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Accurate identification of sugarcane buds, as one of the key technologies in sugarcane plantation, becomes very necessary for its mechanized and intelligent advancements. In the traditional methods of sugarcane bud recognition, a significant amount of algorithms work goes into the location and recognition of sugarcane bud images. A Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) for classifying the bud conditions is proposed in this paper. Firstly, we convert the colorful sugarcane images into gray ones, unify the size of them, and make a TFRecord format data set, which contains 1100 positive samples and 1100 negative samples. Then, a CNN mode is developed to classify the buds into good ones or bad ones. This model contains two convolutional layers and two pooling layers, which go into two full connected layers at the end. The bud dataset is divided into three sets: training set (80%), validation set (10%) and test set (10%). After the repeated training, the structure and parameters of the model are optimized, and an optimal application model is obtained. The experiment results demonstrate that the recognition accuracy of sugarcane bud reaches to 99%, which is about 6% higher than traditional methods. It proves that the CNN model is feasible to classify sugarcane buds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Biotropica is the property of Wiley-Blackwell 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.)

Background: Mobile or seasonal migrant workers are at increased risk for acquiring malaria infections and can be the primary source of malaria reintroduction into receptive areas. The aim of this formative assessment was to describe access to malaria prevention and control interventions among seasonal migrant or mobile workers in seven regional states of Ethiopia. Methods: A cross-sectional formative assessment was conducted using a qualitative and quantitative mixed-method design, between October 2015 and October 2016. Quantitative data were collected from organizations that employ seasonal migrant workers and were analyzed using Microsoft Excel and ArcGIS 10.8 (Geo-spatial data). Qualitative data were collected using in-depth interview from 23 key informants (7 seasonal migrant workers, and 16 experts and managers of development projects who had hired seasonal migrant workers), which were recorded, transcribed, translated, coded, and thematically analyzed. Results: There were 1,017,888 seasonal migrant workers employed in different developmental organizations including large-scale crop cultivating farms, sugar cane plantations, horticulture, road and house construction work, and gold mining and panning. Seasonal migrant workers' housing facilities were poorly structured and overcrowded (30 people living per 64 square meter room) limiting the use of indoor residual spraying (IRS), and forcing seasonal migrant workers not to use long lasting insecticidal treated nets (LLINs). Seasonal migrant workers are engaged in nighttime activities when employment includes watering farmlands, harvesting sesame, and transporting sugar cane from the field to factories. Despite such high-risk living conditions, access and utilization of preventive and curative services by the seasonal workers were limited. Informal migrant worker employment systems by development organizations and inadequate technical and financial support coupled with poor supply chain management limited the planning and delivery of malaria prevention and treatment strategies targeting seasonal migrant workers. Conclusions: Seasonal migrant workers in seven regions of Ethiopia were at substantial risk of acquiring malaria. Existing malaria prevention, control and management interventions were inadequate. This will contribute to the resurgence of outbreaks of malaria in areas where transmission has been lowered. A coordinated action is needed among all stakeholders to identify the size of seasonal migrant workers and develop and implement a comprehensive strategy to address their healthcare needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, a multi-residue method was used to analyze 13 pesticides and 1 degradation product in surface and groundwater in the region with the largest sugar cane production in the world. The potential effects of individual pesticides and their mixtures, for aquatic life and human consumption, were evaluated. For the surface water, 2-hydroxy atrazine, diuron, carbendazim, tebuthiuron, and hexazinone were the most frequently detected (100, 94, 93, 92, and 91%, respectively). Imidacloprid (2579 ng L−1), carbendazim (1114 ng L−1), ametryn (1101 ng L−1), and tebuthiuron (1080 ng L−1) were found at the highest concentrations. For groundwater, tebuthiuron was the only quantified pesticide (107 ng L−1). Ametryn, atrazine, diuron, hexazinone, carbofuran, imidacloprid, malathion, carbendazim, and their mixtures presented risk for the aquatic life. No risk was observed for the pesticides analyzed in this work, alone or in their mixtures for human consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agro‐pastoral areas in Ethiopia have been targeted by large‐scale land investments, particularly for the establishment of sugar plantations, since the 1970s. This has led to the displacement of local communities. We investigate the impact of this displacement due to large‐scale land investment on land degradation in semiarid agro‐pastoral areas in Ethiopia. We conducted a