Nitrogen (N) loss from rice production systems in the form of ammonia (NH
) can be a significant N loss pathway causing significant economic and environmental costs. Yet, data on NH
fluxes in wetland ...rice ecosystems are still very scarce which limits the accuracy of national and global NH
budgets. We measured the NH
fluxes in situ in a wetland rice field and estimated emission factors (EF) under two soil management systems (i.e. conventional tillage, CT and strip tillage, ST); two residue retention levels (i.e. 15%, LR and 40% crop residue by height, HR); and three N fertilization rates (i.e. 108, 144 and 180 kg N ha
) in two consecutive years (2019 and 2020). The highest NH
peaks were observed within the first 3 days after urea application. The mean and cumulative NH
fluxes significantly increased with the increases in N fertilization rates and were 18.5% and 18.6% higher in ST than in CT in 2020 but not in 2019. Overall, the highest mean NH
fluxes were in 180 kg N ha
coupled with either HR or LR and ST or CT. In 2019, the NH
EF was unchanged by any treatments. In 2020, the lower EF was in CT coupled with LR (15%) than all other treatment combinations, where ST with HR showed the highest EF (20%). Likewise, the lowest N rate (108 kg N ha
) in ST had the highest NH
EF (20%) that was similar to higher N rates (144 and 180 kg N ha
) in the same tillage treatment and to 180 kg N ha
in CT. Our results highlight that NH
fluxes in rice field particularly the effects of ST correlated with higher soil pH and NH
content and lower redox potential. Our results highlight that NH
fluxes are a potentially large N loss pathway in wetland rice under conventional and decreased soil disturbance regimes.
An experiment was conducted to determine the effects of low and high metabolizable protein (MP) diets when fed for ad libitum and controlled intake during the prepartum period on postpartum lactation ...performance and feeding behavior of dairy cows. Thirty-six multiparous Holstein cows were blocked by parity, expected calving date, and previous lactation milk yield at −21 d relative to expected calving and were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 close-up period dietary treatments providing low MP (LMP) or high MP (HMP) diets with controlled intake (CNI) or ad libitum intake (ALI). The concentrations of MP were 65 and 90 g/kg dry matter for LMP and HMP diets, respectively, whereas intake was controlled to supply 100 and 160% of the NRC (2001) energy requirements for CNI and ALI groups, respectively. The concentration of net energy for lactation (NEL) in the treatment diets was 1.50 Mcal/kg. All cows were fed a similar lactation diet after calving (1.50 Mcal/kg of NEL and 83.3 g/kg of MP). The HMP diet increased dry matter intake during the first 3 wk and tended to increase dry matter intake over the 9 wk of lactation. Meal size and eating rate increased in the ALI cows during the prepartum period. Meal frequency increased with the HMP diet during the postpartum period. Milk yield increased by 15.2% with the HMP diet over the 9 wk of lactation. The HMP diet increased energy-corrected milk (ECM) yield in CNI versus ALI cows, whereas the LMP diet increased ECM yield in ALI versus CNI cows over the 9 wk of lactation. The increase in ECM yield of LMP-ALI versus LMP-CNI cows was supported by greater body condition loss and serum β-hydroxybutyrate over the 9 wk of lactation. Taken together, these data indicate that prepartum controlled intake of a high protein diet can provide the benefits of both strategies.
Feeding of dietary energy sources has been extensively studied in dairy cows but not well described in dairy buffaloes. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of prepartum dietary ...energy sources on productive and reproductive performance in Nili Ravi buffaloes (
n
= 21). The buffaloes were offered isocaloric (1.55 Mcal/kg DM NE
L
(net energy for lactation)) glucogenic (GD), lipogenic (LD), and mixed diet (MD) during 63 days prepartum and maintained (1.27 Mcal/kg DM NE
L
) at lactation diet (LCD) during 14 weeks postpartum. Effects of dietary energy sources and week on animals were analyzed with the mixed model. The DMI, BCS, and body weights remained similar during the pre- and postpartum periods. The prepartum diets did not affect birth weight, blood metabolites, milk yield, and composition. The GD tended to early uterine involution, more follicle numbers, and early follicle formation. The prepartum feeding of dietary energy source had a similar effect on first estrus expression, days open, conception rate, pregnancy rate, and calving interval. So, it could be concluded that prepartum feeding of an isocaloric dietary energy source had a similar effect on the performance of buffaloes.
