Multi-wheat-model ensemble responses to interannual climate variability

We compare 27 wheat models' yield responses to interannual climate variability, analyzed at locations in Argentina, Australia, India, and The Netherlands as part of the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP) Wheat Pilot. Each model simulated 1981–2010 grain yield, and we evaluate results against the interannual variability of growing season temperature, precipitation, and solar radiation. The amount of information used for calibration has only a minor effect on most models' climate response, and even small multi-model ensembles prove beneficial. Wheat model clusters reveal common characteristics of yield response to climate; however models rarely share the same cluster at all four sites indicating substantial independence. Only a weak relationship (R² ≤ 0.24) was found between the models' sensitivities to interannual temperature variability and their response to long-term warming, suggesting that additional processes differentiate climate change impacts from observed climate variability analogs and motivating continuing analysis and model development efforts.     

Effects of hot water extraction pretreatment on physicochemical changes of Douglas fir

Hot water extraction (HWE) is an autocatalytic pretreatment that can be effectively integrated into most of the conversion technologies for extracting hemicelluloses from woody biomass. The objective of this study was to understand the influence of pretreatment factors on removal of hemicelluloses from Douglas fir chips. Compositional change in biomass was analyzed with ion chromatography and further confirmed with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). Highest hemicellulose extraction yield (HEY) was estimated to be 67.44% at the optimum reaction time (79 min) and temperature (180 °C) by using response surface methodology (RSM). Experimental results show that the HEY increased from 19.29 to 70.81% depending on the reaction time (30–120 min) and the temperature (140–180 °C). Effects of the severity factor (SF) on the mass removal and compositional changes were also evaluated. Hygroscopicity and thermal stability of wood were improved after HWE pretreatment. Colorimetric analysis showed that temperature has a greater influence on color of the wood chips during HWE pretreatment than dwell time. HWE pretreatment shows great potential for extracting hemicelluloses and altering physicochemical properties of wood in an integrated biorefinery for diversification of product portfolio.     

Factors affecting forestland owners' allocation of non-forested land to pine plantation for bioenergy in Virginia

Studies have shown that woody bioenergy can have potential economic, social, and environmental benefits. One of the ways to meet the growing biomass demand for woody bioenergy is by allocating currently non-forested land for growing feedstocks such as pine. Towards this end, we conducted a survey on 900 randomly selected private forestland owners in Virginia and asked what proportion of their non-forested land they would allocate for loblolly pine at given bid prices. We then used recursive partitioning based Tobit regression to analyze data. Our results suggest that the experience of having supplied wood for chip-n-saw mills in the past five years, large land holding, prior experience with state/federal financial/technical support programs, among other factors, lead to smaller proportion of non-forested land being allocated for pine. However, a higher price offer, stronger preference for producing non-timber forest products such as evergreen boughs and grapevine, and lesser dependence on working the land for annual income lead to larger proportion of non-forested land being allocate for pine. Our results could assist policy makers in developing and improving land use and energy policies, certification programs, and extension and outreach services. Our contribution also includes the use of threshold analyses to delineate tipping points in variables associated with different response rates and showing the different effect of variables in terms of how they affect the supply of biomass and the supply of land for bioenergy purposes.     

Evaluating the severity level of cotton Verticillium using spectral signature analysis

