Disclosure of Invention
The invention aims to provide an irrigation device for inducing a root system to grow downwards based on a dry-deep time domain, which can solve the problems in the prior art;
a second object of the present invention is to provide an irrigation method based on dry-deep time-domain induced root downward growth, which employs the device as described above to irrigate crops.
The invention provides an irrigation device for inducing root system to grow downwards based on a dry-deep time domain, which comprises a drip irrigation pipe, a drip irrigation emitter, a soil probe and a drip irrigation emitter control device, wherein the drip irrigation emitter control device is connected with the drip irrigation pipe;
the pipeline track of the drip irrigation pipe is in a conical spiral shape, the drip irrigation pipe is divided into a plurality of circle areas according to the number of turns of the spiral line, and each circle area is provided with a plurality of drip irrigation devices and soil probes;
the drip irrigation emitter control device is connected with the drip irrigation emitters and used for controlling the on-off of the drip irrigation emitters.
Preferably, the drip irrigation emitter comprises a drip irrigation hole, a capillary, a dripper and a flow control valve;
the water inlet of the flow control valve is communicated with a drip irrigation hole on the drip irrigation pipe, the water outlet of the flow control valve is communicated with the capillary, and the water dropper is communicated with the capillary.
Preferably, the drip irrigation device also comprises a spiral air pipe which is arranged along the drip irrigation pipe;
the flow control valve is also provided with an air duct which is communicated with the air hole on the spiral air pipe.
Preferably, the tail end of the drip irrigation pipe is of a closed structure, and the upper end of the drip irrigation pipe is communicated with the water inlet pipe through a filter.
Preferably, the water inlet pipe is communicated with the spiral air pipe through a pressure air guide valve.
Preferably, the soil probe is disposed at a lower portion of the flow control valve.
Preferably, the screw pitch of the lower ring layer is larger than that of the upper ring layer of the adjacent ring layers in the drip irrigation pipe.
An irrigation method for inducing the downward growth of a root system based on a dry deep time domain, which adopts the irrigation device for inducing the downward growth of the root system based on the dry deep time domain, and comprises the following steps:
carrying out dry depth control, and continuously improving the dry depth threshold value along with the growth of root systems by carrying out threshold value control on the dry depth threshold value;
and (4) performing time domain control, designing a fuzzy controller, and acquiring values of induced irrigation time and stress irrigation time of each time by taking the dry depth threshold value and the current soil dry depth as the input of the fuzzy controller.
Preferably, performing dry depth control comprises:
s1: taking the value i as an induced irrigation sequence, and establishing a dry depth-time domain threshold value function C (i) according to a root growth function, wherein
C(i)=KG(i)cosθ
Wherein the K value is an empirical coefficient and is taken according to the actual planting environment; theta is a total deviation angle of lateral root growth and represents a mean value of included angles of all lateral roots and a main root; g is each geometric parameter of the root system;
s2: and performing function control on the dry depth threshold value C according to the dry depth-time domain threshold value function to continuously deepen the dry depth threshold value along with the increase of the value i, so that the dry depth-time domain function of the current dry depth after each irrigation is as follows:
H(i)=KG(i)cosθ。
preferably, the performing time-domain control includes:
s1: designing a fuzzy controller: establishing a fuzzy rule base according to a crop root growth function, a trunk depth-time domain function, relevant soil information, recent weather conditions and the like, and designing a fuzzy controller;
s2: setting a target value: presetting a dry depth threshold value C ═ H (i);
s3: current value acquisition: the soil probe acquires the current soil moisture content E of each drip irrigation layer in real time every day R According to E R Obtaining the current dry depth H;
s4: before executing irrigation decision, inputting the H value and the C value into a fuzzy controller, and calculating a control variable HC value by the fuzzy controller;
s5: the fuzzy controller solves the induced irrigation duration t and the coerce irrigation duration t of each time from the fuzzy rule base according to the HC value 0 A value of (d);
s6: the control system receives the t value t 0 The value is that the R-th drip irrigation layer executes the induced irrigation decision according to the t value, and the R-1 drip irrigation layer executes the induced irrigation decision according to the t value 0 The values perform induced irrigation decisions.