•A novel methodology to access rooftop solar battery performance.•Uncertainties associated with rooftop solar battery are considered.•Actual household data is analysed.•Results provide clear insights ...to the performance of solar batteries.
Grid integration of rooftop solar systems are increasing at a rapid pace throughout the world. Battery energy storage has become integral part of rooftop solar systems, as it provides a mean to best utilize the solar energy. Since, the battery performance degrades in the course of its utilization based on the nature of use (charging, discharging pattern and temperature) and it is one of the most expensive component of a rooftop solar system, its charging and discharging operation is required to be regulated in a judicial manner. Therefore, it is imperative to study the performance of rooftop solar batteries based on its actual charging and discharging profile that reflects the intermittency in solar irradiation and households electricity consumption pattern. This paper presents a generic methodology using Monte-Carlo simulation approach to evaluate performance of solar batteries considering uncertainties in solar and energy consumption pattern. The efficacy of the proposed approach has been verified using real solar generation and energy consumption data of Sydney CBD. The results show a clear insight to the performance of rooftop residential solar batteries over the span of its usage.
The effects of feeding rumen-inert fat sources on production responses of lactating dairy cows have been well reported but less thoroughly described in lactating dairy buffalo. The objective of this ...study was to investigate the effect of oil and 2 different rumen-inert fat sources on dry matter intake, milk yield, milk composition, and milk fatty acid (FA) profile in Nili Ravi buffalo. Twelve multiparous mid-lactating Nili Ravi buffaloes received 4 treatments in a 4 × 4 Latin square design with a period length of 21 d. The treatments were (1) the basal diet without supplementation of oil or fats (CTRL), (2) the basal diet supplemented with canola oil (CO), (3) the basal diet supplemented with calcium salts of palm FA (Ca-FA), and (4) the basal diet supplemented with high palmitic acid (PA). Dry matter intake was decreased by 4.4% in the CO compared with Ca-FA and PA. Milk yield and milk fat yield were increased by 7.8 and 14.3%, respectively, in CO, Ca-FA, and PA compared with the CTRL. Milk fat content increased by 7.5%, whereas milk fat yield tended to increase with the supplementation of Ca-FA and PA compared with CO. No effect on milk yield and milk composition was observed in Ca-FA versus PA treatments. The yield of medium-chain FA was increased by Ca-FA and PA versus CO. The CO treatment increased the yield of long-chain FA compared with Ca-FA and PA treatments. Plasma glucose level was higher in CO, Ca-FA, and PA compared with the CTRL. In conclusion, feeding rumen-inert fats in the lactating buffalo diet proved to be a useful strategy to increase the 3.5% fat-corrected milk yield due to the higher milk fat content in this study.
Pathogenicity tests were carried out on leaves, twigs and branches of Alnus glutinosa using several isolates of Phytophthora alni ssp. alni, P. alni ssp. multiformis and P. alni ssp. uniformis ...in vitro. Healthy fresh leaves were collected from disease‐free areas and inoculated with mycelium on agar discs or by dipping in zoospore suspensions. In addition, twigs and branches were collected from both disease‐free and disease‐affected areas, inoculated with mycelium on agar discs and incubated at four temperatures (15, 20, 25, 30°C). All subspecies tested were pathogenic but with varied level of virulence. In inoculation tests on foliage, wounding was a key factor in causing infections: lesions on inoculated wounded leaves were larger than on non‐wounded leaves. In the twig and branch inoculation tests, no differences in virulence were observed among the P. alni subspecies in terms of sampling locations, but lesions differed in size according to incubation temperature, with the largest lesions occurring on tissues incubated at 25°C. The work is the first to report foliar necrosis caused by P. alni on A. glutinosa. P. alni ssp. uniformis was the least virulent of the subspecies in branch inoculations. These findings demonstrate that various tissues of A. glutinosa could act as sources of pathogen inoculum and may disseminate alder Phytophthora in natural ecosystems.
In the case of the new disease, symptoms consisted of irregular and medium to large-sized leaf spots (measuring up to 10–12 mm in diameter) with a thin yellowish margin and a large blackish halo ...(Fig. 1A), sometimes, with black necrotic spots. Infection was found to start from the tip of the mature leaves before affecting the entire leaf margin and part of the mid-ribs (Fig. 1B). For molecular identification, conserved regions, namely internal transcribed spacer 1 (ITS1), 5.8S ribosomal DNA and ITS2 were sequenced from the genome of an isolate using the universal primers SR6R (forward) and LR1 (reverse) (Meyer et al., 2019).
