Effects of plant growth promoting bacteria (PGPB) on yield, growth and nutrient contents of organically grown strawberry

The effects of plant growth promoting bacteria (PGPB) on the fruit yield, growth and nutrient element content of strawberry cv. Fern were investigated under organic growing conditions between 2006 and 2008. The experimental plot was a completely randomized design with 3 replicates. Three PGPB strains (Pseudomonas BA-8, Bacillus OSU-142 and Bacillus M-3) were used alone or in combination as biofertilizer agent in the experiment. Data through 3 years showed that the use of PGPB significantly increased fruit yield, plant growth and leaf P and Zn contents. Root inoculation of M3 and floral and foliar spraying of OSU-142 and BA-8 bacteria stimulated plant growth resulting in significant yield increases. M3 + BA-8, BA-8 + OSU-142, M3, M3 + OSU-142 and BA-8 applications increased cumulative yield by 33.2%, 18.4%, 18.2%, 15.3% and 10.5%, respectively. Number of fruits per plant significantly increased by the applications of M3 + BA-8 (91.73) and M3 (81.58) compared with the control (68.66). In addition, P and Zn contents of strawberry leaves with bacterial inoculation significantly increased under organic growing conditions. Available P contents in soil were increased from 0.35 kg P2O5/da at the beginning of the study to 2.00, 1.97 and 1.82 kg P2O5/da by M3 + OSU-142, M3 + BA-8 and M3 + BA-8 + OSU-142 applications, respectively. Overall, the results of this study suggest that root inoculation of Bacillus M3 alone or in combination with spraying Bacillus OSU-142 or Pseudomonas BA-8 have the potential to increase the yield, growth and nutrition content of strawberry plant under organic growing conditions

Selecting Metrics to Evaluate Human Supervisory Control Applications

The goal of this research is to develop a methodology to select supervisory control metrics. This methodology is based on cost-benefit analyses and generic metric classes. In the context of this research, a metric class is defined as the set of metrics that quantify a certain aspect or component of a system. Generic metric classes are developed because metrics are mission-specific, but metric classes are generalizable across different missions. Cost-benefit analyses are utilized because each metric set has advantages, limitations, and costs, thus the added value of different sets for a given context can be calculated to select the set that maximizes value and minimizes costs. This report summarizes the findings of the first part of this research effort that has focused on developing a supervisory control metric taxonomy that defines generic metric classes and categorizes existing metrics. Future research will focus on applying cost benefit analysis methodologies to metric selection. Five main metric classes have been identified that apply to supervisory control teams composed of humans and autonomous platforms: mission effectiveness, autonomous platform behavior efficiency, human behavior efficiency, human behavior precursors, and collaborative metrics. Mission effectiveness measures how well the mission goals are achieved. Autonomous platform and human behavior efficiency measure the actions and decisions made by the humans and the automation that compose the team. Human behavior precursors measure human initial state, including certain attitudes and cognitive constructs that can be the cause of and drive a given behavior. Collaborative metrics address three different aspects of collaboration: collaboration between the human and the autonomous platform he is controlling, collaboration among humans that compose the team, and autonomous collaboration among platforms. These five metric classes have been populated with metrics and measuring techniques from the existing literature. Which specific metrics should be used to evaluate a system will depend on many factors, but as a rule-of-thumb, we propose that at a minimum, one metric from each class should be used to provide a multi-dimensional assessment of the human-automation team. To determine what the impact on our research has been by not following such a principled approach, we evaluated recent large-scale supervisory control experiments conducted in the MIT Humans and Automation Laboratory. The results show that prior to adapting this metric classification approach, we were fairly consistent in measuring mission effectiveness and human behavior through such metrics as reaction times and decision accuracies. However, despite our supervisory control focus, we were remiss in gathering attention allocation metrics and collaboration metrics, and we often gathered too many correlated metrics that were redundant and wasteful. This meta-analysis of our experimental shortcomings reflect those in the general research population in that we tended to gravitate to popular metrics that are relatively easy to gather, without a clear understanding of exactly what aspect of the systems we were measuring and how the various metrics informed an overall research question

