1,361 research outputs found
Electronic support tools for identification and management of rice weeds in Africa for better-informed agricultural change agents
International audienceWe developed an interactive electronic weed identification tool, AFROweeds, and an online network, Weedsbook, for agricultural change agents to aid communication and offer assistance to rice farmers with specific weed problems. We collected quantitative and qualitative data to assess effectiveness and usefulness of these products with potential users. With the online version of AFROweeds, used on an electronic tablet, average weed identification time in the field was 7 min 6 s with 44% successful identifications. Poor mobile network coverage and slow internet were the main reasons for the relative long identification time and low success rate. A second trial was done with the offline version, pre-installed on a tablet. The average identification time was 6 min 34 s, with a success rate of 75%. The online network Weedsbook, established alongside AFROweeds, was assessed by the test users as a useful additional aid, enabling agricultural change agents and agronomists to exchange information or request assistance on all aspects of weeds and weed management. The potential improvements of both products are discussed
Quantifying soil hydrology to explain the development of vegetation at an ex-arable wetland restoration site
Wetland restoration frequently sets well-defined vegetation targets, but where restoration occurs on highly degraded land such targets are not practical and setting looser targets may be more appropriate. Where this more âopen-endedâ approach to restoration is adopted, surveillance methods that can track developing wetland habitats need to be established. Water regime and soil structure are known to influence the distribution and composition of developing wetland vegetation, and may be quantified using Sum Exceedence Values (SEV), calculated using the position of the water table and knowledge of soil stress thresholds. Use of SEV to explain patterns in naturally colonizing vegetation on restored, ex-arable land was tested at Wicken Fen (UK). Analysis of values from ten locations showed that soil structure was highly heterogeneous. Five locations had shallow aeration stress thresholds and so had the potential to support diverse wetland assemblages. Deep aeration stress thresholds at other locations precluded the establishment of a diverse wetland flora, but identified areas where species-poor wetland assemblages may develop. SEV was found to be a useful tool for the surveillance of sites where restoration targets are not specified in detail at the outset and may help predict likely habitat outcomes at sites using an open-ended restoration approach
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Association of apolipoprotein E gene polymorphisms with blood lipids and their interaction with dietary factors
Several candidate genes have been identified in relation to lipid metabolism, and among these, lipoprotein lipase (LPL) and apolipoprotein E (APOE) gene polymorphisms are major sources of genetically determined variation in lipid concentrations. This study investigated the association of two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) at LPL, seven tagging SNPs at the APOE gene, and a common APOE haplotype (two SNPs) with blood lipids, and examined the interaction of these SNPs with dietary factors.
METHODS:
The population studied for this investigation included 660 individuals from the Prevention of Cancer by Intervention with Selenium (PRECISE) study who supplied baseline data. The findings of the PRECISE study were further replicated using 1238 individuals from the Caerphilly Prospective cohort (CaPS). Dietary intake was assessed using a validated food-frequency questionnaire (FFQ) in PRECISE and a validated semi-quantitative FFQ in the CaPS. Interaction analyses were performed by including the interaction term in the linear regression model adjusted for age, body mass index, sex and country.
RESULTS:
There was no association between dietary factors and blood lipids after Bonferroni correction and adjustment for confounding factors in either cohort. In the PRECISE study, after correction for multiple testing, there was a statistically significant association of the APOE haplotype (rs7412 and rs429358; E2, E3, and E4) and APOE tagSNP rs445925 with total cholesterol (Pâ=â4âĂâ10-â4 and Pâ=â0.003, respectively). Carriers of the E2 allele had lower total cholesterol concentration (5.54â±â0.97 mmol/L) than those with the E3 (5.98â±â1.05 mmol/L) (Pâ=â0.001) and E4 (6.09â±â1.06 mmol/L) (Pâ=â2âĂâ10-â4) alleles. The association of APOE haplotype (E2, E3, and E4) and APOE SNP rs445925 with total cholesterol (Pâ=â2âĂâ10-â6 and Pâ=â3âĂâ10-â4, respectively) was further replicated in the CaPS. Additionally, significant association was found between APOE haplotype and APOE SNP rs445925 with low density lipoprotein cholesterol in CaPS (Pâ=â4âĂâ10-â4 and Pâ=â0.001, respectively). After Bonferroni correction, none of the cohorts showed a statistically significant SNP-diet interaction on lipid outcomes.