Has the advantages that:
the innovation of the invention is that the dry depth of a dry layer of soil is controlled and controlled in the growth period of the root system of the seedling based on a dry depth-time domain irrigation control method, and the dry layer is dried and kept for a long time, so that water and fertilizer liquid is always positioned at a position slightly far away from the root tip, and the root system is induced to grow downwards gradually by utilizing the water and fertilizer property principle and the stress effect of the root system, thereby reducing the winding of the root system between plants during the close planting of the crop, robbing nutrients, increasing the contact area of the root system and the soil, leading the root system to fully absorb the moisture of the deep soil, improving the waterlogging resistance, drought resistance and wind resistance of the crop, being beneficial to the stable yield of the crop, increasing the income and increasing the yield.
The dry depth threshold value is used as an irrigation threshold value, and the irrigation spatiality is considered, namely the requirements of the root system on how deep the soil is dry and how permeable the soil is wet in different growth stages; and a time domain concept is introduced, the time domain property of irrigation is considered, and the problems that the irrigation time is not enough and the soil cannot be thoroughly wetted or the soil is not dry enough to start irrigation and the like because only the upper limit value and the lower limit value of the water content of the soil are controlled are solved.
After induction, the drip irrigation device can be used for subsequent irrigation requirements, can carry out layered and flow-controllable fixed point and fixed area drip irrigation on crop roots, can meet the nutrient requirements of different root areas, and is efficient in water conservation
The air-entrapping irrigation of the drip irrigation device improves the soil environment, solves the problem of oxygen deficiency of the downward growth of the root system, improves the permeability of the soil, enables the root system to be easier to grow downwards, and prevents the soil or the root system from blocking the drippers.
Detailed Description
The technical solutions of the present invention will be described clearly and completely with reference to the following embodiments, and it should be understood that the described embodiments are some, but not all, embodiments of the present invention. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present invention.
In the description of the present invention, it is to be understood that the terms "center", "longitudinal", "lateral", "length", "width", "thickness", "upper", "lower", "front", "rear", "left", "right", "vertical", "horizontal", "top", "bottom", "inner", "outer", "clockwise", "counterclockwise", and the like, indicate orientations and positional relationships based on those shown in the drawings, and are used only for convenience of description and simplicity of description, and do not indicate or imply that the device or element being referred to must have a particular orientation, be constructed and operated in a particular orientation, and thus, should not be considered as limiting the present invention.
Furthermore, the terms "first", "second" and "first" are used for descriptive purposes only and are not to be construed as indicating or implying relative importance or implicitly indicating the number of technical features indicated. Thus, features defined as "first", "second", may explicitly or implicitly include one or more of the described features. In the description of the present invention, "a plurality" means two or more unless specifically defined otherwise. Furthermore, the terms "mounted," "connected," and "connected" are to be construed broadly and may, for example, be fixedly connected, detachably connected, or integrally connected; can be mechanically or electrically connected; they may be connected directly or indirectly through intervening media, or they may be interconnected between two elements. The specific meanings of the above terms in the present invention can be understood in specific cases to those skilled in the art.
As shown in fig. 1, the present embodiment provides an irrigation device for inducing root growth downward based on a dry-deep time domain, which includes a drip irrigation pipe, a drip irrigation emitter 7, a soil probe 14, and a drip irrigation emitter 7 control device.
The pipeline track of the drip irrigation pipe is in a conical spiral shape, the drip irrigation pipe is divided into a plurality of circle areas according to the number of turns of the spiral line, and each circle area is provided with a plurality of drip irrigation devices 7 and soil probes 14. The drip irrigation emitter 7 control device is connected to the drip irrigation emitter 7 and controls opening and closing of the drip irrigation emitter 7.
The drip irrigation emitter 7 comprises a drip irrigation hole 9, a capillary 10, a water dropper 11 and a flow control valve 13, wherein a water inlet of the flow control valve 13 is communicated with the drip irrigation hole 9 on the drip irrigation pipe, a water outlet of the flow control valve 13 is communicated with the capillary 10, and the water dropper 11 is communicated with the capillary 10.
Irrigation equipment based on induction root system is grown downwards to dark time domain futilely still includes spiral trachea 4, spiral trachea still is provided with air duct 12 along driping irrigation the pipe setting on flow control valve 13, air duct 12 and the last gas pocket 8 intercommunication of spiral trachea.
