In Przemyśl, Poland.

Handwritten caption: 226. Hussaków

Pericarps retained in the tree canopy and stomatal abundance are components of resistance to husk spot caused by Pseudocercospora macadamiae in macadamia

Pseudocercospora macadamiae Beilharz, Mayers and Pascoe infects macadamia fruit via stomata causing husk spot disease. Information on the variability of fruit stomatal abundance, its association with diseased fruit pericarps (sticktights) that are retained in the tree canopy, and its influence on the husk spot intensity (incidence, severity and lesion number) among macadamia genotypes is lacking. We examined a total of 230 macadamia trees comprising 19 cultivars, 56 wild germplasm accessions and 40 breeding progeny, for the prevalence of sticktights and husk spot intensity over three production seasons. We observed a strong association between the prevalence of sticktights and disease intensity indicating its usefulness as a predictor of husk spot and as a useful phenotypic trait for husk spot resistance selection in breeding programmes. Similarly, stomatal abundance varied among macadamia genotypes, and a significant linear relationship (P < 0.001; 93%) was observed between fruit stomatal abundance and husk spot for all the macadamia genotypes analysed, confirming the utility of that trait for disease resistance screening. The genotypes were grouped into disease resistance groups. Correlations between fruit stomatal abundance, disease intensity and prevalence of sticktights revealed that the numbers of sticktights, and relative stomatal abundance were the main factors influencing the intensity of husk spot among macadamia genotypes. This is the first comprehensive study of natural variation of stomatal abundance in Macadamia species that reveals genetic variation, and provides relevant relationships with disease intensity and the prevalence of sticktights. The phenotypic plant traits indentified in this study may serve as selection tools for disease resistance screening in macadamia breeding programmes.

Food-borne pathogens - a key issue for all food animal industries

The modern consumer has an attitude that food safety is non-negotiable issue – the consumer simply demands food to be safe. Yet, at the same time, the modern consumer has an expectation that the food safety is the responsibility of others – the primary producer, the processing company, the supermarket, commercial food handlers and so on. Given this environment, all food animal industries have little choice but to regard food safety as a key issue. As an example, the chicken meat industry, via the two main industry funding bodies – the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (Chicken Meat) and the Poultry CRC – has a comprehensive research program that seeks to focus on reducing the risks of food-borne diseases at all points of the food processing chain – from the farm to the processing plant. The scale of the issue for all industries can be illustrated by an analysis of the problem of campylobacterosis – a major food-borne disease. It has been estimated that there are around 230,000 cases of campylobacterosis per year. In 1995, it was estimated that each case of food-borne campylobacterosis in the USA was costing between $(US) 350-580. Hence, a reasonable conservative estimate is that each Australian case in 2010 would result in a cost of around $500 (this includes hospital, medication and lost productivity costs). Hence, this single food-borne agent could be costing Australian society around $115 million annually. In the light of these types of estimated costs for just one food-borne pathogen, it is easy to understand the importance that all food animal industries place on food safety.

Phosphorus in agricultural soils of Finland - characterization of reserves and retention in mineral soil profiles

