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Copyright of Colloquium Agrariae is the property of Asociacao Prudentina de Educacao e Cultura (APEC) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Focuses on the indeterminate art of Alison Knowles. Comparison between the 1962 and the 2003 versions of her "Make A Salad" piece; Artistic factor which differentiates Knowles from her male peers; Information on her Bean Turner series which uses paper and beans.

Increasing attention has been given to the utilization of swarm intelligent optimization algorithms to facilitate cooperative target search of unmanned aerial vehicle swarm (UAVs). However, there exist common issues associated with swarm intelligent optimization algorithms, which are low search efficiency and easy to trap in local optima. Simultaneously, the concentrated initial positioning of UAVs increase the probability of collisions between UAVs. To address these issues, this paper proposes a reinforced robotic bean optimization algorithm (RRBOA) aimed at enhancing the efficiency of UAVs for cooperative target search in unknown environments. Firstly, the algorithm employs a region segmentation exploration strategy to enhance the initialization of UAVs, ensuring a uniform distribution of UAVs to avoid collisions and the coverage capability of UAVs search. Subsequently, a neutral evolution strategy is incorporated based on the spatial distribution pattern of population, which aims to enhance cooperative search by enabling UAVs to freely explore the search space, thus improving the global exploration capability of UAVs. Finally, an adaptive Levy flight strategy is introduced to expand the search range of UAVs, enhancing the diversity of UAVs search and then preventing the UAVs search from converging to local optima. Experimental results demonstrate that RRBOA has significant advantages over other methods on nine benchmark simulations. Furthermore, the extension testing, which focuses on simulating pollution source search, confirms the effectiveness and applicability of RRBOA [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pulse crops, including beans, peas, chickpeas, and lentils, are vital sources of protein, fiber, and essential nutrients worldwide. They serve not only as staple foods but also as key components of sustainable agricultural practices, contributing to soil fertility through nitrogen fixation and enhancing overall productivity. However, pulse crops face numerous abiotic and biotic stresses mainly insect pest attack and pathogen invasion, which pose significant threats to pulse crops, impacting both production and food security. To overcome these challenges, plants have evolved diverse defense mechanisms, including the emission of specific volatile organic compounds (VOCs). These volatiles play crucial roles in plant communication, protection, and real-time health status indication. Monitoring VOCs offers a promising approach for early detection of pest infestations or pathogen infections, enabling the grower to take early action and decide on the proper control measure to minimize losses. The identification of plant-emitted VOCs requires robust and sensitive analytical techniques such as gas chromatography andmass spectrometry, which are themainly used techniques for in pulse crops studies. However, traditional methods have limitations, prompting the need for advanced, portable, and real-time detection alternatives, such as gas-sensing technologies. This paper provides a comprehensive review of VOC measuring methods, including extraction, separation, and analytical techniques, focusing on their application in pulse crops. Recent advancements in gas-sensing technologies are also discussed, highlighting their potential in enhancing crop protection and agricultural sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global business today is driven by brands, each with a unique story, but rarely of a product that is a public good. Building a brand requires careful planning, creativity, and an understanding of the target market. Borrowing from various brand concepts and frameworks, this paper explores how a government-bred common bean cultivar., NUA 45, defied the odds to create a new identity and association in Zimbabwe. Firstly, the cultivar overcame the general lack of promotion investment in government-bred (public) common bean cultivars. Secondly, being a red mottle-colored cultivar in a red-speckled (sugar type) bean-predominated country, NUA 45 had to break the preference typecasts. Thirdly, NUA 45 was among the first generation of biofortified bean cultivars enriched with iron (Fe) and zinc (Zn), some of the most sought-after micronutrients in a world ridden with hidden hunger. Overcoming these market barriers required a systematic approach to awareness creation, collaboration, and commercialization, avoiding the tragedy of the commons, and instead, achieving a win-win situation for all stakeholders. This entailed understanding the needs and preferences of different value chain actors, developing messages, and engaging local farmers, retailers, aggregators, and private and public sector partners to promote NUA 45. Lastly, developing compelling stories and leveraging digital channels to reach new customers that sought personal experiences, moved the cultivar name from a mere label to a spontaneously endorsed lifestyle and a brand that ‘spread like wildfire’ across the country and the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) region. The NUA 45 brand broke new ground for other biofortified bean cultivars and non-sugar bean cultivars. Following its release in seven other countries, NUA 45 pioneered listing on the SADC regional variety catalog. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Object-based software development in the IT-industry during the last decade has focused on reusing the already developed elements. Current software development models and technologies promote software reuse by utilizing component-oriented programming. Component-oriented programming provides more effective reuse as compared to its object-oriented language counterpart. This is because a component provides more abstractness in terms of the functionality in contrast to the object-oriented software element (e.g. class/ interface). The component-based development is highly dependent on the availability of the component library that contains well-defined and already tested functionality in terms of the available components. However, the suitable availability of such component library is still a problem. The lack of a suitable component library is tackled either by designing new components from scratch or by identifying them from the existing software systems. These identified components must be transformed as per component models, such as a Java Bean, in order to increase software reuse and faster software development, and little research has been carried out in this direction. Although many approaches have been proposed to identify components from existing systems