Propuesta de un programa de auditoría para evaluar la ejecución de proyectos de inversión pública, con financiamiento del Fondo para el Desarrollo Económico y Social de los Municipios (FODES), en la Alcaldía Municipal San Francisco Gotera, departamento de Morazán

Esta investigación tiene por objetivo proponer un programa de auditoría para evaluar la ejecución de los proyectos de inversión pública, con financiamiento del Fondo para el Desarrollo Económico y Social de los Municipios, en la Alcaldía Municipal de San Francisco Gotera, departamento de Morazán. Para recopilar la información se utilizó la siguiente metodología: Investigación documental: esta se desarrolló consultando diferentes textos relacionados que contenían información sobre la investigación en estudio. Después de haber analizado y examinado los resultados en conjunto de cada pregunta formulada a los empleados, funcionarios y contratistas; quienes conforman la muestra para el desarrollo de la presente investigación, se logra establecer las conclusiones y recomendaciones las cuales presentamos a continuación: No existe una planificación adecuada para el desarrollo de los proyectos de inversión pública que priorice las necesidades de la comunidad y permita cumplir el objetivo primordial del FODES. Se carece de un programa de auditoría que permita evaluar paso a paso la ejecución de proyectos de Inversión Pública financiados con el FODE

Silicon improves root system and canopy physiology in wheat under drought stress

Aims: Root system is an important regulator for unevenly distributed below-ground resource acquisition. In a rainfed cropping environment, drought stress (DS) significantly restricts root growth and moisture uptake capacity. The fact that silicon (Si) alleviates DS in wheat is widely reported, but its effects on the wheat root system remain unclear. Methods: The present study investigated the effect of pre-sowing Si treatment on two contrasting wheat cultivars (RAC875, drought-tolerant; Kukri, drought-susceptible) at early growth stages. The cultivars were grown in a glasshouse in a complete randomized design with four replications and two watering treatments. Various root traits and physiological data, including non-destructive infrared thermal imaging for water stress indices, were recorded. Results: Under DS and Si (DSSi), Kukri had a significant increase in primary root length (PRL,44%) and lateral root length (LRL,28.1%) compared with RAC875 having a substantial increase in PRL (35.2%), but non-significant in LRL. The Si-induced improvement in the root system positively impacted canopy physiology and significantly enhanced photosynthesis, stomatal conductance and transpiration in Kukri and RAC875 under DSSi. Canopy temperature was reduced significantly in Kukri (4.24%) and RAC875 (6.15%) under DSSi, while canopy temperature depression was enhanced significantly in both the cultivars (Kukri,78.6%; RAC875, 58.6%) under DSSi. Conclusion: These results showed that Si has the potential to influence below-ground traits, which regulate the moisture uptake ability of roots for cooler canopy and improved photosynthesis under DS. It also suggests a future direction to investigate the underlying mechanisms involved in wheat’s Si-induced root growth and moisture uptake ability

Infra-Red thermal image analysis for grapevines

Trabajo presentado en el 18th International Symposium of the Group of International Experts of vitivinicultural Systems for CoOperation (GIESCO 2013), celebrado en Oporto del 7 al 11 de julio de 2013.-- Número fuera de serie.Infrared thermal images (IRTI) have been used for grapevine research since the early 90’s. Even though its promising results in the assessment of canopy stomatal conductance and plant water status, from the beginning and recent research publications, it has not been fully applied on a commercial scale yet. It is believed that the bottleneck for this technology is the lack of reliable automation tools for IRTI analysis. Accurate and reliable automation technique s will allow the use of this technique to assess the spatial variability of physiological processes within the canopy using infrared cameras mounted on moving vehicles, drones, octocopters or robots. Automated analysis systems are requirement of The Vineyard of The Future initiative, which is an international effort to establis h fully monitored vineyards in the most prominent viticultural and winemaking areas in the world. In this work, a semi-automated IRTI analyses performed using a code written in MATLAB® for estimate dry and wet references excluding non-leaf temperatures was compared with evaporimeter (EvapoSensor, Skye Instruments Ltd, Powys, UK) measurements used to provide dry and wet references from IRTIs. Results obtained from this research (grapevines cv. Tempranillo) showed good and statistically significant correlations between temperatur e references obtained from IRTI analysis and measured values. This work constitutes one additional step forward to the implementation of thermal imaging as an automated routine technique for physiological vineyard assess ment from proximal sensing and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) platforms.The research leading to this report was supported by the Spanish project “STRESSIMAGING HPRN-CT-2002-00254” and Chilean projects CONICYT (Nº 79090035) and Programa de Investigación sobre Adaptación de la Agricultura al Cambio Climático - PIEI (Universidad de Talca).Peer Reviewe

Effects of Three Irrigation Strategies on Gas Exchange Relationships, Plant Water Status, Yield Components and Water Productivity on Grafted Carménère Grapevines

