Automatic acoustic detection of the red palm weevil

The red palm weevil (RPW) is a key pest of horticultural and ornamental palm species in Asia, the Middle East and the Mediterranean region, currently dispersing in Mediterranean European countries, endangering the landscape. The RPW larvae bore deep into palm crowns, trunks and offshoots, concealed from visual inspection until the palms are nearly dead. Traded palm trees are intensively transported between and within countries, spreading the pest worldwide. Consequently, an urgent need exists to identify and monitor concealed RPW larvae. Acoustic signals of boring RPW larvae can be recorded from the infested palms using off-the-shelf recording devices, but the resolution of the signals emitted by healthy palms is often difficult to discriminate. The purpose of this research was to develop a mathematical method to automatically detect acoustic activity of RPW in offshoots and implement it in a prototype setup. The methodology applied was similar to techniques used in the field of speech recognition, utilizing Vector quantization (VQ) or Gaussian mixture modeling (GMM). The algorithm successfully achieved detection ratios as high as 98.9%. The study shows that it is feasible to detect RPW sounds using the mathematical method of speech recognition and commercial recording devices, which could be utilized to monitor trade and transportation of offshoots.     

Understanding rat occurrences in oil palm plantation using high-resolution satellite image and GIS data

Rats are an important vertebrate pest of oil palm in Malaysia. This damage translates into substantial economic loss to the oil palm plantation sector. We used habitat factors dervived from GIS data to develop a logistic regression model to predict rat occurrence in a FELDA oil palm plantation in Sabah, Malaysia. Our logistic regression results predicted a high occurrence of rats in young palms areas (<3 years) and in areas near the plantation roads. The rat occurrence areas were further examined using a detailed land cover types generated from a high-resolution satellite image (GeoEye, spatial resolution: 0.5 m). Our results showed that the combination of bare or open areas bushes mixed with partial shades of young palms is important to the survival of Rattus rattus diardii, a highly adaptable rat species that dominated the plantation. The combined use of GIS and high-resolution satellite remote sensing techniques enhanced our understanding of rat occurrence in oil palm plantation. Our results suggest these techniques can be used to predict rat occurrence and can be used to guide the rat baiting program in the oil palm plantation.     

Distribution of Fungi from the Genus <Emphasis Type="Italic">Fusarium</Emphasis> Link. on Cereals

The species composition of fungi from the genus Fusarium was studied, and the frequency of occurrence on cereals was determined. Populations of Fusarium spp. were represented by widespread species F. culmorum, F. heterosporum, F. sporotrichioides, F. oxysporum, F. nivale, F. graminearum, F. avenacеum, F. gibbosum, F. sambucinum, F. moniliforme, etc. The dynamics and frequency of occurrence of Fusarium spp. has made it possible to characterize the state of the species of fungi in a wide range of climatic areas of cereal cultivation in the Russian regions. The prevalence of the genus Fusarium was caused by the cultivars’ susceptibility to micromycetes. The frequency of occurrence of Fusarium species isolated from roots was steady, and, on the ears, it depended on the influence of weather conditions during the growing season of plants. The study of the intraspecific variability of fungi from the genus Fusarium has revealed a significant difference in signs of toxicity and pathogenicity depending on biotic and abiotic factors. More than 50% of strains from the genus Fusarium possessed low pathogenicity but had severe toxicity to wheat seedlings. Most strains of F. sporotrichiodes, F. culmorum, and F. sambucinum were highly pathogenic (from 36.4 to 55.6%) and toxic (from 55.6 to 81.3%). High adaptability to preservation in the soil and on the roots of weeds and crop residues of most crops expressing pathogenic and toxic activity was conductive to the widespread Fusarium spp.     

