Advanced Barber College & Hair Design

ABSTRACT This study combines sensory analysis and stated preference valuation techniques to assess the monetary value of organoleptic attributes of new tomato varieties. The tomatoes evaluated included two new varieties adapted to South Texas growing conditions, a commercial check, and tomatoes imported from Mexico. In a blind sensory test, participants sampled, rated, and valued the attributes of all tomato varieties. Willingness to pay responses were collected using a payment card elicitation approach and jointly analyzed with a multivariate ordered probit model. Price premiums were associated with males, smaller households, younger consumers, higher income, and the liking of different organoleptic attributes.

Vine decline disease (VDD) constitutes a menace to melons worldwide. Especially, the one caused by the fungus Monosporascus cannonballus. Thus, resistant plant material must be released to help growers. Hence, our goal was to develop resistant plant material to VDD. More than 600 melon accessions are expected to be tested for disease resistance in M. cannonballus infested soil in Weslaco, Texas, USA, to identify resistance to VDD, and other important traits. So far, at most 7 lines were found to be resistant to VDD and some of them were used to develop elite, muskmelon inbred lines by pedigree breeding following single or double backcrosses. These elite parents were crossed to each other to develop the hybrids M3 and M4. They were also tested in the same infested field in Weslaco. The hybrids were grown using standard commercial practices followed by growers and when their fruits were ready, their roots were sampled as well as scored for disease severity to estimate high and mid-parent heterosis Our results indicate the existence of heterosis regarding resistance to VDD. Thus, resistant plant material can be developed and selection for resistance can be accomplished.

Biotic and abiotic stresses cause substantial changes in plant biochemistry. These changes are typically revealed by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and mass spectroscopy-coupled HPLC (HPLC-MS). This information can be used to determine underlying molecular mechanisms of biotic and abiotic stresses in plants. A growing body of evidence suggests that changes in plant biochemistry can be probed by Raman spectroscopy, an emerging analytical technique that is based on inelastic light scattering. Non-invasive and non-destructive detection and identification of these changes allow for the use of Raman spectroscopy for confirmatory diagnostics of plant biotic and abiotic stresses. In this study, we couple HPLC and HPLC-MS findings on biochemical changes caused by Candidatus Liberibacter spp. (Ca. L. asiaticus) in citrus trees to the spectroscopic signatures of plant leaves derived by Raman spectroscopy. Our results show that Ca. L. asiaticus cause an increase in hydroxycinnamates, the precursors of lignins, and flavones, as well as a decrease in the concentration of lutein that are detected by Raman spectroscopy. These findings suggest that Ca. L. asiaticus induce a strong plant defense response that aims to exterminate bacteria present in the plant phloem. This work also suggests that Raman spectroscopy can be used to resolve stress-induced changes in plant biochemistry on the molecular level.

Yield prediction and variety selection are critical components for assessing production and performance in breeding programs and precision agriculture. Since plants integrate their genetics, surrounding environments, and management conditions, crop phenotypes have been measured over cropping seasons to represent the traits of varieties. These days, UAS (unmanned aircraft system) provides a new opportunity to collect high‐quality images and generate reliable phenotypic data efficiently. Here, we propose high‐throughput phenotyping (HTP) from multitemporal UAS images for tomato yield estimation. UAS‐based RGB and multispectral images were collected weekly and biweekly, respectively. The shape of the features of tomatoes such as canopy cover, canopy, volume, and vegetation indices derived from UAS imagery was estimated throughout the entire season. To extract time‐series features from UAS‐based phenotypic data, crop growth and growth rate curves were fitted using mathematical curves and first derivative equations. Time‐series features such as the maximum growth rate, day at a specific event, and duration were extracted from the fitted curves of different phenotypes. The linear regression model produced high R2 values even with different variable selection methods: all variables (0.79), forward selection (0.7), and backward selection (0.77). With factor analysis, we figured out two significant factors, growth speed and timing, related to high‐yield varieties. Then, five time‐series phenotypes were selected for yield prediction models explaining 65 percent of the variance in the actual harvest. The phenotypic features derived from RGB images played more important roles in prediction yield. This research also demonstrates that it is possible to select lower‐performing tomato varieties successfully. The results from this work may be useful in breeding programs and research farms for selecting high‐yielding and disease‐/pest‐resistant varieties.

Over 700 plant diseases identified as vector-borne negatively impact plant health and food security globally. The pest control of vector-borne diseases in agricultural settings is in urgent need of more effective tools. Ongoing research in genetics, molecular biology, physiology, and vector behavior has begun to unravel new insights into the transmission of phytopathogens by their insect vectors. However, the intricate mechanisms involved in phytopathogen transmission for certain pathosystems warrant further investigation. In this review, we propose the corn stunt pathosystem (Zea mays–Spiroplasma kunkelii–Dalbulus maidis) as an ideal model for dissecting the molecular determinants and mechanisms underpinning the persistent transmission of a mollicute by its specialist insect vector to an economically important monocotyledonous crop. Corn stunt is the most important disease of corn in the Americas and the Caribbean, where it causes the severe stunting of corn plants and can result in up to 100% yield loss. A comprehensive study of the corn stunt disease system will pave the way for the discovery of novel molecular targets for genetic pest control targeting either the insect vector or the phytopathogen.

As tick resistance to conventional acaricides becomes more common, alternative control tactics are gaining attention. Insecticidal dusts CimeXa and Surround, based on silica gel and kaolin, respectively, were assessed against Amblyomma americanum (L.) (Ixodida: Ixodidae) eggs, larvae, and nymphs in the laboratory. Coverage by the dry dusts, particularly CimeXa, was strongly lethal to larvae and to a lesser extent to nymphs. Larval mortality was also high when larvae crawled across thin layers of CimeXa and, to a lesser extent, Surround dusts. CimeXa was more lethal to nymphs that crawled across a thin layer than Surround. Larval mortality after crawling on dried aqueous suspensions of the dusts for 30 min and for 48 h caused moderate mortality (<80%) regardless of a 10-fold difference in concentration; nymphal mortality was negligible. In a field experiment, CimeXa dust strongly reduced numbers of Gulf coast tick, Amblyomma maculatum (Koch) (Ixodida: Ixodidae), larvae and nymphs by 24 h. Possible application of CimeXa to control other species of ixodid ticks is discussed as well as advantages and disadvantages of using dusts for tick control under field conditions.

While the use of optics in the playback of music has been a tremendously successful technology and laser light shows are a common occurrence, other intersections of optics and music tend to be less well known. Topics such as optics-based instruments, performance tools and effects, instrument characterization and manufacturing, recording, playback, and signal processing are explored.