667 research outputs found
Effect of pyramiding Bt and CpTI genes on resistance of cotton to Helicoverpa armigera (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) under laboratory and field conditions
Transgenic cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) varieties, adapted to China, have been bred that express two genes for resistance to insects. the Cry1Ac gene from Bacillus thuringiensis (Berliner) (Bt), and a trypsin inhibitor gene from cowpea (CpTI). Effectiveness of the double gene modification in conferring resistance to cotton bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera (Hübner) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), was studied in laboratory and field experiments. In each experiment, performance of Bt+CpTI cotton was compared with Bt cotton and to a conventional nontransgenic variety. Larval survival was lower on both types of transgenic variety, compared with the conventional cotton. Survival of first-, second-, and third-stage larvae was lower on Bt+CpTI cotton than on Bt cotton. Plant structures differed in level of resistance, and these differences were similar on Bt and Bt+CpTI cotton. Likewise, seasonal trends in level of resistance in different plant structures were similar in Bt and Bt+CpTI cotton. Both types of transgenic cotton interfered with development of sixth-stage larvae to adults, and no offspring was produced by H. armigera that fed on Bt or Bt+CpTI cotton from the sixth stage onward. First-, second-, and third-stage larvae spent significantly less time feeding on transgenic cotton than on conventional cotton, and the reduction in feeding time was significantly greater on Bt+CpTI cotton than on Bt cotton. Food conversion efficiency was lower on transgenic varieties than on conventional cotton, but there was no significant difference between Bt and Bt+CpTI cotton. In 3-yr field experimentation, bollworm densities were greatly suppressed on transgenic as compared with conventional cotton, but no significant differences between Bt and Bt+CpTI cotton were found. Overall, the results from laboratory work indicate that introduction of the CpTI gene in Bt cotton raises some components of resistance in cotton against H. armigera, but enhanced control of H. armigera under field conditions, due to expression of the CpTI gene, was not demonstrate
Causality and the semantics of provenance
Provenance, or information about the sources, derivation, custody or history
of data, has been studied recently in a number of contexts, including
databases, scientific workflows and the Semantic Web. Many provenance
mechanisms have been developed, motivated by informal notions such as
influence, dependence, explanation and causality. However, there has been
little study of whether these mechanisms formally satisfy appropriate policies
or even how to formalize relevant motivating concepts such as causality. We
contend that mathematical models of these concepts are needed to justify and
compare provenance techniques. In this paper we review a theory of causality
based on structural models that has been developed in artificial intelligence,
and describe work in progress on a causal semantics for provenance graphs.Comment: Workshop submissio
Micromechanics of soil responses in cyclic simple shear tests
Offshore wind turbine (OWT) foundations are subjected to a combination of cyclic and dynamic
loading arising from wind, wave, rotor and blade shadowing. Under cyclic loading, most soils change their
characteristics including stiffness, which may cause the system natural frequency to approach the loading
frequency and lead to unplanned resonance and system damage or even collapse. To investigate such
changes and the underlying micromechanics, a series of cyclic simple shear tests were performed on the
RedHill 110 sand with different shear strain amplitudes, vertical stresses and initial relative densities of soil.
The test results showed that: (a) Vertical accumulated strain is proportional to the shear strain amplitude but
inversely proportional to relative density of soil; (b) Shear modulus increases rapidly in the initial loading
cycles and then the rate of increase diminishes and the shear modulus remains below an asymptote; (c)
Shear modulus increases with increasing vertical stress and relative density, but decreasing with increasing
strain amplitude. Coupled DEM simulations were performed using PFC2D to analyse the micromechanics
underlying the cyclic behaviour of soils. Micromechanical parameters (e.g. fabric tensor, coordination
number) were examined to explore the reasons for the various cyclic responses to different shear strain
amplitudes or vertical stresses. Both coordination number and magnitude of fabric anisotropy contribute to
the increasing shear modulus
Glueball spectrum based on a rigorous three-dimensional relativistic equation for two-gluon bound states I: Derivation of the relativistic equation
A rigorous three-dimensional relativistic equation satisfied by two-gluon
bound states is derived from the QCD with massive gluons. With the gluon fields
and the quark fields being expanded in terms of the gluon multipole fields and
the spherical Dirac spinors respectively, the equation is well established in
the angular momentum representation and hence is much convenient for solving
the problem of two-gluon glueball spectra. In particular, the interaction
kernel in the equation is exactly derived and given a closed expression which
includes all the interactions taking place in the two-gluon glueballs. The
kernel contains only a few types of Green's functions and commutators.