and build a component library. But, such approaches lack in transforming the identified components as per specifications of a component model. Further identification of reusable elements also needs to be more accurate and efficient. Accuracy is dependent on the structural and semantic properties of a component. A component can consist of a single or a group of individual elements of the software, and thus identifying components from a set of all elements becomes an exponentially growing problem. Such problems can be more efficiently solved using metaheuristic algorithms. Therefore, this paper targets identifying accurately the components from a singular existing software system and transform those identified components to the Java Bean component model standard. The component identification approach of this paper is based on clustering the underlying software system by utilizing a metaheuristic search-based PSO algorithm. The clusters are identified as a group containing 2/ 3/ 4 software elements. Moreover, the used fitness function is based on the structural (based on usage for member variables) and semantic relations belonging to a software. Since the PSO algorithm is generally applied to continuous problems, whereas our formulated component identification problem is discrete (due to the representation of particles) in nature. Therefore, we have also provided a mechanism through which the PSO algorithm is modified to become applicable to discrete problems. From the obtained clusters (components), the interfaces of the components are identified by identifying independent chains in call-graphs of the underlying components. Finally, these components are transformed as per the Java Bean component model specifications. The proposed approach is validated experimentally on 7 open-source object-oriented Java software systems and results are compared with competitive approaches. The obtained results confirm the correctness of the transformed component and hence their reusability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of nanoparticles, such as titanium dioxide (TiO2-NPs), has increased substantially over the years. Some of them will end up in the soil, where their effect on plants and the soil bacterial community needs to be studied to determine their possible environmental risks. In this paper, beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) were cultivated in soil with 0, 150, or 300 mg TiO2-NPs kg−1. Plant development, nodule formation, chlorophyl content, and the bacterial community were monitored in uncultivated, non-rhizosphere, and rhizosphere soils. TiO2-NPs did not affect the beans' growth and their chlorophyl content, but they did increase bacterial diversity and had a significant effect on the bacterial community structure in the rhizosphere, but not in the bulk and non-rhizosphere soil. Although the relative abundance of most bacterial groups varied with the TiO2-NP application rate, the cultivation of the bean plants, or the exposure time, that of Acidobacteria decreased, while that of Planctomycetes increased in the TiO2-NP-amended soil. Many bacterial groups were affected by the cultivation of the bean plants, i.e., the relative abundance of Acidobacteria, Gemmatimonadetes, Deltaproteobacteria, and Firmicutes mostly decreased in the rhizosphere independent of the application of TiO2-NPs or the time of exposure, while most groups belonging to Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Rhizobiaceae, Phyllobacteriaceae, and Sphingomonadaceae were enriched. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Conductor on Rounded Core (${\mathrm CORC}$) cables manufactured by Advanced Conductor Technologies with current densities beyond 300 Amm $^{-2}$ at 4.2 K, and bending diameter of up to 3.5 cm, are considered as one of the strongest candidates for the next generation of high field power applications and magnets. In this paper, we present a full 3D FEM model for their monolayer and bilayer ${\mathrm CORC}$ cables made with up to three and six superconducting tapes respectively, disclosing the full curve of AC losses for the monolayer cable at magnetic fields beyond 60 mT, and the actual distribution of current density along and across the thickness of the superconducting tapes in both designs. The model is based on the so-called H-formulation, allowing to incorporate the true three-dimensionality of the tapes without recurring to 2D thin-film approaches where non-physical surface currents that do not follow the celebrated Bean’s model for type-II superconductors appear. Likewise, good agreement with the experimentally measured AC-losses for the monolayer and bilayer cable have been obtained, with all the details of the model disclosed in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Excessive use of nitrogen (N) pollutes the environment and causes greenhouse gas emissions; however, the application of eco-friendly plant biostimulators (BSs) can overcome these issues. Therefore, this paper aimed to explore the role of diluted bee honey solution (DHS) in attenuating the adverse impacts of N toxicity on Phaseolus vulgaris growth, yield quality, physio-chemical properties, and defense systems. For this purpose, the soil was fertilized with 100, 125, and 150% of the recommended N dose (RND), and the plants were sprayed with 1.5% DHS. Trials were arranged in a two-factor split-plot design (N levels occupied main plots × DH– occupied subplots). Excess N (150% RND) caused a significant decline in plant growth, yield quality, photosynthesis, and antioxidants, while significantly increasing oxidants and oxidative damage [hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), superoxide (O2•−), nitrate, electrolyte leakage (EL), and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels]. However, DHS significantly improved antioxidant activities (glutathione and nitrate reductases, catalase, ascorbate peroxidase, superoxide dismutase, proline, ascorbate, α-tocopherol, and glutathione) and osmoregulatory levels (soluble protein, glycine betaine, and soluble sugars). Enzyme gene expressions showed the same trend as enzyme activities. Additionally, H2O2, O2•−, EL, MDA, and nitrate levels were significantly declined, reflecting enhanced growth, yield, fruit quality, and photosynthetic efficiency. The results demonstrate that DHS can be used as an eco-friendly approach to overcome the harmful impacts of N toxicity on P. vulgaris plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents the effect of heat treatment at 80 °C at different times (3, 5, 7, and 9 min) on the structural and functional properties of Phaseolus vulgaris L. protein (PVP, bean protein powder). Surface and structure properties of PVP after heat treatment were analyzed using a Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR), a fluorescence spectrophotometer, a visible light spectrophotometer, a laser particle size analyzer, and other equipment. The secondary structure and surface hydrophobicity (H0) of PVP changed significantly after