Determination of ontogenetic selection criteria for grain yield in spring barley (Hordeum vulgare) by pathcoefficient analysis

Path-coefficient analysis was performed to determine the interrelationships among grain yield, yield components (spike number per m-2, kernel number per spike, average kernel weight) and somephenological characteristics (duration and growing degree-days of vegetative and grain-filling periods) in spring barley genotypes in 2004-2005. Grain yield depended mainly on spike number per m-2 andkernel number per spike; average kernel weight had a negligible effect on grain yield in spring barley genotypes. Grain yield was significantly and positively associated with the spike number per m-2 andnegatively correlated with other characteristics studied. Spike number per m-2 had considerable negative effect on the average kernel weight. A lengthening of the grain-filling period induced an increase in the average kernel weight and a positive and significant correlation was found between the two characteristics. Spike number per m-2 and kernel number had positive direct effects on grain yield in spring barley genotypes. The growing degree-days (GDD) for vegetative period had significant positive direct effect on kernel number, and the GDD for grain-filling period had significant positive direct effect on kernel weight. The results indicated that spike number per m-2, kernel number per spike and the GDD for vegetative and grain filling period were the most reliable selection criteria for improving grain yield in spring barley in cool and short-season environments

Monitoring the changes of Lake Uluabat Ramsar site and its surroundings in the 1985-2021 period using RS and GIS methods

Ramsar sites are important ecosystems that are protected by international status, have great value in terms of biodiversity, and constitute a resource in terms of economic, cultural, scientific and recreational aspects. In this study, the change of Lake Uluabat Ramsar Site and its surroundings, between the years 1985-2021 has been observed. For this, Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) methods were used. Vegetation change in the lake and its surroundings in 1985, 2000, 2015 and 2021 with Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), and changes in water surfaces with the water indices Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) and Modified Normalized Difference Water Index (mNDWI) were analyzed by using Landsat multi-band satellite images (Landsat 5 TM, Landsat 7 ETM and Landsat 8 OLI/TIRS) as RS data. The resulting changes were monitored and the success of the indices in determining these areas and the relations of the indices with each other were questioned by Accuracy index, Kappa coefficent, and Correlation analyses. The results show 36-year long-term changes and reveal a 13.06% shrinkage of Uluabat Lake wetland and surrounding water areas with the highest kappa coefficients for mNDWI as 0.83, 0.90, 0.93, 0.97, respectively, over the years studied

Integrated short and medium term underground mine production scheduling

The development of short- and medium-term mine production schedules in isolation from each other has meant that only a local optimum can be achieved when each scheduling phase is carried out. The globally optimal solution, however, can be achieved when integrating scheduling phases and accounting for the interaction between short-term and medium-term activities simultaneously. This paper addresses the task of integrating short- and medium term production plans by combining the short-term objective of minimizing deviation from targeted mill feed grade with the medium-term objective of maximizing net present value (NPV) into a single mathematical optimization model. A conceptual sublevel stoping operation comprising 30 stopes is used for trialling segregated and integrated scheduling approaches. Segregated medium- and short-term scheduling using separate models achieved an NPV of $42 654 456. The final scheduling approach involved integrating the two scheduling horizons using the newly-developed globally optimal integrated production scheduling model to achieve an NPV of$42 823 657 with smoother mill feed grade. The larger the stope data set, the larger the difference between the two scheduling approaches is likely to be. At the very least, an integrated approach ensures feasibility across the two scheduling horizons, which cannot always be assumed when using a segregated approach

DNA precursor pool: a significant target for N-methyl-N-nitrosourea in C3H/10T1/2 clone 8 cells.

Synchronized C3H/10T1/2 clone 8 cells were treated in vitro with a nontoxic dose of N-methyl-N-nitrosourea during their S phase. Chromatographic isolation of the deoxyribonucleotide DNA precursor pool and measurement of the precursor content per cell showed that a nucleic acid residue in the precursor pool is 190-13,000 times more susceptible to methylation than a residue in the DNA duplex, depending on the site of methylation. This conclusion comes from measurements indicating that, for example, the N-1 position of adenine in dATP is 6.3 times more methylated than the same position in the DNA, even though the adenine content of the pool is only a fraction (0.0005) of the adenine content of the DNA helix. The comparative susceptibility between pool and DNA was found to vary with the site of methylation in the order the N-1 position of adenine greater than phosphate greater than the N-3 position of adenine greater than the O6 position of guanine greater than the N-7 position of guanine. The significance of these results for chemical mutagenesis and carcinogenesis is discussed

Down but not out: properties of the molecular gas in the stripped Virgo Cluster early-type galaxy NGC4526

