Quantitative trait loci (QTLs) linked with root growth in lettuce (Lactuca sativa) seedlings

In-field variation of transplanted lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) due to variable soil and environmental conditions is one of the major restrictions in the optimization of production and yield. Marker-assisted breeding for lettuce varieties with a more rapid rooting phenotype has the potential to improve the performance of lettuce transplants. This study aimed to identify traits linked with increased primary root length, lateral root length and lateral root emergence in 14-day L. sativa seedlings from an intra-specific cross (Saladin × Iceberg). In total, 16 significant quantitative trait loci (QTLs) were associated with increased root growth traits that would allow direct introgression of the traits. Six of the QTLs were associated with increased primary root growth, accounting for 60.2% of the genetic variation for the trait. Three QTLs were associated with lateral root growth (38.6% of genetic variation); two QTLs were associated with lateral root length density (27.6% of genetic variation) and three with root number density (33.4% of genetic variation), and two QTLs were associated with mean lateral root length (21.1% of genetic variation). The statistical QTLs were located across 9 different linkage groups (LGs) representing loci on 7 of the 9 L. sativa chromosomes. A combination of restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLPs) and Kompetitive allele specific PCR (KASPs) markers linked to these rooting traits were identified, which could allow breeders to select for a rapid establishment phenotype

Lacustrine stromatolites: Useful structures for environmental interpretation – an example from the Miocene Ebro Basin

The significance of stromatolites as depositional environmental indicators and the underlying causes of lamination in the lacustrine realm are poorly understood. Stromatolites in a ca 600 m thick Miocene succession in the Ebro Basin are good candidates to shed light on these issues because they are intimately related to other lacustrine carbonate and sulphate facies, grew under variable environmental conditions and show distinct lamination patterns. These stromatolites are associated with wave-related, clastic-carbonate laminated limestones. Both facies consist of calcite and variable amounts of dolomite. Thin planar stromatolites (up to 10 cm thick and less than 6 m long) occurred in very shallow water. These stromatolites represented first biological colonization after: (i) subaerial exposure in the palustrine environment (i.e. at the beginning of deepening cycles); or (ii) erosion due to surge action, then coating very irregular surfaces on laminated limestones (i.e. through shallowing or deepening cycles). Sometimes they are associated with evaporative pumping. Stratiform stromatolites (10 to 30 cm high and tens of metres long) and domed stromatolites (10 to 30 cm high and long) developed in deeper settings, between the surge periods that produced hummocky cross-stratification and horizontal lamination offshore. Changes in stromatolite lamina shape, and thus in the growth forms through time, can be attributed to changes in water depth, whereas variations in lamina continuity are linked to water energy and sediment supply. Growth of the stromatolites resulted from in situ calcite precipitation and capture of minor amounts of fine-grained carbonate particles. Based on texture, four types of simple laminae are distinguished. The simple micrite and microsparite laminae can be grouped into light and dark composite laminae, which represent, respectively, high and low Precipitation/Evaporation ratio periods. Different lamination patterns provide new ideas for the interpretation of microbial laminations as a function of variations in climate-dependent parameters (primarily the Precipitation/Evaporation ratio) over variable timescales

Ab initio Quantum and ab initio Molecular Dynamics of the Dissociative Adsorption of Hydrogen on Pd(100)

The dissociative adsorption of hydrogen on Pd(100) has been studied by ab initio quantum dynamics and ab initio molecular dynamics calculations. Treating all hydrogen degrees of freedom as dynamical coordinates implies a high dimensionality and requires statistical averages over thousands of trajectories. An efficient and accurate treatment of such extensive statistics is achieved in two steps: In a first step we evaluate the ab initio potential energy surface (PES) and determine an analytical representation. Then, in an independent second step dynamical calculations are performed on the analytical representation of the PES. Thus the dissociation dynamics is investigated without any crucial assumption except for the Born-Oppenheimer approximation which is anyhow employed when density-functional theory calculations are performed. The ab initio molecular dynamics is compared to detailed quantum dynamical calculations on exactly the same ab initio PES. The occurence of quantum oscillations in the sticking probability as a function of kinetic energy is addressed. They turn out to be very sensitive to the symmetry of the initial conditions. At low kinetic energies sticking is dominated by the steering effect which is illustrated using classical trajectories. The steering effects depends on the kinetic energy, but not on the mass of the molecules. Zero-point effects lead to strong differences between quantum and classical calculations of the sticking probability. The dependence of the sticking probability on the angle of incidence is analysed; it is found to be in good agreement with experimental data. The results show that the determination of the potential energy surface combined with high-dimensional dynamical calculations, in which all relevant degrees of freedon are taken into account, leads to a detailed understanding of the dissociation dynamics of hydrogen at a transition metal surface.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures, subm. to Phys. Rev.