Genetic diversity of genus <Emphasis Type="Italic">Malus</Emphasis> Mill. for scab resistance genes

The results of molecular genetic analysis of wild species and varieties of genus Malus Mill. for loci of monogenic scab resistance are presented. Dominant allele of gene Rvi6 was identified in varieties of M. robusta 43199, M. hupehensis, and M. floribunda. Locus Rvi4 was detected in genotypes of M. robusta v. persicifolia, M. asiatica 2343, M. sieversii 13280, M. niedzwetzkyana 13279, M. purpurea 2392, M. orientalis 41623, M. orientalis 29476, M. orientalis 29 460, M. spectabilis v. albi plena, and M. spectabilis v. rubra plena. Gene Rvi5 in the test collection of wild species is absent.     

Effect of <Emphasis Type="Italic">GH</Emphasis> and <Emphasis Type="Italic">DGAT1</Emphasis> gene polymorphism on feeding qualities of bull calves

The aim of this paper is to study effects of GH and DGAT1 gene polymorphisms on feeding qualities of Hereford and Limousin bull calves bred in conditions of the Cis-Ural steppe zone. SNPs of genes GH and DGAT1 are investigated by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and DNA restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP). The studied population of animals was assessed by defining the allele frequency and animal genotype occurrence for the studied gene SNPs, indicators of the actual and expected heterozygosity, and Pearson’s test. A study of polymorphism C214G of gene GH revealed that genotype LL prevails in Hereford and Limousin animals, 47.37 and 57.7%, respectively, while frequency of allele L is higher in Limousin bull calves (0.731). A study of polymorphism K232A of gene DGAT1 gene in both the populations showed absence of genotypes AA, which can be related to the low number of the studied animals. Expected heterozygosity indicators of gene GH are higher than the observed ones, and the observed heterozygosity is higher for DGAT1. The number of efficient alleles for the studied genes is higher for Hereford bull calves. In general, according to Pearson’s test, both the studied populations are in equilibrium. There is a significant effect of GH gene polymorphism on live weight gain rates at the end of sagination and total and average daily weight gains during animal raising.     

The recognition of apple fruits in plastic bags based on block classification

The recognition of apple fruits in plastic bags is easy to be affected by reflected and refracted light. In order to weaken the influence of light, a method based on block classification is proposed. The method adopts watershed algorithm to segment original images into irregular blocks based on edge detection results of R–G grayscale images firstly. Compared with the watershed algorithm based on gradient images, the segmentation method can preserve fruits edge and reduce the number of blocks by 20.31%, because graying image method, R–G, filters most of leaves and edge detection operator insures that the edge of fruits are detected accurately. Next, these blocks are classified into fruit blocks and non-fruit blocks by support vector machine on the basis of the color and texture features extracted from blocks. Compared with the image recognition method based on pixel classification, the proposed method can restrain the interference of light caused by plastic bags effectively. The false negative rate (FNR) and false positive rate (FPR) of the method based on pixel classification are 21.71 and 14.53% respectively. The FNR and FPR of the proposed method are 4.65 and 3.50% respectively.     

Effect of the <Emphasis Type="Italic">PGR</Emphasis> Genotype on Economically Valuable Traits in Animals of the Holstein Breed

Genotyping for locus PGR (progesterone receptor gene) of the Holstein servicing bulls (World Wide Sires) was carried out. The frequencies of alleles and genotypes of this locus are given. Significant (P < 0.05) superiority of the homozygous genotype AA of locus PGR was found in relation to the heterozygous genotype AG for several economically valuable traits: PTAM (predicted transmitting ability for milk, 380 points), PL (productive life, by 1.3 months), and FE (feed cost–feeding efficiency index, 37 points). Significant superiority (P < 0.05) of the homozygous genotype GG over the heterozygous genotype AG for the PL trait was also found, by 1.2 months. The obtained data can be used for marker-dependent breeding.     

Founder effect and genogeography of <Emphasis Type="Italic">CV</Emphasis>- and <Emphasis Type="Italic">BL</Emphasis>-mutations in black-and-white cattle

The results are obtained by simultaneous diagnostics of mutant CV- and BL-alleles. Five groups of animals–carriers and noncarriers of mutations are identified. In Russia the mutant CV-alleles are met more frequently because of the intensive use of their carriers. While elimination of BL-allele was started earlier due to developed methods, the diagnostics of CV-mutations has been undertaken later. Propagation of missense-mutations in the world and the Russian Federation has been occurring through the breeding bulls and cows–carriers. Initially spermobanks and, afterwards, cows were reserves for the diagnosed BLand CV-mutations.     

