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Background: We describe the requirements and physiological changes when running 10 consecutive marathons in 10 days at the same consistent pace by a female ultra-endurance athlete., Methods: Sharon Gayter (SG) 54 yrs, 162.5 cm, 49.3 kg maximal oxygen uptake (VO 2 max) 53 mL/kg -1 /min -1 . SG completed 42.195 km on a treadmill every day for 10 days. We measured heart rate (HR), Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE), oxygen uptake (VO 2 ), weight, body composition, blood parameters, nutrition, and hydration., Results: SG broke the previous record by ~2.5 h, with a cumulative completion time of 43 h 51 min 39 s. Over the 10 days, weight decreased from 51 kg to 48.4 kg, bodyfat mass from 9.1 kg to 7.2 kg (17.9% to 14.8%), and muscle mass from 23.2 kg to 22.8 kg. For all marathons combined, exercise intensity was ~60% VO 2 max; VO 2 1.6 ± 0.1 L.min -1 /32.3 ± 1.1 mL.kg -1 .min -1 , RER 0.8 ± 0, HR 143 ± 4 b.min -1 . Energy expenditure (EE) was 2030 ± 82 kcal/marathon, total EE for 10 days (including BMR) was 33,056 kcal, daily energy intake (EI) 2036 ± 418 kcal (20,356 kcal total), resulting an energy deficit (ED) of 12,700 kcal., Discussion: Performance and pacing were highly consistent across all 10 marathons without any substantial physiological decrements. Although overall EI did not match EE, leading to a significant ED, resulting in a 2.6 kg weight loss and decreases in bodyfat and skeletal muscle mass, this did not affect performance.

Methane (CH 4 ) emissions from oil and natural gas (O&NG) systems are an important contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. In the United States, recent synthesis studies of field measurements of CH 4 emissions at different spatial scales are ~1.5-2× greater compared to official greenhouse gas inventory (GHGI) estimates, with the production-segment as the dominant contributor to this divergence. Based on an updated synthesis of measurements from component-level field studies, we develop a new inventory-based model for CH 4 emissions, for the production-segment only, that agrees within error with recent syntheses of site-level field studies and allows for isolation of equipment-level contributions. We find that unintentional emissions from liquid storage tanks and other equipment leaks are the largest contributors to divergence with the GHGI. If our proposed method were adopted in the United States and other jurisdictions, inventory estimates could better guide CH 4 mitigation policy priorities., (© 2021. The Author(s).)

Ultra-running comprises running events longer than a marathon (>42.2 km). The prolonged duration of ultra-running leads to decrements in most or all physiological parameters and considerable energy expenditure (EE) and energy deficits. SG, 47 years, 162.5 cm, 49 kg, VO 2max 4 mL/kg/min -1 /2.37 L/min -1 , ran continuously for 7 days on a treadmill in 3 h blocks followed by 30 min breaks and slept from 1-5 a.m. Heart rate (HR) oxygen uptake (VO 2 ), rating of perceived exertion, weight, blood lactate (mmol·L -1 ), haemoglobin (g·dL), haematocrit (%) and glucose (mmol·L -1 ), and nutrition and hydration were recorded. SG ran for 17.5 h/day, covering ~120 km/day at ~7 km/h. Energy expenditure for each 24 h period was 6878 kcal/day and energy intake (EI) was 2701 kcal/day. EE was 382 kcal/h, with 66.6% from fat and 33.4% from carbohydrate oxidation. 7 day EI was 26,989 kcal and EE was 48,147 kcal, with a total energy deficit (ED) of 21,158 kcal. Average VO 2 was 1.2 L·min -1 /24.7 mL·kg·min -1 , Respriatory echange ratio (RER) 0.80 ± 0.03, HR 120-125 b·min -1 . Weight increased from 48.6 to 49.5 kg. Haemoglobin decreased from 13.7 to 11 g·dL and haematocrit decreased from 40% to 33%. SG ran 833.05 km. SG exhibits an enhanced fat metabolism through which she had a large daily ED. Her success can be attributed to a combination of physiological and psychological factors.