Summary
The ecological importance of riparian forests is well known. However, these forest habitats have been disturbed by human activities over the past century as a result of the introduction of ...flow regulations. Mortality of the riparian alder population caused by Phytophthora has become an important issue in Europe in the past two decades. The main objective of this study was to examine the pathogenicity of the Phytophthora alni complex (P. xalni, P. uniformis and P. xmultiformis) and P. plurivora in Alnus glutinosa seedlings. Phytophthora alni complex has traditionally been identified as the main causal agent of alder decline; however, in this study, P. plurivora was found to cause as much damage in inoculated seedlings as P. alni complex. In fact, Spanish isolates of P. xalni caused mortality rates of ca. 30%, whereas P. plurivora killed ca. 50% of seedlings. Likewise, there were no differences between P. xalni ‐ and P. plurivora‐inoculated seedlings in either the length of lesion or biomass allocation. The pathogenicity of the species within P. alni complex did not differ significantly. The findings confirm that P. plurivora, which is one of the most common species of Phytophthora found in European nurseries, is highly pathogenic to alder seedlings. Urgent implementation of measures to prevent the risk of spread of the pathogen from nurseries to natural ecosystems is required. Further studies are required to clarify the role that P. plurivora is playing in alder decline both individually and in combination with P. alni complex.
Dynamics and persistence of neutralizing and non-neutralizing antibodies can give us the knowledge required for serodiagnosis, disease management, and successful vaccine design and development. The ...disappearance of antibodies, absence of humoral immunity activation, and sporadic reinfection cases emphasize the importance of longitudinal antibody dynamics against variable structural antigens.
In this study, twenty-five healthy subjects working in a SARS-COV-2 serodiagnostic assay development project were enrolled, and their sign and symptoms were followed up to six months. Three subjects showed COVID-19-like symptoms, and three subjects' antibody dynamics were followed over 120 days by analyzing 516 samples. We have developed 12 different types of in-house ELISAs to observe the kinetics of IgG, IgM, and IgA against four SARS-CoV-2 proteins, namely nucleocapsid, RBD, S1, and whole spike (S1+S2). For the development of these assays, 30-104 pre-pandemic samples were taken as negative controls and 83 RT-qPCR positive samples as positive ones.
All three subjects presented COVID-19-like symptoms twice, with mild symptoms in the first episode were severe in the second, and RT-qPCR confirmed the latter. The initial episode did not culminate with any significant antibody development, while a multifold increase in IgG antibodies characterized the second episode. Interestingly, IgG antibody development concurrent with IgM and IgA and persisted, whereas the latter two weans off rather quickly if appeared.
Antibody kinetics observed in this study can provide a pathway to the successful development of sero-diagnostics and epidemiologists to predict the fate of vaccination currently in place.
Currently rice protection from insect pests solely depends on chemical pesticides which have tremendous impact on biodiversity, environment, animal and human health. To reduce their impact from our ...society we need to cut pesticide use from agricultural practices. To address this issue, we did experiment in order to identify realistic solutions that could help farmers to build sustainable crop protection system and minimum use of insecticides and thus minimizes the impact of pesticides in environment. Innovations developed jointly by farmers and researchers and evaluated for their potential to be adopted by more farmers. In this paper we tested four management practices jointly with farmers in smallholder farmer’s field in order to select best one. Four management practices were used namely, T1 = Prophylactic use of insecticide where insecticide was applied in rice field at every 15 days interval without judging the infestation level; T2 = Perching and simultaneously used sweeping and need base insecticide application; T3 = Perching only; and T4 = Farmer’s own practices. The results revealed that routine application of insecticides for crop protection is not mandatory which is commonly found at use in rice farmers. In our experiment, where prophylactic method or farmers used 3-4 times insecticides without judging the insect pests infestation level, the similar pest population was found when compared to the field where insecticide was not applied. Our management system reduced 75% insecticides use even the field was infested with insect pest. Predatory insects were higher than that of insecticide applied field. Refrain insecticide application up to 30-40 days after transplanting enhanced higher predatory population which might check the pest population in rice field. Our experimental results shows that proper manner of ecologically management system cut pesticide use without any yield penalty indicating T2 management system minimizes pest damage by increasing natural enemies and improves environment quality.
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