Determining nitrogen fractions in swine slurry

Nutrient management plans are used to reduce non-point source pollution from animal operations. These plans require manure analysis and use indices to determine nutrient availability. This study evaluated a modified method for determining nitrogen fractions in swine slurry stored under slatted floors, calculating plant available nitrogen, and characterizing nitrogen fractions by holding pit depth. Manure samples were collected from gestating sow and finishing pig holding pits at discrete depths. Ammonium, amino acid, and amino sugar concentrations were significantly different for gestation holding pits by depth, but finishing pig holding pit values were not significantly different by depth. Plant available nitrogen was approximately 74% for gestation and 67% for finishing barn manures. Nitrogen fraction analysis suggests land application of swine manure for crop growth should be managed based on type of nitrogen present in the manure, which can be highly correlated to animal growth stage.     

A sustainable pathway of cellulosic ethanol production integrating anaerobic digestion with biorefining

Anaerobic digestion (AD) of animal manure is traditionally classified as a treatment to reduce the environmental impacts of odor, pathogens, and excess nutrients associated with animal manure. This report shows that AD also changes the composition of manure fiber and makes it suitable as a cellulosic feedstock for ethanol production. Anaerobically digested manure fiber (AD fiber) contains less hemicellulose (11%) and more cellulose (32%) than raw manure, and has better enzymatic digestibility than switchgrass. Using the optimal dilute alkaline pretreatment (2% sodium hydroxide, 130°C, and 2 h), enzymatic hydrolysis of 10% (dry basis) pretreated AD fiber produces 51 g/L glucose at a conversion rate of 90%. The ethanol fermentation on the hydrolysate has a 72% ethanol yield. The results indicate that 120 million dry tons of cattle manure available annually in the U.S. can generate 63 million dry tons of AD fiber that can produce more than 1.67 billion gallons of ethanol. Integrating AD with biorefining will make significant contribution to the cellulosic ethanol production. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2010;105: 1031–1039. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Costs of unnecessary tests.

The relative importance of the history, examination, and routine and special investigations has been assessed in the diagnosis and management of 630 medical outpatients. The history was the most important factor in both diagnosis and management in cardiovascular, neurological, respiratory, urinary, and other miscellaneous problems, and decided 56% of all diagnoses and 46% of all management. Examination findings were of more limited value, accounting for only 17% of diagnostic and 17% of management decisions overall. Routine haematology and urine examinations were of minimal value, contributing to less than 1% of all diagnoses. Special investigations decided most of the diagnoses and management in alimentary and endocrine problems, but were less helpful in problems affecting all other systems. If a local survey in the Trent Region reflected the pattern of medical outpatient practice nationally, then pounds 1.25 million could be saved annually if routine investigation was discontinued on all patients whose problem had already been diagnosed on the basis of the history and the clinical examination.     

SaudiVeg ecoinformatics: Aims,current status and perspectives

During the last decade many electronic databases of vegetation plots were established in many countries around the world. These databases contain valuable phytosociological information assisting both governmental and NGO (Non-governmental organizations) agencies to formulate strategies and on-ground plans to manage and protect nature resources. This paper provides an account on aims, current status and perspectives of building of a vegetation database for the Central Region (Najd) of Saudi Arabia – the founding element of the Saudi Vegetation Database (SVD). The data stored by the database are sample plots (vegetation relevés) collected according to the field techniques of the Braun-Blanquet approach (lists of taxa accompanied by semi-quantitative cover assessment), and are accompanied by general vegetation characteristics such as vegetation layering and cover, information on life-form of the recorded species, geographical coordinates, altitude, soil typology, topography and many more. More than 2900 vegetation-plot records (relevés) have so far been collected in the Najd region; of these more than 2000 have already been stored using the Turboveg database platform. These field records cover many habitats such as depressions, wadis (dry river beds), agricultural lands, sand dunes, sabkhas, and ruderal habitats. The ecological information collected in the database is currently the largest set of vegetation data collated into a database in the Middle East. These data are of great importance for biodiversity studies in Saudi Arabia, since the region is recording a loss of biodiversity at a fast rate due to environmental problems such as global warming and land-use changes. We envisage that this database would catalyze further data collection on vegetation of the entire Arabian Peninsula, and shall serve as one of the most important datasets for classification and mapping of the vegetation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.     

