Response to Reciprocal Full-sib and Mass Selection in Corn (Zea mays L.)

Responses to mass selection for number of ears per plant and reciprocal full-sib selection for grain yield in 2 synthetic varieties of corn (Zea mays L.) were determined. Ten cycles of mass selection were effective for increasing number of ears per plant, but no correlated response for grain yield improvement was realized. Reciprocal full-sib selection was effective in increasing grain yield of the 2 parental varieties and their cross and in increasing number of ears per plant. No evidence was obtained that indicated genetic variability decreased in the parent varieties after 4 cycles of reciprocal full-sib selection or after 5 cycles of selection for the interpopulation full-sib crosses. Reciprocal full-sib selection was more effective than mass selection for improvement of other agronomic traits

Working Climate with Fatigue Levels of Timber Industry Workers in Probolinggo

The high-temperature work environment is an additional burden of heat pressure that results in the occurrence of subjective deficiencies in the worker and may cause disruption to the workforce. The purpose of this study is to analyze the relationship between work climate with the level of fatigue in workers in PT. Kutai Timber Indonesia Probolinggo. This research use analytic survey method with the cross-sectional approach and sampling technique using Cluster Random Sampling of 134 samples in Production I section that is hot press, shikumi, and putty. The study was conducted in January 2018. Data were analyzed by Chi-Square statistical test. The result of the research shows that most of the working climate that exceeds threshold value with high fatigue category is 70 respondents (52,5%), almost half of them are 40 respondents (29,9%) with the moderate level of errors. While in the working climate that does not exceed the threshold value with the category of fatigue rate is a small number of 20 respondents (14.9%) and high fatigue rate of 4 respondents (3.0%). Calculation of Chi-Square statistic test with significance level α = 0,05 obtained result ρ = 0,000 (0,000 <0,05) then H0 is rejected, so there is the significant relation between work climate with fatigue level at the worker in PT.KTI (Kutai Timber Indonesia) Probolinggo City. To minimize heat stress from a work climate that exceeds threshold value, it is better for the company to use an exhaust fan where the heat from the working environment sourced from the zinc roof and the production machinery is pulled out of the environment with lower temperatures, periodic health checks on labor, before work stretching for 3-5 minutes and suggest workers consume water every 20 minutes in the work

Automatic transmission: ethnicity, racialization and the car

YesThis article is based on ethnographic research carried out in Bradford, an ethnically diverse city situated in the north of England. The sample of over 60 participants mostly comprises males of British Pakistani Muslim heritage but varies in terms other markers of identity such as social class, profession and residential/working locale. The article analyses the cultural value and meaning of cars within a multicultural context and how a consumer object can feed into the processes which refine and embed racialized identities. Small cases studies reveal the concrete and discursive ways through which ideas around identity and ethnicity are transmitted and how, in particular, racialization continues to feature as a live, active and recognisable process in everyday experience

The South Pole Telescope

A new 10 meter diameter telescope is being constructed for deployment at the NSF South Pole research station. The telescope is designed for conducting large-area millimeter and sub-millimeter wave surveys of faint, low contrast emission, as required to map primary and secondary anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background. To achieve the required sensitivity and resolution, the telescope design employs an off-axis primary with a 10m diameter clear aperture. The full aperture and the associated optics will have a combined surface accuracy of better than 20 microns rms to allow precision operation in the submillimeter atmospheric windows. The telescope will be surrounded with a large reflecting ground screen to reduce sensitivity to thermal emission from the ground and local interference. The optics of the telescope will support a square degree field of view at 2mm wavelength and will feed a new 1000-element micro-lithographed planar bolometric array with superconducting transition-edge sensors and frequency-multiplexed readouts. The first key project will be to conduct a survey over approximately 4000 degrees for galaxy clusters using the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect. This survey should find many thousands of clusters with a mass selection criteria that is remarkably uniform with redshift. Armed with redshifts obtained from optical and infrared follow-up observations, it is expected that the survey will enable significant constraints to be placed on the equation of state of the dark energy.Comment: Written prior to SPIE conference, June 21-25, 2004. 19 pages, 13 figures. Also available (with higher resolution figures) at http://spt.uchicago.edu

Anaphylactoid purpura like vasculitis following fibrinolytic therapy: role of the immune response to streptokinase

We report the case of a patient who presented with a clinical picture of serum sickness with some characteristics of anaphylactoid purpura (Henoch-Schonlein purpura) five days after receiving streptokinase as a treatment for myocardial infarction. The appearance of Henoch-Schonlein like vasculitis after streptokinase treatment was particularly intriguing in view of the common association of streptococcus infection with this type of vasculitis. The production of streptokinase specific IgG and IgA antibodies was studied in the patient and compared with six controls treated with identical doses of streptokinase without adverse effects. A more rapid increase of streptokinase specific IgA was detected in the patient, with a significant higher amount of streptokinase specific IgA and IgG after six days of treatment. These results suggest that different kinetics could induce a precipitation of the immune complexes responsible for vasculitis. However, we cannot exclude that the IgA found in the vessel walls was only an "innocent bystander" deposited as a secondary event

Absence of adverse effect on thyroid function and red blood cells in a population of workers exposed to cobalt compounds.

CONTEXT: Hypothyroidism has been observed in the fifties and sixties as an undesirable side-effect of cobalt therapy used for its erythropoietic properties in the treatment of anemia. OBJECTIVE: This study aims at evaluating the possible impact of both cumulative (long-term) and recent occupational exposure to cobalt on thyroid function and red blood cells. METHODS AND SETTING: A cross-sectional survey was conducted from February 2008 to August 2009 in a population of 249 male workers from a cobalt production department in the North of Belgium. The possible effect of cobalt exposure on thyroid and red blood cells was investigated through multiple regression analyses. RESULTS: Blood cobalt ranged from undetectable to 3.20 μg/100ml (median 0.10); urinary cobalt from 0.30 to 204.30 μg/g(creat) (median 3.90) and long-term exposure to cobalt ranged from 0.15 to 6990.46 μg/g(creat) · years (median 106.09). No effect of cobalt exposure on thyroid or red blood cell parameters was observed at these levels of exposure. CONCLUSION: The results support the absence of effects on the thyroid and red blood cells when occupational exposure to cobalt is kept below the recommended biological limit of occupational exposure (15 μg Co/g(creat) in urine)