Vegetation indices as indicators of damage by the sunn pest (Hemiptera: Scutelleridae) to field grown wheat

The sunn pest, Eurygaster integriceps Put. (Hemiptera: Scutelleridae), also known as sting or cereal pest, is one of the most economically important pests of wheat in the world. In this study, a collapsiblenylon cloth cage experiments were conducted to determine the feasibility of using remote sensing techniques to detect stress in wheat caused by the density of sunn pests. The results show we candetect the amount of stress in wheat caused by different life stages of sunn pest with a hand-held radiometer. Normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) based indices; NDVIsg, NDVId, NDVIr, andstructure insensitive pigment index (SIPI) were chosen out of 19 indices initially tested. The NDVI based vegetation indices derived from hyperspectral data, recorded by a hand held spectroradiometer, were used to determine the predicted indices using the initial number of Sunn Pest (NOSP). Overall, r2 values of all predicted indices calculated for 3rd instars were lower than those of 4th and adult stage. When r2was considered separately, predicted NDVIr index value (87.4) was the highest and predicted SIPI index value is lowest (80.7) in 3rd instars. The highest r2 value was obtained in adult stage of sunn pest isNDVIsg (96.9) compare with NDVId (95.5), NDVIr (92.4) and SIPI (94.2). It was also concluded that remote sensing could detect not only the different stages pest damage on wheat, but also the number of sunnpest stages density affect in controlled experiments

Microdevices for Continuous Sized Based Sorting by AC Dielectrophoresis

This paper was presented at the 4th Micro and Nano Flows Conference (MNF2014), which was held at University College, London, UK. The conference was organised by Brunel University and supported by the Italian Union of Thermofluiddynamics, IPEM, the Process Intensification Network, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, the Heat Transfer Society, HEXAG - the Heat Exchange Action Group, and the Energy Institute, ASME Press, LCN London Centre for Nanotechnology, UCL University College London, UCL Engineering, the International NanoScience Community, www.nanopaprika.eu.In this project, various microfluidic devices are designed for microparticles and cells separation. The dominant regions of dielectrophoresis among other AC Electrokinetic transport mechanisms are predicted. Flow behaviors of particles for each design parameter are modeled and simulated using COMSOL Multiphysics 4.3a software. Lab-on-a-chip devices having a Ti interdigitated electrode layer on a glass substrate and a PDMS microchannel are fabricated to investigate the most effective design solution for separating particles based on their sizes. Polystyrene particles with different diameters of 3.2 μm and 9.8 μm are used in our experiments and experiments with circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are in progress

Stretching the life of Twitter classifiers with time-stamped semantic graphs

Social media has become an effective channel for communicating both trends and public opinion on current events. However the automatic topic classification of social media content pose various challenges. Topic classification is a common technique used for automatically capturing themes that emerge from social media streams. However, such techniques are sensitive to the evolution of topics when new event-dependent vocabularies start to emerge (e.g., Crimea becoming relevant to War Conflict during the Ukraine crisis in 2014). Therefore, traditional supervised classification methods which rely on labelled data could rapidly become outdated. In this paper we propose a novel transfer learning approach to address the classification task of new data when the only available labelled data belong to a previous epoch. This approach relies on the incorporation of knowledge from DBpedia graphs. Our findings show promising results in understanding how features age, and how semantic features can support the evolution of topic classifiers

Assessment of the effect of salinity on the early growth stage of the common sunflower (Sanay cultivar) using spectral discrimination techniques

Salinity is one of the main limiting factors for agricultural production. This is especially true in arid and semi-arid regions of the world like Turkey. The objective of this study was to determine if the effect ofsalt concentration on the physiological and physiological features of the sunflower (Helianthus annuus L) could be measured using remote sensing techniques. Sunflower seedlings were grown undercontrolled conditions and irrigated with ½ Hoagland Solution containing three different concentrations of NaCl (salt) (0.0, 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5%). The results showed that plant growth decreased proportionallywith increasing levels of NaCl. Chlorophyll concentration and a Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) were derived for the plants using a spectroradiometer. There was found to be a significant (r2 = 0.76) correlation between chlorophyll and NDVI values. Therefore, factors that can be derived through remote sensing such as NDVI and chlorophyll can be used to indirectly demonstrate the impact salinity has on sunflower plants. Therefore, agriculturalists can assess growth rate changes caused by salinity using remote sensing techniques