Study of intracellular ion composition of yeast <Emphasis Type="Italic">Saccharomyces cerevisiae</Emphasis> biomass

The ionic composition of the of the intracellular content of the alcohol yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae R. 1039 biomass was studied for confirmation of their use perspectiveness as a mediator to enable the management the mineral content of food in the manufacture of food and feed additives. The ionic composition of the obtained extracts were identified using the method of capillary electrophoresis. It is found that the quantitative ion content in the cell extracts depends on the concentration of the nutrient medium. When the yeast S. cerevisiae R. 1039 was cultivated on the medium with the soluble solids concentration of 30%, the intracellular ion content in the extracts was 1.3 times higher than when the yeast was cultivated on 12% wort by increasing the concentration of chlorides, sulfates, formates, potassium ions, and calcium. The yield of the yeast S. cerevisiae R. 1039 biomass increased 1.6 times per unit of volume of the medium with increase of the soluble solids concentrations from 12% to 30%.     

Endophytes from maize with plant growth promotion and biocontrol activity under drought stress

In the present study, 39 endophytic bacteria were isolated from different crops with main focus on maize roots and seeds. Endophytes were screened for drought stress tolerance, plant growth promoting (PGP) traits and antifungal activity. Out of 39 isolates, 32 could show drought tolerance up to–1.02 matric potential (MPa) and exhibited most of the plant growth promoting traits. But, only five isolates could show antagonistic activity against plant fungal pathogens. Based on the results, 10 promising isolates namely FTR, NFTR, FMZR9, FMZR2, MZ30V92, MRC12, MRC31, MRC33, MRC41 and MRR2 were selected and identified using biochemical and 16S rDNA gene sequencing as Pseudomonas aeruginosa (strains FTR and NFTR), Pseudomonas monteilii (strain FMZR2), Pseudomonas putida (strain FMZR9), Acitenobacter brumalii (strain MZ30V92), Enterobacter asburiae (strain MRC12), Sinorhizobium meliloti (strain MRC31), Pseudomonas thivervalensis (strain MRC33), Pseudomonas fulva (strain MRC41), and Pseudomonas lini (strain MRR2). Further, at–1.02 MPa all the 10 isolates showed PGP traits, and 3 isolates (FTR, NFTR and MRC12) showed antifungal activity. Thus, indicating that drought tolerant plant growth promoting antagonistic endophytic bacteria (PGPAE) helps in plant growth and disease management under drought stress.     

Separability of coffee leaf rust infection levels with machine learning methods at Sentinel-2 MSI spectral resolutions

Coffee leaf rust (CLR) caused by the fungus Hemileia vastarix is a devastating disease in almost all coffee producing countries and remote sensing approaches have the potential to monitor the disease. This study evaluated the potential of Sentinel-2 band settings for discriminating CLR infection levels at leaf levels. Field spectra were resampled to the band settings of the Sentinel-2, and evaluated using the random forest (RF) and partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) algorithms with and without variable optimization. Using all variables, Sentinel-2 Multispectral Imager (MSI)-derived vegetation indices achieved higher overall accuracy of 76.2% when compared to 69.8% obtained using raw spectral bands. Using the RF out-of-bag (OOB) scores, 4 spectral bands and 7 vegetation indices were identified as important variables in CLR discrimination. Using the PLS-DA Variable Importance in Projection (VIP) score, 3 Sentinel-2 spectral bands (B4, B6 and B5) and 5 vegetation indices were found to be important variables. Use of the identified variables improved the CLR discrimination accuracies to 79.4 and 82.5% for spectral bands and indices respectively when discriminated with the RF. Discrimination accuracy slightly increased through variable optimization for PLS-DA using spectral bands (63.5%) and vegetation indices (71.4%). Overall, this study showed the potential of the Sentinel 2 MSI band settings for CLR discrimination as part of crop condition assessment. Nevertheless further studies are required under field conditions.     

