Manipulating plant geometry to improve microclimate, grain yield, and harvest index in grain sorghum

Cultivar selection, planting geometry, and plant population are the key factors determining grain sorghum yields in water deficit areas. The objective of this study was to investigate whether clump geometry (three plants clustered) improves microclimate within crop canopy when plants are grown under varying water levels. In a 2-yr sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) greenhouse study, plants were grown at two geometries (clump and conventional evenly spaced planting, ESP), two water levels (high and low, representing well-watered and water-limited condition, respectively), and three soil surface treatments (lid covered, straw-mulched, and bare). Air temperature and relative humidity (RH) within the plant canopy were measured every five minutes at different growth stages. Mean vapor pressure deficits (VPDs) within the clumps were consistently lower than those for ESPs, indicating that clumps improved the microclimate. Clumps had significantly higher harvest index (HI) compared to ESPs (0.48 vs. 0.43), which was largely due to clumps having an average of 0.4 tillers per plant compared to 1.2 tillers per plant for ESPs. Grain yield in the current study was similar between clumps and ESPs. However, our results suggest that improved microclimate was likely a reason for clumps producing significantly higher grain yields compared to ESPs in previous studies

Analysis of Aroma Characteristics of Fermented Lingyun Baihao Tea Based on Odor Activity Value

This study aimed to analyze the difference in aroma components and aroma characteristics of different types (white, oolong, yellow and black) of fermented Lingyun Baihao tea. The aroma components were identified by solid phase microextraction (SPME) combined with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), and odor activity value (OAV) was used to determine the key flavor components. By combined use of principal component analysis (PCA), orthogonal partial least square-discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA), cluster analysis and sensory evaluation, the aroma of fermented Lingyun baihao tea was comprehensively evaluated. The results showed that a total of 48 aroma compounds were identified in the tea samples, including 15 key flavor components and flavor-modifying components (OAV > 0.1). The cumulative interpretation rate R2X (cum) and the cumulative prediction rate Q2 (cum) of the PCA model were 0.984 and 0.846, respectively, and those of the OPLS-DA model were greater than 0.7 and 0.9, respectively. Both models had good fitness. The major differential components were linalool, isoamyl alcohol, 2-methylbutyraldehyde, β-ionone, nonanal and jasmone. The 15 aroma components were classified into three categories by hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA). Class I contained indole and dehydroalinalool, Class II contained linalool, nonanal, phenylacetaldehyde, hexanal, 2-methylbutyraldehyde, isovaleraldehyde, phenylethanol and isobutyraldehyde, and Class III contained jasmone, β-ionone, methyl salicylate, 2-pentylfuran and dimethyl sulfide. Class I was prominent in oolong tea samples, Class II was prominent in black tea samples, Class III was prominent in white tea samples, and Class II and III were prominent in yellow tea samples. These aroma characteristics were consistent with the results of sensory aroma evaluation. GC-MS analysis and OAV calculation combined with PCA, OPLS-DA and HCA can enable the identification and evaluation of Lingyun Baihao fermented tea aroma. The results of this study can provide a reference for the further development of Lingyun Baihao tea

Organic management increases beneficial microorganisms and promotes the stability of microecological networks in tea plantation soil

