Conventional Rotation Research Articles

Runoff and nutrient losses in extended and conventional crop rotations

AbstractManagement systems prioritizing surface ground cover throughout the year, such as extended crop rotations with perennial phases or reduced tillage, may be more resilient to changing weather regimes associated with climate change. The purpose of this study was to determine if the benefits observed in perennial phases, including increased infiltration and reduced runoff and erosion, persisted in the annual crop phases. We conducted rainfall simulations at four landscape positions in a 7‐yr rotation with ridge tillage and in a conventional corn–soybean system. From data paired by landscape position across 4 yr, the 7‐yr rotation had significantly higher infiltration and lower runoff than the conventional field, although sediment and nutrient losses were similar. Runoff was correlated with ground cover, highlighting the importance of tillage practices and residue removal on the infiltration capacity of these systems. Overall, these results indicate that the lasting benefits of extended crop rotations, such as increased porosity and aggregate stability, coupled with a direct effect of increased ground cover, led to improved infiltration and less runoff during the annual crop phases.

AGRI-ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT OF CONVENTIONAL AND ALTERNATIVE BIOENERGY CROPPING SYSTEMS PROMOTING BIOMASS PRODUCTIVITY

<List> <ListItem><ItemContent> ● Agri-environmental assessment of food, feed and/or biogas cropping systems (CS). </ItemContent></ListItem> <ListItem><ItemContent> ● Four-year experiment for the agri-environmental assessment of two innovative CS. </ItemContent></ListItem> <ListItem><ItemContent> ● Biogas CS has equal soil returned biomass than food CS but higher exported biomass. </ItemContent></ListItem> <ListItem><ItemContent> ● Feed and biogas CS present higher biomass productivity, but higher CO₂ emissions. </ItemContent></ListItem> <ListItem><ItemContent> ● CO₂ emissions related to produced biomass are 26% (±5%) lower in biogas CS. </ItemContent></ListItem></List> Bioenergy, currently the largest renewable energy source in the EU (64% of the total renewable energy consumption), has sparked great interest to meet the 32% renewable resources for the 2030 bioeconomy goal. The design of innovative cropping systems informed by bioeconomy imperatives requires the evaluate of the effects of introducing crops for bioenergy into conventional crop rotations. This study aimed to assess the impacts of changes in conventional cropping systems in mixed dairy cattle farms redesigned to introduce bioenergy crops either by increasing the biomass production through an increase of cover crops, while keeping main feed/food crops, or by substituting food crops with an increase of the crop rotation length. The assessment is based on the comparison between conventional and innovative systems oriented to feed and biogas production, with and without tillage, to evaluate their agri-environmental performances (biomass production, nitrogen fertilization autonomy, greenhouse gas emissions and biogas production). The result showed higher values in the biogas cropping system than in the conventional and feed ones for all indicators, biomass productivity (27% and 20% higher, respectively), nitrogen fertilization autonomy (26% and 73% higher, respectively), methanogenic potential (77% and 41% higher, respectively) and greenhouse gas emissions (15% and 3% higher, respectively). There were no negative impacts of no-till compared to the tillage practice, for all tested variables. The biogas cropping system showed a better potential in terms of agri-environmental performance, although its greenhouse gas emissions were higher. Consequently, it would be appropriate to undertake a multicriteria assessment integrating agri-environmental, economic and social performances.

Nanoheterogeneity response in large-magnetostriction Fe-Ga alloys: An in-situ magnetic small-angle neutron scattering study

The underlying mechanism of large magnetostriction in Fe-Ga alloys is obviously beyond the conventional domain rotation and twin boundary motion, but has been attributed to the nanoscale magnetic heterogeneities. However, the nanoheterogeneity response as well as the interaction with matrix during magnetization process is still an open question. Through in-situ magnetic small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) study on a Fe81Ga19 alloy, the present work clearly reveals that the reorientation of nanodomains relevant to face-centered-tetragonal L60 nanoprecipitates occurs at relatively lower fields than that of the magnetic domains. These nanoheterogeneities show a larger magnetic correlation length than their size, ensuring the exchange coupling between nanoprecipitates and matrix as well as the flipping of their magnetizations. This process contributes to the low-field-triggered large magnetostriction, unlike that induced by non-180° domain switches in the homogeneous magnetostrictive materials (such as Terfenol-D). Further study reveals that the correlation length can be effectively tuned by simple heat-treatment, which in turn significantly enhances the magnetostriction without enlarging the triggering field. Consequently, this work contributes to uncover the physical mechanism of the large heterogeneous magnetostriction besides the typical magnetic domain theory, and may also provide a general guideline for achieving tunable magnetostriction in heterogeneous ferromagnets.

