Quality requirement for seed production in the Nigerian seed industry

Greater attention is always being given to quantity of seeds produced rather than the inherent quality when issues related to seed requirements are discussed. However, seed production should not be limited to production of crops with high yielding potential, but also of high quality seeds with good economic potential that can give good crop establishment and yields in a wide range of production environments. This requires good knowledge of seed production and the establishment of an economically functional seed system with serviceable strategies. This underscores the importance of seed quality assurance systems strengthened with seed law enforcement strategies to assure production of good quality seeds of preferred varieties. This paper discusses those strategies put in place to ensure a successful production of quality seeds in the Nigerian seed industry and how the setups operate to achieve this objective.

Production of English lexical stress by Mandarin speakers: Acoustics and kinematics

This study aims to understand if Mandarin late learners of English can successfully manipulate acoustic and kinematic cues to deliver English stress contrast in production. Mandarin ( N = 8) and English ( N = 8) speakers were recorded producing English trochaic (initial stress) and iambic (final stress) items during a nonword repetition task. Speakers’ jaw movement for the utterances was tracked and analysed. Acoustic and kinematic cues were measured for each syllable, including acoustic duration, fundamental frequency (F0), and intensity, as well as jaw movement duration, displacement, peak velocity, and stiffness. Stress ratios (syllable 1 / syllable 2) were calculated for each cue and compared between groups. Results showed that English and Mandarin speakers had generally comparable performance in differentiating trochaic from iambic patterns, as well as in the degree of between-syllable contrast within each pattern. Between-group differences were only observed in acoustic duration and jaw movement velocity/stiffness. These results suggest that the experience with Mandarin stress contributes to Mandarin speakers’ overall successful production of English stress but also results in nonnative use of some acoustic/kinematic cues.

Enhancing Production Through Well Interventions Using End-to-End Evaluation Methodology

In this paper, an end-to-end evaluation service using well historical production, petrophysics and reservoir data combined with new logs to perform well intervention solution methodology is followed. Across four wells, production logging data is acquired and analysed to understand the current performance of different heterogeneous layers. Combining this with openhole data, additional perforations and reperforations are planned. Perforations are carried out using deep-penetration charges to create a larger and deeper flow path between the reservoir and the wellbore. Post-perforation production logs are carried out, and the data is analysed to understand the effectiveness of newly perforated layers. Detailed production enhancement of all four wells is discussed in the paper. The majority of the wells displayed a significant increase in production when compared with pre-intervention flow rates. Minor scale buildup in the production liner was observed during pre-perforation production log data which was observed to be cleared during post-perforation production log data. The deliverability of the wells had also gone up, with similar production rates at much higher bottomhole pressure compared with pressures before intervention. This also confirmed the effectiveness of deep-penetration charges during perforation in providing better conduit from reservoir to wellbore. Additional perforations carried out, based on the heterogeneity of the reservoir and combining the openhole data, proved to be highly effective, with high deliverability observed from these new layers. In conclusion, a successful production enhancement of these low-flow-rate gas condensate wells was achieved with an end-to-end solution. A highly heterogeneous reservoir with multiple thinly bedded layers presented challenges in understanding their productivity. The combination of pre-perforation production log and post-perforation production log enabled evaluation of the deliverability of the complex heterogeneous reservoir. Further, production enhancement from each reperforated interval was confirmed using a direct measurement, i.e., production log data instead of relying on surface flow rates to better understand the downhole dynamics.

Effects of repeating after stimuli sounds during computer assisted HVPT on Japanese learners’ perception and production of English fricatives

This study investigated the effects of using an online High Variability Phonetic Training (HVPT) program for university students whose first language is Japanese and who studied English as a foreign language. The target sounds were English fricatives, which many of the participants felt were challenging to distinguish and articulate. The training was conducted for five weeks; each week consisted of three HVPT sessions. The training process consisted of an initial explanation of how to articulate the sounds followed by a video that showed the physical articulative movements. The participants listened to stimuli sounds, produced the sounds after each stimulus, and completed an identification task. Based on pre and posttests, the perception performance of the participants improved significantly through the HVPT training. Regarding production, a positive effect was found for one phoneme, while no difference was found for the other. Questionnaire results were generally positive but indicated the need for explicit instruction for some of the fricatives that exhibited relatively lower successful production and perception rates.

Between Sound and Voice: Teaching Chinese Tones To Non-Tonal Language Speakers

The production of highly intelligible syllables in Mandarin Chinese entails a successful production of tones, which poses a challenge for learners of Chinese as a foreign language. The aim of the current paper is to address this issue by identifying the key tonal features contributing to tone intelligibility in the lexemes produced by Polish learners of Mandarin Chinese as a foreign language. Samples of Polish female students’ tonal pronunciations at two stages of learning were selected and compared with productions made by a female native speaker of Mandarin Chinese from Taiwan. Four syllables produced by the students were selected from a corpus of read-out passages which had already been assessed for the intelligibility of monosyllabic lexemes by native judges. The students’ pronunciation samples (whose pronunciation improved from the A1 minus language level to A2) were analysed using pitch, fundamental frequency contour, and register span criteria, and then compared to the female native speaker’s pronunciations of the same syllables. Importantly, before the results of this analysis are presented, the simplified model of tones widely used in language instruction is compared and contrasted with the acoustic analysis of tonal productions made by the native speaker. This is done to show to what extent the simplified, widely used model reflects real-life tonal productions.