IntroductionOrganic agriculture is highly regarded by people for its commitment to health, ecology, care, and fairness. The soil microbial community responds quickly to environmental changes and is a good indicator for evaluating soil microecology. Therefore, from the perspective of soil microbial communities, elucidating the impact of organic management on soil microecology in tea plantations has great significance for improving local tea plantation systems.MethodsThe study collected bulk soil from organic management (OM) and conventional management (CM) tea plantations in Pu'er City, a major tea-producing area in China, and analyzed their species diversity, structural composition, and co-occurrence networks using metagenomics technology.ResultsCompared with CM, the diversity index (Shannon) and evenness index (Heip) of soil fungi increased by 7.38% and 84.2% in OM tea plantations, respectively. The relative abundance of microorganisms related to the nitrogen cycle increased. Specifically, there was a significant increase in Rhodobiales, a 2-fold increase in Nitrospirae, and approximately 1.95 and 2.03 times increases in unclassified genera within Betaproteobacteria and Deltaproteobacteria, respectively. The relative abundance of plant residue degradation species, Gemmatimonadetes, Ascomycota, and Basidiomycota, increased by 2.8, 1, and 1.4 times, respectively. The OM was conducive to the establishment of collaborative relationships among bacterial species and increased the diversity and complexity of species relationships in fungal communities. The network stability of soil ecosystems was promoted. The organic tea plantations' keystone taxa contained mycorrhizal fungi (Pezoloma_ericae, Rhizophagus_irregularis, Rhizophagus_clarus), as well as species involved in soil nitrogen metabolism (Acidobacteria_bacterium, Acidobacteriia_bacterium_AA117, Sphingomonas_sp._URHD0007, Enhydrobacter_aerosaccus), pathogen (Erysiphe_pulchra), and parasites (Paramycosporidium saccamoeba). The partial least squares method (PLS-SEM) indicated that OM affected N-NH4+ negatively, increasing the abundance of fungi, and thereby positively affecting the Shannon index.ConclusionIn brief, reasonable organic management can improve the diversity of soil microorganisms, increase the relative abundance of beneficial bacteria in tea plantation soil, and promote the stability of the soil microbial ecological network

Tensor based multichannel reconstruction for breast tumours identification from DCE-MRIs

A new methodology based on tensor algebra that uses a higher order singular value decomposition to perform three-dimensional voxel reconstruction from a series of temporal images obtained using dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) is proposed. Principal component analysis (PCA) is used to robustly extract the spatial and temporal image features and simultaneously de-noise the datasets. Tumour segmentation on enhanced scaled (ES) images performed using a fuzzy C-means (FCM) cluster algorithm is compared with that achieved using the proposed tensorial framework. The proposed algorithm explores the correlations between spatial and temporal features in the tumours. The multi-channel reconstruction enables improved breast tumour identification through enhanced de-noising and improved intensity consistency. The reconstructed tumours have clear and continuous boundaries; furthermore the reconstruction shows better voxel clustering in tumour regions of interest. A more homogenous intensity distribution is also observed, enabling improved image contrast between tumours and background, especially in places where fatty tissue is imaged. The fidelity of reconstruction is further evaluated on the basis of five new qualitative metrics. Results confirm the superiority of the tensorial approach. The proposed reconstruction metrics should also find future applications in the assessment of other reconstruction algorithms

The Effectiveness of Monetary Policy : Empirical Evidence from China

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

The Effectiveness of Monetary Policy : Empirical Evidence from China

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

The role of monetary aggregates in Chinese monetary policy implementation

Monetary targeting has been abandoned in deregulated and liberalised financial systems. Theoretically, this could imply that emerging markets that have not yet deregulated financial markets could employ monetarist policies. We analyse the case of China, in order to explore whether monetary targeting was in theory a possible policy framework for the central bank, and in order to glean policy lessons for emerging markets. Employing Svensson’s (1997) criteria for the selection of intermediate targets, we find that a measure such as M1 fulfils the criteria and can serve as intermediate target. However, it is also found that the relatively small error between monetary target and actual variables may be due to alternative monetary policy procedures, in particular the use of ‘window guidance’ credit controls. Next, we test the relevance of the McCallum (2000) rule in China, which appears more relevant than the Taylor rule. In particular, we find that the actual movement of M1 fits the McCallum rule reasonably well, even during the high inflation period from 1992 to 1994. This suggests that before the official adoption of M1 as the intermediate target in 1994, the PBC may have already been “practicing” its use by implicitly following the McCallum rule. It is also found that monetary policy was too loose during 1992 to 1994, and a little too tight during 1998 to 2002. We conclude that an analysis of the traditional monetary aggregates is insufficient, and research on the role of credit aggregates would appear to be more promising. Meanwhile, policy lessons from our study include that central banks even in emerging markets that maintain relatively regulated and ‘repressed’ financial markets, cannot rely too much on quantitative monetary aggregates, if traditionally define

Provincial spatial distribution of social capital in 2019.

Provincial spatial distribution of social capital in 2019.</p