Profitable chemical-free cowpea storage technology for smallholder farmers in Africa: opportunities and challenges

Cowpea is the most economically and nutritionally important indigenous African grain legume, grown by millions of resource-poor farmers. It is a key cash crop in areas too dry to grow cotton or other export crops. Most of the over 3 million t of cowpea grain produced annually in West and Central Africa is grown on small farms. Storage is often identified as the key challenge for small scale cowpea growers. Many farmers sell cowpea grain at low harvest time prices rather than risk losses by bruchids during storage. Some traditional methods are effective for small quantities (e.g., 10 kg), but are difficult to scale up. Some effective storage chemicals are available, but they are regularly misused by farmers and merchants. The Purdue Improved Cowpea Storage (PICS) Project is addressing these problems through promotion of hermetic storage in triple layer sacks which have an outer layer of woven polypropylene and two liners of 80 μ high-density polyethylene. Village demonstrations with more than 45, 000 PICS sacks have shown the technology to be effective. Good quality affordable sacks have been produced by manufacturers in Nigeria, Burkina Faso and Mali. Over the past three years more than one million sacks have been produced and sold. Despite the success with the outreach activities and the farmer adoption, the challenge remains to develop sustainable sack distribution networks. Issues identified include reluctance of wholesalers to order sacks due to risk associated with a new product, inability of wholesalers to develop effective distribution networks due to difficulties with enforcing contracts, and limited access to capital. The PICS project is exploring new ways to address some of these issues, including using non-traditional distribution systems for PICS sacks such as agro-dealers networks, and adapting distribution systems that have worked for cell phones and other products. Keywords: Cowpea, Bruchids, Hermetic storage, Supply chain, West and Central Afric

The first direct measurement of ¹²C (¹²C,n) ²³Mg at stellar energies

Neutrons produced by the carbon fusion reaction ¹²C(¹²C,n)²³Mg play an important role in stellar nucleosynthesis. However, past studies have shown large discrepancies between experimental data and theory, leading to an uncertain cross section extrapolation at astrophysical energies. We present the first direct measurement that extends deep into the astrophysical energy range along with a new and improved extrapolation technique based on experimental data from the mirror reaction ¹²C(¹²C,p)²³Na. The new reaction rate has been determined with a well-defined uncertainty that exceeds the precision required by astrophysics models. Using our constrained rate, we find that ¹²C(¹²C,n)²³Mg is crucial to the production of Na and Al in Pop-III Pair Instability Supernovae. It also plays a non-negligible role in the production of weak s-process elements as well as in the production of the important galacti

Expansion Dating: Calibrating Molecular Clocks in Marine Species from Expansions onto the Sunda Shelf following the Last Glacial Maximum

The rate of change in DNA is an important parameter for understanding molecular evolution, and hence for inferences drawn from studies of phylogeography and phylogenetics. Most rate calibrations for mitochondrial coding regions in marine species have been made from divergence dating for fossils and vicariant events older than 1-2 million years, and are typically 0.5% - 2% per lineage per million years. Recently, calibrations made with ancient DNA from younger dates have yielded faster rates, suggesting that estimates of the molecular rate of change depend on the time of calibration, decaying from the instantaneous mutation rate to the phylogenetic substitution rate. Ancient DNA methods for recent calibrations are not available for most marine taxa so instead we use radiometric dates for sea-level rise onto the Sunda Shelf following the Last Glacial Maximum (starting ~18,000 years ago), which led to massive population expansions for marine species. Instead of divergence dating, we use a two epoch coalescent model of logistic population growth preceded by a constant population size to infer a time in mutational units for the beginning of these expansion events. This model compares favorably to simpler coalescent models of constant population size, and exponential or logistic growth, and is far more precise than estimates from the mismatch distribution. Mean rates estimated with this method for mitochondrial coding genes in three invertebrate species are elevated in comparison to older calibration points (2.3% - 6.6% per lineage per million years), lending additional support to the hypothesis of calibration time-dependency for molecular rates

Expansion Dating: Calibrating Molecular Clocks in Marine Species from Expansions onto the Sunda Shelf Following the Last Glacial Maximum