The end of the drip irrigation pipe is of a closed structure, and the upper end of the drip irrigation pipe is communicated with a water inlet pipe 1 through a filter 2.
The water inlet pipe 1 is communicated with the spiral air pipe through a pressure air guide valve 5. A soil probe 14 is provided at the lower portion of the flow control valve 13.
The pitch of the lower ring layer is larger than that of the upper ring layer.
The irrigation device drips irrigation and supplies air to the soil through the flow control valve 13.
In summary, the following steps: the water, fertilizer and gas integrated underground drip irrigation device is used as a layered irrigation device, a drip irrigation air pipe is fixedly connected to the outer surface of the drip irrigation pipe, the track of the pipeline is in a conical spiral shape, the pitch is recorded as a p value and is generally 5-15cm, the structural schematic diagram is shown in figure 1, the drip irrigation pipe is divided into a plurality of circle areas according to the number of turns of the spiral line (specific number of turns is selected according to induction expectation, and the schematic diagram only gives partial number of turns), each circle area is provided with a plurality of drip irrigation devices, the structural schematic diagram is shown in figure 2, each drip irrigation device can be irrigated by water, fertilizer and gas and contains a soil probe to obtain the moisture content of a corresponding wet point, and the drip irrigation devices in each circle area execute the same irrigation decision.
In this embodiment, there is also provided an irrigation method for inducing root system downward growth based on dry deep time domain, the irrigation method using the irrigation device for inducing root system downward growth based on dry deep time domain as described above, including the following steps:
carrying out dry depth control, and continuously improving the dry depth threshold value along with the growth of root systems by carrying out threshold value control on the dry depth threshold value;
and (4) performing time domain control, designing a fuzzy controller, and acquiring values of induced irrigation time and stress irrigation time of each time by taking the dry depth threshold value and the current soil dry depth as the input of the fuzzy controller.
Referring to fig. 6, the method specifically includes the following steps:
s1: equipment laying
Embedding the spiral water-fertilizer-gas integrated drip irrigation device in the planting hole with the hole depth of 50-90cm, wherein the geometric circle center of the spiral drip irrigation pipe is coincided with the planting center and the distance from the 1 st drip irrigation emitter to the ground surface is h 0 Balance h 0 The value of the buried depth of the drip irrigation device is determined by the planting depth of crops, and is generally about 5 cm. After the embedding is finished, other matched equipment required by irrigation is installed and debugged.
S2: planting and seedling revival
1) And (5) selecting seedlings. Selecting the seedling to be induced. If the lateral roots of the crop root system grow well, part of the lateral roots can be cut off properly on the premise of not influencing the growth of the crop to promote the growth of the main roots, so that the subsequent root system induction effect is more obvious.
2) And (5) planting. When the seedling is planted, the stem of the seedling is positioned in the center of the planting hole, and when soil is filled, the root disc of the crop is ensured to be completely tied in the vertical direction to a short distance of the soil below the No. 1 drip irrigation emitter. After the embedding is finished, other drip irrigation facilities are installed, and an irrigation system is debugged to ensure that the equipment works normally. The soil filled in the soil needs to be rolled to achieve the effect of soil loosening, so that the root system is easy to grow downwards.
3) And (5) seedling recovering. And (3) opening drip irrigation devices in the 1 st circle area and the 2 nd circle area of the drip irrigation device to carry out seedling rejuvenation and drip irrigation, so that the crops adapt to a new soil environment, the root growth is promoted, and the survival of transplanted seedlings is ensured. The seedling recovering time is 1-5 days, irrigation is required to be performed thoroughly in the stage, and the optimal water content C of the soil is ensured to be more than 70% during irrigation.
S3: initial setting
1. Setting a drip irrigation layer: the method comprises the following steps of carrying out vertical layering on the underground of crops, dividing drip irrigation layers, wherein the thickness of each layer is a p value, the 1 st drip irrigation layer, the 2 nd drip irrigation layer, the 3 rd drip irrigation layer and the like are sequentially arranged from top to bottom, and each drip irrigation layer corresponds to a circle of spiral drip irrigation pipes. Only one drip irrigation layer is used for induced irrigation at each time, the R-th drip irrigation layer for executing the drip irrigation decision is arranged, the R-th circle region (R is 1, 2, 3 and 4 … … in sequence) of the corresponding drip irrigation pipe is specifically divided as shown in figure 3,
2. definition of threshold
(1) Dry and wet threshold
Dry and wet division: recording the current soil moisture content of the R-th drip irrigation layer as E R . According to E R The value is divided into dry depth and E R <C 1 When the drip irrigation layer soil is dry soil, the drip irrigation layer soil is determined to be dry soil; when E is R <C 1 When the soil in the drip irrigation layer is determined to be wet soil.
