Comparison of selection methods among and within full-sibling progenies in Urochloa humidicola

Hybridization in the Urochloa humidicola breeding programme allowed to explore the genetic variability of the apomictic sources and, thus, to obtain new sexual and apomictic parents with compatible ploidy and/or superior progenies. However, given the high variability arising from crosses, there is a need to adopt efficient selection strategies among and within progenies. The aim of this study was to compare the selection methods among U. humidicola progenies with (t-BLUP) and without (BLUP) the weighting based on prediction error and subsequent selection within progenies by individual simulated (BLUP_IS) or optimal individual BLUP. We evaluated seventy-one U. humidicola full-sib progenies from biparental crosses between nine sexual and ten apomictic parents. The experiment was set up in an incomplete block design with 64 blocks of 15 plots each, consisting of individual plants. Seven consecutive cuts were made and the traits total dry-matter, leaf dry-matter and regrowth scores were measured. Genetic variance was expressive for all traits. The selection procedure among progenies of U. humidicula based on t-BLUP proved to be more advantageous regarding the use of BLUP not weighted by the prediction error, resulting in higher selection gains, taking as reference the optimal procedure of the individual BLUP. Furthermore, the use of BLUP_IS allowed an optimized selection of hybrids, allowing the breeder to explore with variable selection intensity the genetic variability within the selected full-sib progenies based on relative genetic merit.     

Training reduced subjectivity of comparative yield method of estimation of grassland biomass

Measuring grassland biomass using objective, quick and accurate methods is important for practical purposes in agriculture and ecology. Most existing techniques are either expensive or require advanced technical skills making them unaffordable and impractical for farmers in developing countries. The comparative yield method is a quick technique that involves the estimation of grassland biomass from visual scores. Despite its potential for use by farmers with minimal technical skills, it has been criticized for being subjective, thus limiting its use for research purposes only. We hypothesized that training and establishment of agreed‐upon ground rules can reduce this subjectivity. We compared data collected by 36 farmers in northern Ethiopia, who participated under three instruction groups. Group 1 was involved both in the selection of reference plots and calibration plots and agreed‐on ground rules. Group 2 was shown the reference plots and orientated about the ground rules. Group 3 was neither shown reference plots nor orientated on ground rules. Levene's test for equality of variance was performed among the estimations made by individuals. Mean values of scores and biomass measurements varied among groups. The variability of records was higher in groups 3 and 2 than in group 1, indicating the need for training and agreed‐upon ground rules to achieve objectivity. We conclude that with minimal training and agreement on ground rules, the comparative yield method can be used by farmers and ecologists in developing countries to estimate grassland biomass with better precision and accuracy.     

Comparison of haymaking strategies for cow-calf systems in the Salado Region of Argentina using a simulation model. 2. Incorporation of flexibility into the decision rules

In pastoral farming systems, pasture production normally exceeds demand in the spring–summer period. Consequently, conserving forage at this time for use during the following winter is a widespread practice. The objective of this study was to assess the possible advantages of incorporating flexibility into a calendar‐based haymaking policy. A range of flexible haymaking strategies were simulated and compared against a calendar‐based strategy by using a simulation model to estimate long‐term performance of cow‐calf farm systems under each strategy. The results suggest that controlling haymaking in a flexible fashion, basing the decisions of closing, releasing and cutting paddocks on a simple pasture budget, could give the system productive advantages over using a calendar‐based approach. In terms of liveweight production per hectare, compared at the same area harvested, the flexible approach had higher average annual calf liveweight production (an increase of up to 0.15) and lower system variability [a reduction of 0.10 in the coefficient of variation (CV)] depending on the stocking rate. The results indicated that allocating more than 0.50–0.60 of the farm area to conservation would only be advantageous at very high stocking rates. In contrast to the calendar‐based strategy, making more hay than required for the immediate next winter, where possible, can reduce system variability.     

Theodor Hellbrugge: 85 years of age - Ad multos transannos, sanos, fortunatos et beatos

We honor Theo Hellbrugge's acclaimed endeavors in the rehabilitation, or rather the prehabilitation of handicapped children. So far, he has focused on obvious handicaps, and we trust that he will include concern for everybody's silent handicaps in the future by screening for abnormal variability inside the physiological range. Therein, we introduce cis- and trans-years, components of transdisciplinary spectra that are novel for biology and also in part for physics. These components have periods, respectively, shorter and longer than the calendar year, with a counterpart in magnetoperiodism. Transyears characterize indices of geomagnetic activity and the solar wind's speed and proton density. They are detected, alone or together with circannuals, in physiology as well as in pathology, as illustrated for sudden cardiac death and myocardial infarction, a finding calling for similar studies in sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). As transyears can beat with circannuals, and depend on local factors, their systematic mapping in space and time by transdisciplinary chronomics may serve a better understanding of their putative influence upon the circadian system. Longitudinal monitoring of blood pressure and heart rate detects chronome alterations underlying cardiovascular disease risk, such as that of myocardial infarction and sudden cardiac death. The challenge is to intervene in a timely fashion, preferably at birth, an opportunity for pediatricians in Theo Hellbrugge's footsteps.     

