103 research outputs found
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Oxidation behavior of molybdenum silicides and their composites
A key materials issue associated with the future of high-temperature structural silicides is the resistance of these materials to oxidation at low temperatures. Oxidation tests were conducted on Mo-based silicides over a wide temperature range to evaluate the effects of alloy composition and temperature on the protective scaling characteristics and testing regime for the materials. The study included Mo{sub 5}Si{sub 3} alloys that contained several concentrations of B. In addition, oxidation characteristics of MoSi{sub 2}-Si{sub 3}N{sub 4} composites that contained 20--80 vol.% Si{sub 3}N{sub 4} were evaluated at 500--1,400 C
Enabling Markets, Trade and Policies for Enhancing Sorghum Uptake
A number of dynamic changes are taking place in the sorghum economies
globally in the last two to three decades both in developed and developing regions
where the crop is grown. In Asia, its use as a staple food crop is declining with a
shift in consumption towards rice and wheat. Rising per capita incomes, urbanization,
change in tastes and preferences are driving this change. However, at the
same time, its demand in alternative uses like poultry feed and potable alcohol
manufacture is growing. In recent years driven by the greater awareness of the
health benefits of sorghum, there is also a growing demand for processed
sorghum products particularly in India for ready to use and eat food
products mainly in urban areas (from a low base). To sustain the change in the
sorghum economies (plate to plough), there is a need to reorient the marketing
system by linking farmers to the end users through innovative institutional
arrangements. Policies should ensure sorghum competitiveness on farm and
directly or indirectly promote its use in food processing and alternative
non-food uses.
In developed countries and in Latin American countries, sorghum is mainly
used as feed but its use is fluctuating and variable depending on its price
competitiveness and policies related to trade in feed crops. In the last one to
two decades with governments mandating use of renewable fuels for blending
with gasoline, sorghum along with maize are being used for ethanol production
that has implications for the livestock sector. Policies related to ethanol production
will have implication for sorghum production and trade
Impacts of irrigation tank restoration on water bodies and croplands in Telangana State of India using Landsat time series data and machine learning algorithms
In 2014, the State of Telangana in southern India began repairing and restoring more than 46,000 irrigation water tanks (artificial reservoirs) under the Mission Kakatiya project with an investment in excess of USD 2 billion. In this study, we attempted to map the temporal changes that have occurred in cropland areas and water bodies as a result of the project, using remote sensing imagery and applying land use/land cover (LULC) mapping algorithms. We used 16-day time series data from Landsat 8 to study the spatial
distribution of changes in water bodies and cropland areas over the 2013–18 period. Ground survey information was used to assess the pixel-based accuracy of the Landsat-derived data. The areas served by these tanks were identified on the basis of training data and Random Forest algorithms using Google Earth Engine. Our spatial analysis revealed a substantial increase in cropped area under irrigation and expansion of water bodies over the study period. We observed a 20% increase in total tank area in 2017–18 and total cropland and irrigated area expansion of the order of 0.6M ha and 0.2M ha, respectively. A comparison of ground survey data and four LULC classes derived from Landsat temporal imagery showed an overall accuracy of 87%, significantly
correlated with national agriculture statistics. Periodic monitoring based on remote sensing has proved to be an effective method of capturing LULC changes resulting from the Mission Kakatiya interventions. Higher-resolution satellite data can further improve the accuracy of estimates
Identifying Suitable Watersheds across Nigeria Using Biophysical Parameters and Machine Learning Algorithms for Agri–Planning
Identifying suitable watersheds is a prerequisite to operationalizing planning interventions for agricultural development. With the help of geospatial tools, this paper identified suitable watersheds across Nigeria using biophysical parameters to aid agricultural planning. Our study included various critical thematic layers such as precipitation, temperature, slope, land-use/land-cover
(LULC), soil texture, soil depth, and length of growing period, prepared and modeled on the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform. Using expert knowledge, scores were assigned to these thematic layers, and a priority map was prepared based on the combined weighted average score. We also validated priority watersheds. For this, the study area was classified into three priority zones ranging from ‘high’ to ‘low’. Of the 277 watersheds identified, 57 fell in the high priority category, implying that they are highly favorable for interventions. This would be useful for regional-scale water resource planning for agricultural landscape development
Assessment of Cropland Changes Due to New Canals in Vientiane Prefecture of Laos using Earth Observation Data
The lower catchment area of a Mak Hiao river system is vulnerable to flash floods and water stress. So it is
important to construct irrigation structures in this area to minimize floods during the rainy season and store
water for the winter season. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has been supporting the Government of Laos in
constructing such small reservoirs like Donkhuay schemes 1 & 2, Mak Hiao, Nalong 3 and Sang Houabor projects
in lower catchment areas. Our study evaluated the impacts of small irrigation schemes in terms of land-use/landcover
(LULC), crop intensity, and productivity changes, using high resolution satellite imagery, socioeconomic,
and ground data. We analyzed the temporal cropping pattern in the Vientiane prefecture of Laos using Planet and
Sentinel-2 data. On the other hand, crop intensity and cropland changes were mapped using Sentinel-2 data and
spectral matching techniques (SMTs). The crop classification accuracy based on field-plot data was 88.6%. Our
results show that irrigation projects in the lower catchment areas brought about significant on-site changes in
terms of cropland expansion and increased crop intensity. Remarkable changes in LULC were observed especially