Efforts to reduce insecticide inputs against plum curculio, Conotrachelus nenuphar , a key pest of apples in eastern North America, include perimeter-row insecticide sprays applied after the whole-orchard petal fall spray to manage dispersing adults and, more recently, insecticide sprays confined to odor-baited trap trees. Entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs) are virulent to ground-dwelling stages of C. nenuphar , and may be applied to the ground underneath trap-tree canopies. Here, we (1) compared the efficacy of the odor-baited trap tree approach with grower-prescribed (=grower standard) sprays to manage C. nenuphar populations over a six-year period in seven commercial apple orchards in New England; and (2) assessed the performance of the EPN Steinernema riobrave at suppressing ground-dwelling stages of C. nenuphar . In addition, the performance of S. riobrave was compared against that of S. carpocapsae and S. feltiae in one year. Across the six years, percent fruit injury on trap tree plots averaged 11.3% on odor-baited trap trees and 1.4% on unbaited trees in grower standard plots, highlighting the ability of trap trees to aggregate C. nenuphar activity and subsequent injury. Mean percentage injury on fruit sampled from interior trees, the strongest measure of treatment performance, in trap tree plots did not differ significantly from that recorded on interior trees in grower standard spray plots (0.95 vs. 0.68%, respectively). Steinernema riobrave consistently reduced C. nenuphar populations as indicated by the significantly lower number of adult C. nenuphar that emerged from the soil, when compared to water control. Steinernema carpocapsae and S. riobrave performed similarly well, and both EPN species outperformed S. feltiae . Our combined findings indicate that an IPM approach that targets multiple life stages of C. nenuphar has the potential to manage this pest more sustainably in a reduced-spray environment.

Erwinia amylovora is the causal agent of fire blight, one of the most devastating diseases of apple and pear. Erwinia amylovora is thought to have originated in North America and has now spread to at least 50 countries worldwide. An understanding of the diversity of the pathogen population and the transmission to different geographical regions is important for the future mitigation of this disease. In this research, we performed an expanded comparative genomic study of the Spiraeoideae-infecting (SI) E. amylovora population in North America and Europe. We discovered that, although still highly homogeneous, the genetic diversity of 30 E. amylovora genomes examined was about 30 times higher than previously determined. These isolates belong to four distinct clades, three of which display geographical clustering and one of which contains strains from various geographical locations ('Widely Prevalent' clade). Furthermore, we revealed that strains from the Widely Prevalent clade displayed a higher level of recombination with strains from a clade strictly from the eastern USA, which suggests that the Widely Prevalent clade probably originated from the eastern USA before it spread to other locations. Finally, we detected variations in virulence in the SI E. amylovora strains on immature pear, and identified the genetic basis of one of the low-virulence strains as being caused by a single nucleotide polymorphism in hfq, a gene encoding an important virulence regulator. Our results provide insights into the population structure, distribution and evolution of SI E. amylovora in North America and Europe., (© 2017 BSPP AND JOHN WILEY & SONS LTD.)

To assess the compliance of air quality regulations, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) must know if a site exceeds a pre-specified level. In the case of ozone, the level for compliance is fixed at 75 parts per billion, which is high, but not extreme at all locations. We present a new space-time model for threshold exceedances based on the skew-t process. Our method incorporates a random partition to permit long-distance asymptotic independence while allowing for sites that are near one another to be asymptotically dependent, and we incorporate thresholding to allow the tails of the data to speak for themselves. We also introduce a transformed AR(1) time-series to allow for temporal dependence. Finally, our model allows for high-dimensional Bayesian inference that is comparable in computation time to traditional geostatistical methods for large data sets. We apply our method to an ozone analysis for July 2005, and find that our model improves over both Gaussian and max-stable methods in terms of predicting exceedances of a high level., (© 2017, The International Biometric Society.)