Influence of polymorphism of <Emphasis Type="Italic">R25C</Emphasis> and <Emphasis Type="Italic">Y7F</Emphasis> loci of the leptin gene on the duration of economic use of the Ayrshire cattle

Two successive genotypings (in 2014 and 2017) of the leptin gene (LEP) by the R25C and Y7F loci were conducted in the herd of the Ayrshire cattle of the Niva Farm of Krasnodar Krai in order to study the influence of polymorphism of these loci on the duration of the economic use. DNA samples (n = 154) isolated from blood of animals with different periods of economic use have been analyzed. The need for genotyping in 2017 arose because of the ambiguous interpretation of the findings obtained in 2014. A higher frequency of occurrence of the RR genotype of the LEP in the group of long-livers could be explained both by better preservation of animals with the RR genotype and by random gene drift (in particular, by larger share of breeder bulls, the carriers of the R allele). It was found that, as in 2014, a group of long-liver cows genotyped in 2017 differed from the group of young cows genotyped in 2014 in the occurrence frequency of the RR genotype, which was doubled. Consequently, regardless of the experimental conditions, animals of this particular group may have a longer productive life. It has also been established that the polymorphism at the Y7F locus does not have a significant effect on the duration of the economic use of the Ayrshire cows.     

Genetic Diversity of <Emphasis Type="Italic">E. coli O157:H7</Emphasis> Isolated from Some Leafy Greens,Irrigated by Aleppo River,Using Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) Marker

In recent years, fresh fruits and vegetables have been linked to numerous foodborne illness outbreaks in different regions of the world. In Syria, there is not a lot of research that study E. coli and its serotypes by PCR technology. In this study, we have fulfilled a total count of bacteria, the census total coliform group, and Escherichia coli, as well as the serotype E. coli O157:H7 on some leafy greens (Spinacia oleracea, Beta vulgaris) irrigated by Aleppo River. The molecular characterization was done for ten strains of E. coli isolated from collected samples. The samples were inoculated on blood agar and suspicious colonies, then transferred to EMB and MacConkey agar using a primer (COL 1) in RAPD technic. Molecular characterization also performed ten strains of serotype E. coli O157:H7 isolated in medium (Sorbitol-MacCONKEY Agar), then by primers (OPA-03, OPA-13 OPC-12, OPE-20) in RAPD technic. The results showed significant differences between collected samples. The total count of bacteria in the first site (Handarat) for spinach and chard were the lowest, but in the fourth site (Jezraya) it was the highest among all samples. The results showed also the existence of E. coli in all sites except the first one in riverbed Handarat, and E. coli O157:H7 was found only in Jezraya village. Extracted DNA from samples was amplified by RAPD. after electrophoresis in the gel agarose, eleven different bands were detected from isolated strains of E. coli. These results refer to the great genetic diversity of Escherichia coli. For serotype E. coli O157:H7 thirty-four different bands were detected. RAPD analysis had the high discriminatory capacity for typing E. coli isolates. Because of its simplicity and rapidity, RAPD analysis appears to be a highly valuable tool for studying E. coli molecular epidemiology.     

