Search

It is important to implement detection and assessment of plant diseases based on remotely sensed data for disease monitoring and control. Hyperspectral data of healthy leaves, leaves in incubation period and leaves in diseased period of wheat stripe rust and wheat leaf rust were collected under in-field conditions using a black-paper-based measuring method developed in this study. After data preprocessing, the models to identify the diseases were built using distinguished partial least squares (DPLS) and support vector machine (SVM), and the disease severity inversion models of stripe rust and the disease severity inversion models of leaf rust were built using quantitative partial least squares (QPLS) and support vector regression (SVR). All the models were validated by using leave-one-out cross validation and external validation. The diseases could be discriminated using both distinguished partial least squares and support vector machine with the accuracies of more than 99%. For each wheat rust, disease severity levels were accurately retrieved using both the optimal QPLS models and the optimal SVR models with the coefficients of determination (R2) of more than 0.90 and the root mean square errors (RMSE) of less than 0.15. The results demonstrated that identification and severity evaluation of stripe rust and leaf rust at the leaf level could be implemented based on the hyperspectral data acquired using the developed method. A scientific basis was provided for implementing disease monitoring by using aerial and space remote sensing technologies.

Background In 2005, Bangladesh, India and Nepal agreed to eliminate visceral leishmaniasis (VL) as a public health problem. The approach to this was through improved case detection and treatment, and controlling transmission by the sand fly vector Phlebotomus argentipes, with indoor residual spraying (IRS) of insecticide. Initially, India applied DDT with stirrup pumps for IRS, however, this did not reduce transmission. After 2015 onwards, the pyrethroid alpha-cypermethrin was applied with compression pumps, and entomological surveillance was initiated in 2016. Methods Eight sentinel sites were established in the Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. IRS coverage was monitored by household survey, quality of insecticide application was measured by HPLC, presence and abundance of the VL vector was monitored by CDC light traps, insecticide resistance was measured with WHO diagnostic assays and case incidence was determined from the VL case register KAMIS. Results Complete treatment of houses with IRS increased across all sites from 57% in 2016 to 70% of houses in 2019, rising to >80% if partial house IRS coverage is included (except West Bengal). The quality of insecticide application has improved compared to previous studies, average doses of insecticide on filters papers ranged from 1.52 times the target dose of 25mg/m2 alpha-cypermethrin in 2019 to 1.67 times in 2018. Resistance to DDT has continued to increase, but the vector was not resistant to carbamates, organophosphates or pyrethroids. The annual and seasonal abundance of P. argentipes declined between 2016 to 2019 with an overall infection rate of 0.03%. This was associated with a decline in VL incidence for the blocks represented by the sentinel sites from 1.16 per 10,000 population in 2016 to 0.51 per 10,000 in 2019. Conclusion Through effective case detection and management reducing the infection reservoirs for P. argentipes in the human population combined with IRS keeping P. argentipes abundance and infectivity low has reduced VL transmission. This combination of effective case management and vector control has now brought India within reach of the VL elimination targets., Author summary Visceral Leishmaniasis (VL), also known as kala-azar, is a major parasitic disease in South Asia (Indian subcontinent), with 85% of the disease incidence in India. Historically VL had been controlled and almost eliminated with Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS) using dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT). However, reinitiating this approach in 2015 failed due to high insecticide resistance in the sand fly vector and poor IRS quality, meaning that VL elimination targets were not met. To improve this the National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme changed to an effective insecticide, alpha-cypermethrin and altered the mode of application to compression pumps. Sentinel sites were established to monitor the entomological indicators, these showed the positive impact of these changes from 2016 to 2019. During this period the overall incidence of disease has decreased, and India is now on track to reach it’s target incidence for VL of less than 1/1000 people at the sub-district (block) level.

Fiber release during domestic textile washing is a cause of marine microplastic pollution, but better understanding of the magnitude of the issue and role of fabric care products, appliances and washing cycles is needed. Soiled consumer wash loads from U.K. households were found to release a mean of 114 ± 66.8 ppm (mg microfiber per kg fabric) (n = 79) fibers during typical washing conditions and these were mainly composed of natural fibers. Microfiber release decreased with increasing wash load size and hence decreasing water to fabric ratio, with mean microfiber release from wash loads in the mass range 1.0-3.5 kg (n = 57) found to be 132.4 ± 68.6 ppm, significantly (p = 3.3 x 10-8) higher than the 66.3 ± 27.0 ppm of those in the 3.5-6.0 kg range (n = 22). In further tests with similar soiled consumer wash loads, moving to colder and quicker washing cycles (i.e. 15°C for 30 mins, as opposed to 40°C for 85 mins) significantly reduced microfiber generation by 30% (p = 0.036) and reduced whiteness loss by 42% (p = 0.000) through reduced dye transfer and soil re-deposition, compared to conventional 40°C cycles. In multicycle technical testing, detergent pods were selected for investigation and found to have no impact on microfiber release compared to washing in water alone. Fabric softeners were also found to have no direct impact on microfiber release in testing under both European and North American washing conditions. Extended testing of polyester fleece garments up to a 48-wash cycle history under European conditions found that microfiber release significantly reduced to a consistent low level of 28.7 ± 10.9 ppm from eight through 64 washes. Emerging North American High-Efficiency top-loading washing machines generated significantly lower microfiber release than traditional top-loading machines, likely due to their lower water fill volumes and hence lower water to fabric ratio, with a 69.7% reduction observed for polyester fleece (n = 32, p = 7.9 x 10-6) and 37.4% reduction for polyester T-shirt (n = 32, p = 0.0032). These results conclude that consumers can directly reduce the levels of microfibers generated per wash during domestic textile washing by using colder and quicker wash cycles, washing complete (but not overfilled) loads, and (in North America) converting to High-Efficiency washing machines. Moving to colder and quicker cycles will also indirectly reduce microfiber release by extending the lifetime of clothing, leading to fewer new garments being purchased and hence lower incidence of the high microfiber release occurring during the first few washes of a new item.

The objective of this study is to verify the feasibility of using biochar made from crop straw as a bitumen additive to improve some properties of bitumen. The differences between crop straw biochar prepared in a laboratory and commercial charcoal were investigated through scanning electron microscopy and laser particle size analyses. Furthermore, biochar-modified asphalt was prepared using the high-speed shear method, and the penetration, softening point, ductility at 15°C, and apparent viscosity of the asphalt binder with 6% biochar were measured at 120, 135, 150, 160, and 175°C. It was found that both the crop straw biochar and the commercial charcoal consist mainly of C, O, Si, and K, but the C content of crop straw biochar is slightly higher than that of commercial charcoal. The particle size of biochar is smaller than that of commercial charcoal, while the specific surface area is larger. It was determined that the addition of crop straw biochar significantly improved the high-temperature performance of asphalt, and that biochar and commercial charcoal have a similar influence on the high temperature performance of asphalt.

Passiflora quadrangularis L. belongs to the family Passifloraceae which bears larger fruit with edible juicy mesocarp and pulp known as a good source of phytochemicals. Cultivation and plant management practices are known to influence the phytochemical compositions of agricultural produce. This study aimed to examine the influence of the cultivation practices on the antioxidant activities and secondary metabolites of the organically and conventionally grown P. quadrangularis. Findings revealed organically treated P. quadrangularis plants showed enhancement in their antioxidant properties and secondary metabolites profiles. Among the plant parts, leaves of P. quadrangularis grown organically possessed higher antioxidant activities compared to the conventional in all assays evaluated. The antioxidant activities in the edible parts of the P. quadrangularis fruit have also been enhanced through organic cultivation with significantly higher total phenolic content and DPPH in mesocarp, and the pulp showed higher total flavonoid content, DPPH and FRAP. This observation is supported by a higher level of vitamins and secondary metabolites in the samples. The secondary metabolites profile showed mesocarps were phenolic rich, the pulps were flavonoids rich while leaves showed good composition of phenolics, flavonoids and terpenoids with outstanding antioxidant activities. The common secondary metabolites for organically produced P. quadrangularis in different plant parts include 2-isopropyl-3-methoxycinnamic acid (mesocarp and pulp), myricetin isomers (pulp and leaves), and malvidin-3-O-arabinoside isomers (pulp and leaves). This study confirmed that organic cultivated P. quadrangularis possessed higher antioxidant activities contributed by its vitamins and secondary metabolites.

