Genetic improvements have significantly contributed to wheat production. Five wheat cultivars-widely grown in north China in the 1950s, 1990s, or 2010s-were grown in field experiments conducted in the 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 growing seasons. This study evaluated the genetic progress in wheat grain yield and its related traits in north China and explored how breeding and selection have influence...

To evaluate the grain-filling pattern, Chinese first super hybrid rice, Liangyoupeijiu was grown under tillage and establishment methods at a spacing of 20 cm × 20 cm with one seedling hill-1 and at a seeding rate of 22.5 kg ha-1 in Changsha, Hunan Province, China in 2012. Our results showed that, superior grain weight in TP had always higher than DS up to 24 DAH but at 36 DAH, grain weight had...

We perform an experimental study of granular impact, where intruders strike 2D beds of photoelastic disks from above. High-speed video captures the intruder dynamics and the local granular force response, allowing investigation of grain-scale mechanisms in this process. We observe rich acoustic behavior at the leading edge of the intruder, strongly fluctuating in space and time, and we show tha...

According to classical grain growth laws, grain growth is driven by the minimization of surface energy and will continue until a single grain prevails. These laws do not take into account the lattice anisotropy and the details of the microscopic rearrangement of mass between grains. Here we consider coarsening of body-centered-cubic polycrystalline materials in three dimensions using the phase ...

Hidden infestations of stored-product insect larvae are detected most rapidly by acoustic techniques when the larvae are highly active. Larval activity is periodic, however, and it tends to decrease after the larvae are disturbed or cooled. Because of the practical need for rapid inspection of grain at commercial elevators, several heat treatments were tested as potential methods of increasing ...

A field experiment was conducted to study the impact of Sulphur(S) and Phosphorus (P) on yield, nutrient status of soil and their contents in pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan) during the year 2008-2009. Seven treatments were studied in Factorial Randomized Block Design with three replications. The treatment combinations were derived from three levels of sulphur (0, 20 and 40 kg S ha(-1)) and four level...

Grain weight is the most important component of rice yield and is mainly determined by grain size, which is generally controlled by quantitative trait loci (QTLs). Although numerous QTLs that regulate grain weight have been identified, the genetic network that controls grain size remains unclear. Herein, we report the cloning and functional analysis of a dominant QTL, grain length and width 2 (...

Grain boundary segregation provides a method for stabilization of nanocrystalline metals – the selection of an alloying element that will segregate to the boundaries can lower the grain boundary energy, attenuating the driving force for grain growth. The segregation strength, relative to mixing enthalpy, of a binary system determines the propensity for segregation stabilization. This relationsh...

Action-Graph Games (AGGs) are a fully expressive game representation which can compactly express strict and context-specific independence and anonymity structure in players’ utility functions. We present an efficient algorithm for computing expected payoffs under mixed strategy profiles. This algorithm runs in time polynomial in the size of the AGG representation (which is itself polynomial in ...

Nitrogen availability and illumination intensity are two key factors which affect rice growth. However, their influences on total nitrogen accumulation, photosynthetic rate, root morphologies, and yields are not fully understood. We conducted two field experiments to (1) evaluate the effects of shading under different N treatments on photosynthetic parameters, root morphologies, total nutrient ...