Conversion rates of aldicarb and its oxidation products in soils. II. Aldicarb sulphoxide

The loss of aldicarb sulphoxide was studied in incubation experiments with soil from four plough layers and two deeper layers. The loss during the 111 days of the experiment could be described by first-order kinetics. The half-lives at 15°C ranged from 20 days in a clay loam to 46 days in a peaty sand. The loss of sulphoxide in deeper layers was considerably slower than in the corresponding top layers of a soil profile. In soil from a silty layer at 70–90 cm depth the half-life was about 53 days. In soil from a sand layer at 90–110 cm depth a loss of only about 15% was measured after 111 days of incubation. First-order rate constants for sulphoxide conversion in a clay loam at 6, 15 and 25°C were found to be 0.009, 0.033, and 0.05 day^?1 respectively; in a greenhouse soil these rate constants were 0.0052, 0.019 and 0.04 day^?1 respectively. The fractions of aldicarb sulphoxide that were oxidised to sulphone at 15°C in soil from plough layers were computed to range from 0.52 to 0.76.     

Activity and concentration of polyphenolic antioxidants in apple juice. 2. Effect of novel production methods

There is a great interest in food components that possess possible health-protecting properties, as is the case with flavonoids. Previous research showed that conventional apple juice processing resulted in juices poor in flavonoids and with a low antioxidant activity. This paper shows that it is possible to improve flavonoid content in juice and its antioxidant activity by applying an alcoholic extraction either on the pulp or on the pomace. The levels of flavonoids and chlorogenic acid in enriched juice were between 1.4 (chlorogenic acid) and 9 (quercetin glycosides) times higher than in conventional apple juice. In enriched juice the antioxidant activity was 5 times higher than in conventional apple juice, with 52% of the antioxidant activity of the originating fruits present. The novel processing method had similar effects for three apple cultivars tested (Elstar, Golden Delicious, and Jonagold). The taste and color of enriched juice were different from those of conventional juice.     

Target species identity is more important than neighbor species identity

This study investigates how the ability to overtop other saplings and the ability to capture most of the incident light together determine interspecific competition in young and dense self-thinning stands. To this end we measured crown positions and stratification, and quantified the effect of total foliage mass and foliage mass density of neighboring trees on the relative crown depth (RCD) of target trees. Field measurements were done on naturally established saplings in two large forest gaps of different age (5- and 15-year-old) in The Netherlands, and consisting of four species differing in shade tolerance.     

Sensitivity to inhibitors of sterol biosynthesis in isolates of Venturia inaequalis from Italian and Dutch orchards

Samenvatting Een geringe, maar significante reductie in gevoeligheid vanVenturia inaequalis voor fungiciden die tot de sterol-biosyntheseremmers behoren werd vastgesteld bij isolaten uit proefboomgaar den in Italië, die gedurende enkele jaren met deze middelen behandeld waren. Bij isolaten uit enkele commerciële boomgaarden in Nederland werd nog geen significante verschuiving in gevoeligheid waargenomen.     

Lack of cross resistance to benomyl and thiabendazole in some strains of Aspergillus nidulans

Samenvatting Verworven resistentie inAspergillus nidulans tegen benomyl en thiabendazol bleek te berusten op één gen, gelocaliseerd op chromosoom VIII, op een afstand van 34 eenheden van ts-D 15 en 5 eenheden van orn-B 7. Hoewel kruisresistentie de regel is, blijkt dat sommige, mutanten tegen slechts één van beide fungiciden resistent zijn, en dat resistantie tegen thiabendazol zelfs gepaard kan gaan met extra gevoeligheid voor benomyl (Fig. 1 en 2).