Using drone technology for preserving the economic sustainability of the agricultural holdings

In the present era, precision agriculture, through the set of innovative technologies that it uses, allows to effectively manage the terrain, machinery, and input acquisition, considering the specific natural variation of the environmental conditions. One of such innovations is the unmanned aerial vehicle (drone) technology which has gained popularity and has been widely used in adopting efficient strategies for preserving the economic sustainability of the agricultural holdings. The need for an efficient management, the complex climatic, technological, economic, and biological changes that have recently occurred at the level of agro-systems impose a continuous and accurate knowledge of the growing production resources and the vegetation state in cultures. In this context, the article investigates a series of particularities regarding the use of geospatial and informational technology in the process of taking, storing, analysing, and interpreting them to optimize inputs, considering the state of the crops and the degree of soil supply in each relatively homogeneous area of the terrain..

Dermoscopic Features Summarization and Comparison of Four Types of Cutaneous Vascular Anomalies

Objective: Dermoscopic features of cutaneous vascular anomalies have been reported, but the described features currently known are limited and not well-understood. The aim of this study is to comprehensively summarize and compare the dermoscopic features of the four different types of cutaneous vascular anomalies [infantile hemangiomas (IH), cherry angioma (CA), angiokeratomas (AK), and pyogenic granuloma (PG)] in the Chinese Han population.Materials and Methods: Dermoscopic features of 31 IH, 172 CA, 31 AK, and 45 PG were collected based on the contact non-polarized mode of dermoscopy at 20-fold magnification. Dermoscopic features including background, lacunae, vessel morphology and distribution were collected and summarized. Additionally, we compared these features by age stage, gender, and anatomical locations in CA.Results: The dermoscopic features of IH included the red lacunae, red/red-blue/red-white backgrounds, and vessel morphology such as linear curved vessels, serpiginous vessels, coiled vessels. For CA, the lacunae appeared reddish brown to reddish blue or only red. In terms of vascular morphology, serpentine vessels, coiled vessels, looped vessels, and curved vessels could be seen in the lesions. A few lesions were black or presented with a superficial white veil. There were statistical differences in red background (P = 0.021), unspecific vessel distribution (P = 0.030), black area (P = 0.029), and white surface (P = 0.042) among different age groups. Red-brown lacunae (P = 0.039), red-blue (P = 0.013), red-white background (P = 0.015), black area (P = 0.016), and white surface (P = 0.046) were of statistical difference in terms of the locations of lesions. Lacunae were also observed in AK, which presented with red, dark purple, dark blue, black. Global dermoscopic patterns that were characterized by a homogeneous area were obvious in all PG lesions, among which 30 (66.7%) were red-white and 15 (33.3%) were red. As for local features, “white rail” lines were detected in 19 (42.2%) lesions and white collarette was seen in 34 (75.6%) lesions.Conclusions: Dermoscopy is an applicable diagnostic tool for the diagnosis of cutaneous vascular anomalies. It is necessary to take into account the age stage and lesion location when we diagnose CA using dermoscopy.

Eco-geographic Study of Mahaleb (Prunus Mahaleb. L) in the Middle and Northern Parts of the Eastern Mediterranean

Background: Mahaleb still exists in most of the eastern Mediterranean forests associated with Cilician fir (Abies cilicica) and Lebanon cedar (Cedrus libani). However, there is an importance of conservation of its germplasm in hereditary banks due to their degradation in natural habitats, as well as there is growing interest in expanding Mahaleb cultivation due to its low requirements and endurance of harsh environments.Methods: The study used the approaches of the autecology concepts to study Mahaleb in situ. The field surveys have been conducted on an investigated homogeneous area of about 100m2 to 400m2 as a (relevé area).Results: Mahaleb occurs in its habitat in isolated individuals form and fragile structures of populations that were largely believed to have been in clumped or linear populations. The spatial distribution is restricted to small isolated zones in half-open, treeless or rocky outcrops areas of deciduous forests or rugged areas of barren mountains. The root sprouting seems to be the dominant mode of recruitment. However, all sites showed missing age classes that may indicate human infringement or the failure of recruitment in some years. The spatial distribution showed that Mahaleb exists in different environmental and climatic conditions regarding soil, landscape, rainfall, temperature. This can be attributed to its possession of genetic capabilities that enable it to adapt to varying environmental conditions in addition to the presence of different genotypes or higher taxa such as subspecies or even it may reflect the differences of environmental resilience inside some species themselves.Conclusions: this reflecting Mahaleb's high ability to withstand environmental, thermal, and water stresses. Notable, strong, long roots were found at different depths of soils, some within the joints of the rocks, and this strengthens its role in protecting soil conservation. The geo-distribution of Mahaleb suggests different genotypes or higher taxa such as subspecies or even the differences of environmental resilience inside some species themselves.It is also necessary to predict new potential areas for growth Mahaleb in the eastern Mediterranean to increase production either by introducing its cultivation in unconventional areas or by enhancing its productivity in the areas currently cultivated, which appears to be an important issue soon.

