North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services

Spearmint ( Mentha spicata L.) is a perennial herb popular for its distinct flavor and aroma. While traditionally grown outdoors as a field crop, controlled environment agriculture can provide an alternative method for producing spearmint. The objective of this study was to define foliar mineral nutrient interpretation ranges specific to greenhouse-grown spearmint by inducing and documenting individual nutrient disorders. Plants were cultivated in a hydroponic sand culture system and supplied with a modified Hoagland’s solution, in which individual nutrients were either omitted or supplemented, while maintaining all others at consistent levels. As nutrient disorders became evident, symptoms were photographed and documented. Plant tissue was collected to measure plant dry mass and nutrient concentrations. Additional foliar tissue data were compiled with those from the present study to create a larger data set containing 315 samples. Data were analyzed to define interpretation ranges for 12 essential nutrients using a hybrid meta-analysis sufficiency range approach, which defined ranges for deficient, low, sufficient, high, and excessive tissue concentrations for each nutrient. The most representative distribution for each nutrient was selected based on the lowest Bayesian Information Criterion value. Potassium, calcium, sulfur, boron, and copper were best modeled using a normal distribution, while magnesium was best represented by a gamma distribution. A Weibull distribution provided the best fit for nitrogen, phosphorus, iron, manganese, molybdenum, and zinc. These findings provide previously unavailable resources for diagnosing nutrient disorders and evaluating foliar nutrient analysis of greenhouse-grown spearmint.

The application of differential protection on transformers at industrial facilities improves system reliability by isolating faults fast within the transformer zone, prevents further or catastrophic damage hence extending transformer lifespan, and improves safety by preventing further escalation of faults. This paper will discuss several aspects of applying transformer differential protection from current transformer (CT) selection to setting development and dealing with transformer inrush conditions. This paper will also explore modern advancements to further improve reliability and selectivity of transformer differential protection. Several real-world examples and field case studies will be discussed.

This paper introduces a blockchain-based method for IoT programs to transfer data securely. As the number of Internet of Things (IoT) devices rises and the demand for safe and immutable data management grows, traditional centralized systems have single points of failure and flaws that allow unauthorized access. The suggested solution protects data during transmission and storage using cryptographic encryption, hashing, consensus mechanisms, and smart contracts. Blockchain-based solutions are decentralized, so data cannot be changed, and encryption and hashing safeguard it. The consensus mechanism verifies transactions and ensures nodes are in sync, making the network secure. Smart contracts allow fine-grained access control, limiting sensitive data to authorized devices and persons. The proposed solution outperforms current systems in privacy, data integrity, security, scalability, and energy economy. The suggested method works well with big IoT networks, requires little energy, and has minimal latency, making it useful for many IoT uses. This study shows how blockchain technology may provide a safe, effective, and scalable IoT data management system. This approach would prepare future IoT ecosystems to securely communicate data.

The pinewood nematode (PWN), Bursaphelenchus xylophilus, is a pathogenic organism that causes pine wilt disease (PWD). To date, several molecular diagnostic methods have been developed; however, rapid, convenient, and inexpensive field diagnostic tools for detecting PWN are still limited. In this study, an enzyme-mediated duplex exponential amplification (EmDEA) method for detecting PWN from extracted nematodes or pinewood sawdust was developed and tested. This method comprised an EmDEA molecular test kit, which consisted of freeze-dried enzyme pellets that can be stored at room temperature (approximately 20–25 °C) for one year, a dry block heater, and a portable isothermal fluorescence amplification instrument. The whole procedure was completed within 30 min. The EmDEA assay could detect a single PWN at all life stages from a mixture of other nematode species or from pinewood sawdust. The detection limit was 10 copies (plasmid weight 32.66 ag) or 1/500 of that of a single adult PWN per reaction. Therefore, the EmDEA assay has potential applications in PWN detection in the field, as well as quarantine inspection in international trade. Moreover, modification of primers and probes will allow the rapid identification of other nematode species.

