The ribbons created at Rice are thousands of times thinner than a sheet of paper yet have potential that far outweighs current materials for their ability to charge
Cathodes built into half-cells for testing at Rice fully charged and discharged in 20 seconds
In the best samples made at Rice fully 84 percent of the cathode's weight was the lithium-slurping VO2
The researchers led by Rice graduate student Yongji Gong and lead author Shubin Yang said they believe that to be among the best overall performance ever seen for lithium-ion battery electrodes.
We think this is real progress in the development of cathode materials for high-power lithium-ion batteries Ajayan said suggesting the ribbons'ability to be dispersed in a solvent might make them suitable as a component in the paintable batteries developed in his lab. Co-authors of the new paper are Rice graduate students
former Rice visiting researcher Liang Zhan now an associate professor at East China University of Science and Technology in Shanghai;
#Elevated carbon dioxide in atmosphere trims wheat, sorghum moisture needsplenty has been written about concerns over elevated levels of carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere
Our experiments have shown that the elevated carbon dioxide that we now have is mitigating the effect that drought has on winter wheat
Our experiments showed that higher carbon dioxide compensated for reductions in growth of winter wheat due to drought.
Wheat that grew under elevated carbon dioxide (2. 4 times ambient) and drought yielded as well as wheat that grew under the ambient level carbon dioxide and well-watered conditions.
The research showed that sorghum and winter wheat used water more efficiently as a result of the increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere Kirkham said.
Because elevated carbon dioxide closes stomata (pores on the leaves through which water escapes) less water is used
Due to the increased carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere it now takes 55 milliliters (ml) less water to produce a gram of sorghum grain than it did in 1958 she said.
#Understanding the continuous corn yield penaltyas escalating corn prices have encouraged many farmers to switch to growing corn continuously they wonder why they have been seeing unusually high yield reductions over the past several years.
The University of Illinois conducted a six-year study that identified three key factors affecting yield in continuous corn (CC) systems.
Prior to this study the most common management recommendations for continuous corn production were to apply an additional 45 pounds of nitrogen per acre
or mechanisms causing reduced yields in continuous corn systems. Although corn can be cropped continuously it is accepted widely that there is a yield reduction compared to corn rotated with soybean (CS.
This difference is referred to as the continuous corn yield penalty (CCYP) which is generally in the range of 20 to 30 bushels per acre.
The 2012 growing season marked the third consecutive year of unusually high CCYP values in the U s. Midwest often with corn yields that were 30 to 50 bushels per acre less than corn following soybean.
The researchers conducted the experiment from 2005 to 2010 in east-central Illinois beginning with corn produced in a third-year CC system or A CS rotation at six N fertilizer rates.
The study investigated: 1) how the yield penalty changed with time in CC 2) under
On average corn yield at the agronomically optimum N rate for CC was compared 167 bushels to 192 bushels per acre for CS--a CCYP of 25 bushels per acre.
Unfertilized CC yield is an indicator of how much N the soil is supplying to the corn crop either from residual fertilizer N or from decomposition of previous crop residues and other organic matter (N mineralization.
This conclusion is at odds with the claims of many Corn belt farmers who argue that corn yields in CC eventually attain the same level as CS rotations.
Yield reductions resulting from additional years of continuous corn production mirror the effects of residue accumulation
when corn is cropped continuously said U of I crop physiologist Fred Below another co-author.
It is documented well that corn residues introduce a host of physical chemical and biological effects that negatively influence corn yields.
Effects of accumulated corn residues include reduced soil temperature increased soil moisture reduced N fertilizer availability and production of autotoxic chemicals all of
which can negatively affect growth and future corn crop development. The final predictor of the CCYP difference in CC and CS delta yields (the difference between the yield where no N was applied
and the maximum yield under non-N limiting conditions) is probably a function of weather conditions particularly during critical growth periods such as ovule determination and grain fill.
N availability corn stover accumulation and unfavorable weather. Given that weather cannot be controlled and the optimum N fertilizer rate can be determined only after crop harvest managing corn stover has the greatest potential for reducing the CCYP said Gentry.
The same research team is collaborating on a follow-up study investigating the effect of stover removal and tillage on the CCYP.
As part of the study participants attended six weeks of cooking classes where instructors prepared quick and easy plant-based recipes that incorporated ingredients like olive oil whole grain pasta
brown rice and fruits and vegetables. The participants were followed then for six months after the cooking program ended.
