Which wheat for smallholder Ethiopian farmers? Joining traditional knowledge with metric phenotypes

Africa hosts approximately 33 million smallholder farms, which account for 80% of the continent's farming system. Subsistence farming systems face highly variable climatic conditions that threaten locally-adapted, low-input agriculture. For the near future, they are among the most seriously affected by changing climatic conditions, posing additional risks to these systems. The benefits of modern breeding benefits may fail to reach small farming communities when broadly adapted material does not address specific local requirements. To date, participatory variety selection has only scratched the surface of the exploitability of farmers' knowledge in breeding. Yet, considering that over 80% of the farmers receive seeds from informal systems, making sure that well adapted material is available in production systems, seems to be a reasonable solution to quickly affect a large populations. Ethiopia is one of the most populous countries in Africa, with more than 96 million inhabitants, 80% of whom are engaged in small-scale agriculture, and often subsistence farming. We involved 60 smallholder farmers in two locations in Ethiopia to evaluate traits of their interest in 400 wheat accessions, producing 230,400 data points. We couple this information with metric measurements of 10 agronomic traits, breaking down farmers' preferences on quantitative phenotypes. We found that the relative importance of wheat traits is gender- and locality- dependent, and produced a ranking of the 400 varieties identifying the combination of traits most desired by farmers. The study scale and methods lead to a better understanding of smallholder farmer needs, broadening the discussion for the future of local, sustainable breeding efforts accommodating farmers' knowledge

A crowdsourcing approach to detect farmers’ preferences: evidences from Ethiopia for adapting to climate change

Climate change is severely affecting production systems all over Africa. Ethiopia will face an increase in temperature and changes in rainfall patterns. One solution for long term management of climate related risks is to introduce new traits into production systems. We present an approach to quickly deliver to farmers a selected number of preferred accessions of durum wheat using a crowdsourcing approach. After having completed a phenotypic and genotypic characterisation of 400 accessions of Ethiopian landraces and asked farmers to evaluate them, we distributed seeds of preferred varieties to a large number of farmers using a crowdsourcing approach. In two sites representing different agroecological zones, we distributed 20 superior varieties and one check, an improved variety very common in both areas to 200 farmers in 12 villages per site, covering an area of roughly 350 km 2. We repeated the experiment for 2 years. Each farmer was given 3 blind varieties and the check, each variety being equally represented in the sample. In addition, in each village we included 2 i-buttons, measuring temperature and humidity every 3 hours throughout the growing season. This allowed to analyse the data on critical climatic parameters. Results clearly indicate farmers’ preferences: a) Landraces were preferred over improved varieties for their multiple uses; b) By considering farmers as citizen scientists, we have a better understanding of the criteria farmers use to select their preferred varieties (in our case straw and grain yield, drought tolerance, uniformity, long and dense spikes). In conclusion: • This process has been very effective in quickly disseminating seeds that match farmers’ needs. After 2 years several hundred farmers can use better adapted material. • It shows the potential of landraces to provide immediate option for managing climate related risks and calls for broader use of material conserved in gene banks. • It indicates the need to strengthen local seed systems to better manage these resources. • It indicates how farmers can provide very valuable scientific information that can be translated into research as well as development potential in other areas of research

Genome wide association study to identify the genetic base of smallholder farmer preferences of Durum wheat traits

Smallholder agriculture involves millions of farmers worldwide. A methodical utilization of their traditional knowledge in modern breeding efforts may help the production of locally adapted varieties better addressing their needs. In this study, a combination of participatory approaches, genomics, and quantitative genetics is used to trace the genetic basis of smallholder farmer preferences of durum wheat traits. Two smallholder communities evaluated 400 Ethiopian wheat varieties, mostly landraces, for traits of local interest in two locations in the Ethiopian highlands. For each wheat variety, farmers provided quantitative evaluations of their preference for flowering time, spike morphology, tillering capacity, and overall quality. Ten agronomic and phenology traits were simultaneously measured on the same varieties, providing the means to compare them with farmer traits. The analysis of farmer traits showed that they were partially influenced by gender and location but were repeatable and heritable, in some cases more than metric traits. The durum wheat varieties were genotyped for more than 80,000 SNP markers, and the resulting data was used in a genome wide association (GWA) study providing the molecular dissection of smallholder farmers' choice criteria