Globally, the economic losses due to hard ticks infestation and the control of the associated diseases have been calculated at USD $13.9–18.7 billion per year. The economic impact is related to its direct damage to the skins, blood loss, anemia, severe immunological reactions and indirect losses that related to the effects of hemoparasites, cost of treatment for clinical cases and expenses incurred in the control of ticks. The current study evaluated the acaricidal activities of fennel Foeniculum vulgare essential oil and its main components; trans-anethole and fenchone; against R. annulatus. GC–MS analysis revealed that this oil contained 16 components representing 99.9% of the total identified compounds with E-anethole being the predominant component(64.29%), followed by fenchone (9.94%). The fennel oil and trans-anethole showed significant acaricidal activities. The LC50 of the fennel oil was attained at concentrations of 12.96% for adult ticks and 1.75% for tick larvae meanwhile the LC50 of trans-anethole was reached at concentrations of 2.36% for adult tick and 0.56% for tick larvae. On the contrary, fenchone showed no any significant adulticidal activities and its LC50 attained at a concentration of 9.11% for tick larvae. Regarding repellence activities, trans-anethole achieved 100% repellency at the concentration of 10% while fennel showed 86% repellency at the same concentration. Fenchone showed no repellency effect. Treatment of larvae with fennel, trans-anethole, and fenchone LC50 concentrations significantly inhibited the acetylcholinesterase activity. Meanwhile, glutathione s-transferase activity was significantly decreased in fennel treated larvae but no significant effect was found in the larvae of trans-anethole and fenchone groups. These results indicate that the acaricide effect of fennel oil may attributed to its high content of trans-anethole. This was supported by potent adulticidal, larvicidal, and repellency effects of trans-anethole against Rhipeciphalus annulatus tick and therefore it could be included in the list of acaricide of plant origin.

Annually, agricultural activity produces an enormous amount of plant biomass by-product. Many studies have reported the biomethane potential of agro-industrial wastes, but only a few studies have investigated applying the substrates in both batch and continuous mode. Tomato is one of the most popular vegetables globally; its processing releases a substantial amount of by-product, such as stems and leaves. This study examined the BMP of tomato plant (Solanum lycopersicum Mill. L. cv. Alfred) waste. A comparative test revealed that the BMPs of corn stover, tomato waste,and their combination were approximately the same, around 280 mL methane/g Volatile Solid. In contrast, the relative biogas production decreased in the presence of tomato waste in a continuous mesophilic anaerobic digestion system; the daily biogas productions were 860 ± 80, 290 ± 50, and 570 ± 70 mL biogas/gVolatile Solid/day in the case of corn stover, tomato waste, and their mixture, respectively. The methane content of biogas was around 46–48%. The fermentation parameters of the continuous AD experiments were optimal in all cases; thus, TW might have an inhibitory effect on the microbial community. Tomato plant materials contain e.g. flavonoids, glycoalkaloids (such as tomatine and tomatidine), etc. known as antimicrobial and antifungal agents. The negative effect of tomatine on the biogas yield was confirmed in batch fermentation experiments. Metagenomic analysis revealed that the tomato plant waste caused significant rearrangements in the microbial communities in the continuously operated reactors. The results demonstrated that tomato waste could be a good mono-substrate in batch fermentations or a co-substrate with corn stover in a proper ratio in continuous anaerobic fermentations for biogas production. These results also point to the importance of running long-term continuous fermentations to test the suitability of a novel biomass substrate for industrial biogas production.

In response to the recent development of ear corn feeding systems and the shortage of bulking agents for manure composting in the Hokkaido region, the plausibility of using corn stover (a residue of ear corn harvesting) as an alternative bulking agent for dairy manure composting was tested. The temperature profile, quality of the final product, and greenhouse gas emissions were evaluated and compared with the values obtained from manure that used wheat straw, a typical bulking agent. A sufficiently high temperature profile (>70°C) and active organic matter degradation were achieved by mixing in corn stover. After active organic matter degradation for 8 weeks, CO2 production was significantly lower and the stable final products were obtained. The total solids level increased significantly, to 48.8–50.4%, while the C/N ratio dropped significantly, from 19.9–21.8 to 11.2–12.8. Methane emission from the corn-stover-based pile was 0.36% of initial volatile solids, while nitrous oxide emission was 0.58% of initial N, proving that the use of corn stover can mitigate greenhouse gas emission and that its mitigating effect was comparable to those of other bulking agents. Together, the results showed that the use of corn stover can be a suitable alternative bulking agent for dairy manure composting and can serve as part of an ecologically friendly and “circular” method of dairy farming.

An electrochemically activated solution (ECAS), generated by electrolysis of a dilute sodium chloride solution in a four-chamber electrolytic cell (Ecas4), was tested as a sanitising aerosol in eliminating bacteria from the environment of a weaning room vacated 24-48h earlier, at a continuous flow pig farm. An ultrasonic humidifier was used to fill the environment with a fog (droplets with diameters of 1–5 μm) containing 0.25 ppm of hypochlorous acid. The weaning room was fogged for 3 min at 30 min intervals during five hours of aerosol disinfection. An innovative sample treatment with propidium monoazide dye in conjunction with cyclonic air sampling was optimised and adapted for discerning live/dead bacteria in subsequent molecular quantification steps. Without fogging, total bacterial load ranged from 5.06 ± 0.04 to 5.75 ± 0.04 Log10 CFU/m3. After the first hour of fogging, a 78% total bacterial reduction was observed, which further increased to > 97% after the second hour, > 99.4% after the third and 99.8% after the fourth hour, finally resulting in a 99.99% reduction from the farm environment over five hours. Unlike the current formaldehyde spray disinfection protocol, which requires a long empty period because of its hazardous properties, this economically viable and environmentally friendly disinfection protocol may significantly lower downtime. Moreover, ECAS fogging can be easily adapted to a variety of applications, including the elimination of pathogens from livestock farm air environment for disease prevention, as well as decontamination after disease outbreaks. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

The self-cleaning screen filter is one of the most common types used in drip irrigation systems. Backwashing pressure difference and backwashing time for two screen filters with one geometry and two different screens (178 μm and 124 μm) using two water qualities (tap water and sand-water mixture) were studied in a total of 88 runs (42 runs for tap water, 22 and 24 filtration cycles for sand-water mixture and backwashing, respectively). The backwashing pressure difference and backwashing time were calculated using the experimental data, and the results were largely in the range of measured values. Three constraint conditions (flowrate, sand condition and filtration time) of backwashing pressure difference were analysed, and the optimal values of backwashing pressure difference were given as 60.0 and 70.0 kPa for 178 μm and 124 μm filters, respectively. The backwashing time of the screen filter should be an optimal value that ensures that the pressure difference between the internal and external surfaces of the screen decreased to the initial value, and the sand concentration of the backwashed outlet decreased to a small, stable value. Based on the results of the backwashing experiment and prototype observation, the optimal backwashing time was given as 30 to 45 s for both screen filters.

This study aimed to establish a new methodology for upgrading biomass quality using low-temperature (below 100 degrees C) oxidation to achieve simultaneous drying and decomposition. Sterilized manure (63% wet basis) was heated at 90 degrees C for 49 days under an oxidative environment. The obtained solid and moisture reduction curves indicated that drying and decomposition proceeded simultaneously. The biomass was decomposed by oxidation with the release of water, carbon dioxide, and volatile fatty acids such as acetic acid. The oxidation process stopped when the biomass was dehydrated, indicating that the water originally present in the biomass governed the process. Elemental and calorific analyses revealed no remarkable increase in carbon content or increased heating value, and a slight decrease in oxygen content. Although the severity of the process was insufficient to produce an optimum solid fuel due to the low temperature used, the process would enable the stabilization of waste biomass with low energy consumption such as using waste heat.

