Economic Analysis of Strategies to Combat HLB in Florida Citrus

citrus greening, huanglongbing, asian citrus psyllid, Crop Production/Industries, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

SOSIALISASI BUDIDAYA SORGUM DENGAN BERBAGAI VARIETAS BERBEDA SEBAGAI DASAR PENGUATAN DESA AGROINDUSTRI PANGAN DI DESA BANUROJA, RANDANGAN, POHUWATO, GORONTALO

Sorghum is one of the food commodities that has the potential to be developed in Indonesia. Increasing sorghum productivity can be done by applying good cultivation, one of which is by planting different varieties. This activity was carried out from June to September 2023 in Banuroja Village, Randangan District, Pohuwato Regency, Gorontalo Province. The purpose of this community service program is to provide knowledge and skills to the Banuroja community to cultivate using sorghum seeds with different varieties. The main target of this community service program is the Banuroja Village farmer group. The methods used include lectures, hands-on practice, and discussions. The results of the activity concluded that: 1) Participants' knowledge about sorghum cultivation increased by about 28%; 2) This activity has benefited the Banuroja community, especially the farmer groups with an increase in the desire of participants to follow similar training of around 98%; and 3) Sorghum cultivation can be used as an alternative activity to corn and paddy cultivation

Changes in the metabolic potential of the sponge microbiome under ocean acidification.

Anthropogenic CO2 emissions are causing ocean acidification, which can affect the physiology of marine organisms. Here we assess the possible effects of ocean acidification on the metabolic potential of sponge symbionts, inferred by metagenomic analyses of the microbiomes of two sponge species sampled at a shallow volcanic CO2 seep and a nearby control reef. When comparing microbial functions between the seep and control sites, the microbiome of the sponge Stylissa flabelliformis (which is more abundant at the control site) exhibits at the seep reduced potential for uptake of exogenous carbohydrates and amino acids, and for degradation of host-derived creatine, creatinine and taurine. The microbiome of Coelocarteria singaporensis (which is more abundant at the seep) exhibits reduced potential for carbohydrate import at the seep, but greater capacity for archaeal carbon fixation via the 3-hydroxypropionate/4-hydroxybutyrate pathway, as well as archaeal and bacterial urea production and ammonia assimilation from arginine and creatine catabolism. Together these metabolic features might contribute to enhanced tolerance of the sponge symbionts, and possibly their host, to ocean acidification

Lack of antigenic diversification of major outer membrane proteins during clonal waves of Neisseria meningitidis serogroup A colonization and disease

In particular in the ‘meningitis belt' of sub-Saharan Africa, epidemic meningococcal meningitis is a severe public health problem. In the past decades, serogroup A lineages have been the dominant etiologic agents, but also other serogroups have caused outbreaks. A comprehensive vaccine based on subcapsular outer membrane proteins (OMPs) is not available. Here, we have investigated whether meningococcal populations overcome herd immunity by changing antigenic properties of their OMPs. Meningococcal isolates were collected in the context of longitudinal studies in Ghana between 2002 and 2008 and in Burkina Faso between 2006 and 2007. Serogroup A strains isolated during two clonal waves of colonization and disease showed no diversification in the genes encoding their PorA, PorB, and FetA proteins. However, we detected occasional allelic exchange of opa genes, as well as wide variation in the number of intragenic tandem repeats, showing that phase variation of Opa protein expression is a frequent event. Altogether we observed a remarkable antigenic stability of the PorA, PorB and FetA proteins over years. Our results indicate that while herd immunity may be responsible for the disappearance of meningococcal clones over time, it is not a strong driving force for antigenic diversification of the major OMPs analyzed her

Biogeographic variation in the microbiome of the ecologically important sponge, Carteriospongia foliascens

Sponges are well known for hosting dense and diverse microbial communities, but how these associations vary with biogeography and environment is less clear. Here we compared the microbiome of an ecologically important sponge species, Carteriospongia foliascens, over a large geographic area and identified environmental factors likely responsible for driving microbial community differences between inshore and offshore locations using co-occurrence networks (NWs). The microbiome of C. foliascens exhibited exceptionally high microbial richness, with more than 9,000 OTUs identified at 97% sequence similarity. A large biogeographic signal was evident at the OTU level despite similar phyla level diversity being observed across all geographic locations. The C. foliascens bacterial community was primarily comprised of Gammaproteobacteria (34.2% ± 3.4%) and Cyanobacteria (32.2% ± 3.5%), with lower abundances of Alphaproteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, unidentified Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Acidobacteria and Deltaproteobacteria. Co-occurrence NWs revealed a consistent increase in the proportion of Cyanobacteria over Bacteroidetes between turbid inshore and oligotrophic offshore locations, suggesting that the specialist microbiome of C. foliascens is driven by environmental factors

Effects of organo-floc as natural coagulant on posttreatment of ultrafiltration membrane

Membrane cleaning is necessary in order to restore the performance of the membrane. However, the cleaning water after membrane cleaning has become the secondary waste effluent which contains particulates resulting from membrane fouling, membrane pretreatment and feed concentration. In this work, coagulation method was selected as a post-treatment of UF membrane after treating palm oil mill effluent (POME). The application of organo-floc (natural coagulant) as a primary coagulant were studied and compared with aluminum sulphate. The performances of the post-treatment were investigated by the effects of chemical oxygen demand (COD), total suspended solid (TSS) and color removal. The optimization of coagulant process using organo-floc was conducted using central composite design (CCD) in the response surface methodology (RSM)

Overview on application of Response Surface Methodology (RSM) in treatment of Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME)

There are many factors affecting the performance of a treatment system especially in the treatment of palm oil mill effluent (POME) as its contains high amounts of suspended solid, low pH, high salt content and high chemical oxygen demand (COD). However, one factor at a time approach is complicated method in establishing relationship between multiple parameters. Response surface methodology (RSM) is a recommended approach as it is widely used to analyze and study the interactions between multiple parameters and provides optimum output as well as minimizing the defects which result in good treatment system. This paper overviews the recent and current research in the application of RSM in optimizing the treatment development of POME

Emergence and genomic diversification of a virulent serogroup W:ST-2881(CC175) Neisseria meningitidis clone in the African meningitis belt.

Countries of the African 'meningitis belt' are susceptible to meningococcal meningitis outbreaks. While in the past major epidemics have been primarily caused by serogroup A meningococci, W strains are currently responsible for most of the cases. After an epidemic in Mecca in 2000, W:ST-11 strains have caused many outbreaks worldwide. An unrelated W:ST-2881 clone was described for the first time in 2002, with the first meningitis cases caused by these bacteria reported in 2003. Here we describe results of a comparative whole-genome analysis of 74 W:ST-2881 strains isolated within the framework of two longitudinal colonization and disease studies conducted in Ghana and Burkina Faso. Genomic data indicate that the W:ST-2881 clone has emerged from Y:ST-175(CC175) bacteria by capsule switching. The circulating W:ST-2881 populations were composed of a variety of closely related but distinct genomic variants with no systematic differences between colonization and disease isolates. Two distinct and geographically clustered phylogenetic clonal variants were identified in Burkina Faso and a third in Ghana. On the basis of the presence or absence of 17 recombination fragments, the Ghanaian variant could be differentiated into five clusters. All 25 Ghanaian disease isolates clustered together with 23 out of 40 Ghanaian isolates associated with carriage within one cluster, indicating that W:ST-2881 clusters differ in virulence. More than half of the genes affected by horizontal gene transfer encoded proteins of the 'cell envelope' and the 'transport/binding protein' categories, which indicates that exchange of non-capsular antigens plays an important role in immune evasion