Reconciling Techno-simplicity and Eco-complexity for future food security

Ecological intensification has been proposed as a paradigm for ensuring global food security while preserving biodiversity and ecosystem integrity. Ecologicalintensification was originally coined to promote precise site-specific farming practices aimed at reducing yield gaps, while avoiding negative environmental impacts (techno-simplicity). Recently, it has been extended to stress the importance of landscape complexity to preserve biodiversity and ecosystem services (eco-complexity). While these perspectives on ecological intensification may seem distinct, they are not incompatible and should be interwoven to create more comprehensive and practical solutions. Here, we argue that designing cropping systems to be more diverse, across space and time would be an effective route to accomplish environmentally-friendly intensification of crop production. Such a novel approach will require better integration of knowledge at the landscape level for increasing agro-biodiversity(focused on interventions outside fields) with strategies diversifying croppingsystems to manage weeds and pests (focused on interventions inside fields).Fil: Poggio, Santiago Luis. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía. Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía. Departamento de Producción Vegetal. Cátedra de Producción Vegetal; ArgentinaFil: Macfadyen, Sarina. CSIRO; AustraliaFil: Bohan, David A.. Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique; Franci

Classification of hyper-scale multimodal imaging datasets

Algorithms that classify hyper-scale multi-modal datasets, comprising of millions of images, into constituent modality types can help researchers quickly retrieve and classify diagnostic imaging data, accelerating clinical outcomes. This research aims to demonstrate that a deep neural network that is trained on a hyper-scale dataset (4.5 million images) composed of heterogeneous multi-modal data can be used to obtain significant modality classification accuracy (96%). By combining 102 medical imaging datasets, a dataset of 4.5 million images was created. A ResNet-50, ResNet-18, and VGG16 were trained to classify these images by the imaging modality used to capture them (Computed Tomography (CT), Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Positron Emission Tomography (PET), and X-ray) across many body locations. The classification accuracy of the models was then tested on unseen data. The best performing model achieved classification accuracy of 96% on unseen data, which is on-par, or exceeds the accuracy of more complex implementations using EfficientNets or Vision Transformers (ViTs). The model achieved a balanced accuracy of 86%. This research shows it is possible to train Deep Learning (DL) Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) with hyper-scale multimodal datasets, composed of millions of images. Such models can find use in real-world applications with volumes of image data in the hyper-scale range, such as medical imaging repositories, or national healthcare institutions. Further research can expand this classification capability to include 3D-scans.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

The genealogy of WHO and UNICEF and the intersecting careers of Melville Mackenzie (1889-1972) and Ludwik Rajchman (1881-1965)

This thesis traces the antecedents of the World Health Organization (WHO) back to the establishment of the League of Nations in 1920. The 1946 Constitution of WHO specifies two prime functions for the Organization – technical assistance to countries and cooperation with governments to strengthen national health services. The thesis analyses how international health work in the interwar years moved towards these tasks by studying the intersecting careers of Melville Mackenzie and Ludwik Rajchman. The analysis begins with relief and reconstruction in Russia in 1921-1923, extends to technical assistance to Greece and Bolivia in 1928-1930 and concludes with technical cooperation with China over the period 1930 to 1941. The viewpoint of the thesis is that of international staff working within the borders of sovereign states. The thesis reveals that policy documents drafted by the League of Nations Health Organisation between 1943 and 1945 defined the prime objective of an international health organization as being 'the promoting of health for all'. These documents also provided the basis of the Constitution of WHO, including its frequently-quoted definition of health. Mackenzie presented the WHO Constitution for approval to delegates attending the 1946 International Health Conference in New York and signed it on behalf of the United Kingdom, with authority that was unprecedented for a physician. The thesis uses a genealogical metaphor in exploring the origins of UNICEF and WHO. This shows the lineage of the former going back to generously funded agencies which supplied countries with health resources and resident international personnel. WHO, which originated from agencies that received scaled contributions from governments, lacked funds to engage, significantly, in technical cooperation with individual countries in the immediate postwar period. In 1948, an enduring and effective cooperation was established between UNICEF and WHO, as a consequence of a rivalry. Mackenzie and Rajchman are shown to have been at the heart of this. The thesis concludes by suggesting that international cooperation with countries to strengthen national health services might be improved by studying the interwar initiatives of Mackenzie and Rajchman

