Soil erosion is a major threat to global economic and environmental sustainability. This study evaluated long-term effects of conservation tillage with poultry litter application on soil erosion estimates in cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) plots using RUSLE 2.0 computer model. Treatments consisting of no-till, mulch-till, and conventional tillage systems, winter rye (Secale cereale L.) cover cro...

A capture-mark-recapture study was conducted in crop fields in Morogoro, Tanzania, to investigate how the population dynamics of multimammate field rats, Mastomys natalensis, was influenced by the commonly practised land preparation methods and cropping systems. Two land preparation methods (tractor ploughing and slash and burn) and two cropping systems (mono-cropping with maize and inter-cropp...

Protein secretion systems that mediate interbacterial competition secret a wide repertoire of antibacterial toxins. A major player in these competitions is the newly discovered bacterial type VI secretion system (T6SS). We recently found that a subset of polymorphic MIX-effectors, which are a widespread class of effectors secreted by T6SSs, are horizontally shared between marine bacteria and ar...

The theory of constraints is an approach to production planning and control that emphasizes on the constraints to increase throughput by effectively managing constraint resources. One application in theory of constraints is product mix decision. Product mix influences the performance measures in multi-product manufacturing system. This paper presents an alternative approach by using of goal pro...

This paper introduces the concept of “revocable unlinkability” for unlinkable anonymous signatures and proposes a generalized scheme that modifies the signatures to include revocable unlinkability. Revocable unlinkability provides a condition in which multiple messages signed using an unlinkable anonymous signature are unlinkable for anyone except the unlinkability revocation manager. Noteworth...

Recent studies have shown that continuous cropping in soybean causes substantial changes to the microbial community in rhizosphere soil. In this study, we investigated the effects of continuous cropping for various time periods on the diversity of rhizosphere soil arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi in various soybean cultivars at the branching stage. The soybean cultivars Heinong 37 (an intermed...

Reducing pesticide use is one of the high-priority targets in the quest for a sustainable agriculture. Until now, most studies dealing with pesticide use reduction have compared a limited number of experimental prototypes. Here we assessed the sustainability of 48 arable cropping systems from two major agricultural regions of France, including conventional, integrated and organic systems, with ...

The choice of crops and their management can strongly influence soil microbial communities and their processes. We used lipid biomarker profiling to characterize how soil microbial composition of five potential bioenergy cropping systems diverged from a common baseline five years after they were established. The cropping systems we studied included an annual system (continuous no-till corn) and...

Low-input cropping systems were introduced in Western Europe to reduce the environmental impacts of intensive farming, but some of their benefits are offset by lower yields. In this paper, we review studies that used Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to investigate the effects of reducing external inputs on the eco-efficiency of cropping systems, measured as the ratio of production to environmental i...

Contemporary crop production faces dual challenges of increasing crop yield while simultaneously reducing greenhouse gas emission. An integrated evaluation of the mitigation potential of yield-scaled nitrous oxide (N2O) emission by adjusting cropping practices can benefit the innovation of climate smart cropping. This study conducted a meta-analysis to assess the impact of cropping systems and ...