Effects of irrigation water salinity and electrostatic water treatment for sugarcane production

Excess salinity in irrigation water reduces sugarcane yield and juice quality. This study was conducted to compare the effect of irrigation with water of 1.3 dS m⁻¹ vs. 3.4 dS m⁻¹ on sugarcane yield and quality, and to evaluate whether an electrostatic conditioning treatment of the water influenced the salt effects. The study was conducted in a commercial field divided into large plots ranging from 1.0 to 1.2 ha in size. Cane and sugar yields were reduced approximately 17% by the 3.4 dS m⁻¹ water compared to the 1.3 dS m⁻¹ water, but juice quality parameters were not affected. Conditioning of the irrigation water using a device called an ‘electrostatic precipitator’ which claimed to affect various water properties had no effect on cane yield, juice quality or soil salinity levels. The detrimental effect of the high salt irrigation water was somewhat less than might be expected, probably due to good late summer rainfall which may have flushed the root zone from the excessive salts.     

细解美国硬木的等级

Bob Sabistina先生是全美硬木板材协会前首席检验官,现任全美硬木板材协会（NHLA）和美国阔叶木外销委员会（AHEC）国际分等规则顾问。他为全球多家媒体撰写的分等规则文章,被认为是对NHLA分等规则的最权威解读。     

Onion yield and quality response to two irrigation scheduling strategies

Irrigation technologies that conserve water are necessary to assure the economic and environmental sustainability of commercial agriculture. This study was conducted in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas to evaluate yield and quality of subsurface drip irrigated onions (Allium cepa L.) using different scheduling strategies and water stress levels. One strategy consisted of initiating irrigation when the reading of a granular matrix sensors (Watermark^{® 1} soil moisture sensor, Irrometer, Co., Riverside, CA) installed at 0.2 m depth reached −20 kPa (optimum), −30 kPa and −50 kPa. The second strategy was to replace 100%, 75%, and 50% of crop evapotranspiration (ETc) weekly. Higher total yields, and jumbo onion size yields were obtained when the soil moisture was kept above −30 kPa. Yields were not affected when water applications were reduced from 100% to 75% ETc and from −20 to −30 kPa. The ETc strategies of 100%, and 75% ETc resulted in similar water usage to the soil moisture monitoring strategies of initiating irrigation at −20 and −30 kPa. Total yields dropped significantly when soil water stress increased below −50 kPa. For the ET based strategy yields also dropped with the 50% ETc treatment. Onion bulb pungency and brix were unaffected by water level.     

Basal tomato defences to Botrytis cinerea include abscisic acid-dependent callose formation

In Arabidopsis, abscisic acid (ABA) application can induce resistance by priming for callose deposition; this resistance is impaired in ABA-deficient and -insensitive mutants. In tomato, ABA-deficiency causes resistance to Botrytis cinerea. Here, we show that callose deposition after B. cinerea inoculation is weaker in the ABA-deficient sitiens tomato mutant compared to the wild type (WT). Inhibition of callose synthesis did not affect resistance in sitiens, but caused additional susceptibility in WT. These findings indicate that callose deposition is not part of sitiens defence responses that are effective in blocking B. cinerea and suggest that callose deposition only contributes to WT basal resistance. Furthermore, also in tomato callose formation is at least in part ABA-dependent. However, it seems that in contrast to Arabidopsis, basal ABA levels in tomato are sufficiently high to prime for callose deposition.     

Triggering a cell shape change by exploiting preexisting actomyosin contractions

Apical constriction changes cell shapes, driving critical morphogenetic events, including gastrulation in diverse organisms and neural tube closure in vertebrates. Apical constriction is thought to be triggered by contraction of apical actomyosin networks. We found that apical actomyosin contractions began before cell shape changes in both Caenorhabitis elegans and Drosophila. In C. elegans, actomyosin networks were initially dynamic, contracting and generating cortical tension without substantial shrinking of apical surfaces. Apical cell-cell contact zones and actomyosin only later moved increasingly in concert, with no detectable change in actomyosin dynamics or cortical tension. Thus, apical constriction appears to be triggered not by a change in cortical tension, but by dynamic linking of apical cell-cell contact zones to an already contractile apical cortex.     

Comparative Histomorphological Review of Rat and Human Hepatocellular Proliferative Lesions

In this comparative review, histomorphological features of common nonneoplastic and neoplastic hepatocyte lesions of rats and humans are examined using H&E-stained slides. The morphological similarities and differences of both neoplastic (hepatocellular carcinoma and hepatocellular adenoma) and presumptive preneoplastic lesions (large and small cell change in humans and foci of cellular alteration in rats) are presented and discussed. There are major similarities in the diagnostic features, growth patterns and behavior of both rat and human hepatocellular proliferative lesions and in the process of hepatocarcinogenesis. Further study of presumptive preneoplastic lesions in humans and rats should help to further define their role in progression to hepatocellular neoplasia in both species.