Southern Sugar Solutions

The Southern Sugar Solutions project was a novel project that linked research; development and extension activities that were being conducted by DAF with funding support from GRDC to monitor impact on the subsequent cane crop. The project activities were governed by a local steering committee made up of growers, agronomists, and advisors. The committee met on an annual basis to discuss results, identify and prioritise issues that were local productivity constraints. The project team developed activities to address the committee’s prioritised issues. Annual field days exposed the growers and advisors to the trials that were implemented to address identified issues. Trials implemented highlighted opportunities to improve the productivity and profitability of sugar production in the Southern Canelands. The application of mill-mud/ash improved the cumulative sugarcane crop gross margin by $239/ha and improved cumulative sugar yield by almost 9$4,228; $2,344 and$2,734 more than a monoculture respectively. A total of 278 people participated in the three field days conducted by the project. Independent project impact report highlighted that 65% of growers interviewed had planned to implement an on-farm practice change as a direct involvement with the project

Update of new research in peanuts to assist in-field decision making

Take home message • Target plant populations of 180,000 plants/ha to improve the productivity and profitability of peanut variety Kairi • Peanut variety Kairi does not need a different nutrient management plan than current commercial varieties

Paddock Scale Water Quality Monitoring of Vegetable-Sugarcane and Legume-Sugarcane Farming Systems - Summary report 2010-2013 Burnett Mary Region

The project has delivered a number of key findings from what were years in which summer rainfall was 50‐100% greater than the long term average. These were as follows – - Sediment and nutrient losses during grain legume or vegetable rotations with sugarcane were dominated by losses occurring during the sugarcane crop. - The most sensitive period for soil and nutrient loss occurred during the transition period between crops in the rotation, and during the early stages of crop establishment. - Soil disturbance, the presence of groundcover (crop residues/trash/living mulch) and soil compaction were the major factors affecting runoff volumes and loads of sediment and total nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P). The most effective management systems that ameliorated soil compaction, minimised soil disturbance and maintained ground cover reduced sediment and nutrient loads by 50‐60%. - Legume residues or legume companion crops were effective at providing groundcover and at reducing soil loss, but also tended to increase losses of the biologically active fractions of N (Dissolved Inorganic N) and P (Filterable Reactive P). - Runoff losses of DIN were relatively small in all systems tested (0.7‐ 2.7 kg DIN/ha), but leaching losses of nitrate‐N were estimated in excess of 140 kg N/ha from the current commercial practice intensive vegetable systems. This leached N was lost before being able to be recovered by the subsequent sugarcane crop and represents a risk to groundwater quality. - The risk of offsite losses from herbicides with long half‐lives in the field was illustrated by high concentrations of Diuron recorded in runoff that occurred more than 2.5 months after herbicide application. There was also concern about increased losses of Metribuzin when applied in systems with reduced tillage and surface residues/trash. - Similarly effective weed control during the plant cane crop could be achieved by reduced application rates of residual herbicides and/or the replacement of residual herbicides with less persistent knockdown products. However, excluding Diuron in the ratoon crop resulted in poor weed control and the need for additional herbicide applications. - The most substantial improvements in runoff (if not drainage) water quality were achieved at the expense of cropping system productivity – especially in the systems with intensive vegetables. The management strategies showing most promise involve strategic/zonal tillage, reduced nutrient inputs and reduced rates of residual herbicide use. These promising systems will need research attention to fine tune management so as to limit constraints to productivity and profitability

Ανάλυση και βελτιστοποίηση της επίδοσης cloud εφαρμογών σε διαμοιραζόμενα περιβάλλοντα με προσαρμοστική ανάθεση πόρων

Intensive tillage, high fertiliser inputs, and plastic mulch on the soil surface are widely used by vegetable growers. A field investigation was carried out to quantify the impact of alternate land management and fertiliser practices designed to improve offsite water quality on the productivity of vegetable rotations within a sugarcane farming system in a coastal region of subtropical northeast Australia. Successive crops of capsicum and zucchini were grown in summer 2010–2011 and winter 2011, respectively, using four different management practices. These were ‘Conventional’—the current conventional practice using plastic mulch, bare inter-rows, conventional tillage, and commercial fertiliser inputs; ‘Improved’—a modified conventional system using plastic mulch in the cropped area, an inter-row vegetative mulch, zonal tillage, and reduced fertiliser rates; ‘Trash mulch’—using cane trash or forage sorghum residues instead of plastic mulch, with reduced fertiliser rates and minimum or zero tillage; and ‘Vegetative mulch’—using Rhodes grass or forage sorghum residues instead of plastic mulch, with minimum or zero tillage and reduced fertiliser rates. During the second vegetable crop (zucchini), each management practice was split to receive either soil test-based nutrient inputs or a common, luxury rate of nutrient addition. The ’Trash mulch’ and ‘Vegetative mulch’ systems produced up to 43% lower capsicum and zucchini yields than either of the plastic mulch systems. The relative yield difference between trash systems and plastic mulch management systems remained the same for both the soil test-based and high nutrient application strategies, suggesting that factors other than nutrition (e.g., soil temperature) were driving these differences

