Conventional Grain Research Articles

Obsah fuz�riov�ch mykotox�nov ekologicky a konvencne pestovan�ch obiln�n na Slovensku

Many species of Fusariumfungi can produce a number of different mycotoxins including trichothecenes such as deoxynivalenol (DON), nivalenol (NIV), zearalenone (ZEA) and others. The farming system have an effect on quality of grown plants, including mycotoxin contamination. The contamination of winter wheat (Triticum aestivumL.) and rye grain by toxins with focus on the genus Fusarium was monitored within the years 2009 –2011 under the official control according to EC Regulation 401/2006 and 178/2010 on the territory of the Slovak Republic in organic and conventional grains. The concentration of deoxynivalenol (DON) was determined by HPLC/DAD detector and concentration of zearalenone (ZEA) by HPLC/FLD detector. Results of analysed samples showed that DON was the most prevalent Fusarium toxin. In the analysed samples were observed significant differences between organic and conventional wheat samples. Results showed that samples from organic production contained significantly lower contamination of DON and ZEA mycotoxins than from conventional production. In four wheat samples from conventional production was the content of DON over the EC Regulation no. 1881/2006 about setting the maximum levels for certain contaminants in foodstuff. Within the observed period, the highest DON concentrations were observed in the year 2010, in both wheat and rye samples, and organic and conventional production. The year 2010 was characterised by constant rain, moist soil on the most area of Slovakia. Since lower contamination of Fusarium toxins was found in wheat and rye from organic farming, it can be concluded, that factors related to agricultural practices in this system can reduce the risk of Fusarium mycotoxin contamination.

Microstructure and Tribological Properties of Plasma-sprayed WC-17 Co Coatings with Different Carbide Grain Size Distribution

In the present work, three experimental WC-17 Co plasma sprayed coatings were developed from submicrostructured, conventional and bimodal (composing of 30 wt.% submicrostuctured and 70 wt.% conventional WC grain) agglomerated powder. The effect of carbide size distribution on the microstructure, phase structure and properties such as microhardness, fracture toughness and sliding wear performance of three coatings were measured. The experimental results indicated that bimodal coating had little porosity of microstructure with lower degree of decarburization of the WC phase to W2C and Co6W6C phases, consequently, showed both high microhardness and fracture toughness, e.g. the microhardness is similar to that of the submicrostuctured one and the fracture toughness is comparable to that of the conventional one. The coefficient of friction for the coatings decreased slightly with increasing test load, and that friction coefficient of bimodal coating was lower than the other ones. The wear loss of both submicrostuctured and conventional coatings were higher than the bimodal coating and increased with increasing test load. The microscopic analyses of the wear surface showed the cobalt extrusion followed by carbide fracture, or pulled out were the predominant failure mechanism. Besides that, fatigue cracking of the submicrostuctured coating at a high test load played an importance on the wear mechanism.

Effect of Pt and CeO2 on Growth of Y-123/nano-Y2O3 Single Grain Superconductors

The top seeded melt growth (TSMG) process is used widely to grow single grain, bulk superconductors for high field engineering applications. Within the TSMG process, the flux pinning ability of a single-grain bulk superconductor can be improved effectively by reducing the size of starting precursor powders prior to melt processing. This paper investigates the preparation of Y-123/nano-Y <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> O <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sub> single-grain samples based on TSMG process. A large number of microcracks and significant inhomogeneity were found in samples containing Pt and CeO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> additives, respectfully. This reduces the performance of samples made from nano Y <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> O <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sub> starring powders. A pretreatment of the starting powders was developed to decrease microcracks and improve the homogeneity of Y-123/nano-Y <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> O <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sub> single grain samples. The influence of Pt and CeO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> doping on the superconducting properties of the fully processed single grain were also investigated in detail. The Y-123/nano-Y <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> O <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sub> based samples exhibit features that are rarely seen in conventional YBCO single grain, bulk superconductors.

