The Case for a Two-Step Approach to Agricultural Campaign Design

Development campaigns designed to scale up effective agricultural solutions often rely on media. Information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D) proponents argue that increased media penetration is necessary for such campaigns to succeed. Interviews of 63 extension agents and 200 farmers in Burkina Faso about their disparities in media ownership, access, skills, and preferences suggest that agricultural development campaigns should account for the different media environments and preferences of target populations within countries. This research presents such an alternative approach, a two-step campaign design intended to address digital divides within countries and target population preferences.     

On Estimation and Selection of Autologistic Regression Models via Penalized Pseudolikelihood

Autologistic regression models are suitable for relating spatial binary responses in ecology to covariates such as environmental factors. For big ecological data, pseudolikelihood estimation is appealing due to its ease of computation, but at least two challenges remain. Although an important issue, it is unclear how model selection may be carried out under pseudolikelihood. In addition, for assessing the variation of pseudolikelihood estimates, parametric bootstrap using Monte Carlo simulation is often used but may be infeasible for very large data sizes. Here both these issues are addressed by developing a penalized pseudolikelihood estimation method and an approximation of the variance of the parameter estimates. A simulation study is conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed method, followed by a data example in a study of land cover in relation to land ownership characteristics. Extension of these models and methods to spatial-temporal binary data is further discussed. This article has supplementary material online.     

Fusarium rot of melon is caused by several Fusarium species

Fusarium rot of melon, caused by species of the genus Fusarium, has become an important postharvest disease for many Brazilian producers. Due to the delayed onset of symptoms, this disease is often only detected when fruits arrive at the importing country, thus generating economic loss for the exportation of the fruit. This study was developed with the aim of investigating which Fusarium species cause fruit rot in melon and to evaluate any differences in aggressiveness and development of symptoms. Species were identified through phylogenetic analysis of two loci and morphological markers. The 28 isolates obtained from diseased melon fruits of different commercial cultivars were identified as Fusarium falciforme (FSSC), F. sulawesiense, F. pernambucanum (FIESC), and F. kalimantanense (FOSC). Three isolates belong to a new phylogenetic lineage within the F. fujikuroi species complex (FFSC). All isolates were tested for pathogenicity, and first symptoms of rot in Canary melon were observed 2 days after inoculation. Isolates of F. falciforme and F. sulawesiense were shown to be more aggressive. Our results extend information on Fusarium species that cause fruit rot in melon and support the development of management strategies, as there is currently no efficient control for this disease. To our knowledge, this is the first report of the occurrence of species of the FSSC, FOSC, and FFSC from muskmelon fruits in Brazil.     

Castor beans hulls as a replacement for Tifton 85 hay in lamb diets

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of replacing Tifton 85 hay (0, 33, 66, or 100 %) with by castor bean hulls on the intake and nutrient digestibility and performance of 28 noncastrated lambs, averaging 7 months in age, 19.5?±?2.0 kg average live weight, fed on diets based on forage cactus. The animals were housed in individual pens for 100 days. The digestibility trial occurred 40 days after the start of the performance using LIPE® as an external indicator for estimating fecal dry matter production. The replacement of hay with Castor beans hulls linearly decreased the intakes of dry matter, neutral detergent fiber, organic matter, and crude protein and reduced the digestibility coefficients of the dry matter, neutral detergent fiber, organic matter content, crude protein, and total digestible nutrient content. The hot carcass and true carcass yields were not influenced by the treatments and the feed conversion increased linearly. The empty body weight, live weight at slaughter, hot and cold carcass weights, total gain, and average daily gain decreased linearly with the replacement. The replacement of Tifton 85 hay with castor bean hulls reduced the intake of dry matter, crude protein and energy, consequently reducing the performance of the animals. However, as the regression coefficients were of low magnitude, data were subjected to analysis of variance and means were compared using the Dunnett test with diet without castor bean hulls set as the control treatment. The Tifton 85 hay can be replaced up to 66 % by castor bean hulls in finishing diets for lambs.     