Leaching of Escherichia coli O157:H7 in diverse soils under various agricultural management practices

Application of animal manures to soil as crop fertilizers is an important means for recycling the nitrogen and phosphorus which the manures contain. Animal manures also contain bacteria, including many types of pathogens. Manure pathogen levels depend on the source animal, the animal's state of health, and how the manure was stored or treated before use. Rainfall may result in pathogen spread into soil by runoff from stored or unincorporated manure or by leaching through the soil profile. Steady rainfall consisting of 16.5 mm h(-1) was applied to 100-mm disturbed soil cores that were treated with manure and inoculated with Escherichia coli O157:H7 strain B6914. The level of B6914 in leachate was near the inoculum level each hour for 8 h, as was the level of B6914 at several soil depths after 24 h, indicating that there was a high rate of growth. Bacterial movement through three different types of soil was then compared by using disturbed (tilled) and intact (no-till) soil cores and less intense rainfall consisting of 25.4 mm on 4 consecutive days and then four more times over a 17-day period. Total B6914 levels exceeded the inoculum levels for all treatments except intact clay loam cores. B6914 levels in daily leachate samples decreased sharply with time, although the levels were more constant when intact sandy loam cores were used. The presence of manure often increased total B6914 leachate and soil levels in intact cores but had the opposite effect on disturbed soil cores. Ammonia and nitrate levels correlated with B6914 and total coliform levels in leachate. We concluded that tillage practice, soil type, and method of pathogen delivery affect but do not prevent vertical E. coli O157:H7 and coliform transport in soil and that soluble nitrogen may enhance transport.     

In-silico screening of new potential Bcl-2/Bcl-xl inhibitors as apoptosis modulators

One of the major problems in the fight against cancer is drug-resistance, which, at a molecular level, can be acquired through mutations able to deactivate apoptosis. In particular, proteins in the Bcl-2 family are central regulators of programmed cell death, and members that inhibit apoptosis, such as Bcl-xl and Bcl-2, are overexpressed in many tumours. The development of new inhibitors of these proteins as potential anticancer therapeutics represents a new frontier. In this work, we carried out an in-silico screening of compounds from a free database of more than 2 million structures (ZINC database), which allowed us to identify 17 sulfonamide derivatives as new potential inhibitors; these are currently undergoing biological evaluation.     

Enumerative and binomial sequential sampling plans for the multicolored Asian lady beetle (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) in wine grapes

To develop a practical integrated pest management (IPM) system for the multicolored Asian lady beetle, Harmonia axyridis (Pallas) (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae), in wine grapes, we assessed the spatial distribution of H. axyridis and developed eight sampling plans to estimate adult density or infestation level in grape clusters. We used 49 data sets collected from commercial vineyards in 2004 and 2005, in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Enumerative plans were developed using two precision levels (0.10 and 0.25); the six binomial plans reflected six unique action thresholds (3, 7, 12, 18, 22, and 31% of cluster samples infested with at least one H. axyridis). The spatial distribution of H. axyridis in wine grapes was aggregated, independent of cultivar and year, but it was more randomly distributed as mean density declined. The average sample number (ASN) for each sampling plan was determined using resampling software. For research purposes, an enumerative plan with a precision level of 0.10 (SE/X) resulted in a mean ASN of 546 clusters. For IPM applications, the enumerative plan with a precision level of 0.25 resulted in a mean ASN of 180 clusters. In contrast, the binomial plans resulted in much lower ASNs and provided high probabilities of arriving at correct "treat or no-treat" decisions, making these plans more efficient for IPM applications. For a tally threshold of one adult per cluster, the operating characteristic curves for the six action thresholds provided binomial sequential sampling plans with mean ASNs of only 19-26 clusters, and probabilities of making correct decisions between 83 and 96%. The benefits of the binomial sampling plans are discussed within the context of improving IPM programs for wine grapes.     

