Microclimate modification by tree windbreaks in Florida farms

Paper presented at the 11th North American Agroforesty Conference, which was held May 31-June 3, 2009 in Columbia, Missouri.In Gold, M.A. and M.M. Hall, eds. Agroforestry Comes of Age: Putting Science into Practice. Proceedings, 11th North American Agroforestry Conference, Columbia, Mo., May 31-June 3, 2009.Florida citrus and vegetable crops generate billions in revenue every year. However, winds, freezes, hurricanes, and citrus canker (Xanthomonas campestris) impact production. Windbreaks located perpendicular to the prevailing wind can reduce soil erosion and increase irrigation efficiency and farm production mostly by simply modifying microclimate. Windbreaks can also control the spread of pathogens such as citrus canker. To study how tree windbreaks modify microclimate in southern Florida, weather stations were established in 2008 along transects behind a 1-row eastern redcedar (Juniperus virginiana) windbreak at the Southwest Florida Research and Education Center (SWFREC/University of Florida) at Immokalee, and a 1-row cadaghi (Corymbia torelliana) windbreak at C&B Farms, Clewiston, to assess spatial variation in wind speed, temperature, and relative humidity at 2m above the ground. The windbreaks significantly reduced wind speed; minimum wind speed was at two times the windbreak height (2H) behind dense (17 [percent] porosity) redcedar and at 6H behind relatively porous (20 [percent] porosity) cadaghi when the wind direction was nearly perpendicular to the windbreak. Wind speed at 2H behind eastern redcedar was approximately 5 [percent] of the open wind speed and at 6H behind cadaghi was approximately 3-30 [percent]. Wind speed at 14H behind cadaghi and redcedar windbreak was approximately 60 [percent] and 80 [percent] of the open wind speed, respectively. Temperature behind both windbreaks was relatively warmer than in the open. However, the extent of temperature and relative humidity modification was less compared to wind speed. Windbreaks are an effective use of forest trees to modify microclimate and appreciably enhance Florida farm production.Bijay Tamang (1), Donald L Rockwood1 and Michael G. Andreu (2) ; 1. PO Box 110410, School of Forest Resources and Conservation, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611. 2. SFRC, University of Florida, Gulf Coast REC - Plant City, 1200 N Park Road, Plant City, FL 33563.Includes bibliographical references

On Safety Enhancement in IIoT Scenarios through Heterogeneous Localization Techniques

In the field of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), strictly related to Industry 4.0, one of the main aspects to be carefully considered by the governing board of a manufacturing company is the safety level to be guaranteed to the workers inside production plants. This involves daily human activities, together with production machines to be used during the working hour (and periodically maintained), and mobile industrial vehicles moving around the production plant. To this end, a precise localization of both workers and vehicles is expedient to improve the safety level—avoiding that people move inside forbidden areas or perform dangerous actions—as well as allowing a more accurate control and reporting to national authorities in charge of verifying the compliance to safety regulations (e.g., aggregated data, not shared outside the company, used to fill injuries reports in case of official inspections), in the presence of accidents and anomalous events. In this paper, we present the design of IIoT-related localization mechanisms exploiting heterogeneous communication technologies, in turn analysing how the localization can cope with the adoption of wideband (e.g., Wi-Fi) and narrowband (e.g., Narrowband IoT, NB-IoT) communication protocols and discussing how these communication paradigms may impact existing and modern production plants

Ensemble Riemannian data assimilation over the Wasserstein space

In this paper, we present an ensemble data assimilation paradigm over a Riemannian manifold equipped with the Wasserstein metric. Unlike the Euclidean distance used in classic data assimilation methodologies, the Wasserstein metric can capture the translation and difference between the shapes of square-integrable probability distributions of the background state and observations. This enables us to formally penalize geophysical biases in state space with nonGaussian distributions. The new approach is applied to dissipative and chaotic evolutionary dynamics, and its potential advantages and limitations are highlighted compared to the classic ensemble data assimilation approaches under systematic errors

Strengthening the integration of midwifery in health systems; a leader-to-leader collaboration

Barriers and facilitators for quality midwifery care exist on different levels in the health systems. After decades of challenges and varied degrees of success, a stakeholder leader-to-leader collaboration could provide added value through knowledge sharing on how to integrate the midwifery cadre into an existing health system. Initiated by The Midwifery Society of Nepal, Dalarna University Sweden and MAMTA - Health Institute for Mother and Child India, a research network focusing midwifery has been formed. The background, purpose and activities of this network has been described in this News and Events paper

Long-term ambient air-stable cubic CsPbBr3 perovskite quantum dots using molecular bromine

We report unprecedented phase stability of cubic CsPbBr3 quantum dots in ambient air obtained by using Br2 as halide precursor. Mechanistic investigation reveals the decisive role of temperature-controlled in situ generated, oleylammonium halide species from molecular halogen and amine for the long term stability and emission tunability of CsPbX3 (X = Br, I) nanocrystals

The Transporter Classification Database: recent advances

The Transporter Classification Database (TCDB), freely accessible at http://www.tcdb.org, is a relational database containing sequence, structural, functional and evolutionary information about transport systems from a variety of living organisms, based on the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology-approved transporter classification (TC) system. It is a curated repository for factual information compiled largely from published references. It uses a functional/phylogenetic system of classification, and currently encompasses about 5000 representative transporters and putative transporters in more than 500 families. We here describe novel software designed to support and extend the usefulness of TCDB. Our recent efforts render it more user friendly, incorporate machine learning to input novel data in a semiautomatic fashion, and allow analyses that are more accurate and less time consuming. The availability of these tools has resulted in recognition of distant phylogenetic relationships and tremendous expansion of the information available to TCDB users

