Presence of Longitudinal Roll Structures during Synoptic Forced Conditions in Complex Terrain

To investigate synoptic interactions with the San Andres Mountains in southern New Mexico, the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model was used to simulate several days in the period 2018–2020. The study domain was centered on the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Research Service’s Jornada Experimental Range (JER) and the emphasis was on synoptic conditions that favor strong to moderate winds aloft from the southwest, boundary layer shear, a lack of moisture (cloud coverage), and modest warming of the surface. The WRF simulations on these synoptic days revealed two distinct regimes: lee waves aloft and SW-to-NE oriented Longitudinal Roll Structures (LRS) that have typical length scales of the width of the mountain basin in the horizontal and the height of the boundary layer (BL) in the vertical. Analysis of the transitional periods indicate that the shift from the lee wave to LRS regime occurs when the surface heating and upwind flow characteristics reach a critical threshold. The existence of LRS is confirmed by satellite observations and the longitudinal streak patterns in the soil of the JER that indicate this is a climatologically present BL phenomenon.

Bibliometric Analysis of Soil Nutrient Research between 1992 and 2020

Soil nutrient balance is related to the interaction mechanism between soil fertilizer, soil water, climate change, and plant capability. This paper provides a perspective from bibliometric analysis based on data from the Web of Science core collection with software tools, including Vosviewer, HistCite Pro, and Citespace, in order to reveal the evolution of research trends in soil nutrients. The results show that publication outputs have increased exponentially from 1992 to 2020. The synthetic parameter of the sum of normalized data (SND), calculated from the default indicators of the bibliometric software tools, was used to rank the overall contribution of journal/authors/institutions/countries. The results demonstrate that Agriculture Ecosystems & Environment, Soil Biology & Biochemistry and Science of the Total Environment are the leading journals in the soil nutrient field. The Chinese Academy of Sciences had the highest total citations and collaborated most closely with other organizations, followed by United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and Agr& Agri Food Canada. In addition, USA, China, and UK are the top three research centers for this topic. Moreover, Ken E Giller, Qirong Shen, and Rattan Lal were the top three authors, while Andrew Sharpley ranked the first depending on citations per publication. In terms of co-occurrence of keyword analysis, the results indicate that nitrogen fertilizer, green manure, and soil population have gained close attention from scholars, while soil amendment of biochar have evolved as a hot topic in recent years. Perspectives on future studies are also given.

Using Green Cold Pressing to Produce High Quality Fish Oil From Industrial Salmon Waste

The main objective of this research was to determine the amount of oil fish were extracted from fish west resulted from butchering, cutting and splitting processes before salmon smoking by using cold pressing `methods. The amount and the characteristics of extracted of oil were tested at Regional Centre for food and feed the USDA Agricultural Research Center laboratory. The samples were used from fresh Salmon waste about 1000g from each of the (head, skin, viscera, backbone, frames and cuts off). This waste recorded more than 22% of the total mass from salmon fish with used modern extract machine. in this experiment the results revealed the fresh salmon waste have more than 16 % of oil fish per one kg of salmon waste. The oil weight from Salmon waste for (head, skin, viscera, backbone, frames and cuts off). was increased with pressing time increase as well as oil productivity increased. The optimum conditions at pressing time was 200 min, for all salmon waste components . Oil productivity fluctuated according to waste sources was 190, 210, 86, 188, 178 and 90 g.oil/1000 g. by head, skin, off cuts , terming, , viscera , and backbone frames, Salmon by-products, oil productivity was ranged between 8.60 to 21.00% at constant pressure. High contents of functional EPA (20:5 ω 3) and DHA (22:6 ω 3) for oil fish

Research Priorities of the Environmental Horticultural Industry Founded through Consensus1

Environmental horticulture production (EHP) generates and employs approximately one-third of all specialty crop revenue and workforce, respectively. In recent years, however, EHP received only 12% of federal funds earmarked for specialty crops research from the USDA-Agricultural Research Service or the USDA-Specialty Crops Research Initiative. To increase leverage and accumulate more resources for EHP, stakeholder-driven consensus of research priorities needed to be constructed. Therefore, the Horticultural Research Institute led a professionally facilitated stakeholder roundtable discussion to achieve these priorities. Stakeholders identified trends and forces affecting EHP, its current state, a vision, and outcomes needed for success. Through consensus, four equal research priorities were constructed: 1) quantitate and validate the ecosystem services and benefits of plants on human health and wellness, 2) develop innovations in biological, mechanical, and technological systems that provide efficient, productive, and profitable solutions relevant to producer size and segment, 3) evaluate consumer-driven preferences that optimize industry-wide profitability and growth, and 4) solve ongoing and emergent industry challenges. These priorities and the successful future of EHP will be made possible by strong leaders and advocates positioned throughout industry, successfully communicating the human health, social, and economic benefits of plants, state-of-the-art technological and efficiently-designed systems, and an understanding of current and future consumers. Index words: forces, greenhouse, innovation, nursery, roadmap, stakeholders, trends, vision.

