Bacteria-inducing legume nodules involved in the improvement of plant growth, health and nutrition

Bacteria-inducing legume nodules are known as rhizobia and belong to the class Alphaproteobacteria and Betaproteobacteria. They promote the growth and nutrition of their respective legume hosts through atmospheric nitrogen fixation which takes place in the nodules induced in their roots or stems. In addition, rhizobia have other plant growth-promoting mechanisms, mainly solubilization of phosphate and production of indoleacetic acid, ACC deaminase and siderophores. Some of these mechanisms have been reported for strains of rhizobia which are also able to promote the growth of several nonlegumes, such as cereals, oilseeds and vegetables. Less studied are the mechanisms that have the rhizobia to promote the plant health; however, these bacteria are able to exert biocontrol of some phytopathogens and to induce the plant resistance. In this chapter, we revised the available data about the ability of the legume nodule-inducing bacteria for improving the plant growth, health and nutrition of both legumes and nonlegumes. These data showed that rhizobia meet all the requirements of sustainable agriculture to be used as bio-inoculants allowing the total or partial replacement of chemicals used for fertilization or protection of crops

Experimental characterization of coupled diffusion reaction mechanisms in low permeability chalk

International audienceReactions caused by the diffusion of reactants from different sources can alter rock diffusivity and are thereforethe critical mechanisms for evaluating short and long-term behavior of low-permeability rocks used as confinementlayers for underground storage, for instance. This paper presents and discusses a set of two diffusiondrivenreaction experiments focusing on precipitation of two end-member types of sulfate minerals (gypsum:CaSO4.2H2O and barite: BaSO4) in low-permeability chalk. The time-resolved changes in porosity and effectivediffusion coefficient (De) were evaluated along the duration of the experiments (~140 days), by analyzing thebehavior of passive tracers and evaluating the amount of precipitated gypsum or barite from measuring thereactant concentration evolution in the reservoirs at both ends of the sample. Then SEM-EDS and X-ray microtomography(μCT) imaging were used to characterize the initial rock structure and the precipitated materials.Results showed that the change in porosity (from 45% to about 43%) corresponding to the volume of sulfateprecipitated, are similar for gypsum and barite. Conversely, the precipitation impact on diffusion properties ofthe water tracers that were injected 70 days after the beginning of the precipitation step is distinctly different forthe each of the studied sulfate mineral. The precipitation of barite generated a more significant impact thangypsum: Deintact=4.15×10−10m2·s−1 vs. Debarite=1.1×10−10m2·s−1 and Degypsum=2.5×10−10m2·s−1.Post-mortem imaging revealed a thin precipitated zone (~250 μm) in the center of the sample for the bariteprecipitation experiment, whereas isolated quasi-spherical clusters resulted from the gypsum precipitation. TheμCT images at higher resolution showed that the precipitation of barite is heterogeneous at small scale, whichexplains the HTO diffusion curve. For gypsum, the post mortem imaging around the quasi-spherical clustersshowed a significant presence of initial macropores of the connected porosity that were still unfilled. These intactchalk zones allowed HDO to diffuse through the precipitated zone lowering the impact on water tracer diffusivity.These experimental results indicate that the morphology and the distribution of barite precipitates ismainly controlled by homogeneous and heterogeneous nucleation phenomena, whereas gypsum precipitation ismainly controlled by the spatial variability of the initial porous system properties (reactive surface area, tortuosity,pore network structure)

Effect of continuous female exposure on behavioral repertoire and stereotypical behaviors in restrained male dromedary camels during the onset of the breeding season

This study aimed to test the effects of the three management systems on the behavioral repertoire and particularly on the incidence of stereotypical behavior in restrained camels. Five male camels were tested under the following management systems: (i) unexposed, housing in a single box (Unexpo); (ii) continuous exposure, exposed continuously to females (ConExpoF); and (iii) re-unexposed, housing again in a single box (Re-Unexpo). Every day, bulls were filmed for 30 min and videos were analyzed using a focal animal sampling ethogram. Under the ConExpoF system, camels spent the majority of time in standing with opened legs (490.0 ± 94.3 s), looking (925.0 ± 93.7 s), and walking toward the females (206.0 ± 73.4 s) and they ate and ruminated less compared to Unexpo and Re-Unexpo systems. Rumination and standing durations were significantly longer in Re-Unexpo than in Unexpo and ConExpoF management systems. When camels were continuously exposed to females, they showed few stereotypical behaviors compared to Unexpo (490.0 ± 146.1 s) and Re-Unexpo (624.0 ± 146.1 s) systems. The frequency of both total and oral stereotypes was significantly higher in Unexpo and Re-Unexpo systems compared to ConExpoF; however, no significant difference was observed among the three management systems in the frequency of locomotor stereotypes. Overall, it appears that the continuous female exposure system might be a suitable management practice for male camels used for intensive reproduction, as it decreases the manifestation of stereotypical behavior in comparison with housing for 24 h in a single box

Multi-hop driver-parcel matching problem with time windows

Crowdsourced shipping can result in significant economic and social benefits. For a shipping company, it has a potential cost advantage and creates opportunities for faster deliveries. For the society, it can provide desirable results by reducing congestion and air pollution. Despite the great potential, crowdsourced shipping is not well studied. With the aim of using the spare capacities along the existing transportation flows of the crowd to deliver small-to-medium freight volumes, this paper defines the multi-driver multi-parcel matching problem and proposes a general ILP formulation, which incorporates drivers’ maximum detour, capacity limits, and the option of transferring parcels between drivers. Due to the high computational complexity, we develop two heuristics to solve the problem. The numerical study shows that crowdsourced shipping can be an economic viable and sustainable option, depending on the spatial characteristics of the network and drivers’ schedules. Furthermore, the added benefits increase with an increasing number of participating drivers and parcels

Experimental and Numerical Shortest Route Optimization in Generating a Design Template for a Recreation Area in Kadifekale

As cities grow, their complexity and the complexity of their infrastructure for various applications increase. Especially, transportation design is usually a very cumbersome process in current urban development models, and it is becoming more complex. Traditional approaches are not always sufficient to solve such complex problems, therefore, design disciplines like architecture and urban design need new tools to optimize many parameters related to their design. An alternate way to solve this problem can be via finding shortest routes. In this context, this study aims to evaluate different shortest path algorithms within a methodological approach to urban transportation planning via either experimentation or mathematical modeling. Three methods; namely live slime mold plasmodium, Floyd-Warshall algorithm, and ant colony algorithm are used to design a template for routes within the historical Kadifekale district of Izmir, Turkey. The results from these approaches are compared, contrasted, and discussed in terms of their suitability for use as a guide for route creation. In conclusion, the parameters of an algorithm are significant on suggesting routes, thus the strengths and weaknesses of an algorithm should be carefully considered before application in a design problem