Physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of cotton soils and their relationship to seedling disease of cotton

Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) seedling disease is responsible for considerable reductions of cotton yields in Tennessee each year. The complex of causal organisms, in order of pathogenicity, includes species of Pythium, Rhizoctonia, Thielaviopsis, and Fusarium. Attempts to control the disease have been mostly unsuccessful, especially during cool, wet periods which favor disease development. Because of the lack of a good control, a bioassay technique was tested for accuracy in predicting occurrence and severity of cotton seedling disease. It was hoped that by using this technique better recommendations could be made on selecting fields for cotton culture. A quantitative method for isolating Pythium from soil on a selective medium was compared to the bioassay technique for effectiveness in predicting the disease. Forty-five soil samples were collected at 15 sites in West Tennessee in the fall of 1982 and again in the fall of 1983. The bioassay procedure consisted of planting Stoneville 213 cotton seeds in pots filled with each soil sample. The seedlings that emerged were each evaluated for disease severity and the causal organism was isolated from each diseased plant. A soil assay for Pythium was performed on each soil sample using gallic acid medium. In addition, each soil sample was analyzed for pH, texture, and organic matter content. A field test was conducted in 1984 which consisted of planting Stoneville 213 cotton seed at the sites where soil samples were taken the previous fall. Emerged seedlings were evaluated for disease severity as in the bioassay procedure. Percent stand and percent post-emergence mortality were also determined. Correlation coefficients were calculated each year between all the variables that were evaluated. There was a definite negative relationship between the percent clay in the soil and the disease severity of seedlings grown in the field. Disease severity of the seedlings grown during the bioassay procedure and numbers of seedlings infected with Pythium and/or Rhizoctonia did not correlate with the disease severity of the seedlings in the field. Also, disease severity correlated positively with soil pH. Significant correlations occurred both years between percent clay and the disease indexes from the bioassay, the number of Fusarium isolates and disease indexes from the bioassay, pH and the number of Rhizoctonia isolates, and percent clay and the number of Fusarium isolates. There was no correlation between the numbers of Pythium colonies isolated on gallic acid medium and any of the other variables either year

Comparison of instrumental methods for measuring seed hardness of food-grade soybean

Seed hardness is an important factor in determining soybean suitability for natto production. There is no established methodology for testing seed texture of soybeans. The objective of this study was to develop an efficient method by examining different instruments and seed parameters that could be potentially used for testing soybean seed hardness. Five food-grade soybean genotypes with different seed sizes were used to determine seed hardness and water-absorption capacity. Water absorption capacity was expressed by swell ratios for seed weight, seed dimension, and volume of water changes before and after soaking. Seed hardness test was conducted by a one-bite method using two food-texture analyzers: a TMS-2000 equipped with shear cell (SC) and a TA-XT2i equipped with either a single blade (SB), a 2-mm probe (PB), a 75-mm cylinder (CY), or a 16-probe pea rigs (PR). The results showed that hardness testing by CY with ten seeds (CV=0.14), SB with 5 seeds (CV=0.11), and SC with 30 g steamed seeds (CV=0.14) produced dependable and consistent results with low coefficient of variance. However, SC may not be practical for early plant selection in a breeding program due to a relatively large sample requirement. Seed size was negatively, whereas swell ratio by weight and volume was positively, correlated with seed hardness, and therefore, can be used as indirect selection indicators for seed hardness

Amphibian Biodiversity Survey - Wetland Area Southwest of Montana Tech

The primary goal of this project was to launch a pilot population study in the spring-fed wetland area southwest of Montana Tech to establish baseline data on density, distribution, abundance, and diversity of amphibians in the area. The current confirmed species at the select site is the Columbia spotted frog (Rana luteiventris). Based on preliminary habitat assessment and existing literature, other species possibilities included the long-toed salamander (Ambrystoma macrodactylum) boreal chorus frog (Pseudacris maculata), the Rocky Mountain tailed frog (Ascaphus montanus), and the leopard frog (Rana pipiens), (Werner et al. 2004) though the latter species is considered unlikely based on the specie’s declining status (Werner 2003; Werner et al. 2004). The project’s secondary goal was to collect basic habitat and environmental data: vegetation, precipitation, temperature. The third goal was to explore correlations between species prevalence and environmental data to expand the scientific understanding of population dynamics in the field of amphibian studies (see: Ferner, 2007; Dodd, 2010)

Incorporating Volunteer Mentors to Strengthen Extension Programs

The University of Kentucky Volunteer Administrative Academy established a Volunteer Mentoring program that can be used in all program areas throughout Extension. The program is designed to assist Extension professionals and to provide tenured volunteers an opportunity to use and engage their own leadership talents and skills. The mentoring program is a tool kit that includes a planning aid, position description, and supervision strategy to assist in implementing the program

Incorporating Volunteer Mentors to Strengthen Extension Programs

The University of Kentucky Volunteer Administrative Academy established a Volunteer Mentoring program that can be used in all program areas throughout Extension. The program is designed to assist Extension professionals and to provide tenured volunteers an opportunity to use and engage their own leadership talents and skills. The mentoring program is a tool kit that includes a planning aid, position description, and supervision strategy to assist in implementing the program

Report: 2022 ALA-CORE National Binding Survey

The American Library Association (ALA) Core Preservation Administration Interest Group (PAIG) held a Symposium on the Future of Library Binding in 2022. Following the symposium, the ALA Core Library Binding Practices Survey Team (hereafter, “Team”) was convened to explore issues that arose during the symposium. The Team members volunteered to create a survey on current library binding practices to gain a better understanding of who is using library binding as a preservation and access method, how they are using such services, and the challenges that face the community

Creation of a universal experimental protocol for the investigation of transfer and persistence of trace evidence:Part 2 – Implementation and preliminary data

This is the second paper on the development and implementation of a universal experimental protocol for transfer and persistence of trace evidence. Here, we present the results of five individual researchers who implemented the universal experimental protocol for the first time. Over 2500 images were collected, computationally analysed and statistically compared. The results were shown to be reliable and consistent under all conditions tested and were used to model the rate of loss of transferred particles over a 7-day timescale. The protocol was additionally extended to include a test of camera settings. The protocol was found to be useable and robust in this preliminary trial paving the way for it to be deployed more widely

Pathologies of the large-N limit for RP^{N-1}, CP^{N-1}, QP^{N-1} and mixed isovector/isotensor sigma-models

We compute the phase diagram in the N\to\infty limit for lattice RP^{N-1}, CP^{N-1} and QP^{N-1} sigma-models with the quartic action, and more generally for mixed isovector/isotensor models. We show that the N=\infty limit exhibits phase transitions that are forbidden for any finite N. We clarify the origin of these pathologies by examining the exact solution of the one-dimensional model: we find that there are complex zeros of the partition function that tend to the real axis as N\to\infty. We conjecture the correct phase diagram for finite N as a function of the spatial dimension d. Along the way, we prove some new correlation inequalities for a class of N-component sigma-models, and we obtain some new results concerning the complex zeros of confluent hypergeometric functions.Comment: LaTeX, 88 pages, 33 figure