Carbon losses in terrestrial hydrological pathways in sugarcane cropping systems of Australia

Climate change and carbon (C) sequestration are a major focus of research in the twenty-first century. Globally, soils store about 300 times the amount of C that is released per annum through the burning of fossil fuels (Schulze and Freibauer 2005). Land clearing and introduction of agricultural systems have led to rapid declines in soil C reserves. The recent introduction of conservation agricultural practices has not led to a reversing of the decline in soil C content, although it has minimized the rate of decline (Baker et al. 2007; Hulugalle and Scott 2008). Lal (2003) estimated the quantum of C pools in the atmosphere, terrestrial ecosystems, and oceans and reported a “missing C” component in the world C budget. Though not proven yet, this could be linked to C losses through runoff and soil erosion (Lal 2005) and a lack of C accounting in inland water bodies (Cole et al. 2007). Land management practices to minimize the microbial respiration and soil organic C (SOC) decline such as minimum tillage or no tillage were extensively studied in the past, and the soil erosion and runoff studies monitoring those management systems focused on other nutrients such as nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P)

Performance of sugarcane varieties with contrasting growth habit in different row spacings and configurations

Controlled traffic (matching wheel and row spacing) is being widely adopted in the Australian sugar industry to minimise the adverse effect of soil compaction caused by heavy machinery such as cane harvesters and haul-outs. In this study, the performance of current cane varieties with contrasting growth habits in differing row spacings and planting arrangements designed to achieve controlled traffic outcomes is reported. The study was conducted on an irrigated site in the Farnsfield district of the Isis mill area. Cane varieties Q138, Q188A, Q205A and Q222A were planted with whole stick, conventional mouldboard opener planters in 1.5 m and 1.8 m single rows and in dual rows on 1.8 m or 2.0 m centres, as well as by billet planting in a 1.8 m wide throat system. Shoot counts and biomass samples were collected at intervals during the growing season. There were no significant differences in cane yields, ccs or sugar yields between row spacings at harvest, and nor was there any significant interaction between varieties and row spacings for any parameter. This was despite there being significantly fewer harvested stalks in 1.8 m single rows (8.2/m2) and 1.8 m wide throat (9.3/m2) than in standard 1.5 m single rows (10.2/m2) or the 1.8 m (10.6/m2) and 2.0 m (10.3/m2) dual row spacings. Much heavier individual stalk weights recorded in the 1.8 m single and wide throat billet plantings were able to compensate for lower stalk numbers. Results confirm the relative insensitivity of cane yields to crop row spacing and suggest considerable flexibility in developing row spacings to suit controlled traffic farming systems. There were significant differences between varieties in cane yields, ccs and sugar yields. Cane yields for Q205A and Q222A (124 t/ha and 121 t/ha) were significantly higher than Q188A (115 t/ha) and Q138 (112 t/ha). However, in terms of sugar yield, these cane yield differences were modified to some extent by variation in ccs, with Q222A and Q188A (13.8% and 13.5%, respectively) having higher CCS than Q205A (12.9%) and Q138 (11.1%). The combined effects resulted in the highest sugar yields in Q222A (16.8 t/ha), with Q205A and Q188A (15.8 and 15.5 t/ha, respectively) out yielding Q138 (12.7 t/ha). Varieties used different strategies to achieve final cane yields, with high final stalk numbers in Q138 (10.5/m2) and low stalk numbers in Q188A (9.0/m2) compensated for by differences in individual stalk weights