Theodor Hellbrügge: 85 years of age – Ad multos transannos, sanos, fortunatos et beatos

We honor Theo Hellbrügge's acclaimed endeavors in the rehabilitation, or rather the prehabilitation of handicapped children. So far, he has focused on obvious handicaps, and we trust that he will include concern for everybody's silent handicaps in the future by screening for abnormal variability inside the physiological range. Therein, we introduce cis- and trans-years, components of transdisciplinary spectra that are novel for biology and also in part for physics. These components have periods, respectively, shorter and longer than the calendar year, with a counterpart in magnetoperiodism. Transyears characterize indices of geomagnetic activity and the solar wind's speed and proton density. They are detected, alone or together with circannuals, in physiology as well as in pathology, as illustrated for sudden cardiac death and myocardial infarction, a finding calling for similar studies in sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). As transyears can beat with circannuals, and depend on local factors, their systematic mapping in space and time by transdisciplinary chronomics may serve a better understanding of their putative influence upon the circadian system. Longitudinal monitoring of blood pressure and heart rate detects chronome alterations underlying cardiovascular disease risk, such as that of myocardial infarction and sudden cardiac death. The challenge is to intervene in a timely fashion, preferably at birth, an opportunity for pediatricians in Theo Hellbrügge's footsteps.     

茶树扦插生根机理研究进展

茶树扦插的关键是不定根的形成过程,受到多种因素的共同调控,研究茶树生根机理对了解不定根形成及控制具有重要意义.本文介绍了国内外关于茶树不定根形成机理的解剖学、生理生化(植物激素、酶、营养物质)、分子生物学3个方面的研究进展.通过对茶树生根机理的综合研究,可以为加快茶树扦插生根速率和提高其成活率提供理论参考和技术支持.     

Analysis of flowering dynamics heritability in the perennial warm‐season grass Paspalum dilatatum

Understanding the flowering cycles of perennial warm‐season grass species may be very important to the design of management practices and breeding. However, developmental dynamics are not well understood. As most plant traits associated with flowering dynamics do not follow a normal distribution, the use of general linear models to describe and compare these variables might be misleading. The aims of this study were (i) to find a methodology to compare panicle accumulation curves and (ii) to estimate heritabilities for flowering curve attributes. Panicle counts were recorded during a complete flowering cycle on a diverse collection of dallisgrass (Paspalum dilatatum). We compared the efficiency of different linear mixed models based on whole plot or individual plant data; then, we adjusted nonlinear regression curves for individual plants to estimate several curve attributes and compared this approach to the area under the curve. Finally, we calculated the broad‐sense heritabilities of the estimated curve parameters. The following reproductive curve attributes were obtained: panicle production potential, panicle accumulation rate and days until 3, 5, 10 and 15 panicles. We found that monitoring individual plants is more efficient when studying flowering attributes. Significant differences among genotypes for several flowering cycle attributes were found. Heritabilities were very high for all flowering cycle initiation and duration attributes. We also showed that the number of days until the emergence of a given low number of panicles can be used as a highly heritable measure to characterize flowering cycles.     

一个新的大豆细胞质黄化突变体的初步研究

用一个大豆叶片黄化突变体与6个带有不同标记基因的基因型杂交配制了8个杂交组合(包括两组正反交组合)。根据杂交后代的表现对该突变体进行了遗传分析并测定了亲本和F_1植株的叶绿素含量。结果表明该突变体的叶绿素缺失性状呈母体遗传。当以黄化突变体为母本时,杂交F_1和F_2单株都表现为黄化,当用正常的非黄化基因型作为母本时,所有的F_1和F_2植株都不黄化。在自然光照条件下,突变体的叶绿素a、叶绿素b和总叶绿素含量约是正常基因型的47.4、40.4和43.7％。突变体新生叶片的叶绿素含量很低,随着叶片的发育成熟,叶绿素含量逐渐接近正常基因型。根据大豆遗传委员会的有关规定和惯例,建议将该突变体定名为Cyt—Y_4。     