Information about the location and magnitudes of natural gas (NG) leaks from urban distribution pipelines is important for minimizing greenhouse gas emissions and optimizing investment in pipeline management. To enable rapid collection of such data, we developed a relatively simple method using high-precision methane analyzers in Google Street View cars. Our data indicate that this automated leak survey system can document patterns in leak location and magnitude within and among cities, even without wind data. We found that urban areas with prevalent corrosion-prone distribution lines (Boston, MA, Staten Island, NY, and Syracuse, NY), leaked approximately 25-fold more methane than cities with more modern pipeline materials (Burlington, VT, and Indianapolis, IN). Although this mobile monitoring method produces conservative estimates of leak rates and leak counts, it can still help prioritize both leak repairs and replacement of leak-prone sections of distribution lines, thus minimizing methane emissions over short and long terms.

Future energy systems may rely on natural gas as a low-cost fuel to support variable renewable power. However, leaking natural gas causes climate damage because methane (CH 4 ) has a high global warming potential. In this study, we use extreme-value theory to explore the distribution of natural gas leak sizes. By analyzing ∼15 000 measurements from 18 prior studies, we show that all available natural gas leakage data sets are statistically heavy-tailed, and that gas leaks are more extremely distributed than other natural and social phenomena. A unifying result is that the largest 5% of leaks typically contribute over 50% of the total leakage volume. While prior studies used log-normal model distributions, we show that log-normal functions poorly represent tail behavior. Our results suggest that published uncertainty ranges of CH 4 emissions are too narrow, and that larger sample sizes are required in future studies to achieve targeted confidence intervals. Additionally, we find that cross-study aggregation of data sets to increase sample size is not recommended due to apparent deviation between sampled populations. Understanding the nature of leak distributions can improve emission estimates, better illustrate their uncertainty, allow prioritization of source categories, and improve sampling design. Also, these data can be used for more effective design of leak detection technologies.

Investigating the chemical ecology of agricultural systems continues to be a salient part of integrated pest management programs. Apple maggot fly, a key pest of apple in eastern North America, is a visual specialist with attraction to host fruit-mimicking cues. These cues have been incorporated into red spherical traps used for both monitoring and behaviorally based management. Incorporating generalist or specialist olfactory cues can potentially increase the overall success of this management system. The primary aim of this study was to evaluate the attractiveness of a generalist olfactory cue, ammonium carbonate, and the specialist olfactory cue, a five-component apple volatile blend, when included as a component of a red attracticidal sphere system. Secondly, we assessed how critical it was to maintain minimal deviation from the optimal, full-round specialist visual stimulus provided by red spheres. Finally, attracticidal spheres were deployed with specialist olfactory cues in commercial apple orchards to evaluate their potential for effective management of apple maggot. Ammonium carbonate did not increase residency, feeding time, or mortality in the laboratory-based trials. Field deployment of specialist olfactory cues increased apple maggot captures on red spheres, while the generalist cue did not. Apple maggot tolerated some deviation from the optimal visual stimulus without reducing captures on red spheres. Attracticidal spheres hung in perimeter trees in orchards resulted in acceptable and statistically identical levels of control compared with standard insecticide programs used by growers. Overall, our study contributes valuable information for developing a reliable attract-and-kill system for apple maggot., (Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Entomological Society of America 2016. This work is written by US Government employees and is in the public domain in the United States.)