High spatial or spectral resolution remote sensing might be an efficient method for estimating Verticillium wilt incidence in cotton. The objectives of this study were to characterize leaf spectra and the physiological and biochemical parameters of cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) damaged by Verticillium dahliae Kleb. (simply, Verticillium) to determine the wavelengths of those leaves that were most responsive to cotton with Verticillium and to develop a spectral model to predict the severity levels (SLs) of Verticillium through evaluation of the SLs of cotton leaves with Verticillium at different growth stages using reflectance and the first derivative (FD) spectrum. The study revealed that the values of the physiological and biochemical parameters all gradually decreased with increasing SLs in cotton leaves infected with Verticillium. The spectral characteristics of cotton leaves infected with Verticillium were significant compared to healthy ones. The reflectance of cotton leaves increased with increasing SLs of SLs disease in the range of 400–2500 nm (excluding 700–900 nm). The values of FD spectrum changed significantly at the red edge of the chlorophyll absorption feature (680–740 nm). The wavelength position of the red edge shifted towards shorter wavelengths and the red-edge swing decreased with respect to increasing SLs. From this study, the raw spectral bands of 437–724 and 909–2500 nm and the FD spectra bands of 535–603 and 699–750 nm can be selected as sensitive bands for estimating the SLs of disease in cotton leaves. Inversion models have been established to estimate the SLs of cotton leaves infected with Verticillium. Of all models, the model of R _700nm/R _825nm was superior for quantitatively estimating the disease SLs of cotton leaves infected with Verticillium in practice: its root mean square error (RMSE) was 0.866 and relative error (RE) was only 0.012. Thus, both the selected wavelength ranges and the chosen reflectance models were good indicators of damage caused by Verticillium to cotton leaves. The results provide theoretical support for large-scale monitoring of cotton infected with Verticillium by air- and spaceborne remote sensing.     

Comparative study of proximate composition and amino acid in farmed and wild Pseudobagrus ussuriensis muscles

The proximate composition and amino acid compositions of the muscle of wild and farmed Pseudobagrus ussuriensis were compared. The lipid content of the farmed fish was significantly higher, while moisture content was significantly lower, than those of the wild fish. Pseudobagrus ussuriensis protein has a well‐balanced amino acid composition. The percentages of total amino acids, essential amino acids, nonessential amino acids and delicious amino acids were significantly higher in the wild than those in farmed fish. The ratios of W_EAA to W_TAA (42.78%–43.02%) and W_EAA to W_NEAA (85.52%–87.74%) were comparable to the reference values of 40% and above 60% recommended by FAO/WHO. According to the amino acid scores, methionine would have been described as the first limiting amino acid, and Lys had the highest score for the protein in both wild and farmed Pseudobagrus ussuriensis. This study shows that Pseudobagrus ussuriensis under investigation have high nutritional qualities and are good protein resources.     

Heterostructured dysprosium vanadate – ZnO for photo-electrocatalytic and self-cleaning applications

In this article, we report fabrication of 5 wt% of Dy as DyVO₄ supported ZnO by template-free hydrothermal-thermal decomposition method and its photocatalytic activity towards degradation of azo dyes Rhodamine-B (Rh-B) and Trypan Blue (TB) in solar light, Electrocatalytic activity in methanol oxidation and Self-cleaning properties. The as prepared DyVO₄-ZnO was characterized by surface analytical and spectroscopic techniques. The results suggested that Dysprosium vanadate doping on ZnO has increased its photocatalytic efficiency with high reusability. DyVO₄-ZnO exhibits higher electrocatalytic activity than prepared ZnO for methanol electrooxidation in alkaline medium, revealing its promising potential as the anode in direct methanol fuel cells. Hydrophobicity of ZnO increases by doping of DyVO_4.     

Determination of biomass accumulation in mixed belts of Salix,Corylus and Alnus species in combined food and energy production system

Given the energetic, demographic and the climatic challenges faced today, we designed a combined food and energy (CFE) production system integrating food, fodder and mixed belts of Salix, Alnus and Corylus sp. as bioenergy belts. The objective was to assess the shoot dry weight-stem diameter allometric relationship based on stem diameter at 10 (SD₁₀) and 55 cm (SD₅₅) from the shoot base in the mixed bioenergy belts. Allometric relations based on SD₁₀ and SD₅₅ explained 90–96% and 90–98% of the variation in shoot dry weights respectively with no differences between the destructive and the non-destructive methods. The individual stool yields varied widely among the species and within willow species with biomass yield range of 37.60–92.00 oven dry tons (ODT) ha⁻¹ in 4-year growth cycle. The biomass yield of the bioenergy belt, predicted by allometric relations was 48.84 ODT ha⁻¹ in 4-year growth cycle corresponding to 12.21 ODT ha⁻¹ year⁻¹. The relatively high biomass yield is attributed to the border effects and the ‘fertilizing effect’ of alder due to nitrogen fixation, benefitting other SWRC components. On termination of 4-year growth cycle, the bioenergy belts were harvested and the biomass yield recorded was 12.54 ODT ha⁻¹ year⁻¹, in close proximity to the biomass yield predicted by the allometric equations, lending confidence and robustness of the model for biomass yield determination in such integrated agro-ecosystem.     

