Cultivation of Edible Tropical Bolete, Phlebopus spongiosus, in Thailand and Yield Improvement by High-Voltage Pulsed Stimulation

Tropical bolete, Phlebopus spongiosus, is an edible ectomycorrhizal mushroom indigenous to northern Thailand. This mushroom has the ability to produce fruiting bodies without the need for a host plant. In this study, the technological cultivation of P. spongiosus was developed. Cultivation experiments indicated that fungal mycelia could completely colonize the cultivation substrate over a period of 85–90 days following inoculation of liquid inoculum. Primordia were induced under lower temperatures, high humidity and a 12-h photoperiod. Mature fruiting bodies were developed from young fruiting bodies within a period of one week. Consequently, yield improvement of P. spongiosus cultivation was determined by high-voltage pulsed stimulation. The results indicated that the highest degree of primordial formation, number of mature fruiting bodies and total weight values were obtained in cultivation experiments involving a high voltage of 40 kV. The total weight of the mushrooms increased by 1.4 times after applying high-voltage pulses when compared with the control. Additionally, the results revealed that the size of the fruiting body and the proximate composition of the fruiting bodies from high-voltage stimulation treatments were not different from the control. This research provides valuable information concerning successful cultivation techniques and yield improvement by high-voltage pulsed stimulation for the large-scale commercial fruiting body production of P. spongiosus.

Response of black mulberry onto white mulberry rootstock to stenting (cutting-grafting) techniques and IBA concentrations

Ornamental black mulberry (Morus nigra L.) is used in landscape. Ornamental black mulberry which has high shade, tolerates air pollution and wind. White mulberry (Morus alba L.) is proper for kind of soils conditions. Therefore, this research was conducted to investigate the effects of stenting methods and IBA levels on some characters of black mulberry scions onto white mulberry rootstock for the first time. For this purpose, an experiment was carried out as factorial in completely randomized design with 10 replications. Two factors were including two stenting method (splice and omega) and three levels of Indole-3-butyric acid (0, 500 and 1000 mg L-1). Three months after grafting, percentage of rootstock callus formation, percentage of rooting, percentage of leaf formation, number of leaf formation, the longest shoot and the longest root formation were measured. Results showed that the effect of stenting method was significant on all of evaluated parameters and splice method was superior to omega method. Also, the effects of different levels of IBA were significant on all of measured traits and they are increased by increasing the levels of IBA and the best was with 1000 mg L-1. The interaction effects of these factors are significant on all of measured characteristics except for percentage of rootstock callus formation and rooting percentage. In conclusion, the stenting via splice method had higher success in comparison with omega method and the morphological traits increased by increasing the application of higher levels of IBA. The application of stenting method by splice plus 1000 mg L-1 IBA which was carried out for the first time is recommended for reproduction of ornamental black mulberry onto white mulberry.

UJI DOSIS TRICHOKOMPOS PADA BERBAGAI KOMPOSISI GAMBUT TERHADAP PERTUMBUHAN DAN HASIL BAWANG MERAH (Allium ascalonicum L)

The cultivation of shallots in peat is constrained by the low level of soil fertility and one of methods to increase the nutrient content is by applying trichocompost. Trichokompos is material from plant residues that are composted and mixed with Trichoderma sp. as decomposers. Trichocompost improves soil fertility (soil biology, physics, and chemistry). The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of trichocompost doses on various peat compositions on the yield of shallots. Research was conducted at the Experimental farm of Faculty of Agriculture, Islamic University of , Pekanbaru during 4 months, starting form June to September 2018. The design used was completely randomized factorial with 2 factors, namely Trichocompost Dose, levels 0, 4, 8, 12 g Trichoderma/kg compost and peat composition level: 100, 75, 50, 25%. Parameters tested: plant height, age of tuber formation, number of leaves, number of tubers, and tuber weight. The data were statistically analyzed and the BNJ follow-up test at 5% level. The results showed that the dose of trichocompost combined on peat had a significant effect on all observation parameters and the best treatment was 8-12 g trichoderma/kg compost at 75% peat composition.

