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Biology is a study of living objects and their life processes. It examines all aspects of living organisms such as their occurrence, classification, internal and external structure, nutrition, reproduction, inheritance, etc. The term “biology” is commonly replaced by the terms “life sciences” and “biological sciences.” There are dozens of branches of biology. Some of the major ones include:
Biology and Life Sciences
Abstract
The automated system for enhancing plant growth presents an innovative approach to optimize quality of sugarcane cultivation for four main sugarcane growing zones. It includes issues like recommendation of crops based on soil nutrients, diagnosis of disease in the leaf and stem images of sugarcane, weed detection and harvesting time prediction. The research work proposed in the article presents an innovative two-stage approach for object detection and classification in agricultural imagery. Initially, YOLOv8 (You Only Look Once) is employed to accurately detect objects within images, delineating them with precise boundary boxes. Subsequently, the focus of hybrid model integrating Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) networks, known as Contextual Long Short-Term Memory (CLSTM), is employed. This dual-stage methodology harnesses the speed and accuracy of YOLOv8 for robust object localization, while the CLSTM model ensures nuanced classification, contributing to comprehensive and accurate approach for object detection and crop-weed differentiation in agricultural scenarios. The proposed approach is compared with the four DL algorithms for identifying weeds in sugarcane crops and subsequently assessed their accuracy and F1 score performance. At a learning rate of 0.002, the findings of CLSTM showcase superior precision at 98.5%, recall at 97.8%, F1 score at 98.1%, and an overall accuracy of 97.7%. The subsequent task is harvesting time prediction, which entails identifying the best time to harvest sugarcane based on the planting period, weather predictions, and sugarcane brix value. The implementation of this automated system not only enhances the productivity of sugarcane cultivation but also serves as a model for sustainable and resource-efficient agriculture.
Abstract
Extracts from Azadirachta indica, Lantana camara, Nerium oleander, Aegle marmelos, Allium sativum, Citrus limon were compared with two checks viz. Azadirachtin 1 EC and Acephate 95 SG for their efficacy against Nilaparvata lugens, Orseolia oryzae and natural enemies in cultivated rice during two consecutive wet seasons from 2022 to 2023. It was revealed that, mean rice yield was significantly higher in the A. indica and Acephate 95 SG treatments compared to the control. The A. indica treatment emerged as the best treatment against O. oryzae whereas, the A. marmelos treatment was found most promising against N. lugens. All the studied botanicals had less impact on natural enemies than synthetic chemical. The cost economics of major insect pests' management in rice revealed that Acephate 95 SG treatment recorded the highest Incremental Cost Benefit Ratio (1: 4.65) followed by A. indica (1: 3.74) and A. marmelos (1: 3.41).
40 accessions of Aegilops tauschii Coss. specially chosen to present as much of the species variability as possible in such sample were used to build a phylogenetic tree based on transcriptomes sequences. The tree displays subdivision of Ae. tauschii into TauL1, TauL2 and TauL3 gene-pools, and also into subsp. tauschii (TauL1) and subsp. strangulata (TauL2 + TauL3). TauL3 does not look as an outlier. Both subsp. strangulata and subsp. tauschii are highly variable. Accessions from all clades of subsp. tauschii and some clades of subsp. strangulata have disjoint patterns of geographic occurrence, while some of subsp. strangulata clades correspond to particular geographical regions. No special separate clade was formed by some accessions of Ae. tauschii subsp. tauschii from Yellow River region.
Abstract
Thirty nine species of oribatid mites (Oribatida), belonging to 29 genera and 20 families were collected from semidecayed leaves in the San Gabriel Limestone Cave, Dominican Republic. A new species of the genus Pergalumna (Galumnidae)—P. (Pergalumna) sangabrielensis n. sp.—is described.
A comprehensive lichenological survey was conducted on three Azorean islands: Faial, São Miguel, and Terceira, resulting in the documentation of 155 lichens and lichenicolous fungi species, with a total of 406 observations. Among these, 33 species are reported for the first time in the Archipelago, with four species representing new records for Europe (Lecanora subimmersa, Lecanora thysanota, Pseudosagedia cestrensis, and Traponora asterella). Additionally, 15 species and varieties are new to Portugal, including notable taxa such as Caloplaca interna, Lecanora gisleriana, Lecanora handelii, Variospora dolomiticola, and Xanthocarpia diffusa.
Salsola is one of the largest genera in the tribe Salsoleae within Amaranthaceae, with many species that share morphological characteristics, which makes it a challenging genus to study. In this study, 11 quantitative and eight qualitative morphological traits were evaluated and measured. Ward’s dendrogram showed two main clusters: one composed of S. brachiata and S. turcomanica, and the other composed of two subclusters, with populations of S. kali, S. incanescens, S. orientalis and S. dendroides. In addition, we performed molecular phylogenetic analyses conducted with sequence data from nrDNA (ITS and ETS) and cpDNA markers (psbB-psbH and atpB-rbcL) under maximum parsimony, Bayesian inference and maximum likelihood approaches. All the members were clustered into a well-supported clade (PP = 1, ML/BS = 0.89) composed of two subclades: subclade A included S. turcomanica and S. brachiata (PP = 0.90, ML/BS = 73) and subclade B (PP = 0.95, ML/BS = 81) comprised S. incanescens, S. orientalis, S. dendroides and S. kali. The current study provides novel insights at morphological and molecular levels, as well as the results of molecular studies based on nr- and cpDNA sequence data that are congruent with morphological analyses.
Two species new to science, Xanthoria pedersenii and X. wennergrenii in the Xanthoria calcicola complex (Xanthoria, Xanthorioideae, Teloschistaceae), characterized by a complex of morphological, anatomical and molecular characters, are described, illustrated and compared with closely related taxa.
New Records for the Bryoflora of Vietnam, 6.
Bazzania tranninhiana sp. nov. (Lepidoziaceae)
During our visit to the Tam Đảo National Park in 1998, with the guidance of Prof. Trần Ninh, we collected a peculiar Bazzania species unknown from Vietnam before. This species, with its incurved, fragile leaf apices and deeply dissected underleaves proved to be new to science. This paper provides its illustrated description.
Peltula shalae Kumar S. is described as a new species of lichens from the Chenab Valley of Jammu and Kashmir, India. It is characterised by peltate-umbilicate thallus comprising of overlapping squamules forming rosettes, with diameter 2–3.5 cm. The absence of soredia is notable. This lichen is observed to grow on ‘shale rock’, a type of sedimentary rock, and is distinguished from closely related species, including P. daurica, P. sonorensis, P. anthracina, and P. obscurans by its distinct morphological features. Furthermore, a comprehensive comparison with closely related peltate-umbilicate species is presented.
