Impact of Crop Husbandry Practices and Environmental Conditions on Wheat Composition and Quality: A Review.

The increasing interest in the production of bread wheat ( Triticum aestivum L.) with specific quality traits requires a shift from the current breeding goal, being yield, to improved compositional and, consequently, functional traits. Since wheat is a key food crop, this must be attained while maintaining or even further increasing yield. Furthermore, as compositional requirements for specific applications are not well-defined, both protein and gluten content as well as the enzymatic activity remain most important. Given that these traits are majorly impacted by both genotype and environment, it is very complex to predict and ultimately control them. Different strategies, such as applying optimized agronomic practices, can temper these uncontrollable determinants which are equally important to steer wheat quality. As current research on their contribution to specific traits is highly fragmented, this report provides a comprehensive review of the influence of crop husbandry and environmental conditions on wheat yield and composition.

INTEGRATED WEED CONTROL IN MAIZE.

Integrated pest management has been implemented as a general practice by EU legislation. As weed control actually is the most important crop protection measure in maize for Western Europe, the new legislation will have its impact. The question is of course which systems can be successfully implemented in practice with respect to labour efficiency and economical parameters. During 3 successive growing seasons (2007, 2008, 2009) weed control in maize was evaluated, the main focus was put on different techniques of integrated weed control and was compared with chemical weed control. Additionally, during 4 successive growing seasons (2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014) two objects based on integrated weed control and two objects based on mechanical weed control were compared to about twenty different objects of conventional chemical weed control. One of the objects based on mechanical weed control consisted of treatment with the flex-tine harrow before and after emergence in combination with chemical weed control at a reduced rate in 3-4 leave stage. The second one consisted of broadcast mechanical treatments before and after emergence followed by a final in-row application of herbicides and an inter-row cultivation at 6-7(8) leave stage. All trials were conducted on the Experimental farm of Bottelare HoGent-UGent on a sandy loam soil. Maize was growing in 1/3 crop rotation. The effect on weed growth as well as the economic impact of the different applications was evaluated. Combining chemical and mechanical weed control is a possible option in conventional farming but the disadvantages must be taken into account. A better planned weed control based on the real present weed-population in combination with a carefully thought-out choice of herbicides should also be considered as an IPM--approach.

Possibilities of chemical weed control in Lupinus albus and Lupinus luteus-screening of herbicides.

Weed control in sweet lupins is still a problem. Especially the phytotoxicity of herbicides in sweet lupins is not enough studied. Therefore a screening with 16 selected herbicides and 4 lupin varieties has been set up. During the growing season 2005, 10 of the tested herbicides were applied in pre-emergence, 6 in post-emergence. Pre-emergence: Most of the active matters tested in pre-emergence were not phytotoxic for lupins. Pendimethalin (1000 g/ha), linuron (500 g/ha), chlorotoluron (1500 g/ha), prosulfocarb (2400 g/ha), clomazone (72 g/ha), isoxaben (100 g/ha), metamitron (1050 g/ha) and dimethenamid-P (720 g/ha) were applied without causing any significant phytotoxic symptoms. Only the lupins treated with aclonifen (1200 g/ha) showed a significant growth inhibition, 3 weeks after treatment. Significantly more chlorosis was noticed when the lupins were treated with aclonifen or with diflufenican, in preemergence. Post-emergence: In post-emergence, diflufenican (50 g/ha) did not cause any crop damage. Florasulam (5 g/ha) caused almost 100% necrosis in L. albus as well as in L. luteus. Bentazon (652 g/ha), thifensulfuron-methyl (15 g/ha) and metribuzin (175 g/ha) caused obvious necrosis and growth inhibition of the crop. The growth inhibition was significantly more severe for lupins treated with bentazon than if they were treated with thifensulfuron-methyl or metribuzin. Three weeks after treatment, clomazone (90 g/ha) and diflufenican (50 g/ha), did not cause any crop injury at all. The results indicated an interesting range of active matters which can be applied in pre-emergence, but weed control in post-emergence stays difficult.

