Influence of Tillage and Poultry Manure on the Physical Properties of Grain and Yield Attributes of Spring Maize (Zea mays L.)

Grains are the economical part of maize that demand proper management practices to achieve the crop potential. The study explored the influence of different tillage practices and poultry manure levels on the grain length, breadth, area, grains weight per cob and grains yield per m2of maize at Agronomic Research Area, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan, during spring 2010 and 2011. The experiment was laid out in randomized complete block design with split plot arrangement, having four tillage practices as main plot treatments, zero tillage (direct seed sowing with dibbler), minimum tillage (one cultivation with normal cultivator followed by planking), conventional tillage (2–3 cultivations with normal cultivator followed by planking) and deep tillage (two deep ploughing with chisel plough + one cultivation with normal cultivator followed by planking). Sub plot treatments were three poultry manure levels; control (no poultry manure), poultry manure at the amount of 5 Mg ha-1 and poultry manure at 10 Mg ha-1. Data indicated that the deep tillage practice significantly improved the maize grain physical properties and yield over the other tillage practices in both years of study. Increasing order of poultry manure dose treatments produced the good and healthy seeds over the control treatment. A positive correlation between grain yield, physical properties of maize grain and grains weight per cob was recorded

Phalaris minor control, resistance development and strategies for integrated management of resistance to fenoxaprop-ethyl

Phalaris minor (Littleseed canary grass) is a very important and annual weed of winter cereal crops. It is a very competitive weed of wheat, oat and barley crops in Pakistan. Usually, three aryloxyphenoxypropionate herbicides, fenoxaprop-P-ethyl, diclofop-methyl and clodinafop-propargyl are used as chemical weed control against different grassy weeds like P. minor, Avena sativa and Cyperus rotundus L. This review describes fenoxaprop-ethyl, a selective chemical herbicide used to control P. minor in wheat crop. High production of wheat is associated with its continuous use. But this practice enhances the development of resistant biotypes of P. minor. Different management approaches like preference of mechanical weeding over chemical weed control, integration of competitive varietal selection, crop rotation and herbicide rotation can be long duration strategies of resistance management in P. minor. However, tillage method, planting time, method of herbicide application, optimum dose, higher seed rate, early sowing, bed planting, stale seed bed and zero tillage are short duration resistance management strategies. Use of water extracts of herbicidal potential (allelopathic) plants can be effective integrated management of herbicide resistant against P. minor in wheat and for eco-friendly and sustainable weed management.Key words: Control, fenoxaprop-ethyl, management, Phalaris minor, resistance, wheat

Indexes of radicle are sensitive and effective for assessing copper and zinc tolerance in germinating seeds of suaeda salsa

Euhalophytes, such as Suaeda salsa, are ideal candidates to remediate heavy metal-polluted saline soils. However, the metal tolerance ability of dimorphic seeds and subsequent seedlings is largely unknown. This study investigated the tolerance of S. salsa seeds to different concentrations of Cu2+ (0-300 mM) and Zn2+ (0-300 mM) during germination and seedling growth stages. Results showed that dimorphic seeds of S. salsa had high metal tolerance during germination, and even germinated under 300 mM Cu and Zn treatments. However, seedling growth was more sensitive to metal solutions and radicle growth was almost completely inhibited by Cu at 10 mM, and by Zn at 50 mM. Germinating seeds and seedlings of S. salsa had a higher metal toxicity threshold of Zn than that of Cu. In all indexes, indexes of radicle were the most sensitive and effective indicator of metal tolerance. Seeds of S. salsa germinated successfully and seedlings survived under high Zn and Cu stress. The results suggest that S. salsa could be sown directly in heavy metal-contaminated soils for phytoremediation

Medical therapy vs early revascularization in diabetics with chronic total occlusions: A meta-analysis and systematic review