in the command areas owing to an increase of about 300% in crop area with access to irrigation and increase of
water bodies by 31%. Our study found that interventions at the level of the command area do improved on-site
soil, water and environmental services. They study emphasized underline the role of land-use regulations in
reducing pressure on natural land-use systems and thereby serving the major goal of up-scaling sustainable
natural resource management. The study documented the vital role of small/medium irrigation projects in
restoring ecosystem services such as cropping patterns and LULC conversio
Simulating Potential Impacts of Future Climate Change on Post-Rainy Season Sorghum Yields in India
Given the wide use of the multi-climate model mean (MMM) for impact assessment studies, this work examines the fidelity of Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) in
simulating the features of Indian summer monsoons as well as the post-rainy seasons for assessing the possible impacts of climate change on post-rainy season sorghum crop yields across India. The MMM simulations captured the spatial patterns and annual cycles of rainfall and surface air temperatures. However, bias was observed in the precipitation amounts and daily rainfall intensity. The trends in the simulations of MMM for both precipitation and temperatures were less satisfactory than the observed climate means. The Crop Environment Resource Synthesis (CERES)-sorghum model was used to estimate the potential impacts of future climate change on post-rainy season sorghum yield values. On average, post-rainy season sorghum yields are projected to vary betwee
Tuneable magnetic patterning of paramagnetic Fe60Al40 (at. %) by consecutive ion irradiation through pre-lithographed shadow masks
This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics.Arrays of ferromagnetic circular dots (with diameters ranging from 225 to 420 nm) have been prepared at the surface of atomically ordered paramagnetic Fe60Al40 (at. %) sheets by means of ion irradiation through prelithographed poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) masks. The cumulative effects of consecutive ion irradiation (using Ar+ ions at 1.2 × 1014 ions/cm2 with 10, 13, 16, 19 and 22 keV incident energies) on the properties of the patterned dots have been investigated. A progressive increase in the overall magneto-optical Kerr signal is observed for increasingly larger irradiation energies, an effect which is ascribed to accumulation of atomic disorder. Conversely, the coercivity, HC, shows a maximum after irradiating at 16-19 keV and it decreases for larger irradiation energies. Such a decrease in HC is ascribed to the formation of vortex states during magnetization reversal, in agreement with results obtained from micromagnetic simulations. At the same time, the PMMA layer, with an initial thickness of 90 nm, becomes progressively thinned during the successive irradiation processes. After irradiation at 22 keV, the remaining PMMA layer is too thin to stop the incoming ions and, consequently, ferromagnetism starts to be generated underneath the nominally masked areas. These experimental results are in agreement with calculations using the Monte-Carlo simulation Stopping Range of Ions in Matter software, which show that for exceedingly thin PMMA layers Ar+ ions can reach the Fe60Al40 layer despite the presence of the mask
A dominant gain-of-function mutation in universal tyrosine kinase <i>SRC </i>causes thrombocytopenia, myelofibrosis, bleeding, and bone pathologies
The Src family kinase (SFK)member SRC is amajor target in drug development because it is activated in many human cancers, yet deleterious SRC germline mutations have not been reported. We used genome sequencing and Human Phenotype Ontology patient coding to identify a gain-of-function mutation in SRC causing thrombocytopenia, myelofibrosis, bleeding, and bone pathologies in nine cases. Modeling of the E527K substitution predicts loss of SRC's self-inhibitory capacity, whichwe confirmedwith in vitro studies showing increased SRC kinase activity and enhanced Tyr419 phosphorylation in COS-7 cells overexpressing E527K SRC. The active form of SRC predominates in patients' platelets, resulting in enhanced overall tyrosine phosphorylation. Patientswith myelofibrosis have hypercellular bone marrow with trilineage dysplasia, and their stem cells grown in vitro form more myeloid and megakaryocyte (MK) colonies than control cells. These MKs generate platelets that are dysmorphic, low in number, highly variable in size, and have a paucity of a-granules. Overactive SRC in patient-derived MKs causes a reduction in proplatelet formation, which can be rescued by SRC kinase inhibition. Stem cells transduced with lentiviral E527K SRC formMKs with a similar defect and enhanced tyrosine phosphorylation levels. Patient-derived and E527K-transduced MKs show Y419 SRC- positive stained podosomes that induce altered actin organization. Expression of mutated src in zebrafish recapitulates patients' blood and bone phenotypes. Similar studies of platelets andMKs may reveal the mechanism underlying the severe bleeding frequently observed in cancer patients treated with next-generation SFK inhibitors. © 2016 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science; all rights reserved
De Novo Truncating Mutations in WASF1 Cause Intellectual Disability with Seizures.
Next-generation sequencing has been invaluable in the elucidation of the genetic etiology of many subtypes of intellectual disability in recent years. Here, using exome sequencing and whole-genome sequencing, we identified three de novo truncating mutations in WAS protein family member 1 (WASF1) in five unrelated individuals with moderate to profound intellectual disability with autistic features and seizures. WASF1, also known as WAVE1, is part of the WAVE complex and acts as a mediator between Rac-GTPase and actin to induce actin polymerization. The three mutations connected by Matchmaker Exchange were c.1516C>T (p.Arg506Ter), which occurs in three unrelated individuals, c.1558C>T (p.Gln520Ter), and c.1482delinsGCCAGG (p.Ile494MetfsTer23). All three variants are predicted to partially or fully disrupt the C-terminal actin-binding WCA domain. Functional studies using fibroblast cells from two affected individuals with the c.1516C>T mutation showed a truncated WASF1 and a defect in actin remodeling. This study provides evidence that de novo heterozygous mutations in WASF1 cause a rare form of intellectual disability
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