Sugarcane bagasse is a vast lignocellulosic byproduct generated in the industry with ~50% humidity (1 kg dry matter associated with 1 kg water). Although the presence of water brings deleterious consequences for combustion, storage and sugar extraction, the location of water in fresh bagasse remains unknown. In this work, we use synchrotron X-ray microtomography for non-invasive 3D imaging of fresh bagasse particles, which allows the visualization of intraparticle water. The sclerified fiber cells in the sheaths surrounding xylem vessels are often found full of water. We suggest this can be juice preserved from the native stalks as many sclerified fibers seem to keep their structural integrity despite the mechanical action during sugarcane crushing. The microtomograms of fresh bagasse also shows mineral particles adhered to biomass surfaces, with adhesion presumably favored by the presence of water. In summary, this work unveils the location of water in fresh bagasse, solving an old mystery of sugarcane technology.

In the present study, we investigated the fumigant potential of five edible essential oils (EOs) against Sitophilus oryzae and their phytochemical residues in treated grains. Among the tested EOs, peppermint oil proved significantly effective (P ≤ 0.05) on S.oryzae at 400 μl/L air concentration, inducing 83 and 100% mortalities in with-food and without-food conditions respectively over 72 h exposure. In addition, it was also observed that the binary mixtures of peppermint + lemon oil (1:1 ratio) produced an equivalent effect to that of peppermint oil alone treatments. The phytochemical residue analysis by GC-MS revealed the presence of six compounds upon 72 h exposure to EOs. Further, the analysis of physico-chemical properties of the compounds indicated a positive correlation between polar surface area (PSA) and its residual nature. The residue levels of eugenol were significantly elevated corresponding to its high PSA value (29) in clove and cinnamon oils. On the other hand, the compounds with zero PSA value imparted very less or no (D-Limonene, caryophyllene, pinene and terpinolene) residues in treated grains. With respect to the most active peppermint oil, L-menthone, menthyl acetate and eucalyptol residues were at 67, 41 and 23% levels respectively. The outcome of the present study indicate the peppermint oil as a potent fumigant against S. oryzae, and although the residues of phytochemicals in treated grains is higher; they belong to the generally recognised as safe (GRAS) status leaving no harmful effect.

Oilseed rape straw (ORS) is a kind of biorefractory waste widely existing in the rural area of China, which is highly suitable to mix with kitchen waste (KW) and duck droppings (DD) in two-phase anaerobic digestion (AD). This research introduced the importance of KW and DD addition to improve the biogas production and biodegradation of ORS. A set of comparative experiments were conducted on two-phase mono- and co-digestion with organic load of 60 g VS/L. The total methane yield (TMY) and the biodegradation of ORS of co-digestions were obviously improving, and the synergistic effect found in the two-phase co-digestions. The optimum mixing ratio of ORS, KW and DD was 50:40:10, and the corresponding TMY and VS degradation rate of ORS were 374.5 mL/g VS and 49.7%, respectively. Addition of KW and DD maintained the pH within the optimal range for the hydrolyzing-acidification, improved the phase separation and buffering capacity of AD system.

This study examined the effect of debagging time on color and flavor / taste compounds in the non-red apple cultivar 'Golden Delicious' and red cultivar 'Qinguan' at mid and late stages of fruit development. Debagging briefly improved the red color in both cultivars, the peel of 'Golden Delicious' presenting pale-pink hue. However, rapid anthocyanin accumulation occurred in apple peel at a specific time (after 179 days after flowering (DAF) in 'Qinguan') and was unaltered by debagging time in the red cultivar 'Qinguan'. Furthermore, untimely debagging had a detrimental effect on the content of anthocyanin. All sugars increased and organic acids decreased in apple pulp at mid to late stages of development. Bagging treatment reduced the content of most sugars and organic acids, as well as, the overall total. However, glucose and citric acid contents were higher in bagged fruit than non-bagged fruit; the maximum occurred in T7 treatment that was no-debagging at DAF 159 / 196 ('Golden delicious' / 'Qinguan'), i.e., 24.35 and 0.07 mg g-1 FW in 'Golden delicious', and 38.86 and 0.06 mg g-1 FW in 'Qinguan', respectively. In a word, bagging treatment can alter the pattern of peel color development in apple fruit; however, it remains difficult to alter the timing of rapid anthocyanin accumulation as it is regulated solely by development. Moreover, bagging treatment reduced the total accumulation of sugars and organic acids, and even the over total in pulp, but increased the glucose and citric acid contents in apple pulp.

This study investigated 24 tablet crushing devices for drug loss using different methods to recover the crushed tablet. 24 devices were compared: 3 with disposable cups, 6 with disposable bags, 12 without separate vessels and 3 types of mortar and pestle. One paracetamol tablet was crushed and recovered by tapping the powder out. Where appropriate, depending on crusher size and manufacturer instructions, the powder was also recovered by mixing with water or food. Paracetamol recovery (quantity that can be delivered to a patient) and leftover (quantity remaining in the device) were measured using a validated UV method and the entire experiment was replicated 3 times. Drug recovery ranged from 86.7-98.1% when the crushed tablet was tapped out of the crushers (average loss 5.8%). Significant losses were measured for 18 crushers, particularly manually operated hand-twist crushers with a serrated crushing surface, and some devices with disposable bags or cups. Rinsing the crushed powder with water once resulted in an average of 24.2% drug loss, and this was reduced to 4.2% after a second rinse. If crushing is unavoidable, maximizing medication delivery to the patient is essential. Rinsing twice resulted in similar paracetamol recovery to tapping the powder out; however only water rinses have the potential for direct consumption by the patient, minimizing drug loss across the entire crushing and transfer process.

The green mirid bug Apolygus lucorum is a regional pest of multiple crops in northern China, and the survival and development of diapausing eggs during winter plays an important role in the population dynamics of this species. The effect of water on the survival and development of A. lucorum eggs was investigated using laboratory-induced diapause. Diapausing eggs were exposed to various humidity regimes under three conditions: (1) termination of diapause with exposure to warm long-day (WLD) conditions (i.e., 26 ± 1°C and 75 ± 5% relative humidity (RH) under a photoperiod of 16 hours light and 8 hours dark), (2) termination of diapause by chilling at 4°C, or (3) during the post-diapause stage, i.e., from transfer to WLD conditions after chilling, until the hatching of nymphs. The results indicate that water availability is crucial for the post-diapause resumption of development of A. lucorum. However, exposure to excessive moisture was detrimental, as indicated by a decrease in diapause termination rate and a prolonged pre-hatching period of diapausing eggs, compared to limited moisture conditions. This implies that both too dry and too humid environmental conditions would suppress survival and postpone hatching of overwintered A. lucorum eggs, and might explain why this pest has not caused severe damage in either southern or western China where the respective climates are very humid or dry.

The challenges which the large scale microalgal industry is facing are associated with the high cost of key operations such as harvesting, nutrient supply and oil extraction. The high-energy input for harvesting makes current commercial microalgal biodiesel production economically unfeasible and can account for up to 50% of the total cost of biofuel production. Co-cultivation of fungal and microalgal cells is getting increasing attention because of high efficiency of bio-flocculation of microalgal cells with no requirement for added chemicals and low energy inputs. Moreover, some fungal and microalgal strains are well known for their exceptional ability to purify wastewater, generating biomass that represents a renewable and sustainable feedstock for biofuel production. We have screened the flocculation efficiency of the filamentous fungus A. fumigatus against 11 microalgae representing freshwater, marine, small (5 µm), large (over 300 µm), heterotrophic, photoautotrophic, motile and non-motile strains. Some of the strains are commercially used for biofuel production. Lipid production and composition were analysed in fungal-algal pellets grown on media containing alternative carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus sources contained in wheat straw and swine wastewater, respectively. Co-cultivation of algae and A. fumigatus cells showed additive and synergistic effects on biomass production, lipid yield and wastewater bioremediation efficiency. Analysis of fungal-algal pellet's fatty acids composition suggested that it can be tailored and optimised through co-cultivating different algae and fungi without the need for genetic modification.