Bacteria Hunt: A multimodal, multiparadigm BCI game

Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) allow users to control applications by brain activity. Among their possible applications for non-disabled people, games are promising candidates. BCIs can enrich game play by the mental and affective state information they contain. During the eNTERFACE’09 workshop we developed the Bacteria Hunt game which can be played by keyboard and BCI, using SSVEP and relative alpha power. We conducted experiments in order to investigate what difference positive vs. negative neurofeedback would have on subjects’ relaxation states and how well the different BCI paradigms can be used together. We observed no significant difference in mean alpha band power, thus relaxation, and in user experience between the games applying positive and negative feedback. We also found that alpha power before SSVEP stimulation was significantly higher than alpha power during SSVEP stimulation indicating that there is some interference between the two BCI paradigms

New insights into postglacial vegetation dynamics and environmental conditions of Península Avellaneda, southwest Patagonia, revealed by plant macrofossils and pollen analysis

Reconstruction of the history of past events becomes more objective when considering an increased number of possible indicators. Combining plant macrofossil analysis with pollen analysis has the potential to give a more detailed picture of the composition of the local vegetation. Patagonia has been the focus of several palaeoclimatic studies, in particular of latitudinal variations in southern westerly winds, which have global implications. However, palaeoecological reconstructions using plant macrofossils in conjunction with pollen analysis are still scarce. We analysed the plant macrofossils contained in two peat sequences from Península Avellaneda (located in the Lago Argentino basin, southwest Patagonia) and integrate these results with pollen information. Plant macrofossils and pollen records provide a well-resolved history of vegetation and catchment conditions starting from ca. 13,000 cal yrs BP. We also investigated the development of plant communities following the retreat of glaciers, with emphasis on the expansion of Nothofagus species (which were restricted under glacial climates) and particular reference to Nothofagus pumilio. These results provide an example of how plant macrofossil analysis (taxonomic, taphonomic and statistical) in combination with pollen analysis results in a better understanding of postglacial environmental history

Joining smallholder farmers’ traditional knowledge with metric traits to select better varieties of Ethiopian wheat

Smallholder farming communities face highly variable climatic conditions that threaten locally adapted, low-input agriculture. The benefits of modern crop breeding may fail to reach their fields when broadly adapted genetic materials do not address local requirements. To date, participatory methods only scratched the surface of the exploitability of farmers’ traditional knowledge in breeding. In this study, 30 smallholder farmers in each of two locations in Ethiopia provided quantitative evaluations of earliness, spike morphology, tillering capacity and overall quality on 400 wheat genotypes, mostly traditional varieties, yielding altogether 192,000 data points. Metric measurements of ten agronomic traits were simultaneously collected, allowing to systematically break down farmers’ preferences on quantitative phenotypes. Results showed that the relative importance of wheat traits differed by gender and location. Farmer traits were variously contributed by metric traits, and could only partially be explained by them. Eventually, farmer trait values were used to produce a ranking of the 400 wheat varieties identifying the trait combinations most desired by farmers. The study scale and methods lead to a better understanding of the quantitative basis of Ethiopian smallholder farmer preference in wheat, broadening the discussion for the future of local, sustainable breeding efforts accommodating farmers’ knowledge

Continuous variable entanglement and quantum state teleportation between optical and macroscopic vibrational modes through radiation pressure

We study an isolated, perfectly reflecting, mirror illuminated by an intense laser pulse. We show that the resulting radiation pressure efficiently entangles a mirror vibrational mode with the two reflected optical sideband modes of the incident carrier beam. The entanglement of the resulting three-mode state is studied in detail and it is shown to be robust against the mirror mode temperature. We then show how this continuous variable entanglement can be profitably used to teleport an unknown quantum state of an optical mode onto the vibrational mode of the mirror.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figure

Treatment of peripheral arterial disease in diabetes: a consensus of the Italian Societies of Diabetes (SID, AMD), Radiology (SIRM) and Vascular Endovascular Surgery (SICVE).

AbstractDiabetic foot (DF) is a chronic and highly disabling complication of diabetes. The prevalence of peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is high in diabetic patients and, associated or not with peripheral neuropathy (PN), can be found in 50% of cases of DF. It is worth pointing out that the number of major amputations in diabetic patients is still very high. Many PAD diabetic patients are not revascularised due to lack of technical expertise or, even worse, negative beliefs because of poor experience. This despite the progress obtained in the techniques of distal revascularisation that nowadays allow to reopen distal arteries of the leg and foot. Italy has one of the lowest prevalence rates of major amputations in Europe, and has a long tradition in the field of limb salvage by means of an aggressive approach in debridement, antibiotic therapy and distal revascularisation. Therefore, we believe it is appropriate to produce a consensus document concerning the treatment of PAD and limb salvage in diabetic patients, based on the Italian experience in this field, to share with the scientific community