Twelfth annual report of the Power Affiliates Program.

Includes bibliographical references

Fourteenth annual report of the Power Affiliates Program.

Includes bibliographical references

Doorontwikkeling biologische grondontsmetting (bodemresetten) als alternatief voor stomen

Biological Soil Disinfection (BSD) or ‘soil resetting’ can technically, energetically and economically be an effective alternative to soil steaming. The program ‘Greenhouse as energy source’ of the Ministry of Economy, Agriculture and Innovation and the Dutch Horticultural Board gave fi nancial support to practical demonstrations and further development of this technology, in order to stimulate implementation of BSD in practice. Chrysanthemum growers, DLV Plant B.V., Wageningen UR Greenhouse Horticulture and Thatchtec B.V. gained experience with BSD in four chrysanthemums companies. Additional research was conducted into possibilities to speed up the process and fi nd reliable process indicators. The disinfection and cultivation results (up to 5 cycles) was after BSD as good or better as after steaming in 3 of the 4 companies. Anaerobic conditions, one of the prerequisites for disinfection, were not achieved in the fourth company, which may explain the unsatisfactory disinfection. In intensive cultivation, three weeks without cultivation need to be included in the planning. Implementation in July offers the best fi t in terms of effectivity and income.The process can be shortened to 9 days by means of a higher Raw Proteine dose, but this leads to growth inhibition in the next cultivation. Adding a “primer” or “inoculum” with own soil bacteria does not suffi ciently increase the operational reliability, and is therefore deleted as a process step in the protocol. The disinfection process can be well monitored by means of oxygen measurement and total nematode counts. Additional indicators are the concentrations of nitrate, ammonium and bicarbonate in the 1:2 soil volume extract

Eighteenth annual report of the Power Affiliates Program.

Includes bibliographical references

Biologische grondontsmetting met Herbie (‘Bodemresetten’) als alternatief voor stomen 2011-2012

In een meerjarig onderzoek gefinancierd door het Productschap Tuinbouw en het Ministerie van Economische zaken in het kader van het programma Kas als Energiebron, hebben Wageningen UR Glastuinbouw en BLGG gekeken naar ‘Bodemresetten met Herbie’ als alternatief voor stomen. Gebleken is dat een hoge bodemtemperatuur het proces stimuleert. Zonder anaerobe omstandigheden is er geen effect. Er is positief (dus bestrijdend) effect gevonden op: Verticillium dahliae , wortelknobbel aaltjes, S clerotinia sclerotiorum, wortelduizendpoot, tripslarven, slakken en ook andere bodemorganismen zoals bodemmijten en springstaarten. Er kon geen effect van Bodemresetten aangetoond worden op verhoogde weerbaarheid tegen Pythium . Het proces kan worden gemonitord aan de hand van gasmetingen van O 2 en H 2 S. In een uitgedroogde grond en een bodem die lang braak gelegen heeft verloopt het proces niet goed. De hoeveelheid broeikasgas die vrijkomt bij Bodemresetten wordt als verwaarloosbaar ingeschat in vergelijking met stomen. In een gangbare chrysantenteelt is Bodemresetten zonder extra kosten ten opzichte van stomen toe te passen als dit maximaal twee weken duurt en uitgevoerd wordt rond periode 5 zodat het opbrengstverlies valt in periode 7-8

Donor states in modulation-doped Si/SiGe heterostructures

We present a unified approach for calculating the properties of shallow donors inside or outside heterostructure quantum wells. The method allows us to obtain not only the binding energies of all localized states of any symmetry, but also the energy width of the resonant states which may appear when a localized state becomes degenerate with the continuous quantum well subbands. The approach is non-variational, and we are therefore also able to evaluate the wave functions. This is used to calculate the optical absorption spectrum, which is strongly non-isotropic due to the selection rules. The results obtained from calculations for Si/Si$_{1-x}$Ge$_x$ quantum wells allow us to present the general behavior of the impurity states, as the donor position is varied from the center of the well to deep inside the barrier. The influence on the donor ground state from both the central-cell effect and the strain arising from the lattice mismatch is carefully considered.Comment: 17 pages, 10 figure