In the Chilean viticultural industry, Carménère is considered an emblematic cultivar that is cultivated mainly in arid and semi-arid zones. For this reason, it is necessary to use precise irrigation scheduling for improving water use efficiency (WUE), water productivity (WP), yield and wine quality. This study evaluated the effects of three deficit irrigation strategies on gas exchange variables, WUE, WP and yield components in a drip-irrigated Carménère vineyard growing under semi-arid climatic conditions during two consecutive seasons (2011/12 and 2012/13). The irrigation strategies were applied in completely randomized design from fruit set (S) to harvest (H). The first irrigation strategy (T1) involved continuous irrigation at 100% of actual evapotranspiration (ETa) from S to the veraison (V) period and at 80% of ETa from V to H. The second irrigation strategy (T2) involved irrigation at 50% of ETa from S to H and the third one (T3) involved no-irrigation from S to V and at 30% of ETa from V to H. The results indicated that there was a significant non-linear correlation between net CO2 assimilation (AN) and stomatal conductance (gs), which resulted in three zones of water stress (zone I = gs > 0.30 mol H2O m-2s-1; zone II = between 0.06 and 0.30 mol H2O m-2s-1; and zone III = gs < 0.06 mol H2O m-2s-1). The use of less water by T2 and T3 had a significant effect on yield components, with a reduction in the weight and diameter of grapes. A significant increase in WP (7.3 kg m-3) occurred in T3, which resulted in values of WUE that were significantly higher than those from T1 and T2. Also, a significant non-linear relationship between the integral water stress (SIΨ) and WP (R2 = 0.74) was established. The results show that grafted Carménère vines were tolerant to water stress although differences between cultivars/genotypes still need to be evaluated

Precision irrigation for grapevines (Vitis vinifera L.) under RDI and PRD

Water is a scarce resource worldwide and a particular problem for producers of wine grapes in Australia and Chile where periodic drought severely limits vine growth. Most vineyards in these countries are irrigated and the development of efficient water management practices for vineyards is required. Strategies such as regulated deficit irrigation (RDI) and partial root zone drying (PRD) have been introduced with the objective of maximising the efficiency of water use relative to yield while ensuring that grape quality is not compromised. The problem is that the advantages of these strategies can only be realised if there is accurate information about weather parameters, spatial distribution of soil moisture and vine water use and status. This information can then be used to provide answers for growers to the key irrigation questions of when to irrigate and how much water to apply. The overarching hypothesis of this thesis was than an integrated approach to irrigation scheduling incorporating data on weather, physiological status of the vines and soil wetting patterns is essential to accurately target the narrow range of soil moisture and vine stress thresholds required for realising the advantages of RDI and PRD. The hypothesis was tested through a series of field experiments. The results supported that an integrated approach to irrigation produces the most desirable outcomes in terms of water use and berry quality irrespective of irrigation strategies. The most appropriate way to answer the question of when to irrigate is to measure stem rather than leaf water potential. The question of how much water to apply can readily be answered using a new technique and software developed in this study. It was concluded that PRD is more difficult to manage than RDI because of the complexity pf PRD and the financial and logistic requirements of a double irrigation line. PRD had no effect on crop water use efficiency, berry quality or yield when the same amount of water was applied in the PRD and conventional drip treatments

Implementation of Artificial Intelligence in Food Science, Food Quality, and Consumer Preference Assessment

In recent years, new and emerging digital technologies applied to food science have been gaining attention and increased interest from researchers and the food/beverage industries [...

Methodologies Used in Remote Sensing Data Analysis and Remote Sensors for Precision Agriculture

When adopting remote sensing techniques in precision agriculture, there are two main areas to consider: data acquisition and data analysis methodologies [...

Editorial: Special Issue “Implementation of Sensors and Artificial Intelligence for Environmental Hazards Assessment in Urban, Agriculture and Forestry Systems”

Artificial intelligence (AI), together with robotics, sensors, sensor networks, internet of things (IoT) and machine/deep learning modeling, has reached the forefront towards the goal of increased efficiency in a multitude of application and purpose [...

Digital Detection of Olive Oil Rancidity Levels and Aroma Profiles Using Near-Infrared Spectroscopy, a Low-Cost Electronic Nose and Machine Learning Modelling

The success of the olive oil industry depends on provenance and quality-trait consistency affecting the consumers' acceptability/preference and purchase intention. Companies rely on laboratories to analyze samples to assess consistency within the production chain, which may be time-consuming, cost-restrictive, and untimely obtaining results, making the process more reactive than predictive. This study proposed implementing digital technologies using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIR) and a novel low-cost e-nose to assess the level of rancidity and aromas in commercial extra-virgin olive oil. Four different olive oils were spiked with three rancidity levels (N = 17). These samples were evaluated using gas-chromatography-mass-spectroscopy, NIR, and an e-nose. Four machine learning models were developed to classify olive oil types and rancidity (Model 1: NIR inputs; Model 2: e-nose inputs) and predict the peak area of 16 aromas (Model 3: NIR; Model 4: e-nose inputs). The results showed high accuracies (Models 1–2: 97% and 87%; Models 3–4: R = 0.96 and 0.93). These digital technologies may change companies from a reactive to a more predictive production of food/beverages to secure product quality and acceptability