BACKGROUND: Management of chronic total occlusions (CTO) in diabetics is challenging, with a recent trend towards early revascularization [ER: Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and bypass grafting] instead of optimal medical therapy (OMT). We hypothesize that ER improves morbidity and mortality outcomes in diabetic patients with CTOs as compared to OMT. AIM: To determine the long term clinical outcomes and to compare morbidity and mortality between OMT and ER in diabetic patients with CTOs. METHODS: Potentially relevant published clinical trials were identified in Medline, Embase, chemical abstracts and Biosis (from start of the databases till date) and pooled hazard ratios (HR) computed using a random effects model, with significant P value \u3c 0.05. Primary outcome of interest was all-cause death. Secondary outcomes included cardiac death, prompt revascularization (ER) or repeat myocardial infarction (MI). Due to scarcity of data, both Randomized control trials and observational studies were included. 4 eligible articles, containing 2248 patients were identified (1252 in OMT and 1196 in ER). Mean follow-up was 45-60 mo. RESULTS: OMT was associated with a higher all-cause mortality [HR: 1.70, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.80-3.26,P = 0.11] and cardiac mortality (HR: 1.68, 95%CI: 0.96-2.96, P = 0.07). Results were close to significance. The risk of repeat MI was almost the same in both groups (HR: 0.97, 95%CI: 0.61-1.54,P = 0.90). Similarly, patients assigned to OMT had a higher risk of repeat revascularization (HR: 1.62, 95%CI: 1.36-1.94,P \u3c 0.00001). Sub-group analysis of OMT vs PCI demonstrated higher all-cause (HR: 1.98, 95%CI: 1.36-2.87,P = 0.0003) and cardiac mortality (HR: 1.87, 95%CI: 0.96-3.62,P = 0.06) in the OMT group. The risk of repeat MI was low in the OMT groupvs PCI (HR: 0.53, 95%CI: 0.31-0.91,P = 0.02). Data on repeat revascularization revealed no difference between the two (HR: 1.00, 95%CI: 0.52-1.93, P = 1.00). CONCLUSION: In diabetic patients with CTO, there was a trend for improved outcomes with ER regarding all-cause and cardiac death as compared to OMT. These findings were reinforced with statistical significance on subgroup analysis of OMT vs PCI

Novel microwell-based spectrophotometric assay for determination of atorvastatin calcium in its pharmaceutical formulations

The formation of a colored charge-transfer (CT) complex between atorvastatin calcium (ATR-Ca) as a n-electron donor and 2, 3-dichloro-5,6-dicyano-1,4-benzoquinone (DDQ) as a π-electron acceptor was investigated, for the first time. The spectral characteristics of the CT complex have been described, and the reaction mechanism has been proved by computational molecular modeling. The reaction was employed in the development of a novel microwell-based spectrophotometric assay for determination of ATR-Ca in its pharmaceutical formulations. The proposed assay was carried out in 96-microwell plates. The absorbance of the colored-CT complex was measured at 460 nm by microwell-plate absorbance reader. The optimum conditions of the reaction and the analytical procedures of the assay were established. Under the optimum conditions, linear relationship with good correlation coefficient (0.9995) was found between the absorbance and the concentration of ATR-Ca in the range of 10-150 μg/well. The limits of detection and quantitation were 5.3 and 15.8 μg/well, respectively. No interference was observed from the additives that are present in the pharmaceutical formulation or from the drugs that are co-formulated with ATR-Ca in its combined formulations. The assay was successfully applied to the analysis of ATR-Ca in its pharmaceutical dosage forms with good accuracy and precision. The assay described herein has great practical value in the routine analysis of ATR-Ca in quality control laboratories, as it has high throughput property, consumes minimum volume of organic solvent thus it offers the reduction in the exposures of the analysts to the toxic effects of organic solvents, and reduction in the analysis cost by 50-fold. Although the proposed assay was validated for ATR-Ca, however, the same methodology could be used for any electron-donating analyte for which a CT reaction can be performed