survey of 866 households in two agro‐pastoral sites in Ethiopia in 2019, where extensive large‐scale land investment was implemented. We use an endogenous (switching) treatment model to assess the effect of the displacement of households on land degradation. The result shows that 75% of the surveyed households experienced moderate–severe land degradation. Forestlands and grasslands are ranked as the most degraded areas. About 43.7% of the households face a reduction in herd size and 55.8% lost land due to large‐scale land investment, while 86% of the households show a substantial decline in crops and livestock productivity due to land degradation. The results also reveal that the displacement of households leads to a significant increase in land degradation. Household exposure to drought and conflict, the number of livestock, overgrazing, and sharecropping are other drivers of land degradation. Market access, extension services, household income, and mobility, on the other hand, limit the occurrence of land degradation. We conclude that the shifts in property rights from common land used by pastoralists to private land in large‐scale plantations aggravate land degradation in semiarid drylands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: A study was conducted at the Territorial Sugar Cane Research Station (ETICA) in the mid-eastern Camagüey province, Cuba, to evaluate the effect of cultivar, stump, and planting distance between furrows for green biomass production, based on forage-production criteria. Methods: The plantation was made in February 2016. The experiment was established according to a categorical multifactorial experimental design 3³ = 27, combinations on the base design, with two replicas, and 81 observations. Plantation distance between furrows (0.90, 1.20, and 1.50 m), cultivars (C97-366, C99-374, and My5514), and stumps (plant, shoot, and second shoot), were evaluated. The production of green biomass was determined at 12 months of age. A multifactorial variance analysis using Statgraphics Centurion, XV.I, was performed for statistical processing. Results: Statistically significant differences were detected in the interaction of stump with plantation distance between furrows, for the production of green biomass. The sugar cane stump planted at 0.90 m between furrows showed the best productive results, whereas no significant differences were found between cultivars. Conclusions: The genetic potential for green biomass production was corroborated by the new sugar cane forage cultivars C97-366 and C99-374, with values bove 60 t/ha-1, as the average of the three harvests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biological control of sugarcane smut (Ustilago scitaminea Syd.) using Trichoderma isolates is one of the untapped potentials in Ethiopian sugarcane plantations. To this end, this study was carried out with the objective to identify potential native Trichoderma isolates for the management of sugarcane smut. A total of 120 soil samples were collected from Kesem, Metehara, and Wonji sugarcane plantation fields. Consequently, 21 Trichoderma isolates were recovered from the samples, and in-vitro antagonist study of Trichoderma isolates against U. scitaminea was done using dual culture technique on fresh PDA. Among the native isolates, 12 of them revealed a pathogen suppression potential of >90% at 7 days after inoculation and most of them had higher pathogen suppression than the commercial isolate. However, five of the isolates were selected as potential candidates based on distinct suppression features, growth rate, and antagonistic performance. Identification of the five effective Trichoderma isolates (WI4-27, MKI2-k17, MI3-m33, WI12-25, and MKI3) was done based on macroscopic and microscopic characteristics. Thus, the isolates were identified as T. harzianum, T. asperellum, T. viride, T. viride, and T. harzianum, respectively. Accordingly, these isolates could be used as one component of integrated smut management practices once a study on compatibility with fungicides, in-vivo efficacy test against smut, and substrate selection for mass production of the isolates were commenced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indigenous loanwords comprise an important component of the lexicons of the Englishes of former British colonies. Often these words are used as placenames, which are in turn transported across the country with little knowledge of their origin or meaning. In this article we trace the adoption of gunyah into Australian English, and its use in the house name and toponym Miegunyah/Meigunyah/Mygunyah, extending to a sugarcane plantation near Nadi, on Vitilevu, Fiji. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sugar cane massif of the Argeo Martínez Sugar Company in Guantánamo province is affected by the woody species Dichrostachys cinerea (L.) Wight & Arn (marabou) and Leucaena leucocephala (Lam.) De Wit. (leucaena), those that invade sugarcane plantations in the territory, sharing living space, water, light and nutrients while making harvest difficult. In order to determine the degree of affectation and frequency of appearance of the woody, exotic and invasive species D. cinerea and L. leucocephala and to represent the spatial distribution, the study was carried out in the sugarcane areas based on the weed survey of the PCMalezas between the years 2006-2018. The results of the frequency of appearance showed that these species are scattered in 96 blocks of 8 producing units, distributed in 2,723.09 ha of sugarcane with a predominance of the degree of slight affectation and number of incidence as weeds. 