While corn-grain ethanol and biodiesel are the only biofuels to have been produced in commercial quantities in the U s. to date the study committee found much greater potential in biofuels made from lignocellulosic biomass
--which includes crop residues like wheat straw switchgrass whole trees and wood waste. This drop in fuel is designed to be a direct replacement for gasoline
and a refuge for 11 globally-threatened bird species. They are also a vital fishing grazing and traditional rice farming resource for around 1. 1 million people.
Factors include intensive commercial rice farming with construction of irrigation channels which is often illegal.
Intensive commercial rice production by private companies involving the construction of huge channels and reservoirs for irrigation is denying local communities access to the grasslands on
Almost all of this loss was attributable to either intensive rice cultivation which had risen by 666 per cent during that period
Since 2005 intensive rice cultivation by private companies has rapidly become the most serious threat to these grasslands destroying huge areas at a very alarming rate.
They are finding success using the byproducts of biofuels made from corn stover wheat straw and rice straw.
which is produced biofuel from inedible material such as wood chips wheat straw or other agricultural residue.
which uses corn and grain to make biofuel. Corn ethanol's byproduct--called distiller's dried grains--can be used as cattle feed
but cellulosic ethanol's byproduct--called high-lignin residue--is perceived often as less valuable. With the cellulosic ethanol process you have leftover material that has lignin
and some cellulose in it but it's not really a feed material anymore Riding said.
The research could greatly affect Kansas and other agricultural states that produce crops such as wheat and corn.
After harvesting these crops the leftover wheat straw and corn stover can be used for making cellulosic ethanol.
Cellulosic ethanol byproducts then can be added to cement to strengthen concrete. The utilization of this byproduct is important in both concrete materials
#Whole genome sequencing of wild rice reveals the mechanisms underlying oryza genome evolutionin a collaborative study published online March 13 in Nature Communications researchers from Institute of Genetics
and Developmental Biology Chinese Academy of Sciences BGI-Shenzhen and University of Arizona have completed the genome sequencing of wild rice Oryza brachyantha.
and more than twenty wild rice species. Among them the wild relatives can provide invaluable genomic resources for rice improvement.
As the most diverged wild relative of O. sativa (rice) O. Brachyantha has resistance against many rice pathogens and various stress environments.
Compared with the rice genome the team found that many gene families were expanded in rice where tandem duplications
and tandem duplications further expanded by transposable element insertions contributed to transition from euchromatin to heterochromatin in the rice genome reflecting the dynamic nature of the Oryza genomes.
and production has the potential to be 20 times more efficient than making ethanol from corn and sugar cane.
#oeone of the problems with biofuels we have today that is corn ethanol is that the price of corn rises slowly
and corn ethanol production is influenced also by the price of oil since corn requires transport.#
#oefuel based on cyanobacteria requires very little ground space to be prepared. And the availability of raw materials-sunlight carbon dioxide and seawater-is in principle infinite#Hudson says.
seed hulls from rice buckwheat and oats; hemp or other plant materials. These are sterilized mixed with nutrients and chilled.
Unfortunately 50 to 70 percent of the phosphorus in grain is in the form of phytic acid a compound indigestible by pigs.
To allow future studies to identify the functions of slender false brome genes the authors also compared the false brome transcriptome to those of well-studied agricultural species including rice and sorghum.
A team led by Rice physicist Ching-Hwa Kiang found that shear forces like those found in small arteries of patients with atherosclerosis cause snippets of nonclotting VWF to change into a clot-forming shape for hours at a time.
I was shocked said blood platelet expert Dr. Joel Moake a study co-author who holds joint appointments at Rice and BCM.
Moake a senior research scientist in bioengineering at Rice and professor of medicine at BCM said the work is vitally important
To study the problem Kiang's lab worked closely with Moake's team at Rice's Bioscience Research Collaborative
Study co-authors include Rice graduate students Sithara Wijeratne and Eric Frey former Rice graduate student Eric Botello BCM researchers Hui-Chun Yeh and Angela Bergeron Rice
undergraduate Jay Patel PSBC's Zhou Zhou and Rice senior research technicians Leticia Nolasco and Nancy Turner.
The Energy Independence and Security Act requires that the United states produce 21 billion gallons of non-corn-based biofuel by 2022.
whether it's switchgrass remnants of corn stalks fast-growing trees or algae. The traditional strategy had been a multistep approach involving sample dissolution and chromatographic analysis
When this field is applied it creates subtle changes in the material's grain boundaries--where atoms from different crystals meet in the material.