From neural to social: Medical student admissions criteria and engagement in a social learning environment

Notions of what it is to be knowledgeable and skilled in one's profession have evolved in recent decades. For instance, medical practitioners are expected to think critically and creatively, communicate effectively, and to be a professional and community leader. While these attributes have always been well regarded, it is only relatively recently that higher education institutions are actively incorporating these skills and attributes into student admissions criteria. In parallel, methods of instruction and course delivery have also changed over time with respect to these driving social paradigms. Today's medical schools are expected to both select and develop students in terms of these qualities through socially based pedagogical practices. This paper investigates the admissions criteria that best predict student engagement in a social learning environment and thus the related attributes such as communication, creativity, and leadership. The paper frames this investigation in the scholarship related to 21 st century skills and achievement orientations

Explosive Nucleosynthesis: Prospects

Explosive nucleosynthesis is a combination of the nuclear physics of thermonuclear reactions, and the hydrodynamics of the plasma in which the reactions occur. It depends upon the initial conditions---the stellar evolution up to the explosive instability, and the nature of the explosion mechanism. Some key issues for explosive nucleosynthesis are the interaction of burning with hydrodynamics, the degree of microscopic mixing in convective zones, and the breaking of spherical symmetry by convection and rotation. Recent experiments on high intensity lasers provides new opportunities for laboratory testing of astrophysical hydrodynamic codes. Implications of SN1987A, SN1998bw (GRB980425?), and eta Carina are discussed, as well as the formation of black holes or neutron stars.Comment: 15 pages, no figures, Elsevier Science volume honoring David N. Schram

Predicting incursion of plant invaders into Kruger National Park, South Africa : the interplay of general drivers and species-specific factors

The original article is available at www.plosone.orgBackground: Overcoming boundaries is crucial for incursion of alien plant species and their successful naturalization and invasion within protected areas. Previous work showed that in Kruger National Park, South Africa, this process can be quantified and that factors determining the incursion of invasive species can be identified and predicted confidently. Here we explore the similarity between determinants of incursions identified by the general model based on a multispecies assemblage, and those identified by species-specific models. We analyzed the presence and absence of six invasive plant species in 1.061.5 km segments along the border of the park as a function of environmental characteristics from outside and inside the KNP boundary, using two data-mining techniques: classification trees and random forests. Principal Findings: The occurrence of Ageratum houstonianum, Chromolaena odorata, Xanthium strumarium, Argemone ochroleuca, Opuntia stricta and Lantana camara can be reliably predicted based on landscape characteristics identified by the general multispecies model, namely water runoff from surrounding watersheds and road density in a 10 km radius. The presence of main rivers and species-specific combinations of vegetation types are reliable predictors from inside the park. Conclusions: The predictors from the outside and inside of the park are complementary, and are approximately equally reliable for explaining the presence/absence of current invaders; those from the inside are, however, more reliable for predicting future invasions. Landscape characteristics determined as crucial predictors from outside the KNP serve as guidelines for management to enact proactive interventions to manipulate landscape features near the KNP to prevent further incursions. Predictors from the inside the KNP can be used reliably to identify high-risk areas to improve the costeffectiveness of management, to locate invasive plants and target them for eradication.Publisher's versio

Contrasting beetle assemblage responses to cultivated farmlands and native woodlands in a dynamic agricultural landscape