4. The statistical analysis of the frequency of appearance, showed a significant difference between the species of woody plants. It was observed in the spatial distribution, that the northwest and southeast region of the sugarcane agricultural area presents a higher incidence of invasion of the species studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Distributing water optimally is a complex problem that many farmers face yearly, especially in times of drought. In this work, we propose optimization‐based feedback control to improve crop yield and water productivity in agriculture irrigation for a plantation consisting of multiple fields. The interaction between soil, water, crop (sugarcane in this work), and the atmosphere is characterized by an agrohydrological model using the crop water productivity modeling software AquaCrop‐OS. To optimally distribute water over the fields, we propose a two‐level optimal control approach. In this approach, the seasonal irrigation planner determines the optimal allocation of water over the fields for the entire growth season to maximize the crop yield, by considering an approximation of the crop productivity function. In addition, the model predictive controller takes care of the daily regulation of the soil moisture, respecting the water distribution decided on by the seasonal planner. To reduce the computational complexity of the daily controller, a mixed‐logic dynamical model is identified based on the AquaCrop‐OS model. This dynamical model incorporates saturation dynamics explicitly to improve model quality. To further improve performance, we create an evapotranspiration model by considering the expected development of the crop over the season using remote‐sensing‐based measurements of the canopy cover. The performance of the two‐level approach is evaluated through a closed‐loop simulation in AquaCrop‐OS of a real sugarcane plantation in Mozambique. Our optimal control approach boosts water productivity by up to 30% compared to local heuristics and can respect water use constraints that arise in times of drought. Key Points: A two‐level optimization method is proposed that is tailored to solve the optimal irrigation problem of a large‐scale plantationAquaCrop‐OS is used to model the agrohydrological system using real data and to simulate a plantation consisting of multiple fieldsThe proposed optimization method produces optimal irrigation schedules in periods of drought and maximizes water productivity [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present study, the preferential salvation of salts in sugar-aqueous systems has been considered. It is carried out by using conductometric observation of analytical grade sugar and plantation white sugar aqueous system with salts viz. CaCl2, MgCl2, KCl, NaCl. It shows that the conductivity is in a linear relationship with the electrolytes and non-sugar present in both analytical grade sugar and plantation white sugar over a range of 5 to 25 W/V percent. The optimum range of concentration found to be for both the sugars is about 20%. Encouraging results could be obtained in the determination of sugars i.e. non-electrolytes and electrolytes in aqueous sugar solution products. The present study shows valid technological interest to understand the Maillard reaction due to the adoption of MgCl2 salt in place of sulphite. These sugars-salts complexes are responsible for the formation of molasses which leads to substantial loss of sugar of around ten percent of the total sugar present in cane. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impacts of expansion and technological changes on sugarcane plantations on the agricultural land structure in São Paulo state from 1975 to 2006 were studied. The Agricultural Census editions of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics were the main source of data, which were analyzed by non-conventional method. The expansion of sugarcane from 1996 to 2006 was accompanied by an increase in the participation of very large agricultural establishments and also the concentration of agricultural land ownership. The concentration of land ownership was less impacted, as entrepreneurs expanded their cane fields more by renting than by acquiring land. Among the main causes of sugarcane expansion were the strong vertical integration between sugar and ethanol factories and sugarcane plantations, not common in other activities that lost ground in São Paulo. In addition, the expansion of the mechanization of the sugarcane harvest made it difficult for small and medium suppliers to stay in sugarcane production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historians have long understood the economic importance of Jamaica to the eighteenth-century British empire, but the vast profits that the island's sugar-slave complexes produced could only have existed with the supplies and provisions provided by mainland colonists in North America. For all the importance of this north–south axis of trade in supporting Jamaica and the West Indies more generally, its quantitative dimensions remain unclear. Based on data extracted from 5,227 entrance and 4,620 clearance records from British naval office shipping lists for Kingston, Jamaica from 1752 to 1769, this article re-assesses the size, nature, and value of trade between North America and the West