Anaerobic Soil Disinfestation: Evaluation of Anaerobic Soil Disinfestation (ASD) for Warm-Season Vegetable Production in Tennessee

Anaerobic soil disinfestation (ASD) is a non-chemical, pre-plant soil treatment recently developed for control of pests such as soilborne plant pathogens, plant-parasitic nematodes, and weeds in specialty crop systems. Soil treatment by ASD includes incorporating a labile carbon (C) source, tarping with plastic, and irrigation of the topsoil to saturation to facilitate the development of strongly anaerobic soil conditions driven by soil microbes. Processes occurring during the anaerobic decomposition of the added C source have been reported control plant pests. The goal of this project was to evaluate and adapt the ASD procedure to environmental conditions and production systems in Tennessee and examine the potential for on-farm implementation. To meet this goal, study objectives were to 1) evaluate both cover crop and off-farm C inputs for ASD treatment for production of bell pepper and tomato in a research station field experiment, 2) evaluate cool-season cover crop and off-farm inputs as C sources for ASD treatment in a growth chamber pot experiment with introduced sclerotia of Sclerotium rolfsii and propagules of key weed species, and 3) demonstrate and evaluate on-farm implementation of ASD on a commercial tomato farm. Data collection included soil properties, pest assessment, and crop performance. Results indicated no differences in total marketable fruit yields between treatments in any of the studies, likely due to low disease pressure, plant-parasitic nematode populations, and weed populations apparent in all studies. Accumulation of anaerobic soil conditions generally did not differ among treatments, possibly due to the generally low C amendment rates and the soil properties in study locations. Treatment by ASD did impact a number of soil properties, including levels if inorganic soil nitrogen, which will need to be addressed when developing best management practices for ASD implementation. Additional studies are needed on sites with high existing pest pressure to further evaluate the feasibility of ASD for commercial production systems

On-Orbit Results From the NASA Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation Structure and Storm Intensity With a Constellation of Smallsats (TROPICS) Mission

The NASA TROPICS Earth Venture (EVI-3) CubeSat constellation mission will provide nearly all-weather observations of 3-D temperature and humidity, as well as cloud ice and precipitation horizontal structure, at high temporal resolution to conduct high-value science investigations of tropical cyclones. TROPICS will provide rapid-refresh microwave measurements (median refresh rate better than 60 minutes for the baseline mission) over the tropics that can be used to observe the thermodynamics of the troposphere and precipitation structure for storm systems at the mesoscale and synoptic scale over the entire storm lifecycle. The TROPICS constellation mission comprises four 3UCubeSats (5.4 kg each) in two low-Earth orbital planes. Each CubeSat contains a Blue Canyon Technologies bus and a high-performance radiometer payload to provide temperature profiles using seven channels near the 118.75 GHz oxygen absorption line, water vapor profiles using three channels near the 183 GHz water vapor absorption line, imagery in a single channel near 90 GHz for precipitation measurements (when combined with higher resolution water vapor channels), and a single channel at 205 GHz that is more sensitive to precipitation-sized ice particles. TROPICS spatial resolution and measurement sensitivity is comparable with current state-of-the-art observing platforms. Two dedicated launches (two spacecraft per launch) for the TROPICS constellation mission on Rocket Lab Electron vehicles occurred in 2023 (May 8 and May 26) to place the spacecraft in 32.75-degree inclined orbits at 550 km altitude. Data will be downlinked to the ground via the KSAT-Lite ground network. NASA\u27s Earth System Science Pathfinder (ESSP) Program Office approved the separate TROPICS Pathfinder mission, which launched on June 30, 2021, in advance of the TROPICS constellation mission as a technology demonstration and risk reduction effort. The TROPICS Pathfinder mission has provided an opportunity to checkout and optimize all mission elements prior to the primary constellation mission and is still operating nominally

The NASA Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation Structure and Storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats (TROPICS) Mission: Results from the Pathfinder Demonstration and Look Ahead to the Constellation Mission