Variations in through-thickness recrystallization and grain growth textures in the Al layers in ARB-processed Al/Al(0.3% Sc) composite sheets

This investigation aims to understand the differences in the recrystallization and grain growth textures in aluminum layers along the thickness direction of two layered composite sheets. The sheets were processed by five cycle accumulative roll bonding of commercially pure aluminum and an aluminum alloy containing 0.3wt.% Sc both in the supersaturated solid solution and artificially aged conditions. Electron back scattered diffraction and transmission electron microscopy were used to characterize the microstructure and crystallography of the rolled and annealed composites. During the early stages of annealing the β-fiber rolling textures remain unchanged and becomes sustained by the so-called continuous recrystallization process. Then, at the completion of primary recrystallization in the later stages of annealing, orientation selective recrystallization occurs and the Brass orientation becomes eliminated. A strong β-fiber primary recrystallization texture was found to be favorable for the secondary recrystallization growth of Cube orientations. Otherwise, conventional grain growth occurs when the primary recrystallization textures have distortions in the β-fiber.

High ductility of a bi-modal Mg-7wt.%Y alloy at low temperature prepared by high pressure boriding and semi-solid extrusion

A bi-modal Mg-7wt.%Y alloy has been successfully prepared by a novel route of high pressure boriding and semi-solid extrusion. It reveals superplasticity at a temperature of ~170°C at the strain rate of 1×10−3s−1. The grain size ranges from hundreds nanometer to 150μm, wherein the fine grains provide good strength in terms of Hall–Petch relationship, while the coarse grains offer high ductility due to high dislocation storage efficiency. Compared with conventional single fine or coarse grains, this bi-modal structure is confirmed as a more effective pathway in promoting the deformability of Mg alloys because of the occurrence of extension twinning, the presence of large angle grain boundaries and stable nano-scale YB12 particles with a high melting point.

Effect of Carrier Volume on Grain Sorghum Response to Simulated Drift of Nicosulfuron

Research was conducted in 2010 and 2012 to determine the effect of simulated drift of nicosulfuron on growth and yield of grain sorghum. Herbicide rates represented 25, 12.5, and 6.3% of the use rate of nicosulfuron at 52 g ai ha−1. Nicosulfuron was applied in a constant carrier volume of 224 L ha−1where herbicide concentration decreased with reduction in rate, and in carrier volumes of 56, 28, and 14 L ha−1proportional to the 25, 12.5, and 6.3% herbicide rates, respectively. In 2010, grain sorghum injury and yield were greater when nicosulfuron was applied in constant compared to proportional carrier volume. Grain sorghum injury and plant height reduction increased with increasing nicosulfuron rate when averaged across carrier volume both years. In 2012, there was a greater reduction in grain sorghum yield from nicosulfuron applied in proportional carrier volume. These data indicate that simulated drift of nicosulfuron onto conventional grain sorghum causes significant height and yield reduction even at the lowest herbicide rate tested, and the effect of carrier volume may be influenced by seasonal rainfall.

Moving boundary modeling of conventional and transgenic soybean hydration: Moisture profile and moving front experimental validation

Mass or heat transfer may cause an increase or a decrease in the size of the analyzed system. Moving boundaries are present in phase exchange processes (heat) and in moisture diffusion in polymers and grains (mass), for example. In the case of grain hydration, the increase in grain size can reach 30–40% of the initial grain size. Fick’s Second Law of Diffusion was used for modeling conventional and transgenic soybean grain cultivars. The model was modified to consider the increase in the spatial grid caused by the increase in grain size during hydration. The moisture profiles were obtained for both cultivars and then validated using experimental data on moisture as a function of time for five different temperatures, fitting very well to said experimental data. Grain radius as a function of time, as calculated by the model, was also compared with experimental data. There was a slight difference between the values for the radius calculated by the model and those from experimental data due to the disproportionate growth of the soybean seedcoat in a preferred direction. The proposed model has been satisfactory for the mathematical description of grain hydration with increase in grain size. Its applicability may be extended to spherical systems undergoing changes in radial direction during mass diffusion processes.

Appearance of large crystalline domains in VO2 films grown on sapphire (001) and their phase transition characteristics

We report the first observation of large crystalline domains of several μm-size in VO2 films deposited on Al2O3 (001) substrates by rf-biased reactive sputtering technique. The large crystalline domains, dominated with random in-plane oriented growth of (011)M1-orientation, appear only under adequate substrate biasing, such as 10 W, while most biasing conditions result in conventional nanosized grains of highly oriented (010)M1-orientation. Two temperature-controlled analyses, x-ray diffraction and micro-Raman spectroscopy, have revealed that some parts of large crystalline domains undergo intermediate monoclinic (M2) phase during the thermally-induced structural phase transition from monoclinic (M1) to rutile-tetragonal (R) phase. As an effect of the appearance of large crystalline domains, the film showed in-plane tensile stress, resulting in high TIMT of 69 °C due to the elongation of the V-V distance in its low-temperature monoclinic phase.

