(Press-News.org) College Park, Md. (April 6, 2011) -- Most people experience X-ray computed tomography (CT) scanners when they are evaluated for a suspected tumor or blood clot. But in the lab of Dr. Quin Liu, PhD., in Wuhan China, rice plants were the patients in a novel use of CT scanners as part of an agriculture study to increase rice yield.
Into the CT scanner on a conveyor belt went little potted rice plants in an automated facility that could process 4,320 rice plants a day. The non-invasive CT energy analyzed tissues and matched their traits against a computer program to aid rice breeders in selecting plants with the best rice tillers. Tillers are specialized grain-bearing shoots of the plant that determine grain yield—and therefore are crucial to crop success.
Given that an estimated 3 billion people around the globe depend on one of the many species of rice for survival, demand pressure is high on rice breeders to maximize yield. Constructing large-scale, high-throughput automated industrial rice growing facilities helps. But one aspect of rice farming—tillering—is still done by hand. It is therefore vulnerable to human error that can undermine the success of a crop.
"In rice breeding, it is imperative that the traits of the tillers that result from hybridization or mutation are monitored and analyzed accurately," Dr. Liu explains. "This is true because with modern crop breeding methods using genetically modified organisms, it is possible to produce hundreds of new varieties daily. We need efficient techniques for screening the best plant material possible. Automating tillering by CT provided higher throughput, higher measurement accuracy and lower cost than other technologies previously used to measure the tillers on rice plants."
In the study, Dr. Liu collaborated with Wanneng Yang, Xiochun Xu, Lingfeng Duan, Qingming Luo, Shangbin Chen and Shaoqun Zeng at the Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics-Huazhong University of Science and Technology.
###
ABOUT AIP
The American Institute of Physics is an organization of 10 physical sciences societies representing more than 135,000 scientists, engineers, and educators and is one of the largest publishers of scientific information in physics. AIP also delivers valuable resources and expertise in education and student services, science communication, government relations, career services for science and engineering professionals, statistical research, industrial outreach, and the history of physics and other sciences. Offering publishing solutions for scientific societies and organizations in science and engineering, AIP pursues innovation in electronic publishing of scholarly journals. AIP publishes 13 journals (journals.aip.org), 2 magazines—including its flagship publication, Physics Today—and the AIP Conference Proceedings series. Scitation, AIP's online publishing platform, hosts 1.6 million articles from 190 scholarly journals, proceedings, and eBooks of learned society publishers. AIP also provides the international physical science community with UniPHY, the first literature-based social and professional networking site; it features pre-populated profiles of more than 300,000 scientists and enables collaboration among researchers worldwide.
REVIEW OF SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS
Review of Scientific Instruments, published by the American Institute of Physics, is devoted to scientific instruments, apparatus, and techniques. Its contents include original and review articles on instruments in physics, chemistry, and the life sciences; and sections on new instruments and new materials. One volume is published annually. Conference proceedings are occasionally published and supplied in addition to the Journal's scheduled monthly issues. RSI publishes information on instruments, apparatus, techniques of experimental measurement, and related mathematical analysis. Since the use of instruments is not confined to the physical sciences, the journal welcomes contributions from any of the physical and biological sciences and from related cross-disciplinary areas of science and technology. See: http://rsi.aip.org/
END
When it comes to arguing and proving medical malpractice claims at trial, providing strong expert testimony to support these cases is crucial. The Supreme Court of Connecticut recently decided a case, Klein v. Norwalk, which highlights this important tactic, as well as the standard for disclosing what points an expert will make during testimony. Although this case had a long and difficult journey through multiple Connecticut courts, and continues to make waves, the Connecticut Supreme Court made Klein v. Norwalk a noteworthy opinion.
Klein's Claim
According to the ...
