bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Abnormal phosphorylation of Ser409/410 of TDP‐43 in FTLD‐U and ALS
Authors: Inukai Yuki , Nonaka Takashi , Arai Tetsuaki , Yoshida Mari , Hashizume Yoshio , Beach Thomas G. , Buratti Emanuele , Baralle Francisco E. , Akiyama Haruhiko , Hisanaga Shin-ichi , Hasegawa Masato
Published: July 2008

A monoclonal antibody specific for phosphoserines 409 and 410 of TDP‐43 (mAb pS409/410) has been produced. It strongly stained TDP‐43‐positive inclusions in brain of patients with frontotemporal lobar degeneration and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, but did not stain nuclei, in which normal TDP‐43 is localized. It did not recognize TDP‐43 rapidly extracted from brains of rats at various developmental stages, strongly suggesting that phosphorylation of Ser409/410 is an abnormal event. Analysis of postmortem changes of TDP‐43 revealed that the amounts of Sarkosyl‐insoluble, urea‐soluble full‐length TDP‐43 and a 35 kDa N‐terminal fragment increased time‐dependently.
Delay stochastic simulation of single‐gene expression reveals a detailed relationship between protein noise and mean abundance
Authors: Zhu Rui , Salahub Dennis
Published: July 2008

To study noise in the number of protein molecules produced in gene expression, we use a delayed reaction model coupling transcription and translation to examine nine biochemical factors. Fourteen numerical experiments were performed, which show clearly the linear scaling behavior between the protein variance and the mean. We found that the most dominant noise source comes from promoter fluctuations; in second place is the death‐and‐birth process of mRNA. At the translational level, either increasing the protein birth initiation frequency or decreasing the protein decay rate raises the noise level. Results obtained from the classical model in the literature, which is a simplified version of our model, agree qualitatively with ours. However, they lack some important features.
Local governance in post-Soviet Armenia: Leadership, local development and accountability
Authors: Babajanian Babken V.
Published: July 2008

This paper analyzes the effectiveness, responsiveness and accountability of local mayors in governing local development in Armenia. The research conducted in eight rural communities shows that in order to be effective, elected local mayors are compelled to resort to informal strategies to attract development resources to their communities. As formal opportunities for supporting rural livelihoods are limited, informal governance helps enhance people’s well-being and social cohesion. It also reinforces a system of “clientelistic accountability”, which ensures a significant level of responsiveness of local mayors to local needs, but also contributes to the disempowerment of citizens and leaves them vulnerable to corruption and mismanagement.
East and Central European Countries and the Iraq War: The choice between “soft balancing” and “soft bandwagoning”
Authors: Grigorescu Alexandru
Published: July 2008

This study argues that the new concept of “soft balancing” adds to our ability to explain the decisions of East and Central European countries to support the US in the Iraq War. Moreover, it suggests that by emphasizing soft rather than hard bandwagoning we gain a more subtle understanding of the degrees of support that countries offered the US. This approach reminds us that we should not only emphasize the similarities between the foreign policies of these countries but also their differences.
Late Holocene high resolution palaeoclimatic reconstruction inferred from Sebkha Mhabeul, southeast Tunisia
Authors: Marquer L. , Pomel S. , Abichou A. , Schulz E. , Kaniewski D. , Van Campo E.
Published: July 2008

Relations between climate change and landscape evolution during the last two millennia in southeastern coastal Tunisia have been documented using high-resolution reconstruction of flood history and fire activity in the Sebkha Mhabeul core. The age model, based on tephrochronology, indicates that the core extends from Roman to modern times and encompasses the well-defined climatic periods of the last two millennia. This record provides a first palaeoecological/palaeoclimatic high resolution reconstruction in North Africa using a cross-disciplinary approach with both physical (grey-scale intensity, quartz particles) and biological (charcoal and pollen) indicators. The flood history shows four wet/dry cycles (ca. AD 550–950, 950–1300, 1300–1570 and 1570–1870) of different duration. Major hydrological instabilities are concentrated during the Medieval Climate Anomalies and the early Little Ice Age, between AD 1000 and 1550. Direct correlation between climate and fire cannot be established suggesting that the fire history of the Sebkha environment is mainly influenced by human activity. This study demonstrates the great value of sebkhas as palaeoenvironmental archives.
Francis Galton on twins, heredity and social class
Authors: BURBRIDGE DAVID
Published: July 2008

In 1875 Francis Galton was the first to study twins as a test of the relative strength of heredity and environment. This paper examines Galton's work on twins, using his surviving working papers. It shows that his enquiry was larger and more systematic than previously realized. Galton issued several hundred questionnaires to parents of twins, with the aim of establishing how far the similarities and differences between twins were affected by their life experiences. The paper also discusses Galton's study in relation to his understanding of the physiology of twinning and his theory of heredity. The modern concept of monozygotic twins had not yet been established, and the similarity between Galton's work and modern twin studies should not be overstated. While Galton's work was important as a pioneering study, in some respects his conclusions went beyond his evidence. The paper finally examines whether Galton's twin studies influenced his position on the links between social class, heredity and social mobility, and surveys the evidence for his views on these issues.
Francis Bacon's concept of objectivity and the idols of the mind
Authors: ZAGORIN PEREZ
Published: July 2008