Classifying proteins into functional groups based on all-versus-all BLAST of 10 million proteins

To address the monumental challenge of assigning function to millions of sequenced proteins, we completed the first of a kind all-versus-all sequence alignments using BLAST for 9.9 million proteins in the UniRef100 database. Microsoft Windows Azure produced over 3 billion filtered records in 6 days using 475 eight-core virtual machines. Protein classification into functional groups was then performed using Hive and custom jars implemented on top of Apache Hadoop utilizing the MapReduce paradigm. First, using the Clusters of Orthologous Genes (COG) database, a length normalized bit score (LNBS) was determined to be the best similarity measure for classification of proteins. LNBS achieved sensitivity and specificity of 98% each. Second, out of 5.1 million bacterial proteins, about two-thirds were assigned to significantly extended COG groups, encompassing 30 times more assigned proteins. Third, the remaining proteins were classified into protein functional groups using an innovative implementation of a single-linkage algorithm on an in-house Hadoop compute cluster. This implementation significantly reduces the run time for nonindexed queries and optimizes efficient clustering on a large scale. The performance was also verified on Amazon Elastic MapReduce. This clustering assigned nearly 2 million proteins to approximately half a million different functional groups. A similar approach was applied to classify 2.8 million eukaryotic sequences resulting in over 1 million proteins being assign to existing KOG groups and the remainder clustered into 100,000 functional groups.     

我国古树资源的生存现状评估及威胁因素分析

古树是生态系统的组成部分,具有重要的生态功能和丰富的遗传多样性。为加强古树的科学保护和管理,本文分析了我国古树资源的分布、生存和保护现状以及受威胁因素。结果表明: 我国古树共记录1066万株,其中内蒙古自治区和云南省均超过100万株。分析全国102个县级地区的44万株古树的生长现状,发现有94.3%的古树生长良好,5.5%生长衰弱或濒危,0.2%已经死亡。古树受威胁因素主要有高温、干旱、火灾等自然灾害,以及城市化和土地利用、病虫害和乱砍偷盗等。病虫害的威胁最严重,有83个地区(81.4%)受病虫害威胁严重;其次是自然灾害的威胁,有68个地区(66.7%)发生过自然灾害。大部分古树(89%)分布在农村等偏远地区,缺乏有效的保护措施。可以利用无人机等新技术监测古树生长状态,加强病虫害防治和规避自然灾害,并建立古树资源数据库实现信息及时更新共享,避免偷盗砍伐。     

山西省畜禽业发展及粪尿养分时空变异

随着国家经济的高速发展和人民饮食结构的改变,畜禽养殖业由传统粗放式向规模化、集约化快速转变,畜禽粪尿的循环利用及其对环境的风险评价值得关注.本文利用统计资料和文献数据,通过使用食物链养分流动模型(NUFER)与GIS相结合,深入分析了山西省畜禽养殖量的变化特征,模拟了畜禽粪尿的产生量及其氮、磷养分的资源量,并从时空维度评价了山西省畜禽粪尿资源量及其环境风险.结果表明： 1978-2012年,山西省畜禽粪尿的产生量由1.61×10⁷ t增加至2.75×10⁷ t,增幅达1.71倍,粪尿氮由7.74×10⁴ t增长至17.32×10⁴ t,粪尿磷则由1.09×10⁴ t增长至3.39×10⁴ t,增幅分别达到2.38和3.10倍.除养殖总量增加之外,养殖结构和养殖方式也发生了重大变化.从空间分布看,2012年山西省耕地畜禽粪尿氮、磷承载量呈现晋北、晋中和晋东南高,中北部和西南部低的分布特征,耕地畜禽粪尿养分资源承载量在空间上分布极不平衡,这是区域养殖专业化程度与农业政策共同作用的结果.因此,应通过优化生产布局和区域间养分协同管理等手段,来调控畜禽粪尿的排放与循环利用,减少污染及环境风险,以实现畜禽粪尿养分资源的高效与可持续利用.     

