ALBERT

Description: Hepatic steatosis is the accumulation of fat in the hepatic cells and the liver. Triglycerides and other kinds of molecules are included in the lipids. When there is some defect in the process, hepatic steatosis arise, during which the free fatty acids are taken by the liver and exuded as lipoproteins. Alcohol is the main cause of steatosis when excessive amounts are consumed for a long period of time. In many cases, steatosis can lead to inflammation that is mentioned as steatohepatitis or non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), which can later lead to fibrosis and finally cirrhosis. For automated detection and quantification of hepatic steatosis, a novel two-stage methodology is developed in this study. Initially, the image is processed in order to become more suitable for the detection of fat regions and steatosis quantification. In the second stage, initial candidate image regions are detected, and then they are either validated or discarded based on a series of criteria. The methodology is based on liver biopsy image analysis, and has been tested using 40 liver biopsy images obtained from patients who suffer from hepatitis C. The obtained results indicate that the proposed methodology can accurately assess liver steatosis.

Description: Given incontrovertible evidence that humans are the most powerful agents of environmental change on the planet, research has begun to acknowledge and integrate human presence and activity into updated descriptions of the world’s biomes as “anthromes”. Thus far, a classification system for anthromes is limited to the terrestrial biosphere. Here, I present a case for the consideration and validity of coastal anthromes. Every coastal environment on Earth is subject to direct and indirect human modification and disturbance. Despite the legacy, ubiquity, and pervasiveness of human interactions with coastal ecosystems, coastal anthromes still lack formal definition. Following the original argument and framework for terrestrial anthromes, I outline a set of coastal anthrome classifications that dovetail with terrestrial and marine counterparts. Recognising coastal environments as complex and increasingly vulnerable anthropogenic systems is a fundamental step toward understanding their modern dynamics—and, by extension, realising opportunities for and limits to their resilience.

Description: Competing interests in land for agriculture and commodity production in tropical human-dominated landscapes make forests and biodiversity conservation particularly challenging. Establishment of protected areas in this regard is not functioning as expected due to exclusive ecological focus and poor recognition of local people’s traditional forest use and dependence. In recent years, multifunctional land-use systems such as agroforestry have widely been promoted as an efficient land-use in such circumstances, although their conservation effectiveness remains poorly investigated. We undertake a rapid biodiversity survey to understand the conservation value of four contrasting forms of local land-use, namely: betel leaf (Piper betle) agroforestry; lemon (Citrus limon) agroforestry; pineapple (Ananas comosus) agroforestry; and, shifting cultivation–fallow managed largely by the indigenous communities in and around a highly diverse forest protected area of Bangladesh. We measure the alpha and beta diversity of plants, birds, and mammals in these multifunctional land-uses, as well as in the old-growth secondary forest in the area. Our study finds local land-use critical in conserving biodiversity in the area, with comparable biodiversity benefits as those of the old-growth secondary forest. In Bangladesh, where population pressure and rural people’s dependence on forests are common, multifunctional land-uses in areas of high conservation priority could potentially be used to bridge the gap between conservation and commodity production, ensuring that the ecological integrity of such landscapes will be altered as little as possible.

Description: Information, Vol. 8, Pages 98: An Information Theory Calculator for Understanding Information and Library Science Applications Information doi: 10.3390/info8030098 Authors: Robert Losee The study of information as proposed in information theory provides a useful tool for studying many aspects of information systems, libraries, and archives. How does a calculator that computes information-theoretic functions contribute to students learning database ideas such as the relationships between various attributes, or columns in a relational database? Understanding the relationships between variables in a professional discipline can be viewed as the core of the discipline, and these information measures are very important to the study of the organization of information. A web-based information-theoretic calculator is examined that enables students to easily and completely process various information-theoretic calculations that are useful in studying database relationships. Students were questioned after using the calculator on a homework assignment. The students’ evaluations of this form of calculator were then examined, and lastly, recommendations about using information-theoretic calculators are suggested. Recommendations are made about the use of this form of calculator in a range of academic disciplines, from computer science and business, to library and information sciences. These recommendations apply to both the academy and professional practice applications in informational domains.

Description: Agronomy, Vol. 7, Pages 54: Combination of Lactic Acid-Based Deep Eutectic Solvents (DES) with β-Cyclodextrin: Performance Screening Using Ultrasound-Assisted Extraction of Polyphenols from Selected Native Greek Medicinal Plants Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy7030054 Authors: Chrysa Georgantzi Antonia-Eleni Lioliou Nikos Paterakis Dimitris Makris A series of novel l-lactic acid-based deep eutectic solvents (DES) were tested for polyphenol extraction performance, using organically grown, native Greek medicinal plants. The extractions were ultrasonically-assisted and the effect of the addition of β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) as extraction booster was also tested, at a concentration of 1.5% (w/v). The estimation of total polyphenol yield (YTP) suggested that DES composed of l-lactic acid and nicotinamide and l-lactic acid and l-alanine, both at a molar ratio of 7:1, are promising solvents giving significantly higher yields compared with 60% (v/v) aqueous ethanol and water. However, when β-CD was combined with DES comprised of l-lactic acid and ammonium acetate (molar ratio 7:1), the extraction yields obtained in some instances were equal of even higher. The pattern was not consistent when the yield in total flavonoids (YTFn) was considered, indicating water, 60% (v/v) aqueous ethanol and l-lactic acid:sodium acetate (molar ratio 7:1) to be the most efficient solvents. In this case, the effect of β-CD was of rather lower magnitude. The examination of the antioxidant activity of the extracts generated showed that there is a close correlation mainly with their concentration in total polyphenols.

Description: Information, Vol. 8, Pages 99: Special Issue on Mobile Systems, Mobile Networks, and Mobile Cloud: Security, Privacy, and Digital Forensics Information doi: 10.3390/info8030099 Authors: Lei Chen Wenjia Li Rami Haddad The use of smartphones and mobile devices has become an indispensable part of everyone’s daily life and work [...]

Description: Agronomy, Vol. 7, Pages 55: Impacts of Fertilization Type on Soil Microbial Biomass and Nutrient Availability in Two Agroecological Zones of Ghana Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy7030055 Authors: Richard Omari Elsie Sarkodee-Addo Yoshiharu Fujii Yosei Oikawa Sonoko Bellingrath-Kimura The decline in soil productivity amidst efforts to increase crop yield in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) has made it imperative to assess the current fertilization management approaches. This study was conducted in two agroecological zones (i.e., Guinea Savannah (GS) and Deciduous forest (DF)) of Ghana to evaluate how different fertilization schemes in the long term (>5 years) impacted the soil biochemical properties. Soil samples under four fertilization schemes (inorganic fertilizer only, low-to-medium organic residues only, inorganic fertilizers plus low-to-medium organic residues, and no fertilization) from 20 farmers’ field were sampled from March to April 2015. Soil biochemical quality indicators were determined using standard procedures. Overall, the average chemical and microbial biomass contents for most indicators were significantly higher in DF compared to GS. Relative to the reference sites, soil quality improvement were observed under inorganic fertilization in both agroecologies in contrast to significant soil deterioration (26.5%) under sole organic residue application in GS. Furthermore, the results showed that increased inorganic fertilization rate alone or combination with organic residues improved soil quality relative to the reference. The present results suggest the need to raise the current fertilizer application rates, especially in GS in order to enhance optimum soil productivity.

Description: Land, Vol. 6, Pages 57: Understanding Pollinator Habitat Conservation under Current Policy Using Economic Experiments Land doi: 10.3390/land6030057 Authors: Chian Jones Ritten Christopher Bastian Jason Shogren Thadchaigeni Panchalingam Mariah Ehmke Gregory Parkhurst Pollinators provide critical ecosystems services vital to the production of numerous crops in the United States’ agricultural sector. However, the U.S. is witnessing a serious decline in the abundance and diversity of domestic and wild pollinators, which threatens U.S. food security. In response, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has created the Pollinator Habitat Initiative (CP-42) to induce landowners to create quality habitat for pollinators by planting beneficial crops and wildflowers on Conservation Reserve Program (CRP)-eligible land. Landowners’ potential conservation decisions under CP-42 and the resulting impact on land use decisions regarding crop production are not well-understood. We examine these issues by designing an economic experiment that simulates landowners’ decisions to enroll in CP-42. As our motivating example, we focus on how CP-42 might affect crop production patterns and the resulting returns in Goshen County, Wyoming. The results indicate that about 16% of CRP-eligible land would be enrolled. Based on the relatively low CP-42 payment, our subjects remove only lower value crops from production. Our results suggest that (1) all dry wheat and sunflower production and a portion of barley, corn, and dry beans could be taken out of production when transferred to pollinator habitat, and (2) that habitat fragmentation would likely occur, which would reduce the efficacy of pollination. Overall, our results suggest that there are significant limits to the overall effectiveness of the CP-42 policy.

Description: Information, Vol. 8, Pages 103: A Novel STDM Watermarking Using Visual Saliency-Based JND Model Information doi: 10.3390/info8030103 Authors: Chunxing Wang Teng Zhang Wenbo Wan Xiaoyue Han Meiling Xu The just noticeable distortion (JND) model plays an important role in measuring the visual visibility for spread transform dither modulation (STDM) watermarking. However, the existing JND model characterizes the suprathreshold distortions with an equal saliency level. Visual saliency (VS) has been widely studied by psychologists and computer scientists during the last decade, where the distortions are more likely to be noticeable to any viewer. With this consideration, we proposed a novel STDM watermarking method for a monochrome image by exploiting a visual saliency-based JND model. In our proposed JND model, a simple VS model is employed as a feature to reflect the importance of a local region and compute the final JND map. Extensive experiments performed on the classic image databases demonstrate that the proposed watermarking scheme works better in terms of the robustness than other related methods.

Description: Agronomy, Vol. 7, Pages 57: Responses of Fourteen Vietnamese Rice (Oryza sativa L.) Cultivars to High Temperatures during Grain Filling Period under Field Conditions Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy7030057 Authors: Tran Thuy Kuniyiki Saitoh High temperatures significantly affect rice grain yield and quality. However, little information is known about the response of indica cultivars, especially Vietnamese cultivars, to high temperature. In this study, field experiments were conducted in 2015 and 2016 to evaluate the response of Vietnamese cultivars under high temperatures during the grain filling period. The high temperature was applied after the first cultivar started anthesis, by opening two sides of a plastic chamber that housed the cultivar when the temperature reached above 36 °C under field conditions. The difference in the maximum temperature between the control and the high temperature treatment was about 1.3 °C to 10.1 °C in 2015, and 0.73 °C to 10.2 °C in 2016. Decreases in crop growth rate (CGR) and yield were correlated with increased temperature conditions during the grain filling period. The grain yield of 14 Vietnamese cultivars fell to 81.5 and 79.4% of the control in 2015 and 2016, respectively. The variable with the greatest impact on grain yield was spikelet sterility induced by high temperature. Under high temperature conditions during the grain filling period, the percentage of grain chalkiness in the high temperature-treatment group increased compared to the control. Our study showed that Vietnamese rice yield and quality were significantly affected by high temperature.

Description: Information, Vol. 8, Pages 104: Edge Detection Method Based on General Type-2 Fuzzy Logic Applied to Color Images Information doi: 10.3390/info8030104 Authors: Claudia Gonzalez Patricia Melin Oscar Castillo This paper presents a new general type-2 fuzzy logic method for edge detection applied to color format images. The proposed algorithm combines the methodology based on the image gradients and general type-2 fuzzy logic theory to provide a powerful edge detection method. General type-2 fuzzy inference systems are approximated using the α-planes approach. The edge detection method is tested on a database of color images with the idea of illustrating the advantage of applying the fuzzy edge detection approach on color images against grayscale format images, and also when the images are corrupted by noise. This paper compares the proposed method based on general type-2 fuzzy logic with other edge detection algorithms, such as ones based on type-1 and interval type-2 fuzzy systems. Simulation results show that edge detection based on a general type-2 fuzzy system outperforms the other methods because of its ability to handle the intrinsic uncertainty in this problem.

Description: Land, Vol. 6, Pages 60: Investigating Semi-Automated Cadastral Boundaries Extraction from Airborne Laser Scanned Data Land doi: 10.3390/land6030060 Authors: Xianghuan Luo Rohan Mark Bennett Mila Koeva Christiann Lemmen Many developing countries have witnessed the urgent need of accelerating cadastral surveying processes. Previous studies found that large portions of cadastral boundaries coincide with visible physical objects, namely roads, fences, and building walls. This research explores the application of airborne laser scanning (ALS) techniques on cadastral surveys. A semi-automated workflow is developed to extract cadastral boundaries from an ALS point clouds. Firstly, a two-phased workflow was developed that focused on extracting digital representations of physical objects. In the automated extraction phase, after classifying points into semantic components, the outline of planar objects such as building roofs and road surfaces were generated by an α-shape algorithm, whilst the centerlines delineatiation approach was fitted into the lineate object—a fence. Afterwards, the extracted vector lines were edited and refined during the post-refinement phase. Secondly, we quantitatively evaluated the workflow performance by comparing results against an exiting cadastral map as reference. It was found that the workflow achieved promising results: around 80% completeness and 60% correctness on average, although the spatial accuracy is still modest. It is argued that the semi-automated extraction workflow could effectively speed up cadastral surveying, with both human resources and equipment costs being reduced

Description: Information, Vol. 8, Pages 78: A Generalized Triangular Intuitionistic Fuzzy Geometric Averaging Operator for Decision-Making in Engineering and Management Information doi: 10.3390/info8030078 Authors: Daniel Aikhuele Sarah Odofin Triangular intuitionistic fuzzy number (TIFN) is a more generalized platform for expressing imprecise, incomplete, and inconsistent information when solving multi-criteria decision-making problems, as well as for expressing and reflecting the evaluation information in several dimensions. In this paper, the TIFN has been applied for solving multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) problems, first, by defining some existing triangular intuitionistic fuzzy geometric aggregation operators, and then developing a new triangular intuitionistic fuzzy geometric aggregation operator, which is the generalized triangular intuitionistic fuzzy ordered weighted geometric averaging (GTIFOWGA) operator. Based on these operators, a new approach for solving multicriteria decision-making problems when the weight information is fixed is proposed. Finally, a numerical example is provided to show the applicability and rationality of the presented method, followed by a comparative analysis using similar existing computational approaches.

Description: Agriculture, Vol. 7, Pages 71: Innovative Solution for Reducing the Run-Down Time of the Chipper Disc Using a Brake Clamp Device Agriculture doi: 10.3390/agriculture7080071 Authors: Andrea Colantoni Francesco Mazzocchi Vincenzo Laurendi Stefano Grigolato Francesca Monarca Danilo Monarca Massimo Cecchini Wood-chippers are widely used machines in the forestry, urban and agricultural sectors. The use of these machines implies various risks for workers, primarily the risk of contact with moving and cutting parts. These machine parts have a high moment of inertia that can lead to entrainment with the cutting components. This risk is particularly high in the case of manually fed chippers. Following cases of injury with wood-chippers and the improvement of the technical standard (ComitéEuropéen de Normalisation-European Norm) EN 13525: 2005 + A2: 2009, this technical note presents the prototype of an innovative system to reduce risks related to the involved moving parts, based on the “brake caliper” system and electromagnetic clutch for the declutching of the power take-off (PTO). The prototype has demonstrated its potential for reducing the run-down time of the chipper disc (95%) and for reducing the worker’s risk of entanglement and entrainment in the machine’s feed mouth.