An overwhelming majority of all the research on soil phosphorus (P) has been carried out with soil samples taken from the surface soils only, and our understanding of the forms and the reactions of P at a soil profile scale is based on few observations. In Finland, the interest in studying the P in complete soil profiles has been particularly small because of the lack of tradition in studying soil genesis, morphology, or classification. In this thesis, the P reserves and the retention of orthophosphate phosphorus (PO4-P) were examined in four cultivated mineral soil profiles in Finland (three Inceptisols and one Spodosol). The soils were classified according to the U.S. Soil Taxonomy and soil samples were taken from the genetic horizons in the profiles. The samples were analyzed for total P concentration, Chang and Jackson P fractions, P sorption properties, concentrations of water-extractable P, and for concentrations of oxalate-extractable Al and Fe. Theoretical P sorption capacities and degrees of P saturation were calculated with the data from the oxalate-extractions and the P fractionations. The studied profiles can be divided into sections with clearly differing P characteristics by their master horizons Ap, B and C. The C (or transitional BC) horizons below an approximate depth of 70 cm were dominated by, assumingly apatitic, H2SO4-soluble P. The concentration of total P in the C horizons ranged from 729 to 810 mg kg-1. In the B horizons between the depths of 30 and 70 cm, a significant part of the primary acid-soluble P has been weathered and transformed to secondary P forms. A mean weathering rate of the primary P in the soils was estimated to vary between 230 and 290 g ha-1 year-1. The degrees of P saturation in the B and C horizons were smaller than 7%, and the solubility of PO4-P was negligible. The P conditions in the Ap horizons differed drastically from those in the subsurface horizons. The high concentrations of total P (689-1870 mg kg-1) in the Ap horizons are most likely attributable to long-term cultivation with positive P balances. A significant proportion of the P in the Ap horizons occurred in the NH4F- and NaOH-extractable forms and as organic P. These three P pools, together with the concentrations of oxalate-extractable Al and Fe, seem to control the dynamics of PO4-P in the soils. The degrees of P saturation in the Ap horizons were greater (8-36%) than in the subsurface horizons. This was also reflected in the sorption experiments: Only the Ap horizons were able to maintain elevated PO4-P concentrations in the solution phase − all the subsoil horizons acted as sinks for PO4-P. Most of the available sorption capacity in the soils is located in the B horizons. The results suggest that this capacity could be utilized in reducing the losses of soluble P from excessively fertilized soils by mixing highly sorptive material from the B horizons with the P-enriched surface soil. The drastic differences in the P characteristics observed between adjoining horizons have to be taken into consideration when conducting soil sampling. Sampling of subsoils has to be made according to the genetic horizons or at small depth increments. Otherwise, contrasting materials are likely to be mixed in the same sample; and the results of such samples are not representative of any material present in the studied profile. Air-drying of soil samples was found to alter the results of the sorption experiments and the water extractions. This indicates that the studies on the most labile P forms in soil should be carried out with moist samples.

Circulating concentrations of leptin, ovarian follicle number, and oocyte lipid content and active mitochondria, in Zebu crossbred cows maintained on standard or improved nutrition

Zebu (Bos indicus) crossbred beef cows (Droughtmaster) were maintained long-term (16 months) on standard nutrition (SN) or improved nutrition (IN). Cows on IN had better body condition and greater (P<0.05) circulating concentrations of leptin than cows on SN (0.7±0.1n/ml and 1.7±0.1n/ml, respectively). There were no outstanding differences between SN and IN cows in basal number of ovarian follicles (≤4mm, 5-8mm, and≥9mm) and there were also no differences in number of oocytes recovered by oocyte pick-up. Cows on IN had a greater (P<0.05) number of total follicles after stimulation with FSH than cows on SN. Oocytes from cows on IN had greater (P<0.05) lipid content than cows on SN (-0.23±0.16 and 0.20±0.18 arbitrary units, respectively) and oocytes of the former cows also tended to have more active mitochondria, although this was not significant. Cows on IN showed a positive relationship (R2=0.31, P<0.05) between plasma leptin and oocyte lipid content. Lipids are utilized by oocytes during high energy consumptive processes including fertilization and early cleavage. The greater lipid content of oocytes from IN cows could therefore confer a reproductive advantage. The present study has shown relationships between nutrition, body condition, circulating leptin, and oocyte lipid content, but a clear cause-and-effect requires further investigation in the cow. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.

The kinetics and reactivity of several polyatomic free radicals in reactions with NO2, O2, Cl2, and HCl

