth and yield of taro. The management of this disease depends heavily on synthetic fungicides. These compounds, however, pose potential hazards to human health and the environment. The present study aimed to investigate an alternative approach for plant growth promotion and disease control by evaluating seven different bacterial strains (viz., Serratia plymuthica, S412; S. plymuthica, S414; S. plymuthica, AS13; S. proteamaculans, S4; S. rubidaea,
EV23; S. rubidaea, AV10; Pseudomonas fluorescens, SLU-99) and their different combinations as consortia against P. colocasiae. Antagonistic tests were performed in in vitro plate assays and the effective strains were selected for detached leaf assays and greenhouse trials. Plant growth-promoting and disease prevention traits of selected bacterial strains were also investigated in vitro. Our results indicated that some of these strains used singly (AV10, AS13, S4, and S414) and in combinations (S4+S414, AS13+AV10) reduced the growth
of P. colocasiae (30−50%) in vitro and showed disease reduction ability when used singly or in combinations as consortia in greenhouse trials (88.75−99.37%). The disease-suppressing ability of these strains may be related to the production of enzymes such as chitinase, protease, cellulase, and amylase. Furthermore, all strains tested possessed plant growth-promoting traits such as indole-3-acetic acid production, siderophore formation, and phosphate solubilization. Overall, the present study revealed that bacterial strains significantly suppressed P. colocasiae disease development using in vitro, detached leaf, and greenhouse assays. Therefore, these bacterial strains can be used as an alternative strategy to minimize the use of synthetic fungicides and fertilizers to control taro blight and improve sustainable taro production
Cosmic F- and D-strings
Macroscopic fundamental and Dirichlet strings have several potential
instabilities: breakage, tachyon decays, and confinement by axion domain walls.
We investigate the conditions under which metastable strings can exist, and we
find that such strings are present in many models. There are various
possibilities, the most notable being a network of (p,q) strings. Cosmic
strings give a potentially large window into string physics.Comment: 27 pages, 5 figures; v. 5: JHEP style, added comments in section 2.
Upper limit on the cosmic-ray photon fraction at EeV energies from the Pierre Auger Observatory
From direct observations of the longitudinal development of ultra-high energy
air showers performed with the Pierre Auger Observatory, upper limits of 3.8%,
2.4%, 3.5% and 11.7% (at 95% c.l.) are obtained on the fraction of cosmic-ray
photons above 2, 3, 5 and 10 EeV (1 EeV = 10^18 eV) respectively. These are the
first experimental limits on ultra-high energy photons at energies below 10
EeV. The results complement previous constraints on top-down models from array
data and they reduce systematic uncertainties in the interpretation of shower
data in terms of primary flux, nuclear composition and proton-air
cross-section.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables. Minor changes. Accepted by
Astroparticle Physic
Anemia prevalence in women of reproductive age in low- and middle-income countries between 2000 and 2018
Anemia is a globally widespread condition in women and is associated with reduced economic productivity and increased mortality worldwide. Here we map annual 2000–2018 geospatial estimates of anemia prevalence in women of reproductive age (15–49 years) across 82 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), stratify anemia by severity and aggregate results to policy-relevant administrative and national levels. Additionally, we provide subnational disparity analyses to provide a comprehensive overview of anemia prevalence inequalities within these countries and predict progress toward the World Health Organization’s Global Nutrition Target (WHO GNT) to reduce anemia by half by 2030. Our results demonstrate widespread moderate improvements in overall anemia prevalence but identify only three LMICs with a high probability of achieving the WHO GNT by 2030 at a national scale, and no LMIC is expected to achieve the target in all their subnational administrative units. Our maps show where large within-country disparities occur, as well as areas likely to fall short of the WHO GNT, offering precision public health tools so that adequate resource allocation and subsequent interventions can be targeted to the most vulnerable populations.Peer reviewe
Mapping local patterns of childhood overweight and wasting in low- and middle-income countries between 2000 and 2017
A double burden of malnutrition occurs when individuals, household members or communities experience both undernutrition and overweight. Here, we show geospatial estimates of overweight and wasting prevalence among children under 5 years of age in 105 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) from 2000 to 2017 and aggregate these to policy-relevant administrative units. Wasting decreased overall across LMICs between 2000 and 2017, from 8.4 (62.3 (55.1�70.8) million) to 6.4 (58.3 (47.6�70.7) million), but is predicted to remain above the World Health Organization�s Global Nutrition Target of <5 in over half of LMICs by 2025. Prevalence of overweight increased from 5.2 (30 (22.8�38.5) million) in 2000 to 6.0 (55.5 (44.8�67.9) million) children aged under 5 years in 2017. Areas most affected by double burden of malnutrition were located in Indonesia, Thailand, southeastern China, Botswana, Cameroon and central Nigeria. Our estimates provide a new perspective to researchers, policy makers and public health agencies in their efforts to address this global childhood syndemic. © 2020, The Author(s)