Summary: The growth phase during which probiotic bacteria are harvested and consumed can strongly influence their performance as health‐promoting agents. In this study, global transcriptomic and proteomic changes were studied in the widely used probiotic Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG during growth in industrial‐type whey medium under strictly defined bioreactor conditions. The expression of 636 genes ( P ≤ 0.01) and 116 proteins ( P < 0.05) changed significantly over time. Of the significantly differentially produced proteins, 61 were associated with alterations at the transcript level. The most remarkable growth phase‐dependent changes occurred during the transition from the exponential to the stationary growth phase and were associated with the shift from glucose fermentation to galactose utilization and the transition from homolactic to mixed acid fermentation. Furthermore, several genes encoding proteins proposed to promote the survival and persistence of L. rhamnosus GG in the host and proteins that directly contribute to human health showed temporal changes in expression. Our results suggest that L. rhamnosus GG has a highly flexible and adaptable metabolism and that the growth stage during which bacterial cells are harvested and consumed should be taken into consideration to gain the maximal benefit from probiotic bacteria.

Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) remote sensing platforms allow for normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) values to be mapped with a relatively high resolution, therefore enabling an unforeseeable ability to evaluate the influence of the operation parameters on the quality of the thus acquired data. In order to better understand the effects of these parameters, we made a comprehensive evaluation on the effects of the solar zenith angle (SZA), the time of day (TOD), the flight altitude (FA) and the growth level of paddy rice at a pixel-scale on UAV-acquired NDVI values. Our results show that: (1) there was an inverse relationship between the FA (≤100 m) and the mean NDVI values, (2) TOD and SZA had a greater impact on UAV–NDVIs than the FA and the growth level; (3) Better growth levels of rice—measured using the NDVI—could reduce the effects of the FA, TOD and SZA. We expect that our results could be used to better plan flight campaigns that aim to collect NDVI values over paddy rice fields.

We have investigated the application of ground, laboratory, and airborne optical remote sensing methods for the detection of hydrothermal alteration zones associated with the Izok Lake volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) deposit in Nunavut, Canada. This bimodal-felsic Zn-Cu-Pb-Ag deposit is located above the tree line in a subarctic environment where lichens are the dominant cryptogamic species coating the rocks. The immediate host rhyolitic rocks have been hydrothermally altered and contain biotite, chlorite, and white micas as dominant alteration minerals. These minerals have spectral Al-OH and Fe-OH absorption features in the short-wave infrared wavelength region that display wavelength shifts, which are documented to be due to chemical compositional changes. Our ground spectrometer measurements indicate that there is a systematic trend in the Fe-OH absorption feature wavelength position of biotite/chlorite with increasing distance from the VMS deposit: the average Fe-OH absorption feature wavelength position of the proximal areas (398–3,146 m from mineralization) is observed at 2,254 nm, and that of the distal areas (5,782–6,812 m) at 2,251 nm. Moreover, the proximal areas have an average Al-OH absorption feature wavelength position at 2,203 nm, in contrast with the average wavelength position at 2,201 nm in the distal areas, implying a spectral shift of 2 nm. These findings indicate that hydrothermal alteration zones can be detected by hyperspectral remote sensing, despite the presence of abundant lichen cover. However, the airborne results discussed in this study required the screening out of more than 99% of the pixels in the area.

Cloud cover hinders the effective use of vegetation indices from optical satellite-acquired imagery in cloudy agricultural production areas, such as Guangdong, a subtropical province in southern China which supports two-season rice production. The number of cloud-free observations for the earth-orbiting optical satellite sensors must be determined to verify how much their observations are affected by clouds. This study determines the quantified wide-ranging impact of clouds on optical satellite observations by mapping the annual total observations (ATOs), annual cloud-free observations (ACFOs), monthly cloud-free observations (MCFOs) maps, and acquisition probability (AP) of ACFOs for the Sentinel 2 (2017–2019) and Landsat 8 (2014–2019) for all the paddy rice fields in Guangdong province (APRFG), China. The ATOs of Landsat 8 showed relatively stable observations compared to the Sentinel 2, and the per-field ACFOs of Sentinel 2 and Landsat 8 were unevenly distributed. The MCFOs varied on a monthly basis, but in general, the MCFOs were greater between August and December than between January and July. Additionally, the AP of usable ACFOs with 52.1% (Landsat 8) and 47.7% (Sentinel 2) indicated that these two satellite sensors provided markedly restricted observation capability for rice in the study area. Our findings are particularly important and useful in the tropics and subtropics, and the analysis has described cloud cover frequency and pervasiveness throughout different portions of the rice growing season, providing insight into how rice monitoring activities by using Sentinel 2 and Landsat 8 imagery in Guangdong would be impacted by cloud cover.

Tropical dry forests (TDFs) worldwide have an environment-sensitive phenological signal, which easily marks their response to the changing climatic conditions, especially precipitation and temperature. Using TDF phenological characteristics as a proxy, this study aims to evaluate their current continental response to climate change across the Americas. Here, we show that TDFs are resilient to water stress and droughts by increasing their rain use efficiency (RUE) in drier years and recovering to average RUE in the year following the drought. Additionally, we find that TDF productivity trends over the past 18 years are spatially clustered, with sites in the northern hemisphere experiencing increased productivity, while equatorial regions have no change, and the southern hemisphere exhibiting decreased productivity. The results indicate that the TDF will be resilient under future climatic conditions, particularly if there are increasing drought conditions.