Takakura, T. and Fang, W. Climate under cover. 2nd edition

This is the second edition of a book first written by ProfessorTakakura in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It formed a course,for graduate students, on the simulation of the physical environmentsfor crops     

Floral biology, pollination and fertilisation in temperate zone fruit species and grape. * Kozma P, Nyeki J, Soltesz M, Szabo Z. 2003. * Budapest: Akademiai Kiado. $98 (hardback).621 pp.

The primary focus of this book is to discuss the floral biologyof the fruit crops including apple, grape, Ribes, Rubus, strawberry,the stone fruits and several     

Biofuels, facts, fantasy, and feasibility

It is frequently claimed that green algae are intrinsically more productive, often by orders of magnitude, than higher plants commonly grown as crops for food. There is no firm evidence for this belief. On the contrary, there is much experience which shows that algae are not more but less productive. Under optimal conditions, all green organisms photosynthesize at the same rate in low light and, whilst commonly cultivated ‘sun’ species show some differences in rate in full light, these do not translate into widely different rates of accumulation of biomass. Accordingly, irrespective of crop, one acre of land, pond or bioreactor, can annually yield about enough biomass to fuel one motor vehicle or meet the calorific requirement of several people. This amount of biomass is not sufficient to make other than a very small contribution to our present road transport requirements and yet contributes significantly to global food shortages and rising prices. Reliable evidence also suggests that, if all of the inputs are taken into account, the net energy gain of liquid biofuels, derived either from algae or terrestrial crops, is either very modest or non-existent and will therefore bring about little or no sparing of carbon dioxide emissions.     

Stomatal Infiltration in Irrigation Experiments on Cotton, Grain Sorghum, Groundnuts, Kenaf, Sesame and Wheat

Stomatal infiltration was observed in irrigation experimentson field crops of cotton, groundnuts, grain sorghum, kenaf,sesame and wheat in the Sudan. On days of peak scores afterrain or irrigation scores of all crops except groundnuts wereusually positive by sunrise. Rates of increase in score wereusually constant or decreasing through the 2 h period of themorning observations. During the midday hour there was usuallyno systematic trend and mean values of all crops except wheatwere generally about the same as at the end of the morning andbeginning of the afternoon periods of observation. Afternoonscores usually decreased linearly or approached zero at a slightlyincreasing rate but sometimes the decrease was very rapid. Peakscores were apparently not affected by fluctuations of totalirradiance of 300–1000 W m^–2 The problem of relatingscores to irradiance in the field is discussed. Scores fromall crops except kenaf tended to be smaller towards the endof the season. Flooding of the soil was followed by a largedecrease in sesame scores. Scores during the morning period increased less in unirrigatedthan in irrigated treatments in the absence of rain. The greatestdifferences between wet and dry treatments were usually duringmidday and afternoon periods. Regressions relating scores asa percentage of maximum to ‘operational’ soil watercontent were calculated. In terms of water content (0–60cm) as a percentage of oven d. wt, maximum scores were at 31–36percent; at 23–24 per cent scores of kenaf were 20 percent and of other crops 50 per cent of the maximum. The mean score indicating the level of the plateau attainedis likely to be more useful for scheduling irrigation than thetime of first positive score or the slope to it. The calculationby available statistical methods of a sample mean or differencebetween means at which irrigation should be scheduled, whencriteria for watering and withholding water at given absolutescores or differences from peak scores have been specified interms of probabilities, is described.     

Khachatourians, G.G., McHughen, A., Scorza, R., Nip, W.K. and Haui, Y.H. eds. Transgenic plants and crops

Readers of this journal may ask themselves whether the worldreally needs another multi-author volume on transgenic crops.Indeed, I asked the same question myself when invited to reviewthis new     

Shipley, B. Cause and correlation in Biology

As indicated by the title, this book seeks to address the relationshipbetween correlation and causation, with application to biologicaltopics. The book begins with a statement of three objectives:(1) to persuade biologists that it is possible to infer causationwith observational (non-experimental) data; (2) to describecertain methods that can assist in this process; and (3) toillustrate the methods presented using biological examples. A philosophical discussion of causation is potentially confusingand can often evoke debate, which necessitates some carefullycrafted effort at the beginning of the book to address the meaningof causation. Fortunately for all involved, the methods presenteddo not depend on any one particular definition     

The Lakes Handbook, Volume 1. Limnology and Limnetic Ecology. Edited by O'Sullivan P. E. and Reynolds C. S. (2004) Blackwell Science, Ltd. Oxford, UK. $204.95. ISBN 0-632-04797-6.