Epigenome-wide Association Study of Plasma Phylloquinone Response to Phylloquinone Supplementation (OR31-04-19)

Objectives Genetics explains a small amount of the variability in the response of plasma phylloquinone to phylloquinone intake. Whether epigenetic modifications, which reflect interactions between the genome and environment, are related to the plasma phylloquinone response to supplementation has not been examined. The objective of this study was to conduct an epigenome-wide association study (EWAS) to identify genetic loci whose methylation levels associate with changes in circulating phylloquinone in response to phylloquinone supplementation. Methods We used data from a 3-year, randomized controlled, phylloquinone supplementation (500 ug/d) trial in healthy older adults. One hundred four white participants in the supplementation group who passed filters for adherence to the protocol (mean age = 68(5.0) years, 56% female) were classified as responders or non-responders according to their change in plasma phylloquinone. Of these, 24 participants with the smallest (non-responders) and 24 participants with the largest (responders) change in plasma phylloquinone were selected for DNA methylation analysis. DNA was isolated from baseline blood samples. Bisulfite-converted DNA for these 48 individuals was analyzed using the Illumina MethylationEPIC microarray platform at the Yale Center for Genome Analysis in New Haven, CT. The association of responder status with methylation beta-value at each site was examined using logistic regression adjusted for control-probe principal components. Results Forty (38%) of the 104 participants had changes in plasma phylloquinone that classified them as non-responders. A single CpG site (cg10918016 in NCOR2) was associated with plasma phylloquinone responder status at genome-wide Bonferroni level of significance (P < 6.4 × 10−8). In the presence of moderate genomic inflation (λ = 1.21), 5239 sites showed suggestive associations (Benjamini-Hochberg FDR < 0.2). Conclusions DNA methylation levels may contribute toward the inter-individual plasma phylloquinone response to supplementation. Larger studies in diverse populations are warranted to clarify the causal influence of methylation on the vitamin K status. Funding Sources Study supported by the USDA Agricultural Research Service under Cooperative Agreement No. 58-1950-7-707, NHLBI T32HL069772, and the Gerald Cassidy Student Research Award. *JMK and KW contributed equally to this research. Supporting Tables, Images and/or Graphs

Wildfire Impacts On The Southern Plains

Between 2016 and 2018, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Southern Plains Climate Hub led a project to assess the impacts of the recent historic 2016 and 2018wildfires on the Southern Plains. Titled the 2016-2018Southern Plains Wildfire Assessment, this project was coordinated with multiple agencies and organizations across the region including the Southern Climate Impacts Planning Program (SCIPP) a NOAA Regional Integrated Science and Assessment (RISA) team,University of Oklahoma’s Center for Spatial Analysis, and the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Grazinglands Research Laboratory, among others. Elements of this project included three local stakeholder events across the affected region as well as are search component investigating characteristics of vegetation recovery within these areas. The findings of both are coupled in this assessment report to encourage the risk reduction measures of future wildfire recovery and preparedness efforts across the Southern Plains.

Disease Resistance of ‘MP-29’, a Clonal Interspecific Hybrid Rootstock for Peach, in Post-release Trials

The primary focus of the stone fruit rootstock program at Byron, GA, has been the development of disease-resistant rootstocks for peach (Prunus persica L. Batsch). Historically peach tree short life (PTSL), aka bacterial canker complex, and Armillaria root rot (ARR) have been the two most important causes of premature mortality of commercial peach trees in the southeastern United States. Guardian®, a seedling peach rootstock, was cooperatively released in 1993 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)-Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and Clemson University. It has since been widely adopted by the southeastern peach industry. As a result, trees losses to PTSL have declined sharply. However, Guardian, like most other peach seedling rootstocks, is susceptible to ARR. ARR has now moved to the forefront as the primary cause of premature peach tree death in the Southeast. In response to this threat, the USDA-ARS in cooperation with the University of Florida, released ‘Sharpe’, a plum hybrid rootstock in 2007. Despite its broad disease resistance, ‘Sharpe’ proved unsuited for widespread commercial utilization due to its relatively poor cropping performance. In 2011, ‘MP-29’, a semidwarf, clonal, plum × peach hybrid, was released for commercial trial. ‘MP-29’s broad disease and nematode resistance, in combination with its dwarfing ability and excellent productivity, offered great promise for use in this production area and in others suffering from similar issues. Since its release, testing of ‘MP-29’ has continued both in researcher and grower trials. To date, performance has exceeded all expectations.

Spindle Diameter Effects for Cotton Pickers

There is concern that changes to the operating speed and size of spindles on cotton picker harvesters over the years have resulted in a general decrease in cotton fiber quality, especially spindle twists, preparation, and neps. Previous research showed that spindle speeds of 3000 and 4000 rpm had more detrimental effects on cotton fiber quality than a spindle speed of 2000 rpm. Field tests were conducted for the 2011, 2012, and 2013 crop years by the USDA, Agricultural Research Service, Southwestern Cotton Ginning Research Laboratory in Mesilla Park, New Mexico. Three cotton varieties were grown each year under irrigated conditions near Las Cruces, New Mexico, and harvested with cotton pickers equipped with spindles having diameters of 1.27, 1.43, and 1.59 cm (1/2, 9/16, and 5/8 in.), using a ground speed of 0.85 m s-1 (1.9 mi h-1). Spindle speeds were 2000 rpm in each case. Pickers with larger spindle diameters had lower stalk loss and sometimes had lower foreign matter levels in the seed cotton as well as in the ginned lint. These foreign matter levels significantly affected HVI foreign matter content and leaf grade. HVI classing data other than foreign matter content and related leaf grade showed no significant differences among spindle diameter treatments. AFIS nep count, short fiber content, trash count, dust count, and seed coat nep count showed no significant differences due to spindle diameter treatments or interactions. Results from ring spinning mini-tests, including skein breaking strength, skein count, skein count-strength product (CSP), yarn strength, yarn elongation, neps, thick places, and thin places also showed no significant differences due to spindle diameter. Based on these results, the picker unit with 1.59 cm (5/8 in.) spindles was optimal, but differences in performance were not large. Keywords: Fiber quality, Harvesting.