heat treatment: the β-sheet content decreased from 25.32 ± 0.09% to 24.66 ± 0.09%, the random coil content increased from 23.91 ± 0.11% to 25.68 ± 0.08%, and the H0 rose by 28.96–64.99%. In addition, the functional properties of PVP after heat treatment were analyzed. After heat treatment, the emulsifying activity index (EAI) of PVP increased from 78.52 ± 2.01 m2/g to 98.21 ± 1.33 m2/g, the foaming ability (FA) improved from 87.31 ± 2.56% to 95.82 ± 2.96%, and the foam stability (FS) rose from 53.23 ± 1.72% to 58.71 ± 2.18%. Finally, the degree of hydrolysis (DH) of PVP after gastrointestinal simulated digestion in vitro was detected by the Ortho-Phthal (OPA) method. Heat treatment enhanced the DH of PVP from 62.34 ± 0.31% to 73.64 ± 0.53%. It was confirmed that heat treatment changed the structural properties of PVP and improved its foamability, emulsification, and digestibility. It provides ideas for improving PVP's potential and producing new foods with rich nutrition, multiple functions, and easy absorption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study evaluated, through physical and physiological tests, the seed quality of a landrace fava bean variety in different packaging materials and storage periods, aiming to guarantee the conservation of their quality in seed banks and facilities. The methodology used was the one recommended by the Rules for Seed Analysis (RAS - Brasil, 2009) and minimum descriptors for Phaseolus lunatus L. The data were subjected to analysis of variance by the F-test at 5% signififance to verify the presence of significant interactions and the individual effects of each treatment. The test of multiple comparison of means was performed by the Tukey test at 5% significance between common treatments. The Dunnett test was used at 5% significance to compare the control means with the means of the treatments. R egression analysis was performed to study the effect of storage on the variables evaluated. All analyses were performed using the R software. From the results, it can be concluded that the storage of fava bean seeds is viable in small rural properties in impermeable packaging materials and aluminized polyethylene bags. The germination and vigor of the seeds analyzed in this study decreased throughout the storage period regardless of the type of packaging used. It is not recommended to store fava bean seeds in permeable paper packaging as they have the lowest quality indices (germination and vigor) at the end of the storage period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soybean yield is a highly complex trait determined by multiple factors such as genotype, environment, and their interactions. The earlier the prediction during the growing season the better. Accurate soybean yield prediction is important for germplasm innovation and planting environment factor improvement. But until now, soybean yield has been determined by weight measurement manually after soybean plant harvest which is time-consuming, has high cost and low precision. This paper proposed a soybean yield in-field prediction method based on bean pods and leaves image recognition using a deep learning algorithm combined with a generalized regression neural network (GRNN). A faster region-convolutional neural network (Faster R-CNN), feature pyramid network (FPN), single shot multibox detector (SSD), and You Only Look Once (YOLOv3) were employed for bean pods recognition in which recognition precision and speed were 86.2, 89.8, 80.1, 87.4%, and 13 frames per second (FPS), 7 FPS, 24 FPS, and 39 FPS, respectively. Therefore, YOLOv3 was selected considering both recognition precision and speed. For enhancing detection performance, YOLOv3 was improved by changing IoU loss function, using the anchor frame clustering algorithm, and utilizing the partial neural network structure with which recognition precision increased to 90.3%. In order to improve soybean yield prediction precision, leaves were identified and counted, moreover, pods were further classified as single, double, treble, four, and five seeds types by improved YOLOv3 because each type seed weight varies. In addition, soybean seed number prediction models of each soybean planter were built using PLSR, BP, and GRNN with the input of different type pod numbers and leaf numbers with which prediction results were 96.24, 96.97, and 97.5%, respectively. Finally, the soybean yield of each planter was obtained by accumulating the weight of all soybean pod types and the average accuracy was up to 97.43%. The results show that it is feasible to predict the soybean yield of plants in situ with high precision by fusing the number of leaves and different type soybean pods recognized by a deep neural network combined with GRNN which can speed up germplasm innovation and planting environmental factor optimization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bean germplasm collection of Vegetable Research and Development Station Buzău, Romania, contain over 450 accessions. The maintenance of this collection must accomplish the following requirements: maintaining the variability of this species (Phaseolus vulgaris L.), creating new varieties and adaptability to the climate changes in what it concerns these accessions. In 2020, this collection was cultivated in green - house covered with polyethylene. This paper presents the comparative study of 10 climbing bean seeds accessions. The seeds of each accession were evaluated in what it concerns quantitative (100 seed weight, length, thickness and width) and qualitative characteristics (seed colour, brilliance, veining and shape). The seeds weight varied between 57.57 g (V5) and 28.88 g (V3). More than half of the seeds variants taken into study, presented white colour, except: V1 and V3 - different beige and V5 presents 2 colours (half white, half dark red). The highest values regarding seeds length and width were registered at V10 (17.03 and 9.11 mm). All accessions presented are stabile and it presented stability during the last growing seasons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 'Signuredda' bean is a local genotype of pulse with particular technological characteristics, cultivated in Sicily, Italy. This paper presents the results of a study to evaluate the effects of partial substitutions of durum wheat semolina with 5%, 7.5%, and 10% of bean flour to prepare durum wheat functional breads. The physico-chemical properties and the technological quality of flours, doughs, and breads were investigated, as well as their storage process up to six days after baking. With the addition of bean flour, the proteins increased, as did the brown index, while the yellow index decreased. The water absorption and dough stability according to the farinograph increased from 1.45 in FBS 7.5%, to 1.65 in FBS 10%, for both 2020 and 2021, and from 5% to 10% supplementation for water absorption. Dough stability increased from 4.30 in FBS 5%-2021 to 4.75 in FBS 10%-2021. According to the mixograph, the mixing time also increased. The absorption