Dimensional issues in agricultural data warehouse designs

Recently, the government of India embarked on an ambitious project of designing and deploying the Integrated National Agricultural Resources Information System (INARIS) data warehouse for the agricultural sector. The system's purpose is to support macro level planning. This paper presents some of the challenges faced in designing the data warehouse, specifically dimensional and deployment challenges of the warehouse. We also present some early user evaluations of the warehouse. Governmental data warehouse implementations are rare, especially at the national level. Furthermore, the motivations are significantly different from private sectors. Designing the INARIS agricultural data warehouse posed unique and significant challenges because, traditionally, the collection and dissemination of information are localized.     

Carbohydrate metabolism during tuber initiation in potato: A transient surge in invertase activity marks the stolon to tuber transition

Summary The relationship between carbohydrate metabolism and tuber initiation in potato was determined by monitoring changes in the amount of starch and sugars along with the activities of sugar metabolizing enzymes upon transfer of plants to tuber-inducing conditions (TI; short days, cold nights) from non-inducing conditions (NTI: long days, warm nights). Switch to TI conditions caused an immediate slow-down in plant growth and triggered swelling of stolon tips, which went on to develop into tubers. Leaves of plants moved to TI conditions accumulated less starch and sugar while their stolon tips showed a sudden upsurge in starch content and a sharp decline in sugars even before any tip swelling was detectable. These changes were paralleled by a transient surge in the activity of cell wall invertase (74%) and soluble invertase (30%) in stolon tips of plants transferred to TI conditions in two unrelated cultivars under different experimental conditions. As the surge in invertase activity faded, it was replaced by a substantial increase in sucrose synthase activity as the tuber enlargement proceeded. The transient increase in invertase activity just prior to tuber initiation appears to mark a turning point in the transition of stolon tip to tuber.     

食品安全控制中条码质量追溯标签的设计与应用

为实现对农产品“从农田到餐桌”的全方位的监控,从如何确定农产品“身份”出发,结合全球统一性的EAN·UCC编码体系,制定了农产品编码标准,设计了农产品追溯条码方案,并基于.net平台实现了农产品追溯标签的自动生成与打印。     

Smut reaction of pearl millet hybrids affected by fertility restoration and genetic resistance of parental lines

Summary Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.) hybrids based on the A₁ cytoplasmic-nuclear male-sterile (CMS) lines are more susceptible to smut (Tolyposporium penicillariae Bref.) than open-pollinated varieties. Seventy eight pairs of hybrids, made onto male-sterile (A) lines and their counterpart maintainer (B) lines, were evaluated to examine the effects of male sterility and genetic resistance of parental lines on the smut severity of hybrids. The A-line hybrids had higher smut severity and lower selfed seedset than the counterpart B-line hybrids, indicating that it is the CMS-mediated male sterility rather than the A₁ cytoplasm per se that caused greater smut severity of A-line hybrids. However, with the use of resistant parental lines even male-sterile hybrids of A-lines, in several cases, were as resistant as some of the highly resistant male-fertile hybrids of B-lines. It would be possible to produce smut resistant hybrids (< 10% severity) on A-lines, albeit in low frequency, even if only one parent of a hybrid were resistant. However, the probability of producing such hybrids would be higher when both parents were resistant to smut. Thus, improvement in smut resistance of parental lines and fertility restoration ability of pollinators would provide the most effective genetic approach to smut disease management in hybrids.Submitted as JA No 1737 by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT).     

Ergot reaction of pearl millet hybrids affected by fertility restoration and genetic resistance of parental lines