There is a lot to like about this book. There is also some disappointment.Because the list of chapter authors was such a stunning collectionof talent, I happily volunteered to read the book for the Journalof Plankton Research. It took less time to read it than thevolume’s five year gestation, but it was not all smoothsledding through 700     

Effects of fluquinconazole and silthiofam, applied as seed treatments to single or consecutive crops of wheat, on take-all epidemic development and grain yields

Seed treatments containing fluquinconazole, silthiofam or a standard fungicide mixture with no activity against take‐all were compared in all combinations of sequences in successive second and third winter wheat crops in five field experiments and second to fourth crops in a sixth experiment. Compared with the standard treatment, silthiofam decreased take‐all more effectively than fluquinconazole when crops were sampled at tillering. In samples taken in summer, during grain filling, silthiofam often decreased the incidence of take‐all (percentage of plants with root symptoms) more than fluquinconazole, but fluquinconazole more effectively decreased the incidence of severe take‐all (percentage of plants with more than 75% of their root systems blackened). It is suggested that these differences are a consequence of more effective control of primary infection of roots by silthiofam and of secondary, root‐to‐root, infection by fluquinconazole. Silthiofam usually increased yield more than did fluquinconazole, perhaps as a consequence of better early protection during tiller and/or spikelet formation. Treatment with either of the fungicides affected epidemic development in the treated crop and in crops grown subsequently. In particular, decreased take‐all had the effect of delaying the year‐to‐year epidemic, so that nontreatment of a subsequent crop resulted in an upsurge in disease. Treatment with either take‐all fungicide of a crop grown after a treated crop was relatively effective if the epidemic in the comparable nontreated crop sequence was continuing to increase. It was, however, detrimental if the disease was approaching its peak in the first treated crop, particularly if a treated (fourth wheat) crop was being compared with a similar crop in a nontreated sequence in which take‐all decline had developed. These results provide a basis for recommendations for the use of seed treatment fungicides in sequences of wheat crops.     

Effects of break crops,and of wheat volunteers growing in break crops or in set‐aside or conservation covers,all following crops of winter wheat,on the development of take‐all (Gaeumannomyces graminis var. tritici) in succeeding crops of winter wheat

Experiments on the Rothamsted and Woburn Experimental Farms studied the effects on take‐all of different break crops and of set‐aside/conservation covers that interrupted sequences of winter wheat. There was no evidence for different effects on take‐all of the break crops per se but the presence of volunteers, in crops of oilseed rape, increased the amounts of take‐all in the following wheat. Severity of take‐all was closely related to the numbers of volunteers in the preceding break crops and covers, and was affected by the date of their destruction. Early destruction of set‐aside/conservation covers was usually effective in preventing damaging take‐all in the following wheat except, sometimes, when populations of volunteers were very large. The experiments were not designed to test the effects of sowing dates but different amounts of take‐all in the first wheats after breaks or covers apparently affected the severity of take‐all in the following (second) wheats only where the latter were relatively late sown. In earlier‐sown second wheats, take‐all was consistently severe and unrelated to the severity of the disease in the preceding (first) wheats. Results from two very simple experiments suggested that substituting set‐aside/conservation covers for winter wheat, for 1 year only, did not seriously interfere with the development of take‐all disease or with the development or maintenance of take‐all decline (TAD). With further research, it might be possible for growers wishing to exploit TAD to incorporate set‐aside/conservation covers into their cropping strategies, and especially to avoid the worst effects of the disease on grain yield during the early stages of epidemics.     