Understanding perennial wheat adoption as a transformative technology: evidence from the literature and farmers

AbstractPerennial grain crops are an example of a ‘transformative technology,’ in which the functionality and science of the technology differ in a fundamental manner from conventional grain crops. A review of the literature indicates that the motivation for farmer adoption of transformative technologies is complex and poorly understood. At the same time, many studies have found concern and awareness about environmental issues to be significantly and positively correlated with the adoption of no-till agriculture, organic farming and agroforestry. Building on these insights, we conducted an ex ante study of perennial wheat adoption among 11 farmers from Michigan and Ohio. Perennial wheat is not yet commercially available, so a semi-structured interview format was chosen to allow for in-depth discussions of the crop's potential characteristics and uses. Consistent with the literature on transformative technology adoption, farmers who approached us to learn more about perennial grains described soil and environmental quality as their primary motivations for doing so. Farmers suggested a total of ten different uses for perennial wheat, only one of which was mentioned specifically by interviewers. This diversity of proposed uses implied a wide range of criteria for adoption. A striking result was that the ability of perennial wheat to compete with annual wheat on the basis of yield, a focus of researchers, was brought up by only one of the interviewees, as many farmers proposed perennial wheat as a means of solving a problem for which no other crop provided an adequate solution, often by planting perennial wheat on an under-used or marginal area of the farm. This is suggestive that interacting with farmers could alter priorities in perennial grain improvement, as has occurred in other radically transformative agriculture technologies.

Water Quality in Organic Systems

&lt;p&gt;Non-point source contamination is a major water quality concern in the upper Midwestern USA, where plant nutrients, especially NO&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt;-N, are susceptible to leaching due to extensive subsurface draining of the highly productive, but poorly drained, soils found in this region. Environmental impacts associated with intensive mineral fertilization in conventional production have encouraged producers to investigate organic methods. The USDA-ARS Organic Water Quality (OWQ) experiment, established in 2011, compares organic (C-S-O/A-A) and conventional (C-S) crop rotations and an organic pasture (bromegrass, fescue, alfalfa, white clover) system. Thirty fully-instrumented, subsurface-drained plots (30.5 m × 30.5 m) laid out in a randomized block design with 5 field replications, isolate subsurface drainage from each plot and permit comparison of treatment effects on subsurface drainage water flow and nutrient concentrations. Objectives for this study were to quantify growing season subsurface drainage water flow, NO&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt;-N concentrations, and NO&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt;-N loads for conventional and organic grain cropping systems from 2012-2014. Temporal patterns of subsurface drainage water flux were similar for all cropping systems for all years, except for the pasture system in 2012 and subsurface drainage water N concentrations were highest in the conventional C-S system except for the early spring 2012. Subsurface drainage water N loading loss for the entire 3-year period from the conventional C-S system (79.2 kgN ha&lt;sup&gt;-1&lt;/sup&gt;) was nearly twice as much as the N loss from the organic C-S-O/A-A system (39.9 kgN ha&lt;sup&gt;-1&lt;/sup&gt;); the pasture system (16.5 kgN ha&lt;sup&gt;-1&lt;/sup&gt;) lost the least amount of N over the 3 years. Results of this study suggest that organic farming practices, such as the application of composted animal manure and the use of forage legumes and green manures within extended cropping rotations, can improve water quality in Midwestern subsurface-drained landscapes.&lt;/p&gt;

Use of a pelleted corn-residue complete feed in calf receiving diets

ABSTRACT A receiving experiment compared a complete pelleted feed (PEL) to a mixed receiving diet (CON) on performance and morbidity of newly received calves. The pellets consisted primarily of corn residue and were designed to replace a conventional grain and forage diet, whereas CON consisted of 32% distillers grains, 32% dry-rolled corn, 32% alfalfa, and 4% supplement to provide vitamins, minerals, and 150 mg per steer monensin daily. The experiment used crossbred steer calves (n = 1,318; initial BW = 266 ± 1.57 kg) in 2 separate locations (an eastern Nebraska location and a western Nebraska location). Within location, steers were blocked by date received and source, and then assigned randomly to pen. Pens within location were assigned randomly to CON or PEL. A treatment × location interaction was observed for DMI (P = 0.03). At the western Nebraska location, no difference in DMI was observed (5.8 vs. 5.9 kg/d for CON and PEL, respectively; P = 0.46); however, DMI was greater for PEL at the eastern Nebraska location (6.7 vs. 7.0 kg/d for CON and PEL, respectively; P 0.18). The PEL decreased ADG and G:F (P

