15,423 research outputs found
Recurrent deficit irrigation and fruit harvest affect tree water relations and fruitlet growth in ‘Valencia’ orange
Background. Partial rootzone drying is an irrigation strategy known for increasing water use efficiency without significantly affecting tree water status. ‘Valencia’ oranges have a very long development period and nearly mature fruit and new fruitlets may be present at the same time on the tree, competing for water and assimilates. Objectives. The present study investigates the effect of recurrent deficit irrigation and fruit harvest on tree water status and fruitlet growth of ‘Valencia’ orange. Methods. Forty-eight adult trees were exposed to three irrigation treatments for seven years (2007-2013): irrigation with 100% of ETc (CI), continuous deficit irrigation (DI, 50% of CI) and partial root-zone drying (PRD, 50% of CI on alternated sides of the root-zone). In spring 2014, stem water potential (Ψstem) and continuous measurements of sap flow and fruitlet growth were recorded before (May) and after (June) the harvest of mature fruit. Results. No differences in Ψstem were found among irrigation treatments, while Ψstem was lower in June than in May at midday. In both May and June, sap flow density (not sap flow per tree) was higher in DI than in CI and PRD trees suggesting more efficient water uptake/transport in the former. In May, DI and PRD fruit showed lower daily relative growth rate (RGR) than CI fruit due to a possible shortage of carbon and nutrients. After removing mature fruits, differences among irrigation treatments were canceled. Sap flow was directly related to fruit RGR at low sap flow rates, but inversely related to RGR at high sap flow rates. Conclusions. Our data show that the presence of maturing fruit does not impact the water status of ‘Valencia’ trees, while it may transiently limit fruitlet growth (by source limitation) in deficit irrigated trees
A Robust Filter for the BeppoSAX Gamma Ray Burst Monitor Triggers
The BeppoSAX Gamma Ray Burst Monitor (GRBM) is triggered any time a
statistically significant counting excess is simultaneously revealed by at
least two of its four independent detectors. Several spurious effects,
including highly ionizing particles crossing two detectors, are recorded as
onboard triggers. In fact, a large number of false triggers is detected, in the
order of 10/day. A software code, based on an heuristic algorithm, was written
to discriminate between real and false triggers. We present the results of the
analysis on an homogeneous sample of GRBM triggers, thus providing an estimate
of the efficiency of the GRB detection system consisting of the GRBM and the
software.Comment: Proc. 5th Huntsville GRB Symposiu
On the physical processes which lie at the bases of time variability of GRBs
The relative-space-time-transformation (RSTT) paradigm and the interpretation
of the burst-structure (IBS) paradigm are applied to probe the origin of the
time variability of GRBs. Again GRB 991216 is used as a prototypical case,
thanks to the precise data from the CGRO, RXTE and Chandra satellites. It is
found that with the exception of the relatively inconspicuous but
scientifically very important signal originating from the initial ``proper
gamma ray burst'' (P-GRB), all the other spikes and time variabilities can be
explained by the interaction of the accelerated-baryonic-matter pulse with
inhomogeneities in the interstellar matter. This can be demonstrated by using
the RSTT paradigm as well as the IBS paradigm, to trace a typical spike
observed in arrival time back to the corresponding one in the laboratory time.
Using these paradigms, the identification of the physical nature of the time
variablity of the GRBs can be made most convincingly. It is made explicit the
dependence of a) the intensities of the afterglow, b) the spikes amplitude and
c) the actual time structure on the Lorentz gamma factor of the
accelerated-baryonic-matter pulse. In principle it is possible to read off from
the spike structure the detailed density contrast of the interstellar medium in
the host galaxy, even at very high redshift.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure
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