IMAGING DIAGNOSIS—NUCLEAR SCINTIGRAPHIC,RADIOLOGICAL, AND PATHOLOGIC CHARACTERISTICS OF METASTATIC PILOMATRICOMA IN A DOG

A 6‐year‐old castrated Goldendoodle dog was presented for left‐sided lameness of 3 weeks’ duration. Focal, moderate to marked increased ^99mTc‐methylene diphosphonate (^99mTc‐MDP) uptake was detected in the right caudal lung lobe, caudal angle of the left scapula, and the distal aspect of the left femur with whole body bone phase scintigraphy. Radiographs identified a well‐circumscribed, oval‐shaped soft tissue opaque mass in the right caudal lung lobe; a suspect oval‐shaped osteolytic lesion in the proximal third of the left scapula; and an osteolytic lesion in the distal aspect of the left femur. Metastatic pilomatricoma was confirmed histologically at all three sites.     

Eosinophilic cystitis in a female German wire-haired pointer

A 7-month-old, intact female, German wire-haired pointer presented with a 3-week history of stranguria, pollakiuria, and dysuria that was nonresponsive to antibiotics. Two prior episodes of dysuria-stranguria appeared to respond to antibiotic therapy. Bladder wall biopsies revealed eosinophilic cystitis and the dog responded well to medical management.     

Acquainting veterinary students with careers in the pharmaceutical industry

Careers in the pharmaceutical industry were revealed in modules facilitated by senior scientists from companies that sponsor the Cornell Leadership Program for Veterinary Students. One module was structured as a series of interviews for different positions in industry, the other as a competition between hypothetical companies created by students. The interview-based module stimulated wide-ranging discussion of the activities and responsibilities of veterinarians employed in a discovery-intensive pharmaceutical firm and of the characteristics such companies seek in prospective employees, from both professional and personal perspectives. The second module explored the drug discovery and development process from the perspective of animal-health companies that are competitors in the market for animal health care products. The exercise provided insights into the manner in which companies discover new chemical entities, screen candidate drugs, allocate resources, and pursue the development of products through testing, licensing, and distribution.     

Proteomic analysis of digestive tract peptidases and lipases from the invasive gastropod Pomacea canaliculata

Background

The invasive gastropod Pomacea canaliculata has received great attention in the last decades as a result of its negative impact on crops agriculture, yet knowledge of their digestive physiology remains incomplete, particularly the enzymatic breakdown of macromolecules such as proteins and lipids.

Results

Discovery proteomics revealed aspartic peptidases, cysteine peptidases, serine peptidases, metallopeptidases and threonine peptidases, as well as acid and neutral lipases and phospholipases along the digestive tract of P. canaliculata. Peptides specific to peptidases (139) and lipases (14) were quantified by targeted mass spectrometry. Digestion begins in the mouth via diverse salivary peptidases (nine serine peptidases; seven cysteine peptidases, one aspartic peptidase and 22 metallopeptidases) and then continues in the oesophagus (crop) via three luminal metallopeptidases (Family M12) and six serine peptidases (Family S1). Downstream, the digestive gland provides a battery of enzymes composed of aspartic peptidase (one), cysteine peptidases (nine), serine peptidases (12) and metallopeptidases (24), including aminopeptidases, carboxypeptidases and dipeptidases). The coiled gut has M1 metallopeptidases that complete the digestion of small peptides. Lipid extracellular digestion is completed by triglyceride lipases.

Conclusion

From an integrative physiological and anatomical perspective, P. canaliculata shows an unexpected abundance and diversity of peptidases, which participate mainly in extracellular digestion. Moreover, the previously unknown occurrence of luminal lipases from the digestive gland is reported for the first time. Salivary and digestive glands were the main tissues involved in the synthesis and secretion of these enzymes, but plausibly the few luminally exclusive peptidases are secreted by ventrolateral pouches or epithelial unicellular glands. © 2022 The Authors. Pest Management Science published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.