Perception vs practice:Farmer attitudes towards and uptake of IPM in Scottish spring barley

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) offers a suite of ways by which to reduce the need for pesticide use, thus minimising environmental damage and pathogen resistance build-up in crop production. Farmers and agronomists active in the Scottish spring barley sector were surveyed to determine the extent to which they currently use or are open to implementing three IPM measures – varietal disease resistance, crop rotation, and forecasting disease pressure – in order to control three important fungal diseases. Overall, the survey results demonstrate that farmers and agronomists are open to using the three IPM techniques. However, gaps between actual and perceived recent practice were large: despite over 60% of farmers stating that they sowed varieties highly resistant to Rhynchosporium or Ramularia, less than one third of reportedly sown varieties were highly resistant to these diseases. Similarly, over 80% of farmers indicated that they used crop rotations, yet 66% of farmers also reported sowing consecutive barley often/always. Further research is needed in order to understand why these gaps exist, and how they can be reduced in future in order to increase IPM uptake and optimise pesticide use

An interdisciplinary method for assessing IPM potential:Case study in Scottish spring barley

A method is proposed which considers Integrated Pest Management (IPM) through several lenses, in order to obtain a more holistic view of the potential for IPM, and is described using a case study of Scottish spring barley. Long-term experimental field trial databases are used to determine which management methods are best suited to the system at hand. Stakeholder engagement provides insight into which of these methods are most likely to be taken up by farmers. Finally, a database of commercial practice allows an estimate of the potential for improving management patterns, based on current levels of IPM uptake across a wider sample of Scottish farmers. Together, these diverse sources of information give a more complete view of a complex system than any individual source could and allow the identification of IPM methods which are robust, practical, and not already in widespread use in this system. Bringing together these sources of information may be of particular value for policy and other decision makers, who need information about strategies which are both practical and likely to have a large positive impact. In the case of Scottish spring barley, there is good potential to reduce the need for fungicide use through the increased use of highly resistant barley varieties

Genome-Wide Association Study for Abscission Failure of Fruit Pericarps (Stick-Tights) in Wild Macadamia Germplasm

Macadamia pericarps that fail to abscise (‘stick-tights’) are an important trait to select against in breeding as they can harbour pests and diseases. Traditional macadamia breeding cycles are lengthy and expensive due to long juvenilities and large tree sizes. Thus, genome-wide association studies (GWAS) are an important investigative tool to identify candidate trait-linked markers to enable potential reductions in evaluation and selection cycles via marker-assisted selection (MAS) in young seedlings. This study assessed 199 wild macadamia germplasm accessions for stick-tight prevalence across two years. As the number of stick-tights per tree is limited by the number of nuts per tree, we conducted association analyses to identify SNPs linked with the number of stick-tights per tree, and examined whether such SNPs were also associated with, and thus confounded with, the number of nuts per tree. We also assessed associations with the proportion of stick-tights per total number of nuts. Thirty-two SNPs were associated with at least one of the stick-tight traits in one year (p < 0.001). Of all such SNPs, only one was associated with the number of nuts per tree (p < 0.001), indicating that most associations were not confounded with yield

Genomic selection and genetic gain for nut yield in an Australian macadamia breeding population

Improving yield prediction and selection efficiency is critical for tree breeding. This is vital for macadamia trees with the time from crossing to production of new cultivars being almost a quarter of a century. Genomic selection (GS) is a useful tool in plant breeding, particularly with perennial trees, contributing to an increased rate of genetic gain and reducing the length of the breeding cycle. We investigated the potential of using GS methods to increase genetic gain and accelerate selection efficiency in the Australian macadamia breeding program with comparison to traditional breeding methods. This study evaluated the prediction accuracy of GS in a macadamia breeding population of 295 full-sib progeny from 32 families (29 parents, reciprocals combined), along with a subset of parents. Historical yield data for tree ages 5 to 8 years were used in the study, along with a set of 4113 SNP markers. The traits of focus were average nut yield from tree ages 5 to 8 years and yield stability, measured as the standard deviation of yield over these 4 years. GBLUP GS models were used to obtain genomic estimated breeding values for each genotype, with a five-fold cross-validation method and two techniques: prediction across related populations and prediction across unrelated populations

Upper extremity impairments in women with or without lymphedema following breast cancer treatment

Breast-cancer-related lymphedema affects ∼25% of breast cancer (BC) survivors and may impact use of the upper limb during activity. The purpose of this study is to compare upper extremity (UE) impairment and activity between women with and without lymphedema after BC treatment. 144 women post BC treatment completed demographic, symptom, and Disability of Arm-Shoulder-Hand (DASH) questionnaires. Objective measures included Purdue pegboard, finger-tapper, Semmes-Weinstein monofilaments, vibration perception threshold, strength, range of motion (ROM), and volume. Women with lymphedema had more lymph nodes removed (p &lt; .001), more UE symptoms (p &lt; .001), higher BMI (p = .041), and higher DASH scores (greater limitation) (p &lt; .001). For all participants there was less strength (elbow flexion, wrist flexion, grip), less shoulder ROM, and decreased sensation at the medial upper arm (p &lt; .05) in the affected UE. These differences were greater in women with lymphedema, particularly in shoulder abduction ROM (p &lt; .05). Women with lymphedema had bilaterally less elbow flexion strength and shoulder ROM (p &lt; .05). Past diagnosis of lymphedema, grip strength, shoulder abduction ROM, and number of comorbidities contributed to the variance in DASH scores (R 2 of 0.463, p &lt; .001). UE impairments are found in women following treatment for BC. Women with lymphedema have greater UE impairment and limitation in activities than women without. Many of these impairments are amenable to prevention measures or treatment, so early detection by health care providers is essential

Fate and Uptake of Pharmaceuticals in Soil–Plant Systems

Pharmaceuticals have been detected in the soil environment where there is the potential for uptake into crops. This study explored the fate and uptake of pharmaceuticals (carbamazepine, diclofenac, fluoxetine, propranolol, sulfamethazine) and a personal care product (triclosan) in soil–plant systems using radish (Raphanus sativus) and ryegrass (Lolium perenne). Five of the six chemicals were detected in plant tissue. Carbamazepine was taken up to the greatest extent in both the radish (52 μg/g) and ryegrass (33 μg/g), whereas sulfamethazine uptake was below the limit of quantitation (LOQ) (<0.01 μg/g). In the soil, concentrations of diclofenac and sulfamethazine dropped below the LOQ after 7 days. However, all pharmaceuticals were still detectable in the pore water at the end of the experiment. The results demonstrate the ability of plant species to accumulate pharmaceuticals from soils with uptake apparently specific to both plant species and chemical. Results can be partly explained by the hydrophobicity and extent of ionization of each chemical in the soil