Wherein, it is called C 1 The dry-wet threshold value is the upper limit value of drought stress, namely when the water content of the soil is lower than the upper limit value, the root system generates drought stress effect, the value is determined by the type of crops, and is generally 10-40%.
(2) Coercion threshold
When E is R <C 0 When the water loss of the dry layer is considered to be serious, the normal growth of crops is influenced. Therein, is called c 0 Is a stress thresholdThe value is the lower limit value of drought stress, the root system cannot normally grow when the water content of the soil is lower than the lower limit value, the value is determined by the type of crops, and the value is generally 15% -20%.
(3) Dry depth threshold
1) Dry depth definition: as shown in fig. 4, after irrigation is finished, the moisture content of soil gradually decreases in the upper and lower directions at the irrigation site due to moisture migration and penetration in the depth direction, and finally two upper and lower dry-wet interfaces are formed. Thus, the following definitions are made:
the maximum depth of the dry soil layer is defined as the dry depth, i.e., the depth from the surface to the upper dry-wet interface, denoted by H.
The maximum depth of the wet soil layer is defined as the wet depth, i.e. the depth from the surface to the dry moisture interface, denoted by h.
The wet soil area is defined as a wet zone, the longitudinal width of the wet zone is the wet zone width, and is represented by L, and L is H-H.
The distance between an irrigation site and the ground surface is called as the irrigation site depth, Z is represented by Z, Z is H + rho L, rho is the proportional coefficient of the distance between the irrigation site and an upper dry-wet interface and the wet bandwidth, and the value is determined by the soil property and the root density
。
2) The dry depth threshold value is expressed by C value, and considering the requirement of the root system on how deep the soil is dry in different growth periods, the invention sets the dry depth threshold value, when the dry depth is higher than the threshold value, the drip irrigation device at the dry depth performs induced irrigation (irrigation work for inducing the root system to grow downwards), so that the current dry depth is maintained within the threshold value.
S4: dry depth control
Dry depth control: through carrying out threshold control (controlling dry degree of depth threshold C and constantly improving along with the root system growth promptly, and its corresponding irrigation position is dark Z and also constantly grow) to dry degree of depth threshold C, make dry degree of depth constantly deepen along with the root system growth, ensure that liquid manure liquid is located root tip slightly distant from all the time, and then the induced root system grows downwards. The method comprises the following specific steps:
s1: taking the value i as an induced irrigation sequence, and establishing a dry depth-time domain threshold value function C (i) according to a root growth function, wherein
C(i)=KG(i)cosθ
Wherein the K value is an empirical coefficient and is taken according to the actual planting environment; theta is a total deviation angle of lateral root growth, represents a mean value of included angles of all lateral roots and a main root, is used for approximately solving a vertical component of the lateral root length, and is generally about 30 degrees; g is the geometric parameters of root system, such as main root length, total root length, etc., so that G (i) is used to express the growth function of root system for predicting the theoretical condition of downward growth of root system 3 +bi 2 + ci + d, where a, b, c, d are coefficients of polynomial, and are derived from experiments and experience. The function image is S-shaped, that is, in a root system growth period, the growth speed of the root system generally becomes slower and slower along with the increase of the depth.
S2: performing function control on the dry depth threshold value C according to the dry depth-time domain threshold value function to continuously deepen the dry depth threshold value along with the increase of the value i, so that the current dry depth after each irrigation
H(i)=KG(i)cosθ
The term H (i) is a dry depth-time domain function, obviously, the dry depth continuously deepens along with the growth of the root system based on the function, and the water and fertilizer liquid is ensured to be always positioned at a position slightly far away from the root tip.