Learning main drivers of crop dynamics and production in Europe

<p>An expanding world population combined with challenges brought by climate change pose totally new scenarios for managing agricultural fields and crop production. In the last decades, a variety of ground-based, modeled, and Earth observation (EO) data have been used to characterize crop dynamics and, ultimately, estimate yield. Typically, optical vegetation indices and, in particular, metrics like their maximum peak or integral during the growing season are exploited to estimated crop yield. Also, most studies are focused on large areas with homogeneous agricultural landscapes in which cultivation/production is centred in a unique main crop (e.g. the U.S. Corn Belt or the Indian Wheat Belt). </p><p>In this study, we study the transportability of machine learning models for crop yield estimation across different regions and the relative relevance of agro-ecological drivers (input features). We use a previous methodology presented in [1] that synergistically combined optical and microwave vegetation data for crop yield prediction. We apply this methodology, which was trained in the homogeneous area of the US Corn Belt, to the highly heterogeneous agricultural landscapes across Europe. The fragmented and diverse European agro-ecosystems poses a greater challenge for the combination of multi-sensor data, and we need to establish first which is the set of variables providing the best skill for yield estimation of the main crops grown in Europe (corn, barley and wheat) under this new scenario. Subsequently, we study whether these variables are also able to capture potential disruptions on crop dynamics deriving from extreme events and their influence in final crop production. </p><p>[1] Synergistic Integration of Optical and Microwave Satellite Data for Crop Yield Estimation. Anna Mateo-Sanchis, Maria Piles, Jordi Muñoz-Marí, Jose E. Adsuara, Adrián Pérez-Suay and Gustau Camps-Valls. Remote Sensing of Environment 234:111460, 2019.</p>

Korpus języka mówionego mieszkańców Spisza

A Spoken Corpus of Inhabitants of Polish SpiszThe article describes a dialect corpus project that documents the dialect of Polish Spisz. In contrast to the majority of dialectological research in Poland, our corpus also includes the speech of the youngest and middle generations, as its aim is also to document the sociolinguistic situation of the dialect of the region. Recordings have been transcribed into standard Polish orthography, not phonetically, which makes it possible not only to easily search the corpus but also to use existing tools to lemmatize and add morphosyntactic annotation to the texts. Users interested in the phonetic layer can access the recordings on a per-utterance basis. The article describes the stages of compiling the corpus and discusses its potential applications. The authors argue that a large corpus which covers a small, homogeneous area is a more valuable resource for dialectologists than a series of small corpora documenting a larger region.

The Potential and Limits of Administrative Sovereignty

For the last two millennia, administrative sovereignty has focused on the performance of specific administrative functions and whether that performance is independent, exclusive, and uniform within a particular physical boundary, homogeneous area, treaty-described jurisdiction, or ethno-linguistic context. To be effective and recognized as administration, the state or quasi-state’s behaviour must be operational rather than merely aspirational, must administer rather than merely involve the functions in question, and must be independent rather than merely complementary relative to the activities of nearby states and state-like actors. Only through more nuanced and more flexible definitions of what ‘countries’ are will we be able to write the next generation of legal, treaty, policy, and administrative rules.

Spatio-temporal heterogeneity of the snow cover from data of the penetrometer SnowMicroPen

Te paper presents the results of studies aimed at investigation of the spatial and temporal variability of snow coverstructure on the basis of strength values and its variations obtained by means of the high-resolution penetrometer SnowMicroPen. Te possibilities of fast and independent from the observer identifcation of layers (including identifcation of weakened, potentially avalanche-dangerous layers) were estimated under the climatic conditions of Moscow and the Khibiny mountains. Horizontal areas with homogeneous underlying surface and vegetation were selected for the stratigraphic studies that made it possible to avoid a possible influence of slope relief and exposure from the obtained data on the spatial and temporal variability of the snow depth structure. Te analysis of the information obtained in winter seasons 2014/15 and 2016/17 allowed constructing detailed schemes of the snow cover evolution at the Moscow site as well as assessing the inter-annual and intra-seasonal variability of its structure. Afer the SnowMicroPen data were recorded in the course of the feld works carried out in winter 2015/16 on the Khibiny educational and scientifc base of the Lomonosov Moscow State University (city of Kirovsk), the 10-meter trench on the same profle was described in details, and direct data on the snow cover structure were obtained. Te strength values resulted from the above studies characterize the layers composed of crystals of various shapes and sizes, and they are considered as the frst step to methodology of operational defnition of the spatially-inhomogeneous stratigraphy and stability of snowpack without snowpit observations. Te data analysis showed high spatial and temporal variability of the structure and properties of snow cover even at a homogeneous area, usually described by a single snowpit.