Intervalent Crosses: the Main Way of Creating Triploid Apple Cultivars

This paper presents history and ways of creating triploid apple cultivars differing from common diploid ones by less pronounced fruiting periodicity by years, higher marketability and weight of fruits, and self-fertility. In the search for an effective method of mass production of triploid seedlings, crosses of the type 4x × 4x, 4x × 3x, 4x × 2x, 3x × 4x, 3x × 3x, 3x × 2x, 2x × 4x, and 2x × 3x were studied. The most effective way of mass production of triploid seedlings was the 2x × 4x cross (diploid × tetraploid). In the group of 2x × 4x crosses, more than 9000 seedlings from different families were subjected to cytological analysis. The ratio of hybrid progeny in terms of ploidy levels was as follows: 30.3% diploids, 69.5% triploids, 0.2% tetraploids, and 0.04% aneuploids. It was established that triploids can also be obtained in 4x × 2x crosses; however, it is necessary to castrate the flowers in the maternal parent, since all apple tetraploids have high self-fertility. For the first time in the world, a series of triploid cultivars (approximately 20) was obtained from intervalent crosses of the diploid × tetraploid type in the All-Russia Research Institute of Fruit Crop Selection. Particularly interesting are triploid cultivars that have immunity to scab, which include nine cultivars, of which Aleksandr Boiko, Vavilovskoe, Maslovskoe, and Yablochnyi Spas are included in the State Register of breeding achievements allowed for use.     

Hyperspectral discrimination of foliar biotic damages in rice using principal component analysis and probabilistic neural network

Assessment of crop health status in real time could provide reliable and useful information for making effective and efficient management decisions regarding the appropriate time and method to control crop diseases and insect damage. In this study, hyperspectral reflectance of symptomatic and asymptomatic rice leaves infected by Pyricularia grisea Sacc, Bipolaris oryzae Shoem, Aphelenchoides besseyi Christie and Cnaphalocrocis medinalis Guen was measured in a laboratory within the 350–2?500 nm spectral region. Principal component analysis was performed to obtain the principal component spectra (PCs) of different transformations of the original spectra, including original (R), common logarithm of reciprocal (lg (1/R)), and the first derivative of original and common logarithm of reciprocal spectra (R′ and (lg (1/R))′). A probabilistic neural network classifier was applied to discriminate the symptomatic rice leaves from asymptomatic ones with the front PCs. For identifying symptomatic and asymptomatic rice leaves, the mean overall discrimination accuracies for R, lg (1/R), R′ and (lg (1/R))′ were 91.3, 93.1, 92.3 and 92%, and the mean Kappa coefficients were 0.771, 0.835, 0.829 and 0.82, respectively. To discriminate between disease and insect damage, the overall accuracies for R, lg (1/R), R′ and (lg (1/R))′ were 97.7, 98.1, 100 and 100%, and the Kappa coefficients were 0.962, 0.97, 1 and 1, respectively. These results demonstrated that hyperspectral remote sensing can discriminate between multiple diseases and the insect damage of rice leaves under laboratory conditions.     

The Relationship between Drought Tolerance of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Laurus nobilis</Emphasis> L. and Environmental Factors in Conditions of the Southern Coast of Crimea

The present studies have shown Laurus nobilis L. to be a drought tolerant species. When the plant was first subjected to dehydration, the rate of net photosynthesis decreased from Pn = (8–10) to –1 μmol/(m² s) and to –3 μmol/(m² s) during the second dehydration before it was subsequently irrigated. The rewatering on August 5 and August 8 promoted a sharp burst of this parameter, but the Pn value was restored to its original level only after August 8. Soil drought caused a drop in a rate of transpiration from 65–70 to 10 mg/(m² s). Watering soil up to a 15% moisture level brought an increase in E = 25 mg/(m² s), but only the second watering managed to fully restore it to the initial value. Apical growth of the plants was closely correlated with soil moisture. As the soil moisture was reduced to W = 15–5%, the terminal growth reached a saturation point and started to plateau. Watering the soil up to W = 15% promoted apical growth by 4 mm. Reducing soil moisture to W = 3–4% caused a complete cessation of the growth. Subsequent watering to W = 27–28% led to a gradual and complete recovery of turgor and an increase in the growth rate up to 6–8 mm per day. The surface response functions Pn = f(I, W) and E = f(I, W) allowed us to determine conditions and levels of potential maximums and boundaries of the areas of optimum photosynthesis and transpiration: optimum Pn = 8–9 μmol/(m² s) with I = 900–1400 μmol/(m² s) and W = 17–24% and the optimum E = 25–35 mg/(m² s) with I = 1000–1400 μmol/(m² s) and W = 16–24%.     

