HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: T.Stewart@massey.ac.nz (T.M. Stewart)
Newsgroups: bionet.plants,bionet.software
Subject: Aid to teaching Plant Disease Diagnosis - Upload announcement
Summary: Upload to Simtel of a plant disease diagnosis teaching package
Keywords: diagnosis, plant, disease, teaching, education, software
Date: 14 Sep 92 22:28:07 GMT
Organization: Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand


PLDIAG11.ZIP    PD game for teaching plant disease diagnosis

This is to announce the uploading of PLDIAG11.ZIP to the Simtel archives.
(WSMR-SIMTEL20.Army.Mil) under pd1:<msdos.education>.  Teachers of plant 
pathology may be interested in obtaining this public domain version.

Here is a short explanation:

PLDIAG11.ZIP contains a public-domain version of DIAGNOSIS, a package
constructed as an aid for teaching plant disease diagnosis to crop
protection students.  The program places students into field and
laboratory scenarios, where they must look for clues as to the causal
agent(s) of unhealthy plants.  After giving and justifying a diagnosis,
students then receive an automatic de-briefing on their problem-solving
approach.  Student input is recorded to disk for later assessment by the
tutor.  Output may consist of text and graphics.

The full version contains 5 scenarios and software which allows simple
construction of local scenarios by individual tutors.  These features
are absent from the public-domain version.  Details of how to obtain the
full version are included in PLDIAG11.ZIP.

A description of DIAGNOSIS can be found in PLANT DISEASE 76: (6): 644-647



T.M. Stewart
T.Stewart@massey.ac.nz


-- 
 -----------------------------------------------------------
| Terry Stewart                       T.Stewart@massey.ac.nz|
| Department of Plant Science                               |
| Massey University                                         |
| New Zealand                                               |
|                                                           |
 -----------------------------------------------------------
From: fedoroff@MAIL1.CIWEMB.EDU ("Nina Fedoroff")
Newsgroups: bionet.plants
Subject: McClintock book
Date: 8 Sep 92 08:47:40 GMT
Distribution: bionet


  REGARDING              McClintock book#000#
I was delighted to see the info on the McClintock book (The Dynamic Genome) on
the news group  --  many thanks.  I hope those of you who read it have as much
fun as David Botstein and I had putting it together.

Those of you who knew McClintock might be happy to know that we were able to
assemble the book without her knowledge and present it to her on her 90th
birthday with about half the authors in attendance, including Harriet
Creighton, her co-author on the famous early paper on crossing over.  Barbara
was surprised and delighted with the book, although I suspect that she was
unable to read much of it before her death last Wednesday because of her
failing eyesight.  You might also like to know that she was in reasonably good
spirits and had attended a party last Monday.

It has been a great pleasure and honor to have known and worked with her.


Newsgroups: bionet.plants
From: toby@milton.u.washington.edu (Toby Bradshaw)
Subject: Re: plant phys use in breeding
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 15:07:47 GMT

>Ricardo Salvador
>And those complaints were appropriate.  In exchange for hybrid vigor
>maize farmers have become dependent on a previously non-existant
>industry to obtain the basic ingredient necessary to begin each
>season, and this ingredient (the seed) is not an inconsiderable
>fraction of the expense incurred to produce the crop (in Iowa, excluding
>costs for land, cost of production per acre is in the neighborhood of
>$55; of that, hybrid seed may account for $25 to $50).  To make such
>systems viable and "cost-efficient" economies of scale must be created
>(or invoked ;)

If farmers balk at paying for hybrid seed, they could develop
OP populations of corn on their own.  "Craft" production gave
way to mass production and its economies of scale in many areas
besides agriculture.

>and this has directly resulted in the elimination of
>many small and middle-scale farm operations that previously were
>perfectly tenable (cf. "Changes in Iowa Agriculture: 1978-1987," CRD 291,
>Iowa State Univ. Extension).

And there are less farriers than when horses were commonly used
for transportation in the U.S.  So what?

>[I]t seems that a good argument
>can be made that the hybrid seed corn industry was created and exists
>largely for the benefit of the seed corn industry, and NOT because it
>has been better for farmers OR for society at large.