Assessment of genotype x environment interaction on yield and yield components of durum wheat genotypes by multivariate analyses

Wheat breeders have to determine the new cultivars and lines responsive to the environmental changes for grain yield and yield components. Therefore, this study was conducted to evaluate 25 durum wheat (Triticum turgidum spp. durum) genotypes including 12 registered cultivars and 13 advanced breeding lines for their stability grown in three different locations (Tokat-Kazova, Diyarbakir and Sivas-Ulas) of Turkey for two growing seasons (2005-2006 and 2006-2007), and to select genotypes having desirable traits to be used in future durum wheat breeding program. Field trials were conducted in a randomized complete block design with three replications at each location. Days to heading, plant height, number of spikes per square meter, number of kernels per spike, spike weight, 1000 kernel weight and grain yield of the genotypes were evaluated in each location. The regression coefficient (bi) of Finlay and Wilkinson (1963) and mean square of deviation from regression (S2d) of Eberhart and Russell (1966) were used as the stability parameters. The results of combined analysis of variance showed a strong influence of the locations on plant height, number of spikes per square meter, number of kernels per spike,  spike weight, 1000 kernel weight and grain yield. Genotypic effects were mainly observed for spike length and test weight. Year had strong impact only on the days to heading. Ecological conditions of Diyarbakir among locations offer the better opportunity for production of durum wheat. Line 5 and cultivar Gidara were both stable in yield ability and also appeared the stable group based on the cluster analysis. In the first principal component days to heading, number of spikes per square meter and spike length  were the most important traits contributing to variation that obtained about 44.3%. There was a positive relationship between grain yield and number of spikes per square meter together test weight, whereas days to heading and spike length were negatively correlated to grain yield. The results of this study also imply that Line-5 and cultivar Gidara among genotypes were the most stable cultivars and can be used as breeding materials. The days to heading, number of spikes per square meter and spike length could be adequate to introduce the differences among genotypes.Key words: Durum wheat, stability, principal component analysis, cluster analysis

The COVID-19 Pandemic, Academia, Gender, and Beyond: A Review

open access articleThis article aims to engage critically with the scholarly narratives and the emerging literature on the gender impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in academia. It outlines the key contours and themes in these scholarly discourses and conceptions, acknowledging their richness, depth and strengths especially given the short timespan within which they have developed since 2020. The article then suggests broadening and historicising the critique advanced by the literature further. In doing so, the hierarchies and vulnerabilities exposed in the academic domain by the pandemic are positioned within a holistic understanding of crisis-ridden characteristics of social relations under capitalism

Disciplining Speech, Violating Rights: Recurrent and Shifting Patterns in the Context of Turkey

The article proposes a historical account of the evolution of struggles and debates surrounding freedom of speech in the context of Turkey. The main argument is that violations of freedom of speech cannot be assessed in a manner isolated from the comprehensive remakings of politics, economy and society in the country that configure and reconfigure the contours of ‘(un)acceptability’ and ‘(un)desirability’ of speech in historically specific ways. Therefore, the article challenges mainstream approaches that treat freedom of speech within the allegedly autonomous, abstract and individualised domain of intellect divorced from its material context and situates it within the deep-seated societal transformations that both influence and are influenced by continuously contested governing strategies. After outlining key terms of the debate, the second section provides a historical overview of the evolution of controversies in this field before Justice and Development Party or Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi (AKP) rule. The final section focuses on the specific evolution of the AKP-era governing strategy in its continuities and ruptures from the historically prevalent freedom of speech issues in three domains: labour rights, cultural and political rights, and gender and sexuality

Marketisation of Academia and Authoritarian Governments: The Cases of Hungary and Turkey in Critical Perspective

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.This article analyses the recent political repression of academia in Hungary and Turkey within the critical scholarship on globalisation and neoliberalisation of higher education. We introduce and challenge the hegemonic definitions of academic freedom that sit comfortably with the capitalist logic as well as repressive governing forms and assess the recent attacks on university communities with emphasis on both academic labour and freedom. Adopting a case study approach, we investigate how economic and political forms of repression accompany and reinforce one another within the specificities of both country contexts. We delineate the underlying structural and historical dynamics as well as emergence and evolution of methods of struggle and resistance employed by diverse university communities in their shared and divergent characteristics. Our conclusions include critical reflections on the broader implications of higher education restructuring, authoritarian interventions, and the future of systemic-level resistance