Current activities of the national LCA project in Japan

The Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) has launched a national project, ‘Development of Assessment Technology of Life Cycle Environmental Impacts of Products’ (commonly known as the LCA Project). The activities of this project will be continued for 5 yeas since fiscal 1998 with an overall budget of total 850 million yen. The LCA Project aims to develop a highly reliable LCA database and LCA methodology which can be readily used throughout Japan. In this paper, the overall plans and current activities of project are indicated.     

MELODIE: a whole-farm model to study the dynamics of nutrients in dairy and pig farms with crops

In regions of intensive pig and dairy farming, nutrient losses to the environment at farm level are a source of concern for water and air quality. Dynamic models are useful tools to evaluate the effects of production strategies on nutrient flows and losses to the environment. This paper presents the development of a new whole-farm model upscaling dynamic models developed at the field or animal scale. The model, called MELODIE, is based on an original structure with interacting biotechnical and decisional modules. Indeed, it is supported by an ontology of production systems and the associated programming platform DIESE. The biotechnical module simulates the nutrient flows in the different animal, soil and crops and manure sub-models. The decision module relies on an annual optimization of cropping and spreading allocation plans, and on the flexible execution of activity plans for each simulated year. These plans are examined every day by an operational management sub-model and their application is context dependent. As a result, MELODIE dynamically simulates the flows of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, copper, zinc and water within the whole farm over the short and long-term considering both the farming system and its adaptation to climatic conditions. Therefore, it is possible to study both the spatial and temporal heterogeneity of the environmental risks, and to test changes of practices and innovative scenarios. This is illustrated with one example of simulation plan on dairy farms to interpret the Nitrogen farm-gate budget indicator. It shows that this indicator is able to reflect small differences in Nitrogen losses between different systems, but it can only be interpreted using a mobile average, not on a yearly basis. This example illustrates how MELODIE could be used to study the dynamic behaviour of the system and the dynamic of nutrient flows. Finally, MELODIE can also be used for comprehensive multi-criterion assessments, and it also constitutes a generic and evolving framework for virtual experimentation on animal farming systems.     

Leaching of Escherichia coli O157:H7 in Diverse Soils under Various Agricultural Management Practices

Application of animal manures to soil as crop fertilizers is an important means for recycling the nitrogen and phosphorus which the manures contain. Animal manures also contain bacteria, including many types of pathogens. Manure pathogen levels depend on the source animal, the animal's state of health, and how the manure was stored or treated before use. Rainfall may result in pathogen spread into soil by runoff from stored or unincorporated manure or by leaching through the soil profile. Steady rainfall consisting of 16.5 mm h⁻¹ was applied to 100-mm disturbed soil cores that were treated with manure and inoculated with Escherichia coli O157:H7 strain B6914. The level of B6914 in leachate was near the inoculum level each hour for 8 h, as was the level of B6914 at several soil depths after 24 h, indicating that there was a high rate of growth. Bacterial movement through three different types of soil was then compared by using disturbed (tilled) and intact (no-till) soil cores and less intense rainfall consisting of 25.4 mm on 4 consecutive days and then four more times over a 17-day period. Total B6914 levels exceeded the inoculum levels for all treatments except intact clay loam cores. B6914 levels in daily leachate samples decreased sharply with time, although the levels were more constant when intact sandy loam cores were used. The presence of manure often increased total B6914 leachate and soil levels in intact cores but had the opposite effect on disturbed soil cores. Ammonia and nitrate levels correlated with B6914 and total coliform levels in leachate. We concluded that tillage practice, soil type, and method of pathogen delivery affect but do not prevent vertical E. coli O157:H7 and coliform transport in soil and that soluble nitrogen may enhance transport.     

