Detection of seedborne fungi in Stylosanthes guianensis, S. hamata, and S. scabra

The effects of pretreatment with sodium hypochlorite and plating onto potato dextrose agar, oatmeal agar, water agar and blotter of the range and incidence of fungi isolated from seeds of Stylosanthes species were studied. A survey was made of the fungi associated with 39 seed lots of S. guianensis, 25 lots of S. hamata, and 14 lots of S. scabra. Oatmeal agar with seed pretreatment was the most suitable method. The most frequently isolated fungi were Phoma glomerata, Rhizoctonia solani, Fusarium oxysporum, Alternaria alternata, Cladosporium cladosporioides and Penicillium species. Variation in incidence and species of seedborne fungi was observed among the three Stylosanthes species tested. Hard seed of S. hamata had a much lower incidence of seedborne fungi than other seed. The majority of fungi were isolated from the seed coat. Only a small percentage of infection was found in the seed endosperm. The pathogenicity test showed that all 78 isolates of 27 fungal species tested reduced the length of seedlings growing on water agar surface; where as Colletotrichum truncatum, C. gloeosporioides, Fusarium oxysporum, F. avenaceum, Botrytis cinerea, Rhizoctonia salani and F. acuminatum killed most of the test seedlings

Effects of sulphuric acid and hot water treatments on seedborne fungi and germination of Stylosanthes hamata, S. guianensis and S. scabra

Effects of concentrated sulphuric acid and hot water treatments on seedborne fungi and seed germination were studied using a seed lot of Stylosanthes hamata with heavy fungal infection. The effectiveness of the methods developed was further tested on S. guianensis, S. scabra and other lots of S. hamata. The most effective treatments for reducing fungal infection without reducing seed viability were immersion in sulphuric acid for 6 min, immersion in water at 55 degree centigrade for 10 min, and immersion in water at 55 degree centifrade for 5 min + immersion in sulphuric acid for 3 min. The total percentage frequency of infected seeds was reduced from 58.5 percent to 17.3 percent, 12.3 percent and 10.5 percent in S. hamata; from 30.8 percent to 5.5 percent, 4.3 percent and 2.5 percent in S. guianensis; and from 49.3 percent to 13.8 percent, 7.3 percent and 4.3 percent in S. scabra, respectively, by these three treatments. The percentage of hard seeds was reduced from 37 percent to 2 percent in S. guianensis, from 70 percent to 26 percent in S. scabra, and from 44 percent to 17 percent in S. hamata by immersion in water at 55 degree centigrade for 5 min followed by immersion in sulphuric acid for 3 min. Immersion in water at 55 degree centigrade for 10 min also reduced the percentage of hard seed from 37 percent to 6 percent in S. guianensis

Quality monitoring for a water reclamation system in a mandarin orange canning factory

To conserve water in the mandarin orange canning industry, a water reclamation system was designed for a production scale of 50 kL/h. The discharged water from mandarin transportation using a conveyor belt was collected in a pool, chlorinated, filtered by active carbon, and then UV-sterilized. This water was then reused for the processes of segmenting, transportation, and washing after alkaline solution treatment. The water quality had been monitored during the water reclamation. The results showed that the reused water quality was improved by the system and the main physicochemical properties and sensory index were conformed to the requirements of Chinese National Standard GB5749 except the index of chemical oxygen demand. The reused water contained about 0.4 ppm of chlorine and 10 μg/mL of pectin. The total bacterial count was and no Escherichia coli was detected. The seasonal production monitoring results showed that the quality of disposed water from this system remained stable. This technology might be useful for water reclamation in other fruit processing plants

Data quality control system and long-term performance monitor of the LHAASO-KM2A

International audienceThe KM2A is the largest sub-array of the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO). It consists of 5216 electromagnetic particle detectors (EDs) and 1188 muon detectors (MDs). The data recorded by the EDs and MDs are used to reconstruct primary information of cosmic ray and gamma-ray showers. This information is used for physical analysis in gamma-ray astronomy and cosmic ray physics. To ensure the reliability of the LHAASO-KM2A data, a three-level quality control system has been established. It is used to monitor the status of detector units, stability of reconstructed parameters and the performance of the array based on observations of the Crab Nebula and Moon shadow. This paper will introduce the control system and its application on the LHAASO-KM2A data collected from August 2021 to July 2023. During this period, the pointing and angular resolution of the array were stable. From the observations of the Moon shadow and Crab Nebula, the results achieved using the two methods are consistent with each other. According to the observation of the Crab Nebula at energies from 25 TeV to 100 TeV, the time averaged pointing errors are estimated to be $-0.003^{\circ} \pm 0.005^{\circ}$ and $0.001^{\circ} \pm 0.006^{\circ}$ in the R.A. and Dec directions, respectively