Software for interpolation of vegetative growth of yerba mate plants in 3D

The objective of this work was to build mock-ups of complete yerba mate plants in several stages of development, using the InterpolMate software, and to compute photosynthesis on the interpolated structure. The mock-ups of yerba-mate were first built in the VPlants software for three growth stages. Male and female plants grown in two contrasting environments (monoculture and forest understory) were considered. To model the dynamic 3D architecture of yerba-mate plants during the biennial growth interval between two subsequent prunings, data sets of branch development collected in 38 dates were used. The estimated values obtained from the mock-ups, including leaf photosynthesis and sexual dimorphism, are very close to those observed in the field. However, this similarity was limited to reconstructions that included growth units from original data sets. The modeling of growth dynamics enables the estimation of photosynthesis for the entire yerba mate plant, which is not easily measurable in the field. The InterpolMate software is efficient for building yerba mate mock-ups.

Poultry Imported to Iowa, April 2015

The Poultry Imported to Iowa report monthly by the Department of Agricultural.

Poultry Imported to Iowa, August 2015

The Poultry Imported to Iowa report monthly by the Department of Agricultural.

Poultry Imported to Iowa, December 2015

The Poultry Imported to Iowa report monthly by the Department of Agricultural.

Poultry Imported to Iowa, February 2015

The Poultry Imported to Iowa report monthly by the Department of Agricultural.

Poultry Imported to Iowa, January 2015

The Poultry Imported to Iowa report monthly by the Department of Agricultural.

Poultry Imported to Iowa, September 2015

The Poultry Imported to Iowa report monthly by the Department of Agricultural.

Poultry Imported to Iowa, March 2015

The Poultry Imported to Iowa report monthly by the Department of Agricultural.

Poultry Imported to Iowa, May 2015

The Poultry Imported to Iowa report monthly by the Department of Agricultural.

Poultry Imported to Iowa, June 2015

The Poultry Imported to Iowa report monthly by the Department of Agricultural.

Poultry Imported to Iowa, July 2015

The Poultry Imported to Iowa report monthly by the Department of Agricultural.

Poultry Imported to Iowa, October 2015

The Poultry Imported to Iowa report monthly by the Department of Agricultural.

Poultry Imported to Iowa, November 2015

The Poultry Imported to Iowa report monthly by the Department of Agricultural.

Neural networks complemented with genetic algorithms and fuzzy systems for predicting nitrogenous effluent variables in wastewater treatment plants

This work focuses on the prediction of the two main nitrogenous variables that describe the water quality at the effluent of a Wastewater Treatment Plant. We have developed two kind of Neural Networks architectures based on considering only one output or, in the other hand, the usual five effluent variables that define the water quality: suspended solids, biochemical organic matter, chemical organic matter, total nitrogen and total Kjedhal nitrogen. Two learning techniques based on a classical adaptative gradient and a Kalman filter have been implemented. In order to try to improve generalization and performance we have selected variables by means genetic algorithms and fuzzy systems. The training, testing and validation sets show that the final networks are able to learn enough well the simulated available data specially for the total nitrogen

Development and fruit yield of strawberry plants as affected by crown diameter and plantlet growing period

The objective of this work was to evaluate the influence of crown diameter and growing period of runner tips in 128 cell-trays on growth and yield of strawberry in the field. Treatments consisted of three classes of runner tip crown diameters, between 2.0 to 3.9 mm; 4.0 to 5.5 mm and 5.6 to 7.0 mm, respectively, and four growing periods in trays, 24; 39; 54 and 69 days, respectively. Higher shoot dry mass of transplants at planting and earlier yield of plants in the field were obtained in transplants grown for 69 days in trays. Larger runner tips lead to more vigorous transplants at planting and plants with higher vegetative growth in the field, with minor impact on yield. Increasing the growing time of runner tips in trays improved early fruit yield and decreased plant vegetative growth in the field.