CONCLUSION:
In summary, our findings from the two cohorts confirm that genetic variations at the APOE locus influence plasma total cholesterol concentrations, however, the gene-diet interactions on lipids require further investigation in larger cohorts
Observation of Two New Excited Îb0 States Decaying to Îb0 K-Ï+
Two narrow resonant states are observed in the Îb0K-Ï+ mass spectrum using a data sample of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, collected by the LHCb experiment and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 6 fb-1. The minimal quark content of the Îb0K-Ï+ system indicates that these are excited Îb0 baryons. The masses of the Îb(6327)0 and Îb(6333)0 states are m[Îb(6327)0]=6327.28-0.21+0.23±0.12±0.24 and m[Îb(6333)0]=6332.69-0.18+0.17±0.03±0.22 MeV, respectively, with a mass splitting of Îm=5.41-0.27+0.26±0.12 MeV, where the uncertainties are statistical, systematic, and due to the Îb0 mass measurement. The measured natural widths of these states are consistent with zero, with upper limits of Î[Îb(6327)0]<2.20(2.56) and Î[Îb(6333)0]<1.60(1.92) MeV at a 90% (95%) credibility level. The significance of the two-peak hypothesis is larger than nine (five) Gaussian standard deviations compared to the no-peak (one-peak) hypothesis. The masses, widths, and resonant structure of the new states are in good agreement with the expectations for a doublet of 1D Îb0 resonances
Measurement of the differential branching fraction
The branching fraction of the rare decay is measured for the first time, in the squared dimuon mass
intervals, , excluding the and regions. The data
sample analyzed was collected by the LHCb experiment at center-of-mass energies
of 7, 8, and 13 TeV, corresponding to a total integrated luminosity of $9\
\mathrm{fb}^{-1}q^{2}q^{2} >15.0\
\mathrm{GeV}^2/c^4$, where theoretical predictions have the smallest model
dependence, agrees with the predictions.Comment: All figures and tables, along with any supplementary material and
additional information, are available at
https://cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/p/LHCb-PAPER-2022-050.html (LHCb
public pages
Observation of the doubly charmed baryon decay Îcc++âÎcâČ+Ï+
The Îcc++âÎcâČ+Ï+ decay is observed using proton-proton collisions collected by the LHCb experiment at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5.4 fbâ1. The Îcc++âÎcâČ+Ï+ decay is reconstructed partially, where the photon from the ÎcâČ+âÎc+Îł decay is not reconstructed and the pKâÏ+ final state of the Îc+ baryon is employed. The Îcc++âÎcâČ+Ï+branching fraction relative to that of the Îcc++âÎc+Ï+ decay is measured to be 1.41 ± 0.17 ± 0.10, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic. [Figure not available: see fulltext.
Study of charmonium and charmonium-like contributions in B+ â J/ÏηK+ decays
A study of B+â J/ÏηK+ decays, followed by J/Ï â ÎŒ+ÎŒâ and η â γγ, is performed using a dataset collected with the LHCb detector in proton-proton collisions at centre-of-mass energies of 7, 8 and 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 9 fbâ1. The J/Ïη mass spectrum is investigated for contributions from charmonia and charmonium-like states. Evidence is found for the B+â (Ï2(3823) â J/Ïη)K+ and B+â (Ï(4040) â J/Ïη)K+ decays with significance of 3.4 and 4.7 standard deviations, respectively. This constitutes the first evidence for the Ï2(3823) â J/Ïη decay
Observation of Cabibbo-suppressed two-body hadronic decays and precision mass measurement of the baryon
The first observation of the singly Cabibbo-suppressed
and decays
is reported, using proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of
, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of , collected with the LHCb detector between 2016 and 2018. The
branching fraction ratios are measured to be
,
. In addition, using the
decay channel, the baryon
mass is measured to be , improving the
precision of the previous world average by a factor of four.Comment: All figures and tables, along with any supplementary material and
additional information, are available at
https://cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/p/LHCb-PAPER-2023-011.html (LHCb
public pages
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