Maybe it seems that way to you.  Nobody is holding a gun to the
farmer's head and forcing him/her to fork over the $1E9 for
hybrid seed.  The U.S. pays a lower percentage of its GNP for
food than any nation on earth, so its difficult to argue that
the consumer hasn't benefited.

Toby Bradshaw
Department of Biochemistry and College of Forest Resources
University of Washington, Seattle
toby@u.washington.edu



Newsgroups: bionet.plants
From: rjsalvad@iastate.edu (Ricardo J Salvador)
Subject: Re: Maize Handbook
Organization: Iowa State University, Ames, IA
Distribution: bionet
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1992 20:23:33 GMT

In article <1992Sep5.212131.21717@gserv1.dl.ac.uk> ajt@rri.sari.ac.uk writes:

>Ricardo, we are using the maize internode as a model system to investigate
>cellwall biogenisis in relation to degradability in the rumen.  Does the
>new book discuss issues such as the chemical composition and anatomy of
>different cell lines ?

It doesn't seem so.  The relevant sections (II. Cell Biology and IV. Cell
Culture Protocols) either mention techniques or dwell on in-vitro cell 
regeneration (from protoplasts, somatic cells, shoot meristems, inflorescence),
and chemical composition per se is not mentioned.

The above description of your work sounds surprisingly similar to that
being performed here by Dwayne Buxton.  Are you acquainted with him or
his work?  I don't believe he's "connected," but if you're interested
in establishing contact write him at: Dept. of Agronomy, Iowa State Univ.
Ames, IA 50011-1010 USA, or call him at: 515-294-9654 (and do try to be
circumspect about who has "inculpated" him ;).

-Ricardo
From: rbonfigl@waite.adelaide.edu.au (Rod Bonfiglioli)
Newsgroups: bionet.plants
Subject: Electron microscopy of plants-forum.
Date: 13 Sep 92 19:59:46 GMT
Distribution: bionet

>
> Your article/letter follows:
> Path: schooner!rbonfigl
> Date: 13 Sep 92 04:21:29 GMT
> Message-ID: <rbonfigl.716358089@schooner>
> Newsgroups: bionet.plants
> Distribution: world
> Subject: electron microscopy
> Summary: are there any other electron microscopists out there?
> Keywords: forum
> Organization: The University of Adelaide, Waite Campus
> Faculty: Agricultural & Natural Resource Sciences
> are there any other electron microscopists out there?  we should use this group
> as a forum for issues relating to electron microscopy of plant cells and
> tissues.  If you are interested in these topics, please reply,
>
> rbonfigl@schooner.waite.adelaide.edu.au
>
> thanx in advance,
>
> rod bonfiglioli
>

Newsgroups: bionet.plants
From: samodena@csemail.cropsci.ncsu.edu (S. A. Modena)
Subject: Re: plant phys use in breeding
Organization: Crop Science Dept., NCSU, Raleigh, NC 27695-7620
Distribution: bionet
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1992 03:33:47 GMT

In article <1992Sep7.161813.25693@gserv1.dl.ac.uk> ajt@rri.sari.ac.uk writes:
>................
>Yes, I'm interested in ways of using cell wall characteristics
>(including anatomy and chemical composition) in varietal assessment.
>
>I'm particularly interested in the interaction between selection (ie.
>plant breeding) pressure in favour of, for example, lodging resistance
>and the impact it has on the nutritive value of straw fed to ruminants.
>..........
>I believe it is an economic (cf. mental) block on the use of plant
>physiology in (large scale) genetic screening projects isn't it ?
>
>One reason for my interest in the application of computing technology
.......
>	Tony.

For sake of illustrative example, this is what a corn (maize) breeder
regards as a "quick, easy and cheap" techique:

     Zuber and Darrah (Univ. of Missouri/Columbia -- USDA) have made
     excellent progress in selection for and *against* lodging
     resistance by using crushing strength.  One harvests some
     plant field-dried stalks from each plot and hangs them in bags
     in a dry place (like a green house).  In the winter, bundle the
     stalks and run them through a ban saw to get uniform length
     test pieces.  Each piece is stood upright in the "jaw" of a hydralic
     press and a ballistic meter records the pressure at which the
     stalk suddenly collapes. 
  
     They had used a "needle device" to measure green in-the-field
     rind penetration pressure, but the crush testing superceded that
     as superior in most respects. 