LY900009 Regulates RANKL-Induced Osteoclast Formation and LPS-Induced Bone Resorption

To investigate the suppressive function of LY900009, a potent-secretase inhibitor, on RANKL-induced osteoclastogenesis. The cytotoxicity of LY900009 was evaluated. The suppressive effect and possible molecular mechanism of LY900009 on RANKL-induced osteoclastogenesis was evaluated both in vitro and in vivo. The IC50 of LY900009 was 2.93 mM. LY900009 treatment at different doses (100 nM, 200 nM, and 400 nM) effectively reduced osteoclast formation (number and arear) in a dose-dependent manner. The qPCR result shows that LY900009 attenuates RANKL-induced osteoclast formation and NFATc1 protein expression. The in vivo experiments demonstrated the inhibitory effect of LY900009 on LPS-induced bone resorption. LY900009 could potently inhibit osteoclastogenesis and bone resorption by down-regulating Notch/MAPK/Akt - mediated NFATc1 reduction in vitro. In accordance with the in vitro observations, we confirmed that LY900009 attenuated LPS-induced osteolysis in mice. In conclusion, our findings indicate that Notch was a potential therapeutic target which could be used for osteolytic diseases treatment.

Plotting the Unseen Habits: Modelling the Process of Forming a New Mental Habit of Gratitude Thinking

Past studies suggested behavioural habits were formed upon repetition following an asymptotic curve. The present study examined if the asymptotic curve similarly described the process of mental habit formation. 180 Chinese college students were asked to do gratitude thinking before sleeping every night for 84 days. They reported daily their habit automaticity and whether they have done gratitude thinking last night. Afterwards, participants were followed up at 4-week and 12-week intervals to understand whether habits formed were maintained. 123 participants provided sufficient data for analysis over the 84-day period. 50 participants’ automaticity data fitted well out of 94 participants who were suitable for nonlinear regression fitting an asymptotic curve, showing mental habit formation process was similar to that of behavioural habits. Around 80% of participants reached in 72 days an automaticity which could sustain gratitude thinking for 4 weeks. In mental habit formation, number of repetition was of key importance but not consistency of repetition. Missing some of the repetitions was not detrimental to the process. Theoretically meaningful parameters could be produced. Methodological limitations, implications to practitioners and future research directions were further discussed.

Change in Convection Mixing Properties with Salinity and Temperature: CO2 Storage Application

In this study, we visualised CO2-brine, density-driven convection in a Hele-Shaw cell. Several experiments were conducted to analyse the effects of the salinity and temperature. The salinity and temperature of fluids were selected according to the storage site. By using charge coupled device (CCD) technology, convection finger formation and development were obtained through direct imaging and processing. The process can be divided into three stages: diffusion-dominated, convection-dominated and shutdown stages. Fingers were formed along the boundary at the onset time, reflecting the startup of convection mixing. Fingers formed, moved and aggregated with adjacent fingers during the convection-dominated stage. The relative migration of brine-saturated CO2 and brine enhanced the mass transfer. The effects of salinity and temperature on finger formation, number, and migration were analysed. Increasing the salinity accelerated finger formation but suppressed finger movement, and the onset time was inversely related to the salinity. However, the effect of temperature on convection is complex. The dissolved CO2 mass was investigated by calculating the CO2 mass fraction in brine during convection mixing. The results show that convection mixing greatly enhanced mass transfer. The study has implications for predicting the CO2 dissolution trapping time and accumulation for the geological storage of CO2.

In vitro CULTURE OF BIG-SAGE (Lantana camara L.) PLANT

The study was conducted to mass micropropagation of big sage (Lantana camara L.) plant by shoot multiplication technique. The treatments 2.22 and 2.66 µmol·L–1 BA gave the highest significant increase in the percentage of response to shoot multiplication and number of shoots per explant compared to the other treatments as reached 96.70% and 100.00% and 4.33 and 6.00 shoots, respectively. The results showed that these two treatments did not differ significantly between them. While the 1.33 µmol·L–1 BA gave the lowest values in the percentage of response to shoot multiplication and number of shoots per explant were 80.00% and 2.00 shoots per explant, respectively. The MS medium supplemented with 4.30 or 5.37 µmol·L–1 NAA gave a high response to root formation, number of roots per shoot and root length. While the MS medium supplemented with 6.44 or 7.52 µmol·L–1 NAA gave low values in these characteristics. The MS medium with 2.22 or 2.66 µmol·L–1 concentration of BA or 7.52 µmol·L–1 concentration of NAA recorded the highest significant increase in the percentage of response to callus formation. While the MS medium supplemented with 1.33 µmol·L–1 BA or 4.30 µmol·L–1 NAA gave less response to the callus formation.