This paper examines the concept of objectivity traceable in Francis Bacon's natural philosophy. After some historical background on this concept, it considers the question of whether it is not an anachronism to attribute such a concept to Bacon, since the word ‘objectivity’ is a later coinage and does not appear anywhere in his writings. The essay gives reasons for answering this question in the negative, and then criticizes the accounts given of Bacon's understanding of objectivity by Lorraine Daston and Julie Robin Solomon. It argues that this understanding is most directly and fully expressed in his discussion of the idols of the mind. In this connection, the paper notes Bacon's critical attitude to sixteenth-century scepticism and its relevance to the idea of objectivity implicit in his comments on the idols. In conclusion, the paper argues that Bacon was not a pure empiricist and describes the place assigned to theories and hypotheses in his natural philosophy.
Unpacking Goethe's collections: the public and the private in natural-historical collecting
Authors: HAMM E. P.
Published: July 2008

This paper argues that Goethe's collections, in particular his mineralogical collections, had both public and private purposes. The public purposes were closely tied to the tradition of mineralogizing exemplified by the Freiberg Mining Academy. Abraham Gottlob Werner provided technologies for standardizing mineralogical terminology and identification, and Goethe hoped that these technologies would allow for a vast network of collectors and observers who would collate their observations and develop a model of the Earth's structure. His own cabinet, in particular his collection of rocks (Gebirgsarten), was to be a representative sample of rock formations in particular locations that could reveal features of the Earth's structure and history. Goethe was also responsible for the scientific collections of Jena University. He argued that if such collections were to be useful for teaching and research, a goal he strongly supported, they could no longer be treated as the private property of professors. He recognized that social relations within the University would have to be reordered if museums were to fulfil their epistemic functions. In this respect Goethe was on the side of the modern museum and opposed to the world of the private collection and all its idiosyncrasies. However, his own collections had very private and personal purposes. Using some of the ideas of Walter Benjamin as a foil, this paper tries to uncover some of the private passions that fuelled Goethe's almost insatiable collecting. Though these passions were peculiar to Goethe, I argue that historians of science should attend more to the passions and their place in the sciences.
Popular science and the arts: challenges to cultural authority in France under the Second Empire
Authors: CROSLAND MAURICE
Published: July 2008

The National Institute of Science and the Arts, founded in 1795, consists of parallel academies, concerned with science, literature, the visual arts and so on. In the nineteenth century it represented a unique government-sponsored intellectual authority and a supreme court judgement, a power which came to be resented by innovators of all kinds. The Académie des sciences held a virtual monopoly in representing French science but soon this came to be challenged. In the period of the Second Empire (1852–70) we find a group of men carving out a new career for themselves as professional popularizers of science, commissioned to write regular articles in newspapers and journals. Although they had begun by simply reporting the meetings of the Académie des sciences, they soon widened their scope and even began criticizing the august Académie. Thus they represented the alternative voice of science, distinct from ‘official science’. These independent writers had their counterpart in painting and literature, both of which were developing radical new approaches in mid-century. When the very traditional Fine Art Academy refused to consider their paintings, painters like Cézanne and Manet found an alternative outlet. Writers too asserted their independence from the Académie française. There were not only many parallels between the independent practitioners in science, painting and literature but also new schools of ‘naturalism’ in painting and literature which looked to science as a model.
The discovery of natural goods: Newton's vocation as an ‘experimental philosopher’
Authors: BEN-CHAIM MICHAEL
Published: July 2008

While the study of Newton's religious views has been continuously expanding, it has not been brought to bear directly on Newton's career as an ‘experimental philosopher’. Historical perspectives on his optical experiments in particular affirm the historiographic separation between the religious and scientific aspects of his work. In this paper I examine the practical implication of Newton's theology of dominion on his early experiments on light and colours. While his predecessors had made experiments to collect evidence, I show that Newton conceived experimental research as a discipline of the practical understanding of the structure of light and the origins of colours. His conception of experimental reasoning followed his practical reflections on human beings as agents who belonged to God's dominion and who were created to serve its divine ends. These reflections suggested, more specifically, that the aim of natural philosophy was the discovery of divine rules that instrumentally constrained and facilitated human conduct in general, and perceptual judgement in particular. I show, moreover, that Newton's endeavour to subordinate experiment to divine worship had been foreshadowed by Boyle's writing on the theory and practice of the experimental philosophy.
Making stars: projection culture in nineteenth-century German astronomy
Authors: STAUBERMANN KLAUS B.
Published: July 2008

The introduction into the laboratory of the magic lantern and the arts of projection marked a change from putatively individual and mechanical to obviously collective and skillful perception in nineteenth-century German sciences. In 1860 Karl Friedrich Zöllner introduced an astro-photometer to astronomers who, by practising with it, became aware of their own tacit and ubiquitous skills. Zöllner was a showman who was aware of the personal skills involved in magic-lantern projection. Like showmen, nineteenth-century astronomers could also control and calibrate their vision with this instrument. Photometrists such as Zöllner were not only aware of subjectivity, but developed techniques to manipulate, control and to employ it in scientific judgements. This view stands in contrast to that of the scientists described by Lorraine Daston and Peter Galison, for whom ‘machines offered freedom from will – from the willful interventions that had come to be seen as the most dangerous aspects of subjectivity’. But with Zöllner's successful programme of instrumental subjectivity, acts of willful intervention were at the very centre of astronomical judgement.
The hidden truth of creation: Newton's method of fluxions
Authors: RAMATI AYVAL
Published: July 2008