Therefore, it is not only easily calculated by the perturbation method, but
also provides a suitable basis for nonperturbative investigations
Glueball spectrum based on a rigorous three-dimensional relativistic equation for two-gluon bound states II: calculation of the glueball spectrum
In the preceding paper, a rigorous three-dimensional relativistic equation
for two-gluon bound states was derived from the QCD with massive gluons and
represented in the angular momentum representation. In order to apply this
equation to calculate the glueball spectrum, in this paper, the equation is
recast in an equivalent three-dimensional relativistic equation satisfied by
the two-gluon positive energy state amplitude. The interaction Hamiltonian in
the equation is exactly derived and expressed as a perturbative series. The
first term in the series describes the one-gluon exchange interaction which
includes fully the retardation effect in it. This term plus the linear
confining potential are chosen to be the interaction Hamiltonian and employed
in the practical calculation. With the integrals containing three and four
spherical Bessel functions in the QCD vertices being analytically calculated,
the interaction Hamiltonian is given an explicit expression in the angular
momentum representation. Numerically solving the relativistic equation with
taking the contributions arising from the retardation effect and the
longitudinal mode of gluon fields into account, a set of masses for the
and glueball states are
obtained and are in fairly good agreement with the predictions given by the
lattice simulatio
Top A_FB at the Tevatron vs. charge asymmetry at the LHC in chiral U(1) flavor models with flavored Higgs doublets
We consider the top forward-backward (FB) asymmetry at the Tevatron and top
charge asymmetry at the LHC within chiral U(1)^\prime models with
flavor-dependent U(1)^\prime charges and flavored Higgs fields, which were
introduced in the ref. [65]. The models could enhance not only the top
forward-backward asymmetry at Tevatron, but also the top charge asymmetry at
LHC, without too large same-sign top pair production rates. We identify
parameter spaces for the U(1)^\prime gauge boson and (pseudo)scalar Higgs
bosons where all the experimental data could be accommodated, including the
case with about 125 GeV Higgs boson, as suggested recently by ATLAS and CMS.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, figures and discussion adde
The energy spectrum of all-particle cosmic rays around the knee region observed with the Tibet-III air-shower array
We have already reported the first result on the all-particle spectrum around
the knee region based on data from 2000 November to 2001 October observed by
the Tibet-III air-shower array. In this paper, we present an updated result
using data set collected in the period from 2000 November through 2004 October
in a wide range over 3 decades between eV and eV, in which
the position of the knee is clearly seen at around 4 PeV. The spectral index is
-2.68 0.02(stat.) below 1PeV, while it is -3.12 0.01(stat.) above 4
PeV in the case of QGSJET+HD model, and various systematic errors are under
study now.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures, accepted by Advances in space researc
Moon Shadow by Cosmic Rays under the Influence of Geomagnetic Field and Search for Antiprotons at Multi-TeV Energies
We have observed the shadowing of galactic cosmic ray flux in the direction
of the moon, the so-called moon shadow, using the Tibet-III air shower array
operating at Yangbajing (4300 m a.s.l.) in Tibet since 1999. Almost all cosmic
rays are positively charged; for that reason, they are bent by the geomagnetic
field, thereby shifting the moon shadow westward. The cosmic rays will also
produce an additional shadow in the eastward direction of the moon if cosmic
rays contain negatively charged particles, such as antiprotons, with some
fraction. We selected 1.5 x10^{10} air shower events with energy beyond about 3
TeV from the dataset observed by the Tibet-III air shower array and detected
the moon shadow at level. The center of the moon was detected
in the direction away from the apparent center of the moon by 0.23 to
the west. Based on these data and a full Monte Carlo simulation, we searched
for the existence of the shadow produced by antiprotons at the multi-TeV energy
region. No evidence of the existence of antiprotons was found in this energy
region. We obtained the 90% confidence level upper limit of the flux ratio of
antiprotons to protons as 7% at multi-TeV energies.Comment: 13pages,4figures; Accepted for publication in Astroparticle Physic
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