In this thesis, the kinetics of several alkyl, halogenated alkyl, and alkenyl free radical reactions with NO2, O2, Cl2, and HCl reactants were studied over a wide temperature range in time resolved conditions. Laser photolysis photoionisation mass spectrometer coupled to a flow reactor was the experimental method employed and this thesis present the first measurements performed with the experimental system constructed. During this thesis a great amount of work was devoted to the designing, building, testing, and improving the experimental apparatus. Carbon-centred free radicals were generated by the pulsed 193 or 248 nm photolysis of suitable precursors along the tubular reactor. The kinetics was studied under pseudo-first-order conditions using either He or N2 buffer gas. The temperature and pressure ranges employed were between 190 and 500 K, and 0.5 45 torr, respectively. The possible role of heterogeneous wall reactions was investigated employing reactor tubes with different sizes, i.e. to significantly vary the surface to volume ratio. In this thesis, significant new contributions to the kinetics of carbon-centred free radical reactions with nitrogen dioxide were obtained. Altogether eight substituted alkyl (CH2Cl, CHCl2, CCl3, CH2I, CH2Br, CHBr2, CHBrCl, and CHBrCH3) and two alkenyl (C2H3, C3H3) free radical reactions with NO2 were investigated as a function of temperature. The bimolecular rate coefficients of all these reactions were observed to possess negative temperature dependencies, while pressure dependencies were not noticed for any of these reactions. Halogen substitution was observed to moderately reduce the reactivity of substituted alkyl radicals in the reaction with NO2, while the resonance stabilisation of the alkenyl radical lowers its reactivity with respect to NO2 only slightly. Two reactions relevant to atmospheric chemistry, CH2Br + O2 and CH2I + O2, were also investigated. It was noticed that while CH2Br + O2 reaction shows pronounced pressure dependence, characteristic of peroxy radical formation, no such dependence was observed for the CH2I + O2 reaction. Observed primary products of the CH2I + O2 reaction were the I-atom and the IO radical. Kinetics of CH3 + HCl, CD3 + HCl, CH3 + DCl, and CD3 + DCl reactions were also studied. While all these reactions possess positive activation energies, in contrast to the other systems investigated in this thesis, the CH3 + HCl and CD3 + HCl reactions show a non-linear temperature dependency on the Arrhenius plot. The reactivity of substituted methyl radicals toward NO2 was observed to increase with decreasing electron affinity of the radical. The same trend was observed for the reactions of substituted methyl radicals with Cl2. It is proposed that interactions of frontier orbitals are responsible to these observations and Frontier Orbital Theory could be used to explain the observed reactivity trends of these highly exothermic reactions having reactant-like transition states.

Gravitational charges and the quantization of mass

Abstract is not available.

Gas-crystal photoreaction: the structures of 4,4'-dimethoxy(thiobenzophenone) (I), C15H14O2S, and 4,4'-bis(dimethylamino)thiobenzophenone (II), C17H20N2S

(I): M r = 258.34, triclinic, Pi, a = 9.810 (3), b=9.635(3), e=15.015(4)A, a=79.11(2), #= 102.38 (3), y = 107.76 (3) o, V= 1308.5 A 3, Z = 4, Din= 1.318 (3) (by flotation in KI solution), D x = 1.311 g cm -3, Cu Ka, 2 = 1.5418/~, g = 20-05 cm -1, F(000) = 544, T---- 293 K, R = 0.074 for 2663 reflections. (II): M r = 284.43, monoclinic, P2~/c, a= 17.029 (5), b=6.706 (5), c= 14.629 (4), t= 113.55 (2) ° , V=1531.4A 3, Z=4, Dm=1.230(5) (by flotation in KI solution), Dx= 1.234gem -3, Mo Ka, 2 = 0.7107 A, g = 1.63 cm-1; F(000) = 608, T= 293 K, R = 0.062 for 855 reflections. The orientation of the C=S chromophores in the crystal lattice and their reactivity in the crystalline state are discussed. The C--S bonds are much shorter than the normal bond length [1.605 (4) (I), 1.665 (8) A (II) cf. 1.71 A].

Storage stability of solid rocket fuels. 2. Effect of oxidizer loadings

Ageing behaviour, leading to ballistic changes, has been studied as a function of oxidizer loading in polystyrene/ammonium perchlorate solid-propellants. The ageing studies were carried out at 100 °C in air. Change in burning rate decreased as the oxidizer loading increased from 75 to 80%. The change in thermal decomposition rates both at 230 and 260 °C also decreased as the oxidizer loading in the propellants increased. The shapes of the plots of the changes in burning rate and thermal decomposition rate (230 and 260 °C) at different storage times for different oxidizer-loaded propellants seem to be exactly similar. These results lead to the conclusion that the thermal decomposition of the propellant may be responsible for bringing about the ballistic changes during the ageing process. Infrared studies of the binder portion of the aged propellant indicate that peroxide formation takes place during the course of ageing and that peroxide formation for a particular storage time and temperature increases as the loading decreases.