Namely the field draws defects to the grain boundary. These defects consist of vacancies (missing atoms)
--which raises the temperature along the grain boundary. Raising the temperature along the grain boundary means that the material can be sintered at a much lower temperature
because sintering is done by selectively melting the grain boundaries to fuse the crystals together. Normally you would have to apply enough heat to raise the mass of all the material to the melting point
even though you only need to melt the grain boundary. Preheating the grain boundary with an electric field is allowed
what Narayan to lower the sintering temperature from 1450 C to 800 C and sinter the material much more quickly.
An invited viewpoint paper describing the work New mechanism for field-assisted processing and flash sintering of materials is published online in Scripta Materialia.
One of the persistent questions has been the role of agriculture and particularly corn (maize) in the evolution of complex centralized societies.
and corn provided the economic engine behind the development of civilization in the Andean region of Peru.
or corn) was indeed a primary component in the diet of people living in the Norte Chico region of Peru an area of remarkable cultural florescence in 3rd millennium B c. Their research is the subject of a paper
The second most common grain in humans came from sweet potatoes. Coprolites also showed that fish mostly anchovies did provide the primary protein in the diet but not the calories.
The manure had been collected from livestock that had consumed either corn or feed with wet distillers grains.
Gilley also conducted an investigation into how standing wheat residues affected water quality in runoff from fields amended with 1-2-or 4-year application rates of manure.
which included requiring schools to increase whole grain offerings and making students select either a fruit
i e. to exclude anything that contains wheat rye or barley. Until the 1970s celiac disease was unusual
i e. to exclude anything that contains wheat rye or barley. Until the 1970s celiac disease was unusual
and cooled starchy products like sushi rice and pasta salad. You have to consume it at room temperate
and several different plants including crops such as rice tomato squash and beets and showed that the viruses increased the plants'ability to tolerate drought.
Rice statisticians Katherine Ensor and Loren Raun announced their findings February 18 at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) conference in Boston.
At the same AAAS symposium Rice environmental engineer Daniel Cohan discussed how uncertainties in air-quality models might impact efforts to achieve anticipated new ozone standards by the U s. Environmental protection agency.
Given that the American Lung Association has ranked Houston eighth in the United states for high-ozone days the Rice researchers set out to see
and chair of Rice's Department of Statistics and Raun is a research professor in Rice's Department of Statistics.
A 2012 study by Raun and Ensor published by Rice's Baker Institute for Public Policy determined that overall the current EPA standard for ozone serves its purpose
The first project was launched in 2009 by the Department of energy at a corn ethanol production facility in Decatur Ill. operated by the Archer daniel midlands Company.
Biochar is a plant byproduct similar to charcoal that can be made from lumber waste dried corn stalks and other plant residues.
#Masked mold toxins in food should be included in safety regulationsgovernment limits on mold toxins present naturally in grain crops should be expanded to include so-called masked mycotoxins that change from harmless to potentially harmful forms in the body a new
Chiara Dall'Asta and colleagues explain that molds growing naturally on wheat corn and other plants produce toxic substances termed mycotoxins.
The new study focused on two of the most widespread mycotoxin contaminants of grain crops--deoxynivalenol (DON) and zearalenone (ZEN.
when you try to grow coffee like corn Vandermeer said. And this year it seems to have hit a tipping point where the various things that are antagonistic to the roya in a complex ecosystem have declined to the point where the disease can escape from them
#Low-arsenic rice discovered in Bangladesh could have major health benefitsscientists identify aromatic rice with very low arsenic content and higher concentrations of essential nutrients selenium
and eating rice grown in soil and water containing high amounts of arsenic. Long-term exposure can lead to the development of different types of cancer as well as serious cardiovascular neurological and other health problems.
Scientists have identified now aromatic rice from Bangladesh that has far lower arsenic concentrations than found in non-aromatic rice.
Rice is the staple food of over three billion people. Because the rice plant is highly efficient at absorbing arsenic from soil
and water it is reported to be the highest arsenic-containing cereal. For Bangladeshis rice is their staple food
and they consume on average half a kilogram of rice daily. A team of scientists led by Dr. Parvez Haris from De Montfort University Leicester UK is carrying out research to remove arsenic from water
and to identify ways of reducing human exposure to arsenic through diet. Haris and his team have demonstrated already that exposure to the more toxic inorganic arsenic species is greater in people who eat more rice.