Indies. The shipping lists reveal not only how deeply committed the mainland was to supplying Jamaican slavery, but also suggests that we reconsider the island as a powerful regional hub within the larger British Atlantic economy, one in which both North America and West Africa figured as important hinterlands. Understanding these interconnections is crucial as we work to more fully uncover the trans-regional interdependencies created by slavery and the slave trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This experiment was performed to find out the best sugarcane plantation source between trenched and fresh stocks, efficient method of setts placement, selection of paramount cane portions and the interaction of yield and yield components. The effect of planting sources (i.e. sugarcane fresh seed and the one obtained from stock buried underground), cane portions and setts placement methods on sugarcane yield attributing traits were examined at Sugar Crops Research Institute (SCRI), Mardan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan. The experiment was conducted in RCB Design with split plot arrangements, in 3 replications for two years (2012-14). Different planting material i.e., trenched (sugarcane buried in soil to avoid frost damage) and fresh cane (directly obtained after harvesting of standing crop) stalk segments i.e. upper, middle, lower and 33 % (having upper + middle + lower cane portions in uniform proportion of 33) each mixed portions of cane were allotted to the main plots, whereas sub plots were given to methods of setts placement (single, one and half, double and three setts (sugarcane stem portion with three buds) each 40 cm. Fertilizer was applied as N: 150 P2O5:100 K2 O: 100 at sowing and earthing up from Urea, DAP and SOP sources. Uniform management practices were performed. All traits showed significant (p≤ 0.05) differences for planting sources, cane portions and setts placement methods. Interaction of cane portions and setts placement methods were significant for emerged shoots, tillers, plant height and biological yield. Results revealed higher (p≤ 0.05) emerged shoots and tillers in canes planted from standing source (sugarcane standing crop) top portion with triple setts. This was also found that tallest plants with maximum biological yield were recorded in canes top portion with triple setts placement methods. Minimum results were observed for all the traits when bottom portion from trenched planting source was planted at single setts. Study suggests that planting fresh cane top portions with double and triple setts placement methods are better than trenched planting for cane yield and yield attributing traits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Comparativ: Leipziger Beiträge zur Universalgeschichte und Vergleichenden Gesellschaftsforschung is the property of Leipziger Universitaetsverlag GmbH 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 increasing demand for biofuels favored the expansion of sugarcane and, as a consequence, in the consumption of pesticides in Brazil. Amphibians are subject to pesticide exposure for occurring in or around sugarcane fields, and for breeding at the onset of the rainy season when pesticide consumption is common. We tested the hypothesis that herbicides used in sugarcane crops, although employed for weed control and manipulated at doses recommended by the manufacturers, can cause lethal and sublethal effects on amphibian larvae. Boana pardalis was exposed to glyphosate, ametryn, 2,4-D, metribuzin and acetochlor which account to up to 2/3 of the volume of herbicides employed in sugarcane production. High mortality was observed following prolonged exposure to ametryn (76%), acetochlor (68%) and glyphosate (15%); ametryn in addition significantly reduced activity rates and slowed developmental and growth rates. AChE activity was surprisingly stimulated by glyphosate, ametryn and 2,4-D, and GST activity by ametryn and acetochlor. Some of these sublethal effects, including the decrease in activity, growth and developmental rates, may have important consequences for individual performance for extending the larval period, and hence the risk of dessication, in the temporary and semi-permanent ponds where the species develops. Future studies should seek additional realism towards a risk analysis of the environmental contamination by herbicides through experiments manipulating not only active ingredients but also commercial formulations, as well as interactions among contaminants and other environmental stressors across the entire life cycle of native amphibian species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to apply remote sensing technologies in delineating sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum) plantations and in identifying its growth stages. Considering the growing demand for sugarcane in the local and global markets, the need for a science-based resource inventory emerges. In this sense, remote sensing techniques’ unique ability is vital to monitor crop growth and estimate crop yield. Object-Based Image Analysis (OBIA) concept was employed by utilizing orthophotos and Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) datasets. Specifically, the study applied the Support Vector Machine (SVM) algorithm to generate the resource map, validated by a handheld Global Positioning System (GPS). The classification result showed an accuracy of 98.4%, delineating a total of 13.93 hectares of sugarcane plantation