Production And Efficacy Of Exserohilum Longirostratum As A Bioherbicide For The Control Of Itch Grass (Rottboellia Cochinchinensis) In Sugarcane Farms

Itch grass or Rottboellia cochinchinensis (Lour.) W.D. Clayton is considered as on of the most important weeds in tropical countries. Integrated weed management is a tool-box of options that can be tailored to individual farm, cropping and weed situations. Biological control is one of these management options, therefore the production method and field efficacy of Exserohilum longirostratum as a bioherbicide to control itch grass in sugarcane was investigated. The growth and sporulation of E. longirostratum was excellent in media strength at recommended rate (200ml V8juice + 800ml H2O). The optimum pH for conidia production and conidia germination was in the range of pH 6 – 7. The conidia stored in liquid suspension (water and oil) and freeze-dry failed to germinate. Air dried conidia in powder formed stored at 70C and 200C has germination rate of 80% and remained viable for 6 months in comparison to those stored at other temperature levels. The conidia stored at 1 % Relative Humidity (RH) (silica gel) remained viable for more than 6 months with germination rate of 80%. Deterioration of conidia stored at 1% RH was slow (rL = -0.41064) compared to those stored at 96.5% RH using K2SO4 saturated solution where the rate of deterioration was significantly fast (rL = -0.73). Susceptibility of several sugarcane varieties towards E. longirostratum were tested using 1x107/ml conidia concentration, and the results indicated that all sugarcane varieties tested were resistant to E. longirostratum as indicated by lower values of area under disease progress curve (AUDPC) and decreasing rates of disease progress. Sugarcane variety 95R-1004 was selected for the field trials as this variety was newly introduced to be planted at Federal Land Development Authorities (FELDA) in Chuping, Perlis. In this study variety 95R-1004 and itch grass at 6-8 leaf stage were sprayed with 107,108 and 109 conidia/ml concentrations in 10% of oil emulsion. Plants were sprayed three times at interval of 1 week. The three applications treatment of E. longirostratum at 109 conidia/ml provided excellent control (100% mortality) of R. cochinchinensis compared to the other treatments as shown by higher AUDPC value (1168 units) and faster disease progress rate (rL 0.61 unit/day). There was no significant difference in tiller numbers and the growth of sugarcane between the inoculated plots and the untreated control or plots treated with the fungus-free oil emulsion. The dry weight of itch grass was highest when treated with fungus-free oil emulsion (0.275kg) or untreated controls (0.290kg). None of the itch grass plants survived in plots treated with chemical herbicide (BASTA®), or plots with E. longirostratum. The sugarcane dry weight was significantly high (1.6kg) in plots treated with E. longirostratum at 109 conidia/ml compared to the other treatments. This may be due to eradication of itch grass in this treatment earlier than in the other treatments, thus there was no competition between sugarcane and itch grass, resulting in a faster growth of the sugarcane plants. This research indicated that E. longirostratum has an ability to provide excellent control of R. cochinchinensis at 6-8 leaf stage under field conditions

Two coupled Josephson junctions: dc voltage controlled by biharmonic current

We study transport properties of two Josephson junctions coupled by an external shunt resistance. One of the junction (say, the first) is driven by an unbiased ac current consisting of two harmonics. The device can rectify the ac current yielding a dc voltage across the first junction. For some values of coupling strength, controlled by an external shunt resistance, a dc voltage across the second junction can be generated. By variation of system parameters like the relative phase or frequency of two harmonics, one can conveniently manipulate both voltages with high efficiency, e.g., changing the dc voltages across the first and second junctions from positive to negative values and vice versa.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figures, to appear in J. Phys. Condens. Matter (2012

Stokes' Drift of linear Defects

A linear defect, viz. an elastic string, diffusing on a planar substrate traversed by a travelling wave experiences a drag known as Stokes' drift. In the limit of an infinitely long string, such a mechanism is shown to be characterized by a sharp threshold that depends on the wave parameters, the string damping constant and the substrate temperature. Moreover, the onset of the Stokes' drift is signaled by an excess diffusion of the string center of mass, while the dispersion of the drifting string around its center of mass may grow anomalous.Comment: 14 pages, no figures, to be published in Phys.Rev.

Remote Control of a Robot Rover Combining 5G, AI, and GPU Image Processing at the Edge

This paper has been presented at 2020 Optical Fiber Communications Conference and Exhibition (OFC)The demo shows the effectiveness of a low latency remote control based on 5G and image processing at the edge exploiting artificial intelligence and GPUs to make a robot rover slalom between posts.This work has been partially supported by TIM under the Cooperation Agreement with Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna for the 5G MISE Trial in Bari and Matera 2018-2022 and the EU Commission through the 5GROWTH project (grant agreement no. 856709)

Polyamine oxidase is involved in spermidine reduction of transglutaminase type 2-catalyzed βh-crystallins polymerization in calcium-induced experimental cataract

