Maize in Thailand: Production Systems, Constraints, and Research Priorities

This is one of a series of seven in-depth country studies on maize production systems in Asia, funded by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). It is part of a project designed to promote sustainable intensification of maize production systems while ensuring equitable income growth and improved food security, especially for poor households that depend on maize. Maize is one of five major crops grown in the uplands of Thailand, along with rice, cassava, sugar cane, and rubber trees. Government-promoted crop diversification, increased population growth, improved transportation networks, inter national trade, expansion of upland farming areas, and increased demand for grains from the domestic livestock and poultry industry stimulated Thailand�s maize production beginning in the 1980s. However, Thailand�s domestic maize supply is currently not sufficient to meet the needs of its in-country demands, and small quantities have to be imported. Rapid economic growth and accelerated urbanization are expected to create an even higher demand for maize in Thailand. This trend will lead to the intensification of current maize production systems, with more land being shifted to maize production, particularly in marginal areas. Thailand�s challenge is to produce more maize for an expanding market, while preserving the natural resource base and the environment through careful agricultural planning. Effective policy design and implementation must be based on comprehensive, accurate data on the current state of maize-based farming systems. This study characterized the social and biophysical maize production environment of Thailand; examined its response to increasing maize demand; determined constraints to future productivity growth; indicated the potential envir onmental consequences, and examined the options available for promoting sustainable growth in maize production.Crop Production/Industries, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Degrowth in an African periphery: Recentring decoloniality around circular ontologies

In this article Roland Ngam focuses on Africa and the disarticulated colonial model on which it is built and argues that in order to build a fairer system that works for the majority, the world needs to quickly shift to an ecocentric degrowth ontology that leverages Africa’s rich cultural heritage for the wellbeing of all people

Detection of Ethylene Gas by Fluorescence Turn-On of a Conjugated Polymer

Ripe fruits: The fluorescence of a conjugated polymer is quenched by the presence of copper(I) moieties. Upon exposure to ethylene gas the copper complexes bind to ethylene and no longer quench the polymer fluorescence (see picture). This sensory concept can be used in solution and in thin films.German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (Fellowship LPDS 2009-8)National Science Foundation (U.S.

Designing a Hard Disk Drive Kinetic Air Particle Detachment System Using Finite Element Analysis

The removal of particulate contaminants adhering to a surface has been investigated using an air nozzle jet and purge particle system before assemble Head Stack Assembly to be final Hard Disk Drive finished good. These technical and economic challenges have driven cleaning process development away from chemistries and also maintain high particle removal efficiencies with reduced material loss, pattern damage. Finite element is using to study detachment of deposited particles in turbulent air flows and use this numerical model to design system more effectively. The experiment is established to study the removal effectiveness of system. Removal of the contaminants was observed by optical particle counter and quantified type of particle through digital image analysis. The experimental results showed that air particle purge cleaning performs well for surface cleaning. The particle removal efficiency of air cleaning and purge particle increases with elapsed time and it is well correlate to critical set up parameter such as pressure, velocity, pulse interval and cleaning duration time. The optimum pressure is defined to ensure no harmful to mechanical damage. The removal efficiency was detected higher for submicron-sized contaminants and well correlate to drag force. The success of this system could be further benefit for particle cleaning and process improvement resulting to product reliability improvement

The development of science academic word list

Knowledge of specialized academic vocabulary is important for the academic success of EFL natural science students. Specialized words outside the General Service List (GSL) (West, 1953) and the Academic Word List (AWL) (Coxhead, 2000) are necessary for comprehending scientific text. The existing lists of words do not cover all sub-disciplines of natural science. The present study aims to explore the specialized academic words across 11 sub-disciplines of natural science. To identify the words, a corpus-based approach and an expert-judged approach were used. A 5.5-million-word corpus called the Science Academic Journal (SAJ) Corpus was created for this study. Applying the established word selection criteria, 513 word families were selected. The potential list was reviewed by a panel of experts in order to remove the overly-technical words from the list. The Science Academic Word List (SAWL) was established with 432 word families and provided 5.82% coverage of the running words in the SAJ corpus. To validate the word list, the SAWL was tested against two independent corpora. The findings revealed that the SAWL contains 432 word families that are useful for reading journal articles in natural science disciplines. In addition, it was also found that the SAWL performed better on an independent corpus compared to the Science World List (Coxhead Hirsh, 2007). It is expected that the SAWL established in this study will be a useful source for learning and teaching vocabulary in natural science disciplines

An amplification-free ultra-sensitive electrochemical CRISPR/Cas biosensor for drug-resistant bacteria detection.

Continued development of high-performance and cost-effective diagnostic tools is vital for improving infectious disease treatment and transmission control. For nucleic acid diagnostics, moving beyond enzyme-mediated amplification assays will be critical in reducing the time and complexity of diagnostic technologies. Further, an emerging area of threat, in which diagnostics will play an increasingly important role, is antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in bacterial infections. Herein, we present an amplification-free electrochemical CRISPR/Cas biosensor utilizing silver metallization (termed E-Si-CRISPR) to detect methicillin-resistant (MRSA). Using a custom-designed guide RNA (gRNA) targeting the gene of MRSA, the Cas12a enzyme allows highly sensitive and specific detection when employed with silver metallization and square wave voltammetry (SWV). Our biosensor exhibits excellent analytical performance, with detection and quantitation limits of 3.5 and 10 fM, respectively, and linearity over five orders of magnitude (from 10 fM to 0.1 nM). Importantly, we observe no degradation in performance when moving from buffer to human serum samples, and achieve excellent selectivity for MRSA in human serum in the presence of other common bacteria. The E-Si-CRISPR method shows significant promise as an ultrasensitive field-deployable device for nucleic acid-based diagnostics, without requiring nucleic acid amplification. Finally, adjustment to a different disease target can be achieved by simple modification of the gRNA protospacer. [Abstract copyright: This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.