Genotyping and drug resistance patterns of M. tuberculosis strains in Pakistan

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The incidence of tuberculosis in Pakistan is 181/100,000 population. However, information about transmission and geographical prevalence of <it>Mycobacterium tuberculosis </it>strains and their evolutionary genetics as well as drug resistance remains limited. Our objective was to determine the clonal composition, evolutionary genetics and drug resistance of <it>M. tuberculosis </it>isolates from different regions of the country.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p><it>M. tuberculosis </it>strains isolated (2003–2005) from specimens submitted to the laboratory through collection units nationwide were included. Drug susceptibility was performed and strains were spoligotyped.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Of 926 <it>M. tuberculosis </it>strains studied, 721(78%) were grouped into 59 "shared types", while 205 (22%) were identified as "Orphan" spoligotypes. Amongst the predominant genotypes 61% were Central Asian strains (CAS ; including CAS1, CAS sub-families and Orphan Pak clusters), 4% East African-Indian (EAI), 3% Beijing, 2% poorly defined TB strains (T), 2% Haarlem and LAM (0.2). Also TbD1 analysis (<it>M. tuberculosis </it>specific deletion 1) confirmed that CAS1 was of "modern" origin while EAI isolates belonged to "ancestral" strain types.</p> <p>Prevalence of CAS1 clade was significantly higher in Punjab (P < 0.01, Pearsons Chi-square test) as compared with Sindh, North West Frontier Province and Balochistan provinces. Forty six percent of isolates were sensitive to five first line antibiotics tested, 45% were Rifampicin resistant, 50% isoniazid resistant. MDR was significantly associated with Beijing strains (P = 0.01, Pearsons Chi-square test) and EAI (P = 0.001, Pearsons Chi-square test), but not with CAS family.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our results show variation of prevalent <it>M. tuberculosis </it>strain with greater association of CAS1 with the Punjab province. The fact that the prevalent CAS genotype was not associated with drug resistance is encouraging. It further suggests a more effective treatment and control programme should be successful in reducing the tuberculosis burden in Pakistan.</p

