Synthetic Brassica napus L.: Development and Studies on Morphological Characters, Yield Attributes, and Yield

Brassica napus was synthesized by hybridization between its diploid progenitor species B. rapa and B. oleracea followed by chromosome doubling. Cross with B. rapa as a female parent was only successful. Among three colchicine treatments (0.10, 0.15, and 0.20%), 0.15% gave the highest success (86%) of chromosome doubling in the hybrids (AC; 2n = 19). Synthetic B. napus (AACC, 2n = 38) was identified with bigger petals, fertile pollens and seed setting. Synthetic B. napus had increased growth over parents and exhibited wider ranges with higher coefficients of variations than parents for morphological and yield contributing characters, and yield per plant. Siliqua length as well as beak length in synthetic B. napus was longer than those of the parents. Number of seeds per siliqua, 1000-seed weight and seed yield per plant in synthetic B. napus were higher than those of the parents. Although flowering time in synthetic B. napus was earlier than both parents, however the days to maturity was little higher over early maturing B. rapa parent. The synthesized B. napus has great potential to produce higher seed yield. Further screening and evaluation is needed for selection of desirable genotypes having improved yield contributing characters and higher seed yield

Strained graphene: tight-binding and density functional calculations

We determine the band structure of graphene under strain using density functional calculations. The ab-initio band strucure is then used to extract the best fit to the tight-binding hopping parameters used in a recent microscopic model of strained graphene. It is found that the hopping parameters may increase or decrease upon increasing strain, depending on the orientation of the applied stress. The fitted values are compared with an available parametrization for the dependence of the orbital overlap on the distance separating the two carbon atoms. It is also found that strain does not induce a gap in graphene, at least for deformations up to 10%

Effect of fertilizer management on growth and yield of fragrant fine rice varieties in rainfed condition

A field experiment was carried out at the Banglasesh Institute of Nuclear Agriculture (BINA) farm, Mymensingh during July to December 2010, to find out optimum variety and optimum fertility management of aromatic fine rice grown in transplant rainfed condition. The experiment was laid out in split-plot design with three replications assigning the variety in the main plot and different fertilizer management in the sub-plot. Results indicated that the effect of aromatic fine rice varieties and fertilizer management showed significant variation in respect of yield contributing characters and yield. At harvest, maximum number of effective tillers/hill (12.7 and 12.5), number of grains/panicle (105.6 and 115.2), 1000 grain weight (13.25 and 19.97 g), grain yield (3.29 and 3.30 t/ha) and straw yield (5.0 and 5.7 t/ha) were obtained from the application of T6 (NPKSZn; RD BARC, 2005) @ 126.9, 19.81, 65, 43.3 and 1.8 kg/ha+Cow dung at 5.0 t/ha) and T9 (Urea super granules (USG) @ 1 (1.8 g) granules/spot) + PKSZn; (RD BARC, 2005 @19.81, 65, 43.3 and 1.8 kg/ha). The fertilizer management T6 (NPKSZn; RD BARC, 2005) @ 126.9, 19.81, 65, 43.3 and 1.8 kg/ha+Cow dung at 5.0 t/ha) and T9 (Urea super granules (USG) @ 1 (1.8 g) granules/spot)+PKSZn; (RD BARC,2005 @ 19.81, 65, 43.3 and 1.8 kg/ha) produced the highest grain yield of Ukunimadhu (2.95 t/ha) and Kataribhog (3.96 t/ha)

Optimizing of planting density on the growth and yield of aromatic fine rice in rainfed condition

A field experiment was carried out at the Bangladesh Institute of Nuclear Agriculture (BINA) farm, Mymensingh, Bangladesh during July to December, 2010, in view to find out the optimum plant spacing for the highest yield of aromatic fine rice grown in rain fed season. The experiment was carried out with four aromatic fine rice (V1= BRRI dhan34, V2= Ukunimadhu, V3= Basmati and V4= Kataribhog) and four different plant spacings (S1= 15cm×15cm, S2= 20cm × 15cm, S3= 20cm × 20cm, S4= 20cm × 25cm). The experiment was laid out in split-plot design with three replications assigning variety in the main plot and the spacing in the sub plot. It was observed that almost all the plant characters and yield were significantly affected by the aromatic fine rice and plant spacing. Among the spacings tested against the four varieties, the highest grain yield was obtained at 20 cm × 15 cm and 20 cm × 20 cm spacing. The spacing 20 cm×15 cm and 20 cm × 20 cm were proven more appropriate because it produced more number of effective tillers hill-1 more number of grains panicle-1 and ultimately produced the higher grain yield than other two spacings. Among the varieties Kataribhog, Basmati and Ukunimadhu produced higher grain yield at 20 cm × 15 cm and 20 cm × 20 cm

