A Bulgarian project at Maritsa East power station demonstrated the proper transformation of air pollutants (SOx and NOx) into nitrogen fertilizer. Although this technology has not been put into practice in Bulgaria, it seems feasible on an industrial scale and so it may help to ease Portugal’s reliance on imports of nitrogen fertilizer and thereby contain the outfl ow of Portuguese funds. The d...

Controlled release urea (CRU) has been widely adopted to increase nitrogen (N) use efficiency and maize production, but the impacts can range widely depending on water availability in the soil. In an experiment using Zhengdan 958 (a popular summer maize hybrid), three levels of water treatments (adequate water condition [W3], which maintained soil moisture at about 75% ± 5% of the soil's field ...

Let G1 and G2 be simple graphs and let n1 = |V (G1)|, m1 = |E(G1)|, n2 = |V (G2)| and m2 = |E(G2)|. In this paper we derive sharp upper and lower bounds for the number of spanning trees τ in the Cartesian product G1 G2 of G1 and G2. We show that: τ(G1 G2) ≥ 2(n1−1)(n2−1) n1n2 (τ(G1)n1) n2+1 2 (τ(G2)n2) n1+1 2 and τ(G1 G2) ≤ τ(G1)τ(G2) [ 2m1 n1 − 1 + 2m2 n2 − 1 ](n1−1)(n2−1) . We also characteri...

Vaccinia virus (VACV) protein N1 is an intracellular virulence factor and belongs to a family of VACV B-cell lymphoma (Bcl)-2-like proteins whose members inhibit apoptosis or activation of pro-inflammatory transcription factors, such as interferon (IFN) regulatory factor-3 (IRF-3) and nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB). Unusually, N1 inhibits both apoptosis and NF-κB activation. To understand how N1 exe...

Increased fertilizer input in agricultural systems during the last few decades has resulted in large yield increases, but also in environmental problems. We used data from published papers and a soil testing and fertilization project in Shaanxi province during the years 2005 to 2009 to analyze chemical fertilizer inputs and yields of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and maize (Zea mays L.) on the f...

Farmers in developing countries sometimes receive incorrect and misleading information regarding the fertilizer inputs into food production, especially during crises or times of unusually high demand. In the early 2000’s farmers of Thailand were sold fake fertilizer or advised to apply excessive amounts of fertilizers by fertilizer dealers. The problem was so pervasive that a protocol was devel...

Little information exists on the potential for N fertilizer application to corn ( L.) to affect NO emissions during subsequent unfertilized crops in a rotation. To determine if N fertilizer application to corn affects NO emissions during subsequent crops in rotation, we measured NO emissions for 3 yr (2011-2013) in an Iowa, corn-soybean [ (L.) Merr.] rotation with three N fertilizer rates appli...

Chemical composition of soil organic carbon (SOC) is central to soil fertility. We hypothesize that change in SOC content resulting from various long-term fertilization strategies accompanies the shift in SOC chemical structure. This study examined the effect of fertilization strategies along with the time of fertilizer application on the SOC composition by 13C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) ...

Synthetic nitrogen (N) fertilizer has played a key role in enhancing food production and keeping half of the world's population adequately fed. However, decades of N fertilizer overuse in many parts of the world have contributed to soil, water, and air pollution; reducing excessive N losses and emissions is a central environmental challenge in the 21st century. China's participation is essentia...