Cost and Benefit Analysis of Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus (TSWV) Management Technology in Georgia.

Recent trend depicts that tomatoes and tomatoes products rank 2nd most important vegetable crop in the United States after potatoes and potatoes products contributing 20 percent of total vegetable production. More-so, tomato is equally ranked 2nd in the United States in terms of production value, generating $1.3 billion after head lettuce that contributed$1.4 billion in the same time period. In 2006, 422,000 acres of tomatoes were planted in the United States. Tomato is equally an important economic crop in the state of Georgia. In 2008, it ranked 14th in the Georgia vegetable acreage as 3,985 acres were planted. It also ranked 6th in terms of farm gate value in the same time period generating $51.2 million. Thrips-vectored tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV) is a serious disease capable of causing damages to the plant, fruits, quality and reducing yields drastically. Managing TSWV can be complex. For instance, metalized UV-mulch may significantly reduce TSWV, but delay tomato maturity, potentially affecting price and market window. Also, resistant tomato lines may eliminate damages due to TSWV, but could have negative horticultural attributes that standard TSWV-susceptible hybrids do not. TSWV can induce irregular ripening in fruit after packing, affecting post harvest costs. This study is aimed at providing the optimal return per unit of enterprise using cost and benefit estimates of the combination of available inputs used in the various management strategies. Thereafter, the result of the differentially developed techniques and risk-rated cost and benefit budgets will be used to determine which of the risk-rated thrips, TSWV and IPM decision criteria would provide superior pareto-optimal economic and financial benefit to tomato growersTomatoes production, Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus (TSWV), inputs, fixed cost, variable costs, profitability, cost and benefit., Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Agricultural Finance, Crop Production/Industries, Environmental Economics and Policy, Farm Management, Financial Economics, Health Economics and Policy, Marketing, Production Economics, Productivity Analysis, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, Risk and Uncertainty, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

Koinonia

In This IssueThe Outward Bound Temporary Community : A Practical Framework for Understanding Residence Life, Eric Spiecker Community Service Learning and Christian Higher Education, Lynne Sparks Diversity Education: Helping Students Find a Common Ground, Brent D. Ellis Student Bashing: An Unseemly Academic Tradition, George D. Kuh In The FieldGender Dynamics in the Classroom at an Evangelical Christian Liberal Arts College, Edee Schulze Around CampusFrom Service to Learning, Greg Bish CoCCA Hot Tip: Celebrating Diversity Regular FeaturesPresident\u27s Corner Editor\u27s Disk Annual Conference: New Professionals Retreat Book Review: More Light Less Heat: How Dialogue Can Transform Christian Conflicts Into Growth Perspective: To Do, To Have, or To Be? That is the Questionhttps://pillars.taylor.edu/acsd_koinonia/1021/thumbnail.jp

Heating cooling flows with jets

Active galactic nuclei are clearly heating gas in `cooling flows'. The effectiveness and spatial distribution of the heating are controversial. We use three-dimensional simulations on adaptive grids to study the impact on a cooling flow of weak, subrelativistic jets. The simulations show cavities and vortex rings as in the observations. The cavities are fast-expanding dynamical objects rather than buoyant bubbles as previously modelled, but shocks still remain extremely hard to detect with X-rays. At late times the cavities turn into overdensities that strongly excite the cluster's g-modes. These modes damp on a long timescale. Radial mixing is shown to be an important phenomenon, but the jets weaken the metallicity gradient only very near the centre. The central entropy density is modestly increased by the jets. We use a novel algorithm to impose the jets on the simulations.Comment: 16 pages, 15 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS. Revised version taking referee's comments into account, minor changes. High-resolution version and MPEGs can be found at http://www.clusterheating.org/papers.ph

Regulation of skeletal muscle oxidative capacity and insulin signaling by the Mitochondrial Rhomboid Protease PARL

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and aging are characterized by insulin resistance and impaired mitochondrial energetics. In lower organisms, remodeling by the protease pcp1 (PARL ortholog) maintains the function and lifecycle of mitochondria. We examined whether variation in PARL protein content is associated with mitochondrial abnormalities and insulin resistance. PARL mRNA and mitochondrial mass were both reduced in elderly subjects and in subjects with T2DM. Muscle knockdown of PARL in mice resulted in malformed mitochondrial cristae, lower mitochondrial content, decreased PGC1&alpha; protein levels, and impaired insulin signaling. Suppression of PARL protein in healthy myotubes lowered mitochondrial mass and insulin-stimulated glycogen synthesis and increased reactive oxygen species production. We propose that lower PARL expression may contribute to the mitochondrial abnormalities seen in aging and T2DM.<br /

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Magma plumbing systems: a geophysical perspective

