Role of Nitrogen on Growth and Seed Yield of Soybean and a New Fertilization Technique to Promote Nitrogen Fixation and Seed Yield

Soybean is an important crop for human food and feed for livestock. World soybean production is increasing especially in North and South America. Soybean seeds contain a high percentage of protein about 35–40%, and they require a large amount of nitrogen compared with other crops. Soybean plants make root nodules with rhizobia, and rhizobia can fix atmospheric N2 and give the fixed N to the host soybean plants. Also, soybean can absorb nitrogen usually nitrate from soil or fertilizers. The amount of total assimilated nitrogen in shoot is proportional to the soybean seed yield either from nitrogen fixation or from nitrogen absorption, and the nitrogen availability is very important for soybean cultivation. Maintenance of a high and long-term nitrogen fixation activity is very important for a high production of soybean. However, application of chemical nitrogen fertilizers usually depresses nodule formation and nitrogen fixation. Nitrate in direct contact with a nodulated part of roots causes severe inhibition of nodule growth and nitrogen fixation, although a distant part of nodules from nitrate application gives no or little effect. Deep placement of slow-release nitrogen fertilizers, coated urea, or lime nitrogen promoted the growth and seed yield and quality of soybean without depressing nitrogen fixation

Freezing of Aqueous Solutions and Chemical Stability of Amorphous Pharmaceuticals: Water Clusters Hypothesis.

Molecular mobility has been traditionally invoked to explain physical and chemical stability of diverse pharmaceutical systems. Although the molecular mobility concept has been credited with creating a scientific basis for stabilization of amorphous pharmaceuticals and biopharmaceuticals, it has become increasingly clear that this approach represents only a partial description of the underlying fundamental principles. An additional mechanism is proposed herein to address 2 key questions: (1) the existence of unfrozen water (i.e., partial or complete freezing inhibition) in aqueous solutions at subzero temperatures and (2) the role of water in the chemical stability of amorphous pharmaceuticals. These apparently distant phenomena are linked via the concept of water clusters. In particular, freezing inhibition is associated with the confinement of water clusters in a solidified matrix of an amorphous solute, with nanoscaled water clusters being observed in aqueous glasses using wide-angle neutron scattering. The chemical instability is suggested to be directly related to the catalysis of proton transfer by water clusters, considering that proton transfer is the key elementary reaction in many chemical processes, including such common reactions as hydrolysis and deamidation.EPSRC EP/N022769/

Promising System for Selecting Healthy In Vitro–Fertilized Embryos in Cattle

Conventionally, in vitro–fertilized (IVF) bovine embryos are morphologically evaluated at the time of embryo transfer to select those that are likely to establish a pregnancy. This method is, however, subjective and results in unreliable selection. Here we describe a novel selection system for IVF bovine blastocysts for transfer that traces the development of individual embryos with time-lapse cinematography in our developed microwell culture dish and analyzes embryonic metabolism. The system can noninvasively identify prognostic factors that reflect not only blastocyst qualities detected with histological, cytogenetic, and molecular analysis but also viability after transfer. By assessing a combination of identified prognostic factors—(i) timing of the first cleavage; (ii) number of blastomeres at the end of the first cleavage; (iii) presence or absence of multiple fragments at the end of the first cleavage; (iv) number of blastomeres at the onset of lag-phase, which results in temporary developmental arrest during the fourth or fifth cell cycle; and (v) oxygen consumption at the blastocyst stage—pregnancy success could be accurately predicted (78.9%). The conventional method or individual prognostic factors could not accurately predict pregnancy. No newborn calves showed neonatal overgrowth or death. Our results demonstrate that these five predictors and our system could provide objective and reliable selection of healthy IVF bovine embryos

Arginine as a Synergistic Virucidal Agent

Development of effective and environmentally friendly disinfectants, or virucidal agents, should help prevent the spread of infectious diseases through human contact with contaminated surfaces. These agents may also be used, if non-toxic to cells and tissues, as chemotherapeutic agents against infectious diseases. We have shown that arginine has a synergistic effect with a variety of virucidal conditions, namely acidic pH and high temperature, on virus inactivation. All of these treatments are effective, however, at the expense of toxicity. The ability of arginine to lower the effective threshold of these parameters may reduce the occurrence of potential toxic side effects. While it is clear that arginine can be safely used, the mechanism of its virus inactivation has not yet been elucidated. Here we examine the damages that viruses suffer from various physical and chemical stresses and their relations to virus inactivation and aggregation. Based on the relationship between the stress-induced structural damages and the infectivity of a virus, we will propose several plausible mechanisms describing the effects of arginine on virus inactivation using the current knowledge of aqueous arginine solution properties

A Design Scheme for Delay Testing of Controllers Using State Transition Information

This paper presents a non-scan design scheme to enhance delay fault testability of controllers. In this scheme, we utilize a given state transition graph (STG) to test delay faults in its synthesized controller. The original behavior of the STG is used during test application. For faults that cannot be detected by using the original behavior, we design an extra logic, called an invalid test state and transition generator, to make those faults detectable. Our scheme allows achieving short test application time and at-speed testing. We show the effectiveness of our method by experiments