Low temperature atomic layer deposited ZnO photo thin film transistors

Cataloged from PDF version of article.ZnO thin film transistors (TFTs) are fabricated on Si substrates using atomic layer deposition technique. The growth temperature of ZnO channel layers are selected as 80, 100, 120, 130, and 250°C. Material characteristics of ZnO films are examined using x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and x-ray diffraction methods. Stoichiometry analyses showed that the amount of both oxygen vacancies and interstitial zinc decrease with decreasing growth temperature. Electrical characteristics improve with decreasing growth temperature. Best results are obtained with ZnO channels deposited at 80°C; Ion/Ioff ratio is extracted as 7.8 × 109 and subthreshold slope is extracted as 0.116 V/dec. Flexible ZnO TFT devices are also fabricated using films grown at 80°C. ID-VGS characterization results showed that devices fabricated on different substrates (Si and polyethylene terephthalate) show similar electrical characteristics. Sub-bandgap photo sensing properties of ZnO based TFTs are investigated; it is shown that visible light absorption of ZnO based TFTs can be actively controlled by external gate bias. © 2014 American Vacuum Society

Secondary metabolites of Phlomis viscosa and their biological activities

Further phytochemical studies on the aerial parts of Phlomis viscosa (Lamiaceae) led to the isolation of 24 compounds: 3 iridoid glycosides, 10 phenylethanoid glycosides, a megastigmane glycoside and a hydroquinone glycoside, as well as 2 lignan glucosides and 7 neolignan glucosides, 1 of which is new (17b). Compound 17b was obtained as a minor component of an inseparable mixture (2:1) of 2 neolignan glucosides (17a/b), and characterized as 3',4-O-dimethylcedrusin 9-O-b -glucopyranoside. Full NMR data of the known 8-O-4' neolignan glucoside, erythro-1-(4-O-b-glucopyranosyl-3-methoxyphenyl)- 2-{2-methoxyl-4-[1-(E)-propene-3-ol]-phenoxyl}-propane-1,3-diol (18) are also reported. All isolated compounds were screened for cell growth inhibition versus 3 tumor cell lines (MCF7, NCI-H460, and SF-268) and several phenylethanoid glycosides were found to possess weak antitumoral activity. The phenylethanoid glycosides were also evaluated for their free radical (DPPH) scavenging, antibacterial and antifungal activities. The free radical (DPPH) scavenging activities of verbascoside (4), isoacteoside (5), forsythoside B (10), myricoside (13) and samioside (14) were found to be comparable to that of dl-a -tocopherol. Compounds 4, 5, 10 and 14 (MIC: 500 m g/mL) as well as Leucosceptoside A (8) and 13 (MIC:1000 m g/mL) showed very weak activity against Gram (+) bacteria

Breeding progress in grain yield of winter wheat cultivars grown at different nitrogen levels in semiarid conditions

The objectives of this study were to estimate the progress in wheat genetic yield potential, associated with changes in some agronomic traits, under different N rates. Twenty-four cultivars of winter wheat (T. aestivtum L.) representing most of the cultivars released in Serbia from 1955 to 2006 were analyzed. The cultivars were grown for four years (2005-2008) in field trails with two levels of agronomic inputs (low nitrogen-N-45 and high nitrogen-N-110). Data were collected on 1000-kernel weight, kernels per spike, kernels per square meter, spikes per square meter, plant height, harvest index, heading time and grain yield. Mean difference between the two fertilization levels was 0.44 t ha(-1). The average rate of increase in yield potential per year of release, estimated from the slope, was 41 kg ha(-1) year(-1) and it was significantly different from zero (P lt = 0.01). It was 35 kg ha(-1) year(-1) or 0.55% at the low level of N input, and 46 kg ha(-1) year(-1) or 0.68% at the high level of N input. This suggests that modern cultivars are better adapted to high N input. Our results suggested that individual contribution of the most of analyzed traits may vary depending on the genotype as well as environmental conditions