Genetic affinities of the Jewish populations of India

Due to the lack of written records or inscription, the origin and affiliation of Indian Jewish populations with other world populations remain contentious. Previous genetic studies have found evidence for a minor shared ancestry of Indian Jewish with Middle Eastern (Jewish) populations. However, these studies (relied on limited individuals), haven’t explored the detailed temporal and spatial admixture process of Indian Jewish populations with the local Indian populations. Here, using large sample size with combination of high resolution biparental (autosomal) and uniparental markers (Y chromosome and mitochondrial DNA), we reconstructed genetic history of Indian Jewish by investigating the patterns of genetic diversity. Consistent with the previous observations, we detected minor Middle Eastern specific ancestry component among Indian Jewish communities, but virtually negligible in their local neighbouring Indian populations. The temporal test of admixture suggested that the first admixture of migrant Jewish populations from Middle East to South India (Cochin) occurred during fifth century. Overall, we concluded that the Jewish migration and admixture in India left a record in their genomes, which can link them to the ‘Jewish Diaspora’

Phenoloxidase activity acts as a mosquito innate immune response against infection with semliki forest virus

Several components of the mosquito immune system including the RNA interference (RNAi), JAK/STAT, Toll and IMD pathways have previously been implicated in controlling arbovirus infections. In contrast, the role of the phenoloxidase (PO) cascade in mosquito antiviral immunity is unknown. Here we show that conditioned medium from the Aedes albopictus-derived U4.4 cell line contains a functional PO cascade, which is activated by the bacterium Escherichia coli and the arbovirus Semliki Forest virus (SFV) (Togaviridae; Alphavirus). Production of recombinant SFV expressing the PO cascade inhibitor Egf1.0 blocked PO activity in U4.4 cell- conditioned medium, which resulted in enhanced spread of SFV. Infection of adult female Aedes aegypti by feeding mosquitoes a bloodmeal containing Egf1.0-expressing SFV increased virus replication and mosquito mortality. Collectively, these results suggest the PO cascade of mosquitoes plays an important role in immune defence against arboviruses

Genetic Affinities of the Central Indian Tribal Populations

Background: The central Indian state Madhya Pradesh is often called as ‘heart of India ’ and has always been an important region functioning as a trinexus belt for three major language families (Indo-European, Dravidian and Austroasiatic). There are less detailed genetic studies on the populations inhabited in this region. Therefore, this study is an attempt for extensive characterization of genetic ancestries of three tribal populations, namely; Bharia, Bhil and Sahariya, inhabiting this region using haploid and diploid DNA markers. Methodology/Principal Findings: Mitochondrial DNA analysis showed high diversity, including some of the older sublineages of M haplogroup and prominent R lineages in all the three tribes. Y-chromosomal biallelic markers revealed high frequency of Austroasiatic-specific M95-O2a haplogroup in Bharia and Sahariya, M82-H1a in Bhil and M17-R1a in Bhil and Sahariya. The results obtained by haploid as well as diploid genetic markers revealed strong genetic affinity of Bharia (a Dravidian speaking tribe) with the Austroasiatic (Munda) group. The gene flow from Austroasiatic group is further confirmed by their Y-STRs haplotype sharing analysis, where we determined their founder haplotype from the North Munda speaking tribe, while, autosomal analysis was largely in concordant with the haploid DNA results. Conclusions/Significance: Bhil exhibited largely Indo-European specific ancestry, while Sahariya and Bharia showed admixed genetic package of Indo-European and Austroasiatic populations. Hence, in a landscape like India, linguistic labe

"Like sugar in milk": reconstructing the genetic history of the Parsi population.

BACKGROUND: The Parsis are one of the smallest religious communities in the world. To understand the population structure and demographic history of this group in detail, we analyzed Indian and Pakistani Parsi populations using high-resolution genetic variation data on autosomal and uniparental loci (Y-chromosomal and mitochondrial DNA). Additionally, we also assayed mitochondrial DNA polymorphisms among ancient Parsi DNA samples excavated from Sanjan, in present day Gujarat, the place of their original settlement in India. RESULTS: Among present-day populations, the Parsis are genetically closest to Iranian and the Caucasus populations rather than their South Asian neighbors. They also share the highest number of haplotypes with present-day Iranians and we estimate that the admixture of the Parsis with Indian populations occurred ~1,200 years ago. Enriched homozygosity in the Parsi reflects their recent isolation and inbreeding. We also observed 48% South-Asian-specific mitochondrial lineages among the ancient samples, which might have resulted from the assimilation of local females during the initial settlement. Finally, we show that Parsis are genetically closer to Neolithic Iranians than to modern Iranians, who have witnessed a more recent wave of admixture from the Near East. CONCLUSIONS: Our results are consistent with the historically-recorded migration of the Parsi populations to South Asia in the 7th century and in agreement with their assimilation into the Indian sub-continent's population and cultural milieu "like sugar in milk". Moreover, in a wider context our results support a major demographic transition in West Asia due to the Islamic conquest