Reconciling the new demands for food protection with environmental needs in the management of livestock wastes

Government policy in many countries has been to promote manure management methods to reduce the negative impacts related to water and air pollution. The central strategy of encouraging manure as a fertiliser rather than treating it as a waste, is under threat from new concerns on public health and especially food quality. Restrictions on manure applications to certain food crops and the stipulation of treatment to 70 °C for 1 h (in the case of manure products) represent barriers to the use of such material as a useful organic product in the farming and horticultural industries. However, the sensible development of spreading plans in which high and low risk land is identified can enable appropriate and effective treatment for each situation and minimise overall cost. In the high risk situations, processes based on heat treatment remain the most reliable but there still remains the need to ensure a minimum temperature to ensure a satisfactory treatment. Direct application of heat available from biogas coupled with heat recovery may make thermal treatment of effluents a viable option where no effective environmental friendly alternatives exist.     

Management of the natural ecosystems of the Cape Peninsula: current status and future prospects

The Cape Peninsula is an area of outstanding natural beauty and exceptional biodiversity, worthy of proclamation as a World Heritage Site. The area is dominated by fynbos vegetation, usually managed by means of prescribed burning, together with various programmes aimed at the control of invasive alien plant species. Effective management of the Peninsula is bedevilled by the fact that the area is controlled by no less than 14 different public bodies, resulting in fragmentation of effort and the lack of a standardized approach to management. Historically, many official and unofficial investigations have called for this problem to be resolved, without success. The lack of coherent, focused, and well funded fire and alien weed control management plans for the entire Peninsula is a serious deficiency. Despite this, considerable progress has been made towards the establishment of a database for the Peninsula, and the development of decision support systems that can utilize this database for rational management. Adoption of such a system would provide a powerful uniting tramework that would standardize and influence the management approaches adopted by the various controlling authorities.     

Genetic research on the UK population--do new principles need to be developed?

Governments around the world are beginning to generate population databases as resources for genetic research. In the UK, a proposal has been tabled that plans to incorporate National Health Service information--a move that will effectively create a database of around 60 million. However, this new population collection will not conform to standards established by other national genetic databases, and the UK government report has not accounted for key ethical issues.     

根系分区交替灌溉条件下水肥供应对番茄果实硝酸盐含量的影响

为了研究根系分区交替灌溉条件下灌水量和氮、磷、钾肥及有机肥用量对番茄果实硝酸盐含量的影响,采用五元二次正交旋转组合设计,通过盆栽试验,建立了番茄果实中硝酸盐含量与水肥因子的数学模型,并对各单一因素的效应及两两因素的耦合效应进行了分析。结果表明,在其他因子为中间水平时,番茄果实中的硝酸盐含量,随灌水量呈先降低后增加的变化规律;随施氮量和施磷量呈先增加后降低的变化趋势;随有机肥用量呈逐渐增加的趋势;但不受钾肥用量的影响。交互效应表现为,施磷量与有机肥用量、施氮量与施磷量间的相互作用会促使番茄果实硝酸盐含量提高;灌水量与施钾量和有机肥量、施氮量与施钾量间的相互作用有利于降低番茄果实硝酸盐累积。耦合效应表现为,除不施有机肥时随灌水量增加番茄果实硝酸盐含量显著增加外,对于其它任何有机肥及钾肥施用水平,果实硝酸盐含量皆随灌水量增加呈先减小后增加趋势;灌水量高于中水平时,番茄果实硝酸盐含量随着钾肥与有机肥用量的增加而减少。不论施磷量与施钾量如何变化,番茄果实硝酸盐含量皆随施氮量呈现先增加后减小的变化趋势,降低氮肥用量同时提高磷肥用量有利于降低番茄果实硝酸盐累积,而提高施钾量仅在施氮量高于中水平时能显著降低番茄果实硝酸盐含量。适当增加磷肥用量、减小有机肥用量能显著降低番茄果实硝酸盐的累积。     

