Real-Time Quantification of Crude Protein and Neutral Detergent Fibre in Pastures under Montado Ecosystem Using the Portable NIR Spectrometer

The Montado is a Mediterranean agro–forestry–pastoral ecosystem. Knowledge of pastures' nutritional value is critical for farm managers’ decision-making. Laboratory determinations are very expensive, destructive and costly, in terms of time and labour. The objective of this experimental work was to calibrate and validate a portable near-infrared spectrometer (micro-NIR) to predict the nutritive value (neutral detergent fibre, NDF and crude protein, CP) of pastures in the peak of spring 2021. Thus, a total of 87 pasture samples were collected at eight experimental fields located in the Alentejo, Southern region of Portugal. The results show good correlations between in-situ micro-NIR measurements and pasture NDF reference values (R2 of 0.73 and 0.69 for calibration and validation models, respectively), and a moderate correlation between micro-NIR measurements and pasture CP reference values (R2 of 0.51 and 0.36 for calibration and validation models, respectively). These results show the potential of this tool for the quick evaluation of pasture quality and constitute a starting point for future work, which should include the monitoring of temporal variability (throughout the entire vegetative cycle of the pasture) and spatial (with geo-referenced information) diversity of pastures characteristic of the Montado ecosystem in the Mediterranean region.

Intragenomic Conflict between Knob Heterochromatin and B Chromosomes Is the Key to Understand Genome Size Variation along Altitudinal Clines in Maize

In maize, we studied the causes of genome size variation and their correlates with cultivation altitude that suggests the existence of adaptive clines. To discuss the biological role of the genome size variation, we focused on Bolivian maize landraces growing along a broad altitudinal range. These were analyzed together with previously studied populations from altitudinal clines of Northwestern Argentina (NWA). Bolivian populations exhibited numerical polymorphism for B chromosomes (Bs) (from 1 to 5), with frequencies varying from 16.6 to 81.8 and being positively correlated with cultivation altitude. The 2C values of individuals 0B (A-DNA) ranged between 4.73 and 7.71 pg, with 58.33% of variation. The heterochromatic knobs, detected by DAPI staining, were more numerous and larger in individuals 0B than in those with higher doses of Bs. Bolivian and NWA landraces exhibited the same pattern of A-DNA downsizing and fewer and smaller knobs with increasing cultivation altitude, suggesting a mechanistic link among heterochromatin, genome size and phenology. The negative association between the two types of supernumerary DNA (knob heterochromatin and Bs), mainly responsible for the genome size variation, may be considered as an example of intragenomic conflict. It could be postulated that the optimal nucleotype is the result of such conflict, where genome adjustment may lead to an appropriate length of the vegetative cycle for maize landraces growing across altitudinal clines.

AVALIAÇÃO AGRONÔMICA DE NOVOS CLONES DE Manihot esculenta Crantz NO SEGUNDO CICLO VEGETATIVO

O presente trabalho teve como objetivo avaliar as características agronômicas no segundo ciclo vegetativo de novos clones de mandioca de mesa oriundos de um programa de melhoramento, nas condições edafoclimáticas do município de Santarém, Oeste do Pará. O delineamento experimental utilizado foi em blocos casualizados com 13 tratamentos (novos clones de macaxeira) e três repetições. As parcelas foram constituídas por 10 plantas distribuídas em duas linhas de 5 metros, com espaçamento de 1,0 x 1,0 m. Os resultados obtidos denotam que a produtividade apresentou correlação significativa e positiva com a massa de raízes comerciais (r= 0,98), massa fresca da parte aérea (r= 0,61) e diâmetro médio das raízes (r= 0,63), com destaque para o clone C5 que obteve maiores rendimentos em relação a estas características, e consequentemente apresentou maior média de produtividade 44,70 t ha-1. Em relação ao tempo de cozimento das raízes, de treze clones testados, doze materiais obtiveram tempo médio de cozimento inferior a trinta minutos, sendo classificados como tempo de cozimento bom, com destaque para o clone C11, que apresentou média de 12,30 minutos. Todos os clones avaliados apresentam características agronômicas desejáveis tornando-se promissores para o mercado do município de Santarém, no baixo Amazonas. Palavras-chave: melhoramento; baixo amazonas; produtividade; mandioca de mesa. Agronomic evaluation of new Manihot esculenta Crantz clones in the second vegetative cycle ABSTRACT: The present work aimed to evaluate the agronomic characteristics in the second vegetative cycle of new macaxeira clones from a breeding program under the edaphoclimatic conditions of the municipality of Santarém, Western Pará. The experimental design was randomized blocks with 13 treatments (new clones of cassava) and three repetitions. The plots consisted of 10 plants distributed in two rows of 5 meters, with 1.0 x 1.0 m spacing. The results show that yield was significantly and positively correlated with commercial root mass (r = 0.98), fresh shoot mass (r = 0.61) and mean root diameter (r = 0.63). highlighting clone C5 that obtained higher yields in relation to these characteristics, and consequently presented higher average yield 44.70 t ha-1. Regarding the root cooking time, of thirteen clones tested, twelve materials had an average cooking time of less than thirty minutes, being classified as good cooking time, especially clone C11, which presented an average of 12.30 minutes. All evaluated clones have desirable agronomic characteristics making them promising for the lower Amazon market. Keywords: breeding; low amazons; productivity; table cassava.