Demethylation inhibitors (DMIs) are a class of single-site fungicides with high levels of protective and curative efficacy against Venturia inaequalis, the causal agent of apple scab. To determine the prevalence of resistance to the DMI fungicide myclobutanil, 3,987 single-lesion conidial V. inaequalis isolates from 141 commercial, research, and baseline orchard populations were examined throughout New England, the mid-Atlantic, and the Midwest from 2004 to 2013. Of these orchard populations, 63% had practical resistance, 13% had reduced sensitivity, and 24% were sensitive to myclobutanil. A sensitivity baseline for the recently introduced DMI fungicide difenoconazole was established to make comparisons with myclobutanil sensitivity in orchard populations. The mean effective concentration of difenoconazole at which mycelial growth was inhibited by 50% (EC 50 ) was determined to be 0.002 μg ml -1 for 44 baseline isolates of V. inaequalis. From 2010 to 2013, 1,012 isolates of V. inaequalis from 37 of the 141 orchard populations above were screened for sensitivity to difenoconazole. In all, 1 orchard population had reduced sensitivity to difenoconazole, while the remaining 36 orchard populations were sensitive to the fungicide. In field experiments, difenoconazole demonstrated high levels of apple scab control on mature apple fruit, despite the fact that the population of V. inaequalis had practical resistance to difenoconazole. Although our results indicate widespread resistance to myclobutanil but not difenoconazole, due to the propensity for cross-sensitivity among DMI fungicides, growers with myclobutanil resistance should be cautious when using difenoconazole for disease management.

Quinone-outside-inhibitor (QoI) fungicides are a safe and effective means of managing apple scab caused by Venturia inaequalis. To determine the prevalence of both quantitative (partial) and qualitative (complete) QoI resistance in V. inaequalis in the northeastern United States, we sampled single-lesion conidial isolates (n = 4,481) from 120 commercial and research orchards from 2004 to 2011 with a range of exposure to QoI fungicides from none to several applications a year. In all, 67% of these orchard populations of V. inaequalis were sensitive to QoI fungicides, 28% exhibited QoI practical resistance, and 5% were not sensitive QoI fungicides but had not become practically resistant. Isolates with qualitative QoI resistance, conferred by the G143A cytochrome b gene mutation, were found in 13 of the 34 QoI-resistant orchard populations. To evaluate the stability of the G143A mutation, 27 isolates were selected from different orchard populations to represent the scope of regional populations. These isolates were subcultured continuously in the presence or absence of the QoI fungicide trifloxystrobin. All isolates that initially possessed qualitative resistance maintained the resistant genotype (G143A) for six transfers over 6 months in both the absence and presence of trifloxystrobin. Given the observed QoI resistance in orchard populations of V. inaequalis and the stability of the G143A mutation in individual isolates, apple scab management paradigms must encompass strategies to limit selection of QoI resistance in the sensitive orchard populations remaining in the region.

Plum curculio, Conotrachelus nenuphar (Herbst), one of the most important pests of apple in eastern and central North America, is usually managed in New England apple orchards by multiple full-block insecticide applications. Efforts to reduce insecticide inputs against plum curculio include using an "attract and kill" approach: odor-baited trap trees deployed in the perimeter row of apple orchards. The standard approach is based on baiting apple trees with two olfactory stimuli, the fruit volatile benzaldehyde and the aggregation pheromone of plum curculio, grandisoic acid. We attempted to improve attraction, aggregation, and retention of adult plum curculios within specific baited trap tree canopies within apple orchards using an additional host plant volatile found to be highly stimulating in electroantennogram studies, trans-2-hexenal. We also attempted to increase aggregation using increased release rates of grandisoic acid. We found that trans-2-hexenal did not provide increased aggregation when deployed as an additional attractant within trap trees or when conversely deployed as a "push" component or repellent in perimeter trees lateral to the baited trap tree. Although increasing the release rate of grandisoic acid 5× actually appeared to increase overall aggregation within trap trees, it was not significantly different than that obtained using the standard dose. Therefore, we believe that the standard olfactory stimuli are sufficient to provide aggregation within trap trees, but that other means should be used to manage them after their arrival.