in the study area. The height information from LiDAR datasets aided in developing the rule-set that can further classify the sugarcane according to its growth stages. Results showed that the area distribution of sugarcane at establishment, tillering, yield formation, and ripening stage were 6.65%, 11.61%, 13.89%, and 17.90% respectively. GPS validation points of the growth stages verified the accuracy of SVM. The accuracy results for growth stages, i.e. establishment, tillering, yield formation, and ripening are 88%, 94.4%, 96.3%, and 91.7% respectively. The results proved the usefulness of SVM as a remote sensing classification technique which led to an exact mapping of the sugarcane areas as well as the practical use of LiDAR height information in estimating the growth stages of the mapped resource, both of which can provide valuable aid in estimating the potential sugarcane yield in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Luteolin flavonoid is useful in a variety of dietary constituents and can be used as medicine to protect and suppress the growth of different human cancers. These flavonoids may increase the level of reactive oxygen species, and have value as chemopreventive substances. In this study, a medium grade (L-30) sugar was obtained from a reputed north Indian sugar manufacturer which had turned slightly yellowish due to a long storage period for flavonoids identification. Flavonoids are more stable than other sugar colorants and persist into sugar crystals. A resin-based column chromatography method has been developed for the extraction of three luteolin glycosides flavonoids from Indian plantation white sugar. The fractionation of the colorants was done according to their size by gel permeation chromatography, and finally their isolation and purification by thin-layer chromatography. The detected flavonoids were: luteolin-6-C-β-glucopyranoside, luteolin-7-O-βglucopyranoside and luteolin-7-O-β-galactopyranoside. Ultraviolet and Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy techniques were used for the structural characterization of flavonoids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Connectivity loss during habitat fragmentation poses a serious threat to global biodiversity. The effects of this process depend on factors such as the dispersal ability and breeding systems of each species, the type of land use surrounding the habitat remnants and the position of fragments in the landscape.Termites are abundant in tropical ecosystems, and within this group, soil‐feeding species are the most sensitive to environmental degradation.We investigated whether the fragmentation of the Atlantic Forest that occurred approximately 110 years ago because of sugarcane plantations in Northeast Brazil affected the genetic diversity of a population of Embiratermes neotenicus (Termitidae: Syntermitinae) in 14 fragments separated by 3–104 m over an extent of 20 km.For 10 nests in each fragment, 10 individuals (n = 1400) were genotyped at five microsatellite loci. Our results show that the population exhibits weak genetic structure, with no relations between genetic variability and fragment features.This result may be explained by the extraordinarily long lifespan of individual colonies, given this species' peculiar breeding system, offering several opportunities for dispersal events and patch colonisation.Landscape features such as the arrangement of forest fragments and seasonal nature of the sugarcane matrix could enable this species to maximise dispersal success and avoid local extinction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is based on various studies undertaken by the author on Forced Migrations in Mozambique and it introduces to the radiography of a country, which has brought forth housing spaces deemed incomplete, that have resulted from a combination of political-military tensions, natural disasters, development projects and international migration trends. Mozambique is a Southern African country, located in the southern East side of the continent. The Channel of Mozambique lies in east coast limit zone of Mozambique in an extension of 2700Km stretch. Since its independence from Portugal in 1975, the country has undergone through some significant metamorphoses in its geographical territorial space, originated by cyclical natural disasters, political and military events; social and economic factors that hindered development and made people not realize the true meaning of sedentary, as there is an emergency call towards Internally Displaced persons and refugees. It is on record that upon its independence, the country adopted a "hospitable policy" of hosting people that were escaping from oppressive regimes such as "the likes" of Chile, former Southern Rhodesia (currently Zimbabwe), East Timor and South Africa. Due to geographical location factors and the fact that the country enjoyed military peace between 1992 and 2013, Mozambique played an important role in hosting asylum seekers and refugees from the Region of Great lakes of Africa and the Horn of Africa, apart from investors and those who pretended to be investors, the country saw an influx of people from different parts of the world, Africa being the main contributor, Middle East, Europe, China, North America and Brazil have contributed to the spatial shape of Mozambique. It is important to refer that the immigrant population and those that are fleeing rarely fixe their "roots" in hosting countries. The reason being, it