This study assesses the practices and views of Scottish dairy farmers relating to pasture-based and indoor systems. There are the debates about the environmental, economic and animal welfare implications of these systems. Indoor dairy farming is a contentious practice among the public. While this controversy is sometimes represented as a lack of public understanding, there is a need for more research on farmers’ views to facilitate discussion in the industry. A survey was posted to 909 dairy farmers in Scotland with questions about their grazing practices and attitudes to grazing and indoor systems. 254 surveys were completed, online and in paper form. There was a 26% response rate to the paper version of the survey. The results showed that 19% of respondents housed some or all the cows all year-round. 68% agreed or strongly agreed that cows should graze for part of the year and 51% agreed or strongly agreed that welfare was better if cows grazed for part of the year. These views coexisted with the view that management was more important than the type of system for determining profitability or welfare outcomes (83% and 82% strongly agree or agree respectively). Respondents whose system involved grazing and respondents who had spent longer in farming were moderately more likely to agree that cows should have access to pasture, and slightly less likely to agree that management was more important than system for determining welfare outcomes. The results indicate that the picture is more complicated than the public rejecting indoor dairy farming and those in the industry accepting it. The results showed that a majority preference for cows to graze co-existed with the view that management was more important than system. In terms of industry and policy recommendations, the research suggests that measures should be taken to safeguard farmers’ ability to graze through for instance research and advisory support on grazing; ensuring different systems are not penalised in the development of dairy sector environmental measures and recommendations; and potentially supply chains that financially rewards farmers for grazing.

Background Work to control the gambiense form of human African trypanosomiasis (gHAT), or sleeping sickness, is now directed towards ending transmission of the parasite by 2030. In order to supplement gHAT case-finding and treatment, since 2011 tsetse control has been implemented using Tiny Targets in a number of gHAT foci. As this intervention is extended to new foci, it is vital to understand the costs involved. Costs have already been analysed for the foci of Arua in Uganda and Mandoul in Chad. This paper examines the costs of controlling Glossina palpalis palpalis in the focus of Bonon in Côte d’Ivoire from 2016 to 2017. Methodology/Principal findings Some 2000 targets were placed throughout the main gHAT transmission area of 130 km2 at a density of 14.9 per km2. The average annual cost was USD 0.5 per person protected, USD 31.6 per target deployed of which 12% was the cost of the target itself, or USD 471.2 per km2 protected. Broken down by activity, 54% was for deployment and maintenance of targets, 34% for tsetse surveys/monitoring and 12% for sensitising populations. Conclusions/Significance The cost of tsetse control per km2 of the gHAT focus protected in Bonon was more expensive than in Chad or Uganda, while the cost per km2 treated, that is the area where the targets were actually deployed, was cheaper. Per person protected, the Bonon cost fell between the two, with Uganda cheaper and Chad more expensive. In Bonon, targets were deployed throughout the protected area, because G. p. palpalis was present everywhere, whereas in Chad and Uganda G. fuscipes fuscipes was found only the riverine fringing vegetation. Thus, differences between gHAT foci, in terms of tsetse ecology and human geography, impact on the cost-effectiveness of tsetse control. It also demonstrates the need to take into account both the area treated and protected alongside other impact indicators, such as the cost per person protected., Author summary Sleeping sickness is a fatal disease in Africa caused by trypanosomes transmitted by the bite of infected tsetse flies. The World Health Organization has set the absence of new infections as a goal for 2030. To achieve this, screening and treatment of patients is supplemented by tsetse control. Tiny Targets are small insecticide-impregnated panels of blue cloth and black netting which attract and kill tsetse. To maintain the momentum in these last stages of eliminating the disease, it is important to understand the costs of vector control. This paper presents the results of two years’ cost monitoring in Bonon, an area covering 130 km2, home to 120,000 people. Since 2016, ~2,000 Tiny Targets have been deployed annually at a cost of USD 471 per km2 per year. Bonon is a degraded forested area and a relatively high number of targets was required as tsetse are present throughout. Nevertheless, the cost comes to only USD 0.5 per person protected per year. Compared to operations using Tiny Targets in Uganda and Chad, the cost was higher per km2 protected, reflecting the need to place targets throughout the area, but low per person protected compared to Chad, highlighting the need to use a range of comparators.

Taking 30 provinces in China from 2011 to 2020 as a research sample, this paper empirically tests the impact of digital village construction on carbon emissions. This study found that there is an "inverted U" curve relationship between digital rural construction and rural carbon emissions. Agricultural planting structure and agricultural technical efficiency are important ways for digital village construction to produce carbon emission reduction effects. This study also found that the higher the level of economic development, the stronger the carbon emission reduction effect of digital village construction. In addition, there are also significant differences in the carbon emission reduction effect of digital village construction in regions with different environmental regulation intensities. Finally, in terms of the relationship between digital economic activities and carbon emission reduction, the research conclusions of this paper have important implications.

This paper aims to test whether agricultural insurance significantly impacts farmers’ income increase or not. We have used the ordinary least squares method (OLS), panel fixed effects, and system generalized moment estimation (GMM) for the test. The results show that the increase in agricultural insurance density and the increase in agricultural insurance per capita compensation positively impact farmers’ income growth significantly. Agricultural insurance density and per capita compensation are the indicators used in this article to measure agricultural insurance development. Therefore, it can be considered that the development of agricultural insurance in Guangdong Province (China) can effectively increase the income level of farmers. Based on the results of theoretical and empirical analysis, combined with the current situation of agricultural insurance development in Guangdong Province, this paper finally puts forward relevant countermeasures and suggestions. It provides some ideas for giving full play to the role of agricultural insurance in promoting farmers’ income from the perspectives of pertinent system design, subsidy methods, insurance innovation, service level, and publicity.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of village debt on land transfer. Based on the county-level panel data of village finance and land transfer in 90 counties and 4 economic development zones of Zhejiang Province from 2013 to 2017, this paper carried out multivariate statistical analysis and set a fixed effect model to control the endogenous influence of region and time. It found that village debt as a pressure may encourage village committees to promote rural land transfer, and then especially promote land flows into agricultural firms; as a mechanism, the burden of village organization’s transactional debt (historical debt and administrative debt) is the key to promoting the rural land flow to agricultural enterprises; through further analysis, it is found that the village committee seeks "win-win" opportunities by intervening in land circulation to ensure the rights and interests of farmers and to obtain village benefits from them. This paper finds that this kind of push effect has the threshold, the debt will play a significant role in promoting when the debt rate is between 4.65% and 7.9%. In addition, there is regional heterogeneity in the contribution of debt, which exists only in plain, non-coastal and high-dependence areas. The results of this paper verify the view that "community mechanism and market mechanism are embedded and supported each other in acquaintance society" in the theory of community governance. In practice, it provides a realistic basis for policy makers to implement the policy of encouraging farmland circulation and properly deal with the problem of village debt.

Ecological science focuses on the structure and function of the natural environment. However, the study of ecological environments primarily focuses on single-element research and lacks a comprehensive perspective. To examine ecological environmental trends on different scales, the present paper selected Yunnan Province as the study area. Chemical oxygen demand, rocky desertification, forest coverage, natural disaster data and spatial analysis methods were used to obtain the ecological environmental characteristics of each county and construct a comprehensive evaluation method of the ecological environment. The present paper revealed that the environmental capacity in Yunnan Province was at a moderate level, the ecological environment fragility was remarkable, the significance of the ecological environment was very high, natural disasters occurred frequently, and spatial differentiation between ecological environments was obvious. The province may be divided into three functional areas: the comprehensive-balanced area, the efficiency-dominated area and the environment-dominated area. Central Yunnan was a key development zone and the main area for the manufacturing and service industries, which were built as a modern industrial system in Yunnan Province. The ecological environment in northwestern Yunnan and southern Yunnan is of high significance, and this region was an ecological environment protection area that was important area for the construction of the modern agricultural system in Yunnan Province. To achieve sustainable development of the ecological environment, the spatial characteristics of the ecological environment must be determined at the county scale.