Shallow-emerged coral may warn of deep-sea coral response to thermal stress

In the Gulf of Alaska, commercially harvested fish species utilize habitats dominated by red tree corals (Primnoa pacifica) for shelter, feeding, and nurseries, but recent studies hint that environmental conditions may be interrupting the reproductive lifecycle of the corals. The North Pacific has experienced persistent and extreme thermal variability in recent years and this pattern is predicted to continue in coming decades. Recent discovery of deep-water emerged coral populations in Southeast Alaska fjords provided opportunity for detailed life-history studies and comparison to corals in managed habitats on the continental shelf. Here we show that sperm from deep colonies develops completely, but in shallow colonies, sperm development is prematurely halted, likely preventing successful production of larvae. We hypothesize that the divergence is due to differing temperature regimes presently experienced by the corals. Compared to deep populations below the thermocline, shallow populations experience much greater seasonal thermal variability and annual pulses of suspected near-lethal temperatures that appear to interrupt the production of viable gametes. The unique opportunity to comprehensively study emerged populations presently affected by thermal stress provides advance warning of the possible fate of deep corals in the Gulf of Alaska that will soon experience similar ocean conditions.

Identification of two QTLs, BPH41 and BPH42, and their respective gene candidates for brown planthopper resistance in rice by a combinatorial approach of QTL mapping and RNA-seq

The brown planthopper (BPH) is the leading cause of insect damage to rice plants. It has caused profound losses in rice production since the late 1970’s and continues to be a major pest problem. Therefore, there is an urgent need to discover new BPH resistance genes to ensure the successful production of rice. Here, a new BPH resistance source provided by SeedWorks International Pvt. Ltd., SWD10, was used for this purpose. A total of 232 F2 progenies were genotyped with 216 polymorphic markers. Results revealed two dominant QTLs located on the short and long arms of chromosome 4. These QTLs are referred to as BPH41 and BPH42, respectively. BPH resistance mechanism test revealed that antibiosis and antixenosis mechanisms both play a role in BPH resistance conferred by these two QTLs. To further reduce the size of each QTL, 14,368 recombinant lines were screened, and the QTLs were delimited between markers SWRm_01617 and SWRm_01522 for BPH41, and SWRm_01695 and SWRm_00328 for BPH42. Additionally, using RNA-seq data of lines containing the QTLs, we further shortlisted four and three gene candidates for BPH41 and BPH42, respectively. Differential gene expression analysis of lines containing the QTLs suggested that SWD10 BPH resistance is contributed by the plant’s innate immunity and the candidate genes may be part of the rice innate immunity pathway. The newly identified QTLs are currently being utilized for breeding BPH resistant rice varieties and hybrids.

Evidence that two instead of one defective interfering RNA in influenza A virus-derived defective interfering particles (DIPs) does not enhance antiviral activity

Influenza A virus (IAV) infection constitutes a significant health threat. Defective interfering particles (DIPs) can arise during IAV infection and inhibit spread of wild type (WT) IAV. DIPs harbor defective RNA segments, termed DI RNAs, that usually contain internal deletions and interfere with replication of WT viral RNA segments. Here, we asked whether DIPs harboring two instead of one DI RNA exert increased antiviral activity. For this, we focused on DI RNAs derived from segments 1 and 3, which encode the polymerase subunits PB2 and PA, respectively. We demonstrate the successful production of DIPs harboring deletions in segments 1 and/or 3, using cell lines that co-express PB2 and PA. Further, we demonstrate that DIPs harboring two instead of one DI RNA do not exhibit increased ability to inhibit replication of a WT RNA segment. Similarly, the presence of two DI RNAs did not augment the induction of the interferon-stimulated gene MxA and the inhibition of IAV infection. Collectively, our findings suggest that the presence of multiple DI RNAs derived from genomic segments encoding polymerase subunits might not result in increased antiviral activity.

Multifunctional Nanofibrous Dressing with Antimicrobial and Anti-Inflammatory Properties Prepared by Needle-Free Electrospinning

An active wound dressing should address the main goals in wound treatment, which are improved wound healing and reduced infection rates. We developed novel multifunctional nanofibrous wound dressings with three active ingredients: chloramphenicol (CAM), beta-glucan (βG) and chitosan (CHI), of which βG and CHI are active nanofiber-forming biopolymers isolated from the cell walls of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and from shrimp shells, respectively. To evaluate the effect of each active ingredient on the nanofibers' morphological features and bioactivity, nanofibers with both βG and CHI, only βG, only CHI and only copolymers, polyethylene oxide (PEO) and hydroxypropylmethylcellulose (HPMC) were fabricated. All four nanofiber formulations were also prepared with 1% CAM. The needle-free NanospiderTM technique allowed for the successful production of defect-free nanofibers containing all three active ingredients. The CAM-containing nanofibers had a burst CAM-release and a high absorption capacity. Nanofibers with all active ingredients (βG, CHI and CAM) showed a concentration-dependent anti-inflammatory activity, while maintaining the antimicrobial activity of CAM. The promising anti-inflammatory properties, together with the high absorption capacity and antimicrobial effect, make these multifunctional nanofibers promising as dressings in local treatment of infected and exuding wounds, such as burn wounds.

Growing Strawberries in the Florida Home Garden

Florida is the winter strawberry capital of the world. In commercial and home production, strawberries are grown as an annual crop rather than as perennials. This 4-page publication of the UF/IFAS Horticultural Sciences Department presents guidelines for the successful production of strawberries in the Florida home garden. Minor revision with an updated byline of Chandler, C. K., N. A. Peres, V. M. Whitaker, H. A. Smith, and S. P. Brown. 2014. "Growing Strawberries in the Florida Home Garden." EDIS 2008 (6). https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/hs403