666 research outputs found
Evaluation of biofungicides for control of clubroot on canola
Non-Peer ReviewedClubroot of canola, caused by the protist pathogen Plasmodiophora brassicae (Pb), is an
emerging threat to canola production in western Canada. Effective/practical control options
are currently lacking. This study was initiated to assess registered microbial fungicides for
control of clubroot on canola. Selected biofungicides were initially applied as a soil drench
and the fungicides Allegro and Ranman were also included for comparisons. Selected
products were further evaluated at varying concentrations, soil drench volumes, and for seed
treatment. At moderate disease pressure, the biofungicides Serenade and Prestop, as well as
synthetic fungicides Allegro and Ranman were highly effective as a soil-drench treatment,
reducing clubroot severity by 85â100% in controlled conditions. Biofungicide concentration
appeared to be important while soil-drench volumes may be reduced. All products, however,
were significantly less effective or ineffective under extremely high disease pressure. All
products were less efficacious in trials using infested field soils, a circumstance that may be
related to treatment timing. Results from seed-treatment trials were too variable to draw a
conclusion but there was a strong indication that this approach be successful though more
research is required on microbial formulations. Serenade, Prestop, Allegro, and Ranman
should be further evaluated under field conditions for clubroot control
Characterization of AFLP sequences from regions of maize B chromosome defined by 12 B-10L translocations
Maize B chromosome sequences have been previously cloned by microdissection, and all are proven to be highly repetitive, to be homologous to the normal complement, and to show no similarity to any published gene other than mobile elements. In this study, we isolated sequences from defined B regions. The strategy involved identification and then mapping of AFLP-derived B fragments before cloning. Of 14 B AFLPs, 13 were mapped by 12 B-10L translocations: 3 around the centromeric knob region, 3 in the proximal euchromatic, I around the border of proximal euchromatic and distal heterochromatic, and 6 in the distal heterochromatic region of the B long arm. The AFLP fragments were cloned and sequenced. Analogous to the microdissected sequences, all sequences were repetitive, and all but two were highly homologous to the A chromosomes. FISH signals of all but three clones appeared in pachytene B as well as in somatic A and B chromosomes. None of these clones exhibits identity to any published gene. Six clones displayed homology to two centromeric BACs, four to sequences of chromosomes 3, 4, 7, and 10, four to retrotransposons, and three to no sequence deposited in GenBank. Furthermore, flanking regions of two highly B-specific clones were characterized, showing extension of a B-exclusive nature. The possibility of the presence of novel B repeat(s) is discussed
Regular and stochastic behavior of Parkinsonian pathological tremor signals
Regular and stochastic behavior in the time series of Parkinsonian
pathological tremor velocity is studied on the basis of the statistical theory
of discrete non-Markov stochastic processes and flicker-noise spectroscopy. We
have developed a new method of analyzing and diagnosing Parkinson's disease
(PD) by taking into consideration discreteness, fluctuations, long- and
short-range correlations, regular and stochastic behavior, Markov and
non-Markov effects and dynamic alternation of relaxation modes in the initial
time signals. The spectrum of the statistical non-Markovity parameter reflects
Markovity and non-Markovity in the initial time series of tremor. The
relaxation and kinetic parameters used in the method allow us to estimate the
relaxation scales of diverse scenarios of the time signals produced by the
patient in various dynamic states. The local time behavior of the initial time
correlation function and the first point of the non-Markovity parameter give
detailed information about the variation of pathological tremor in the local
regions of the time series. The obtained results can be used to find the most
effective method of reducing or suppressing pathological tremor in each
individual case of a PD patient. Generally, the method allows one to assess the
efficacy of the medical treatment for a group of PD patients.Comment: 39 pages, 10 figures, 1 table Physica A, in pres
Cosmological equations and Thermodynamics on Apparent Horizon in Thick Braneworld
We derive the generalized Friedmann equation governing the cosmological
evolution inside the thick brane model in the presence of two curvature
correction terms: a four-dimensional scalar curvature from induced gravity on
the brane, and a five-dimensional Gauss-Bonnet curvature term. We find two
effective four-dimensional reductions of the Friedmann equation in some limits
