The influence of long-term inputs of catch crops and cereal straw on yield, protein composition and technological quality of a spring and a winter wheat

Under conditions of restricted nitrogen (N) input such as in organic farming systems, crop N uptake must rely on N mineralised from applied animal manure, crop residues and native soil organic matter. Scarcity of N may impede the production of quality grain for bread production, and input and retention of N in soil are therefore important parameters for soil fertility. Toretain N in the crop-soilsystem, catch crops may be grown in breaks between main crops where they provide a significant sink for N mineralised in late summer and autumn (Thomsen, 2005). In corporation of straw may likewise retain mineralised N by microbial immobilisation (Christensen, 1986) and will also directly add to the N mineralisation potential when the N supplied in the straw accumulates (Thomsen & Christensen, 2004). Under northern European conditions, winter wheat may generally be of lower quality than spring wheat, but winter wheat has a higher yield potential. When the N uptake is mainly based on N mineralised from either applied or indigenous soil organic matter, however, this may even out the quality difference between winter and spring wheat as the longer growing season of winter wheat may boost its N utilisation. Growing conditions are highly important for protein quantity whereas main lygenetic factors influence protein composition (Amesetal., 1999; Luoetal., 2000). Wheat grain proteins have been classified as albumins, globulins, gliadins and glutenins on the basis of their solubility (Osborne, 1907). Reverse-phase (RP) high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) allows the quantitative determination of these different flour protein groups together with single proteins (α5-, α1,2-, α-, γc-type gliadins, x- and γ-type high (HMW) and low (LMW) molecular weights subunits of glutenin) (Wieser & Seilmeier, 1998). The proteins can also be divided into polymers (glutenins) or monomers (gliadins, albumins, globulins) based on their aggregating properties. The polymeric proteins are critical for governing wheat flour processing properties, and their quantity and size distribution reliably measured by size-exclusion (SE) HPLC techniques have been shown to be important indicators of baking quality (Dachkevitch & Autran, 1989; Bateyetal., 1991). The aim of this study was to examine whether wheat yield and baking quality determined by chromatographic techniques together with rheological and chemical quality measurements could be improved by combining agronomic strategies consisting of wheat cultivars and long-term organic matter inputs. The variables tested were (A) a winter wheat and a spring wheat cultivar, (B) three catch crop strategies and (C) four straw incorporation rates

Multimedia courseware: Never mind the quality how much will it cost to develop?

This paper evaluates multimedia courseware costing techniques such as the US Airforce Interactive Courseware Method (Golas, 1993), CBT Analyst (Kearsley, 1985), CEAC (Schooley, 1988) and MEEM (Marshall, Samson, Dugard, & Scott, 1994) against the data from ten multimedia courseware developments. The Relative Error and Mean Absolute Relative Error (MARE) are calculated to allow comparison of the different methods

The quiescent progenitors of four Type II-P/L supernovae

We present Large Binocular Telescope difference imaging data for the final years of four Type II-P/L supernovae progenitors. For all four, we find no significant evidence for stochastic or steady variability in the U, B, V, or R-bands. Our limits constrain variability to no more than roughly 5-10% of the expected R-band luminosities of the progenitors. These limits are comparable to the observed variability of red supergiants in the Magellanic Clouds. Based on these four events, the probability of a Type II-P/L progenitor having an extended outburst after Oxygen ignition is <37% at 90% confidence. Our observations cannot exclude short outbursts in which the progenitor returns to within ~10% of its quiescent flux on the time scale of months with no dust formation.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures, 1 table. Accepted to MNRA

Satisfaction Equilibrium: A General Framework for QoS Provisioning in Self-Configuring Networks

