Partitioning of penoxsulam, a new sulfonamide herbicide

Penoxsulam (trade name Granite) is a new acetolactate synthase (ALS) inhibitor herbicide for postemergence control of annual grasses, sedges, and broadleaf weeds in rice culture. This study was done to understand the equilibrium phase partitioning of penoxsulam to soil and air under conditions simulating California rice field conditions. Partitioning of penoxsulam was determined between soil and water (Kd) by the batch equilibrium method and between air and water (K(H)) by the gas-purge method. In four representative soils from the Sacramento Valley, the Kd values ranged from 0.14 to 5.05 and displayed a modest increase with soil pH. In soil amended with manure compost, soil sorption increased 4-fold with increasing soil organic matter content, but was still low with a Kd of 0.4 in samples with high organic carbon contents of 15%. Penoxsulam was confirmed to be extremely nonvolatile and did not partition into air at any measurable rate at 20 or 40 degrees C. K(H) (pH 7) was estimated at 4.6 x 10(-15) Pa x L x mol(-1) on the basis of available water solubility and vapor pressure data. The results imply that soil and air partitioning of penoxsulam do not significantly affect its potential for degradation or offsite movement in water.     

宁夏引进优质水稻品种的主要农艺性状和部分品质性状的分析

通过对宁夏近几年引进的十个优质水稻品种（系）的23个性状的测定，运用DPS多元统计软件对其进行了因子和逐步回归分析，将23个性状分为6组主因子。分析结果表明，引进和选育优质稻时应注重大穗型品种，走穗粒并重的路子，较高的植株有利于降低垩白粒率及垩白度，选育经济系数较低的品种可以提高稻米的碾米品质，千粒重小可以提高外观品质。同时调整株行距可以提高稻米品质。     

作物生产管理系统的研究进展

从作物生长模拟模型和管理决策支持系统方面阐述了国内外作物生产管理系统研究的发展动态和进展。     

Effects of experimental seaweed deposition on lizard and ant predation in an island food web

The effect of environmental change on ecosystems is mediated by species interactions. Environmental change may remove or add species and shift life-history events, altering which species interact at a given time. However, environmental change may also reconfigure multispecies interactions when both species composition and phenology remain intact. In a Caribbean island system, a major manifestation of environmental change is seaweed deposition, which has been linked to eutrophication, overfishing, and hurricanes. Here, we show in a whole-island field experiment that without seaweed two predators--lizards and ants--had a substantially greater-than-additive effect on herbivory. When seaweed was added to mimic deposition by hurricanes, no interactive predator effect occurred. Thus environmental change can substantially restructure food-web interactions, complicating efforts to predict anthropogenic changes in ecosystem processes.     

甜瓜可溶性固形物含量的基因效应分析

采用半轮配双列杂交,分析了甜瓜可溶性固形物含量的遗传特性,研究结果表明,遗传方差组成中,基因的加性效应和显性效应都是显著的,但加性效应占相对主要优势,狭义遗传力(hN2)值为65%。基因的分布是不均衡的,控制该性状的基因W为显性基因,但表现为不完全显性,可溶性固形物含量选择的较好世代在F4代。     

Remote sensing of the magnetic moment of uranus: predictions for voyager

Power is supplied to a planet's magnetosphere from the kinetic energy of planetary spin and the energy flux of the impinging solar wind. A fraction of this power is available to drive numerous observable phenomena, such as polar auroras and planetary radio emissions. In this report our present understanding of these power transfer mechanisms is applied to Uranus to make specific predictions of the detectability of radio and auroral emissions by the planetary radio astronomy (PRA) and ultraviolet spectrometer (UVS) instruments aboard the Voyager spacecraft before its encounter with Uranus at the end of January 1986. The power available for these two phenomena is (among other factors) a function of the magnetic moment of Uranus. The date of earliest detectability also depends on whether the predominant power source for the magnetosphere is planetary spin or solar wind. The magnetic moment of Uranus is derived for each power source as a function of the date of first detection of radio emissions by the PRA instrument or auroral emissions by the UVS instrument. If we accept the interpretation of ultraviolet observations now available from the Earth-orbiting International Ultraviolet Explorer satellite, Uranus has a surface magnetic field of at least 0.6 gauss, and more probably several gauss, making it the largest or second-largest planetary magnetic field in the solar system.     

Protein displacement by DExH/D "RNA helicases" without duplex unwinding

Members of the DExH/D superfamily of nucleic acid-activated nucleotide triphosphatases are essential for virtually all aspects of RNA metabolism, including pre-messenger RNA splicing, RNA interference, translation, and nucleocytoplasmic trafficking. Physiological substrates for these enzymes are thought to be regions of double-stranded RNA, because several DExH/D proteins catalyze strand separation in vitro. These "RNA helicases" can also disrupt RNA-protein interactions, but it is unclear whether this activity is coupled to duplex unwinding. Here we demonstrate that two unrelated DExH/D proteins catalyze protein displacement independently of duplex unwinding. Therefore, the essential functions of DExH/D proteins are not confined to RNA duplexes but can be exerted on a wide range of ribonucleoprotein substrates.