Enhanced tomato resistance to bacterial canker by application of turtle oil

Pretreatment with oil of sea turtle Caretta caretta protected tomato plants against bacterial canker caused by Clavibacter michiganensis subsp. michiganensis (Cmm). The turtle oil was ineffective in inhibiting Cmm in an agar diffusion test, suggesting a mechanism of induced resistance. Under controlled conditions in the greenhouse, turtle oil lowered the disease index and had reduced the growth of bacteria up to 50.4% by 7 days after inoculation. Applying turtle oil to the foliage of tomato plants increased per-oxidase and lipoxygenase activities. Gas chromatography analyses of turtle oil indicated the presence of polyunsaturated fatty acids such as eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid. These fatty acids may lead to the higher activity of the enzymes and probably induced plant resistance against the pathogen.     

Effects of Sowing Dates and Seeding Rates on Nitrogen and Water Use Efficiency of Facultative Wheat

In this study, effects of different sowing dates and seeding rates on N uptake efficiency (NUE), N translocation efficiency (NTE), agronomic efficiency (AE), physiological efficiency (PE), water use efficiency for grain yield (WUE_g) and water use efficiency for biomass (WUE_b) of facultative wheat were investigated. As the average of cropping year, sowing dates and seeding rates, N uptake efficiency (NUE), N translocation efficiency (NTE), agronomic efficiency (AE), physiological efficiency (PE), water use efficiency for grain yield (WUE_g) and water use efficiency for biomass (WUE_b) values were respectively obtained as 1.17?kg N_uptake/kg N_applied, 68.5%, 36.9?kg grain/kg N_applied, 31.2?kg grain/kg N_uptake, 5.19?kg ha^?1 mm^?1 and 18.04?kg ha^?1 mm^?1.

Nitrogen and water use efficiencies decreased with delayed sowing dates and increased with increasing seeding rates. It is possible to maintain a high wheat yield, nitrogen and water use efficiency by increasing plant density through winter sowing. It was concluded based on present findings that sowing date and seeding rates had significant effects on nitrogen and water use efficiencies and winter sowing should be practiced as not to cause yield losses and high seeding rates (575 seeds m^?2) yielded greater nitrogen-water use efficiencies.

     

Experimental observation of nonlinear traveling waves in turbulent pipe flow

Transition to turbulence in pipe flow is one of the most fundamental and longest-standing problems in fluid dynamics. Stability theory suggests that the flow remains laminar for all flow rates, but in practice pipe flow becomes turbulent even at moderate speeds. This transition drastically affects the transport efficiency of mass, momentum, and heat. On the basis of the recent discovery of unstable traveling waves in computational studies of the Navier-Stokes equations and ideas from dynamical systems theory, a model for the transition process has been suggested. We report experimental observation of these traveling waves in pipe flow, confirming the proposed transition scenario and suggesting that the dynamics associated with these unstable states may indeed capture the nature of fluid turbulence.