Cultivar diversification of banana production in Brazil

Bananas fruits are widely consumed in the world. In Brazil, the role of agriculture activities in the economy and society is huge, especially for banana farmers. The most popular variety of bananas in Brazil are Prata, Grand Naine, Williams and Nanicão; however, all of them have at least one undesirable trait such as height, yield, vegetative cycle, pests and diseases tolerances, drought or cold resistance and fruit quality. This literature review aims to evaluate agronomic performance and fruit quality of new genotypes of the Prata and Cavendish subgroups, and to make further recommendations on high quality genotypes to Brazilian banana producers. Therefore, a literature review of previously acquired data was conducted and the outcomes indicated genotypes’ adaptability to specific region that assessed vegetative and productive attributes of new cultivars, in comparison to most commercially exploited ones, which have already shown high vulnerability to pests and diseases. These outcomes will then facilitate banana producers the opportunity to select the most stable and adaptable genotypes according to environmental conditions.

Determination of the optimal number of evaluations in half-sib progenies of kale by Bayesian approach

ABSTRACT Kale has a long vegetative cycle, requiring a lot of labor, due to the need for tutoring, thinning and multiple harvests, leading to difficulties in the maintenance and evaluation of experiments. Thus, the objective was to estimate the minimum number of evaluations for the assertive selection of half-sib progenies of kale by means of a repeatability study by Bayesian approach. Twenty four half-sib progenies were evaluated in a randomized block design with four replicates and five plants per plot. The number of shoots, number of marketable leaves, fresh mass of marketable leaves and fresh mass per leaf were measured throughout 15 harvests. All traits showed high estimates of the repeatability, indicating high regularity in the expression of the traits during the harvesting period. With eight harvests it is possible to evaluate all the traits with a coefficient of determination superior to 85% in half-sib progenies of kale.

Genome size and repetitive sequences are driven by artificial selection on the length of the vegetative cycle in maize landraces from Northeastern Argentina

Variation in genome size and knob heterochromatin content was explored in relationship to altitudinal cline and length of the vegetative cycle in northern Argentina, USA and Mexico landraces. It was considering that the decrease in DNA and heterochromatin content could be an adaptation to a shorter growing season and the result of artificial selection by man. Guaraní landraces from Northeastern Argentina (NEA) show similar variation in genome size (3.81pg to 7.56pg) and knob heterochromatin content than maize growing across an altitudinal cline. The present analysis offers an overview of the genetic variability of NEA maize to explain why Guaraní landraces and those along an altitudinal cline share this similar variation. Karyotype and flow cytometry data were employed. The DNA content of Guaraní landraces which lacking B chromosomes, showed no significant relationship with knob heterochromatin, suggesting differences in the amount of interspersed DNA. A significant positive relationship was found between the length of the vegetative cycle and both number and percentage of knob heterochromatin. No significant correlation was found between genome size and vegetative cycle. All these results allow us to conclude that the variation in heterochromatin content among Guaraní maize is driven by the selection of farmers for flowering time.

