Microtyphlus fideli sp. n. de Anillina de la sima Latonero, Castellote, Teruel (Coleoptera, Carabidae, Bembidiini)

Microtyphlus fideli n. sp. is now described from the Latonero cave, Castellote, Teruel, Spain. It belongs to the M. schaurni(Saulcy, 1863) species group owing to the morphological characters of the mentum. It could easily be distinguished from M. schaurni (Saulcy, 1863) and M. torressalai Coiffait, 1958, by the morphology of elytra and aedeagus, and from M. ganglbaueriBreit, 1908 and M. guadarrarnus Ehlers, 1883, by the unarmed rneso- and metafemur in the male and the structure of male genitalia. Key words: Coleoptera, Carabidae, Anillina, Microtyphlus fidelin. sp., Teruel, Spain.Microtyphlus fideli n. sp. is now described from the Latonero cave, Castellote, Teruel, Spain. It belongs to the M. schaurni(Saulcy, 1863) species group owing to the morphological characters of the mentum. It could easily be distinguished from M. schaurni (Saulcy, 1863) and M. torressalai Coiffait, 1958, by the morphology of elytra and aedeagus, and from M. ganglbaueriBreit, 1908 and M. guadarrarnus Ehlers, 1883, by the unarmed rneso- and metafemur in the male and the structure of male genitalia. Key words: Coleoptera, Carabidae, Anillina, Microtyphlus fidelin. sp., Teruel, Spain.Microtyphlus fideli n. sp. is now described from the Latonero cave, Castellote, Teruel, Spain. It belongs to the M. schaurni(Saulcy, 1863) species group owing to the morphological characters of the mentum. It could easily be distinguished from M. schaurni (Saulcy, 1863) and M. torressalai Coiffait, 1958, by the morphology of elytra and aedeagus, and from M. ganglbaueriBreit, 1908 and M. guadarrarnus Ehlers, 1883, by the unarmed rneso- and metafemur in the male and the structure of male genitalia. Key words: Coleoptera, Carabidae, Anillina, Microtyphlus fidelin. sp., Teruel, Spain

Moderate beer consumption does not change early or mature atherosclerosis in mice

BACKGROUND: Although the consumption of wine in particular has been associated with a lower risk of atherothrombotic cardiovascular disease, systematic reviews differ as to the relative protective effect of beer, wine and spirits. Two previous studies showed that red wine reduces fatty streak formation (early atherosclerosis) but not mature atherosclerosis in apolipoprotein (apo) E-deficient (apoE-/-) mice. AIM OF THE STUDY: To determine whether a moderate beer intake would affect early and mature atherosclerotic lesion formation using control C57BL/6 and apoE-/- mice, respectively, as models. METHODS: Control C57BL/6 and apoE-/- mice were randomized to receive either water, ethanol, mild beer, dark beer or ethanol-free beer. The level of beer was designed to approximate the alcohol intake currently believed to be beneficial in reducing human vascular risk. Control C57BL/6 mice were fed a Western diet for 24 weeks, and apoE-/- mice a chow diet for 12 weeks. At the end of the trial period, mice were euthanized and atherosclerotic lesions quantified. Plasma lipid concentrations were also measured. RESULTS: The amount of atherosclerosis and average number of lesions in the proximal aortic region did not differ among groups in control C57BL/6 mice (p = 0.32 and p = 0.29, respectively) and apoE-/- mice (p = 0.19 and p = 0.59, respectively). No consistent differences were observed in plasma lipid and lipoprotein concentrations among water, ethanol and beer groups. CONCLUSIONS: Moderate beer consumption does not change the development of early or mature atherosclerosis in mice. Our findings do not support the hypothesis of an anti-atherogenic effect of beer. Other potential protective actions of moderate beer consumption such as plaque stabilization, a reduction in plaque intrinsic thrombogenicity, or a reduction in the systemic propensity to thrombosis, remain to be studied

Heat stress develops with increased total-tract gut permeability, and dietary organic acid and pure botanical supplementation partly restores lactation performance in Holstein dairy cows