of water and oil, as well as the leavening capacity, were also examined, and results highlighted an increase in the amount of water absorbed and a greater fermentation capacity. The greatest oil uptake was shown with bean flour at 10% supplementation (3.40%), while all bean flour mixes showed a water absorption of approximately 1.70%. The fermentation test showed the addition of 10% bean flour significantly increased the fermentative capacity of the dough. The color of the crumb was darker, while the crust became lighter. During the staling process, compared with the control sample, loaves with greater moisture and volume, and better internal porosity were obtained. Moreover, the loaves were extremely soft at T0 (8.0 versus 12.0 N of the control). In conclusion, the results showed an interesting potential of 'Signuredda' bean flour as a bread-making ingredient to obtain softer breads, which are better able to resist becoming stale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Colloquium Agrariae is the property of Asociacao Prudentina de Educacao e Cultura (APEC) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Cowpea, an annual legume widely grown and consumed in Nigeria, has been observed to contain between 27-33% impurities when freshly harvested and threshed. This poses a threat to humans when consumed and in largescale agricultural processing. Therefore, this study is aimed at developing and evaluating the performance of a multivariety cowpea cleaner (MVCC). Using standard methods, some selected engineering properties of the cowpea varieties were examined and used in the design of the MVCC. The cowpea had a moisture content of 8-14%, depending on the locations and varieties. Other properties investigated include the length, width, thickness, sphericity, geometric mean diameter, unit volume, arithmetic mean diameter, aspect ratio, surface area, unit weight, true density, terminal velocity, and angle of repose. The MVCC comprised the hopper, winnower, cleaning unit, fan assembly, and frame. The performance of the MVCC was also evaluated. The efficiency of separating good products of honey, drum, and Sokoto White beans was 95, 91, and 84%, respectively, while separating bad products was 87, 94, and 96%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of storage and protection of yilded seeds from storage pests is fundamental to seed science, the nutrition of people and animals as well as the maintenance of state reserves. During 2019-2021, in the experimental field of IASS "Obraztsov chiflik" - Rousse, in a long-term stationary fertilizer experiment, seeds of common bean variety Obraztsov chiflik 12 were obtained utilizing the following fertilization options: 1 - individual nitrogen fertilization; 2 - individual phosphorus fertilization; 3 - individual potassium fertilization; 4 - combined NP application; 5 - combined NK application; 6 - combined PK application; 7 - triple combination of NPK. An unfertilized control variant was maintained for comparison purposes. The study aims to entomologically evaluate seeds regarding damage by bean weevils after crop harvesting. Measurements of yield, 1000-seed weight, damaged seeds percentage, Index of infestation, as well as weight loss were taken. The combined application of NP demonstrated the greatest positive effect on the yield qualities of beans, however it lead to an intermediate position of the yield in terms of damage by bean weevil. The variant treated with combined NK fertilization resulted in the lowest percentage of damaged seeds and Index of infestation; it was followed by the variant with full mineral fertilization and the control variant. The individual application of N resulted in highest damaged seeds percentage as well as highest Index of infestation; it also ensured the highest weight loss on average for the studied period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Environmental & Social Management Journal / Revista de Gestão Social e Ambiental is the property of Environmental & Social Management Journal and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper studies the emulsification capacity of aqueous extracts from white beans and reports the relations between the composition and structure of the extracts' macromolecular components and their exerted emulsification ability. The extracts comprise of three distinct populations: one of large (few MDa) polysaccharides, proteins (tens of kDa), and smaller molecular entities (oligopeptides and oligosaccharides, polyphenols, and salts, among other molecules); the proteins and the smaller molecules adsorb onto oil–water interfaces, providing some emulsification capacity at pH 3 and adequate emulsification at pH 7. Unabsorbed polysaccharides, such as starch, cause depletion flocculation. Pickering phenomena are involved in the stabilization mechanism. The findings are supported by SEC–MALLS/UV, confocal microscopy, zeta potential measurements, and FT–IR data. A discussion is made on the particular attributes of each population in emulsion stability, on their relevance to culinary practice, and in their potential as replacers of artificial emulsifiers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural practices of smallholder farming systems of Latin America can play an important role in reducing their exposure to the risks associated with climate extremes. To date, however, there is no systematic analysis of scientific evidence for the extent to which these practices can provide the multiple benefits needed for smallholders to adapt to climate extremes. In this paper, we searched scientific databases to review scientific evidence of the benefit provided by twenty-six practices in crops commonly farmed by smallholders in the region and highly relevant for their food and nutrition security; namely, coffee, maize and beans. We reviewed scientific documents (n = 304) published in the period 1953–2021 to register evidence of the practices' effects on fifty-five benefits. Our analysis of these documents found measurement records (n = 924) largely based on field experiments (85%). Our results show strong evidence of the multiple benefits that some ecosystem-based practices (e.g., tree-based practices for coffee and no tillage for maize) can provide to support the adaptation to climate extremes of smallholder farming systems and enhance a farm's natural assets (e.g., biodiversity, water, soil). We also found that the majority of research on practices in the region focused more on the socioeconomic dimension (54%) rather than on the capacity of practices to improve the natural assets of a smallholder farmers or reduce the impact of climate extremes. Given these knowledge gaps, we discuss the importance of a renovated investment in research to address existing knowledge gaps. Our concluding suggestions for future research include the need for systematizing existing knowledge from different sources (e.g., peer-reviewed, gray literature, farmers, extension agencies, etc.), and to assess the extent to which these practices