Effects of rhodium heterogeneous catalyst and isomerization conditions on linoleic acid conjugation of soybean oil

Rhodium heterogeneous catalyst was used to catalyze isomerization of linoleic acid in soybean oil to conjugated linoleic acid (CLA). A central composite rotatable design with five levels of three variables, namely, reaction temperature, stirring speed, and reaction time, was used to determine the maximum CLA yield. The formation of CLA during isomerization was greatly dependent on the reaction temperature and time. The CLA content of soybean oil increased from 0.63 to 202.42 mg/g oil when isomerization was done at 200 degrees C, with a stirring speed of 200 rpm for 49 min. Analysis of triacylglycerol positions showed that linoleic acid at any position in a triacylglyceride could possibly be isomerized to CLA.     

The adoption of annual subsoiling as conservation tillage in dryland maize and wheat cultivation in northern China

Soil compaction caused by random traffic or repetitive tillage has been shown to reduce water use efficiency, and thus crop yield due to reduced porosity, decreased water infiltration and availability of nutrients. Conservation tillage coupled with subsoiling in northern China is widely believed to reduce soil compaction, which was created after many years of no-till. However, limited research has been conducted on the most effective time interval for subsoiling, under conservation tillage. Data from conservation tillage demonstration sites operating for 10 years in northern China were used to conduct a comparative study of subsoiling interval under conservation tillage. Three modes of traditional tillage, subsoiling with soil cover and no-till with soil cover were compared using 10 years of soil bulk density, water content, yield and water use efficiency data. Cost benefit analysis was conducted on subsoiling time interval under conservation tillage. Yield and power consumption were assessed by based on the use of a single pass combine subsoiler and planter. Annual subsoiling was effective in reducing bulk density by only 4.9% compared with no-till treatments on the silty loam soils of the Loess plateau, but provided no extra benefit in terms of soil water loss, yield increase or water utilization. With the exception of bulk density, no-till and subsoiling with cover were vastly superior in increasing water use (+10.5%) efficiency and yield (+12.9%) compared to traditional tillage methods. Four years of no-till followed by one subsoiling reduced mechanical inputs by 62%, providing an economic benefit of 49% for maize and 209% for wheat production compared to traditional tillage. Annual subsoiling reduced inputs by 25% with an increased economic benefit of 23% for maize and 135% for wheat production. Yield and power consumption was improved by 5% and 20%, respectively, by combining subsoiling with the planting operation in one pass compared with multipass operations of subsoiling and planting. A key conclusion from this is that annual subsoiling in dryland areas of northern China is uneconomical and unwarranted. Four years of no-till operations followed by 1 year subsoiling provided some relief from accumulated soil compaction. However, minimum soil disturbance and maximum soil cover are key elements of no-till for saving water and improving yields. Improved yields and reduced farm power consumption could provide a significant base on which to promote combined planter and subsoiling operations throughout northern China. Further research is required to develop a better understanding of the linkages between conservation tillage, soil quality and yield, aimed at designing most appropriate conservation tillage schemes.     

Primary and secondary metabolite composition of kernels from three cultivars of Portuguese chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) at different stages of industrial transformation

Chestnut (Castanea sativa) is an important basic food in rural diets and a major starch crop used in a similar way to potatoes. Chestnuts are a fundamental economic resource in the "chestnut regions" not only for the fruit but also for the chestnut wood. Chestnuts have become increasingly important with respect to human health, for example, as an alternative gluten-free flour source. Chestnuts are also a rich source of other beneficial compounds, but there have been few studies on the composition during processing. In this study, we analyzed the chemical composition of three Portuguese cultivars at different stages of industrial processing. The chestnut cultivars were Longal, Judia, and Martaínha. All three cultivars had high moisture contents but were low in ash, crude fat, and crude protein contents, with high starch and low fiber contents. The free amino acid contents, including various essential amino acids, varied depending on the cultivar. All three cultivars also had a significant content of polyphenolics with gallic acid; ellagic acid was predominant among hydrolyzable and condensed tannins. Many of these compounds are known to exert significant positive effects on human health. The one-way analysis of variance for fresh chestnut shows significant differences among the three cultivars for most of the studied parameters. The same statistical analysis applied to each one of the two cultivars (Judia and Longal) sampled for the four processing steps analyzed indicates a significant effect of this factor in practically all of the constituents. On the other hand, the two-way analysis of variance shows that, besides the residual, the processing step and the interaction cultivar x processing step were the factors that more contributed for the total variation observed in the constituents analyzed, while the contribution of cultivar was much less significant.     

