Concentration Levels of Imidacloprid and Dinotefuran in Five Tissue Types of Black Walnut, Juglans nigra

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Paul Merten

2013-11-01

Full Text Available Black walnut, a valuable economic and environmentally important species, is threatened by thousand cankers disease. Systemic imidacloprid and dinotefuran applications were made to mature black walnut trees to evaluate their translocation and concentration levels in various tissue types including leaf, twig, trunk core, nutmeat, and walnut husk. The metabolism of imidacloprid in plants produces a metabolite, olefin-imidacloprid, which has been documented to have insecticidal properties in other systems. Trunk CoreTect (imidacloprid soil pellets and a trunk spray of dinotefuran were applied to mature black walnuts in spring 2011. Imidacloprid concentrations were detected in both the lower and upper strata in all tissue types tested and progressively increased through month 12 post-treatment in twig and leaf tissue. Olefin-imidacloprid was detected in the nutmeat and walnut husk. Dinotefuran was only detected in the first sampling period and was found in low concentration levels in leaf and twig tissue types, and was not detected in the trunk, nutmeat or the walnut husk.

Gibbons (Nomascus gabriellae) provide key seed dispersal for the Pacific walnut (Dracontomelon dao), in Asia's lowland tropical forest

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Hai, Bach Thanh; Chen, Jin; McConkey, Kim R.; Dayananda, Salindra K.

2018-04-01

Understanding the mutualisms between frugivores and plants is essential for developing successful forest management and conservation strategies, especially in tropical rainforests where the majority of plants are dispersed by animals. Gibbons are among the most effective seed dispersers in South East Asia's tropical forests, but are also one of the highly threatened arboreal mammals in the region. Here we studied the seed dispersal of the Pacific walnut (Dracontomelon dao), a canopy tree which produces fruit that are common in the diet of the endangered southern yellow-cheeked crested gibbon (Nomascus gabriellae). We found that gibbons were the most effective disperser for this species; they consumed approximately 45% of the fruit crop, which was four times more than that consumed by macaques - the only other legitimate disperser. Gibbons tracked the temporal (but not spatial) abundance of ripe fruits, indicating this fruit was a preferred species for the gibbon. Both gibbons and macaques dispersed the majority (>90%) of the seeds at least 20 m away from parent crowns, with mean dispersal distances by gibbons measuring 179.3 ± 98.0 m (range: 4-425 m). Seeds defecated by gibbons germinated quicker and at greater rates than seeds spat by macaques, or in undispersed fruits. Gibbon-dispersed seeds were also more likely to be removed by unknown seed predators or unknown secondary dispersers. Overall, gibbons play a key role in the regeneration of the Pacific walnut. Our findings have significant implications both for the management of the Pacific walnut tree dominating tropical rainforest as well as the reintroduction program of the Southern yellow-cheeked crested gibbon.

Effects of thinning and mixed plantations with Alnus cordata on growth and efficiency of common walnut (Juglans regia L.

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Giannini T

2009-01-01

Full Text Available Results about the effects of thinning and mixed plantations with Italian alder (Alnus cordata Loisel. on growth and efficiency of common walnut (Juglans regia L. plantations for wood production are reported. The study, carried out for six years on sixteen year old plantations, compared three theses: pure common walnut plantation (pure common walnut; 50% common walnut - 50% Italian alder plantation; 25% common walnut - 75% Italian alder plantation. Beyond annual surveys of girth at breast height, total height, stem volume and biomass, several variables, useful to describe canopy and foliage characteristics such as leaf area index (LAI, leaf biomass and photosynthetic active radiation below the canopy, were recorded. Data collected allowed to compare growth at individual and whole stand level, to calculate the net assimilation rate (NAR and to compare the growth efficiency of the three theses. Mixed plantations performed results significantly higher than the pure plantation in terms of growth, LAI and leaf biomass both before and after experimental thinning. With reference only to common walnut, growth in mixed plantations was higher than the pure plantation with differences ranging from +40% to +100%. More relevant differences among pure common walnut, 50% common walnut and 25% common walnut at canopy and foliage characteristics were observed, with LAI values of 1.07, 3.96 e 4.35 m2 m-2 respectively. Results accounted for a general positive effect of Italian alder as accessory tree species on growth and efficiency of mixed plantations, mainly due to the good performances induced in common walnut trees. Such performances were enabled by the good ecological integration between the two species and by the positive effects of N-fixing activity of Italian alder. Experimental thinning applied, although heavy, did not biased the dynamics observed before thinning both in pure and mixed plantations. In addition, they had positive effects on common walnut

Walnut (Juglans regia L.): genetic resources, chemistry, by-products.

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Martínez, Marcela L; Labuckas, Diana O; Lamarque, Alicia L; Maestri, Damián M

2010-09-01

Walnut (Juglans regia L.) is the most widespread tree nut in the world. There is a great diversity of genotypes differing in forestry, productivity, physical and chemical nut traits. Some of them have been evaluated as promising and may serve as germplasm sources for breeding. The nutritional importance of the nut is related to the seed (kernel). It is a nutrient-dense food mainly owing to its oil content (up to 740 g kg(-1) in some commercial varieties), which can be extracted easily by screw pressing and consumed without refining. Walnut oil composition is dominated largely by unsaturated fatty acids (mainly linoleic together with lesser amounts of oleic and linolenic acids). Minor components of walnut oil include tocopherols, phospholipids, sphingolipids, sterols, hydrocarbons and volatile compounds. Phenolic compounds, present at high levels in the seed coat but poorly extracted with the oil, have been extensively characterised and found to possess strong antioxidant properties. The oil extraction residue is rich in proteins (unusually high in arginine, glutamic and aspartic acids) and has been employed in the formulation of various functional food products. This review describes current scientific knowledge concerning walnut genetic resources and composition as well as by-product obtainment and characteristics. Copyright 2010 Society of Chemical Industry.

Genetic and ecological insights into glacial refugia of walnut (Juglans regia L..

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Mallikarjuna Aradhya

Full Text Available The distribution and survival of trees during the last glacial maximum (LGM has been of interest to paleoecologists, biogeographers, and geneticists. Ecological niche models that associate species occurrence and abundance with climatic variables are widely used to gain ecological and evolutionary insights and to predict species distributions over space and time. The present study deals with the glacial history of walnut to address questions related to past distributions through genetic analysis and ecological modeling of the present, LGM and Last Interglacial (LIG periods. A maximum entropy method was used to project the current walnut distribution model on to the LGM (21-18 kyr BP and LIG (130-116 kyr BP climatic conditions. Model tuning identified the walnut data set filtered at 10 km spatial resolution as the best for modeling the current distribution and to hindcast past (LGM and LIG distributions of walnut. The current distribution model predicted southern Caucasus, parts of West and Central Asia extending into South Asia encompassing northern Afghanistan, Pakistan, northwestern Himalayan region, and southwestern Tibet, as the favorable climatic niche matching the modern distribution of walnut. The hindcast of distributions suggested the occurrence of walnut during LGM was somewhat limited to southern latitudes from southern Caucasus, Central and South Asian regions extending into southwestern Tibet, northeastern India, Himalayan region of Sikkim and Bhutan, and southeastern China. Both CCSM and MIROC projections overlapped, except that MIROC projected a significant presence of walnut in the Balkan Peninsula during the LGM. In contrast, genetic analysis of the current walnut distribution suggested a much narrower area in northern Pakistan and the surrounding areas of Afghanistan, northwestern India, and southern Tajikistan as a plausible hotspot of diversity where walnut may have survived glaciations. Overall, the findings suggest that

Managing black walnut in natural stands: the human dimension

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H.E. " Hank" Stelzer

2004-01-01

In managing black walnut, or any forest tree species, the human dimension is often overlooked. As a result, both the number of landowners managing their land and the number of forested acres under management has not significantly increased over the past 30 years. Elements of the human landscape are explored and a roadmap for engaging landowners is proposed.

Decision making analysis of walnut seedling production on a small ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The decision has to be made between those three alternatives aiming at achievement of optimal/best economic result for the family farm. Summarizing results obtained from the decision tree, simulation and sensitivity analysis, the optimal solution for the family farm should be to continue production of walnut seedlings with ...

Genetic variation of common walnut (Juglans regia in Piedmont, Northwestern Italy

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Ferrazzini D

2007-12-01

Full Text Available The European or common walnut is a large tree prized as a multipurpose species: it provides valuable timber and produces a high-quality edible nut. The diffusion of the species in Italy has been largely influenced by the human activity, mainly through germplasm movement, selection of genotypes most suited for wood or fruit production and adaptation induced on fruit crop reproductive materials. As a consequence, genetic variability has been reduced, so that programs aimed at its preservation appear of the utmost importance. 104 walnut plants growing in Piedmont, northwestern Italy, were investigated through genetic variation scored at RAPD loci, yielded by PCR amplification of 10 decamer primers. Among the 101 studied loci, only 53 were polymorphic, showing a low level of genetic variation within the studied material. Genetic differentiation was estimated both at individual and geographical area level. Only in few cases trees growing in the same area showed to be genetically similar, while the differentiation between areas accounted for about 10% of the total variation, according to AMOVA. No significant correlation was found between genetic and geographic distances. The results of the study showed that also in Piedmont (such as it was already demonstrated in other parts of Italy the distribution of common walnut is a direct consequence of the human activity. The selection of individual trees, to be used as basic materials for seed supply, should therefore be based mainly on phenotypic traits, rather than ecological features of the location: in species characterized by artificial diffusion, the adoption of Region of Provenance has a scarce significance and prominence should be given to the phenotype selection.

Tree Canopy Light Interception Estimates in Almond and a Walnut Orchards Using Ground, Low Flying Aircraft, and Satellite Based Methods to Improve Irrigation Scheduling Programs

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Rosecrance, Richard C.; Johnson, Lee; Soderstrom, Dominic

2016-01-01

Canopy light interception is a main driver of water use and crop yield in almond and walnut production. Fractional green canopy cover (Fc) is a good indicator of light interception and can be estimated remotely from satellite using the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) data. Satellite-based Fc estimates could be used to inform crop evapotranspiration models, and hence support improvements in irrigation evaluation and management capabilities. Satellite estimates of Fc in almond and walnut orchards, however, need to be verified before incorporating them into irrigation scheduling or other crop water management programs. In this study, Landsat-based NDVI and Fc from NASA's Satellite Irrigation Management Support (SIMS) were compared with four estimates of canopy cover: 1. light bar measurement, 2. in-situ and image-based dimensional tree-crown analyses, 3. high-resolution NDVI data from low flying aircraft, and 4. orchard photos obtained via Google Earth and processed by an Image J thresholding routine. Correlations between the various estimates are discussed.

Population structure of Geosmithia morbida, the causal agent of thousand cankers disease of walnut trees in the United States

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Marcelo M. Zerillo; Jorge Ibarra Caballero; Keith Woeste; Andrew D. Graves; Colleen Hartel; Jay W. Pscheidt; Jadelys Tonos; Kirk Broders; Whitney Cranshaw; Steven J. Seybold; Ned Tisserat

2014-01-01

The ascomycete Geosmithia morbida and the walnut twig beetle Pityophthorus juglandis are associated with thousand cankers disease of Juglans (walnut) and Pterocarya (wingnut). The disease was first reported in the western United States (USA) on several Juglans species, but...

An efficient method for evaluating black walnut for resistance to walnut anthracnose in filed plots and the identification of resistant genotypes

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K.E. Woeste; W.F. Beineke

2001-01-01

Black walnut is native to the eastern USA and prized for its high-quality timber. Walnut anthracnose, the most important foliar disease of black walnut, is caused by Gnomonia leptostyla. There is no germplasm available that is resistant to the disease. Ramets of 42 black walnut clones, comprising about one-third of the Midwestern USA black walnut...

Planted Black Walnut Does Well on Cleared Forest Sites -- if Competition is Controlled

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John E. Krajicek

1975-01-01

After seven growing seasons, survival of black walnut seedlings planted in cleared forest openings did not differ by competition control treatments. The trees grew somewhat larger where all competing vegetation was controlled but almost as large where only herbaceous competition was controlled. Controlling only woody vegetation was no better than no control of any...

Evaluation of some Phenological and Pomological Characteristics of Selected Walnut Genotypes from Shahroud-Iran

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Sara Akhiani

2017-05-01

Full Text Available The first step in walnut breeding programs is to identify and evaluate superior genotypes of fruit trees. Hence, there are various walnut breeding programs in various areas of Iran. A study aimed to evaluate the morphological and chemical characteristics of selected superior genotypes of walnut was conducted in the Shahroud region in 2011-2012.  The following genotypes were selected in this study as the best walnut genotypes:  X-18 homogamous genotypes due to desirable late leafing;   genotype X-11 for its high percentage of kernel production, easily removal of shell, thin shell; genotype X-52 due to its kernel plumpness compared to other genotypes, thin shell and high percentage of kernel and genotype X-70 for its kernel brightness, easily kernel extracting and high percentage of kernels. The X-49 and X-5 genotypes had the highest amount of linoleic and linolenic fatty acids and higher nutritional quality compared to other genotypes. Three genotypes, X-3, X-11 and X-22, had the highest amount of oil. Genotypes X-9 and X-45 had the highest amount of protein. The difference between oil content and fatty acid compositions was presumably due to genetic diversity and ecological conditions of the studied genotypes cultivation.

Study of Genetic Diversity of Some Persian walnut Genotypes in Mashhad Commercial Orchards by using ISSR Marker

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Shadi Attar

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Introduction: Persian walnut (Juglans regia L., belonging to the Juglandaceae family, has its natural origin in the mountainous regions of central Asia and especially northern forests of Iran. Most walnut genotypes are seedling and sexually reproduced. Conducting studies on the genetic structure of these genotypes to identify, select and maintain their genetic resources is important. Identifying and collecting local varieties of fruit trees is considered as the first step on the path of breeding programs and lack of information regarding plants genetic characteristics causes the breeding work to be done slowly. Various methods have been used for studying genetic diversity and determining the genetic relationship between European and Asian varieties of walnut and identifying commercial walnut varieties, among which we can mention: Morphologic indices, Alozyme, Isozym, RFLP, RAPD, AFLP and ISSR markers. ISSR molecular marker was used in order to investigate genetic diversity of some genotypes of Persian walnut (Juglans regia L. in Mashhad orchards. . Materials and methods: To begin with, about 56 walnut trees from 4 orchards in Mashhad (Esteghlal (1, Golestan (2, Alandasht (3 and Emam Reza (4 were selected and tagged from 2014 to 2016. In the spring of 2014 with the beginning of trees growth and opening of leaves, a number of leaves from each genotype were collected. After DNA extraction, the quality of samples by agarose gel (1 percentage and electrophoresis method and quantity of them via spectrophotometer device at 260 and 280 nm wavelengths were determined. First, 24 primers of ISSR marker were prepared and after initial evaluation on 5 random genotypes, 9 primers with high polymorphism and repeatability were selected for further investigation. For PCR reaction, Amplicon kit (code 180 301, made in Denmark was used. Gel electrophoresis images of primers that produced polymorphic bands with suitable resolution were analyzed manually. After

Evaluating Non-Linear Regression Models in Analysis of Persian Walnut Fruit Growth

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I. Karamatlou

2016-02-01

Full Text Available Introduction: Persian walnut (Juglans regia L. is a large, wind-pollinated, monoecious, dichogamous, long lived, perennial tree cultivated for its high quality wood and nuts throughout the temperate regions of the world. Growth model methodology has been widely used in the modeling of plant growth. Mathematical models are important tools to study the plant growth and agricultural systems. These models can be applied for decision-making anddesigning management procedures in horticulture. Through growth analysis, planning for planting systems, fertilization, pruning operations, harvest time as well as obtaining economical yield can be more accessible.Non-linear models are more difficult to specify and estimate than linear models. This research was aimed to studynon-linear regression models based on data obtained from fruit weight, length and width. Selecting the best models which explain that fruit inherent growth pattern of Persian walnut was a further goal of this study. Materials and Methods: The experimental material comprising 14 Persian walnut genotypes propagated by seed collected from a walnut orchard in Golestan province, Minoudasht region, Iran, at latitude 37◦04’N; longitude 55◦32’E; altitude 1060 m, in a silt loam soil type. These genotypes were selected as a representative sampling of the many walnut genotypes available throughout the Northeastern Iran. The age range of walnut trees was 30 to 50 years. The annual mean temperature at the location is16.3◦C, with annual mean rainfall of 690 mm.The data used here is the average of walnut fresh fruit and measured withgram/millimeter/day in2011.According to the data distribution pattern, several equations have been proposed to describesigmoidal growth patterns. Here, we used double-sigmoid and logistic–monomolecular models to evaluate fruit growth based on fruit weight and4different regression models in cluding Richards, Gompertz, Logistic and Exponential growth for evaluation

The Influence of Container Type and Potting Medium on Growth of Black Walnut Seedlings

Science.gov (United States)

David T. Funk; Paul L Roth; C. K. Celmer

1980-01-01

Container size and shape, potting medium, and genotype interacted to influence the growth of black walnut (Juglans nigra L.) seedlings. Larger containers tended to produce larger trees. In tall, narrow, vent-pipe containers, different, proportions of peat and sand in potting media had no effect on total weight; a higher proportion of peat than of very fine sand in...

7 CFR 984.64 - Disposition of substandard walnuts.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

....64 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE (Marketing Agreements and Orders; Fruits, Vegetables, Nuts), DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE WALNUTS... merchantable walnuts and with proper safeguards to prevent such walnuts from thereafter entering channels of...

Effects of walnuts (Juglans regia) on learning and memory functions.

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Haider, Saida; Batool, Zehra; Tabassum, Saiqa; Perveen, Tahira; Saleem, Sadia; Naqvi, Fizza; Javed, Huma; Haleem, Darakhshan J

2011-11-01

Walnut has been regarded as a health food that is delicious and nutritious. Both preventive and therapeutic effects of walnut are well documented. Walnuts are rich in omega-3 fatty acids that are reported to have beneficial effects on brain function. The present work was designed to evaluate the effects of walnuts on learning and memory in male rats. The effect of oral intake of walnut was also monitored on food intake. Walnut was given orally to rats for a period of 28 days. Memory function in rats was assessed by elevated plus maze (EPM) and radial arm maze (RAM). A significant improvement in learning and memory of walnut treated rats compared to controls was observed. Walnut treated rats also exhibited a significant decrease in food intake while the change in growth rate (in terms of percentage) remained comparable between the two groups. Analysis of brain monoamines exhibited enhanced serotonergic levels in rat brain following oral intake of walnuts. The findings suggest that walnut may exert its hypophagic and nootropic actions via an enhancement of brain 5-HT metabolism.

Acute consumption of walnuts and walnut components differentially affect postprandial lipemia, endothelial function, oxidative stress, and cholesterol efflux in humans with mild hypercholesterolemia.

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Berryman, Claire E; Grieger, Jessica A; West, Sheila G; Chen, Chung-Yen O; Blumberg, Jeffrey B; Rothblat, George H; Sankaranarayanan, Sandhya; Kris-Etherton, Penny M

2013-06-01

Walnut consumption improves cardiovascular disease risk; however, to our knowledge, the contribution of individual walnut components has not been assessed. This study evaluated the acute consumption of whole walnuts (85 g), separated nut skins (5.6 g), de-fatted nutmeat (34 g), and nut oil (51 g) on postprandial lipemia, endothelial function, and oxidative stress. Cholesterol efflux (ex vivo) was assessed in the whole walnut treatment only. A randomized, 4-period, crossover trial was conducted in healthy overweight and obese adults (n = 15) with moderate hypercholesterolemia. There was a treatment × time point interaction for triglycerides (P < 0.01) and increased postprandial concentrations were observed for the oil and whole walnut treatments (P < 0.01). Walnut skins decreased the reactive hyperemia index (RHI) compared with baseline (P = 0.02) such that a difference persisted between the skin and oil treatments (P = 0.01). The Framingham RHI was maintained with the oil treatment compared with the skins and whole nut (P < 0.05). There was a treatment effect for the ferric reducing antioxidant potential (FRAP) (P < 0.01), and mean FRAP was greater with the oil and skin treatments compared with the nutmeat (P < 0.01). Cholesterol efflux increased by 3.3% following whole walnut consumption in J774 cells cultured with postprandial serum compared with fasting baseline (P = 0.02). Walnut oil favorably affected endothelial function and whole walnuts increased cholesterol efflux. These 2 novel mechanisms may explain in part the cardiovascular benefits of walnuts.

Sensory Quality Preservation of Coated Walnuts.

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Grosso, Antonella L; Asensio, Claudia M; Grosso, Nelson R; Nepote, Valeria

2017-01-01

The objective of this study was to evaluate the sensory stability of coated walnuts during storage. Four walnut samples were prepared: uncoated (NC), and samples coated with carboxymethyl cellulose (NCMC), methyl cellulose (NMC), or whey protein (NPS). The samples were stored at room temperature for 210 d and were periodically removed from storage to perform a sensory descriptive analysis. A consumer acceptance test was carried out on the fresh product (storage day 0) to evaluate flavor. All samples exhibited significant differences in their sensory attributes initially and after storage. Intensity ratings for oxidized and cardboard flavors increased during storage. NC showed the highest oxidized and cardboard intensity ratings (39 and 22, respectively) and NMC exhibited the lowest intensity ratings for these negative attributes (8 and 17, respectively) after 210 d of storage. Alternatively, the intensity ratings for sweetness and walnut flavors were decreased for all samples. NMC had the lowest decrease at the end of storage for these positive attributes (75.86 in walnut flavor and 12.09 in sweetness). The results of this study suggest a protective effect of the use of an edible coating to preserve sensory attributes during storage, especially for samples coated with MC. The results of the acceptance test showed that addition of the coating negatively affected the flavor acceptance for NMC and NCMC coated walnuts. Edible coatings help to preserve sensory attributes in walnuts, improving their shelf-life, however, these coatings may affect consumer acceptance in some cases. © 2016 Institute of Food Technologists®.

Allelopathic activity and chemical constituents of walnut (Juglans regia) leaf litter in walnut-winter vegetable agroforestry system.

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Wang, Qian; Xu, Zheng; Hu, Tingxing; Rehman, Hafeez Ur; Chen, Hong; Li, Zhongbin; Ding, Bo; Hu, Hongling

2014-01-01

Walnut agroforestry systems have many ecological and economic benefits when intercropped with cool-season species. However, decomposing leaf litter is one of the main sources of allelochemicals in such systems. In this study, lettuce (Lactuca sativa var. angustata) was grown in the soil incorporated with walnut leaf litter to assess its allelopathic activity. Lettuce growth and physiological processes were inhibited by walnut leaf litter, especially during early growth stage (1-2 euphylla period) or with large amount of litter addition. The plants treated by small amount of leaf litter recovered their growth afterwards, while the inhibition for 180 g leaf litter persisted until harvest. Twenty-eight compounds were identified in the leaf litter, and several of them were reported to be phytotoxic, which may be responsible for the stress induced by walnut leaf litter. Thus, for highest economic value of vegetables such as lettuce, excessive incorporation of leaf litter should be discouraged.

Response of northern red oak, black walnut, and white ash seedlings to various levels of simulated summer deer browsing

Science.gov (United States)

Robert C. Morrissey; Douglass F. Jacobs; John R. Seifert

2008-01-01

Understanding the response of tree seedlings to browsing by white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus Zimmerman) is critical to the management of high value hardwood plantations in the Central Hardwood Forest Region. One-year-old black walnut (Juglans nigra L.), northern red oak (Quercus rubra L.), and white ash...

Monitoring guidelines improve control of walnut husk fly in California

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Opp, Susan B.; Reynolds, Katherine M.; Pickel, Carolyn; Olson, William

2000-01-01

The walnut husk fly (WHF), Rhagoletis completa Cresson, is a key pest of walnuts (Juglans spp.) in California, where over 95% of the US and approximately two-thirds of the world's commercial walnuts are produced. The primary hosts of this monophagous fruit fly are J. regia L. (commercially grown English walnut), J. californica S. Wats. var. hindsii (northern California black walnut), J. californica var. californica (southern California black walnut) and J. nigra Thunb. (eastern black walnut). Some cultivars of the English walnut are more susceptible than others; the most heavily infested varieties of English walnut include Eureka, Franquette, Hartley, Mayette and Payne. Neither English walnuts nor the walnut husk fly are native to California. So-called 'English' walnuts are sometimes more appropriately called 'Persian' walnuts, in reference to Persia, the origin of J. regia. English walnuts were first planted in southern California in the 1860s. In contrast, the native range of WHF is the mid- and south-central United States where it attacks J. nigra (Boyce 1934). The fly was likely to have been introduced into southern California in the mid-1920s by tourists travelling from Kansas, New Mexico, Texas or Oklahoma. WHF was first documented in California in 1926 in the San Bernardino County when maggots were found in the husks of English walnuts (Boyce 1929). The fly gradually spread throughout walnut growing regions of California. In 1928, only three or four orchards in the San Bernardino County were known to be infested. By 1932, the fly was also found in the Los Angeles and Orange Counties (Boyce 1933), and by 1954, it was found in Ventura, Riverside, and the San Diego Counties, in addition to the northern California county of Sonoma (Anonymous 1966). The spread of the fly in northern California was rapid. By 1958, WHF was found in San Joaquin County; in 1963, the fly was in Amador, Lake, Solano, Tulare and Yolo Counties; in 1964, it was found in Fresno, Mendocino

In silico Coding Sequence Analysis of Walnut GAI and PIP2 Genes and Comparison with Different Plant Species

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Mahdi Mohseniazar

2017-02-01

Full Text Available Introduction: Dwarfism is one of the important traits in breeding of crops and horticulture plants. A dwarfing rootstock will produce trees with 15-50% of standard trees size. In modern intensive fruit tree orchards, dwarfing rootstocks are commonly used to reduce trees size, enabling high-density planting and easy management, thus achieving higher yield. Trees on dwarfing rootstocks can also exhibit other economically important traits, such as precocious flowering, increased yield and increased disease resistance. Dwarf rootstocks have been extensively studied and released in stone and pome fruits, because of presence of genetic materials and the simplicity of budding methods. Control of tree size using genetically dwarf rootstocks for achievement to higher density and mechanized orchard systems is now very important for walnut production in the world especially in Iran. Many different genes can be involved in appear of this. Mutations in GAI and PIP2 genes cause dwarf trait by two different mechanisms in some plant species. In this case, we study in silico analysis of GAI and PIP2 genes consist of conserved sequences and domains, exon and intron number, function of their proteins, targeting, secondary and tertiary structure, and post translational modification. Materials and methods: The GAI and PIP2 mRNA and protein sequences (FASTA format belonging to 17 monocotyledon and dicotyledon were downloaded from NCBI (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov accessed, on September 2014. Several online web services and software were used for analysis of GAI and PIP2 mRNA and Proteins in plants. Comparative and bioinformatics analyses of PIP2 and GAI proteins were performed online at two websites NCBI (http://www.ncbi.nih.gov and EXPASY (http://expasy.org/tools. Molecular Evolutionary Genetics Analysis (MEGA; version 4 program and CLUSTAL-W with default parameters were used for multiple alignments of sequences. The phylogenetic analysis of GAI and PIP2 protein was

In silico Coding Sequence Analysis of Walnut GAI and PIP2 Genes and Comparison with Different Plant Species

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Mahdi Mohseniazar

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Introduction: Dwarfism is one of the important traits in breeding of crops and horticulture plants. A dwarfing rootstock will produce trees with 15-50% of standard trees size. In modern intensive fruit tree orchards, dwarfing rootstocks are commonly used to reduce trees size, enabling high-density planting and easy management, thus achieving higher yield. Trees on dwarfing rootstocks can also exhibit other economically important traits, such as precocious flowering, increased yield and increased disease resistance. Dwarf rootstocks have been extensively studied and released in stone and pome fruits, because of presence of genetic materials and the simplicity of budding methods. Control of tree size using genetically dwarf rootstocks for achievement to higher density and mechanized orchard systems is now very important for walnut production in the world especially in Iran. Many different genes can be involved in appear of this. Mutations in GAI and PIP2 genes cause dwarf trait by two different mechanisms in some plant species. In this case, we study in silico analysis of GAI and PIP2 genes consist of conserved sequences and domains, exon and intron number, function of their proteins, targeting, secondary and tertiary structure, and post translational modification. Materials and methods: The GAI and PIP2 mRNA and protein sequences (FASTA format belonging to 17 monocotyledon and dicotyledon were downloaded from NCBI (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov accessed, on September 2014. Several online web services and software were used for analysis of GAI and PIP2 mRNA and Proteins in plants. Comparative and bioinformatics analyses of PIP2 and GAI proteins were performed online at two websites NCBI (http://www.ncbi.nih.gov and EXPASY (http://expasy.org/tools. Molecular Evolutionary Genetics Analysis (MEGA; version 4 program and CLUSTAL-W with default parameters were used for multiple alignments of sequences. The phylogenetic analysis of GAI and PIP2 protein was

Storage quality of walnut oil containing lycopene during accelerated oxidation.

Science.gov (United States)

Xie, Chaonan; Ma, Zheng Feei; Li, Fang; Zhang, Hongxia; Kong, Lingming; Yang, Zhipan; Xie, Weifeng

2018-04-01

The purpose of investigation was to assess the effect of lycopene on the peroxide value, acid value, fatty acids, total phenolic content and ferric-reducing antioxidant power of walnut oil. Walnut oil was extracted from Xinjiang walnut variety using cold pressing method. Our study reported that after 45 days of accelerated oxidation at 60 °C (Schaal oven test), 0.005% lycopene exhibited the greatest antioxidant effect than other addition levels of lycopene. Therefore, under ambient storage conditions, the shelf-life of walnut oil could be extended up to 16 months by 0.005% lycopene. Moreover, 0.005% lycopene added to walnut oil had a significantly higher content of saturated fatty acid, unsaturated fatty acid, total phenol, reducing ability of the polar and non-polar components than the blank sample (walnut oil without any addition of lycopene). In conclusion, lycopene improved the quality of walnut oil because of its antioxidant effect against lipid oxidation.

Genetic evaluation of domestic walnut cultivars trading on Korean ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Walnut (Juglans regia L.) is regarded as a healthy food because of its high nutritional composition and various health benefits. Although several walnut cultivars are being actively traded for domestic plantation or ornament in Korea, no particular effort has been made to evaluate genetic quality management of walnut ...

Acute Consumption of Walnuts and Walnut Components Differentially Affect Postprandial Lipemia, Endothelial Function, Oxidative Stress, and Cholesterol Efflux in Humans with Mild Hypercholesterolemia.

Science.gov (United States)

Walnut consumption improves cardiovascular disease risk; however, to our knowledge, the contribution of individual walnut components has not been assessed. This study evaluated the acute consumption of whole walnuts (85 g), separated nut skins (5.6 g), de-fatted nutmeat (34 g), and nut oil (51 g) on...

What Prompts Agricultural Innovation in Rural Nepal: A Study Using the Example of Macadamia and Walnut Trees as Novel Cash Crops

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Andrea Karin Barrueto

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Agricultural innovations are important, especially as climatic conditions around the world have been subject to increasing change over the past decades. Through innovation, farmers can adapt to the changing conditions and secure their livelihoods. In Nepal, 75% of the population depends upon agriculture, which is impacted by climate change, migration, and feminisation. In this context, it is important to understand what drives a household to start agricultural innovation to increase its economic benefits and resilience in the face of multiple pressures. We sought a comprehensive understanding of these drivers by investigating the determinants of rural innovation, using macadamia and walnut trees as examples of novel, potentially commercialised cash crops. After conducting an in-depth household survey that divided farmers into those who cultivate nuts and those who do not, we analysed the socio-economic and cultural characteristics of each category using statistical tests and a multiple logistic regression. Our results show that the individual variables of ethnicity, wealth and “years of experience with fruit trees” correlate significantly with nut cultivation. The results of the multiple regression suggest that “years of experience with tree cultivation” and “having an income through fruit trees” most influence nut cultivation. Overall, we conclude that nut cultivation is an accepted and promising cash crop mostly grown by wealthier households, and that, for poor, landless, or female-headed households to benefit, alternative business models and new policies must be explored and developed. We further suggest that this is also true for other nut or other cash crop trees that have gained recent attention in Nepal such as almond, hazelnut, or pecan farming.

Diagnosis, characterization and management of food allergy : a tough (wal)nut to crack

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Blankestijn, M.A.

2017-01-01

Walnut (Juglans regia) is a known food allergen, able to elicit potentially severe allergic reactions. Threshold data from walnut challenged and allergic adults demonstrated that walnut is a potent allergen, with eliciting doses similar to hazelnut. Walnut 2S albumin Jug r 1 was the dominant walnut

Walnut tissue culture: research and field applications

Science.gov (United States)

2004-01-01

Vitrotech Biotecnologia Vegetal began researching propagating Juglans regia (English walnut) and various Juglans hybrids by tissue culture in 1993 and has operated on a commercial scale since 1996. Since this time, more than one and a half million walnuts of different species have been propagated and field planted. Tissue cultured...

Incidence of Escherichia coli in black walnut meats.

Science.gov (United States)

Meyer, M T; Vaughn, R H

1969-11-01

Examination of commercially shelled black walnut meats showed inconsistent numbers of total aerobic bacteria, coliforms, and Escherichia coli; variation occurred among different meat sizes and within each meat size. The incidence of E. coli on meats of commercially hulled black walnuts depended on the physical condition of the nuts. Apparently tightly sealed ones contained only a few or none, whereas those with visibly separated sutures and spoiled meats yielded the most. This contamination was in part correlated to a hulling operation. Large numbers of E. coli on the husk of the walnuts contaminated the hulling water, subsequently also contaminating the meats by way of separated sutures. Chlorination of the hulling wash water was ineffective. Attempts were made to decontaminate the walnut meats without subsequent deleterious changes in flavor or texture. A treatment in coconut oil at 100 C followed by removal of excess surface oil by centrifugation was best.

7 CFR 984.56 - Disposition of reserve walnuts.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE (Marketing... Board may export or authorize the disposition in export to the destinations outside the United States... marketing year a handler may deliver reserve walnuts and any substandard walnuts meeting the minimum kernel...

Promotion of adventitious root formation of difficult-to-root hardwood tree species

Science.gov (United States)

Paula M. Pijut; Keith E. Woeste; Charles H. Michler

2011-01-01

North American hardwood tree species, such as alder (Alnus spp.), ash (Fraxinus spp.), basswood (Tilia spp.), beech (Fagus spp.), birch (Betula spp.), black cherry (Prunus seratina), black walnut (Juglans nigra), black willow (...

Regeneration systems for pyramiding disease resistance into walnut rootstocks

Science.gov (United States)

This study was conducted to regenerate selected walnut rootstocks adventitiously. This is an essential step to be able to produce transgenic walnut rootstocks with superior traits, such as disease resistance. A series of plant tissue culture experiments were conducted on RX1 and VX211 rootstocks wit...

Genetic evaluation of domestic walnut cultivars trading on Korean ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Yomi

2012-04-10

Apr 10, 2012 ... Walnut (Juglans regia L.) is regarded as a healthy food because of its high nutritional composition and various health benefits. Although several walnut cultivars are being actively traded for domestic plantation or ornament in Korea, no particular effort has been made to evaluate genetic quality.

Susceptibility of walnut and hickory species to Geosmithia morbida

Science.gov (United States)

Curtis Utley; Tivonne Nguyen; Tatiana Roubtsova; Mark Coggeshall; Tim M. Ford; L.J. Grauke; Andrew D. Graves; Charles A. Leslie; James McKenna; Keith Woeste; Mohammad A. Yaghmour; Steve Seybold; Richard M. Bostock; Ned. Tisserat

2013-01-01

Thousand cankers disease (TCD) of walnut is a result of feeding in the phloem by the walnut twig beetle (WTB), Pityophthorus juglandis, and subsequent canker formation caused by Geosmithia morbida around galleries. TCD has caused extensive morbidity and mortality to Juglans nigra in the western United States and, in 2010, was...

The Hardwood Tree Improvement and Regeneration Center: its strategic plans for sustaining the hardwood resource

Science.gov (United States)

Charles H. Michler; Michael J. Bosela; Paula M. Pijut; Keith E. Woeste

2003-01-01

A regional center for hardwood tree improvement, genomics, and regeneration research, development and technology transfer will focus on black walnut, black cherry, northern red oak and, in the future, on other fine hardwoods as the effort is expanded. The Hardwood Tree Improvement and Regeneration Center (HTIRC) will use molecular genetics and genomics along with...

Distribution, relationship, and risk assessment of toxic heavy metals in walnuts and growth soil.

Science.gov (United States)

Han, Yongxiang; Ni, Zhanglin; Li, Shiliang; Qu, Minghua; Tang, Fubin; Mo, Runhong; Ye, Caifen; Liu, Yihua

2018-04-14

Walnut is one of the most popular nuts worldwide and contains various mineral nutrients. Little is known, however, about the relationship between toxic heavy metals in walnuts and growth soil. In this study, we investigated the distribution, relationship, and risk assessment of five toxic heavy metals-lead (Pb), arsenic (As), chromium (Cr), cadmium (Cd), and mercury (Hg)-in walnuts and growth soil in the main production areas of China. The results showed that the main heavy metal pollution in walnut and soil was Pb and Cd. Regionally, positive relationships existed between heavy metals and the pH and organic matter of soil. In addition, we observed a notable uptake effect between walnut and growth soil. In this study, we found a significant correlation (r = 0.786, P toxic heavy metal pollution in walnuts and growth soil could be helpful to screen suitable planting sites to prevent and control heavy metal pollution and improve the quality and safety of walnut.

7 CFR 984.91 - Relationship with the California Walnut Commission.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 8 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Relationship with the California Walnut Commission...) AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE (Marketing Agreements and Orders; Fruits, Vegetables, Nuts), DEPARTMENT OF... Relationship with the California Walnut Commission. In conducting Board activities and other objectives under...

Does the phenotypic selection affect the genetic structure and diversity? A study case on Walnut in eastern central Italy (the region of Marche

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Fulvio Ducci

2009-12-01

Full Text Available The Persian walnut (Juglans regia L. is widely planted in western Europe, either for fruit either for high quality timber production. This tree is generally considered non authoctonous, probably introduced from East some 7000 years ago and spread by several ancient civilisations. The possible artificial origin seems confirmed by the low intra-specific variation and the higher individual variability recorded by several Authors as well as by the lack of natural populations. Indeed, only wider fruit cultivation areas or small groups, lines or isolated walnut trees can be recorded in Italy. The occurrence of walnuts in forest, escaped from cultivation areas, is very rare. Due to the increased interest of planters, walnut plantations have been extended several ten thousands hectares throughout all western Europe. As a consequence of that it was evident the necessity of selected suitable basic populations in order to supply high quality reproductive materials. The conventional method based on the organisation of a wide and exhaustive seed procurement from the native range to establish provenance tests is at the present impossible. Thus it is necessary to study methods of selection which consider basic materials growing within the western European range. This study is aimed to test the efficiency of the multi-trait Selection Index method, in preserving levels of genetic diversity and structures compatible with the standards observed within a reference system of extended Italian populations. As a consequence of the relatively recent introduction, the genetic structure of the species shows individual variation higher than inter-population diversity. Those genetic structure characteristics were revealed also during a survey of walnut resources in the region of Marche, central Italy. The survey was the starting point for selecting and preserving basic materials for high quality woody production, possibly interesting for forest nurseries in the region. The

Effect of moderate walnut consumption on lipid profile, arterial stiffness and platelet activation in humans.

Science.gov (United States)

Din, J N; Aftab, S M; Jubb, A W; Carnegy, F H; Lyall, K; Sarma, J; Newby, D E; Flapan, A D

2011-02-01

A large intake of walnuts may improve lipid profile and endothelial function. The effect of moderate walnut consumption is not known. We investigated whether a moderate intake of walnuts would affect lipid profile, arterial stiffness and platelet activation in healthy volunteers. A total of 30 healthy males were recruited into a single-blind randomized controlled crossover trial of 4 weeks of dietary walnut supplementation (15 g/day) and 4 weeks of control (no walnuts). Arterial stiffness was assessed using pulse waveform analysis to determine the augmentation index and augmented pressure. Platelet activation was determined using flow cytometry to measure circulating platelet-monocyte aggregates. There were no differences in lipid profile after 4 weeks of walnut supplementation compared with control. Dietary intake of α-linolenic acid was increased during the walnut diet (2.1±0.4 g/day versus 0.7±0.4 g/day, Pprofile, arterial stiffness or platelet activation in man. Our results suggest that the potentially beneficial cardiac effects of walnuts may not be apparent at lower and more practical levels of consumption.

78 FR 57101 - Walnuts Grown in California; Increased Assessment Rate

Science.gov (United States)

2013-09-17

... rate currently in effect. The quantity of assessable walnuts for the 2013-14 marketing year is... DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE Agricultural Marketing Service 7 CFR Part 984 [Doc. No. AMS-FV-13-0056; FV13-984-1 PR] Walnuts Grown in California; Increased Assessment Rate AGENCY: Agricultural Marketing...

76 FR 67320 - Walnuts Grown in California; Increased Assessment Rate

Science.gov (United States)

2011-11-01

... Justice Reform. Under the marketing order now in effect, California walnut handlers are subject to... DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE Agricultural Marketing Service 7 CFR Part 984 [Doc. No. AMS-FV-11-0062; FV11-984-1 FR] Walnuts Grown in California; Increased Assessment Rate AGENCY: Agricultural Marketing...

Walnut mutation breeding

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kudina, G.A.

1989-01-01

Full text: Walnut seeds were treated with 100-15000 R of gamma rays. Seedlings were subjected to measures of ''de-chimaerisation''. Fast-growing forms were obtained from doses below 2000 R, dwarf types at all doses but increasingly at higher doses. Among the fast growing forms, the promising ones are more precocious, flowering and fruiting at 6 years of age (one even already at 4 years). (author)

Effect of a walnut meal on postprandial oxidative stress and antioxidants in healthy individuals.

Science.gov (United States)

Haddad, Ella H; Gaban-Chong, Natasha; Oda, Keiji; Sabaté, Joan

2014-01-10

In vitro studies rank walnuts (Juglans regia) among the plant foods high in antioxidant capacity, but whether the active constituents of walnuts are bioavailable to humans remains to be determined. The intention of this study was to examine the acute effects of consuming walnuts compared to refined fat on meal induced oxidative stress. At issue is whether the ellagitannins and tocopherols in walnuts are bioavailable and provide postprandial antioxidant protection. A randomized, crossover, and controlled-feeding study was conducted to evaluate a walnut test meal compared to one composed of refined ingredients on postprandial serum antioxidants and biomarkers of oxidative status in healthy adults (n = 16) with at least 1 week between testing sessions. Following consumption of a low phenolic diet for one day and an overnight fast, blood was sampled prior to the test meals and at intervals up to 24 hours post ingestion and analyzed for total phenols, malondiadehyde (MDA), oxidized LDL, ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), hydrophilic and lipophilic oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC), uric acid, catechins and urinary excretion of phenylacetate metabolites and of urolithin A. Mixed linear models demonstrated a diet effect (P < 0.001) for plasma γ-tocopherol but not for α-tocopherol with the walnut meal. Following the walnut test meal, the incremental 5 hour area under the curve (AUC(0-5h)) was reduced 7.4% for MDA, increased 7.5% for hydrophilic and 8.5% for lipophilic ORAC and comparable for total phenols, FRAP and uric acid. Oxidized LDL was reduced at 2 hours after the walnut meal. Plasma concentrations of gallocatechin gallate (GCG), epicatechin gallate (ECG) and epicallocatechin gallate (EGCG) increased significantly at 1 hour after the walnut test meal. Quantities of urolithin-A excreted in the urine were significantly higher following the walnut meal. Compared to the refined control meal, the walnut meal acutely increased postprandial �

75 FR 55944 - Walnuts Grown in California; Decreased Assessment Rate

Science.gov (United States)

2010-09-15

... Reform. Under the marketing order now in effect, California walnut handlers are subject to assessments... assessment rate currently in effect. The quantity of assessable walnuts for the 2010-11 marketing year is... DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE Agricultural Marketing Service 7 CFR Part 984 [Doc. No. AMS-FV-10-0060...

Effect of Grafting Method, Graft Cover and Foliar Spray of some Mineral Elements on Persian Walnut Graft-take and Winter Survival Rate

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Reza Rezaee

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Introduction: Persian walnut (Juglans regia L. is an important nut crop in Iran and many parts of the world. One of the major challenges of growing walnut is planting of non-grafted walnut trees in orchards, which leads to the reduction of yield, quality and productivity of walnut orchards. Compared to the other fruit trees, walnut grafting is difficult and even newly grafted walnut seedlings are vulnerable to fall or winter frost chilling, so that most of the seedlings are lost after subjecting to the cold winter. There are a few studies reporting successful grafting in outdoor conditions, however, final grafting take after winter has been usually ignored. Hence, increased walnut grafting success and improved tree growth after grafting through foliar nutrient application may lead to increased tolerance of chilling. Therefore, main goals of this research were to investigate the effect of some graft covers and role of foliar spray of calcium, boron and zinc on the reduction of frost damage in newly grafted seedlings under outdoor conditions. Materials and methods: This research was conducted at agricultural research station, Khoy city, west Azerbaijan province, during 2012-2014. In the first experiment, three methods of grafting including cleft, bark and V-shaped, and two kinds of graft covers including moist sawdust and superabsorbent plus cotton wool were investigated in terms of grafting success and quality of seedlings. In the second experiment, effect of the three above-mentioned grafting methods and two levels of foliar spray including sequential spray of Ca (4 ppm, B and Zn (2% (3 times during growth season and control (no spray were studied in terms of frost damage. The experiments conducted in factorial based on randomized complete block design with 10 trees in each plot. Data were collected 45 days after grafting take, final grafting take after one winter, subsequent scion growth length and diameter and concentration of Ca, B and Zn in

The dynamics of fat, protein and sugar metabolism during walnut ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The result shows that the developmental process of walnut fruit could be divided into four stages: Slow growth {within 30 days after florescence, (DAF)}, fast growth (30 to 60 DAF), fat accumulation (60 to 100 DAF) and fruit maturity (100 to 140 DAF). Fat content in walnut fruit increased continuously and the maximum ...

Annotated black walnut literature

Science.gov (United States)

J. W. Van Sambeek

2006-01-01

Many of our publications on the establishment, management, and utilization of black walnut, butternut, and associated high-value hardwoods are printed in conference proceedings or scientific journals that are not readily available at most public libraries or on the internet. As Chair of the Education Committee, I have tried to summarize for you the relevant findings of...

Changes in soil organic carbon and total nitrogen in croplands converted to walnut-based agroforestry systems and orchards in southeastern Loess Plateau of China.

Science.gov (United States)

Lu, Sen; Meng, Ping; Zhang, Jinsong; Yin, Changjun; Sun, Shiyou

2015-11-01

Limited information is available on the effects of agroforestry system practices on soil properties in the Loess Plateau of China. Over the last decade, a vegetation restoration project has been conducted in this area by converting cropland into tree-based agroforestry systems and orchards to combat soil erosion and degradation. The objective of the present study was to determine the effects of land use conversion on soil organic carbon and total nitrogen in southeastern Loess Plateau. The experiment included three treatments: walnut intercropping system (AF), walnut orchard (WO), and traditional cropland (CR). After 7 years of continual management, soil samples were collected at 0-10, 10-30, and 30-50-cm depths for three treatments, and soil organic carbon (SOC) and total nitrogen (TN) were measured. Results showed that compared with the CR and AF treatments, WO treatment decreased both SOC and TN concentrations in the 0-50-cm soil profile. However, similar patterns of SOC and TN concentrations were observed in the AF and CR treatments across the entire profile. The SOC stocks at 0-50-cm depth were 5.42, 5.52, and 4.67 kg m(-2) for CR, AF, and WO treatments, respectively. The calculated TN stocks at 0-50-cm depth were 0.63, 0.62, and 0.57 kg m(-2) for CR, AF, and WO treatments, respectively. This result demonstrated that the stocks of SOC and TN in WO were clearly lower than those of AF and CR and that the walnut-based agroforestry system was more beneficial than walnut monoculture in terms of SOC and TN sequestration. Owing to the short-term intercropping practice, the changes in SOC and TN stocks were slight in AF compared with those in CR. However, a significant decrease in SOC and TN stocks was observed during the conversion of cropland to walnut orchard after 7 years of management. We also found that land use types had no significant effect on soil C/N ratio. These findings demonstrated that intercropping between walnut rows can potentially maintain

Effect of roasting conditions on the composition and antioxidant properties of defatted walnut flour.

Science.gov (United States)

Santos, Joana; Alvarez-Ortí, Manuel; Sena-Moreno, Estela; Rabadán, Adrián; Pardo, José E; Beatriz Pp Oliveira, M

2018-03-01

Walnut oil extraction by pressure systems produces a press cake as a by-product, with many of the beneficial walnut properties. The objective of this work was to evaluate the composition and antioxidant properties of walnut flours submitted to different roasting protocols (50, 100 and 150 °C during 30, 60 and 120 min). All walnut flours had about 42% protein and a significant amount of dietary fibre (17%), not being affected by the roasting process. Nonetheless, the fat content increased around 50% in walnuts flours subjected to longer and higher roasting temperatures (150 °C). The lipid fraction showed a good nutritional quality with a high vitamin E content (mainly γ-tocopherol) and fatty acid profile rich in linoleic and linolenic acids. The high phenolic content also provides great antioxidant capacity to the flours. Mild roasting of walnuts did not affect the quality of the flours that could be used as a functional ingredient in the food industry. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.

Genetic diversity, structure and differentiation in cultivate walnut (Juglans regia L.)

Science.gov (United States)

M. Aradhya; K. Woeste; D. Velasco

2012-01-01

An analysis of genetic structure and differentiation in cultivated walnut (Juglans regia) using 15 microsatellite loci revealed a considerable amount of genetic variation with a mild genetic structure indicating five genetic groups corresponding to the centers of diversity within the home range of walnut in Eurasia. Despite the narrow genetic...

The 11S globulin Sin a 2 from yellow mustard seeds shows IgE cross-reactivity with homologous counterparts from tree nuts and peanut

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Sirvent Sofía

2012-12-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The 11S globulin Sin a 2 is a marker to predict severity of symptoms in mustard allergic patients. The potential implication of Sin a 2 in cross-reactivity with tree nuts and peanut has not been investigated so far. In this work, we studied at the IgG and IgE level the involvement of the 11S globulin Sin a 2 in cross-reactivity among mustard, tree nuts and peanut. Methods Eleven well-characterized mustard-allergic patients sensitized to Sin a 2 were included in the study. A specific anti-Sin a 2 serum was obtained in rabbit. Skin prick tests (SPT, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA, immunoblotting and IgG or IgE-inhibition immunoblotting experiments using purified Sin a 2, Sin a 1, Sin a 3, mustard, almond, hazelnut, pistachio, walnut or peanut extracts were performed. Results The rabbit anti-Sin a 2 serum showed high affinity and specificity to Sin a 2, which allowed us to demonstrate that Sin a 2 shares IgG epitopes with allergenic 11S globulins from tree nuts (almond, hazelnut, pistachio and walnut but not from peanut. All the patients included in the study had positive skin prick test to tree nuts and/or peanut and we subdivided them into two different groups according to their clinical symptoms after ingestion of such allergenic sources. We showed that 11S globulins contain conserved IgE epitopes involved in cross-reactivity among mustard, tree nuts and peanut as well as species-specific IgE epitopes. Conclusions The allergenic 11S globulin Sin a 2 from mustard is involved in cross-reactivity at the IgE level with tree nuts and peanut. Although the clinical relevance of the cross-reactive IgE epitopes present in 11S globulins needs to be investigated in further detail, our results contribute to improve the diagnosis and management of mustard allergic patients sensitized to Sin a 2.

Rethinking the history of common walnut (Juglans regia L.) in Europe: Its origins and human interactions.

Science.gov (United States)

Pollegioni, Paola; Woeste, Keith; Chiocchini, Francesca; Del Lungo, Stefano; Ciolfi, Marco; Olimpieri, Irene; Tortolano, Virginia; Clark, Jo; Hemery, Gabriel E; Mapelli, Sergio; Malvolti, Maria Emilia

2017-01-01

Common walnut (Juglans regia L) is an economically important species cultivated worldwide for its high-quality wood and nuts. It is generally accepted that after the last glaciation J. regia survived and grew in almost completely isolated stands in Asia, and that ancient humans dispersed walnuts across Asia and into new habitats via trade and cultural expansion. The history of walnut in Europe is a matter of debate, however. In this study, we estimated the genetic diversity and structure of 91 Eurasian walnut populations using 14 neutral microsatellites. By integrating fossil pollen, cultural, and historical data with population genetics, and approximate Bayesian analysis, we reconstructed the demographic history of walnut and its routes of dispersal across Europe. The genetic data confirmed the presence of walnut in glacial refugia in the Balkans and western Europe. We conclude that human-mediated admixture between Anatolian and Balkan walnut germplasm started in the Early Bronze Age, and between western Europe and the Balkans in eastern Europe during the Roman Empire. A population size expansion and subsequent decline in northeastern and western Europe was detected in the last five centuries. The actual distribution of walnut in Europe resulted from the combined effects of expansion/contraction from multiple refugia after the Last Glacial Maximum and its human exploitation over the last 5,000 years.

Unveiling the Identity of Wenwan Walnuts and Phylogenetic Relationships of Asian Juglans Species Using Restriction Site-Associated DNA-Sequencing

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Xian-Yun Mu

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Juglans species have considerable ecological and economic value worldwide. In China, Wenwan walnuts have been collected by aristocrats and noblemen for more than 2000 years. As a diversity center of Asian Juglans, five species are widely distributed in China. The most famous of these is Mahetao (J. hopeiensis, which is an uncharacterized species that is mostly cultivated. Wild J. hopeiensis individuals are very rare and are endemic to Hebei Province. Because of the minimal variations in previously used molecular markers and the heterogeneity between chloroplast and nuclear genomes, determining the phylogenetic relationships among the Juglans species has been challenging, and has hindered subsequent evolutionary inferences. In this study, we collected enough materials for both cultivated and wild Mahetao to construct well-resolved phylogenetic trees for Asian Juglans species. We used a high-throughput genome-wide restriction site-associated DNA sequencing method. Consequently, the identity of J. hopeiensis has been clearly resolved. Our results indicate that J. hopeiensis is a hybrid of J. regia and J. mandshurica. However, J. hopeiensis, J. regia and J. sigillata should be considered as a single species from section Juglans. Additionally, J. ailantifolia, J. cathayensis, and J. mandshurica likely represent one species from section Cardiocaryon according to morphological and molecular studies. These results are supported by population structure analysis and morphological comparison. We propose that J. hopeiensis trees growing in the wild should be conserved because of the economic value of their nuts. These trees may be of particular importance to impoverished communities. Furthermore, they may serve as a valuable genetic resource relevant for enhancing the production of edible walnuts. The 2b-RAD method is a viable option for future phylogenetic studies of Juglans species as well as other plant species.

Variability of some morphological traits of one-year old red oak, black walnut, birch and wild pear seedlings in the nurseries of Jastrebac region

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Krstić Milun

2002-01-01

Full Text Available Five morphological and quantitative characteristics of one-year old seedlings of Red oak (Quercus rubra L, Black walnut (Juglans nigra L, Wild pear (Pyrus pygrowser Borkh and Birch (Betula verrucosa Ehrh were studied. The seedlings were produced and cultivated in the controlled conditions of the nursery in the region of Jastrebac, by the classical method. Aboveground seedling height, root collar diameter, root length, number of secondary roots and the leaf assimilation area were analysed. Intraspecific and interspecific variability of morphological features of the above species were assessed by the comparative analysis and statistical methods The comparative analysis shows the great individual variability of seedlings, which can indicate their genetic potential, adaptation to environment conditions, further spontaneous selection and the development in natural conditions. This justifies the need of the quality assessment and the first selection already in the nursery, in order to ensure the quality planting material and to reduce the risk of afforestation failure One-year old birch seedlings have the lowest average height (18.8 cm. Black walnut and Wild pear seedlings are approximately twice as high, and Red oak about 2.5 times higher. At the same time Red oak seedlings have for about one-fourth greater height than Black walnut, and for one-third greater height than Wild pear. Wild pear seedlings attain the averagely twice larger root collar diameter than Birch (2.8 cm, Red oak seedlings about 2.5 times larger diameter, and Black walnut 3.5 times larger diameter. Black walnut has a larger root collar diameter than Red oak for about one third, and almost twice larger than Wild pear. Birch, Red oak and Wild pear have almost twice longer root (1.8-1.9 times, Black walnut about 2.25 times longer. The total assimilation area of a Birch seedling is averagely 89.0 cm2. Compared to birch, wild pear has approximately double assimilation area per tree, Red

75 FR 34950 - Walnuts Grown in California; Changes to the Quality Regulations for Shelled Walnuts

Science.gov (United States)

2010-06-21

... customers that those products were derived from walnuts that meet quality standards under the order. The... process by eliminating the need for multiple inspections for the same product, and would improve handler... the size must be noted on the inspection certificate. The end product quality must be equal to or...

Landscape genetics of Persian walnut (Juglans regia L.) across its Asian range

Science.gov (United States)

Paola Pollegioni; Keith E. Woeste; Francesca Chiocchini; Irene Olimpieri; Virginia Tortolano; Jo Clark; Gabriel E. Hemery; Sergio Mapelli; Maria Emilla. Malvolti

2014-01-01

Persian walnut (Juglans regia L) is an economically important species cultivated worldwide for its wood and nuts. Despite the increasing interest in the development of conservation strategies for walnut germplasm, an accurate and full-scale overview of wild genetic resources of J. regia has not been conducted because natural...

A mind cleared by walnut oil: The effects of polyunsaturated and saturated fat on extinction learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Miller, Holly C; Struyf, Dieter; Baptist, Pascale; Dalile, Boushra; Van Oudenhove, Lukas; Van Diest, Ilse

2018-04-07

The treatment of anxiety-based psychopathology often hinges upon extinction learning. Research in nutritional neuroscience has observed that the regular consumption of perilla oil (50% alpha-linolenic acid (ALA)) facilitates extinction learning in rats (Yamamoto et al., 1988). However, acute facilitation of extinction learning by oils rich in ALA has not been reported for rats or humans, though the acute consumption of rapeseed oil (10% ALA) has been observed to improve cognitive processing speed in humans (Jones, Sünram-Lea, & Wesnes, 2012). For this reason, the present laboratory work examined the effects of adding walnut oil (12% ALA) to a chocolate milkshake on the acquisition, generalization, and extinction of a fear-based prediction in young adults. It compared performance between subjects. The other participants consumed a similar milkshake with either an equicaloric amount of cream (saturated fat), or with no added fat (control). Acquisition and generalization of the fear-based prediction were similar for all groups. However, those who consumed walnut oil extinguished most rapidly and profoundly. Implications for extinction learning are discussed. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Production of granular activated carbon from food-processing wastes (walnut shells and jujube seeds) and its adsorptive properties.

Science.gov (United States)

Bae, Wookeun; Kim, Jongho; Chung, Jinwook

2014-08-01

Commercial activated carbon is a highly effective absorbent that can be used to remove micropollutants from water. As a result, the demand for activated carbon is increasing. In this study, we investigated the optimum manufacturing conditions for producing activated carbon from ligneous wastes generated from food processing. Jujube seeds and walnut shells were selected as raw materials. Carbonization and steam activation were performed in a fixed-bed laboratory electric furnace. To obtain the highest iodine number, the optimum conditions for producing activated carbon from jujube seeds and walnut shells were 2 hr and 1.5 hr (carbonization at 700 degrees C) followed by 1 hr and 0.5 hr (activation at 1000 degrees C), respectively. The surface area and iodine number of activated carbon made from jujube seeds and walnut shells were 1,477 and 1,184 m2/g and 1,450 and 1,200 mg/g, respectively. A pore-distribution analysis revealed that most pores had a pore diameter within or around 30-40 angstroms, and adsorption capacity for surfactants was about 2 times larger than the commercial activated carbon, indicating that waste-based activated carbon can be used as alternative. Implications: Wastes discharged from agricultural and food industries results in a serious environmental problem. A method is proposed to convert food-processing wastes such as jujube seeds and walnut shells into high-grade granular activated carbon. Especially, the performance of jujube seeds as activated carbon is worthy of close attention. There is little research about the application ofjujube seeds. Also, when compared to two commercial carbons (Samchully and Calgon samples), the results show that it is possible to produce high-quality carbon, particularly from jujube seed, using a one-stage, 1,000 degrees C, steam pyrolysis. The preparation of activated carbon from food-processing wastes could increase economic return and reduce pollution.

Fungal Presence in Selected Tree Nuts and Dried Fruits

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

V.H. Tournas

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Sixty-four tree nut samples (almonds, pecans, pine nuts, and walnuts and 50 dried fruit samples (apricots, cranberries, papaya, pineapple, and raisins were purchased from local supermarkets and analyzed for fungal contamination using conventional culture as well as molecular methods. The results of our study showed that the highest yeast and mold (YM counts (5.34 log 10 CFU g -1 were found in walnuts and the lowest in pecans. The most common mold in nuts was Aspergillus niger , relatively low numbers of A. flavus were found across the board, while Penicillium spp. were very common in pine nuts and walnuts. Low levels (2.00–2.84 log 10 CFU g -1 of yeasts were recovered from only two pine nut samples. Fungal contamination in dried fruits was minimal (ranging from <2.00 to 3.86 log 10 CFU g -1 . The highest fungal levels were present in raisins. All papaya samples and the majority of cranberry, pineapple, and apricot samples were free of live fungi. The most common mold in dried fruits was A. niger followed by Penicillium spp. One apricot sample also contained low levels (2.00 log 10 CFU g -1 of yeasts.

Sociétés justes et démocratie en santé : Afghanistan | IDRC ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

11 janv. 2011 ... IDRC-supported documentary A Walnut Tree wins awards at Moscow and Istanbul film festivals. The IDRC-supported documentary A Walnut Tree, which follows the troubled lives of an internally displaced family in Pakistan, won the Gran. View moreIDRC-supported documentary A Walnut Tree wins ...

La protection de l'accès à l'eau contre les effets de l'étalement ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

26 mai 2011 ... IDRC-supported documentary A Walnut Tree wins awards at Moscow and Istanbul film festivals. The IDRC-supported documentary A Walnut Tree, which follows the troubled lives of an internally displaced family in Pakistan, won the Gran. View moreIDRC-supported documentary A Walnut Tree wins ...

Mycoflora and mycotoxin of hazelnut (Corylus avellana L.) and walnut (Juglans regia L.) seeds in Egypt.

Science.gov (United States)

Abdel-Hafez, A I; Saber, S M

1993-03-01

Fifty-one species and 3 varieties appertaining to 20 genera were collected from 20 samples of each of hazelnut and walnut seeds on glucose- and 40% (W/V) sucrose-Czapek's agar at 25 degrees C and 45 degrees C with the most common mesophiles were Aspergillus flavus, A. fumigatus, A. niger, Cladosporium cladosporioides, C. herbarum, Penicillium chrysogenum, P. citrinum and P. oxalicum. Fusarium (represented by F. equiseti, F. moniliforme and F. oxysporum) was recovered from walnut seeds in moderate frequency (on glucose-Czapek's agar). Eurotium (E. amstelodami, E. chevalieri, E. repens and E. rubrum) was completely absent on glucose agar, but it was isolated in high frequency from the two types of seeds on 40% sucrose-Czapek's agar. Aspergillus fumigatus and Rhizomucor pusillus were the most common thermophilic fungi in hazelnut and walnut seeds on glucose agar at 45 degrees C. Humicola grisea var. themoidae and Thermoascus aurantiacus were encountered rarely from walnuts. The nuts samples were assayed for natural occurrence of aflatoxins B1, B2, G1 and G2, citrinin, ochratoxin A, patulin, sterigmatocystin, zearalenone, T-2 toxin and diacetoxyscirpenol by thin layer chromatography analysis. Aflatoxin was detected in 90% of hazelnut samples (25-175 micrograms/kg) and 75% of walnut samples (15-25 micrograms/kg). Zearalenone was detected in one sample of walnut (125 micrograms/kg). This is the first report for the presence of zearalenone in walnut. The other mycotoxins were not detected.

Characterization of virgin walnut oils and their residual cakes produced from different varieties.

Science.gov (United States)

Ojeda-Amador, Rosa M; Salvador, María Desamparados; Gómez-Alonso, Sergio; Fregapane, Giuseppe

2018-06-01

This study addresses the composition and properties of different walnut varieties (Chandler, Hartley and Lara), in particular their virgin oils and residual cakes obtained by screw pressing employing different cultivars. Among nuts, walnut (Juglans regia L.) exhibits interesting nutritional value, mainly due to their high content in linoleic acid, phenolic and tocopherol compounds, which show antioxidant and other healthy properties. Valuable results related to fatty acid profile and minor components were observed. Virgin walnut oil is a rich source in linoleic acid (60-62%) and γ-tocopherol (517-554 mg/kg). Moreover, walnuts show a very high content in total phenolic compounds (10,045-12,474 mg/kg; as gallic acid), which contribute to a great antioxidant activity (105-170 mmol/kg for DPPH, and 260-393 mmol/kg for ORAC), being the hydrolysable tannins (2132-4204 mg/kg) and flavanols (796-2433 mg/kg) their main phenolic groups. Aldehydes account for the highest contribution to aromatic volatiles in virgin walnut oil (about 35% of total). As expected, polar phenolic compounds concentrate in the residual cake, after the separation of the oily phase, reaching a content of up to 19,869 mg/kg, leading to potential added value and applications as source of bioactive compounds to this by-product. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Uranium mobility across annual growth rings in three deciduous tree species.

Science.gov (United States)

McHugh, Kelly C; Widom, Elisabeth; Spitz, Henry B; Wiles, Gregory C; Glover, Sam E

2018-02-01

Black walnut (Juglans nigra), slippery elm (Ulmus rubra), and white ash (Fraxinus americana) trees were evaluated as potential archives of past uranium (U) contamination. Like other metals, U mobility in annual growth rings of trees is dependent on the tree species. Uranium concentrations and isotopic compositions (masses 234, 235, 236, and 238) were analyzed by thermal ionization mass spectrometry to test the efficacy of using tree rings to retroactively monitor U pollution from the FFMPC, a U purification facility operating from 1951 to 1989. This study found non-natural U (depleted U and detectable 236 U) in growth rings of all three tree species that pre-dated the start of operations at FFMPC and compositional trends that did not correspond with known contamination events. Therefore, the annual growth rings of these tree species cannot be used to reliably monitor the chronology of U contamination. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Seedling-sapling growth variation in a southern Illinios black walnut provenance/progeny test

Science.gov (United States)

George Rink; J. W. Van Sambeek

1987-01-01

Nursery root and shoot measurements and annual height, basal diameter and survival data for the 5 years after outplanting were used to describe black walnut growth variation in southern Illinois. At age 5 sapling height narrow-sense heritability was found to be 0.49 for 131 open-pollinated families from across the black walnut comercial range. Greatest height and...

Collaborative monitoring in Walnut Creek, California

Science.gov (United States)

Heidi Ballard; Ralph Kraetsch; Lynn Huntsinger

2002-01-01

In 1995 and 2000, a monitoring program was designed and implemented to track oak regeneration and native grass populations in target management areas in the four Open Space Preserves of the City of Walnut Creek, California. The program resulted from a collaboration of scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, a group of interested citizens known as the...

7 CFR 984.35 - California Walnut Board.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 8 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false California Walnut Board. 984.35 Section 984.35 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE (Marketing... acreage within districts and within the production area during recent years; (2) The importance of new...

Thirteen-year hardwood tree performance on a Midwest surface mine

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ashby, W.C.; Kolar, C.A.

1998-01-01

Black walnut (Juglans nigra L.), sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua L.), tuliptree (Liriodendron tulipifera L.), white oak (Quercus alba L.), bur oak (Q. macrocarpa Michx.), and pin oak (Q. palustris Muenchh.) seedlings were planted both fall 1980 and spring 1981 on mixed overburden strip-mining banks (ungraded), mixed overburden graded to approximate original contour (AOC) (graded), mixed overburden graded to AOC wit h 60 cm of replaced pre-mining surface soil materials (topsoil), and on old fields near the strip-mine (unmined). Black walnut and pin oak were also planted as seed, with a total of 6000 seedlings/seed spots in the study. Initial species field viability ranged from 86 to 100%. With one exception, after 3 growing seasons oak seedlings had 50% or greater survival. Survival was mostly lower after 3 years with some additional mortality by years 8 and 13. Height and diameter breast height were measured after 13 years. Survival and growth of trees planted fall or spring was similar overall with variable performance by species. Seedlings of several species on the ungraded site had over 50% survival after 13 years, with fewer trees where planted as seed. Mean height of all species combined was significantly greater on the ungraded than on any other site and was lowest on the topsoil site. The unmined sites had high variability in species survival and height. Better reclamation with trees resulted from a deep, well-drained rooting medium with minimal compaction and a mineral-rich surface soil including coarse fragments over 2 mm in size for long-term productivity

Infrared pre-drying and dry-dehulling of walnuts for improved processing efficiency and product quality

Science.gov (United States)

The walnut industry is faced with an urgent need to improve post-harvest processing efficiency, particularly drying and dehulling operations. This research investigated the feasibility of dry-dehulling and infrared (IR) pre-drying of walnuts for improved processing efficiency and dried product quali...

Causes and implications of the correlation between forest productivity and tree mortality rates

Science.gov (United States)

Stephenson, Nathan L.; van Mantgem, Philip J.; Bunn, Andrew G.; Bruner, Howard; Harmon, Mark E.; O'Connell, Kari B.; Urban, Dean L.; Franklin, Jerry F.

2011-01-01

At global and regional scales, tree mortality rates are positively correlated with forest net primary productivity (NPP). Yet causes of the correlation are unknown, in spite of potentially profound implications for our understanding of environmental controls of forest structure and dynamics and, more generally, our understanding of broad-scale environmental controls of population dynamics and ecosystem processes. Here we seek to shed light on the causes of geographic patterns in tree mortality rates, and we consider some implications of the positive correlation between mortality rates and NPP. To reach these ends, we present seven hypotheses potentially explaining the correlation, develop an approach to help distinguish among the hypotheses, and apply the approach in a case study comparing a tropical and temperate forest.

High demand for firewood leads to overuse of walnut-fruit forests in Kyrgyzstan

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Maik Rehnus; Annemarie Nazarek; Davlet Mamadzhanov; Bronislav Ivanovitch Venglovsky; Jean-Pierre Sorg

2013-01-01

After Kyrgyzstan gained independence in 1991, the importance of the primary sector for food-and energy-supply increased significantly. This has led to a discussion about the sustainability of current firewood use. We investigated firewood collection and use practices in three selected villages and analysed differences between the annual increment of woody biomass and firewood consumption for heating during winter months. The calculated individual firewood consumption is on average 3.90 kg/capita/heating day and the calculation of differences between increment and consumption shows that in minimum one village the surrounding forests are overused for firewood collection. Pressure on the forest and the overuse of preferred tree species for firewood can lead to an overuse of the resource and to a decrease in the genetic diversity of these species in the walnut-fruit forests which are considered as a biodiversity hotspot of international significance due to the diversity of woody.

Long term human impacts on genetic structure of Italian walnut inferred by SSR markers

Science.gov (United States)

Paola Pollegioni; Keith Woeste; Irene Olimpieri; Danilo Marandola; Francesco Cannata; Maria E Malvolti

2011-01-01

Life history traits, historic factors, and human activities can all shape the genetic diversity of a species. In Italy, walnut (Juglans regia L.) has a long history of cultivation both for wood and edible nuts. To better understand the genetic variability of current Italian walnut resources, we analyzed the relationships among the genetic structure...

Effect of different ripening stages on walnut kernel quality: antioxidant activities, lipid characterization and antibacterial properties.

Science.gov (United States)

Amin, Furheen; Masoodi, F A; Baba, Waqas N; Khan, Asma Ashraf; Ganie, Bashir Ahmad

2017-11-01

Packing tissue between and around the kernel halves just turning brown (PTB) is a phenological indicator of kernel ripening at harvest in walnuts. The effect of three ripening stages (Pre-PTB, PTB and Post-PTB) on kernel quality characteristics, mineral composition, lipid characterization, sensory analysis, antioxidant and antibacterial activity were investigated in fresh kernels of indigenous numbered walnut selection of Kashmir valley "SKAU-02". Proximate composition, physical properties and sensory analysis of walnut kernels showed better results for Pre-PTB and PTB while higher mineral content was seen for kernels at Post-PTB stage in comparison to other stages of ripening. Kernels showed significantly higher levels of Omega-3 PUFA (C18:3 n3 ) and low n6/n3 ratio when harvested at Pre-PTB and PTB stages. The highest phenolic content and antioxidant activity was observed at the first stage of ripening and a steady decrease was observed at later stages. TBARS values increased as ripening advanced but did not show any significant difference in malonaldehyde formation during early ripening stages whereas it showed marked increase in walnut kernels at post-PTB stage. Walnut extracts inhibited growth of Gram-positive bacteria ( B. cereus, B. subtilis, and S. aureus ) with respective MICs of 1, 1 and 5 mg/mL and gram negative bacteria ( E. coli, P. and K. pneumonia ) with MIC of 100 mg/mL. Zone of inhibition obtained against all the bacterial strains from walnut kernel extracts increased with increase in the stage of ripening. It is concluded that Pre-PTB harvest stage with higher antioxidant activities, better fatty acid profile and consumer acceptability could be preferred harvesting stage for obtaining functionally superior walnut kernels.

Potentials of raw and cooked walnuts (Tetracapidium conophorum) as sources of valuable nutrients for good health.

Science.gov (United States)

Moyib, O K; Falegbe, O; Moyib, F R

2015-12-01

The present study estimated nutrient composition of walnuts before and after cooking with respect to its potential as valuable source of nutrients for daily intake. Walnut fruits were purchased from five different markets in Ijebu-Ode local government area and its environs. The fruits samples were divided into two portions, labelled R (for raw) and C (cooked). The C samples were cooked at 100 degrees C for 1 hr and allowed to cool to room temperature. The seeds of both C and R samples were ground and analyzed for proximate, macro and micro minerals using methods of Association of Official Chemists. The results obtained showed that both raw and cooked walnuts are rich in fat, iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), and copper (Cu) in amounts that are within daily recommended intake per 100 g of walnut seeds. They also contained appreciable levels of protein, phosphorus (P), calcium (Ca), and magnesium (Mg) but with low content of moisture (MC), carbohydrate, fiber, sodium (Na) and potassium (K). Boiling significantly affected the levels of protein, carbohydrate, ash, moisture content, fat, nitrogen, calcium, sodium, copper, zinc, phosphorus, potassium, manganese and iron The study reveals that walnut is nutritious due to its appreciable level of protein and presence of various essential and macro minerals. Its low content of sodium and potassium is beneficiary in hypertensive condition as snack. The study suggests future bio-fortification of walnut with zinc, which may bring about a co-increase in Ca and protein content.

Legume ground covers alter defoliation response of black walnut saplings to drought and anthracnose

Science.gov (United States)

J. W. Van Sambeek

2003-01-01

Growth and premature defoliation of black walnut saplings underplanted 5 or 6 years earlier with six different ground covers were quantified in response to a summer drought or anthracnose. Walnut saplings growing with ground covers of hairy vetch, crownvetch, and to a lesser extent sericea lespedeza continued to have more rapid height and diameter growth than saplings...

RHAGOLETIS COMPLETA (DIPTERA; TEPHRITIDAE) DISTRIBUTION, FLIGHT DYNAMICS AND INFLUENCE ON WALNUT KERNEL QUALITY IN THE CONTINENTAL CROATIA

OpenAIRE

Božena Barić; Ivana Pajač Živković; Dinka Matošević; Milorad Šubić; Erzsébet Voigt; Miklós Tóth

2015-01-01

Walnut husk fly (WHF), Rhagoletis completa Cresson 1929 is an invasive species spreading quickly and damaging walnuts in Croatia and neighbouring countries. We researched distribution of this pest in the continental part of Croatia, flight dynamics in Međimurje County and its influence on quality of walnut kernels. CSALOMON®PALz traps were used for monitoring the spread and flight dynamics of R. completa. Weight and the protein content of kernels and the presence of mycotoxin contamination we...

Walnut shells: replacement for natural gas

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Goss, J R; Williams, R O

1977-11-01

A method of extracting useful energy from cracked walnut shells has been developed by the University of California in co-operation with Diamond/Sunsweet, Inc., and the California Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission. The technique involves converting the shells to producer gas, a low-Btu gas in which the major combustible components are carbon monoxide (20 to 30%) and hydrogen (10 to 15%).

Amino Acid Composition, Molecular Weight Distribution and Gel Electrophoresis of Walnut (Juglans regia L. Proteins and Protein Fractionations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiaoying Mao

2014-01-01

Full Text Available As a by-product of oil production, walnut proteins are considered as an additional source of plant protein for human food. To make full use of the protein resource, a comprehensive understanding of composition and characteristics of walnut proteins are required. Walnut proteins have been fractionated and characterized in this study. Amino acid composition, molecular weight distribution and gel electrophoresis of walnut proteins and protein fractionations were analyzed. The proteins were sequentially separated into four fractions according to their solubility. Glutelin was the main component of the protein extract. The content of glutelin, albumin, globulin and prolamin was about 72.06%, 7.54%, 15.67% and 4.73% respectively. Glutelin, albumin and globulin have a balanced content of essential amino acids, except for methionine, with respect to the FAO pattern recommended for adults. SDS-PAGE patterns of albumin, globulin and glutelin showed several polypeptides with molecular weights 14.4 to 66.2 kDa. The pattern of walnut proteins in two-dimension electrophoresis (2-DE showed that the isoelectric point was mainly in the range of 4.8–6.8. The results of size exclusion chromatogram indicated molecular weight of the major components of walnut proteins were between 3.54 and 81.76 kDa.

Application of walnut shell modified with Zinc Oxide (ZnO nanoparticles in removal of natural organic matters (NOMs from aqueous solution

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

ali naghizadeh

2015-10-01

Full Text Available Background & Aims of the Study: Natural organic matters (NOMs are a mixture of chemically complex polyelectrolytes produced mainly from the decomposition of plant and animal residues that are present in all surface and groundwater resources. This paper evaluates the aqueous NOMs adsorption efficiency on walnut shell modified with Zinc Oxide (ZnO. Materials & Methods: This study examined the feasibility of removing NOMs from aqueous solutions using walnut shell modified with ZnO. The effects of NOMs concentration, modified walnut shell with ZnO dosage, and pH on adsorption of NOMs by modified walnut shell with ZnO were evaluated. Results: The adsorption capacities of modified walnut shell with ZnO in the best conditions were 37.93 mg/g. The results also demonstrated that adsorption capacity of NOMs on modified walnut shell with ZnO was higher in lower pHs due to significantly high electrostatic attraction exists between the positively charged surface of the adsorbent and negatively charged NOMs. And finally adsorption capacity decreases as adsorbent dose increase. Conclusion: Walnut shell modified with ZnO can be proposed as a natural adsorbent in the removal of NOMs from aqueous solutions

Cold sterilisation of walnuts as potential component of bakery products

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Koreňová, J.; Lopašovská, J.; Sádecká, J.; Kolek, E.

2010-01-01

Microbiological quality, sensory and chemical changes in volatile and lipid fractions of gamma-irradiated walnuts (Juglans regia L.) were evaluated using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS), gas chromatography with flame-ionising detector (GC/FID) and sensory evaluation. Doses of gamma-radiation were with in the range 0.5 - 5 kGy, where 10 kGy represented the highest permitted dose for food applications. Microbiological analysis showed that gamma-irradiation was an effective sterilisation tool which eliminated prevalent microorganisms including coliform bacteria from initial count of 6.0 x 102 CFU/g with 1.5 kGy dose. The dose of only 0.5 kGy was found to be sufficiently effective for killing prevalent moulds. Quoted levels of ionising radiation were adequate for elimination of microbiological load for minimum storage duration of 2 kGy dose. Higher irradiation levels negatively affected organoleptic properties of studied walnuts. Significant changes in relative contents of certain fatty acids, mainly linoleic and linolenic acid, and closely related changes in relative contents of certain volatiles were observed due to the influence of ionising radiation. Unsaturated hydrocarbons as determined by GC/MS method are believed to be suitable markers of gamma-irradiation of walnuts even at 0.5 kGy dose of application

Hydroxytyrosol extracts, olive oil and walnuts as functional components in chicken sausages.

Science.gov (United States)

Nieto, Gema; Martínez, Lorena; Castillo, Julian; Ros, Gaspar

2017-08-01

Olive oil, hydroxytyrosol and walnut can be considered ideal Mediterranean ingredients for their high polyphenolic content and healthy properties. Three extracts of hydroxytyrosol obtained using different extraction processes (HXT 1, 2, 3) (50 ppm) were evaluated for use as antioxidants in eight different chicken sausage formulas enriched in polyunsaturated fatty acids (2.5 g 100 g -1 walnut) or using extra virgin olive oil (20 g 100 g -1 ) as fat replacer. Lipid and protein oxidation, colour, emulsion stability, and the microstructure of the resulting chicken sausages were investigated and a sensory analysis was carried out. The sausages with HXT extracts were found to decrease lipid oxidation and to lead to the loss of thiol groups compared with control sausages. Emulsion stability (capacity to hold water and fat) was greater in the sausages containing olive oil and walnut than in control sausages. In contrast, the HXT extracts produced high emulsion instability (increasing cooking losses). Sensory analysis suggested that two of the HXT extracts studied (HXT 2 and HXT 3 ) were unacceptable, while the acceptability of the other was similar to that of the control products. Sausages incorporating HXT showed different structures than control samples or sausages with olive oil, related to the composition of the emulsion. These results suggest the possibility of replacing animal fat by olive oil and walnut in order to produce healthy meat products. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.

The Effect of the Alcoholic Extract of Walnut on the Testis Tissue of Adult Male Rats

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M Abedinzade

2012-08-01

Methods: In the present experimental study, forty adult male Wistar rats weighing 250-300 grams were divided into five groups. The control group did not receive any treatment. Normal saline was intraperitoneally injected to the control group. Experimental groups received three different doses of alcoholic extract of walnut: 10, 20 and 50 mg/ kg intraperitoneally/daily, respectively. The testes were removed from the abdomen and the tissue sections were studied. The gathered data were analyzed using One-way Analysis of variance and Tukey's range test. Results: Results indicated that walnut extract affect the development and maintenance of spermatogenesis to its final stages, and increased the number of sperms and interstitial cells in the testis. Alcoholic extract of walnut during the test instrument did not have much impact on the structure of the sperm tube tissue. Conclusion: The alcoholic extract of walnut led to the increased activity of the testis and interstitial cells, followed by an increase in sperm cells and reproductive activity of male rats.

In-situ biogas upgrading during anaerobic digestion of food waste amended with walnut shell biochar at bench scale.

Science.gov (United States)

Linville, Jessica L; Shen, Yanwen; Ignacio-de Leon, Patricia A; Schoene, Robin P; Urgun-Demirtas, Meltem

2017-06-01

A modified version of an in-situ CO 2 removal process was applied during anaerobic digestion of food waste with two types of walnut shell biochar at bench scale under batch operating mode. Compared with the coarse walnut shell biochar, the fine walnut shell biochar has a higher ash content (43 vs. 36 wt%) and higher concentrations of calcium (31 vs. 19 wt% of ash), magnesium (8.4 vs. 5.6 wt% of ash) and sodium (23.4 vs. 0.3 wt% of ash), but a lower potassium concentration (0.2 vs. 40% wt% of ash). The 0.96-3.83 g biochar (g VS added ) -1 fine walnut shell biochar amended digesters produced biogas with 77.5%-98.1% CH 4 content by removing 40%-96% of the CO 2 compared with the control digesters at mesophilic and thermophilic temperature conditions. In a direct comparison at 1.83 g biochar (g VS added ) -1 , the fine walnut shell biochar amended digesters (85.7% CH 4 content and 61% CO 2 removal) outperformed the coarse walnut shell biochar amended digesters (78.9% CH 4 content and 51% CO 2 removal). Biochar addition also increased alkalinity as CaCO 3 from 2800 mg L -1 in the control digesters to 4800-6800 mg L -1 , providing process stability for food waste anaerobic digestion.

HPLC determination of phenolic acids, flavonoids and juglone in walnut leaves.

Science.gov (United States)

Nour, Violeta; Trandafir, Ion; Cosmulescu, Sina

2013-10-01

A high-performance liquid chromatographic method with gradient elution and diode-array detection was developed to quantify free phenolic acids (gallic, vanillic, chlorogenic, caffeic, syringic, p-coumaric, ferulic, sinapic, salycilic, elagic and trans-cinnamic), flavonoids (catechin, epicatechin, rutin, myricetin and quercetin) and juglone in walnut leaves. Chromatographic separation was performed on a Hypersil Gold C18 column (5 µm particle size, 250 × 4.6 mm) and detection was conducted at three different wavelengths (254, 278 and 300 nm) according to the absorption maxima of the analyzed compounds. Validation procedures were conducted and the method was proven to be precise, accurate and sensitive. The developed method has been applied to analyze walnut leaves samples from nine different cultivars, with the same agricultural, geographical and climatic conditions. The experimental results revealed high concentrations of myricetin, catechin hydrate and rutin, and low concentrations of quercetin and epicatechin aglycones. Ellagic acid was established as the dominating phenolic acid of walnut leaves, followed by trans-cinnamic, chlorogenic and caffeic acids. Juglone content varied between 44.55 and 205.12 mg/100 g fresh weight. Significant differences were detected among cultivars for the concentration levels of phenolics.

Deep RNA-Seq profile reveals biodiversity, plant-microbe interactions and a large family of NBS-LRR resistance genes in walnut (Juglans regia) tissues.

Science.gov (United States)

Chakraborty, Sandeep; Britton, Monica; Martínez-García, P J; Dandekar, Abhaya M

2016-03-01

Deep RNA-Seq profiling, a revolutionary method used for quantifying transcriptional levels, often includes non-specific transcripts from other co-existing organisms in spite of stringent protocols. Using the recently published walnut genome sequence as a filter, we present a broad analysis of the RNA-Seq derived transcriptome profiles obtained from twenty different tissues to extract the biodiversity and possible plant-microbe interactions in the walnut ecosystem in California. Since the residual nature of the transcripts being analyzed does not provide sufficient information to identify the exact strain, inferences made are constrained to the genus level. The presence of the pathogenic oomycete Phytophthora was detected in the root through the presence of a glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase. Cryptococcus, the causal agent of cryptococcosis, was found in the catkins and vegetative buds, corroborating previous work indicating that the plant surface supported the sexual cycle of this human pathogen. The RNA-Seq profile revealed several species of the endophytic nitrogen fixing Actinobacteria. Another bacterial species implicated in aerobic biodegradation of methyl tert-butyl ether (Methylibium petroleiphilum) is also found in the root. RNA encoding proteins from the pea aphid were found in the leaves and vegetative buds, while a serine protease from mosquito with significant homology to a female reproductive tract protease from Drosophila mojavensis in the vegetative bud suggests egg-laying activities. The comprehensive analysis of RNA-seq data present also unraveled detailed, tissue-specific information of ~400 transcripts encoded by the largest family of resistance (R) genes (NBS-LRR), which possibly rationalizes the resistance of the specific walnut plant to the pathogens detected. Thus, we elucidate the biodiversity and possible plant-microbe interactions in several walnut (Juglans regia) tissues in California using deep RNA-Seq profiling.

Walnut consumption increases satiation but has no effect on insulin resistance or the metabolic profile over a 4-day period.

Science.gov (United States)

Brennan, Aoife M; Sweeney, Laura L; Liu, Xiaowen; Mantzoros, Christos S

2010-06-01

Obesity and diabetes have been associated with increased consumption of highly processed foods, and reduced consumption of whole grains and nuts. It has been proposed, mainly on the basis of observational studies, that nuts may provide superior satiation, may lead to reduced calorie consumption, and may decrease the risk of type 2 diabetes; but evidence from randomized, interventional studies is lacking. A total of 20 men and women with the metabolic syndrome participated in a randomized, double-blind, crossover study of walnut consumption. Subjects had two 4-day admissions to the clinical research center where they were fed an isocaloric diet. In addition, they consumed shakes for breakfast containing either walnuts or placebo (shakes were standardized for calories, carbohydrate, and fat content). Appetite, insulin resistance, and metabolic parameters were measured. We found an increased level of satiety (overall P value = 0.0079) and sense of fullness (P = 0.05) in prelunch questionnaires following the walnut breakfast as compared to the placebo breakfast, with the walnut effect achieving significance on day 3 and 4 (P = 0.02 and P = 0.03). We did not find any change in resting energy expenditure, hormones known to mediate satiety, or insulin resistance when comparing the walnut vs. placebo diet. Walnut consumption over 4 days increased satiety by day 3. Long-term studies are needed to confirm the physiologic role of walnuts, the duration of time needed for these effects to occur, and to elucidate the underlying mechanisms.

The effect of walnut intake on factors related to prostate and vascular health in older men

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West Sheila G

2008-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Tocopherols may protect against prostate cancer and cardiovascular disease (CVD. Methods We assessed the effect of walnuts, which are rich in tocopherols, on markers of prostate and vascular health in men at risk for prostate cancer. We conducted an 8-week walnut supplement study to examine effects of walnuts on serum tocopherols and prostate specific antigen (PSA. Subjects (n = 21 consumed (in random order their usual diet +/- a walnut supplement (75 g/d that was isocalorically incorporated in their habitual diets. Prior to the supplement study, 5 fasted subjects participated in an acute timecourse experiment and had blood taken at baseline and 1, 2, 4, and 8 h after consuming walnuts (75 g. Results During the timecourse experiment, triglycerides peaked at 4 h, and gamma-tocopherol (γ-T increased from 4 to 8 h. Triglyceride – normalized γ-T was two-fold higher (P = 0.01 after 8 versus 4 h. In the supplement study, change from baseline was +0.83 ± 0.52 μmol/L for γ-T, -2.65 ± 1.30 μmol/L for alpha-tocopherol (α-T and -3.49 ± 1.99 for the tocopherol ratio (α-T: γ-T. A linear mixed model showed that, although PSA did not change, the ratio of free PSA:total PSA increased and approached significance (P = 0.07. The α-T: γ-T ratio decreased significantly (P = 0.01, partly reflecting an increase in serum γ-T, which approached significance (P = 0.08. Conclusion The significant decrease in the α-T: γ-T ratio with an increase in serum γ-T and a trend towards an increase in the ratio of free PSA:total PSA following the 8-week supplement study suggest that walnuts may improve biomarkers of prostate and vascular status.

Developing new microsatellite markers in walnut (Juglans regia L.) from Juglans nigra genomic GA enriched library

Science.gov (United States)

Hayat Topcu; Nergiz Coban; Keith Woeste; Mehmet Sutyemez; Salih. Kafkas

2015-01-01

We attempted to develop new polymorphic SSR primer pairs in walnut using sequences derived from Juglans nigra L. genomic enriched library with GA repeat. The designed 94 SSR primer pairs were subjected to gradient PCR in 12 walnut cultivars to determine their optimum annealing temperatures and to determine whether they produce bands. Then, the...

Composition, structure and functional properties of protein concentrates and isolates produced from walnut (Juglans regia L.).

Science.gov (United States)

Mao, Xiaoying; Hua, Yufei

2012-01-01

In this study, composition, structure and the functional properties of protein concentrate (WPC) and protein isolate (WPI) produced from defatted walnut flour (DFWF) were investigated. The results showed that the composition and structure of walnut protein concentrate (WPC) and walnut protein isolate (WPI) were significantly different. The molecular weight distribution of WPI was uniform and the protein composition of DFWF and WPC was complex with the protein aggregation. H(0) of WPC was significantly higher (p structure of WPI was similar to WPC. WPI showed big flaky plate like structures; whereas WPC appeared as a small flaky and more compact structure. The most functional properties of WPI were better than WPC. In comparing most functional properties of WPI and WPC with soybean protein concentrate and isolate, WPI and WPC showed higher fat absorption capacity (FAC). Emulsifying properties and foam properties of WPC and WPI in alkaline pH were comparable with that of soybean protein concentrate and isolate. Walnut protein concentrates and isolates can be considered as potential functional food ingredients.

Sensory evaluation of commercial fat spreads based on oilseeds and walnut

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Dimić Etelka B.

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The main focus of this study was on the sensory evaluation of commercial oilseeds spreads, as the most significant characteristic of this type of product from the consumers’ point of view. Sensory analysis was conducted by five experts using a quantitative descriptive and sensory profile test, applying a scoring method according to the standard procedure. Five different spreads were evaluated: sunflower, pumpkin, sesame, peanut, and walnut. Oil content and amounts of separated oil on the surface were determined for each spread. The results have shown that the color of spreads was very different, depending on the oilseed: gray for sunflower, brown for walnut, yellowish-brown for peanut butter, ivory for sesame and profoundly dark green for pumpkin seeds spread. The flavor and odor of the spreads were characteristic for the raw materials used; however, the sunflower and walnut spreads had a slight rancid flavor. Generally, the spreadability of all spreads was good, but their mouth feel was not acceptable. During the consumption, all of them were sticking immensely to the roof of the mouth, which made the swallowing harder. The highest total score of 16.20 points (max. 20 was obtained for the peanut butter, while the lowest (10.38 was achieved by the sunflower butter. Oil separation (various degrees was noticed in all spreads, which negatively influenced the appearance and entire sensorial quality of the products. The quantity of separated oil depended on the age and total amount of oil in the spreads, and was between 1.13% in the peanut butter and 12.15% in the walnut spread in reference to the net weight of the product. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. TR 31014: Development of the new functional confectionery products based on oil crops

Market analysis of food products for detection of allergenic walnut (Juglans regia) and pecan (Carya illinoinensis) by real-time PCR.

Science.gov (United States)

López-Calleja, Inés María; de la Cruz, Silvia; González, Isabel; García, Teresa; Martín, Rosario

2015-06-15

Two real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based assays for detection of walnut (Juglans regia) and pecan (Carya illinoinensis) traces in a wide range of processed foods are described here. The method consists on a real-time PCR assay targeting the ITS1 region, using a nuclease (TaqMan) probe labeled with FAM and BBQ. The method was positive for walnut and pecan respectively, and negative for all other heterologous plants and animals tested. Using a series of model samples with defined raw walnut in wheat flour and heat-treated walnut in wheat flour with a range of concentrations of 0.1-100,000 mg kg(-1), a practical detection limit of 0.1 mg kg(-1) of walnut content was estimated. Identical binary mixtures were done for pecan, reaching the same limit of detection of 0.1 mg kg(-1). The assay was successfully trialed on a total of 232 commercial foodstuffs. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A cross sectional study of the association between walnut consumption and cognitive function among adult US populations represented in NHANES.

Science.gov (United States)

Arab, L; Ang, A

2015-03-01

To examine the association between walnut consumption and measures of cognitive function in the US population. Nationally representative cross sectional study using 24 hour dietary recalls of intakes to assess walnut and other nut consumption as compared to the group reporting no nut consumption. 1988-1994 and 1999-2002 rounds of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Representative weighted sample of US adults 20 to 90 years of age. The Neurobehavioral Evaluation System 2 (NES2), consisting of simple reaction time (SRTT), symbol digit substitution (SDST), the single digit learning (SDLT), Story Recall (SRT) and digit-symbol substitution (DSST) tests. Adults 20-59 years old reporting walnut consumption of an average of 10.3 g/d required 16.4ms less time to respond on the SRTT, P=0.03, and 0.39s less for the SDST, P=0.01. SDLT scores were also significantly lower by 2.38s (P=0.05). Similar results were obtained when tertiles of walnut consumption were examined in trend analyses. Significantly better outcomes were noted in all cognitive test scores among those with higher walnut consumption (P < 0.01). Among adults 60 years and older, walnut consumers averaged 13.1 g/d, scored 7.1 percentile points higher, P=0.03 on the SRT and 7.3 percentile points higher on the DSST, P=0.05. Here also trend analyses indicate significant improvements in all cognitive test scores (P < 0.01) except for SRTT (P = 0.06) in the fully adjusted models. These significant, positive associations between walnut consumption and cognitive functions among all adults, regardless of age, gender or ethnicity suggest that daily walnut intake may be a simple beneficial dietary behavior.

Ecological implications of a flower size/number trade-off in tropical forest trees.

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Chris J Kettle

2011-02-01

Full Text Available In angiosperms, flower size commonly scales negatively with number. The ecological consequences of this trade-off for tropical trees remain poorly resolved, despite their potential importance for tropical forest conservation. We investigated the flower size number trade-off and its implications for fecundity in a sample of tree species from the Dipterocarpaceae on Borneo.We combined experimental exclusion of pollinators in 11 species, with direct and indirect estimates of contemporary pollen dispersal in two study species and published estimates of pollen dispersal in a further three species to explore the relationship between flower size, pollinator size and mean pollen dispersal distance. Maximum flower production was two orders of magnitude greater in small-flowered than large-flowered species of Dipterocarpaceae. In contrast, fruit production was unrelated to flower size and did not differ significantly among species. Small-flowered species had both smaller-sized pollinators and lower mean pollination success than large-flowered species. Average pollen dispersal distances were lower and frequency of mating between related individuals was higher in a smaller-flowered species than a larger-flowered confamilial. Our synthesis of pollen dispersal estimates across five species of dipterocarp suggests that pollen dispersal scales positively with flower size.Trade-offs embedded in the relationship between flower size and pollination success contribute to a reduction in the variance of fecundity among species. It is therefore plausible that these processes could delay competitive exclusion and contribute to maintenance of species coexistence in this ecologically and economically important family of tropical trees. These results have practical implications for tree species conservation and restoration. Seed collection from small-flowered species may be especially vulnerable to cryptic genetic erosion. Our findings also highlight the potential for

Decision making analysis of walnut seedling production on a small ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Yomi

2011-12-21

Dec 21, 2011 ... Walnut production does not constitute considerable share in this region. .... average farm's historical selling prices for the 2003-2008 period. The prices ... material costs, depreciation costs and insurance premium. Then, the ...

The effect of partial substitution of pork back fat with vegetable oils and walnuts on chemical composition, texture profile and sensorial properties of meatloaf

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Gabriel Dănuţ MOCANU

2015-08-01

Full Text Available The present study investigates the effects of the partial substitution of the pork back fat with different vegetable oils (sea buckthorn, walnut and sunflower and walnuts on the chemical composition, texture profile and sensory characteristics of meatloaves. The dry matter and ash content of meatloaf with vegetable oils and walnuts were higher than the control sample (P < 0.05. The cooking loss, energy values and lipid oxidation for the samples with walnuts and vegetable oils were lower than the control sample. The meatloaf sample containing walnuts and sea buckthorn oil had the highest total antioxidant capacity. The partial substitution of pork back fat showed a positive effect on textural and sensorial characteristics. Results reveal that the incorporation of vegetable oils and walnuts has successfully reduced the animal fat content in the finite products while improving the quality characteristics.

7 CFR 984.472 - Reports of merchantable walnuts shipped.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... MARKETING SERVICE (Marketing Agreements and Orders; Fruits, Vegetables, Nuts), DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE... shipped; whether they were shipped into domestic or export channels; and for exports, the quantity by... remainder of that marketing year. (b) Reports of walnuts purchased directly from growers by handlers who are...

Efficacy of Heat Treatment for the Thousand Cankers Disease Vector and Pathogen in Small Black Walnut Logs

Science.gov (United States)

A. E. Mayfield; S. W. Fraedrich; A. Taylor; P. Merten; S. W. Myers

2014-01-01

Thousand cankers disease, caused by the walnut twig beetle (Pityophthorus juglandis Blackman) and an associated fungal pathogen (Geosmithia morbida M. Kolarõ´k, E. Freeland, C. Utley, and N. Tisserat), threatens the health and commercial use of eastern black walnut (Juglans nigra L.), one of the most economically...

RHAGOLETIS COMPLETA (DIPTERA; TEPHRITIDAE DISTRIBUTION, FLIGHT DYNAMICS AND INFLUENCE ON WALNUT KERNEL QUALITY IN THE CONTINENTAL CROATIA

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Božena Barić

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Walnut husk fly (WHF, Rhagoletis completa Cresson 1929 is an invasive species spreading quickly and damaging walnuts in Croatia and neighbouring countries. We researched distribution of this pest in the continental part of Croatia, flight dynamics in Međimurje County and its influence on quality of walnut kernels. CSALOMON®PALz traps were used for monitoring the spread and flight dynamics of R. completa. Weight and the protein content of kernels and the presence of mycotoxin contamination were measured. Walnut husk fly was found in six counties (Istria County: pest reconfirmation, Zagreb County, The City of Zagreb, Varaždin County, Međimurje County and Koprivnica-Križevci County. The presence of the fly was not confirmed on one site in Koprivnica-Križevci County (locality Ferdinandovac and in the eastern part of Croatia (Vukovar-Srijem County: Vinkovci locality. The flight dynamics showed rapid increase in number of adults only a year after the introduction into new area. The weight of infested kernels was 5.81% lower compared to not infested. Protein content was 14.04% in infested kernels and 17.31% in not infested kernels. There was no difference in mycotoxins levels. Additional researches on mycotoxin levels in stored nuts, ovipositional preferences of walnut husk fly and protection measures against this pest are suggested.

Black walnut response to subsoiling, irrigation, and vegetation management on a site with a shallow fragipan

Science.gov (United States)

F. D. McBride; J. W. Van Sambeek

1995-01-01

Vegetation management with glyphosate and simazine proved to be more effective than preplant subsoiling or irrigation for achieving acceptable walnut biomass growth on an upland old field site (SI = 70 for white oak). In 1980, we direct seeded germinating black walnut seed on an upland, slightly eroded, old field ridge with a 45 to 60 cm deep fragipan. We tested all...

Study on the Ingredient Proportions and After-Treatment of Laser Sintering Walnut Shell Composites

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Yueqiang Yu

2017-12-01

Full Text Available To alleviate resource shortage, reduce the cost of materials consumption and the pollution of agricultural and forestry waste, walnut shell composites (WSPC consisting of walnut shell as additive and copolyester hot melt adhesive (Co-PES as binder was developed as the feedstock of selective laser sintering (SLS. WSPC parts with different ingredient proportions were fabricated by SLS and processed through after-treatment technology. The density, mechanical properties and surface quality of WSPC parts before and after post processing were analyzed via formula method, mechanical test and scanning electron microscopy (SEM, respectively. Results show that, when the volume fraction of the walnut shell powder in the WSPC reaches the maximum (40%, sintered WSPC parts have the smallest warping deformation and the highest dimension precision, although the surface quality, density, and mechanical properties are low. However, performing permeating resin as the after-treatment technology could considerably increase the tensile, bending and impact strength by 496%, 464%, and 516%, respectively.

7 CFR 999.500 - Safeguard procedures for walnuts and certain dates exempt from grade, size, quality, and maturity...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... and Orders; Fruits, Vegetables, Nuts), DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE SPECIALTY CROPS; IMPORT REGULATIONS... cannot be used for drying and sale as dried walnuts); walnuts used in non-competitive outlets such as use... the Marketing Order Administration Branch, Fruit and Vegetable Division, AMS, USDA, and shall show the...

Effects of gamma irradiation on the biochemical properties of walnut and pistachio nut in Syria, first phase: just after irradiation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Othman, I; Karajoli, M; Moussa, A; Al-Kaed, A [Atomic Energy commission, Radiation Technology Unit, Damascus, (Syrian Arab Republic)

1998-03-01

The report describes a preliminary study that led to explore the possibility of preserving and extending the storage life of walnut and pistachio nut by gamma radiation. Syrian walnut and pistachio nut were irradiated in a Gamma cell (dose rate 0.08 kGy/min). Radiation doses used were 0.50 and 1.00 kGy and the samples were stored at room temperature (25 to 30 Centigrade) after packaging in polyethylene pouches. Fungi infestation was determined before and after gamma radiation treatment. A radiation dose of 1.00 kGy completely inhibited fungi infestation. The present study has, therefore, been conducted to investigate the effects of gamma radiation on the Biochemical properties of walnut and pistachio nut just after irradiation (first phase). Chemical analyses have shown the phosphorus and total proteins value decrease at 0.50 and 1.00 kGy and some significant changes were observed in carbohydrates. A slight decrease in the amount of converted sugars was also observed. Fats in walnut are less vulnerable to gamma radiation than pistachio nut due certainly to the high amount in unsaturated oleic and linoleic acids. In conclusion the effect of gamma radiation on walnut and pantheistic appears nutritionally significant in pistachio nut and less in walnut. More investigations are necessary after a long time of storage to prove their intact nutritional quality and eventually their good digestibility. (author). 6 refs.

effects of gamma irradiation on the biochemical properties of walnut and pistachio nut in Syria, first phase: just after irradiation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Othman, I.; Karajoli, M.; Moussa, A.; Al-Kaed, A.

1998-01-01

The report describes a preliminary study that led to explore the possibility of preserving and extending the storage life of walnut and pistachio nut by gamma radiation. Syrian walnut and pistachio nut were irradiated in a Gamma cell (dose rate 0.08 kGy/min). Radiation doses used were 0.50 and 1.00 kGy and the samples were stored at room temperature (25 to 30 Centigrade) after packaging in polyethylene pouches. Fungi infestation was determined before and after gamma radiation treatment. A radiation dose of 1.00 kGy completely inhibited fungi infestation. The present study has, therefore, been conducted to investigate the effects of gamma radiation on the Biochemical properties of walnut and pistachio nut just after irradiation (first phase). Chemical analyses have shown the phosphorus and total proteins value decrease at 0.50 and 1.00 kGy and some significant changes were observed in carbohydrates. A slight decrease in the amount of converted sugars was also observed. Fats in walnut are less vulnerable to gamma radiation than pistachio nut due certainly to the high amount in unsaturated oleic and linoleic acids. In conclusion the effect of gamma radiation on walnut and pantheistic appears nutritionally significant in pistachio nut and less in walnut. More investigations are necessary after a long time of storage to prove their intact nutritional quality and eventually their good digestibility. (author). 6 refs

In vitro propagation of walnut - A review | Payghamzadeh | African ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

New challenges for refinements of protocols for high rate of shoot multiplication and development of cost effective methods has gained importance in the recent past. Importance of liquid and solid static culture for callus induction, embryogenesis, shoot proliferation and root induction for walnut is also discussed in the ...

Effect Of Walnut Leaf, Coriander And Pomegranate On Blood ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Mechanism of most of herbal used for diabetes mellitus treatment has not been well defined. This study was performed to investigate hypoglycemic effect of walnut leaf (Juglans regia L.), coriander leaf (Coriandrum sativum L.) or pomegranate seed (Punica granatum L.), and their possible role on pancreatic tissue. Diabetes ...

Extraction and Characterization of Natural Dye from Green Walnut Shells and Its Use in Dyeing Polyamide: Focus on Antibacterial Properties

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Mohammad Mirjalili

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Extraction of dyes from walnut using Soxhlet apparatus has been studied. The color components extracted and isolated from walnut shells were characterized by column chromatography, thin layer chromatography (TLC, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR, mass spectroscopy (MS, and infrared (IR techniques. Natural dye extract obtained from the walnut was used in dyeing polyamide fabrics with different mordants. The dyed fabrics were evaluated for antibacterial activity against pathogenic strains of Gram-positive (Staphylococcus aureus and Gram-negative (Escherichia coli bacteria. As such, the relationship between antibacterial activity and dye concentration is investigated. Durability of antibacterial activity to laundering is also discussed. Results indicate that the polyamide dyed with walnut displayed excellent antibacterial activity in the presence of ferric sulfate, cupric sulfate, and potassium aluminum sulfate and exhibited good and durable fastness properties.

Monitoring and research at Walnut Creek National Wildlife Refuge

Science.gov (United States)

Roelle, James E.; Hamilton, David B.

1993-01-01

Walnut Creek National Wildlife Refuge-Prairie Learning Center (Walnut Creek or the Refuge) is one of the newest additions to the National Wildlife Refuge System, which consists of over 480 units throughout the United States operated by the U.S. Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service (the Service). Located about 20 miles east of Des Moines, Iowa, the Refuge has an approved acquisition boundary containing 8,654 acres (Figure 1). Acquisition is from willing sellers only, and to date the Service has purchased approximately 5,000 acres. The acquisition boundary encompasses about 43% of the watershed of Walnut Creek, which bisects the Refuge and drains into the Des Moines River to the southeast. Approximately 25%-30% of the Walnut Creek watershed is downstream of the Refuge. As authorized by Congress in 1990, the purposes of the Refuge are to (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 1992): • restore native tallgrass pairie, wetland, and woodland habitats for breeding and migratory waterfowl and resident wildlife; • serve as a major environmental education center providing opportunities for study; • provide outdoor recreation benefits to the public; and • provide assistance to local landowners to improve their lands for wildlife habitat. To implement these purposes authorized by Congress, the Refuge has established the goal of recreating as nearly as possible the natural communities that existed at the time of settlement by Euro-Americans (circa 1840). Current land use is largely agricultural, including 69% cropland, 17% grazed pasture, and 7.5% grassland (dominantly brome) enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program). About 1,395 acres of relict native communities also exist on the Refuge, including prairie (725 acres), oak savanna and woodland (450 acres), and riparian or wetland areas (220 acres). Some of these relicts are highly restorable; others contain only a few prairie plants in a matrix of brome and will be more difficult to restore. When the

What's killing my walnuts -- how to find help

Science.gov (United States)

Jerry Van Sambeek; Jenny. Juzwik

2010-01-01

For the last decade, we have watched as the granulate ambrosia beetle (GAB) formerly the Asian ambrosia beetle spread into the southern region of walnut. Now we are asked to watch for the possible invasion of the thousand canker disease (TCD) complex into the eastern United States assuming we cannot prevent its invasion from the western United States. For both pest...

Minimum variance rooting of phylogenetic trees and implications for species tree reconstruction.

Science.gov (United States)

Mai, Uyen; Sayyari, Erfan; Mirarab, Siavash

2017-01-01

Phylogenetic trees inferred using commonly-used models of sequence evolution are unrooted, but the root position matters both for interpretation and downstream applications. This issue has been long recognized; however, whether the potential for discordance between the species tree and gene trees impacts methods of rooting a phylogenetic tree has not been extensively studied. In this paper, we introduce a new method of rooting a tree based on its branch length distribution; our method, which minimizes the variance of root to tip distances, is inspired by the traditional midpoint rerooting and is justified when deviations from the strict molecular clock are random. Like midpoint rerooting, the method can be implemented in a linear time algorithm. In extensive simulations that consider discordance between gene trees and the species tree, we show that the new method is more accurate than midpoint rerooting, but its relative accuracy compared to using outgroups to root gene trees depends on the size of the dataset and levels of deviations from the strict clock. We show high levels of error for all methods of rooting estimated gene trees due to factors that include effects of gene tree discordance, deviations from the clock, and gene tree estimation error. Our simulations, however, did not reveal significant differences between two equivalent methods for species tree estimation that use rooted and unrooted input, namely, STAR and NJst. Nevertheless, our results point to limitations of existing scalable rooting methods.

A Walnut-Enriched Diet Reduces Lipids in Healthy Caucasian Subjects, Independent of Recommended Macronutrient Replacement and Time Point of Consumption: a Prospective, Randomized, Controlled Trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Bamberger, Charlotte; Rossmeier, Andreas; Lechner, Katharina; Wu, Liya; Waldmann, Elisa; Stark, Renée G; Altenhofer, Julia; Henze, Kerstin; Parhofer, Klaus G

2017-10-06

Studies indicate a positive association between walnut intake and improvements in plasma lipids. We evaluated the effect of an isocaloric replacement of macronutrients with walnuts and the time point of consumption on plasma lipids. We included 194 healthy subjects (134 females, age 63 ± 7 years, BMI 25.1 ± 4.0 kg/m²) in a randomized, controlled, prospective, cross-over study. Following a nut-free run-in period, subjects were randomized to two diet phases (8 weeks each). Ninety-six subjects first followed a walnut-enriched diet (43 g walnuts/day) and then switched to a nut-free diet. Ninety-eight subjects followed the diets in reverse order. Subjects were also randomized to either reduce carbohydrates ( n = 62), fat ( n = 65), or both ( n = 67) during the walnut diet, and instructed to consume walnuts either as a meal or as a snack. The walnut diet resulted in a significant reduction in fasting cholesterol (walnut vs. -8.5 ± 37.2 vs. -1.1 ± 35.4 mg/dL; p = 0.002), non-HDL cholesterol (-10.3 ± 35.5 vs. -1.4 ± 33.1 mg/dL; p ≤ 0.001), LDL-cholesterol (-7.4 ± 32.4 vs. -1.7 ± 29.7 mg/dL; p = 0.029), triglycerides (-5.0 ± 47.5 vs. 3.7 ± 48.5 mg/dL; p = 0.015) and apoB (-6.7 ± 22.4 vs. -0.5 ± 37.7; p ≤ 0.001), while HDL-cholesterol and lipoprotein (a) did not change significantly. Neither macronutrient replacement nor time point of consumption significantly affected the effect of walnuts on lipids. Thus, 43 g walnuts/d improved the lipid profile independent of the recommended macronutrient replacement and the time point of consumption.

Effects of gamma irradiation on the biochemical properties of walnut and pistachio nut in Syria, first phase: just after irradiation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Karajoli, M; Moussa, A; Al-Kaed, A; Othman, I [Atomic Energy Commission, Radiation Technology Unit, Irradiation Plant, Damascus (Syrian Arab Republic)

1997-05-01

The report describes a preliminary study that led to explore the possibility of preserving and extending the storage life of walnut and pistachio nut by gamma radiation. Syrian walnut and pistachio nut were irradiated in a Gamma cell (dose rate 0.08 kGy/min). Radiation doses used were 0.50 and 1.00 kGy and the samples were stored at room temperature (25 to 30 Centigrade) after packaging in polyethylene pouches. Fungi infestation was determined before and after gamma radiation treatment. A radiation dose of 1.00 kGy completely inhibited fungi infestation. The present study has, therefore, been conducted to investigate the effects of gamma radiation on the Biochemical properties of walnut and pistachio nut just after irradiation (first phase). Chemical analyses have shown the phosphorus and total proteins value decrease at 0.50 and 1.00 kGy and some significant changes were observed in carbohydrates. A slight decrease in the amount of converted sugars was also observed. Fats in walnut are less vulnerable to gamma radiation than pistachio nut due certainly to the high amount in unsaturated oleic and linoleic acids. In conclusion the effect of gamma radiation on walnut and pantheistic appears nutritionally significant in pistachio nut and less in walnut. More investigations are necessary after a long time of storage to prove their intact nutritional quality and eventually their good digestibility. (author). 6 refs., 6 figs., 22 tabs.

Effects of gamma irradiation on the biochemical properties of walnut and pistachio nut in Syria, first phase: just after irradiation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Karajoli, M.; Moussa, A.; Al-Kaed, A.; Othman, I.

1997-05-01

The report describes a preliminary study that led to explore the possibility of preserving and extending the storage life of walnut and pistachio nut by gamma radiation. Syrian walnut and pistachio nut were irradiated in a Gamma cell (dose rate 0.08 kGy/min). Radiation doses used were 0.50 and 1.00 kGy and the samples were stored at room temperature (25 to 30 Centigrade) after packaging in polyethylene pouches. Fungi infestation was determined before and after gamma radiation treatment. A radiation dose of 1.00 kGy completely inhibited fungi infestation. The present study has, therefore, been conducted to investigate the effects of gamma radiation on the Biochemical properties of walnut and pistachio nut just after irradiation (first phase). Chemical analyses have shown the phosphorus and total proteins value decrease at 0.50 and 1.00 kGy and some significant changes were observed in carbohydrates. A slight decrease in the amount of converted sugars was also observed. Fats in walnut are less vulnerable to gamma radiation than pistachio nut due certainly to the high amount in unsaturated oleic and linoleic acids. In conclusion the effect of gamma radiation on walnut and pantheistic appears nutritionally significant in pistachio nut and less in walnut. More investigations are necessary after a long time of storage to prove their intact nutritional quality and eventually their good digestibility. (author). 6 refs., 6 figs., 22 tabs

137Cs behaviour in fruit trees

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Monte, L.; Quaggia, S.; Pompei, F.; Fratarcangeli, S.

1989-01-01

The results of measurements carried out during the period 1987-1988, to evaluate the levels of 137 Cs and 134 Cs contamination in fruit samples and in various components of fruit-trees have been reported. It has been demonstrated that, in the case of an accidental contamination of the air, the contamination of fruit is mainly due to the foliar translocation of radionuclide. Data of radioactivity content in fruits collected through a period of three years show that the radioactivity content in fruit diminishes exponentially. Rough estimates of ''translocation coefficient'' defined as the ratio (radionuclide concentration in fruit)/(radionuclide deposition on soil), and of the ''biological half time'' have been carried out in the case of hazel-nut, walnut, apple, chestnut and olive

The Effect of Walnut Oil Consumption on Blood Sugar in Patients With Diabetes Mellitus Type 2.

Science.gov (United States)

Zibaeenezhad, Mohammadjavad; Aghasadeghi, Kamran; Hakimi, Hossein; Yarmohammadi, Hassan; Nikaein, Farzad

2016-07-01

Prevalence of diabetes mellitus type 2 (DM) is increasing globally. Considering the potential role of poly-unsaturated fatty acids in prevention of DM type 2 and lipid profiles improvement, some studies have been carried out on walnut. However, there are no studies on control of blood sugar in DM type 2 patients using walnut. The current study aimed to evaluate the effect of walnut oil on blood sugar in DM type 2 patients. This randomized control clinical trial was performed on 100 patients with DM type 2. For the experiment group (n = 50), walnut oil (15 g/day for three months) was added to their diet, while the control group (n = 50) did not undergo any interventions. Before initiation of the experiment and after the experiment, the systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP and DBP) levels, fasting blood sugar (FBS) and HbA1c were measured. The two groups were not significantly different for SBP, DBP, body weight, and Body Mass Index. HbA1c level decreased significantly in the experiment group by 7.86% ± 21.97 (P = 0.005) from 7.00 ± 1.08 before the intervention to 6.37 ± 1.29 after the intervention. Also, FBS level decreased significantly by 8.24% ± 16.77 (P = 0.001); from 158.37 ± 48.16 before the intervention to 137.91 ± 23.24 after the intervention in the experimental group. These changes in the control group were not significant. Consumption of walnut oil (15 g/day for three months) was shown to improve blood glucose level but, no changes were noted for bodyweight and blood pressure in type two diabetic patients.

The Influence of Atmosphere on the Oxidation of Ground Walnut During Storage at 20 °C

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rajko Vidrih

2012-01-01

Full Text Available The aim of this study is to determine the impact of atmosphere on the oxidation of ground walnut during storage at 20 °C. Seven varieties of walnut (Juglans regia L. were ground and stored under O2 or N2 atmospheres in hermetically sealed vials for 10 months at room temperature. Antioxidative potential, total phenolic content, fatty acid composition, and oxidative degradation products were determined after 10 months of storage. Cultivar, atmosphere and cultivar×atmosphere interactions significantly influenced the antioxidative potential. Cultivar and atmosphere significantly influenced the content of total polyphenols, with more polyphenols found in walnut stored in the N2 atmosphere. The mass fraction of unsaturated linolenic acid tended to decrease during storage under the O2 atmosphere; statistically significant differences were only found between individual varieties. The O2 atmosphere also resulted in an increase in the synthesis of oxidative degradation products. Among the degradation products, hexanal was the most abundant volatile compound, followed by 1-octen-3-ol, octanal, as well as the mixture of 2-octenal and 1-octen-3-ol. In general, higher concentrations of these degradation products were found in walnut stored under the O2 atmosphere, although these differences were statistically significant only between individual varieties for some compounds.

Effect of gamma irradiation on storability of Syrian walnut

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Al-Bachir, M [Atomic Energy Commission, Damascus (Syrian Arab Republic). Dept. of Radiation Technology

2001-12-01

Walnut fruits of Baladi variety were irradiated with 0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 kGy of gamma irradiation. The irradiated and unirradiated fruits were stored at room temperature (15 to 18 Centigrade) and at a relative humidity of 50 to 70%. Fungal load, proximate composition, chemical changes and sensory properties of nuts were evaluated immediately after irradiation, 6 and 12 months of storage. The results indicated that gamma irradiation reduced the fungal load. Used doses did not cause any significant change in proximate composition of walnuts. Immediately after irradiation, gamma irradiation increased total acidity and decreased iodine value and the volatile basic nitrogen (VBN). whereas, after 12 months of storage, gamma irradiation decreased total acidity and peroxide value and increased iodine value and (VBN). Immediately after irradiation no significant differences were observed between irradiated and non-irradiated samples in flavor and aroma. Whereas, after 12 months of storage higher doses (1.5 and 2.0 kGy) had a negative effect on sensory characteristics. (author)

Effect of gamma irradiation on storability of Syrian walnut

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Al-Bachir, M.

2002-01-01

Walnut fruits of Baladi variety were irradiated with 0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 kGy of gamma irradiation. The irradiated and unirradiated fruits were stored at room temperature (15 to 18 Centigrade) and at a relative humidity of 50 to 70%. Fungal load, proximate composition, chemical changes and sensory properties of nuts were evaluated immediately after irradiation, 6 and 12 months of storage. The results indicated that gamma irradiation reduced the fungal load. Used doses did not cause any significant change in proximate composition of walnuts. Immediately after irradiation, gamma irradiation increased total acidity and decreased iodine value and the volatile basic nitrogen (VBN). whereas, after 12 months of storage, gamma irradiation decreased total acidity and peroxide value and increased iodine value and (VBN). Immediately after irradiation no significant differences were observed between irradiated and non-irradiated samples in flavor and aroma. Whereas, after 12 months of storage higher doses (1.5 and 2.0 kGy) had a negative effect on sensory characteristics. (author)

Walnut consumption in a weight reduction intervention: effects on body weight, biological measures, blood pressure and satiety.

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Rock, Cheryl L; Flatt, Shirley W; Barkai, Hava-Shoshana; Pakiz, Bilge; Heath, Dennis D

2017-12-04

Dietary strategies that help patients adhere to a weight reduction diet may increase the likelihood of weight loss maintenance and improved long-term health outcomes. Regular nut consumption has been associated with better weight management and less adiposity. The objective of this study was to compare the effects of a walnut-enriched reduced-energy diet to a standard reduced-energy-density diet on weight, cardiovascular disease risk factors, and satiety. Overweight and obese men and women (n = 100) were randomly assigned to a standard reduced-energy-density diet or a walnut-enriched (15% of energy) reduced-energy diet in the context of a behavioral weight loss intervention. Measurements were obtained at baseline and 3- and 6-month clinic visits. Participants rated hunger, fullness and anticipated prospective consumption at 3 time points during the intervention. Body measurements, blood pressure, physical activity, lipids, tocopherols and fatty acids were analyzed using repeated measures mixed models. Both study groups reduced body weight, body mass index and waist circumference (time effect p weight was -9.4 (0.9)% vs. -8.9 (0.7)% (mean [SE]), for the standard vs. walnut-enriched diet groups, respectively. Systolic blood pressure decreased in both groups at 3 months, but only the walnut-enriched diet group maintained a lower systolic blood pressure at 6 months. The walnut-enriched diet group, but not the standard reduced-energy-density diet group, reduced total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) at 6 months, from 203 to 194 mg/dL and 121 to 112 mg/dL, respectively (p weight loss that is comparable to a standard reduced-energy-density diet in the context of a behavioral weight loss intervention. Although weight loss in response to both dietary strategies was associated with improvements in cardiovascular disease risk factors, the walnut-enriched diet promoted more favorable effects on LDL-C and systolic blood pressure. The trial

Socio-economic potentials and threats to the African walnut in ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The African walnut, Plukenetia conophora Mull-Arg (Syn. Tetracarpidium conophorum) is an important climber species that contributes immensely to food security and poverty alleviation in communities within the humid tropical forests of West and Central Africa. However, the challenges facing its year-round availability have ...

Construction of a high-density genetic map using specific length amplified fragment markers and identification of a quantitative trait locus for anthracnose resistance in walnut (Juglans regia L.).

Science.gov (United States)

Zhu, Yufeng; Yin, Yanfei; Yang, Keqiang; Li, Jihong; Sang, Yalin; Huang, Long; Fan, Shu

2015-08-18

Walnut (Juglans regia, 2n = 32, approximately 606 Mb per 1C genome) is an economically important tree crop. Resistance to anthracnose, caused by Colletotrichum gloeosporioides, is a major objective of walnut genetic improvement in China. The recently developed specific length amplified fragment sequencing (SLAF-seq) is an efficient strategy that can obtain large numbers of markers with sufficient sequence information to construct high-density genetic maps and permits detection of quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for molecular breeding. SLAF-seq generated 161.64 M paired-end reads. 153,820 SLAF markers were obtained, of which 49,174 were polymorphic. 13,635 polymorphic markers were sorted into five segregation types and 2,577 markers of them were used to construct genetic linkage maps: 2,395 of these fell into 16 linkage groups (LGs) for the female map, 448 markers for the male map, and 2,577 markers for the integrated map. Taking into account the size of all LGs, the marker coverage was 2,664.36 cM for the female map, 1,305.58 cM for the male map, and 2,457.82 cM for the integrated map. The average intervals between two adjacent mapped markers were 1.11 cM, 2.91 cM and 0.95 cM for three maps, respectively. 'SNP_only' markers accounted for 89.25% of the markers on the integrated map. Mapping markers contained 5,043 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) loci, which corresponded to two SNP loci per SLAF marker. According to the integrated map, we used interval mapping (Logarithm of odds, LOD > 3.0) to detect our quantitative trait. One QTL was detected for anthracnose resistance. The interval of this QTL ranged from 165.51 cM to 176.33 cM on LG14, and ten markers in this interval that were above the threshold value were considered to be linked markers to the anthracnose resistance trait. The phenotypic variance explained by each marker ranged from 16.2 to 19.9%, and their LOD scores varied from 3.22 to 4.04. High-density genetic maps for walnut containing 16

Oil-walnut hull fracs score in Saskatchewan

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pamenter, C B

1967-02-01

The fracturing of wells using crude oil and walnut shells was recently introduced in SE. Saskatchewan with remarkable success. This workover treatment showed an ability to penetrate deeply into the low capacity Mississippian carbonates, and to raise production rates by as much as 400% without affecting the acceptable oil/ water ratios. Two case histories are included that indicate some of the conditions under which the treatment can be of value. The monthly oil and water production is tabulated for each of these cases.

York University PhD Thesis about the voyage of the Walnut

Index Scriptorium Estoniae

2007-01-01

York'i Ülikooli sotsiaalantropoloogia üliõpilase Lynda Männiku uurimistööst, mis käsitleb 1948. a. novembris ohtliku merereisi Briti miinilaeval "Walnut" Rootsist Kanadasse üle elanud inimeste, kelle hulgas oli ka Lynda isa, saatust

De novo assembly and characterization of the leaf, bud, and fruit transcriptome from the vulnerable tree Juglans mandshurica for the development of 20 new microsatellite markers using Illumina sequencing

Science.gov (United States)

Zhuang Hu; Tian Zhang; Xiao-Xiao Gao; Yang Wang; Qiang Zhang; Hui-Juan Zhou; Gui-Fang Zhao; Ma-Li Wang; Keith E. Woeste; Peng Zhao

2016-01-01

Manchurian walnut (Juglans mandshurica Maxim.) is a vulnerable, temperate deciduous tree valued for its wood and nut, but transcriptomic and genomic data for the species are very limited. Next generation sequencing (NGS) has made it possible to develop molecular markers for this species rapidly and efficiently. Our goal is to use transcriptome...

Photosynthetic Response of Soybean to Microclimate in 26-Year-Old Tree-Based Intercropping Systems in Southern Ontario, Canada.

Science.gov (United States)

Peng, Xiaobang; Thevathasan, Naresh V; Gordon, Andrew M; Mohammed, Idris; Gao, Pengxiang

2015-01-01

In order to study the effect of light competition and microclimatic modifications on the net assimilation (NA), growth and yield of soybean (Glycine max L.) as an understory crop, three 26-year-old soybean-tree (Acer saccharinum Marsh., Populus deltoides X nigra, Juglans nigra L.) intercropping systems were examined. Tree competition reduced photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) incident on soybeans and reduced net assimilation, growth and yield of soybean. Soil moisture of 20 cm depth close (tree rows was also reduced. Correlation analysis showed that NA and soil water content were highly correlated with growth and yield of soybean. When compared with the monoculture soybean system, the relative humidity (RH) of the poplar-soybean, silver maple-soybean, and black walnut-soybean intercropped systems was increased by 7.1%, 8.0% and 5.9%, soil water content was reduced by 37.8%, 26.3% and 30.9%, ambient temperature was reduced by 1.3°C, 1.4°C and 1.0°C, PAR was reduced by 53.6%, 57.9% and 39.9%, and air CO2 concentration was reduced by 3.7μmol·mol(-1), 4.2μmol·mol(-1) and 2.8μmol·mol(-1), respectively. Compared to the monoculture, the average NA of soybean in poplar, maple and walnut treatments was also reduced by 53.1%, 67.5% and 46.5%, respectively. Multivariate stepwise regression analysis showed that PAR, ambient temperature and CO2 concentration were the dominant factors influencing net photosynthetic rate.

Synergistic anti-tumor effects of melatonin and PUFAs from walnuts in a murine mammary adenocarcinoma model.

Science.gov (United States)

Garcia, Carolina P; Lamarque, Alicia L; Comba, Andrea; Berra, María A; Silva, Renata A; Labuckas, Diana O; Das, Undurti N; Eynard, Aldo R; Pasqualini, Maria E

2015-04-01

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of some polyunsaturated fatty acids plus phytomelatonin from walnuts in the development of mammary gland adenocarcinoma. BALB/c mice were fed a semisynthetic diet supplemented with either 6% walnut oil and 8% walnut flour containing phytomelatonin (walnut diet: WD); or 6% corn oil plus commercial melatonin (melatonin diet: MD), or the control group (CD), which received only 6% of corn oil. Membrane fatty acids of tumor cells (TCs) were analyzed by gas liquid chromatography, cyclooxygenase (COX) and lipoxygenase (LOX) derivatives, and plasma melatonin by high-performance liquid chromatography; apoptosis and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes by flow cytometry. TCs from the MD and WD mice showed significant decreases in linoleic acid compared with the CD group (P < 0.05). Significantly lower levels of LOX-[13(S)-HODE] were found in TCs from the MD and WD group than in CD (P < 0.0001). COX-[12(S)-HHT] was lower and 12 LOX-[12(S)-HETE] was higher in TCs from the MD group than form the WD and CD arms (P < 0.05). Plasma melatonin, apoptosis, tumor infiltration, and survival time were significantly lower in CD mice than in MD and WD mice (P < 0.05). This study shows that melatonin, along with polyunsaturated fatty acids, exerts a selective inhibition of some COX and LOX activities and has a synergistic anti-tumor effect on a mammary gland adenocarcinoma model. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Amino acid profile of raw and boiled seeds of african walnut ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Principal Component Analysis (PCA) explained close to 50% of the total variability in amino acid composition, identifying arginine, asparagine, lysine, methionine, valine, glutamic acid, leucine, cysteine, threonine, alanine and isoleucine as the key amino acids for describing African walnut seeds in the south-eastern zone of ...

Effects of Kaolin Application on Light Absorption and Distribution, Radiation Use Efficiency and Photosynthesis of Almond and Walnut Canopies

Science.gov (United States)

Rosati, Adolfo; Metcalf, Samuel G.; Buchner, Richard P.; Fulton, Allan E.; Lampinen, Bruce D.

2007-01-01

Background and Aims Kaolin applied as a suspension to plant canopies forms a film on leaves that increases reflection and reduces absorption of light. Photosynthesis of individual leaves is decreased while the photosynthesis of the whole canopy remains unaffected or even increases. This may result from a better distribution of light within the canopy following kaolin application, but this explanation has not been tested. The objective of this work was to study the effects of kaolin application on light distribution and absorption within tree canopies and, ultimately, on canopy photosynthesis and radiation use efficiency. Methods Photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) incident on individual leaves within the canopy of almond (Prunus dulcis) and walnut (Juglans regia) trees was measured before and after kaolin application in order to study PAR distribution within the canopy. The PAR incident on, and reflected and transmitted by, the canopy was measured on the same day for kaolin-sprayed and control trees in order to calculate canopy PAR absorption. These data were then used to model canopy photosynthesis and radiation use efficiency by a simple method proposed in previous work, based on the photosynthetic response to incident PAR of a top-canopy leaf. Key Results Kaolin increased incident PAR on surfaces of inner-canopy leaves, although there was an estimated 20 % loss in PAR reaching the photosynthetic apparatus, due to increased reflection. Assuming a 20 % loss of PAR, modelled photosynthesis and photosynthetic radiation use efficiency (PRUE) of kaolin-coated leaves decreased by only 6·3 %. This was due to (1) more beneficial PAR distribution within the kaolin-sprayed canopy, and (2) with decreasing PAR, leaf photosynthesis decreases less than proportionally, due to the curvature of the photosynthesis response-curve to PAR. The relatively small loss in canopy PRUE (per unit of incident PAR), coupled with the increased incident PAR on the leaf surface on

Use of innovative groundcovers in Mediterranean afforestations: aerial and belowground effects in hybrid walnut.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Angelo Vitone

2016-11-01

Full Text Available Forest restoration in the Mediterranean area is particularly limited by water scarcity in summer and by weed competition, especially during the first years after establishment. The negative impact of these factors can be mitigated through environmentally friendly and cost-effective techniques which favour root development. This study describes the results of innovative weeding techniques in a reforestation carried out in a former agricultural field in Solsona, NE Spain, under Continental Mediterranean Sub-humid climate conditions. The tested weeding techniques included both novel groundcovers (based on prototypes built on a new biodegradable biopolymer, jute treated with resin and recycled rubber and reference techniques, i.e. herbicide application and polyethylene and commercial biofilm groundcovers. We studied the response of hybrid walnut (Juglans x intermedia to the application of these techniques during the first vegetative period in terms of survival, aerial growth and aboveground and belowground biomass allocation. The innovative groundcovers resulted generally in similar outcomes as the reference techniques with regard to tree survival and growth, and to better results in the case of belowground and, to a lesser extent, total tree biomass. Although preliminary, our results suggest that the tested novel groundcovers, notably the model based on treated jute, represent a promising alternative to plastic mulching and herbicide application in afforestation of agricultural lands in Mediterranean continental conditions. Besides these promising productive results, the novel groundcovers bring together relevant technical and environmental benefits, related to their use (not requiring removal or being reusable and composition, based on biodegradable or recycled materials.

Walnut Polyphenol Extract Attenuates Immunotoxicity Induced by 4-Pentylphenol and 3-methyl-4-nitrophenol in Murine Splenic Lymphocyte

OpenAIRE

Lubing Yang; Sihui Ma; Yu Han; Yuhan Wang; Yan Guo; Qiang Weng; Meiyu Xu

2016-01-01

4-pentylphenol (PP) and 3-methyl-4-nitrophenol (PNMC), two important components of vehicle emissions, have been shown to confer toxicity in splenocytes. Certain natural products, such as those derived from walnuts, exhibit a range of antioxidative, antitumor, and anti-inflammatory properties. Here, we investigated the effects of walnut polyphenol extract (WPE) on immunotoxicity induced by PP and PNMC in murine splenic lymphocytes. Treatment with WPE was shown to significantly enhance prolifer...

Genetic diversity and genetic structure of Persian walnut (Juglans regia) accessions from 14 European, African, and Asian countries using SSR markers

Science.gov (United States)

Aziz Ebrahimi; Abdolkarim Zarei; Shaneka Lawson; Keith E. Woeste; M. J. M. Smulders

2016-01-01

Persian walnut (Juglans regia L.) is the world's most widely grown nut crop, but large-scale assessments and comparisons of the genetic diversity of the crop are notably lacking. To guide the conservation and utilization of Persian walnut genetic resources, genotypes (n = 189) from 25 different regions in 14 countries on...

Physiology and silviculture of black walnut for combined timber and nut production

Science.gov (United States)

J. W. Van Sambeek; George Rink

1981-01-01

Research literature was reviewed for evidence supporting the management of black walnut plantations for combined timber and nut production. The silviculture of the species is discussed in relation to dual cropping. Stimulation and phenology of flowering and fruiting are reviewed.

Walnuts lower TRAMP prostate tumor growth by altering IGF-1, energy and cholesterol metabolism and is not due to their fatty acids

Science.gov (United States)

Dietary changes could potentially reduce prostate cancer morbidity and mortality. Prostate tumor size, gene expression, metabolite and plasma responses to a 100 g of fat/kg diet (whole walnuts, walnut oil and other oils; balanced for macronutrients, tocopherols (a-and ' ) for 18 weeks were assessed ...

Antioxidant hydrolysed peptides from Manchurian walnut (Juglansmandshurica Maxim.) attenuate scopolamine-induced memory impairment in mice.

Science.gov (United States)

Ren, Dayong; Zhao, Fanrui; Liu, Chunlei; Wang, Ji; Guo, Yong; Liu, Jingsheng; Min, Weihong

2018-04-13

Walnut protein, which is obtained as a by-product of oil expression, has not been used efficiently. Although walnuts are beneficial for cognitive functioning, the potential of their protein composition in strengthening learning and memory functions remains unknown. In this research, the inhibition of memory impairment by the Manchurian walnut hydrolyzed peptide (MWHP) was evaluated. Small-molecular-weight MWHP (<3 kDa) achieved the optimal antioxidative activity. Therefore, MWHP (<3 kDa) was subjected to the following mice trials to evaluate its attenuation effect on memory impairment. In the Morris water maze test, MWHP shortened the total path for searching the platform, reduced the escape latency, and increased the dwelling distance and time in the coverage zone. MWHP also prolonged the latency and diminished errors in the passive avoidance response tests. These behavioral tests demonstrated that MWHP could inhibit scopolamine-induced memory impairment. MWHP improved memory by reducing oxidative stress, inhibiting apoptosis, regulating neurotransmitter functions, maintaining hippocampal CA3 pyramidal neurons, and increasing p-CaMK II levels in brain tissues. Experimental results proved that MWHP exhibits potential in improving memory and should be used to develop novel functional food. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Incidence of Agrobacterium tumefaciens biovar 1 in and on ‘Paradox’ (Juglans hindsii x Juglans regia) walnut seed collected from commercial nurseries

Science.gov (United States)

The walnut rootstock Paradox (Juglans hindsii (Jeps) Rehder x J. regia L.) is susceptible to Agrobacterium tumefaciens (7) which often results in a high incidence of crown gall in nursery or walnut production orchards. Though A. tumefaciens is susceptible to the commonly used preplant soil fumigant...

Quantifying residues from postharvest fumigation of almonds and walnuts with propylene oxide

Science.gov (United States)

A novel analytical approach, involving solvent extraction with methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) followed by gas chromatography (GC), was developed to quantify residues that result from the postharvest fumigation of almonds and walnuts with propylene oxide (PPO). Verification and quantification of PPO,...

Detection and Counting of Orchard Trees from Vhr Images Using a Geometrical-Optical Model and Marked Template Matching

Science.gov (United States)

Maillard, Philippe; Gomes, Marília F.

2016-06-01

This article presents an original algorithm created to detect and count trees in orchards using very high resolution images. The algorithm is based on an adaptation of the "template matching" image processing approach, in which the template is based on a "geometricaloptical" model created from a series of parameters, such as illumination angles, maximum and ambient radiance, and tree size specifications. The algorithm is tested on four images from different regions of the world and different crop types. These images all have the GoogleEarth application. Results show that the algorithm is very efficient at detecting and counting trees as long as their spectral and spatial characteristics are relatively constant. For walnut, mango and orange trees, the overall accuracy was clearly above 90%. However, the overall success rate for apple trees fell under 75%. It appears that the openness of the apple tree crown is most probably responsible for this poorer result. The algorithm is fully explained with a step-by-step description. At this stage, the algorithm still requires quite a bit of user interaction. The automatic determination of most of the required parameters is under development.

Synthesis of Monodisperse Walnut-Like SnO2 Spheres and Their Photocatalytic Performances

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jing Wang

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Novel walnut-like SnO2 spheres have been synthesized using a one-step hydrothermal reaction with SnCl2·2H2O and KOH as raw materials. The morphology, microstructure, and optical properties of the products were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD, Raman spectrum, scanning electron microscopy (SEM, transmission electron microscopy (TEM, selected area electron diffraction (SAED, and ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis absorption spectroscopy. The detailed studies revealed that these synthesized spheres are highly monodisperse and have a uniform size of approximately 250 nm. Photocatalytic activity of the prepared SnO2 spheres was evaluated by the degradation of methylene orange. The synthesized SnO2 spheres exhibited excellent photocatalytic degradation. In addition, a possible formation mechanism of the walnut-like nanostructures was proposed based on reaction time-dependent experiments.

Soil Structure and Mycorrhizae Encourage Black Walnut Growth on Old Fields

Science.gov (United States)

Felix Jr. Ponder

1979-01-01

Examination of black walnut seedlings grown in forest and field soils showed all root systems were infected with mycorrhizae; the amount of infection was influenced by treatments. Mean height and dry weight of tops and roots were greater for seedlings grown in forest than field soil. Seedling height growth was not increased by disturbing either soil; but, root dry...

Exploring public perceptions of solutions to tree diseases in the UK: Implications for policy-makers.

Science.gov (United States)

Jepson, Paul; Arakelyan, Irina

2017-10-01

Tree diseases are on the increase in many countries and the implications of their appearance can be political, as well as ecological and economic. Preventative policy approaches to tree diseases are difficult to formulate because dispersal pathways for pest and pathogens are numerous, poorly known and likely to be beyond human management control. Genomic techniques could offer the quickest and most predictable approach to developing a disease tolerant native ash. The population of European Ash ( Fraxinus Excelsi or) has suffered major losses in the last decade, due to the onset of Hymenoscyphus fraxineus (previously called Chalara Fraxinea ) commonly known in the UK as ash dieback. This study presents evidence on the public acceptability of tree-breed solutions to the spread of Chalara , with the main aim to provide science and policy with an up-stream 'steer' on the likely public acceptability of different tree breeding solutions. The findings showed that whilst there was a firm anti-GM and ' we shouldn't tamper with nature ' attitude among UK publics, there was an equally firm and perhaps slightly larger pragmatic attitude that GM (science and technology) should be used if there is a good reason to do so, for example if it can help protect trees from disease and help feed the world. The latter view was significantly stronger among younger age groups (Millennials), those living in urban areas and when the (GM)modified trees were destined for urban and plantation, rather than countryside settings. Overall, our findings suggest that the UK government could consider genomic solutions to tree breeding with more confidence in the future, as large and influential publics appear to be relaxed about the use of genomic techniques to increase tolerance of trees to disease.

Why do trees die? Characterizing the drivers of background tree mortality

Science.gov (United States)

Das, Adrian J.; Stephenson, Nathan L.; Davis, Kristin P.

2016-01-01

The drivers of background tree mortality rates—the typical low rates of tree mortality found in forests in the absence of acute stresses like drought—are central to our understanding of forest dynamics, the effects of ongoing environmental changes on forests, and the causes and consequences of geographical gradients in the nature and strength of biotic interactions. To shed light on factors contributing to background tree mortality, we analyzed detailed pathological data from 200,668 tree-years of observation and 3,729 individual tree deaths, recorded over a 13-yr period in a network of old-growth forest plots in California's Sierra Nevada mountain range. We found that: (1) Biotic mortality factors (mostly insects and pathogens) dominated (58%), particularly in larger trees (86%). Bark beetles were the most prevalent (40%), even though there were no outbreaks during the study period; in contrast, the contribution of defoliators was negligible. (2) Relative occurrences of broad classes of mortality factors (biotic, 58%; suppression, 51%; and mechanical, 25%) are similar among tree taxa, but may vary with tree size and growth rate. (3) We found little evidence of distinct groups of mortality factors that predictably occur together on trees. Our results have at least three sets of implications. First, rather than being driven by abiotic factors such as lightning or windstorms, the “ambient” or “random” background mortality that many forest models presume to be independent of tree growth rate is instead dominated by biotic agents of tree mortality, with potentially critical implications for forecasting future mortality. Mechanistic models of background mortality, even for healthy, rapidly growing trees, must therefore include the insects and pathogens that kill trees. Second, the biotic agents of tree mortality, instead of occurring in a few predictable combinations, may generally act opportunistically and with a relatively large degree of independence from

Genotype and year variability of the chemical composition of walnut oil of Moroccan seedlings from the high Atlas Mountains

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kodad, O.; EstopaNan, G.; Juan, T.; Socias i Company, R.; Sindic, M.

2016-07-01

Protein and oil content, fatty acid composition and tocopherol concentration were determined for two years in the kernel of ten candidate walnut selections from the high Atlas Mountains in Morocco. Considerable variation between genotypes was found for all parameters. The ranges of protein content (11.58–14.5% of kernel dry weight, DW), oil content (54.4–67.48% of kernel DW), oleic (12.47–22.01% of total oil), linoleic (55.03–60.01%), linolenic (9.3–15.87%), palmitic (6.84–9.12%), and stearic (1.7–2.92%) acid percentages, ?-tocopherol (188.1–230.7 mg·kg-1 of oil), d-tocopherol (23.3–43.4 mg·kg-1), and a-tocopherol (8.9–16.57 mg·kg-1) contents agreed with previous results obtained from other commercial walnut cultivars. The effect of year was significant for all the chemical components, except for oil content and palmitic acid percentage. Some genotypes showed high oil contents and consistently high values of ?-tocopherol in both years of study. The introduction of these genotypes as new cultivars by vegetative propagation may result in a an increase in quality of the walnuts from the high Atlas Mountains of Morocco, and as a seed source for forest walnut propagation in the same region. (Author)

Assessing frost damages using dynamic models in walnut trees: exposure rather than vulnerability controls frost risks.

Science.gov (United States)

Guillaume, Charrier; Isabelle, Chuine; Marc, Bonhomme; Thierry, Améglio

2018-05-01

Frost damages develop when exposure overtakes frost vulnerability. Frost risk assessment therefore needs dynamic simulation of frost hardiness using temperature and photoperiod in interaction with developmental stage. Two models, including or not the effect of photoperiod, were calibrated using five years of frost hardiness monitoring (2007-2012), in two locations (low and high elevation) for three walnut genotypes with contrasted phenology and maximum hardiness (Juglans regia cv Franquette, J. regia × nigra 'Early' and 'Late'). The photothermal model predicted more accurate values for all genotypes (efficiency = 0.879; Root Mean Standard Error Predicted (RMSEP) = 2.55 °C) than the thermal model (efficiency = 0.801; RMSEP = 3.24 °C). Predicted frost damages were strongly correlated to minimum temperature of the freezing events (ρ = -0.983) rather than actual frost hardiness (ρ = -0.515), or ratio of phenological stage completion (ρ = 0.336). Higher frost risks are consequently predicted during winter, at high elevation, whereas spring is only risky at low elevation in early genotypes exhibiting faster dehardening rate. However, early frost damages, although of lower value, may negatively affect fruit production the subsequent year (R 2  = 0.381, P = 0.057). These results highlight the interacting pattern between frost exposure and vulnerability at different scales and the necessity of intra-organ studies to understand the time course of frost vulnerability in flower buds along the winter. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Consumption of restructured meat products with added walnuts has a cholesterol-lowering effect in subjects at high cardiovascular risk: a randomised, crossover, placebo-controlled study.

Science.gov (United States)

Olmedilla-Alonso, B; Granado-Lorencio, F; Herrero-Barbudo, C; Blanco-Navarro, I; Blázquez-García, S; Pérez-Sacristán, B

2008-04-01

Diet and lifestyle are modifiable factors involved in the development and prevention of non-communicable diseases, including cardiovascular disease. Nut consumption, particularly walnut intake, has been inversely related to incident coronary heart disease (CHD) in observational studies and to improved lipid profiles in short-term feeding trials. To assess the potential functional effect associated with the regular consumption of walnut-enriched restructured meat products in subjects at risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD). A crossover single-dose bioavailability study (n = 3) using gamma-tocopherol as exposure marker and a crossover unblinded dietary intervention study (5 weeks) in subjects at risk (n = 25). Dietary intervention consisted of regular consumption of the meat product, with or without walnuts, five times per week for five weeks with a 1-month washout in between. Overnight fasting blood samples were collected on days 0, 12, 21, 28 and 35, coinciding with blood pressure and body weight recordings. Participants were asked to complete a diet record throughout the study. The functional effects were assessed using clinically relevant and related biomarkers of CHD: serum total, HDL and LDL cholesterol, triacylglycerols, homocysteine, vitamins B(6) and B(12), folic acid, alpha-tocopherol and platelet function test (obturation time). The regular consumption of walnut-enriched meat products compared with that of the restructured meat products without added walnuts provokes a decrease in total cholesterol of 6.8 mg/dl (CI(95%): -12.8, -0.85). Compared to baseline (mixed diet), meat products with walnuts decreased total cholesterol (-10.7 mg/dl, CI(95%): -17.1, -4.2), LDL cholesterol (-7.6 mg/dl, CI(95%): -2.2, -13.0) and body weight (-0.5 kg, CI(95%): -0.1, -0.9) and increased gamma-tocopherol (8.9 mg/dl, CI(95%): 1.0, 16.8). The restructured meat products with added walnuts supplied in this study can be considered functional foods for subjects at high risk for

WIND DAMAGE ON TREES FOLLOWING HURRICANE SANDY AND IMPLICATIONS FOR CITY LANDSCAPING: GLEN RIDGE – MONTCLAIR TOWNS, NEW JERSEY

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FAITH JUSTUS

2013-05-01

Full Text Available Glen Ridge is a small municipality in the Northern New Jersey with a significant number of huge trees lining majority of its streets. The trees have been subject to a wide range of natural and artificial stresses, one being the strong wind associated with superstorm Sandy. On 29th October 2012, a windstorm of extreme intensity struck the Tristate region and brought havoc to the tree population including those in Glen Ridge. A survey was conducted immediately after the storm to collect quantitative information on fallen tree population. The study aimed at understanding the spatial extent of wind damage on trees with reference to location, trunk diameter and soil characteristics. A total of 51 fallen trees with a mean trunk diameter of 100.4 centimetres along streets in study area were surveyed. High damage was noted on trees in Glen Ridge (29 trees while streets transitioning to Montclair had 22 fallen trees. Majority of the surveyed trees were found on USBOO soils (49%, which are characterised as disturbed urban soils with Boonton substratum-Boonton complexes. BowrB soils had 27.5%, Boob 13.7%, BowrC 7.8% and USDUNB 2.0% of fallen trees. A need for city wide tree inventorying and species mapping is identified as a management implication to further enhance the historical value of the city. Other measures are discussed with a view of engaging appropriate local management partnerships and coordination frameworks to play a role in protecting the remaining large trees.

Varying rotation lengths in northern production forests: Implications for habitats provided by retention and production trees.

Science.gov (United States)

Felton, Adam; Sonesson, Johan; Nilsson, Urban; Lämås, Tomas; Lundmark, Tomas; Nordin, Annika; Ranius, Thomas; Roberge, Jean-Michel

2017-04-01

Because of the limited spatial extent and comprehensiveness of protected areas, an increasing emphasis is being placed on conserving habitats which promote biodiversity within production forest. For this reason, alternative silvicultural programs need to be evaluated with respect to their implications for forest biodiversity, especially if these programs are likely to be adopted. Here we simulated the effect of varied rotation length and associated thinning regimes on habitat availability in Scots pine and Norway spruce production forests, with high and low productivity. Shorter rotation lengths reduced the contribution made by production trees (trees grown for industrial use) to the availability of key habitat features, while concurrently increasing the contribution from retention trees. The contribution of production trees to habitat features was larger for high productivity sites, than for low productivity sites. We conclude that shortened rotation lengths result in losses of the availability of habitat features that are key for biodiversity conservation and that increased retention practices may only partially compensate for this. Ensuring that conservation efforts better reflect the inherent variation in stand rotation lengths would help improve the maintenance of key forest habitats in production forests.

Biological control of olive fruit fly (Diptera: Tephritidae) by releases of Psyttalia cf. concolor (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) in California, parasitoid longevity in presence of the host, and host status of Walnut Husk Fly

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yokoyama, Victoria Y., E-mail: vyokoyama@fresno.ars.usda.go [U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA/ARS/SJVASC), Parlier, CA (United States). Agricultural Research Service. Subtropical Horticulture Research Station; Rendon, Pedro A., E-mail: prendon@aphisguate.co [U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA/APHIS), Guatemala City (Guatemala). Center for Plant Health Science and Technology. Animal and Plant Health Inspection.; Sivinski, John, E-mail: jsivinski@gainesville.usda.ufl.ed [U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA/ARS/CMAVE), Gainesville, FL (United States). Agricultural Research Service. Center for Medical, Agricultural and Veterinary Entomology

2006-07-01

The larval parasitoid, Psyttalia cf. concolor, collected from tephritids infesting coffee in Kenya and reared on Mediterranean fruit fly, Ceratitis capitata Weidemann, in Guatemala by USDA-APHIS, PPQ, was imported into California for biological control of olive fruit fly, Bactrocera oleae (Gmelin), in olives, Olea europaea. Free releases of the parasitoids were made in olive trees infested with olive fruit fly at a coastal and inland valley location during the fall and early winter of 2005. The relative humidity during the releases was significantly higher at the coastal location. Mean percentage parasitism ranged from 0.5 to 4 and 1.5 to 30 at the coastal and inland valley locations respectively, based on same season recovery of the F1 generation. One parasitoid was found in infested olives in the next crop of the following year in San Jose. Survival of the parasitoid in the greenhouse in the presence of olive fruit fly infested olives was not significantly different than in the presence of non-infested olives. The greatest number of progeny was produced from female parasitoids that were 12-16 d old. In laboratory tests, a few individuals of the parasitoid successfully completed one life cycle in walnut husk fly, Rhagoletis completa Cresson, infested English walnuts, Juglans regia L. (author)

Biological control of olive fruit fly (Diptera: Tephritidae) by releases of Psyttalia cf. concolor (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) in California, parasitoid longevity in presence of the host, and host status of Walnut Husk Fly

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yokoyama, Victoria Y.; Rendon, Pedro A.; Sivinski, John

2006-01-01

The larval parasitoid, Psyttalia cf. concolor, collected from tephritids infesting coffee in Kenya and reared on Mediterranean fruit fly, Ceratitis capitata Weidemann, in Guatemala by USDA-APHIS, PPQ, was imported into California for biological control of olive fruit fly, Bactrocera oleae (Gmelin), in olives, Olea europaea. Free releases of the parasitoids were made in olive trees infested with olive fruit fly at a coastal and inland valley location during the fall and early winter of 2005. The relative humidity during the releases was significantly higher at the coastal location. Mean percentage parasitism ranged from 0.5 to 4 and 1.5 to 30 at the coastal and inland valley locations respectively, based on same season recovery of the F1 generation. One parasitoid was found in infested olives in the next crop of the following year in San Jose. Survival of the parasitoid in the greenhouse in the presence of olive fruit fly infested olives was not significantly different than in the presence of non-infested olives. The greatest number of progeny was produced from female parasitoids that were 12-16 d old. In laboratory tests, a few individuals of the parasitoid successfully completed one life cycle in walnut husk fly, Rhagoletis completa Cresson, infested English walnuts, Juglans regia L. (author)

Sensory evaluation of commercial fat spreads based on oilseeds and walnut

OpenAIRE

Dimić, Etelka B.; Vujasinović, Vesna B.; Radočaj, Olga F.; Borić, Bojan D.

2013-01-01

The main focus of this study was on the sensory evaluation of commercial oilseeds spreads, as the most significant characteristic of this type of product from the consumers’ point of view. Sensory analysis was conducted by five experts using a quantitative descriptive and sensory profile test, applying a scoring method according to the standard procedure. Five different spreads were evaluated: sunflower, pumpkin, sesame, peanut, and walnut. Oil content and ...

Computer-aided Fault Tree Analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Willie, R.R.

1978-08-01

A computer-oriented methodology for deriving minimal cut and path set families associated with arbitrary fault trees is discussed first. Then the use of the Fault Tree Analysis Program (FTAP), an extensive FORTRAN computer package that implements the methodology is described. An input fault tree to FTAP may specify the system state as any logical function of subsystem or component state variables or complements of these variables. When fault tree logical relations involve complements of state variables, the analyst may instruct FTAP to produce a family of prime implicants, a generalization of the minimal cut set concept. FTAP can also identify certain subsystems associated with the tree as system modules and provide a collection of minimal cut set families that essentially expresses the state of the system as a function of these module state variables. Another FTAP feature allows a subfamily to be obtained when the family of minimal cut sets or prime implicants is too large to be found in its entirety; this subfamily consists only of sets that are interesting to the analyst in a special sense

Removal of mercury from water by carbonaceous sorbents derived from walnut shell

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zabihi, M.; Ahmadpour, A.; Asl, A. Haghighi

2009-01-01

The adsorption ability of a powdered activated carbon (PAC) derived from walnut shell was investigated in an attempt to produce more economic and effective sorbent for the control of Hg(II) ion from industrial liquid streams. Carbonaceous sorbents derived from Iranian walnut shell (WS) were prepared by chemical activation method using ZnCl 2 as an activating reagent. To the best of our knowledge, this adsorbent was not used before for removing mercury from water. Adsorption of Hg(II) from aqueous solutions was carried out under different experimental conditions by varying treatment time, metal ion concentration, adsorbent amount, pH and solution temperature. It was determined that Hg(II) adsorption follows both Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms as well as pseudo-second-order kinetics. It was also shown that Hg(II) uptake decreases with increasing pH of the solution. The proper choice of preparation conditions resulted in a microporous activated carbon with 0.45 g/cm 3 density, 737 mg/g iodine number and 780 m 2 /g BET surface area. The monolayer sorption capacity of this optimum adsorbent was obtained as 151.5 mg/g.

Effect of Culture Medium in Callogenesis from Adult Walnut Leaves (Juglans regia L. Efecto del Medio de Cultivo en la Callogénesis de Nogal (Juglans regia L. a Partir de Hojas Adultas

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Fabiola Avilés

2009-09-01

Full Text Available To define preliminary aspects of walnut (Juglans regia L. callogenesis in indirect propagation systems, this work analyzed callogenic induction in adult leaves of walnut in broadleaf trees (BTM, Murashige and Skoog (MS Driver Kuniyuki Walnut (DKW and Woody Plant (WPM media. Leaf segments of 1 cm², previously sterilized, were placed in each culture medium, supplemented with 21.4 µM naphtalene acetic acid (NAA and 8.8 µM 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP. A completely random design was used; the experimental unit was a Petri dish with six callus explants. Each treatment was composed of seven Petri dishes. Callogenesis (%, nodular calli (% and histology of calli explants were evaluated at 4 weeks by staining 10 µm slices with safranine-fastgreen. There were no significant differences (α = 0.05 in callogenesis among evaluated media; but nodular calli percentages were significantly higher in BTM (75% and WPM (63%. Only in calli obtained in the BTM medium did the histology show the presence of meristematic zones, but without external expression. These results indicate that the medium influences the morphogenic characteristics of resultant callus. Calli produced in BTM presented better morphogenic potential, with meristems at primary stages of organization.Con el objeto de definir aspectos preliminares de la callogénesis de nogal(Juglans regia L., para establecer, sistemas de propagación vegetativa vía indirecta, este trabajo analizó la inducción callogénica en hojas adultas de nogal, utilizando los medios de cultivo broadleaves tree (BTM, Murashige y Skoog (MS, Driver Kuniyuki Walnut (DKW y Woody Plant (WPM. Se utilizaron segmentos foliares de 1 cm² previamente esterilizados fueron dispuestos en cada medio de cultivo suplementado con 21,4 µM de ácido naftalén acético (ANA y 8,8 µM de 6-bencilaminopurina (BAP. Se utilizó un diseño completamente aleatorio, la unidad experimental correspondió a una placa Petri con seis segmentos foliares. Cada

Chemical and amino acid composition of cooked walnut (juglans regia) flour

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Niyi, H.; Ogungbenle, N.

2009-01-01

The proximate analysis of cooked walnut (Juglans regia) flour revealed the composition as protein (14.18%), moisture (11.01%), ash (3.14%), crude fibre (3.03%), crude fat (10.22%), carbohydrate (58.42%), phytate (20.18 mg/g), oxalate (1.13 mg/g) and tannin (2.33%). Glutamic and aspartic acids were the most predominant amino acids in the sample with values of 151.6 mg/g and 89.5 mg/g, respectively. (author)

Ancient humans influenced the current spatial genetic structure of common walnut populations in Asia

Science.gov (United States)

Paola Pollegioni; Keith E. Woeste; Francesca Chiocchini; Stefano Del Lungo; Irene Olimpieri; Virginia Tortolano; Jo Clark; Gabriel E. Hemery; Sergio Mapelli; Maria Emilia Malvolti; Gyaneshwer. Chaubey

2015-01-01

Common walnut (Juglans regia L) is an economically important species cultivated worldwide for its wood and nuts. It is generally accepted that J. regia survived and grew spontaneously in almost completely isolated stands in its Asian native range after the Last Glacial Maximum. Despite its natural geographic isolation, J....

Long term high resolution rainfall runoff observations for improved water balance uncertainty and database QA-QC in the Walnut Gulch Experimental Watershed.

Science.gov (United States)

Bitew, M. M.; Goodrich, D. C.; Demaria, E.; Heilman, P.; Kautz, M. A.

2017-12-01

Walnut Gulch is a semi-arid environment experimental watershed and Long Term Agro-ecosystem Research (LTAR) site managed by USDA-ARS Southwest Watershed Research Center for which high-resolution long-term hydro-climatic data are available across its 150 km2 drainage area. In this study, we present the analysis of 50 years of continuous hourly rainfall data to evaluate runoff control and generation processes for improving the QA-QC plans of Walnut Gulch to create high-quality data set that is critical for reducing water balance uncertainties. Multiple linear regression models were developed to relate rainfall properties, runoff characteristics and watershed properties. The rainfall properties were summarized to event based total depth, maximum intensity, duration, the location of the storm center with respect to the outlet, and storm size normalized to watershed area. We evaluated the interaction between the runoff and rainfall and runoff as antecedent moisture condition (AMC), antecedent runoff condition (ARC) and, runoff depth and duration for each rainfall events. We summarized each of the watershed properties such as contributing area, slope, shape, channel length, stream density, channel flow area, and percent of the area of retention stock ponds for each of the nested catchments in Walnut Gulch. The evaluation of the model using basic and categorical statistics showed good predictive skill throughout the watersheds. The model produced correlation coefficients ranging from 0.4-0.94, Nash efficiency coefficients up to 0.77, and Kling-Gupta coefficients ranging from 0.4 to 0.98. The model predicted 92% of all runoff generations and 98% of no-runoff across all sub-watersheds in Walnut Gulch. The regression model also indicated good potential to complement the QA-QC procedures in place for Walnut Gulch dataset publications developed over the years since the 1960s through identification of inconsistencies in rainfall and runoff relations.

Comparison of event tree, fault tree and Markov methods for probabilistic safety assessment and application to accident mitigation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

James, H.; Harris, M.J.; Hall, S.F.

1992-01-01

Probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) is used extensively in the nuclear industry. The main stages of PSA and the traditional event tree method are described. Focussing on hydrogen explosions, an event tree model is compared to a novel Markov model and a fault tree, and unexpected implication for accident mitigation is revealed. (author)

Walnut Polyphenol Extract Attenuates Immunotoxicity Induced by 4-Pentylphenol and 3-methyl-4-nitrophenol in Murine Splenic Lymphocyte

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lubing Yang

2016-05-01

Full Text Available 4-pentylphenol (PP and 3-methyl-4-nitrophenol (PNMC, two important components of vehicle emissions, have been shown to confer toxicity in splenocytes. Certain natural products, such as those derived from walnuts, exhibit a range of antioxidative, antitumor, and anti-inflammatory properties. Here, we investigated the effects of walnut polyphenol extract (WPE on immunotoxicity induced by PP and PNMC in murine splenic lymphocytes. Treatment with WPE was shown to significantly enhance proliferation of splenocytes exposed to PP or PNMC, characterized by increases in the percentages of splenic T lymphocytes (CD3+ T cells and T cell subsets (CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, as well as the production of T cell-related cytokines and granzymes (interleukin-2, interleukin-4, and granzyme-B in cells exposed to PP or PNMC. These effects were associated with a decrease in oxidative stress, as evidenced by changes in OH, SOD, GSH-Px, and MDA levels. The total phenolic content of WPE was 34,800 ± 200 mg gallic acid equivalents/100 g, consisting of at least 16 unique phenols, including ellagitannins, quercetin, valoneic acid dilactone, and gallic acid. Taken together, these results suggest that walnut polyphenols significantly attenuated PP and PNMC-mediated immunotoxicity and improved immune function by inhibiting oxidative stress.

Walnut Polyphenol Extract Attenuates Immunotoxicity Induced by 4-Pentylphenol and 3-methyl-4-nitrophenol in Murine Splenic Lymphocyte.

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Lubing; Ma, Sihui; Han, Yu; Wang, Yuhan; Guo, Yan; Weng, Qiang; Xu, Meiyu

2016-05-12

4-pentylphenol (PP) and 3-methyl-4-nitrophenol (PNMC), two important components of vehicle emissions, have been shown to confer toxicity in splenocytes. Certain natural products, such as those derived from walnuts, exhibit a range of antioxidative, antitumor, and anti-inflammatory properties. Here, we investigated the effects of walnut polyphenol extract (WPE) on immunotoxicity induced by PP and PNMC in murine splenic lymphocytes. Treatment with WPE was shown to significantly enhance proliferation of splenocytes exposed to PP or PNMC, characterized by increases in the percentages of splenic T lymphocytes (CD3+ T cells) and T cell subsets (CD4+ and CD8+ T cells), as well as the production of T cell-related cytokines and granzymes (interleukin-2, interleukin-4, and granzyme-B) in cells exposed to PP or PNMC. These effects were associated with a decrease in oxidative stress, as evidenced by changes in OH, SOD, GSH-Px, and MDA levels. The total phenolic content of WPE was 34,800 ± 200 mg gallic acid equivalents/100 g, consisting of at least 16 unique phenols, including ellagitannins, quercetin, valoneic acid dilactone, and gallic acid. Taken together, these results suggest that walnut polyphenols significantly attenuated PP and PNMC-mediated immunotoxicity and improved immune function by inhibiting oxidative stress.

Localized gene expression changes during adventitious root formation in black walnut (Juglans nigra L.)

Science.gov (United States)

Micah E Stevens; Keith E Woeste; Paula M Pijut

2018-01-01

Cutting propagation plays a large role in the forestry and horticulture industries where superior genotypes need to be clonally multiplied. Integral to this process is the ability of cuttings to form adventitious roots. Recalcitrance to adventitious root development is a serious hurdle for many woody plant propagation systems including black walnut (Juglans...

A new naphthalenone isolated from the green walnut husks of Juglans mandshurica Maxim.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Guang; Pi, Xin-Mei; Yu, Chang-Yuan

2015-01-01

Phytochemical study of green walnut husks of Juglans mandshurica Maxim. led to the isolation of a new naphthalenone, (4R)-3,4-dihydro-4-butoxy-5-hydroxy-naphthalen-1(2H)-one (1), together with 16 known compounds. Compounds 4-6, 13, 14 and 17 were isolated from the genus Juglans for the first time, and their chemotaxonomic significance was also evaluated.

Removal of Dissolved Cadmium by Adsorption onto Walnut and Almond Shell Charcoal: Comparison with Granular Activated Carbon (GAC

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Mohsen Saeedi

2009-06-01

Full Text Available In the present study, adsorption of dissolved Cadmium (Cd onto walnut and almond shell charcoal and the standard granular activated carbon (GAC has been investigated and compared. The effect of pH value, initial concentration of dissolved Cadmium and amount of adsorbent on the adsorption of Cd by the mentioned adsorbents were investigated. Results showed that the adsorption process was highly dependent on pH. Maximum Cd removal was achieved when the final pH of the mixture fell within 6.5-7. Adsorption test results revealed that Cd adsorption on the studied adsorbents could be better described by Longmuir isotherm. Maximum Cd removal efficiencies were obtained by walnut shell charcoal (91%, almond shell charcoal (85%, and GAC (81%.

Sorting in-shell walnuts using near infrared spectroscopy for improved drying efficiency and product quality

Science.gov (United States)

In the current walnut drying practice, dryers comingle nuts with varying moisture contents (MC) which results in over drying of nuts with low MC and thereby decrease product quality. The objectives of this research were to investigate correlations among near infrared (NIR) spectral data and MC of fr...

Effects of acid rain and surfactant pollution on the foliar structure of some tree species

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Raddi, P.; Moricca, S.; Paoletti, E.

1994-01-01

For 10 years we have been studying the effects of acid rain and ABS (a surfactant always found in sea aerosols) on several tree species. Alterations of the leaf structure were considered as damage index. We tried to quantify the damage to the wax structure by scoring in accordance with a damage scale given by SEM observations and by computing a damage index that allowed for a comparison among tree provenances and within individuals of the same provenance or clone. We tested the response of several species: Norway spruce, silver fir, cypress, London plane, chestnut, walnut, Italian alder, tree of heaven, common maple, European white elm, manna ash, holm oak, European beech. The different species exhibited different levels of damage in relation to the type of treatment: when ABS was present, the damage was always more severe. In the broadleaved trees, the most frequent disturbances noted were: erosion of the epicuticular wax, alterations in the stomata, lesions, abscission and/or alternation of hairs. Damage from ABS treatments was compared to damge observed in coastal vegetation after strong sea winds. By comparing natural and induced damage, we were able to demonstrate that ABS is one of the possible causes of coastal vegetation decline and that ABS may also impact significantly on vegetation growing far away from the sea. (orig.)

FTAP, Minimal Cut Sets of Arbitrary Fault Trees. FRTPLT, Fault Tree Structure and Logical Gates Plot for Program FTAP. FRTGEN, Fault Trees by Sub-tree Generator from Parent Tree for Program FTAP

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Willie, Randall R.; Rabien, U.

1997-01-01

1 - Description of problem or function: FTAP is a general-purpose program for deriving minimal reliability cut and path set families from the fault tree for a complex system. The program has a number of useful features that make it well-suited to nearly all fault tree applications. An input fault tree may specify the system state as any logical function of subsystem or component state variables or complements of these variables; thus, for instance, 'exclusive-or' type relations may be formed. When fault tree logical relations involve complements of state variables, the analyst may instruct FTAP to produce a family of prime implicants, a generalization of the minimal cut set concept. The program offers the flexibility of several distinct methods of generating cut set families. FTAP can also identify certain subsystems as system modules and provide a collection of minimal cut set families that essentially expresses the system state as a function of these module state variables. Another feature allows a useful subfamily to be obtained when the family of minimal cut sets or prime implicants is too large to be found in its entirety; this subfamily may consist of only those sets not containing more than some fixed number of elements or only those sets 'interesting' to the analyst in some special sense. Finally, the analyst can modify the input fault tree in various ways by declaring state variables identically true or false. 2 - Method of solution: Fault tree methods are based on the observation that the system state, either working or failed, can usually be expressed as a Boolean relation between states of several large, readily identifiable subsystems. The state of each subsystem in turn depends on states of simpler subsystems and components which compose it, so that the state of the system itself is determined by a hierarchy of logical relationships between states of subsystems. A fault tree is a graphical representation of these relationships. 3 - Restrictions on the

Rate of tree carbon accumulation increases continuously with tree size.

Science.gov (United States)

Stephenson, N L; Das, A J; Condit, R; Russo, S E; Baker, P J; Beckman, N G; Coomes, D A; Lines, E R; Morris, W K; Rüger, N; Alvarez, E; Blundo, C; Bunyavejchewin, S; Chuyong, G; Davies, S J; Duque, A; Ewango, C N; Flores, O; Franklin, J F; Grau, H R; Hao, Z; Harmon, M E; Hubbell, S P; Kenfack, D; Lin, Y; Makana, J-R; Malizia, A; Malizia, L R; Pabst, R J; Pongpattananurak, N; Su, S-H; Sun, I-F; Tan, S; Thomas, D; van Mantgem, P J; Wang, X; Wiser, S K; Zavala, M A

2014-03-06

Forests are major components of the global carbon cycle, providing substantial feedback to atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations. Our ability to understand and predict changes in the forest carbon cycle--particularly net primary productivity and carbon storage--increasingly relies on models that represent biological processes across several scales of biological organization, from tree leaves to forest stands. Yet, despite advances in our understanding of productivity at the scales of leaves and stands, no consensus exists about the nature of productivity at the scale of the individual tree, in part because we lack a broad empirical assessment of whether rates of absolute tree mass growth (and thus carbon accumulation) decrease, remain constant, or increase as trees increase in size and age. Here we present a global analysis of 403 tropical and temperate tree species, showing that for most species mass growth rate increases continuously with tree size. Thus, large, old trees do not act simply as senescent carbon reservoirs but actively fix large amounts of carbon compared to smaller trees; at the extreme, a single big tree can add the same amount of carbon to the forest within a year as is contained in an entire mid-sized tree. The apparent paradoxes of individual tree growth increasing with tree size despite declining leaf-level and stand-level productivity can be explained, respectively, by increases in a tree's total leaf area that outpace declines in productivity per unit of leaf area and, among other factors, age-related reductions in population density. Our results resolve conflicting assumptions about the nature of tree growth, inform efforts to undertand and model forest carbon dynamics, and have additional implications for theories of resource allocation and plant senescence.

Effect of incorporation of walnut cake (Juglans regia in concentrate mixture on degradation of dry matter, organic matter and production of microbial biomass in vitro in goat

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohsin Ahmad Mir

2015-10-01

Full Text Available Aim: This study was carried out to investigate the effect of incorporation of different level of walnut cake in concentrate mixture on in vitro dry matter degradation in order to determine its level of supplementation in ruminant ration. Materials and Methods: Walnut cake was used @ 0, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30% level to formulate an iso-nitrogenous concentrate mixtures and designated as T1, T2, T3, T4, T5 and T6 respectively. The different formulae of concentrate mixtures were used for in vitro gas production studies using goat rumen liquor with wheat straw in 40:60 ratio. Proximate composition, fiber fractionation and calcium and phosphrous content of walnut cake were estimated. Result: The per cent IVDMD value of T1 and T2 diets was 68.42 ± 1.20 and 67.25 ± 1.37 respectively which was found highest (P<0.05 T3, T4, T5 and T6. Similar trend was also found for TDOM and MBP. Inclusion of walnut cake at 10% level in the concentrate mixture does not affect in vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD, truly degradable organic matter (TDOM, mg/200 mg DM, total gas production, microbial biomass production (MBP and efficiency of microbial biomass production (EMP. Conclusion: It is concluded that walnut cake incorporation up to 10% level in the iso -nitrogenous concentrate mixture has no any negative effect on in vitro digestibility of dry matter (DM, TDOM, MBP, EMP and total gas production in goat.

Rate of tree carbon accumulation increases continuously with tree size

Science.gov (United States)

Stephenson, N.L.; Das, A.J.; Condit, R.; Russo, S.E.; Baker, P.J.; Beckman, N.G.; Coomes, D.A.; Lines, E.R.; Morris, W.K.; Rüger, N.; Álvarez, E.; Blundo, C.; Bunyavejchewin, S.; Chuyong, G.; Davies, S.J.; Duque, Á.; Ewango, C.N.; Flores, O.; Franklin, J.F.; Grau, H.R.; Hao, Z.; Harmon, M.E.; Hubbell, S.P.; Kenfack, D.; Lin, Y.; Makana, J.-R.; Malizia, A.; Malizia, L.R.; Pabst, R.J.; Pongpattananurak, N.; Su, S.-H.; Sun, I-F.; Tan, S.; Thomas, D.; van Mantgem, P.J.; Wang, X.; Wiser, S.K.; Zavala, M.A.

2014-01-01

Forests are major components of the global carbon cycle, providing substantial feedback to atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations. Our ability to understand and predict changes in the forest carbon cycle—particularly net primary productivity and carbon storage - increasingly relies on models that represent biological processes across several scales of biological organization, from tree leaves to forest stands. Yet, despite advances in our understanding of productivity at the scales of leaves and stands, no consensus exists about the nature of productivity at the scale of the individual tree, in part because we lack a broad empirical assessment of whether rates of absolute tree mass growth (and thus carbon accumulation) decrease, remain constant, or increase as trees increase in size and age. Here we present a global analysis of 403 tropical and temperate tree species, showing that for most species mass growth rate increases continuously with tree size. Thus, large, old trees do not act simply as senescent carbon reservoirs but actively fix large amounts of carbon compared to smaller trees; at the extreme, a single big tree can add the same amount of carbon to the forest within a year as is contained in an entire mid-sized tree. The apparent paradoxes of individual tree growth increasing with tree size despite declining leaf-level and stand-level productivity can be explained, respectively, by increases in a tree’s total leaf area that outpace declines in productivity per unit of leaf area and, among other factors, age-related reductions in population density. Our results resolve conflicting assumptions about the nature of tree growth, inform efforts to understand and model forest carbon dynamics, and have additional implications for theories of resource allocation and plant senescence.

Advanced features of the fault tree solver FTREX

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jung, Woo Sik; Han, Sang Hoon; Ha, Jae Joo

2005-01-01

This paper presents advanced features of a fault tree solver FTREX (Fault Tree Reliability Evaluation eXpert). Fault tree analysis is one of the most commonly used methods for the safety analysis of industrial systems especially for the probabilistic safety analysis (PSA) of nuclear power plants. Fault trees are solved by the classical Boolean algebra, conventional Binary Decision Diagram (BDD) algorithm, coherent BDD algorithm, and Bayesian networks. FTREX could optionally solve fault trees by the conventional BDD algorithm or the coherent BDD algorithm and could convert the fault trees into the form of the Bayesian networks. The algorithm based on the classical Boolean algebra solves a fault tree and generates MCSs. The conventional BDD algorithm generates a BDD structure of the top event and calculates the exact top event probability. The BDD structure is a factorized form of the prime implicants. The MCSs of the top event could be extracted by reducing the prime implicants in the BDD structure. The coherent BDD algorithm is developed to overcome the shortcomings of the conventional BDD algorithm such as the huge memory requirements and a long run time

Comparison of Neuroprotective and Cognition-Enhancing Properties of Hydrolysates from Soybean, Walnut, and Peanut Protein

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wenzhi Li

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Hydrolysates were prepared from soybean, walnut, and peanut protein by papain, respectively. Their amino acid compositions and molecular weight distributions, the effects of various hydrolysates on H2O2-induced injury PC12 cells, and cognition of mice were investigated, respectively. Results showed that the three hydrolysates were dominated by the peptides with 1–3 KDa with large amount of neurotrophic amino acids. All the hydrolysates exhibited much stronger inhibitory activity against H2O2-induced toxicity than cerebrolysin, and soy protein hydrolysate showed the highest activity. Moreover, the hydrolysates also could reduce the rate of nonviable apoptotic cells at the concentration of 2 mg/mL. The test of animal’s cognition indicated that three hydrolysates could present partly better effect of improving recurred memory ability of normal mice and consolidated memory ability of anisodine-treated mice than piracetam. Therefore, soybean, walnut, and peanut protein hydrolysates were recommended as a potential food raw material for prevention or treatment of neurodegenerative disorders.

De novo genome assembly of Geosmithia morbida, the causal agent of thousand cankers disease

Science.gov (United States)

Taruna A. Schuelke; Anthony Westbrook; Kirk Broders; Keith Woeste; Matthew D. MacManes

2016-01-01

Geosmithia morbida is a filamentous ascomycete that causes thousand cankers disease in the eastern black walnut tree. This pathogen is commonly found in the western U.S.; however, recently the disease was also detected in several eastern states where the black walnut lumber industry is concentrated. G. morbida is one of two...

Walnut supplementation reverses the scopolamine-induced memory impairment by restoration of cholinergic function via mitigating oxidative stress in rats: a potential therapeutic intervention for age related neurodegenerative disorders.

Science.gov (United States)

Haider, Saida; Batool, Zehra; Ahmad, Saara; Siddiqui, Rafat Ali; Haleem, Darakhshan Jabeen

2018-02-01

The brain is highly susceptible to the damaging effects of oxidative reactive species. The free radicals which are produced as a consequence of aerobic respiration can cause cumulative oxygen damage which may lead to age-related neurodegeneration. Scopolamine, the anti-muscarinic agent, induces amnesia and oxidative stress similar to that observed in the older age. Studies suggest that antioxidants derived from plant products may provide protection against oxidative stress. Therefore, the present study was designed to investigate the attenuation of scopolamine-induced memory impairment and oxidative stress by walnut supplementation in rats. Rats in test group were administrated with walnut suspension (400 mg/kg/day) for four weeks. Both control and walnut-treated rats were then divided into saline and scopolamine-treated groups. Rats in the scopolamine group were injected with scopolamine (0.5 mg/kg dissolved in saline) five minutes before the start of each memory test. Memory was assessed by elevated plus maze (EPM), Morris water maze (MWM), and novel object recognition task (NOR) followed by estimation of regional acetylcholine levels and acetylcholinesterase activity. In the next phase, brain oxidative status was determined by assaying lipid peroxidation, and measuring superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and catalase (CAT) activities. Results showed that scopolamine-treatment impaired memory function, caused cholinergic dysfunction, and induced oxidative stress in rats compared to that saline-treated controls. These impairments were significantly restored by pre-administration of walnut. This study demonstrates that antioxidant properties of walnut may provide augmented effects on cholinergic function by reducing oxidative stress and thus improving memory performance.

Rooting and Other Characteristics of a Transgenic Walnut Hybrid (Juglans hindsii x J. regia) Rootstock Expressing rolABC

Science.gov (United States)

Kourosh Vahdati; James R. McKenna; Abhaya M. Dandekar; Charles A. Leslie; Sandie L. Uratsu; Wesley P. Hackett; Paola Negri; Gale H. McGranahan

2002-01-01

Walnuts (Juglans spp.) are difficult-to-root woody plants. The rolABC genes (rolA + rolB + rolC), derived from the bacteria Agrobacterium rhizogenes, have been shown to increase the rooting potential of other difficult-to-root woody plants. We inserted the...

Effect of Walnut Consumption on Serum Lipid Profiles, High-Sensitivity C-Reactive Protein and Nitric Oxide in Patients With Coronary Artery Disease

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Kalantarian

2015-02-01

Full Text Available Background Coronary artery disease (CAD is one of the major causes of death worldwide. There is a direct relationship between increased levels of blood cholesterol, triglycerides (TG, low density lipoproteins (LDL, high density lipoproteins (HDL, nitric oxide (NO, and high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP and the CAD. Walnut may reduce these factors and consequently decrease the risk of CAD. Objectives The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of walnut consumption on TG, LDL, cholesterol, HDL, NO, and hs-CRP in patients with CAD and healthy people. Patients and Methods In this randomized crossover clinical trial, 70 patients with CAD were divided into two groups: case and control groups. The patients were given 40 g walnuts daily for 4 weeks. After 4 weeks, the TG, LDL, cholesterol, HDL, NO and hs-CRP levels were measured. The experiment was also carried out on healthy people (3 groups with normal range of lipid. The LDL, HDL, cholesterol, and hs-CRP levels were measured using commercially available kits. The nitric oxide level was measured using the Griess reaction method. Results The cholesterol and LDL levels decreased significantly from 202.43 to 187.46 and 123.80 to 108.63 mmol/L (7.9% and 13.9 %, respectively in healthy subjects after the treatment (P < 0.01. In the experimental group, there was no significant difference in cholesterol (P = 0.110 and LDL levels (P = 0.176 before and after the treatment. Moreover, no significant difference was observed in other parameters between the two groups. Conclusions The walnut consumption did not affect cholesterol levels in patients with CAD; however, it might be administered as an agent for reducing the cholesterol, which is one of the risk factors associated with CAD.

Laser altimeter measurements at Walnut Gulch Watershed, Arizona

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ritchie, J.C.; Humes, K.S.; Weltz, M.A.

1995-01-01

Measurements of landscape surface roughness properties are necessary for understanding many watershed processes. This paper reviews the use of an airborne laser altimeter to measure topography and surface roughness properties of the landscape at Walnut Gulch Watershed in Arizona. Airborne laser data were used to measure macro and micro topography as well as canopy topography, height, cover, and distribution. Macro topography of landscape profiles for segments up to 5 km (3 mi) were measured and were in agreement with available topographic maps but provided more detail. Gullies and stream channel cross-sections and their associated floodplains were measured. Laser measurements of vegetation properties (height and cover) were highly correlated with ground measurements. Landscape segments for any length can be used to measure these landscape roughness properties. Airborne laser altimeter measurements of landscape profiles can provide detailed information on watershed surface properties for improving the management of watersheds. (author)

Implications of tree planting on pollutant dispersion in street canyons

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Gromke, C.B.; Ruck, B.

2009-01-01

Traffic pollutant dispersion processes inside urban street canyons with avenue-like tree planting have been studied in wind tunnel experiments. Tree planting of different crown porosities and their effects on the pollutant concentrations at the canyon walls have been investigated for wind

Evaluations and modifications of semi-selective media for improved isolation of Agrobacterium tumefaciens biovar 1 from cultivated walnut

Science.gov (United States)

Agrobacterium tumefaciens, the causal agent of crown gall of walnut, is an aerobic, Gram negative bacterium belonging to the family Rhizobiaceae. Like many in this group, A. tumefaciens is a common inhabitant of soil and plant host tissue. Isolation from these complex environments is difficult even ...

Quantifying Residues from Postharvest Propylene Oxide Fumigation of Almonds and Walnuts.

Science.gov (United States)

Jimenez, Leonel R; Hall, Wiley A; Rodriquez, Matthew S; Cooper, William J; Muhareb, Jeanette; Jones, Tom; Walse, Spencer S

2015-01-01

A novel analytical approach involving solvent extraction with methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) followed by GC was developed to quantify residues that result from the postharvest fumigation of almonds and walnuts with propylene oxide (PPO). Verification and quantification of PPO, propylene chlorohydrin (PCH) [1-chloropropan-2-ol (PCH-1) and 2-chloropropan-1-ol (PCH-2)], and propylene bromohydrin (PBH) [1-bromopropan-2-ol (PBH-1) and 2-bromopropan-1-ol (PBH-2)] was accomplished with a combination of electron impact ionization MS (EIMS), negative ion chemical ionization MS (NCIMS), and electron capture detection (ECD). Respective GC/EIMS LOQs for PPO, PCH-1, PCH-2, PBH-1, and PBH-2 in MTBE extracts were [ppm (μg/g nut)] 0.9, 2.1, 2.5, 30.3, and 50.0 for almonds and 0.8, 2.2, 2.02, 41.6, and 45.7 for walnuts. Relative to GC/EIMS, GC-ECD analyses resulted in no detection of PPO, similar detector responses for PCH isomers, and >100-fold more sensitive detection of PBH isomers. NCIMS did not enhance detection of PBH isomers relative to EIMS and was, respectively, approximately 20-, 5-, and 10-fold less sensitive to PPO, PCH-1, and PCH-2. MTBE extraction efficiencies were >90% for all analytes. The 10-fold concentration of MTBE extracts yielded recoveries of 85-105% for the PBH isomers and a concomitant decrease in LODs and LOQs across detector types. The recoveries of PCH isomers and PPO in the MTBE concentrate were relatively low (approximately 50 to 75%), which confound improvements in LODs and LOQs regardless of detector type.

Water Resources Development Miami River, Little Miami River, and Mill Creek Basins, Southwest Ohio. Volume 2. Appendices A-G.

Science.gov (United States)

1981-10-01

the area. Common species include boxelder, black locust, hackberry, tree of heaven, sycamore, Osage orange, black willow, mulberry, slippery elm ...and maple include tulip poplar, white ash, red elm , American elm , black cherry, hackberry, walnut, basswood, buckeye, white oak, shagbark hickory, and...willow. Other canopy species in these communities include buckeye, elm , beech, black locust, hackberry, walnut, and silver maple. The most prevalent

Tree-rings and climate: Implications for Great Basin paleoenvironmental studies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Graybill, D.A.; Rose, M.R.; Nials, F.L.

1994-01-01

The Quaternary Sciences Center of the Desert Research Institute is currently conducting a multi-phased study of floral, faunal, and geomorphic response to long- and short-term climate change and extremes in assessing Yucca Mountain's suitability as a high-level nuclear waste repository. Preliminary results of these studies indicate synchronous responses in late Holocene tree-ring, palynology and geomorphic records. A tree-ring chronology for paleoclimatic reconstruction is developed by collection of multiple cores from 20-60 living trees and a similar number of dead trees in a climate-sensitive location. Samples are cross-dated and every growth layer in each specimen is measured to the nearest .001 mm. The measured ring width series potentially contain a variety of climatic, biological, and anthropogenic signals. Each ring width series is subjected to a numerical standarization procedure that removes an age-related biological growth trend, reduces endogeneous and exogenous stand disturbance factors, and maximizes any climatic signal that is present. Each of these empirically defined components can be graphically portrayed and subjected to further analyses. The geophysical signal analysis techniques involved in the standarized protocol are well-documented and established. The final result is a tree-ring chronology that represents regional paleoclimatic variability over the time represented by the sample population

Whole-tree distribution and temporal variation of non-structural carbohydrates in broadleaf evergreen trees.

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Merryn G; Miller, Rebecca E; Arndt, Stefan K; Kasel, Sabine; Bennett, Lauren T

2018-04-01

Non-structural carbohydrates (NSCs) form a fundamental yet poorly quantified carbon pool in trees. Studies of NSC seasonality in forest trees have seldom measured whole-tree NSC stocks and allocation among organs, and are not representative of all tree functional types. Non-structural carbohydrate research has primarily focussed on broadleaf deciduous and coniferous evergreen trees with distinct growing seasons, while broadleaf evergreen trees remain under-studied despite their different growth phenology. We measured whole-tree NSC allocation and temporal variation in Eucalyptus obliqua L'Hér., a broadleaf evergreen tree species typically occurring in mixed-age temperate forests, which has year-round growth and the capacity to resprout after fire. Our overarching objective was to improve the empirical basis for understanding the functional importance of NSC allocation and stock changes at the tree- and organ-level in this tree functional type. Starch was the principal storage carbohydrate and was primarily stored in the stem and roots of young (14-year-old) trees rather than the lignotuber, which did not appear to be a specialized starch storage organ. Whole-tree NSC stocks were depleted during spring and summer due to significant decreases in starch mass in the roots and stem, seemingly to support root and crown growth but potentially exacerbated by water stress in summer. Seasonality of stem NSCs differed between young and mature trees, and was not synchronized with stem basal area increments in mature trees. Our results suggest that the relative magnitude of seasonal NSC stock changes could vary with tree growth stage, and that the main drivers of NSC fluctuations in broadleaf evergreen trees in temperate biomes could be periodic disturbances such as summer drought and fire, rather than growth phenology. These results have implications for understanding post-fire tree recovery via resprouting, and for incorporating NSC pools into carbon models of mixed

Nutrient removal by apple, pear and cherry nursery trees

OpenAIRE

Giovambattista Sorrenti; Maurizio Quartieri; Silvia Salvi; Moreno Toselli

2017-01-01

Given that nursery is a peculiar environment, the amount of nutrients removed by nursery trees represents a fundamental acquisition to optimise fertilisation strategies, with economic and environmental implications. In this context, we determined nutrient removal by apple, pear and cherry nursery trees at the end of the nursery growing cycle. We randomly removed 5 leafless apple (Golden Delicious/EMLA M9; density of 30,000 trees ha–1), pear (Santa Maria/Adams; density of 30,000 trees ha–1) an...

Walnut and almond oil screw-press extraction at industrial scale: Effects of process parameters on oil yield and quality

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M. L. Martínez

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Walnut and almond kernels are highly nutritious mainly due to their high oil contents. In this study, 32 factorial experimental designs were used to optimize processes for oil extraction by screw-pressing at industrial scale. Experimental designs included seed moisture content (SMC, and restriction die (RD as the main processing parameters. Theoretical models were scanned against experimental data in order to optimize oil extraction conditions. The response variables analyzed were oil yield (OY, fine solid content (FC in oil, and oil quality parameters. Fitted models for OY indicated maximum predicted values similar to the highest experimental values. Walnut oil extractions showed a maximum OY (84.5 ± 2.3 % at 7.21% SMC, and 10 mm RD. For almond kernels, maximum OY (71.9 ± 3.5% was obtained at 9.42% SMC, and 12 mm RD. Chemical quality parameters from both oils were in the ranges stated in Codex (FAO/WHO standards for virgin (non-refined oils.

Walnut and almond oil screw-press extraction at industrial scale: Effects of process parameters on oil yield and quality

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Martínez, M. L.; Bordón, M.G.; Bodoira, R. M.; Penci, M.C.; Ribotta, P.D.; Maestri, D.M.

2017-01-01

Walnut and almond kernels are highly nutritious mainly due to their high oil contents. In this study, 32 factorial experimental designs were used to optimize processes for oil extraction by screw-pressing at industrial scale. Experimental designs included seed moisture content (SMC), and restriction die (RD) as the main processing parameters. Theoretical models were scanned against experimental data in order to optimize oil extraction conditions. The response variables analyzed were oil yield (OY), fine solid content (FC) in oil, and oil quality parameters. Fitted models for OY indicated maximum predicted values similar to the highest experimental values. Walnut oil extractions showed a maximum OY (84.5 ± 2.3 %) at 7.21% SMC, and 10 mm RD. For almond kernels, maximum OY (71.9 ± 3.5%) was obtained at 9.42% SMC, and 12 mm RD. Chemical quality parameters from both oils were in the ranges stated in Codex (FAO/WHO) standards for virgin (non-refined) oils. [es

Surface Water Interim Measures/Interim Remedial Action Plan/Environmental Assessment and Decision Document, South Walnut Creek Basin, Operable Unit No. 2

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1991-01-01

Volume 2 of this IM/IRA Plan contains OU 2 surface water, sediment, ground water and soil chemistry data, as well as the South Walnut Creek Basin Surface Water IM/IRA schedule and a tabulation of ARARs. (FL)

The Walnut Gulch - Santa Rita Wildland Watershed-Scale LTAR Sites

Science.gov (United States)

Goodrich, D. C.; Heilman, P.; Scott, R. L.; Nearing, M. A.; Moran, M. S.; Nichols, M.; Vivoni, E. R.; Archer, S. R.; Biederman, J.; Naito, A. T.

2015-12-01

The 150 km2 Walnut Gulch Experimental Watershed (WGEW), a Long-Term Agroecosystem Research (LTAR) site, near Tombstone, Arizona was established in 1953 by the USDA-ARS Southwest Watershed Research Center in Tucson. It is one of the most intensively instrumented semiarid experimental watersheds in the world with elevation ranging from 1220 to 1950 m with mean annual temperature and precipitation equal to 17.7°C and 312 mm. Desert shrubs dominate the lower two thirds of the watershed and grasses the upper third. Spatial variation in precipitation is measured with a network of 88 weighing-type recording rain gauges. Surface runoff is quantified over a range of scales (0.002 to 0.06 km2) to characterize interactions between rainfall intensity, soils and vegetation at nine sub-watersheds. Channel network processes and rainfall spatial variability are studied using 11 nested watersheds (2 to 150 km2). Sediment from the small sub-watersheds is sampled. Meteorological, soil moisture and temperature, and energy/water/CO2 flux measurements are made within two vegetation/soil complexes. Parallel investigations dating back to 1974 have also been conducted on eight small experimental watersheds at the Santa Rita Experimental Range (SRER) 80 km west of Walnut Gulch. In contrast to the creosote bush-grass WGEW, the mesquite-grass SRER is publicly owned, which ensures control and consistent reporting of management for research purposes. A key LTAR objective is to contrast a "business as usual" to an alternate management strategy presumed to have the potential of significantly improving forage and livestock production and diversification of ecosystem services. Consequently, a new ARS-U. of Arizona-Arizona State U. partnership will assess the watershed-scale impacts of brush management, a common land use practice typically applied in conjunction with livestock grazing, on a suite of ecosystem services at the SRER including provisioning (forage production, water yield), supporting

A comparative fluctuating asymmetry study between two walnut (Juglans regia L.) populations may contribute as an early signal for bio-monitoring

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kourmpetis, Y.I.A.; Aravanopoulos, F.A.

2010-01-01

Developmental stability, the ability of an individual to eliminate environmental disturbances while expressing a heritable phenotypic trait, was compared in two walnut (Juglans regia L.) populations, a natural and an artificial. Bilateral leaf morphometrics were used to estimate fluctuating

Seasonal changes in english walnut (Juglans regia L.) (Juglandaceae), fruit properties and host use patterns by Rhagoletis zoqui (Diptera: Tephritidae)

Science.gov (United States)

Rhagoletis zoqui Bush is a Neosubtropical, univoltine, frugivorous tephritid fly that exploits both native Juglans spp. and the introduced, Palearctic English walnut, Juglans regia. The seasonal development of commercial J. regia fruit and the pattern of host exploitation by R. zoqui were tracked ov...

Hide and vanish: data sets where the most parsimonious tree is known but hard to find, and their implications for tree search methods.

Science.gov (United States)

Goloboff, Pablo A

2014-10-01

Three different types of data sets, for which the uniquely most parsimonious tree can be known exactly but is hard to find with heuristic tree search methods, are studied. Tree searches are complicated more by the shape of the tree landscape (i.e. the distribution of homoplasy on different trees) than by the sheer abundance of homoplasy or character conflict. Data sets of Type 1 are those constructed by Radel et al. (2013). Data sets of Type 2 present a very rugged landscape, with narrow peaks and valleys, but relatively low amounts of homoplasy. For such a tree landscape, subjecting the trees to TBR and saving suboptimal trees produces much better results when the sequence of clipping for the tree branches is randomized instead of fixed. An unexpected finding for data sets of Types 1 and 2 is that starting a search from a random tree instead of a random addition sequence Wagner tree may increase the probability that the search finds the most parsimonious tree; a small artificial example where these probabilities can be calculated exactly is presented. Data sets of Type 3, the most difficult data sets studied here, comprise only congruent characters, and a single island with only one most parsimonious tree. Even if there is a single island, missing entries create a very flat landscape which is difficult to traverse with tree search algorithms because the number of equally parsimonious trees that need to be saved and swapped to effectively move around the plateaus is too large. Minor modifications of the parameters of tree drifting, ratchet, and sectorial searches allow travelling around these plateaus much more efficiently than saving and swapping large numbers of equally parsimonious trees with TBR. For these data sets, two new related criteria for selecting taxon addition sequences in Wagner trees (the "selected" and "informative" addition sequences) produce much better results than the standard random or closest addition sequences. These new methods for Wagner

Assessment of Bacterial Blight Tolerance of Persian Walnut Based on Immature Nut Test

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Attila BANDI

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Bacterial blight is one of the most serious diseases affecting Persian walnut (Juglans regia L.. Susceptibility to this disease was evaluated by artificial inoculation in an in vitro experiment for cultivars developed in Hungary and for selections from Transylvania. Thirty pieces of immature fruit of 11 walnut cultivars and 10 selections were inoculated by punction using a suspension containing a mixture of Xaj-isolates of controlled virulence. As control, a moderate resistant (mR ‘Pedro’ and a highly susceptible (hS ‘Milotai intenzív’ cultivars were used. After ten days the diameter of the necrotic area around the inoculation points was measured and the disease rate (DR was noted. For the calculation of indexes it was taken the structure of the lesions (diffuse or defined margin into consideration. None of the 21 cultivars/selections analysed were found to be hardly resistant, although all of them showed a higher degree of resistance than the susceptible control (‘Milotai intenzív’. The majority of the analysed cultivars fit into the moderate susceptible (mS and moderate resistant (mR group. ‘Milotai kései’ and SZEN-10, had a notable reaction as considered to be moderate resistant (mR, showed a similar degree of resistance compared to the control cultivar ‘Pedro’. It was concluded that these cultivars, based on their resistance to Xanthomonas arboricola pv. juglandis, could be proposed as resistance gene sources, as well as for production purposes in the environmental conditions of the Carpathian Basin.

[Main interspecific competition and land productivity of fruit-crop intercropping in Loess Region of West Shauxi].

Science.gov (United States)

Yun, Lei; Bi, Hua-Xing; Tian, Xiao-Ling; Cui, Zhe-Wei; Zhou, Hui-Zi; Gao, Lu-Bo; Liu, Li-Xia

2011-05-01

Taking the four typical fruit-crop intercropping models, i.e., walnut-peanut, walnut-soybean, apple-peanut, and apple-soybean, in the Loess Region of western Shanxi Province as the objects, this paper analyzed the crop (peanut and soybean) photosynthetic active radiation (PAR), net photosynthetic rate (P(n)), yield, and soil moisture content. Comparing with crop monoculture, fruit-crop intercropping decreased the crop PAR and P(n). The smaller the distance from tree rows, the smaller the crop PAR and P(n). There was a significantly positive correlation between the P(n) and crop yield, suggesting that illumination was one of the key factors affecting crop yield. From the whole trend, the 0-100 cm soil moisture content had no significant differences between walnut-crop intercropping systems and corresponding monoculture cropping systems, but had significant differences between apple-crop intercropping systems and corresponding monoculture cropping systems, indicating that the competition for soil moisture was more intense in apple-crop intercropping systems than in walnut-crop intercropping systems. Comparing with monoculture, fruit-crop intercropping increased the land use efficiency and economic benefit averagely by 70% and 14%, respectively, and walnut-crop intercropping was much better than apple-crop intercropping. To increase the crop yield in fruit-crop intercropping systems, the following strategies should be taken: strengthening the management of irrigation and fertilization, increasing the distances or setting root barriers between crop and tree rows, regularly and properly pruning, and planting shade-tolerant crops in intercropping.

Tree mortality in mature riparian forest: Implications for Fremont cottonwood conservation in the American southwest

Science.gov (United States)

Andersen, Douglas

2015-01-01

Mature tree mortality rates are poorly documented in desert riparian woodlands. I monitored deaths and calculated annual survivorship probability (Ps) in 2 groups of large (27–114 cm DBH), old (≥40 years old) Fremont cottonwood (Populus fremontii Wats.) in a stand along the free-flowing Yampa River in semiarid northwestern Colorado. Ps = 0.993 year-1 in a group (n = 126) monitored over 2003–2013, whereas Ps = 0.985 year-1 in a group (n = 179) monitored over the same period plus 3 earlier years (2000–2003) that included drought and a defoliating insect outbreak. Assuming Ps was the same for both groups during the 10-year postdrought period, the data indicate that Ps = 0.958 year-1 during the drought. I found no difference in canopy dieback level between male and female survivors. Mortality was equal among size classes, suggesting Ps is independent of age, but published longevity data imply that either Ps eventually declines with age or, as suggested in this study, periods with high Ps are interrupted by episodes of increased mortality. Stochastic population models featuring episodes of low Ps suggest a potential for an abrupt decline in mature tree numbers where recruitment is low. The modeling results have implications for woodland conservation, especially for relictual stands along regulated desert rivers.

Addition of pear ester enhances disruption of mating by female codling moth (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) in walnut orchards treated with meso dispensers

Science.gov (United States)

The success of applying low rates (50 ha-1) of dispensers to achieve disruption of adult communication of codling moth, Cydia pomonella (L)., in walnuts, Juglans regia (L.),was evaluated with several methods. These included cumulative catches of male moths in traps baited with either sex pheromone (...

Genetic variation in walnuts (Juglans regia, j. sigillata and Juglandaceae) species distinctions, human impacts, and the conservation of agrobiodiversity in yunnan, china

Science.gov (United States)

Walnuts are a major crop of many countries and mostly cultivated in large-scale plantations with few cultivars. Landraces provide important genetic reservoirs; thus, understanding factors influencing the geographic distribution of genetic variation in crop resources is a fundamental goal of agrobiod...

Genetic diversity based on morphological traits in walnut (Juglans regia L.) landraces from Karakoram region-I

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hussain, I.; Sultan, A.; Shinwari, Z. K.

2016-01-01

Walnut is one of the most important nutritive nut crops and widely grown in Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan. In the present study 19 local landraces were analyzed for morphological traits to investigate genetic diversity and identify promising landraces for cultivar development. Multivariate analyses showed high variation for morphological traits and nut and kernel characteristics. Cluster analyses depicted diversity among the local land races which separated them into 2 major clusters groups, showing more association to morphological differences. PCA revealed that the 1st four principal components (PCs) possessed Eigen value >1.0, where PC1 and PC2 contributed total variance of 41.65 percent and 23.42 percent respectively with total variance (65.05 percent) showing maximum factor loadings by kernel ratio, shell percent, kernel yield and nut width by the first two PCs. Pearson correlation coefficient among walnut landraces revealed positively significant correlation between shell yield and nut weight(r=0.96), kernel yield and nut width(r=0.85), whereas negative correlation were observed (r = -0.89 and r = -0.76) between kernel ratio with shell yield and nut weight respectively. A wide range of diversity was observed among the local landraces from Karakoram regions and the landrace HKK and GNAG were reported as promising one with highest kernel ratio. These landraces are potential for future breeding of nut crops with distinct morphological traits. (author)

The effect of packaging and storage conditions on the keeping quality of walnuts treated with disinfestation doses of gamma rays

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jan, M.; Farkas, J.; Langerak, D.I.; Wolters, T.G.; Kamp, H.J.V.D.; Muuse, B.G.

1988-01-01

Shelled walnuts were packed in polyethylene and laminated foil (PVDC-polyethylene) pouches and cans under nitrogen or air atmospheres. The packaged samples were gamma irradiated at the 60 Co source of the Pilot Plant for Food Irradiation in Wageningen, The Netherlands, using doses of 0, 0.5 and 1.0 kGy, respectively, with a dose rate of 1.0 kGy h -1 , and stored up to 4 months at 5 deg C, 20 deg C or 40 deg C. Retention of tocopherols was estimated directly after irradiation and after 8 weeks of post-irradiation storage. Radiation treatment did not affect the sensory qualities or the indices of lipid oxidation. At 40 deg C the sensory quality decreased rapidly and the nuts became inedible within 2 months. At 5 deg C, the nuts could be stored for more than four months. Polyethylene was not a satisfactory packaging material for shelled walnuts. Packaging in cans gives a much better result, and laminated foil can also be used. (author) 21 refs.; 7 tabs

Hyperspectral to multispectral imaging for detection of tree nuts and peanut traces in wheat flour

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Puneet Mishra

2015-06-01

Full Text Available In current industrial environments there is an increasing need for practical and inexpensive quality control systems to detect the foreign food materials in powder food processing lines. This demand is especially important for the detection of product adulteration with traces of highly allergenic products, such as peanuts and tree nuts. Manufacturing industries dealing with the processing of multiple powder food products present a substantial risk for the contamination of powder foods with traces of tree nuts and other adulterants, which might result in unintentional ingestion of nuts by the sensitised population. Hence, the need for an in-line system to detect nut traces at the early stages of food manufacturing is of crucial importance. In this present work, a feasibility study of a spectral index for revealing adulteration of tree nut and peanut traces in wheat flour samples with hyperspectral images is reported. The main nuts responsible for allergenic reactions considered in this work were peanut, hazelnut and walnut. Enhanced contrast between nuts and wheat flour was obtained after the application of the index. Furthermore, the segmentation of these images by selecting different thresholds for different nut and flour mixtures allowed the identification of nut traces in the samples. Pixels identified as nuts were counted and compared with the actual percentage of peanut adulteration. As a result, the multispectral system was able to detect and provide good visualisation of tree nut and peanut trace levels down to 0.01% by weight. In this context, multispectral imaging could operate in conjuction with chemical procedures, such as Real Time Polymerase Chain Reaction and Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay to save time, money and skilled labour on product quality control. This approach could enable not only a few selected samples to be assessed but also to extensively incorporate quality control surveyance on product processing lines.

Radiocarbon Dating of an Olive Tree Cross-Section: New Insights on Growth Patterns and Implications for Age Estimation of Olive Trees

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yael Ehrlich

2017-11-01

Full Text Available The age of living massive olive trees is often assumed to be between hundreds and even thousands of years. These estimations are usually based on the girth of the trunk and an extrapolation based on a theoretical annual growth rate. It is difficult to objectively verify these claims, as a monumental tree may not be cut down for analysis of its cross-section. In addition, the inner and oldest part of the trunk in olive trees usually rots, precluding the possibility of carting out radiocarbon analysis of material from the first years of life of the tree. In this work we present a cross-section of an olive tree, previously estimated to be hundreds of years old, which was cut down post-mortem in 2013. The cross-section was radiocarbon dated at numerous points following the natural growth pattern, which was made possible to observe by viewing the entire cross-section. Annual growth rate values were calculated and compared between different radii. The cross-section also revealed a nearly independent segment of growth, which would clearly offset any estimations based solely on girth calculations. Multiple piths were identified, indicating the beginning of branching within the trunk. Different radii were found to have comparable growth rates, resulting in similar estimates dating the piths to the 19th century. The estimated age of the piths represent a terminus ante quem for the age of the tree, as these are piths of separate branches. However, the tree is likely not many years older than the dated piths, and certainly not centuries older. The oldest radiocarbon-datable material in this cross-section was less than 200 years old, which is in agreement with most other radiocarbon dates of internal wood from living olive trees, rarely older than 300 years.

Bottles to trees: Plastic beverage bottles as an alternative nursery growing container for reforestation in developing countries

Science.gov (United States)

Khurram, Safiullah; Burney, Owen T.; Morrissey, Robert C.

2017-01-01

Reforestation is needed globally to help restore degraded sites, combat desertification, protect watersheds, and provide forest products. This involves planting forest tree seedlings grown in local nurseries, but technologies to produce quality seedlings are lacking in developing countries. Modern nursery containers used to propagate seedlings have internal-surface barriers (ribs or ridges) or side-slits to prevent root spiraling. These are cost prohibitive or unavailable in developing countries and so polybags (plastic bags) are more commonly used, despite their tendency to produce seedlings with deformed root systems that have less potential to establish on field sites. Discarded plastic bottles, which are readily available worldwide, may be a feasible alternative for seedling propagation. We conducted two experiments to assess the potential of repurposed plastic beverage bottles to grow quality trees: 1) Container Comparison–to evaluate Arizona walnut (Juglans major [Toor.] Heller) and Afghan pine (Pinus eldarica Medw.) seedling root and shoot development in two plastic bottle types compared to modern nursery containers and polybags, and 2) Bottle Modification–to examine the effects of root spiraling prevention techniques (side-slits, internal-ridges, and control) and container opacity (green, black, and clear) on Afghan pine seedling morphological attributes. Nursery growth and first-year seedling field performance were evaluated for both experiments. In experiment one, seedlings of both species had fewer spiraled roots in bottle containers compared to polybags. Arizona walnut had more fibrous root systems in polybags, while Afghan pine root system fibrosity was greatest in bottle containers. First-year field performance of both species was not affected by container type. In experiment two, less spiraled roots occurred in containers with air-slits and interior-ridges compared to the control. The effects of container opacity on seedling morphology were

First report of Phytophthora ramorum infecting mistletoe in California

Science.gov (United States)

K.L. Riley; G.A. Chastagner

2011-01-01

In 2005 and 2006, white fir and Douglas-fir growing in a Christmas tree plantation near Los Gatos, CA, under a black walnut tree infected with mistletoe tested positive for Phytophthora ramorum, the cause of Sudden Oak Death. Isolation from a symptomatic mistletoe inflorescence stalk was positive for P. ramorum. In 2007,...

Mortality and reduced brood production in walnut twig beetles, Pityophthorus juglandis (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), following exposure to commercial strains of entomopathogenic fungi Beauveria bassiana and Metarhizium brunneum

Science.gov (United States)

Louela A. Castrillo; Albert E. Mayfield; Michael H. Griggs; Robert Camp; Bryan Mudder; Adam Taylor; John D. Vandenberg

2017-01-01

Thousand cankers disease (TCD), caused by the walnut twig beetle (WTB), Pityophthorus juglandis, and its associated fungal symbiont, Geosmithia morbida, is a disease of economic and ecological concern on eastern black...

The effect of salt stress on growth, chlorophyll content, proline and nutrient accumulation, and k/na ratio in walnut

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Akca, Y.; Samsunlu, E

2012-01-01

The effects of irrigation water salinity on growth, chlorophyll contents, proline and nutrients accumulation and K/Na ratio in three walnut cultivars was investigated. Three irrigation water salinity levels with electrical conductivities of 1,5, 3, and 5.0 dS/m and tap water as a control treatment were used in a randomized design with four replications. Irrigation practices were realized by considering the weight of each pot. Sodium, clor, proline, K/Na and Ca/Na ratio of leaf were increased under salinity conditions. But growth of plant and chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b content were decreased under saline condition. There were significant differences between in irrigation water salinity levels in proline and chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, Na content. But there were not any significant differences in LRWC (%). Results showed that, regarding fresh shoot weight, dry shoot and root weight, there were significant differences between cultivars, but chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, total chlorophyll, proline accumulation and leaf relative water content (LRWC) there weren't any significant differences between cultivars. Kaman 1 and Bilecik walnut cultivars showed higher accumulation of proline than Kaman 5 but was not observed significant difference between them. (author)

Longshore water-current velocity and the potential for transport of contaminants—A pilot study in Lake Erie from Walnut Creek to Presque Isle State Park beaches, Erie, Pennsylvania, June and August 2015

Science.gov (United States)

Hittle, Elizabeth A.

2017-04-20

Bacteria-driven restrictions and (or) advisories on swimming at beaches in Presque Isle State Park (PISP), Erie, Pennsylvania, can occur during the summer months. One of the suspected sources of bacteria is sediment. A terrestrial sediment source to the west of PISP is Walnut Creek, which discharges to Lake Erie about 8.5 kilometers southwest of PISP Beach 1. On June 24, June 25, August 18, and August 19, 2015, synoptic surveys were conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Pennsylvania Sea Grant, in Lake Erie between Walnut Creek and PISP Beach 1 to characterize the water-current velocity and direction to determine whether sediment from Walnut Creek could be affecting the PISP beaches. Water-quality data (temperature, specific conductance, and turbidity) were collected in conjunction with the synoptic surveys in June. Water-quality data (Escherichia coli [E. coli] bacteria, temperature, and turbidity) were collected about a meter from the shore (nearshore) on June 24, August 19, and after a precipitation event on August 11, 2015. Additionally, suspended sediment was collected nearshore on June 24 and August 11, 2015. Samples collected near Walnut Creek during all three bacterial sampling events contained higher counts than other samples. Counts steadily decreased from west to east, then increased about 1–2 kilometers from PISP Beach 1; however, this study was not focused on examining other potential sources of bacteria.The Velocity Mapping Toolbox (VMT) was used to process the water-current synoptic surveys, and the results were visualized within ArcMap. For the survey accomplished on June 24, 2015, potential paths a particle could take between Walnut Creek and PSIP Beach 1 if conditions remained steady over a number of hours were visualized. However, the water-current velocity and direction were variable from one day to the other, indicating this was likely an unrealistic assumption for the study area. This analysis was not accomplished

Determination of fatty acid composition of {gamma}-irradiated hazelnuts, walnuts, almonds, and pistachios

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gecgel, Umit [Namik Kemal University, Agricultural Faculty, Department of Food Engineering, 59030 Tekirdag (Turkey); Gumus, Tuncay; Tasan, Murat; Daglioglu, Orhan; Arici, Muhammet [Namik Kemal University, Agricultural Faculty, Department of Food Engineering, 59030 Tekirdag (Turkey)

2011-04-15

Hazelnut, walnut, almonds, and pistachio nuts were treated with 1, 3, 5, and 7 kGy of gamma irradiation, respectively. Oil content, free fatty acid, peroxide value, and fatty acid composition of the nuts were investigated immediately after irradiation. The data obtained from the experiments indicated that gamma irradiation did not cause any significant change in the oil content of nuts. In contrast, free fatty acid and peroxide value of the nuts increased proportionally to the dose (p<0.05). Among the fatty acids determined, the concentration of total saturated fatty acids increased while total monounsaturated and total polyunsaturated fatty acids decreased with the irradiation dose (p<0.05 and <0.01).

Determination of fatty acid composition of γ-irradiated hazelnuts, walnuts, almonds, and pistachios

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gecgel, Umit; Gumus, Tuncay; Tasan, Murat; Daglioglu, Orhan; Arici, Muhammet

2011-01-01

Hazelnut, walnut, almonds, and pistachio nuts were treated with 1, 3, 5, and 7 kGy of gamma irradiation, respectively. Oil content, free fatty acid, peroxide value, and fatty acid composition of the nuts were investigated immediately after irradiation. The data obtained from the experiments indicated that gamma irradiation did not cause any significant change in the oil content of nuts. In contrast, free fatty acid and peroxide value of the nuts increased proportionally to the dose (p<0.05). Among the fatty acids determined, the concentration of total saturated fatty acids increased while total monounsaturated and total polyunsaturated fatty acids decreased with the irradiation dose (p<0.05 and <0.01).

Determination of fatty acid composition of γ-irradiated hazelnuts, walnuts, almonds, and pistachios

Science.gov (United States)

Gecgel, Umit; Gumus, Tuncay; Tasan, Murat; Daglioglu, Orhan; Arici, Muhammet

2011-04-01

Hazelnut, walnut, almonds, and pistachio nuts were treated with 1, 3, 5, and 7 kGy of gamma irradiation, respectively. Oil content, free fatty acid, peroxide value, and fatty acid composition of the nuts were investigated immediately after irradiation. The data obtained from the experiments indicated that gamma irradiation did not cause any significant change in the oil content of nuts. In contrast, free fatty acid and peroxide value of the nuts increased proportionally to the dose (p<0.05). Among the fatty acids determined, the concentration of total saturated fatty acids increased while total monounsaturated and total polyunsaturated fatty acids decreased with the irradiation dose (p<0.05 and <0.01).

Hydrologic measurements and implications for tree island formation within Everglades National Park

Science.gov (United States)

Bazante, Jose; Jacobi, Gary; Solo-Gabriele, Helena M.; Reed, David; Mitchell-Bruker, Sherry; Childers, Daniel L.; Leonard, Lynn; Ross, Michael

2006-10-01

SummaryTree islands in the Shark River Slough of the Everglades National Park (ENP), in the southern state of Florida in the United States, are part of a wetland system of densely vegetated ridges interspersed within relatively open sloughs. Human alteration of this system has had dramatic negative effects on the landscape of the region and restoration efforts will require adjusting the hydrology of the region to assure the preservation of these important ecologic features. The primary objectives of this study were to document the hydrology in the vicinity of tree islands in ENP by measuring velocities in time and space and by characterizing suspended sediments. The results of such measurements were interpreted with respect to factors that may limit tree island growth. The measurements were conducted in the vicinity of three tree islands known as Black Hammock (BH), Gumbo Limbo (GL), and an unnamed island that was named for this study as Satin Leaf (SL). Acoustical Doppler Velocity (ADV) meters were used for measuring the low velocities of the Everglades water flow. Properties of suspended sediments were characterized through measurements of particle size distribution, turbidity, concentration and particle density. Mean velocities observed at each of the tree islands varied from 0.9 to 1.4 cm/s. Slightly higher mean velocities were observed during the wet season (1.2-1.6 cm/s) versus the dry season (0.8-1.3 cm/s). Maximum velocities of more than 4 cm/s were measured in areas of Cladium jamaicense die-off and at the hardwood hammock (head) of the islands. At the island's head, water is channelized around obstructions such as tree trunks in relatively rapid flow, which may limit the lateral extent of tree island growth. Channelization is facilitated by shade from the tree canopy, which limits the growth of underwater vegetation thereby minimizing the resistance to flow and limiting sediment deposition. Suspended sediment concentrations were low (0.5-1.5 mg/L) at all

Improving disease resistance of butternut (Juglans cinerea), a threatened fine hardwood: a case for single-tree selection through genetic improvement and deployment.

Science.gov (United States)

Michler, Charles H; Pijut, Paula M; Jacobs, Douglass F; Meilan, Richard; Woeste, Keith E; Ostry, Michael E

2006-01-01

Approaches for the development of disease-resistant butternut (Juglans cinerea L.) are reviewed. Butternut is a threatened fine hardwood throughout its natural range in eastern North America because of the invasion of the exotic fungus, Sirococcus clavigignenti-juglandacearum Nair, Kostichka and Kuntz, which causes butternut canker. Early efforts were made to identify and collect putatively resistant germ plasm, identify vectors and to characterize the disease. More recently, molecular techniques have been employed to genetically characterize both the pathogen and the resistant germ plasm. Much of the host resistance may originate from hybridization with a close Asian relative, Japanese walnut (Juglans ailanthifolia Carr.), and from a few natural phenotypic variants. Further genetic characterization is needed before classical breeding or genetic modification can be used to produce canker-resistant trees.

Drought, tree mortality, and wildfire in forests adapted to frequent fire

Science.gov (United States)

Scott L Stephens; Brandon M Collins; Christopher J Fettig; Mark A Finney; Chad M Hoffman; Eric E Knapp; Malcolm P North; Hugh Safford; Rebecca B Wayman

2018-01-01

Massive tree mortality has occurred rapidly in frequent-fire-adapted forests of the Sierra Nevada, California. This mortality is a product of acute drought compounded by the long-established removal of a key ecosystem process: frequent, low- to moderate-intensity fire. The recent tree mortality has many implications for the future of these forests and the ecological...

Possibilities for the Use of Wood Ashes in Agriculture

OpenAIRE

Barbara Symanowicz; Marcin Becher; Dawid Jaremko; Korneliusz Skwarek

2018-01-01

The aim of the study was to determine the agricultural usefulness of the ashes obtained following the combustion of wood of fourteen tree species (pear tree, apple tree, aspen, ash, alder, birch, poplar, hornbeam, pine, common walnut, oak, hazel, bird cherry and spruce) in home fireplaces. The following physical properties of the ashes were determined: colour, solubility, porosity, absorbability, compression strength, degree of fineness, moisture content and spreadability. In the ashes...

Comparison of Chemical and Enzymatic Interesterification of Fully Hydrogenated Soybean Oil and Walnut Oil to Produce a Fat Base with Adequate Nutritional and Physical Characteristics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mariel Farfán

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The optimal physical, chemical and nutritional properties of natural lipids depend on the structure and composition of triacylglycerols. However, they are not always mutually compatible. Lipid modification is a good way to give them specific functionalities, increase their oxidative stability, or improve their nutritional value. As such, chemical and enzymatic interesterification may be used to modify them and produce structured lipids. In accordance, the aim of this study is to compare chemical and enzymatic interesterifi cation of binary blends of fully hydrogenated soybean oil and walnut oil, using sodium methoxide or Lipozyme TL IM, respectively, to produce a fat base with adequate nutritional and physical characteristics. Three different mass ratios of fully hydrogenated soybean oil and walnut oil blends (20:80, 40:60 and 60:40 were interesterified and evaluated. Total interesterification was determined by the stabilization of the solid fat content. Chemical reaction of the 20:80 blend was completed in 10 min and of the 40:60 and 60:40 blends in 15 min. Enzymatically interesterified blends were stabilized in 120 min at all of the mass ratios. Complete interesterification significantly reduced the solid fat content of the blends at any composition. Chemical and enzymatically interesterified fully hydrogenated blend of soybean and walnut oil at mass ratio of 40:60 showed the plastic curve of an all-purpose-type shortening rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids, with a high linolenic acid (C18:3n3 content and with zero trans-fatty acids.

Carbon Abatement and Emissions Associated with the Gasification of Walnut Shells for Bioenergy and Biochar Production.

Science.gov (United States)

Pujol Pereira, Engil Isadora; Suddick, Emma C; Six, Johan

2016-01-01

By converting biomass residue to biochar, we could generate power cleanly and sequester carbon resulting in overall greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) savings when compared to typical fossil fuel usage and waste disposal. We estimated the carbon dioxide (CO2) abatements and emissions associated to the concurrent production of bioenergy and biochar through biomass gasification in an organic walnut farm and processing facility in California, USA. We accounted for (i) avoided-CO2 emissions from displaced grid electricity by bioenergy; (ii) CO2 emissions from farm machinery used for soil amendment of biochar; (iii) CO2 sequestered in the soil through stable biochar-C; and (iv) direct CO2 and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from soil. The objective of these assessments was to pinpoint where the largest C offsets can be expected in the bioenergy-biochar chain. We found that energy production from gasification resulted in 91.8% of total C offsets, followed by stable biochar-C (8.2% of total C sinks), offsetting a total of 107.7 kg CO2-C eq Mg-1 feedstock. At the field scale, we monitored gas fluxes from soils for 29 months (180 individual observations) following field management and precipitation events in addition to weekly measurements within three growing seasons and two tree dormancy periods. We compared four treatments: control, biochar, compost, and biochar combined with compost. Biochar alone or in combination with compost did not alter total N2O and CO2 emissions from soils, indicating that under the conditions of this study, biochar-prompted C offsets may not be expected from the mitigation of direct soil GHG emissions. However, this study revealed a case where a large environmental benefit was given by the waste-to-bioenergy treatment, addressing farm level challenges such as waste management, renewable energy generation, and C sequestration.

Carbon Abatement and Emissions Associated with the Gasification of Walnut Shells for Bioenergy and Biochar Production.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Engil Isadora Pujol Pereira

Full Text Available By converting biomass residue to biochar, we could generate power cleanly and sequester carbon resulting in overall greenhouse gas emissions (GHG savings when compared to typical fossil fuel usage and waste disposal. We estimated the carbon dioxide (CO2 abatements and emissions associated to the concurrent production of bioenergy and biochar through biomass gasification in an organic walnut farm and processing facility in California, USA. We accounted for (i avoided-CO2 emissions from displaced grid electricity by bioenergy; (ii CO2 emissions from farm machinery used for soil amendment of biochar; (iii CO2 sequestered in the soil through stable biochar-C; and (iv direct CO2 and nitrous oxide (N2O emissions from soil. The objective of these assessments was to pinpoint where the largest C offsets can be expected in the bioenergy-biochar chain. We found that energy production from gasification resulted in 91.8% of total C offsets, followed by stable biochar-C (8.2% of total C sinks, offsetting a total of 107.7 kg CO2-C eq Mg-1 feedstock. At the field scale, we monitored gas fluxes from soils for 29 months (180 individual observations following field management and precipitation events in addition to weekly measurements within three growing seasons and two tree dormancy periods. We compared four treatments: control, biochar, compost, and biochar combined with compost. Biochar alone or in combination with compost did not alter total N2O and CO2 emissions from soils, indicating that under the conditions of this study, biochar-prompted C offsets may not be expected from the mitigation of direct soil GHG emissions. However, this study revealed a case where a large environmental benefit was given by the waste-to-bioenergy treatment, addressing farm level challenges such as waste management, renewable energy generation, and C sequestration.

Implications of Liebig’s law of the minimum for tree-ring reconstructions of climate

Science.gov (United States)

Stine, A. R.; Huybers, P.

2017-11-01

A basic principle of ecology, known as Liebig’s Law of the Minimum, is that plant growth reflects the strongest limiting environmental factor. This principle implies that a limiting environmental factor can be inferred from historical growth and, in dendrochronology, such reconstruction is generally achieved by averaging collections of standardized tree-ring records. Averaging is optimal if growth reflects a single limiting factor and noise but not if growth also reflects locally variable stresses that intermittently limit growth. In this study a collection of Arctic tree ring records is shown to follow scaling relationships that are inconsistent with the signal-plus-noise model of tree growth but consistent with Liebig’s Law acting at the local level. Also consistent with law-of-the-minimum behavior is that reconstructions based on the least-stressed trees in a given year better-follow variations in temperature than typical approaches where all tree-ring records are averaged. Improvements in reconstruction skill occur across all frequencies, with the greatest increase at the lowest frequencies. More comprehensive statistical-ecological models of tree growth may offer further improvement in reconstruction skill.

Shade tree diversity enhances coffee production and quality in agroforestry systems in the Western Ghats

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nesper, Maike; Kueffer, Christoph; Krishnan, Smitha; Kushalappa, Cheppudira G.; Ghazoul, Jaboury

2017-01-01

Intensification of multispecies coffee agroforests reduces shade tree diversity with implications for tropical biodiversity. We investigated how tree biodiversity and its effects on coffee production and quality changes along a gradient of intensification (from diverse multispecies to Grevillea

Statistically Consistent k-mer Methods for Phylogenetic Tree Reconstruction.

Science.gov (United States)

Allman, Elizabeth S; Rhodes, John A; Sullivant, Seth

2017-02-01

Frequencies of k-mers in sequences are sometimes used as a basis for inferring phylogenetic trees without first obtaining a multiple sequence alignment. We show that a standard approach of using the squared Euclidean distance between k-mer vectors to approximate a tree metric can be statistically inconsistent. To remedy this, we derive model-based distance corrections for orthologous sequences without gaps, which lead to consistent tree inference. The identifiability of model parameters from k-mer frequencies is also studied. Finally, we report simulations showing that the corrected distance outperforms many other k-mer methods, even when sequences are generated with an insertion and deletion process. These results have implications for multiple sequence alignment as well since k-mer methods are usually the first step in constructing a guide tree for such algorithms.

Ecological implications of Laurel Wilt infestation on Everglades Tree Islands, southern Florida

Science.gov (United States)

Snyder, James R.

2014-01-01

There is a long history of introduced pests attacking native forest trees in the United States (Liebhold and others, 1995; Aukema and others, 2010). Well-known examples include chestnut blight that decimated the American chestnut (Castanea dentata), an extremely important tree in the eastern United States, both as a food source for wildlife and humans and for the wood; Dutch elm disease that attacks native elms (Ulmus spp.), including those commonly planted as shade trees along city streets; and the balsam wooly adelgid (Adelges piceae), an insect that is destroying Fraser firs (Abies fraseri) in higher elevations of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Laurel wilt, a fungal disease transmitted by the redbay ambrosia beetle (Xyleborus glabratus), is a 21st-century example of an introduced forest pest that attacks native tree species in the laurel family (Lauraceae) (Mayfield, 2007; Hulcr and Dunn, 2011).The introduction of laurel wilt disease has been traced to the arrival of an Asian ambrosia beetle (Xyleborus glabratus) at Port Wentworth, Georgia, near Savannah, in 2002, apparently accidently introduced in wooden shipping material (Mayfield, 2007). Within the next 2 years, it was determined that the non-native wood-boring insect was the vector of an undescribed species of fungus, responsible for killing large numbers of red bay (Persea borbonia) trees in the surrounding area. Dispersing female redbay ambrosia beetles drill into live trees and create tunnels in the wood. They carry with them fungal spores in specialized organs called mycangia at the base of each mandible and sow the spores in the tunnels they excavate. The fungus, since named Raffaelea lauricola (Harrington and others, 2008), is the food source for adults and larvae. The introduction of Raffaelea lauricola causes the host plant to react in such a way as to block the vascular tissue, resulting in loss of water conduction, wilt, and death (Kendra and others, 2013).Although first seen in red bay

Suppression of nighttime sap flux with lower stem photosynthesis in Eucalyptus trees.

Science.gov (United States)

Gao, Jianguo; Zhou, Juan; Sun, Zhenwei; Niu, Junfeng; Zhou, Cuiming; Gu, Daxing; Huang, Yuqing; Zhao, Ping

2016-04-01

It is widely accepted that substantial nighttime sap flux (J s,n) or transpiration (E) occurs in most plants, but the physiological implications are poorly known. It has been hypothesized that J s,n or E serves to enhance nitrogen uptake or deliver oxygen; however, no clear evidence is currently available. In this study, sap flux (J s) in Eucalyptus grandis × urophylla with apparent stem photosynthesis was measured, including control trees which were covered by aluminum foil (approximately 1/3 of tree height) to block stem photosynthesis. We hypothesized that the nighttime water flux would be suppressed in trees with lower stem photosynthesis. The results showed that the green tissue degraded after 3 months, demonstrating a decrease in stem photosynthesis. The daytime J s decreased by 21.47%, while J s,n decreased by 12.03% in covered trees as compared to that of control, and the difference was statistically significant (P photosynthesis in covered trees. Predawn (ψ pd) of covered trees was marginally higher than that of control while lower at predawn stomatal conductance (g s), indicating a suppressed water flux in covered trees. There was no difference in leaf carbon content and δ(13)C between the two groups, while leaf nitrogen content and δ(15)N were significantly higher in covered trees than that of the control (P < 0.05), indicating that J s,n was not used for nitrogen uptake. These results suggest that J s,n may act as an oxygen pathway since green tissue has a higher respiration or oxygen demand than non-green tissue. Thus, this study demonstrated the physiological implications of J s,n and the possible benefits of nighttime water use or E by the tree.

Nesting tree characteristics of heronry birds of urban ecosystems in peninsular India: implications for habitat management.

Science.gov (United States)

Roshnath, Ramesh; Sinu, Palatty Allesh

2017-12-01

Wetland ecosystems, particularly the mangrove forest, are the primary wild habitat of heronry birds. However, urban ecosystems have become a favorite breeding habitat of these birds. To provide inputs into the habitat management for conservation of these birds, we investigated the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of nesting trees of heronry birds in the urban environment of the North Kerala region of peninsular India. Census on nesting trees was done in 3 major microhabitats of the urban ecosystem: avenues of national highways and towns, nonresidential plots, and residential areas apart from the mangrove islets in the peri-urban locality. The study found that 174 trees of 22 species hosted 1,928 heronry bird nests in the urban habitats; mangrove forests, although plentiful in the study area, hosted only about 20% of the total nests encountered in the study. Rain trees Samanea saman (43.7%) were the most available nesting tree. The greatest number of nests and nesting trees were encountered on the roads of urban areas, followed by nonresidential areas and residential areas. The differences in the observed frequencies of nesting trees in 3 microhabitats and in 3 types of roads (national highways > state highways > small pocket road) were significant. Canopy spread, girth size, and quality of the trees predicted the tree selection of the heronry birds in urban environments. Therefore, we recommend proper management and notification of the identified nesting trees as protected sites for the conservation of herorny birds.

Using inventory data to determine the impact of drought on tree mortality

Science.gov (United States)

Greg C. Liknes; Christopher W. Woodall; Charles H. Perry

2012-01-01

Drought has been the subject of numerous recent studies that hint at an acceleration of tree mortality due to climate change. In particular, a recent global survey of tree mortality events implicates drought as the cause of quaking aspen mortality in Minnesota, USA in 2007. In this study, data from the Forest Inventory and Analysis program of the USDA Forest Service...

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African Journals Online (AJOL)

Identification of a latent pathogen on mulberry tree with a disease of mosaic dwarf ... and therapeutic effects of antler collagen on osteoporosis in ovariectomized rats ... The dynamics of fat, protein and sugar metabolism during walnut (Juglans ...

Modeling the Ecosystem Services Provided by Trees in Urban Ecosystems: Using Biome-BGC to Improve i-Tree Eco

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Brown, Molly E.; McGroddy, Megan; Spence, Caitlin; Flake, Leah; Sarfraz, Amna; Nowak, David J.; Milesi, Cristina

2012-01-01

As the world becomes increasingly urban, the need to quantify the effect of trees in urban environments on energy usage, air pollution, local climate and nutrient run-off has increased. By identifying, quantifying and valuing the ecological activity that provides services in urban areas, stronger policies and improved quality of life for urban residents can be obtained. Here we focus on two radically different models that can be used to characterize urban forests. The i-Tree Eco model (formerly UFORE model) quantifies ecosystem services (e.g., air pollution removal, carbon storage) and values derived from urban trees based on field measurements of trees and local ancillary data sets. Biome-BGC (Biome BioGeoChemistry) is used to simulate the fluxes and storage of carbon, water, and nitrogen in natural environments. This paper compares i-Tree Eco's methods to those of Biome-BGC, which estimates the fluxes and storage of energy, carbon, water and nitrogen for vegetation and soil components of the ecosystem. We describe the two models and their differences in the way they calculate similar properties, with a focus on carbon and nitrogen. Finally, we discuss the implications of further integration of these two communities for land managers such as those in Maryland.

Estimating Coextinction Risks from Epidemic Tree Death: Affiliate Lichen Communities among Diseased Host Tree Populations of Fraxinus excelsior

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Jönsson, Mari T.; Thor, Göran

2012-01-01

At least 10% of the world’s tree species are threatened with extinction and pathogens are increasingly implicated in tree threats. Coextinction and threats to affiliates as a consequence of the loss or decline of their host trees is a poorly understood phenomenon. Ash dieback is an emerging infectious disease causing severe dieback of common ash Fraxinus excelsior throughout Europe. We utilized available empirical data on affiliate epiphytic lichen diversity (174 species and 17,800 observations) among 20 ash dieback infected host tree populations of F. excelsior on the island Gotland in the Baltic Sea, Sweden. From this, we used structured scenario projections scaled with empirical data of ash dieback disease to generate probabilistic models for estimating local and regional lichen coextinction risks. Average coextinction probabilities (Ā) were 0.38 (95% CI ±0.09) for lichens occurring on F. excelsior and 0.14 (95% CI ±0.03) when considering lichen persistence on all tree species. Ā was strongly linked to local disease incidence levels and generally increasing with lichen host specificity to F. excelsior and decreasing population size. Coextinctions reduced affiliate community viability, with significant local reductions in species richness and shifts in lichen species composition. Affiliates were projected to become locally extirpated before their hosts, illuminating the need to also consider host tree declines. Traditionally managed open wooded meadows had the highest incidence of ash dieback disease and significantly higher proportions of affiliate species projected to go extinct, compared with unmanaged closed forests and semi-open grazed sites. Most cothreatened species were not previously red-listed, which suggest that tree epidemics cause many unforeseen threats to species. Our analysis shows that epidemic tree deaths represent an insidious, mostly overlooked, threat to sessile affiliate communities in forested environments. Current conservation and

Influence of Riparian Tree Phenology on Lower Colorado River Spring-Migrating Birds: Implications of Flower Cueing

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McGrath, Laura J.; van Riper, Charles

2005-01-01

Executive Summary Neotropical migrant birds make choices about which habitats are most likely to provide successful foraging locations during migration, but little is known about how these birds recognize and process environmental clues that indicate the presence of prey species. Aspects of tree phenology, notably flowering of trees along the lower Colorado River corridor, coincide with the migratory stopovers of leaf-gleaning insectivorous songbirds and may be an important indicator of arthropod prey species availability. Shifting tree flowering and leaf flush during the spring migration period presents avian insectivores with an assortment of foraging opportunities. During two field seasons at Cibola National Wildlife Refuge in southwestern Arizona, we examined riparian tree species to test whether leaf-gleaning insectivorous birds are attracted to the flowering condition of trees in choosing foraging sites. We predicted that flowering trees would host more insect prey resources, would thus show increased visit rates, length of stays and attack ratios of migrant avian insectivores, and that those arthropods would be found in the stomach contents of the birds. Paired trees of honey mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa), displaying heavy and light degrees of flowering were observed to test these predictions. To test whether birds are tracking arthropods directly or are using flowers as a proximate cue, we removed flowers from selected trees and paired these treated trees with neighboring high flowering trees, which served as controls. Avian foraging behavior, avian diets, arthropods, and phenology data were collected at the same time to control for temporal differences in insect availability, plant phenology, and differences in stopover arrivals of birds. We documented five patterns from this study: 1) Higher abundance and richness of arthropods were found on honey mesquite trees with greater numbers of flowers. 2) Arthropod abundance and richness increased as flowering

Categorizing ideas about trees: a tree of trees.

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Fisler, Marie; Lecointre, Guillaume

2013-01-01

The aim of this study is to explore whether matrices and MP trees used to produce systematic categories of organisms could be useful to produce categories of ideas in history of science. We study the history of the use of trees in systematics to represent the diversity of life from 1766 to 1991. We apply to those ideas a method inspired from coding homologous parts of organisms. We discretize conceptual parts of ideas, writings and drawings about trees contained in 41 main writings; we detect shared parts among authors and code them into a 91-characters matrix and use a tree representation to show who shares what with whom. In other words, we propose a hierarchical representation of the shared ideas about trees among authors: this produces a "tree of trees." Then, we categorize schools of tree-representations. Classical schools like "cladists" and "pheneticists" are recovered but others are not: "gradists" are separated into two blocks, one of them being called here "grade theoreticians." We propose new interesting categories like the "buffonian school," the "metaphoricians," and those using "strictly genealogical classifications." We consider that networks are not useful to represent shared ideas at the present step of the study. A cladogram is made for showing who is sharing what with whom, but also heterobathmy and homoplasy of characters. The present cladogram is not modelling processes of transmission of ideas about trees, and here it is mostly used to test for proximity of ideas of the same age and for categorization.

Identification of chilling and heat requirements of cherry trees--a statistical approach.

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Luedeling, Eike; Kunz, Achim; Blanke, Michael M

2013-09-01

Most trees from temperate climates require the accumulation of winter chill and subsequent heat during their dormant phase to resume growth and initiate flowering in the following spring. Global warming could reduce chill and hence hamper the cultivation of high-chill species such as cherries. Yet determining chilling and heat requirements requires large-scale controlled-forcing experiments, and estimates are thus often unavailable. Where long-term phenology datasets exist, partial least squares (PLS) regression can be used as an alternative, to determine climatic requirements statistically. Bloom dates of cherry cv. 'Schneiders späte Knorpelkirsche' trees in Klein-Altendorf, Germany, from 24 growing seasons were correlated with 11-day running means of daily mean temperature. Based on the output of the PLS regression, five candidate chilling periods ranging in length from 17 to 102 days, and one forcing phase of 66 days were delineated. Among three common chill models used to quantify chill, the Dynamic Model showed the lowest variation in chill, indicating that it may be more accurate than the Utah and Chilling Hours Models. Based on the longest candidate chilling phase with the earliest starting date, cv. 'Schneiders späte Knorpelkirsche' cherries at Bonn exhibited a chilling requirement of 68.6 ± 5.7 chill portions (or 1,375 ± 178 chilling hours or 1,410 ± 238 Utah chill units) and a heat requirement of 3,473 ± 1,236 growing degree hours. Closer investigation of the distinct chilling phases detected by PLS regression could contribute to our understanding of dormancy processes and thus help fruit and nut growers identify suitable tree cultivars for a future in which static climatic conditions can no longer be assumed. All procedures used in this study were bundled in an R package ('chillR') and are provided as Supplementary materials. The procedure was also applied to leaf emergence dates of walnut (cv. 'Payne') at Davis, California.

Symbolic use of size and color in freehand drawing of the tree: myth or reality?

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Picard, Delphine; Lebaz, Samuel

2010-03-01

In this study, we tested whether children and young adults varied the size and color of their tree drawings based on hypotheses related to the emotional characterization of the drawn topic. We asked a sample of 80 5- to 11-year-old children and adults to draw a tree (baseline drawing) and then a happy versus sad tree from their imagination. Results indicate that size, but not color, is used to express emotion under free drawing conditions. We discuss implications for clinical psychologists and practitioners interpreting drawings of the tree.

Genotype and year variability of the chemical composition of walnut oil of Moroccan seedlings from the high Atlas Mountains

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Kodad, O.

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Protein and oil content, fatty acid composition and tocopherol concentration were determined for two years in the kernel of ten candidate walnut selections from the high Atlas Mountains in Morocco. Considerable variation between genotypes was found for all parameters. The ranges of protein content (11.58–14.5% of kernel dry weight, DW, oil content (54.4–67.48% of kernel DW, oleic (12.47–22.01% of total oil, linoleic (55.03–60.01%, linolenic (9.3–15.87%, palmitic (6.84–9.12%, and stearic (1.7–2.92% acid percentages, γ-tocopherol (188.1–230.7 mg·kg-1 of oil, δ-tocopherol (23.3–43.4 mg·kg-1, and α-tocopherol (8.9–16.57 mg·kg-1 contents agreed with previous results obtained from other commercial walnut cultivars. The effect of year was significant for all the chemical components, except for oil content and palmitic acid percentage. Some genotypes showed high oil contents and consistently high values of γ-tocopherol in both years of study. The introduction of these genotypes as new cultivars by vegetative propagation may result in a an increase in quality of the walnuts from the high Atlas Mountains of Morocco, and as a seed source for forest walnut propagation in the same region.Se determinó durante dos años el contenido en proteína y aceite, la composición en ácidos grasos y la concentración en tocoferoles en la pepita de diez plantones de nogal seleccionados en el Alto Atlas de Marruecos, encontrándose una considerable variación entre genotipos para todos los parámetros. Los rangos del contenido en proteína (11.58–14.5 % del peso seco, PS, contenido en aceite (54.4–67.48 % PS, porcentaje de ácido oleico (12.47–22.01% del aceite total, linoleico (55.03–60.01 %, linolénico (9.3–15.87 %, palmítico (6.84–9.12 %, y esteárico (1.7–2.92 %, contenido en γ-tocoferol (188.1–230.7 mg·kg−1 de aceite, δ-tocoferol (23.3–43.4 mg·kg−1 y α-tocoferol (8.9–16.57 mg·kg−1, coincidieron con

X-ray based irradiation of navel orangeworm for sterile insect control

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The navel orangeworm (NOW) is a pest of California tree nuts, including almonds, pistachios, and walnuts. NOW damage is also correlated with infection by Aspergillus flavus and subsequent mycotoxin contamination, primarily aflatoxins. These potential carcinogens / animal toxins are strictly regulate...

Decision Trees Predicting Tumor Shrinkage for Head and Neck Cancer: Implications for Adaptive Radiotherapy.

Science.gov (United States)

Surucu, Murat; Shah, Karan K; Mescioglu, Ibrahim; Roeske, John C; Small, William; Choi, Mehee; Emami, Bahman

2016-02-01

To develop decision trees predicting for tumor volume reduction in patients with head and neck (H&N) cancer using pretreatment clinical and pathological parameters. Forty-eight patients treated with definitive concurrent chemoradiotherapy for squamous cell carcinoma of the nasopharynx, oropharynx, oral cavity, or hypopharynx were retrospectively analyzed. These patients were rescanned at a median dose of 37.8 Gy and replanned to account for anatomical changes. The percentages of gross tumor volume (GTV) change from initial to rescan computed tomography (CT; %GTVΔ) were calculated. Two decision trees were generated to correlate %GTVΔ in primary and nodal volumes with 14 characteristics including age, gender, Karnofsky performance status (KPS), site, human papilloma virus (HPV) status, tumor grade, primary tumor growth pattern (endophytic/exophytic), tumor/nodal/group stages, chemotherapy regimen, and primary, nodal, and total GTV volumes in the initial CT scan. The C4.5 Decision Tree induction algorithm was implemented. The median %GTVΔ for primary, nodal, and total GTVs was 26.8%, 43.0%, and 31.2%, respectively. Type of chemotherapy, age, primary tumor growth pattern, site, KPS, and HPV status were the most predictive parameters for primary %GTVΔ decision tree, whereas for nodal %GTVΔ, KPS, site, age, primary tumor growth pattern, initial primary GTV, and total GTV volumes were predictive. Both decision trees had an accuracy of 88%. There can be significant changes in primary and nodal tumor volumes during the course of H&N chemoradiotherapy. Considering the proposed decision trees, radiation oncologists can select patients predicted to have high %GTVΔ, who would theoretically gain the most benefit from adaptive radiotherapy, in order to better use limited clinical resources. © The Author(s) 2015.

GPM Precipitation Estimates over the Walnut Gulch Experimental Watershed/LTAR site in Southeastern Arizona

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Goodrich, D. C.; Tan, J.; Petersen, W. A.; Unkrich, C. C.; Demaria, E. M.; Hazenberg, P.; Lakshmi, V.

2017-12-01

Precipitation profiles from the GPM Core Observatory Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) form part of the a priori database used in GPM Goddard Profiling (GPROF) algorithm passive microwave radiometer retrievals of rainfall. The GPROF retrievals are in turn used as high quality precipitation estimates in gridded products such as IMERG. Due to the variability in and high surface emissivity of land surfaces, GPROF performs precipitation retrievals as a function of surface classes. As such, different surface types may possess different error characteristics, especially over arid regions where high quality ground measurements are often lacking. Importantly, the emissive properties of land also result in GPROF rainfall estimates being driven primarily by the higher frequency radiometer channels (e.g., > 89 GHz) where precipitation signals are most sensitive to coupling between the ice-phase and rainfall production. In this study, we evaluate the rainfall estimates from the Ku channel of the DPR as well as GPROF estimates from various passive microwave sensors. Our evaluation is conducted at the level of individual satellite pixels (5 to 15 km in diameter), against a dense network of weighing rain gauges (90 in 150 km2) in the USDA-ARS Walnut Gulch Experimental Watershed and Long-Term Agroecosystem Research (LTAR) site in southeastern Arizona. The multiple gauges in each satellite pixel and precise accumulation about the overpass time allow a spatially and temporally representative comparison between the satellite estimates and ground reference. Over Walnut Gulch, both the Ku and GPROF estimates are challenged to delineate between rain and no-rain. Probabilities of detection are relatively high, but false alarm ratios are also high. The rain intensities possess a negative bias across nearly all sensors. It is likely that storm types, arid conditions and the highly variable precipitation regime present a challenge to both rainfall retrieval algorithms. An array of

Do orthologous gene phylogenies really support tree-thinking?

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Leigh J

2005-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Since Darwin's Origin of Species, reconstructing the Tree of Life has been a goal of evolutionists, and tree-thinking has become a major concept of evolutionary biology. Practically, building the Tree of Life has proven to be tedious. Too few morphological characters are useful for conducting conclusive phylogenetic analyses at the highest taxonomic level. Consequently, molecular sequences (genes, proteins, and genomes likely constitute the only useful characters for constructing a phylogeny of all life. For this reason, tree-makers expect a lot from gene comparisons. The simultaneous study of the largest number of molecular markers possible is sometimes considered to be one of the best solutions in reconstructing the genealogy of organisms. This conclusion is a direct consequence of tree-thinking: if gene inheritance conforms to a tree-like model of evolution, sampling more of these molecules will provide enough phylogenetic signal to build the Tree of Life. The selection of congruent markers is thus a fundamental step in simultaneous analysis of many genes. Results Heat map analyses were used to investigate the congruence of orthologues in four datasets (archaeal, bacterial, eukaryotic and alpha-proteobacterial. We conclude that we simply cannot determine if a large portion of the genes have a common history. In addition, none of these datasets can be considered free of lateral gene transfer. Conclusion Our phylogenetic analyses do not support tree-thinking. These results have important conceptual and practical implications. We argue that representations other than a tree should be investigated in this case because a non-critical concatenation of markers could be highly misleading.

Total Phenolics, Flavonoids, Tannin Contents and Antioxidant Properties of Pleurotus ostreatus Cultivated on Different Wastes and Sawdust

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Ayşenur Yılmaz

2017-01-01

Full Text Available In this study, the usage possibilities of some agro-industrial wastes such as; peanut wastes, potatoes farm wastes, walnut and orange tree sawdust in Pleurotus ostreatus cultivation were investigated and total phenolic, flavonoid, condensed tannin content and antioxidant properties of these methanolic mushroom extracts were examined. For the determination of the total phenolic contents, the Folin-Ciocalteau procedure was used. The content of total flavonoid present in the methanolic extracts was measured using a spectrophotometric assay. Condensed tannins were determined according to the method by Julkunen-Tıtto. The antioxidant capacity was determined using ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP and free radical scavenging activity of DPPH. The highest total phenolic content (2.672 ± 0.003 mg GAE/g was found in mushroom cultivated on walnut sawdust. The highest condensed tannin (1.011 ± 0.088 CE mg/g and ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP (12.332 ± 0.017 μmol FeSO4.7H2O/g were observed in the same mushroom extract. The highest total flavonoid and free radical scavenging activity of DPPH were found in extract of mushroom cultivated on potatoes handle. Bioactive properties of P. ostreatus cultivated on walnut tree sawdust were generally exhibited remarkable results.

Tree seedling response to LED spectra: Implications for forest restoration

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Antonio Montagnoli; R. Kasten Dumroese; Mattia Terzaghi; Jeremiah R. Pinto; Nicoletta Fulgaro; Gabriella Stefania Scippa; Donato Chiatante

2018-01-01

We found that different spectra, provided by light-emitting diodes or a fluorescent lamp, caused different photomorphological responses depending on tree seedling type (coniferous or broad-leaved), species, seedling development stage, and seedling fraction (shoot or root). For two conifers (Picea abies and Pinus sylvestris) soon after germination (≤40 days), more...

Have Food Allergies? Read the Label

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... crustacean shellfish, such as crab, lobster, or shrimp tree nuts, such as almonds, pecans, or walnuts wheat peanuts soybeans The law allows manufacturers a choice in how they identify the specific “food source names,” such as “milk,” “ ...

Screening butternut and butternut hybrids for resistance to butternut canker

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J.R. McKenna; M.E. Ostry; K. Woeste

2011-01-01

Butternut (Juglans cinerea) is being killed throughout its native range by the fungus Sirococcus clavigignenti-juglandacearum (Scj). In recent years, many disease-free trees have been determined to be complex hybrids with an admixture of Japanese walnut (J. ailantifolia). We challenged 5-year-...

Tree mortality in the eastern Mediterranean, causes and implications under climatic change

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Sarris, Dimitrios; Iacovou, Valentina; Hoch, Guenter; Vennetier, Michel; Siegwolf, Rolf; Christodoulakis, Dimitrios; Koerner, Christian

2015-04-01

The eastern Mediterranean has experienced repeated incidents of forest mortality related to drought in recent decades. Such events may become more frequent in the future as drought conditions are projected to further intensify due to global warming. We have been investigating the causes behind such forest mortality events in Pinus halepensis, (the most drought tolerant pine in the Mediterranean). We cored tree stems and sampled various tissue types from dry habitats close to sea level and explored growth responses, stable isotope signals and non-structural carbohydrate (NSC) concentrations. Under intense drought that coincided with pine desiccation events in natural populations our result indicate a significant reduction in tree growth, the most significant in more than a century despite the increase in atmospheric CO2 concentrations in recent decades. This has been accompanied by a lengthening in the integration periods of rainfall needed for pine growth, reaching even 5-6 years before and including the year of mortality occurrence. Oxygen stable isotopes indicate that these signals were associated with a shift in tree water utilization from deeper moisture pools related to past rainfall events. Furthermore, where the driest conditions occur, pine carbon reserves were found to increase in stem tissue, indicating that mortality in these pines cannot be explained by carbon starvation. Our findings suggest that for pine populations that are already water limited (i) a further atmospheric CO2 increase will not compensate for the reduction in growth because of a drier climate, (ii) hydraulic failure appears as the most likely cause of pine desiccation, as no shortage occurs in tree carbon reserves, (iii) a further increase in mortality events may cause these systems to become carbon sources.

Boreal Tree Light- and Water-Use: Asynchronous, Diverging, yet Complementary

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Pappas, C.; Baltzer, J. L.; Barr, A.; Black, T. A.; Bohrer, G.; Detto, M.; Maillet, J.; Matheny, A. M.; Roy, A.; Sonnentag, O.; Stephens, J.

2017-12-01

Water stress has been suggested as a key mechanism behind the contemporary increase in tree mortality rates in northwestern North America. However, a detailed analysis of boreal tree light- and water-use strategies as well as their interspecific differences are still lacking. Here, we examine the tree hydraulic behaviour of co-occurring larch (Larix laricina) and black spruce (Picea mariana), two characteristic boreal tree species, near the southern limit of the boreal ecozone in central Canada. Sap flux density (Js) and concurrently recorded stem radius fluctuations and meteorological conditions are used to quantify tree hydraulic functioning and to scrutinize tree light- and water-use strategies. Our analysis reveals an asynchrony in the diel hydrodynamics of the two species with the initial rise in Js occurring two hours earlier in larch than in black spruce. Structural differences in the crown architecture of larch and black spruce lead to interspecific differences in light harvesting that can explain the observed asynchrony in their hydraulic function. Furthermore, the two species exhibit diverging stomatal regulation strategies with larch employing relatively isohydric whereas black spruce anisohydric behaviour. Such asynchronous and diverging tree-level light- and water-use strategies provide new insights into the ecosystem-level complementarity of tree form and function, with implications for understanding boreal forests' water and carbon dynamics and resilience to environmental stress.

Is the alpine divide becoming more permeable to biological invasions? - Insights on the invasion and establishment of the Walnut Husk Fly, Rhagoletis completa (Diptera: Tephritidae) in Switzerland.

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Aluja, M; Guillén, L; Rull, J; Höhn, H; Frey, J; Graf, B; Samietz, J

2011-08-01

The Walnut Husk Fly, Rhagoletis completa Cresson (Diptera: Tephritidae), is native to North America (Midwestern US and north-eastern Mexico) and has invaded several European countries in the past decades by likely crossing the alpine divide separating most parts of Switzerland from Italy. Here, we determined its current distribution in Switzerland by sampling walnuts (Juglans regia L.) in ecologically and climatically distinct regions along potential invasion corridors. R. completa was found to be firmly established in most low altitude areas of Switzerland where walnuts thrive, but notably not a single parasitoid was recovered from any of the samples. Infested fruit was recovered in 42 of the 71 localities that were surveyed, with mean fruit infestation rate varying greatly among sites. The incidence of R. completa in Switzerland is closely related to meteorological mean spring temperature patterns influencing growing season length, but not to winter temperatures, reflecting survival potential during hibernation. Importantly, areas in which the fly is absent correspond with localities where the mean spring temperatures fall below 7°C. Historical data records show that the natural cold barrier around the Alpine divide in the central Swiss Alps corresponding to such minimal temperatures has shrunk significantly from a width of more than 40 km before 1990 to around 20 km after 2000. We hypothesize on possible invasion/expansion routes along alpine valleys, dwell on distribution patterns in relation to climate, and outline future research needs as the incursion of R. completa into Switzerland; and, more recently, other European countries, such as Germany, Austria, France and Slovenia, represent an example of alien species that settle first in the Mediterranean Basin and from there become invasive by crossing the Alps.

Community harvesting of trees used as dens and for food by the tree hyrax (Dendrohyrax arboreus in the Pirie forest, South Africa

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Elizabeth J. Opperman

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Forests in South Africa are harvested by local communities for multiple purposes and this affects the animals that inhabit them. The tree hyrax (Dendrohyrax arboreus has a restricted distribution and utilises various tree species as dens and a source of food. In this article, we determined, through a series of interviews in the communities surrounding the Pirie forest, which plant species are harvested by local people and whether these overlap with those used by the tree hyrax. In addition, we determined the extent to which tree hyraxes are hunted by these communities. Of the trees used by the hyrax as dens in the Pirie forest, Afrocarpus falcatus, Schotia latifolia, Andrachne ovalis, Teclea natalensis and Apodytes dimidiata are important resources for local communities. But as these are harvested at relatively low levels, it is unlikely that current harvesting has a large impact on the tree hyrax. Opportunistic hunting occurs, but the hyrax is not targeted by hunters. Very limited commercial harvesting of A. falcatus has been taking place in the Pirie forest since 1975, but its impact on the hyrax population, although undetermined, is also unlikely to be high. We recommend that the Pirie forest tree hyrax population should be monitored by forest management in order to ascertain the impact of both commercial and community harvesting over the past quarter-century. Conservation implications: Tree hyrax populations in the Pirie forest should be actively monitored by management on an annual basis.

Tree nut phytochemicals: composition, antioxidant capacity, bioactivity, impact factors. A systematic review of almonds, Brazils, cashews, hazelnuts, macadamias, pecans, pine nuts, pistachios and walnuts

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Tree nuts contain an array of phytochemicals including carotenoids, phenolic acids, phytosterols and polyphenolic compounds such as flavonoids, proanthocyanidins (PAC) and stilbenes, all of which are included in nutrient databases, as well as phytates, sphingolipids, alkylphenols and lignans, which ...

A multi-state collaborative effort to conserve butternut Ex Situ

Science.gov (United States)

M.V. Coggeshall; S.M. Hoban; A. Flickinger; T.J. Hall; P. O’Connor; B. Schultz; S.A. Anagnostakis; J. Romero-Severson

2017-01-01

Butternut (Juglans cinerea), a native riparian forest tree, has suffered significant decline throughout most of its range due to a fatal fungal disease, butternut canker (caused by Sirococcus clavigignenti-juglandacearum). It has also been subject to natural hybridization pressures from Japanese walnut (J. ailantifolia), first...

Natural and experimental host range of Sirococcus clavigignenti-juglandacearum

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M. E. Ostry; M. Moore

2007-01-01

The fungus Sirococcus clavigignenti-juglandacearum causes butternut canker in North America and is not known to kill or seriously affect tree species other than butternut (Juglans cinerea). However, this putative exotic pathogen has been found on branches of black walnut (J. nigra) and heartnut (J....

Conophthorin from almond host plant and fungal spores and its ecological relation to navel orangeworm: a natural products chemist's perspective

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The navel orangeworm (Amyelois transitella) is a major insect pest that brings about significant monetary damage to California tree nuts – almonds, pistachios, and walnuts. During their development, larvae of navel orangeworm feed upon the meat of these nuts causing physical damage and ultimately lo...

HOW to Identify Butternut Canker and Manage Butternut Trees

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M.E. Ostry; M.E. Mielke; R.L. Anderson

1996-01-01

Butternut (Juglans cinerea), also known as white walnut, commonly grows on rich loamy soils in mixed hardwood forests. It ranges from eastern Canada west to Minnesota and as far south as Arkansas, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi (fig. 1). The wood is valued for furniture, paneling, specialty products, and carving. Butternut produces nuts for wildlife and...

Tree compression with top trees

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bille, Philip; Gørtz, Inge Li; Landau, Gad M.

2013-01-01

We introduce a new compression scheme for labeled trees based on top trees [3]. Our compression scheme is the first to simultaneously take advantage of internal repeats in the tree (as opposed to the classical DAG compression that only exploits rooted subtree repeats) while also supporting fast...

Tree compression with top trees

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bille, Philip; Gørtz, Inge Li; Landau, Gad M.

2015-01-01

We introduce a new compression scheme for labeled trees based on top trees. Our compression scheme is the first to simultaneously take advantage of internal repeats in the tree (as opposed to the classical DAG compression that only exploits rooted subtree repeats) while also supporting fast...

Generalising tree traversals and tree transformations to DAGs

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bahr, Patrick; Axelsson, Emil

2017-01-01

We present a recursion scheme based on attribute grammars that can be transparently applied to trees and acyclic graphs. Our recursion scheme allows the programmer to implement a tree traversal or a tree transformation and then apply it to compact graph representations of trees instead. The resul......We present a recursion scheme based on attribute grammars that can be transparently applied to trees and acyclic graphs. Our recursion scheme allows the programmer to implement a tree traversal or a tree transformation and then apply it to compact graph representations of trees instead...... as the complementing theory with a number of examples....

Environmental Assessment for BRAC Facilities and Remote Field Training Site, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base

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2008-03-01

survey (BHE, 2001). Radio tracking of these two bats confirmed the presence of a maternity colony in a dead slippery elm (Ulmus rubra) in a woodlot...The most common trees observed were black walnut (Juglans nigra), elm (Ulmus spp.), eastern cottonwood, willow, ash (Fraxinus americana), sycamore

Modeling the effects of tree species and incubation temperature on soil's extracellular enzyme activity in 78-year-old tree plantations

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Zhou, Xiaoqi; Wang, Shen S. J.; Chen, Chengrong

2017-12-01

kauri pine (Agathis robusta C. Moore). Our results will be helpful for understanding the mechanisms of soil C and N cycling by different tree species, which will have implications for forest management.

Modeling the effects of tree species and incubation temperature on soil's extracellular enzyme activity in 78-year-old tree plantations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

X. Zhou

2017-12-01

coniferous tree species like hoop pine and kauri pine (Agathis robusta C. Moore. Our results will be helpful for understanding the mechanisms of soil C and N cycling by different tree species, which will have implications for forest management.

High-Throughput 3-D Monitoring of Agricultural-Tree Plantations with Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Technology

Science.gov (United States)

Torres-Sánchez, Jorge; López-Granados, Francisca; Serrano, Nicolás; Arquero, Octavio; Peña, José M.

2015-01-01

The geometric features of agricultural trees such as canopy area, tree height and crown volume provide useful information about plantation status and crop production. However, these variables are mostly estimated after a time-consuming and hard field work and applying equations that treat the trees as geometric solids, which produce inconsistent results. As an alternative, this work presents an innovative procedure for computing the 3-dimensional geometric features of individual trees and tree-rows by applying two consecutive phases: 1) generation of Digital Surface Models with Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) technology and 2) use of object-based image analysis techniques. Our UAV-based procedure produced successful results both in single-tree and in tree-row plantations, reporting up to 97% accuracy on area quantification and minimal deviations compared to in-field estimations of tree heights and crown volumes. The maps generated could be used to understand the linkages between tree grown and field-related factors or to optimize crop management operations in the context of precision agriculture with relevant agro-environmental implications. PMID:26107174

High-Throughput 3-D Monitoring of Agricultural-Tree Plantations with Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Technology.

Science.gov (United States)

Torres-Sánchez, Jorge; López-Granados, Francisca; Serrano, Nicolás; Arquero, Octavio; Peña, José M

2015-01-01

The geometric features of agricultural trees such as canopy area, tree height and crown volume provide useful information about plantation status and crop production. However, these variables are mostly estimated after a time-consuming and hard field work and applying equations that treat the trees as geometric solids, which produce inconsistent results. As an alternative, this work presents an innovative procedure for computing the 3-dimensional geometric features of individual trees and tree-rows by applying two consecutive phases: 1) generation of Digital Surface Models with Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) technology and 2) use of object-based image analysis techniques. Our UAV-based procedure produced successful results both in single-tree and in tree-row plantations, reporting up to 97% accuracy on area quantification and minimal deviations compared to in-field estimations of tree heights and crown volumes. The maps generated could be used to understand the linkages between tree grown and field-related factors or to optimize crop management operations in the context of precision agriculture with relevant agro-environmental implications.

High-Throughput 3-D Monitoring of Agricultural-Tree Plantations with Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV Technology.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jorge Torres-Sánchez

Full Text Available The geometric features of agricultural trees such as canopy area, tree height and crown volume provide useful information about plantation status and crop production. However, these variables are mostly estimated after a time-consuming and hard field work and applying equations that treat the trees as geometric solids, which produce inconsistent results. As an alternative, this work presents an innovative procedure for computing the 3-dimensional geometric features of individual trees and tree-rows by applying two consecutive phases: 1 generation of Digital Surface Models with Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV technology and 2 use of object-based image analysis techniques. Our UAV-based procedure produced successful results both in single-tree and in tree-row plantations, reporting up to 97% accuracy on area quantification and minimal deviations compared to in-field estimations of tree heights and crown volumes. The maps generated could be used to understand the linkages between tree grown and field-related factors or to optimize crop management operations in the context of precision agriculture with relevant agro-environmental implications.

Surface tree languages and parallel derivation trees

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Engelfriet, Joost

1976-01-01

The surface tree languages obtained by top-down finite state transformation of monadic trees are exactly the frontier-preserving homomorphic images of sets of derivation trees of ETOL systems. The corresponding class of tree transformation languages is therefore equal to the class of ETOL languages.

Enzymatically interesterified fats based on mutton tallow and walnut oil suitable for cosmetic emulsions.

Science.gov (United States)

Kowalska, M; Mendrycka, M; Zbikowska, A; Stawarz, S

2015-02-01

Formation of emulsion systems based on interesterified fats was the objective of the study. Enzymatic interesterification was carried out between enzymatic mutton tallow and walnut oil in the proportions 2 : 3 (w/w) to produce fats not available in nature. At the beginning of the interesterification process, the balance between the interesterification and fat hydrolysis was intentionally disturbed by adding more water to the catalyst (Lipozyme IR MR) of the reaction to produce more of the polar fraction monoacylglycerols [MAGs] and diacylglycerols [DAGs]. To obtain a greater quantity of MAGs and DAGs in the reaction environment via hydrolysis, water was added (11, 13, 14, 16 w-%) to the enzymatic preparation. The obtained fats were used to form emulsions. The emulsions were evaluated with respect to sensory and skin moisturizing properties by 83 respondents. Determination of emulsion stability using temperature and centrifugal tests was carried out. Morphology and the type of emulsions were determined. The respondents described the skin to which the emulsions in testing were applied as smooth, pleasant to touch and adequately moisturized. The work has demonstrated that interesterification of a mutton tallow and walnut oil blend resulted in new fats with very interesting characteristics of triacylglycerols that are not present in the environment. The results of the present work indicate the possibility of application of fats with the largest quantity of MAGs and DAGs as a fat base of emulsions in the cosmetic industries. The hypothesis assumed in this work of producing additional quantities of MAGs and DAGs (in the process of enzymatic interesterification) responsible for the stability of the system was confirmed. It should be pointed out that the emulsions based on interesterified fats exhibited a greater level of moisturization of the skin than the emulsions containing non-interesterified fat. Also, in the respondents' opinion, the emulsion containing fat, which

TreePics: visualizing trees with pictures

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nicolas Puillandre

2017-09-01

Full Text Available While many programs are available to edit phylogenetic trees, associating pictures with branch tips in an efficient and automatic way is not an available option. Here, we present TreePics, a standalone software that uses a web browser to visualize phylogenetic trees in Newick format and that associates pictures (typically, pictures of the voucher specimens to the tip of each branch. Pictures are visualized as thumbnails and can be enlarged by a mouse rollover. Further, several pictures can be selected and displayed in a separate window for visual comparison. TreePics works either online or in a full standalone version, where it can display trees with several thousands of pictures (depending on the memory available. We argue that TreePics can be particularly useful in a preliminary stage of research, such as to quickly detect conflicts between a DNA-based phylogenetic tree and morphological variation, that may be due to contamination that needs to be removed prior to final analyses, or the presence of species complexes.

Effect of Punica granatum peel extracts on antimicrobial properties in Walnut shell cellulose reinforced Bio-thermoplastic starch films from cashew nut shells.

Science.gov (United States)

Harini, K; Chandra Mohan, C; Ramya, K; Karthikeyan, S; Sukumar, M

2018-03-15

The main aim of the present study is to extract and characterize cashew nut shell (CNS) starch and walnut shell cellulose (WNC) for development of cellulose reinforced starch films. Moreover, the extraction and characterization of pomegranate peel extract, for incorporation with CNS-WNC films, was investigated. CNS starch was examined to be a moderate amylose starch with 26.32 ± 0.43% amylose content. Thermal degradation temperature of CNS starch was found to be 310 °C. Walnut shell cellulose was found to have high crystallinity index of 72%, with two thermal degradation temperatures of 319 °C and 461 °C. 2% WN cellulose reinforced CNS starch films were examined to have good oxygen transfer rate, mechanical and physical properties. Thermal degradation temperature of CNS-WNC starch films were found to be at the range of 298-302 °C. Surface roughness of CNS-WNC starch films were found to be increasing with increase in concentration of cellulose in films. Hydroxymethylfurfurole, Benzene, 2-methoxy-1,3,4-trimethyl and 1,2,3-Propanetriol, 1-acetate were found to be major active compounds present in hydrophilic extracts of Punica granatum peels. 2% WN cellulose reinforced starch films infused with hydrophilic active compounds of pomegranate peel was examined to be having good active package properties. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Dimension yields from short logs of low-quality hardwood trees.

Science.gov (United States)

Howard N. Rosen; Harold A. Stewart; David J. Polak

1980-01-01

Charts are presented for determining yields of 4/4 dimension cuttings from short hardwood logs of aspen, soft maple, black cherry, yellow-poplar, and black walnut for several cutting grades and bolt sizes. Cost comparisons of short log and standard grade mixes show sizes. Cost comparisons of short log and standard grade mixes show the estimated least expensive...

EVALUATION OF TWO VEGETABLES EXTRACTS AND DYE PHLOXINE-B, FOR THE CAPTURE OF THE FLY OF THE CASTILLA WALNUT IN PUEBLA, MEXICO

OpenAIRE

Alejandra Torija-Torres; Arturo Huerta-De la Peña; Agustín Aragón-García

2014-01-01

To determine the most effective treatment to capture Rhagoletis zoqui and use it as an alternative to chemical insecticides, this study was developed in two orchards of walnut, during June, July and August of 2010 in San Nicolas de los Ranchos, Puebla. The toxicity of the aqueous extracts from Ricinus communis and Argemone mexicana plants as well as the dye Phloxine-B were evaluated and compared the effectiveness with the commercial insecticide, Malation®, upon R. zoqui. The experiment was t...

ColorTree: a batch customization tool for phylogenic trees.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Wei-Hua; Lercher, Martin J

2009-07-31

Genome sequencing projects and comparative genomics studies typically aim to trace the evolutionary history of large gene sets, often requiring human inspection of hundreds of phylogenetic trees. If trees are checked for compatibility with an explicit null hypothesis (e.g., the monophyly of certain groups), this daunting task is greatly facilitated by an appropriate coloring scheme. In this note, we introduce ColorTree, a simple yet powerful batch customization tool for phylogenic trees. Based on pattern matching rules, ColorTree applies a set of customizations to an input tree file, e.g., coloring labels or branches. The customized trees are saved to an output file, which can then be viewed and further edited by Dendroscope (a freely available tree viewer). ColorTree runs on any Perl installation as a stand-alone command line tool, and its application can thus be easily automated. This way, hundreds of phylogenic trees can be customized for easy visual inspection in a matter of minutes. ColorTree allows efficient and flexible visual customization of large tree sets through the application of a user-supplied configuration file to multiple tree files.

Carry-over effect of Thidiazuron on banana in vitro proliferation at ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Thidiazuron (TDZ) is an active cytokinin that was shown to induce increased shoot proliferation and habituation in black walnut, Phaseolus lunatus and evergreen azalea, which are tree species but has not been widely investigated in bananas. Unlike other cytokines commonly in use that are adeninebased, TDZ is a urea ...

Tree Colors: Color Schemes for Tree-Structured Data.

Science.gov (United States)

Tennekes, Martijn; de Jonge, Edwin

2014-12-01

We present a method to map tree structures to colors from the Hue-Chroma-Luminance color model, which is known for its well balanced perceptual properties. The Tree Colors method can be tuned with several parameters, whose effect on the resulting color schemes is discussed in detail. We provide a free and open source implementation with sensible parameter defaults. Categorical data are very common in statistical graphics, and often these categories form a classification tree. We evaluate applying Tree Colors to tree structured data with a survey on a large group of users from a national statistical institute. Our user study suggests that Tree Colors are useful, not only for improving node-link diagrams, but also for unveiling tree structure in non-hierarchical visualizations.

TreePOD: Sensitivity-Aware Selection of Pareto-Optimal Decision Trees.

Science.gov (United States)

Muhlbacher, Thomas; Linhardt, Lorenz; Moller, Torsten; Piringer, Harald

2018-01-01

Balancing accuracy gains with other objectives such as interpretability is a key challenge when building decision trees. However, this process is difficult to automate because it involves know-how about the domain as well as the purpose of the model. This paper presents TreePOD, a new approach for sensitivity-aware model selection along trade-offs. TreePOD is based on exploring a large set of candidate trees generated by sampling the parameters of tree construction algorithms. Based on this set, visualizations of quantitative and qualitative tree aspects provide a comprehensive overview of possible tree characteristics. Along trade-offs between two objectives, TreePOD provides efficient selection guidance by focusing on Pareto-optimal tree candidates. TreePOD also conveys the sensitivities of tree characteristics on variations of selected parameters by extending the tree generation process with a full-factorial sampling. We demonstrate how TreePOD supports a variety of tasks involved in decision tree selection and describe its integration in a holistic workflow for building and selecting decision trees. For evaluation, we illustrate a case study for predicting critical power grid states, and we report qualitative feedback from domain experts in the energy sector. This feedback suggests that TreePOD enables users with and without statistical background a confident and efficient identification of suitable decision trees.

Pooled versus separate tree-ring δD measurements, and implications for reconstruction of the Arctic Oscillation in northwestern China

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Liu, Xiaohong, E-mail: liuxh@lzb.ac.cn [State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Sciences, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000 (China); An, Wenling [MOE, Key Laboratory for Coast and Island Development, School of Geographic and Oceanographic Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093 (China); Treydte, Kerstin [Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Dendro Sciences Unit, Zürcherstrasse 111, CH-8903 Birmensdorf (Switzerland); Wang, Wenzhi; Xu, Guobao; Zeng, Xiaomin; Wu, Guoju; Wang, Bo; Zhang, Xuanwen [State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Sciences, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000 (China)

2015-04-01

Stable hydrogen isotope ratios (δD) in tree rings are an attractive but still rarely explored terrestrial archive of past climatic information. Because the preparation of the cellulose nitrate for δD measurements requires more wood and a longer preparation time than preparation techniques for other isotopes in cellulose (δ{sup 18}O or δ{sup 13}C), it is challenging to obtain high-resolution records, especially for slow-growing trees at high elevations and in boreal regions. Here, we tested whether annually pooled samples of Qinghai spruce (Picea crassifolia Kom.) trees from northwestern China provided results similar to those derived as the mean of individual measurements of the same trees and whether the resulting chronologies recorded useful climate information. Inter-tree variability of δD was higher than that of measured ring width for the same trees. We found higher and significant coherence between pooled and mean isotope chronologies than that among the individual series. It showed a logarithmic relationship between ring mass and δD; however, accounting for the influence of ring mass on δD values only slightly improved the strength of climatic signals in the pooled records. Tree-ring δD was significantly positively correlated with the mean, maximum, and minimum temperatures during the previous winter and with maximum temperature during the current August, and significantly negatively correlated with precipitation in the previous November to January and the current July. The winter climate signal seems to dominate tree-ring δD through the influence of large-scale atmospheric circulation patterns, i.e. the Arctic Oscillation. These results will facilitate reconstruction of winter atmospheric circulation patterns over northwestern China based on a regional tree-ring δD networks. - Highlights: • The difference between mean and pooled tree-ring δD chronologies was tested. • High coherence between the chronologies for northwestern China. • Tree

Pooled versus separate tree-ring δD measurements, and implications for reconstruction of the Arctic Oscillation in northwestern China

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liu, Xiaohong; An, Wenling; Treydte, Kerstin; Wang, Wenzhi; Xu, Guobao; Zeng, Xiaomin; Wu, Guoju; Wang, Bo; Zhang, Xuanwen

2015-01-01

Stable hydrogen isotope ratios (δD) in tree rings are an attractive but still rarely explored terrestrial archive of past climatic information. Because the preparation of the cellulose nitrate for δD measurements requires more wood and a longer preparation time than preparation techniques for other isotopes in cellulose (δ 18 O or δ 13 C), it is challenging to obtain high-resolution records, especially for slow-growing trees at high elevations and in boreal regions. Here, we tested whether annually pooled samples of Qinghai spruce (Picea crassifolia Kom.) trees from northwestern China provided results similar to those derived as the mean of individual measurements of the same trees and whether the resulting chronologies recorded useful climate information. Inter-tree variability of δD was higher than that of measured ring width for the same trees. We found higher and significant coherence between pooled and mean isotope chronologies than that among the individual series. It showed a logarithmic relationship between ring mass and δD; however, accounting for the influence of ring mass on δD values only slightly improved the strength of climatic signals in the pooled records. Tree-ring δD was significantly positively correlated with the mean, maximum, and minimum temperatures during the previous winter and with maximum temperature during the current August, and significantly negatively correlated with precipitation in the previous November to January and the current July. The winter climate signal seems to dominate tree-ring δD through the influence of large-scale atmospheric circulation patterns, i.e. the Arctic Oscillation. These results will facilitate reconstruction of winter atmospheric circulation patterns over northwestern China based on a regional tree-ring δD networks. - Highlights: • The difference between mean and pooled tree-ring δD chronologies was tested. • High coherence between the chronologies for northwestern China. • Tree-ring �

The effect of the humic substances, garlic (Allium sativum L., wormwood (Artemisia absinthium and walnut (Juglans regia on carcass parameters of broiler chickens

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Veronika Pistová

2017-05-01

Full Text Available In this study the effect of humic substances, garlic (Allium sativum L., wormwood (Artemisia absinthium and walnut (Juglans regia on carcass parameters of broiler chickens were studied. Broiler chickens Ross 308 (n=60 were divided into 3 groups (n=20. The chickens of the control group were fed with complete feed mixtures without any additives. Chickens in the first experimental group E1were fed a diet containing 1.5% of humic substances, 0.4% of garlic powder and 0.1% of wormwood. Chickens in the second experimental group E2 were fed a diet containing 1.5% of humic substances, 0.4% of garlic powder and 0.1% of walnut.  The carcass weight, weight of heart, liver, gizzard, carcass yield and EPEF were evaluated. The carcass weight was in both experimental groups higher, but no statistically significant (P>0.05 in compare with the control group (values in the order of the groups: 1246.93±172.61; 1352.16±139.89 and 1308.30±166.17 g±SD. In the first experimental group E1 were weight of heart (12.15±2.29 g±SD and weight of gizzard (41.58±7.44 g±SD significantly higher (P≤0.05 compared to the control group (9.99 ±1.82; 33.62±5.03 g±SD.

Two Trees: Migrating Fault Trees to Decision Trees for Real Time Fault Detection on International Space Station

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Charles; Alena, Richard L.; Robinson, Peter

2004-01-01

We started from ISS fault trees example to migrate to decision trees, presented a method to convert fault trees to decision trees. The method shows that the visualizations of root cause of fault are easier and the tree manipulating becomes more programmatic via available decision tree programs. The visualization of decision trees for the diagnostic shows a format of straight forward and easy understands. For ISS real time fault diagnostic, the status of the systems could be shown by mining the signals through the trees and see where it stops at. The other advantage to use decision trees is that the trees can learn the fault patterns and predict the future fault from the historic data. The learning is not only on the static data sets but also can be online, through accumulating the real time data sets, the decision trees can gain and store faults patterns in the trees and recognize them when they come.

Genetic structure and demographic history of the endangered tree species Dysoxylum malabaricum (Meliaceae) in Western Ghats, India: implications for conservation in a biodiversity hotspot

Science.gov (United States)

Bodare, Sofia; Tsuda, Yoshiaki; Ravikanth, Gudasalamani; Uma Shaanker, Ramanan; Lascoux, Martin

2013-01-01

The impact of fragmentation by human activities on genetic diversity of forest trees is an important concern in forest conservation, especially in tropical forests. Dysoxylum malabaricum (white cedar) is an economically important tree species, endemic to the Western Ghats, India, one of the world's eight most important biodiversity hotspots. As D. malabaricum is under pressure of disturbance and fragmentation together with overharvesting, conservation efforts are required in this species. In this study, range-wide genetic structure of twelve D. malabaricum populations was evaluated to assess the impact of human activities on genetic diversity and infer the species’ evolutionary history, using both nuclear and chloroplast (cp) DNA simple sequence repeats (SSR). As genetic diversity and population structure did not differ among seedling, juvenile and adult age classes, reproductive success among the old-growth trees and long distance seed dispersal by hornbills were suggested to contribute to maintain genetic diversity. The fixation index (FIS) was significantly correlated with latitude, with a higher level of inbreeding in the northern populations, possibly reflecting a more severe ecosystem disturbance in those populations. Both nuclear and cpSSRs revealed northern and southern genetic groups with some discordance of their distributions; however, they did not correlate with any of the two geographic gaps known as genetic barriers to animals. Approximate Bayesian computation-based inference from nuclear SSRs suggested that population divergence occurred before the last glacial maximum. Finally we discussed the implications of these results, in particular the presence of a clear pattern of historical genetic subdivision, on conservation policies. PMID:24223264

Genetic structure and demographic history of the endangered tree species Dysoxylum malabaricum (Meliaceae) in Western Ghats, India: implications for conservation in a biodiversity hotspot.

Science.gov (United States)

Bodare, Sofia; Tsuda, Yoshiaki; Ravikanth, Gudasalamani; Uma Shaanker, Ramanan; Lascoux, Martin

2013-09-01

The impact of fragmentation by human activities on genetic diversity of forest trees is an important concern in forest conservation, especially in tropical forests. Dysoxylum malabaricum (white cedar) is an economically important tree species, endemic to the Western Ghats, India, one of the world's eight most important biodiversity hotspots. As D. malabaricum is under pressure of disturbance and fragmentation together with overharvesting, conservation efforts are required in this species. In this study, range-wide genetic structure of twelve D. malabaricum populations was evaluated to assess the impact of human activities on genetic diversity and infer the species' evolutionary history, using both nuclear and chloroplast (cp) DNA simple sequence repeats (SSR). As genetic diversity and population structure did not differ among seedling, juvenile and adult age classes, reproductive success among the old-growth trees and long distance seed dispersal by hornbills were suggested to contribute to maintain genetic diversity. The fixation index (F IS) was significantly correlated with latitude, with a higher level of inbreeding in the northern populations, possibly reflecting a more severe ecosystem disturbance in those populations. Both nuclear and cpSSRs revealed northern and southern genetic groups with some discordance of their distributions; however, they did not correlate with any of the two geographic gaps known as genetic barriers to animals. Approximate Bayesian computation-based inference from nuclear SSRs suggested that population divergence occurred before the last glacial maximum. Finally we discussed the implications of these results, in particular the presence of a clear pattern of historical genetic subdivision, on conservation policies.

Thermotolerance and Photosystem II Behaviour in Co-occuring Temperate Tree Species Exposed to Short-term Extreme Heat Waves

Science.gov (United States)

Guha, A.; Warren, J.; Cummings, C.; Han, J.

2017-12-01

Thermal stress can induce irreversible photodamage with longer consequences for plant metabolism. We focused on photosystem II (PSII) behaviour to understand how this complex responds in different co-occuring temperate trees exposed to short-term extreme heat waves. The study was designed for understanding complex heat tolerance mechanisms in trees. During manipulative heat-wave experiments, we monitored instantaneous PSII performance and tracked both transient and chronic PSII damages using chlorophyll a fluorescence characteristics. Fluorescence signals were used to simulate PSII bioenergetic processes. The light (Fv'/Fm') and dark-adapted (Fv/Fm) fluorescence traits including fast induction kinetics (OJIP), electron transport rate, PSII operating efficiency and quenching capacities were significantly affected by the heat treatments. Loss in PSII efficiency was more apparent in species like black cottonwood, yellow poplar, walnuts and conifers, whereas oaks maintained relatively better PSII functions. The post-heat recovery of Fv/Fm varied across the studied species showing differential carry over effects. PSII down-regulation was one of dominant factors for the loss in operational photosynthesis during extreme heat wave events. Both light and dark-adapted fluorescence characteristics showed loss in photo-regulatory functions and photodamage. Some resilient species showed rapid recovery from transient PSII damage, whereas fingerprints of chronic PSII damage were observed in susceptibles. Thresholds for Fv/Fm and non-photochemical quenching were identified for the studied species. PSII malfunctioning was largely associated with the observed photosynthetic down-regulation during heat wave treatments, however, its physiological recovery should be a key factor to determine species resilience to short-term extreme heat wave events.

The Prediction of Drought-Related Tree Mortality in Vegetation Models

Science.gov (United States)

Schwinning, S.; Jensen, J.; Lomas, M. R.; Schwartz, B.; Woodward, F. I.

2013-12-01

Drought-related tree die-off events at regional scales have been reported from all wooded continents and it has been suggested that their frequency may be increasing. The prediction of these drought-related die-off events from regional to global scales has been recognized as a critical need for the conservation of forest resources and improving the prediction of climate-vegetation interactions. However, there is no conceptual consensus on how to best approach the quantitative prediction of tree mortality. Current models use a variety of mechanisms to represent demographic events. Mortality is modeled to represent a number of different processes, including death by fire, wind throw, extreme temperatures, and self-thinning, and each vegetation model differs in the emphasis they place on specific mechanisms. Dynamic global vegetation models generally operate on the assumption of incremental vegetation shift due to changes in the carbon economy of plant functional types and proportional effects on recruitment, growth, competition and mortality, but this may not capture sudden and sweeping tree death caused by extreme weather conditions. We tested several different approaches to predicting tree mortality within the framework of the Sheffield Dynamic Global Vegetation Model. We applied the model to the state of Texas, USA, which in 2011 experienced extreme drought conditions, causing the death of an estimated 300 million trees statewide. We then compared predicted to actual mortality to determine which algorithms most accurately predicted geographical variation in tree mortality. We discuss implications regarding the ongoing debate on the causes of tree death.

Growth and foliar nitrogen concentrations of interplanted native woody legumes and pecan

Science.gov (United States)

J.W. Van Sambeek; Nadia E. Navarrete-Tindall; Kenneth L. Hunt

2008-01-01

The interplanting and underplanting of nodulated nitrogen-fixing plants in tree plantings can increase early growth and foliage nitrogen content of hardwoods, especially black walnut and pecan. Recent studies have demonstrated that some non-nodulated woody legumes may be capable of fixing significant levels of atmospheric nitrogen. The following nine nurse crop...

Tree Nut Allergies

Science.gov (United States)

... Blog Vision Awards Common Allergens Tree Nut Allergy Tree Nut Allergy Learn about tree nut allergy, how ... a Tree Nut Label card . Allergic Reactions to Tree Nuts Tree nuts can cause a severe and ...

Flowering phenology and its implications for management of big-leaf mahogany Swietenia macrophylla in Brazilian Amazonia.

Science.gov (United States)

Grogan, James; Loveless, Marilyn D

2013-11-01

Flowering phenology is a crucial determinant of reproductive success and offspring genetic diversity in plants. We measure the flowering phenology of big-leaf mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla, Meliaceae), a widely distributed neotropical tree, and explore how disturbance from logging impacts its reproductive biology. We use a crown scoring system to estimate the timing and duration of population-level flowering at three forest sites in the Brazilian Amazon over a five-year period. We combine this information with data on population structure and spatial distribution to consider the implications of logging for population flowering patterns and reproductive success. Mahogany trees as small as 14 cm diam flowered, but only trees > 30 cm diam flowered annually or supra-annually. Mean observed flowering periods by focal trees ranged from 18-34 d, and trees flowered sequentially during 3-4 mo beginning in the dry season. Focal trees demonstrated significant interannual correlation in flowering order. Estimated population-level flowering schedules resembled that of the focal trees, with temporal isolation between early and late flowering trees. At the principal study site, conventional logging practices eliminated 87% of mahogany trees > 30 cm diam and an estimated 94% of annual pre-logging floral effort. Consistent interannual patterns of sequential flowering among trees create incompletely isolated subpopulations, constraining pollen flow. After harvests, surviving subcommercial trees will have fewer, more distant, and smaller potential partners, with probable consequences for post-logging regeneration. These results have important implications for the sustainability of harvesting systems for tropical timber species.

Seed shadow of Swietenia macrophylla remnant trees in a Mexican rainforest: Implications for forest management

OpenAIRE

Alcalá, Raúl E.; Alonso, Roxalma L.; Gutiérrez-Granados, Gabriel

2014-01-01

The understanding of processes affecting the regeneration and coexistence of tree species is of high concern in tropical landscapes disturbed by anthropogenic activities. In this study, we evaluated the seed shadow of eight small remnant Swietenia macrophylla trees to determine the possible consequences of selective logging on the first stages of natural regeneration. We expected to find a restricted dispersal ability and a marked loss of seeds due to biotic interactions. To test this, seed s...

An introduction to tree-structured modeling with application to quality of life data.

Science.gov (United States)

Su, Xiaogang; Azuero, Andres; Cho, June; Kvale, Elizabeth; Meneses, Karen M; McNees, M Patrick

2011-01-01

Investigators addressing nursing research are faced increasingly with the need to analyze data that involve variables of mixed types and are characterized by complex nonlinearity and interactions. Tree-based methods, also called recursive partitioning, are gaining popularity in various fields. In addition to efficiency and flexibility in handling multifaceted data, tree-based methods offer ease of interpretation. The aims of this study were to introduce tree-based methods, discuss their advantages and pitfalls in application, and describe their potential use in nursing research. In this article, (a) an introduction to tree-structured methods is presented, (b) the technique is illustrated via quality of life (QOL) data collected in the Breast Cancer Education Intervention study, and (c) implications for their potential use in nursing research are discussed. As illustrated by the QOL analysis example, tree methods generate interesting and easily understood findings that cannot be uncovered via traditional linear regression analysis. The expanding breadth and complexity of nursing research may entail the use of new tools to improve efficiency and gain new insights. In certain situations, tree-based methods offer an attractive approach that help address such needs.

Gravitino Dark Matter in Tree Level Gauge Mediation with and without R-parity

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Arcadi, G.; Di Luzio, L.; Nardecchia, M.

2011-01-01

We investigate the cosmological aspects of Tree Level Gauge Mediation, a recently proposed mechanism in which the breaking of supersymmetry is communicated to the soft scalar masses by extra gauge interactions at the tree level. Embedding the mechanism in a Grand Unified Theory and requiring...... the observability of sfermion masses at the Large Hadron Collider, it follows that the Lightest Supersymmetric Particle is a gravitino with a mass of the order of 10 GeV. The analysis in the presence of R-parity shows that a typical Tree Level Gauge Mediation spectrum leads to an overabundance of the Dark Matter...... operators. We finally analyze the cosmological implications of this setup by identifying the phenomenologically viable regions of the parameter space....

Big trees, old trees, and growth factor tables

Science.gov (United States)

Kevin T. Smith

2018-01-01

The potential for a tree to reach a great size and to live a long life frequently captures the public's imagination. Sometimes the desire to know the age of an impressively large tree is simple curiosity. For others, the date-of-tree establishment can make a big diff erence for management, particularly for trees at historic sites or those mentioned in property...

A Suffix Tree Or Not a Suffix Tree?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Starikovskaya, Tatiana; Vildhøj, Hjalte Wedel

2015-01-01

In this paper we study the structure of suffix trees. Given an unlabeled tree r on n nodes and suffix links of its internal nodes, we ask the question “Is r a suffix tree?”, i.e., is there a string S whose suffix tree has the same topological structure as r? We place no restrictions on S, in part...

Response tree evaluation: experimental assessment of an expert system for nuclear reactor operators

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nelson, W.R.; Blackman, H.S.

1985-09-01

The United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (USNRC) sponsored a project performed by EG and G Idaho, Inc., at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL) to evaluate different display concepts for use in nuclear reactor control rooms. Included in this project was the evaluation of the response tree computer-based decision aid and its associated displays. The response tree evaluation task was deisgned to (1) assess the merit of the response tree decision aid and (2) develop a technical basis for recommendations, guidelines, and criteria for the design and evaluation of computerized decision aids for use in reactor control rooms. Two major experiments have been conducted to evaluate the response tree system. This report emphasizes the conduct and results of the second experiment. An enhanced version of the response tree system, known as the automated response tree system, was used in a controlled experiment using trained reactor operators as test subjects. This report discusses the automated response tree system, the design of the evaluation experiment, and the quantitative results of the experiment. The results of the experiment are compared to the results of the previous experiment to provide an integrated perspective of the response tree evaluation project. In addition, a subjective assessment of the results addresses the implications for the use of advanced, ''intelligent'' decision aids in the reactor control room

Activated carbons prepared from hazelnut shells, walnut shells and peanut shells for high CO2 adsorption

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lewicka Katarzyna

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Research treats about producing activated carbons for CO2 capture from hazelnut shells (HN, walnut shells (WN and peanut shells (PN. Saturated solution of KOH was used as an activating agent in ratio 1:1. Samples were carbonized in the furnace in the range of temperatures 600°C–900°C. Properties of carbons were tested by N2 adsorption method, using BET equation, DFT method and volumetric CO2 adsorption method. With the increase of carbonization temperature specific surface area of studied samples increased. The largest surface area was calculated for samples carbonized at 900°C and the highest values of CO2 adsorption had samples: PN900 at 0°C (5.5 mmol/g and WN900 at 25°C (4.34 mmol/g. All of the samples had a well-developed microporous structure.

Tree-growth analyses to estimate tree species' drought tolerance

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Eilmann, B.; Rigling, A.

2012-01-01

Climate change is challenging forestry management and practices. Among other things, tree species with the ability to cope with more extreme climate conditions have to be identified. However, while environmental factors may severely limit tree growth or even cause tree death, assessing a tree

TreeNetViz: revealing patterns of networks over tree structures.

Science.gov (United States)

Gou, Liang; Zhang, Xiaolong Luke

2011-12-01

Network data often contain important attributes from various dimensions such as social affiliations and areas of expertise in a social network. If such attributes exhibit a tree structure, visualizing a compound graph consisting of tree and network structures becomes complicated. How to visually reveal patterns of a network over a tree has not been fully studied. In this paper, we propose a compound graph model, TreeNet, to support visualization and analysis of a network at multiple levels of aggregation over a tree. We also present a visualization design, TreeNetViz, to offer the multiscale and cross-scale exploration and interaction of a TreeNet graph. TreeNetViz uses a Radial, Space-Filling (RSF) visualization to represent the tree structure, a circle layout with novel optimization to show aggregated networks derived from TreeNet, and an edge bundling technique to reduce visual complexity. Our circular layout algorithm reduces both total edge-crossings and edge length and also considers hierarchical structure constraints and edge weight in a TreeNet graph. These experiments illustrate that the algorithm can reduce visual cluttering in TreeNet graphs. Our case study also shows that TreeNetViz has the potential to support the analysis of a compound graph by revealing multiscale and cross-scale network patterns. © 2011 IEEE

Large variations in diurnal and seasonal patterns of sap flux among Aleppo pine trees in semi-arid forest reflect tree-scale hydraulic adjustments

Science.gov (United States)

Preisler, Yakir; Tatarinov, Fyodor; Rohatyn, Shani; Rotenberg, Eyal; Grünzweig, José M.; Klein, Tamir; Yakir, Dan

2015-04-01

Adjustments and adaptations of trees to drought vary across different biomes, species and habitats, with important implications for tree mortality and forest dieback associated with global climate change. The aim of this study was to investigate possible links between the patterns of variations in water flux dynamics and drought resistance in Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis) trees in a semi-arid stand (Yatir forest, Israel). We measured sap flow (SF) and variations in stem diameter, complemented with short-term campaigns of leaf-scale measurements of water vapour and CO2 gas exchange, branch water potential and hydraulic conductivity, as well as eddy flux measurements of evapotranspiration (ET) from a permanent flux tower at the site. SF rates were well synchronized with ET, reaching maximum rates during midday in all trees during the rainy season (Dec-Apr). However, during the dry season (May-Nov), the daily trend in the rates of SF greatly varied among trees, allowing classification into three tree classes: 1) trees with SF maximum rate constantly occurring in mid-day (12:00-13:00); 2)trees showing a shift to an early morning SF peak (04:00-06:00); and 3) trees shifting their daily SF peak to the evening (16:00-18:00). This classification did not change during the four years study period, between 2010 and 2014. Checking for correlation of tree parameters as DBH, tree height, crown size, and competition indices with rates of SF, indicated that timing of maximum SF in summer was mainly related to tree size (DBH), when large trees tended to have a later SF maximum. Dendrometer measurements indicated that large trees (high DBH) had maximum daily diameter in the morning during summer and winter, while small trees typically had maximum daily diameter during midday and afternoon in winter and summer, respectively. Leaf-scale transpiration (T) measurements showed typical morning peak in all trees, and another peak in the afternoon in large trees only. Different diurnal

Tree species effects on soil properties and greenhouse gas fluxes in East-central Amazonia: comparison between monoculture and diverse forest

Science.gov (United States)

J. Van Haren; R.C. de Oliveira, Jr.; P.T. Beldini; P.B. de Camargo; M. Keller; S. Saleska

2013-01-01

Tropical plantations are considered a viable option to sequester carbon on abandoned agricultural lands, but implications of tree species selection for overall greenhouse gas budgets on plantations have been little studied. During three wet seasons, we investigated the influence of nine tree species on soil pH, temperature (ST), bulk density (BD), moisture content...

TREE SELECTING AND TREE RING MEASURING IN DENDROCHRONOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sefa Akbulut

2004-04-01

Full Text Available Dendrochronology is a method of dating which makes use of the annual nature of tree growth. Dendrochronology may be divided into a number of subfields, each of which covers one or more aspects of the use of tree ring data: dendroclimatology, dendrogeomorphology, dendrohydrology, dendroecology, dendroarchaelogy, and dendrogylaciology. Basic of all form the analysis of the tree rings. The wood or tree rings can aid to dating past events about climatology, ecology, geology, hydrology. Dendrochronological studies are conducted either on increment cores or on discs. It may be seen abnormalities on tree rings during the measurement like that false rings, missing rings, reaction wood. Like that situation, increment cores must be extracted from four different sides of each tree and be studied as more as on tree.

IDRC-supported documentary A Walnut Tree wins awards at ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

2016-06-30

Jun 30, 2016 ... The internally displaced family live in a makeshift shelter in the Jalozai ... on the long-term impact of displacement as a result of conflict, and the importance of reconnecting people to their roots as part of all rehabilitation work.

Visualizing Individual Tree Differences in Tree-Ring Studies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mario Trouillier

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Averaging tree-ring measurements from multiple individuals is one of the most common procedures in dendrochronology. It serves to filter out noise from individual differences between trees, such as competition, height, and micro-site effects, which ideally results in a site chronology sensitive to regional scale factors such as climate. However, the climate sensitivity of individual trees can be modulated by factors like competition, height, and nitrogen deposition, calling attention to whether average chronologies adequately assess climatic growth-control. In this study, we demonstrate four simple but effective methods to visually assess differences between individual trees. Using individual tree climate-correlations we: (1 employed jitter plots with superimposed metadata to assess potential causes for these differences; (2 plotted the frequency distributions of climate correlations over time as heat maps; (3 mapped the spatial distribution of climate sensitivity over time to assess spatio-temporal dynamics; and (4 used t-distributed Stochastic Neighborhood Embedding (t-SNE to assess which trees were generally more similar in terms of their tree-ring pattern and their correlation with climate variables. This suite of exploratory methods can indicate if individuals in tree-ring datasets respond differently to climate variability, and therefore, should not solely be explored with climate correlations of the mean population chronology.

Pooled versus separate tree-ring δD measurements, and implications for reconstruction of the Arctic Oscillation in northwestern China.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Xiaohong; An, Wenling; Treydte, Kerstin; Wang, Wenzhi; Xu, Guobao; Zeng, Xiaomin; Wu, Guoju; Wang, Bo; Zhang, Xuanwen

2015-04-01

Stable hydrogen isotope ratios (δD) in tree rings are an attractive but still rarely explored terrestrial archive of past climatic information. Because the preparation of the cellulose nitrate for δD measurements requires more wood and a longer preparation time than preparation techniques for other isotopes in cellulose (δ18O or δ13C), it is challenging to obtain high-resolution records, especially for slow-growing trees at high elevations and in boreal regions. Here, we tested whether annually pooled samples of Qinghai spruce (Picea crassifolia Kom.) trees from northwestern China provided results similar to those derived as the mean of individual measurements of the same trees and whether the resulting chronologies recorded useful climate information. Inter-tree variability of δD was higher than that of measured ring width for the same trees. We found higher and significant coherence between pooled and mean isotope chronologies than that among the individual series. It showed a logarithmic relationship between ring mass and δD; however, accounting for the influence of ring mass on δD values only slightly improved the strength of climatic signals in the pooled records. Tree-ring δD was significantly positively correlated with the mean, maximum, and minimum temperatures during the previous winter and with maximum temperature during the current August, and significantly negatively correlated with precipitation in the previous November to January and the current July. The winter climate signal seems to dominate tree-ring δD through the influence of large-scale atmospheric circulation patterns, i.e. the Arctic Oscillation. These results will facilitate reconstruction of winter atmospheric circulation patterns over northwestern China based on a regional tree-ring δD networks. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Fault tree handbook

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Haasl, D.F.; Roberts, N.H.; Vesely, W.E.; Goldberg, F.F.

1981-01-01

This handbook describes a methodology for reliability analysis of complex systems such as those which comprise the engineered safety features of nuclear power generating stations. After an initial overview of the available system analysis approaches, the handbook focuses on a description of the deductive method known as fault tree analysis. The following aspects of fault tree analysis are covered: basic concepts for fault tree analysis; basic elements of a fault tree; fault tree construction; probability, statistics, and Boolean algebra for the fault tree analyst; qualitative and quantitative fault tree evaluation techniques; and computer codes for fault tree evaluation. Also discussed are several example problems illustrating the basic concepts of fault tree construction and evaluation

Acclimation of tree function and structure to climate change and implications to forest carbon and nutrient balances

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hari, P; Nissinen, A; Berninger, F [Helsinki Univ. (Finland). Dept. of Forest Ecology; and others

1997-12-31

Before large-scale anthropogenetic emissions the environmental factors have been rather stable for thousands of years, varying yearly, seasonally and daily in rather regular manners around some mean values. In this century the emissions of CO{sub 2}, sulphur and nitrogen from society to atmosphere are changing both atmospheric and soil environment at rates not experienced before. The fluxes to soil affect the contents of plant available nutrients and solubility of toxic compounds in the forest soil. Additionally, the chemical state of soil environment is coupled to tree growth, litter production and nutrient uptake as well as to the activity of biological organisms in soil, which decompose litter and release nutrients from it. Trees have developed effective regulation systems to cope with the environment during the evolution. The resulting acclimations improve the functioning of the trees if the environmental factors remain within their range of variation during the evolution. Outside the range the results of the regulation are unpredictable. The acclimative changes caused by the action of the regulation system may considerably change the response of trees to present environmental change. The analysis of the effects of present environmental change on forests requires simultaneous treatment of the atmosphere, forest soils and trees. Each of these components is dominated by its own features. The analyze of material and energy fluxes connect them to each other. The aim of this research is to analyse changes in the forest soils and reactions of trees to changes in the atmosphere and forest soils under a common theoretical framework, enabling combination of the obtained results into a holistic analysis of the response of forests to the present environmental change

Acclimation of tree function and structure to climate change and implications to forest carbon and nutrient balances

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hari, P.; Nissinen, A.; Berninger, F. [Helsinki Univ. (Finland). Dept. of Forest Ecology] [and others

1996-12-31

Before large-scale anthropogenetic emissions the environmental factors have been rather stable for thousands of years, varying yearly, seasonally and daily in rather regular manners around some mean values. In this century the emissions of CO{sub 2}, sulphur and nitrogen from society to atmosphere are changing both atmospheric and soil environment at rates not experienced before. The fluxes to soil affect the contents of plant available nutrients and solubility of toxic compounds in the forest soil. Additionally, the chemical state of soil environment is coupled to tree growth, litter production and nutrient uptake as well as to the activity of biological organisms in soil, which decompose litter and release nutrients from it. Trees have developed effective regulation systems to cope with the environment during the evolution. The resulting acclimations improve the functioning of the trees if the environmental factors remain within their range of variation during the evolution. Outside the range the results of the regulation are unpredictable. The acclimative changes caused by the action of the regulation system may considerably change the response of trees to present environmental change. The analysis of the effects of present environmental change on forests requires simultaneous treatment of the atmosphere, forest soils and trees. Each of these components is dominated by its own features. The analyze of material and energy fluxes connect them to each other. The aim of this research is to analyse changes in the forest soils and reactions of trees to changes in the atmosphere and forest soils under a common theoretical framework, enabling combination of the obtained results into a holistic analysis of the response of forests to the present environmental change

Applying and Individual-Based Model to Simultaneously Evaluate Net Ecosystem Production and Tree Diameter Increment

Science.gov (United States)

Fang, F. J.

2017-12-01

Reconciling observations at fundamentally different scales is central in understanding the global carbon cycle. This study investigates a model-based melding of forest inventory data, remote-sensing data and micrometeorological-station data ("flux towers" estimating forest heat, CO2 and H2O fluxes). The individual tree-based model FORCCHN was used to evaluate the tree DBH increment and forest carbon fluxes. These are the first simultaneous simulations of the forest carbon budgets from flux towers and individual-tree growth estimates of forest carbon budgets using the continuous forest inventory data — under circumstances in which both predictions can be tested. Along with the global implications of such findings, this also improves the capacity for forest sustainable management and the comprehensive understanding of forest ecosystems. In forest ecology, diameter at breast height (DBH) of a tree significantly determines an individual tree's cross-sectional sapwood area, its biomass and carbon storage. Evaluation the annual DBH increment (ΔDBH) of an individual tree is central to understanding tree growth and forest ecology. Ecosystem Carbon flux is a consequence of key ecosystem processes in the forest-ecosystem carbon cycle, Gross and Net Primary Production (GPP and NPP, respectively) and Net Ecosystem Respiration (NEP). All of these closely relate with tree DBH changes and tree death. Despite advances in evaluating forest carbon fluxes with flux towers and forest inventories for individual tree ΔDBH, few current ecological models can simultaneously quantify and predict the tree ΔDBH and forest carbon flux.

Modular tree automata

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bahr, Patrick

2012-01-01

Tree automata are traditionally used to study properties of tree languages and tree transformations. In this paper, we consider tree automata as the basis for modular and extensible recursion schemes. We show, using well-known techniques, how to derive from standard tree automata highly modular...

Literature review of women's economic empowerment and the care ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

10 juil. 2013 ... While much literature exists on the care economy across the globe, our review indicates that Africa is relatively underserved. It also reveals that ... Le documentaire A Walnut Tree, produit grâce à l'appui du CRDI, récompensé aux festivals cinématographiques de Moscou et d'Istanbul. Le documentaire A ...

Pistillate Flower Abcission Symptoms of ‘Serr’ Walnut (Juglans RegiaL. Sintomatología del Aborto en flores Pistiladas de Nogal (Juglans regiaL. ‘Serr’

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cristián González R

2008-06-01

Full Text Available Pistillate flower abscission (PFA severely affects walnut (Juglans regia L. production, mainly of the cultivar ‘Serr’. A study on symptoms of flower abortion in walnut ‘Serr’, induced by excess or lack of pollen, was carried out following the evolution of flowers and peduncles. Hand pollinated flowers, with different pollen concentrations: 0, 1, 5, 25, 50 and 100% pollen diluted (w/w in talcum powder, showed external and internal abortion symptoms. External symptoms were recorded directly from the tree, while for internal symptoms, flower excisions stained with blue Toluidin-O at 0.05%, were analyzed under an optical microscope. Excess pollen abortion produced flowers with rapid damage. The growth rate was very low, involucre brightness was lost and the stigma turned necrotic, in contrast to the flower aborted from lack of pollen. Normal flowers continued growing to fruit harvest, without losing brightness. Excess pollen abortion induced flower drop, with or without attached peduncle. Two separation zones can be present: the distal and proximal areas of the peduncle. Peduncle scars allowed for differentiating abortion induced from excess or lack of pollen, or other reasons.El aborto en flores postiladas (PFA por exceso de polen que afecta al nogal (Juglans regia L., disminuye considerablemente la producción de nueces, principalmente en el cultivar ‘Serr’. Se estudió la sintomatología del aborto por exceso y falta de polinización en flores y pedúnculo de este cultivar. Para esto se realizó polinización manual, utilizando diferentes concentraciones de polen sobre flores en diferentes estados de receptividad. Las concentraciones se obtuvieron mediante diluciones (peso/peso de polen combinado con talco. Las concentraciones utilizadas fueron 0; 1; 5; 25; 50 y 100% de polen. Se observó la sintomatología externa e interna de la flor, mediante apreciación visual en el árbol y a través de cortes longitudinales en la flor para

Physicochemical properties of low sodium frankfurter with added walnut: effect of transglutaminase combined with caseinate, KCl and dietary fibre as salt replacers.

Science.gov (United States)

Colmenero, F Jiménez; Ayo, M J; Carballo, J

2005-04-01

This study compares the effects of combinations of microbial transglutaminase (TGase) and various non-meat ingredients (caseinate, KCl and wheat fibre) used as salt replacers, with the effects of NaCl on the physicochemical properties (cooking loss, emulsion stability, texture and colour) of frankfurters with added walnuts. The combination of TGase with caseinate, KCl or fibre led to harder, springier and chewier (Pcaseinate>KCl>fibre. Frankfurters with caseinate presented the highest lightness and the lowest redness values. Frankfurter with NaCl had a harder, springier and chewier gel/emulsion network with lower cooking loss than those NaCl free.

Rainfall simulation experiments in the southwestern USA using the Walnut Gulch Rainfall Simulator

Science.gov (United States)

Polyakov, Viktor; Stone, Jeffry; Holifield Collins, Chandra; Nearing, Mark A.; Paige, Ginger; Buono, Jared; Gomez-Pond, Rae-Landa

2018-01-01

This dataset contains hydrological, erosion, vegetation, ground cover, and other supplementary information from 272 rainfall simulation experiments conducted on 23 semiarid rangeland locations in Arizona and Nevada between 2002 and 2013. On 30 % of the plots, simulations were conducted up to five times during the decade of study. The rainfall was generated using the Walnut Gulch Rainfall Simulator on 2 m by 6 m plots. Simulation sites included brush and grassland areas with various degrees of disturbance by grazing, wildfire, or brush removal. This dataset advances our understanding of basic hydrological and biological processes that drive soil erosion on arid rangelands. It can be used to estimate runoff, infiltration, and erosion rates at a variety of ecological sites in the Southwestern USA. The inclusion of wildfire and brush treatment locations combined with long-term observations makes it important for studying vegetation recovery, ecological transitions, and the effect of management. It is also a valuable resource for erosion model parameterization and validation. The dataset is available from the National Agricultural Library at https://data.nal.usda.gov/search/type/dataset (DOI: https://doi.org/10.15482/USDA.ADC/1358583).

A bijection between phylogenetic trees and plane oriented recursive trees

OpenAIRE

Prodinger, Helmut

2017-01-01

Phylogenetic trees are binary nonplanar trees with labelled leaves, and plane oriented recursive trees are planar trees with an increasing labelling. Both families are enumerated by double factorials. A bijection is constructed, using the respective representations a 2-partitions and trapezoidal words.

Disentangling the Effects of Water Stress on Carbon Acquisition, Vegetative Growth, and Fruit Quality of Peach Trees by Means of the QualiTree Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mitra Rahmati

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Climate change projections predict warmer and drier conditions. In general, moderate to severe water stress reduce plant vegetative growth and leaf photosynthesis. However, vegetative and reproductive growths show different sensitivities to water deficit. In fruit trees, water restrictions may have serious implications not only on tree growth and yield, but also on fruit quality, which might be improved. Therefore, it is of paramount importance to understand the complex interrelations among the physiological processes involved in within-tree carbon acquisition and allocation, water uptake and transpiration, organ growth, and fruit composition when affected by water stress. This can be studied using process-based models of plant functioning, which allow assessing the sensitivity of various physiological processes to water deficit and their relative impact on vegetative growth and fruit quality. In the current study, an existing fruit-tree model (QualiTree was adapted for describing the water stress effects on peach (Prunus persica L. Batsch vegetative growth, fruit size and composition. First, an energy balance calculation at the fruit-bearing shoot level and a water transfer formalization within the plant were integrated into the model. Next, a reduction function of vegetative growth according to tree water status was added to QualiTree. Then, the model was parameterized and calibrated for a late-maturing peach cultivar (“Elberta” under semi-arid conditions, and for three different irrigation practices. Simulated vegetative and fruit growth variability over time was consistent with observed data. Sugar concentrations in fruit flesh were well simulated. Finally, QualiTree allowed for determining the relative importance of photosynthesis and vegetative growth reduction on carbon acquisition, plant growth and fruit quality under water constrains. According to simulations, water deficit impacted vegetative growth first through a direct effect on

Disentangling the Effects of Water Stress on Carbon Acquisition, Vegetative Growth, and Fruit Quality of Peach Trees by Means of the QualiTree Model.

Science.gov (United States)

Rahmati, Mitra; Mirás-Avalos, José M; Valsesia, Pierre; Lescourret, Françoise; Génard, Michel; Davarynejad, Gholam H; Bannayan, Mohammad; Azizi, Majid; Vercambre, Gilles

2018-01-01

Climate change projections predict warmer and drier conditions. In general, moderate to severe water stress reduce plant vegetative growth and leaf photosynthesis. However, vegetative and reproductive growths show different sensitivities to water deficit. In fruit trees, water restrictions may have serious implications not only on tree growth and yield, but also on fruit quality, which might be improved. Therefore, it is of paramount importance to understand the complex interrelations among the physiological processes involved in within-tree carbon acquisition and allocation, water uptake and transpiration, organ growth, and fruit composition when affected by water stress. This can be studied using process-based models of plant functioning, which allow assessing the sensitivity of various physiological processes to water deficit and their relative impact on vegetative growth and fruit quality. In the current study, an existing fruit-tree model (QualiTree) was adapted for describing the water stress effects on peach ( Prunus persica L. Batsch) vegetative growth, fruit size and composition. First, an energy balance calculation at the fruit-bearing shoot level and a water transfer formalization within the plant were integrated into the model. Next, a reduction function of vegetative growth according to tree water status was added to QualiTree. Then, the model was parameterized and calibrated for a late-maturing peach cultivar ("Elberta") under semi-arid conditions, and for three different irrigation practices. Simulated vegetative and fruit growth variability over time was consistent with observed data. Sugar concentrations in fruit flesh were well simulated. Finally, QualiTree allowed for determining the relative importance of photosynthesis and vegetative growth reduction on carbon acquisition, plant growth and fruit quality under water constrains. According to simulations, water deficit impacted vegetative growth first through a direct effect on its sink strength

Stratigraphic response across a structurally dynamic shelf: The latest guadalupian composite sequence at Walnut Canyon, New Mexico, U.S.A

Science.gov (United States)

Rush, J.; Kerans, C.

2010-01-01

The uppermost Yates and Tansill formations (Late Permian), as exposed along Walnut Canyon in Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico, USA, provide a unique opportunity to document the depositional architecture of a progradational, oversteepened, and mechanically failure-prone carbonate platform. Detailed facies mapping permitted critical assessment of depositional processes operating along this structurally dynamic platform margin. At the shelf crest, thick (12 m), vertically stacked fenestral-pisolite-tepee complexes indicate a stable shoreline. Early lithification of sediments and extensive cementation fostered rapid vertical accretion and allowed the shelf crest to easily adjust to base-level oscillations by stepping landward, stepping seaward, or aggrading. This production imbalance-in combination with syndepositional brittle failure and down-to-the-basin tilting(architecture, fracture properties, and a highly refined fusulinid biostratigraphic framework. Where fractures tip out, down-to-the-basin rotation is often observed with concurrent seaward thickening of overlying beds, indicating that such fractures functioned as a syndepositional hinge. A facies disjunction and horizontally juxtaposed fusulinid zonation were documented across an 80?? seaward-dipping dilational fracture filled with polymict breccia. An overlying damage zone consisting of spar-cemented fractures nested within silt-filled fractures illustrates periodic reactivation. Field relationships indicate that the dilational fracture approximates a paleoescarpment that resulted from catastrophic failure of the Capitan platform margin. Younger strata onlapped the paleoescarpment and gradually filled the reentrant. This mechanically compromised paleoescarpment was subsequently reactivated during the latest Guadalupian lowstand and was subaerially filled by siliciclastics and polymict breccia derived from the platform top. Results from Walnut Canyon indicate that shelf crest aggradation dominantly

Nutrient removal by apple, pear and cherry nursery trees

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Giovambattista Sorrenti

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Given that nursery is a peculiar environment, the amount of nutrients removed by nursery trees represents a fundamental acquisition to optimise fertilisation strategies, with economic and environmental implications. In this context, we determined nutrient removal by apple, pear and cherry nursery trees at the end of the nursery growing cycle. We randomly removed 5 leafless apple (Golden Delicious/EMLA M9; density of 30,000 trees ha–1, pear (Santa Maria/Adams; density of 30,000 trees ha–1 and cherry (AlexTM/Gisela 6®; density of 40,000 trees ha–1 trees from a commercial nursery. Trees were divided into roots (below the root collar, rootstock (above-ground wood between root collar and grafting point and variety (1-year-old wood above the grafting point. For each organ we determined biomass, macro- (N, P, K, Ca, Mg, S, and micro- (Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu, and B nutrient concentration. Pear trees were the most developed (650 g (dw tree–1, equal to 1.75 and 2.78 folds than apple and cherry trees, respectively whereas, independently of the species, variety mostly contributed (>50% to the total tree biomass, followed by roots and then above-ground rootstock. However, the dry biomass and nutrient amount measured in rootstocks (including roots represent the cumulative amount of 2 and 3 seasons, for Gisela® 6 (tissue culture and pome fruit species (generated by mound layering, respectively. Macro and micronutrients were mostly concentrated in roots, followed by variety and rootstock, irrespective of the species. Independently of the tissue, macronutrients concentration hierarchy was N>Ca>K> P>Mg>S. Removed N by whole tree accounted for 6.58, 3.53 and 2.49 g tree–1 for pear, apple and cherry, respectively, corresponding to almost 200, 107 and 100 kg N ha–1, respectively. High amounts of K and Ca were used by pear (130-140 kg ha–1 and apple trees (~50 and 130 kg ha–1 of K and Ca, respectively, while ~25 kg K ha–1 and 55 kg Ca ha–1 were

Studies on Cytotoxic Activity against HepG-2 Cells of Naphthoquinones from Green Walnut Husks of Juglans mandshurica Maxim.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Yuanyuan; Yang, Bingyou; Jiang, Yanqiu; Liu, Zhaoxi; Liu, Yuxin; Wang, Xiaoli; Kuang, Haixue

2015-08-26

Twenty-seven naphthoquinones and their derivatives, including four new naphthalenyl glucosides and twenty-three known compounds, were isolated from green walnut husks, which came from Juglans mandshurica Maxim. The structures of four new naphthalenyl glucosides were elucidated based on extensive spectroscopic analyses. All of these compounds were evaluated for their cytotoxic activities against the growth of human cancer cells lines HepG-2 by MTT [3-(4,5-dimethylthiazo l-2-yl)-2,5 diphenyl tetrazolium bromide] assay. The results were shown that most naphthoquinones in an aglycone form exhibited better cytotoxicity in vitro than naphthalenyl glucosides with IC50 values in the range of 7.33-88.23 μM. Meanwhile, preliminary structure-activity relationships for these compounds were discussed.

IcyTree: rapid browser-based visualization for phylogenetic trees and networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Vaughan, Timothy G

2017-08-01

IcyTree is an easy-to-use application which can be used to visualize a wide variety of phylogenetic trees and networks. While numerous phylogenetic tree viewers exist already, IcyTree distinguishes itself by being a purely online tool, having a responsive user interface, supporting phylogenetic networks (ancestral recombination graphs in particular), and efficiently drawing trees that include information such as ancestral locations or trait values. IcyTree also provides intuitive panning and zooming utilities that make exploring large phylogenetic trees of many thousands of taxa feasible. IcyTree is a web application and can be accessed directly at http://tgvaughan.github.com/icytree . Currently supported web browsers include Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome. IcyTree is written entirely in client-side JavaScript (no plugin required) and, once loaded, does not require network access to run. IcyTree is free software, and the source code is made available at http://github.com/tgvaughan/icytree under version 3 of the GNU General Public License. tgvaughan@gmail.com. © The Author(s) 2017. Published by Oxford University Press.

TreeScaper: Visualizing and Extracting Phylogenetic Signal from Sets of Trees.

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Wen; Zhou, Guifang; Marchand, Melissa; Ash, Jeremy R; Morris, David; Van Dooren, Paul; Brown, Jeremy M; Gallivan, Kyle A; Wilgenbusch, Jim C

2016-12-01

Modern phylogenomic analyses often result in large collections of phylogenetic trees representing uncertainty in individual gene trees, variation across genes, or both. Extracting phylogenetic signal from these tree sets can be challenging, as they are difficult to visualize, explore, and quantify. To overcome some of these challenges, we have developed TreeScaper, an application for tree set visualization as well as the identification of distinct phylogenetic signals. GUI and command-line versions of TreeScaper and a manual with tutorials can be downloaded from https://github.com/whuang08/TreeScaper/releases TreeScaper is distributed under the GNU General Public License. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Flowering Trees

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

IAS Admin

Flowering Trees. Ailanthus excelsa Roxb. (INDIAN TREE OF. HEAVEN) of Simaroubaceae is a lofty tree with large pinnately compound alternate leaves, which are ... inflorescences, unisexual and greenish-yellow. Fruits are winged, wings many-nerved. Wood is used in making match sticks. 1. Male flower; 2. Female flower.

Influence of matrix type on tree community assemblages along tropical dry forest edges.

Science.gov (United States)

Benítez-Malvido, Julieta; Gallardo-Vásquez, Julio César; Alvarez-Añorve, Mariana Y; Avila-Cabadilla, Luis Daniel

2014-05-01

• Anthropogenic habitat edges have strong negative consequences for the functioning of tropical ecosystems. However, edge effects on tropical dry forest tree communities have been barely documented.• In Chamela, Mexico, we investigated the phylogenetic composition and structure of tree assemblages (≥5 cm dbh) along edges abutting different matrices: (1) disturbed vegetation with cattle, (2) pastures with cattle and, (3) pastures without cattle. Additionally, we sampled preserved forest interiors.• All edge types exhibited similar tree density, basal area and diversity to interior forests, but differed in species composition. A nonmetric multidimensional scaling ordination showed that the presence of cattle influenced species composition more strongly than the vegetation structure of the matrix; tree assemblages abutting matrices with cattle had lower scores in the ordination. The phylogenetic composition of tree assemblages followed the same pattern. The principal plant families and genera were associated according to disturbance regimes as follows: pastures and disturbed vegetation (1) with cattle and (2) without cattle, and (3) pastures without cattle and interior forests. All habitats showed random phylogenetic structures, suggesting that tree communities are assembled mainly by stochastic processes. Long-lived species persisting after edge creation could have important implications in the phylogenetic structure of tree assemblages.• Edge creation exerts a stronger influence on TDF vegetation pathways than previously documented, leading to new ecological communities. Phylogenetic analysis may, however, be needed to detect such changes. © 2014 Botanical Society of America, Inc.

Can forest dieback and tree death be predicted by prior changes in wood anatomy?

Science.gov (United States)

Colangelo, Michele; Julio Camarero, Jesus; De Micco, Veronica; Borghetti, Marco; Gentilesca, Tiziana; Sanchez-Salguero, Raul; Ripullone, Francesco

2017-04-01

Climate warming is expected to amplify drought stress resulting in more intense and widespread dieback episodes and increasing mortality rates. Studies on quantitative wood anatomy and dendrochronology have demonstrated their potential to supply useful information on the causes of tree decline, although this approach is basically observational and retrospective. Moreover, the long-term reconstruction of wood anatomical features, strictly linked to the evolution of xylem anatomy plasticity through time, allow investigating hydraulic adjustments of trees. In this study, we analyzed wood-anatomical variables in two Italian oak forests where recent episodes of dieback and mortality have been reported. We analyzed in coexisting now-dead and living trees the following wood-anatomical variables: annual tree-ring area, earlywood (EW) and latewood (LW) areas, absolute and relative (%) areas occupied by vessels in the EW and LW, EW and LW vessel areas, EW and LW vessel density and vessel diameter classification. We also calculated the hydraulic diameter (Dh) for all vessels measured within each ring by weighting individual conduit diameters to correspond to the average Hagen-Poiseuille lumen theoretical hydraulic conductivity for a vessel size. Wood-anatomical analyses showed that declining and dead trees were more sensitive to drought stress compared to non declining trees, indicating different susceptibility to water shortage between trees. Dead trees did not form earlywood vessels with smaller lumen diameter than surviving trees but tended to form wider latewood vessels with a higher percentage of vessel area. We discuss the results and implications focusing on those proved more sensitive to the phenomena of decline and mortality.

Novel walnut peptide–selenium hybrids with enhanced anticancer synergism: facile synthesis and mechanistic investigation of anticancer activity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Liao W

2016-04-01

Full Text Available Wenzhen Liao,1 Rong Zhang,1 Chenbo Dong,2 Zhiqiang Yu,3 Jiaoyan Ren11College of Light Industry and Food Sciences, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China; 2Civil and Environmental Engineering, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA; 3School of Pharmaceutical Science, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of New Drug Screening, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, People’s Republic of ChinaAbstract: This contribution reports a facile synthesis of degreased walnut peptides (WP1-functionalized selenium nanoparticles (SeNPs hybrids with enhanced anticancer activity and a detailed mechanistic evaluation of its superior anticancer activity. Structural and chemical characterizations proved that SeNPs are effectively capped with WP1 via physical absorption, resulting in a stable hybrid structure with an average diameter of 89.22 nm. A panel of selected human cancer cell lines demonstrated high susceptibility toward WP1-SeNPs and displayed significantly reduced proliferative behavior. The as-synthesized WP1-SeNPs exhibited excellent selectivity between cancer cells and normal cells. The targeted induction of apoptosis in human breast adenocarcinoma cells (MCF-7 was confirmed by the accumulation of arrested S-phase cells, nuclear condensation, and DNA breakage. Careful investigations revealed that an extrinsic apoptotic pathway can be attributed to the cell apoptosis and the same was confirmed by activation of the Fas-associated with death domain protein and caspases 3, 8, and 9. In addition, it was also understood that intrinsic apoptotic pathways including reactive oxygen species generation, as well as the reduction in mitochondrial membrane potential, are also involved in the WP1-SeNP-induced apoptosis. This suggested the involvement of multiple apoptosis pathways in the anticancer activity. Our results indicated that WP1-SeNP hybrids with Se core encapsulated in a WP1 shell could be a highly

Flowering Trees

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Flowering Trees. Gyrocarpus americanus Jacq. (Helicopter Tree) of Hernandiaceae is a moderate size deciduous tree that grows to about 12 m in height with a smooth, shining, greenish-white bark. The leaves are ovate, rarely irregularly ... flowers which are unpleasant smelling. Fruit is a woody nut with two long thin wings.

Chemical Weed Control Increases Survival and Growth in Hardwood Plantings

Science.gov (United States)

Gayne G. Erdmann

1967-01-01

In a plantation of four hardwood species on a silt loam soil planted to 1-0 stock, 4 pounds of active atrazine or simazine controlled weeds effectively without injuring the trees. Chemical weed control was better on plowed and disked ground than on unprepared ground. Yellow-poplar and white ash grew faster on prepared ground. Black walnut and red oak did not respond...

Cultural Resources of the Ohio River Floodplain in Illinois,

Science.gov (United States)

1977-10-15

americana), hickories, .nd sweet gum, with occasional black walnut (Juailapns _igrij), butternut (Iluglans cinerea), and pecan ( Carya illinoensis ) on better...Quercius velutina), shingle oak (Quercus imbricaria), and various hickories, particularly the more xeric species such as black hickory ( Carya texana...where soil is thin or exposure hazardous. Stands of various hickories ( Carya ) are interspersed. Smaller trees might include dogwood (Cornus spp.) and

Cache-Oblivious Search Trees via Binary Trees of Small Height

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Brodal, G.S.; Fagerberg, R.; Jacob, R.

2002-01-01

We propose a version of cache oblivious search trees which is simpler than the previous proposal of Bender, Demaine and Farach-Colton and has the same complexity bounds. In particular, our data structure avoids the use of weight balanced B-trees, and can be implemented as just a single array......, and range queries in worst case O(logB n + k/B) memory transfers, where k is the size of the output.The basic idea of our data structure is to maintain a dynamic binary tree of height log n+O(1) using existing methods, embed this tree in a static binary tree, which in turn is embedded in an array in a cache...... oblivious fashion, using the van Emde Boas layout of Prokop.We also investigate the practicality of cache obliviousness in the area of search trees, by providing an empirical comparison of different methods for laying out a search tree in memory....

Functional groups show distinct differences in nitrogen cycling during early stand development: implications for forest management

Science.gov (United States)

Doug P. Aubrey; David R. Coyle; Mark D. Coleman

2012-01-01

Background and aims Nutrient acquisition of forest stands is controlled by soil resource availability and belowground production, but tree species are rarely compared in this regard. Here, we examine ecological and management implications of nitrogen (N) dynamics during early forest stand development in productive commercial tree species with narrow (Populus...

Structural adjustments in resprouting trees drive differences in post-fire transpiration.

Science.gov (United States)

Nolan, Rachael H; Mitchell, Patrick J; Bradstock, Ross A; Lane, Patrick N J

2014-02-01

Following disturbance many woody species are capable of resprouting new foliage, resulting in a reduced leaf-to-sapwood area ratio and altered canopy structure. We hypothesized that such changes would promote adjustments in leaf physiology, resulting in higher rates of transpiration per unit leaf area, consistent with the mechanistic framework proposed by Whitehead et al. (Whitehead D, Jarvis PG, Waring RH (1984) Stomatal conductance, transpiration and resistance to water uptake in a Pinus sylvestris spacing experiment. Can J For Res 14:692-700). We tested this in Eucalyptus obliqua L'Hér following a wildfire by comparing trees with unburnt canopies with trees that had been subject to 100% canopy scorch and were recovering their leaf area via resprouting. In resprouting trees, foliage was distributed along the trunk and on lateral branches, resulting in shorter hydraulic path lengths. We evaluated measurements of whole-tree transpiration and structural and physiological traits expected to drive any changes in transpiration. We used these structural and physiological measurements to parameterize the Whitehead et al. equation, and found that the expected ratio of transpiration per unit leaf area between resprouting and unburnt trees was 3.41. This is similar to the observed ratio of transpiration per unit leaf area, measured from sapflow observations, which was 2.89 (i.e., resprouting trees had 188% higher transpiration per unit leaf area). Foliage at low heights (tree crown (14-18 m) in a number of traits, including higher specific leaf area, midday leaf water potential and higher rates of stomatal conductance and photosynthesis. We conclude that these post-fire adjustments in resprouting trees help to drive increased stomatal conductance and hydraulic efficiency, promoting the rapid return of tree-scale transpiration towards pre-disturbance levels. These transient patterns in canopy transpiration have important implications for modelling stand-level water fluxes

Flowering Trees

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Flowering Trees. Boswellia serrata Roxb. ex Colebr. (Indian Frankincense tree) of Burseraceae is a large-sized deciduous tree that is native to India. Bark is thin, greenish-ash-coloured that exfoliates into smooth papery flakes. Stem exudes pinkish resin ... Fruit is a three-valved capsule. A green gum-resin exudes from the ...

Systolic trees and systolic language recognition by tree automata

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Steinby, M

1983-01-01

K. Culik II, J. Gruska, A. Salomaa and D. Wood have studied the language recognition capabilities of certain types of systolically operating networks of processors (see research reports Cs-81-32, Cs-81-36 and Cs-82-01, Univ. of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada). In this paper, their model for systolic VLSI trees is formalised in terms of standard tree automaton theory, and the way in which some known facts about recognisable forests and tree transductions can be applied in VLSI tree theory is demonstrated. 13 references.

DupTree: a program for large-scale phylogenetic analyses using gene tree parsimony.

Science.gov (United States)

Wehe, André; Bansal, Mukul S; Burleigh, J Gordon; Eulenstein, Oliver

2008-07-01

DupTree is a new software program for inferring rooted species trees from collections of gene trees using the gene tree parsimony approach. The program implements a novel algorithm that significantly improves upon the run time of standard search heuristics for gene tree parsimony, and enables the first truly genome-scale phylogenetic analyses. In addition, DupTree allows users to examine alternate rootings and to weight the reconciliation costs for gene trees. DupTree is an open source project written in C++. DupTree for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux along with a sample dataset and an on-line manual are available at http://genome.cs.iastate.edu/CBL/DupTree

Flowering Trees

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

More Details Fulltext PDF. Volume 8 Issue 8 August 2003 pp 112-112 Flowering Trees. Zizyphus jujuba Lam. of Rhamnaceae · More Details Fulltext PDF. Volume 8 Issue 9 September 2003 pp 97-97 Flowering Trees. Moringa oleifera · More Details Fulltext PDF. Volume 8 Issue 10 October 2003 pp 100-100 Flowering Trees.

Embedding complete ternary tree in hypercubes using AVL trees

NARCIS (Netherlands)

S.A. Choudum; I. Raman (Indhumathi)

2008-01-01

htmlabstractA complete ternary tree is a tree in which every non-leaf vertex has exactly three children. We prove that a complete ternary tree of height h, TTh, is embeddable in a hypercube of dimension . This result coincides with the result of [2]. However, in this paper, the embedding utilizes

Ghost-tree: creating hybrid-gene phylogenetic trees for diversity analyses.

Science.gov (United States)

Fouquier, Jennifer; Rideout, Jai Ram; Bolyen, Evan; Chase, John; Shiffer, Arron; McDonald, Daniel; Knight, Rob; Caporaso, J Gregory; Kelley, Scott T

2016-02-24

Fungi play critical roles in many ecosystems, cause serious diseases in plants and animals, and pose significant threats to human health and structural integrity problems in built environments. While most fungal diversity remains unknown, the development of PCR primers for the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) combined with next-generation sequencing has substantially improved our ability to profile fungal microbial diversity. Although the high sequence variability in the ITS region facilitates more accurate species identification, it also makes multiple sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis unreliable across evolutionarily distant fungi because the sequences are hard to align accurately. To address this issue, we created ghost-tree, a bioinformatics tool that integrates sequence data from two genetic markers into a single phylogenetic tree that can be used for diversity analyses. Our approach starts with a "foundation" phylogeny based on one genetic marker whose sequences can be aligned across organisms spanning divergent taxonomic groups (e.g., fungal families). Then, "extension" phylogenies are built for more closely related organisms (e.g., fungal species or strains) using a second more rapidly evolving genetic marker. These smaller phylogenies are then grafted onto the foundation tree by mapping taxonomic names such that each corresponding foundation-tree tip would branch into its new "extension tree" child. We applied ghost-tree to graft fungal extension phylogenies derived from ITS sequences onto a foundation phylogeny derived from fungal 18S sequences. Our analysis of simulated and real fungal ITS data sets found that phylogenetic distances between fungal communities computed using ghost-tree phylogenies explained significantly more variance than non-phylogenetic distances. The phylogenetic metrics also improved our ability to distinguish small differences (effect sizes) between microbial communities, though results were similar to non

Trees are good, but…

Science.gov (United States)

E.G. McPherson; F. Ferrini

2010-01-01

We know that “trees are good,” and most people believe this to be true. But if this is so, why are so many trees neglected, and so many tree wells empty? An individual’s attitude toward trees may result from their firsthand encounters with specific trees. Understanding how attitudes about trees are shaped, particularly aversion to trees, is critical to the business of...

Inference of Transmission Network Structure from HIV Phylogenetic Trees.

Science.gov (United States)

Giardina, Federica; Romero-Severson, Ethan Obie; Albert, Jan; Britton, Tom; Leitner, Thomas

2017-01-01

Phylogenetic inference is an attractive means to reconstruct transmission histories and epidemics. However, there is not a perfect correspondence between transmission history and virus phylogeny. Both node height and topological differences may occur, depending on the interaction between within-host evolutionary dynamics and between-host transmission patterns. To investigate these interactions, we added a within-host evolutionary model in epidemiological simulations and examined if the resulting phylogeny could recover different types of contact networks. To further improve realism, we also introduced patient-specific differences in infectivity across disease stages, and on the epidemic level we considered incomplete sampling and the age of the epidemic. Second, we implemented an inference method based on approximate Bayesian computation (ABC) to discriminate among three well-studied network models and jointly estimate both network parameters and key epidemiological quantities such as the infection rate. Our ABC framework used both topological and distance-based tree statistics for comparison between simulated and observed trees. Overall, our simulations showed that a virus time-scaled phylogeny (genealogy) may be substantially different from the between-host transmission tree. This has important implications for the interpretation of what a phylogeny reveals about the underlying epidemic contact network. In particular, we found that while the within-host evolutionary process obscures the transmission tree, the diversification process and infectivity dynamics also add discriminatory power to differentiate between different types of contact networks. We also found that the possibility to differentiate contact networks depends on how far an epidemic has progressed, where distance-based tree statistics have more power early in an epidemic. Finally, we applied our ABC inference on two different outbreaks from the Swedish HIV-1 epidemic.

Multiple-purpose trees for pastoral farming in New Zealand: with emphasis on tree legumes. [Lucerne Tree: Medick Tree

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Davies, D J.G.; Macfarlane, R P

1979-01-01

The potential for soil conservation and agroforestry of several native and exotic legumes is discussed. Flowering period, chemical composition of leaves/pods, hardiness to frost and drought, timber value, forage potential for livestock and bees, ornamental value and other products are tabulated with information on up to 38 species. Two low-growing species that have proved useful for slope stabilization as well as forage are tree lucerne (Cytisus palmensis) and tree medick (Medicago arborea), the latter being shrubby and more suitable for cold districts. Gleditsia triacanthos is recommended as a shade and fodder tree for farm pasture.

Impact of tree planting configuration on canopy interception and soil hydrological properties: Implications for flood mitigation in silvopastoral systems

Science.gov (United States)

Lunka, Peter; Patil, Sopan

2015-04-01

Compaction of upper soil layers by intensive sheep grazing has been connected with increased local flood risk in silvopastoral systems. A 12 week field study was conducted at the Henfaes Research Station near Bangor, Wales to compare two silvopastoral configurations, trees planted in fenced off clumps and trees planted evenly spaced, in terms of canopy throughfall, soil water infiltration and soil bulk density. The study's aim was to characterize the potential of these tree planting configurations to reduce local flood risk. The study site (Henfaes) was established in 1992 on 14 ha of agricultural land and is part of the Silvopastoral National Network Experiment sites that have been set up across the UK to examine the potential of silvopasture and agroforestry on UK farms. Automated throughfall gauges were installed in each silvopastoral treatment along with a similarly designed control gauge located in the grazed control pasture. Soil water infiltration and bulk density were measured 20 times in a stratified random design for each treatment and the control. Soil infiltration capacity in the clumped configuration was significantly higher than in the even spaced configuration and control pasture. The clumped configuration had mean infiltration capacity 504% greater than the control pasture and 454% greater than the even spaced configuration. Canopy interception was higher in the clumped trees than in the evenly spaced trees. Average canopy interception was 34% in the clumped treatment and 28% in the evenly spaced treatment. Soil bulk density was lower in the clumped configuration than in the control pasture and evenly spaced configuration. Results suggest that in silvopastoral systems the clumped tree configuration is more likely to reduce local flood risk than the evenly spaced tree configuration due to enhanced infiltration and increased canopy interception.

Stem CO2 efflux in six co-occurring tree species: underlying factors and ecological implications.

Science.gov (United States)

Rodríguez-Calcerrada, Jesús; López, Rosana; Salomón, Roberto; Gordaliza, Guillermo G; Valbuena-Carabaña, María; Oleksyn, Jacek; Gil, Luis

2015-06-01

Stem respiration plays a role in species coexistence and forest dynamics. Here we examined the intra- and inter-specific variability of stem CO2 efflux (E) in dominant and suppressed trees of six deciduous species in a mixed forest stand: Fagus sylvatica L., Quercus petraea [Matt.] Liebl, Quercus pyrenaica Willd., Prunus avium L., Sorbus aucuparia L. and Crataegus monogyna Jacq. We conducted measurements in late autumn. Within species, dominants had higher E per unit stem surface area (Es ) mainly because sapwood depth was higher than in suppressed trees. Across species, however, differences in Es corresponded with differences in the proportion of living parenchyma in sapwood and concentration of non-structural carbohydrates (NSC). Across species, Es was strongly and NSC marginally positively related with an index of drought tolerance, suggesting that slow growth of drought-tolerant trees is related to higher NSC concentration and Es . We conclude that, during the leafless period, E is indicative of maintenance respiration and is related with some ecological characteristics of the species, such as drought resistance; that sapwood depth is the main factor explaining variability in Es within species; and that the proportion of NSC in the sapwood is the main factor behind variability in Es among species. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Extreme Drought Events Revealed in Amazon Tree Ring Records

Science.gov (United States)

Jenkins, H. S.; Baker, P. A.; Guilderson, T. P.

2010-12-01

The Amazon basin is a center of deep atmospheric convection and thus acts as a major engine for global hydrologic circulation. Yet despite its significance, a full understanding of Amazon rainfall variability remains elusive due to a poor historical record of climate. Temperate tree rings have been used extensively to reconstruct climate over the last thousand years, however less attention has been given to the application of dendrochronology in tropical regions, in large part due to a lower frequency of tree species known to produce annual rings. Here we present a tree ring record of drought extremes from the Madre de Dios region of southeastern Peru over the last 190 years. We confirm that tree ring growth in species Cedrela odorata is annual and show it to be well correlated with wet season precipitation. This correlation is used to identify extreme dry (and wet) events that have occurred in the past. We focus on drought events identified in the record as drought frequency is expected to increase over the Amazon in a warming climate. The Cedrela chronology records historic Amazon droughts of the 20th century previously identified in the literature and extends the record of drought for this region to the year 1816. Our analysis shows that there has been an increase in the frequency of extreme drought (mean recurrence interval = 5-6 years) since the turn of the 20th century and both Atlantic and Pacific sea surface temperature (SST) forcing mechanisms are implicated.

Shedding light on tree growth : ring analysis of juvenile tropical trees

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Soliz Gamboa, C.C.

2010-01-01

In the understory of tropical forests light is believed to be the main limiting growth factor for the newly established trees. Trees growing in shade of the understory may experience periods of slow radial growth. It is expected that gaps created by tree or branch fall will provoke tree growth

Environmental and biological controls of urban tree transpiration in the Upper Midwest

Science.gov (United States)

Peters, E. B.; McFadden, J.; Montgomery, R.

2009-12-01

season in 2007, compared with the cooler, wetter conditions in 2008. These results were scaled to estimate the relative contribution of each tree type at the scale of a suburban landscape. The findings of this study have implications for understanding the role of trees in managing urban water budgets and predicting the impacts of climate change on urban ecosystem services.

Inferring species trees from incongruent multi-copy gene trees using the Robinson-Foulds distance

Science.gov (United States)

2013-01-01

Background Constructing species trees from multi-copy gene trees remains a challenging problem in phylogenetics. One difficulty is that the underlying genes can be incongruent due to evolutionary processes such as gene duplication and loss, deep coalescence, or lateral gene transfer. Gene tree estimation errors may further exacerbate the difficulties of species tree estimation. Results We present a new approach for inferring species trees from incongruent multi-copy gene trees that is based on a generalization of the Robinson-Foulds (RF) distance measure to multi-labeled trees (mul-trees). We prove that it is NP-hard to compute the RF distance between two mul-trees; however, it is easy to calculate this distance between a mul-tree and a singly-labeled species tree. Motivated by this, we formulate the RF problem for mul-trees (MulRF) as follows: Given a collection of multi-copy gene trees, find a singly-labeled species tree that minimizes the total RF distance from the input mul-trees. We develop and implement a fast SPR-based heuristic algorithm for the NP-hard MulRF problem. We compare the performance of the MulRF method (available at http://genome.cs.iastate.edu/CBL/MulRF/) with several gene tree parsimony approaches using gene tree simulations that incorporate gene tree error, gene duplications and losses, and/or lateral transfer. The MulRF method produces more accurate species trees than gene tree parsimony approaches. We also demonstrate that the MulRF method infers in minutes a credible plant species tree from a collection of nearly 2,000 gene trees. Conclusions Our new phylogenetic inference method, based on a generalized RF distance, makes it possible to quickly estimate species trees from large genomic data sets. Since the MulRF method, unlike gene tree parsimony, is based on a generic tree distance measure, it is appealing for analyses of genomic data sets, in which many processes such as deep coalescence, recombination, gene duplication and losses as

Trees

Science.gov (United States)

Al-Khaja, Nawal

2007-01-01

This is a thematic lesson plan for young learners about palm trees and the importance of taking care of them. The two part lesson teaches listening, reading and speaking skills. The lesson includes parts of a tree; the modal auxiliary, can; dialogues and a role play activity.

MicroRNAs in fruit trees: discovery, diversity and future research directions.

Science.gov (United States)

Solofoharivelo, M C; van der Walt, A P; Stephan, D; Burger, J T; Murray, S L

2014-09-01

Since the first description of microRNAs (miRNAs) 20 years ago, the number of miRNAs identified in different eukaryotic organisms has exploded, largely due to the recent advances in DNA sequencing technologies. Functional studies, mostly from model species, have revealed that miRNAs are major post-transcriptional regulators of gene expression in eukaryotes. In plants, they are implicated in fundamental biological processes, from plant development and morphogenesis, to regulation of plant pathogen and abiotic stress responses. Although a substantial number of miRNAs have been identified in fruit trees to date, their functions remain largely uncharacterised. The present review aims to summarise the progress made in miRNA research in fruit trees, focusing specifically on the economically important species Prunus persica, Malus domestica, Citrus spp, and Vitis vinifera. We also discuss future miRNA research prospects in these plants and highlight potential applications of miRNAs in the on-going improvement of fruit trees. © 2014 German Botanical Society and The Royal Botanical Society of the Netherlands.

Spectra of chemical trees

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Balasubramanian, K.

1982-01-01

A method is developed for obtaining the spectra of trees of NMR and chemical interests. The characteristic polynomials of branched trees can be obtained in terms of the characteristic polynomials of unbranched trees and branches by pruning the tree at the joints. The unbranched trees can also be broken down further until a tree containing just two vertices is obtained. The effectively reduces the order of the secular determinant of the tree used at the beginning to determinants of orders atmost equal to the number of vertices in the branch containing the largest number of vertices. An illustrative example of a NMR graph is given for which the 22 x 22 secular determinant is reduced to determinants of orders atmost 4 x 4 in just the second step of the algorithm. The tree pruning algorithm can be applied even to trees with no symmetry elements and such a factoring can be achieved. Methods developed here can be elegantly used to find if two trees are cospectral and to construct cospectral trees

Assessing the ecosystem service of air pollutant removal by urban trees in Guangzhou (China).

Science.gov (United States)

Jim, C Y; Chen, Wendy Y

2008-09-01

In Chinese cities, air pollution has become a serious and aggravating environmental problem undermining the sustainability of urban ecosystems and the quality of urban life. Besides technical solutions to abate air pollution, urban vegetation is increasingly recognized as an alternative ameliorative method by removing some pollutants mainly through dry deposition process. This paper assesses the capability and monetary value of this ecosystem service in Guangzhou city in South China. The results indicated an annual removal of SO(2), NO(2) and total suspended particulates at about 312.03 Mg, and the benefits were valued at RMB90.19 thousand (US$1.00=RMB8.26). More removal was realized by recreational land use due to a higher tree cover. Higher concentration of pollutants in the dry winter months induced more removal. The lower cost of pollution abatement in China generated a relatively subdued monetary value of this environmental benefit in comparison with developed countries. Younger districts with more extensive urban trees stripped more pollutants from the air, and this capacity was anticipated to increase further as their trees gradually reach final dimensions and establish a greater tree cover. Tree cover and pollutant concentration constitute the main factors in pollutant removal by urban trees. The efficiency of atmospheric cleansing by trees in congested Chinese cities could be improved by planting more trees other than shrubs or grass, diversifying species composition and biomass structure, and providing sound green space management. The implications for greenery design were discussed with a view to maximizing this ecosystem service in Chinese cities and other developing metropolises.

Spatial pattern of tree diversity and evenness across forest types in Majella National Park, Italy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohammad Redowan

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Background Estimation of tree diversity at broader scale is important for conservation planning. Tree diversity should be measured and understood in terms of diversity and evenness, two integral components to describe the structure of a biological community. Variation of the tree diversity and evenness with elevation, topographic relief, aspect, terrain shape, slope, soil nutrient, solar radiation etc. are well documented. Methods Present study explores the variation of tree diversity (measured as Shannon diversity and evenness indices of Majella National Park, Italy with five available forest types namely evergreen oak woods, deciduous oak woods, black/aleppo pine stands, hop-hornbeam forest and beech forest, using satellite, environmental and field data. Results Hop-hornbeam forest was found to be most diverse and even while evergreen Oak woods was the lowest diverse and even. Diversity and evenness of forest types were concurrent to each other i.e. forest type which was more diverse was also more even. As a broad pattern, majority portion of the study area belonged to medium diversity and high evenness class. Conclusions Satellite images and other GIS data proved useful tools in monitoring variation of tree diversity and evenness across various forest types. Present study findings may have implications in prioritizing conservation zones of high tree diversity at Majella.

Introducing cultivated trees into the wild: Wood pigeons as dispersers of domestic olive seeds

Science.gov (United States)

Perea, Ramón; Gutiérrez-Galán, Alejandro

2016-02-01

Animals may disperse cultivated trees outside the agricultural land, favoring the naturalization or, even, the invasiveness of domestic plants. However, the ecological and conservation implications of new or unexplored mutualisms between cultivated trees and wild animals are still far from clear. Here, we examine the possible role of an expanding and, locally, overabundant pigeon species (Columba palumbus) as an effective disperser of domestic olive trees (Olea europaea), a widespread cultivated tree, considered a naturalized and invasive species in many areas of the world. By analyzing crop and gizzard content we found that olive fruits were an important food item for pigeons in late winter and spring. A proportion of 40.3% pigeons consumed olive seeds, with an average consumption of 7.8 seeds per pigeon and day. Additionally, most seed sizes (up to 0.7 g) passed undamaged through the gut and were dispersed from cultivated olive orchards to areas covered by protected Mediterranean vegetation, recording minimal dispersal distances of 1.8-7.4 km. Greenhouse experiments showed that seeds dispersed by pigeons significantly favored the germination and establishment in comparison to non-ingested seeds. The ability of pigeons to effectively disperse domestic olive seeds may facilitate the introduction of cultivated olive trees into natural systems, including highly-protected wild olive woodlands. We recommend harvesting ornamental olive trees to reduce both pigeon overpopulation and the spread of artificially selected trees into the natural environment.

Effects of Reforestation on Tree Pollen Sensitization in Inhabitants of Nuevo Leon, Mexico

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Samuel Palma-Gómez

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Background: Climate change has implications for health, ecology and society. Urban green areas are a key element in the planning of citie, promoting citizen interaction with the environment, as well as health. Lack of planning and design of these areas as well as the selection of ornamental trees can be a trigger of pollen allergy in the surrounding population. Reforestation is among the programs implemented by the government that have an impact on allergy. Environmental reforestation programs do not take into account the allergenic potential of some spe- cies. In the last 4 years, the government of Nuevo Leon, Mexico, has planted nearly 18,000 Quercus species trees, in addition to an unknown number of Fraxinus species trees that are listed as tree species with high pollen production. Objective: To identify changes in tree pollen sensitization, based on environmental reforestation programs. Material and method: A retrospective and descriptive study was done in which positive skin prick tests to pollen from trees in the interval of 2010-2014 were analyzed, correlating between tree species used for reforestation and increased sensitivity to the former. Results: A statistically signi cant increase in pollen sensitization to species with which Nuevo Leon was reforested was found, along with a decrease in sensitization to the species that were not reforested. Conclusion: Reforestation contributes to some extent to the change in the pattern of positive skin tests and may result in more frequent exac- erbations of respiratory diseases. It is an activity that should always be regulated and assisted by experts in the according eld.

[Effects of reforestation on tree pollen sensitization in inhabitants of Nuevo Leon, Mexico].

Science.gov (United States)

Palma-Gómez, Samuel; González-Díaz, Sandra Nora; Arias-Cruz, Alfredo; Macías-Weinmann, Alejandra; Amaro-Vivian, Laura Elizabeth; Pérez-Vanzzini, Rafael; Gutiérrez-Mujica, José Julio; Yong-Rodríguez, Adrián

2014-01-01

Climate change has implications for health, ecology and society. Urban green areas are a key element in the planning of cities, promoting citizen interaction with the environment, as well as health. Lack of planning and design of these areas as well as the selection of ornamental trees can be a trigger of pollen allergy in the surrounding population. Reforestation is among the programs implemented by the government that have an impact on allergy. Environmental reforestation programs do not take into account the allergenic potential of some species. In the last 4 years, the government of Nuevo Leon, Mexico, has planted nearly 18,000 Quercus species trees, in addition to an unknown number of Fraxinus species trees that are listed as tree species with high pollen production. To identify changes in tree pollen sensitization, based on environmental reforestation programs. A retrospective and descriptive study was done in which positive skin prick tests to pollen from trees in the interval of 2010-2014 were analyzed, correlating between tree species used for reforestation and increased sensitivity to the former. A statistically significant increase in pollen sensitization to species with which Nuevo Leon was reforested was found, along with a decrease in sensitization to the species that were not reforested. Reforestation contributes to some extent to the change in the pattern of positive skin tests and may result in more frequent exacerbations of respiratory diseases. It is an activity that should always be regulated and assisted by experts in the according field.

MeshTree: A Delay optimised Overlay Multicast Tree Building Protocol

OpenAIRE

Tan, Su-Wei; Waters, A. Gill; Crawford, John

2005-01-01

We study decentralised low delay degree-constrained overlay multicast tree construction for single source real-time applications. This optimisation problem is NP-hard even if computed centrally. We identify two problems in traditional distributed solutions, namely the greedy problem and delay-cost trade-off. By offering solutions to these problems, we propose a new self-organising distributed tree building protocol called MeshTree. The main idea is to embed the delivery tree in a degree-bound...

Allometric convergence in savanna trees and implications for the use of plant scaling models in variable ecosystems.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andrew T Tredennick

Full Text Available Theoretical models of allometric scaling provide frameworks for understanding and predicting how and why the morphology and function of organisms vary with scale. It remains unclear, however, if the predictions of 'universal' scaling models for vascular plants hold across diverse species in variable environments. Phenomena such as competition and disturbance may drive allometric scaling relationships away from theoretical predictions based on an optimized tree. Here, we use a hierarchical Bayesian approach to calculate tree-specific, species-specific, and 'global' (i.e. interspecific scaling exponents for several allometric relationships using tree- and branch-level data harvested from three savanna sites across a rainfall gradient in Mali, West Africa. We use these exponents to provide a rigorous test of three plant scaling models (Metabolic Scaling Theory (MST, Geometric Similarity, and Stress Similarity in savanna systems. For the allometric relationships we evaluated (diameter vs. length, aboveground mass, stem mass, and leaf mass the empirically calculated exponents broadly overlapped among species from diverse environments, except for the scaling exponents for length, which increased with tree cover and density. When we compare empirical scaling exponents to the theoretical predictions from the three models we find MST predictions are most consistent with our observed allometries. In those situations where observations are inconsistent with MST we find that departure from theory corresponds with expected tradeoffs related to disturbance and competitive interactions. We hypothesize savanna trees have greater length-scaling exponents than predicted by MST due to an evolutionary tradeoff between fire escape and optimization of mechanical stability and internal resource transport. Future research on the drivers of systematic allometric variation could reconcile the differences between observed scaling relationships in variable ecosystems and

Accounting for density reduction and structural loss in standing dead trees: Implications for forest biomass and carbon stock estimates in the United States

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Domke Grant M

2011-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Standing dead trees are one component of forest ecosystem dead wood carbon (C pools, whose national stock is estimated by the U.S. as required by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Historically, standing dead tree C has been estimated as a function of live tree growing stock volume in the U.S.'s National Greenhouse Gas Inventory. Initiated in 1998, the USDA Forest Service's Forest Inventory and Analysis program (responsible for compiling the Nation's forest C estimates began consistent nationwide sampling of standing dead trees, which may now supplant previous purely model-based approaches to standing dead biomass and C stock estimation. A substantial hurdle to estimating standing dead tree biomass and C attributes is that traditional estimation procedures are based on merchantability paradigms that may not reflect density reductions or structural loss due to decomposition common in standing dead trees. The goal of this study was to incorporate standing dead tree adjustments into the current estimation procedures and assess how biomass and C stocks change at multiple spatial scales. Results Accounting for decay and structural loss in standing dead trees significantly decreased tree- and plot-level C stock estimates (and subsequent C stocks by decay class and tree component. At a regional scale, incorporating adjustment factors decreased standing dead quaking aspen biomass estimates by almost 50 percent in the Lake States and Douglas-fir estimates by more than 36 percent in the Pacific Northwest. Conclusions Substantial overestimates of standing dead tree biomass and C stocks occur when one does not account for density reductions or structural loss. Forest inventory estimation procedures that are descended from merchantability standards may need to be revised toward a more holistic approach to determining standing dead tree biomass and C attributes (i.e., attributes of tree biomass outside of sawlog

Reduced aboveground tree growth associated with higher arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal diversity in tropical forest restoration.

Science.gov (United States)

Holste, Ellen K; Holl, Karen D; Zahawi, Rakan A; Kobe, Richard K

2016-10-01

Establishing diverse mycorrhizal fungal communities is considered important for forest recovery, yet mycorrhizae may have complex effects on tree growth depending on the composition of fungal species present. In an effort to understand the role of mycorrhizal fungi community in forest restoration in southern Costa Rica, we sampled the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal (AMF) community across eight sites that were planted with the same species ( Inga edulis, Erythrina poeppigiana, Terminalia amazonia, and Vochysia guatemalensis ) but varied twofold to fourfold in overall tree growth rates. The AMF community was measured in multiple ways: as percent colonization of host tree roots, by DNA isolation of the fungal species associated with the roots, and through spore density, volume, and identity in both the wet and dry seasons. Consistent with prior tropical restoration research, the majority of fungal species belonged to the genus Glomus and genus Acaulospora , accounting for more than half of the species and relative abundance found on trees roots and over 95% of spore density across all sites. Greater AMF diversity correlated with lower soil organic matter, carbon, and nitrogen concentrations and longer durations of prior pasture use across sites. Contrary to previous literature findings, AMF species diversity and spore densities were inversely related to tree growth, which may have arisen from trees facultatively increasing their associations with AMF in lower soil fertility sites. Changes to AMF community composition also may have led to variation in disturbance susceptibility, host tree nutrient acquisition, and tree growth. These results highlight the potential importance of fungal-tree-soil interactions in forest recovery and suggest that fungal community dynamics could have important implications for tree growth in disturbed soils.

TreePlus: interactive exploration of networks with enhanced tree layouts.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Bongshin; Parr, Cynthia S; Plaisant, Catherine; Bederson, Benjamin B; Veksler, Vladislav D; Gray, Wayne D; Kotfila, Christopher

2006-01-01

Despite extensive research, it is still difficult to produce effective interactive layouts for large graphs. Dense layout and occlusion make food webs, ontologies, and social networks difficult to understand and interact with. We propose a new interactive Visual Analytics component called TreePlus that is based on a tree-style layout. TreePlus reveals the missing graph structure with visualization and interaction while maintaining good readability. To support exploration of the local structure of the graph and gathering of information from the extensive reading of labels, we use a guiding metaphor of "Plant a seed and watch it grow." It allows users to start with a node and expand the graph as needed, which complements the classic overview techniques that can be effective at (but often limited to) revealing clusters. We describe our design goals, describe the interface, and report on a controlled user study with 28 participants comparing TreePlus with a traditional graph interface for six tasks. In general, the advantage of TreePlus over the traditional interface increased as the density of the displayed data increased. Participants also reported higher levels of confidence in their answers with TreePlus and most of them preferred TreePlus.

Refining discordant gene trees.

Science.gov (United States)

Górecki, Pawel; Eulenstein, Oliver

2014-01-01

Evolutionary studies are complicated by discordance between gene trees and the species tree in which they evolved. Dealing with discordant trees often relies on comparison costs between gene and species trees, including the well-established Robinson-Foulds, gene duplication, and deep coalescence costs. While these costs have provided credible results for binary rooted gene trees, corresponding cost definitions for non-binary unrooted gene trees, which are frequently occurring in practice, are challenged by biological realism. We propose a natural extension of the well-established costs for comparing unrooted and non-binary gene trees with rooted binary species trees using a binary refinement model. For the duplication cost we describe an efficient algorithm that is based on a linear time reduction and also computes an optimal rooted binary refinement of the given gene tree. Finally, we show that similar reductions lead to solutions for computing the deep coalescence and the Robinson-Foulds costs. Our binary refinement of Robinson-Foulds, gene duplication, and deep coalescence costs for unrooted and non-binary gene trees together with the linear time reductions provided here for computing these costs significantly extends the range of trees that can be incorporated into approaches dealing with discordance.

Phylogenetic impoverishment of Amazonian tree communities in an experimentally fragmented forest landscape.

Science.gov (United States)

Santos, Bráulio A; Tabarelli, Marcelo; Melo, Felipe P L; Camargo, José L C; Andrade, Ana; Laurance, Susan G; Laurance, William F

2014-01-01

Amazonian rainforests sustain some of the richest tree communities on Earth, but their ecological and evolutionary responses to human threats remain poorly known. We used one of the largest experimental datasets currently available on tree dynamics in fragmented tropical forests and a recent phylogeny of angiosperms to test whether tree communities have lost phylogenetic diversity since their isolation about two decades previously. Our findings revealed an overall trend toward phylogenetic impoverishment across the experimentally fragmented landscape, irrespective of whether tree communities were in 1-ha, 10-ha, or 100-ha forest fragments, near forest edges, or in continuous forest. The magnitude of the phylogenetic diversity loss was low (phylogenetic diversity, we observed a significant decrease of 50% in phylogenetic dispersion since forest isolation, irrespective of plot location. Analyses based on tree genera that have significantly increased (28 genera) or declined (31 genera) in abundance and basal area in the landscape revealed that increasing genera are more phylogenetically related than decreasing ones. Also, the loss of phylogenetic diversity was greater in tree communities where increasing genera proliferated and decreasing genera reduced their importance values, suggesting that this taxonomic replacement is partially underlying the phylogenetic impoverishment at the landscape scale. This finding has clear implications for the current debate about the role human-modified landscapes play in sustaining biodiversity persistence and key ecosystem services, such as carbon storage. Although the generalization of our findings to other fragmented tropical forests is uncertain, it could negatively affect ecosystem productivity and stability and have broader impacts on coevolved organisms.

Particularities in a Child With Cashew Nut Allergy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Joana Soares MD

2014-09-01

Full Text Available Food allergy affects many young children and tree nut allergy is accountable for a large number of severe, life-threatening anaphylactic reactions. Cross-reactivity can occur not only with foods that are in the same biological family but also between certain fruits or vegetables and latex (latex–fruit syndrome. We present the case of a previous healthy 5-year-old girl referred to Pediatric/Allergology Consultation after an episode of sialorrhea, perioral urticarial rash, tongue swelling, and immediate vomiting after oral contact with cashew nut. Investigation revealed the following: positive skin prick test to walnut and positive specific IgE for cashew nut, walnut, hazelnut, and almond. ImmunoCAP ISAC was positive for storage proteins of walnut and hazelnut (Jug r 1 e Cor a 9 and for a specific allergen of latex (Hev b 3. It is interesting that anaphylaxis was the first manifestation of allergy in a healthy child. Also, we emphasize the importance to latex sensitization with potential future clinical relevance and the sensitization to Hev b 3, which is not documented to be involved in cross-reactivity phenomena/latex–fruit syndrome or present in an otherwise healthy child.

Simple street tree sampling

Science.gov (United States)

David J. Nowak; Jeffrey T. Walton; James Baldwin; Jerry. Bond

2015-01-01

Information on street trees is critical for management of this important resource. Sampling of street tree populations provides an efficient means to obtain street tree population information. Long-term repeat measures of street tree samples supply additional information on street tree changes and can be used to report damages from catastrophic events. Analyses of...

TreeFam: a curated database of phylogenetic trees of animal gene families

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Li, Heng; Coghlan, Avril; Ruan, Jue

2006-01-01

TreeFam is a database of phylogenetic trees of gene families found in animals. It aims to develop a curated resource that presents the accurate evolutionary history of all animal gene families, as well as reliable ortholog and paralog assignments. Curated families are being added progressively......, based on seed alignments and trees in a similar fashion to Pfam. Release 1.1 of TreeFam contains curated trees for 690 families and automatically generated trees for another 11 646 families. These represent over 128 000 genes from nine fully sequenced animal genomes and over 45 000 other animal proteins...

Long-term Measurements of Summer-time Ozone at the Walnut Grove Tower - Understanding Trends in the Boundary Layer

Science.gov (United States)

Mahmud, A.; Di, P.; Mims, D.; Avise, J.; DaMassa, J.; Kaduwela, A. P.

2015-12-01

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) has been monitoring boundary layer ozone at the Walnut Grove Tower (WGT) since 1996 for investigating regional transport and vertical profile. Walnut Grove is located between Sacramento and Stockton, CA in the Sacramento - San Joaquin Delta. Sampling inlets are positioned at 30-ft, 400-ft, 800-ft, 1200-ft and 1600-ft levels of the 2000-ft tower, which is one of the tallest monitoring towers in the Western US. Ozone, ambient temperature, wind speed, and wind direction are simultaneously measured at each level, and reported as hourly averages. The current study included analyses of available ozone and corresponding meteorological data for the months of June - September from 1996 - 2014 with objectives to: 1) explore trends and inter-annual variability of ozone, 2) examine any correlations between ozone and meteorological parameters, 3) understand interactions of ozone measured at various levels, and 4) assess how well a regulatory state-of-the-science air quality model such as the Community Multi-scale Air Quality Model (CMAQ) captures observation. Daily 1-hr maximum ozone has been consistently decreasing during the 1996 - 2014 period at a rate of ~1 ppb per year. This indicates that CARB's measures to control ambient ozone have been effective over the past years. Evolution of the vertical profile throughout the day shows that ozone is fairly homogeneously mixed between 1 - 5 pm, when mixing height typically reaches the maximum. Ozone at 30-ft shows the greatest variability because of its proximity to the ground and emissions sources - rises faster during morning hours (7 - 10 am) and declines more rapidly during evening hours (7 - 10 pm) compared to other levels. Air masses reaching the tower are predominantly southwesterly (247 - 257 deg.) at the bottom, and southwesterly to slightly northwesterly (254 - 302 deg.) at top levels. Daily 1-hr maximum ozone was negatively correlated with wind speed (i.e. ozone was high under

Tree-space statistics and approximations for large-scale analysis of anatomical trees

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Feragen, Aasa; Owen, Megan; Petersen, Jens

2013-01-01

parametrize the relevant parts of tree-space well. Using the developed approximate statistics, we illustrate how the structure and geometry of airway trees vary across a population and show that airway trees with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease come from a different distribution in tree-space than...

Tree Death Not Resulting in Gap Creation: An Investigation of Canopy Dynamics of Northern Temperate Deciduous Forests

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Jean-Francois Senécal

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Several decades of research have shown that canopy gaps drive tree renewal processes in the temperate deciduous forest biome. In the literature, canopy gaps are usually defined as canopy openings that are created by partial or total tree death of one or more canopy trees. In this study, we investigate linkages between tree damage mechanisms and the formation or not of new canopy gaps in northern temperate deciduous forests. We studied height loss processes in unmanaged and managed forests recovering from partial cutting with multi-temporal airborne Lidar data. The Lidar dataset was used to detect areas where canopy height reduction occurred, which were then field-studied to identify the tree damage mechanisms implicated. We also sampled the density of leaf material along transects to characterize canopy structure. We used the dataset of the canopy height reduction areas in a multi-model inference analysis to determine whether canopy structures or tree damage mechanisms most influenced the creation of new canopy gaps within canopy height reduction areas. According to our model, new canopy gaps are created mainly when canopy damage enlarges existing gaps or when height is reduced over areas without an already established dense sub-canopy tree layer.

Relating phylogenetic trees to transmission trees of infectious disease outbreaks.

Science.gov (United States)

Ypma, Rolf J F; van Ballegooijen, W Marijn; Wallinga, Jacco

2013-11-01

Transmission events are the fundamental building blocks of the dynamics of any infectious disease. Much about the epidemiology of a disease can be learned when these individual transmission events are known or can be estimated. Such estimations are difficult and generally feasible only when detailed epidemiological data are available. The genealogy estimated from genetic sequences of sampled pathogens is another rich source of information on transmission history. Optimal inference of transmission events calls for the combination of genetic data and epidemiological data into one joint analysis. A key difficulty is that the transmission tree, which describes the transmission events between infected hosts, differs from the phylogenetic tree, which describes the ancestral relationships between pathogens sampled from these hosts. The trees differ both in timing of the internal nodes and in topology. These differences become more pronounced when a higher fraction of infected hosts is sampled. We show how the phylogenetic tree of sampled pathogens is related to the transmission tree of an outbreak of an infectious disease, by the within-host dynamics of pathogens. We provide a statistical framework to infer key epidemiological and mutational parameters by simultaneously estimating the phylogenetic tree and the transmission tree. We test the approach using simulations and illustrate its use on an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease. The approach unifies existing methods in the emerging field of phylodynamics with transmission tree reconstruction methods that are used in infectious disease epidemiology.

Decision-Tree Program

Science.gov (United States)

Buntine, Wray

1994-01-01

IND computer program introduces Bayesian and Markov/maximum-likelihood (MML) methods and more-sophisticated methods of searching in growing trees. Produces more-accurate class-probability estimates important in applications like diagnosis. Provides range of features and styles with convenience for casual user, fine-tuning for advanced user or for those interested in research. Consists of four basic kinds of routines: data-manipulation, tree-generation, tree-testing, and tree-display. Written in C language.

Rooting depth varies differentially in trees and grasses as a function of mean annual rainfall in an African savanna.

Science.gov (United States)

Holdo, Ricardo M; Nippert, Jesse B; Mack, Michelle C

2018-01-01

A significant fraction of the terrestrial biosphere comprises biomes containing tree-grass mixtures. Forecasting vegetation dynamics in these environments requires a thorough understanding of how trees and grasses use and compete for key belowground resources. There is disagreement about the extent to which tree-grass vertical root separation occurs in these ecosystems, how this overlap varies across large-scale environmental gradients, and what these rooting differences imply for water resource availability and tree-grass competition and coexistence. To assess the extent of tree-grass rooting overlap and how tree and grass rooting patterns vary across resource gradients, we examined landscape-level patterns of tree and grass functional rooting depth along a mean annual precipitation (MAP) gradient extending from ~ 450 to ~ 750 mm year -1 in Kruger National Park, South Africa. We used stable isotopes from soil and stem water to make inferences about relative differences in rooting depth between these two functional groups. We found clear differences in rooting depth between grasses and trees across the MAP gradient, with grasses generally exhibiting shallower rooting profiles than trees. We also found that trees tended to become more shallow-rooted as a function of MAP, to the point that trees and grasses largely overlapped in terms of rooting depth at the wettest sites. Our results reconcile previously conflicting evidence for rooting overlap in this system, and have important implications for understanding tree-grass dynamics under altered precipitation scenarios.

Tree-growth analyses to estimate tree species' drought tolerance.

Science.gov (United States)

Eilmann, Britta; Rigling, Andreas

2012-02-01

Climate change is challenging forestry management and practices. Among other things, tree species with the ability to cope with more extreme climate conditions have to be identified. However, while environmental factors may severely limit tree growth or even cause tree death, assessing a tree species' potential for surviving future aggravated environmental conditions is rather demanding. The aim of this study was to find a tree-ring-based method suitable for identifying very drought-tolerant species, particularly potential substitute species for Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) in Valais. In this inner-Alpine valley, Scots pine used to be the dominating species for dry forests, but today it suffers from high drought-induced mortality. We investigate the growth response of two native tree species, Scots pine and European larch (Larix decidua Mill.), and two non-native species, black pine (Pinus nigra Arnold) and Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii Mirb. var. menziesii), to drought. This involved analysing how the radial increment of these species responded to increasing water shortage (abandonment of irrigation) and to increasingly frequent drought years. Black pine and Douglas fir are able to cope with drought better than Scots pine and larch, as they show relatively high radial growth even after irrigation has been stopped and a plastic growth response to drought years. European larch does not seem to be able to cope with these dry conditions as it lacks the ability to recover from drought years. The analysis of trees' short-term response to extreme climate events seems to be the most promising and suitable method for detecting how tolerant a tree species is towards drought. However, combining all the methods used in this study provides a complete picture of how water shortage could limit species.

The knowledge of Bengkulu University’s forestry students of tree diversity in their campus

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

STEFFANIE NURLIANA

2011-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract. Wiryono, Nurliana S. 2011. The knowledge of Bengkulu University’s forestry students of tree diversity in their campus. Nusantara Bioscience 3: 98-103. Indonesia is rich in plant diversity which has provided daily human needs for millennia. Knowledge of diverse plants and their uses is part of ecological knowledge essential for the survival of human. However, rapid deforestation has reduced plant diversity and caused the loss of traditional ecological knowledge. Furthermore, the increased availability of electronic entertainment has alienated young people from nature, causing further loss of ecological knowledge. The objective of this study was to know the ability of Bengkulu University’s forestry students to identify trees growing in the campus by local names and their genera. Knowing the name of trees growing in our environment is an indicator of concern for biodiversity. Results showed that forestry students had low ability to identify trees by local names and even lower by genera. Second-semester students could identify fewer trees than the higher-semester students, and the knowledge was not affected by student’s gender or profession of students’ parents. This low appreciation of plant diversity among young generation will have negative implication for biodiversity conservation efforts. Students should be brought closer to nature by increasing outdoor education.

Are trees long-lived?

Science.gov (United States)

Kevin T. Smith

2009-01-01

Trees and tree care can capture the best of people's motivations and intentions. Trees are living memorials that help communities heal at sites of national tragedy, such as Oklahoma City and the World Trade Center. We mark the places of important historical events by the trees that grew nearby even if the original tree, such as the Charter Oak in Connecticut or...

Imprint of the Atlantic multidecadal oscillation on tree-ring widths in northeastern Asia since 1568.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiaochun Wang

Full Text Available We present a new tree-ring reconstruction of the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO spanning 1568-2007 CE from northeast Asia. Comparison of the instrumental AMO index, an existing tree-ring based AMO reconstruction, and this new record show strongly similar annual to multidecadal patterns of variation over the last 440 years. Warm phases of the AMO are related to increases in growth of Scots pine trees and moisture availability in northeast China and central eastern Siberia. Multi-tape method (MTM and cross-wavelet analyses indicate that robust multidecadal (∼64-128 years variability is present throughout the new proxy record. Our results have important implications concerning the influence of North Atlantic sea surface temperatures on East Asian climate, and provide support for the possibility of an AMO signature on global multidecadal climate variability.

Pecan walnut (Carya illinoinensis (Wangenh.) K. Koch) oil quality and phenolic compounds as affected by microwave and conventional roasting.

Science.gov (United States)

Juhaimi, Fahad Al; Özcan, Mehmet Musa; Uslu, Nurhan; Doğu, Süleyman

2017-12-01

In this study, the effects of conventional and microwave roasting on phenolic compounds, free acidity, peroxide value, fatty acid composition and tocopherol content of pecan walnut kernel and oil was investigated. The oil content of pecan kernels was 73.78% for microwave oven roasted at 720 W and 73.56% for conventional oven roasted at 110 °C. The highest free fatty acid content (0.50%) and the lowest peroxide value (2.48 meq O 2 /kg) were observed during microwave roasting at 720 W. The fatty acid profiles and tocopherol contents of pecan kernel oils did not show significant differences compared to raw samples. Roasting process in microwave oven at 720 W caused the reduction of some phenolic compounds, while the content of gallic acid exhibited a significant increase.

There's Life in Hazard Trees

Science.gov (United States)

Mary Torsello; Toni McLellan

The goals of hazard tree management programs are to maximize public safety and maintain a healthy sustainable tree resource. Although hazard tree management frequently targets removal of trees or parts of trees that attract wildlife, it can take into account a diversity of tree values. With just a little extra planning, hazard tree management can be highly beneficial...

Fast Tree: Computing Large Minimum-Evolution Trees with Profiles instead of a Distance Matrix

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

N. Price, Morgan; S. Dehal, Paramvir; P. Arkin, Adam

2009-07-31

Gene families are growing rapidly, but standard methods for inferring phylogenies do not scale to alignments with over 10,000 sequences. We present FastTree, a method for constructing large phylogenies and for estimating their reliability. Instead of storing a distance matrix, FastTree stores sequence profiles of internal nodes in the tree. FastTree uses these profiles to implement neighbor-joining and uses heuristics to quickly identify candidate joins. FastTree then uses nearest-neighbor interchanges to reduce the length of the tree. For an alignment with N sequences, L sites, and a different characters, a distance matrix requires O(N^2) space and O(N^2 L) time, but FastTree requires just O( NLa + N sqrt(N) ) memory and O( N sqrt(N) log(N) L a ) time. To estimate the tree's reliability, FastTree uses local bootstrapping, which gives another 100-fold speedup over a distance matrix. For example, FastTree computed a tree and support values for 158,022 distinct 16S ribosomal RNAs in 17 hours and 2.4 gigabytes of memory. Just computing pairwise Jukes-Cantor distances and storing them, without inferring a tree or bootstrapping, would require 17 hours and 50 gigabytes of memory. In simulations, FastTree was slightly more accurate than neighbor joining, BIONJ, or FastME; on genuine alignments, FastTree's topologies had higher likelihoods. FastTree is available at http://microbesonline.org/fasttree.

TreeRipper web application: towards a fully automated optical tree recognition software

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hughes Joseph

2011-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Relationships between species, genes and genomes have been printed as trees for over a century. Whilst this may have been the best format for exchanging and sharing phylogenetic hypotheses during the 20th century, the worldwide web now provides faster and automated ways of transferring and sharing phylogenetic knowledge. However, novel software is needed to defrost these published phylogenies for the 21st century. Results TreeRipper is a simple website for the fully-automated recognition of multifurcating phylogenetic trees (http://linnaeus.zoology.gla.ac.uk/~jhughes/treeripper/. The program accepts a range of input image formats (PNG, JPG/JPEG or GIF. The underlying command line c++ program follows a number of cleaning steps to detect lines, remove node labels, patch-up broken lines and corners and detect line edges. The edge contour is then determined to detect the branch length, tip label positions and the topology of the tree. Optical Character Recognition (OCR is used to convert the tip labels into text with the freely available tesseract-ocr software. 32% of images meeting the prerequisites for TreeRipper were successfully recognised, the largest tree had 115 leaves. Conclusions Despite the diversity of ways phylogenies have been illustrated making the design of a fully automated tree recognition software difficult, TreeRipper is a step towards automating the digitization of past phylogenies. We also provide a dataset of 100 tree images and associated tree files for training and/or benchmarking future software. TreeRipper is an open source project licensed under the GNU General Public Licence v3.

The contribution of large trees to total transpiration rates in a pre-montane tropical forest and its implications for selective logging practices

Science.gov (United States)

Orozco, G.; Moore, G. W.; Miller, G. R.

2012-12-01

In the humid tropics, conservationists generally prefer selective logging practices over clearcutting. Large valuable timber is removed while the remaining forest is left relatively undisturbed. However, little is known about the impact of selective logging on site water balance. Because large trees have very deep sapwood and exposed canopies, they tend to have high transpiration. The first objective was to evaluate the methods used for scaling sap flow measurements to the watershed with particular emphasis on large trees. The second objective of this study was to determine the relative contribution of large trees to site water balance. Our study was conducted in a pre-montane transitional forest at the Texas A&M University Soltis Center in north-central Costa Rica. During the period between January and July 2012, sap flux was monitored in a 30-m diameter plot within a 10-ha watershed. Two pairs of heat dissipation sensors were installed in the outer 0-20 mm of each of 15 trees selected to represent the full range of tree sizes. In six of the largest trees, depth profiles were recorded at 10-mm intervals to a depth of 60 mm using compensation heat pulse sensors. To estimate sapwood basal area of the entire watershed, a stand survey was conducted in three 30-m-diameter plots. In each plot, we measured basal area of all trees and estimated sapwood basal area from sapwood depth measured in nearly half of the trees. An estimated 36.5% of the total sapwood area in this watershed comes from the outer 20 mm of sapwood, with the remaining 63.5% of sapwood from depths deeper than 20 mm. Nearly 13% of sapwood is from depths beyond 60 mm. Sap velocity profiles indicate the highest flow rates occurred in the 0-2 cm depths, with declines of 17% and 25% in the 20-40 mm and 40-60 mm ranges, respectively. Our results demonstrate the need to measure sap velocity profiles in large tropical trees. If total transpiration had been estimated solely from the 0-20 mm heat dissipation

MixtureTree annotator: a program for automatic colorization and visual annotation of MixtureTree.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shu-Chuan Chen

Full Text Available The MixtureTree Annotator, written in JAVA, allows the user to automatically color any phylogenetic tree in Newick format generated from any phylogeny reconstruction program and output the Nexus file. By providing the ability to automatically color the tree by sequence name, the MixtureTree Annotator provides a unique advantage over any other programs which perform a similar function. In addition, the MixtureTree Annotator is the only package that can efficiently annotate the output produced by MixtureTree with mutation information and coalescent time information. In order to visualize the resulting output file, a modified version of FigTree is used. Certain popular methods, which lack good built-in visualization tools, for example, MEGA, Mesquite, PHY-FI, TreeView, treeGraph and Geneious, may give results with human errors due to either manually adding colors to each node or with other limitations, for example only using color based on a number, such as branch length, or by taxonomy. In addition to allowing the user to automatically color any given Newick tree by sequence name, the MixtureTree Annotator is the only method that allows the user to automatically annotate the resulting tree created by the MixtureTree program. The MixtureTree Annotator is fast and easy-to-use, while still allowing the user full control over the coloring and annotating process.

On Determining if Tree-based Networks Contain Fixed Trees.

Science.gov (United States)

Anaya, Maria; Anipchenko-Ulaj, Olga; Ashfaq, Aisha; Chiu, Joyce; Kaiser, Mahedi; Ohsawa, Max Shoji; Owen, Megan; Pavlechko, Ella; St John, Katherine; Suleria, Shivam; Thompson, Keith; Yap, Corrine

2016-05-01

We address an open question of Francis and Steel about phylogenetic networks and trees. They give a polynomial time algorithm to decide if a phylogenetic network, N, is tree-based and pose the problem: given a fixed tree T and network N, is N based on T? We show that it is [Formula: see text]-hard to decide, by reduction from 3-Dimensional Matching (3DM) and further that the problem is fixed-parameter tractable.

The effect of contaminated groundwater on tree growth: A tree-ring analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

LeBlanc, D.C.; Loehle, C.

1990-10-01

A study was conducted on the effect of contaminated groundwater seepage on tree growth downslope from F- and H-Area seepage basins of the Savannah River Site. Trees in wetlands along Four Mile Creek began to show localized stress and mortality in the late 1970s. Extreme winter temperatures and high rainfall were ruled out as potential causal factors of tree stress. Drought was shown to affect trees in both contaminated and uncontaminated zones, but trees in uncontaminated areas exhibit better recovery after drought than trees in contaminated areas. Pollution-mediated alteration of soil acidity and aluminum, sodium, and heavy metal concentrations likely acted to predispose trees to decline, with severe drought acting as the trigger for decline initiation and tree death. Thus, a moderate pollution loading, not sufficient to cause visible damage of itself, may create conditions in which sudden, severe decline could result from natural stresses. This mechanism of forest decline is common, and should be considered in evaluations of the impact of pollution on wetland forest systems. 28 refs., 4 figs., 6 tabs

SILVA tree viewer: interactive web browsing of the SILVA phylogenetic guide trees.

Science.gov (United States)

Beccati, Alan; Gerken, Jan; Quast, Christian; Yilmaz, Pelin; Glöckner, Frank Oliver

2017-09-30

Phylogenetic trees are an important tool to study the evolutionary relationships among organisms. The huge amount of available taxa poses difficulties in their interactive visualization. This hampers the interaction with the users to provide feedback for the further improvement of the taxonomic framework. The SILVA Tree Viewer is a web application designed for visualizing large phylogenetic trees without requiring the download of any software tool or data files. The SILVA Tree Viewer is based on Web Geographic Information Systems (Web-GIS) technology with a PostgreSQL backend. It enables zoom and pan functionalities similar to Google Maps. The SILVA Tree Viewer enables access to two phylogenetic (guide) trees provided by the SILVA database: the SSU Ref NR99 inferred from high-quality, full-length small subunit sequences, clustered at 99% sequence identity and the LSU Ref inferred from high-quality, full-length large subunit sequences. The Tree Viewer provides tree navigation, search and browse tools as well as an interactive feedback system to collect any kinds of requests ranging from taxonomy to data curation and improving the tool itself.

Shade tree diversity and aboveground carbon stocks in Theobroma cacao agroforestry systems: implications for REDD+ implementation in a West African cacao landscape.

Science.gov (United States)

Dawoe, Evans; Asante, Winston; Acheampong, Emmanuel; Bosu, Paul

2016-12-01

The promotion of cacao agroforestry is one of the ways of diversifying farmer income and creating incentives through their inclusion in REDD+ interventions. We estimated the aboveground carbon stocks in cacao and shade trees, determined the floristic diversity of shade trees and explored the possibility of implementing REDD+ interventions in cacao landscapes. Using replicated multi-site transect approach, data were collected from nine 1-ha plots established on 5 km long transects in ten cacao growing districts in Ghana West Africa. Biomass of cacao and shade trees was determined using allometric equations. One thousand four hundred and one (1401) shade trees comprising 109 species from 33 families were recorded. Total number of species ranged from 34 to 49. Newbouldia laevis (Bignoniacea) was the most frequently occurring specie and constituted 43.2 % of all shade trees. The most predominant families were Sterculiaceae and Moraceae (10 species each), followed by Meliaceae and Mimosaceae (8 species each) and Caesalpiniacaea (6 species). Shannon diversity indices (H', H max and J') and species richness were low compared to other similar studies. Shade tree densities ranged from 16.2 ± 3.0 to 22.8 ± 1.7 stems ha -1 and differed significantly between sites. Carbon stocks of shade trees differed between sites but were similar in cacao trees. The average C stock in cacao trees was 7.45 ± 0.41 Mg C ha -1 compared with 8.32 ± 1.15 Mg C ha -1 in the shade trees. Cacao landscapes in Ghana have the potential of contributing to forest carbon stocks enhancement by increasing the stocking density of shade trees to recommended levels.

D2-tree

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Brodal, Gerth Stølting; Sioutas, Spyros; Pantazos, Kostas

2015-01-01

We present a new overlay, called the Deterministic Decentralized tree (D2-tree). The D2-tree compares favorably to other overlays for the following reasons: (a) it provides matching and better complexities, which are deterministic for the supported operations; (b) the management of nodes (peers...

Tree felling 2014

CERN Multimedia

2014-01-01

With a view to creating new landscapes and making its population of trees safer and healthier, this winter CERN will complete the tree-felling campaign started in 2010.   Tree felling will take place between 15 and 22 November on the Swiss part of the Meyrin site. This work is being carried out above all for safety reasons. The trees to be cut down are at risk of falling as they are too old and too tall to withstand the wind. In addition, the roots of poplar trees are very powerful and spread widely, potentially damaging underground networks, pavements and roadways. Compensatory tree planting campaigns will take place in the future, subject to the availability of funding, with the aim of creating coherent landscapes while also respecting the functional constraints of the site. These matters are being considered in close collaboration with the Geneva nature and countryside directorate (Direction générale de la nature et du paysage, DGNP). GS-SE Group

Phylogenetic trees

OpenAIRE

Baños, Hector; Bushek, Nathaniel; Davidson, Ruth; Gross, Elizabeth; Harris, Pamela E.; Krone, Robert; Long, Colby; Stewart, Allen; Walker, Robert

2016-01-01

We introduce the package PhylogeneticTrees for Macaulay2 which allows users to compute phylogenetic invariants for group-based tree models. We provide some background information on phylogenetic algebraic geometry and show how the package PhylogeneticTrees can be used to calculate a generating set for a phylogenetic ideal as well as a lower bound for its dimension. Finally, we show how methods within the package can be used to compute a generating set for the join of any two ideals.

Identifying the rooted species tree from the distribution of unrooted gene trees under the coalescent.

Science.gov (United States)

Allman, Elizabeth S; Degnan, James H; Rhodes, John A

2011-06-01

Gene trees are evolutionary trees representing the ancestry of genes sampled from multiple populations. Species trees represent populations of individuals-each with many genes-splitting into new populations or species. The coalescent process, which models ancestry of gene copies within populations, is often used to model the probability distribution of gene trees given a fixed species tree. This multispecies coalescent model provides a framework for phylogeneticists to infer species trees from gene trees using maximum likelihood or Bayesian approaches. Because the coalescent models a branching process over time, all trees are typically assumed to be rooted in this setting. Often, however, gene trees inferred by traditional phylogenetic methods are unrooted. We investigate probabilities of unrooted gene trees under the multispecies coalescent model. We show that when there are four species with one gene sampled per species, the distribution of unrooted gene tree topologies identifies the unrooted species tree topology and some, but not all, information in the species tree edges (branch lengths). The location of the root on the species tree is not identifiable in this situation. However, for 5 or more species with one gene sampled per species, we show that the distribution of unrooted gene tree topologies identifies the rooted species tree topology and all its internal branch lengths. The length of any pendant branch leading to a leaf of the species tree is also identifiable for any species from which more than one gene is sampled.

Estimating willingness to pay for protection of eastern black walnut from deer damage

Science.gov (United States)

Larry D. Godsey; John P. Dwyer

2008-01-01

For many landowners willing to plant trees, one of the biggest establishment and maintenance costs is protecting those young trees from deer browse damage. In some cases, the method of protection used can cost two to three times as much as the cost of planting. Deer damage such as nipping off terminal buds and buck rub penetrating the bark and cambial tissue can kill...

Fundamentals of Acoustic Measurements on Trees and Logs and Their Implication to Field Application

Science.gov (United States)

Xiping Wang

2011-01-01

Acoustic technologies have been well established as material evaluation tools in the past several decades, and their use has become widely accepted in the forest products industry for on-line quality control and products grading. Recent research developments on acoustic sensing technology offer further opportunities to evaluate standing trees and logs for general wood...

Caracterização química e perfil de ácidos graxos em cultivares de nogueira-macadâmia Chemical characterization and fatty acids profile in macadamia walnut cultivars

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Luana Aparecida Castilho Maro

2012-12-01

Full Text Available A nogueira-macadâmia produz nozes de alto valor no mercado internacional, devido às características nutricionais de suas amêndoas, consideradas uma excelente fonte energética. O objetivo do trabalho foi realizar a caracterização química e o perfil de ácidos graxos em 22 cultivares de nogueira-macadâmia. As cultivares utilizadas foram: 'Edson', 'HAES 788 (Pahala', 'Beaumont 695', 'Flor Rosa', 'IAC 9-20X', 'HAES 344 (Kau', 'Cannon', 'IAC 9-20', 'C160', 'HAES 849', 'IAC 4-12B', 'HAES 816', 'Doroti', '791 Fuji', 'IAC 4-20 (Keaumi', 'HAES 814', 'HAES 722', 'África', 'IAC Campinas-B', 'HAES 246 (Keauhou', 'HAES 741 (Mauka' e 'HAES 842'. Foram quantificados a umidade, extrato etéreo, proteína, cinza e fibra bruta, além disso, extração de óleo e o perfil de ácidos graxos. A maior quantidade de proteína foi registrada na cultivar 'IAC 9-20X'. Quanto ao teor de fibra bruta, as maiores porcentagens foram observadas nas cultivares 'HAES 741' e 'HAES 842'. As amêndoas de todas as cultivares de nogueira-macadâmia analisadas possuem ácidos palmítico e oleico.The walnuts macadamia have a high value on the international market due to their almonds nutritional characteristics considered to be an excellent source of energy. The aim of this work was to evaluate the chemical composition and fatty acid profile of 22 cultivars of almond walnut macadamia. The cultivars tested were: 'Edson', 'HAES 788 (Pahala', 'Beaumont 695', 'Flor Rosa', 'IAC 9-20X', 'HAES 344 (Kau', 'Cannon', 'IAC 9-20', 'C160', 'HAES 849', 'IAC 4-12B', 'HAES 816', 'Doroti', '791 Fuji', 'IAC 4-20 (Keaumi', 'HAES 814', 'HAES 722', 'África', 'IAC Campinas-B', 'HAES 246 (Keauhou', 'HAES 741 (Mauka' and 'HAES 842'. Moisture, fat, protein, ash and crude fiber were analyzed and also oil extraction and fatty acid profile. The highest amount of protein was recorded in 'IAC 9-20X'. The highest percentages of crude fiber content were observed in cultivars 'HAES 741' and 'HAES 842'. The

Phenol metabolism and preservation of fresh in-hull walnut stored in modified atmosphere packaging.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Jin; Li, Pan; Gong, Bi; Li, Shuying; Ma, Huiling

2017-12-01

The effects of modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) on phenol metabolism and preservation of fresh in-hull walnuts have been investigated. Fruit was packaged under MAP1 (film thickness, 30 μm), MAP2 (45 μm) and MAP3 (50 μm) and stored at -0.5 to 1.0 °C for up to 60 days. Firmness, soluble solid concentration, total phenols, total flavonoids and total antioxidant activity of the green hull were maintained at higher levels under the MAP conditions, whereas decay incidence was lower compared to the control during storage. Green hull of fruit under MAP conditions contained lower polyphenol oxidase activity than the control and the peroxidase activity was at a similar level to the control after 18 days. Phenylalanine ammonialyase activity was enhanced by MAP conditions, with two peaks on days 18 and 36. Until day 60, the peroxide value and acid value of kernel oils under MAP conditions were lower than that of the control. The MAP3 treatment was most effective for maintaining kernel quality. The protective role of MAP conditions on phenolic contents in green hull may contribute to the mitigation of decay and the maintenance of kernel quality. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.

Investigating local variation in groundwater recharge along a topographic gradient, Walnut Creek, Iowa, USA

Science.gov (United States)

Schilling, K.E.

2009-01-01

Groundwater recharge is an important component to hydrologic studies but is known to vary considerably across the landscape. The purpose of this study was to examine 4 years of water-level behavior in a transect of four water-table wells installed at Walnut Creek, Iowa, USA to evaluate how groundwater recharge varied along a topographic gradient. The amount of daily water-table rise (WTR) in the wells was summed at monthly and annual scales and estimates of specific yield (Sy) were used to convert the WTR to recharge. At the floodplain site, Sy was estimated from the ratio of WTR to total rainfall and in the uplands was based on the ratio of baseflow to WTR. In the floodplain, where the water table is shallow, recharge occurred throughout the year whenever precipitation occurred. In upland areas where the water table was deeper, WTR occurred in a stepped fashion and varied by season. Results indicated that the greatest amount of water-table rise over the 4-year period was observed in the floodplain (379 mm), followed by the upland (211 mm) and sideslopes (122 mm). Incorporating spatial variability in recharge in a watershed will improve groundwater resource evaluation and flow and transport modeling. ?? Springer-Verlag 2008.

Covering tree with stars

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Baumbach, Jan; Guo, Jiong; Ibragimov, Rashid

2015-01-01

We study the tree edit distance problem with edge deletions and edge insertions as edit operations. We reformulate a special case of this problem as Covering Tree with Stars (CTS): given a tree T and a set of stars, can we connect the stars in by adding edges between them such that the resulting...... tree is isomorphic to T? We prove that in the general setting, CST is NP-complete, which implies that the tree edit distance considered here is also NP-hard, even when both input trees having diameters bounded by 10. We also show that, when the number of distinct stars is bounded by a constant k, CTS...

Trees in the city: valuing street trees in Portland, Oregon

Science.gov (United States)

G.H. Donovan; D.T. Butry

2010-01-01

We use a hedonic price model to simultaneously estimate the effects of street trees on the sales price and the time-on-market (TOM) of houses in Portland. Oregon. On average, street trees add $8,870 to sales price and reduce TOM by 1.7 days. In addition, we found that the benefits of street trees spill over to neighboring houses. Because the provision and maintenance...

Urban tree growth modeling

Science.gov (United States)

E. Gregory McPherson; Paula J. Peper

2012-01-01

This paper describes three long-term tree growth studies conducted to evaluate tree performance because repeated measurements of the same trees produce critical data for growth model calibration and validation. Several empirical and process-based approaches to modeling tree growth are reviewed. Modeling is more advanced in the fields of forestry and...

Electron Tree

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Appelt, Ane L; Rønde, Heidi S

2013-01-01

The photo shows a close-up of a Lichtenberg figure – popularly called an “electron tree” – produced in a cylinder of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA). Electron trees are created by irradiating a suitable insulating material, in this case PMMA, with an intense high energy electron beam. Upon discharge......, during dielectric breakdown in the material, the electrons generate branching chains of fractures on leaving the PMMA, producing the tree pattern seen. To be able to create electron trees with a clinical linear accelerator, one needs to access the primary electron beam used for photon treatments. We...... appropriated a linac that was being decommissioned in our department and dismantled the head to circumvent the target and ion chambers. This is one of 24 electron trees produced before we had to stop the fun and allow the rest of the accelerator to be disassembled....

Contrasting patterns of groundwater evapotranspiration in grass and tree dominated riparian zones of a temperate agricultural catchment

Science.gov (United States)

Satchithanantham, Sanjayan; Wilson, Henry F.; Glenn, Aaron J.

2017-06-01

Consumptive use of shallow groundwater by phreatophytic vegetation is a significant part of the water budget in many regions, particularly in riparian areas. The influence of vegetation type on groundwater level fluctuations and evapotranspiration has rarely been quantified for contrasting plant communities concurrently although it has implications for downstream water yield and quality. Hourly groundwater evapotranspiration (ETG) rates were estimated for grass and tree riparian vegetation in southwestern Manitoba, Canada using two modified White methods. Groundwater table depth was monitored in four 21 m transects of five 3 m deep monitoring wells in the riparian zone of a stream reach including tree (Acer negundo; boxelder) and grass (Bromus inermis; smooth brome) dominated segments. The average depths to the groundwater table from the surface were 1.4 m and 1 m for the tree and grass segments, respectively, over the two-year study. During rain free periods of the growing season ETG was estimated for a total of 70 days in 2014 and 79 days in 2015 when diurnal fluctuations were present in groundwater level. Diurnal groundwater level fluctuations were observed during dry periods under both segments, however, ETG was significantly higher (p < 0.001) under trees compared to grass cover in 2014 (a wet year with 72% higher than normal growing season precipitation) and 2015 (a drier year with 15% higher than normal growing season precipitation). The two methods used to estimate ETG produced similar daily and seasonal values for the two segments. In 2014, total ETG was approximately 50% (148 mm) and 100% (282-285 mm) of reference evapotranspiration (ETref, 281 mm) for the grass and tree segments, respectively. In 2015, total ETG was approximately 40% (106-127 mm) and 120% (369-374 mm) of ETref (307 mm) for the grass and tree segments, respectively. Results from the study show the tree dominated portions of the stream reach consumed approximately 2.4 ML ha-1 yr-1 more

Classification and regression trees

CERN Document Server

Breiman, Leo; Olshen, Richard A; Stone, Charles J

1984-01-01

The methodology used to construct tree structured rules is the focus of this monograph. Unlike many other statistical procedures, which moved from pencil and paper to calculators, this text's use of trees was unthinkable before computers. Both the practical and theoretical sides have been developed in the authors' study of tree methods. Classification and Regression Trees reflects these two sides, covering the use of trees as a data analysis method, and in a more mathematical framework, proving some of their fundamental properties.

Visualizing Decision Trees in Games to Support Children's Analytic Reasoning: Any Negative Effects on Gameplay?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Robert Haworth

2010-01-01

Full Text Available The popularity and usage of digital games has increased in recent years, bringing further attention to their design. Some digital games require a significant use of higher order thought processes, such as problem solving and reflective and analytical thinking. Through the use of appropriate and interactive representations, these thought processes could be supported. A visualization of the game's internal structure is an example of this. However, it is unknown whether including these extra representations will have a negative effect on gameplay. To investigate this issue, a digital maze-like game was designed with its underlying structure represented as a decision tree. A qualitative, exploratory study with children was performed to examine whether the tree supported their thought processes and what effects, if any, the tree had on gameplay. This paper reports the findings of this research and discusses the implications for the design of games in general.

FB-Tree: A B+-Tree for Flash-Based SSDs

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jørgensen, Martin V.; Rasmussen, René B.; Saltenis, Simonas

2011-01-01

Due to their many advantages, flash-based SSDs (Solid-State Drives) have become a mainstream alternative to magnetic disks for database servers. Nevertheless, database systems, designed and optimized for magnetic disks, still do not fully exploit all the benefits of the new technology. We propose....... As a consequence, the FB-tree outperforms a regular B+-tree in all scenarios tested. For instance, the throughput of a random workload of 75% updates increases by a factor of three using only two times the space of the B+-tree....

Benefit-based tree valuation

Science.gov (United States)

E.G. McPherson

2007-01-01

Benefit-based tree valuation provides alternative estimates of the fair and reasonable value of trees while illustrating the relative contribution of different benefit types. This study compared estimates of tree value obtained using cost- and benefit-based approaches. The cost-based approach used the Council of Landscape and Tree Appraisers trunk formula method, and...

The Kellogg Village Site Investigations, Clay County, Mississippi,

Science.gov (United States)

1980-09-01

Tables 13,14) also consisted ofa predominance of hickory followed by acorn and small quantities of black walnut (Juglans sp.) and persimmon ( Diospyros sp...comparisons were also made with modern seeds. Seeds were identified to genus level and counted. Nutshell frag- ments and nut kernel fragements were...also identified to genus and weighed. All unidentifiable seeds were counted and recorded. The tree genera represented by the wood charcoal were not

The Mind of the Copaíba Tree: Notes on Extractivism, Animism, and Ontology from Southern Bahia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jonathan DeVore

2017-12-01

Full Text Available This article analyzes ritualized prescriptions for harvesting oleoresin or “oil” from the copaíba tree in Brazil. These harvesting prescriptions involve increasingly complex attributions of mind to the copaíba tree itself. The copaíba tree is widespread throughout the Americas, and for centuries has been well-known for the medicinal oil that can be extracted from its trunk. In Brazil, contemporary knowledge of the copaíba tree is bound up with colonial history and what were often destructive extractivist economies. Whereas historical accounts of the copaíba tree are often limited to mechanistic descriptions for extracting oil, this article examines attributions of mind that harvesters make to the copaíba tree. These attributions can be read from procedures for extracting oil. Such procedures are concerned with moon cycles, tree marking, sexual activity, and gaze. The article shows that such prescriptions have a wide transregional and interethnic distribution, from the Amazon Basin in northern Brazil to the Atlantic Forest on Bahia’s southern coast. New evidence from southern Bahia also involves prescriptions concerning speech and naming, which presuppose that the copaíba tree is sensitive to intentionality and human language. These mind attributions are inferred through pragmatic analysis of the (ontological presuppositions that are embedded by harvesting prescriptions. The contribution concludes with reflections on the implications of this presuppositional analytic approach for debates concerned with animism and the “ontological turn.”

Fragmentation of random trees

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kalay, Z; Ben-Naim, E

2015-01-01

We study fragmentation of a random recursive tree into a forest by repeated removal of nodes. The initial tree consists of N nodes and it is generated by sequential addition of nodes with each new node attaching to a randomly-selected existing node. As nodes are removed from the tree, one at a time, the tree dissolves into an ensemble of separate trees, namely, a forest. We study statistical properties of trees and nodes in this heterogeneous forest, and find that the fraction of remaining nodes m characterizes the system in the limit N→∞. We obtain analytically the size density ϕ s of trees of size s. The size density has power-law tail ϕ s ∼s −α with exponent α=1+(1/m). Therefore, the tail becomes steeper as further nodes are removed, and the fragmentation process is unusual in that exponent α increases continuously with time. We also extend our analysis to the case where nodes are added as well as removed, and obtain the asymptotic size density for growing trees. (paper)

Winter Birch Trees

Science.gov (United States)

Sweeney, Debra; Rounds, Judy

2011-01-01

Trees are great inspiration for artists. Many art teachers find themselves inspired and maybe somewhat obsessed with the natural beauty and elegance of the lofty tree, and how it changes through the seasons. One such tree that grows in several regions and always looks magnificent, regardless of the time of year, is the birch. In this article, the…

36 CFR 223.4 - Exchange of trees or portions of trees.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 36 Parks, Forests, and Public Property 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Exchange of trees or portions of trees. 223.4 Section 223.4 Parks, Forests, and Public Property FOREST SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE SALE AND DISPOSAL OF NATIONAL FOREST SYSTEM TIMBER General Provisions § 223.4 Exchange of trees or...

How many trees are enough? Tree death and the urban canopy

Science.gov (United States)

Lara A. Roman

2014-01-01

Massive city tree planting campaigns have invigorated the urban forestry movement, and engaged politicians, planners, and the public in urban greening. Million tree initiatives have been launched in Los Angeles, CA; Denver, CO; New York City, NY; Philadelphia, PA, and other cities. Sacramento, CA even has a five million tree program. These...

Keeping trees as assets

Science.gov (United States)

Kevin T. Smith

2009-01-01

Landscape trees have real value and contribute to making livable communities. Making the most of that value requires providing trees with the proper care and attention. As potentially large and long-lived organisms, trees benefit from commitment to regular care that respects the natural tree system. This system captures, transforms, and uses energy to survive, grow,...

Visualization of Uncertain Contour Trees

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kraus, Martin

2010-01-01

Contour trees can represent the topology of large volume data sets in a relatively compact, discrete data structure. However, the resulting trees often contain many thousands of nodes; thus, many graph drawing techniques fail to produce satisfactory results. Therefore, several visualization methods...... were proposed recently for the visualization of contour trees. Unfortunately, none of these techniques is able to handle uncertain contour trees although any uncertainty of the volume data inevitably results in partially uncertain contour trees. In this work, we visualize uncertain contour trees...... by combining the contour trees of two morphologically filtered versions of a volume data set, which represent the range of uncertainty. These two contour trees are combined and visualized within a single image such that a range of potential contour trees is represented by the resulting visualization. Thus...

Spatial distribution of seeds and seedlings of two tropical tree species: Is there correspondence between patterns?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Parrado Rosselli, Angela

2007-01-01

The spatial patterns of seed and seedling distribution relative to parent trees (seed and seedling shadow, respectively) were studied for Dacryodes chimantensis (Burseraceae) and Brosimum utile (Moraceae), two common tree species of terra firme forests of Colombian Amazonia. The general objective was to assess whether the patterns imposed by seed dispersal change or persist in subsequent life stages occurring during the transition from seeds/saplings to adult stages. Seed and seedling shadows on the ground were characterized for each tree species along four 50-m radial transects from the base of the parent tree. Causes of seed and seedling predation as a function of distance to the parent tree were determined, as well as the spatial consistency between life stages. Results showed that seed density of both Dacryodes and Brosimum declined leptokurtically with distance, and it was skewed towards the parent tree. However, seed density was more skewed and leptokurtic in Dacryodes than in Brosimum. The overall trend was maintained in the seedling stage of both species and was positively correlated with the distribution patterns of seeds. Seed and seedling predation were positively correlated with density and negatively correlated with the distance from the parent tree. Factors that could be generating the high consistency between the spatial patterns of seed and seedling distribution are discussed, as well as its implications in the population structure of both species and the debate on the factors that influence the spatial distribution of plant species in tropical rain forests.

a Comparison of Tree Segmentation Methods Using Very High Density Airborne Laser Scanner Data

Science.gov (United States)

Pirotti, F.; Kobal, M.; Roussel, J. R.

2017-09-01

Developments of LiDAR technology are decreasing the unit cost per single point (e.g. single-photo counting). This brings to the possibility of future LiDAR datasets having very dense point clouds. In this work, we process a very dense point cloud ( 200 points per square meter), using three different methods for segmenting single trees and extracting tree positions and other metrics of interest in forestry, such as tree height distribution and canopy area distribution. The three algorithms are tested at decreasing densities, up to a lowest density of 5 point per square meter. Accuracy assessment is done using Kappa, recall, precision and F-Score metrics comparing results with tree positions from groundtruth measurements in six ground plots where tree positions and heights were surveyed manually. Results show that one method provides better Kappa and recall accuracy results for all cases, and that different point densities, in the range used in this study, do not affect accuracy significantly. Processing time is also considered; the method with better accuracy is several times slower than the other two methods and increases exponentially with point density. Best performer gave Kappa = 0.7. The implications of metrics for determining the accuracy of results of point positions' detection is reported. Motives for the different performances of the three methods is discussed and further research direction is proposed.

Space/age forestry: Implications of planting density and rotation age in SRIC management decisions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Merriam, R.A.; Phillips, V.D.; Liu, W.

1993-12-31

Short-rotation intensive-culture (SRIC) of promising tree crops is being evaluated worldwide for the production of methanol, ethanol, and electricity from renewable biomass resources. Planting density and rotation age are fundamental management decisions associated with SRIC energy plantations. Most studies of these variables have been conducted without the benefit of a unifying theory of the effects of growing space and rotation age on individual tree growth and stand level productivity. A modeling procedure based on field trials of Eucalyptus spp. is presented that evaluates the growth potential of a tree in the absence and presence of competition of neighboring trees in a stand. The results of this analysis are useful in clarifying economic implications of different growing space and rotation age decisions that tree plantation managers must make. The procedure is readily applicable to other species under consideration for SRIC plantations at any location.

Forest FIRE and FIRE wood : tools for tree automata and tree algorithms

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Cleophas, L.G.W.A.; Piskorski, J.; Watson, B.W.; Yli-Jyrä, A.

2009-01-01

Pattern matching, acceptance, and parsing algorithms on node-labeled, ordered, ranked trees ('tree algorithms') are important for applications such as instruction selection and tree transformation/term rewriting. Many such algorithms have been developed. They often are based on results from such

Monitoring Million Trees LA: Tree performance during the early years and future benefits

Science.gov (United States)

E. Gregory McPherson

2014-01-01

Million Trees LA (MTLA) is one of several large-scale mayoral tree planting initiatives striving to create more livable cities through urban forestry. This study combined field sampling of tree survival and growth with numerical modeling of future benefits to assess performance of MTLA plantings. From 2006 to 2010 MTLA planted a diverse mix of 91,786 trees....

Skewed Binary Search Trees

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Brodal, Gerth Stølting; Moruz, Gabriel

2006-01-01

It is well-known that to minimize the number of comparisons a binary search tree should be perfectly balanced. Previous work has shown that a dominating factor over the running time for a search is the number of cache faults performed, and that an appropriate memory layout of a binary search tree...... can reduce the number of cache faults by several hundred percent. Motivated by the fact that during a search branching to the left or right at a node does not necessarily have the same cost, e.g. because of branch prediction schemes, we in this paper study the class of skewed binary search trees....... For all nodes in a skewed binary search tree the ratio between the size of the left subtree and the size of the tree is a fixed constant (a ratio of 1/2 gives perfect balanced trees). In this paper we present an experimental study of various memory layouts of static skewed binary search trees, where each...

The ghosts of trees past: savanna trees create enduring legacies in plant species composition.

Science.gov (United States)

Stahlheber, Karen A; Crispin, Kimberly L; Anton, Cassidy; D'Antonio, Carla M

2015-09-01

Isolated trees in savannas worldwide are known to modify their local environment and interact directly with neighboring plants. Less is known about how related tree species differ in their impacts on surrounding communities, how the effects of trees vary between years, and how composition might change following loss of the tree. To address these knowledge gaps, we explored the following questions: How do savanna trees influence the surrounding composition of herbaceous plants? Is the influence of trees consistent across different species and years? How does this change following the death of the tree? We surveyed herbaceous species composition and environmental attributes surrounding living and dead evergreen and deciduous Quercus trees in California (USA) savannas across several years that differed in their total precipitation. Oak trees of all species created distinct, homogenous understory communities dominated by exotic grasses across several sites. The composition of the low-diversity understory communities showed less interannual variation than open grassland, despite a two-fold difference in precipitation between the driest and wettest year. Vegetation composition was correlated with variation in soil properties, which were strongly affected by trees. Oaks also influenced the communities beyond the edge of the crown, but this depended on site and oak species. Low-diversity understory communities persisted up to 43 years following the death of the tree. A gradual decline in the effect of trees on the physical, environment following death did not result in vegetation becoming more similar to open grassland over time. The presence of long-lasting legacies of past tree crowns highlights the difficulty of assigning control of the current distribution of herbaceous species in grassland to their contemporary environment.

Barking up the wrong tree: injuries due to falls from trees in Solomon Islands.

Science.gov (United States)

Negin, Joel; Vizintin, Pavle; Houasia, Patrick; Martiniuk, Alexandra L C

2014-12-11

To investigate tree-related injuries in Solomon Islands by the types of trees involved, who is affected and the types of injuries caused. Descriptive case series of all cases of injuries related to trees presenting to the National Referral Hospital in Honiara from 1994 to 2011. Data were collected by the attending clinician using a Trauma Epidemiology form, which provides information on age, sex, cause of injury and type of fracture. Number of injuries by tree type, sex and age. Of the 7651 injuries in the database, 1107 (14%) were caused by falls from trees. Falls from coconut trees led to the highest number of injuries, followed by falls from mango, guava, apple and nut trees. Overall, 85% of injuries occurred in individuals aged trees, 77% of patients were aged tree types. Overall, 71% of injuries occurred among males. Of all injuries, 92% were fractures, 3% were dislocations and 5% were non-fracture, non-dislocation injuries. The arm (including wrist, elbow and hand) was the most common location of injury across all tree types. Distal radius fractures in the forearm were particularly common, as were ulna fractures. While mangos and guavas are undeniably delicious, the quest for their flesh can be hazardous. Children will always climb trees, but the search for food among children in lower-income settings may lead to higher rates of injury.

Recursive Trees for Practical ORAM

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Moataz Tarik

2015-06-01

Full Text Available We present a new, general data structure that reduces the communication cost of recent tree-based ORAMs. Contrary to ORAM trees with constant height and path lengths, our new construction r-ORAM allows for trees with varying shorter path length. Accessing an element in the ORAM tree results in different communication costs depending on the location of the element. The main idea behind r-ORAM is a recursive ORAM tree structure, where nodes in the tree are roots of other trees. While this approach results in a worst-case access cost (tree height at most as any recent tree-based ORAM, we show that the average cost saving is around 35% for recent binary tree ORAMs. Besides reducing communication cost, r-ORAM also reduces storage overhead on the server by 4% to 20% depending on the ORAM’s client memory type. To prove r-ORAM’s soundness, we conduct a detailed overflow analysis. r-ORAM’s recursive approach is general in that it can be applied to all recent tree ORAMs, both constant and poly-log client memory ORAMs. Finally, we implement and benchmark r-ORAM in a practical setting to back up our theoretical claims.

Tree Transduction Tools for Cdec

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Austin Matthews

2014-09-01

Full Text Available We describe a collection of open source tools for learning tree-to-string and tree-to-tree transducers and the extensions to the cdec decoder that enable translation with these. Our modular, easy-to-extend tools extract rules from trees or forests aligned to strings and trees subject to different structural constraints. A fast, multithreaded implementation of the Cohn and Blunsom (2009 model for extracting compact tree-to-string rules is also included. The implementation of the tree composition algorithm used by cdec is described, and translation quality and decoding time results are presented. Our experimental results add to the body of evidence suggesting that tree transducers are a compelling option for translation, particularly when decoding speed and translation model size are important.

Causes and consequences of unequal seedling production in forest trees: a case study in red oaks

Science.gov (United States)

Emily V. Moran; James S. Clark

2012-01-01

Inequality in reproductive success has important implications for ecological and evolutionary dynamics, but lifetime reproductive success is challenging to measure in long-lived species such as forest trees. While seed production is often used as a proxy for overall reproductive success, high mortality of seeds and the potential for trade-offs between seed number and...

Population differentiation in tree-ring growth response of white fir (Abies concolor) to climate: Implications for predicting forest responses to climate change

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jensen, Deborah Bowne [Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)

1993-01-01

Forest succession models and correlative models have predicted 200--650 kilometer shifts in the geographic range of temperate forests and forest species as one response to global climate change. Few studies have investigated whether population differences may effect the response of forest species to climate change. This study examines differences in tree-ring growth, and in the phenotypic plasticity of tree-ring growth in 16-year old white fir, Abies concolor, from ten populations grown in four common gardens in the Sierra Nevada of California. For each population, tree-ring growth was modelled as a function of precipitation and degree-day sums. Tree-ring growth under three scenarios of doubled CO₂ climates was estimated.

Study of root tensile strength of softwood and hardwood tree species: Implications for slope stability

Science.gov (United States)

Esmaiili, Marzieh; Abdi, Ehsan; Jafary, Mohammad; Majnounian, Baris

2017-04-01

Landslides are known as one of the major natural hazards and often incurring economics and human life losses. The role of tree roots in slope stability is very important, especially when human lives and infrastructure are at risk. The anchorage of roots and improvement of slope stability mainly depend on specific properties of root network systems, such as tensile strength. These properties of the roots which govern the degree of reinforcement are different among tree species. Although, many studies have been conducted about plant biotechnical properties of species, yet there is lack of knowledge on comparing root systems of softwood and hardwood tree species for similar site conditions. Therefore this study was conducted to assess the tensile strength of the root system of Picea abies (softwood species) and Fraxinus excelsior (hardwood species) planted on two forested hillslopes. To this aim, single root specimens were sampled for each species and their tensile strength were then measured in laboratory using a computer controlled Instron Universal Testing Machine. According to the results root tensile strength tends to decrease with diameter according to a power law for both species. Based on analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), a significant difference has been observed in the tensile strength between the two studied species. Also the results showed that the value of mean root tensile strength for Picea abies (19.31 ± 2.64 MPa) was much more than that of Fraxinus excelsior (16.98 ± 1.01 MPa) within all root diameter classes. The data presented in this study may expand the knowledge of biotechnical properties of Picea abies and Fraxinus excelsior, as biomaterial for soil bioengineering.

A mechanical design principle for tissue structure and function in the airway tree.

Science.gov (United States)

LaPrad, Adam S; Lutchen, Kenneth R; Suki, Béla

2013-01-01

With every breath, the dynamically changing mechanical pressures must work in unison with the cells and soft tissue structures of the lung to permit air to efficiently traverse the airway tree and undergo gas exchange in the alveoli. The influence of mechanics on cell and tissue function is becoming apparent, raising the question: how does the airway tree co-exist within its mechanical environment to maintain normal cell function throughout its branching structure of diminishing dimensions? We introduce a new mechanical design principle for the conducting airway tree in which mechanotransduction at the level of cells is driven to orchestrate airway wall structural changes that can best maintain a preferred mechanical microenvironment. To support this principle, we report in vitro radius-transmural pressure relations for a range of airway radii obtained from healthy bovine lungs and model the data using a strain energy function together with a thick-walled cylinder description. From this framework, we estimate circumferential stresses and incremental Young's moduli throughout the airway tree. Our results indicate that the conducting airways consistently operate within a preferred mechanical homeostatic state, termed mechanical homeostasis, that is characterized by a narrow range of circumferential stresses and Young's moduli. This mechanical homeostatic state is maintained for all airways throughout the tree via airway wall dimensional and mechanical relationships. As a consequence, cells within the airway walls throughout the airway tree experience similar oscillatory strains during breathing that are much smaller than previously thought. Finally, we discuss the potential implications of how the maintenance of mechanical homeostasis, while facilitating healthy tissue-level alterations necessary for maturation, may lead to airway wall structural changes capable of chronic asthma.

A mechanical design principle for tissue structure and function in the airway tree.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Adam S LaPrad

Full Text Available With every breath, the dynamically changing mechanical pressures must work in unison with the cells and soft tissue structures of the lung to permit air to efficiently traverse the airway tree and undergo gas exchange in the alveoli. The influence of mechanics on cell and tissue function is becoming apparent, raising the question: how does the airway tree co-exist within its mechanical environment to maintain normal cell function throughout its branching structure of diminishing dimensions? We introduce a new mechanical design principle for the conducting airway tree in which mechanotransduction at the level of cells is driven to orchestrate airway wall structural changes that can best maintain a preferred mechanical microenvironment. To support this principle, we report in vitro radius-transmural pressure relations for a range of airway radii obtained from healthy bovine lungs and model the data using a strain energy function together with a thick-walled cylinder description. From this framework, we estimate circumferential stresses and incremental Young's moduli throughout the airway tree. Our results indicate that the conducting airways consistently operate within a preferred mechanical homeostatic state, termed mechanical homeostasis, that is characterized by a narrow range of circumferential stresses and Young's moduli. This mechanical homeostatic state is maintained for all airways throughout the tree via airway wall dimensional and mechanical relationships. As a consequence, cells within the airway walls throughout the airway tree experience similar oscillatory strains during breathing that are much smaller than previously thought. Finally, we discuss the potential implications of how the maintenance of mechanical homeostasis, while facilitating healthy tissue-level alterations necessary for maturation, may lead to airway wall structural changes capable of chronic asthma.

City of Pittsburgh Trees

Data.gov (United States)

Allegheny County / City of Pittsburgh / Western PA Regional Data Center — Trees cared for and managed by the City of Pittsburgh Department of Public Works Forestry Division. Tree Benefits are calculated using the National Tree Benefit...

Flowering Trees

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

user

Flowering Trees. Gliricidia sepium(Jacq.) Kunta ex Walp. (Quickstick) of Fabaceae is a small deciduous tree with. Pinnately compound leaves. Flower are prroduced in large number in early summer on terminal racemes. They are attractive, pinkish-white and typically like bean flowers. Fruit is a few-seeded flat pod.

Drawing Trees

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Halkjær From, Andreas; Schlichtkrull, Anders; Villadsen, Jørgen

2018-01-01

We formally prove in Isabelle/HOL two properties of an algorithm for laying out trees visually. The first property states that removing layout annotations recovers the original tree. The second property states that nodes are placed at least a unit of distance apart. We have yet to formalize three...

Interspecific variation in tree seedlings establishment in canopy gaps in relation to tree density

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Reader, R.J.; Bonser, S.P.; Duralia, T.E.; Bricker, B.D. [Guelph Univ., ON (Canada). Dept. of Botany

1995-10-01

We tested whether interspecific variation in tree seedling establishment in canopy gaps was significantly related to interspecific variation in tree density, for seven deciduous forest tree species (Quercus alba, Hamamelis virginiana, Acer rubrum, Sassafras albidum, Quercus rubra, Prunus serotina, Ostrya virginiana). For each species, seedling establishment was calculated as the difference in seedling density before experimental gap creation versus three years after gap creation. In each of the six experimentally-created gap types (33% or 66% removal of tree basal area from 0.01ha, 0.05ha or 0.20ha patches), differences in seedling establishment among species were significantly related to differences in their density in the tree canopy. A regression model with log{sub e} tree density as the independent variable accounted for between 93% and 98% of interspecific variation in seedling establishment. Our results provide empirical support for models of tree dynamics in gaps that assume seedling establishment depends on canopy tree density. 17 refs, 1 fig, 3 tabs

Phylogenetic trees in bioinformatics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Burr, Tom L [Los Alamos National Laboratory

2008-01-01

Genetic data is often used to infer evolutionary relationships among a collection of viruses, bacteria, animal or plant species, or other operational taxonomic units (OTU). A phylogenetic tree depicts such relationships and provides a visual representation of the estimated branching order of the OTUs. Tree estimation is unique for several reasons, including: the types of data used to represent each OTU; the use ofprobabilistic nucleotide substitution models; the inference goals involving both tree topology and branch length, and the huge number of possible trees for a given sample of a very modest number of OTUs, which implies that fmding the best tree(s) to describe the genetic data for each OTU is computationally demanding. Bioinformatics is too large a field to review here. We focus on that aspect of bioinformatics that includes study of similarities in genetic data from multiple OTUs. Although research questions are diverse, a common underlying challenge is to estimate the evolutionary history of the OTUs. Therefore, this paper reviews the role of phylogenetic tree estimation in bioinformatics, available methods and software, and identifies areas for additional research and development.

Fast Tree: Computing Large Minimum-Evolution Trees with Profiles instead of a Distance Matrix

OpenAIRE

N. Price, Morgan

2009-01-01

Gene families are growing rapidly, but standard methods for inferring phylogenies do not scale to alignments with over 10,000 sequences. We present FastTree, a method for constructing large phylogenies and for estimating their reliability. Instead of storing a distance matrix, FastTree stores sequence profiles of internal nodes in the tree. FastTree uses these profiles to implement neighbor-joining and uses heuristics to quickly identify candidate joins. FastTree then uses nearest-neighbor i...

FastTree: Computing Large Minimum Evolution Trees with Profiles instead of a Distance Matrix

OpenAIRE

Price, Morgan N.; Dehal, Paramvir S.; Arkin, Adam P.

2009-01-01

Gene families are growing rapidly, but standard methods for inferring phylogenies do not scale to alignments with over 10,000 sequences. We present FastTree, a method for constructing large phylogenies and for estimating their reliability. Instead of storing a distance matrix, FastTree stores sequence profiles of internal nodes in the tree. FastTree uses these profiles to implement Neighbor-Joining and uses heuristics to quickly identify candidate joins. FastTree then uses nearest neighbor in...

Structure of a forested urban park: implications for strategic management.

Science.gov (United States)

Millward, Andrew A; Sabir, Senna

2010-11-01

Informed management of urban parks can provide optimal conditions for tree establishment and growth and thus maximize the ecological and aesthetic benefits that trees provide. This study assesses the structure, and its implications for function, of the urban forest in Allan Gardens, a 6.1 ha downtown park in the City of Toronto, Canada, using the Street Tree Resource Analysis Tool for Urban Forest Managers (STRATUM). Our goal is to present a framework for collection and analysis of baseline data that can inform a management strategy that would serve to protect and enhance this significant natural asset. We found that Allan Garden's tree population, while species rich (43), is dominated by maple (Acer spp.) (48% of all park trees), making it reliant on very few species for the majority of its ecological and aesthetic benefits and raising disease and pest-related concerns. Age profiles (using size as a proxy) showed a dominance of older trees with an inadequate number of individuals in the young to early middle age cohort necessary for short- to medium-term replacement. Because leaf area represents the single-most important contributor to urban tree benefits modelling, we calculated it separately for every park tree, using hemispheric photography, to document current canopy condition. These empirical measurements were lower than estimates produced by STRATUM, especially when trees were in decline and lacked full canopies, highlighting the importance of individual tree condition in determining leaf area and hence overall forest benefits. Stewardship of natural spaces within cities demands access to accurate and timely resource-specific data. Our work provides an uncomplicated approach to the acquisition and interpretation of these data in the context of a forested urban park. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Flowering Trees

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Flowering Trees. Acrocarpus fraxinifolius Wight & Arn. (PINK CEDAR, AUSTRALIAN ASH) of. Caesalpiniaceae is a lofty unarmed deciduous native tree that attains a height of 30–60m with buttresses. Bark is thin and light grey. Leaves are compound and bright red when young. Flowers in dense, erect, axillary racemes.

On Tree-Based Phylogenetic Networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Louxin

2016-07-01

A large class of phylogenetic networks can be obtained from trees by the addition of horizontal edges between the tree edges. These networks are called tree-based networks. We present a simple necessary and sufficient condition for tree-based networks and prove that a universal tree-based network exists for any number of taxa that contains as its base every phylogenetic tree on the same set of taxa. This answers two problems posted by Francis and Steel recently. A byproduct is a computer program for generating random binary phylogenetic networks under the uniform distribution model.

Surface Water Interim Measures/Interim Remedial Action Plan/Environmental Assessment and Decision Document for South Walnut Creek Basin (Operable Unit No. 2)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1991-01-01

The Department of Energy (DOE) is pursuing an Interim Measure/Interim Remedial Action (IM/IRA) at the 903 Pad, Mound, and East Trenches Areas (Operable Unit No. 2) at the Rocky Flats Plant (RFP). This IM/IRA is to be conducted to minimize the release from these areas of hazardous substances that pose a potential threat to the public health and environment. The Plan involved the collection of contaminated surface water at specific locations, treatment by chemical precipitation, cross-flow membrane filtration and granular activated carbon (GAC) adsorption, and surface discharge of treated water. Information for the initial configuration of the Plan is presented in the document entitled ''Proposed Interim Measures/Interim Remedial Action Plan and Decision Document, 903 Pad, Mound, and East Trenches Areas, Operable Unit No. 2'' (IM/IRAP) dated 26 September 1990. Information concerning the proposed Surface Water IM/IRA was presented during a public meeting held from 7 to 10 p.m., Tuesday, 23 October 1990, at the Westminster City Park Recreation Center in Westminster, Colorado. This Responsiveness Summary presents DOE's response to all comments received at the public meeting, as well as those mailed to DOE during the public comment period which ended 24 November 1990. There were a number of technical comments on the plan that DOE has addressed herein. It is noted that several major issues were raised by the comments. Regardless of the estimated low risk to the public from construction and water transport activities, the popular sentiment of the public, based on comments received, is strong concern over worker and public health risks from these activities. In the light of public and municipal concerns, DOE proposes to eliminate from this IM/IRA the interbasin transfer of Woman Creek seepage to the South Walnut Creek drainage and to address collection and treatment of contaminated South Walnut Creek and Woman Creek surface water under two separate IM/IRAs

Influence of substrate and mycorrhizal fungus on the root and shoot architecture of coffee-shading walnut (Cordia alliodora [Ruiz et Pav.] Oken

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rodriguez Pérez Loyla

2012-04-01

Full Text Available

Cordia alliodora (coffee-shading walnut is a species of economic importance to Colombia because of its multiple uses for farmers and for reforestation as a timber and industrial resources, mainly in the central coffee region of the country. The aim of this research was to study parameters of C. alliodora shoot and root system architecture over the first year of development. Plants were established in Pacho municipality (Cundinamarca at an 2,150 m a.s.l. A split plot design with a randomized complete block and three replicates was applied. Within the main plot, we evaluated the substrates (soil, husk and compost 2:1:1; soil and husk 3:2; soil and husk 3:1, and withing the subplot, the mycorrhizal fungus (without fungus, Kuklospora colombiana, Glomus manihotis and Acaulospora lacunosa. Substrate type affected C. alliodora root and shoot architectural parameters. Plants transplanted into soil, husk and compost 2:1:1 had the best responses in architectural parameters: diameter of the base of the root (7.82 mm, number of secondary roots (48.4, root dry weight (5.38 g, number of leaves (47.33, dry weight of shoots (7.71 g, shoot length (72.64 g and leaf dry weight (6.28 g at 384 days after transplant. Since no fertilizer was applied to coffee-shading walnut plants, we conclude that the mycorrhizal fungi facilitated a better use and development of mineral elements present in the substrates.

A Metric on Phylogenetic Tree Shapes.

Science.gov (United States)

Colijn, C; Plazzotta, G

2018-01-01

The shapes of evolutionary trees are influenced by the nature of the evolutionary process but comparisons of trees from different processes are hindered by the challenge of completely describing tree shape. We present a full characterization of the shapes of rooted branching trees in a form that lends itself to natural tree comparisons. We use this characterization to define a metric, in the sense of a true distance function, on tree shapes. The metric distinguishes trees from random models known to produce different tree shapes. It separates trees derived from tropical versus USA influenza A sequences, which reflect the differing epidemiology of tropical and seasonal flu. We describe several metrics based on the same core characterization, and illustrate how to extend the metric to incorporate trees' branch lengths or other features such as overall imbalance. Our approach allows us to construct addition and multiplication on trees, and to create a convex metric on tree shapes which formally allows computation of average tree shapes. © The Author(s) 2017. Published by Oxford University Press, on behalf of the Society of Systematic Biologists.

Visualizing phylogenetic tree landscapes.

Science.gov (United States)

Wilgenbusch, James C; Huang, Wen; Gallivan, Kyle A

2017-02-02

Genomic-scale sequence alignments are increasingly used to infer phylogenies in order to better understand the processes and patterns of evolution. Different partitions within these new alignments (e.g., genes, codon positions, and structural features) often favor hundreds if not thousands of competing phylogenies. Summarizing and comparing phylogenies obtained from multi-source data sets using current consensus tree methods discards valuable information and can disguise potential methodological problems. Discovery of efficient and accurate dimensionality reduction methods used to display at once in 2- or 3- dimensions the relationship among these competing phylogenies will help practitioners diagnose the limits of current evolutionary models and potential problems with phylogenetic reconstruction methods when analyzing large multi-source data sets. We introduce several dimensionality reduction methods to visualize in 2- and 3-dimensions the relationship among competing phylogenies obtained from gene partitions found in three mid- to large-size mitochondrial genome alignments. We test the performance of these dimensionality reduction methods by applying several goodness-of-fit measures. The intrinsic dimensionality of each data set is also estimated to determine whether projections in 2- and 3-dimensions can be expected to reveal meaningful relationships among trees from different data partitions. Several new approaches to aid in the comparison of different phylogenetic landscapes are presented. Curvilinear Components Analysis (CCA) and a stochastic gradient decent (SGD) optimization method give the best representation of the original tree-to-tree distance matrix for each of the three- mitochondrial genome alignments and greatly outperformed the method currently used to visualize tree landscapes. The CCA + SGD method converged at least as fast as previously applied methods for visualizing tree landscapes. We demonstrate for all three mtDNA alignments that 3D

Characterizing the growth responses of three co-occurring northern conifer tree species to climate variation across a range of conditions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Green, S.; Miyamoto, Y. [Northern British Columbia Univ., Prince George, BC (Canada). Ecosystem Science and Management Program

2006-07-01

Climate is the key factor affecting tree growth. Trees regularly adapt to changing environmental conditions. Adjusting forest policies and practices under changing environments necessitates an understanding of species-specific tree responses to climate change. This paper discussed a study that examined the responses of 3 northern conifer tree species, notably the lodgepole pine, subalpine fir, and interior spruce. The purpose of the study was to characterize the climate sensitivities of each species growing under various environmental conditions, represented by mean annual temperatures and mean annual precipitations. The paper provided background information on climate change and tree species and discussed the objectives and implications of the study. Study methods were presented in detail and a geographical map showing the eight sampling sites located in central British Columbia and Yukon was also provided. Last, the paper provided the preliminary results and conclusions. It was found that the impacts of changing seasonal climates on tree growth will be species and site-specific. However, the magnitude of these differences were not completely analysed so that the impacts may be similar or significantly different among species or sites. 15 refs., 4 figs.

Archaeological Salvage Excavations at the Tibbee Creek Site (22Lo600) Lowndes County, Mississippi.

Science.gov (United States)

1981-06-01

probably the mast- producing trees such as oaks, hickories and black walnut. Othe, plants of potential importance were the persimmon ( Diospyros ...sample of 20 fragments was drawn and identified to genus . The poor preservation of the wood made this process generally difficult, and in a number of... genus , weighed and counted. It should be noted, that the very high counts of hickory shell (Carya sp.) relative to their weight it a product of

Human decision error (HUMDEE) trees

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ostrom, L.T.

1993-01-01

Graphical presentations of human actions in incident and accident sequences have been used for many years. However, for the most part, human decision making has been underrepresented in these trees. This paper presents a method of incorporating the human decision process into graphical presentations of incident/accident sequences. This presentation is in the form of logic trees. These trees are called Human Decision Error Trees or HUMDEE for short. The primary benefit of HUMDEE trees is that they graphically illustrate what else the individuals involved in the event could have done to prevent either the initiation or continuation of the event. HUMDEE trees also present the alternate paths available at the operator decision points in the incident/accident sequence. This is different from the Technique for Human Error Rate Prediction (THERP) event trees. There are many uses of these trees. They can be used for incident/accident investigations to show what other courses of actions were available and for training operators. The trees also have a consequence component so that not only the decision can be explored, also the consequence of that decision

Tree felling: a necessary evil

CERN Multimedia

CERN Bulletin

2013-01-01

CERN started a campaign of tree felling in 2010 for safety reasons, and it will continue this year in various parts of the Meyrin site. As in previous years, the trees cut down in 2013 will be recycled and some will be replaced.   Diseased tree that had to be cut down on the Meyrin site. In association with the Geneva nature and countryside directorate (Direction générale de la nature et du paysage, DGNP), CERN commissioned the Geneva school of landscaping, engineering and architecture (Haute école du paysage, d’ingénierie et d’architecture, HEPIA) to compile an inventory of the trees on the Meyrin site. In total, 1285 trees (excluding poplars) were recorded. 75.5% of these trees were declared to be in a good state of health (i.e. 971 trees), 21.5% in a moderate state of health (276 trees) and 3% in a poor state of health (38 trees). As for the poplars, the 236 specimens recorded on the Meyrin site were judged to be too old, to...

Per tree estimates with n-tree distance sampling: an application to increment core data

Science.gov (United States)

Thomas B. Lynch; Robert F. Wittwer

2002-01-01

Per tree estimates using the n trees nearest a point can be obtained by using a ratio of per unit area estimates from n-tree distance sampling. This ratio was used to estimate average age by d.b.h. classes for cottonwood trees (Populus deltoides Bartr. ex Marsh.) on the Cimarron National Grassland. Increment...

Interactive Tree Of Life v2: online annotation and display of phylogenetic trees made easy.

Science.gov (United States)

Letunic, Ivica; Bork, Peer

2011-07-01

Interactive Tree Of Life (http://itol.embl.de) is a web-based tool for the display, manipulation and annotation of phylogenetic trees. It is freely available and open to everyone. In addition to classical tree viewer functions, iTOL offers many novel ways of annotating trees with various additional data. Current version introduces numerous new features and greatly expands the number of supported data set types. Trees can be interactively manipulated and edited. A free personal account system is available, providing management and sharing of trees in user defined workspaces and projects. Export to various bitmap and vector graphics formats is supported. Batch access interface is available for programmatic access or inclusion of interactive trees into other web services.

Maximum Gene-Support Tree

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yunfeng Shan

2008-01-01

Full Text Available Genomes and genes diversify during evolution; however, it is unclear to what extent genes still retain the relationship among species. Model species for molecular phylogenetic studies include yeasts and viruses whose genomes were sequenced as well as plants that have the fossil-supported true phylogenetic trees available. In this study, we generated single gene trees of seven yeast species as well as single gene trees of nine baculovirus species using all the orthologous genes among the species compared. Homologous genes among seven known plants were used for validation of the finding. Four algorithms—maximum parsimony (MP, minimum evolution (ME, maximum likelihood (ML, and neighbor-joining (NJ—were used. Trees were reconstructed before and after weighting the DNA and protein sequence lengths among genes. Rarely a gene can always generate the “true tree” by all the four algorithms. However, the most frequent gene tree, termed “maximum gene-support tree” (MGS tree, or WMGS tree for the weighted one, in yeasts, baculoviruses, or plants was consistently found to be the “true tree” among the species. The results provide insights into the overall degree of divergence of orthologous genes of the genomes analyzed and suggest the following: 1 The true tree relationship among the species studied is still maintained by the largest group of orthologous genes; 2 There are usually more orthologous genes with higher similarities between genetically closer species than between genetically more distant ones; and 3 The maximum gene-support tree reflects the phylogenetic relationship among species in comparison.

Tree Rings: Timekeepers of the Past.

Science.gov (United States)

Phipps, R. L.; McGowan, J.

One of a series of general interest publications on science issues, this booklet describes the uses of tree rings in historical and biological recordkeeping. Separate sections cover the following topics: dating of tree rings, dating with tree rings, tree ring formation, tree ring identification, sample collections, tree ring cross dating, tree…

Flowering Trees

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Cassia siamia Lamk. (Siamese tree senna) of Caesalpiniaceae is a small or medium size handsome tree. Leaves are alternate, pinnately compound and glandular, upto 18 cm long with 8–12 pairs of leaflets. Inflorescence is axillary or terminal and branched. Flowering lasts for a long period from March to February. Fruit is ...

Flowering Trees

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Flowering Trees. Cerbera manghasL. (SEA MANGO) of Apocynaceae is a medium-sized evergreen coastal tree with milky latex. The bark is grey-brown, thick and ... Fruit is large. (5–10 cm long), oval containing two flattened seeds and resembles a mango, hence the name Mangas or. Manghas. Leaves and fruits contain ...

Talking Trees

Science.gov (United States)

Tolman, Marvin

2005-01-01

Students love outdoor activities and will love them even more when they build confidence in their tree identification and measurement skills. Through these activities, students will learn to identify the major characteristics of trees and discover how the pace--a nonstandard measuring unit--can be used to estimate not only distances but also the…

Annual variations in seed yield and implications for multiple use of crabwood

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Helio Tonini

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The objective of this study was to evaluate the annual variation in seed yield of crabwood, and discuss implications for multiple use management of the species. Data were collected in a forest area in the southern of Roraima State in a permanent plot of 9 ha (300 m x 300 m with a natural population of crabwood. Seed production was monitored of 115 trees during four years. Seed yield varied among years. May to July was the period of bigger yield. Few trees (22.6% concentrated the bigger part of seeds yield (80.7% and the most productive trees had diameter at 1.30 m above ground level between 40 cm - 70 cm. Therefore we recommend 70 cm as minimum cutting diameter for wood exploitation. For sustainable crabwood seed management we recommend to restrict seed collection from the most productive trees and only during the period of maximum seed dispersal.

ELB-trees an efficient and lock-free B-tree derivative

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bonnichsen, Lars Frydendal; Karlsson, Sven; Probst, Christian W.

2013-01-01

overhead. All lock-free data structures are based on simple atomic operations that, though supported by modern processors, are expensive in execution time. We present a lock-free data structure, ELB-trees, which under certain assumptions can be used as multimaps as well as priority queues. Specifically...... it cannot store duplicate key-value pairs, and it is not linearizable. Compared to existing data structures, ELB-trees require fewer atomic operations leading to improved performance. We measure the parallel performance of ELB-trees using a set of benchmarks and observe that ELB-trees are up to almost 30......As computer systems scale in the number of processors, scalable data structures with good parallel performance become increasingly important. Lock-free data structures promise such improved parallel performance at the expense of higher algorithmic complexity and higher sequential execution time...

A support vector machine based test for incongruence between sets of trees in tree space

Science.gov (United States)

2012-01-01

Background The increased use of multi-locus data sets for phylogenetic reconstruction has increased the need to determine whether a set of gene trees significantly deviate from the phylogenetic patterns of other genes. Such unusual gene trees may have been influenced by other evolutionary processes such as selection, gene duplication, or horizontal gene transfer. Results Motivated by this problem we propose a nonparametric goodness-of-fit test for two empirical distributions of gene trees, and we developed the software GeneOut to estimate a p-value for the test. Our approach maps trees into a multi-dimensional vector space and then applies support vector machines (SVMs) to measure the separation between two sets of pre-defined trees. We use a permutation test to assess the significance of the SVM separation. To demonstrate the performance of GeneOut, we applied it to the comparison of gene trees simulated within different species trees across a range of species tree depths. Applied directly to sets of simulated gene trees with large sample sizes, GeneOut was able to detect very small differences between two set of gene trees generated under different species trees. Our statistical test can also include tree reconstruction into its test framework through a variety of phylogenetic optimality criteria. When applied to DNA sequence data simulated from different sets of gene trees, results in the form of receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves indicated that GeneOut performed well in the detection of differences between sets of trees with different distributions in a multi-dimensional space. Furthermore, it controlled false positive and false negative rates very well, indicating a high degree of accuracy. Conclusions The non-parametric nature of our statistical test provides fast and efficient analyses, and makes it an applicable test for any scenario where evolutionary or other factors can lead to trees with different multi-dimensional distributions. The

Atlas of United States Trees, Volume 2: Alaska Trees and Common Shrubs.

Science.gov (United States)

Viereck, Leslie A.; Little, Elbert L., Jr.

This volume is the second in a series of atlases describing the natural distribution or range of native tree species in the United States. The 82 species maps include 32 of trees in Alaska, 6 of shrubs rarely reaching tree size, and 44 more of common shrubs. More than 20 additional maps summarize environmental factors and furnish general…

Colourings of (k-r,k-trees