Tropospheric ozone is one of six criteria pollutants regulated by the US EPA, and has been linked to respiratory and cardiovascular endpoints and adverse effects on vegetation and ecosystems. Regional photochemical models have been developed to study the impacts of emission reductions on ozone levels. The standard approach is to run the deterministic model under new emission levels and attribute the change in ozone concentration to the emission control strategy. However, running the deterministic model requires substantial computing time, and this approach does not provide a measure of uncertainty for the change in ozone levels. Recently, a reduced form model (RFM) has been proposed to approximate the complex model as a simple function of a few relevant inputs. In this paper, we develop a new statistical approach to make full use of the RFM to study the effects of various control strategies on the probability and magnitude of extreme ozone events. We fuse the model output with monitoring data to calibrate the RFM by modeling the conditional distribution of monitoring data given the RFM using a combination of flexible semiparametric quantile regression for the center of the distribution where data are abundant and a parametric extreme value distribution for the tail where data are sparse. Selected parameters in the conditional distribution are allowed to vary by the RFM value and the spatial location. Also, due to the simplicity of the RFM, we are able to embed the RFM in our Bayesian hierarchical framework to obtain a full posterior for the model input parameters, and propagate this uncertainty to the estimation of the effects of the control strategies. We use the new framework to evaluate three potential control strategies, and find that reducing mobile-source emissions has a larger impact than reducing point-source emissions or a combination of several emission sources.

An intensive regional research campaign was conducted by the North American Carbon Program (NACP) in 2007 to study the carbon cycle of the highly productive agricultural regions of the Midwestern United States. Forty-five different associated projects were conducted across five US agencies over the course of nearly a decade involving hundreds of researchers. One of the primary objectives of the intensive campaign was to investigate the ability of atmospheric inversion techniques to use highly calibrated CO2 mixing ratio data to estimate CO2 flux over the major croplands of the United States by comparing the results to an inventory of CO2 fluxes. Statistics from densely monitored crop production, consisting primarily of corn and soybeans, provided the backbone of a well studied bottom-up inventory flux estimate that was used to evaluate the atmospheric inversion results. Estimates were compared to the inventory from three different inversion systems, representing spatial scales varying from high resolution mesoscale (PSU), to continental (CSU) and global (CarbonTracker), coupled to different transport models and optimization techniques. The inversion-based mean CO2 -C sink estimates were generally slightly larger, 8-20% for PSU, 10-20% for CSU, and 21% for CarbonTracker, but statistically indistinguishable, from the inventory estimate of 135 TgC. While the comparisons show that the MCI region-wide C sink is robust across inversion system and spatial scale, only the continental and mesoscale inversions were able to reproduce the spatial patterns within the region. In general, the results demonstrate that inversions can recover CO2 fluxes at sub-regional scales with a relatively high density of CO2 observations and adequate information on atmospheric transport in the region., (© 2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.)

The plum curculio, Conotrachelus nenuphar (Herbst), is a key pest of pome and stone fruit in eastern and central North America. For effective management of this insect pest in commercial apple (Malus spp.) orchards in the northeastern United States and Canada, one of the greatest challenges has been to determine the need for and timing of insecticide applications that will protect apple fruit from injury by adults. In a 2004-2005 study, we assessed the efficacy and economic viability of a reduced-risk integrated pest management strategy involving an odor-baited trap tree approach to determine need for and timing of insecticide use against plum curculio based on appearance of fresh egg-laying scars. Evaluations took place in commercial apple orchards in seven northeastern U.S. states. More specifically, we compared the trap-tree approach with three calendar-driven whole-block sprays and with heat-unit accumulation models that predict how long insecticide should be applied to orchard trees to prevent injury by plum curculio late in the season. Trap tree plots received a whole-plot insecticide spray by the time of petal fall, and succeeding sprays (if needed) were applied to peripheral-row trees only, depending on a threshold of one fresh plum curculio egg-laying scar out of 25 fruit sampled from a single trap tree. In both years, level of plum curculio injury to fruit sampled from perimeter-row, the most interior-row trees and whole-plot injury in trap tree plots did not differ significantly from that recorded in plots subject to conventional management or in plots managed using the heat-unit accumulation approach. The amount of insecticide used in trap tree plots was reduced at least by 43% compared with plots managed with the conventional approach. Advantages and potential pitfalls of the bio-based trap tree approach to plum curculio monitoring in apple orchards are discussed.