Isotopic detection of recent photosynthate carbon flow into grassland rhizosphere fauna

In this study, we measured the incorporation of recent photosynthate-C inputs into active rhizosphere fauna (earthworms, enchytraeids, mites and collembolans) in an upland grassland soil under natural environmental conditions. This was achieved by means of a ¹³CO₂ pulse-chase experiment made during the growing season, followed by a 20-day dynamic sampling of soil fauna for ¹²C/¹³C analysis by IRMS. The effect of post-¹³C labelling defoliation (cutting) on fauna ¹²C/¹³C ratios was also examined.Results showed that earthworms made up over 93% of the extracted fauna biomass, while mites, collembolans and enchytraeids together accounted for less than 7%. All fauna groups showed evidence of tracer ¹³C in their tissues within a week of ¹³CO₂ pulse labelling in both control and cut treatments. Cutting significantly increased the amount of tracer ¹³C entering the organisms (P=0.0002). Similarly, the fauna group also had a significant effect (P=0.0001). Time did not have any effect on fauna ¹³C content between groups as differences were only significant at the last sampling occasion. The interaction time×animal group, however, had a significant effect (P=0.0054).Collembolans accounted for most of the tracer ¹³C measured within the fauna biomass, i.e. mean±standard deviation of 44.78±12.75% and 44.29±14.69% of fauna ¹³C in control and cut treatments, respectively. Mites and earthworms contained between 22.13% and 28.45%, and enchytraeids less than 6% of the tracer ¹³C. We conclude that, during the growing season, there was a rapid incorporation of recent photosynthate-C into rhizosphere mesofauna. This carbon transfer was most significantly increased by defoliation in mites and collembolans (P<0.01). These results provide evidence that soil foodweb carbon dynamics are not solely underpinned by detrital decomposition but are also affected by short-term plant rhizodeposition patterns.     

宇宙射线中子法测量区域土壤水分准确性季节变化研究

为证实典型气象条件下宇宙射线中子法测量区域土壤水分准确性的差异和应用普适性,以季节为时间划分尺度,并选取典型气象条件时段,对比研究山地地形下垫面宇宙射线中子法(CRNS)与频域反射法(FDR)土壤水分连续观测效果差异.结果 表明:山地地形下垫面,CRNS水平测量足迹的季节变化较为稳定,垂直足迹在耕作层范围内有一定波动....     

不同工况下Y型网式过滤器流场数值模拟分析

为探究网式过滤器的水力性能,充分了解网式过滤器内部最初流场、滤芯网面流量分布情况,应用计算流体动力学方法对网式过滤器3种入口流速(0.5、1.5、2.5 m/s)以及3种滤网目数(60、80、100目)对过滤器流场进行数值模拟。通过试验对模拟结果的可靠性进行验证,结果表明：过滤器的水头损失集中在出口侧滤芯上,该部分水头损失占总损失的87%;水流在腔体内可分为出口侧加速区、出口侧减速区、堵头回流区和漩涡区4部分;滤网面流量分布严重不均,高流量区域主要分布在出口侧,入口流速由0.5 m/s增至2.5 m/s过程中,网面最大与最小流量均相差3.3倍,滤网目数为60、80、100目时,网面最大与最小流量相差3.3、3.1、2.3倍,且滤网目数增至100目时,最大与最小流量位置向两侧偏移;堵头处死水区压力大、流速低,泥沙易于沉淀,建议扩大堵头容积以承接更多的泥沙;可以考虑增大腔体体积、改变腔体角度、在入口处设置导流片,从而改善流场分布;建议在滤网上增加环状片体,改善网面流量分布,从而提高过滤器的使用寿命以及过滤效率。     