To evaluate the effects of heat stress (HS) conditions and dietary organic acid and pure botanical (OA/PB) supplementation on gut permeability and milk produc- tion, we enrolled 46 multiparous Holstein cows [208 ± 4.65 dry matter intake (DMI; mean ± SD), 3.0 ± 0.42 lactation, 122 ± 4.92 d pregnant, and 39.2 ± 0.26 kg of milk yield] in a study with a completely randomized design. Cows were assigned to 1 of 4 groups: thermo- neutral conditions (TN-Con, n = 12), HS conditions (HS-Con, n = 12), thermoneutral conditions pair-fed to HS-Con (TN-PF, n = 12), or HS supplemented with OA/PB [75 mg/kg of body weight (BW); 25% citric acid, 16.7% sorbic acid, 1.7% thymol, 1.0% vanillin, and 55.6% triglyceride; HS-OAPB, n = 10]. Supple- ments were delivered twice daily by top-dress; all cows not supplemented with OA/PB received an equivalent amount of the triglyceride used for microencapsulation of the OA/PB supplement as a top-dress. Cows were maintained in thermoneutrality [temperature-humidity index (THI) = 68] during a 7-d acclimation and covari- ate period. Thereafter, cows remained in thermoneutral conditions or were moved to HS conditions (THI: diur- nal change 74 to 82) for 14 d. Cows were milked twice daily. Clinical assessments and BW were recorded, blood was sampled, and gastrointestinal permeability measurements were repeatedly evaluated. The mixed model included fixed effects of treatment, time, and their interaction. Rectal and skin temperatures and res- piration rates were greater in HS-Con and HS-OAPB relative to TN-Con. Dry matter intake, water intake, and yields of energy-corrected milk (ECM), protein, and lactose were lower in HS-Con relative to HS-OAPB. Nitrogen efficiency was improved in HS-OAPB relative to HS-Con. Compared with TN-Con and TN-PF, milk yield and ECM were lower in HS-Con cows. Total- tract gastrointestinal permeability measured at d 3 of treatment was greater in HS-Con relative to TN-Con or TN-PF. Plasma total fatty acid concentrations were reduced, whereas insulin concentrations were increased in HS-Con relative to TN-PF. We conclude that expo- sure to a heat-stress environment increases total-tract gastrointestinal permeability. This study highlights important mechanisms that might account for milk production losses caused by heat stress, independent of changes in DMI. Our observations also suggest that dietary supplementation of OA/PB is a means to partly restore ECM production and improve nitrogen efficiency in dairy cattle experiencing heat stress

Executive Functioning: Assessing the Role of Perceived Paranormal Ability

This study examined whether scores on self-report measures of executive functions varied in accordance with level of self-professed paranormal ability. The investigators compared three groups varying in attribution of paranormal facilities: practitioners (Mediums, Psychics, Spiritualists and Fortune-Tellers), self-professed ability and no ability. Consistent with recent research on cognitive-perceptual factors allied to delusional formation and thinking style, the researchers anticipated that practitioners would score higher on paranormal belief and self-reported executive function disruption. Correspondingly, the investigators also hypothesised that the self-professed ability group would demonstrate greater belief in the paranormal and higher levels of executive function disruption than the no ability group. A sample of 499 (219 males, 279 females) respondents completed the measures online. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) found a large effect size, alongside significant differences on all variables apart from Cognitive Reappraisal. Pairwise comparisons indicated that Paranormal Belief increased as a function of level of ability; practitioners scored higher than self-professed, who in turn scored higher than the no ability group. For executive functioning, significant differences emerged only for the no ability vs. self-professed ability and no ability vs. practising groups. Collectively, outcomes indicated that perception of ability, regardless of intensity of paranormal conviction, influenced subjective appraisal of executive functions. Failure to find consistent differences between practitioner and self-professed ability groups suggested that discernment of ability was sufficient to heighten awareness of executive functioning disruptions

Classifying Agricultural Terrain for Machinery Traversability Purposes

The detection of the type of soil surface where a robotic vehicle is navigating on is an important issue for performing several agricultural tasks. Satisfactory results in activities such as seeding, plowing, fertilizing, among others depend on a correct identification of the vehicle environment, specially its contact interface with the ground. In the this work, the implementation of a supervised image texture classifier to recognize five different classes of typical agricultural soil surfaces is presented and analysed. The sensing device is the Microsoft Kinect for Windows V2, which allows to acquire RGB, IR and depth data. Only IR and depth data were used for the processing, since color information becomes unreliable under different illumination conditions. Two data acquisition modes allowed to validate and to apply the system in real operation conditions. The accuracy of the classifier was assessed under different configuration parameters, obtaining up to 93 percent of success rate, in ideal conditions. Real field conditions were simulated by placing the sensor over a moving wagon, obtaining up to 86 percent of success rate, showing in this way the usability of a low cost sensor such as the Kinect V2 for agricultural robotics