Description: Land, Vol. 6, Pages 53: The Sino-Brazilian Telecoupled Soybean System and Cascading Effects for the Exporting Country Land doi: 10.3390/land6030053 Authors: Ramon da Silva Mateus Batistella Yue Dou Emilio Moran Sara Torres Jianguo Liu The global food market makes international players intrinsically connected through the flow of commodities, demand, production, and consumption. Local decisions, such as new economic policies or dietary shifts, can foster changes in coupled human–natural systems across long distances. Understanding the causes and effects of these changes is essential for agricultural-export countries, such as Brazil. Since 2000, Brazil has led the expansion of soybean planted area—19 million hectares, or 47.5% of the world’s increase. Soybean is among the major crop commodities traded globally. We use the telecoupling framework to analyze (i) the international trade dynamics between Brazil and China as the cause of the increased production of Brazilian soybean since 2000; (ii) and the cascading effects of the Sino-Brazilian telecoupled soybean system for Brazilian maize production and exports, with attention to consequences on domestic prices, availability, and risks associated with climatic extreme events. Census-based data at state and county levels, policy analysis, and interviews with producers and stakeholders guided our methodological approach. We identified that the Brazilian soybean production decreased maize single crop production and accelerated maize as a second crop following soybean, a practice that makes farmers more vulnerable to precipitation anomalies (e.g., rainfall shortage). In addition, the two-crop system of soybean/maize pressures the Brazilian maize market when unexpected events such as extreme droughts strike and when this results in a failed maize harvest in the second crop, most of which is for domestic consumption rather than export. Our study suggests the need to incorporate the telecoupling framework in land use decision-making and understanding landscape changes.

Description: Information, Vol. 8, Pages 106: An Extended VIKOR-Based Approach for Pumped Hydro Energy Storage Plant Site Selection with Heterogeneous Information Information doi: 10.3390/info8030106 Authors: Yunna Wu Lingyun Liu Jianwei Gao Han Chu Chuanbo Xu The selection of a desirable site for constructing a pumped hydro energy storage plant (PHESP) plays a vital important role in the whole life cycle. However, little research has been done on the site selection of PHESP, which affects the rapid development of PHESP. Therefore, this paper aims to select the most ideal PHESP site from numerous candidate alternatives using the multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) technique. Firstly, a comprehensive evaluation criteria system is established for the first time. Then, considering quantitative and qualitative criteria coexist in this system, multiple types of representations, including crisp numerical values (CNVs), triangular intuitionistic fuzzy numbers (TIFNs), and 2-dimension uncertain linguistic variables (2DULVs), are employed to deal with heterogeneous criteria information. To determine the weight of criteria and fully take the preference of the decision makers (DMs) into account, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method is applied for criteria weighting. After that, an extended Vlsekriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR) method is utilized to provide compromise solutions for the PHESP site considering such heterogeneous information. At last, the proposed model is then applied in a case study of Zhejiang province, China to illustrate its practicality and efficiency. The result shows the Changlongshan should be selected as the optimal PHESP.

Description: Information, Vol. 8, Pages 105: Arabic Handwritten Alphanumeric Character Recognition Using Very Deep Neural Network Information doi: 10.3390/info8030105 Authors: MohammedAli Mudhsh Rolla Almodfer The traditional algorithms for recognizing handwritten alphanumeric characters are dependent on hand-designed features. In recent days, deep learning techniques have brought about new breakthrough technology for pattern recognition applications, especially for handwritten recognition. However, deeper networks are needed to deliver state-of-the-art results in this area. In this paper, inspired by the success of the very deep state-of-the-art VGGNet, we propose Alphanumeric VGG net for Arabic handwritten alphanumeric character recognition. Alphanumeric VGG net is constructed by thirteen convolutional layers, two max-pooling layers, and three fully-connected layers. The proposed model is fast and reliable, which improves the classification performance. Besides, this model has also reduced the overall complexity of VGGNet. We evaluated our approach on two benchmarking databases. We have achieved very promising results, with a validation accuracy of 99.66% for the ADBase database and 97.32% for the HACDB database.

Description: Information, Vol. 8, Pages 108: Collecting Sensed Data with Opportunistic Networks: The Case of Contact Information Overhead Information doi: 10.3390/info8030108 Authors: Tekenate Amah Maznah Kamat Kamalrulnizam Bakar Syed Rahman Muhammad Mohammed Aliyu Abali Waldir Moreira Antonio Oliveira The rising human population in urban environments drives the mission towards smart cities, which envisions a wide deployment of sensors in order to improve the quality of living. In this regard, opportunistic networks (OppNets) present an economical means of collecting delay tolerant data from sensors to their respective gateways for providing various Smart City services. Due to the distributed nature of the network, encounter-based routing protocols achieve acceptable throughput by requiring nodes to exchange and update contact information on an encounter basis. Unfortunately, sufficient insight into the associated overhead is lacking in the literature. Hence, we contribute by modelling contact information overhead and investigating its impact on OppNet routing, particularly in terms of data exchange success and energy consumption on portable handheld devices. Our findings reveal that the expected contact information overhead in Smart City scenarios significantly reduces data exchange success and increases energy consumption on portable handheld devices, thereby threatening the feasibility of the technology. We address this issue by proposing an algorithm that can be incorporated into encounter-based routing protocols to reduce contact information overhead without compromising throughput. Simulation results show that our proposed algorithm reduces the average contact information overhead, increases throughput and reduces average energy consumption.

Description: Agriculture, Vol. 7, Pages 73: Optimal Cultivation Pattern to Increase Revenue and Reduce Water Use: Application of Linear Programming to Arjan Plain in Fars Province Agriculture doi: 10.3390/agriculture7090073 Authors: Amin Daghighi Ali Nahvi Ungtae Kim Because the available water resources of the Arjan plain region in Iran do not fully meet the watering requirements for plants in farmlands, the crops suffer from water stress, a situation that causes them to wilt. The aim of this study is to develop a water resources planning model that helps decision-makers determine an appropriate cultivation pattern, optimize the exploitation from surface water resources, and specify the method of allocating water across different farm crops to minimize the detrimental effects of water shortage. Through investigating various models of water resources planning and properties along with the governing conditions for each of these models, the linear programming model was selected as a suitable option due to its simplicity and practical applicability to water resource allocation planning. The model was run for a five-year period by considering gradual variations through the determination of the most appropriate exploitation pattern from the available water resources (surface and groundwater). Results reveal that the negative water balance can be improved gradually as positive, where it will reach +20 million m3 per year in 2040 from the current deficit of 236 million m3 with an 8% increased net profit.

Description: Agronomy, Vol. 7, Pages 59: Farming in Northern Ontario: Untapped Potential for the Future Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy7030059 Authors: Tejendra Chapagain Farming in Northern Ontario is limited to less than 1% of the total land area available. With over 2000 farms, this is home to about 6% of the province’s population, concentrated in the five major southern border cities of Thunder Bay, Sault Ste. Marie, Timmins, Sudbury and North Bay, with a significant presence of indigenous (i.e., First Nations) and disadvantaged peoples. This review highlights the challenges and opportunities of agriculture in Northern Ontario and offers a few strategies for establishing and sustaining agricultural operations locally. The challenges of farming in this region include the prevalence of adverse climatic conditions, lack of crop/economic diversification, insufficient infrastructure and support services, presence of small local markets, an aging population and youth out-migration, attitudes of dependency on government and limited investment potential. Nevertheless, this region offers much potential for farming as it contains significant amounts of fertile soils, good road networks and affordable land to start up farm businesses. Furthermore, the changing climate could be a boon to improve growing conditions, with expanded cropping options and increased yields in recent years. Production and consumption of local foods, conducting innovative on-farm research that addresses the needs of local producers including First Nations peoples, fostering regional research centres, building relationships through networking, exchange of ideas through effective use of different extension avenues, and collaboration and assisting local producers with market development may help establish a more competitive and sustainable agrifood sector in Northern Ontario. Favourable government policies to support growers who have experienced damage to their crops, forages and livestock due to adverse climatic conditions will further help sustain and expand their agricultural operations.

Description: Agronomy, Vol. 7, Pages 60: Glyphosate Efficacy of Different Salt Formulations and Adjuvant Additives on Various Weeds Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy7030060 Authors: Ilias Travlos Nikolina Cheimona Dimitrios Bilalis In many crops, weeds are managed by herbicides, mainly due to the decrease in crop yields and farmers’ incomes caused by them. In general, chemical control of weeds is considered to be an easy, relatively cheap, and highly effective method. However, not all weeds can be successfully controlled, either because of their natural tolerance or their herbicide resistance. Glyphosate is one of the most widely used herbicides in the world. It can manage effectively a broad spectrum of weeds, and promotes conservation agriculture by significantly reducing conventional plough tillage. Unfortunately, its extensive use has led to the evolution of glyphosate resistance, which has evolved into a major problem for global crop production. Alternative herbicides are, in some cases, available, but they do not usually control certain weeds as efficiently as glyphosate. The transmission of herbicides to the target site is a complex process, and consists of several stages. Each herbicide is affected and can be manipulated by the product formulation for the optimization of its use. Many experiments have confirmed that different glyphosate salts and adjuvant additives are instrumental in the optimization of herbicide absorption and delivery processes. The objective of this paper is to provide a brief overview of these experiments and summarize the literature related to the effect of various glyphosate formulations and adjuvants on weed control. Determining the differences among formulations and adjuvants may lead to the further optimized long-term use of glyphosate.

Description: Agriculture, Vol. 7, Pages 74: Low-Input Maize-Based Cropping Systems Implementing IWM Match Conventional Maize Monoculture Productivity and Weed Control Agriculture doi: 10.3390/agriculture7090074 Authors: Guillaume Adeux Simon Giuliano Stéphane Cordeau Jean-Marie Savoie Lionel Alletto Conventional Maize Monoculture (MM), a dominant Cropping System in South-Western France, is now questioned for environmental reasons (nitrate leaching, pesticide use and excessive irrigation). Three low-input Cropping Systems (CS) using diverse weeding strategies (MMLI, a Low-Input MM implementing ploughing, a combination of on-row spraying and in-between row cultivation and cover crops; MMCT, Conservation Tillage MM implementing chemical control and cover crops; Maize-MSW, maize managed similar to MMLI but rotated with soybean & wheat) were compared to a reference system (MMConv, a conventional MM with tillage and a high quantity of inputs). Potential of Infestation of weeds (PI), weed biomass and crop production of these CS were compared during the first five years after their establishment. Yields were also assessed in weed-free zones hand-weeded weekly in 2014 and 2015. Weed communities did not drastically differ among CS. PI and weed biomass were higher in MMCT, especially for Echinochloa crus-galli (L.) P.Beauv. and were comparable between MMConv, MMLI and Maize-MSW. Analysis of covariance between CS and weed biomass did not reveal a significant interaction, suggesting that weed biomass affected yield similarly among the CS. Comparison between weedy and weed-free zones suggested that weeds present at maize maturity negatively affected yields to the same extent for all four CS, despite having different weed biomasses. Grain yields in MMConv (11.3 ± 1.1 t ha−1) and MMLI (10.6 ± 2.3 t ha−1) were similar and higher than in MMCT (8.2 ± 1.9 t ha−1. Similar yields, weed biomasses and PI suggest that MMLI and Maize-MSW are interesting alternatives to conventional MM in terms of weed control and maize productivity and should be transferred to farmers to test their feasibility under wider, farm-scale conditions.

Description: Agriculture, Vol. 7, Pages 76: An Eco-Egalitarian Solution to the Capitalist Consumer Paradox: Integrating Short Food Chains and Public Market Systems Agriculture doi: 10.3390/agriculture7090076 Authors: Mario Leglise Andrew Smolski Presently, alternative agri-food networks are in a renaissance, utilizing an economy of proximity to compete against transnational agri-business and food distributors. While this is positive ecologically and socioeconomically, the overreliance on market mechanisms in short food chains has led to class distinctions in food distribution and consumption. The result has been a capitalist consumer paradox exacerbating inequality in the alternative agri-food networks. To resolve this inequality, we focused on how public policy can leverage state investment in public markets to reduce or overcome the capitalist consumer paradox in short food chains. To clarify our argument, we began by examining the benefits of short food chains in the urban food system. Then, we explained how type of consumption and policy regime effect food access. After this, we utilized Mexico City and New York City’s public market systems as representative of an alternative policy regime and the effects of moving away from state-oriented development. We concluded by describing possible conflicts and complements to the integration of public markets into short urban food chains.

Description: Information, Vol. 8, Pages 97: Review of Recent Type-2 Fuzzy Image Processing Applications Information doi: 10.3390/info8030097 Authors: Oscar Castillo Mauricio Sanchez Claudia Gonzalez Gabriela Martinez This paper presents a literature review of applications using type-2 fuzzy systems in the area of image processing. Over the last years, there has been a significant increase in research on higher-order forms of fuzzy logic; in particular, the use of interval type-2 fuzzy sets and general type-2 fuzzy sets. The idea of making use of higher orders, or types, of fuzzy logic is to capture and represent uncertainty that is more complex. This paper is focused on image processing systems, which includes image segmentation, image filtering, image classification and edge detection. Various applications are presented where general type-2 fuzzy sets, interval type-2 fuzzy sets, and interval-value fuzzy sets are used; some are compared with the traditional type-1 fuzzy sets and others methodologies that exist in the literature for these areas in image processing. In all accounts, it is shown that type-2 fuzzy sets outperform both traditional image processing techniques as well as techniques using type-1 fuzzy sets, and provide the ability to handle uncertainty when the image is corrupted by noise.

Description: Land, Vol. 6, Pages 52: Comparing Quantity, Allocation and Configuration Accuracy of Multiple Land Change Models Land doi: 10.3390/land6030052 Authors: Brian Pickard Joshua Gray Ross Meentemeyer The growing numbers of land change models makes it difficult to select a model at the beginning of an analysis, and is often arbitrary and at the researcher’s discretion. How to select a model at the beginning of an analysis, when multiple are suitable, represents a critical research gap currently understudied, where trade-offs of choosing one model over another are often unknown. Repeatable methods are needed to conduct cross-model comparisons to understand the trade-offs among models when the same calibration and validation data are used. Several methods to assess accuracy have been proposed that emphasize quantity and allocation, while overlooking the accuracy with which a model simulates the spatial configuration (e.g., size and shape) of map categories across landscapes. We compared the quantity, allocation, and configuration accuracy of four inductive pattern-based spatial allocation land change models (SLEUTH, GEOMOD, Land Change Modeler (LCM), and FUTURES). We simulated urban development with each model using identical input data from ten counties surrounding the growing region of Charlotte, North Carolina. Maintaining the same input data, such as land cover, drivers of change, and projected quantity of change, reduces differences in model inputs and allows for focus on trade-offs in different types of model accuracy. Results suggest that these four land change models produce representations of urban development with substantial variance, where some models may better simulate quantity and allocation at the trade-off of configuration accuracy, and vice versa. Trade-offs in accuracy exist with respect to the amount, spatial allocation, and landscape configuration of each model. This comparison exercise illustrates the range of accuracies for these models, and demonstrates the need to consider all three types of accuracy when assessing land change model’s projections.