Microwave and conventional sintering and grain growth behavior of nano-Nb doped BaTiO3 prepared from microwave hydrothermal powders

Microwave-assisted hydrothermal synthesis of nano-Nb doped BaTiO3 was performed at 150°C for 2 hours, using C16H36O4Ti, Ba(OH)2 · 8H2O, NbCl5 and NaOH as starting chemicals. The resulting powder deposited on to Al2O3 substrates with print screen method and were sintered by Microwave Sintering (MS) of 2.45 GHz at 950°C for 20 min and Conventional Sintering (CS) at 950°C for 90 min in the air atmosphere. It is observed that the grain growth can be suppressed by 2.45 GHz microwave heating process. The grains size distribution of sample sintered for 20 min with microwave heating process was rather uniform with lower grain size and higher surface area. Microstructure, surface morphology and grain size of the thick films were studied by Field-Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and the surface area analysis with the Brunauer—Emmett—Teller (BET) method and the Barrett—Joyner—Halenda (BJH) method used for the pore size distribution.

Fine grained microstructure crystallographic feature and its effect on mechanical behavior in Ni–Cr–W superalloy

The microstructure, texture and microsegregation in conventional and fine grained ingots of Ni–Cr–W superalloy were experimentally charactered by metallography, field emission scanning electron microscope equipped with an Electron Backscatter Diffraction and electron probe microanalysis, respectively. Distribution of misorientation angles results indicates that the proportion of low-angle grain boundaries and high-angle grain boundaries is about 15% and 85%, respectively, demonstrating that the particles are genuinely separate grains with mostly high-angle boundaries. Further, inverse pole figure results supply evidence for elucidating the mechanism of grain refinement due to a high effective nucleation rate which is attributed to extremely uniform temperature and composition fields in the bulk liquid at early stages of solidification. Element segregation at the grain boundary of equiaxed fine grain microstructure is smaller than that of the conventional dendrite grain microstructure. The effect of different morphologies of microstructure on yield strength was investigated. The effect of different average grain sizes on micro-hardness and yield strength was also analyzed. Relationship between yield strength and the grain size of this alloy followed the Hall–Petch relationship: σs=700+422d−1/2.

Isoflavone and Mineral Content in Conventional and Transgenic Soybean Cultivars

The objective of this study was to evaluate the differences in composition among six brands of conventional soybean and six genetically modified cultivars (GM). We focused on the isoflavones profile and mineral content questioning the substantial equivalence between conventional and GM organisms. The statement of compliance label for conventional grains was verified for the presence of genetic modified genes by real time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). We did not detect the presence of the 35S promoter in commercial samples, indicating the absence of transgene insertion. For mineral analysis, we used the method of inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). Isoflavones quantification was performed by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The results showed no statistical difference between the conventional and transgenic soybean groups concerning isoflavone content and mineral composition. The concentration of potassium, the main mineral component of soy, was the highest in conventional soybeans compared to that in GM soy, while GM samples presented the highest concentrations of iron.

Quantification of Alternaria, Cladosporium, Fusarium and Penicillium verrucosum in Conventional and Organic Grains by qPCR

AbstractWe analysed the levels of Alternaria, Cladosporium, Fusarium and Penicillium verrucosum in grain samples harvested in 2011 and 2012 from conventional and organic farms using qPCR. In general, both Alternaria and Cladosporium occurred in all cereal grains in the highest quantities, followed by P. verrucosum and Fusarium. Alternaria, Cladosporium and P. verrucosum had the highest levels in crop mixtures, barley and rye and lower levels in wheat, while Fusarium levels were the highest in crop mixtures and wheat. The levels of Alternaria and P. verrucosum were higher in organic rye and wheat than conventional grains. Although the level of Fusarium was higher in conventional than organic rye, opposite results were obtained for crop mixtures. A positive correlation was found between Alternaria, Cladosporium and P. verrucosum, indicating that similar factors might affect the distribution of these fungi in grains.

