Relating United States Crop Land Use to Natural Resources and Climate Change

Crop production depends not only on the yield but also on the area harvested. The yield response to climate change has been widely examined, but the sensitivity of crop land use to hypothetical climate change has not been examined directly. Crop land-use regression models for estimating crop area indices (CAIs) - the percent of land used for corn, soybean, wheat, and sorghum production - are presented. Inputs to the models include available water-holding capacity of the soil, percent of land available for rain-fed agricultural production, annual precipitation, and annual temperature. The total variance of CAI explained by the models ranged from 78% for wheat to 87% for sorghum, and the root-mean-square errors ranged from 1.74% for sorghum to 4.24% for corn. The introduction of additional climatic variables to the models did not significantly improve their performance. The crop land-use models were used to predict the CAI for every crop reporting district in the United States for the current climatic condition and for possible future climate change scenarios (various combinations of temperature and precipitation changes over a range of -3° to +6°C and -20% to +20%, respectively). The magnitude of climatic warning suggested by GCMs (GISS and GFDL) is from 3.5° to 5.9°C for regions of the United States. For this magnitude of warming, the model suggests corn and soybean production areas may decline while wheat and sorghum production areas may expand. If the warming is accompanied by a decrease in annual precipitation from 1% to 10%, then the areas used for corn and soybean production could decrease by as much as 20% and 40%, respectively. The area for sorghum and wheat under these conditions would increase by as much as 80% and 70%, respectively; the exact amount depending strongly on the change in precipitation. In general, small changes in temperature or precipitation produced larger corresponding changes (on a percentage basis) in soybean, wheat, and sorghum area than in corn area

Relating United States Crop Land Use to Natural Resources and Climate Change

Crop production depends not only on the yield but also on the area harvested. The yield response to climate change has been widely examined, but the sensitivity of crop land use to hypothetical climate change has not been examined directly. Crop land-use regression models for estimating crop area indices (CAIs) - the percent of land used for corn, soybean, wheat, and sorghum production - are presented. Inputs to the models include available water-holding capacity of the soil, percent of land available for rain-fed agricultural production, annual precipitation, and annual temperature. The total variance of CAI explained by the models ranged from 78% for wheat to 87% for sorghum, and the root-mean-square errors ranged from 1.74% for sorghum to 4.24% for corn. The introduction of additional climatic variables to the models did not significantly improve their performance. The crop land-use models were used to predict the CAI for every crop reporting district in the United States for the current climatic condition and for possible future climate change scenarios (various combinations of temperature and precipitation changes over a range of -3° to +6°C and -20% to +20%, respectively). The magnitude of climatic warning suggested by GCMs (GISS and GFDL) is from 3.5° to 5.9°C for regions of the United States. For this magnitude of warming, the model suggests corn and soybean production areas may decline while wheat and sorghum production areas may expand. If the warming is accompanied by a decrease in annual precipitation from 1% to 10%, then the areas used for corn and soybean production could decrease by as much as 20% and 40%, respectively. The area for sorghum and wheat under these conditions would increase by as much as 80% and 70%, respectively; the exact amount depending strongly on the change in precipitation. In general, small changes in temperature or precipitation produced larger corresponding changes (on a percentage basis) in soybean, wheat, and sorghum area than in corn area

Caracterización química y cuantificación del rendimiento de extracción de pigmento en siete accesiones mexicanas de Bixa orellana