Several disease forecast models have been developed to guide treatment of the sooty blotch and flyspeck (SBFS) disease complex of apple. Generally, these empirical models are based on the accumulation of hours of leaf wetness (leaf wetness duration [LWD]) from a biofix at or near the phenological growth stage petal fall, when apple flower petals senesce and drop. The models recommend timing of the initial fungicide application targeting SBFS. However, there are significant differences among SBFS forecast models in terms of biofix and the length of LWD thresholds. A comparison of models using a single input data set generated recommendations for the first SBFS fungicide application that differed by up to 5 weeks. In an attempt to improve consistency among models, potential sources for differences were examined. Leaf wetness (LW) is a particularly variable parameter among models, depending on whether on-site or remote weather data were used, the types of sensors and their placement for on-site monitors, and the models used to estimate LW remotely. When SBFS models are applied in the field, recommended treatment thresholds do not always match the method of data acquisition, leading to potential failures. Horticultural factors, such as tree size, canopy density, and cultivar, and orchard site factors such as the distance to potential inoculum sources can impact risk of SBFS and should also be considered in forecast models. The number of fungal species identified as contributors to the SBFS disease complex has expanded tremendously in recent years. A lack of understanding of key epidemiological factors for different fungi in the complex, and which fungi represent the most challenging management problems, are obvious issues in the development of improved SBFS models. If SBFS forecast models are to be adopted, researchers will need to address these issues.

Sooty blotch and flyspeck (SBFS) fungi colonize the surface wax layer of the fruit of apple, pear, persimmon, banana, orange, papaya, and several other cultivated tree and vine crops. In addition to colonizing cultivated fruit crops, SBFS fungi also grow on the surfaces of stems, twigs, leaves, and fruit of a wide range of wild plants. The disease occurs worldwide in regions with moist growing seasons. SBFS is regarded as a serious disease by fruit growers and plant pathologists because it can cause substantial economic damage. The smudges and stipples of SBFS often result in downgrading of fruit from premium fresh-market grade to processing use. This review describes the major shifts that have occurred during the past decade in understanding the genetic diversity of the SBFS complex, clarifying its biogeography and environmental biology, and developing improved management strategies.

Sooty blotch and flyspeck (SBFS) fungi on apple fruit were sampled from nine orchards in four midwestern U.S. states during 2000 and 30 orchards in 10 eastern U.S. states during 2005 in order to estimate taxonomic diversity and discern patterns of geographic distribution. Forty apple fruit per orchard were arbitrarily sampled and colonies of each mycelial phenotype were counted on each apple. Representative colonies were isolated, cultures were purified, and DNA was extracted. For representative isolates, the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) and large subunit (LSU) regions of ribosomal DNA were amplified and sequenced. In total, 60 SBFS putative species were identified based on ITS sequences and morphological characteristics; 30 of these were discovered in the 2005 survey. Modified Koch's postulates were fulfilled for all 60 species in an Iowa orchard; colonies resulting from inoculation of apple fruit were matched to the original isolates on the basis of mycelial type and ITS sequence. Parsimony analysis for LSU sequences from both surveys revealed that 58 putative SBFS species were members of the Dothideomycetes, 52 were members of the Capnodiales, and 36 were members of the Mycosphaerellaceae. The number of SBFS species per orchard varied from 2 to 15. Number of SBFS species and values of the Margalef and Shannon indexes were significantly (P < 0.05) lower in 21 orchards that had received conventional fungicide sprays during the fruit maturation period than in 14 unsprayed orchards. Several SBFS species, including Schizothyrium pomi, Peltaster fructicola, and Pseudocercosporella sp. RH1, were nearly ubiquitous, whereas other species, such as Stomiopeltis sp. RS5.2, Phialophora sessilis, and Geastrumia polystigmatis, were found only within restricted geographic regions. The results document that the SBFS complex is far more taxonomically diverse than previously recognized and provide strong evidence that SBFS species differ in geographic distribution. To achieve more efficient management of SBFS, it may be necessary to understand the environmental biology of key SBFS species in each geographic region.