Over the last few decades, significant advances in using geophysical techniques to image the structure of magma plumbing systems have enabled the identification of zones of melt accumulation, crystal mush development, and magma migration. Combining advanced geophysical observations with petrological and geochemical data has arguably revolutionised our understanding of, and afforded exciting new insights into, the development of entire magma plumbing systems. However, divisions between the scales and physical settings over which these geophysical, petrological, and geochemical methods are applied still remain. To characterise some of these differences and promote the benefits of further integration between these methodologies, we provide a review of geophysical techniques and discuss how they can be utilised to provide a structural context for and place physical limits on the chemical evolution of magma plumbing systems. For example, we examine how Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR), coupled with Global Positioning System (GPS) and Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) data, and seismicity may be used to track magma migration in near real-time. We also discuss how seismic imaging, gravimetry and electromagnetic data can identify contemporary melt zones, magma reservoirs and/or crystal mushes. These techniques complement seismic reflection data and rock magnetic analyses that delimit the structure and emplacement of ancient magma plumbing systems. For each of these techniques, with the addition of full-waveform inversion (FWI), the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and the integration of geophysics with numerical modelling, we discuss potential future directions. We show that approaching problems concerning magma plumbing systems from an integrated petrological, geochemical, and geophysical perspective will undoubtedly yield important scientific advances, providing exciting future opportunities for the volcanological community

Allograft aortic root replacement in 418 patients over a span of 15 years: 1985 to 2000

Allograft aortic root replacement for primary aortic valve or ascending aortic root pathology is the favored method of technical implantation. Results in 418 patients over 15 years demonstrate exceedingly low early mortality (<1%), complete eradication of preoperative endocarditis but poor long-term durability in the young age group of 20 years or less.</p

Cost and Benefit Analysis of Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus (TSWV) Management Technology in Georgia.

Recent trend depicts that tomatoes and tomatoes products rank 2nd most important vegetable crop in the United States after potatoes and potatoes products contributing 20 percent of total vegetable production. More-so, tomato is equally ranked 2nd in the United States in terms of production value, generating $1.3 billion after head lettuce that contributed$1.4 billion in the same time period. In 2006, 422,000 acres of tomatoes were planted in the United States. Tomato is equally an important economic crop in the state of Georgia. In 2008, it ranked 14th in the Georgia vegetable acreage as 3,985 acres were planted. It also ranked 6th in terms of farm gate value in the same time period generating $51.2 million. Thrips-vectored tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV) is a serious disease capable of causing damages to the plant, fruits, quality and reducing yields drastically. Managing TSWV can be complex. For instance, metalized UV-mulch may significantly reduce TSWV, but delay tomato maturity, potentially affecting price and market window. Also, resistant tomato lines may eliminate damages due to TSWV, but could have negative horticultural attributes that standard TSWV-susceptible hybrids do not. TSWV can induce irregular ripening in fruit after packing, affecting post harvest costs. This study is aimed at providing the optimal return per unit of enterprise using cost and benefit estimates of the combination of available inputs used in the various management strategies. Thereafter, the result of the differentially developed techniques and risk-rated cost and benefit budgets will be used to determine which of the risk-rated thrips, TSWV and IPM decision criteria would provide superior pareto-optimal economic and financial benefit to tomato grower

Moonlight drives nocturnal vertical flight dynamics in black swifts

Many animals have evolved a migratory lifestyle as an adaptation to seasonality,1,2 ranging from insects3 to fish,4 terrestrial and marine mammals,5-7 and birds.8 Old World swifts have evolved an extraordinary aerial non-breeding life phase lasting for 6-10 months.9-11 Swifts exploit the aerosphere in search of insects to meet the high energy demands of flight.12 During this period they roost and likely also sleep in the open airspace. Nocturnal insectivores with restricted foraging time may use moonlight to increase energy intake.13 Using multisensor data loggers that record light for geolocation, acceleration for flight activity, and pressure for flight altitude, we investigated if Northern black swifts, Cypseloides niger borealis, breeding in North America, also lead an aerial lifestyle similar to their Old World relatives. Individual flight activity showed they are airborne >99% of the time, with only occasional landings during their 8-month non-breeding period. Unexpectedly, during periods around the full moon, they conducted regular nocturnal ascents to altitudes up to >4,000 m (mean 2,000 m). A lunar eclipse triggered a synchronized descent, showing a direct effect of moonlight on flight altitude. This previously unknown behavior of nocturnal ascents during moonlight nights could be either a response to predator avoidance or that moonlight provides a foraging opportunity. Observed elevated nocturnal flight activity during periods of moonlight compared to dark nights suggests swifts were hawking for prey. Our finding of this novel behavior provides new perspectives on nocturnal flight behavior during periods surrounding the full moon

FCIC staff audiotape of interview with Dan Sparks, Goldman Sachs

Other speakers include Paul Shechtman and Christopher Dunn