Rotation Estimation and Segmentation for Patterned Image Vision Inspection

Pattern images can be segmented in a template unit for efficient fabric vision inspection; however, segmentation criteria critically affect the segmentation and defect detection performance. To get the undistorted criteria for rotated images, rotation estimation of absolute angle needs to be proceeded. Given that conventional rotation estimations do not satisfy both rotation errors and computation times, patterned fabric defects are detected using manual visual methods. To solve these problems, this study proposes the application of segmentation reference point candidate (SRPC), generated based on a Euclidean distance map (EDM). SRPC is used to not only extract criteria points but also estimate rotation angle. The rotation angle is predicted using the orientation vector of SRPC instead of all pixels to reduce estimation times. SRPC-based image segmentation increases the robustness against the rotation angle and defects. The separation distance value for SRPC area distinction is calculated automatically. The performance of the proposed method is similar to state-of-the-art rotation estimation methods, with a suitable inspection time in actual operations for patterned fabric. The similarity between the segmented images is better than conventional methods. The proposed method extends the target of vision inspection on plane fabric to checked or striped pattern.

Grain Yield and Nitrogen Uptake of Maize (Zea mays L.) as Affected by Soil Management Practices and Their Interaction on Cambisols and Chernozem

Although numerous factors contribute to wide yield gaps, low external inputs, particularly N, and poor cropping practices such as soil tillage and monocropping are among the major factors affecting low maize production. In view of this, field experiments were implemented on two sites with Cambisols and Chernozem soil types in two consecutive years to evaluate the impacts of different soil management practices on the grain yield and quality, nitrogen uptake, and selected soil properties. A three-factor experiment was arranged as a split-split plot arrangement randomized complete block design with three replications. The minimum tillage (MT) and conventional tillage (CT) were used as the main plot, haricot bean-maize rotation and maize monocropping were used as the subplot, and four levels of nitrogen fertilization (control, 20 t ha-1 compost, 46 kg N ha−1 + 10 t ha−1 compost, and 92 kg N ha−1) were used as the sub-subplot. Analysis of variance showed that soil management practices were significantly affecting grain yield, N-uptake, and soil properties. In sites, the conventional tillage and rotation system increased the grain yield and N-uptake in contrast to the minimum tillage and monocropping, respectively. Similarly, nitrogen evidently affected the grain yield, N-uptake, and selected soil properties. However, tillage methods differed in their effects on soil chemical properties; soil organic carbon and total nitrogen concentrations were improved through MT compared to CT. Grain yield was significantly associated with NDVI, grain N-content, and N-uptake. Therefore, a CT plus haricot bean-maize rotation system with the addition of solely 92 kg N ha−1 and integrated 46 kg N ha−1 + 10 t compost ha−1 could be recommended for Hawassa Zuria (Cambisols) and Meskan (Chernozem) districts, respectively. However, in order to ensure sustainable maize production in the investigated areas, an integrated N treatment with MT and a rotation system may be recommended, which could improve soil properties.

Evaluation of Curved Canal Transportation Using the Neoniti Rotary System with Reciprocal Motion: A Comparative Study.

The ideal root canal preparation is where the original canal morphology is maintained during the biomechanical preparation. Preparation of curved canals has always been a challenge to clinicians. Better results have been suggested for a single NiTi instrument with reciprocating motion than the conventional continuous rotation method in the preparation of curved root canals. Although the Neoniti rotary system is not suggested to be used with reciprocal motion, running a pilot study, we found that it could be possible. The present study aimed to investigate if shaping curved canals using the Neoniti rotary system with reciprocal motion leads to better results in terms of root canal transportation. One hundred acrylic j-shape canal simulator endoblocks were used in this study. Five preparation sequences were applied: GPS followed by A1#20 (GPS + A1#20), GPS followed by A1#20 and then A1#25 (GPS + A1#20 + A1#25), GPS followed by A1#25 (GPS + A1#25), hand file followed by A1#20 (hand file + A1#20), and GPS followed by A1#20 (with reciprocal motion) (GPS + A1#20(reciprocal)). Pictures were taken from blocks once before and once after preparation from two dimensions. Before-and-after pictures were superimposed in Photoshop software. Measurements were performed in Digimizer. The number of autoreverses and pecking motions was recorded after reviewing the recorded videos. Data were analyzed in SPSS, version 26. A p value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. The group GPS + A1#20 + A1#25 had more transportation compared with the others, at apical, middle, and coronal thirds not only in the frontal view but also in the lateral view. Other groups were not significantly different. The number of peckings and autoreverses was significantly less when A1#25 was used after GPS and A1#20. When A1#20 was used with reciprocal motion, it had less peckings compared with the same file with continuous rotation, and no autoreverses were observed in that group. Using Neoniti files with reciprocal motion might result in less instrument fatigue and favorable results, with respect to canal anatomy preservation. Using A1#20 before A1#25 also will decrease the stress on the instrument during preparation. However, this may lead to significantly more canal transportation.