Effect of network connectivity on behavior of synthetic Broborg Hillfort glasses

There is wide industrial interest in developing robust models of long-term (>100 years) glass durability. Archeological glass analogs, glasses of similar composition, and alteration conditions to those being tested for durability can be used to evaluate and inform such models. Two such analog glasses from a 1500-year-old vitrified hillfort near Uppsala, Sweden have previously been identified as potential analogs for low concentration Fe-bearing aluminosilicate nuclear waste glasses. However, open questions remain regarding the melting environment from which these historic glasses were formed and the effect of these conditions on their chemical durability. A key factor to answering the previous melting and durability questions is the redox state of Fe in the starting and final materials. Past work has shown that the melting conditions of a glass-forming melt may influence the redox ratio value (Fe+3/∑Fe), a measure of a glass's redox state, and both melting conditions and the redox ratio may influence the glass alteration behavior. Synthetic analogs of the hillfort glasses have been produced using either fully oxidized or reduced Fe precursors to address this question. In this study, the melting behavior, glass transition temperature, oxidation state, network structure, and chemical durability of these synthesized glass analogs is presented. Resulting data suggests that the degree of network connectivity as impacted by the oxidation state of iron impacted the behavior of the glass-forming melt but in this case does not affect the chemical durability of the final glass. Glasses with a lower degree of melt connectivity were found to have a lower viscosity, resulting in a lower glass transition temperature and softening temperature, as well as in a lower temperature of foam onset and temperature of foam maximum. This lower degree of network connectivity most likely played a more significant role in accelerating the conversion of batch chemicals into glass than the presence of water vapor in the furnace's atmosphere. Future work will focus on using the results from this work with outcomes from other aspects of this project to evaluate long-term glass alteration models

Physical and optical properties of the International Simple Glass

Radioactive waste immobilization is a means to limit the release of radionuclides from various waste streams into the environment over a timescale of hundreds to many thousands of years. Incorporation of radionuclide-containing wastes into borosilicate glass during vitrification is one potential route to accomplish such immobilization. To facilitate comparisons and assessments of reproducibility across experiments and laboratories, a six-component borosilicate glass (Si, B, Na, Al, Ca, Zr) known as the International Simple Glass (ISG) was developed by international consensus as a compromise between simplicity and similarity to waste glasses. Focusing on a single glass composition with a multi-pronged approach utilizing state-of-the-art, multi-scale experimental and theoretical tools provides a common database that can be used to assess relative importance of mechanisms and models. Here we present physical property data (both published and previously unpublished) on a single batch of ISG, which was cast into individual ingots that were distributed to the collaborators. Properties from the atomic scale to the macroscale, including composition and elemental impurities, phase purity, density, thermal properties, mechanical properties, optical and vibrational properties, and the results of molecular dynamics simulations are presented. In addition, information on the surface composition and morphology after polishing is included. Although the existing literature on the alteration of ISG is not extensively reviewed here, the results of well-controlled static alteration experiments are presented here as a point of reference for other performance investigations

Exclusive electroproduction of J/psi mesons at HERA

The exclusive electroproduction of J/psi mesons, ep->epJ/psi, has been studied with the ZEUS detector at HERA for virtualities of the exchanged photon in the ranges 0.15<Q^2<0.8 GeV^2 and 2<Q^2<100 GeV^2 using integrated luminosities of 69 pb^-1 and 83 pb^-1, respectively.The photon-proton centre-of-mass energy was in the range 30<W<220 GeV and the squared four-momentum transfer at the proton vertex |t|<1.The cross sections and decay angular distributions are presented as functions of Q^2, W and t. The effective parameters of the Pomeron trajectory are in agreement with those found in J/psi photoproduction. The spin-density matrix elements, calculated from the decay angular distributions, are consistent with the hypothesis of s-channel helicity conservation. The ratio of the longitudinal to transverse cross sections, sigma_L/sigma_T, grows with Q^2, whilst no dependence on W or t is observed. The results are in agreement with perturbative QCD calculations and exhibit a strong sensitivity to the gluon distribution in the proton.Comment: 33 pages, 10 figures. Submitted to Nuclear Physics

The provenances of your simulation data

This paper proposes a set of principles for an international database of building materials that would meet Quality Criteria for use in building performance simulation. The proposal draws inspiration from the International Glazing Data Base, but suggests that this inspiration goes as far as the quality assurance goal, not the practice. Rather than propose new means of storage of existing information, or new means of guaranteeing the quality of that data, it proposes instead that all data used in simulation should have an associated quality score based upon the quality of the tests used to derive the data; the quality of the testing laboratory; and the reliability of the error estimates. It includes examples of how this form of Meta-Data might be included into a range of different Building Performance Simulation Packages, and how a commercial building product search engine might deliver the quality score as well as the data