S5: time domain control
The time domain control comprises irrigation time length t of each induced irrigation and time length t of each stress irrigation 0 . The invention establishes a fuzzy rule base according to a crop root growth function, a dry depth-time domain function, relevant soil information (such as soil seepage rate, PH value and the like), recent weather conditions and the like, and designs a fuzzy controller. The dry depth threshold value C value and the current dry depth H value of the soil are used as the input of a fuzzy controller so as to solve the induced irrigation time length t and the stress irrigation time length t of each time 0 The value of (c). Specifically, the flow is shown in fig. 5 as follows:
s1: designing a fuzzy controller: and establishing a fuzzy rule base according to a crop root growth function, a dry depth-time domain function, relevant soil information (such as soil water seepage rate, PH value and the like), recent weather conditions and the like, and designing a fuzzy controller.
S2: setting a target value: the preset dry depth threshold c ═ h (i), h (i) is a dry depth-time domain function of S6
S3: current value acquisition: the soil probe acquires the current soil moisture content E of each drip irrigation layer in real time every day R According to E R The value yields the current dry depth H.
S4: before the irrigation decision is executed, the H value and the C value are input into a fuzzy controller, and the fuzzy controller calculates a control variable HC value.
S5: the fuzzy controller solves the induced irrigation time t and the forced irrigation time t of each time from the fuzzy rule base according to the HC value 0 The value of (c).
S6: the control system receives the t value t 0 The value is that the R-th drip irrigation layer executes the induced irrigation decision according to the t value, and the R-1 drip irrigation layer executes the induced irrigation decision according to the t value 0 The values perform induced irrigation decisions.
S6: irrigation parameter determination
In order to ensure that soil is uniformly wetted, annular layered drip irrigation is carried out by the spiral water-fertilizer-gas integrated drip irrigation device, each circle of spiral line pipe corresponds to one drip irrigation layer, the 1 st drip irrigation layer, the 2 nd drip irrigation layer, the 3 rd drip irrigation layer and the like are arranged from top to bottom in sequence, induced irrigation is set as the R-th drip irrigation layer, and the determination of each irrigation parameter is as follows:
(1) value of drip irrigation layer R
S1: calculating irrigation bit depth Z (i) ═ H (i) + rho L from stem depth-time domain function H (i)
S2: depth h of buried drip irrigation device 0 Taking the distance from the midpoint of the drip irrigation layer in the depth direction to the ground as the depth Z of the drip irrigation layer R Calculating the depth Z of each drip irrigation layer R =h 0 +p(R-0.5)
S3: from Z (i) ≧ z
R To get solved
Further, R takes the largest positive integer of its solution set, and the value of R is determined. Obviously, the value of R increases with the value of i, so that the layer-by-layer process is carried outAnd (4) downward induced irrigation is carried out, so that the water and fertilizer liquid is always positioned in a position short of the root tip.
(2) Irrigation valve
1) Note H t The induction irrigation threshold value is the threshold value for triggering a drip irrigation emitter to start drip irrigation at each induction irrigation. Is provided with
H t =k t C(i)
Wherein the dry depth threshold C (i) is the actual irrigation threshold, k t The value is 0.8-1.3 for inducing the regulation coefficient.
The effect is that when the current dry depth H is higher than the threshold value, the drip irrigation layer starts to induce irrigation to make the current dry depth equal to the threshold value, namely to make H (i) ═ H t 。
2) Note the book
Is a critical value of the forced irrigation, namely a critical value that the drip irrigation emitter starts to drip irrigation in each forced irrigation, t
0 For each stress irrigation period. Is provided with
C
0 Is a stress threshold value which is a drought stress lower limit value, the root system can not normally grow when the water content of the soil is lower than the drought stress lower limit value, the value is determined by the type of the crop, generally 15-20 percent is taken, and k is
p The value is 1-1.5 for the stress control coefficient.
The effect is that when the soil moisture content is E R When the value is lower than the threshold value, the drip irrigation layer starts to stress irrigation, so that the root system keeps a certain stress effect, the root system is forced to grow downwards, and the growth of crops is not influenced.
(3) Length of irrigation
Induced irrigation duration t value and stress irrigation duration t 0 The values are solved each day by the fuzzy controller of S5.