Effect of the laboratory short-term aging temperature on the chemical and rheological characteristics of high modulus asphalts

Rolling thin film oven (RTFO) has been widely used to simulate the short-term aging of base asphalt. However, owing to that the high-viscosity and high-modulus asphalt binder (HMAB) generally requires a higher temperature to disperse in the aging bottle, there are some doubts about the applicability of the current RTFO aging temperature in the simulation of aging of HMAB. In this paper, the base binder (K64) was added with 8%, 12%, 16%, and 20% Xinjiang rock asphalt (XRA) and 20%, 30%, 40%, and 50% Button rock asphalt (BRA) by weight respectively to prepare HMAB. The RTFO and modified RTFO (MRTFO) tests were performed at various temperature (163, 178, and 193 °C) to simulate the short-term aging of HMAB. The classes for properties of the HMAB prepared in the laboratory and a commercial HMAB were determined based on the conventional physical properties, performance grade (PG), and rotation viscosity tests. Further, the frequency sweep, multiple stress creep and recovery (MSCR), and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) tests were employed to characterize the effect of aging temperatures on the rheological and chemical properties of HMAB, respectively. The classes for properties of HMAB suggested that the modified asphalt met the HMAB standard when the addition ratios of XRA and BRA were higher than 12% and 30% by weight of the K64, respectively. The FTIR results indicated that the carbonyl jump growth could be detected for every HMAB when the aging temperature was raised to a certain level, and the temperature of carbonyl jump occurred in MRTFO was 15 °C lower than that of RTFO. The rheological test results implied that the significant changes in complex modulus, phase angle, nonrecoverable creep compliance (Jnr), and percent recovery (R) were observed at the aging temperature where carbonyl jump occurred. The RTFO aging temperature for 20HX, 50HB, and 7.5S could be roughly determined as 178 °C, 178 °C, and 193 °C based on carbonyl jump and equal aging effect between MRTFO and RTFO occurrences.

Grain splitting is a mechanism for grain coarsening in colloidal polycrystals.

In established theories of grain coarsening, grains disappear either by shrinking or by rotating as a rigid object to coalesce with an adjacent grain. Here we report a third mechanism for grain coarsening, in which a grain splits apart into two regions that rotate in opposite directions to match two adjacent grains' orientations. We experimentally observe both conventional grain rotation and grain splitting in two-dimensional colloidal polycrystals. We find that grain splitting occurs via independently rotating "granules" whose shapes are determined by the underlying triangular lattices of the two merging crystal grains. These granules are so small that existing continuum theories of grain boundary energy are inapplicable, so we introduce a hard sphere model for the free energy of a colloidal polycrystal. We find that, during splitting, the system overcomes a free energy barrier before ultimately reaching a lower free energy when splitting is complete. Using simulated splitting events and a simple scaling prediction, we find that the barrier to grain splitting decreases as grain size decreases. Consequently, grain splitting is likely to play an important role in polycrystals with small grains. This discovery suggests that mesoscale models of grain coarsening may offer better predictions in the nanocrystalline regime by including grain splitting.

