Environmentally friendly technologies to maintain stored paddy rice quality

Exports of processed rice have been increasing every year, as well as legislative restrictions and consumer demand for certified chemical free rice, pressing the rice processing industry to new challenges. The objective of this work was the implementation of a Rice Quality Certification Program. The package includes the association of a rigorous sanitation program and safe environmentally friendly control measures. It was accomplished in a large paddy rice facility with 40 silos during the 2008/09 rice crop. Silo sanitation was done by washing with pressurized water the conveyor belt structure above the silo roof, around the externals walls and thorough aspiration of the aeration system. During silo filling, the lower and top portions of the rice grain were treated with a mixture of diatomaceous earth (DE) and powder deltamethrin. Artificial chilling was applied as soon as the top layer of the grain mass was leveled by insufflating cool air (6 to 8ºC) with a large cooling machine through the aeration system. The grain mass temperature stabilized at about 12-14ºC, and kept this range of temperature for about 60 d. As the temperature of the grain mass increased, mainly on the top layer, aeration was performed with natural air from the cold fronts during the winter months. After 8 months on storage the rice was free of external insects, as proved by the grain sampling just before processing. For the 2009/10 crop season, the rice quality program will be repeated on 60 silos with few adjustments.Keywords: Chilled aeration, Inert dust, Physical insect control, Rice quality maintenance

Fluvial dynamics and watermills location in Basilicata (Southern Italy)

Watermills (grain mills, waulk mills, olive mills, sawmills and threshing machines) operated in the Basilicata Region from the Roman Period until the early decades of the twentieth century, representing an important feature of waterways that is today almost totally forgotten. Using documentary sources, ancient maps and field survey it is possible to catalogue and identify the location of these ancient hydraulic structures. Watermills were usually placed far enough away from the river to avoid inundation during floods, and near natural knickpoints or artificial steps in the river long profile that were created by mill engineers. Mill construction often had significant impacts on a rivers morphology, because it was necessary to divert the river discharge towards the mill wheel, to drive the grain-grinding mechanism. Watermill typological variations have been examined in relation to variations in river pattern to assess the ways in which the hydrographic and hydrological settings of the Basilicata Region have affected mill siting and operation. Most Basilicata watermills were built with a horizontal water-wheel and a tower. The characteristics of the tower and the associated hydraulic structures varied according to the environmental setting. Finally, mill positions define also the locations on the river system that have already been used to exploit hydraulic power and thus could be useful for future use in the micro-hydroelectric secto

The Cosmic Catastrophe of History: Patristic Angelology and Augustinian Theology of History in Tolkien\u27s Long Defeat

Much of the poignancy of J.R.R. Tolkien\u27s literary universe comes from its atmosphere of tragedy. The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings take place in a universe where noble and heroic actions are most often small candles lit against the inexorable march of evil. This backdrop of tragedy, which Galadriel names the long defeat, is certainly influenced by Tolkien\u27s views of Germanic mythologies, but it also draws much from the medieval notions of evil in Patristic Angelology and St. Augustine\u27s theology of human history. These twin understandings of evil ultimately lead to one conclusion in Tolkien: the need for divine intervention in world history. Through exploring these two dimensions of evil in Tolkien\u27s legendarium, this paper concludes with a treatment of how this divine intervention turns the inevitable catastrophe of world history into the eucatastrophe of myth

Potential Response of Soil-Borne Fungal Pathogens Affecting Crops to a Scenario of Climate Change in Europe

A study was carried out on the potential response of soil-borne pathogens causing crop yield losses under a climate change scenario in Europe. A controlled chamber set of experiments was carried out to quantify pathogen response to temperature using pure colonies of three soil-borne fungi, representative of low (Fusarium nivale), medium-high (Athelia rolfsii) and high (Macrophomina phaseolina) temperature requirements. A generic model to simulate fungal growth response to temperature based on these experiments was developed and linked to a soil temperature model component, and to components to simulate soil water content accounting for crop water uptake of potential hosts. Pathogens relative growth was simulated over Europe using the IPCC A1B emission scenario as realization of the Hadley-CM3 global climate model, available from the European Commission and processed for use with biophysical models. The simulations resulting from using the time span centred on 2030 were compared to the baseline, centred on the year 2000, using a sample of 30 years of daily weather. The general trend of soil-borne pathogens response to the scenario of climate change is a relative increase in growth in colder areas of Europe, as a function of their temperature requirements. Projections of F. nivale in the future indicate a relative increase of this winter pathogen of wheat in Northern European countries. A. rolfsii and M. phaseolina, two soil-borne pathogens typical of warmer agricultural areas, could find more favourable conditions in areas of the Central Europe, but they differentiated in Southern Europe where A. rolfsii resulted affected by summer soil temperatures above optimum

Spatial distribution of stored grain insects in a rice storage and processing facility in Brazil

