An investigation of the shelf-life (storage) of Bacillus isolates on seeds

AbstractChanges in bacterial population during storage of treated seeds of maize (Zea mays L.), bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.), lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) and cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) coated with Bacillus sp. were investigated over a 12-month period. The isolates designated as B9, B11, B69, B77 and B81 were grown in Tryptone Soy Broth (TSB) synthetic medium for 72 h at 30 °C (100 rpm) in a shaker (model Sterilab). Cells were harvested at 10000 rpm for 15 min (Beckman Centrifuge JA 20) and washed with sterile distilled water. Final viable cell concentration of pellets was determined by serial dilutions on Tryptone Soy Agar (TSA). The isolates were each applied to each seed lot using a seed sticker, Pelgel®, according to the manufacturer's (Nitragen [Lymphatec]) specifications. The seeds were coated with approximately 9 log10 CFU/ml of the bacterium, air-dried in a laminar flow chamber and placed at ambient (shelf-life) temperature. For enumeration of attached cells, 1 g of each seed lot was placed in a 9 ml quarter-strength Ringer's solution, vortexed for 2 min, followed by plating of the serial dilutions on TSA. The initial bacterial populations, which adhered to the spermosphere of the seed samples, ranged between 6 and 7 log10 CFU/g seed. There was an initial slight upward trend from month 1 to 5 by 1–2 log CFU/g for maize and bean. For maize, population stabilized between 6.91 and 7.54 log CFU/g in months 5 and 6. For bean, the highest population was obtained in month 4 between 6.52 and 7.95 log CFU/g. Populations stabilized in months 5 and 6 ranging from 6.23 to 6.98 log CFU/g. Thereafter, there was a downward trend from month 7. For cucumber, populations increased slightly up to month 4 in the order of magnitude of 1–2 before stabilizing between 6.11 and 6.78 log CFU/g in months 5 and 6. However, populations on lettuce decreased slightly up to month 2 before increasing slightly in months 3 and 4. Populations stabilized in months 5 and 6 ranging between 6.8 and 8.6. In all the samples, populations decreased from month 7 to the last sampling month. There was a 5% level of significant difference between the months for each of the seeds, but treatments within the seeds were not significant for maize, bean and cucumber

Five-Year Meteorological Data Base for the MACCS Computer Code

This report describes development of a revised Savannah River Site (SRS) meteorological data set for the MELCOR Accident Consequence Code System (MACCS). This data set contains quality assured values of transport wind direction, wind speed, atmospheric stability class, and precipitation for all hours in each of the five years 1997-2001. Measurements collected from the SRS H-area meteorological tower are the primary source for these data. Substitution was used to complete the data set for the 2 percent of hours in which data from the H-tower record were missing or invalid

Non-Radiological Air Quality Modeling for the High-Level Waste Salt Disposition

Dispersion modeling of non-radiological airborne emissions associated with the construction and operation of three alternatives for high-level waste salt disposition at the Savannah River Site has been completed. The results will be used by Department of Energy-Savannah River in the preparation of the salt disposition supplemental environmental impact statement. Estimated maximum ground-level concentrations of applicable regulated air pollutants of the site boundary and at the distance to a hypothetical, co-located onsite worker are summarized in tables. In all cases, model estimated ambient concentrations are less than regulatory standards

Fact sheet: Evidence-based restoration systematic review: Effectiveness of post-wildfire seeding in western U.S. forests

Broadcast seeding is one of the most widely used emergency treatments after a wildfire in forested ecosystems of the western United States. It is intended to reduce soil erosion, increase vegetative ground cover, and minimize establishment and spread of non-native plant species. However, seeding treatments can have negative effects, including competing with recovering native plant communities and inadvertently introducing invasive species