Weerbaar substraat: praktijkproeven : ontwikkeling toets methodiek en eerste toetsing op gewasschade van tien concepten bij tomaat, komkommer en gerbera

De sector is op zoek naar nieuwe gewas bescherming zoals “weerbaar telen”. Hierbij wordt gestuurd op een ziekte- en plaag onderdrukking via het substraat en op een sterke- en productie verhogende plant. Er werden een tiental concepten onderzocht op fytotoxicit eit. De keuze van de concepten werd gebaseerd op beschikbaarheid van bouwstenen, gebruik in de praktijk, het aanschake len van meerdere mechanismen en experimentele meerwaarde. Het aanschakelen van meerdere mechanismen is belangrijk omdat dit de kans op weerbaarheid verhoogt tegen diverse ziekten en plagen. Ook werden meetmethoden verder uitgewerkt om weerbaarheid van substraat en plant in de praktijk te kunnen meten

Overexpression of human mitochondrial valyl tRNA synthetase can partially restore levels of cognate mt-tRNAVal carrying the pathogenic C25U mutation

Phenotypic diversity associated with pathogenic mutations of the human mitochondrial genome (mtDNA) has often been explained by unequal segregation of the mutated and wild-type genomes (heteroplasmy). However, this simple hypothesis cannot explain the tissue specificity of disorders caused by homoplasmic mtDNA mutations. We have previously associated a homoplasmic point mutation (1624C>T) in MTTV with a profound metabolic disorder that resulted in the neonatal deaths of numerous siblings. Affected tissues harboured a marked biochemical defect in components of the mitochondrial respiratory chain, presumably due to the extremely low (<1%) steady-state levels of mt-tRNAVal. In primary myoblasts and transmitochondrial cybrids established from the proband (index case) and offspring, the marked respiratory deficiency was lost and steady-state levels of the mutated mt-tRNAVal were greater than in the biopsy material, but were still an order of magnitude lower than in control myoblasts. We present evidence that the generalized decrease in steady-state mt-tRNAVal observed in the homoplasmic 1624C>T-cell lines is caused by a rapid degradation of the deacylated form of the abnormal mt-tRNAVal. By both establishing the identity of the human mitochondrial valyl-tRNA synthetase then inducing its overexpression in transmitochondrial cell lines, we have been able to partially restore steady-state levels of the mutated mt-tRNAVal, consistent with an increased stability of the charged mt-tRNA. These data indicate that variations in the levels of VARS2L between tissue types and patients could underlie the difference in clinical presentation between individuals homoplasmic for the 1624C>T mutation

Donor diabetes mellitus is a risk factor for diminished outcome after liver transplantation: a nationwide retrospective cohort study

With the growing incidence of diabetes mellitus (DM), an increasing number of organ donors with DM can be expected. We sought to investigate the association between donor DM with early post-transplant outcomes. From a national cohort of adult liver transplant recipients (1996–2016), all recipients transplanted with a liver from a DM donor (n = 69) were matched 1:2 with recipients of livers from non-DM donors (n = 138). The primary end-point included early post-transplant outcome, such as the incidence of primary nonfunction (PNF), hepatic artery thrombosis (HAT), and 90-day graft survival. Cox regression analy

Dark Matter Search with CUORE-0 and CUORE

The Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE) is a ton-scale experiment made of TeO2 bolometers that will probe the neutrinoless double beta decay of 130Te. Excellent energy resolution, low threshold and low background make CUORE sensitive to nuclear recoils, allowing a search for dark matter interactions. With a total mass of 741 kg of TeO2, CUORE can search for an annual modulation of the counting rate at low energies. We present data obtained with CUORE-like detectors and the prospects for a dark matter search in CUORE-0, a 40-kg prototype, and CUORE