Flowers of cultivated buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum Moench) often receive natural pollen loads of fewer than 10 pollen grains. The cultivated varieties also have high genetic variability. These observations raise the question of whether seed production in buckwheat is often limited by pollen delivery, and whether small increases in pollen load could result in gametophytic selection through po...

The abundant forms in which the major elements in the universe exist have been determined from numerous astronomical observations and meteoritic analyses. Iron (Fe) is an exception, in that only depletion of gaseous Fe has been detected in the interstellar medium, suggesting that Fe is condensed into a solid, possibly the astronomically invisible metal. To determine the primary form of Fe, we r...

The dynamics of charged Coulomb grains in a plasma is numerically and analytically investigated. Analogous to recent experiments, it is assumed that the grains are trapped in an external parabolic field. Our simulations are based on a Langevin model, where the grain-plasma interaction is realized by a velocity-dependent friction coefficient and a velocity-independent diffusion coefficient. In a...

Rate and efficiency of gain were not affected by adding as much as 20% distillers dried grains in isocaloric diets for nursery pigs or 30% in isocaloric diets for finishing pigs. These results demonstrate that the previously suggested maximums of 5% distillers dried grains in nursery diets and 10% distillers dried grains in finishing diets are too conservative. Finally, because the 20% (nursery...

We study segregation of granular mixtures in the continuous avalanche regime (for frequencies above 1 rpm) in thin rotating drums using a continuum theory for surface flows of grains. The theory predicts profiles in agreement with experiments only when we consider a flux-dependent velocity of flowing grains. We find the segregation of species of different size and surface properties, with the s...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Hydration, rupture and exine opening due to the sudden and large expansion of intine are typical of taxoid-type pollen grains. A hemispheric outgrowth external to the exine was observed on Cupressus and Juniperus pollen grains before the intine swelling and exine release. However, the actual existence of this permanent or temporary structure and its precise role in pollen hy...

This paper presents the results of the audit on pesticide residues in cereal grains throughout Poland in 2013. The number of all samples of cereal grains was 380. Altogether 292 active substances of plant protection products were checked in the audit. Qualitative and quantative analyses were done according to Polish Standard PN-EN 15562:2008, using the LC-MS/MS technique. The methods (QuEChERS)...

24 nt-siRNAs are the most abundant small interfering RNAs in rice grains aside from microRNAs. To investigate the roles that 24 nt-siRNAs played in the poor grain filling of rice inferior grains, dynamic variations of 24 nt-siRNAs in inferior grains were compared with those of superior grains by using small RNA deep sequencing technology. The results showed that 24 nt-siRNAs derived from multip...

Feeding experiments were conducted quantitatively to examine the breakdown of mineral grains by earthworm, Eisenia feida, and larva of beetle, Protaetia lugubris insperata. Crushed and sieved test minerals of K-feldspar and/or quartz were mixed with artificial humus that contained no mineral grains. The mixture was fed to the soil animals in the plastic containers. After 1-, 4and 7-day experime...

Grain rotation is a well-known phenomenon during high (homologous) temperature deformation and recrystallization of polycrystalline materials. In recent years, grain rotation has also been proposed as a plasticity mechanism at low temperatures (for example, room temperature for metals), especially for nanocrystalline grains with diameter d less than ~15 nm. Here, in tensile-loaded Pt thin films...