Throughout his life, Newton searched for the machinery through which God creates, designs and sustains the world. He believed that the Creator is a God of Dominion who continuously preserves His creation through secondary mechanical causes or through direct, voluntary actions. God periodically intervenes in order to restore the pure and divine state of creation, deteriorated due to material interactions in a natural process of decay. The restoration, whether through matter or through chosen souls, is pure and simple, flowing equably along God's eternal duration. As time passes, a process of decay and corruption causes these pure states to deviate from the original divine path and they gradually begin to flow along distorted and distracted ways. Newton's youthful method of fluxions, though dealing with abstract mathematics, has a crucial role in revealing true knowledge about the God of creation and sustenance. The mathematical method captures and reveals the most fundamental truth about the mechanism of perception and the natural decline of all processes in Nature. This simple method is analogous to the simple creed, which God reinstills throughout history in religious founders and prophets assisting humans to worship God properly.
DESTINED TO FAIL: FORCED SETTLEMENT AT THE OFFICE DU NIGER,
1926–45
Authors: FILIPOVICH JEAN
Published: July 2008

Mali's Office du Niger was conceived on a
monumental scale to produce cotton for the French textile industry after the
First World War. Undaunted by the conspicuous absence of both manpower and a
viable crop, Émile Bélime, the scheme's originator and presiding genius,
believed colonial authorities could compel people from all over French West
Africa to settle there. Under pressure from Paris, local administrators
became his recruiting agents, forcibly resettling some 30,000 Africans by
1945, when the colonial ministry privately declared the scheme an
unqualified failure. In 1960, France recycled the project as a prototype of
disinterested aid to a developing country.
‘THE ABANDONED MOTHER’: AGEING, OLD AGE AND MISSIONARIES IN EARLY AND MID
NINETEENTH-CENTURY SOUTH-EAST AFRICA
Authors: SAGNER ANDREAS
Published: July 2008

This essay examines issues of ageing and old age in Xhosa-speaking
communities to c. 1860. Drawing primarily on
records of the Wesleyan Methodist and London Missionary societies, the
article examines the construction of Xhosa ageing, old age and death in
missionary writings. The primary medium of missionary reflection was the
figure of the ‘Abandoned Mother’, modelled on contemporary British
metaphors, that represented yet another atrocity story for legitimating the
mission enterprise and the emerging colonial regime. It also argues that
there were fundamental contrasts in the images of ageing and dying between
those of the Xhosa and those of the missionaries. Though older persons found
certain themes in the Christian message attractive, they preferred the local
cultural model of ageing, old age and death.
URCHINS, LOAFERS AND THE CULT OF THE COWBOY: URBANIZATION AND DELINQUENCY
IN DAR ES SALAAM, 1919–61
Authors: BURTON ANDREW
Published: July 2008

During the British colonial period a substantial young African
population emerged in Dar es Salaam. Both colonial officials and African
elders viewed this with dismay. They felt the resulting demoralisation of
African youth posed a threat to both (African) authority and (colonial)
order. However, measures aimed at addressing the ramifications of this
phenomenon were mostly unsuccessful. Ironically, whilst British colonial
policy aimed to keep African youth quiescent in rural, gerontocratic, tribal
administrations, colonialism in fact provided the context in which both
rapid urbanization and generational tension occurred. These continued to
occur after independence; and it is argued that TANU politicians not only
inherited the problems associated with the administration of the Tanganyikan
capital, but that their responses were influenced by European and ‘elite’
African attitudes of the colonial era.
FROM LAW TO CUSTOM: THE SHIFTING LEGAL STATUS OF MUSLIM
ORIGINAIRES IN KAYES AND MEDINE, 1903–13
Authors: SHEREIKIS REBECCA
Published: July 2008

In the early colonial period the frontier towns of Kayes and Medine on
the Upper Senegal River were home to a community of Muslim
originaires of the four communes of Senegal.
The article examines this group's efforts to establish and maintain a Muslim
tribunal in Kayes, thus preserving a space for their privilege and identity
within the French colonial system. But while their appeals to the colonial
administration were successful in 1905, a 1912 revision of the legal system
took away their privilege and made Muslim
originaires constituents of native courts.
The article provides context for understanding the Muslims' protests, as
well as the administration's changing attitudes towards them. Whereas much
of the literature on the originaires has focused
on their status as assimilated Africans with voting rights, this article
calls attention to their identity as Muslims.
‘CIRCLE OF IRON’: AFRICAN COLONIAL EMPLOYEES AND THE INTERPRETATION OF COLONIAL RULE IN FRENCH WEST AFRICA
Authors: OSBORN EMILY LYNN
Published: July 2008