This paper is concerned with the concept of equilibrium and quality of service (QoS) provisioning in self-configuring wireless networks with non-cooperative radio devices (RD). In contrast with the Nash equilibrium (NE), where RDs are interested in selfishly maximizing its QoS, we present a concept of equilibrium, named satisfaction equilibrium (SE), where RDs are interested only in guaranteing a minimum QoS. We provide the conditions for the existence and the uniqueness of the SE. Later, in order to provide an equilibrium selection framework for the SE, we introduce the concept of effort or cost of satisfaction, for instance, in terms of transmit power levels, constellation sizes, etc. Using the idea of effort, the set of efficient SE (ESE) is defined. At the ESE, transmitters satisfy their minimum QoS incurring in the lowest effort. We prove that contrary to the (generalized) NE, at least one ESE always exists whenever the network is able to simultaneously support the individual QoS requests. Finally, we provide a fully decentralized algorithm to allow self-configuring networks to converge to one of the SE relying only on local information.Comment: Accepted for publication in Globecom 201

Trypanosoma cruzi expresses a plant-like ascorbate-dependent hemoperoxidase localized to the endoplasmic reticulum.

In most aerobic organisms hemoperoxidases play a major role in H(2)O(2)-detoxification, but trypanosomatids have been reported to lack this activity. Here we describe the properties of an ascorbate-dependent hemoperoxidase (TcAPX) from the American trypanosome Trypanosoma cruzi. The activity of this plant-like enzyme can be linked to the reduction of the parasite-specific thiol trypanothione by ascorbate in a process that involves nonenzymatic interaction. The role of heme in peroxidase activity was demonstrated by spectral and inhibition studies. Ascorbate could saturate TcAPX activity indicating that the enzyme obeys Michaelis-Menten kinetics. Parasites that overexpressed TcAPX activity were found to have increased resistance to exogenous H(2)O(2). To determine subcellular location an epitope-tagged form of TcAPX was expressed in T. cruzi, which was observed to colocalize with endoplasmic reticulum resident chaperone protein BiP. These findings identify an arm of the oxidative defense system of this medically important parasite. The absence of this redox pathway in the human host may be therapeutically exploitable

Quality-Of-Service Provisioning in Decentralized Networks: A Satisfaction Equilibrium Approach

This paper introduces a particular game formulation and its corresponding notion of equilibrium, namely the satisfaction form (SF) and the satisfaction equilibrium (SE). A game in SF models the case where players are uniquely interested in the satisfaction of some individual performance constraints, instead of individual performance optimization. Under this formulation, the notion of equilibrium corresponds to the situation where all players can simultaneously satisfy their individual constraints. The notion of SE, models the problem of QoS provisioning in decentralized self-configuring networks. Here, radio devices are satisfied if they are able to provide the requested QoS. Within this framework, the concept of SE is formalized for both pure and mixed strategies considering finite sets of players and actions. In both cases, sufficient conditions for the existence and uniqueness of the SE are presented. When multiple SE exist, we introduce the idea of effort or cost of satisfaction and we propose a refinement of the SE, namely the efficient SE (ESE). At the ESE, all players adopt the action which requires the lowest effort for satisfaction. A learning method that allows radio devices to achieve a SE in pure strategies in finite time and requiring only one-bit feedback is also presented. Finally, a power control game in the interference channel is used to highlight the advantages of modeling QoS problems following the notion of SE rather than other equilibrium concepts, e.g., generalized Nash equilibrium.Comment: Article accepted for publication in IEEE Journal on Selected Topics in Signal Processing, special issue in Game Theory in Signal Processing. 16 pages, 6 figure

Securing an Information Systems from Threats: A Critical Review

The technology behind information systems in today’s world has been embedded in nearly every aspect of our lives. Thus, the idea of securing our information systems and/or computer networks has become very paramount. Owing to the significance of computer networks in transporting the information and knowledge generated by the increased diversity and sophistication of computational machinery, it would be very imperative to engage the services of network security professionals to manage the resources that are passed through the various terminals (end points) of the these network, so as to achieve a maximum reliability of the information passed, making sure that this is achieved without creating a discrepancy between the security and usability of such network. This paper examines the various techniques involved in securely maintaining the safe states of an active computer network, its resources and the information it carries. We examined techniques of compromising an information system by breaking into the system without authorised access (Hacking), we also looked at the various phases of digital analysis of an already compromised system, and then we investigated the tools and techniques for digitally analysing a compromised system in other to bring it back to a safe stat