can provide multiple benefits for smallholder farming systems by improving their wellbeing, reducing their vulnerability to different hydroclimatic extremes while also contributing to ecosystem services provision at the landscape level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Country bean (Lablab purpureus L.) is an important pulse crop consumed as a vegetable in the central and south-western regions of Bangladesh after eggplant and tomato. It promises to ameliorate nutritional demand from vegetables and has an excellent possibility for the world market. But the production is hampered due to infection of several diseases in field conditions. Research Method: This study was undertaken based on secondary data of existing literature from Bangladesh and other parts of the world. So far, many research works were done on this issue but those were not available to the policymakers, extension workers, and public in a systematic manner to date. Findings: In this paper, we tried to bring forth different aspects of phytopathological problems of country bean. It usually undergoes stresses from different soilborne to seed-borne pathogens and expresses symptoms from the seedling stage to maturity. Crop protection largely depends on the integration of host plants, seeds, agronomic practices, environmental footprints, and the use of appropriate agrochemicals based on the epidemiology of target pathogens. Here, we have also described effective management strategies against respective pathogens of the diverse category. These microorganisms attack at different stages of crop growth and can affect the host plants enormously to cause maximum yield loss. Research Limitations: The study focused on the management of country bean diseases based on biological and chemical approaches. It presents limited information on specific technologies in different agroecological zones. Originality/Value: This study identified research gaps among Bangladesh and other countries. It also provides information to combat country bean diseases to the economic threshold level for ensuring sustainable crop yield. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conservation and research of genetic resources of key crops and their use in the global farming system present the main trends for developing sustainable agriculture and producing healthy food products. This study aims to investigate the available genetic resources of (Phaseolus spp. L.) landraces and breeding lines/varieties to identify promising genotypes with a view to their further use for breeding as a source of new germplasm. Investigation and evaluation of 18 accessions of Phaseolus spp. L. from Bulgaria for economically important agronomic traits and molecular approaches using ISSR and SCAR marker systems were carried out. The genetic characterization by seven SCAR markers was applied to the selected genotypes to determine the genes associated with the resistance to economically important diseases. The population structure of Phaseolus spp. L. was determined using the grouping method based on Bayesian models based on six ISSR markers and STRUCTURE software. Based on a comparison between the ISSR molecular marker and descriptors results and the higher Q value, the no admixture ancestry model and correlated allele frequencies were the parameters combination selected for describing the population structure of the selected genotypes. The correspondence between the ISSR-based analysis and the descriptors showed that 14 (77.78%) of the 18 Phaseolus accessions groups were in the same cluster in both methods. Promising genotypes have been identified based on the applied integrated research approach - phenotypic and genotypic with the potential for integrating into breeding programs as a source of new germplasm of Phaseolus spp. L. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Societal Impact Statement: As the growing season changes, the development of climate resilient crop varieties has emerged as a crucial adaptation in agricultural systems. Breeding new varieties for a changing climate requires enhanced capacity to predict the complex interactions between genotype and environment that determine flowering time. Hundreds of experiments with observations of flowering, the environment and plant genetics were used to build a model that can predict when a variety of common bean is going to flower. This model will help breeders to explore the phenological characteristics of their germplasm, speeding up selection for climate adaptation. Summary: There is an urgent need to accelerate crop breeding for adaptation to a changing climate. As the growing season changes, crop improvement programmes must ensure that the phenological characteristics of the varieties they develop remain well suited to their target population of environments.Meeting this challenge will require a clear understanding of how existing germplasm behave across Genotype ∗ Environment (G ∗ E) to enhance the efficiency of selection. Recent work calls for the development of simple models that can accurately simulate genotypic variation in key traits across target population of environments.Accordingly, we develop a simple machine learning framework for modelling time to flowering across G ∗ E and apply this to common bean in an equatorial target population of environments. Within this framework, we test three machine learning models and find that the best performing models display high levels of accuracy across G ∗ E.We advance understanding of the environmental drivers of flowering time in equatorial conditions by showing that thermal time and accumulated evaporation are powerful predictors of flowering time across all three models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Acta Histriae is the property of Historical Society of Southern Primorska of Koper and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista Ciencia y Tecnología Agropecuaria is the property of Agrosavia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article presents mathematical-economic methods for studying data on household consumption of four basic food products in Bulgaria for the period 2004-2020. The mentioned information concerning meat, yoghurt, potatoes and dry beans has been structured and saved in a built relational database. Certain sets of criteria are used to form queries from the database. Subsequently, the obtained information from the queries has been processed. The pace of growth, respectively decrease of the considered indicator for the listed products has been analyzed. Hierarchical cluster analysis has been applied to these data on household consumption, average per person. The results showed a relative increase of the indicator for two foods (meat and yoghurt) during the last five years of the period. The indicator values for potatoes declined significantly for 2012-2017. The same dependence has been established for dry beans from 2011 to 2015. Grouping the indicated foods according to the values of the household consumption shows two clusters. Three