We present ALMA data on the 3mm continuum emission, CO isotopologues (12CO, 13CO, C18O), and high-density molecular tracers (HCN, HCO+, HNC, HNCO, CS, CN, and CH3OH) in NGC4526. These data enable a detailed study of the physical properties of the molecular gas in a longtime resident of the Virgo Cluster; comparisons to more commonly-studied spiral galaxies offer intriguing hints into the processing of molecular gas in the cluster environment. Many molecular line ratios in NGC4526, along with our inferred abundances and CO/H2 conversion factors, are similar to those found in nearby spirals. One striking exception is the very low observed 12CO/13CO(1-0) line ratio, $3.4\pm0.3$, which is unusually low for spirals though not for Virgo Cluster early-type galaxies. We carry out radiative transfer modeling of the CO isotopologues with some archival (2-1) data, and we use Bayesian analysis with Markov chain Monte Carlo techniques to infer the physical properties of the CO-emitting gas. We find surprisingly low [12CO/13CO] abundance ratios of $7.8^{+2.7}_{-1.5}$ and $6.5^{+3.0}_{-1.3}$ at radii of 0.4 kpc and 1 kpc. The emission from the high-density tracers HCN, HCO+, HNC, CS and CN is also relatively bright, and CN is unusually optically thick in the inner parts of NGC4526. These features hint that processing in the cluster environment may have removed much of the galaxy's relatively diffuse, optically thinner molecular gas along with its atomic gas. Angular momentum transfer to the surrounding intracluster medium may also have caused contraction of the disk, magnifying radial gradients such as we find in [13CO/C18O]. More detailed chemical evolution modeling would be interesting in order to explore whether the unusual [12CO/13CO] abundance ratio is entirely an environmental effect or whether it also reflects the relatively old stellar population in this early-type galaxy.Comment: Submitted to ApJ. Comments are welcome

Mutagenic frequencies of site-specifically located O6-methylguanine in wild-type Escherichia coli and in a strain deficient in ada-methyltransferase.

The adaptive response of Escherichia coli involves protection of the cells against the toxic and mutagenic consequences of exposure to high doses of a methylating agent by prior exposure to low doses of the agent. Ada protein, a major repair activity for O6-methylguanine, is activated to positively control the adaptive response; O6-methylguanine is one of the major mutagenic lesions produced by methylating agents. We investigated the mutation frequency of wild-type Escherichia coli and strains containing the ada-5 mutation in response to site-specifically synthesized O6-methylguanine under conditions in which the adaptive response was not induced. Site-directed mutagenesis and oligonucleotide self-selection techniques were used to isolate the progeny of M13mp18 DNAs constructed to contain O6-methylguanine at any of eight different positions. The progeny were isolated from E. coli strains isogeneic except for deficiency in Ada-methyltransferase repair, UvrABC excision repair, or both. The resulting O6-methylguanine mutation levels at each position were determined by using differential oligonucleotide hybridization. We found that the wild type had up to a 2.6-fold higher mutation frequency than ada-5 mutants. In addition, the mutation frequency varied with the position of the O6-methylguanine in the DNA in the wild type but not in ada-5 mutants; O6-methylguanine lesions at the 5' ends of runs of consecutive guanines gave the highest mutation frequencies. Determination of the mutation frequency of O6-methylguanine in wild-type and mutS cells showed that mismatch repair can affect O6-methylguanine mutation levels

Evaluation of Cathode Gas Composition and Temperature Influences on Alkaline Anion Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (AAEMFC) Performance

The effects of different temperatures (55, 65, 75 and 85 °C) and cathode gas compositions (O2, synthetic air, air and 90% synthetic air+10% CO2) on alkaline anion exchange membrane fuel cell (AAEMFC) were evaluated. Membrane electrode assemblies (MEA) were fabricated using commercial anion exchange membrane (AEM) in OH- form and Pt catalyst. Polarization curves and voltage responses during constant current were performed in order to describe the influences of temperature and gas composition on the AAEMFC performance. The experimental results showed that the fuel cell performance increases with elevating temperatures for all applied gas compositions. Highest power density of 34.7 mW cm-2 was achieved for pure O2 as cathode feed. A decrease to 20.3 mW cm-2 was observed when cathode gas composition was changed to synthetic air due to reduction of the O2 partial pressure. The presence of CO2 in atmospheric air applied to the cathode stream caused a further drop of the maximum power density to 15.2 mW cm-2 driven by neutralization of OH- ions with CO2

Effect of boron doping in the microwave surface resistance of neutron irradiated melt-textured Y_1.6Ba_2.3Cu_3.3O_7-x samples

We report on the microwave surface resistance of melt-textured Y_1.6Ba_2.3Cu_3.3O_7-x samples, doped with different amount of B_2O_3 and, subsequently, irradiated by thermal neutrons at the fluence of 1.476 \times 10^17 cm^-2. The microwave surface resistance has been measured as a function of temperature and DC magnetic field. The experimental results are quantitatively discussed in the framework of the Coffey and Clem theory, properly adapted to take into account the d-wave nature of cuprate superconductors. By fitting the experimental data at zero DC field, we have highlighted the effects of the induced defects in the general properties of the samples, including the intergranular region. The analysis of the results obtained at high DC fields allowed us to investigate the fluxon dynamics and deduce the depinning frequency; in particular, we have shown that the addition of B_2O_3 up to 0.1 wt% increases the effectiveness of the defects to hinder the fluxon motion induced by the microwave current.Comment: 9 pages, 8 embedded figures, accepted for publication in Physica