我国甘蔗中耕机械发展现状及趋势

随着农业产业结构调整和人工成本增加,发展机械化成为甘蔗生产节本增效的迫切需求。甘蔗中耕机械化作业能一次完成松土、除草、施肥和培土等工序,有效改善土壤状况,深层保肥保水,为甘蔗生长创造良好的条件。介绍了甘蔗中耕机械生产技术、发展历程、机型特点以及效益,指出存在的问题,提出应重点发展高地隙底盘配套技术、多功能肥膜药一体化轻便型耕作培土机以及驱动型中耕联合作业机械。      

Suitability of mapped sequence tagged microsatellite site markers for establishing distinctness, uniformity and stability in aromatic rice

At present, testing for distinctness, uniformity and stability (DUS) of crop varieties relies on a set of morphological characters. These characters suffer fromthe limitations of number, interaction with the environment in which the variety grows and subjectivity in decision-making. The potential of DNA-based markers such as sequence tagged microsatellite site (STMS), for establishing DUS merits investigation. In the present study, a set of 55 mapped STMS markers, selected from 12 linkage groups of rice genome, was used to examine distinctness of 23 aromatic rice genotypes including the commercially important Basmati varieties. Forty-one of these markers (74.5%) showed polymorphism between the varieties. The number of alleles per locus ranged from 2–4 with an average of 2.3. The polymorphism information content (PIC) of the markers varied from 0.083 to 0.665 with an average of 0.338. All the varieties could be differentiated from each other at a low probability (0.07×10^-13) of identical match by chance. The marker-based clustering of the varieties corresponded with the known phenotypic classification, thereby providing confidence in the distinctness established by the mapped STMS markers. The utility of these markers to study uniformity and stability was analysed using a commercially important crossbred Basmati rice variety Pusa Basmati 1(IET-10364) that contributes about 40–50% of Basmati rice export from India. Genotyping of twenty individual plants, grown from the nucleus, breeder, foundation, certified and farmer's saved seed samples using all the 55 markers revealed no variation among the plants. These observations suggested that the set of mapped markers employed in this study could be further used for establishing distinctness of aromatic rice varieties and for studying DUS of the important commercial variety Pusa Basmati 1. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Construction of Genetic Linkage Map of Bread Wheat （Triticum aestivum L.） Using an Intervarietal Cross and QTL Map for Spike Related Traits

Most often a genetic linkage map is prepared using populations obtained from two highly diverse genotypes. However, the markers from such a map may not be useful in a breeding program as these markers may not be polymorphic among the varieties used in breeding. For the past nine years, intraspecific maps have been gaining importance and such maps based on Swiss （PaiUard et al., 2003）, Japanese （Suenaga et al., 2005）, Australian （Chaimcrs et al., 2001） wheat varieties arc available. A map based on Indian wheat varieties however has not been reported. We constructed a genetic linkage map based on a cross between two Indian bread wheat （Triticum aestivum L.） varieties, Sonalika and Kalyansona. One hundred and fifty F2 individuals were analyzed for arbitrarilyprimed polymerase Chain reaction （AP-PCR）, random amplified polymorphic DNA （RAPD）, inter simple sequence repeats （ISSR）, Sequence Tagged Microsatelhte Sites （STMS）, Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism （AFLP） markers, seed storage proteins and known genes. A linkage map was constructed consisting of 236 markers and spanning a distance of 3 639 cM with 1 211.2 cM for A genome, 1 669.2 cM for B genome, 192.4 cM for D genome and 566.2 cM for unassigned groups,