This article investigates the role of African colonial employees in the functioning of the colonial state in French West Africa. Case studies from the 1890s and early 1900s demonstrate that in the transition from conquest to occupation, low-level African colonial intermediaries continually shaped the localized meanings that colonialism acquired in practice. Well-placed African colonial intermediaries in the colonies of Guinée Française and Soudan Français often controlled the dissemination of information and knowledge in the interactions of French colonial officials with local elites and members of the general population. The contributions of these African employees to the daily operations of the French colonial state show that scholars have long overlooked a cadre of men who played a significant role in shaping colonial rule.
THE DECOLONIZATION OF EQUATORIAL GUINEA: THE RELEVANCE OF THE INTERNATIONAL FACTOR
Authors: CAMPOS ALICIA
Published: July 2008

The demise of Spanish colonialism in Central Africa has to be understood as part of the general process of African decolonization. In accepting the methodological framework proposed by some historians for studying the collapse of European domination in the continent, we can explain the independence of Equatorial Guinea, in 1968, as a result of the interaction between three different factors: international, metropolitan and colonial. This article delineates the decolonization of the only Spanish colony south of the Sahara, its main argument being that, in the case of Equatorial Guinea, the international factor – specifically, the role of the United Nations – is fundamental to the understanding of the timing, the actors' strategies and the results.
AMBIGUOUS SPACES: THE STRUGGLE OVER AFRICAN IDENTITIES AND URBAN COMMUNITIES IN COLONIAL DOUALA, 1914–45
Authors: SCHLER LYNN
Published: July 2008

This article examines the relationship between experiences and the physical and discursive constructions of space in colonial urban settings. African immigrants and the colonial regime imagined Douala's immigrant quarter, New Bell, as an African space but the actual meaning of this classification was highly fluid over time. Colonial ineffectiveness in approaching New Bell was evidenced by half-hearted and flawed surveillance efforts including the failed use of identity cards, informants and pass laws. Residents maintained a sense of autonomy within the space of New Bell, and remained largely ignorant or apathetic toward colonial law within the quarter, ultimately enabling the community to thrive.
Proceedings of the Thirty-third Meeting of the Agricultural Research Modellers' Group
Authors: FRANCE J. , CROMPTON L. A.
Published: July 2008

This group, which is concerned with the applications of mathematics to agricultural science, was formed in
1970 and has since met at approximately yearly intervals in London for one-day meetings. The thirty-third
meeting of the group, chaired by Professor P. K. Maini of the Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford,
was held in the Kohn Centre at the Royal Society, 6 Carlton House Terrace, London on Friday, 6 April 2001
when the following papers were read.
Fish-meal supplementation of grass silage offered to young steers: Effects on growth, body composition and nutrient efficiency
Authors: SANDERSON R. , DHANOA M. S. , THOMAS C. , McALLAN A. B.
Published: July 2008

Growth and efficiencies of nitrogen and energy utilization for growth by 72 young British Friesian steers (initial live weight (LW) 110 kg) offered a well preserved, formic acid-treated, perennial ryegrass silage with and without supplements of fish meal were examined. Silage was offered either alone or mixed with 50, 100 or 150 g fish meal/kg silage dry matter (DM) and each diet was offered either ad libitum or intakes were restricted to 16, 19 or 22 g dietary DM/kg LW/day. Treatments were imposed over a period of 132 days. Body component weight gains were determined by comparative slaughter.

Increasing the level of either feeding or fish meal increased rates of empty body weight gain linearly (P<0·001) and curvilinearly (P<0·05) respectively. Fish-meal supplementation increased rates of ash and crude protein gain (P<0·001) but, in comparison with the curvilinear response to increasing level of feeding (P<0·001), had small linear effects on fat gain (P>0·01). Consequently, in terms of whole body composition, animals given fish meal were leaner than animals offered silage alone. Fish-meal supplementation had no significant effect on the composition of the carcass but increased the concentration of protein in the liver and gastrointestinal tract.

The increase in nitrogen intake associated with feeding fish meal resulted in a reduction in the efficiency of nitrogen utilization as level of fish meal increased. Nitrogen intake required for maintenance was estimated to be 1·054 g/kg LW0·75. In spite of marked differences in the composition of the empty body-weight gain, there was no evidence to support an effect of fish meal on the efficiency of metabolizable energy (ME) utilization for growth (kf) which was estimated to be 0·346 on the basis of data scaled by LW0·75. ME intake required for maintenance (MEm) was estimated to be 0·536 and 0·502 MJ/kg LW0·75 for silage alone and the 150 g fish-meal level respectively.
Participatory on-farm evaluation of the response to concentrate supplementation by cows in early lactation in smallholder peasant (campesino) dairy production systems in the highlands of central Mexico
Authors: ARRIAGA-JORDÁN, C. M. , FLORES-GALLEGOS F. J. , PEÑA-CARMONA G. , ALBARRÁN-PORTILLO B. , GARCÍA-MARTÍNEZ A. , ESPINOZA-ORTEGA A. , GONZÁLEZ-ESQUIVEL C. E. , CASTELÁN-ORTEGA O. A.
Published: July 2008