clusters are obtained by grouping the relevant years according to the values of this studied indicator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The removal of copper ions from aqueous solutions using bean shells as an adsorbent is presented in this paper. The influence of the solution pH on the biosorption capacity was investigated. The biosorption capacity increased with the increase in the solution pH. The pseudo-second order kinetic model showed the best agreement with the analysed experimental data, indicating that chemisorption could be a possible way of binding the copper ions to the surface of the bean shells. The Langmuir isotherm model best fitted the analysed isotherm data. The SEM-EDS analysis was performed before and after the biosorption process. The change in the morphology of the sample after the biosorption process was evident, whereby K, Mg, Si and Ca were possibly exchanged with copper ions. Response surface methodology (RSM) based on the Box-Behnken design (BBD) was used to optimize the biosorption process, with the selected factors: the solution pH, initial copper ions concentration and contact time. The optimum biosorption conditions were determined to be: pH 3-4, initial copper ions concentration, 100 mg dm-3, and contact time, 10-30 min. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In sub-Saharan Africa, grain legumes (pulses) are essential food sources and play an important role in sustainable agriculture. Among the major pulse crops, the native cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) and introduced common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) stand out. This paper has two main goals. First, we provide a comprehensive view of the available genetic resources of these genera in Africa, including data on germplasm collections and mapping biodiversity-rich areas. Second, we investigate patterns of physicochemical and cytogenomic variation across Africa to explore the geographical structuring of variation between native and introduced beans. Our results revealed that 73 Vigna and 5 Phaseolus species occur in tropical regions of Africa, with 8 countries accounting for more than 20 native species. Conversely, germplasm collections are poorly represented when compared to the worldwide collections. Regarding the nuclear DNA content, on average, V. unguiculata presents significantly higher values than P. vulgaris. Also, V. unguiculata is enriched in B, Mg, S, and Zn, while P. vulgaris has more Fe, Ca, and Cu. Overall, our study suggests that the physicochemical and cytogenomic diversity of native Vigna species is higher than previously thought, representing valuable food resources to reduce food insecurity and hunger, particularly of people living in African developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water scarcity brings up the need to calculate water consumption in the production of rice, beans and corn in the state of Ceará. The objective of this paper was to analyze the virtual water of rice, beans and maize production in the state of Ceará during the period from 2007 to 2016. The methodology proposed by Hoekstra et al. (2011) which considers for the calculation the superficial or subterranean water, the water coming from the precipitation that is stored in the soil and the water used to dilute the pollutants in the production. Once the result was exposed, it was noticed that the largest blue water footprint came from the production of maize, the largest green water footprint came from bean production, since it is a crop with little water demand and the largest footprint in the production of maize. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated the compatibility between adzuki bean and Bradyrhizobium USDA strains and the relation between the genetic diversity of indigenous adzuki bean-nodulating bradyrhizobia and their geographical distribution in Japan. Six Bradyrhizobium USDA strains were used in the inoculation test, and B. elkanii USDA 94 showed higher symbiotic efficiency than other strains. Two adzuki bean cultivars were used to isolate indigenous adzuki bean-nodulating bradyrhizobia. Their genetic diversity and community structure were analyzed by restriction fragment length polymorphisms of PCR amplicons to target the 16S-23S rRNA gene internal transcribed spacer region, using 11 USDA Bradyrhizobium strains as reference strains. Furthermore, we performed diversity analysis, non-metric multidimensional scaling analysis based on the Chao index, and polar ordination analysis to explain the relation between community structure and geographical distribution of the adzuki bean-nodulating bradyrhizobia. The major clusters were Bj123 in Hokkaido and Kyoto, Bd110 in Fukushima and Shimane A, Be76 in Shimane B and Fukuoka, Bj6 in Miyazaki, and Bj6 and BeOK in Okinawa. Japan's indigenous adzuki bean-nodulating bradyrhizobial community was strongly and signi- ficantly correlated with latitude, longitude, annual mean temperature, and electrical conductivity. This result suggests that the adzuki bean-nodulating bradyrhizobial community is influenced by multiple environmental factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The application of classsification methods through multivariate and machine learning techniques has enormous significance in agricultural sector. It is vital to classify various types of seeds as well as identify the quality of seeds which has a great impact on the production of crops. There is a wide range of genetic variations in dry beans all over the world. Many studies have been conducted previously on various dataset to indentify the sorts of dry beans, however most of them focused on machine learning techniques with binary classification. Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate a reliable classifier which has the lowest noise implications and establish an algorithm for dry bean classification effectively. This paper focuses on outlier removals, oversampling with Adaptive Synthetic (ADASYN) algorithm and finding the best classifier to guarantee the highest possible accuracy. Methods: The raw dataset for this study was accessed from UCI Machine Learning Repository. The dataset contained grains having 16 features, 12 dimensions, and 4 distinct shapes. For the purpose of eliminating missing values from the dataset, interquartile range (IQR) with python programming was utilized. Eight most popular classifiers were used in this study which are Logistic Regression (LR), Naïve Bayes (NB), k-Nearest Neighbor (KNN), Decision Tree (DT), Random Forest (RF), Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGB), Support Vector Machine (SVM), and Multilayer Perception (MLP) with balanced and imbalanced classes. The authors utilized frequency tables, bar diagrams, boxplots, analysis of variance for descriptive analysis as well as data preprocessing. Results: The XGB classifier preferably outperformed than other classifiers with balanced and imbalanced distribution of dry beans within each class. It has acquired