     After a population is moved to severe lodging by selection for lodging,
     it can then be moved by selection back to normal and on to high
     lodging resistance because the TEST is a good one.

     I would separate the technology from the "effective test."  First,
     I have to be convinced that the *test* to be performed has
     "breeding" merit...and then I'd move onto how I could get *more*
     effective data by applying advanced technology.

     Zuber commented to me long ago that he had faith is ELISA (immno-
     tests) because before the advent a specific test for the actual
     *presence* of a specific virus, visual scoring was no better than
     flipping a coin.

Steve
---
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
|     In person:  Steve Modena     AB4EL                           |
|     On phone:   (919) 515-5328                                   |
|     At e-mail:  nmodena@unity.ncsu.edu                           | 
|                 samodena@csemail.cropsci.ncsu.edu                |
|                 [ either email address is read each day ]        |
|     By snail:   Crop Sci Dept, Box 7620, NCSU, Raleigh, NC 27695 |
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
         Lighten UP!  It's just a computer doing that to you.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
         

Newsgroups: bionet.plants
From: aankrom@nyx.cs.du.edu (Anthony Ankrom)
Subject: Convulvulacea
Organization: Nyx, Public Access Unix @ U. of Denver Math/CS dept.
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 92 19:14:51 GMT


 I have wondered if there was a book that described the family
Convulvulacea in detail. I am interested in all genera Convulvulus, Ipomea,
Quamoclit, etc. if there isn't a book dedicated to the family than any
references to books that cover the family faithfully would be much
appreciated.
 Please e-mail because I don't read this group very often.

St. Anthony

--
        CH3  O            CH(CH3)2        |      dadaMatrix
           >-P-S-CH2CH2-N<            VX  |                       
    CH3CH2O               CH(CH3)2        |     aankrom@nyx.cs.du.edu
                                          | A kinder gentler lobotomy...
From: rbonfigl@waite.adelaide.edu.au (Rod Bonfiglioli)
Newsgroups: bionet.plants
Subject: fixation for T.E.M.
Date: 13 Sep 92 17:09:02 GMT
Distribution: bionet

> From rbonfigl Fri Sep 11 11:32:34 1992
> Date: Fri, 11 Sep 92 11:32:33 +0930
> From: rbonfigl (Rod Bonfiglioli)
> Distribution: world
> Subject: fixation for electron microscopy
> Summary: how long do you need to infuse the fixative for?
> Keywords: fixation.infusion.cellwalls
> Organization: The University of Adelaide, Waite Campus
> Faculty: Agricultural & Natural Resource Sciences
> i have had some problems with fixing plant material. the fixative seems to be
> very slow in crossing cell walls or other impermeable parts of the plant tissue.
> the recommended lengths of time in most protocols i find are far too short,
> has anyone else had any experience of this.  is there anyone else out there
> working with electron microscopy on plant tissue??? let me know who you are
>
> thanx in advance
>
> rod bonfiglioli
>

Newsgroups: bionet.plants
From: samodena@csemail.cropsci.ncsu.edu (S. A. Modena)
Subject: Re: plant phys use in breeding
Organization: Crop Science Dept., NCSU, Raleigh, NC 27695-7620
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1992 03:48:13 GMT

In article <adwright.716050208@vincent1.iastate.edu> adwright@iastate.edu () writes:
>If I may put in my $.02 worth: 
>
>The big obstacle IMHO is not so much the time it takes to do a measurement, but
>rather to do a meaningful measurement.
>........
>What we need to be thinking of (and it aint easy) is a way to take into account the whole plant response.
>
>A real elegant way to apply selection is to use a "suicide screen". One of my
>..........
>To continue along this vein suppose we wanted to select specifically for low 
>respiration rate. What would be nice is to uniformly apply a chemical that 
>penalizes the plant for respiring. I am thinking out loud now, but there must
>be something that would do this. Anybody have any thoughts on this?
>Allen
>
Allen:

The most available, well-characterized chemicals I can think of that 
penalizes a plant for respiring are postemergence herbicides.

Not to be confused with those whch knock off a plant for just P/S.  Not
that those two things aren't coupled.

Of course, when weeds are under water stress, the postemergence herbicides
often don't do much at all.  ( Aren't weeds sneaky?  ;^)  )

The reason fluorescence was brought up by Dan (I think it was Dan),
was because the fluorescence signature over time is a possible indicator
of water stress state (and other things simultaneously).