This paper analyzes the option coordination problem of a fresh agricultural product supply chain under two supply chain structures, when the production cost and the loss rate are disrupted simultaneously. This paper provides the explicit option coordination conditions for the disrupted supply chain under two supply chain structures, and then explores the effects of the disruptions and supply chain structure on the option coordination conditions. The results suggest that it is unfavorable to apply the original coordinating contracts without disruptions to coordinate the disrupted supply chain. The coordination of the disrupted supply chain can be achieved with knowledge of the distribution of demand. In two coordinating contracts for the disrupted supply chain, the exercise price is still at the original level without disruptions while the option price deviates from the original level without disruptions. Moreover, the relationships of the coordination conditions in two supply chain structures depend on the value of the profit allocation coefficient. When the profit allocation coefficient exceeds (falls behind) a certain threshold, the option price is set at a higher (lower) value in the supplier-led supply chain structure than in the distributor-led supply chain structure, while the exercise price is set at a lower (higher) value in the supplier-led supply chain structure than in the distributor-led supply chain structure. Finally, the disrupted supply chain with any supply chain structure will perform better in the modified coordinating contracts than in the original coordinating contracts without disruptions.

Farms need to invest in order to earn incomes and maintain their competitive edge. However, the scale and extent of investments must be aligned with resources of other productive inputs, primarily including land, because otherwise there is risk of overinvestment. Since 2004, Central and Eastern European countries have been provided with access to investment support programs; these are non-repayable aid funds which can potentially lead to overinvestment issues. Therefore, this paper attempts to answer the question on the scale of overinvestment in the countries covered. This is all the more important since that problem has rarely been addressed in economic and agricultural research. The study presented in this paper is unique in that the research tasks are based on unpublished Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) microdata for 5839 selected Central and Eastern European farms provided by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development (DG AGRI). Based on variables relating to the amount of productive inputs and production volumes, the authors developed their own typology of farms which includes the following categories: optimum investment levels (the growth rate of labor productivity is greater than growth in the assets-to-land ratio); relative overinvestment (while labor productivity grows, it does so at a slower rate than the assets-to-land ratio); absolute overinvestment (labor productivity declines while the assets-to-land ratio grows); underinvestment (decline in both labor productivity and the assets-to-land ratio). The authors demonstrated that members of the ‘absolute overinvestment’ group made flagrant mistakes in investment planning and implementation, whereas members of the ‘relative overinvestment’ group did record an improvement in labor productivity which ultimately can be considered a positive outcome. Underinvested farms were a very small minority in each country. In addition to filling a gap in the methodology for determining agricultural overinvestment, this paper also indicates the scale of that issue in Central and Eastern European countries. This study may be of importance both to farms (as guidelines for investment planning) and to agricultural policymakers who develop investment support programs.

China’s agricultural economy is developing rapidly, but the unbalanced regional development is still a key issue that needs to be discussed today. By studying the total factor productivity of green agriculture and its factors, this paper analyzes the regional differences in time and space changes between the eastern, central and western parts of China. In this paper, the total factor productivity of green agriculture is calculated and decomposed by Metafrontier Malmquist-Luenberger index based on directional distance function. The results are as follows: First, the total factor productivity level of green agriculture in China is increasing year by year, but the overall level is still at a low level and has greater volatility; Second, although the total factor productivity of green agriculture shows an upward trend, the three regions show a downward trend in turn, which has great differences; Third, there are obvious differences in technological efficiency, optimal production potential and technological gap between the eastern, central and western regions, and there are great differences in productivity among regions and provinces. Based on the results, this paper puts forward policy recommendations, according to the regional heterogeneity, from a number of angles to rely on the joint efforts of many parties to improve the level of total factor productivity of green agriculture.

In this paper, the authors use survey data from over 800 households to examine the impact of demonstration plots and associated activities (distribution of small packs of agricultural inputs) on smallholder farmers’ decisions to buy agricultural inputs in Tanzania. Using propensity score matching and inverse probability-weighted adjustment models, the authors estimated the effect of access to demonstration plots alone and demonstration plots combined with small packs of agricultural inputs on a household’s decision to purchase improved inputs. The results indicate that access to demonstration plots and demonstration plots with small packs increased the probability of purchasing improved inputs by 13–17 percentage points. This paper suggests that demonstration plots and demonstration plots with small packs are an effective model for enhancing improved technology adoption and are further increased when those inputs are available within a 5km radius. The results point to the importance of strengthening farmers’ organizations and last-mile agricultural input suppliers in order to enhance and facilitate access to information, appropriate production techniques, and improved inputs. The results also indicate the importance of investing in infrastructure to reduce transportation costs that limit market efficiency for appropriate technologies.

Since 2016, fall armyworm (FAW) has threatened sub-Saharan ‘Africa’s fragile food systems and economic performance. Yet, there is limited evidence on this transboundary pest’s economic and food security impacts in the region. Additionally, the health and environmental consequences of the insecticides being used to control FAW have not been studied. This paper presents evidence on the impacts of FAW on maize production, food security, and human and environmental health. We use a combination of an agroecology-based community survey and nationally representative data from an agricultural household survey to achieve our objectives. The results indicate that the pest causes an average annual loss of 36% in maize production, reducing 0.67 million tonnes of maize (0.225 million tonnes per year) between 2017 and 2019. The total economic loss is US$ 200 million, or 0.08% of the gross domestic product. The lost production could have met the per capita maize consumption of 4 million people. We also find that insecticides to control FAW have more significant toxic effects on the environment than on humans. This paper highlights governments and development partners need to invest in sustainable FAW control strategies to reduce maize production loss, improve food security, and protect human and environmental health.

This paper starts from theoretical and methodical considerations about the role of archaeobotanical finds in culinary archaeology, emphasizing the importance of processed cereal preparations as the “missing link” between crop and consumption. These considerations are exemplified by the discussion of abundant new archaeobotanical data from the Late Bronze Age copper mining site of Prigglitz-Gasteil, situated at the easternmost fringe of the Alps. At this site, copper ore mining in opencast mines took place from the 11thuntil the 9thcentury BCE (late Urnfield Culture), as well as copper processing (beneficiation, smelting, refining, casting) on artificial terrain terraces. During archaeological excavations from 2010 to 2014, two areas of the site were investigated and sampled for archaeobotanical finds and micro-debris in a high-resolution approach. This paper aims at 1) analysing the food plant spectrum at the mining settlement of Prigglitz-Gasteil basing on charred plant macroremains, 2) investigating producer/consumer aspects of Prigglitz-Gasteil in comparison to the Bronze Age metallurgical sites of Kiechlberg, Klinglberg, and Mauken, and 3) reconstructing the miners’ and metallurgists’ diets.Our analyses demonstrate that the plant-based diet of the investigated mining communities reflects the general regional and chronological trends rather than particular preferences of the miners or metallurgists. The lack of chaff, combined with a high occurrence of processed food, suggests that the miners at Prigglitz-Gasteil were supplied from outside with ready-to-cook and processed grain, either from adjacent communities or from a larger distance. This consumer character is in accordance with observation from previously analysed metallurgical sites. Interestingly, the components observed in charred cereal products (barley,Hordeum vulgare, and foxtail millet,Setaria italica) contrast with the dominant crop taxa (broomcorn millet,Panicum miliaceum, foxtail millet, and lentil,Lens culinaris). Foraging of fruits and nuts also significantly contributed to the daily diet.