Crop Updates 2007 - Lupins, Pulses and Oilseeds

This session covers forty eight papers from different authors: 2006 REGIONAL ROUNDUP 1. South east agricultural region, Mark Seymour1 and Jacinta Falconer2, 1Department of Agriculture and Food, 2Cooperative Bulk Handling Group 2. Central agricultural region, Ian Pritchard, Department of Agriculture and Food 3. Great Southern and Lakes region, Rodger Beermier, Department of Agriculture and Food 4. Northern agricultural region, Wayne Parker and Martin Harries, Department of Agriculture and Food LUPINS 5. Development of anthracnose resistant and early flowering albus lupins (Lupinus albus L) in Western Australia, Kedar Adhikari and Geoff Thomas, Department of Agriculture and Food 6. New lupins adapted to the south coast, Peter White, Bevan Buirchell and Mike Baker, Department of Agriculture and Food 7. Lupin species and row spacing interactions by environment, Martin Harries, Peter White, Bob French, Jo Walker, Mike Baker and Laurie Maiolo, Department of Agriculture and Food 8. The interaction of lupin species row spacing and soil type, Martin Harries, Bob French, Laurie Maiolo and Jo Walker, Department of Agriculture and Food 9. The effects of row spacing and crop density on competitiveness of lupins with wild radish, Bob French and Laurie Maiolo, Department of Agriculture and Food 10. The effect of time of sowing and radish weed density on lupin yield, Martin Harries and Jo Walker, Department of Agriculture and Food 11. Interaction of time of sowing and weed management in lupins, Martin Harries and Jo Walker, Department of Agriculture and Food 12. Delayed sowing as a strategy to manage annual ryegrass, Bob French and Laurie Maiolo, Department of Agriculture and Food 13. Is delayed sowing a good strategy for weed management in lupins? Bob French, Department of Agriculture and Food 14. Lupins aren’t lupins when it comes to simazine, Peter White and Leigh Smith, Department of Agriculture and Food 15. Seed yield and anthracnose resistance of Tanjil mutants tolerant to metribuzin, Ping Si1, Bevan Buirchell1,2 and Mark Sweetingham1,2, 1Centre for Legumes in Mediterranean Agriculture, Australia; 2Department of Agriculture and Food 16. The effect of herbicides on nodulation in lupins, Lorne Mills1, Harmohinder Dhammu2 and Beng Tan1, 1Curtin University of Technology and 2Department of Agriculture and Food 17. Effect of fertiliser placements and watering regimes on lupin growth and seed yield in the central grain belt of Western Australia, Qifu Ma1, Zed Rengel1, Bill Bowden2, Ross Brennan2, Reg Lunt2 and Tim Hilder2, 1Soil Science & Plant Nutrition UWA, 2Department of Agriculture and Food 18. Development of a forecasting model for Bean Yellow Mosaic Virus in lupins, T. Maling1,2, A. Diggle1, D. Thackray1,2, R.A.C. Jones2, and K.H.M. Siddique1, 1Centre for Legumes in Mediterranean Agriculture, The University of Western Australia; 2Department of Agriculture and Food 19. Manufacturing of lupin tempe,Vijay Jayasena1,4, Leonardus Kardono2,4, Ken Quail3,4 and Ranil Coorey1,4, 1Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Australia, 2Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), Indonesia, 3BRI Australia Ltd, Sydney, Australia, 4Grain Foods CRC, Sydney, Australia 20. The impact of lupin based ingredients in ice-cream, Hannah Williams, Lee Sheer Yap and Vijay Jayasena, Curtin University of Technology, Perth WA 21. The acceptability of muffins substituted with varying concentrations of lupin flour, Anthony James, Don Elani Jayawardena and Vijay Jayasena, Curtin University of Technology, PerthWA PULSES 22. Chickpea variety evaluation, Kerry Regan1, Rod Hunter1, Tanveer Khan1,2and Jenny Garlinge1, 1Department of Agriculture and Food, 2CLIMA, The University of Western Australia 23. Advanced breeding trials of desi chickpea, Khan, T.N.1, Siddique, K.H.M.3, Clarke, H.2, Turner, N.C.2, MacLeod, W.1, Morgan, S.1, and Harris, A.1, 1Department of Agriculture and Food, 2Centre for Legumes in Mediterranean Agriculture, 3TheUniversity of Western Australia 24. Ascochyta resistance in chickpea lines in Crop Variety Testing (CVT) of 2006, Tanveer Khan1 2, Bill MacLeod1, Alan Harris1, Stuart Morgan1and Kerry Regan1, 1Department of Agriculture and Food, 2CLIMA, The University of Western Australia 25. Yield evaluation of ascochyta blight resistant Kabuli chickpeas, Kerry Regan1and Kadambot Siddique2, 1Department of Agriculture and Food, 2Institute of Agriculture, The University of Western Australia 26. Pulse WA Chickpea Industry Survey 2006, Mark Seymour1, Ian Pritchard1, Wayne Parker1and Alan Meldrum2, 1Department of Agriculture and Food, 2Pulse Australia 27. Genes from the wild as a valuable genetic resource for chickpea improvement, Heather Clarke1, Helen Bowers1and Kadambot Siddique2, 1Centre for Legumes in Mediterranean Agriculture, 2Institute of Agriculture, The University of Western Australia 28. International screening of chickpea for resistance to Botrytis grey mould, B. MacLeod1, Dr