Genetic differentiation of the Novosibirsk population of Primorsky honey bee

Seven microsatellite loci were evaluated to compare the allele pool of Primorsky honeybee population (n = 90), which was introduced into the Novosibirsk region (south-western Siberia), with the populations of Middle Russian (n = 191, A.m. mellifera), Mountain Grey Caucasian (n =113, A.m. caucasica), Carniolan (n = 61, A.m. carnica) and Carpathian (n = 184, A.m. carpatica) races. The degree of genetic differentiation in Novosibirsk population using a variety of criteria (Fst, Rst (AMOVA), Nei genetic distances) was evaluated.     

RGB and multispectral UAV image fusion for Gramineae weed detection in rice fields

In this paper, a new method to fuse low resolution multispectral and high resolution RGB images is introduced, in order to detect Gramineae weed in rice fields with plants at 50 days after emergence (DAE).The images are taken from a fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) at 60 and 70 m altitude. The proposed method combines the texture information given by a high resolution red–green–blue (RGB) image and the reflectance information given by a low resolution multispectral (MS) image, to obtain a fused RGB-MS image with better weed discrimination features. After analyzing the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and normalized green red difference index (NGRDI) for weed detection, it was found that NGRDI presents better features. The fusion method consists of decomposing the RGB image using the intensity, hue and saturation (IHS) transformation, then, a second order Haar wavelet transformation is applied to the intensity layer (I) and the NGRDI image. From this transformation, the low–low (LL) coefficients of the NGRDI image are replaced by the LL coefficients of the I layer. Finally, the fused image is obtained by transforming the new wavelet coefficients to RGB space. To test the method, a one hectare experimental plot with rice plants at 50 DAE with Gramineae weeds was selected. Additionally, to compare the performance of the method, two indices were used, specifically, the M/M_GT index which is the percentage of detected weed area, and the MP index which indicates the precision of weed detection. These indices were evaluated in four validation zones using three Neural Networks (NN) detection systems based on three types of images; namely, RGB, RGB + NGRDI, and fused RGB-NGRDI. The best weed detection performance was obtained by the NN with the fused image, with M/M_GT index between 80 and 108% and MP between 70 and 85%.     

Use of interspecific hybridization for increasing buckwheat tolerance to inbreeding

The productivity of inbred buckwheat lines I₁–I₈ with the homostyly gene of Fagopyrum esculentum and Fagopyrum homotropicum is studied. The species F. homotropicum is recommended for use in buckwheat breeding as a donor of homostyly and tolerance to inbreeding depression.     

Estimation of rice protein content before harvest using ground-based hyperspectral imaging and region of interest analysis

Protein content, which represents rice taste quality, must be estimated in order to create a harvesting plan as well as next year’s basal dressing fertilizer application plan. Ground-based hyperspectral imaging with high resolution (1 × 1 mm per pixel) was used for estimating the protein content of brown rice before harvest. This paper compares the estimation accuracy of rice protein content estimation models generated from the mean reflectances of five regions of interest (ROIs): the overall target area, dark area (less illuminated parts of the rice plants), canopy area (leaves, yellow leaves, and ears), leaf area, and ear and yellow leaf area. The size of the target sampling area was 0.85 × 0.85 m. An R + G + B histogram and a GNDVI–NDVI image were used to separate the target area into the individual ROIs. The values of the coefficient of determination R ² and the root mean square error of prediction (RMSE) were similar for each model: R ² ranged from 0.83 to 0.86 and RMSE ranged from 0.27 to 0.30% for all models except for the dark area model, where R ² = 0.76 and RMSE = 0.35%. There were no significant differences in the magnitude of the estimation error among all models. This result indicates that it is not necessary to obtain an image with a ground resolution that is greater than 0.85 × 0.85 m per pixel to estimate rice protein content before harvest. This result should provide useful information when deciding the altitude of platforms for imaging rice fields.