Genetically Modified Feeds in Poultry Diet: Safety, Performance, and Product Quality

Concerns have been expressed regarding the safety of using biotechnology derived feeds in diets of livestock animals and in regard to human consumption of products from species fed transgenic crops. As a consequence, a large number of poultry nutrition studies have been conducted to evaluate the wholesomeness of transgenic crops by examining performances of animals during growth or egg laying. Studies also evaluated whether foreign DNA and proteins could be detected in meat, egg, and tissue samples from broiler chickens and laying hens fed diets containing transgenic feeds. In all studies, the conclusions were in agreement that the transgenic crops provided comparable performance, carcass and egg yields, and meat and egg composition, when compared with conventional grains. Moreover, it was demonstrated that transgenic proteins and DNA present in livestock feeds are not detectable in food products derived from these animals, using the most sensitive detection methods available, confirming that they are rapidly degraded by normal digestive processes. The lack of significant differences were a result of the similarity in nutrient composition of the genetically modified feeds and lack of differences in intake and digestibility, while there were no evidences that the differences reported for performance response variables and carcass measurements between treatment groups were attributable to the presence of the transgenic gene and protein in the biotechnology derived plants. Results demonstrated that genetically modified feeds are substantially equivalent and they result as safe as existing conventional feeds.

Grain growth and structural relaxation of nanocrystalline Bi2Te3

Recovery and grain growth behavior is investigated systematically for the nanocrystalline thermoelectric compound bismuth telluride, synthesized by mechanical alloying. During annealing treatments at elevated temperatures, structural evolution is tracked using x-ray diffraction, electron microscopy and calorimetry. Below a homologous temperature of about 0.6Tm, grain growth occurs slowly with an activation energy of 89 kJ/mol. However above this temperature grain growth becomes more rampant with an activation energy of 242 kJ/mol. The transition is attributed to a shift from a relaxation or recovery process that includes some reordering of the grain boundary structure, to a more conventional diffusionally-limited grain growth process. By extrapolating the measured grain growth and microstrain evolution kinetics, a thermal budget map is constructed, permitting recommendations for improving the thermoelectric properties of nanocrystalline materials processed via a powder route.

Registration of ‘Antonio’, a Very Early Maturing and High Yielding U.S. Conventional Long Grain Rice Cultivar

Registration of ‘Antonio’, a Very Early Maturing and High Yielding U.S. Conventional Long Grain Rice Cultivar

Point contact investigations of film and interface magnetoresistance of La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 heterostructures on Nb:SrTiO3

STM based magnetotransport measurements of epitaxial La 0.7 Sr 0.3 MnO 3 31 nm thick films with and without an internal LaMnO 3 layer (0–3.1 nm thick) grown on Nb doped SrTiO 3 are presented. The measurements reveal two types of low field magnetoresistance (LFMR) with a magnitude of ~0.1–1.5%. One LFMR contribution is identified as a conventional grain boundary/domain wall scattering through the symmetric I–V characteristics, high dependence on tip placements and insensitivity to introduction of LaMnO 3 layers. The other contribution originates from the reverse biased Nb doped SrTiO 3 interface and the interface layer of La 0.7 Sr 0.3 MnO 3 . Both LFMR contributions display a field dependence indicative of a higher coercivity (~200 Oe) than the bulk film. LaMnO 3 layers are found to reduce the rectifying properties of the junctions, and sub-micron lateral patterning by electron beam lithography enhances the diodic properties, in accordance with a proposed transport model based on the locality of the injected current. • Low field magnetoresistivity of domain walls and interfaces display a coercivity higher than the bulk film. • The manganite/substrate interface displays a diodic, bias dependent magnetoresistivity. • Domain wall induced magnetoresistivity is bias voltage symmetric.

Investigation of the mechanical behaviour of Ti–6Al–4V alloy under hot forming conditions: Experiment and modelling

The present investigation aims at evaluating and understanding the formability of Ti–6Al–4V alloy under hot forming conditions (650 °C ≤ T ≤ 750 °C). To fulfil these objectives, it was necessary to establish accurate material models and predict microscopic material evolution depending on temperature and strain rate. Two kinds of microstructure were investigated, the first one considers a conventional grain size of the α‐phase (3 µm) whereas a combined forging‐rolling process is used to elaborate the second one and allows to obtain a very fine grain of the α‐phase (0.5 µm). In this research work, we propose to investigate the capabilities of the titanium alloy under forming conditions quite different from those usually considered in superplastic forming process (lower temperatures and higher strain rates).