Integrating perennial bahiagrass into the conventional rotation of cotton and peanut enhances interactions between microbial and nematode communities

Integrating two years of bahiagrass (Paspalum notatum Flugge) into the peanut (Arachis hypogea L.) and cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) cropping system improves soil quality and crop production as compared to a conventional peanut-cotton-cotton rotation (CR). However, it is unclear if this system, known as a sod-based rotation (SBR), affects soil biological communities (e.g., soil microorganisms and nematodes) and their trophic interactions. Furthermore, how soil trophic groups respond to agricultural management (e.g., irrigation) is understudied. In April 2017, we collected pre-planting soil samples (0–30 cm) from cotton plots located in Quincy (Florida, United States) that had been under CR (cotton grown in two consecutive years) and SBR (cotton grown only once) for 17 years. We used amplicon sequencing to investigate soil microbial communities and an inverted microscope technique to quantify nematodes. Compared to CR, SBR significantly increased nematode alpha diversity (one-way ANOVA; P < 0.05) and induced different nematode communities. In contrast, there were no significant differences in the diversity and structure of bacterial communities between SBR and CR. SBR plots were significantly enriched in Nitrospira, while the second of two consecutive years of cotton growth in CR had a higher relative abundance of Alphaproteobacteria (one-way ANOVA; P < 0.05). Plant-parasitic (848 counts per 100 g dry soil) and bacterial-feeding nematodes (798 counts per 100 g dry soil) had a similar abundance in SBR, while plant-parasitic nematodes (7772 counts per 100 g dry soil) were predominant in CR (<1000 counts per 100 g dry soil for all other taxa). SBR exhibited a greater number of significant paired Pearson correlations (P < 0.05) among functional groups of bacteria and nematodes compared to CR systems. Irrigation had no effect on the diversity and structure of bacterial and nematode communities in SBR, although some soil bacterial and nematode groups responded to irrigation. Overall, these results suggest that integrating bahiagrass to diversify the conventional peanut-cotton rotation is a sustainable approach to enhance soil biodiversity, with more diverse nematode communities and complex soil trophic interactions that will affect the response to crops and irrigation. Thus, future crop rotations should increase plant functional trait diversity (e.g., by adding perennial grasses) to maximize benefits to soil communities.

Incorporation of rice residue and green gram cultivation saves nitrogen, improve soil health and sustainability of rice-wheat system

• Rice residue incorporation and green gram was tested on yield and soil health. • Nitrogen fertilizer up to 75 kg ha −1 was saved by green gram growing before rice. • Sustainability was enhanced by rice residue and green gram incorporation. • Organic C increased by rice residue and green gram incorporation after 7 years. • Saving upto75 Kg N ha −1 in Punjab and Haryana could save $45.1 million yearly. Rice-wheat cropping system and associated residue burning is a major cause of air pollution and soil health depletion in Northern India. This calls for urgent technological interventions to address the issue and improve the profitability of this cropping system. Objective was to study the effect of rice residue incorporation (RRI) and green gram inclusion (GGI) on amount of N applied, productivity and soil health in rice-wheat cropping (RWC) system. Combinations of RRI, nitrogen management and GGI with conventional rice-wheat rotation were tested for 7 years. Eleven treatments with combination of RRI, RR removal, GGI and N management were evaluated. Treatment effects on system productivity, profitability and soil health parameters were measured. Treatment R-W (-RR) - Gg + <25 % N to R and R-W (+RR) - Gg+ <25 % N to R +>25 % N to W produced maximum rice (7677 kg ha −1 ) and wheat yield (5949 kg ha −1 ), though non-significant (P > 0.05) compared to control (Rice = 7508 & Wheat = 5724 kg ha −1 ). Nitrogen fertilizer up to 75 kg ha −1 was saved when GGI was taken up before rice. GGI and RRI was sustainable in terms of higher sustainability value index (SVI = 0.78), wheat equivalent yield (WEY = 20.0 t ha −1 ) and production efficiency (PE = 57.5 kg ha −1 day −1 ). The treatments with GGI + RRI produced 1015$ additional net returns with more than double B:C ratio. Soil health in the form of SOC (0.42 %) and available N (152.6 kg ha −1 ) were also improved with GGI + RRI in treatment R-W (+RR) - Gg+ <25 % N to R +>25 % N to W. Adoption of RRI + GGI over 3.64 m ha area under RWC system of studied ecology may save 45.1 million US $ worth N fertilizer annually in addition to substantial reduction in air pollution.