The ionized fraction of serum total magnesium in hemodialysis patients: is it really lower than in healthy subjects?

AIM OF THE STUDY: Based on data in the literature, it remains unclear whether the ionized fraction of serum total magnesium (Mg) is lower in chronic hemodialysis (HD) patients compared to healthy subjects. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The ionized fraction of serum total Mg was investigated in 49 HD patients, pre- and post-dialysis, and compared to 30 healthy controls. The quality of the analytical performance of the Mg measurements has been emphasized by applying a reference method and/or rigorous internal quality control (IQC). In addition, the ionized fraction of serum total calcium (Ca) was measured in both populations, because the results for Mg should be related to those of Ca. RESULTS: In HD patients, the ionized fraction of serum total Mg was on average 65% (pre-dialysis 64.2% and post-dialysis 66.2%). In healthy controls, the ionized fraction was 64.9%. When the analytical variability was taken into account, no significant differences (p > 0.05) were observed between pre- and post-dialysis samples and controls. For Ca, an ionized fraction of 55.3% was found in HD patients, which was not significantly different from the fraction obtained in the control group (55.7%). CONCLUSION: The present study demonstrates that, compared to healthy controls, the ionized fraction of serum total Mg is not different in hemodialysis patients.

Evaluation of intrinsic and routine quality of serum total magnesium measurement.

We investigated the intrinsic (as delivered by the manufacturer) and routine quality of four systems for measurement of serum total magnesium (t-Mg(2+)) by method comparison with an ion chromatography reference method. The results of the study were interpreted on the basis of analytical quality specifications derived from the biological variation of t-Mg(2+), expanded by the analytical uncertainty of the reference measurements. This resulted in limits for systematic error of 2.1% and for total error of 4.3%. The study demonstrated that those limits were challenging for all routine systems. Most of them met the total error criterium just borderline and one showed a considerable systematic error (-5.2%). Concerning the measurement quality in the routine laboratories, the study showed that many were unable to preserve the intrinsic quality of the respective manufacturer. Consequently, loss of system performance in the routine laboratory mostly led to violation of the analytical specifications. Most strikingly, the study revealed enormous quality differences between routine laboratories. This indicates that, still, many routine laboratories do not make adequate use of currently available internal and external quality control tools. Moreover, some laboratories considerably expanded the high end of the reference interval, thereby reducing the diagnostic potential of t-Mg(2+).

pH dependency of serum ionised calcium.

Measurement by ion selective electrode showed that the pH dependency of serum ionised calcium is better described by an inversely S-shaped third-degree function than by the conventionally used logarithmic function.

Validity of linear regression in method comparison studies: is it limited by the statistical model or the quality of the analytical input data?

We compared the application of ordinary linear regression, Deming regression, standardized principal component analysis, and Passing-Bablok regression to real-life method comparison studies to investigate whether the statistical model of regression or the analytical input data have more influence on the validity of the regression estimates. We took measurements of serum potassium as an example for comparisons that cover a narrow data range and measurements of serum estradiol-17beta as an example for comparisons that cover a wide data range. We demonstrate that, in practice, it is not the statistical model but the quality of the analytical input data that is crucial for interpretation of method comparison studies. We show the usefulness of ordinary linear regression, in particular, because it gives a better estimate of the standard deviation of the residuals than the other procedures. The latter is important for distinguishing whether the observed spread across the regression line is caused by the analytical imprecision alone or whether sample-related effects also contribute. We further demonstrate the usefulness of linear correlation analysis as a first screening test for the validity of linear regression data. When ordinary linear regression (in combination with correlation analysis) gives poor estimates, we recommend investigating the analytical reason for the poor performance instead of assuming that other linear regression procedures add substantial value to the interpretation of the study. This investigation should address whether (a) the x and y data are linearly related; (b) the total analytical imprecision (s(a,tot)) is responsible for the poor correlation; (c) sample-related effects are present (standard deviation of the residuals >> s(a,tot)); (d) the samples are adequately distributed over the investigated range; and (e) the number of samples used for the comparison is adequate.