In this latest work published in Biomedical Spectroscopy and Imaging the De Montfort University team#along with Dr Michael Watts from The british Geological Survey Keyworth Nottingham UK#has identified varieties that are low in arsenic but high in essential trace elements such as
Earlier studies showed high concentrations of arsenic in Bangladeshi rice but the rice samples were mainly from regions where the irrigation water contains higher levels of arsenic.
The team carried out a detailed study on rice from the greater Sylhet region in the northeast of Bangladesh
which generally has a lower groundwater arsenic concentration. The team analyzed 98 rice samples using a technique called Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) to determine total arsenic and also arsenic species in a selected group of samples.
The results showed Sylheti rice to have a far lower arsenic concentration than similar types of rice from other regions of Bangladesh.
Results also showed that the arsenic concentration in aromatic rice was 40%less than non-aromatic varieties
and that it also contained higher concentrations of the essential elements selenium and zinc.##oethis is a very important finding
since consumption of certain types of aromatic rice will not only reduce human exposure to arsenic
and rice and are also deficient in zinc and selenium.##oewe seem to have found one of the lowest arsenic-containing rice ever reported in the literature#he continues.
Several varieties of Sylheti aromatic rice even had lower arsenic than the well-known Basmati aromatic rice from India and Pakistan.#
#For someone consuming 500 grams of non-aromatic or aromatic rice from Sylhet the daily intake of arsenic from rice would be approximately 48%and 69%lower respectively compared with consuming non-aromatic rice from other
parts of Bangladesh.##oebangladeshis are proud of their diet and often refer to themselves as#mache bhathe Bangali which can be translated roughly as fish
and rice makes a Bengali. Our identification of rice with very low arsenic concentration and higher quantities of essential elements is good news for the Bangladeshis
and other communities where rice is a staple food but it is important to encourage a more balanced diet that is less dependent on rice#Haris explains.
Aromatic rice is cultivated generally during the wet (aman) season and therefore is less dependent on the use of groundwater for irrigation.
It also requires less fertilizer and pesticides. Haris recommends that the authorities in Bangladesh encourage farmers to cultivate more aromatic rice.
Although the yield of aromatic rice is lower the farmers will not need to spend much money on applying chemicals that could pollute the environment and harm their own health.#
#oefurthermore energy costs (electricity or diesel) will be lower as there will be less need for them to pump groundwater for irrigation#Haris says.
The impact of this finding may also have heath implications for other groups of people who eat large quantities of rice daily.#
#oethis type of rice could be used in infant foods instead of rice with higher arsenic concentrations.
It could also benefit people suffering from celiac disease who consume rice-based foods on a regular basis. Therefore it is essential that further research on aromatic rice from different parts of Bangladesh
and other regions of the world are conducted#concludes Dr. Haris. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by IOS Press BV.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference e
#Lack of energy an enemy to antibiotic-resistant microbesrice University researchers cured a strain of bacteria of its ability to resist an antibiotic in an experiment that has implications for a longstanding public health crisis. Rice environmental engineer Pedro Alvarez
and his team managed to remove the ability of the Pseudomonas aeruginosa microorganism to resist the antibiotic medication tetracycline by limiting its access to food and oxygen.
The Rice researchers tested their theory on two strains of bacteria P. aeruginosa which is found in soil
Alvarez has been chipping away at the problem since moving to Rice from the University of Iowa in 2004 even without American funding for research.
Co-authors of the paper are Rice alumni Michal Rysz now an environmental engineer at GSI Environmental Inc. Houston;
and John Fortner an assistant professor at Washington University St louis. Alvarez is the George R. Brown Professor and chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Rice.
#Can simple measures of labile soil organic matter predict corn performance? Organic matter is important for soil health and crop productivity.
The size of the labile pool then can be an important predictor of corn agronomic performance.
and short-term seasonal changes as well as predict corn performance. To better understand labile soil organic measurements
Fields were maintained with three different management practices (conventional integrated and compost) and two different crop rotations (continuous corn with no cover crops and corn-soybean-wheat with cover crops.
The researchers also found that carbon mineralization was a better predictor of corn agronomic performance than other measures that are used currently (pre-sidress nitrate test and leaf chlorophyll.
In 2008 while watching a supercolony of Argentine ants in an urban environment former NC State Ph d. student Dr. Eleanor Spicer Rice noticed that Asian needle ants (Pachycondyla chinensis) were living
so Spicer Rice decided to investigate further. Over the next four years Spicer Rice found that Argentine ants appeared to ignore Asian needle ants
and the Asian needle ants took advantage of the situation to displace a significant portion of The argentine ant population.