Description: Information, Vol. 8, Pages 100: Physical Layer Security and Optimal Multi-Time-Slot Power Allocation of SWIPT System Powered by Hybrid Energy Information doi: 10.3390/info8030100 Authors: Dandan Guo Baogang Li Wei Zhao In this paper, a new approach is proposed to solve the constrained optimization problem of saving grid energy and increasing safety in a simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) system. The traditional grid energy is combined with the renewable energy to form a hybrid energy, which provides power for the system to achieve green wireless transmission. The transfer process of SWIPT system is divided into multiple time slots. The renewable energy is harvested and stored in battery at each time slot. A multi-time-slot artificial noise-assisted transmission strategy is proposed to reduce the signal to noise ratio (SNR) of eavesdropping link. A power allocation algorithm based on multi-time-slot golden section is given, which performs one-dimensional search on the power ratio of artificial noise to determine the transmit power of source node. And then the allocation algorithm is utilized to dynamically configure the harvested renewable energy for each time slot. When the battery capacity is constant, the maximum renewable energy is being used to reduce the grid power consumption. Finally, the performances of proposed schemes are evaluated by simulations in terms of various tradeoffs.

Description: Land, Vol. 6, Pages 54: The Dynamics of Urban Land Rent in Italian Regional Capital Cities Land doi: 10.3390/land6030054 Authors: Benedetto Manganelli Beniamino Murgante This research tries to interpret the results of the empirical analysis of urban land value variations from 1977 to 2012 in the regional Italian capital cities based on the well-known theory of urban land rent. The historical series to be analyzed were obtained as the difference between the market value of a property and its cost of production. The paper shows, in quantitative terms, how differential and absolute rents will be translated into the dynamics of land values in relation to local specificities. The analysis of urban land rent evolution and the comparative study of the phenomenon compared to urban geography highlighted the difference among the various urban systems investigated and the criticalities generated by processes of transformation that have affected some Italian urban contexts. The difference is essentially explained by the different weight of macroeconomic variables, related to national and international contexts, and microeconomic variables, closely related to local demand and supply, in the process of rent formation.

Description: Land, Vol. 6, Pages 56: Integrating Modelling Approaches for Understanding Telecoupling: Global Food Trade and Local Land Use Land doi: 10.3390/land6030056 Authors: James Millington Hang Xiong Steve Peterson Jeremy Woods The telecoupling framework is an integrated concept that emphasises socioeconomic and environmental interactions between distant places. Viewed through the lens of the telecoupling framework, land use and food consumption are linked across local to global scales by decision-making agents and trade flows. Quantitatively modelling the dynamics of telecoupled systems like this could be achieved using numerous different modelling approaches. For example, previous approaches to modelling global food trade have often used partial equilibrium economic models, whereas recent approaches to representing local land use decision-making have widely used agent-based modelling. System dynamics models are well established for representing aggregated flows and stores of products and values between distant locations. We argue that hybrid computational models will be useful for capitalising on the strengths these different modelling approaches each have for representing the various concepts in the telecoupling framework. However, integrating multiple modelling approaches into hybrid models faces challenges, including data requirements and uncertainty assessment. To help guide the development of hybrid models for investigating sustainability through the telecoupling framework here we examine important representational and modelling considerations in the context of global food trade and local land use. We report on the development of our own model that incorporates multiple modelling approaches in a modular approach to negotiate the trade-offs between ideal representation and modelling resource constraints. In this initial modelling our focus is on land use and food trade in and between USA, China and Brazil, but also accounting for the rest of the world. We discuss the challenges of integrating multiple modelling approaches to enable analysis of agents, flows, and feedbacks in the telecoupled system. Our analysis indicates differences in representation of agency are possible and should be expected in integrated models. Questions about telecoupling dynamics should be the primary driver in selecting modelling approaches, tempered by resource availability. There is also a need to identify appropriate modelling assessment and analysis tools and learn from their application in other domains.

Description: Land, Vol. 6, Pages 55: Central Asian ‘Characteristics’ on China’s New Silk Road: The Role of Landscape and the Politics of Infrastructure Land doi: 10.3390/land6030055 Authors: Troy Sternberg Ariell Ahearn Fiona McConnell China’s $1 trillion One Belt, One Road (OBOR) infrastructure project has significant landscape, socio-economic, and political implications in recipient countries. To date, investigation has focused on Chinese motivation and plans rather than OBOR impact in host nations. This paper examines the programme from the perspective of two Central Asian states—Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan—that are at the heart of OBOR. We identify geographical factors that constrain infrastructure, recognise geopolitical contestation between Russia and China, address historical and cultural factors, and consider issues of institutional capacity and marginality that may be impediments to China’s initiative. The discussion then focuses on how OBOR may play out in Central Asian landscapes and suggests how to conceive and address the unprecedented transformation in the region’s built environment. Critical issues are that OBOR has not been grounded in the physical geography, practical understanding of OBOR’s impacts is missing, and the state-citizen-China nexus remains unexplored. As pivot nations, OBOR implementation in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan will showcase the Chinese programme’s strengths and highlight its weaknesses.

Description: Agronomy, Vol. 7, Pages 56: Understanding Starch Structure: Recent Progress Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy7030056 Authors: Eric Bertoft Starch is a major food supply for humanity. It is produced in seeds, rhizomes, roots and tubers in the form of semi-crystalline granules with unique properties for each plant. Though the size and morphology of the granules is specific for each plant species, their internal structures have remarkably similar architecture, consisting of growth rings, blocklets, and crystalline and amorphous lamellae. The basic components of starch granules are two polyglucans, namely amylose and amylopectin. The molecular structure of amylose is comparatively simple as it consists of glucose residues connected through α-(1,4)-linkages to long chains with a few α-(1,6)-branches. Amylopectin, which is the major component, has the same basic structure, but it has considerably shorter chains and a lot of α-(1,6)-branches. This results in a very complex, three-dimensional structure, the nature of which remains uncertain. Several models of the amylopectin structure have been suggested through the years, and in this review two models are described, namely the “cluster model” and the “building block backbone model”. The structure of the starch granules is discussed in light of both models.

Description: Information, Vol. 8, Pages 101: An Adaptive Traffic Signal Control in a Connected Vehicle Environment: A Systematic Review Information doi: 10.3390/info8030101 Authors: Peng Jing Hao Huang Long Chen In the last few years, traffic congestion has become a growing concern due to increasing vehicle ownerships in urban areas. Intersections are one of the major bottlenecks that contribute to urban traffic congestion. Traditional traffic signal control systems cannot adjust the timing pattern depending on road traffic demand. This results in excessive delays for road users. Adaptive traffic signal control in a connected vehicle environment has shown a powerful ability to effectively alleviate urban traffic congestions to achieve desirable objectives (e.g., delay minimization). Connected vehicle technology, as an emerging technology, is a mobile data platform that enables the real-time data exchange among vehicles and between vehicles and infrastructure. Although several reviews about traffic signal control or connected vehicles have been written, a systemic review of adaptive traffic signal control in a connected vehicle environment has not been made. Twenty-six eligible studies searched from six databases constitute the review. A quality evaluation was established based on previous research instruments and applied to the current review. The purpose of this paper is to critically review the existing methods of adaptive traffic signal control in a connected vehicle environment and to compare the advantages or disadvantages of those methods. Further, a systematic framework on connected vehicle based adaptive traffic signal control is summarized to support the future research. Future research is needed to develop more efficient and generic adaptive traffic signal control methods in a connected vehicle environment.

Description: Agronomy, Vol. 7, Pages 58: Volatile Semiochemical Mediated Plant Defense in Cereals: A Novel Strategy for Crop Protection Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy7030058 Authors: Amanuel Tamiru Zeyaur Khan Plants have evolved highly intriguing ways of defending themselves against insect attacks, including through emission of defense volatiles. These volatiles serve the plant’s defense by directly repelling phytophagous insects and/or indirectly through attracting natural enemies antagonistic to the herbivores. Several laboratory studies established the potential of improving plant resistance against insect attacks by manipulating the plant-derived volatile semiochemicals emissions. Yet, more efforts need to be conducted to translate the promising laboratory studies to fight economically-important crop pests under real field conditions. This is needed to address an increasing demand for alternative pest control options driven by ecological and environmental costs associated with the use of broad-spectrum insecticides. The practical examples discussed in this review paper demonstrate the real prospect of exploiting an inducible and constitutive plant volatile semiochemicals for developing novel and ecologically-sustainable pest management strategies to protect cereal crops from damaging insect pests.

Description: Information, Vol. 8, Pages 109: Frequent Releases in Open Source Software: A Systematic Review Information doi: 10.3390/info8030109 Authors: Antonio Cesar Brandão Gomes da Silva Glauco de Figueiredo Carneiro Fernando Brito e Abreu Miguel Pessoa Monteiro Context: The need to accelerate software delivery, supporting faster time-to-market and frequent community developer/user feedback are issues that have led to relevant changes in software development practices. One example is the adoption of Rapid Release (RR) by several Open Source Software projects (OSS). This raises the need to know how these projects deal with software release approaches. Goal: Identify the main characteristics of software release initiatives in OSS projects, the motivations behind their adoption, strategies applied, as well as advantages and difficulties found. Method: We conducted a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) to reach the stated goal. Results: The SLR includes 33 publications from January 2006 to July 2016 and reveals nine advantages that characterize software release approaches in OSS projects; four challenge issues; three possibilities of implementation and two main motivations towards the adoption of RR; and finally four main strategies to implement it. Conclusion: This study provides an up-to-date and structured understanding of the software release approaches in the context of OSS projects based on findings systematically collected from a list of relevant references in the last decade.

Description: Information, Vol. 8, Pages 110: Linguistic Neutrosophic Cubic Numbers and Their Multiple Attribute Decision-Making Method Information doi: 10.3390/info8030110 Authors: Jun Ye To describe both certain linguistic neutrosophic information and uncertain linguistic neutrosophic information simultaneously in the real world, this paper originally proposes the concept of a linguistic neutrosophic cubic number (LNCN), including an internal LNCN and external LNCN. In LNCN, its uncertain linguistic neutrosophic number consists of the truth, indeterminacy, and falsity uncertain linguistic variables, and its linguistic neutrosophic number consists of the truth, indeterminacy, and falsity linguistic variables to express their hybrid information. Then, we present the operational laws of LNCNs and the score, accuracy, and certain functions of LNCN for comparing/ranking LNCNs. Next, we propose a LNCN weighted arithmetic averaging (LNCNWAA) operator and a LNCN weighted geometric averaging (LNCNWGA) operator to aggregate linguistic neutrosophic cubic information and discuss their properties. Further, a multiple attribute decision-making method based on the LNCNWAA or LNCNWGA operator is developed under a linguistic neutrosophic cubic environment. Finally, an illustrative example is provided to indicate the application of the developed method.

Description: Information, Vol. 8, Pages 111: Cooperative Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access with Energy Harvesting Information doi: 10.3390/info8030111 Authors: Weidong Guo Yunfeng Wang In this paper, we analyze the outage probability of an amplify-and-forward (AF) cooperative non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) model in multi-relay multiuser networks. In contrast to conventional cooperative networks, relays in the considered network have no embedded energy supply; they need to rely on the energy harvested from the signals broadcasted by the source for their cooperative NOMA transmission. Based on this structure, a new relay selection scheme is proposed, considering both channel state information (CSI) and battery status of relays. Assuming each relay has infinite or finite energy storage for accumulating energy, we use the infinite or finite Markov chain to capture the evolution of relay batteries and certain simplified assumptions to reduce computational complexity of the Markov chain analysis. The approximate closed-form expressions for the outage probability of the proposed scheme are derived therefrom. All theoretical results are validated by numerical simulations. The impacts of the system parameters, such as relay number, energy harvesting threshold and battery size, on the performance are extensively investigated.

Description: Information, Vol. 8, Pages 112: Volume Shocks around Announcements in the Chinese Stock Market: An Ex-Post Earnings-Information-Based Study of Speculative Behavior Information doi: 10.3390/info8030112 Authors: Xiangdong Chen Fei Wang Wei Wang Valerie Hunstock The Second Board Market is typical stock market for high tech companies in China. This paper discusses the relationship between trading volume and price changes in the case of high-tech listed companies in the Chinese Second-Board Stock Market. By using the basic concepts proposed by Kim and Verrecchia, and Kandel and Pearson, and contrasting them with ex-post information from earnings releases, the paper provides findings on the speculative behavior of informed traders with a volume shock premium. The paper suggests that these methods may be further applied to investigating investors’ behavior in speculation, especially for the high-tech-company-based Second-Board Stock Market during announcement periods.

Description: Agriculture, Vol. 7, Pages 78: Fluorescence and Reflectance Sensor Comparison in Winter Wheat Agriculture doi: 10.3390/agriculture7090078 Authors: Christoph Zecha Johanna Link Wilhelm Claupein Nitrogen (N) is the most important macronutrient in plant production. For N application, legislation requirements have raised, and the purchasing costs have increased. Modern sensors can help farmers to save costs, to apply the right quantity, and to reduce their impact on the environment. Two spectrometers and one fluorescence sensor have been used on a vehicle sensor platform for N detection in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) field trials over three years. The research fields were divided into plots, and the N input ranged from 60 to 180 kg N ha−1 in six levels. The OSAVI (optimized soil-adjusted vegetation index) showed a similar value pattern to the NDVI (normalized difference vegetation index) and the CropSpec index for the investigated factors. The red-edge inflection point (REIP) index showed high correlations to N (indicated by r2 between 0.6 and 0.8), especially in June and July. The developed models from the fluorescence indices FERARI, NBIR, FLAV, and the spectrometer indices CropSpec and HVI show high correlations (r2 = 0.5–0.8) to yield and may be used for future yield predictions. The Multiplex Research™ fluorescence sensor (Force-A, Orsay, France) was the most convenient sensor with a simple measurement method and a non-proprietary file output. The implementation into existing agricultural vehicle networks is still necessary, being able to use it on a farm for online N recommendations.

Description: Globally, it is estimated that 20 million hectares of arable land are irrigated with water that contains residual contributions from domestic liquids. This potentially poses risks to public health and ecosystems, especially due to heavy metals, which are considered dangerous because of their potential toxicity and persistence in the environment. The Villavicencio region (Colombia) is an equatorial area where rainfall (near 3000 mm/year) and temperature (average 25.6 °C) are high. Soil processes in tropical conditions are fast and react quickly to changing conditions. Soil properties from agricultural fields irrigated with river water polluted by a variety of sources were analysed and compared to non-irrigated control soils. In this study, no physico-chemical alterations were found that gave evidence of a change due to the constant use of river water that contained wastes. This fact may be associated with the climatic factors (temperature and precipitation), which contribute to fast degradation of organic matter and nutrient and contaminants (such as heavy metals) leaching, or to dilution of wastes by the river.