Flyspeck disease caused by the Ascomycete fungus Schizothyrium pomi is a major component of a summer disease complex that has become an increasing problem on apple in the northeastern United States. This study describes the development of thyriothecia of S. pomi on one of its major reservoir hosts, wild blackberry, and suggests that temperature drives thyriothecium maturation. An empirical model relating thyriothecium maturity to degree-days from apple leaf budbreak in Massachusetts had a high coefficient of determination, R 2 = 0.90. Ninety percent of thyriothecia matured between 540 and 1,625 degree-days from the budbreak biofix. S. pomi produced one generation of asci per year on blackberry. This discrete maturation period occurred well before signs of disease developed on apple fruit and before production of conidia. Considering that fungicide applications for scab management in commercial apple orchards also will protect fruit from flyspeck during early fruit development, it is unlikely that ascospores produced on reservoir hosts directly infect fruit. Instead, they probably initiate infections in reservoir hosts adjacent to commercial orchards, which produce conidia that are the inoculum which infects apple fruit in commercial production.

The experimental validation of a model-based, thermal therapy control system which automatically and simultaneously achieves the specified efficacy and safety objectives of the treatment is reported. MR-thermometry measurements are used in real-time to control the power of a stationary, focused ultrasound transducer in order to achieve the desired treatment outcome in minimum time without violating the imposed safety constraints. Treatment efficacy is quantified in terms of the thermal dose delivered to the target. Normal tissue safety is ensured by automatically maintaining normal tissue temperature below the imposed limit in the user-specified locations. To reflect hardware limitations, constraints on the maximum applied power are also imposed. At the pretreatment stage, MR imaging and thermometry are used to localize the treatment target and identify thermal and actuation models. The results of phantom and canine experiments demonstrate that spatially-distributed, real-time MR temperature measurements enhance one's ability to robustly achieve the desired treatment outcome in minimum time without violating safety constraints. Post-treatment evaluation of the outcome using T2-weighted images of canine muscle showed good spatial correlation between the sonicated area and thermally damaged tissue.

The first treatment control system that explicitly and automatically balances the efficacy and safety goals of noninvasive thermal therapies is described, and its performance is evaluated in phantoms and in vivo using ultrasound heating with a fixed, focused transducer. The treatment efficacy is quantified in terms of thermal dose delivered to the target. The developed feedback thermal dose controller has a cascade structure with the main nonlinear dose controller continuously generating the reference temperature trajectory for the secondary, constrained, model predictive temperature controller. The control system ensures thermal safety of the normal tissue by automatically complying with user-specified constraints on the maximum allowable normal tissue temperatures. To reflect hardware limitations and to prevent cavitation, constraints on the maximum transducer power can also be imposed. It is shown that the developed controller can be used to achieve the minimum-time delivery of the desired thermal dose to the target without violating safety constraints, which is a novel and clinically desirable feature. The developed controller is model based, and requires patient- and site-specific models for its operation. These models were obtained during pre-treatment identification experiments. In our implementation, predictive models, internally used by the automatic treatment controller, are dynamically updated each time new temperature measurements become available. The adaptability of internal models safeguards against adverse effects of modelling errors, and ensures robust performance of the control system in the presence of a priori unknown treatment disturbances. The successful validation with two experimental models of considerably different thermal and ultrasound properties suggests the applicability of the developed treatment control system to different anatomical sites.

Summer pruning of apples, as opposed to the conventional commercial practice of dormant pruning, consistently reduced the incidence of flyspeck on apple fruit by approximately 50% in each of 2 years in trees where no fungicides were applied. In commercial orchard blocks using fungicides, summer pruning also produced a slight but significant decrease in disease severity. There appear to be at least two mechanisms contributing to decreased flyspeck incidence and severity in summer-pruned apple trees. Summer pruning resulted in a small change in the apple canopy microclimate, decreasing the hours of relative humidity >95% in the canopy by 63% and increasing the evaporative potential. Summer pruning also resulted in improved spray deposition in the upper two-thirds of the tree canopy when applications were made with an airblast sprayer.