accuracy (ACC) 93.0% and 95.4% in imbalanced and balanced classes respectively. In case of balanced dataset, after application of ADASYN algorithm both KNN and RF techniques also performed well regarding the Classification Accuracy (ACC), Sensitivity (SE), Specificity (SP) and Cohen’s kappa coefficient (Kappa) etc. The most important attributes for classifying the dry beans were found ShapeFactor2, Minor Axis Length, and ShapeFactor1 along with EquivDiameter, Roundness and ConvexArea. Conclusions: For classification of dry seeds, the XGB classifier had performed well when the dataset contained both balanced and imbalanced distribution in classes. Also, it is the primary approach of identifying the classes of seeds/beans with balanced or not. If the classes of the target variable are balanced well, then the KNN and RF algorithms may be applied along with XGB technique for more accurate classification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Notorious cases of corporate misconduct often revolve around the misapplication of pay to performance. Yet many business schools have too easily given themselves up to these kinds of high-powered incentives in the management of research. This practice is contrary to the very management knowledge taught in business school classrooms and it can wreak havoc with business schools' mission of knowledge production. The reduction of managing research to a bean-counting performance evaluation, that is, keeping count of discrete units of research outputs as A-class journal hits and citation counts, has arguably tilted the scales in favor of form and against content. This undermines both the quality of knowledge produced and the autonomy that academics need to create knowledge. Much as combat sports, football or soccer, and democratic societies prevent certain traits and actions from conferring an unfair advantage, academics need to reclaim the principle of a level playing field to prevent practices inimical to the academic enterprise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adzuki bean is cooked with rice in Japan, and the color of rice becomes pale red by the cooking. In previous papers, we showed that pancreatin-induced starch liberation was slower in red rice prepared from non-glutinous rice. In this study, it was shown that pancreatin-induced amylose liberation from high-amylose rice was divided into two phases independent of cooking with or without adzuki bean; the first phase was amylose liberation from starch leached from rice during the cooking and the second phase was the liberation of amylose from starch in rice grains. The slower amylose liberation from rice cooked with adzuki bean was due to the binding of cyanidin-producible components derived from procyanidins to rice. The binding was confirmed by treating rice with a 1-butanol/HCl/Fe(III) system. The digestion of amylose liberated from high-amylose rice cooked with adzuki bean was also slower, and the liberated amylose could produce cyanidin by the 1-butanol/HCl/Fe(III)-treatment. Furthermore, it was shown (i) that the heating of rice flour with reagent procyanidin B2 resulted in the binding of the oxidation products to the flour, and (ii) that the binding resulted in the slower digestion of amylose in the rice flour. It was concluded that the slower liberation and digestion in high-amylose rice cooked with adzuki bean were due to the binding of cyanidin-producible components, which were derived from adzuki bean procyanidins, to amylose during the cooking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a machine vision system (MVS) for visual quality inspection of beans which is composed by a set of software and hardware. The software was built from proposed approaches for segmentation, classification, and defect detection, and the hardware consists of equipment developed with low-cost electromechanical materials. Experiments were conducted in two modes: offline and online. For offline experiments, aimed at evaluating the proposed approaches, we composed a database containing 270 images of samples of beans with different mixtures of skin colors and defects. In the online mode, the beans contained in a batch, for example, a bag of 1 kg, are spilled continuously on the conveyor belt for the MVS to perform the inspection, similar to what occurs in an automated industrial visual inspection process. In the offline experiments, our approaches for segmentation, classification, and defect detection achieved, respectively, the average success rates of 99.6%, 99.6%, and 90.0%. In addition, the results obtained in the online mode demonstrated the robustness and viability of the proposed MVS, since it is capable to analyze an image of 1280 × 720 pixels, spending only 1.5 s, with average successes rates of 98.5%, 97.8%, and 85.0%, respectively, to segment, classify, and detect defects in the grains contained in each analyzed image. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering drying as a key farm-based, quality determining unit operation in the cocoa processing chain, this paper reviews recent studies in the drying methods and quality parameters of cocoa beans. Open sun, solar, oven, microwave, and freeze drying methods have been investigated at various levels in the drying of cocoa beans with objectives to improve the drying properties and final quality of cocoa beans. While an open sun dryer employs natural passive mechanisms, the solar drying methods can employ a combination of passive and active mechanisms. The oven, microwave, and freeze drying methods are fully active requiring electrical energy inputs. To improve drying rates in the open sun method, dryer materials and location of drying trays are the parameters optimized since the drying temperature depends on solar intensity. For solar dryers, materials, angles of elevation, heaters, and fans are manipulated to optimize energy absorption and drying parameters. For the oven and microwave methods, drying air properties are directly controlled by electronic systems. Moisture content, mouldiness, bean colour, pH, titratable acidity, fat content, and acetic acid concentration are the most widely evaluated bean quality parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An objective of this study was to examine the possible use of sprouted grains of domestically selected legumes to produce dairy alternative products. The paper presents the results of a comprehensive assessment of the food properties of 'Chishminskii 95', 'Chishminskii 229', 'Pamiati Hangildina', 'Iuldash' pea varieties and 'Nerussa', 'Lukeria', 'Omichka' bean varieties of Russian selection. The work investigated the water absorption kinetics under different temperature conditions and established germination patterns for a model medium (drinking water treated with an electromagnetic field) being as follows: germination temperature is 18 ± 2 °C; the soaking period lasts from 5 to 8 hours (depending on the variety); the germination time from 0.54 - 0.62 to 0.70 - 0.81 days (depending on the variety). The work