Agricultural eco-design scenarios based on AGRIBALYSE® residual organic fertiliser inventories

This work focuses on the assessment of the potential environmental benefits associated with the diversity of organic fertilisers available in the AGRIBALYSE database. Under the eco-design perspective, the shift from mineral to organic fertilisation regimes must not be over simplified, as fertilisation of each crop has an effect on the whole crop rotation. This work contrasts the environmental impacts of conventional crop rotations with equivalent eco-designed ones, featuring partial substitution of mineral by organic fertilisers at a level that the current yield is maintained. Two eco-design strategies involving AGRIBALYSE were devised. The first consists of retrofitting existing single crop processes by replacing conventional fertiliser inputs with newly available residual organic fertiliser processes. The second consists of eco-designing agricultural systems (i.e. technical itineraries representing crop rotations or crop sequences) by partially substituting mineral with newly available residues-based organic fertilisers. In both cases, it is necessary to adjust the fertiliser-related direct field emissions accordingly. In the second strategy, large amounts of organic fertilisers are input to replace mineral ones (tonnes vs. kg), and therefore overall impacts (i.e. impacts across impact categories) increase considerably, yet this effect is minimised when considering the alternative waste disposal pathways associated with the mineral fertilisation strategy (i.e. mineral fertilisation + disposal of the amount of organic residues necessary to deliver an equivalent level of fertilisation). The expanded functionality of a cropping system consuming organic waste-derived fertilisers (i.e. fertilisation + organic waste disposal) should be considered in comparative LCAs.

A Novel Combined Level Set Model for Carpus Segmentation from Magnetic Resonance Images with Prior Knowledge aligned in Polar Coordinate System

Background and ObjectiveSegmentation on carpus provides essential information for clinical applications including pathological evaluations, therapy planning, wrist biomechanical analysis, etc. Along with the acquisition procedure of magnetic resonance (MR) technique, poor quality of wrist images (e.g., occlusion, low signal-to-noise ratio, and contrast) often causes segmentation failure. MethodsIn this work, to address such problems, a shape prior enhanced level set model was proposed. By transferring a shape contour in Cartesian Coordinate System (COS) into a curve in Polar Coordinate System (POS), parameters describing conventional shape invariance, i.e., translations, rotation, and scale were simplified into a single parameter for phase shift, which strongly improved algorithm efficiency. Given a training set in COS, a confidence interval representing the corresponding curves in POS was utilized as the shape prior set term in the model. Integrated with an edge detector, a local intensity descriptor, and a regularization term, the proposed method further possessed abilities against noise, intensity inhomogeneity as well as re-initialization problem. Images from 15 in-vivo acquired MR-datasets of the human wrist were used for validation. The performance of the proposed method has been compared with three state-of-the-art methods. ResultsWe reported a Dice Similarity Coefficient of 96.88±1.20%, a Relative Volume Difference of -1.53±3.01%, a Volume Overlap Error of 6.03±2.23%, a 95% Hausdorff Distance of 1.43±0.66 mm, an Average Symmetric Surface Distance of 0.50±0.17 mm, and a Root Mean Square Distance of 0.71±0.25 mm for the proposed method. The time consumption was 36.03±19.98 s. ConclusionsExperimental results indicated that, compared with three other methods, the proposed method achieved significant improvement in terms of accuracy and efficiency.

Serial Electron Diffraction Data Processing With diffractem and CrystFEL.

Serial electron diffraction (SerialED) is an emerging technique, which applies the snapshot data-collection mode of serial X-ray crystallography to three-dimensional electron diffraction (3D Electron Diffraction), forgoing the conventional rotation method. Similarly to serial X-ray crystallography, this approach leads to almost complete absence of radiation damage effects even for the most sensitive samples, and allows for a high level of automation. However, SerialED also necessitates new techniques of data processing, which combine existing pipelines for rotation electron diffraction and serial X-ray crystallography with some more particular solutions for challenges arising in SerialED specifically. Here, we introduce our analysis pipeline for SerialED data, and its implementation using the CrystFEL and diffractem program packages. Detailed examples are provided in extensive supplementary code.

Important factors when simulating the water and nitrogen balance in a tile-drained agricultural field under long-term monitoring