is possible to observe in all national territory the existence of places which reflects the reminiscent of a war thorn scenario, which either construction buildings are not yet concluded or are partially destroyed. The example of such, for instance the City of Xai-Xai in Southern Mozambique, with the heavy sand project, the province of Sofala and the unfinished Sugar plantation project while in Mandimba district in northern Mozambique, a place filled with ruins. The development projects in course reflect without a doubt the emergency character of a country with never-ending conflicts and under reconstruction. It is about a vicious cycle that along time remained an obstacle in allocating, housing spaces for construction purposes and for that I call incomplete spaces or unfinished spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista de Arqueología Histórica Argentina y Latinoamericana is the property of Revista de Arqueologia Historica Argentina y Latinoamericana 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 study aimed to develop an optimal set and size model of bioenergy facilities using a GIS framework. Data from sugarcane plantations were used to create case scenarios. Spatial analysis was accomplished by applying a two-phase approach: identification of suitable zones to locate bioenergy facilities and identification of ideal areas. These analyses led to a location-allocation model, using Maximize Capacitated Coverage option, in order to assign sugarcane supply areas to potential bioenergy facilities. Nine themes, as well their respective weights, generated by AHP, were used to create a visual depiction of potential sites. This layer was reclassified into five categories, using Natural Breaks (Jenks) method. Various scenarios of bioenergy plants installation were simulated. Around 50% of the area is unsuitable for bioenergy plants. A total of 1,737 potential sites were detected for implanting bioenergy plants. The best regions to locate bioenergy plants were peripheral areas. Cumulative biomass transportation distances dramatically reduce as the number of facilities increases. There is a reduction of 31% in total and average distances when comparing a 4-plant scenario with a single plant scenario. Proposed scenarios can support decision making with different numbers of bioenergy plants. Proposed methodology can be adapted to areas of other countries. Image 1 • We developed a methodology that finds the best sites for Bioenergy industry installation. • We presented ideal locations for Bioenergy industries in many simulated scenarios. • Transport costs will decrease exponentially with higher number of smaller capacity plants. • The methodology can be applied to any supply delivery problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Royal African Company is a difficult institution to defend, given that its principal intention was to provide enslaved Africans to the burgeoning plantation economy of British America. Its close connections with the deposed James VII and II and its severe financial problems meant that it was an easy target for self-interested London merchants and their parliamentary supporters when they attacked it as an ineffective monopolist in 1698 and 1708. Yet when the Company made a defence of itself as a public-spirited institution that promoted development in the plantation colonies, it had a point. As this article argues, the Royal African Company allowed for a certain kind of development in Jamaica -- one in which the success of the large integrated plantation was not foreordained but which allowed space for ordinary men outside the sugar economy to buy African enslaved persons at reasonable prices. The ending of its monopoly was a factor in the rise of the large planters and the large plantation system they preferred as a form of social and economic organisation in British America in the early eighteenth century. Thus, the decades in which the Royal African Company was replaced by private traders in the Atlantic slave trade had wide societal impacts, shaping the eighteenth-century British Empire in the Americas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Apigenin and its derivatives are biological active flavonoids that are useful in a variety of dietary constituents. These flavonoids may exert some influence over the transition from normal to cancerous, and have value as chemopreventive substance. In this study, a new purification method of three apigenin glycosides flavonoids from Indian plantation white sugar extracts was developed. Three unknown sugar flavonoids were isolated from sugar by using resin based column chromatography. After filtration, the colorant solution was adsorbed on to the gel column at a flow rate of 1 mL/3 min and elution was done with water at the same rate. 10 mL fractions were collected which were then chromatographed on cellulose TLC plates. The pure fractions were completely evaporated and investigated for identification. The detected flavonoids were: apigenin-8-C-b-Dglucopyranoside, apigenin 6-C-b-glucopyranoside and apigenin-7-O-b-glucopyranoside. Ultraviolet and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy introduces an additional analytical dimension for the identification of sugar flavonoids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on Susannah Mingo was an enslaved woman of color. In the 1670s and 1680s, she labored on a Barbados sugar plantation before being taken to an English estate on the outskirts of London in 1686. It mentions her biography challenges scholarly assumptions about enslaved women's sexual coercion, the role of planter patriarchy in the English world, and early modern metropolitan life. It also mentions how enslaved people understood the racial slavery.