This study describes the spatial distribution of stored product insects captured biweekly using foodbaited cage traps in a large rice storage and processing facility, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Monitoring started in August 2009 and will be carried out for 1 year, the first 5 months of sampling being presented in this study. From end of August 2009 until the end of December 2009, a total of 9893 insects were captured in the 99 cage traps. The most abundant species were: Carpophilus spp. (76%), Typhaea stercorea (8.6%), Ahasverus advena (5.5%), Tribolium castaneum (2.3%), Sitophilus oryzae (2%), Sitophilus zeamais (1.5%), Ephestia spp. (1.2 %), Cryptolestes ferrugineus (1%), Rhyzopertha dominica (0.64%), Oryzaephilus surinamensis (0.6%), Anthicus floralis (0.4%), Lasioderma serricorne (0.25%). The first two species, which make up for 84.6% of the insects collected, are not considered pests in stored grain, rather are attracted by moldy material present in residues or even in the bait material. The other insects, including primary and secondary species, comprised about 15% of the total trapped. The spatial distribution of the most important species infesting rice grain and of the total insect number was analyzed using Surfer 6.04 (Golden software, Golden, CO, USA) and contour maps were constructed to target areas for sanitation. Except for trap 66, located by the rice hulk storage box, the spatial distribution we observed using the contour maps showed that the greatest number of insects was mostly captured in cages placed in the receiving area, around the dryers, as well as outside of the structure where grain residues frequently accumulate. As indicated on the maps for total number of insects, a few isolated infested spots were detected. The parboiled rice area had the least amount of insects, except for trap 61, placed outside the structure. The population of primary and the most important secondary insect species, as well as the overall number of insects, decreased after sanitation and physical control measures were applied. Our observations confirm that insect monitoring is an essential tool for targeting and evaluating the control measures adopted in the quality program of rice storage and processing facilities. Keywords: Insect monitoring; Spatial distribution; Stored grain pests; Stored ric

The past as a lived space: heritage places, re-emergent aesthetics, and hopeful practices in NW Argentina

PublishedArticleThis article explores the past as a lived, inhabited reality through a series of examples of indigenous heritage practices in NW Argentina (NWA), a region that in recent decades has seen increasing indigenous demands for autonomy as well as for land and cultural rights. This article seeks to understand the locations where heritage struggles emerge, as well as the artefacts around which they emerge, as social, semantic, and physical spaces of ontological multiplicity. Understanding how such places and artefacts are constituted as lived-in-the-flesh realities today requires examination of the multiple present connections that make them possible, as well as inquiry into how the sedimentation of previous lived experiences contributes to present understandings. This article examines ancient places that become gravity points, fuelling both indigenous politics and an academic practice with its own aesthetic code. To varying degrees, the cases explored reflect our involvement – as archaeological researchers, professional advisors,and museum visitors – with re-emergent indigenous heritage practices in the region.This research was funded by an Arts and Humanities Research Council grant entitled ‘Identities as socio-material networks: perspectives from South America and beyond’ (2010–12, http://identities.exeter.ac.uk/)

The landscape of tooth shape: Over 20 years of dental topography in primates

Diet plays an incontrovertible role in primate evolution, affecting anatomy, growth and development, behavior, and social structure. It should come as no surprise that a myriad of methods for reconstructing diet have developed, mostly utilizing the element that is not only most common in the fossil record but also most pertinent to diet: teeth. Twenty years ago, the union of traditional, anatomical analyses with emerging scanning and imaging technologies led to the development of a new method for quantifying tooth shape and reconstructing the diets of extinct primates. This method became known as dental topography. [Abstract copyright: © 2020 The Authors. Evolutionary Anthropology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.

Stability of a buoyant Oldroyd-B flow saturating a vertical porous layer with open boundaries

The performance of several engineering applications are strictly connected to the rheology of the working fluids and the Oldroyd-B model is widely employed to describe a linear viscoelastic behaviour. In the present paper, a buoyant Oldroyd-B flow in a vertical porous layer with permeable and isothermal boundaries is investigated. Seepage flow is modelled through an extended version of Darcy’s law which accounts for the Oldroyd-B rheology. The basic stationary flow is parallel to the vertical axis and describes a single-cell pattern where the cell has an infinite height. A linear stability analysis of such a basic flow is carried out to determine the onset conditions for a multicellular pattern. This analysis is performed numerically by employing the shooting method. The neutral stability curves and the values of the critical Rayleigh number are evaluated for different retardation time and relaxation time characteristics of the fluid. The study highlights the extent to which the viscoelasticity has a destabilising effect on the buoyant flow. For the limiting case of a Newtonian fluid, the known results available in the literature are recovered, namely a critical value of the Darcy–Rayleigh number equal to 197.081 and a corresponding critical wavenumber of 1.05950

Should the General Practitioner Consider Mesotherapy (Intradermal Therapy) to Manage Localized Pain?

Wide variations in the types of pain and response to analgesic pharmacotherapy mean that a variety of treatment strategies are needed. One approach is mesotherapy (intradermal therapy). This consists of microinjections into the skin and is ideally suited to the management of localized pain. Advantages include increasing the duration of drug activity, reduced risk of adverse events and interactions, and possible synergy with other therapies. Mesotherapy provides general practitioners with another tool for the treatment of local pain. However, it is important to provide patients with full details of the pros and cons of this approach and obtain informed patient consent