Numerous and extensive 'Stone Walled Sites' have been identified in southern African Iron Age landscapes. Appearing from around 1200 CE, and showing considerable variability in size and form, these settlements are named after the dry-stone wall structures that characterize them. Stone Walled Sites were occupied by various Bantu-speaking agropastoral communities. In this paper we test the use of pXRF (portable X-ray fluorescence analysis) to generate a 'supplementary' archaeological record where evident stratigraphy is lacking, survey conditions may be uneven, and excavations limited, due to the overall site size. We propose herein the application of portable X-ray fluorescence analysis (pXRF) coupled with multivariate exploratory analysis and geostatistical modelling at Seoke, a southern African SWS of historical age (18th century CE). The aim of the paper is twofold: to explore the potential of the application of a low cost, quick, and minimally invasive technique to detect chemical markers in anthropogenic sediments from a Stone Walled Site, and to propose a way to analyse the results in order to improve our understanding of the use of space at non-generalized scales in such sites., This research is funded by Fundación Palarq, calls 2019 and 2020, project ”Geo-EtnoArqueologia y uso del espacio (GEA)” entrusted to SB. SM and FM received financial support from the Office of Research and Development at the University of Botswana. The work of SGA was funded by the European Union’s MapDung project funded by the EU Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No H2020-MSCA-IF-2017-794823. SB, JAM, ARG, CL and SGA are members of CaSEs Research Group of the Catalan Research Agency (AGAUR SGR-212), which is an associated unit (Unidad Asociada) to the Institucion Mila Y Fontanals of the Spanish Research National Council (CSIC). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Knowing how many donkeys there are in specific countries where welfare is compromised is a key concern for targeting efforts to improve donkey welfare. Additionally, accurate population estimates are vital for providing evidence and addressing the impact of population threats. The FAO annually report the number of donkeys and mules in each country. The last paper to investigate global and region trends dates back to 2000 and used FAO data from 1961 to 1997. This paper is an update focusing on global, regional and country level donkey and mule populations to understand if there have been any changes in the trends reported by the previous study between 1997 and 2018. Results show that the general trend identified between 1961 and 1997 is continuing with the number of donkeys globally increasing at a rate of ~1% per annum whilst mule populations are in decline at a rate of ~2% per annum. Results also suggest that the trend identified in the original paper are still evident today with the largest increases in donkey population seen in the sub-Saharan African region and greatest reduction noted in Eastern Europe with these two regions having different socio-economic drivers influencing these changes. These results highlight the multifaceted socio-economic drivers influence changes in donkey and mule populations demonstrating the complexity of designing targeted one-welfare approaches. Whilst the FAO donkey and mule datasets are the best available for understanding spatial-temporal distributions in populations there needs to be greater effort to promote the communication of information from the country level to the FAO. This can be directly supported by NGO’s by promoting the robustness of the FAO process for collating and disseminating this information. NGO’s should also seek to highlight the importance of this information for understanding global regional and country level drivers for equid population changes and potential threats to welfare as well as using this information to facilitate projects that support one-welfare approaches.

To better understand the agricultural resources and environmental problems of the provinces along The Belt and Road in China, it is critical to investigate their agricultural carbon emission efficiency and evolutionary trends. Based on the panel data of 18 key provinces and cities between 2006 and 2015, this paper evaluated the agricultural carbon emission efficiency with the data envelopment analysis–Malmquist model and further explored their dynamic evolutionary trends. There were several main findings. First, the efficiency levels of agricultural carbon emissions showed significant regional differentiation among the areas, with that along the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road being much higher than that along the Silk Road Economic Belt. Second, technical efficiency was the key factor that restricted the improvement of the comprehensive efficiency of agricultural carbon. Third, most provinces invested in too many redundant and unreasonably allocated resources, showing a trend of diminishing returns to scale. Last, According to dynamic evolution analysis, the total productivity still demonstrated a diminishing trend. This paper provides some suggestions for effectively improve the efficiency of agricultural carbon emissions in China, such as optimize the agricultural industrial structure, increasing the investment of carbon emission reduction technology, and implementing a carbon emission quota clearing system. This paper contributes to the improvement of the environment in China.

Selecting a target journal is a universal decision faced by authors of scientific papers. Components of the decision, including expected turnaround time, journal acceptance rate, and journal impact factor, vary in terms of accessibility. In this study, I collated recent turnaround times and impact factors for 82 journals that publish papers in the field of fisheries sciences. In addition, I gathered acceptance rates for the same journals when possible. Findings indicated clear among-journal differences in turnaround time, with median times-to-publication ranging from 79 to 323 days. There was no clear correlation between turnaround time and acceptance rate nor between turnaround time and impact factor; however, acceptance rate and impact factor were negatively correlated. I found no field-wide differences in turnaround time since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, though some individual journals took significantly longer or significantly shorter to publish during the pandemic. Depending on their priorities, authors choosing a target journal should use the results of this study as guidance toward a more informed decision.

Eggs contain the essential cholesterol and protein for the human body, which plays an irreplaceable role in human survival, production and life. There are significant differences in the development of laying hens feeding in different regions. It is of great significance to improve egg production and reduce pollution emission for China’s laying hens industry. Based on the SBM model, this paper constructs MML index, considering unexpected output under common frontier, to comprehensively evaluate the green total factor productivity on Chinese laying hens (GTCL). The results show that: (1) GTCL shows a large spatial and temporal differentiation under both the common frontier and the regional frontier. Compared with the eastern region and central region, the western region has obvious advantages in GTCL. (2) GTCL overall shows a downward trend, however, it emerges an upward trend in recent years. (3) Compared with small-scale and large-scale, middle-scale GTCL has advantages. According to the above empirical results, combined with the China’s actual national situation, this paper finally puts forward some policy recommendations to improve GTCL.

In this paper, we describe a novel approach to the development of a reference standard for the quality control of complex natural products, which will assist in the assessment of their authenticity and purity. The proposed method provides a template for the selection of samples, which can be pooled to obtain a reference standard. A shortfall of such an approach is, however, that the pooled sample is static in nature and therefore unable to capture difference in processing conditions or natural variations triggered by geographical or climatic impacts over time. To address this, the paper also outlines the development of a dynamic reference standard, which allows for ongoing adjustments to future variations. The method employs High-Performance Thin Layer Chromatography (HPTLC) derived extract profiles processed by multivariate analysis. The development of the dynamic reference standard is illustrated using honey, a complex natural matrix, as an example.

Supply chain integration plays an important role in the development of the vegetable industry in terms of vegetable quality, vegetable safety, and vegetable security in rural China. This paper explores how agricultural cooperatives integrate the vegetable supply chain by taking a trinity cooperative as an example in China. It explains the translation concatenation of supply chain integration for this cooperative by constructing actor networks in four development stages, including the seed stage, start-up stage, development stage, and mature stage. The findings show that supply chain integration in production cooperation, supply & sales cooperation, and credit cooperation is a useful trinity cooperative model of supply chain integration for investigating vegetable supply chain integration through internal integration and external integration. This paper suggests that cooperatives in the vegetable supply chain should facilitate close coordination among different shareholders and further improve the efficiency of supply chain integration. The government should provide training opportunities and funding to encourage cooperatives to participate in supply chain integration within the vegetable industry.

Scaling is a ubiquitous concept in agricultural research in the global south as donors require their research grantees to prove that their results can be scaled to impact upon the livelihoods of a large number of beneficiaries. Recent studies on scaling have brought critical perspectives to the rather technocratic tendencies in the agricultural innovations scaling literature. Drawing on theoretical debates on spatial strategies and practical experience of agricultural innovation scaling in Ethiopia, this paper adds to the current debate on what constitutes scaling and how to overcome critical scaling constraints. The data for the paper came from a qualitative assessment using focus group discussions, key informant interviews, and document analysis on scaling work done in Ethiopia by a USAID-funded research for development project. The paper concludes with four broad lessons for the current understating of agricultural innovation scaling. First, scaling of agricultural innovations requires a balanced focus on technical requirements and associated social dynamics surrounding scaling targets, actors involved and their social relations. Second, appreciating the social dynamics of scaling emphasizes the fact that scaling is more complex than a linear rolling out of innovations towards diffusion. Third, scaling may not be strictly planned; instead, it might be an extension of the innovation generation process that relies heavily on both new and long-term relationships with key partners, trust, and continuous reflection and learning. Fourth, the overall implication of the above three conclusions is that scaling strategies need to be flexible, stepwise, and reflective. Despite the promises of flourishing scaling frameworks, scaling strategies it would appear from the Africa RISING experience that, if real impact is to be achieved, approaches will be required to be flexible enough to manage the social, processual and emergent nature of the practice of scaling.