T. Khan1, Prof. K.H.M. Siddique2and Dr A. Bakr3, 1Department of Agriculture and Food, 2The University of Western Australia, 3Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute 29. Balance® in chickpea is safest applied post sowing to a level seed bed, Wayne Parker, Department of Agriculture and Food, 30. Demonstrations of Genesis 510 chickpea, Wayne Parker, Department of Agriculture and Food 31. Field pea 2006, Ian Pritchard, Department of Agriculture and Food 32. Field pea variety evaluation, Kerry Regan1, Rod Hunter1, Tanveer Khan1,2 and Jenny Garlinge1, 1Department of Agriculture and Food, 2CLIMA, The University of Western Australia 33. Breeding highlights of the Australian Field Pea Improvement Program (AFPIP),Kerry Regan1, Tanveer Khan1,2, Phillip Chambers1, Chris Veitch1, Stuart Morgan1 , Alan Harris1and Tony Leonforte3, 1Department of Agriculture and Food, 2CLIMA, The University of Western Australia, 3Department of Primary Industries, Victoria 34. Field pea germplasm enhancement for black spot resistance, Tanveer Khan, Kerry Regan, Stuart Morgan, Alan Harris and Phillip Chambers, Department of Agriculture and Food 35. Validation of Blackspot spore release model and testing moderately resistant field pea line, Mark Seymour, Ian Pritchard, Rodger Beermier, Pam Burgess and Leanne Young, Department of Agriculture and Food 36. Yield losses from sowing field pea seed infected with Pea Seed-borne Mosaic Virus, Brenda Coutts, Donna O’Keefe, Rhonda Pearce, Monica Kehoe and Roger Jones, Department of Agriculture and Food 37. Faba bean in 2006, Mark Seymour, Department of Agriculture and Food 38. Germplasm evaluation – faba bean, Mark Seymour1, Terri Jasper1, Ian Pritchard1, Mike Baker1 and Tim Pope1,2, 1Department of Agriculture and Food, , 2CLIMA, The University of Western Australia 39. Breeding highlights of the Coordinated Improvement Program for Australian Lentils (CIPAL), Kerry Regan1, Chris Veitch1, Phillip Chambers1 and Michael Materne2, 1Department of Agriculture and Food, 2Department of Primary Industries, Victoria 40. Screening pulse lentil germplasm for tolerance to alternate herbicides, Ping Si1, Mike Walsh2 and Mark Sweetingham1,3, 1Centre for Legumes in Mediterranean Agriculture, 2West Australian Herbicide Resistance Initiative, 3Department of Agriculture and Food 41. Genomic synteny in legumes: Application to crop breeding, Phan, H.T.T.1, Ellwood, S.R.1, Hane, J.1, Williams, A.1, Ford, R.2, Thomas, S.3 and Oliver R1, 1Australian Centre of Necrotrophic Plant Pathogens, Murdoch University, 2BioMarka, University of Melbourne, 3NSW Department of Primary Industries 42. Tolerance of lupins, chickpeas and canola to Balanceâ(Isoxaflutole) and Galleryâ (Isoxaben), Leigh Smith and Peter White, Department of Agriculture and Food CANOLA AND OILSEEDS 43. The performance of TT Canola varieties in the National Variety Test (NVT),WA,2006,Katie Robinson, Research Agronomist, Agritech Crop Research 44. Evaluation of Brassica crops for biodiesel in Western Australia, Mohammad Amjad, Graham Walton, Pat Fels and Andy Sutherland, Department of Agriculture and Food 45. Production risk of canola in different rainfall zones in Western Australia, Imma Farré1, Michael Robertson2 and Senthold Asseng3, 1Department of Agriculture and Food, 2CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems, 3CSIRO Plant Industry 46. Future directions of blackleg management – dynamics of blackleg susceptibility in canola varieties, Ravjit Khangura, Moin Salam and Bill MacLeod, Department of Agriculture and Food 47. Appendix 1: Contributors 48. Appendix 2: List of common acronym

Global genetic diversity, introgression, and evolutionary adaptation of indicine cattle revealed by whole genome sequencing

Indicine cattle, also referred to as zebu (Bos taurus indicus), play a central role in pastoral communities across a wide range of agro-ecosystems, from extremely hot semiarid regions to hot humid tropical regions. However, their adaptive genetic changes following their dispersal into East Asia from the Indian subcontinent have remained poorly documented. Here, we characterize their global genetic diversity using high-quality whole-genome sequencing data from 354 indicine cattle of 57 breeds/populations, including major indicine phylogeographic groups worldwide. We reveal their probable migration into East Asia was along a coastal route rather than inland routes and we detected introgression from other bovine species. Genomic regions carrying morphology-, immune-, and heat-tolerance-related genes underwent divergent selection according to Asian agro-ecologies. We identify distinct sets of loci that contain promising candidate variants for adaptation to hot semi-arid and hot humid tropical ecosystems. Our results indicate that the rapid and successful adaptation of East Asian indicine cattle to hot humid environments was promoted by localized introgression from banteng and/or gaur. Our findings provide insights into the history and environmental adaptation of indicine cattle