Group balanced block design for comparisons among oilseed Brassicae

Calculating Balanced Incomplete Block Design for Educational Assessments

A popular design in large scale' educational assessments is the balanced incomplete block design. The design assumes that the item pool is split into a set of blocks of items that are assigned to assessment booklets. This paper shows how the technique of 0-1 linear programming can be used to calculate a balanced incomplete block design. Several structural as well as practical constraints on thi...

Self-Dual Codes and the (22,8,4) Balanced Incomplete Block Design

We enumerate a list of 594 inequivalent binary (33, 16) doubly-even self-orthogonal codes that have no all-zero coordinates along with their automorphism groups. It is proven that if a (22, 8, 4) Balanced Incomplete Block Design were to exist then the 22 rows of its incident matrix will be contained in at least one of the 594 codes. Without using computers, we eliminate this possibility for 116...

Plant defence responses in oilseed rape MINELESS plants after attack by the cabbage moth Mamestra brassicae

The Brassicaceae family is characterized by a unique defence mechanism known as the 'glucosinolate-myrosinase' system. When insect herbivores attack plant tissues, glucosinolates are hydrolysed by the enzyme myrosinase (EC 3.2.1.147) into a variety of degradation products, which can deter further herbivory. This process has been described as 'the mustard oil bomb'. Additionally, insect damage i...

Quantification of Plasmodiophora brassicae Using a DNA-Based Soil Test Facilitates Sustainable Oilseed Rape Production

Outbreaks of clubroot disease caused by the soil-borne obligate parasite Plasmodiophora brassicae are common in oilseed rape (OSR) in Sweden. A DNA-based soil testing service that identifies fields where P. brassicae poses a significant risk of clubroot infection is now commercially available. It was applied here in field surveys to monitor the prevalence of P. brassicae DNA in field soils inte...

Splitting balanced incomplete block designs