BACKGROUND Mushrooms are the only non-animal food source of vitamin D. Wild mushrooms have naturally high vitamin D(2) content, and cultivated mushrooms produce vitamin D(2) from ergosterol when exposed to supplementary UV-B during the post-harvest phase. OBJECTIVES This study investigated the effects of providing supplementary UV-B during the growth phase on vitamin D(2) formation and the in...

determination of an optimum sample size for the evaluation of sugar beet quality is of vital importance. a desirable sugar beet sample could represent confidently the sugar content and quality of delivered beets to the sugar factories. this experiment was carried out at research station of kamalshahr, karadj, iran. the experimental field was about 2000 m2 with the distance between rows and plan...

The results of three experiments demonstrated that the visual system calibrates motion parallax according to absolute-distance information in processing depth. The parallax was created by yoking the relative movement of random dots displayed on a cathode-ray tube to the movements of the head. In Experiment 1, at viewing distances of 40 cm and 80 cm, observers reported the apparent depth produce...

Miscanthus is an intriguing cellulosic bioenergy feedstock because its aboveground productivity is high for low amounts of agrochemical inputs, but soil temperatures below -3.5 °C could threaten successful cultivation in temperate regions. We used a combination of observed soil temperatures and the Agro-IBIS model to investigate how strategic residue management could reduce the risk of rhizome ...

BACKGROUND Ethiopia faces cyclic food insecurity that alternates between pre- and post- harvest seasons. Whether seasonal variation in access to food is associated with child growth has not been assessed empirically. Understanding seasonality of child growth velocity and growth deficit helps to improve efforts to track population interventions against malnutrition. The aim of this study was ass...

Forest soils represent a substantial portion of the terrestrial carbon (C) pool, and changes to soil C cycling are globally significant not only for C sequestration but also for sustaining forest productivity and ecosystem services. To quantify the effect of harvesting on soil C, we used meta-analysis to examine a database of 945 responses to harvesting collected from 112 publications from arou...

oxalate soluble pectin (osp) is related to fruit firmness with respect to the chelation of calcium ions with carboxyl groups of adjacent polyuronide chains. this study was carried out to explore the effect of time of fruit harvest, foliar spray with cacl2 during growing season on osp, polygalacturonase activity (pga), fruit firmness and the effects on fruit shelf life, quality and internal ...

management practices can affect the yield, maturity, and fiber quality of cotton. one practice used to increase yield has been to adjust the spacing between cotton rows. typically cotton is planted in row spaced 70-100 cm apart. ultra narrow row cotton production has been proposed as an economical means to increase yields and reduce production costs. a field study was conducted to assess the ef...