In the 1970s, a group of young historians took up the challenge of (re) writing historical narratives about Puerto Rico's 19th century. Most of the narratives focused on the economic and social history of the island's integration into the world economy via the export trades in sugar, coffee, and tobacco. No one was more influential than Andrés A. Ramos Mattei in breaking new ground on these historical topics. I contributed a study on the sugar plantation economy of the Ponce region--the island's largest-- during the first half of the century, a period when production fell largely in the hands of enslaved workers from Africa. The essay revisits the Sugar and Slavery book with the intention of placing it in a larger historiographical context, i.e., writings on the slave-holding Puerto Rican economy and society before and since the book's publication. It concludes that while it raised some significant points, there were also meaningful gaps and silences. I consider three of these (silence on gender and its intersectionalities, missed opportunities on the study of proto-peasantry, and little attention to culture-building) for further conceptualization, calling on future historians of Puerto Rico to take these up in new and more integral investigations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Brasileira de Agricultura Irrigada - RBAI is the property of Revista Brasileira de Agricultura Irrigada - RBAI 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.)

Updating of seasonal agricultural crop map is limited by the local knowledge of the mapper. Mapping of previously unaccounted agricultural plots involve massive field works aided by very high-resolution images. The phenological cycle of seasonal crops like sugarcane, with a range of ten (10) to twelve (12) months from planting to harvesting, exhibit a unique characteristic in terms of radar backscatter and time. In this paper, a pattern matching algorithm was tested to detect sugarcane plantations. Dynamic Time Warping (DTW), which was originally used for voice recognition, was used to detect sugarcane plantations from multitemporal Sentinel-1A images. Using known sugarcane plots, temporal signatures were gathered and used to detect other plantations in the area. The result helped the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) in updating the inventory of sugarcane plantations faster with detection accuracy of more than 92 percent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Caribbean frontier was dominated by agro-industrial sugar production. Localized adaptations of European designs for colonization in the Caribbean generated unique plantation landscapes. Before 1650, efforts throughout the region to create wealth from plantations did not achieve the scale of production that unfolded in the latter half of the 17th century as capitalism emerged. While tobacco farms briefly reaped rich rewards, for an adventurous and entrepreneurial few the prosperity of the colonies was ultimately sustained through a combination an increasing and seemingly unlimited demand for sugar, protectionist economic policies from the core state, and institutionalized slavery. A case study of agro-industrialism on the Bush Hill sugar estate on Nevis during the period of capitalism's ascendancy provides insights on the incremental integration of capitalism into the plantation system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents the hydrochemical composition of groundwater under long-term irrigation of Wonji plain (Ethiopia) and its quality status for drinking purpose. Groundwater samples were collected from 30 groundwater monitoring tube wells installed at different parts of the sugarcane plantation and then analysed for the major physico-chemical quality parameters (pH, EC, major cations and anions) following standard test procedures. The status of groundwater for drinking was compared with WHO and other quality standards. Analytical analysis results indicated that majority of the considered quality parameters are rated above the prescribed tolerable limits for drinking set by WHO. About 97% of the water samples has water quality index in the range of very poor to unfit for drinking. The contamination index is in the ranges of low (–1.0) to high (3.6). In general, the groundwater of the area is unsuitable for human consumption without proper treatment such as boiling, chlorination, filtering, distillation, desalinaization, defluoridation, deionization, demineralization (ionexchange) and membrane processes. Since the TDS concentration is relatively small (<2000 ppm), demineralization process alone can be sufficient to bring the water to an acceptable level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay looks at the historical geography of sugar plantations in Northeast Brazil during the 16th- and 17th-centuries to critique the spatio-temporality of the discourse of the Anthropocene. I argue that sugar plantations were key places in early systemic cycles of capital accumulation with their grim calculus of cheap labor-power and acceptable deaths. Sugar plantations were simultaneously prototypical racializing state actors and part of the emergent relations of capital changing the climate. With their