Description: This research evaluates the impact of In-vehicle Signal Advisory System (ITSAS) on signalized arterial. ITSAS provides individual drivers equipped with a mobile communication device with advisory speed information enabling to minimize the time delay and fuel consumption when crossing intersection. Given the instantaneous vehicular driving information, such as position, speed, and acceleration rate, ITSAS produces advisory speed information by taking into consideration the traffic signal changes at a downstream intersection. The advisory speed information includes not only an optimal speed range updated every 300-ft for individual drivers but also a descriptive message to warn drivers stop to ensure safety at the downstream intersection. Unlike other similar Connected Vehicles applications for intersection management, ITSAS does not require Roadside Equipment (RSE) to disseminate the advisory speed information as it is designed to exploit commercial cellular network service (i.e., 3G and 4G-LTE). Thus, ITSAS can be easily plugged into existing traffic control management system to rapidly conduct its implementation without significant additional cost. This research presents the field evaluations of ITSAS on a signalized corridor in New Jersey, which discovered significant travel time savings for the equipped vehicle.

Description: Land, Vol. 6, Pages 61: Fire Data as Proxy for Anthropogenic Landscape Change in the Yucatán Land doi: 10.3390/land6030061 Authors: Marco Millones John Rogan B.L. II Benoit Parmentier Robert Harris Daniel Griffith Fire is one of the earliest and most common tools used by humans to modify the earth surface. Landscapes in the Yucatán Peninsula are composed of a mosaic of old growth subtropical forest, secondary vegetation, grasslands, and agricultural land that represent a well-documented example of anthropogenic intervention, much of which involves the use of fire. This research characterizes land use systems and land cover changes in the Yucatán during the 2000–2010 time period. We used an active fire remotely sensed data time series from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), in combination with forest loss, and anthrome map sources to (1) establish the association between fire and land use change in the region; and (2) explore links between the spatial and temporal patterns of fire and specific types of land use practices, including within- and between-anthromes variability. A spatial multinomial logit model was constructed using fire, landscape configuration, and a set of commonly used control variables to estimate forest persistence, non-forest persistence, and change. Cross-tabulations and descriptive statistics were used to explore the relationships between fire occurrence, location, and timing with respect to the geography of land use. We also compared fire frequencies within and between anthrome groups using a negative binomial model and Tukey pairwise comparisons. Results show that fire data broadly reproduce the geography and timing of anthropogenic land change. Findings indicate that fire and landscape configuration is useful in explaining forest change and non-forest persistence, especially in fragmented (mosaicked) landscapes. Absence of fire occurrence is related usefully to the persistence of spatially continuous core areas of older growth forest. Fire has a positive relationship with forest to non-forest change and a negative relationship with forest persistence. Fire is also a good indicator to distinguish between anthrome groups (e.g., croplands and villages). Our study suggests that active fire data series are a reasonable proxy for anthropogenic land persistence/change in the context of the Yucatán and are useful to differentiate quantitatively and qualitatively between and within anthromes.

Description: Land, Vol. 6, Pages 62: Soy Expansion and Socioeconomic Development in Municipalities of Brazil Land doi: 10.3390/land6030062 Authors: Luiz Martinelli Mateus Batistella Ramon Silva Emilio Moran Soy occupies the largest area of agricultural land in Brazil, spreading from southern states to the Amazon region. Soy is also the most important agricultural commodity among Brazilian exports affecting food security and land use nationally and internationally. Here we pose the question of whether soy expansion affects only economic growth or whether it also boosts socioeconomic development, fostering education and health improvements in Brazilian municipalities where it is planted. To achieve this objective, we divided more than 5000 municipalities into two groups: those with >300 ha of soy (soy municipalities) and those with <300 ha of soy (non-soy municipalities). We compared the Human Development Index (HDI) and the Gini coefficient for income for these two groups of municipalities in 1991, 2000, and 2010. We made such comparison at the municipality level for the whole country, but we also grouped the municipalities by major geographical regions and states. We found that the HDI was higher in soy municipalities, especially in the agricultural frontier. That effect was not so clear in more consolidated agricultural regions of the country. Soy municipalities also had a higher Gini coefficient for income than non-soy municipalities. We concluded that soy could be considered a precursor of socioeconomic development under certain conditions; however, it also tends to be associated with an increase in income inequality, especially in the agricultural frontier.

Description: Land, Vol. 6, Pages 63: Wolf and Bear Depredation on Livestock in Northern Sweden 1827–2014: Combining History, Ecology and Interviews Land doi: 10.3390/land6030063 Authors: Weronika Axelsson Linkowski Marie Kvarnström Anna Westin Jon Moen Lars Östlund During the twenty-first century, large carnivores have increased in human dominated landscapes after being extinct or nearly extinct. This has resulted in increasing numbers of livestock killed by large carnivores. The intent of this paper is to give a land use-historical perspective on the recent livestock–carnivore conflict in boreal Sweden. More specifically we address: (1) depredation risks (livestock killed by carnivores) and (2) local knowledge of how to protect livestock from predation and whether it survived among pastoralists until the present. This study provides numeric information on carnivores, livestock and depredation, combined with oral information from summer farmers about livestock protection. We compare recent (since 1998) and historical (late nineteenth century) depredation rates in two Swedish counties. In Dalarna recent depredation rates are higher than historical rates while the opposite pattern is seen in Jämtland. Recent depredation rates in Dalarna are twice the recent rates in Jämtland, in contrast to the historical situation. Recent and historical depredation rates are of the same order. Summer farmers traditionally graze their livestock in forested areas where carnivores reside. Interviews show that traditional knowledge of how to protect livestock from carnivores was lost during the twentieth century, but recently new knowledge has developed leading to changes in summer farming practices. The carnivore–livestock situation today differs from the historical situation, not so much in levels of depredation, but mainly regarding the possibilities of farmers to face challenges associated with increasing carnivore populations.

Description: Land, Vol. 6, Pages 64: Vegetation in Drylands: Effects on Wind Flow and Aeolian Sediment Transport Land doi: 10.3390/land6030064 Authors: Jerome Mayaud Nicholas Webb Drylands are characterised by patchy vegetation, erodible surfaces and erosive aeolian processes. Empirical and modelling studies have shown that vegetation elements provide drag on the overlying airflow, thus affecting wind velocity profiles and altering erosive dynamics on desert surfaces. However, these dynamics are significantly complicated by a variety of factors, including turbulence, and vegetation porosity and pliability effects. This has resulted in some uncertainty about the effect of vegetation on sediment transport in drylands. Here, we review recent progress in our understanding of the effects of dryland vegetation on wind flow and aeolian sediment transport processes. In particular, wind transport models have played a key role in simplifying aeolian processes in partly vegetated landscapes, but a number of key uncertainties and challenges remain. We identify potential future avenues for research that would help to elucidate the roles of vegetation distribution, geometry and scale in shaping the entrainment, transport and redistribution of wind-blown material at multiple scales. Gaps in our collective knowledge must be addressed through a combination of rigorous field, wind tunnel and modelling experiments.

Description: Agronomy, Vol. 7, Pages 62: Geographic and Research Center Origins of Rice Resistance to Asian Planthoppers and Leafhoppers: Implications for Rice Breeding and Gene Deployment Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy7040062 Authors: Finbarr Horgan Thanga Srinivasan Jagadish Bentur Ram Kumar K. Bhanu Preetinder Sarao Ho Chien Maria Almazan Carmencita Bernal Angelee Ramal Jedeliza Ferrater Shou-Horng Huang This study examines aspects of virulence to resistant rice varieties among planthoppers and leafhoppers. Using a series of resistant varieties, brown planthopper, Nilaparvata lugens, virulence was assessed in seedlings and early-tillering plants at seven research centers in South and East Asia. Virulence of the whitebacked planthopper, Sogatella furcifera, in Taiwan and the Philippines was also assessed. Phylogenetic analysis of the varieties using single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) indicated a clade of highly resistant varieties from South Asia with two further South Asian clades of moderate resistance. Greenhouse bioassays indicated that planthoppers can develop virulence against multiple resistance genes including genes introgressed from wild rice species. Nilaparvata lugens populations from Punjab (India) and the Mekong Delta (Vietnam) were highly virulent to a range of key resistance donors irrespective of variety origin. Sogatella furcifera populations were less virulent to donors than N. lugens; however, several genes for resistance to S. furcifera are now ineffective in East Asia. A clade of International Rice Research Institute (IRRI)-bred varieties and breeding lines, without identified leafhopper-resistance genes, were highly resistant to the green leafhopper, Nephotettix virescens. Routine phenotyping during breeding programs likely maintains high levels of quantitative resistance to leafhoppers. We discuss these results in the light of breeding and deploying resistant rice in Asia.

Description: Information, Vol. 8, Pages 117: Cosine Measures of Linguistic Neutrosophic Numbers and Their Application in Multiple Attribute Group Decision-Making Information doi: 10.3390/info8040117 Authors: Lilian Shi Jun Ye The linguistic neutrosophic numbers (LNNs) can express the truth, indeterminacy, and falsity degrees independently by three linguistic variables. Hence, they are an effective tool for describing indeterminate linguistic information under linguistic decision-making environments. Similarity measures are usual tools in decision-making problems. However, existing cosine similarity measures have been applied in decision-making problems, but they cannot deal with linguistic information under linguistic decision-making environments. To deal with the issue, we propose two cosine similarity measures based on distance and the included angle cosine of two vectors between LNNs. Then, we establish a multiple attribute group decision-making (MAGDM) method based on the cosine similarity measures under an LNN environment. Finally, a practical example about the decision-making problems of investment alternatives is presented to demonstrate the effective applications of the proposed MAGDM method under an LNN environment.

Description: Agronomy, Vol. 7, Pages 65: Effect of Vegetative Propagation Materials on Globe Artichoke Production in Semi-Arid Developing Countries: Agronomic, Marketable and Qualitative Traits Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy7040065 Authors: Jouhaina Riahi Carlo Nicoletto Ghaith Bouzaein Paolo Sambo Karima Khalfallah In Tunisia, globe artichoke is mainly propagated by underground dormant axillary buds (ovoli), which are removed from the field in August during the quiescence period. The high cost of in vitro-plants and the absence of specialized nurseries were among the reasons for the rise of heterogeneity and spread of diseases. The aim was to help farmers to improve artichoke yield and quality by ameliorating their vegetative propagation technique with low cost methods. Three plant cuttings management methods were tested: summer ovoli (T0); spring offshoots nursery’s cuttings forced to pass a vegetative rest period by stopping irrigation (T1); and offshoots nursery’s cuttings not forced (T2). The cuttings management can affect both yield and qualitative traits of artichoke. T1 nursery plants produced the heaviest primary heads, 7% and 23% higher than T2 and T0, respectively. T1 plants exhibited the highest yield during the harvest season, with +17.7% and +12.2% compared to T0 and T2, respectively. T0 and T1 showed the highest total antioxidant capacity and inulin content; the propagation method also affected the short-chain sugars ratio. T1 is a viable and sustainable alternative to the traditional one that does not heavily impact on growing costs and improves yield and quality of artichoke.

Description: Agriculture, Vol. 7, Pages 79: Energy and Carbon Impact of Precision Livestock Farming Technologies Implementation in the Milk Chain: From Dairy Farm to Cheese Factory Agriculture doi: 10.3390/agriculture7100079 Authors: Giuseppe Todde Maria Caria Filippo Gambella Antonio Pazzona Precision Livestock Farming (PLF) is being developed in livestock farms to relieve the human workload and to help farmers to optimize production and management procedure. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the consequences in energy intensity and the related carbon impact, from dairy farm to cheese factory, due to the implementation of a real-time milk analysis and separation (AfiMilk MCS) in milking parlors. The research carried out involved three conventional dairy farms, the collection and delivery of milk from dairy farms to cheese factory and the processing line of a traditional soft cheese into a dairy factory. The AfiMilk MCS system installed in the milking parlors allowed to obtain a large number of information related to the quantity and quality of milk from each individual cow and to separate milk with two different composition (one with high coagulation properties and the other one with low coagulation properties), with different percentage of separation. Due to the presence of an additional milkline and the AfiMilk MCS components, the energy requirements and the related environmental impact at farm level were slightly higher, among 1.1% and 4.4%. The logistic of milk collection was also significantly reorganized in view of the collection of two separate type of milk, hence, it leads an increment of 44% of the energy requirements. The logistic of milk collection and delivery represents the process which the highest incidence in energy consumption occurred after the installation of the PLF technology. Thanks to the availability of milk with high coagulation properties, the dairy plant, produced traditional soft cheese avoiding the standardization of the formula, as a result, the energy uses decreased about 44%, while considering the whole chain, the emissions of carbon dioxide was reduced by 69%. In this study, the application of advance technologies in milking parlors modified not only the on-farm management but mainly the procedure carried out in cheese making plant. This aspect makes precision livestock farming implementation unimportant technology that may provide important benefits throughout the overall milk chain, avoiding about 2.65 MJ of primary energy every 100 kg of processed milk.

Description: Agriculture, Vol. 7, Pages 80: Morphological Characterization and Determination of Aflatoxin-Production Potentials of Aspergillus flavus Isolated from Maize and Soil in Kenya Agriculture doi: 10.3390/agriculture7100080 Authors: Matome Thathana Hunja Murage Akebe Abia Michael Pillay This study aimed at morphologically identifying Aspergillus flavus in soil and maize and at determining their aflatoxin-producing potentials. Five hundred and fourteen isolates obtained from maize and soil in Kenya were cultivated on Czapeck Dox Agar, Malt Extract Agar, Sabouraud Dextrose Agar, Potato Dextrose Agar, and Rose-Bengal Chloramphenicol Agar. Isolates were identified using macro-morphological characteristics. Micromorphological characteristics were determined using slide cultures. Aflatoxin production was determined by direct visual determination of the UV fluorescence of colonies on Coconut Agar Medium, Yeast Extract Sucrose agar, and Yeast Extract Cyclodextrin Sodium Deoxycholate agar and by Thin Layer Chromatography. Forty-three presumptive A. flavus isolates were identified; aflatoxin was detected in 23% of the isolates by UV fluorescence screening and in 30% by Thin-Layer Chromatography (TLC). The aflatoxins produced were: aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), aflatoxin B2 (AFB2), and aflatoxin G1 (AFG1); some isolates produced only AFB1, whereas others produced either AFB1 and AFB2 or AFB1 and AFG1. The highest incidence of A. flavus (63%) and aflatoxin production (28%) was recorded in samples from Makueni District. Isolates from Uasin Gishu (21%) and Nyeri (5%) were non-aflatoxigenic. Bungoma District recorded 11% positive isolates of which 2% were aflatoxin producers. The occurrence of aflatoxin-producing A. flavus emphasises the need for measures to eliminate their presence in food crops.