Concentrates are the main cash expenditure in smallholder campesino dairying in the highlands of Central Mexico. Improved, low-cost, appropriate feeding strategies have been therefore identified by campesinos as a priority. An on-farm trial was undertaken in 1998 to evaluate the response to supplementation with concentrates by dairy cows in early lactation during the rainy season with restricted access to grazing of ryegrass/white clover pastures. A base of 3·0 kg commercial concentrate/cow/day (S3) was compared against the higher rate used by farmers of 5·0 kg/cow/day (S5). Three farmers with one, and one farmer with two pairs of freshly calved upgraded Holstein cows participated in the trial (24±10·7 days into lactation). Data were analysed by a random block split-plot design where supplementation treatments were main plots and measurement periods were split-plots. Milk yield was recorded once per week for 9 weeks, and live weight and condition score for four 28 day periods. Milk yields were 21·8 for S3 and 21·9 for S5 (±0·714) kg milk/day/cow (P > 0·05); live weight S3 = 444·0 and S5 = 496·0 (±12·663) kg/cow (P > 0·05), and condition score S3 = 1·9, and S5 = 1·8 (±1·127) (P >0·05). There were no significant (P> 0·05) effects of measurement periods, and there was no significant (P > 0·05) interaction. The lack of response in milk yield, live weight or condition score to increased concentrate supplementation demonstrates that at these levels of production and management, the access to grazing of improved pastures, plus limited concentrate, enables cows in campesino systems to meet their nutrient requirements, and the feasibility of efficient milk production from grazed pastures as an appropriate technology. It is also concluded that it is an appropriate technology and that the results have implications for research and extension workers in rural development who have promoted large amounts of concentrate to dairy cows as the only way towards high yields and efficient milk production.
Effect of genotype of Trifolium repens on mycorrhizal symbiosis with Glomus mosseae
Authors: EASON W. R. , WEBB K. J. , MICHAELSON-YEATES T. P. T. , ABBERTON M. T. , GRIFFITH G. W. , CULSHAW C. M. , HOOKER J. E. , DHANOA M. S.
Published: July 2008

Forty-three near-isogenic lines (NILs) of white clover (Trifolium repens), derived from four parental self-compatible genotypes containing the rare self-fertility allele, were inoculated with the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus Glomus mossae. Plant growth response (shoot and root weight and root length), shoot P uptake and mycorrhizal root infection rates were recorded 12 weeks after inoculation. There was generally a high degree of variation between individual lines in all recorded parameters. The most sensitive indicator of plant response to mycorrhizal infection was root length with almost half of all lines showing significant responses (in most cases a decrease in root length). Shoot weight was significantly different between mycorrhizal and nonmycorrhizal plants in nine lines. Parental genotype significantly affected both plant response to mycorrhiza as well as mycorrhizal infection rates. The results suggest that the NILs will prove useful for further studies to elucidate the molecular genetic control of the symbiosis and inform plant breeding strategies of this agronomically important species.
Salinity and nitrogen fertilization and nitrogen metabolism in rose plants
Authors: LORENZO H. , SIVERIO J. M. , CABALLERO M.
Published: July 2008

Rose production is limited by salinity and highly affected by the nitrogen source present in the nutrient solution. The influence of sodium on several aspects of nutrition has been investigated in ‘Lambada' rose plants using different sources of nitrogen in the fertilization treatment. Experiments using a previously defined mono-shoot model plant and a simplified hydroponic culture allowed us to study the effects of salinity v. nitrogen on NPK uptake during the culture period. Mineral concentrations, nitrate reductase (NR) and glutamine synthetase (GS) activities were also analysed. This study showed that rose plants were more sensitive to saline conditions under NH4+ fertilization without detectable effects on growth or in NPK mineral contents in shoots. Parameters affected most were enzymatic activities analysed such as leaf nitrate reductase activity which was reduced under NH4+ nutrition. Leaf glutamine synthetase was also enhanced by saline conditions. The Na/K ratio showed that under NH4+ nutrition, the highest sodium accumulation occurred in roots. Nitrate uptake did not show a clear pattern related to nitrogen source, however, ammonium uptake was affected by salinity when NH4+ was the sole nitrogen source in the nutrient solution. Potassium and phosphate uptake were always lower when NH4+ was present in the nutrient solution.
Effect of anchor and core sequence in microsatellite primers on flax fingerprinting patterns
Authors: WIESNER I. , WIESNEROVÁ D. , TEJKLOVÁ E.
Published: July 2008

The aim of this study was to select the best arrangements of MP–PCR (microsatellite-primed PCR) for routine large-scale fingerprinting of flax cultivars. We found optimum PCR conditions for the application of five previously published primers (PCT1–PCT5) to flax cultivar fingerprinting. We modified to optimum MP–PCR which was targeted to flax tetrameric [GATA] microsatellite loci specified by primer PCT6. We found that after a reamplification PCR step was involved we were able to generate highly discriminating fingerprinting patterns, which distinguished all eight flax cultivars individually. In particular primers 3PCT1 and 3PCT2 were promising for future large-scale fingerprinting due to the production of most polymorphic bands. Increasing annealing temperature within a temperature profile helped to generate new polymorphisms within flax microsatellite patterns especially with primer 3PCT2. Using this primer we succeeded in generating new polymorphic bands after increasing annealing temperature from 55 °C to 60 °C, and to 65 °C. A cluster analysis of flax cultivars was performed based on microsatellite data. The core group of eight flax cultivars was clustered into two homogeneous subclusters. A lower level of cultivar clustering within subclusters was not detected.
A sensitivity analysis of the prediction of the nitrogen fertilizer requirement of cauliflower crops using the HRI WELL_N computer model
Authors: RAHN C. , MEAD A. , DRAYCOTT A. , LILLYWHITE R. , SALO T.
Published: July 2008

HRI WELL_N is an easy to use computer model, which has been used by farmers and growers since 1994 to predict crop nitrogen (N) requirements for a wide range of agricultural and horticultural crops.