and demonstrate that they can be rewritten as the first law of thermodynamics
on the apparent horizon of thick braneworld.Comment: 25 pages, no figure, a definition corrected, several references
added, more motivation and discussio
Morphologies of AGN host galaxies using HST/ACS in the CDFS-GOODS field
Using HST/ACS images in four bands F435W, F606W, F775W and F850LP, we
identify optical counterparts to the X-ray sources in the Chandra Deep Field
South in the GOODS South field. A detailed study has been made of these sources
to study their morphological types. We use methods like decomposition of galaxy
luminosity profiles, color maps and visual inspection of 192 galaxies which are
identified as possible optical counterparts of Chandra X-ray sources in the
CDFS-GOODS field. We find that most moderate luminosity AGN hosts are bulge
dominated in the redshift range (z \approx 0.4-1.3), but not
merging/interacting galaxies. This implies probable fueling of the moderate
luminosity AGN by mechanisms other than those merger driven.Comment: pdflatex, accepted in ApSS. revisions in tex
Robust H-infinity filtering for 2-D systems with intermittent measurements
This paper is concerned with the problem of robust Hâ filtering for uncertain two-dimensional (2-D) systems with intermittent measurements. The parameter uncertainty is assumed to be of polytopic type, and the measurements transmission is assumed to be imperfect, which is modeled by a stochastic variable satisfying the Bernoulli random binary distribution. Our attention is focused on the design of an Hâ filter such that the filtering error system is stochastically stable and preserves a guaranteed Hâ performance. This problem is solved in the parameter-dependent framework, which is much less conservative than the quadratic approach. By introducing some slack matrix variables, the coupling between the positive definite matrices and the system matrices is eliminated, which greatly facilitates the filter design procedure. The corresponding results are established in terms of linear matrix inequalities, which can be easily tested by using standard numerical software. An example is provided to show the effectiveness of the proposed approac
Use of cultivar resistance and crop rotation with Bacillus subtilis for clubroot control in canola
Non-Peer ReviewedThis study was conducted to assess additional strategies potentially complimentary to cultivar
resistance or biocontrol in control of clubroot. New granular Bacillus subtilis formulations
and a seed dressing method were developed to facilitate biofungicide delivery in field trials.
The granular formulations were applied in furrow during seeding at 50 kg/ha to a clubroot
resistant (CR) and susceptible (CS) canola cultivar, respectively, in three field trials. The seed
dressing applied approximately 1Ă105 to 5Ă106 cfu/seed doses of the biocontrol agent, and
was evaluated on the CS cultivar seeded to different crop-rotation scenarios where the plots
had a 1-year, 3-year, or 11-year break from last canola crop. Clubroot disease pressure was
high at all trial sites with disease severity indexes (DSI) ranging from 69% to 98% on the CS
cultivar. None of the granular formulations reduced clubroot substantially, whereas the CR
cultivar showed a high effect, reducing DSI to below 15% and doubling the yield over that of
CS cultivar. Plots of varying rotation showed a pattern of clubroot pathogen pressure, with
those of 1-year break from canola being the highest. The DSI for all rotational scenarios was
high, reaching 100% in short-rotation plots. Biofungicide seed dressing did not reduce DSI,
but longer crop rotation often reduced gall size slightly, showed much milder above-ground
damage, and increased the yield significantly relative to short rotation in two separate trials.
Even a 3-year break from canola was highly beneficial, with the yield doubled as opposed to
that with only 1-year break from canola
Entangled light in transition through the generation threshold
We investigate continuous variable entangling resources on the base of
two-mode squeezing for all operational regimes of a nondegenerate optical
parametric oscillator with allowance for quantum noise of arbitrary level. The
results for the quadrature variances of a pair of generated modes are obtained
by using the exact steady-state solution of Fokker-Planck equation for the
complex P-quasiprobability distribution function. We find a simple expression
for the squeezed variances in the near-threshold range and conclude that the
maximal two-mode squeezing reaches 50% relative to the level of vacuum
fluctuations and is achieved at the pump field intensity close to the
generation threshold. The distinction between the degree of two-mode squeezing
for monostable and bistable operational regimes is cleared up.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures; Content changed: more details added to the
discussion. To be published in Phys. Rev.