Despite the effectiveness of tile drain systems as a water management practice in naturally poorly drained soils, they facilitate the transport of NO3−-N to surface water bodies. In order to improve the risk assessment of this significant transport under increased applications of N fertilisers in agriculture, it is imperative to delineate the controlling factors and processes. The aim of this study was to acquire such knowledge using the 1D Daisy model to simulate water and N balance based on comprehensive data from a ten-year monitoring study of a tile-drained loamy field in Denmark under the actual crop rotation of winter wheat, sugar beet, spring barley, winter rape and maize. The model simulated the cumulative drainage and NO3−-N leaching over the ten-year period satisfactorily with NSE of 1.00 and 0.87 respectively. While the annual N input to the model was 181 kg N ha−1, an average of 139 kg N ha−1 was harvested in the crop, 22 kg N ha−1 was leached through deep percolation, 17 kg N ha−1 was leached to the tile drains, and 14 kg N ha−1 was lost due to denitrification. Although the model satisfactorily captured the monitored data, the results of this study highlight: (i) the requirement for improved parameterisation of winter crops, (ii) the need to give further consideration in the model to soil surface and macropore processes that govern water infiltration and (iii) that measured and simulated NO3−-N concentrations in the drainage exceeded the limit defined by the European Drinking Water Directive and Nitrates Directive for drinking water and hence improved N management strategies are essential for tile-drained agricultural fields in temperate regions under conventional crop rotations.

Legume-Modified Rotations Deliver Nutrition With Lower Environmental Impact

Introducing legumes to crop rotations could contribute toward healthy and sustainable diet transitions, but the current evidence base is fragmented across studies that evaluate specific aspects of sustainability and nutrition in isolation. Few previous studies have accounted for interactions among crops, or the aggregate nutritional output of rotations, to benchmark the efficiency of modified cropping sequences. We applied life cycle assessment to compare the environmental efficiency of ten rotations across three European climatic zones in terms of delivery of human and livestock nutrition. The introduction of grain legumes into conventional cereal and oilseed rotations delivered human nutrition at lower environmental cost for most of the 16 impact categories studied. In Scotland, the introduction of a legume crop into the typical rotation reduced external nitrogen requirements by almost half to achieve the same human nutrition potential. In terms of livestock nutrition, legume-modified rotations also delivered more digestible protein at lower environmental cost compared with conventional rotations. However, legume-modified rotations delivered less metabolisable energy for livestock per hectare-year in two out of the three zones, and at intermediate environmental cost for one zone. Our results show that choice of functional unit has an important influence on the apparent efficiency of different crop rotations, and highlight a need for more research to develop functional units representing multiple nutritional attributes of crops for livestock feed. Nonetheless, results point to an important role for increased legume cultivation in Europe to contribute to the farm and diet sustainability goals of the European Union's Farm to Fork strategy.

The Case for Hyperplane Fitting Rotations in Factor Analysis: A Comparative Study of Simple Structure

Hyperplane fitting factor rotations perform better than conventional rotations in attaining simple structure for complex configurations. Hyperplane rotations are reviewed and then compared using familiar exam es from the literature selected to vary in complexity. Included is a new method for fitting hyperplanes, hypermax, which updates the work of Horst (1941) and Derflinger and Kaiser (1989). Hypercon, a method for confirmatory target rotation, is a natural extension. These performed very well when compared with selected hyperplane and conventional rotations. The concluding sections consider the pros and cons of each method.

The Case for Hyperplane Fitting Rotations in Factor Analysis: A Comparative Study of Simple Structure

Hyperplane fitting factor rotations perform better than conventional rotations in attaining simple structure for complex configurations. Hyperplane rotations are reviewed and then compared using familiar examples from the literature selected to vary in complexity. Included is a new method for fitting hyperplanes, hypermax, which updates the work of Horst (1941) and Deringer and Kaiser (1989). Hypercon, a method for confirmatory target rotation, is a natural extension. These performed very well when compared with selected hyperplane and conventional rotations. The concluding sections consider the pros and cons of each method.

Conservation agriculture enhances the rice-wheat system of the Eastern Gangetic Plains in some environments, but not in others