Nano-sized albumin-copolymer micelles for efficient doxorubicin delivery

We present the discovery of a nano-sized protein-derived micellar drug delivery system based on the polycationic albumin precursor protein cBSA-147. The anticancer drug doxorubicin (DOX) was efficiently encapsulated into nanosized micelles based on hydrophobic interactions with the polypeptide scaffold. These micelles revealed attractive stabilities in various physiological buffers and a wide pH range as well as very efficient uptake into A549 cells after 1 h incubation time only. In vitro cytotoxicity was five-times increased compared to free DOX also indicating efficient intracellular drug release. In addition, multiple functional groups are available for further chemical modifications. Based on the hydrophobic loading mechanism, various classical anti-cancer drugs, in principle, could be delivered even synergistically in a single micelle. Considering these aspects, this denatured albumin-based drug delivery system represents a highly attractive platform for nanomedicine approaches towards cancer therapy.     

Development of an algorithm for relating pasture nitrogen status to yield response curves

Determination of optimum nitrogen (N) fertilization rates which maximize pasture growth is challenging due to variability in plant requirements and likely near‐future supply of N by the soil. Remote sensing can be used for mapping N nutrition status of plants and to rapidly assess the spatial variability within a field. An algorithm is, however, lacking which relates the N status of the plants to the expected yield response to additions of N. An algorithm was developed based on a simulation study carried out using the APSIM model. Simulations were performed for an irrigated ryegrass pasture in Canterbury, New Zealand. Nitrogen fertilizer was applied monthly at different rates, ranging from 0 to 150 kg N/ha. To obtain a range of different pasture N contents, a total of 1456 different fertilization rules were set up and evaluated over 20 different years of weather giving 29,120 combinations of pasture herbage N contents and growth responses for each month. The analysis focused on November (spring), a month with generally vigorous growth. A three‐dimensional surface response function, based on the Mitscherlich yield response function, was developed. This function was used to determine required N fertilization rates, which achieve 90% of the maximum yield, based on the antecedent pasture N content. At low pasture herbage N contents (25 g/kg), the required fertilization rate was estimated as 130 kg N/ha, whereas at N contents of 40 g/kg, only 60 kg N/ha was required to obtain the same yield, reflecting the much higher supply of N by the soil.     

Effect of Grazing-Mediated Dimethyl Sulfide (DMS) Production on the Swimming Behavior of the Copepod Calanus helgolandicus

Chemical interactions play a fundamental role in the ecology of marine foodwebs. Dimethyl sulfide (DMS) is a ubiquitous marine trace gas that acts as a bioactive compound by eliciting foraging behavior in a range of marine taxa including the copepod Temora longicornis. Production of DMS can rapidly increase following microzooplankton grazing on phytoplankton. Here, we investigated whether grazing-induced DMS elicits an increase in foraging behavior in the copepod Calanus helgolandicus. We developed a semi-automated method to quantify the effect of grazing-mediated DMS on the proportion of the time budget tethered females allocate towards slow swimming, typically associated with feeding. The pooled data showed no differences in the proportion of the 25 min time budget allocated towards slow swimming between high (23.6 ± 9.74%) and low (29.1 ± 18.33%) DMS treatments. However, there was a high degree of variability between behavioral responses of individual copepods. We discuss the need for more detailed species-specific studies of individual level responses of copepods to chemical signals at different spatial scales to improve our understanding of chemical interactions between copepods and their prey.     

Cork suberin as an additive in offset lithographic printing inks

Suberin oligomers, isolated from cork (Quercus suber L.), were used as additives in ‘Waterless’ and vegetable-oil ink formulations, in the range of 2–10% w/w. The rheological behaviour of the suberin oligomers as well as of the inks, with and without suberin, were investigated as a function of temperature. It was shown that the addition of suberin induces a decrease of viscosity of both inks. The tack of pristine inks, suberin oligomers and their mixtures were determined at different temperatures: the variation of this parameter as a function of time provided information about the drying kinetics of these formulations. The tack of the ‘Waterless’ ink was found to increase with the introduction of suberin, whereas that of vegetable-oil based counterparts decreased. All the trends observed were interpreted in terms of the differences in composition between the two types of inks. Preliminary printing tests were carried out with the various suberin-containing inks.     

Identification of different potential production areas for corn in Italy through multitemporal yield map analysis

In order to optimize production factors, farmer has to know production variability and its origin at both the farm level and the field level. Improving Nitrogen management for cereal crops, which need high amounts of the element during the whole production cycle requires, as precision agriculture states, that within-field variability is accurately identified and interpreted. This is particularly difficult in those situations where agronomically significant variability is detected and even in small fields, as is generally the situation in some European countries.     