There is an urgent need to identify ways of managing agricultural landscapes for biodiversity conservation without reducing food production. Farming practices that consider spatiooral heterogeneity of farm fields may be a feasible alternative to large-scale revegetation of farmlands for maintaining arthropod biodiversity and their important ecological function. We examined seasonal differences in beetle assemblages in woodland remnants and four adjoining farmland uses in a highly modified agricultural landscape in southeastern Australia. The farmland uses were crops, fallows, and two restoration treatments (fine woody debris applied over harvested crop fields, and restoration plantings). Unexpectedly, overall species richness was significantly lower in remnants than in adjacent farmlands. Remnants and farmlands supported significantly different assemblages, with a third of species found in both habitats. Abundance responses were taxon-specific and influenced by interactions between land use and season. In particular, predator abundance was significantly higher in plantings and fallows during spring compared to summer. Detritivore abundance was significantly higher in the woody debris compared to the adjacent remnants. Herbivore abundance did not differ between remnants and farmlands over time. Complex responses provide strong support for a mosaic of land uses to effectively conserve different beetle groups. Species richness results suggest that further agricultural intensification, in farm fields and through the removal of remnant vegetation, risks reducing beetle diversity in this region. Maintaining farmland heterogeneity with a mix of low-intensity land uses, such as conservation tillage, crop-fallow rotation, restoration plantings, and the novel application of fine woody debris over cultivated fields, may provide seasonal refuge and resources for beetles

Disentangling the effects of farmland use, habitat edges, and vegetation structure on ground beetle morphological traits

Land-use change due to agriculture has a major influence on arthropod biodiversity, and may influence species differently depending on their traits. It is unclear how species traits vary across different land uses and their edges, with most studies focussing on single habitat types and overlooking edge effects. We examined variation in morphological traits of carabid beetles (Coleoptera:Carabidae) on both sides of edges between woodlands and four adjoining, but contrasting farmland uses in an agricultural landscape. We asked: (1) how do traits differ between woodlands and different adjoining farmland uses (crop, fallow, restoration planting, and woody debris applied over crop), and do effects depend on increasing distances from the farmland–woodland edge? (2) Does vegetation structure explain observed effects of adjoining farmland use and edge effects on these traits? We found that carabid communities varied in body size and shape, including traits associated with diet, robustness, and visual ability. Smaller sized species were associated with woodlands and larger sized species with farmlands. Farmland use further influenced these associations, where woodlands adjoining plantings supported smaller species, while fallows and crops supported larger species. Vegetation structure significantly influenced body size, flying ability, and body shape, and helped explain the effects of farmland use and distance from edges on body size. We highlight the important role of vegetation structure, farmland use, and edge effects in filtering the morphological traits of carabid assemblages across a highly modified agricultural landscape. Our findings suggest that farmland management can influence body size and dispersal-related traits in farmland and adjacent native vegetation.This work was supported by Central Tablelands Local Land Services (through Australian Government funding), Lake Cowal Foundation and Mount Mulga Pastoral Company. KN was supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP) scholarship

Time-Resolved Spectroscopy of the 3 Brightest and Hardest Short Gamma-Ray Bursts Observed with the FGST Gamma-Ray Burst Monitor

From July 2008 to October 2009, the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) on board the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (FGST) has detected 320 Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs). About 20% of these events are classified as short based on their T90 duration below 2 s. We present here for the first time time-resolved spectroscopy at timescales as short as 2 ms for the three brightest short GRBs observed with GBM. The time-integrated spectra of the events deviate from the Band function, indicating the existence of an additional spectral component, which can be fit by a power-law with index ~-1.5. The time-integrated Epeak values exceed 2 MeV for two of the bursts, and are well above the values observed in the brightest long GRBs. Their Epeak values and their low-energy power-law indices ({\alpha}) confirm that short GRBs are harder than long ones. We find that short GRBs are very similar to long ones, but with light curves contracted in time and with harder spectra stretched towards higher energies. In our time-resolved spectroscopy analysis, we find that the Epeak values range from a few tens of keV up to more than 6 MeV. In general, the hardness evolutions during the bursts follows their flux/intensity variations, similar to long bursts. However, we do not always see the Epeak leading the light-curve rises, and we confirm the zero/short average light-curve spectral lag below 1 MeV, already established for short GRBs. We also find that the time-resolved low-energy power-law indices of the Band function mostly violate the limits imposed by the synchrotron models for both slow and fast electron cooling and may require additional emission processes to explain the data. Finally, we interpreted these observations in the context of the current existing models and emission mechanisms for the prompt emission of GRBs.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures, 9 tables, Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal September, 23 2010 (Submitted May, 16 2010) Corrections: 1 reference updated, figure 10 captio