A sensitivity analysis was carried out to investigate the model predictions of the N fertilizer requirement of cauliflower crops, and, at that rate, the yield achieved, yield response to the fertilizer applied, N uptake, NO3-N leaching below 30 and 90 cm and mineral N at harvest. The sensitivity to four input factors – soil mineral N before planting, mineralization rate of soil organic matter, expected yield and duration of growth – was assessed. Values of these were chosen to cover ranges between 40% and 160% of values typical for field crops of cauliflowers grown in East Anglia. The assessments were made for three soils – sand, sandy loam and silt – and three rainfall scenarios – an average year and years with 144% or 56% of average rainfall during the growing season. The sensitivity of each output variable to each of the input factors (and interactions between them) was assessed using a unique ‘sequential' analysis of variance approach developed as part of this research project.

The most significant factors affecting N fertilizer requirement across all soil types/rainfall amounts were soil mineral N before planting and expected yield. N requirement increased with increasing yield expectation, and decreased with increasing amounts of soil mineral N before planting. The responses to soil mineral N were much greater when higher yields were expected. Retention of N in the rooting zone was predicted to be poor on light soils in the wettest conditions suggesting that to maximize N use, plants needed to grow rapidly and have reasonable yield potential.

Assessment of the potential impacts of errors in the values of the input factors indicated that poor estimation of, in particular, yield expectation and soil mineral N before planting could lead to either yield loss or an increased level of potentially leachable soil mineral N at harvest.

The research demonstrates the benefits of using computer simulation models to quantify the main factors for which information is needed in order to provide robust N fertilizer recommendations.
Emissions of ammonia, nitrous oxide and methane from different types of dairy manure during storage as affected by dietary protein content
Authors: KÜLLING D. R. , MENZI H. , KRÖBER T. F. , NEFTEL A. , SUTTER F. , LISCHER P. , KREUZER M.
Published: July 2008

In a storage experiment with dairy cow manure, the effects of dietary protein content and manure type on ammonia, nitrous oxide and methane volatilization as well as overall nitrogen (N) loss from manure were investigated. Early-lactating cows received rations with 175, 150 and 125 g crude protein/kg dry matter. Each ration was tested in four manure storage systems reflecting typical farm conditions. These either contained total excreta with high amounts of straw (deep litter manure) or no straw (slurry) or, proportionately, 0·9 of urine and 0·1 of faeces (urine-rich slurry) complemented by the residuals with a low amount of straw (farmyard manure). Manure samples were stored for 7 weeks under controlled conditions and trace gas emission was repeatedly measured. Reduction of N intake decreased daily N excretion and urine N proportion and, on average, led to 0·7-fold lower storage ammonia emission rates on average. Total storage N loss was simultaneously reduced with the extent depending on urine N proportion of the respective manures. A lower dietary protein content furthermore reduced nitrous oxide emission rates in most manure types but increased methane emission from urine-rich slurry; however, global warming potential (based on trace gas output) of all manures was similar with low and high dietary protein content. In deep litter manure, characterized by the highest C:N ratio, emission rates of total N, ammonia and methane were lowest, whereas nitrous oxide values were intermediate. Substantial emission of nitrous oxide occurred with farmyard manure which also had the highest methane values and, consequently, by far the highest global warming potential. C:N ratio of manure was shown to be suitable to predict total N loss from manure during storage in all manure types whereas urine N proportion and manure pH were only of use with liquid manures.
Triple test cross analysis in four sesame crosses (Sesamum indicum L.)
Authors: BAKHEIT B. R. , ISMAIL A. A. , EL-SHIEMY A. A. , SEDEK F. S.
Published: July 2008

The present study was carried out during 1996, 1997 and 1998 to estimate the additive, dominance and epistatic components of genetic variation for yield, yield components and wilt infection by using 90 triple test cross families and their parents, F1 and F2 in each of four sesame crosses, i.e. Bengalian×Giza 32 (TTC1), Intro 259×Giza 25 (TTC2), Intro 413×Intro 777 (TTC3) and Shandaweel 5×Line 107 (TTC4). Mean squares from the genetic analysis of variance and the overall epistatic gene effects were highly significant differences for all studied characters. The [i] type (additive×additive) was the most important epistatic effect for height of the first capsule (TTC4), number of branches/plant (TTC1 and TTC3), length of the fruiting zone (TTC1, TTC2 and TTC3), days to the first flower and number of capsules/plant (TTC1, TTC2 and TTC4), 1000-seed (TTC3), wilt infection percentage (TTC3 and TTC4) and plant height, capsule length and seed yield/plant in all crosses. The ratio of (H/D)1/2 confirmed the presence of partial dominance for all studied traits. The highest proportion of recombinant lines was obtained for days to the first flower, number of branches/plant, height of the first capsule and seed yield/plant in TTC3 and plant height, capsule length, length of the fruiting zone number of capsules/plant, 1000-seed weight and oil percentage in TTC2.
Potassium supplying power of a Typic Ustochrept profile using quantity/intensity technique in a long-term fertilized plot
Authors: RUPA T. R. , SRIVASTAVA S. , SWARUP A. , SINGH D.
Published: July 2008