Defoliation and its effect on morphology, biochemical parameters, yield and yield attributes of soybean

Loss of foliage in soybean crop through leaf eating insects and diseases is common in tropical and sub-tropical countries where farmers do not protect their crops adequately. Experiment was performed under sub-tropical condition (24°8' N, 90°0' E) with four levels of defoliations (0, 25, 50 and 75% from base of the canopy). Defoliations were imposed at the visible bud initiation stage to investigate the growth and yield attributes in two popular soybean varieties during January to April 2011. Results revealed that degrees of defoliations simultaneously decreased leaf area and total dry matter (TDM) production irrespective of varieties. Defoliation not only reduced source sizes but also decreased total sink (pod) production resulting in lower seed yields. However, basal 25% defoliation did not decrease TDM, seed weight/plant and seed yield/ha significantly indicating the fact that the soybean plant, in general, can tolerate 25% basal leaf loss of the canopy. Exceeding this threshold limit (>25%) of the canopy defoliation reduced TDM and seed yield significantly. Implication of the results in relation to pest management was also discussed

Comprehensive Characterization of Mesenchymal Stem Cells from Human Placenta and Fetal Membrane and Their Response to Osteoactivin Stimulation

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are the most promising seed cells for cell therapy and can be isolated from various sources of human adult tissues such as bone marrow (BM-MSC) and adipose tissue. However, cells from these tissues must be obtained through invasive procedures. We, therefore, characterized MSCs isolated from fresh placenta (Pl-MSC) and fetal membrane (Mb-MSC) through morphological and fluorescent-activated cell sorting (FACS). MSC frequency is higher in membrane than placenta (2.14%  ± 0.65 versus 15.67%  ± 0.29%). Pl/Mb-MSCs in vitro expansion potential was significantly higher than BM-MSCs. We demonstrated that one of the MSC-specific marker is sufficient for MSC isolation and that culture in specific media is the optimal way for selecting very homogenous MSC population. These MSCs could be differentiated into mesodermal cells expressing cell markers and cytologic staining consistent with mature osteoblasts and adipocytes. Transcriptomic analysis and cytokine arrays demonstrated broad similarity between placenta- and membrane-derived MSCs and only discrete differences with BM-MSCs with enrichment of networks involved in bone differentiation. Pl/Mb-MSCs displayed higher osteogenic differentiation potential than BM-MSC when their response to osteoactivin was evaluated. Fetal-tissue-derived mesenchymal cells may, therefore, be considered as a major source of MSCs to reach clinical scale banking in particular for bone regeneration

Evaluation and selection of rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) mutants for higher seed yield

A field experiment was conducted to investigate some morpho-physiological characters, yield attributes and yield of three rapeseed mutants along with mother variety. Results revealed that LAI and AGR increased till 65 days after sowing (DAS) followed by a decline at later growth stages whereas RGR decreased with age of the plants. Two plant characters such as LAI and AGR contributed to the superior TDM production. Results indicated that a high yielding rapeseed genotype should possess larger LAI, higher TDM production ability, superior AGR at all growth stages, superior biochemical parameters which result in superior yield components and seed yield

Temperature dependence of surface reconstructions of Au on Pd(110)

Surface reconstructions of Au film on Pd(110) substrate are studied using a local Einstein approximation to quasiharmonic theory with the Sutton-Chen interatomic potential. Temperature dependent surface free energies for different coverages and surface structures are calculated. Experimentally observed transformations from $(1\times1)$ to $(1 \times 2)$ and $(1 \times 3)$ structures can be explained in the framework of this model. Also conditions for Stranski-Krastanov growth mode are found to comply with experiments. The domain of validity of the model neglecting mixing entropy is analyzed.Comment: 7 pages, REVTeX two-column format, 3 postscript figures available on request from [email protected] To appear in Phys. Rev. Letter