The rate of change in DNA is an important parameter for understanding molecular evolution and hence for inferences drawn from studies of phylogeography and phylogenetics. Most rate calibrations for mitochondrial coding regions in marine species have been made from divergence dating for fossils and vicariant events older than 1-2 My and are typically 0.5-2% per lineage per million years. Recently, calibrations made with ancient DNA (aDNA) from younger dates have yielded faster rates, suggesting that estimates of the molecular rate of change depend on the time of calibration, decaying from the instantaneous mutation rate to the phylogenetic substitution rate. aDNA methods for recent calibrations are not available for most marine taxa so instead we use radiometric dates for sea-level rise onto the Sunda Shelf following the Last Glacial Maximum (starting similar to 18,000 years ago), which led to massive population expansions for marine species. Instead of divergence dating, we use a two-epoch coalescent model of logistic population growth preceded by a constant population size to infer a time in mutational units for the beginning of these expansion events. This model compares favorably to simpler coalescent models of constant population size, and exponential or logistic growth, and is far more precise than estimates from the mismatch distribution. Mean rates estimated with this method for mitochondrial coding genes in three invertebrate species are elevated in comparison to older calibration points (2.3-6.6% per lineage per million years), lending additional support to the hypothesis of calibration time dependency for molecular rates

New ANCs for α+12C\alpha + {}^{12}{\rm C} synthesis obtained using extrapolation method and the SS-factor for 12C(α,γ)16O{}^{12}{\rm C}(\alpha,\gamma){}^{16}{\rm O} radiative capture

Background: The $^{12}{\rm C}(\alpha,\gamma)^{16}$O reaction, determining the survival of carbon in red giants, is of interest for nuclear reaction theory and nuclear astrophysics. Numerous attempts to obtain the astrophysical factor of the $^{12}{\rm C}(\alpha,\gamma)^{16}$O reaction, both experimental and theoretical, have been made for almost 50 years. The specifics of the $^{16}$O nuclear structure is the presence of two subthreshold bound states, (6.92 MeV, 2$^+$) and (7.12 MeV, 1$^-$), dominating the behavior of the low-energy $S$-factor. The strength of these subthreshold states is determined by their asymptotic normalization coefficients (ANCs) which need to be known with high accuracy. Recently, using the model-independent extrapolation method, Blokhintsev {\it et al.} [Eur. Phys. J. A {\bf 59}, 162 (2023)] determined the ANCs for the three subthreshold states in $^{16}$O. Purpose: In this paper, using these newly determined ANCs, we calculated the low-energy astrophysical $S$-factors for the $^{12}{\rm C}(\alpha,\gamma)^{16}$O radiative capture. Method: The $S$-factors are calculated within the framework of the $R$-matrix method using the AZURE2 code. Conclusion: Our total $S$-factor includes the resonance $E1$ and $E2$ transitions to the ground state of $^{16}$O interfering with the corresponding direct captures and cascade radiative captures to the ground state of $^{16}$O through four subthreshold states: $0_2^+,\,3^-,\, 2^+$ and $1^-$. Since our ANCs are higher than those used by deBoer {\it et al.} [Rev. Mod. Phys. {\bf 89}, 035007 (2017)], the present total $S$-factor at the most effective astrophysical energy of 300 keV is 174 keVb versus 137 keVb of that work. Accordingly, our calculated reaction rate at low temperatures ($T_{9} < 2$) is higher than the one given in the aforesaid paper

Irrigation of Sand-based Creeping Bentgrass Putting Greens with Nanobubble-oxygenated Water

Cultural and environmental factors can place creeping bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera) under extreme stress during the summer months. This stress, coupled with the growth adaptation of creeping bentgrass, can result in shallow, poorly rooted stands of turf. To enhance root zone oxygen and rooting of creeping bentgrass, golf courses use methods such as core and solid-tine aerification, and sand topdressing. An additional method of delivering oxygen to the soil could be irrigation with nanobubble-oxygenated water. The properties of nanobubbles (NBs) allow for high gas dissolution rates in water. Irrigating with NB-oxygenated water sources may promote increased rooting of creeping bentgrass putting greens during high-temperature periods and lead to a more resilient playing surface. The objectives of this study include comparing the effects of irrigation with NB-oxygenated water sources with untreated water sources on creeping bentgrass putting green root zone and plant health characteristics using field and controlled environment experiments. Treatments included NB-oxygenated potable water and irrigation pond water, and untreated potable and irrigation pond water. In the field, NB-oxygenated water did not enhance plant health characteristics of creeping bentgrass. In 1 year, NB-oxygenated water increased the daily mean partial pressure of soil oxygen from 17.48 kPa to 18.21 kPa but soil oxygen was unaffected in the other 2 years of the trial. Subsurface irrigation with NB-oxygenated water did not affect measured plant health characteristics in the greenhouse. NB-oxygenation of irrigation water remains an excellent means of efficiently oxygenating large volumes of water. However, plant health benefits from NB-oxygenated irrigation water were not observed in this research