Maclean, J.L., Dawe, D.C., Hardy, B. and Hettel, G.P. (eds) Rice almanac. 3rd edn

This book is the third in the series called Rice Almanac publishedby the International Rice Research Institute, Los Banos, Philippines.It will serve as a standard source book for the most importanteconomic activity on earth. The Almanac provides fully updatedrice production and consumption statistics from the top tenrice-producing countries, in addition to 54 other countriesfrom Afghanistan to Venezuela. The book is composed of chapterson     

Differing L-alanine germination requirements of hypochlorite-treated Clostridium botulinum spores from two crops.

Similar populations of hypochlorite-treated spores were enumerated from two crops of Clostridium botulinum 12885A produced by the same procedure; however, germination required different L-alanine concentrations. Lactate permitted the germination of spores from both crops with suboptimal L-alanine concentrations. The data suggest that the spores differ slightly in chemical or structural composition.     

Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Solutions Using R and Bioconductor. * Edited by Robert Gentleman, Wolfgang Huber, Vincent J. Carey, Rafael A. Irizarry and Sandrine Dudoit

This book guides through practical bioinformatics data analysisusing the Bioconductor toolkit, which is based on the statisticallanguage R. R itself is an open-source recreation of the languageS-Plus. The Bioconductor is a collection of R-packages for theanalysis of genomic and molecular biological data generatedin high-throughput experiments. High-throughput experimentsare characterized by large amounts of data generated in shortperiods of time on a sizable number of samples. This poses newchallenges to the analysis such as assessing and adjusting fornoise, exploration using cluster-analysis, visualization, andlinking to (or ‘annotating with’) biomedical knowledgebases. The book focuses on gene expression microarrays, the high-throughputtechnology for which statistical methods are best developedtoday. In addition, a     

Mengel, K. and Kirkby, E. A. Principles of plant nutrition

That this text book is now in its fifth edition clearly showsthe strength of its content and presentation, and its relevanceto the scientific community, which should include all thoseinterested in plants and their growth. There are 20 chapters.The first is an overview of definitions and processes whichare considered in much greater depth later. Then follow substantialchapters on ‘The Soil as a Plant Nutrient Medium’,     

Language,culture, and mind: trends and standards in the latest pendulum swing. Daniel Everett,Language: the cultural tool. London: Profile, 2012.

The study of language in relation to anthropological questions has deep and varied roots, from Humboldt and Boas, Malinowski and Vygotsky, Sapir and Whorf, Wittgenstein and Austin, through to the linguistic anthropologists of now. A recent book by the linguist Daniel Everett, Language: the cultural tool (2012), aims to bring some of the issues to a popular audience, with a focus on the idea that language is a tool for social action. I argue in this essay that the book does not represent the state of the art in this field, falling short on three central desiderata of a good account for the social functions of language and its relation to culture. I frame these desiderata in terms of three questions, here termed the cognition question, the causality question, and the culture question. I look at the relevance of this work for socio‐cultural anthropology, in the context of a major interdisciplinary pendulum swing that is incipient in the study of language today, a swing away from formalist, innatist perspectives, and towards functionalist, empiricist perspectives. The role of human diversity and culture is foregrounded in all of this work. To that extent, Everett's book is representative, but the quality of his argument is neither strong in itself nor representative of a movement that ought to be of special interest to socio‐cultural anthropologists.     

Review of Cognitive Therapy and Dreams.

In this article I review the book, "Cognitive Therapy and Dreams" (see record 2004-00029-000). I came across this book as I was recently searching psychological abstracts for dreams and cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and for hypnosis and CBT. Of the 9 references I found on dreams and CBT, all were in one issue of the Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy: An International Quarterly (Vol. 16, No. 1). I read a good number of the hypnosis-CBT articles and books, and all were written to integrate CBT into the field of hypnosis. Conversely, the dream articles integrating dream work and CBT were written by a range of people, some with a primary interest in dreams, but some with a more central interest in cognitive therapy. Apparently, a few cognitive-behavioral therapists and researchers have taken some interest in dream work, whereas the hypnosis interest in CBT continues mostly outside the domain of CBT. The collection of the nine articles published in the journal was an impressive enough accomplishment that eight articles of this collection plus four additional articles are now published in this book. The fact that these articles are now in a book may encourage researchers to perform the necessary therapy outcome research to validate the integration of dream work and CBT. The book adds significantly to the journal by drawing a distinction between objectivist approaches (Part II) and constructivist approaches (Part III), a distinction that unifies the articles in this book. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Computational Genome Analysis: an Introduction * Richard C. Deonier, Simon Tavare and Michael S. Waterman

I wish that I had had such a book 5 years ago, when I startedto switch my career from being a control engineer to a computationalbiologist. Like many people following the same path, I was eagerto prospect the biomedical fields in which my mathematical andcomputational expertise     

Comparison of effects of a self management booklet and audiocassette for patients with asthma.