Description: Agriculture, Vol. 7, Pages 77: Near Infrared Spectrometry for Rapid Non-Invasive Modelling of Aspergillus-Contaminated Maturing Kernels of Maize (Zea mays L.) Agriculture doi: 10.3390/agriculture7090077 Authors: Titilayo Falade Yasmina Sultanbawa Mary Fletcher Glen Fox Aflatoxin-producing Aspergillus spp. produce carcinogenic metabolites that contaminate maize. Maize kernel absorbance patterns of near infrared (NIR) wavelengths (800–2600 nm) were used to non-invasively identify kernels of milk-, dough- and dent-stage maturities with four doses of Aspergillus sp. contamination. Near infrared spectrometry (NIRS) spectral data was pre-processed using first derivative Savitzky-Golay (1d-SG) transformation and multiplicative scatter correction on spectral data. Contaminated kernels had higher absorbance between 800–1134 nm, while uninoculated samples had higher absorbance above 1400 nm. Dose and maturity clusters seen in Principal Component Analysis (PCA) score plots were due to bond stretches of combination bands, CH and C=O functional groups within grain macromolecules. The regression model at 2198 nm separated uninoculated and inoculated kernels (p < 0.0001, R2 = 0.88, root mean square error = 0.15). Non-invasive identification of Aspergillus-contaminated maize kernels using NIR spectrometry was demonstrated in kernels of different maturities.

Description: Information, Vol. 8, Pages 115: Predicting DNA Motifs by Using Multi-Objective Hybrid Adaptive Biogeography-Based Optimization Information doi: 10.3390/info8040115 Authors: Siling Feng Ziqiang Yang Mengxing Huang The computational discovery of DNA motifs is one of the most important problems in molecular biology and computational biology, and it has not yet been resolved in an efficient manner. With previous research, we have solved the single-objective motif discovery problem (MDP) based on biogeography-based optimization (BBO) and gained excellent results. In this study, we apply multi-objective biogeography-based optimization algorithm to the multi-objective motif discovery problem, which refers to discovery of novel transcription factor binding sites in DNA sequences. For this, we propose an improved multi-objective hybridization of adaptive Biogeography-Based Optimization with differential evolution (DE) approach, namely MHABBO, to predict motifs from DNA sequences. In the MHABBO algorithm, the fitness function based on distribution information among the habitat individuals and the Pareto dominance relation are redefined. Based on the relationship between the cost of fitness function and average cost in each generation, the MHABBO algorithm adaptively changes the migration probability and mutation probability. Additionally, the mutation procedure that combines with the DE algorithm is modified. And the migration operators based on the number of iterations are improved to meet motif discovery requirements. Furthermore, the immigration and emigration rates based on a cosine curve are modified. It can therefore generate promising candidate solutions. Statistical comparisons with DEPT and MOGAMOD approaches on three commonly used datasets are provided, which demonstrate the validity and effectiveness of the MHABBO algorithm. Compared with some typical existing approaches, the MHABBO algorithm performs better in terms of the quality of the final solutions.

Description: Agronomy, Vol. 7, Pages 63: Vegetable Intercropping in a Small-Scale Aquaponic System Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy7040063 Authors: Carmelo Maucieri Carlo Nicoletto Zala Schmautz Paolo Sambo Tamas Komives Maurizio Borin Ranka Junge This paper reports the results of the first study of an aquaponic system for Pangasianodon hypophthalmus production that uses Lactuca sativa L. (lettuce) and Cichorium intybus L. rubifolium group (red chicory) intercropping in the hydroponic section. The experiment was conducted in a greenhouse at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Wädenswil, Switzerland, using nine small-scale aquaponic systems (each approximately 400 L), with the nutrient film technique (NFT). The intercropping of vegetables did not influence the water temperature, pH, electric conductivity (EC), oxidation–reduction potential, nor O2 content. Intercropping with red chicory increased the lettuce sugar content (+16.0% and +25.3% for glucose and fructose, respectively) and reduced the lettuce caffeic acid content (−16.8%). In regards to bitter taste compounds (sesquiterpene lactones), intercropping reduced the concentrations of dihydro-lactucopicrin + lactucopicrin (−42.0%) in lettuce, and dihydro-lactucopicrin + lactucopicrin (−22.0%) and 8-deoxy–lactucin + dihydro-lactucopicrin oxalate (−18.7%) in red chicory, whereas dihydro-lactucin content increased (+40.6%) in red chicory in regards to monoculture. A significantly higher organic nitrogen content was found in the lettuce (3.9%) than in the red chicory biomass (3.4%), following the intercropping treatment. Anion and cation contents in vegetables were affected by species (Cl−, NO3−, PO43−, SO42−, and Ca2+), intercropping (K+ and Mg2+), and species × intercropping interactions (NO2− and NH4+). Experimental treatments (monoculture vs intercropping and distance from NFT inlet) did not exert significant effects on leaf SPAD (index of relative chlorophyll content) values, whereas the red coloration of the plants increased from the inlet to the outlet of the NFT channel. Intercropping of lettuce and red chicory affected the typical taste of these vegetables by increasing the sweetness of lettuce and changing the ratio among bitter taste compounds in red chicory. These results suggest intercropping as a possible solution for improving vegetable quality in aquaponics. Although the results are interesting, they have been obtained in a relatively short period, thus investigations for longer periods are necessary to confirm these findings. Further studies are also needed to corroborate the positive effect of the presence of red chicory in the system on fish production parameters.

Description: Agronomy, Vol. 7, Pages 64: Evaluating Agricultural Management Effects on Alachlor Availability: Tillage, Green Manure, and Biochar Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy7040064 Authors: Kassio Mendes Kathleen Hall Kurt Spokas William Koskinen Valdemar Tornisielo Agricultural and soil management practices have been reported to affect alachlor sorption–desorption and degradation rates. Though alachlor has been banned in the E.U. since 2006, it is still used in U.S. corn and soybean production. The objectives of this study were to: (a) assess differences in alachlor sorption due to tillage treatments (chisel plow and ridge tillage) on soils from three midwestern U.S. locations; and (b) determine the effect of various soil amendments on the sorption–desorption and mineralization of alachlor. Soils were amended at a rate of 10% (w/w) with biochars derived from soybean stover, sugarcane bagasse, and wood chips, as well as the uncharred feedstock materials. Sorption–desorption studies were performed using the batch equilibration method, and alachlor mineralization was evaluated in a 30-day incubation. Tillage management did not affect alachlor sorption to soil across the three sites, despite the fact that the tillage operations were imposed for 4 years (p > 0.05). While the sorption coefficient (Kd) values for alachlor were relatively low in the three unamended soils (Kd = 1.76, 1.73, and 1.15 L·kg−1 for IL, MN, and PA soils, respectively), biochar amendments increased alachlor sorption between 4× and 33× compared to the unamended soil. The amendments also affected alachlor mineralization such that degradation was slower in both biochar- and raw feedstock-amended soils. Based on these results, biochar additions are expected to affect the availability of alachlor for transport and degradation. Furthermore, this study highlights the larger impact of biochar addition than tillage practices on altering immediate alachlor sorption capacities.

Description: Agriculture, Vol. 7, Pages 82: Efficacy of the Herbicide Lancelot 450 WG (Aminopyralid + Florasulam) on Broadleaf and Invasive Weeds and Effects on Yield and Quality Parameters of Maize Agriculture doi: 10.3390/agriculture7100082 Authors: Ilias Travlos Vasilis Apostolidis Reduced efficacy of several herbicides on some important broadleaf weeds might be due to the extended use of the specific active ingredients. In our study, field experiments were carried out in Greece in 2014 and 2015 to study the efficacy of the herbicide Lancelot 450 WG (aminopyralid 300 g ai/kg + florasulam 150 g ai/kg) compared to other herbicides against broadleaf weeds in maize. Effects on crop yield and quality parameters (nitrogen, protein, and oil content) were also evaluated. Our results showed that the ready mixture of aminopyralid + florasulam at the recommended dose of 33 g/ha resulted in a very good control of Xanthium strumarium, Amaranthus retroflexus, Cirsium arvense, and Solanum nigrum even at 28 DAT, providing a long-term effect. Efficacy of the specific mixture was also very efficient against the invasive weed species Physalis angulata L. Moreover, there were not any significant differences between the two doses of Lancelot 450 WG (33 and 66 g/ha) and Callisto 10 SC at double the recommended dose (1500 mL/ha) regarding yield of maize, with untreated plots and treated with Callisto 10 SC at the recommended dose (750 mL/ha) showing significantly lower yields. It has to be noted that even double the recommended dose of Lancelot 450 WG (66 g/ha) was highly selective to the crop, without any adverse effects on yield and quality parameters. Conclusively, Lancelot 450 WG could be proposed as a very efficient herbicide for the control of the major broadleaf weeds and alien, invasive species in maize crop.

Description: Agriculture, Vol. 7, Pages 70: What Is the Role of Agro-Met Information Services in Farmer Decision-Making? Uptake and Decision-Making Context among Farmers within Three Case Study Villages in Maharashtra, India Agriculture doi: 10.3390/agriculture7080070 Authors: Ingrid Nesheim Line Barkved Neha Bharti Scientific studies of climate and meteorology focusing on India show significant increase in the variability and frequency of extreme precipitation events. The increased variability of weather patterns places a huge constraint on farmer’s ability to make strategic agricultural practice decisions. In response, public and private agro-met information services disseminate agro-met information to farmers. Yet, studies still show that there are constraints related to access and understanding of the information. An agro-met information service is based on scientific input from meteorology coupled with agricultural information and this information package is disseminated to farmers. Based on a study in three villages in Maharashtra, India, we show that the relevance of agro-met information differs depending on the decision-making situation. Several factors play an important role in farmer’s agricultural decision-making. The usefulness of the agro-met information from farmer perspectives depends on the access, salience, and credibility of the information. Some subscribers complained about the credibility and the salience of services, while others painted a more positive picture of the service, arguing that there was value in receiving such information. The subscribers mainly valued agro-met information for the ability to undertake precautionary actions. We found that agricultural decision-making was discussed in different arenas; these arenas represented possibilities for farmers to contextualize agro-met information and thereby translate information to timely and appropriate actions suited to the specific local context.

Description: Land, Vol. 6, Pages 58: Efficiency of Conservation Agriculture Production Systems for Smallholders in Rain-Fed Uplands of India: A Transformative Approach to Food Security Land doi: 10.3390/land6030058 Authors: Catherine Chan Brent Sipes Abouzeid Ayman Xu Zhang Patricia LaPorte Fellipe Fernandes Aliza Pradhan Jacqueline Chan-Dentoni Pravat Roul With challenges from global climate change, it is imperative to enhance food production using climate-smart technologies and maximize farm efficiency. Fifty-six households in Rudhiapada and Badamahulidiha, Odisha, India were selected to evaluate farmers’ efficiency using conservation agriculture (CA) cropping system practices. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) and regression analysis were used to estimate farmer efficiency and the determinants of yield. Conventional tillage with the local maize cultivar was compared to reduced tillage with improved maize cultivar and maize intercropped with cowpea. Badamahulidiha outperformed Rudhiapada in yields for all cropping systems. This could be attributed to lower input use and exposure to NGO training. The current efficiency level of farmers’ productivity was between 0.4 and 0.7. Inputs such as labor, seed, and fertilizers were found to be significant in increasing yield except for female labor and phosphate. This finding suggests conservation agriculture cropping system is female friendly. The conservation agriculture cropping systems improved maize yields by 60% to 70% when compared to conventional farming system. Combining conservation agriculture practices with improving efficiency of farmers in optimal use of the inputs can contribute substantially to productivity, thus enhancing food security and nutrition in the face of climate change in India and other tropical areas.

Description: Information, Vol. 8, Pages 102: A Robust Timetabling Model for a Metro Line with Passenger Activity Information Information doi: 10.3390/info8030102 Authors: Lai Wei Zhenzhou Yuan Timetable design is crucial to the reliability of a metro service. In terms of the delays caused by passengers’ boarding and alighting behaviors during rush hours, the planned timetable for a metro line with high-frequency service tends to be difficult to implement. General oversaturation events, rather than accidents or track damage, still have a significant impact on metro systems, so that trains are canceled and delayed. When the activity reality diverges from the real-time or historical information, it is imperative that dispatchers present a good solution during the planning stage in order to minimize the nuisance for passengers and reduce the crowding risk. This paper presents a robust timetabling model (RTM) for a metro line with passenger activity information, which takes into account congestion and buffer time adjustments. The main objective pursued by dispatchers in the model is the enhancement of punctuality while minimizing train delays by adjusting the buffer time. By explicitly taking the passenger activity information into account, a mixed integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) model was developed, and a genetic algorithm (GA) is proposed to solve the model. Finally, numerical experiments based on the Batong line of the Beijing Metro were carried out, the results of which verify the effectiveness and efficiency of our method.

Description: Land, Vol. 6, Pages 59: Informal Urban Green Space: Residents’ Perception, Use, and Management Preferences across Four Major Japanese Shrinking Cities Land doi: 10.3390/land6030059 Authors: Christoph Rupprecht Urban residents’ health depends on green infrastructure to cope with climate change. Shrinking cities could utilize vacant land to provide more green space, but declining tax revenues preclude new park development—a situation pronounced in Japan, where some cities are projected to shrink by over ten percent, but lack green space. Could informal urban green spaces (IGS; vacant lots, street verges, brownfields etc.) supplement parks in shrinking cities? This study analyzes residents’ perception, use, and management preferences (management goals, approaches to participatory management, willingness to participate) for IGS using a large, representative online survey (n = 1000) across four major shrinking Japanese cities: Sapporo, Nagano, Kyoto and Kitakyushu. Results show that residents saw IGS as a common element of the urban landscape and their daily lives, but their evaluation was mixed. Recreation and urban agriculture were preferred to redevelopment and non-management. For participative management, residents saw a need for the city administration to mediate usage and liability, and expected an improved appearance, but emphasized the need for financial and non-financial support. A small but significant minority (~10%) were willing to participate in management activities. On this basis, eight principles for participatory informal green space planning are proposed.

Description: Agriculture, Vol. 7, Pages 72: Effect of High Pressure Processing on the Microbial Inactivation in Fruit Preparations and Other Vegetable Based Beverages Agriculture doi: 10.3390/agriculture7090072 Authors: Dahlia Daher Soléne Le Gourrierec Concepción Pérez-Lamela The purpose of this study is to review the effects of High Hydrostatic Pressure Processing (HPP) on the safety of different fruit derivatives (juices, nectars, jams, purees, pastes…), considering the types established in the European legislation and some other vegetable-based beverages (mainly juices and smoothies). The main inactivation processes and mechanisms on microorganisms are reviewed. Studies have revealed that HPP treatment is capable of destroying most microorganisms, depending on the application conditions (amplitude of the pressure, duration time, temperature, and the mode of application), the properties of the fresh and processed fruit/vegetables (pH, nutrient composition, water activity, maturity stage), and the type of microorganisms or viruses.

Description: Information, Vol. 8, Pages 107: Bonferroni Mean Operators of Linguistic Neutrosophic Numbers and Their Multiple Attribute Group Decision-Making Methods Information doi: 10.3390/info8030107 Authors: Changxing Fan Jun Ye Keli Hu En Fan Linguistic neutrosophic numbers (LNN) is presented by Fang and Ye in 2017, which can describe the truth, falsity, and indeterminacy linguistic information independently. In this paper, the LNN and the Bonferroni mean operator are merged together to propose a LNN normalized weighted Bonferroni mean (LNNNWBM) operator and a LNN normalized weighted geometric Bonferroni mean (LNNNWGBM) operator and the properties of these two operators are proved. Further, multi-attribute group decision methods are introduced based on the proposed LNNNWBM and LNNNWGBM operators, and then an example is provided to demonstrate the application and validity of the proposed methods. In addition, in order to consider the effect of the parameters p and q on the decision results, different pairs of parameter values are employed to verify the decision results.