Real-time approaches for characterization of fully and partially scanned canopies in groves

Efficient information management in orchard characterization leads to more efficient agricultural processes. In this brief, a set of computational geometry methods are presented and evaluated for orchard characterization; in particular, for the estimation of canopy volume and shape in groves and orchards using a LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) sensor mounted on an agricultural service unit. The proposed approaches were evaluated and validated in the field, showing they are convergent in the estimation process and that they are able to estimate the crown volume for fully scanned canopies in real time; for partially observed tree crowns, accuracy decreases up to 30% (the worst case). The latter is the major contribution of this brief since it implies that the automated service unit does not need to cover all alley-ways for an accurate modeling of the orchard, thus saving valuable resources.The authors would like to thank to CONICYT (Chile): FONDECYT Grant 1140575 and Basal Grant FB0008. Also, this research was partially funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and by the European Union through the FEDER funds (projects Optidosa-AGL2007-66093-C04-03 and Safespray-AGL2010-22304-C04-03)

LFuji-air dataset: annotated 3D LiDAR point clouds of Fuji apple trees for fruit detection scanned under different forced air flow conditions

This article presents the LFuji-air dataset, which contains LiDAR based point clouds of 11 Fuji apples trees and the corresponding apples location ground truth. A mobile terrestrial laser scanner (MTLS) comprised of a LiDAR sensor and a real-time kinematics global navigation satellite system was used to acquire the data. The MTLS was mounted on an air-assisted sprayer used to generate different air flow conditions. A total of 8 scans per tree were performed, including scans from different LiDAR sensor positions (multi-view approach) and under different air flow conditions. These variability of the scanning conditions allows to use the LFuji-air dataset not only for training and testing new fruit detection algorithms, but also to study the usefulness of the multi-view approach and the application of forced air flow to reduce the number of fruit occlusions. The data provided in this article is related to the research article entitled 'Fruit detection, yield prediction and canopy geometric characterization using LiDAR with forced air flow' [1].This work was partly funded by the Secretaria d’Universitats i Recerca del Departament d'Empresa i Coneixement de la Generalitat de Catalunya (grant 2017 SGR 646), the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (project AGL2013-48297-C2-2-R) and the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (project RTI2018-094222-B-I00). The Spanish Ministry of Education is thanked for Mr. J. Gené's pre-doctoral fellowships (FPU15/03355). The work of Jordi Llorens was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness through a postdoctoral position named Juan de la Cierva Incorporación (JDCI-2016-29464_N18003). We would also like to thank CONICYT FONDECYT 1171431 and CONICYT FB0008

Fruit sizing using AI: A review of methods and challenges

Fruit size at harvest is an economically important variable for high-quality table fruit production in orchards and vineyards. In addition, knowing the number and size of the fruit on the tree is essential in the framework of precise production, harvest, and postharvest management. A prerequisite for analysis of fruit in a real-world environment is the detection and segmentation from background signal. In the last five years, deep learning convolutional neural network have become the standard method for automatic fruit detection, achieving F1-scores higher than 90 %, as well as real-time processing speeds. At the same time, different methods have been developed for, mainly, fruit size and, more rarely, fruit maturity estimation from 2D images and 3D point clouds. These sizing methods are focused on a few species like grape, apple, citrus, and mango, resulting in mean absolute error values of less than 4 mm in apple fruit. This review provides an overview of the most recent methodologies developed for in-field fruit detection/counting and sizing as well as few upcoming examples of maturity estimation. Challenges, such as sensor fusion, highly varying lighting conditions, occlusions in the canopy, shortage of public fruit datasets, and opportunities for research transfer, are discussed.This work was partly funded by the Department of Research and Universities of the Generalitat de Catalunya (grants 2017 SGR 646 and 2021 LLAV 00088) and by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation / AEI/10.13039/501100011033 / FEDER (grants RTI2018-094222-B-I00 [PAgFRUIT project] and PID2021-126648OB-I00 [PAgPROTECT project]). The Secretariat of Universities and Research of the Department of Business and Knowledge of the Generalitat de Catalunya and European Social Fund (ESF) are also thanked for financing Juan Carlos Miranda’s pre-doctoral fellowship (2020 FI_B 00586). The work of Jordi Gené-Mola was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Universities through a Margarita Salas postdoctoral grant funded by the European Union - NextGenerationEU.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio