Produktivität verschiedener Sojasorten im ostösterreichischen Anbaugebiet

In Austria organic soybeans are mainly produced in the eastern part of the country due to its temperature requirements. To examine genotypic differences with respect to seed quality a three-year field trial with seven soybean cultivars was conducted. The cultivar `Essor´ showed significantly higher (p<0,05) values for corn yield, thousand grain weight and seed protein content in all three years compared to to the early maturing cultivar `Merlin´. During the whole observation period the cultivars `Essor´and `Lambton´ produced most stable corn yields while ´Essor´ and ´Cardiff´ revealed most stable seed protein contents. Based on our results, soybean cultivars of maturity group 00 had higher grain yields as well as higher seed protein content in comparison to early maturing cultivars (maturity group 000) grown under natural conditions prevalent in eastern Austria

Determination of the vacuum optomechanical coupling rate using frequency noise calibration

The strength of optomechanical interactions in a cavity optomechanical system can be quantified by a vacuum coupling rate \vcr analogous to cavity quantum electrodynamics. This single figure of merit removes the ambiguity in the frequently quoted coupling parameter defining the frequency shift for a given mechanical displacement, and the effective mass of the mechanical mode. Here we demonstrate and verify a straightforward experimental technique to derive the vacuum optomechanical coupling rate. It only requires applying a known frequency modulation of the employed electromagnetic probe field and knowledge of the mechanical oscillator's occupation. The method is experimentally verified for a micromechanical mode in a toroidal whispering-gallery-resonator and a nanomechanical oscillator coupled to a toroidal cavity via its near field.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figure

Dialkyldithiophosphate Acids (HDDPs) as Effective Lubricants of Sol–Gel Titania Coatings in Technical Dry Friction Conditions

The goal of this study was the investigation of the effectiveness of dialkyldithiophosphate acids (HDDPs) films in improving the tribological properties of thin, sol– gel derived titania coatings. Amorphous, anatase, and rutile titania coatings were obtained using sol–gel dip–coating deposition after treatment at 100, 500, and 1,000 C, respectively. Titania coatings were then modified from the liquid phase by HDDPs acids having dodecyl-(C12), tetradecyl-(C14), and hexadecyl-(C16) alkyl chains deposited by dip–coating (DC) and Langmuir–Blodgett (LB) methods. The influence of the deposition procedure, the length of the HDDPs alkyl chain and the type of titania substrate on the surface morphology and tribological properties were studied. It was found, using wetting contact angle measurements, that these modifications of titania coatings decrease the surface free energy and increase its hydrophobicity. The surface topography imaged by Atomic force microscopy (AFM), exhibit island-like or agglomerate features for the DC deposition method, while smooth topographies were observed for LB depositions. Tribological tests were conducted by means of a microtribometer operating in the normal load range 30–100 mN. An enhancement of tribological properties was observed upon modification, as compared to unmodified titania

State Transfer Between a Mechanical Oscillator and Microwave Fields in the Quantum Regime

Recently, macroscopic mechanical oscillators have been coaxed into a regime of quantum behavior, by direct refrigeration [1] or a combination of refrigeration and laser-like cooling [2, 3]. This exciting result has encouraged notions that mechanical oscillators may perform useful functions in the processing of quantum information with superconducting circuits [1, 4-7], either by serving as a quantum memory for the ephemeral state of a microwave field or by providing a quantum interface between otherwise incompatible systems [8, 9]. As yet, the transfer of an itinerant state or propagating mode of a microwave field to and from a mechanical oscillator has not been demonstrated owing to the inability to agilely turn on and off the interaction between microwave electricity and mechanical motion. Here we demonstrate that the state of an itinerant microwave field can be coherently transferred into, stored in, and retrieved from a mechanical oscillator with amplitudes at the single quanta level. Crucially, the time to capture and to retrieve the microwave state is shorter than the quantum state lifetime of the mechanical oscillator. In this quantum regime, the mechanical oscillator can both store and transduce quantum information

Antimicrobial and Insecticidal: Cyclic Lipopeptides and Hydrogen Cyanide Produced by Plant-Beneficial Pseudomonas Strains CHA0, CMR12a, and PCL1391 Contribute to Insect Killing.

Particular groups of plant-beneficial fluorescent pseudomonads are not only root colonizers that provide plant disease suppression, but in addition are able to infect and kill insect larvae. The mechanisms by which the bacteria manage to infest this alternative host, to overcome its immune system, and to ultimately kill the insect are still largely unknown. However, the investigation of the few virulence factors discovered so far, points to a highly multifactorial nature of insecticidal activity. Antimicrobial compounds produced by fluorescent pseudomonads are effective weapons against a vast diversity of organisms such as fungi, oomycetes, nematodes, and protozoa. Here, we investigated whether these compounds also contribute to insecticidal activity. We tested mutants of the highly insecticidal strains Pseudomonas protegens CHA0, Pseudomonas chlororaphis PCL1391, and Pseudomonas sp. CMR12a, defective for individual or multiple antimicrobial compounds, for injectable and oral activity against lepidopteran insect larvae. Moreover, we studied expression of biosynthesis genes for these antimicrobial compounds for the first time in insects. Our survey revealed that hydrogen cyanide and different types of cyclic lipopeptides contribute to insecticidal activity. Hydrogen cyanide was essential to full virulence of CHA0 and PCL1391 directly injected into the hemolymph. The cyclic lipopeptide orfamide produced by CHA0 and CMR12a was mainly important in oral infections. Mutants of CMR12a and PCL1391 impaired in the production of the cyclic lipopeptides sessilin and clp1391, respectively, showed reduced virulence in injection and feeding experiments. Although virulence of mutants lacking one or several of the other antimicrobial compounds, i.e., 2,4-diacetylphloroglucinol, phenazines, pyrrolnitrin, or pyoluteorin, was not reduced, these metabolites might still play a role in an insect background since all investigated biosynthetic genes for antimicrobial compounds of strain CHA0 were expressed at some point during insect infection. In summary, our study identified new factors contributing to insecticidal activity and extends the diverse functions of antimicrobial compounds produced by fluorescent pseudomonads from the plant environment to the insect host