Description: Agronomy, Vol. 7, Pages 61: Response of Chlorophyll, Carotenoid and SPAD-502 Measurement to Salinity and Nutrient Stress in Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy7030061 Authors: Syed Shah Rasmus Houborg Matthew McCabe Abiotic stress can alter key physiological constituents and functions in green plants. Improving the capacity to monitor this response in a non-destructive manner is of considerable interest, as it would offer a direct means of initiating timely corrective action. Given the vital role that plant pigments play in the photosynthetic process and general plant physiological condition, their accurate estimation would provide a means to monitor plant health and indirectly determine stress response. The aim of this work is to evaluate the response of leaf chlorophyll and carotenoid (Ct) content in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) to changes in varying application levels of soil salinity and fertilizer applied over a complete growth cycle. The study also seeks to establish and analyze relationships between measurements from a SPAD-502 instrument and the leaf pigments, as extracted at the anthesis stage. A greenhouse pot experiment was conducted in triplicate by employing distinct treatments of both soil salinity and fertilizer dose at three levels. Results showed that higher doses of fertilizer increased the content of leaf pigments across all levels of soil salinity. Likewise, increasing the level of soil salinity significantly increased the chlorophyll and Ct content per leaf area at all levels of applied fertilizer. However, as an adaptation process and defense mechanism under salinity stress, leaves were found to be thicker and narrower. Thus, on a per-plant basis, increasing salinity significantly reduced the chlorophyll (Chlt) and Ct produced under each fertilizer treatment. In addition, interaction effects of soil salinity and fertilizer application on the photosynthetic pigment content were found to be significant, as the higher amounts of fertilizer augmented the detrimental effects of salinity. A strong positive (R2 = 0.93) and statistically significant (p < 0.001) relationship between SPAD-502 values and Chlt and between SPAD-502 values and Ct content (R2 = 0.85) was determined based on a large (n = 277) dataset. We demonstrate that the SPAD-502 readings and plant photosynthetic pigment content per-leaf area are profoundly affected by salinity and nutrient stress, but that the general form of their relationship remains largely unaffected by the stress. As such, a generalized regression model can be used for Chlt and Ct estimation, even across a range of salinity and fertilizer gradients.

Description: Islands across the world have evolved at the interface between land and sea, thus comprising landscapes and seascapes. Many islands have also been influenced by anthropogenic factors, which have given rise to mosaics of anthromes (sensu Ellis and Ramankutty). These elements of landscapes, seascapes, and cultural impacts in varied proportions, generate unique environments which merit a unique term: islandscapes. The use of the term islandscape is advocated as the only term which encompasses all of the constituent components of an island, in a holistic manner. The aim of the paper is to evaluate the applicability of existing landscape and seascape character assessment methodologies in an island context, and to propose a methodological framework for mapping the space which defines the term ‘islandscape’. The challenges and opportunities stemming from the use of the term are exemplified with reference to the Mediterranean islands.

Description: In 1997, the author concluded that living cells use a molecular language (cellese) that is isomorphic with the human language (humanese) based on his finding that the former shared 10 out of the 13 design features of the latter. In 2012, the author postulated that cellese and humanese derived from a third language called the cosmic language (or cosmese) and that what was common among these three kinds of languages was waves—i.e., sound waves for humanese, concentration waves for cellese, and quantum waves for cosmese. These waves were suggested to be the symmetry principle underlying cosmese, cellese, and humanese. We can recognize at least five varieties of waves—(i) electromagnetic; (ii) mechanical; (iii) chemical concentration; (iv) gravitational; and (v) probability waves, the last being non-material, in contrast to the first four, which are all material. The study of waves is called “cymatics” and the invention of CymaScope by J. S. Reid of the United Kingdom in 2002 is expected to accelerate the study of waves in general. CymaScope has been used to visualize not only human sounds (i.e., humanese) but also sounds made by individual cells (cellese) in conjunction with Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) (unpublished observations of J. Gimzewski of UCLA and J. Reid). It can be predicted that the gravitational waves recently detected by the Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) will be visualized with CymaScope one day, thereby transforming gravitational waves into CymaGlyphs. Since cellese in part depends on RNA concentration waves (or RNA glyphs) and humanese includes hieroglyphs that were decoded by Champollion in 1822, it seems reasonable to use cymaglyphs, RNA glyphs, and hieroglyphs as symbols of cosmese, cellese, and humanese, respectively, all based on the principle of waves as the medium of communication.

Description: Flowering time is a key target trait for extending the vegetative phase to increase biomass in bioenergy crops such as perennial C4 grasses. Molecular genetic studies allow the identification of genes involved in the control of flowering in different species. Some regulatory factors of the Arabidopsis pathway are conserved in other plant species such as grasses. However, differences in the function of particular genes confer specific responses to flowering. One of the major pathways is photoperiod regulation, based on the interaction of the circadian clock and environmental light signals. Depending on their requirements for day-length plants can be classified as long-day (LD), short-day (SD), and day-neutral. The CONSTANS (CO) and Heading Date 1 (Hd1), orthologos genes, are central regulators in the flowering of Arabidopsis and rice, LD and SD plants, respectively. Additionally, Early heading date 1 (Ehd1) induces the expression of Heading date 3a (Hd3a), conferring SD promotion and controls Rice Flowering Locus T 1 (RFT1) in LD conditions, independently of Hd1. Nevertheless, the mechanisms promoting flowering in perennial bioenergy crops are poorly understood. Recent progress on the regulatory network of important gramineous crops and components involved in flowering control will be discussed.

Description: Seasonal growth patterns of perennial plants are linked to patterns of acclimation and de-acclimation to seasonal stresses. The timing of cold acclimation (development of freezing resistance) and leaf growth cessation in autumn, and the timing of de-acclimation and leaf regrowth in spring, is regulated by seasonal cues in the environment, mainly temperature and light factors. Warming will lead to new combinations of these cues in autumn and spring. Extended thermal growing seasons offer a possibility for obtaining increased yields of perennial grasses at high latitudes. Increased productivity in the autumn may not be possible in all high latitude regions due to the need for light during cold acclimation and the need for accumulating a carbohydrate storage prior to winter. There is more potential for increased yields in spring due to the availability of light, but higher probability of freezing events in earlier springs would necessitate a delay of de-acclimation, or an ability to rapidly re-acclimate. In order to optimize the balance between productivity and overwintering in the future, the regulation of growth and acclimation processes may have to be modified. Here, the current knowledge on the coordinated regulation of growth and freezing resistance in perennial grasses is reviewed.

Description: This review deals with the adaptive mechanisms that plants can implement to cope with the challenge of salt stress. Plants tolerant to NaCl implement a series of adaptations to acclimate to salinity, including morphological, physiological and biochemical changes. These changes include increases in the root/canopy ratio and in the chlorophyll content in addition to changes in the leaf anatomy that ultimately lead to preventing leaf ion toxicity, thus maintaining the water status in order to limit water loss and protect the photosynthesis process. Furthermore, we deal with the effect of salt stress on photosynthesis and chlorophyll fluorescence and some of the mechanisms thought to protect the photosynthetic machinery, including the xanthophyll cycle, photorespiration pathway, and water-water cycle. Finally, we also provide an updated discussion on salt-induced oxidative stress at the subcellular level and its effect on the antioxidant machinery in both salt-tolerant and salt-sensitive plants. The aim is to extend our understanding of how salinity may affect the physiological characteristics of plants.

Description: Over the last decade, there have been considerable concerns raised regarding the social and environmental impacts of large-scale land concessions for plantation development in various parts of the world, especially in the tropics, including in Laos and Cambodia. However, there is still much to learn about the various connections and interactions associated with reactions to what are often referred to as “land grabs”, and the ways they are associated or not associated with broader social movements and networks opposed to land grabbing. There is also the need to develop language for discussing these circumstances, something I aim to contribute to in this article. Here, I present four different cases of types of resistance, or what I refer to as contingent contestations, to land concessions in southern Laos and northeastern Cambodia (two from each country), focusing on the perspectives and associated strategies of smallholder farmers, but without ignoring broader issues. I consider the roles of locals in these contestations, through emphasizing the importance of histories, identities/ethnicities, politics, and geography in determining the types of responses to these land deals that emerge, and the strategies that are adopted for contesting these developments.

Description: Conservation agriculture is often presented as being ‘climate smart’ due to anticipated increases in soil moisture. The extent of enhanced water availability in farmers’ fields is, however, poorly documented. This paper presents five data sets describing soil moisture in fields of small-scale conservation and conventional farmers in the Agro-ecological Zone IIa, Zambia. The data include (1) soil cover; (2) time required for visible soil surface saturation, ponding and initial runoff under artificial rainfall; (3) saturated water infiltration rates; (4) weekly soil moisture at six soil depths for two entire rain seasons; and (5) weekly rainfall in each field. Measurements were done for 15 pairs of comparable fields under conservation and conventional agriculture. Pairwise analysis showed significantly shorter time for surface saturation, ponding, and runoff in conservation fields compared to conventional fields. Saturated infiltration rates in riplines and basins of conservation fields were similar to rates in ploughed/hoed fields. Infiltration rates between riplines and between basins were 31–37% lower than those in ploughed/hoed fields. Soil moisture in riplines and basins of conservation fields was higher by an average factor of 1.08 down to 40 cm soil depth, whereas it was lower by an average factor of 0.89 between plant rows compared to fields under conventional tillage. Based on 34,000 soil moisture measurements from 0 to 60 cm depth over two seasons, soils in conservation fields contained a weighted average of 18.2% (vol.) water compared to 19.9% (vol.) in conventional fields (p 〈 0.05). The results indicate that small-scale adopters of conservation agriculture are less ‘climate smart’ than conventional farmers in terms of water infiltration and soil moisture.

Description: Smallholder farmers are the main producers of the world’s food and they will have to increase production by up to 100 percent by 2050 to feed the growing population. This must be achieved while preserving natural resources and that is why sustainable agricultural mechanization (SAM) will be fundamental to the process. SAM is climate-smart and environmentally benign and essentially means no-till conservation agriculture, which requires specific mechanization inputs. Principally, these are seeders and planters capable of penetrating soil surface vegetative cover to deposit seed and fertilizer at the required depth and spacing; and equipment for management of cover crops and weeds. Mechanization is required not only for crop production, but also for processing and along the entire value chain. Mechanization inputs are usually expensive and so specialist service provision will be the indicated way forward. This will need collaboration from both the private and public sectors and will involve public-private partnerships to be developed in one form or another. Given the poor track record of public sector mechanization provision, the delivery of SAM should be firmly in the hands of the private sector that should be committed to SAM principles or otherwise be incentivized to the concept through smart subsidies. Improved information flows via smallholder farmer-friendly innovation platforms; and continuing development and testing of SAM technologies via regional centres of excellence will both be required—especially for sub-Saharan Africa.

Description: After uptake in cereal crops, nitrogen (N) is rapidly assimilated into glutamine (Gln) and other amino acids for transport to sinks. Therefore Gln has potential as an improved indicator of soil N availability compared to plant N demand. Gln has primarily been assayed to understand basic plant physiology, rather than to measure plant/soil-N under field conditions. It was hypothesized that leaf Gln at early-to-mid season could report the N application rate and predict end-season grain yield in field-grown maize. A three-year maize field experiment was conducted with N application rates ranging from 30 to 218 kg ha−1. Relative leaf Gln was assayed from leaf disk tissue using a whole-cell biosensor for Gln (GlnLux) at the V3-V14 growth stages. SPAD (Soil Plant Analysis Development) and NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) measurements were also performed. When sampled at V6 or later, GlnLux glutamine output consistently correlated with the N application rate, end-season yield, and grain N content. Yield correlation outperformed GreenSeekerTM NDVI, and was equivalent to SPAD chlorophyll, indicating the potential for yield prediction. Additionally, depleting soil N via overplanting increased GlnLux resolution to the earlier V5 stage. The results of the study are discussed in the context of luxury N consumption, leaf N remobilization, senescence, and grain fill. The potential and challenges of leaf Gln and GlnLux for the study of crop N physiology, and future N management are also discussed.

Description: Methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) fluxes were measured from paddy–upland rotation (three years for soybean and three years for rice) with different soil fertility due to preceding compost application for four years (i.e., 3 kg FW m−2 year−1 of immature or mature compost application plots and a control plot without compost). Net greenhouse gas (GHG) balance was evaluated by integrating CH4 and N2O emissions and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions calculated from a decline in soil carbon storage. N2O emissions from the soybean upland tended to be higher in the immature compost plot. CH4 emissions from the rice paddy increased every year and tended to be higher in the mature compost plot. Fifty-two to 68% of the increased soil carbon by preceding compost application was estimated to be lost during soybean cultivation. The major component of net GHG emission was CO2 (82–94%) and CH4 (72–84%) during the soybean and rice cultivations, respectively. Net GHG emissions during the soybean and rice cultivations were comparable. Consequently, the effects of compost application on the net GHG balance from the paddy–upland rotation should be carefully evaluated with regards to both advantages (initial input to the soil) and disadvantages (following increases in GHG).

Description: In order to build an efficient security architecture, previous studies have attempted to understand complex system architectures and message flows to detect various attack packets. However, the existing hardware-based single security architecture cannot efficiently handle a complex system structure. To solve this problem, we propose a software-defined networking (SDN) policy-based scheme for an efficient security architecture. The proposed scheme considers four policy functions: separating, chaining, merging, and reordering. If SDN network functions virtualization (NFV) system managers use these policy functions to deploy a security architecture, they only submit some of the requirement documents to the SDN policy-based architecture. After that, the entire security network can be easily built. This paper presents information about the design of a new policy functions model, and it discusses the performance of this model using theoretical analysis.

Description: The exodus of people from rural areas to cities brings many detrimental environmental, social and cultural consequences. Monitoring spatiotemporal change by referencing the historical timeline or incidence has become an important way to analyze urbanization. This study has attempted to attain the cross-sectional analysis of Kathmandu valley that has been plagued by rampant urbanization over the last three decades. The research utilizes Landsat images of Kathmandu valley from 1976 to 2015 for the transition analysis of land use, land cover and urban sprawl for the last four decades. Results showed that the urban coverage of Kathmandu valley has tremendously increased from 20.19 km2 in 1976 to 39.47 km2 in 1989 to 78.96 km2 in 2002 to 139.57 km2 in 2015, at the cost of cultivated lands, with an average annual urban growth rate of 7.34%, 7.70% and 5.90% in each temporal interval, respectively. In addition, the urban expansion orientation analysis concludes the significant urban concentration in the eastern part, moderately medium in the southwest and relatively less in the western and northwest part of the valley. Urbanization was solely accountable for the exploitation of extant forests, fertile and arable lands and indigenous and cultural landscapes. Unattended fallow lands in suburban areas have compounded the problem by welcoming invasive alien species. Overlaying the highly affected geological formations within the major city centers displays that unless the trend of rapid, unplanned urbanization is discontinued, the future of Kathmandu is at the high risk. Since land use management is a fundamental part of development, we advocate for the appropriate land use planning and policies for sustainable and secure future development.

