The Chemical Weapons Convention prohibits the development, production, acquisition, stockpiling, retention, transfer or use of chemical weapons by Member States. Verification of compliance and investigations into allegations of use require accurate detection of chemical warfare agents (CWAs) and their degradation products. Detection of CWAs such as organophosphorus nerve agents in the environme...

This article presents results of an analysis of honey bee losses over the winter of 2011-2012 in the Netherlands, from a sample of 86 colonies, located at 43 apiaries. The apiaries were selected using spatially stratified random sampling. Colony winter loss data were collected and related to various measures of colony strength recorded in summer, as well as data from laboratory analysis of samp...

The S1 element is a plant short interspersed element (SINE) that was first described and studied in Brassica napus. In this work, we investigated the distribution and the molecular phylogeny of the S1 element within the Cruciferae (= Brassicaceae). S1 elements were found to be widely distributed within the Cruciferae, especially in species of the tribe Brassiceae. The molecular phylogeny of S1 ...

Hydroxycinnamoyltransferases which catalyze the formation of O-sinapoylcholine (sinapine) using l-0-sinapoyl-ß-D-glucose as acyl donor have been isolated from seeds of radish (Raphanus sativus L. var. sativus) and mustard (Sinapis alba L.) and purified 420and 293-fold, respectively. The enzymes (“sinapine synthase”) had apparent molecular weights of about 60,000 daltons and showed highest activ...

A simple and rapid gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) analysis method was developed for the determination of fat-soluble parts of sinapis semina. Four major compounds were chosen as marker compounds to evaluate the method. Various extraction techniques were evaluated and the greatest efficiency was observed with sonication extraction using diethyl ether. The method was valuated as fol...

cercosporoid fungi including the genus cercospora and other morphologically similar genera are associated with leaf spot symptoms on various host plants. in this research three taxa including passalora cucurbiticola (on cucurbita sp.), p. bolleana (on ficus carica), and pseudocercosporella capsellae (on capsella bursa-pastoris, sinapis arvensis) were identified. among these, p. cucurbiticola an...

Pioneer plants are adapted to grow in unpredictable environments. These plants have evolved several traits related to seed morphology and germination to cope with this unpredictability. The main aim of this study was to investigate the effect of plant identity and maternal environment on seed mass and germination of Sinapis arvensis. This study was undertaken with S. arvensis plants grown in fo...

Synthesis of the enzyme lipoxygenase in the cotyledons of the mustard seedling (Sinapis alba L.) is controlled by phytochrome (P(fr)) through a threshold mechanism. The repression of enzyme synthesis by P(fr) is a very rapid process after the threshold level is surpassed. Similarly, enzyme synthesis starts instantaneously and with full speed as soon as the P(fr) level decreases below the thresh...