Aerial pesticide applications in croplands can be a major source of pesticide exposure to pollinating insects, including off-target drift that occurs during and after the application of chemicals. Most pesticide applications in the lower Mississippi Delta are carried out by piloted agricultural aircraft. Pesticide adjuvants (PAs) are added to the tank mix to improve spray characteristics such as reducing drift. However, PAs can be as toxic as pesticide active ingredients. PAs with plant-based polymers appear to be less toxic to pollinators, and ongoing experiments have identified sodium alginate (SA) and fenugreek polymer (FP) as less toxic drift-reducing PAs. In this study, SA and FP were tested as drift-reducing PAs for potential aerial applications using a high-speed wind tunnel experimental setup. The droplet spectrum was analyzed by a Sympatec Helium-Neon Laser Optical System laser-diffraction instrument. The spray experiment was carried out with (1) water only as a control and (2) water and adjuvant as treatments. The drift reduction potentials of the adjuvants were analyzed based on droplet size (diameters of 10%, 50%, and 90% spray volume) and the proportion of driftable volume with droplets less than 150 µm. Our results indicate that SA, when added to water, reduced the droplet size instead of increasing it. Additionally, SA increased the proportion of driftable particles compared with water, which is not desirable. Although the FP polymer increased the droplet size, the reduction in the driftable proportion of droplets was modest and was significant only for the 1-g/L concentration tested using the 40-degree flat fan nozzle. In summary, neither SA nor FP at the concentrations tested can be used as adjuvants to reduce off-target drift for piloted aerial pesticide applications.

This article has been retracted: please see Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal (https://www.elsevier.com/locate/withdrawalpolicy). This article has been retracted at the request of Jason M. Evans, Co-Editor-in-Chief. The Journal of Environmental Management has learned that this article's co-corresponding author, Tariq Shah, was never affiliated with the United States Department of Agriculture's Plant Science Research Unit, as claimed in the authorship credits. Additionally, none of the research in this study was sponsored or approved by the United States Department of Agriculture. When asked about these issues during an editorial investigation, Shah's responses caused the editor to further lose confidence in the validity/integrity of the article. The other corresponding author, Parvaiz Ahmad, cooperated with the investigation in full. The Journal has no evidence indicating that Ahmad or other co-authors were previously aware of Shah's unethical behavior that necessitated this retraction.

Illegal collecting of wild Venus flytraps (Dionaea muscipula) for the horticultural trade represents a persistent threat to populations of the species across their endemic range in the coastal plain of North and South Carolina (United States). Although wild collecting of Venus flytraps is not a novel threat, there has been very little research on the impacts of collecting on the species' conservation to date or why an illegal trade persists alongside a legal one. We drew on qualitative expert stakeholder elicitation to contextualize the threat of illegal collecting to the long-term conservation of Venus flytraps in relation to other anthropogenic threats. Expert elicitation included botanical and conservation researchers, cognizant state and federal agency staff, land managers, and conservation nonprofit actors. The workshop included mapping of supply chain structures and prioritization of social and environmental harms. Expert consensus determined illegal collecting is an ongoing problem for Venus flytrap conservation, but habitat destruction, degradation, and fire suppression are the most significant threats to flytrap conservation. Supply chain analysis showed that observable social and environmental harms of the trade are focused at the supply stage and that less is known about transit and demand stages. Key research gaps identified include a lack of understanding of plant laundering practices relevant to a range of desirable plant taxa; the role of commercial nurseries in illicit horticultural supply chains; motivations for engaging in Venus flytrap collecting; and the persistent demand for illegally harvested plants when cultivated, legally obtainable plants are readily available. Our findings and methodology are relevant to a range of ornamental plants affected by illegal trade for which robust social data on illegal collecting drivers are lacking.

High-throughput genotyping arrays have provided a cost-effective, reliable and interoperable system for genotyping hexaploid wheat and its relatives. Existing, highly cited arrays including our 35K Wheat Breeder's array and the Illumina 90K array were designed based on a limited amount of varietal sequence diversity and with imperfect knowledge of SNP positions. Recent progress in wheat sequencing has given us access to a vast pool of SNP diversity, whilst technological improvements have allowed us to fit significantly more probes onto a 384-well format Axiom array than previously possible. Here we describe a novel Axiom genotyping array, the 'Triticum aestivum Next Generation' array (TaNG), largely derived from whole genome skim sequencing of 204 elite wheat lines and 111 wheat landraces taken from the Watkins 'Core Collection'. We used a novel haplotype optimization approach to select SNPs with the highest combined varietal discrimination and a design iteration step to test and replace SNPs which failed to convert to reliable markers. The final design with 43 372 SNPs contains a combination of haplotype-optimized novel SNPs and legacy cross-platform markers. We show that this design has an improved distribution of SNPs compared to previous arrays and can be used to generate genetic maps with a significantly higher number of distinct bins than our previous array. We also demonstrate the improved performance of TaNGv1.1 for Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and its utility for Copy Number Variation (CNV) analysis. The array is commercially available with supporting marker annotations and initial genotyping results freely available.

A quarter of a million North Carolinians admit to experienc¬ing opioid use disorder; over 1,000 die each year. Only 1 in 5 receives effective, evidence-based treatment. Medicaid covers treatment and will increase access for members with opioid use disorder, who have been found to fare better than those with private insurance.