S7: irrigation decision execution
In order to induce the downward growth of the root system, the water and fertilizer liquid is required to be always positioned at a position slightly far away from the root tip, which means that the root system positioned in the dry depth is in dry soil to generate stress effect, mild stress effect is beneficial to induction, but severe stress effect (long-term water shortage or severe water shortage) restricts the growth of crops. Therefore, the induced irrigation is carried out on the R-th drip irrigation layer, so that the liquid level of the water and fertilizer is slightly far away from the root tip, the root system is induced to grow downwards, the root system of the dry soil is subjected to stress irrigation, namely, the dry soil is subjected to moderate irrigation to keep a certain stress effect, the root system is further forced to grow downwards, and the growth of crops is not influenced.
After the seedling revival is finished, the root system enters a growth period, then enters an induction stage, and the following irrigation decision is executed:
s1: the soil probe acquires the current soil moisture content E of each drip irrigation layer in real time every day R And the soil moisture content is the average value of the soil moisture content measured by the soil probe of the drip irrigation layer.
S2: further, according to the dry depth threshold C 1 Value of from E R <C 1 The current dry depth H is obtained.
S3: the following irrigation strategies were performed according to the respective irrigation parameters determined at S6:
the R-th drip irrigation layer executes an induced irrigation strategy every day, and all the R-1 drip irrigation layers execute a stress irrigation strategy every day.
It should be noted that, for the first induced irrigation, R takes an initial value of 2, that is, during the first induced irrigation, the 2 nd drip irrigation layer executes the induced irrigation strategy every day, and the 1 st circle area executes the stress irrigation strategy every day.
S4: furthermore, induction regulation and stress regulation are carried out according to the water absorption condition of the root system, the growth condition of crops and the like. The induction strength is regulated and controlled by amplifying or reducing the dry depth threshold value C and regulating the stress threshold value C 0 Scaling up or down adjustments are made to regulate the degree of stress. The method comprises the following specific steps:
(1) induction regulation: k is a radical of t The value of the induction regulation coefficient is 0.8-1.3, and the induction degree, k, is regulated and controlled t The smaller the dry depth, the better the induction. At each regulation, the induction degree was regulated by 5% decrease or increase for each time according to the demand.
(2) Stress regulation and control: k is a radical of p The value of the stress regulation coefficient is 1-1.5, the stress degree is regulated and controlled, and the root system of the area subjected to stress irrigation is ensured to generate a certain timeModerate drought stress effects, inhibiting as much as possible the growth of the root system in the unplanned direction, k p The greater the stress level. And when the regulation is carried out, the content is reduced or increased by 5 percent at each time according to the regulation requirement.
The induced irrigation strategy and the stress irrigation strategy are as follows:
(1) induced irrigation strategy within one day:
h value greater than H per current dry depth t And when the water delivery valve is opened, the water delivery valve of the R-th drip irrigation layer drip irrigation emitter outputs water and fertilizer liquid for drip irrigation, and the irrigation time is t. After irrigating, drip irrigation emitter's gas delivery valve opens, lets in gaseous 20s toward soil, improves the permeability of soil and makes the root system change in the grow downwards, solves the downward oxygen deficiency problem of growing of root system, and prevents that soil or root system from blockking up the water dropper.
The water and fertilizer solution is prepared by adding 0.2g of indolebutyric acid, 0.3g of naphthylacetic acid, 1g of plant growth regulator and 0.8g of phosphate fertilizer into 100kg of water by a water and fertilizer integrated machine, stirring at a high speed for 30min, and then transporting to a drip irrigation device. The plant growth regulator comprises naphthylacetic acid auxin, alpha-naphthylacetyl thiourea compounds and 6-benzylaminopurine, wherein the mass ratio of the naphthylacetic acid auxin to the alpha-naphthylacetyl thiourea compounds to the 6-benzylaminopurine is 1: 0.2.
(2) Stress irrigation strategy for one day:
whenever there is a need for
When the water loss of the dry layer is determined to be serious, all the drip irrigation devices of the R-1 drip irrigation layer output clean water to start drip irrigation, and the irrigation time is t
0 。
Finally, it should be noted that: the above embodiments are only used to illustrate the technical solution of the present invention, and not to limit the same; while the invention has been described in detail and with reference to the foregoing embodiments, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that: the technical solutions described in the foregoing embodiments may still be modified, or some or all of the technical features may be equivalently replaced; and the modifications or the substitutions do not make the essence of the corresponding technical solutions depart from the scope of the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention.