Recycling nutrients in the beef supply chain through circular manuresheds: Data to assess tradeoffs.

Nutrient circularity can help supply chain participants meet sustainability targets. Across the segmented beef supply chain, opportunity exists to reinforce and introduce nutrient circularity by recycling surplus manure nutrients from cattle feedlots to lands where cattle feed is produced. We describe four datasets developed to evaluate options in U.

Emissions of hydrogen sulfide from a western open-lot dairy.

Hydrogen sulfide (H S) emissions are considered hazardous to the environment. Animal agriculture operations must therefore report emissions exceeding a threshold to the National Response Center. Estimating the emissions from operations is needed because monitoring at all operations is not possible.

P-FLUX: A phosphorus budget dataset spanning diverse agricultural production systems in the United States and Canada.

Quantifying spatial and temporal fluxes of phosphorus (P) within and among agricultural production systems is critical for sustaining agricultural production while minimizing environmental impacts. To better understand P fluxes in agricultural landscapes, P-FLUX, a detailed and harmonized dataset of P inputs, outputs, and budgets, as well as estimated uncertainties for each P flux and budget, was developed. Data were collected from 24 research sites and 61 production systems through the Long-term Agroecosystem Research (LTAR) network and partner organizations spanning 22 U.

Challenges and opportunities for manureshed management across U.S. dairy systems: Case studies from four regions.

The manureshed represents cropland needed to safely assimilate manure nutrients from an animal feeding operation. Dairy manuresheds can be contained on-farm but may need to involve additional farms that can assimilate excess nutrients. We present case studies reviewing challenges and opportunities to manureshed management in four major dairy-producing states using available information on local manuresheds.

Validation of DNA marker-assisted selection for forage biomass productivity under deficit irrigation in alfalfa.

Drought and limited irrigation resources threaten agricultural sustainability in many regions of the world. Application of genomic-based breeding strategies may benefit crop variety development for these environments. Here, we provide a first report on the effect of deploying DNA marker-assisted selection (MAS) for the drought resilience quantitative trait in alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.

Establishing three warm-season turfgrasses with tailored water: I. Growth, cover, and nitrate leaching losses.

Although treated effluent is being increasingly used to irrigate mature turfgrass, information on its use to establish grass is limited. Greenhouse experiments were conducted in 2015 and 2017 to examine establishment and nitrate leaching from three warm-season grasses: buffalograss [Buchloe dactyloides (Natt.) Eng.

Establishing three warm-season turfgrasses with tailored water: II. Root development, nitrate accumulation in plant tissue and soil, and relationship with leaching.

Greenhouse experiments were conducted in 2015 and 2017 to assess the feasibility of establishing three warm-season grasses-buffalograss [Buchloe dactyloides (Natt.) Eng.] 'SWI 2000', inland saltgrass (Distichlis spicata L.

Land use change and collaborative manureshed management in New Mexico.

Agricultural communities of New Mexico regularly redistribute manure nutrients from dairies to nearby croplands to fulfill agronomic nutrient needs and protect water quality. Yet competition for water resources can result in land use change that affects these cooperative manure transfers. Focusing on three clusters of New Mexico dairy farms and their surrounding lands (three manuresheds), we calculated the magnitude of land use changes in 2008-2019 and the balance between manure nutrient supply and crop demand in 2019 to assess how past change may predict future prospects for sustainable management.

Agricultural soils of the Animas River watershed after the Gold King Mine spill: An elemental spatiotemporal analysis via portable X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy.

In August 2015, 11.3 million L of heavy metal-contaminated water spilled into the Animas River from the Gold King Mine (Colorado, USA). National attention focused on water quality and agricultural production in areas affected by the spill.

Defining the multidimensional phenotype: New opportunities to integrate the behavioral ecology and behavioral neuroscience of vocal learning.

Vocal learning has evolved independently in several lineages. This complex cognitive trait is commonly treated as binary: species either possess or lack it. This view has been a useful starting place to examine the origins of vocal learning, but is also incomplete and potentially misleading, as specific components of the vocal learning program - such as the timing, extent and nature of what is learned - vary widely among species.