This is an interesting contrast in approaches.  Suicide screen is a
one time-point testing which would require many, many reps and
many GxE trials to be conclusive.  The season-long fluorescence
monitoring probably would require fewer reps and GxE trials but is
demanding in data accumulation, storage, retrieval, smoothing, analysis
and interpretation.

I not pro or con on either approach.

Steve 
---
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
|     In person:  Steve Modena     AB4EL                           |
|     On phone:   (919) 515-5328                                   |
|     At e-mail:  nmodena@unity.ncsu.edu                           | 
|                 samodena@csemail.cropsci.ncsu.edu                |
|                 [ either email address is read each day ]        |
|     By snail:   Crop Sci Dept, Box 7620, NCSU, Raleigh, NC 27695 |
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
         Lighten UP!  It's just a computer doing that to you.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
From: ajt@rri.sari.ac.uk (Tony Travis)
Newsgroups: bionet.plants
Subject: Re: plant phys use in breeding
Date: 11 Sep 92 13:13:04 GMT
Reply-To: ajt@rri.sari.ac.uk
Distribution: bionet
Organization: Rowett Research Institute
Original-To: plantbio@uk.ac.daresbury

In article <92810232720.MIN-LDJAa00157.bionet-news@uk.ac.daresbury> you write:
: [...]
: Tony, I know what you mean, but it must be noted that the infrastructure
: necessary to make it possible for you and I to happ'ly sit in our offices
: and push buttons to accomplish heretofore labor-intensive tasks is 
: significant, as I am sure you realize.  In certain respects, I wonder if
: benefiting from such luxury without recognizing the tremendous human and
: ecological costs involved is not some form of latter-day "colonial"
: haughteur.  I am as intoxicated with the power conferred upon us by

I do, of course, recognise the human and ecological cost of the
networking infrastructure that we all take for granted.  I also
recognise that the technology can be used to improve communication and
the free exchange of ideas.

I don't regard this infrastructure as a luxury, I regard it as an asset
(when used wisely).  I'm rather surprised to be accused of "colonial"
haughter (I had to look that up in the dictionary), but I am more
concerned with exploiting the opportunity that the infrastructure
presents than apologising for its existence.

: computerized tools, all the more impressive when one realizes that many
: tasks accomplished by such tools were utterly beyond the imagination or
: intent of the individuals who engineered the tools in the first place,

Isn't that what scientific investigation is all about ?

: but I think it is wise to pause and consider costs and consequences of
: technology before appraising such subjective attributes as "advancement,
: ease, progress, increased efficiency," etc., particularly when the
: putative benefits are demonstrably enjoyed by  only a small sector of the
: human population, yet depend upon (or detrimentally affect) resources that
: can reasonably be considered common property resources of vast sectors of
: humanity.

In my opinion, we are all part of a global community made posible by
modern communications technology.  Communication is the only way to
achieve real understanding of each other's point of view.  The
technology needed to achieve computer networking is largely shared by
telephone/fax communications.  Would you pause and consider the costs
and consequences of using the telephone in the same way ??

: I pause now because this sounds more tendentious in writing than I
: intend.

It does, and I'd like to get back to plant biology.

	Tony.
--
Dr. A.J.Travis,                       |  Tony Travis
Rowett Research Institute,            |  JANET: <ajt@uk.ac.sari.rri>
Greenburn Road, Bucksburn,            |  other: <ajt@rri.sari.ac.uk>
Aberdeen, AB2 9SB. UK.                |  phone: 0224-712751
Newsgroups: bionet.plants
From: richter@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca (C. Richter)
Subject: Re: Poppy seed and Poppy plant
Organization: UTCS Public Access
Date: Sat, 12 Sep 1992 20:39:41 GMT

In article <1992Sep11.192010.31367@watson.ibm.com> yozzo@watson.ibm.com (Ralph Yozzo) writes:
>A friend of mine tells me that the poppy seed that
>we find on some bread is the same as the seed for the
>poppy plant that they make marijuana from. 
>
>Can anyone confirm or deny this?
>
The idea is right, but you have the wrong narcotic.  The poppy seeds on 
baked goods are often but certainly not always from the opium poppy, 
_Papaver somniferum_. 