A polymorphism associated with depressive disorders differentially regulates brain derived neurotrophic factor promoter IV activity

PMCID: PMC3712170Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Chromium-based bcc-superalloys strengthened by iron supplements

Chromium alloys are being considered for next-generation concentrated solar power applications operating &gt; 800 °C. Cr offers advantages in melting point, cost, and oxidation resistance. However, improvements in mechanical performance are needed. Here, Cr-based body-centred-cubic (bcc) alloys of the type Cr(Fe)-NiAl are investigated, leading to ‘bcc-superalloys’ comprising a bcc-Cr(Fe) matrix (β) strengthened by ordered-bcc NiAl intermetallic precipitates (β’), with iron additions to tailor the precipitate volume fraction and mechanical properties at high temperatures. Computational design using CALculation of PHAse Diagram (CALPHAD) predicts that Fe increases the solubility of Ni and Al, increasing precipitate volume fraction, which is validated experimentally. Nano-scale, highly-coherent B2-NiAl precipitates with lattice misfit ∼ 0.1% are formed in the Cr(Fe) matrix. The Cr(Fe)-NiAl A2-B2 alloys show remarkably low coarsening rate (∼102 nm3/h at 1000 °C), outperforming ferritic-superalloys, cobalt- and nickel-based superalloys. Low interfacial energies of ∼ 40/20 mJ/m2 at 1000/1200 °C are determined based on the coarsening kinetics. The low coarsening rates are principally attributed to the low solubility of Ni and Al in the Cr matrix. The alloys show high compressive yield strength of ∼320 MPa at 1000 °C. The Fe-modified alloy exhibits resistance to age softening, related to the low coarsening rate as well as the relatively stable Orowan strengthening as a function of precipitate radius. Microstructure tailoring with Fe additions offers a new design route to improve the balance of properties in “Cr-superalloys”, accelerating their development as a new class of high-temperature materials

Profiling quality of care: Is there a role for peer review?

BACKGROUND: We sought to develop a more reliable structured implicit chart review instrument for use in assessing the quality of care for chronic disease and to examine if ratings are more reliable for conditions in which the evidence base for practice is more developed. METHODS: We conducted a reliability study in a cohort with patient records including both outpatient and inpatient care as the objects of measurement. We developed a structured implicit review instrument to assess the quality of care over one year of treatment. 12 reviewers conducted a total of 496 reviews of 70 patient records selected from 26 VA clinical sites in two regions of the country. Each patient had between one and four conditions specified as having a highly developed evidence base (diabetes and hypertension) or a less developed evidence base (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or a collection of acute conditions). Multilevel analysis that accounts for the nested and cross-classified structure of the data was used to estimate the signal and noise components of the measurement of quality and the reliability of implicit review. RESULTS: For COPD and a collection of acute conditions the reliability of a single physician review was quite low (intra-class correlation = 0.16–0.26) but comparable to most previously published estimates for the use of this method in inpatient settings. However, for diabetes and hypertension the reliability is significantly higher at 0.46. The higher reliability is a result of the reviewers collectively being able to distinguish more differences in the quality of care between patients (p < 0.007) and not due to less random noise or individual reviewer bias in the measurement. For these conditions the level of true quality (i.e. the rating of quality of care that would result from the full population of physician reviewers reviewing a record) varied from poor to good across patients. CONCLUSIONS: For conditions with a well-developed quality of care evidence base, such as hypertension and diabetes, a single structured implicit review to assess the quality of care over a period of time is moderately reliable. This method could be a reasonable complement or alternative to explicit indicator approaches for assessing and comparing quality of care. Structured implicit review, like explicit quality measures, must be used more cautiously for illnesses for which the evidence base is less well developed, such as COPD and acute, short-course illnesses

Genomics of Divergence along a Continuum of Parapatric Population Differentiation

MM received funding from the Max Planck innovation funds for this project. PGDF was supported by a Marie Curie European Reintegration Grant (proposal nr 270891). CE was supported by German Science Foundation grants (DFG, EI 841/4-1 and EI 841/6-1)

Disentangling astroglial physiology with a realistic cell model in silico

Electrically non-excitable astroglia take up neurotransmitters, buffer extracellular K+ and generate Ca2+ signals that release molecular regulators of neural circuitry. The underlying machinery remains enigmatic, mainly because the sponge-like astrocyte morphology has been difficult to access experimentally or explore theoretically. Here, we systematically incorporate multi-scale, tri-dimensional astroglial architecture into a realistic multi-compartmental cell model, which we constrain by empirical tests and integrate into the NEURON computational biophysical environment. This approach is implemented as a flexible astrocyte-model builder ASTRO. As a proof-of-concept, we explore an in silico astrocyte to evaluate basic cell physiology features inaccessible experimentally. Our simulations suggest that currents generated by glutamate transporters or K+ channels have negligible distant effects on membrane voltage and that individual astrocytes can successfully handle extracellular K+ hotspots. We show how intracellular Ca2+ buffers affect Ca2+ waves and why the classical Ca2+ sparks-and-puffs mechanism is theoretically compatible with common readouts of astroglial Ca2+ imaging