Achiote (Bixa orellana) is a plant used for obtaining a natural dye rich on carotenoids (mainly bixin and norbixin); it is also the plant species with the highest content of tocotrienols in nature. In the present work, the pigment extraction yield of seven Mexican accessions of Bixa orellana was quantified. Also color parameters and content of tocotrienols, tocopherols, norbixin, bixin, total phenolic compounds and antioxidant capacity were evaluated in the corresponding annatto extracts. The highest percentage of pigment extraction yield was obtained with KOH (4.84%). Accessions 43 (L*= 4.01 ± 0.79, C*= 7.33 ± 1.07, h= 25.76 ± 6.35) and 50 (L*= 3.17 ± 0.64, C*= 6.81 ± 0.53, h= 26.41 ± 4.41) had the lowest color values, meaning these accessions had a darker and redder color. Four accessions showed the highest content of bixin: accession 48 (3.1%), 45 (2.6%) 43 (2.4%) and 47 (2.2%). Accession 50 had showed the highest content of total phenolic compounds and of tocotrienols (T3), mainly the isoform δ-T3 (5.03 ± 0.64 mg g−1 Seed Dry Weight), as well as the highest antioxidant capacity.El achiote (Bixa orellana) es una planta utilizada para obtener un colorante natural rico en carotenoides (principalmente bixina y norbixina); además, es la especie vegetal con el mayor contenido de tocotrienoles. En este trabajo, se determinó el rendimiento de extracción de pigmento de siete accesiones mexicanas de Bixa orellana. También se evaluaron los parámetros de color y el contenido de tocotrienoles, tocoferoles, norbixina, bixina, compuestos fenólicos totales y la capacidad antioxidante en extractos de annato. El mayor porcentaje de rendimiento de extracción de pigmento fue obtenido con KOH (4.847905%). Las accesiones 43 (L*= 4.01 ± 0.79, C*= 7.33 ± 1.07, h= 25.76 ± 6.35) y 50 (L*= 3.17 ± 0.64, C*= 6.81 ± 0.53, h= 26.41 ± 4.41) presentaron los valores más bajos de los párametros de color, lo que significa que estas accesiones tuvieron un color más oscuro y más rojo. Cuatro accesiones mostraron el mayor contenido de bixina: accesión 48 (3.1%), 45 (2.6%) 43 (2.4%) and 47 (2.2%). La accession 50 mostró el mayor contenido de compuestos fenólicos totales y de tocotrienoles (T3), principalmente la isoforma δ-T3 (5.03 ± 0.64 mg g-1 Peso Seco), así como también la mayor capacidad antioxidante.Fil: Raddatz Mota, D.. Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana; MéxicoFil: Pérez Flores, L. J.. Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana; MéxicoFil: Carrari, Fernando Oscar. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria. Centro de Investigación en Ciencias Veterinarias y Agronómicas. Instituto de Biotecnología; ArgentinaFil: Insani, Ester Marina. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria. Centro de Investigación en Ciencias Veterinarias y Agronómicas. Instituto de Biotecnología; ArgentinaFil: Asis, Ramón. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Córdoba. Centro de Investigaciones en Bioquímica Clínica e Inmunología; ArgentinaFil: Mendoza Espinoza, J. A.. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; MéxicoFil: Díaz de León Sánchez, F.. Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana; MéxicoFil: Rivera Cabrera, F.. Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana; Méxic

Aperture effects on the oxygen abundance determinations from CALIFA data

This paper aims at providing aperture corrections for emission lines in a sample of spiral galaxies from the Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area Survey (CALIFA) database. In particular, we explore the behavior of the log([OIII]5007/Hbeta)/([NII]6583/Halpha) (O3N2) and log[NII]6583/Halpha (N2) flux ratios since they are closely connected to different empirical calibrations of the oxygen abundances in star forming galaxies. We compute median growth curves of Halpha, Halpha/Hbeta, O3N2 and N2 up to 2.5R_50 and 1.5 disk R_eff. The growth curves simulate the effect of observing galaxies through apertures of varying radii. The median growth curve of the Halpha/Hbeta ratio monotonically decreases from the center towards larger radii, showing for small apertures a maximum value of ~10% larger than the integrated one. The median growth curve of N2 shows a similar behavior, decreasing from the center towards larger radii. No strong dependence is seen with the inclination, morphological type and stellar mass for these growth curves. Finally, the median growth curve of O3N2 increases monotonically with radius. However, at small radii it shows systematically higher values for galaxies of earlier morphological types and for high stellar mass galaxies. Applying our aperture corrections to a sample of galaxies from the SDSS survey at 0.02<=z<=0.3 shows that the average difference between fiber-based and aperture corrected oxygen abundances, for different galaxy stellar mass and redshift ranges, reaches typically to ~11%, depending on the abundance calibration used. This average difference is found to be systematically biased, though still within the typical uncertainties of oxygen abundances derived from empirical calibrations. Caution must be exercised when using observations of galaxies for small radii (e.g. below 0.5R_eff) given the high dispersion shown around the median growth curves.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap

Covalently Cross-Linked Nanoparticles Based on Ferulated Arabinoxylans Recovered from a Distiller’s Dried Grains Byproduct

The purpose of this investigation was to extract ferulated arabinoxylans (AX) from dried distillers’ grains with solubles (DDGS) plus to investigate their capability to form covalently cross-linked nanoparticles. AX registered 7.3 µg of ferulic acid/mg polysaccharide and molecular weight and intrinsic viscosity of 661 kDa and 149 mL/g, correspondingly. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) was used to confirm the identity of this polysaccharide. AX formed laccase induced covalent gels at 1% (w/v), which registered an elastic modulus of 224 Pa and a content of FA dimers of 1.5 µg/mg polysaccharide. Scanning electron microscopy pictures of AX gels exhibited a microstructure resembling a rough honeycomb. AX formed covalently cross-linked nanoparticles (NAX) by coaxial electrospray. The average hydrodynamic diameter of NAX determined by dynamic light scattering was 328 nm. NAX presented a spherical and regular shape by transmission electron microscopy analysis. NAX may be an attractive material for pharmaceutical and biomedical applications and an option in sustainable DDGS use

Identical repeated backbone of the human genome

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Identical sequences with a minimal length of about 300 base pairs (bp) have been involved in the generation of various meiotic/mitotic genomic rearrangements through non-allelic homologous recombination (NAHR) events. Genomic disorders and structural variation, together with gene remodelling processes have been associated with many of these rearrangements. Based on these observations, we identified and integrated all the 100% identical repeats of at least 300 bp in the NCBI version 36.2 human genome reference assembly into non-overlapping regions, thus defining the Identical Repeated Backbone (IRB) of the reference human genome.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The IRB sequences are distributed all over the genome in 66,600 regions, which correspond to ~2% of the total NCBI human genome reference assembly. Important structural and functional elements such as common repeats, segmental duplications, and genes are contained in the IRB. About 80% of the IRB bp overlap with known copy-number variants (CNVs). By analyzing the genes embedded in the IRB, we were able to detect some identical genes not previously included in the Ensembl release 50 annotation of human genes. In addition, we found evidence of IRB gene copy-number polymorphisms in raw sequence reads of two diploid sequenced genomes.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>In general, the IRB offers new insight into the complex organization of the identical repeated sequences of the human genome. It provides an accurate map of potential NAHR sites which could be used in targeting the study of novel CNVs, predicting DNA copy-number variation in newly sequenced genomes, and improve genome annotation.</p

Computational molecular characterization of the flavonoid rutin

In this work, we make use of a model chemistry within Density Functional Theory (DFT) recently presented, which is called M05-2X, to calculate the molecular structure of the flavonoid Rutin, as well as to predict the infrared (IR) and ultraviolet (UV-Vis) spectra, the dipole moment and polarizability, the free energy of solvation in different solvents as an indication of solubility, the HOMO and LUMO orbitals, and the chemical reactivity parameters that arise from Conceptual DFT. The calculated values are compared with the available experimental data for this molecule as a means of validation of the used model chemistry

Measurements of Higgs boson production and couplings in diboson final states with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements are presented of production properties and couplings of the recently discovered Higgs boson using the decays into boson pairs, H →γ γ, H → Z Z∗ →4l and H →W W∗ →lνlν. The results are based on the complete pp collision data sample recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider at centre-of-mass energies of √s = 7 TeV and √s = 8 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 25 fb−1. Evidence for Higgs boson production through vector-boson fusion is reported. Results of combined fits probing Higgs boson couplings to fermions and bosons, as well as anomalous contributions to loop-induced production and decay modes, are presented. All measurements are consistent with expectations for the Standard Model Higgs boson