Interpretation of correlations between coagulation factors FV, FVIII and vWF in normal and type 2 diabetes mellitus patients

Increased risk of vascular diseases in hypercoagulable states is assumed to be the major cause for prevalence of vascular problems in type 2 diabetes mellitus patient. The present study was undertaken to explore the basis underlying the correlation between the aforesaid three coagulation factors with reference to the relevant mechanistic findings using statistical calculation. Our findings showed that the correlation between each pairs of coagulation factors, FV, FVIII and vWF could be easily interpreted using previously characterized interactions between these factors. Also, given the sequence similarities between FV and FVIII as well as the results of this study, it was indicated, for the first time, that FV may bind to vWF in the same way as FVIII binds. This finding seems to be of great importance to be evaluated through experimental techniques.     

In vivo evaluation of gelatin/hyaluronic acid nanofiber as Burn-wound healing and its comparison with ChitoHeal gel

The study aims at performing a comparative assessment of two types of burn wound treatment. The present study was designed to prepare crosslinked and blended two natural polymers nanofiber scaffolds using gelatin (GE) and hyaluronic acid (HA). The GE/HA composite nanofibrous membranes with varied GE/HA weight ratio have also been successfully fabricated by an electrospinning method. The average diameter of GE/HA fibers was in the range of 20 to 150 nm. In vivo efficacy was also investigated based on a deep second degree burns model for Wistar rats. At 14 days post-operation, the dermal defect basically recovered its normal condition. A percentage of wound closure of GE/HA composite nanofibrous membranes and ChitoHeal gel reached up to 81.9 % and 77.8 % respectively, compared with 65 % of the untreated control (p<0.05). Also, histological parameters were assessed on postoperative day 7 and 14. The results of in vivo experiments showed that more epidermis was formed in the gel and scaffold groups compared to the control group. The numbers of inflammatory cells in these two groups were also smaller as compared with the control group, which could well be the reason for the delayed healing in the control group.     

Utilization of wild sunflower species for the improvement of cultivated sunflower

The genus Helianthus is composed of 49 species and 19 subspecies with 12 annual and 37 perennial species. These diverse species represent considerable genetic variability which can be utilized for the improvement of cultivated sunflower. The taxonomy of Helianthus is somewhat confusing due to the complicated natural interspecific hybridization and different ploidy levels of several species. A germplasm collection of 2000 accessions, mostly annuals, has been assembled. Interspecific hybridization has become important as a means of introducing genetic variability into the cultivated sunflower. This has been facilitated by the use of embryo culture and chromosome doubling with colchicine to increase fertility. The wild species continue to serve as a source of cytoplasmic male sterility for cultivated sunflower. Molecular techniques of restriction endonucleases of mitochondrial DNA can be used to differentiate CMS sources. The greatest impact the wild species have made on cultivated sunflower has been in the area of genes for disease resistance and, to a lesser extent, resistance to insects. The recent discovery of genes for high tolerance to the disease Phomopsis/Diaporthe helianthi Munt. Cvet. is an excellent example. Considerable variability has been reported in oil content and fatty acid concentrations in the wild species as well as agronomic and morphologic traits of plant height, days to flowering and tolerances to stress, especially salt.     

大豆种质资源的分类鉴定研究

将104份来自于国内外的大豆品种，于1998－1999年在河北省保定生态条件下种植，以田间调查记载和室内考种分析所得到的14个性状为参数。对该大豆品种资源群体进行了分类鉴定研究。结果表明，该群体在主要产量性状上具有较为丰富的变异潜力。但在生育期和蛋白质含量为异程度较小。生育期、植株，产量，品质、抗病虫性状的分类鉴定结果表明，不同类别品种表现出各自的性状特点。     

茶叶有效成分对黑色素形成的抑制作用

黑色素是一种高分子生物色素,皮肤的颜色由黑色素的合成类型、累积量、黑素小体的再分布及降解决定.太阳紫外线辐射是导致黑色素形成过多的最常见因素.黑色素虽能保护皮肤细胞免受紫外线损伤,但异常积累将会导致黑色素紊乱疾病的发生.因此开发绿色、安全、高效的植物来源的黑色素抑制剂成为近年来研究的热点.不少研究表明茶叶提取复合物或茶...     

A Risk Management Perspective on Integrated Weed Management

Abstract

The variability inherent in agriculture influences many crop production decisions made by farmers, including weed management. This paper addresses how farmers perceive the variability, or risk, associated with integrated weed management systems in terms of yield, economic returns, and time and labor management. This paper addresses how key biological time constraints such as periodicity of weed emergence, rate of crop growth and development, and critical periods of weed control can influence the outcome of integrated weed management systems. A key component to developing successful integrated weed management systems lies in the ability of the crop producer to align individual time and labor management issues with existing biological time constraints.