STUDY ON THE IDENTIFICATION OF HERBICIDES WITH HIGH SELECTIVITY TO ENSURE CULTURAL HYGIENE IN GRAIN SORGHUM CROPS

The integrated management of weeds uses a combination of biological, cultural, mechanical and chemical measures to combat the weeds in order to maximize the economic profits. Integrated management strategies for cultural hygiene are not sufficiently developed for selective herbicides in order to combat weeds for Sorghum bicolor (L.). The efficacy of the applied herbicides was tested using the Abbott’s formula, and the most effective in controlling weeds in the grain sorghum culture for the Caracal Plain area was found to be the Trek P 334 SE herbicide, with a value of 97.21%, followed by Gardoprim Plus with a calculated coefficient of 95.33% and the herbicide Wing P whose value was 94.15%. The lowest coefficient was recorded for the Casper herbicide, 73.28%. The level of productions made this year in the herbicide experiment using the Alizee hybrid range between 3092 kg/ha at the Control variant and 8150 kg/ha when the Trek P 334 SE herbicide was applied. The increases recorded in all variants with herbicides, regardless of the active substance contained, have achieved very significant increases in production in comparison with the Control variant

An Enzyme-Enhanced Extraction of Anthocyanins from Red Cabbage and Their Thermal Degradation Kinetics

There is a great demand for developing efficient anthocyanins extraction related to each plant material. Conventional methods have been replaced by novel techniques, but they might remain attractive when combined with the latter. Anthocyanins extraction from fresh and dried red cabbage was investigated by maceration, ultrasonication, and with enzymes. Pre-treatments through drying determined an improved extraction with respect to fresh samples, freeze-drying emerging as the best method. Combined enzyme-assisted extraction with maceration resulted in higher yield by conducting several extractions (1078.8±12.5 mg/100 g DW). The kinetic studies revealed good stability of anthocyanins at 50 °C, while constant degradation at 80 °C. The rate constant k at 80 °C and pH 3.5 was 1.7 10–3 min–1 and the half-life time t1/2 was 6.7 h. Thermal analysis evidenced heat-induced changes in particular for extracts undergoing pre-heating. These results are valuable for optimal processing conditions of anthocyanins-containing products

A splitting theorem for Kahler manifolds whose Ricci tensors have constant eigenvalues

It is proved that a compact Kahler manifold whose Ricci tensor has two distinct, constant, non-negative eigenvalues is locally the product of two Kahler-Einstein manifolds. A stronger result is established for the case of Kahler surfaces. Irreducible Kahler manifolds with two distinct, constant eigenvalues of the Ricci tensor are shown to exist in various situations: there are homogeneous examples of any complex dimension n > 1, if one eigenvalue is negative and the other positive or zero, and of any complex dimension n > 2, if the both eigenvalues are negative; there are non-homogeneous examples of complex dimension 2, if one of the eigenvalues is zero. The problem of existence of Kahler metrics whose Ricci tensor has two distinct, constant eigenvalues is related to the celebrated (still open) Goldberg conjecture. Consequently, the irreducible homogeneous examples with negative eigenvalues give rise to complete, Einstein, strictly almost Kahler metrics of any even real dimension greater than 4.Comment: 18 pages; final version; accepted for publication in International Journal of Mathematic

Segmentation and intensity estimation for microarray images with saturated pixels

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Microarray image analysis processes scanned digital images of hybridized arrays to produce the input spot-level data for downstream analysis, so it can have a potentially large impact on those and subsequent analysis. Signal saturation is an optical effect that occurs when some pixel values for highly expressed genes or peptides exceed the upper detection threshold of the scanner software (2¹⁶- 1 = 65, 535 for 16-bit images). In practice, spots with a sizable number of saturated pixels are often flagged and discarded. Alternatively, the saturated values are used without adjustments for estimating spot intensities. The resulting expression data tend to be biased downwards and can distort high-level analysis that relies on these data. Hence, it is crucial to effectively correct for signal saturation.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We developed a flexible mixture model-based segmentation and spot intensity estimation procedure that accounts for saturated pixels by incorporating a censored component in the mixture model. As demonstrated with biological data and simulation, our method extends the dynamic range of expression data beyond the saturation threshold and is effective in correcting saturation-induced bias when the lost information is not tremendous. We further illustrate the impact of image processing on downstream classification, showing that the proposed method can increase diagnostic accuracy using data from a lymphoma cancer diagnosis study.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The presented method adjusts for signal saturation at the segmentation stage that identifies a pixel as part of the foreground, background or other. The cluster membership of a pixel can be altered versus treating saturated values as truly observed. Thus, the resulting spot intensity estimates may be more accurate than those obtained from existing methods that correct for saturation based on already segmented data. As a model-based segmentation method, our procedure is able to identify inner holes, fuzzy edges and blank spots that are common in microarray images. The approach is independent of microarray platform and applicable to both single- and dual-channel microarrays.</p

Ten Years of Pathway Analysis: Current Approaches and Outstanding Challenges

Pathway analysis has become the first choice for gaining insight into the underlying biology of differentially expressed genes and proteins, as it reduces complexity and has increased explanatory power. We discuss the evolution of knowledge base–driven pathway analysis over its first decade, distinctly divided into three generations. We also discuss the limitations that are specific to each generation, and how they are addressed by successive generations of methods. We identify a number of annotation challenges that must be addressed to enable development of the next generation of pathway analysis methods. Furthermore, we identify a number of methodological challenges that the next generation of methods must tackle to take advantage of the technological advances in genomics and proteomics in order to improve specificity, sensitivity, and relevance of pathway analysis