In an in vitro Ca2+-induced cataract model, the progression of opacification is paralleled by a rapid decrease of the endogenous levels of spermidine (SPD) and an increase of transglutaminase type 2 (TG2, EC 2.3.2.13)-catalyzed lens crystallins cross-linking by protein-boundN(1)-N-8-bis(gamma-glutamyl) SPD. This pattern was reversed adding exogenous SPD to the incubation resulting in a delayed loss of transparency of the rabbit lens. The present report shows evidence on the main incorporation of SPD by the catalytic activity of TG2, toward beta H-crystallins and in particular to the beta B2- and mostly in beta B3-crystallins. The increase of endogenous SPD in the cultured rabbit lens showed the activation of a flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD)-dependent polyamine oxidases (PAO EC 1.5.3.11). As it is known that FAD-PAO degrades theN(8)-terminal reactive portion ofN(1)-mono(gamma-glutamyl) SPD, the protein-boundN(8)-mono(gamma-glutamyl) SPD was found the mainly available derivative for the potential formation of beta B3-crystallins cross-links by protein-boundN(1)-N-8-bis(gamma-glutamyl)SPD. In conclusion, FAD-PAO degradation of theN(8)-terminal reactive residue of the crystallins boundN(1)-mono(gamma-glutamyl)SPD together with the increased concentration of exogenous SPD, leading to saturation of glutamine residues on the substrate proteins, drastically reducesN(1)-N-8-bis(gamma-glutamyl)SPD crosslinks formation, preventing crystallins polymerization and avoiding rabbit lens opacification. The ability of SPD and MDL 72527 to modulate the activities of TG2 and FAD-PAO involved in the mechanism of lens opacification suggests a potential strategy for the prevention of senile cataract

Self-energy of Lambda in finite nuclei

The self--energy of the strange baryon $\Lambda$ in $^{17}$O is calculated using a microscopic many--body approach which accounts for correlations beyond the mean--field or Hartree--Fock approximation. The non-locality and energy-dependence of the $\Lambda$ self--energy is discussed and the effects on the bound and scattering states are investigated. For the nucleon--hyperon interaction, we use the potential models of the J\"{u}lich and Nijmegen groups.Comment: 17 pages, Revtex Latex style, 7 figs include

Maternal exposure to di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (DEHP) promotes the transgenerational inheritance of adult-onset reproductive dysfunctions through the female germline in mice

Endocrine disruptors (EDS) are compounds known to promote transgenerational inheritance of adult-onset disease in subsequent generations after maternal exposure during fetal gonadal development. This study was designed to establish whether gestational and lactational exposure to the plasticizer di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (DEHP) at environmental doses promotes transgenerational effects on reproductive health in female offspring, as adults, over three generations in the mouse. Gestating F0 mouse dams were exposed to 0, 0.05, 5 mg/kg/day DEHP in the diet from gestational day 0.5 until the end of lactation. The incidence of adult-onset disease in reproductive function was recorded in F1, F2 and F3 female offspring. In adult Fl females, DEHP exposure induced reproductive adverse effects with: i) altered ovarian follicular dynamics with reduced primordial follicular reserve and a larger growing pre-antral follicle population, suggesting accelerated follicular recruitment; ii) reduced oocyte quality and embryonic developmental competence; iii) dysregulation of the expression profile of a panel of selected ovarian and pre-implantation embryonic genes. F2 and F3 female offspring displayed the same altered reproductive morphological phenotype and gene expression profiles as Fl, thus showing transgenerational transmission of reproductive adverse effects along the female lineage. These findings indicate that in mice exposure to DEHP at doses relevant to human exposure during gonadal sex determination significantly perturbs the reproductive indices of female adult offspring and subsequent generations. Evidence of transgenerational transmission has important implications for the reproductive health and fertility of animals and humans, significantly increasing the potential biohazards of this toxicant

Short-Range Correlations and the One-Body Density Matrix in Finite Nuclei

The effects of short-range correlations derived from a realistic meson-exchange potential on the single-particle density matrix in finite nuclei are investigated by analyzing the one-body density in terms of the natural orbits. Basic features of these natural orbits and their spectral distributions are discussed. For many observables it seems to be sufficient to approximate the one-body density matrix in terms of those natural orbits, which exhibit the largest occupation probabilities. For the investigation of the high-momentum components in the single-particle density, however, it is important to take into account natural orbits with small occupation probabilities, originating from the single-particle Green function at large negative energies.Comment: 13 pages, RevTeX, 5 figures adde

The Single-Particle Spectral Function of 16O^{16}{\rm O}

The influence of short-range correlations on the $p$-wave single-particle spectral function in $^{16}{\rm O}$ is studied as a function of energy. This influence, which is represented by the admixture of high-momentum components, is found to be small in the $p$-shell quasihole wave functions. It is therefore unlikely that studies of quasihole momentum distributions using the $(e,e'p)$ reaction will reveal a significant contribution of high momentum components. Instead, high-momentum components become increasingly more dominant at higher excitation energy. The above observations are consistent with the energy distribution of high-momentum components in nuclear matter.Comment: 5 pages, RevTeX, 3 figure