Large-scale phenotyping of animal behaviour traits is time consuming and has led to increased demand for technologies that can automate these procedures. Automated tracking of animals has been successful in controlled laboratory settings, but recording from animals in large groups in highly variable farm settings presents challenges. The aim of this review is to provide a systematic overview of the advances that have occurred in automated, high throughput image detection of farm animal behavioural traits with welfare and production implications. Peer-reviewed publications written in English were reviewed systematically following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. After identification, screening, and assessment for eligibility, 108 publications met these specifications and were included for qualitative synthesis. Data collected from the papers included camera specifications, housing conditions, group size, algorithm details, procedures, and results. Most studies utilized standard digital colour video cameras for data collection, with increasing use of 3D cameras in papers published after 2013. Papers including pigs (across production stages) were the most common (n = 63). The most common behaviours recorded included activity level, area occupancy, aggression, gait scores, resource use, and posture. Our review revealed many overlaps in methods applied to analysing behaviour, and most studies started from scratch instead of building upon previous work. Training and validation sample sizes were generally small (mean±s.d. groups = 3.8±5.8) and in data collection and testing took place in relatively controlled environments. To advance our ability to automatically phenotype behaviour, future research should build upon existing knowledge and validate technology under commercial settings and publications should explicitly describe recording conditions in detail to allow studies to be reproduced. ispartof: Plos One vol:14 issue:12 ispartof: location:United States status: Published online

Currently, many ischemic stroke patients worldwide suffer from physical and mental impairments, and thus have a low quality of life. However, although rehabilitation is acknowledged as an effective way to recover patients' health, there does not exist yet an adaptive training platform for animal tests so far. For this sake, this paper aims to develop an adaptive escalator (AE) for rehabilitation of rats with cerebral ischemia. Rats were observed to climb upward spontaneously, and a motor-driven escalator, equipped with a position detection feature and an acceleration/deceleration mechanism, was constructed accordingly as an adaptive training platform. The rehabilitation performance was subsequently rated using an incline test, a rotarod test, the infarction volume, the lesion volume, the number of MAP2 positive cells and the level of cortisol. This paper is presented in 3 parts as follows. Part 1 refers to the escalator mechanism design, part 2 describes the adaptive ladder-climbing rehabilitation mechanism, and part 3 discusses the validation of an ischemic stroke model. As it turned out, a rehabilitated group using this training platform, designated as the AE group, significantly outperformed a control counterpart in terms of a rotarod test. After the sacrifice of the rats, the AE group gave an average infarction volume of (34.36 ± 3.8)%, while the control group gave (66.41 ± 3.1)%, validating the outperformance of the escalator-based rehabilitation platform in a sense. An obvious difference between the presented training platform and conventional counterparts is the platform mechanism, and for the first time in the literature rats can be well and voluntarily rehabilitated at full capacity using an adaptive escalator. Taking into account the physical diversity among rats, the training strength provided was made adaptive as a reliable way to eliminate workout or secondary injury. Accordingly, more convincing arguments can be made using this mental stress-free training platform.

Population is a major production factor in rural development in China, which makes the study of rural population distribution patterns at different times and the factors influencing the population distribution an important foundation for understanding the issues in rural China and moving forward with the implementation of rural revitalization strategies. This paper analyzed the spatial evolution of the population in rural China based on population census data for the People’s Republic of China by county in 1990, 2000 and 2010. Applying the geographical detector method, this paper also delved into the contributing factors that influenced the distribution based on the natural, social and economic data, such as the potential crop productivity, the average slope, the urbanization rate and the time cost to reach the nearest cities. The results indicate that the migration of the population from the rural areas into the cities, which was a result of rapid urbanization, did not change the original population distribution in rural China significantly. The rural population was still concentrated in the eastern plains, basins and deltas, and the North China Plain and Sichuan Basin still house the bulk of rural residents, but the population density of rural residents in the North China Plain and Sichuan Basin decreased from 1990 to 2010. The rural population in China tended to be distributed around the cities. Seventy-four percent of the rural population lived in an area within a 60-minute driving distance from the surrounding cities. The areas with dense rural population were basically consistent with the locations of the current major urban agglomerations in China. The current distribution of the rural population in China was a result of natural, social and economic conditions and location factors. Among them, natural factors such as the potential crop productivity and the degree of surface fragmentation had the most significant influence.

Background The decade following the Regional Strategic Framework for Visceral Leishmaniasis (VL) elimination in 2005 has shown compelling progress in the reduction of VL burden in the Indian subcontinent. The Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR), hosted by the World Health Organization (WHO) and other stakeholders, has coordinated and financed research for the development of new innovative tools and strategies to support the regional VL elimination initiative. This paper describes the process of the TDR’s engagement and contribution to this initiative. Methodology/principal findings Multiple databases were searched to identify 152 scientific papers and reports with WHO funding or authorship affiliation around the following 3 framework strategies: detection of new cases, morbidity reduction, and prevention of infection. TDR has played a critical role in the evaluation and subsequent use of the 39-aminoacid–recombinant kinesin antigen (rK39) rapid diagnostic test (RDT) as a confirmatory test for VL in the national program. TDR has supported the clinical research and development of miltefosine and single-dose liposomal amphotericin B as a first-line treatment against VL. TDR has engaged with in-country researchers, national programme managers, and partners to generate evidence-based interventions for early detection and treatment of VL patients. TDR evaluated the quality, community acceptance, and cost effectiveness of indoor residual spraying, insecticide-treated bed nets, insecticide-impregnated durable wall linings, insecticidal paint, and environmental management as tools for integrated vector management in reducing sandfly density. Conclusions/significance TDR’s engagement with country policy makers, scientists, and clinicians in the development of effective diagnosis, treatment, case detection, and vector control represents an important example of TDR’s stewardship toward the elimination of VL in the Indian subcontinent., Author summary Since the early days of the kala-azar elimination programme in the Indian subcontinent, TDR has engaged with national control and research institutions to conduct research aimed at informing country policy and practice to identify and treat cases and to prevent transmission of the infection. This includes the evaluation of the rK39 rapid diagnostic test for the diagnosis of VL, the clinical development and evaluation of first-line treatments (miltefosine and liposomal amphotericin B), the generation of evidence-based tools for early detection and complete clinical management of VL, the evaluation of the cost effectiveness of indoor residual spraying, insecticide-treated bed nets, insecticide-impregnated durable wall linings, and environmental vector management as tools for integrated vector management. The interaction and interdependence between implementation research, technical advice, partnership, and policy is yet another example of TDR’s stewardship contribution and empowerment toward VL elimination in the Indian subcontinent. Continuing investment in translational research from the bench to the bedside to public health, established jointly by national control programmes, academics, and TDR coordinators, is imperative to block transmission and prevent a resurgence of VL in the future.

Many countries have some kind of energy-system transformation either planned or ongoing for various reasons, such as to curb carbon emissions or to compensate for the phasing out of nuclear energy. One important component of these transformations is the overall reduction in energy demand. It is generally acknowledged that the domestic sector represents a large share of total energy consumption in many countries. Increased energy efficiency is one factor that reduces energy demand, but behavioral approaches (known as “sufficiency”) and their respective interventions also play important roles. In this paper, we address citizens’ heterogeneity regarding both their current behaviors and their willingness to realize their sufficiency potentials—that is, to reduce their energy consumption through behavioral change. We collaborated with three Swiss cities for this study. A survey conducted in the three cities yielded thematic sets of energy-consumption behavior that various groups of participants rated differently. Using this data, we identified four groups of participants with different patterns of both current behaviors and sufficiency potentials. The paper discusses intervention types and addresses citizens’ heterogeneity and behaviors from a city-based perspective., PLoS ONE, 12 (10), ISSN:1932-6203

The use of elasticities of substitution between inputs is a standard method for addressing the effect of a change in the mix of inputs used for production from a technical or cost standpoint. Most estimation methods use parametric production or cost functions or frontiers to estimate these elasticities. A potentially useful nonparametric alternative is data envelopment analysis (DEA). The purpose of this paper is to derive elasticities of input substitution for both technical and cost frontiers using DEA, extending the use of this approach in the field of economics and associated fields. The paper provides derivations for both Hicksian (production and cost frontier) and Morishima (cost frontier) elasticities of input substitution, as well as a parsimonious method for estimating them using DEA. The derivations are presented using an agricultural example form Kansas, USA.