rationalized, time-disciplined labor for processing cane into sugar, plantations were not only fundamentally proto-industrial sites, but also one of capital's laboratories of modernity. They were primordial sites of proletarianization, of spatio-temporal patterns that repopulated the Americas and central in the production not of the Anthropocene but of the racializing Capitalocene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the role played by the production of sugar and cane liquor (aguardente) in the seventeenth and early eighteenth-century Amazon region. It shows how the development of sugar production had a double significance: sugar plantations had to produce a commodity that could be exported so as to generate revenues for the Royal Treasury, but they also had to produce aguardente for domestic consumption (including by those Indians who worked for the Portuguese). This domestic production provoked distrust on the part of the Crown, since it was believed to threaten sugar production overall. Nevertheless, aguardente production became a central element in the Portuguese dominion of the sertões (or sertão, the hinterland), while continuing to increase the revenues of the royal treasury. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Morphological and molecular analyses of plant-parasitic nematodes (PPN) from 12 sugarcane plantation sites of Tanganyika Planting Company (TPC) Limited in Kilimanjaro region of Tanzania revealed the presence of six PPN genera, i.e. Helicotylenchus, Hemicycliophora, Pratylenchus, Rotylenchulus, Scutellonema, and Tylenchorhynchus. The genera with the highest densities and present in virtually all samples were Pratylenchus and Rotylenchulus, and the most important species appeared to be R. parvus, P. zeae, T. crassicaudatus, and T. ventrosignatus. A total sequences of 11 partial ITS, 15 D2-D3 of 28S, and 6 partial 18S of rRNA gene, and 7 partial COI gene of mtDNA of these species were obtained in this study. Morphology and molecular data comparisons between the Tanzanian R. parvus and the South African R. parvus indicated that R. parvus is a cryptic species complex. Based on the results of morphological and molecular analyses of T. crassicaudatus and T. agri from China, Haiti, Indonesia, Iran, Niger and the USA, T. agri syn. n. is proposed as a junior synonym of T. crassicaudatus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grasshoppers and locusts are well known crop and pasture pests throughout the world. Periodically they cause extensive damage to large areas of crops and grazing lands, which often exacerbate food shortage issues in many countries. In South Africa, acridid outbreaks rarely reach economic proportions, but in sugarcane plantations, localized outbreaks of native acridid species have been reported for the last eight years with increasing frequency and intensity in certain areas. This study was undertaken from May 2012 to May 2013 to identify the economically important acridid species in the sugarcane agroecosystem in these outbreak areas, to monitor seasonal activity patterns, to assess sampling methods, and to determine the pest status of the major species through damage ratings. Five acridid species of particular importance were identified: Nomadacris septemfasciata (Serville), Petamella prosternalis (Karny), Ornithacris cyanea (Stoll), Cataloipus zuluensis Sjötedt, and Cyrtacanthacris aeruginosa (Stoll). All species are univoltine. Petamella prosternalis was the most abundant species and exhibited a winter egg diapause, while N. septemfasciata, the second most abundant species, exhibited a winter reproductive diapause. Petamella prosternalis and N. septemfasciata were significantly correlated with the damage-rating index, suggesting that these two species were responsible for most of the feeding damage found on sugarcane. This study, for the first time, identified the acridid species complex causing damage to sugarcane in the Zululand area of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, and documented their population characteristics and related damage. These data are important information on which to base sound integrated pest management strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on long-term ethnographic research in state-run settlement projects on former sugarcane plantations in Northeast Brazil, this article questions the evidence of "the economy" as a privileged framework for understanding the life situation of the poor, structured by precariousness and uncertainty about the future. Exploring the polysemy of Portuguese esperar (to wait, to hope, and to expect), it analyzes the plurality of orientations to the future among former sugarcane wageworkers included as beneficiaries in land reform projects, and their strategies to mitigate uncertainty in various configurations. If radical uncertainty lies out of reach of human hands, relative uncertainty may be acted on by mobilizing people. While money is desirable, it has a transitory character; and the value of friends lies in their potential to help, especially in case of a crisis. Ethnography thus suggests moving beyond an "economic anthropology" that aims to analyze "other economies" in order to explore the fields of opportunities and frames of reference that structure life situations and the local versions of oikonomia in its original meaning of "government of the household". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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