-- 
Conrad Richter                     richter@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca
Richters Herbs                     71550.3411@compuserve.com
Goodwood, ON L0C 1AO Canada        Tel 416-640-6677 / Fax 416-640-6641
From: stinger@pine.circa.ufl.edu (GUALA)
Newsgroups: bionet.plants
Subject: FAIRCHILD TROPICAL GARDEN
Date: 9 Sep 92 22:48:52 GMT
Reply-To: stinger@pine.circa.ufl.edu
Organization: University of Florida  (ufl.edu)
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.3-4

I don't know if anyone has posted a first hand update
yet but I don't see one on my reader so here goes.  On
the first weekend after the storm I went down and visited
Fairchild on the ground and by helicopter (as well as
the rest of the damaged area).  It looked then as if
about 95% of the dicot trees were damaged and about 80% of
the palms had major damage or were down.  The staff at 
Fairchild had a meeting two days after the storm and
decided to concentrate their efforts on palms and cycads.
This past weekend I went down with a small work crew to 
help at the garden and at the Kampong.  As of Labor Day  
weekend the palm plots were looking fairly good with
many of the fallen being righted (including the big Copernicias)
  However, the dicot tree plots were nearly untouched.
The Kampong lost about 4-5 trees for sure and probably a few more
won't make it in the long run but they are all righted.  It is
too soon to tell at Fairchild but the number will certainly 
be much higher.  Fairchild is getting good volunteer support
and has slated the weekend of Oct. 3 for reopening.   
There will be a major decrease in the diversity of the 
garden, especially in the dicot trees.  However, it is
still too soon to tell what the final tally will be.  I'll
try to answer more specific questions by Email.       
                                                Stinger Guala
Newsgroups: bionet.plants
From: klier@iscsvax.uni.edu
Newsgroups: bionet.plants
Subject: Homestead PI station (was Fairchild)
Date: 9 Sep 92 20:40:11 -0500
Organization: University of Northern Iowa

stinger@pine.circa.ufl.edu (GUALA) writes:
> I don't know if anyone has posted a first hand update
> yet but I don't see one on my reader so here goes.  On
> the first weekend after the storm I went down and visited
> Fairchild on the ground and by helicopter (as well as
> the rest of the damaged area).  

Glad to hear the relatively good report from FTG.  Does anyone
know how the PI station at Homestead fared?

Kay Klier  Biology Dept  UNI
From: ajt@rri.sari.ac.uk (Tony Travis)
Newsgroups: bionet.plants
Subject: Re: Weed biology (was information-based farming)
Date: 15 Sep 92 12:12:18 GMT
Reply-To: ajt@rri.sari.ac.uk
Distribution: bionet
Organization: Rowett Research Institute
Original-To: plantbio@uk.ac.daresbury

In article <92815120404.MIN-LTEAa02263.bionet-news@uk.ac.daresbury> you wrote:
: [...Kay]
: I don't know what the solution really is.  I'd love to see *most* pesticides
: put on a restricted list, but I don't think that one will fly around here.
: In the meantime, I guess I'll continue my informal teaching wherever
: I find someone to educate.

It's not just pesticides though - what disturbs me is the willingness
of local authorities to spray growth retardants like 'malathion' on
areas where children play to save on the cost of actually cutting the
grass.  They also spray growth retardants on hedges.

When you see the local cats being sick after an area is sprayed it
makes you wonder about the long-term effects on children.

Wouldn't it be nice if, instead, they could make jobs for unemployed
people instead of polluting the environment for all of us to endure. 

The problem is, it would cost money ...

I'm sure there would be a market for slow growing varieties of grass
that look good, and don't need constant attention.  I also think it is
a pity that many people seem to be incapable of enjoying parkland
unless every single 'weed' is systematically removed - nuts.

The definition of a weed BTW is "a plant out of place" and I don't
think the diversity of species that occur naturally in grassland *are*
out of place in a park or on a lawn.

	Tony.
--
Dr. A.J.Travis,                       |  Tony Travis
Rowett Research Institute,            |  JANET: <ajt@uk.ac.sari.rri>
Greenburn Road, Bucksburn,            |  other: <ajt@rri.sari.ac.uk>
Aberdeen, AB2 9SB. UK.                |  phone: 0224-712751