The Adverse Effects of Air Pollution on the Nervous System

Exposure to ambient air pollution is a serious and common public health concern associated with growing morbidity and mortality worldwide. In the last decades, the adverse effects of air pollution on the pulmonary and cardiovascular systems have been well established in a series of major epidemiological and observational studies. In the recent past, air pollution has also been associated with diseases of the central nervous system (CNS), including stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and neurodevelopmental disorders. It has been demonstrated that various components of air pollution, such as nanosized particles, can easily translocate to the CNS where they can activate innate immune responses. Furthermore, systemic inflammation arising from the pulmonary or cardiovascular system can affect CNS health. Despite intense studies on the health effects of ambient air pollution, the underlying molecular mechanisms of susceptibility and disease remain largely elusive. However, emerging evidence suggests that air pollution-induced neuroinflammation, oxidative stress, microglial activation, cerebrovascular dysfunction, and alterations in the blood-brain barrier contribute to CNS pathology. A better understanding of the mediators and mechanisms will enable the development of new strategies to protect individuals at risk and to reduce detrimental effects of air pollution on the nervous system and mental health

Effects of standard diets from different sources on growth and some organ parameters of rats

ΔΕΝ ΔΙΑΤΙΘΕΤΑΙ ΠΕΡΙΛΗΨΗThis study aims to determine the effects of open and closed formulated standard diets supplied from different sources on growth performance and internal organ development of laboratory rats. Five-week-old 32 Wistar rats were used. A special control group diet was produced in accordance with the criteria determined by the National Research Council (NRC) (1995). Three different most preferred commercial open and closed-formula diets produced by international and local companies were used as trial groups’ diets. The experiment was carried out for 12 weeks. Weekly feed consumption, body weight change, internal organ weight, intestinal organ weigths and lengths, intestinal villi heigth and crypt depth were measured in groups. The body weight values of the control group and the first group fed with open-formula diet were found at the highest level (P <0.05). The control group diet had a positive effect on small intestine villi heigth and crypt depth (P <0.05). The nutrient contents and energy values of the diets of experimental groups were determined as different from the commercial firm notifications. As a result of the research, it is concluded that the diets prepared with open-formula give more reliable results in the growth performance and development of internal organs of Wistar rats

Employment Enhancing Integrative Graduate Education Model

There is a strong call to look for approaches to integrate business and engineering education across disciplines to provide a more coherent system for students with the job market. As graduates fail to find satisfying employment, the value of college education is questioned. The unemployment of the highly educated has economic, social and political ramifications. Worst is when the highly educated unemployed takes up lower status jobs, ever reducing the quality of the job market with future consequences. In this study, we concentrate on ways to enhance students’ competitiveness in the post-graduate environment by proposing a curriculum to yield viable business proposals. Our model is for business or engineering students willing to pursue a master’s degree without PhD. We go beyond the compartmentalization of the current educational system to increase employability, particularly self-employment. Rise in productivity is a side benefit since there is a strong correlation between productivity and welfare

Self-Assembled Peptide Nanofiber Templated One-Dimensional Gold Nanostructures Exhibiting Resistive Switching

Cataloged from PDF version of article.An amyloid-like peptide molecule self-assembling into one-dimensional nanofiber structure in ethanol was designed and synthesized with functional groups that can bind to gold ions. The peptide nanofibers were used as templates for nucleation and growth of one-dimensional gold nanostructures in the presence of ascorbic acid as reducing agent. We performed multistep seed-mediated synthesis of gold nanoparticles by changing peptide/gold precursor and peptide/reducing agent ratios. Gold nanostructures with a wide range of morphologies such as smooth nanowires, noodle-like one-dimensional nanostructures, and uniform aggregates of spherical nanoparticles were synthesized by use of an environmentally friendly synthesis method. Nanoscale electrical properties of gold-peptide nanofibers were investigated using atomic force microscopy. Bias dependent current (IV) measurements on thin films of gold-peptide nanofiber hybrid revealed tunneling dominated transport and resistive switching. Gold-peptide nanofiber composite nanostructures can provide insight into electrical conduction in biomolecular/inorganic composites, highlighting their potential applications in electronics and optics. © 2012 American Chemical Society