The NASA Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats (TROPICS) mission will provide nearly all-weather observations of 3-D temperature and humidity, as well as cloud ice and precipitation horizontal structure, at high temporal resolution to conduct high-value science investigations of tropical cyclones. TROPICS will provide rapid-refresh microwave measurements (median refresh rate of approximately 50 minutes for the baseline mission) over the tropics that can be used to observe the thermodynamics of the troposphere and precipitation structure for storm systems at the mesoscale and synoptic scale over the entire storm lifecycle. The TROPICS constellation mission comprises six CubeSats in three low-Earth orbital planes. Each CubeSat will host a high-performance radiometer to provide temperature profiles using seven channels near the 118.75 GHz oxygen absorption line, water vapor profiles using three channels near the 183 GHz water vapor absorption line, imagery in a single channel near 90 GHz for precipitation measurements (when combined with higher resolution water vapor channels), and a single channel at 205 GHz that is more sensitive to precipitation-sized ice particles. TROPICS spatial resolution and measurement sensitivity is comparable with current state-of-the-art observing platforms. Launches for the TROPICS constellation mission are planned in 2022. NASA’s Earth System Science Pathfinder (ESSP) Program Office approved the separate TROPICS Pathfinder mission, which launched into a sun-synchronous orbit (2:00pm LTDN, 530 km) on June 30, 2021, in advance of the TROPICS constellation mission as a technology demonstration and risk reduction effort. The TROPICS Pathfinder mission has provided an opportunity to checkout and optimize all mission elements prior to the primary constellation mission. In this paper, we describe the instrument checkout and calibration/validation plans and progress for the TROPICS Pathfinder mission and discuss first light mission results. All spacecraft and radiometer systems are fully operational as of Launch + 11 months

A before-after implementation trial of smoking cessation guidelines in hospitalized veterans

Abstract Background Although most hospitalized smokers receive some form of cessation counseling during hospitalization, few receive outpatient cessation counseling and/or pharmacotherapy following discharge, which are key factors associated with long-term cessation. US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals are challenged to find resources to implement and maintain the kind of high intensity cessation programs that have been shown to be effective in research studies. Few studies have applied the Chronic Care Model (CCM) to improve inpatient smoking cessation. Specific objectives The primary objective of this protocol is to determine the effect of a nurse-initiated intervention, which couples low-intensity inpatient counseling with sustained proactive telephone counseling, on smoking abstinence in hospitalized patients. Key secondary aims are to determine the impact of the intervention on staff nurses' attitudes toward providing smoking cessation counseling; to identify barriers and facilitators to implementation of smoking cessation guidelines in VA hospitals; and to determine the short-term cost-effectiveness of implementing the intervention. Design Pre-post study design in four VA hospitals Participants Hospitalized patients, aged 18 or older, who smoke at least one cigarette per day. Intervention The intervention will include: nurse training in delivery of bedside cessation counseling, electronic medical record tools (to streamline nursing assessment and documentation, to facilitate prescription of pharmacotherapy), computerized referral of motivated inpatients for proactive telephone counseling, and use of internal nursing facilitators to provide coaching to staff nurses practicing in non-critical care inpatient units. Outcomes The primary endpoint is seven-day point prevalence abstinence at six months following hospital admission and prolonged abstinence after a one-month grace period. To compare abstinence rates during the intervention and baseline periods, we will use random effects logistic regression models, which take the clustered nature of the data within nurses and hospitals into account. We will assess attitudes of staff nurses toward cessation counseling by questionnaire and will identify barriers and facilitators to implementation by using clinician focus groups. To determine the short-term incremental cost per quitter from the perspective of the VA health care system, we will calculate cessation-related costs incurred during the initial hospitalization and six-month follow-up period. Trial number NCT00816036http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/112349/1/13012_2009_Article_190.pd

Kanamycin reveals the role played by glutamate receptors in shaping plant resource allocation.

Ionotropic glutamate receptors (iGluRs) play important roles in neurotransmission in animals. There is growing evidence that iGluRs also play important roles in plants. Using a chemical genetics approach, which combined a pH-homeostasis mutant of Arabidopsis thaliana (de-etiolated3), several different iGluR agonists, molecular modelling, and reporter gene expression in transgenic plants, we provide evidence that iGluR agonism can induce dramatic changes in plant development and metabolism. Systematic hypothesis testing revealed a signalling circuit that integrates amino acid and sugar signals to affect elongation growth and the deposition of carbon into starch and lignins. The data show that aminoglycoside antibiotics, such as kanamycin, and polyamines impinge upon this circuit. These findings provide a mechanism for the conversion of amino acid and sugar signals into an appropriate response at the gene expression level, and underline the similarities in iGluR agonism between animals and plants