Understanding social demand for sustainable nature conservation. The case of a protected natural space in South-Eastern Spain

The implementation of sustainable management plans for protected areas is one of the main challenges for public institutions. These plans involve public participation and the assessment of social benefits provided by these open spaces. This work proposes the use of choice experiments methodology for the evaluation of management alternatives for a protected area. The case study within this work is El Valle and Carrascoy Natural Park, which is included in the Natura 2000 Network. This Protected Natural Area (PNA) is located in a peri-urban area; thus, it combines high natural values and high anthropic pressure. A Choice Experiment (CE) was designed through consultation with the Park managers and technicians, and it was applied to a representative sample of the population within the Region of Murcia (South-Eastern Spain). CE allowed an estimation of the value of different management alternatives, classified according to the three main sustainability areas: social; economic; and, environmental. The results show population's demand for environmental management alternatives, such as protection of flora and fauna and promotion of ecotourism, as well as a rejection of quarrying in the PNA. The economic values estimated allow the proposal of a distribution of the annual budget of the PNA according to the social demand.     

Distribution and abundance of magpie geese,Anseranas semipalmata,in the Alligator Rivers Region,Northern Territory

Aerial surveys from 1981 to 1984 were used to identify monthly changes in the abundance of magpie geese on Jive floodplains in the Alligator Rivers Region of the monsoonal Northern Territory, and ground surveys were conducted during the same period on one of the plains to provide more detailed distributional information. The aerial surveys showed that the Magela floodplain was inhabited by few geese during the wet season (November-March), but that numbers then increased to an estimated average peak of 80 000 in the late dry season. The Nourlangie floodplain and Boggy Plain (a large backswamp of the South Alligator floodplain) exhibited a similar pattern, except that the peaks occurred 2–3 months before the end of the dry season and comprised many more geese (an estimated average of 350 000 birds). In contrast, geese were uncommon on the East Alligator floodplain except during the wet season, and densities and numbers were lower than on the three previous plains. The Cooper floodplain was occupied intermittently, and numbers and densities were always relatively low. Geese appeared to return from their breeding localities to the floodplains of the Alligator Rivers Region progressively during the dry season, concentrating first on the extensive Eleocharis swamps of the Nourlangie floodplain and then waiting out the remainder of the dry on the substantial permanent waters of the Magela floodplain and other nearby wetlands. Ground surveys on the Magela floodplain suggested that geese were highly mobile, apparently seeking suitable nesting habitat in the late wet season, and then a sequence of feeding areas during the dry season. Aerial surveys underestimated densities; on the basis of ground surveys, average peak numbers on the Magela plain were calculated to be 500 000. We estimate that the Alligator Rivers Region supported an average of about 1.6 million geese in the dry season, but very many fewer during the wet season.     

Large-scale preventive chemotherapy for the control of helminth infection in Western Pacific countries: six years later

In 2001, Urbani and Palmer published a review of the epidemiological situation of helminthiases in the countries of the Western Pacific Region of the World Health Organization indicating the control needs in the region. Six years after this inspiring article, large-scale preventive chemotherapy for the control of helminthiasis has scaled up dramatically in the region. This paper analyzes the most recent published and unpublished country information on large-scale preventive chemotherapy and summarizes the progress made since 2000. Almost 39 million treatments were provided in 2006 in the region for the control of helminthiasis: nearly 14 million for the control of lymphatic filariasis, more than 22 million for the control of soil-transmitted helminthiasis, and over 2 million for the control of schistosomiasis. In general, control of these helminthiases is progressing well in the Mekong countries and Pacific Islands. In China, despite harboring the majority of the helminth infections of the region, the control activities have not reached the level of coverage of countries with much more limited financial resources. The control of food-borne trematodes is still limited, but pilot activities have been initiated in China, Lao People's Democratic Republic, and Vietnam.