Characterization of Soluble Glandless Cottonseed Meal Proteins Based on Electrophoresis, Functional Properties, and Microscopic Structure.

This investigation aimed to extract and characterize the GCSM proteins, determine their solubility potential at two different temperatures and different solvents, and explore their functional properties. During the extraction, no water- or ethanol-soluble protein was found. Most of the protein was extracted with KOH solution.

Capturing Spatial Variability of Biogeochemical Mass Exchanges and Reaction Rates in Wetland Water and Soil through Model Compartmentalization.

A common phenomenon observed in natural and constructed wetlands is short-circuiting of flow and formation of stagnant zones that are only indirectly connected with the incoming water. Biogeochemistry of passive areas is potentially much different than that of active zones. In the research reported in this paper, the spatial resolution of a previously developed wetland nutrient cycling model was improved in order to capture the spatial variability of concentrations and reaction rates regarding nitrogen and carbon cycles throughout active and passive zones of wetlands.

How to Fully Represent Expert Information about Imprecise Properties in a Computer System - Random Sets, Fuzzy Sets, and Beyond: An Overview.

To help computers make better decisions, it is desirable to describe all our knowledge in computer-understandable terms. This is easy for knowledge described in terms on numerical values: we simply store the corresponding numbers in the computer. This is also easy for knowledge about precise (well-defined) properties which are either true or false for each object: we simply store the corresponding "true" and "false" values in the computer.

Telling stories: keeping secrets.

This article addresses the reticence of some farm women to share their experiences with historians and how that desire to keep secrets collides with the desire by scholars to tell the stories of these women. It argues that scholars must continue to struggle with the issue of which stories to tell publicly and which to keep private. The author discusses her own experience telling stories about rural women in the 1970s and the need to give voice to the heritage of rural women, especially of groups that have feared revealing their experiences.

The pseudospectral time-domain (PSTD) algorithm for acoustic waves in absorptive media.

A technique based on the combination of Fourier pseudospectral method and the perfectly matched layer (PML) is developed to simulate transient acoustic wave propagation in multidimensional, inhomogeneous, absorptive media. Instead of the finite difference approximation in the conventional finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method, this technique uses trigonometric functions, through an FFT (fast Fourier transform) algorithm, to represent the spatial derivatives in partial differential equations. Traditionally the Fourier pseudospectral method is used only for spatially periodic problems because the use of FFT implies periodicity.

Multiplexed electrochemical protein coding based on quantum dot (QD)-bioconjugates for a clinical barcode system.

An ultrasensitive imumunodiagnostic readout method based on an electrochemical analysis is presented. Different high-quality quantum dot (QD) nanocrystals (ZnS, CdS, and PbS) are tagged to antibodies for the on-site voltammetric stripping measurements of multiple antigen targets. These encoding QD tracers with distinct redox potential yield highly sensitive and selective stripping peaks at -1.

Anatomically constrained electrical impedance tomography for anisotropic bodies via a two-step approach.

Discusses the inclusion of anatomical constraints and anisotropy in static Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT) using a two-step approach to EIT. In the first step, the boundaries between regions of different conductivities are anatomically constrained using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) data. In the second step, the conductivity values in different regions are determined.

Temporal winner-take-all networks: a time-based mechanism for fast selection in neural networks.

Winner-take-all (WTA) networks frequently appear in neural network models. They are primarily used for decision making and selection. As an alternative to the conventional activation-based winner-take-all mechanisms (AWTA), we present a time-based temporal-winner-take-all mechanism with O(n) space complexity and roughly O(log n) time complexity.

The design, fabrication, and test of a new VLSI hybrid analog-digital neural processing element.

A hybrid analog-digital neural processing element with the time-dependent behavior of biological neurons has been developed. The hybrid processing element is designed for VLSI implementation and offers the best attributes of both analog and digital computation. Custom VLSI layout reduces the layout area of the processing element, which in turn increases the expected network density.