Spring barley grain quality changes in conventional and organic growing conditions

While breeding for organic farming it is necessary to identify the most appropriate growing conditions in which to perform the selection process. Soil fertility, crop management, yield level and other factors may vary very much between each organic farm, and between organic farms and research institutions where the selection is usually performed. Since plant breeding requires considerable input of resources and the market for organic varieties is limited, it is essential to find the most appropriate selection conditions that will provide acceptable varieties for organic farms. Spring barley breeding lines selected from two cross combinations (Primus/Idumeja and Anni/Dziugiai) at two distinctive organic and two conventional locations were used in the study. The organic location 1 was situated in a research field of the plant breeding institute (with green manure as fertilizer), the organic location 2 included an organic farmer’s field (with stable manure as fertilizer), the conventional location 1 was located in a barley breeding field (with medium level of mineral fertilizer input) and the conventional location 2 in a seed production field of the institute (with high mineral fertilizer input). Selection of the breeding lines was done under the respective growing conditions starting from F3 generation. Most appropriate lines for growing in organic farming were selected at all 4 environments. Selected breeding lines were evaluated in F5 (n=20-23 per cross combination, without replications) and F6 generations (n=10 per cross combination, 3 replications). Correlations between barley traits and the environments and cross combinations will be compared in the presentation. The analysis of the correlation between grain yield and observed plant traits of F5 lines indicated that tendencies between the lines obtained from both cross combinations as well as between the environments were dissimilar in most of the cases. Soil shading (evaluated at early stem elongation stage) correlated positively with grain yield in all cases; the correlation was always significant for lines from the cross Primus/Idumeja, but only at the conventional location 2 for Anni/Dziugiai lines (p<0.05). A significant positive correlation between grain yield and plant development speed at tillering stage as well as between yield and plant height at the beginning of stem elongation was found for Primus/Idumeja lines at both organic locations and at the conventional location 1 (p<0.05). Plant height before harvest did not correlate significantly with yield under organic conditions which is in contradiction with some other studies. There was a tendency for planophyle growth habit to correlate positively with yield under organic and conventional conditions for lines from both cross combinations. The analysis of correlation of the F6 lines will be included in the presentation. This study was performed with financial support of EEA grant EEZ08AP-27and European Social Fund co-financed project 2009/0218/1DP/1.1.1.2.0/09/APIA/VIAA/099

Comparison of interconnections between barley breeding material traits under organic and conventional growing conditions

While breeding for organic farming it is necessary to identify the most appropriate growing conditions in which to perform the selection process. Soil fertility, crop management, yield level and other factors may vary very much between each organic farm, and between organic farms and research institutions where the selection is usually performed. Since plant breeding requires considerable input of resources and the market for organic varieties is limited, it is essential to find the most appropriate selection conditions that will provide acceptable varieties for organic farms. Spring barley breeding lines selected from two cross combinations (Primus/Idumeja and Anni/Dziugiai) at two distinctive organic and two conventional locations were used in the study. The organic location 1 was situated in a research field of the plant breeding institute (with green manure as fertilizer), the organic location 2 included an organic farmer’s field (with stable manure as fertilizer), the conventional location 1 was located in a barley breeding field (with medium level of mineral fertilizer input) and the conventional location 2 in a seed production field of the institute (with high mineral fertilizer input). Selection of the breeding lines was done under the respective growing conditions starting from F3 generation. Most appropriate lines for growing in organic farming were selected at all 4 environments. Selected breeding lines were evaluated in F5 (n=20-23 per cross combination, without replications) and F6 generations (n=10 per cross combination, 3 replications). Correlations between barley traits and the environments and cross combinations will be compared in the presentation. The analysis of the correlation between grain yield and observed plant traits of F5 lines indicated that tendencies between the lines obtained from both cross combinations as well as between the environments were dissimilar in most of the cases. Soil shading (evaluated at early stem elongation stage) correlated positively with grain yield in all cases; the correlation was always significant for lines from the cross Primus/Idumeja, but only at the conventional location 2 for Anni/Dziugiai lines (p<0.05). A significant positive correlation between grain yield and plant development speed at tillering stage as well as between yield and plant height at the beginning of stem elongation was found for Primus/Idumeja lines at both organic locations and at the conventional location 1 (p<0.05). Plant height before harvest did not correlate significantly with yield under organic conditions which is in contradiction with some other studies. There was a tendency for planophyle growth habit to correlate positively with yield under organic and conventional conditions for lines from both cross combinations. The analysis of correlation of the F6 lines will be included in the presentation. This study was performed with financial support of EEA grant EEZ08AP-27and European Social Fund co-financed project 2009/0218/1DP/1.1.1.2.0/09/APIA/VIAA/099

Man on a mission for waste to wealth transformation

Shri. Ramdas Tukaram Kokare, presently working as Chief Officer in Municipal Corporation, Karjat which has a total population of 30,000 and generates Class III Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) in the tune of 12 metric tonnes per day. Earlier during 2010 to 2015 he had served as Chief Officer at Municipal Corporation Dapoli, Maharashtra and during 2015-2017 he at Vengurla also in Maharashtra. In 2010, Shri Ramdas came up with the idea of waste management at the source level and decided to segregate plastic waste into recyclable and non-recyclable categories. Plastic carry bags of less than 50 micron thickness were in the non-recyclable category, while bottles, packaging material of food items and wrappers were to be recycled for further usage. Local self-help groups were roped in to produce paper bags and some awareness campaigns were organized

A comparative life cycle assessment of ETICS and ventilated façade systems with timber cladding

Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The AuthorsThe aim of this work is to evaluate the environmental impact of different solutions for building facade retrofitting. Based on Sustainable Construction, this study is carried out by applying the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology based on ISO 14044:2006 standard requirements. A “cradle-to-grave” life cycle analysis is developed for each solution, comprising the extraction of raw materials to the disposal phase, and then a comparative analysis was performed by considering the same functional unit: 1 m2 of building facade for a 40-year time horizon. Four retrofit solutions are assessed: two External Thermal Insulation Composite Systems (ETICS), differing only in the insulation material, expanded polystyrene (EPS), and insulation corkboard (ICB); and two ventilated facade systems with different types of timber cladding, thermally modified timber, and painted timber. The data included in the inventory phase is mostly taken from technical documentation and from the Ecoinvent database, complemented with scientific literature and estimations when necessary. The LCA was performed using the SimaPro software applying both EPD (2018) and ReCiPe 2016 Endpoint (H) methods. Results of this study show that, phase-wise, the production and maintenance of the components materials have higher contribution in terms of environmental impact. On the other hand, by comparing the various solutions, the ventilated facade retrofit solution with heat treated timber cladding is the one that shows the highest environmental impact in almost every single category, whereas the cladding solution with painted timber finish is the one that shows the best environmental performance.publishersversionpublishe

Development of a Reliable Analytical Method for Liquid Anion-Exchange Extraction and Separation of Neodymium(III)

The liquid-liquid extraction of neodymium(III) from succinate media (0.06 M) has been studied at pH 6.0 with the solution of 0.1 M of N-n-octylaniline in xylene when equilibrium is maintained for 5 min. The back-extraction of neodymium(III) has been performed by using 0.1 M HClO4. The effect of various parameters, such as pH, equilibrium time, extractant concentration, stripping agents, organic diluents, and aqueous to organic volume ratio on the extraction of neodymium(III) has been studied. On the basis of slope analysis, the stoichiometry of the extracted species was determined as 1 : 1 : 2 [RR′NH2+Nd(succinate)2−](org). The method is free from interference of large number cations and anions. The method was used for the selective extraction of neodymium(III) from its binary mixture with U(VI), Zr(IV), Nb(V), La(III), Th(IV), Ce(IV), and Y(III). The proposed method is selective and was successfully applied to the synthetic mixtures to show the practical utility of the extractant

Optimization for the Production of Surfactin with a New Synergistic Antifungal Activity

-surfactin and the optimization of its production by the response surface method.O. A production of 134.2 mg/L, which were in agreement with the prediction, was observed in a verification experiment. In comparison to the production of original level (88.6 mg/L), a 1.52-fold increase had been obtained.-surfactin

The PHF21B gene is associated with major depression and modulates the stress response

Major depressive disorder (MDD) affects around 350 million people worldwide; however, the underlying genetic basis remains largely unknown. In this study, we took into account that MDD is a gene-environment disorder, in which stress is a critical component, and used whole-genome screening of functional variants to investigate the 'missing heritability' in MDD. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) using single- and multi-locus linear mixed-effect models were performed in a Los Angeles Mexican-American cohort (196 controls, 203 MDD) and in a replication European-ancestry cohort (499 controls, 473 MDD). Our analyses took into consideration the stress levels in the control populations. The Mexican-American controls, comprised primarily of recent immigrants, had high levels of stress due to acculturation issues and the European-ancestry controls with high stress levels were given higher weights in our analysis. We identified 44 common and rare functional variants associated with mild to moderate MDD in the Mexican-American cohort (genome-wide false discovery rate, FDR, <0.05), and their pathway analysis revealed that the three top overrepresented Gene Ontology (GO) processes were innate immune response, glutamate receptor signaling and detection of chemical stimulus in smell sensory perception. Rare variant analysis replicated the association of the PHF21B gene in the ethnically unrelated European-ancestry cohort. The TRPM2 gene, previously implicated in mood disorders, may also be considered replicated by our analyses. Whole-genome sequencing analyses of a subset of the cohorts revealed that European-ancestry individuals have a significantly reduced (50%) number of single nucleotide variants compared with Mexican-American individuals, and for this reason the role of rare variants may vary across populations. PHF21b variants contribute significantly to differences in the levels of expression of this gene in several brain areas, including the hippocampus. Furthermore, using an animal model of stress, we found that Phf21b hippocampal gene expression is significantly decreased in animals resilient to chronic restraint stress when compared with non-chronically stressed animals. Together, our results reveal that including stress level data enables the identification of novel rare functional variants associated with MDD.M-L Wong, M Arcos-Burgos, S Liu, J I Vélez, C Yu, B T Baune, M C Jawahar, V Arolt, U Dannlowski, A Chuah, G A Huttley, R Fogarty, M D Lewis, S R Bornstein, and J Licini