CORAL GABLES, FL (April 6, 2011)—Learning how babies communicate can teach us a lot about the development of human social interactions. Psychologist Daniel Messinger, from the University of Miami (UM), studies infants' interactions and has found that babies are not simply living in the moment. Instead, infants seem to have particular interests that create historical footprints reflected in the infants' visual engagement over time. The findings were published today, in a study titled, 'Are You Interested, Baby?' Young Infants Exhibit Stable Patterns of Attention during Interaction." ...
College Park, Md. (April 6, 2011) -- A new drug delivery device designed and constructed by Jie Chen, Thomas Cesario and Peter Rentzepis promises to unlock the potential of photosensitive chemicals to kill drug-resistant infections and perhaps cancer tumors as well.
Photosensitive chemicals are molecules that release single oxygen atoms and chemical radicals when illuminated. These radicals are very active chemically, and can rip apart and destroy bacteria, said Peter Rentzepis, a professor of chemistry at University of California, Irvine.
Yet photosensitive chemicals ...
Watching your parents age is an emotional and often challenging experience. For members of the "sandwich" generation, the need to consider care for aging parents comes while parenting duties for their own children continue. The double-duty can be difficult, especially serious health and financial issues are involved.
The Child Becomes the Caregiver
For example, many adult children must make sudden decisions when mom or dad falls and breaks a hip or is diagnosed with the first signs of Alzheimer's disease.
Once this happens, the tables have turned, and the child ...
BEER-SHEVA, ISRAEL - April 7, 2011 – A large cohort study following 37,000 teenagers for 17 years found that an elevated, yet normal range Body Mass Index (BMI) constitutes a substantial risk factor for obesity-related disorders in young adults (age 30-40).
The study showed that elevated BMI in adolescence has distinctive relationships with type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease in young adulthood.
Researchers showed that diabetes is influenced mainly by recent BMI and weight gain. However, for coronary heart disease, both elevated BMI in adolescence and recent ...
COLUMBIA, Mo. - Youths identified as American Indian or Alaska Native (AI/AN) have the greatest lifetime smoking rate of all racial groups, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. Nearly half of the 1.2 million AI/AN youths in the U.S. smoke cigarettes. A University of Missouri study found that public health strategies to combat smoking should teach refusal skills to help youths combat smoking influences, including family members and peers.
"Smoking and quitting behaviors are heavily influenced by factors in the immediate environment, including family, ...
For almost a quarter of a century, the Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control has distributed alcohol permits to bar and restaurant owners based on a formulaic population quota system rooted in state law. But this system of liquor license rationing has proven a major headache for enterprising Utah restaurant moguls looking to take advantage of one of the fastest growing markets for eateries in the nation.
Census reports show slower than expected population growth in Utah (so the number of issued liquor licenses actually exceeds the amount technically allowed ...
A recent news story talks about the tension between driving safely and the proliferation of electronic devices one can use in a car. Many of them can now be used "hands free" with the hope that it will prevent drivers from fumbling around, trying to type in a number or a text as they drive down the highway.
Not everyone is convinced that merely making cell phones, GPSs, iPods and every other electronic device people use in cars, hands free will really help people drive safely.
Studies by the National Transportation Safety Board have pointed out that texting while ...
COLUMBIA, Mo. - More than 40 percent of Americans have at least one step relative, according to a recent Pew Center study. Relationships between stepchildren and stepparents can be complicated, especially for children. University of Missouri experts have found that stepchildren relate with stepparents based on the stepparents' treatment of them and their evaluations, or judgments, of the stepparents' behaviors.
"It takes both parties – children and adults – to build positive relationships in stepfamilies," said Larry Ganong, professor in the Department of Human Development ...
WASHINGTON—April 6, 2011—With Congress at a budget impasse, a new poll suggests the nation's leaders should look more deeply at the public's priorities, particularly regarding proposed cuts to medical, health and scientific research. Research!America urges our nation's leaders to put the public's interest and the nation's future ahead of politics and to move past polarizing budget battles and the uncertainty of continuing resolutions that resolve nothing. Americans are hungry for solutions from Washington.
The poll, commissioned by Research!America, surveyed a mix of ...