Food safety is a global public health issue, which often arises from asymmetric information between consumers and suppliers. With the development of information technology in human life, building a food traceability information sharing platform is viewed as one of the best ways to overcome the trust crisis and resolve the problem of information asymmetry in China. However, among the myriad information available from the food supply chain, there is a lack of knowledge on consumer preference. Based on the best-worst scaling approach, this paper investigated consumer preferences for vegetable, pork, and dairy product traceability information. Specifically, this paper measured the relative importance that consumers place on the traceable information. The results indicate that consumers have varying priorities for information in different cases. "Pesticide/veterinary use," "picking/slaughtering date," and "fertilizer/feed use" are the most preferred traceable information for Chinese consumers in the case of vegetables, while "picking/slaughtering date" and "history of illness and taking protective measures" are the most preferred information in the case of pork. In the case of dairy products, consumers prefer "processing information," "environmental information of the origin," and "traceable tag certification information" most. The results of this study call for the direct involvement of the Chinese government in the food safety information sharing system as following. First, given consumers' diverse preferences, different types of traceable information should be recorded into the information sharing platform depending on food types. Second, the government could promote the step-by-step construction of such a platform based on the priority of consumers' preferences. Third, new technology should be applied to guarantee the reliability of traceable information. Finally, local preferences in terms of the way consumers receive and understand information should be taken into consideration.

Background Tobacco industry interference has been identified as the greatest obstacle to the implementation of evidence-based measures to reduce tobacco use. Understanding and addressing industry interference in public health policy-making is therefore crucial. Existing conceptualisations of corporate political activity (CPA) are embedded in a business perspective and do not attend to CPA’s social and public health costs; most have not drawn on the unique resource represented by internal tobacco industry documents. Building on this literature, including systematic reviews, we develop a critically informed conceptual model of tobacco industry political activity. Methods and Findings We thematically analysed published papers included in two systematic reviews examining tobacco industry influence on taxation and marketing of tobacco; we included 45 of 46 papers in the former category and 20 of 48 papers in the latter (n = 65). We used a grounded theory approach to build taxonomies of “discursive” (argument-based) and “instrumental” (action-based) industry strategies and from these devised the Policy Dystopia Model, which shows that the industry, working through different constituencies, constructs a metanarrative to argue that proposed policies will lead to a dysfunctional future of policy failure and widely dispersed adverse social and economic consequences. Simultaneously, it uses diverse, interlocking insider and outsider instrumental strategies to disseminate this narrative and enhance its persuasiveness in order to secure its preferred policy outcomes. Limitations are that many papers were historical (some dating back to the 1970s) and focused on high-income regions. Conclusions The model provides an evidence-based, accessible way of understanding diverse corporate political strategies. It should enable public health actors and officials to preempt these strategies and develop realistic assessments of the industry’s claims., In this thematic analysis, Selda Ulucanlar and colleagues develop taxonomies and an overall model to describe the political strategies used by the tobacco industry to influence policy around tobacco taxation and marketing., Author Summary Why Was This Study Done? Interference by the tobacco industry in government policy-making is known to be an important reason for governments’ failure to adopt proven measures to reduce tobacco consumption. Our study aimed to systematically review tobacco industry political activity from a critical societal perspective using in-depth empirical evidence. We set out to build a widely applicable model that governments in different countries could use to identify and preempt industry interference in policy. What Did the Researchers Do and Find? We analysed 65 papers included in previous systematic reviews that examined tobacco industry political activity in two policy areas: taxation and marketing of tobacco products. Using constructivist grounded theory, we identified industry arguments and techniques and then grouped these under the more general heading of strategies, finally developing a taxonomy and model of tobacco industry political activity. According to our Policy Dystopia Model, the industry produces an alarmist narrative that proposed policies will fail and lead to a great number of undesirable social and economic consequences (outlined in our taxonomy of discursive strategies). The industry also uses different methods (outlined in our taxonomy of instrumental strategies) to disseminate this narrative and persuade decision-makers in order to block policies. What Do These Findings Mean? Public health actors and policy-makers can use our model and taxonomies to better promote tobacco-related policies and to render ineffective tobacco industry opposition and political activity. In particular, they need to pay attention to alliance formation, information provision, interdisciplinary working, and transparency in policy-making.

One of the main strategies to control the spread of infectious animal diseases is the implementation of movement restrictions. This paper shows a loss in efficiency of the movement restriction policy (MRP) when behavioral responses of farmers are taken into account. Incorporating the strategic behavior of farmers in an epidemiologic model reveals that the MRP can trigger premature animal sales by farms at high risk of becoming infected that significantly reduce the efficacy of the policy. The results are validated in a parameterized network via Monte Carlo simulations and measures to mitigate the loss of efficiency of the MRP are discussed. Financial aid to farmers can be justified by public health concerns, not only for equity. This paper contributes to developing an interdisciplinary analytical framework regarding the expansion of infectious diseases combining economic and epidemiologic dimensions.

In recent decades, we have observed an intensification of science, technology and innovation activities in Brazil. The increase in production of scientific papers indexed in international databases, however, has not been accompanied by an equivalent increase in the impact of publications. This paper presents a methodology for analyzing production and the impact of certain research areas in Brazil related to two aspects: the origin of the journals (national or foreign) and international collaboration. These two variables were selected for being of particular importance in understanding the context of scientific production and communication in countries with emerging economies. The sample consisted of papers written by Brazilian researchers in 19 subfields of knowledge published from 2002 to 2011, totaling 85,082 papers. To calculate the impact, we adopted a normalized indicator called the relative subfield citedness (Rw) using a window of 5 years to obtain measurements evaluated in 2 different years: 2007 and 2012. The data on papers and citations were collected from the Web of Science database. From the results, we note that most of the subfields have presented, from one quinquennium to another, improved performance in the world production rankings. Regarding publication in national and foreign journals, we observed a trend in the distribution maintenance of production of the subfields based on the origin of the journal. Specifically, for impact, we identified a lower Rw pattern for Brazilian papers when they were published in national journals in all subfields. When Brazilian products are published in foreign journals, we observed a higher impact for those papers, even surpassing the average global impact in some subfields. For international collaboration, we analyzed the percentage of participation of foreign researchers and the connection between collaboration and the impact of papers, especially emphasizing the distinction of hyperauthorship papers in terms of production and impact.

The classification of pollen species and types is an important task in many areas like forensic palynology, archaeological palynology and melissopalynology. This paper presents the first annotated image dataset for the Brazilian Savannah pollen types that can be used to train and test computer vision based automatic pollen classifiers. A first baseline human and computer performance for this dataset has been established using 805 pollen images of 23 pollen types. In order to access the computer performance, a combination of three feature extractors and four machine learning techniques has been implemented, fine tuned and tested. The results of these tests are also presented in this paper.

A large amount of medical waste is produced during disaster relief, posing a potential hazard to the habitat and the environment. A comprehensive understanding of the composition and characteristics of medical waste that requires management is one of the most basic steps in the development of a plan for medical waste management. Unfortunately, limited reliable information is available in the open literature on the characteristics of the medical waste that is generated at disaster relief sites. This paper discusses the analysis of the composition and characteristics of medical waste at a disaster relief site using the retrospection-simulation-revision method. For this study, we obtained 35 medical relief records of the Wenchuan Earthquake, Sichuan, May 2008 from a field cabin hospital. We first present a retrospective analysis of the relief medical records, and then, we simulate the medical waste generated in the affected areas. We ultimately determine the composition and characteristics of medical waste in the affected areas using untreated medical waste to revise the composition of the simulated medical waste. The results from 35 cases showed that the medical waste generated from disaster relief consists of the following: plastic (43.2%), biomass (26.3%), synthetic fiber (15.3%), rubber (6.6%), liquid (6.6%), inorganic salts (0.3%) and metals (1.7%). The bulk density of medical relief waste is 249 kg/m3, and the moisture content is 44.75%. The data should be provided to assist the collection, segregation, storage, transportation, disposal and contamination control of medical waste in affected areas. In this paper, we wish to introduce this research method of restoring the medical waste generated in disaster relief to readers and researchers. In addition, we hope more disaster relief agencies will become aware of the significance of medical case recording and storing. This may be very important for the environmental evaluation of medical waste in disaster areas, as well as for medical waste management and disposal.