Casper Is a FADD- and Caspase-Related Inducer of Apoptosis

AbstractCaspases are cysteine proteases that play a central role in apoptosis. Caspase-8 may be the first enzyme of the proteolytic cascade activated by the Fas ligand and tumor necrosis factor (TNF). Caspase-8 is recruited to Fas and TNF receptor-1 (TNF-R1) through interaction of its prodomain with the death effector domain (DED) of the receptor-associating FADD. Here we describe a novel 55 kDa protein, Casper, that has sequence similarity to caspase-8 throughout its length. However, Casper is not a caspase since it lacks several conserved amino acids found in all caspases. Casper interacts with FADD, caspase-8, caspase-3, TRAF1, and TRAF2 through distinct domains. When overexpressed in mammalian cells, Casper potently induces apoptosis. A C-terminal deletion mutant of Casper inhibits TNF- and Fas-induced cell death, suggesting that Casper is involved in these apoptotic pathways

Strategies to limit the impact of nematode pressure on sugarcane productivity in the Isis

Two trials were done in this project. One was a continuation of work started under a previous GRDC/SRDC-funded activity, 'Strategies to improve the integration of legumes into cane based farming systems'. This trial aimed to assess the impact of trash and tillage management options and nematicide application on nematodes and crop performance. Methods and results are contained in the following publication: Halpin NV, Stirling GR, Rehbein WE, Quinn B, Jakins A, Ginns SP. The impact of trash and tillage management options and nematicide application on crop performance and plant-parasitic nematode populations in a sugarcane/peanut farming system. Proc. Aust. Soc. Sugar Cane Technol. 37, 192-203. Nematicide application in the plant crop significantly reduced total numbers of plant parasitic nematodes (PPN) but there was no impact on yield. Application of nematicide to the ratoon crop significantly reduced sugar yield. The study confirmed other work demonstrating that implementation of strategies like reduced tillage reduced populations of total PPN, suggesting that the soil was more suppressive to PPN in those treatments. The second trial, a variety trial, demonstrated the limited value of nematicide application in sugarcane farming systems. This study has highlighted that growers shouldn’t view nematicides as a ‘cure all’ for paddocks that have historically had high PPN numbers. Nematicides have high mammalian toxicity, have the potential to contaminate ground water (Kookana et al. 1995) and are costly. The cost of nematicide used in R1 was approx. $320 -$350/ha, adding $3.50/t of cane in a 100 t/ha crop. Also, our study demonstrated that a single nematicide treatment at the application rate registered for sugarcane is not very effective in reducing populations of nematode pests. There appears to be some levels of resistance to nematodes within the current suite of varieties available to the southern canelands. For example the soil in plots that were growing Q183 had 560% more root knot nematodes / 200mL soil compared to plots that grew Q245. The authors see great value in investment into a nematode screening program that could rate varieties into groups of susceptibility to both major sugarcane nematode pests. Such a rating could then be built into a decision support ‘tree’ or tool to better enable producers to select varieties on a paddock by paddock basis

All That You Can Be: Stereotyping of Self and Others in a Military Context

The authors tested the shifting standards model (M. Biernat, M. Manis, & T. E. Nelson, 1991) as it applies to sex- and race-based stereotyping of self and others in the military. U.S. Army officers attending a leadership training course made judgments of their own and their groupmates\u27 leadership competence at 3 time points over a 9-week period. We examined the effects of officer sex and race on both subjective (rating) and objective/common-rule (ranking/Q-sort) evaluations. Stereotyping generally increased with time, and in accordance with the shifting standards model, pro-male judgment bias was more evident in rankings than in ratings, particularly for White targets. Self-judgments were also affected by sex-based shifting standards, particularly in workgroups containing a single ( solo ) woman. Differential standard use on the basis of race was less apparent, a finding attributed to the Army\u27s explicit invocation against the use of differential race-based standards.https://digitalcommons.usmalibrary.org/books/1059/thumbnail.jp

Correlation Functions for an Elastic String in a Random Potential: Instanton Approach

We develop an instanton technique for calculations of correlation functions characterizing statistical behavior of the elastic string in disordered media and apply the proposed approach to correlations of string free energies corresponding to different low-lying metastable positions. We find high-energy tails of correlation functions for the case of long-range disorder (the disorder correlation length well exceeds the characteristic distance between the sequential string positions) and short-range disorder with the correlation length much smaller then the characteristic string displacements. The former case refers to energy distributions and correlations on the distances below the Larkin correlation length, while the latter describes correlations on the large spatial scales relevant for the creep dynamics.Comment: 5 pages; 1 .eps figure include