Heritability estimates for winter hardiness in lentil under natural and controlled conditions

Heritability analysis for cold tolerance in lentil was conducted using parental, F₂ and F₃ populations at two locations in Balochistan, Pakistan and one controlled environment in Fort Collins, Colorado, USA. Populations of parental and F₂ families were grown over 2 years (1991‐92 and 1992‐93) at Quetta, Balochistan, Pakistan. In 1992‐93, parental and F₃ families were studied at Quetta, and Kalat, Balochistan, Pakistan. Evaluation for normality using non‐transformed and log‐transformed data failed. Attempts to use analysis of variance were then abandoned in favour of parent‐offspring regression for narrow‐sense heritability. Estimates of narrow‐sense heritability ranged from 0.31±0.06 to 0.71 ± 0.06 under field conditions. Under controlled conditions, the estimated heritability was maximized at 1.00 ± 0.17 using 6‐ to 8‐week‐old lentils. Significant transgressive segregants were found in five of the six populations in the F₃ generation. Transgressive segregants appeared in the controlled F₃ generation but were not observed in field environments. This indicates that cold tolerance is under additive gene control and is environmentally sensitive in gene expression.     

Cross compatibility between Abelmoschus esculentus and A. moschatus

Interspecific cross compatibility between cultivated and wild okra (Abelmoschus esculentus and A. moschatus) and pollen tube growth behaviour in the crosses among a local cultivar of A. esculentus, A. moschatus and their F₁s were studied. Fruit set was observed in all the crosses except one and seed setting was absent in two of the crosses which set fruit. All seed produced were shrivelled but F₁ plants were obtained from two crosses where cultivated okra was used as the seed parent. The F₁ plants were perennial in nature with very low pollen viability and seed set. A high percentage of pollen germination and profuse pollen tube penetration in the style were observed in the cross A. esculentus × A. moschatus but low pollen tube penetration with abnormal pollen tubes was observed in the reciprocal cross. The number of pollen tubes was very low but they appeared to be normal in the backcross A. esculentus × F₁, but were generally abnormal in the reciprocal cross. Both pre- and postzygotic barriers seemed to occur in crosses between the two species. The present studies indicate that these barriers can be overcome and desirable characters from A. moschatus transferred to cultivated okra using conventional hybridisation techniques. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The Application of Artificial Neural Networks for the Prediction of Water Quality of Polluted Aquifer

From hydrocarbon reservoirs, beside of oil and natural gas, thebrine is also produced as a waste material, which may bedischarged at the surface or re-injected into the ground. Whenthe wastewater is injected into the ground, it may be mixed withfresh water source due to to several reasons. Forecastingthe pollutant concentrations by knowing the historical data atseveral locations on a field has a great importance to take thenecessary precautions before the undesired situations arehappened.The aim of this study is to describe Artificial Neural Network(ANN) approach that can be used to forecast the future pollutantconcentrations and hydraulic heads of a groundwater source. Inorder to check the validity of the approach, a hypotheticalfield data as a case study were produced by using groundwatersimulator (MOC). Hydraulic heads and chlorine concentrationswere obtained from groundwater simulations. ANN was trained byusing the historical data of last two years. The future chlorineconcentrations and hydraulic heads were estimated by applyingboth the long-term and the short-term ANN predictions. Anapproach to overcome the effects of using the data of a singlewell was proposed by favouring the use of data set for aneighbour well. The higher errors for the long-term ANNpredictions were obtained at the observation wells, which wereaway from an injection well. In order to minimise the differencebetween the results of long-term ANN approach and flowsimulation runs; the short-term prediction was applied. The useof short-term prediction for the wells away from an injectionwell was found to give highly acceptable results when thelong-term prediction fails. The average absolute error obtainedfrom the shortterm forecasting study was 3.5% when compared to18.5% for the long-term forecasting.     

Preliminary observations on effects of tillage systems on soil physical properties, cotton root growth and yield in Gezira Scheme, Sudan

The decline in cotton yields in the Gezira Scheme, Sudan, has been partially attributed to deterioration in soil physical properties and the formation of a plough pan 20 cm deep as a result of the repeated use of the disc plough for land preparation. This field study was conducted during the 1990/91 season at the Gezira Research Station Farm to evaluate the effect of tillage on some soil physical properties of Vertisols, root growth and yield of cotton (Gossypium barbadense L.). Three tillage systems were used: disc harrowing (DH), three bottom disc plough (DP) and subsoiling (SS). Infiltration rates, bulk densities, soil penetration resistance, moisture depletion and root and shoot growth were measured. The results indicated that infiltration rate was not increased significantly by SS. Plant height and shoot dry matter were significantly higher with SS at later growth stages. Bulk density of the plough pan at 135 days after sowing accounted for 90% of the observed variation in subsoil root dry weight while soil penetration resistance accounted for 59% of the variation. Subsoiling increased water use efficiency 25 and 13% over DH and DP respectively. Subsoiling increased cotton yields over DH but the increase over DP was not significant.     

Evaluation of Analytical Methods for Boron Determination in Maize Shoots

For the comparison of the digestion and spectroscopic determination methods used to measure boron (B) concentrations in maize shoots, increasing doses of boron (0, 2.5, 5, and 10 mg kg^?1 B) were applied to soil and maize plants (Zea mays L.) cultivar “Euralis Es Armandi” (FAO 640). The plants were grown under greenhouse conditions. Dried and ground maize shoots were digested according to two digestion procedures of microwave and dry ashing. Boron concentrations were determined using spectrophotometer and inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). The concentrations of boron influenced statistically (p < 0.01) due to the B applications and analysis methods. Spectrophotometric measurement of B amounts of the samples prepared with microwave digestion method was found irrelevant with other indicated methods. However, the ICP-OES measurements were found compatible with the dry ashing also with microwave digestion and suggested as a suitable method to determine boron contents of the maize shoots.     

基于三目视觉的自主导航拖拉机行驶轨迹预测方法及试验

为了实现自主导航拖拉机离开卫星定位系统时能够持续可靠工作,该文提出了基于三目视觉的拖拉机行驶轨迹预测方法。该方法将三目相机分解为长短基线2套双目视觉系统分时独立工作。通过检测相邻时刻农业环境中同一特征点的坐标变化反推拖拉机在水平方向上的运动矢量,并通过灰色模型预测未来时刻的运动矢量变化,最终建立不同速度下的前进方向误差模型。试验结果表明:拖拉机行驶速度为0.2 m/s时,46.5 s后前进方向误差超过0.1 m,对应行驶距离为9.3 m。行驶速度上升到0.5 m/s时,该时间和行驶距离分别降低到17.2 s和8.6 m。当行驶速度上升到0.8 m/s时,该时间和距离分别快速降低至8.5 s和6.8 m。行驶速度越高,前进方向误差增速越高。该方法可用于短时预测拖拉机的行驶轨迹,为自主导航控制提供依据。