• Intensification of the rice-wheat system increased system productivity. • CA further enhanced the baseline system though CA benefits are environment-specific. • In fine-textured soil (silt-loam), CA enhanced system productivity and resource use efficiency. • In course-textured soil (sandy-loam), the system benefit (productivity and resource use efficiency) of full CA seems limited. Increasing productivity of the rice-wheat system (RW) in the Eastern Gangetic Plains (EGP) is a major challenge in the context of the various economic (increasing cost of labour, irrigation water, and energy) and bio-physical (water scarcity, depletion of soil fertility, and climatic variability) constraints. We evaluated the performance of three RW system intensification options with different management interventions over two years, comparing a conventional RW rotation (CS 1 ), with two stages of conservation agriculture (CA) interventions, (i) the simple inclusion of mungbean (CS 2 ), and (ii) the inclusion of mungbean together with full CA implementation (CS 3 ) at two sites in the EGP that differed with respect to soil type, water table dynamics, and agro-climatic conditions. Our evaluation focussed on improving system productivity and resource use efficiency. The addition of mungbean into the conventional RW rotation produced significantly higher system productivity (rice equivalent yield, REY) compared with the existing double-crop rotation across sites. The baseline system was enhanced further when CA-based management practices were adopted, however, the magnitude of system benefit from CA was site and situation-specific. At the fine-textured soil site, gains were observed in system production (by 5.4 %), irrigation water productivity (WP I , by 40 %), and N use efficiency (NUE, by 5%) for the CA-based intensified system (CS 3 ) in comparison with the CT-based intensified system (CS 2 ). The average wheat yield and WP I in the zero-till (ZT) system (CS 3 ) was always higher than in the conventional (CT) systems (CS 1 and CS 2 ), mainly due to enhanced wheat rooting after unpuddled rice across the sites. At the fine-textured soil site, the cessation of puddling in rice cropping maintained rice grain yield, while increasing WP I . However, in the coarse-textured soil site, the cessation of puddling resulted in lower rice grain production (by 14 %), coupled with much higher (1.3 times) irrigation water requirement than the conventional puddled rice systems (CS 1 and CS 2 ) in the second year due to increased percolation rate, which negatively impacted the overall performance of the CA-based system (CS 3 ). Therefore, the modification of the traditional CT-based system to an intensified CA-based approach can improve the productivity of the RW system in terms of yield of the component crops as well as better NUE and WP I in fine-textured soil, while the feasibility of the full CA system in coarse-textured soil seems limited due to poor performance of rice, and requires further research focusing on the best rice establishment option.

A banner flap with adjacent rotation flap for closure of circular skin defects: a schematic comparison with conventional rotation flap technique

The local flap method is a minimally invasive, quick, and common technique of closing skin defects. Several methods using multiple local flaps are employed for the purpose of closing relatively large defects, and minimizing the resultant scar and deformity. We present a combined local flap method using a banner flap with an adjacent rotation flap (B-R flap) with the potential for closing circular defects. A retrospective analysis was performed in 15 patients treated with the B-R flap for circular skin defects over a 2-year period. The sizes of the flap and the healthy skin excision area were evaluated using image analysis software, and were compared to a model of a conventional rotation flap that would be necessary to close the same defect. All flaps were successfully engrafted. The B-R flap required a 39.1% smaller rotation flap and an 85.9% smaller area of healthy skin compared to the conventional rotation flap technique. There was one adverse event, partial epidermal necrosis that was conservatively treated and healed. The B-R flap is comparatively less invasive; it allows a smaller area of healthy skin to be excised. It can be a useful option for closing a circular defect.

Labeling lateral prefrontal sulci using spherical data augmentation and context-aware training

The inference of cortical sulcal labels often focuses on deep (primary and secondary) sulcal regions, whereas shallow (tertiary) sulcal regions are largely overlooked in the literature due to the scarcity of manual/well-defined annotations and their large neuroanatomical variability. In this paper, we present an automated framework for regional labeling of both primary/secondary and tertiary sulci of the dorsal portion of lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) using spherical convolutional neural networks. We propose two core components that enhance the inference of sulcal labels to overcome such large neuroanatomical variability: (1) surface data augmentation and (2) context-aware training. (1) To take into account neuroanatomical variability, we synthesize training data from the proposed feature space that embeds intermediate deformation trajectories of spherical data in a rigid to non-rigid fashion, which bridges an augmentation gap in conventional rotation data augmentation. (2) Moreover, we design a two-stage training process to improve labeling accuracy of tertiary sulci by informing the biological associations in neuroanatomy: inference of primary/secondary sulci and then their spatial likelihood to guide the definition of tertiary sulci. In the experiments, we evaluate our method on 13 deep and shallow sulci of human LPFC in two independent data sets with different age ranges: pediatric (N=60) and adult (N=36) cohorts. We compare the proposed method with a conventional multi-atlas approach and spherical convolutional neural networks without/with rotation data augmentation. In both cohorts, the proposed data augmentation improves labeling accuracy of deep and shallow sulci over the baselines, and the proposed context-aware training offers further improvement in the labeling of shallow sulci over the proposed data augmentation. We share our tools with the field and discuss applications of our results for understanding neuroanatomical-functional organization of LPFC and the rest of cortex (https://github.com/ilwoolyu/SphericalLabeling).