Tesco

Abstract: Aims: Five bacterial strains belonging to Bacillus subtilis , Pseudomonas fluorescens and Ps . corrugata and two fungal strains belonging to Trichoderma viride and Gliocladium virens were evaluated for their efficacy in controlling sugar beet and cucumber damping-off caused by Pythium ultimum . Methods and Results: The in vitro antagonistic activity of bacteria against various Pythium spp. was evaluated with dual cultures in various media. Pseudomonas strains inhibited the pathogen better than Bacillus strains. To identify potentially useful antagonist combinations, dual compatibility of antagonists was also evaluated, based on growth in two liquid media containing substrate previously used by other antagonists. Four pairs of bacteria were selected. Sugar beet damping-off biocontrol was attempted with bacterial seed treatments (individually and in pairs). Cucumber damping-off biocontrol was attempted with bacterial seed treatments and bacterial and fungal compost treatments. In sugar beet, satisfactory biocontrol was only achieved with Pseudomonas antagonists. Antagonist combinations did not show any superior biocontrol ability to individual antagonists and compatibility of bacteria in vitro did not correlate with compatibility in vivo . Bacterial seed treatments and fungal compost treatments failed to control cucumber damping-off. Better biocontrol in cucumber was achieved when bacterial antagonists were applied by drenching or by coating seed with bacteria in a peat carrier. Conclusions: Pseudomonas antagonists were superior to Bacillus antagonists in controlling damping-off in cucumber and sugar beet. Pseudomonas peat inocula maintained a good shelf-life 2 years after preparation. Significance and Impact of the Study : Pseudomonas peat formulations have the potential for development into commercial biopesticides.

Abstract: In contrast to the ultrasonic measurement of fetal heart motion, the fetal electrocardiogram (ECG) provides clinically significant information concerning the electrophysiological state of a fetus. In this paper, a novel method for extracting the fetal ECG from abdominal composite signals is proposed. This method consists of the cancellation of the mother's ECG and blind source separation with the reference signal (BSSR). The cancellation of the mother's ECG component was performed by subtracting the linear combination of mutually orthogonal projections of the heart vector. The BSSR is a fixed-point algorithm, the Lagrange function of which includes the higher order cross-correlation between the extracted signal and the reference signal as the cost term rather than a constraint. This realizes the convexity of the Lagrange function in a simple form, which guarantees the convergence of the algorithm. By practical application, the proposed method has been shown to be able to extract the P and T waves in addition to the R wave. The reliability and accuracy of the proposed method was confirmed by comparing the extracted signals with the directly recorded ECG at the second stage of labor. The gestational age-dependency of the physiological parameters of the extracted fetal ECG also coincided well with that of the magnetocardiogram, which proves the clinical applicability of the proposed method

Abstract: The assembly is designed to convert a conventional land rig to "top drive". It comprises a torque track that is shipped in sections and is assembled to form a rigid track extending vertically in the derrick. The track is rigidly attached to the derrick only at its base, so that the track is free to twist and deflect laterally along its length. The housing of the top drive is connected by an angled, pivotally mounted link means with a tubular bushing that embraces and slides along the track. The link means and bushing are adapted to restrain rotation of the housing relative to the track, while transmitting both side and torque reactive loads to the track. The angled pivoting link enables the top drive to be displaced outwardly to a position over the mousehole. The top drive incorporates a hydraulic motor and gear drive assembly for rotating a drive shaft connecting the drill string and hoisting means. The housing does not carry the drill string load and can be made lighter and more compact as a result.