Description: Previous studies conducted on a unique field site comprising three contrasting soils (diluvial sand DS, alluvial loam AL, loess loam LL) under identical cropping history, demonstrated soil type-dependent differences in biocontrol efficiency against Rhizoctonia solani-induced bottom rot disease in lettuce by two bacterial inoculants (Pseudomonas jessenii RU47 and Serratia plymuthica 3Re-4-18). Disease severity declined in the order DS > AL > LL. These differences were confirmed under controlled conditions, using the same soils in minirhizotron experiments. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) profiling of rhizosphere soil solutions revealed benzoic and lauric acids as antifungal compounds; previously identified in root exudates of lettuce. Pathogen inoculation and pre-inoculation with bacterial inoculants significantly increased the release of antifungal root exudates in a soil type-specific manner; with the highest absolute levels detected on the least-affected LL soil. Soil type-dependent differences were also recorded for the biocontrol effects of the two bacterial inoculants; showing the highest efficiency after double-inoculation on the AL soil. However, this was associated with a reduction of shoot growth and root hair development and a limited micronutrient status of the host plants. Obviously, disease severity and the expression of biocontrol effects are influenced by soil properties with potential impact on reproducibility of practical applications.

Description: Since soybean (Glycine max L. (Merr.)) yields greater than 6719 kg ha−1 have only recently and infrequently been achieved, little is known about the soil microbiological environment related to high-yield soybean production. Soil microbiological properties are often overlooked when assessing agronomic practices for optimal production. Therefore, a greater understanding is needed regarding how soil biological properties may differ between high- and average-yielding areas within fields. The objectives of this study were to (i) evaluate the effects of region on soil microbial carbon substrate utilization differences between high- (HY) and average-yield (AY) areas and (ii) assess the effect of yield area on selected microbiological property differences. Replicate soil samples were collected from the 0–10 cm depth from yield-contest-entered fields in close proximity that had both a HY and an AY area. Samples were collected immediately prior to or just after soybean harvest in 2014 and 2015 from each of seven geographic regions within Arkansas. Averaged across yield area, community-level carbon substrate utilization and Shannon’s and Simpson’s functional diversity and evenness were greater (p 〈 0.05) in Region 7 than all other regions. Averaged across regions, Shannon’s functional diversity and evenness were greater (p 〈 0.05) in HY than in AY areas. Principal component analysis demonstrated that a greater variety of carbon substrates were used in HY than AY areas. These results may help producers understand the soil microbiological environment in their own fields that contribute to or hinder achieving high-yielding soybeans; however, additional parameters may need to be assessed for a more comprehensive understanding of the soil environment that is associated with high-yielding soybean.

Description: As an extension of an intuitionistic fuzzy set, a single-valued neutrosophic set is described independently by the membership functions of its truth, indeterminacy, and falsity, which is a subclass of a neutrosophic set (NS). However, in existing exponential operations and their aggregation methods for neutrosophic numbers (NNs) (basic elements in NSs), the exponents (weights) are positive real numbers in unit intervals under neutrosophic decision-making environments. As a supplement, this paper defines new exponential operations of single-valued NNs (basic elements in a single-valued NS), where positive real numbers are used as the bases, and single-valued NNs are used as the exponents. Then, we propose a single-valued neutrosophic weighted exponential aggregation (SVNWEA) operator based on the exponential operational laws of single-valued NNs and the SVNWEA operator-based decision-making method. Finally, an illustrative example shows the applicability and rationality of the presented method. A comparison with a traditional method demonstrates that the new decision-making method is more appropriate and effective.

Description: Interest in sustainable alternatives to synthetic nitrogen (N) for switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) forage and bioenergy production, such as biological N2 fixation (BNF) via legume-intercropping, continues to increase. The objectives were to: (i) test physical and chemical scarification techniques (10 total) for common vetch (Vicia sativa L.); (ii) assess whether switchgrass yield is increased by BNF under optimum seed dormancy suppression methods; and (iii) determine BNF rates of common and hairy vetch (Vicia villosa L.) via the N-difference method. Results indicate that chemical scarification (sulfuric acid) and mechanical pretreatment (0.7 kg of pressure for one minute) improve common vetch germination by 60% and 50%, respectively, relative to controls. Under optimum scarification methods, BNF was 59.3 and 43.3 kg·N·ha−1 when seeded at 7 kg pure live seed ha−1 for common and hairy vetch, respectively. However, at this seeding rate, switchgrass yields were not affected by BNF (p > 0.05). Based on BNF rates and plant density estimates, seeding rates of 8 and 10 kg pure live seed (PLS) ha−1 for common and hairy vetch, respectively, would be required to obtain plant densities sufficient for BNF at the current recommended rate of 67 kg·N·ha−1 for switchgrass biomass production in the Southeastern U.S.

Description: The variation between land surface temperature (LST) within a city and its surrounding area is a result of variations in surface cover, thermal capacity and three-dimensional geometry. The objective of this research is to review the state of knowledge and current research to quantify surface urban heat islands (SUHI) and surface urban cool islands (SUCI). In order to identify open issues and gaps remaining in this field, we review research on SUHI/SUCI, the models for simulating UHIs/UCIs and techniques used in this field were appraised. The appraisal has revealed some great progress made in surface UHI mapping of cities located in humid and vegetated (temperate) regions, whilst few studies have investigated the spatiotemporal variation of surface SUHI/SUCI and the effect of land use/land cover (LULC) change on LST in arid and semi-arid climates. While some progress has been made, models for simulating UHI/UCI have been advancing only slowly. We conclude and suggest that SUHI/SUCI in arid and semi-arid areas requires more in-depth study.

Description: Differential Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (DInSAR) is a remote sensing technique that is capable of detecting land surface deformation with centimeter accuracy. In this research, this technique was applied to two pairs of Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) Phased Array L-band SAR (PALSAR) data to detect land subsidence in the Kathmandu valley from 2007 to 2010. The result revealed several subsidence areas towards the center of the valley ranging from a maximum of 9.9 km2 to a minimum of 1 km2 coverage with a maximum velocity of 4.8 cm/year, and a minimum velocity of 1.1 cm/year, respectively. The majority of the subsidence was observed in old settlement areas with mixed use development. The subsidence depth was found to gradually increase from the periphery towards the center in almost all detected subsidence areas. The subsidence depth was found to be in a range of 1 cm to 17 cm. It was found that the concentration of deep water extraction wells was higher in areas with higher subsidence rates. It was also found that the detected subsidence area was situated over geological formations mainly consisting of unconsolidated fine-grained sediments (silica, sand, silt, clay and silty sandy gravel), which is the major factor affecting the occurrence of land subsidence due to groundwater extraction.

Description: Text summarization namely, automatically generating a short summary of a given document, is a difficult task in natural language processing. Nowadays, deep learning as a new technique has gradually been deployed for text summarization, but there is still a lack of large-scale high quality datasets for this technique. In this paper, we proposed a novel deep learning method to identify high quality document–summary pairs for building a large-scale pairs dataset. Concretely, a long short-term memory (LSTM)-based model was designed to measure the quality of document–summary pairs. In order to leverage information across all parts of each document, we further proposed an improved LSTM-based model by removing the forget gate in the LSTM unit. Experiments conducted on the training set and the test set built upon Sina Weibo (a Chinese microblog website similar to Twitter) showed that the LSTM-based models significantly outperformed baseline models with regard to the area under receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) value.

Description: Decentralizing natural resource management to local people, especially in tropical countries, has become a trend. We review recent evidence for the impacts of decentralization on the biodiversity values of forests and forested landscapes, which encompass most of the biodiversity of the tropics. Few studies document the impact of decentralized management on biodiversity. We conclude that there may be situations where local management is a good option for biodiversity but there are also situations where this is not the case. We advocate increased research to document the impact of local management on biodiversity. We also argue that locally managed forests should be seen as components of landscapes where governance arrangements favor the achievement of a balance between the local livelihood values and the global public goods values of forests.

Description: The problems of low soil fertility resulting from continuous monocropping, crop residue removal and limited fertilizer use represent key challenges to produce surplus food for the ever increasing population of Ethiopia. However, the practices of crop rotation and integrated sources of fertilizer uses could potentially improve soil fertility and productivity. In 2012 and 2014, soybean with different trials consisting of two soybean varieties (Boshe and Ethio-ugozilavia), three levels of farm yard manure (FYM) (3, 6 and 9 t/ha) and three phosphorus levels (8, 16 and 24 kg P ha−1) were combined in 2 × 3 × 3 factorial arrangements. Two soybean varieties receiving no fertilizer application followed by finger millet receiving a recommended rate (20 kg P/ha) were included. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design with three replications. In 2013 and 2015, finger millet was planted on each soybean plot as per previous treatment arrangements to evaluate the effect of the precursor crop (soybean) and integrated fertilizer application on yield performance of the subsequent finger millet. Soil pH, organic carbon, total nitrogen and available phosphorus before planting and after crop harvest of soybean in each year showed treatment differences. Both precursor crop and fertilizer application had a positive effect on soil fertility status and, hence, improved the performance of the subsequent finger millet. On the other hand, since the rainfall amount and distribution were different in the 2012 and 2014 seasons, the response of soybean varieties to applied fertilizers was significantly affected, and the correlation between soybean yield and annual rainfall was strongly positive. Use of an early maturing soybean variety (Boshe) with the lowest rates of organic and inorganic fertilizers gave significantly higher yield in 2012 (short rainy season) compared with other treatment combinations. In the 2014 cropping season, however, ‘Ethio-ugozilavia’ showed greater yield performance with the combined application of 3 t FYM/ha and 1616 kg PP/ha followed by 3 t FYM and 88 kg P/ha. Hence, it is recommended to use the ‘Boshe’ variety under a short rainy season and under a low soil fertility status, while variety the ‘Ethio-ugozilavia’ can be used under good rainy and soil fertility management conditions. Considering residual effects, the use of the early maturing soybean variety as a precursor with 3 t FYM/ha and 8–16,816 kg P/ha during the short rainy season could enhance the yield of the subsequent finger millet. On the other hand, the use of the late maturing soybean variety as a precursor with higher organic fertilizer rates (6–9 t FYM/ha) resulted in a significant yield increase of the subsequent finger millet. The use of a late maturing variety of soybean with lower rates of organic manure resulted in a finger millet yield comparable to farmers’ practice, indicating that this option can be adopted by smallholder farmers who cannot produce sufficient organic manure. This study showed that planting of finger millet after a soybean precursor crop even without fertilizer application could give better yield and economic benefits as it saves 70%–85% of chemical fertilizer costs compared to the farmers’ practice.

Description: A turbo coded cooperative orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) with multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antennas scheme is considered, and its performance over a fast Rayleigh fading channel is evaluated. The turbo coded OFDM incorporates MIMO (2 × 2) Alamouti space-time block code. The interleaver design, and its placement always plays a vital role in the performance of a turbo coded cooperation scheme. Therefore, a code-matched interleaver (CMI) is selected as an optimum choice of interleaver and is placed at the relay node. The performance of the CMI is evaluated in a turbo coded OFDM system over an additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel. Moreover, the performance of the CMI is also evaluated in the turbo coded OFDM system with MIMO antennas over a fast Rayleigh fading channel. The modulation schemes chosen are Binary Phase shift keying (BPSK), Quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) and 16-Quadrature amplitude modulation (16QAM). Soft-demodulators are employed along with joint iterative soft-input soft-output (SISO) turbo decoder at the destination node. Monte Carlo simulated results reveal that the turbo coded cooperative OFDM system with MIMO antennas scheme incorporates coding gain, diversity gain and cooperation gain successfully over the direct transmission scheme under identical conditions.

Description: This article aims to raise issues for discussion about the change in the use and concept of sacred landscapes, which were originally constructed in the era of the Cypriot kings (the basileis), but then continued to function in a new imperial environment, that of the rule of the Ptolemaic strategos and later of the Roman proconsul and the various Christian bishops. Our archaeological survey project in the Xeros river valley, titled ‘Settled and Sacred Landscapes of Cyprus’, reveals that these new politico-economic structures were also supported by the construction of symbolically charged sacred landscapes. Thus, while outlining the long history of the island as manifested from the diachronic study of Cypriot sacred landscapes, we identify three pivotal phases: first, the consolidation of the Cypriot polities and the establishment of a ‘full’ sacred landscape; second, the transition from segmented to unitary administration under the Ptolemaic and Roman imperial rule and the consolidation of a more ‘unified sacred landscape’; and finally, the establishment of a number of Christian bishoprics on the island and the movement back to a ‘full’ sacred landscape. Moving beyond the discipline of Cypriot archaeology, this contribution aims to serve as a paradigm for the implications that the employment of the ‘sacred landscapes’ concept may have when addressing issues of socio-political and socio-economic transformations. While it is very difficult to define or capture the concept of landscape in a pre-modern world, it offers a useful means by which to assess changing local conditions. We have also attempted to situate the term in archaeological thought, in order to allow the concept to become a more powerful investigative tool for approaching the past.

Description: Compressed sensing (CS) has become a powerful tool to process data that is correlated in underwater sensor networks (USNs). Based on CS, certain signals can be recovered from a relatively small number of random linear projections. Since the battery-driven sensor nodes work in adverse environments, energy-efficient routing well-matched with CS is needed to realize data gathering in USNs. In this paper, a clustering, uneven-layered, and multi-hop routing based on CS (CS-CULM) is proposed. The inter-cluster transmission and fusion are fulfilled by an improved LEACH protocol, then the uneven-layered, multi-hop routing is adopted to forward the packets fused to sink node for data reconstruction. Simulation results show that CS-CULM can achieve better performances in energy saving and data reconstruction.

Description: Stress-inducible genes undergo epigenetic modifications under stress conditions. To investigate if HSP17, of which transcripts accumulate in plant cells under stress, is regulated through epigenetic mechanisms under drought stress, 5-day-old barley (Hordeum vulgare cv. Carina) plants were subjected to progressive drought through water withholding for 22 days. Changes in physiological status and expression of HSP17 gene were monitored in primary leaves of control and drought-treated plants every two days. Twelve days after drought started, control and drought-treated plants were analyzed by chromatin-immunoprecipitation using antibodies against three histone modifications (H3K4me3, H3K9ac, and H3K9me2) and H3 itself. Already after four days of drought treatment, stomatal conductance was severely decreased. Thereafter, maximum and quantum yield of photosystem II (PSII), regulated and non-regulated energy dissipation in PSII, and later also chlorophyll content, were affected by drought, indicating the stress-induced onset of senescence. At the 12th day of drought, before leaf water content declined, expression of HSP17 gene was increased two-fold in drought-treated plants compared to the controls. Twelve days of drought caused an increase in H3 and a loss in H3K9me2 not only at HSP17, but also at constitutively transcribed reference genes ACTIN, PROTEIN PHOSPHATASE 2A (pp2A), and at silent regions BM9, CEREBA. In contrast, H3K4me3 showed a specific increase at HSP17 gene at the beginning and the middle part of the coding region, indicating that this mark is critical for the drought-responsive transcription status of a gene.