Helluntailiikkeen spiritualiteetti : Tilastollinen tutkimus Helsingin Saalem-seurakunnan tilaisuuksiin osallistuvien spiritualiteetista

Yleisellä tasolla tutkimuksen kohteena oli Suomen helluntailiikkeen spiritualiteetti. Tutkimuksen kehysperusjoukkona oli Helsingin Saalem-seurakunnan tilaisuuksiin osallistuvat ihmiset. Aineisto kerättiin kyselylomakkeilla syksyllä 2004 Saalem-seurakunnan tilaisuuksissa. Täytettyjä lomakkeita kertyi 230. Vastaajien ikä vaihteli 13-87 vuoteen ja heistä 36% olimiehiä. 70% kuului Saalem-seurakuntaan ja 17% johonkin toiseen helluntaiseurakuntaan. Ei-helluntailaisia oli 13% vastaajista. Rajoittuneelta osin käytössä oli myös 500 vastaajan vertailuaineisto Kallion kaupunginosan alueelta. Tämän niinsanotun Case Kallio -aineiston vastaajat olivat pääsääntöisesti heikosti sitoutuneita kristinuskon oppeihin sekä hartaudenharjoittamiseen. Vastaajista 50% oli miehiä. Ikä vaihteli 18-39-uoden välillä. Teoreettisena lähtökohtana tutkimukselle toimi yhdysvaltalaisen Daniel Albrechtin empiirinen tutkimus helluntailais-karismaattisesta spiritualiteetista. Hän määrittelee helluntailais-karismaattisen spiritualiteetin muodostuvan kolmesta tekijästä: uskomuksista, käytännöistä sekä niin sanotuista sensibiliteeteistä. Sensibiliteeteillä tarkoitettaan asennoitumista toimintaa kohti. Albrechtin luomien kategorioiden pohjalta laadittiin kyselylomakkeeseen kaksi mittaria. Toinen mittasi koko helluntailaisen spiritualiteetin kenttää kuvaavia perustekijöitä, joihin sisältyivät uskomukset, käytännöt sekä sensibiliteetit. Toinen mittari keskittyi mittaamaan vain yhtä spiritualiteettimääritelmän osaa, sensibiliteettejä. Helluntailaisuuteen painottuvan näkökulman lisäksi tutkimuksessa käytettiin hyväksi David Hayn spiritualiteettinäkemystä. Hän määrittelee spiritualiteetin arkitodellisuuden ylittäväksi tietoisuudeksi. Hayn laatimien kategorioiden avulla kartoitettiin yleisinhimillistä spiritualiteettia. Tutkimuksen tarkoituksena oli selvittää Saalem-seurakunnan spiritualiteetin ilmenemismuotoja ja eroavaisuuksia suhteessa taustoihin. Lisäksi verrattiin Saalemista kerättyä aineistoa vertailuaineistoon (Case Kallio) sekä selvitettiin kahden erilaisesta lähtökohdasta nousevan spiritualitteettinäkemyksen yhteyttä toisiinsa. Tutkimus oli luonteeltaan kvantitatiivinen. Tutkimusmenetelminä käytettiin tilastollisia testejä sekä faktorianalyysiä. Faktorianalyysin rinnalla käytettiin niin kutsutta Bayes-mallinnusta, jolla ei ole parametrisille menetelmille asetettuja tiukkoja käyttöehtoja. Saalem-seurakunnasta tutkimustulokseksi saatiin 11 eritasoista spiritualiteettiulottuvuutta. Albrechtin esittämät seitsemän sensibiliteettikategoriaa löytyivät lähes sellaisenaan aineistosta, kun taas helluntailaisen spiritualiteetin perustekijöiden sekä yleisinhimillisen spiritualiteetin kohdalla käytössä olleet mittarit eivät toimineet täysin odotetulla tavalla. Kahta erilaista aineistoa voitiin vertailla yleisinhimillisen spiritualiteetin osalta. Yleisinhimillinen spiritualiteetti ei ollut vieras ilmiö kristillisestä opista ja hartaudenharjoittamisesta vieraantuneille vastaajille. Kuitenkin se sai korkeampia vastauspistemääriä helluntailaisten parissa. Kyseistä spiritualiteettia eriytyi kuvaamaan kaksi ulottuvuutta: yhteisöllinen altruismi sekä arjen kauneus. Pelkästään Saalem-seurakunnasta kerätystä aineistosta eriytyi lisäksi kolme helluntailaisen spiritualiteetin perustekijää: sana ja missio, johtajakeskeisyys sekä ylistys -ulottuvuudet. Samasta aineistosta nousi kuusi sensibiliteettiulottuvuutta: ylistys,yleinen puhdistuminen, seremoniallisuus, armolahjat, tavoitteellisuus sekä hengellinen puhdistuminen ja muutos. Toinen ylistysulottuvuus kuvasi ylistyksen merkitystä, toinen ylistystapaa. Saalem-seurakunnasta kerätyn aineiston keskiöön asettui sanaa ja missiota kuvaava ulottuvuus. Korkeimman vastauskeskiarvon sai tavoitteellisuusulottuvuus, samoin kuin molemmat yleisinhimillistä spiritualiteettia kuvastaneet ulottuvuudet saivat korkeita vastauskeskiarvoja. Helluntailaisen spiritualiteetin ulottuvuudet korreloivat positiivisesti yleisinhimillisen spiritualiteetin ulottuvuuksien kanssa. Tulokset voitiin yleistää koskemaan Helsingin Saalem-seurakunnan jäsenistöä sekä pääkaupunkiseudun helluntailaisuutta. Koko Suomen helluntailiikkeen kohdalla tuloksia voitiin pitää suuntaa-antavina. Avainsanat: helluntailiike, spiritualiteetti, Saalem, kvantitatiivinen tutkimus, monimuuttujamenetelmät, Bayes-mallinnus, Daniel Albrecht, David Hay