Meteorological annual report for 1995 at the Savannah River Site

The Environmental Technology Section (ETS) of the Savannah River Technology Center (SRTC) collects, archives, and analyzes basic meteorological data supporting a variety of activities at SRS. These activities include the design, construction, and operation of nuclear and non-nuclear facilities, emergency response, environmental compliance, resource management, and environmental research. This report contains tabular and graphical summaries of data collected during 1995 for temperature, precipitation, relative humidity, wind, barometric pressure, and solar radiation. Most of these data were collected at the central Climatology Facility. Summaries of temperature and relative humidity were generated with data from the lowest level of measurement at the Central Climatology Site tower (13 feet above ground). (Relative humidity is calculated from measurements of dew-point temperature.) Wind speed summaries were generated with data from the second measurement level (58 feet above ground). Wind speed measurements from this level are believed to best represent open, well-exposed areas of the Site. Precipitation summaries were based on data from the Building 773-A site since quality control algorithms for the central Climatology Facility rain gauge data were not finalized at the time this report was prepared. This report also contains seasonal and annual summaries of joint occurrence frequencies for selected wind speed categories by 22.5 degree wind direction sector (i.e., wind roses). Wind rose summaries are provided for the 200-foot level of the Central Climatology tower and for each of the eight 200-foot area towers

Fecundity, egg deposition, and mortality of market squid (Lolilgo opalescens)

Loligo opalescens live less than a year and die after a short spawning period before all oocytes are expended. Potential fecundity (EP), the standing stock of all oocytes just before the onset of spawning, increased with dorsal mantle length (L), where EP = 29.8L. For the average female squid (L of 129 mm), EP was 3844 oocytes. During the spawning period, no oogonia were produced; therefore the standing stock of oocytes declined as they were ovulated. This decline in oocytes was correlated with a decline in mantle condition and an increase in the size of the smallest oocyte in the ovary. Close agreement between the decline in estimated body weight and standing stock of oocytes during the spawning period indicated that maturation and spawning of eggs could largely, if not entirely, be supported by the conversion of energy reserves in tissue. Loligo opalescens, newly recruited to the spawning population, ovulated about 36% of their potential fecundity during their first spawning day and fewer ova were released in subsequent days. Loligo opalescens do not spawn all of their oocytes; a small percentage of the spawning population may live long enough to spawn 78% of their potential fecundity. Loligo opalescens are taken in a spawning grounds fishery off California, where nearly all of the catch are mature spawning adults. Thirty-three percent of the potential fecundity of L. opalescens was deposited before they were taken by the fishery (December 1998−99). This observation led to the development of a management strategy based on monitoring the escapement of eggs from the fishery. The strategy requires estimation of the fecundity realized by the average squid in the population which is a function of egg deposition and mortality rates. A model indicated that the daily total mortality rate on the spawning ground may be about 0.45 and that the average adult may live only 1.67 days after spawning begins. The rate at which eggs escape the fishery was modeled and the sensitivity of changing daily rates of fishing mortality, natural mortality, and egg deposition was examined. A rapid method for monitoring the fecundity of the L. opalescens catch was developed

The InterPro protein families database: the classification resource after 15 years.

The InterPro database (http://www.ebi.ac.uk/interpro/) is a freely available resource that can be used to classify sequences into protein families and to predict the presence of important domains and sites. Central to the InterPro database are predictive models, known as signatures, from a range of different protein family databases that have different biological focuses and use different methodological approaches to classify protein families and domains. InterPro integrates these signatures, capitalizing on the respective strengths of the individual databases, to produce a powerful protein classification resource. Here, we report on the status of InterPro as it enters its 15th year of operation, and give an overview of new developments with the database and its associated Web interfaces and software. In particular, the new domain architecture search tool is described and the process of mapping of Gene Ontology terms to InterPro is outlined. We also discuss the challenges faced by the resource given the explosive growth in sequence data in recent years. InterPro (version 48.0) contains 36 766 member database signatures integrated into 26 238 InterPro entries, an increase of over 3993 entries (5081 signatures), since 2012

RE: pedagogy – after neutrality

Within the UK and in many parts of the world, official accounts of what it is to make sense of religion are framed within a rhetorics of neutrality in which such study is premised upon the possibility of dispassionate engagement and analysis. This paper, which is largely theoretical in scope, explores both the affordances and the costs of such an approach which has become ‘black boxed’ on account of the work that it achieves. A series of new orientations within the academy that are broadly associated with post-structuralist philosophies, feminist and post-colonial studies, together with insights from Science and Technology Studies, question the plausibility of these claims for neutrality whilst in turn raising a series of new questions and priorities. It therefore becomes necessary to re-think and re-frame what it is to make sense of religious and cultural difference after neutrality. The gathering and co-ordination of new planes of sense-making that are responsive to an emergent series of epistemological, ontological, and ethical orientations are considered. Some of the distinctive pedagogical implications of such an approach that engages material practice, difference and uncertainty are then entertained