This is the first time we've seen another ant species take territory from Argentine ants says Spicer Rice lead author of a paper on the research.
The Asian needle ants essentially get a head start Spicer Rice says. If the Asian needle ant is effective at displacing a dominant species
and urban environments at the same time Spicer Rice says. And because it is active at cooler temperatures it could move into a very broad range of territory.
and grain products are highly acidic and can lead to metabolic acidosis when too much acid builds up in the body.
Other food sources include beans nuts some shellfish whole grains fortified cereals and dairy products. The nutrient is also available in supplement form.
We found that Earth's continents serve as enormous'carbonate capacitors'said Rice's Cin-Ty Lee the lead author of the study in this month's Geosphere.
Lee professor of Earth science at Rice led the four-year study which was authored co by three Rice faculty members and additional colleagues at the University of Tokyo the University of British columbia the California Institute of technology Texas A&m University and Pomona College.
Lee said the study breaks with conventional theories about greenhouse and icehouse periods. The standard view of the greenhouse state is that you draw carbon dioxide from the deep Earth interior by a combination of more activity along the mid-ocean ridges--where tectonic plates spread--and massive breakouts of lava called'large igneous
but the initial idea of the research dates to an informal chalkboard-only seminar at Rice in 2008.
The talk was given by Rice oceanographer and study co-author Jerry Dickens a paleoclimate expert; Lee and Rice geodynamicist Adrian Lenardic another co-author were in the audience.
Jerry was talking about seawater in the Cretaceous and he mentioned that 93.5 million years ago there was a mass extinction of deepwater organisms that coincided with a global marine anoxic event--that is the deep oceans became starved of oxygen Lee said.
Rice co-authors include Dickens and Lenardic both professors of Earth science; Rajdeep Dasgupta assistant professor of Earth science;
of maize or corn in hotspots of Bolivia Peru and Mexico. Hotspots are areas where cultivation of peaches
#No clear evidence more gluten in new wheat is responsible for increase in celiac diseaseno clear evidence exists to support the idea that celiac disease is increasing in prevalence
because farmers are growing strains of wheat that contain more gluten. That's the conclusion of an article in the ACS'Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
when gluten a protein in wheat barley and rye damages the lining of the small intestine causing a variety of symptoms.
One leading explanation suggests that it results from wheat breeding that led to production of wheat varieties containing higher levels of gluten.
ponds swamps and paddy systems. Remarkably each species is endemic to a single water basin carrying its own signature of evolution from their common origin.
Among the natural habitats of these worms are the rice fields in Thailand which serve as a reservoir and breeding ground for the animals.
The worms turn out to play an important role in the development of rice farming being a facilitator in the decomposition of organic matter to be a natural fertilizer as well as improving the soil properties for better rice root system.
They may play an important role in organic rice farming. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Pensoft Publishers.
#Benefits of Bt corn go beyond rootworm resistanceengineered to produce the bacterial toxin Bt Bt corn resists attack by corn rootworm a pest that feeds on roots
But besides merely protecting against these losses the Bt trait has boosted also corn yields in some cases beyond normal expectations.
Fred Below and Jason Haegele of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign set out to answer that question by determining how Bt corn uses nitrogen in the soil.
Nitrogen is an important nutrient for corn and with better root systems it's possible that Bt corn uses nitrogen differently than non-resistant strains the scientists hypothesized in turn affecting corn production.
The study published February 6 in Crop science showed just that--Bt corn had higher yields and used nitrogen more efficiently than non-resistant corn.
With its resistance to corn rootworm Below explains Bt corn has healthier and more active roots than corn without the resistance trait.
And a better root system can lead to improved function for the plant as a whole If you can protect the investment the plants made in the root system explains Below you can realize everything that roots do like take up nutrients
The resistant corn had higher yields than the non-resistant crops (nearly 21 bushels per acre)
Additionally Bt corn would fare better at current levels of nitrogen use in the United states. In 2010 the average nitrogen application rate for corn production was around 140 lb/acre say Haegele and Below.
The healthy roots and efficient nutrient use of Bt corn could lead to changes in management practices that would further increase production.
With the Bt corn though you can protect the root system and grow more plants.
In addition to its utility in crop production Below is hopeful that Bt corn will open up new avenues of research as scientists begin to better understand root systems.
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