The influence of long-term inputs of catch crops and cereal straw on yield, protein composition and technological quality of a spring and a winter wheat

Under conditions of restricted nitrogen (N) input such as in organic farming systems, crop N uptake must rely on N mineralised from applied animal manure, crop residues and native soil organic matter. Scarcity of N may impede the production of quality grain for bread production, and input and retention of N in soil are therefore important parameters for soil fertility. Toretain N in the crop-soilsystem, catch crops may be grown in breaks between main crops where they provide a significant sink for N mineralised in late summer and autumn (Thomsen, 2005). In corporation of straw may likewise retain mineralised N by microbial immobilisation (Christensen, 1986) and will also directly add to the N mineralisation potential when the N supplied in the straw accumulates (Thomsen & Christensen, 2004). Under northern European conditions, winter wheat may generally be of lower quality than spring wheat, but winter wheat has a higher yield potential. When the N uptake is mainly based on N mineralised from either applied or indigenous soil organic matter, however, this may even out the quality difference between winter and spring wheat as the longer growing season of winter wheat may boost its N utilisation. Growing conditions are highly important for protein quantity whereas main lygenetic factors influence protein composition (Amesetal., 1999; Luoetal., 2000). Wheat grain proteins have been classified as albumins, globulins, gliadins and glutenins on the basis of their solubility (Osborne, 1907). Reverse-phase (RP) high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) allows the quantitative determination of these different flour protein groups together with single proteins (α5-, α1,2-, α-, γc-type gliadins, x- and γ-type high (HMW) and low (LMW) molecular weights subunits of glutenin) (Wieser & Seilmeier, 1998). The proteins can also be divided into polymers (glutenins) or monomers (gliadins, albumins, globulins) based on their aggregating properties. The polymeric proteins are critical for governing wheat flour processing properties, and their quantity and size distribution reliably measured by size-exclusion (SE) HPLC techniques have been shown to be important indicators of baking quality (Dachkevitch & Autran, 1989; Bateyetal., 1991). The aim of this study was to examine whether wheat yield and baking quality determined by chromatographic techniques together with rheological and chemical quality measurements could be improved by combining agronomic strategies consisting of wheat cultivars and long-term organic matter inputs. The variables tested were (A) a winter wheat and a spring wheat cultivar, (B) three catch crop strategies and (C) four straw incorporation rates

Protection for Animals in Biomedical Research

Our conclusion from all of this work and study is that not just a small part, but that most of the suffering undergone by laboratory animals in unnecessary under the terms of the pain provisions of the Rogers-Javits bill. Granted, it will take some time and effort to bring about the necessary interpretations of these provisions. The Act, when passed, offers us the medium through which to obtain such interpretations. This unnecessary suffering results mostly from the indifference, and from the inertia and the lack of proper scientific training and technical knowledge, of many of those conducting laboratory animal experiments and tests. If only this unnecessary suffering were eliminated, I sincerely believe that 95 percent of all the suffering of laboratory animals would be eliminated. Who would want to wait another hundred years to attain 100 percent elimination, when we can get 95 percent soon

Chirality distribution and transition energies of carbon nanotubes

From resonant Raman scattering on isolated nanotubes we obtained the optical transition energies, the radial breathing mode frequency and Raman intensity of both metallic and semiconducting tubes. We unambiguously assigned the chiral index (n_1,n_2) of approximately 50 nanotubes based solely on a third-neighbor tight-binding Kataura plot and find omega_RBM=214.4cm^-1nm/d+18.7cm^-1. In contrast to luminescence experiments we observe all chiralities including zig-zag tubes. The Raman intensities have a systematic chiral-angle dependence confirming recent ab-initio calculations.Comment: 4 pages, to be published in Phys. Rev. Let

Ion observations from geosynchronous orbit as a proxy for ion cyclotron wave growth during storm times

[1] There is still much to be understood about the processes contributing to relativistic electron enhancements and losses in the radiation belts. Wave particle interactions with both whistler and electromagnetic ion cyclotron (EMIC) waves may precipitate or accelerate these electrons. This study examines the relation between EMIC waves and resulting relativistic electron flux levels after geomagnetic storms. A proxy for enhanced EMIC waves is developed using Los Alamos National Laboratory Magnetospheric Plasma Analyzer plasma data from geosynchronous orbit in conjunction with linear theory. In a statistical study using superposed epoch analysis, it is found that for storms resulting in net relativistic electron losses, there is a greater occurrence of enhanced EMIC waves. This is consistent with the hypothesis that EMIC waves are a primary mechanism for the scattering of relativistic electrons and thus cause losses of such particles from the magnetosphere

Further study of the Over-Barrier Model to compute charge exchange processes

In this paper we study theoretically the process of electron capture between one-optical-electron atoms (e.g. hydrogenlike or alkali atoms) and ions at low-to-medium impact velocities ($v/v_e \approx 1$) working on a modification of an already developed classical In this work we present an improvement over the Over Barrier Model (OBM) described in a recent paper [F. Sattin, Phys. Rev. A {\bf 62}, 042711 (2000)]. We show that: i) one of the two free parameters there introduced actually comes out consistently from the starting assumptions underlying the model; ii) the modified model thus obtained is as much accurate as the former one. Furthermore, we show that OBMs are able to accurately predict some recent results of state selective electron capture, at odds with what previously supposed.Comment: RevTeX, 7 pages, 4 eps figures. To appear in Physical Review A (2001-september issue

Extreme non-linear response of ultra-narrow optical transitions in cavity QED for laser stabilization

We explore the potential of direct spectroscopy of ultra-narrow optical transitions of atoms localized in an optical cavity. In contrast to stabilization against a reference cavity, which is the approach currently used for the most highly stabilized lasers, stabilization against an atomic transition does not suffer from Brownian thermal noise. Spectroscopy of ultra-narrow optical transitions in a cavity operates in a very highly saturated regime in which non-linear effects such as bistability play an important role. From the universal behavior of the Jaynes-Cummings model with dissipation, we derive the fundamental limits for laser stabilization using direct spectroscopy of ultra-narrow atomic lines. We find that with current lattice clock experiments, laser linewidths of about 1 mHz can be achieved in principle, and the ultimate limitations of this technique are at the 1 $\mu$ Hz level.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure