Spectral properties of selected UV-blocking and UV-transmitting covering materials with application for production of high-value crops in high tunnels

The spectral properties of selected UV-blocking and UV-transmitting covering materials were characterized by means of a UV-VIS spectroradiometer or a UV-VIS spectrometer to provide researchers and growers with guidelines for selecting suitable materials for use in studying the effects of ambient solar UV radiation on the production of tomatoes and other high-value crops in high tunnels. A survey was made of a wide range of plastic covering materials to identify commercially available products that had the desired characteristics of transmitting high levels of photosynthetically active radiation and of being stable under ambient solar UV radiation. The study was focused on evaluating films that either blocked or transmitted UV wavelengths below 380 nm to determine comparative growth, yield and market quality and to provide a tool for integrated pest management. Based on this survey, two contrasting covering materials of similar thickness (0.152 mm) and durability (4-year polyethylene), one a UV-blocking film and the other a UV-transmitting film, were selected and used to cover two high tunnels at Beltsville, MD. Spectroradiometric measurements were made to determine comparative spectral irradiance in these two high tunnels covered with these materials and under ambient solar UV radiation. Comparative measurements were also made of selected glass and plastic materials that have been used in UV exclusion studies.     

Condensed thiolane 1,1-dioxide systems. 3. Two modes of cyclization of N-substituted trans-3-chloro-4-thioureidothiolane 1,1-dioxides

Reaction of trans-3-chloro-A-aminothiolane 1,1-dioxide hydrochloride with aryl isothiocyanates gives, according to the base involved, cis-perhydrothieno[3,4-d]imidazole-2-thione 5,5-dioxides or the hitherto undescribed cis-2-aryliminoperhydrothieno 3,4-d] thiazole 5,5-dioxides.For Part 2, see [1].Deceased.Translated from Khimiya Geterotsiklicheskikh Soedinenii, No. 10, pp. 1420–1423, October, 1988.     

Influence of PAR and UV-A in determining plant sensitivity and photomorphogenic responses to UV-B radiation

The role of photosynthetically active radiation (400-700 nm) (PAR) in modifying plant sensitivity and photomorphogenic responses to ultraviolet-B (280-320 nm) (UV-B) radiation has been examined by a number of investigators, but few studies have been conducted on ultraviolet-A (320-400 nm) (UV-A), UV-B and PAR interactions. High ratios of PAR-UV-B and UV-A-UV-B have been found to be important in ameliorating UV-B damage in both terrestrial and aquatic plants. Growth chamber and greenhouse studies conducted at low PAR, low UV-A and high UV-B often show exaggerated UV-B damage. Spectral balance of PAR, UV-A and UV-B has also been shown to be important in determining plant sensitivity in field studies. In general, one observes a reduction in total biomass and plant height with decreasing PAR and increasing UV-B. The protective effects of high PAR against elevated UV-B may also be indirect, by increasing leaf thickness and the concentration of flavonoids and other phenolic compounds known to be important in UV screening. The quality of PAR is also important, with blue light, together with UV-A radiation, playing a key role in photorepair of DNA lesions. Further studies are needed to determine the interactions of UV-A, UV-B and PAR.     

Experimental study of clay deformability in terms of initial fabric and soil-water potential

Summary Included in this paper are the results of an experimental study directed toward improving our understanding of the complex relationship between the stress-strain behavior of clay and its initial fabric and soil-water potential. Three blocks of a kaolinite clay were consolidated from a slurry under controlled conditions of pore fluid chemistry and stress path, and the fabrics of these samples were evaluated by use of scanning electron microscopy, optical microscopy, andX-ray diffraction. Upon completion of consolidation, test specimens trimmed from these samples were placed under air pressure in an extractor and brought to equilibrium at soil-water potentials up to 15 bars. Fabric changes during this phase are expressed in terms of changes in dry density. Then, these specimens were subjected to a constant strain rate uniaxial compression test, and empirical relationships among the undrained modulus,Poisson's ratio, strength parameter, initial fabric, and soil-water potential at the beginning of the test are presented.With 9 figures     

On The Parameterized Intractability Of Motif Search Problems*

We show that Closest Substring, one of the most important problems in the field of consensus string analysis, is W[1]-hard when parameterized by the number k of input strings (and remains so, even over a binary alphabet). This is done by giving a “strongly structure-preserving” reduction from the graph problem Clique to Closest Substring. This problem is therefore unlikely to be solvable in time O(f(k)•n^c) for any function f of k and constant c independent of k, i.e., the combinatorial explosion seemingly inherent to this NP-hard problem cannot be restricted to parameter k. The problem can therefore be expected to be intractable, in any practical sense, for k ≥ 3. Our result supports the intuition that Closest Substring is computationally much harder than the special case of Closest String, althoughb othp roblems are NP-complete. We also prove W[1]-hardness for other parameterizations in the case of unbounded alphabet size. Our W[1]-hardness result for Closest Substring generalizes to Consensus Patterns, a problem arising in computational biology. * An extended abstract of this paper was presented at the 19th International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2002), Springer-Verlag, LNCS 2285, pages 262–273, held in Juan-Les-Pins, France, March 14–16, 2002. † Work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), research project “OPAL” (optimal solutions for hard problems in computational biology), NI 369/2. ‡ Work was done while the author was with Wilhelm-Schickard-Institut für Informatik, Universit?t Tübingen. Work was partially supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), Emmy Noether research group “PIAF” (fixed-parameter algorithms), NI 369/4.     

Nonobtuse Tetrahedral Partitions that Refine Locally Towards Fichera-Like Corners

Linear tetrahedral finite elements whose dihedral angles are all nonobtuse guarantee the validity of the discrete maximum principle for a wide class of second order elliptic and parabolic problems. In this paper we present an algorithm which generates nonobtuse face-to-face tetrahedral partitions that refine locally towards a given Fichera-like corner of a particular polyhedral domain. The first author was supported by the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research, the second author was supported by Grant No. 49051 of the Academy of Finland, the third author was supported by Grant No. A 1019201 of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and by Institutional Research Plan AV0Z 10190503.     

General auxiliary problem and algorithm for a generalized multi-valued variational-like inequality problem in reflexive Banach spaces

In this article, some generalized multi-valued variational-like inequality problems and their related general auxiliary problems in real reflexive Banach spaces are introduced. An existence theorem for one of the general auxiliary problems is proved. Furthermore, by exploiting this theorem, an algorithm for the corresponding generalized multi-valued variational-like inequality problem is constructed. The theorems of this article generalize, improve and unify many known corresponding results.