Chemical composition,protein fraction and fatty acid profile of donkey milk during lactation

The chemical composition, fatty acid and protein fraction of donkey milk samples from domestic (Arcadian) breed were assessed from the 30th day to the 210th day of lactation. Total fat, proteins and minerals (Ca, Mg, K and P) were affected by the stage of lactation. Fatty acids were significantly influenced, with a decrease of 31.4% in saturated fatty acids, an increase of 53.8% in unsaturated fatty acids, a concomitant elevation of polyunsaturated fatty acids and a low n-6/n-3 ratio (2:1). Analysis by sodium dodecylsulphate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis found, on average, 42.8% casein and 57.2% whey protein. The concentration of lysozyme was between 1.20 and 2.54 mg mL⁻¹, while the highest values were detected by the lysoplate method. Finally, low microbial content and somatic cells were also found in donkey milk with overall average log 4.4 cfu mL⁻¹ and log 4.8 cells mL⁻¹, respectively.     

Time–frequency interpretation of multi-frequency signal from rotating machinery using an improved Hilbert–Huang transform

The Hilbert–Huang transform (HHT) has proven to be a promising tool for the analysis of non-stationary signals commonly occurred in industrial machines. However, in practice, multi-frequency intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) and pseudo IMFs are likely generated and lead to grossly erroneous or even completely meaningless instantaneous frequencies, which raise difficulties in interpreting signal features by the HHT spectrum. To enhance the time–frequency resolution of the traditional HHT, an improved HHT is proposed in this study. By constructing a bank of partially overlapping bandpass filters, a series of filtered signals are obtained at first. Then a subset of filtered signals, each associated with certain energy-dominated components, are selected based on the maximal-spectral kurtosis–minimal-redundancy criterion and the information-related coefficient, and further decomposed by empirical mode decomposition to extract sets of IMFs. Furthermore, IMF selection scheme is applied to select the relevant IMFs on which the HHT spectrum is constructed. The novelty of this method is that the HHT spectrum is just constructed with the relevant, almost monochromatic IMFs rather than with the IMFs possibly with multiple frequency components or with pseudo components. The results on the simulated data, test rig data, and industrial gearbox data show that the proposed method is superior to the traditional HHT in feature extraction and can produce a more accurate time–frequency distribution for the inspected signal.     

Degradation kinetics of total phenolic compounds,capsaicinoids and antioxidant activity in red pepper during hot air and infrared drying process

Degradation kinetics of total phenolic compounds, capsaicinoids and antioxidant activity in red pepper during both hot air drying and infrared drying were investigated, as well as the correlation between antioxidant compounds and antioxidant capacity was discussed in current study. The fractional conversion kinetic and first order kinetic models were proved to describe the changes of total phenolic compounds vs. drying time and moisture content, respectively. Degradation of capsaicinoids and antioxidant capacity vs. drying time and moisture content both followed fractional conversion kinetic model. Infrared drying accelerated the degradation rate of total phenolic compounds and capsaicinoids vs. drying time as compared with hot air drying at the same temperature; however, a contrary result was found that infrared drying decreased the degradation rate of both total phenolic compounds and capsaicinoids vs. moisture content. Total phenolic compounds exhibited a stronger relationship with antioxidant capacity of red pepper analysed by multiple linear regression analysis.