The outer halos of elliptical galaxies
Recent progress is summarized on the determination of the density
distributions of stars and dark matter, stellar kinematics, and stellar
population properties, in the extended, low surface brightness halo regions of
elliptical galaxies. With integral field absorption spectroscopy and with
planetary nebulae as tracers, velocity dispersion and rotation profiles have
been followed to ~4 and ~5-8 effective radii, respectively, and in M87 to the
outer edge at ~150 kpc. The results are generally consistent with the known
dichotomy of elliptical galaxy types, but some galaxies show more complex
rotation profiles in their halos and there is a higher incidence of
misalignments, indicating triaxiality. Dynamical models have shown a range of
slopes for the total mass profiles, and that the inner dark matter densities in
ellipticals are higher than in spiral galaxies, indicating earlier assembly
redshifts. Analysis of the hot X-ray emitting gas in X-ray bright ellipticals
and comparison with dynamical mass determinations indicates that non-thermal
components to the pressure may be important in the inner ~10 kpc, and that the
properties of these systems are closely related to their group environments.
First results on the outer halo stellar population properties do not yet give a
clear picture. In the halo of one bright galaxy, lower [alpha/Fe] abundances
indicate longer star formation histories pointing towards late accretion of the
halo. This is consistent with independent evidence for on-going accretion, and
suggests a connection to the observed size evolution of elliptical galaxies
with redshift.Comment: 8 pages. Invited review to appear in the proceedings of "Galaxies and
their Masks" eds. Block, D.L., Freeman, K.C. & Puerari, I., 2010, Springer
(New York
Nicotine-activated descending facilitation on spinal NMDA-dependent reflex potentiation from pontine tegmentum in rats
This study was conducted to investigate the possible neurotransmitter that activates the descending pathways coming from the dorsolateral pontine tegmentum (DPT) to modulate spinal pelvic-urethra reflex potentiation. External urethra sphincter electromyogram (EUSE) activity in response to test stimulation (TS, 1/30 Hz) and repetitive stimulation (RS, 1 Hz) on the pelvic afferent nerve of 63 anesthetized rats were recorded with or without microinjection of nicotinic cholinergic receptor (nAChR) agonists, ACh and nicotine, to the DPT. TS evoked a baseline reflex activity with a single action potential (1.00 +/- 0.00 spikes/stimulation, n = 40), whereas RS produced a long-lasting reflex potentiation (16.14 +/- 0.96 spikes/stimulation, n = 40) that was abolished by D-2-amino-5-phosphonovaleric acid (1.60 +/- 0.89 spikes/stimulation, n = 40) and was attenuated by 2,3-dihydroxy-6-nitro-7sulfamoyl-benzo (F) quinoxaline (7.10 +/- 0.84 spikes/stimulation, n = 40). ACh and nicotine microinjections to DPT both produced facilitation on the RS-induced reflex potentiation (23.57 +/- 2.23 and 28.29 +/- 2.36 spikes/stimulation, P = 0.01, n = 10 and 20, respectively). Pretreatment of selective nicotinic receptor antagonist, chlorisondamine, reversed the facilitation on RS-induced reflex potentiation caused by nicotine (19.41 +/- 1.21 spikes/stimulation, P = 0.01, n = 10) Intrathecal WAY-100635 and spinal transection at the T(1) level both abolished the facilitation on reflex potentiation resulting from the DPT nicotine injection (12.86 +/- 3.13 and 15.57 +/- 1.72 spikes/stimulation, P < 0.01, n = 10 each). Our findings suggest that activation of nAChR at DPT may modulate N-methyl-D-aspartic acid-dependent reflex potentiation via descending serotonergic neurotransmission. This descending modulation may have physiological/pathological relevance in the neural controls of urethral closure
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