analyses their microstructure and changes in the germination process. The proteolytic activity of bean trypsin before and after germination has been proved to be lower than that of peas. At the same time, the proteolytic activity of trypsin after pea and bean grain germination increased in all samples. The grain digestibility as a result of germination has increased; the ratio of essential and non-essential amino acids has changed in favor of the former; the fractional composition of protein has changed to higher content of albumin and globulin and lower level of glutelin. The results of this study indicate that the most suitable varieties to produce vegetable milk are 'Omichka', 'Lukeria' beans and 'Pamiati Hangildina' peas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Automation in the agricultural field is a requirement of all the countries. Usually, plant diseases are observed in the form of visual symptoms and many deep learning-based models have achieved outstanding results in the classification of plant leaf diseases in recent years. Beans plant diseases like bean rust disease and angular leaf spot disease reduce the bean crop yield. To treat the problem at an early stage, an appropriate diagnosis for this crop disease is required. In this paper, three deep learning-based pre-trained models namely MobileNetV2, EfficientNetB6, and NasNet were used to perform transfer learning on the Beans Leaf image dataset containing 1295 images with three different classes. Furthermore, different optimization techniques were also used to highlight the variation in performance of different Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) models. The analysis of experimental results shows that EfficientNetB6 performs better with 91.74% accuracy than other models. This study would be helpful to understand the role of different optimizers on the CNN models. Furthermore, agricultural scientists could employ a real-time-based application of the best-suited model for the farmers to adopt prevention measures in disease-vulnerable areas. As a result, prompt action would aid in minimizing plant productivity loss. It will further revenue the economic growth and agricultural productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We discuss the findings and empirical strategy in "Spilling the Beans on Political Consumerism: Do Social Media Boycotts and Buycotts Translate to Real Sales Impact?" We discuss a fascinating new case study of the boycott and buycott of Goya products in 2020. The authors use detailed consumer-level shopping panel data to document two surprising and striking findings. First, social media calls to boycott had almost no effects, especially among the core Goya consumer group: democratic-leaning Latinos. Second, the authors document an unintended consequence: Goya's supporters reacted by initiating a call for a "buycott." The boycott and buycott combination ultimately increased Goya sales, especially among nontraditional Republican-leaning buyers, albeit only for a few weeks. We hope this paper will stimulate more work to determine which aspects of these findings generalizes to other instances of political consumerism. In our discussion, we offer thoughts on some of the potentially exceptional circumstances of the Goya case study and some directions for deeper testing of the underlying mechanisms driving the consumer responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study provides the first insight into the biologically active potential (total phenolic compounds, flavonoids, tannins and antioxidant activity) of Moldavian carob beans and pod pulp in comparison with carob grown in Algeria, Spain, and Italy. The results showed that the samples of Moldavian carob contain significant amounts (P = 0.05) of biologically active compounds, the content of some of these compounds is far exceeding that of carob from the above-mentioned regions. Thus, the total content of phenolic compounds in Moldavian carob samples is 1.4 times higher, of flavonoids 1.9 times higher compared to the imported ones. The 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and 2,2'-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS) antioxidant activity of Moldavian carob samples proved to be about 10-12% higher than the antioxidant activity of samples from other regions. It has been proved that Moldavian carob pod pulp and beans have a high biologically active potential making them possible ingredients for functional food products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Agricultural technologies developed by national and international research institutions were not benefiting the rural population of Ethiopia to the extent desired. As a response, integrated agricultural extension approaches are proposed as a key strategy to transform the smallholder farming sector. Improving Productivity and Market Success (IPMS) of Ethiopian Farmers project is one of the development projects initiated by integrating productivity enhancement technological schemes with market development model. This paper explores the impact of the project intervention in the smallholder farmers’ wellbeing. Methods: To test the research hypothesis of whether the project brought a significant change in the input use, marketed surplus, efficiency and income of farm households, we use a cross-section data from 200 smallholder farmers in Northwest Ethiopia, collected through multi-stage sampling procedure. To control for self-selection from observable characteristics of the farm households, we employ Propensity Score Matching (PSM). We finally use Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) techniques to estimate technical efficiency of farm households. Results: The outcome of the research is in line with the premises that the participation of the household in the IPMS project improves purchased input use, marketed surplus, efficiency of farms and the overall gain from farming. The participant households on average employ more purchased agricultural inputs and gain higher gross margin from the production activities as compared to the non-participant households. The non-participant households on average supply less output (measured both in monetary terms and proportion of total produce) to the market as compared to their participant counterparts. Except for the technical efficiency of production in potato, project participant households are better-off in production efficiency compared with the non-participant counterparts. Conclusion: We verified the idea that Improving Productivity and Market Success (IPMS) of Ethiopian farmers’ project has contributed for the input and out market integration and/or market oriented agricultural production. Overall, we argue that these can be seen as an experimental model with a promising potential to improve the livelihood of the poor. Furthermore, we suggest that it is worthwhile to employ integrated agricultural extension programs with further targeting in the developing world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]