Summary High ergot (Claviceps fusiformis Loveless) susceptibility of pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.) hybrids has often been associated with the A₁ cytoplasm of male-sterile lines (A-lines). To understand the underlying basis of this association and to examine the prospects of breeding ergot-resistant hybrids, we evaluated 56 hybrids and their 15 parental lines for ergot reaction and selfed seedset for 2 years in disease nurseries at ICRISAT Asia Center. Hybrids were made by crossing seven pollen parents (2 susceptible and 5 resistant) onto two resistant and two susceptible A-lines, and their four corresponding maintainer lines (B-lines). A-lines had no selfed seedset while B-lines had 32–75% selfed seedset. Hybrids of A-lines had significantly less selfed seedset than the hybrids of the corresponding B-lines. The reduced seedset of A-lines and their hybrids, however, was not always accompanied by significantly higher ergot susceptibility. Highly resistant hybrids were obtained where both A-lines and pollen parents were highly resistant, regardless of male fertility levels of the hybrids. Thus, although the A₁ cytoplasm, by its reduction of male fertility, had a large and significant effect in increasing ergot severity of hybrids, the contribution of nuclear genetic factors of female parents was about 1.8 times larger than that of the cytoplasm.Submitted as JA No. 1776 by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi Arid Tropies.     

Effect of d2 dwarfing gene on grain yield and yield components in pearl millet near-isogenic lines

Summary A d₂ dwarfing gene in pearl millet [Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.] is currently being extensively used for the development of hybrid parents. Its effect on grain yield and yield components is poorly understood. Twelve pairs of tall and dwarf near-isogenic lines developed in the diverse genetic background of three composites were evaluated for grain yield and yield components for 2 years at two locations in southern India. The d₂ gene or the genes linked to it, on an average, reduced plant height by 42%, grain yield by 14%, and head girth by 8% but increased head length and number of tillers per plant by about 5–6%. Large variations were observed among pairs (genetic background) for the difference between tall and dwarf near-isogenic lines for all of the above yield components resulting in no significant difference in five pairs and 17–35% less yield in dwarfs as compared to their tall counterparts in six pairs. Days to 50% flowering and seed weight were least affected by the d₂ gene with the average difference between tall and dwarf groups of near-isogenic lines being of the order of 1–2%. These results indicate that the advantageous effects of d₂ dwarfing gene can be effectively exploited by manipulating the genetic background. The difference between the average grain yields of tall and dwarf groups of near-isogenic lines showed considerable variation across environments with the dwarfs yielding as much as tall group in one environment and up to 30% less than the tall group in the other, thus, indicating that the d₂ gene effect may be substantially modified by the environments.Submitted as JA No. 979 by the International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT).     

Competitive saprophytic colonization of pigeon-pea substrate by Fusarium udum in relation to environmental factors,chemical treatments and microbial antagonism

The competitive saprophytic colonization (CSC) of pigeon-pea substrates by Fusarium udum was studied in relation to environmental factors, chemical treatments and microbial antagonism. CSC was best at 22°C, good at 30°C, but at 40°C the substrate was vigorously colonized by Coprinus lagopus and Aspergillus nidulans which suppressed colonization by F. udum. High competitive saprophytic ability of F. udum was noted at pH 7 and 9 at soil moisture contents between 5 and 30%. At pH 4 and 5 F. udum was replaced by A. flavus and A. nidulans. The CSC of F. udum decreased in the soil-sand inoculum mixture amended with the fungicides bavistin, dithane Z-78 and difolatan. The herbicides 2,4-D and machete also reduced CSC by F. udum whereas urea promoted it. Colonization of pigeon-pea substrate by F. udum was highly suppressed by antagonism from Pénicillium citrinum, A. niger, Micromonospora gtobosa, A.flavus, A. terreus and Trichoderma viride when these were used in inoculum mixtures with F. udum or when substrates had already been colonized by them. Otherwise F. udum was shown to have a high competitive saprophytic ability.     

Current-controlled magnetic domain-wall nanowire shift register

The controlled motion of a series of domain walls along magnetic nanowires using spin-polarized current pulses is the essential ingredient of the proposed magnetic racetrack memory, a new class of potential non-volatile storage-class memories. Using permalloy nanowires, we achieved the successive creation, motion, and detection of domain walls by using sequences of properly timed, nanosecond-long, spin-polarized current pulses. The cycle time for the writing and shifting of the domain walls was a few tens of nanoseconds. Our results illustrate the basic concept of a magnetic shift register that relies on the phenomenon of spin-momentum transfer to move series of closely spaced domain walls.