The effect of 27 years of continuous cropping, fertilization and manuring on potassium (K) supplying capacity of a Typic Ustochrept soil profile from Delhi, India under a maize–wheat–cowpea (fodder) cropping system was investigated by employing the quantity/intensity (Q/I) approach. The predominant mineral suite of the <2 μm clay fraction was illite. The values of equilibrium activity ratio of K in solution in equilibrium with the soil (ARKE), labile pools of K (KL), immediately available K (ΔK0), K available with difficulty (KX) and water soluble+exchangeable K (1 M NH4OAc K) in different soil layers (0 to 105 cm) under different treatments were in the following order: 100% nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (NPK)+farmyard manure (FYM) > 100% NPK > control (no fertilizer) > 100% N >100% NP. The ARKE value, a measure of availability or intensity of labile K in soil decreased with profile depth due to greater K fixation by specific sites in the lower layers. The quantity of specifically sorbed K (KX) and the potential buffering capacity of soil (PBCK) showed a increasing trend with soil depth. In soil without K fertilizer treatments (control, 100% N and 100% NP) about 100% of the total K uptake by crops was from non-exchangeable soil K reserve as compared to 49·5 and 32·2% when annually 84 kg K/ha and 84 kg K/ha+FYM at the rate of 15 t/ha were applied. The results showed the greatest depletion of non-exchangeable K reserves in the plots which did not receive K fertilization. To ensure sustained crop production under intensive cropping, application of recommended dose of NPK plus FYM is required.
Germination and grain vigour of naked oat in response to grain moisture at harvest
Authors: PELTONEN-SAINIO P. , MUURINEN S. , VILPPU M. , RAJALA A. , GATES F. , KIRKKARI A.-M.
Published: July 2008

Naked oat grain, which is free from lemma and palea, has high nutritional quality, but the unprotected grain is prone to mechanical damages caused by combine harvesting. Naked oats were grown for 3 years in southern Finland, at Viikki Experimental Farm, University of Helsinki (60° 13′N) to produce seed material for laboratory tests that evaluated: (1) genotypic differences of naked oat in sensitivity to damage during harvesting at grain moisture varying from c. 10% up to 50%, (2) the effect of mechanical damage on germination and grain vigour, and (3) grain characteristics contributing to susceptibility to reduced grain viability. In 1997, one naked (Rhiannon) and husked oat cultivar (Salo) were harvested, and in 1998–1999 additional four naked cultivars (Bullion, Lisbeth, Neon, SW 95926) were included. One large plot (14 m×10 m) was sown per cultivar. Two sowing times were used. Fully ripened grains were combine harvested on several occasions for each plot to obtain differences in grain moisture at harvest. Simultaneously, panicle samples were collected, dried and threshed by hand (controls). Grain moisture at each sampling and harvesting was monitored. About 3 months after harvesting, germination tests on blotting paper were carried out. Proportions of normally developed seedlings, seedlings lacking either radicle or hypocotyl, damaged coleoptiles, dead grains and lethally fungus-infected grains were recorded from combine harvested and hand threshed samples on different cultivars and harvest moistures. Tests on seedling elongation, seedling emergence through sand (2 cm and 5 cm depth), and ion leakage were applied to evaluate grain vigour. Groat weight, diameter, length, roundness, hardness and protrusion of embryo were determined.

Our results indicated that naked cultivars were far more prone to mechanical damages than husked Salo, but differences among naked cultivars in susceptibility occurred. When targeting germination of [ges ] 75%, grain moisture at harvest should not exceed 19–26% depending on cultivar. Abnormal seedlings appeared irrespective of grain moisture at harvest, but the higher the grain moisture, more dead grains were found in harvested grains after storage. Seed vigour did not alter parallel to germination ability. High proportion of small grains in harvested yield and softer groats contributed to decreased sensitivity to mechanical damages.
Ability of the SUNDIAL model to simulate the short-term dynamics of 15N applied to winter wheat and oilseed rape
Authors: GABRIELLE B. , RECOUS S. , TUCK G. , BRADBURY N. J. , NICOLARDOT B.
Published: July 2008

Labelling using the stable 15 isotope of nitrogen allows a close monitoring of the fate of the fertilizer applied to arable crops. Because 15N data give direct estimates of nitrogen transformation rates, they also provide more stringent tests for N models than those based on bulk inorganic N dynamics. They may therefore point at flaws in models that had previously gone unnoticed, especially if 15N was monitored on short time steps which capture even rapid processes like nitrification.

Here we tested the simple, process-based model SUNDIAL on two such data sets obtained in Northern France under winter wheat and winter rape crops receiving various doses and forms of fertilizer N. In both experiments, microplots (≈ 1 m2 in size) within larger blocks were dressed with 2·0 atom-% enriched labelled 15N, as urea, or ammonium-nitrate as NH+4–15NO3 or 15NH+4–H–NO3. Replicate micro-plots were subsequently sampled on four occasions after fertilizer application, and 15N enrichment was monitored in plant roots and tops, and at several depths in the soil in inorganic and organic forms.