Assessing the significance of climate and community factors on urban water demand

Ensuring adequate water supply to urban areas is a challenging task due to factors such as rapid urban growth, increasing water demand and climate change. In developing a sustainable water supply system, it is important to identify the dominant water demand factors for any given water supply scheme. This paper applies principal components analysis to identify the factors that dominate residential water demand using the Blue Mountains Water Supply System in Australia as a case study. The results show that the influence of community intervention factors (e.g. use of water efficient appliances and rainwater tanks) on water demand are among the most significant. The result also confirmed that the community intervention programmes and water pricing policy together can play a noticeable role in reducing the overall water demand. On the other hand, the influence of rainfall on water demand is found to be very limited, while temperature shows some degree of correlation with water demand. The results of this study would help water authorities to plan for effective water demand management strategies and to develop a water demand forecasting model with appropriate climatic factors to achieve sustainable water resources management. The methodology developed in this paper can be adapted to other water supply systems to identify the influential factors in water demand modelling and to devise an effective demand management strategy.

Thermal expansion and a new phase transition in pyroelectric LiKSO4

Single crystal macroscopic thermal expansion coefficient measurements have been made on uniaxial lithium potassium sulphate crystal both along and normal to the six fold axis, employing Fizeau’s interferometer method. Measurements were made in the range of −120°C to 500°C. The results show that lithium potassium sulphate exhibits two major anomalies in its expansion coefficients around −95°C and 422°C respectively, the one at −95°C has been observed for the first time. The nature of dimensional changes of the crystal at the upper and lower transition points are opposite in nature. The crystal shows considerable lattice anisotropy. Megaw’s tilt concept has been invoked to explain the relative magnitudes of expansion coefficients alonga andc directions. Structural features responsible for the absence of ferroelectricity in this crystal have been pointed out.

Storage stability of solid rocket fuel. 1. Effect of temperature

Ageing behaviour of polystyrene (PS)/ammonium perchlorate (AP) propellent leading to ballistic changes has been studied. It follows a zero-order kinetic law. Ageing behaviour leading to change in burning rate ( ) in the temperature range of 60–200 ° C was found to remain the same. The dependence of the change of the average thermal decomposition (TD) rate at 230 and 260°C on the change in burning rate for the propellant aged at 100 ° C in air suggests that the slow TD of the propellant is the cause of ageing. The safe-life (for a pre-assigned burning-rate change limit) at 25 ° C in air has been calculated as a function of the rate of change.

Metabolism of a monoterpene alcohol, linalool, by a soil pseudomonad

A microorganism of the genus Pseudomonas has been isolated from the soil by enrichment culture techniques with linalool(I) as the sole source of carbon and energy. The organism is also capable of utilizing limonene, citronellol, and geraniol as substrates but fails to grow on citral, critranellal, and 1,8-cineole. Fermentation of linalool by this bacterium in a mineral salt medium results in the formation of 10-hydroxylinalool(II), oleuropeic acid (IX), 2-vinyl-2-methyl-5-hydroxyisopropyl-tetraphydrofuran)linalool oxide, V), 2-vinyl-2-methyl-tetrahydrofuran-5-one(unsaturated lactone, VI), and few unidentified minor metabolities. Probable pathways for the biodegradation of linalool are presented.