Efficacy of UV-C Disinfection in Hyperbaric Chambers

Background: UV-C light reduces contamination of high-touch clinical surfaces. Few studies have tested the relative efficacy of UV-C devices in real-world clinical environments. Methods: We assessed the efficacy of the Tru-D (SmartUVC) and Moonbeam-3 UV-C (Diversey) devices at eradicating important clinical pathogens in 2 hyperbaric chambers at a tertiary-care hospital. Formica sheets were inoculated with 106–107 CFU of MRSA (USA300) or 104–105 CFU of C. difficile (NAP1). Sheets were placed in 6 predetermined locations throughout the chambers. Two Moonbeam-3 UV-C devices were positioned in the center of each chamber and were run for 3-minute (per manufacturer’s instructions) and 5-minute cycles. One Tru-D was positioned in the center of the chamber and was run on the vegetative cycle for MRSA and the spore cycle for C. difficile. UV-C dosage was measured for both machines. Quantitative cultures were collected using Rodac plates with DE neutralizing agar and were incubated at 37C for 48 hours. C. difficile was likewise plated onto sheep’s blood agar. Results: We ran each combination of chamber, microbe, and UV-C device in triplicate for In total, 108 samples per species. For MRSA, the Tru-D vegetative cycle, the 5-minute Moonbeam cycle, and the 3-minute Moonbeam cycle resulted in average CFU log10 reductions of 7.02 (95% CI, 7.02–7.02), 6.99 (95% CI, 6.95–7.02), and 6.58 (95% CI, 6.37–6.79), respectively (Fig. 1). The Tru-D vegetative and 5-minute Moonbeam cycles were similarly effective (P > .99), and both were more effective than the 3-minute Moonbeam cycle (P < .001 and P < .001, respectively). MRSA samples receiving direct UV-C exposure had significantly greater log10 reductions (6.95; 95% CI, 6.89–7.01) than did indirect exposure (6.67; 95% CI, 6.46–6.87; P < .05) (Fig. 2). For C. difficile, the Tru-D sporicidal, the 5-, and 3-minute Moonbeam cycles resulted in average CFU log10 reductions of 1.78 (95% CI, 1.43–2.12), 0.57 (95% CI, 0.33–0.81) and 0.64 (95% CI, 0.42–0.86), respectively (Fig. 1). Tru-D was significantly more effective than either the 3- or 5-minute Moonbeam cycles (P < .00). C. difficile samples receiving direct UV-C exposure had higher dosage and significantly greater log10 reductions (1.34; 95% CI, 1.10–1.58) than did indirect exposure (0.58; 95% CI, 0.31–0.86; P < .01) (Fig. 2). Conclusions: Use of the Tru-D vegetative cycle and the Moonbeam 3- and 5-minute cycles resulted in similar reductions in MRSA; both resulted in significantly greater reductions than the manufacturer’s recommended 3-minute Moonbeam cycle. Therefore, healthcare facilities should carefully evaluate manufacturer-recommended run times in their specific clinical setting. For C. difficile, the Tru-D sporicidal cycle was significantly more effective than either of the Moonbeam cycles, likely due to higher irradiation levels. As such, direct UV-C exposure resulted in greater average reductions than indirect exposure.Funding: NoneDisclosures: None

Automatic Grapevine Trunk Detection on UAV-Based Point Cloud

The optimisation of vineyards management requires efficient and automated methods able to identify individual plants. In the last few years, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have become one of the main sources of remote sensing information for Precision Viticulture (PV) applications. In fact, high resolution UAV-based imagery offers a unique capability for modelling plant’s structure making possible the recognition of significant geometrical features in photogrammetric point clouds. Despite the proliferation of innovative technologies in viticulture, the identification of individual grapevines relies on image-based segmentation techniques. In that way, grapevine and non-grapevine features are separated and individual plants are estimated usually considering a fixed distance between them. In this study, an automatic method for grapevine trunk detection, using 3D point cloud data, is presented. The proposed method focuses on the recognition of key geometrical parameters to ensure the existence of every plant in the 3D model. The method was tested in different commercial vineyards and to push it to its limit a vineyard characterised by several missing plants along the vine rows, irregular distances between plants and occluded trunks by dense vegetation in some areas, was also used. The proposed method represents a disruption in relation to the state of the art, and is able to identify individual trunks, posts and missing plants based on the interpretation and analysis of a 3D point cloud. Moreover, a validation process was carried out allowing concluding that the method has a high performance, especially when it is applied to 3D point clouds generated in phases in which the leaves are not yet very dense (January to May). However, if correct flight parametrizations are set, the method remains effective throughout the entire vegetative cycle.

Desarrollo de un algoritmo de programación SIG para estimar la evapotranspiración en los cultivos mediante sensores remotos

A study was conducted to evaluate the feasibility of GIS programming as a potential tool in the automation of image processing obtained by the LANDSAT 8 satellite to estimate evapotranspiration (ET) in crops. The objective was to develop an algorithm in python language implementing the SEBAL model. 35 complex equations were developed, which were automated for the processing of 13 scenes, thus covering the entire vegetative cycle of corn cultivation on the "Rancho Las Mercedes" property. For the validation of the results, the data measured by the INIFAP weather station network was consulted on the dates corresponding to the images. The results obtained show an RMSE ranging from 0.001 for the month of June to 0.013 for the month of April. The instantaneous ET values are between the ranges of 0.01 mm / hr and 0.80 mm / hr. Maps of their spatial distribution were generated, where it can be seen that the lowest ET values, those close to zero, correspond to human settlements and bare soils, while the highest values correspond to sites of vigorous vegetation and bodies of water.