Comparison between observed and simulated data showed that, shortly after application, SUNDIAL either underestimated (rapeseed) or overestimated (wheat) the rates of crop uptake. Also, the gradual incorporation of 15N into soil organic matter was too quick in autumn and too slow in spring under the rapeseed crop. The simulation of the rapid depletion of the labelled soil inorganic N pool was correct under wheat, whereas under rape, SUNDIAL predicted an accumulation of nitrate which was not observed.

After a longer time interval (1–2 months), the simulated and observed amounts of fertilizer-derived N in the crop and in the soil became more comparable. However, SUNDIAL only accounted for part of the unrecovered labelled N. Additional measurements indicated that denitrification and ammonia volatilization were responsible for most of the losses, with discrepancies occurring because SUNDIAL failed to volatilize ammonia after fertilizer spreading. The other major source of error lay in the simulation of crop demand for nitrogen, which may be improved based on sounder eco-physiological concepts, such as that of a regulation of plant uptake by shoot biomass.
Potential importance of water status traits for durum wheat improvement under Mediterranean conditions
Authors: MERAH O.
Published: July 2008

Water status traits have been proposed as criteria for drought tolerance improvement in several species especially in bread wheat, oat and barley. In order to test this possibility in durum wheat, in 1995 and 1997, a collection of 144 genotypes from different geographical origins was cultivated under rainfed Mediterranean conditions in Montpellier (southern France). Relative water content (RWC), osmotic potential (OP), as well as leaf morphological traits, grain yield (GY), total above-ground biomass and harvest index (HI) were measured. Large genotypic variations were observed for all traits. Differences between the 2 years were also noticed for all the traits which could be attributed to differences in water availability between the 2 growing seasons. The correlation analysis has revealed significant positive associations between water status traits and both GY and HI within and across years. These results suggest that genotypes which can maintain higher water status and then higher transpiration rates during grain filling, are more efficient in dry matter partitioning to grain and hence higher yield. Heritabilities of water status characters were higher than those of productivity traits. Our results emphasized the value of RWC and OP as criteria for durum wheat grain yield improvement under rainfed Mediterranean conditions. Relationships between RWC, OP and flag leaf morphological traits are also discussed.
Effect of stake sizes on some growth indices and yield of three cassava cultivars (Manihot esculenta)
Authors: EKE-OKORO O. N. , OKEREKE O. U. , OKEKE J. E.
Published: July 2008

The effects of five stake weights (50, 63, 75, 88 and 100 g) of three cassava cultivars (TMS 30572, TMS 91934 and NR 8083) on the growth and yield of cassava were studied for 2 years (1992/93 and 1993/94) in Nigeria. The leaf area index (LAI), crop growth rate (CGR), net assimilation rate (NAR), leaf area duration (LAD), harvest yield and harvest index (HI) were dependent on the weight of stake planted and were greatest at the stake weight of 88 g (875 kg/ha) irrespective of cassava cultivar. Variations in LAI, LAD and HI of stake weights between 75 and 100 g were non-significant. The profusely branching cassava cultivars, TMS 30572 and NR 8083, achieved greater LAI, CGR, NAR and LAD relative to the sparsely branching cultivar, TMS 91934. The significant growth and yield differences among the stake weights with the optimum at a stake weight of 88 g (875 kg/ha) indicates the need to adopt this stake weight for sustainable and improved growth and yield in cassava production.
Effect of dietary protein degradability on net fluxes of free and peptide amino acids across the portal-drained viscera of steers
Authors: HAN XING-TAI , XUE BAI , HU LING-HAO , DU JI-ZENG
Published: July 2008

Four steers, average body weight 260±15 kg, fitted with portal catheters were used in a 4×4 Latin Square design to evaluate the influence of dietary protein degradability in the rumen on peptide and amino acid fluxes across the gastrointestinal tract. Dietary protein degradability was regulated by using different protein sources and the diets were calculated to contain 130 g CP/kg and 9·62 MJ ME per kg DM. Plasma concentrations of amino acids were analysed before and after acid hydrolysis of samples first subjected to chemical deproteinization and physical ultrafiltration, and peptide amino acids (PAA) were calculated as the difference between total and free amino acids (FAA). Portal blood flow and arterial concentrations of FAA and PAA were not affected by protein degradability or by diet. Venoarterial concentration difference and net portal flux of FAA tended to increase (P < 0·10) with increase of degradable protein intake. Portal-arterial concentration difference (P < 0·05) and net portal flux (P < 0·10) of PAA increased linearly as dietary protein degradability increased. The proportion of PAA in total amino acid (FAA+PAA) net flux was not modified by dietary protein degradability or by diet, and the mean value as a proportion was 0·32. The major PAA absorbed were glutamate, leucine, aspartate and lysine for all diets, accounting in total for 0·50 of PAA flux. The results demonstrate that PAA may contribute significantly to AA flux across the portal-drained viscera (PDV) of steers, and both FAA and PAA net fluxes can be affected by degradable protein intake.