Description: Most of the available research studies have focused on the production of high grain yields of wheat and have neglected yield stability. However, yield stability is a relevant factor in agronomic practice and, therefore, is the focus of this comprehensive survey. The aim was to first describe the importance of yield stability as well as currently used practical management strategies that ensure yield stability in wheat production and secondly, to obtain potential research areas supporting yield stability in the complex system of agronomy. The target groups were German farmers with experience in wheat production and advisors with expertise in the field of wheat cultivation or research. A sample size of 615 completed questionnaires formed the data basis of this study. The study itself provides evidence that the yield stability of winter wheat is even more important than the amount of yield for a large proportion of farmers (48%) and advisors (47%). Furthermore, in the view of the majority of the surveyed farmers and advisors, yield stability is gaining importance in climate change. Data analysis showed that site adapted cultivar choice, favorable crop rotations and integrated plant protection are ranked as three of the most important agronomic management practices to achieve high yield stability of wheat. Soil tillage and fertilization occupied a middle position, whereas sowing date and sowing density were estimated with lower importance. However, yield stability is affected by many environmental, genetic and agronomic factors, which subsequently makes it a complex matter. Hence, yield stability in farming practice must be analyzed and improved in a systems approach.

Description: The increasing availability of large amounts of data and digital footprints has given rise to ambitious research challenges in many fields, which spans from medical research, financial and commercial world, to people and environmental monitoring. Whereas traditional data sources and census fail in capturing actual and up-to-date behaviors, Big Data integrate the missing knowledge providing useful and hidden information to analysts and decision makers. With this paper, we focus on the identification of city events by analyzing mobile phone data (Call Detail Record), and we study and evaluate the impact of these events over the typical city dynamics. We present an analytical process able to discover, understand and characterize city events from Call Detail Record, designing a distributed computation to implement Sociometer, that is a profiling tool to categorize phone users. The methodology provides an useful tool for city mobility manager to manage the events and taking future decisions on specific classes of users, i.e., residents, commuters and tourists.

Description: The automation of farm tasks in dairy production has been on the rise, with an increasing focus on technologies that measure aspects of animal welfare; however, such technologies are not often validated for use in tie-stall farms. The objectives of the current study were to (1) determine the ability of the IceTag 3D pedometer to accurately measure step data for cows in tie-stalls, and (2) determine whether the leg on which the pedometer is mounted impacts step data. Twenty randomly selected Holstein dairy cows were equipped with pedometers on each rear leg and recorded for 6 h over three 2-h periods. Two observers were trained to measure step activity and the total number of steps per minute were measured. Hourly averages for right and left leg data were analyzed separately using a multivariate mixed model to determine the correlation between pedometer and video step data as well as the correlation between left and right leg step data. The analysis of the video versus pedometer data yielded a high overall correlation for both the left (r = 0.93) and right (r = 0.95) legs. Additionally, there was good correlation between the left and right leg step data (r = 0.80). These results indicate that the IceTag 3D pedometers were accurate for calculating step activity in tie-stall housed dairy cows and can be mounted on either leg of a cow. This study confirms that these pedometers could be a useful automated tool in both a research and commercial setting to better address welfare issues in dairy cows housed in tie-stalls.

Description: Adaptive coded and modulation (ACM) is an effective measure to resist rain attenuation in Ka-band satellite communications. The accuracy of the estimator for signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is one of the main factors that affect ACM performance. This paper establishes the channel model of satellite communication in Ka-band and derives and analyzes data-aided (DA) maximum likelihood (ML) and method-of-moments estimators for SNR of continuous phase modulation (CPM) in Ka-band fading channel. Simulations and analysis indicate that the normalized mean square error (NMSE) of the DA ML estimator is closer to the Cramer-Rao bounds (CRB) at low SNR, but the performance worsens with the SNR increases from medium to high values. The M2M4 estimator performs poorly at low SNR and best at medium SNR. When the SNR is low, the performance of the DA ML estimator is better than the M2M4 estimator; however, the two estimators have similar performance when SNR is high. The performances of the two estimators will become increasingly better the greater the lengths of the observation signals become. However, the influence of the signal length will become increasingly smaller as the SNR becomes larger.

Description: The conjunction of wireless computing, ubiquitous Internet access, and the miniaturisation of sensors have opened the door for technological applications that can monitor health and well-being outside of formal healthcare systems. The health-related Internet of Things (H-IoT) increasingly plays a key role in health management by providing real-time tele-monitoring of patients, testing of treatments, actuation of medical devices, and fitness and well-being monitoring. Given its numerous applications and proposed benefits, adoption by medical and social care institutions and consumers may be rapid. However, a host of ethical concerns are also raised that must be addressed. The inherent sensitivity of health-related data being generated and latent risks of Internet-enabled devices pose serious challenges. Users, already in a vulnerable position as patients, face a seemingly impossible task to retain control over their data due to the scale, scope and complexity of systems that create, aggregate, and analyse personal health data. In response, the H-IoT must be designed to be technologically robust and scientifically reliable, while also remaining ethically responsible, trustworthy, and respectful of user rights and interests. To assist developers of the H-IoT, this paper describes nine principles and nine guidelines for ethical design of H-IoT devices and data protocols.

Description: Smartphones and other mobile devices have proliferated in the past five years. The expectation of mobile device users to always be online has led to Wi-Fi networks being offered by a variety of providers. Using these networks introduces multiple security risks. In this work, we assess to what extent the privacy stance of mobile device users corresponds with their actual behavior by conducting a study with 108 participants. Our methodology consists of monitoring Wi-Fi networks that the participants’ devices connect to and the connections made by apps on these devices, for a period of 30 days. Afterwards, participants are surveyed about their awareness and privacy sensitiveness. We show that while a higher expertise in computer networks corresponds to more awareness about the connections made by apps, neither this expertise nor the actual privacy stance of the participant translates to better security habits. Moreover, participants in general were unaware about a significant part of connections made by apps on their devices, a matter that is worsened by the fact that one third of Wi-Fi networks that participants connect to do not have any security enabled. Based on our results, we provide recommendations to network providers, developers and users on how to improve Wi-Fi security for mobile devices.

Description: The objective of this study was to develop information mining methodology for drought modeling and predictions using historical records of climate, satellite, environmental, and oceanic data. The classification and regression tree (CART) approach was used for extracting drought episodes at different time-lag prediction intervals. Using the CART approach, a number of successful model trees were constructed, which can easily be interpreted and used by decision makers in their drought management decisions. The regression rules produced by CART were found to have correlation coefficients from 0.71–0.95 in rules-alone modeling. The accuracies of the models were found to be higher in the instance and rules model (0.77–0.96) compared to the rules-alone model. From the experimental analysis, it was concluded that different combinations of the nearest neighbor and committee models significantly increase the performances of CART drought models. For more robust results from the developed methodology, it is recommended that future research focus on selecting relevant attributes for slow-onset drought episode identification and prediction.

Description: Building-up construction is one of several methods for constructing self-dual codes. Recently, a new building-up construction method has been developed by S. Han, in which the existence of a square matrix U such that U U T = - I is essential. In this paper, we completely solve the existence problem for U over Z p m , where p is an arbitrary prime number.

Description: Phosphorus (P) runoff from agricultural sources is a recognized environmental problem, particularly in regions draining into Lake Erie. This problem may well be exacerbated particularly through increased magnitude and frequency of extreme climatic events (e.g., excessive precipitation and droughts). On the physical sciences side, the recent extensive literature focuses on structural Best Management Practices (BMPs) which have the potential to mitigate both surface and sub-subsurface P losses. Modeling studies show that there is still a lack of adoption of these P-related voluntary BMPs by the farmers. At the same time, and while the social sciences side of the literature on structural BMPs adoption weakly affirms the latter, this paper argues that the literature on resilience and on agricultural innovation can better inform our understanding of the limited adoption of phosphorus related structural BMPs by farmers in the Lake Erie Basin.

Description: The sugarcane germplasm collection located in Khuzestan, Iran, is one of the most important genetic resources with valuable accessions from different continents. However, this collection has not been properly used by breeders due to the extremely large population. The aim of this study was to phenotypically characterize the sugarcane germplasm and form a mini-core collection. Hence, 13 morphological traits were evaluated on 253 accessions. The primary germplasm was grouped into 10 clusters based on partial repeated bisection (RB) data, where the smallest cluster contained three accessions from two breeding centres (USA and Cuba). Using principal component analysis (PCA), the first two PCs (principal component) explained 59.5% of the total variation. A mini-core of 21 accessions was created by using the maximization strategy, with a low mean difference percentage (MD = 2.31%) and large coincidence rate of range (CR = 93.96%). The sugarcane mini-core represented the major diversity of the primary collection. The means and medians between the mini-core and the primary collection did not differ significantly. Accessions with high sugar and cane yield, originating from the USA, Cuba, Argentina, and South Africa, were in the mini-core collection. In this paper, we established, for the first time, an applied mini-core collection in sugarcane germplasm. The mini-core collection, as a breeding collection, is a highly suitable, manageable, and efficient subset for the enhanced use of sugarcane germplasm in breeding programs.

Description: Primarily using cropped systems, previous studies have reported a positive linear relationship between microbial biomass carbon (MBC) and soil organic carbon (SOC). We conducted a meta-analysis to explore this relationship separately for grasslands and croplands using available literature. Studies were limited to those using fumigation–extraction for MBC for field samples. Trials were noted separately where records were distinct in space or time. Grasslands were naturally occurring, restored, or seeded. Cropping systems were typical of the temperate zone. MBC had a positive linear response to increasing SOC that was significant in both grasslands (p 〈 0.001; r2 = 0.76) and croplands (p 〈 0.001; r2 = 0.48). However, MBC increased 2.5-fold more steeply per unit of increasing SOC for grassland soils, as compared to the corresponding response in cropland soils. Expressing MBC as a proportion of SOC across the regression overall, slopes corresponded to 2.7% for grasslands and 1.1% for croplands. The slope of the linear relationship for grasslands was significantly (p = 0.0013) steeper than for croplands. The difference between the two systems is possibly caused by a greater proportion of SOC in grasslands being active rather than passive, relative to that in croplands, with that active fraction promoting the formation of MBC.

Description: Single-valued neutrosophic numbers (SVNNs) can express incomplete, indeterminate, and inconsistent information in the real world. Then, the common weighted aggregation operators of SVNNs may result in unreasonably aggregated results in some situations. Based on the hybrid weighted arithmetic and geometric aggregation and hybrid ordered weighted arithmetic and geometric aggregation ideas, this paper proposes SVNN hybrid weighted arithmetic and geometric aggregation (SVNNHWAGA) and SVNN hybrid ordered weighted arithmetic and geometric aggregation (SVNNHOWAGA) operators and investigates their rationality and effectiveness by numerical examples. Then, we establish a multiple-attribute decision-making method based on the SVNNHWAGA or SVNNHOWAGA operator under a SVNN environment. Finally, the multiple-attribute decision-making problem about the design schemes of punching machine is presented as a case to show the application and rationality of the proposed decision-making method.

Description: Land, Vol. 6, Pages 48: The Integration of Ecosystem Services in Planning: An Evaluation of the Nutrient Retention Model Using InVEST Software Land doi: 10.3390/land6030048 Authors: Stefano Salata Gabriele Garnero Carlo Barbieri Carolina Giaimo Mapping ecosystem services (ES) increases the awareness of natural capital value, leading to building sustainability into decision-making processes. Recently, many techniques to assess the value of ES delivered by different scenarios of land use/land cover (LULC) are available, thus becoming important practices in mapping to support the land use planning process. The spatial analysis of the biophysical ES distribution allows a better comprehension of the environmental and social implications of planning, especially when ES concerns the management of risk (e.g., erosion, pollution). This paper investigates the nutrient retention model of InVEST software through its spatial distribution and its quantitative value. The model was analyzed by testing its response to changes in input parameters: (1) the digital terrain elevation model (DEM); and (2) different LULC attribute configurations. The paper increases the level of attention to specific ES models that use water runoff as a proxy of nutrient delivery. It shows that the spatial distribution of biophysical values is highly influenced by many factors, among which the characteristics of the DEM and its interaction with LULC are included. The results seem to confirm that the biophysical value of ES is still affected by a high degree of uncertainty and encourage an expert field campaign as the only solution to use ES mapping for a regulative land use framework.

Description: Agriculture, Vol. 7, Pages 59: Analysis and Diagnosis of the Agrarian System in the Niayes Region, Northwest Senegal (West Africa) Agriculture doi: 10.3390/agriculture7070059 Authors: Yohann Fare Marc Dufumier Myriam Loloum Fanny Miss Alassane Pouye Ahmat Khastalani Adama Fall The agrarian system Analysis and Diagnosis is used for this study, the goal of which was to provide a corpus of basic knowledge and elements of reflection necessary for the understanding the Niayes farming systems dynamics in Senegal, West Africa. Such holistic work has never been done before for this small region that provides the majority of vegetables in the area, thanks to its microclimate and access to fresh water in an arid country. Reading of the landscape and historical interviews coupled with fine-tuned household surveys were used to build a typology of agricultural production units (each type being represented by a production system). The main phases within the region’s history were distinguished. Before colonization, agriculture was based on gathering and shifting agriculture (millet and peanut) in the southern region and transhumant stockbreeding in the North. During colonization, market gardening became a source of income as a response to cities’ increasing demand. Two major droughts (in the 1970s and 1980s) have accelerated this movement. Extension of market gardening areas and intensification of activities were made possible by Sahelian migrants’ influx and the creation of mbeye seddo, a contract that allows for sharing added value between the employer and seasonal workers, named sourghas. Over the past 20 years, the “race for motorization” has created important social gaps (added value sharing deserves review) and a risk of overexploitation of groundwater.

Description: Information, Vol. 8, Pages 87: Efficient Listening and Sleeping Scheduling Mechanism Based on Self-Similarity for Duty Cycle Opportunistic Mobile Networks Information doi: 10.3390/info8030087 Authors: Feng Zeng Yueyue Dou Zhigang Chen Hui Liu In opportunistic mobile networks (OppNets), nodes should be in listening state to discover the neighbors for opportunistic message forwarding. While in OppNets, contacts between nodes are sparse, most of the node’s energy is consumed in idle listening state, which highlights the need for energy saving in contact probing. Duty cycle operation can be applied to address this problem. However, it may cause the degradation of network connectivity when the state of node is turned to be sleeping. In this paper, we propose an adaptive scheduling mechanism based on self-similarity, in which LMMSE predictor is used to predict the future contact information. The state of a node will be set as listening or sleeping adaptively according to the predicted result of future contacts with other nodes. Finally, we validate the effectiveness of the proposed mechanism by conducting a large amount of trace-driven simulations, which show that the proposed mechanism outperforms the random working mechanism and periodical working mechanism in terms of the number of effective contacts, delivery ratio, transmission delay and cost.