The effects on self management of asthma of a specially prepared book and audiocassette tape with similar contents were observed in a controlled study of 177 patients with asthma in general practice. After a run in period of six months patients were randomly given the book, the tape, both the book and tape, or neither. Patients'' knowledge of the use of drugs, perceptions of their disability, skill in using an inhaler, consumption of drugs, consultations with their general practitioners, morbidity (from patients'' entries on diary cards), and use of the educational material were measured. Knowledge about the use of drugs was significantly increased in the groups who received the material after three months and persisted after 12 months. Patients who had been given the tape or the book and tape increased their scores of knowledge of drugs more than patients given the book alone. Patients in all groups given the material considered that their disability was reduced. There were no other significant changes. Patients given both the book and the tape preferred the book. Patients with asthma can obtain useful information from such material. The paradoxical result whereby patients learnt more from the tape but preferred the book suggests that a distinction can be made between information that patients need, which may be acquired better from an audiocassette, and information that they want, which may be acquired better from a book.     

二种危害小麦的草螟在中国的适生区

【目的】白眉野草螟Agriphila aeneociliella(Eversmann)是近几年在山东、山西发现严重危害小麦的新害虫,其同属的北美田草螟A.vulgivagella(Clemens)在美国和加拿大危害小麦、黑麦等,它们是否可以对全国小麦主产区构成威胁,需要进行其适生区的研究。【方法】根据现有分布区的最佳拟合获得预测参数,利用CLIMEX模型获得2种害虫在全国小麦生产区的适生区。【结果】白眉野草螟和北美田草螟在我国小麦主要产区均具有很高的适生性(EI值>20)。【结论】对白眉野草螟加强防控防止扩散危害、对北美田草螟加强检疫防止入侵我国,对保护我国小麦安全生产均具有重要意义。     

The release of genetically modified crops into the environment. Part II. Overview of ecological risk assessment

Despite numerous future promises, there is a multitude of concerns about the impact of GM crops on the environment. Key issues in the environmental assessment of GM crops are putative invasiveness, vertical or horizontal gene flow, other ecological impacts, effects on biodiversity and the impact of presence of GM material in other products. These are all highly interdisciplinary and complex issues. A crucial component for a proper assessment is defining the appropriate baseline for comparison and decision. For GM crops, the best and most appropriately defined reference point is the impact of plants developed by traditional breeding. The latter is an integral and accepted part of agriculture. In many instances, the putative impacts identified for GM crops are very similar to the impacts of new cultivars derived from traditional breeding. When assessing GM crops relative to existing cultivars, the increased knowledge base underpinning the development of GM crops will provide greater confidence in the assurances plant science can give on the risks of releasing such crops.     

Review of The Mind at Night: The New Science of How and Why We Dream.

In this article I review "The Mind at Night: The New Science of How and Why We Dream," written by Andrea Rock. To begin with this book is an exciting journey through modern dream research. Scientific facts, which are skillfully explained, are complemented by personal accounts of well-known researchers in the field obtained through interviews. The diversity of the themes addressed in the book (e.g., sleep and memory, animal research, imaging studies, dream content analysis, consciousness research, creativity, and lucid dreaming) clearly shows the extensive "detective work" the author has accomplished. The major problem I had--as a researcher in this field--was the structure, or the lack of structure, within the book. Because of the way the book is organized, I decided to structure this review along the following themes: REM sleep, REM sleep and dreaming, biology of dreaming, dream content findings, and the integration of dream research into cognitive neuroscience in general. Despite the lack of structure of the book, Andrea Rock has written a wonderful book about modern dream research that is stimulating for researchers as well as for interested lay persons. I recommend it to everyone who is interested in dream research, the old question of the mind-body relationship, or understanding consciousness in general. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)