Microbial contamination is one of the most critical and frequently occurring problems in plant tissue culture. In previous experiments with several woody genera such as Castanea, [1–3] Ligustrum, Spirea, Syringa [4], Corylus, Populus, Salix [5], and others we worked out some successful techniques to establish contamination-free cultures. In most cases the available plant material was in very limited quantity, received from the breeding project of the American Chestnut Foundation [1,2], or as a part of a special plant exchange program with the University of Horticulture and Food, Budapest, Hungary [5] ; thus, it was extremely important not to lose any culture because of contamination problems.

A forcing solution containing 200 mg 8-hydroxyquinoline citrate per liter and 2% sucrose has enhanced availability of cutting materials by forcing dormant woody stems in the off-season. Anxins, such as IBA, included in the forcing solution promoted subsequent rooting by increasing root number per cutting and root length for privet. Inclusion of IBA in the forcing solution following the initial use of GA 3 in the forcing solution counteracted the undesirable effects of GA 3 on rooting and stimulated rooting after taking advantage of the favorable effects of GA 3 on bud break and shoot elongation. However, the ability of IBA to counteract the negative effects of GA 3 on rooting was dependent on the length of GA 3 treatment. The modification of forcing solution system by sequentially including GA 3 and then replacing GA 3 with IBA expedited propagation of privet. Production of candidate cuttings or explants was stimulated by including GA 3 in the forcing solution, and rooting of the cuttings was promoted by subsequent auxin or cytokinin inclusions in the forcing solution to replace GA 3 This modified forcing solution system also proved to be a successful and efficient model for propagation of other difficult to propagate woody species.

Explants from new growth of forced dormant stems and ‘secondary cultures’ of Vanhoutte's spirea were cultured on Linsmaier and Skoog (L.S.) medium containing benzyladenine (BA), indoleacetic acid (IAA), thidiazuron (TDZ), and zeatin. The dormant stems were forced by immersing their basal portions in forcing solutions containing 626 µM 8-hydroxyquinoline citrate (8-HQC) and 2% sucrose. BA and gibberellic acid (GA3) were also added into the forcing solutions to determine if explants obtained from the new growth will benefit from this treatment when culturedin vitro.

Ethanol has been used as a disinfestation agent for in vitro studies and micropropagation purposes. A previous study indicated that ethanol may have effects similar to those of bleach solution on bud break of woody species (Yang and Read, 1992). Research was therefore conducted to determine ethanol effects on the breaking of bud dormancy. The basal one third of dormant lilac, privet and spirea stems was soaked in different concentrations of ethanol solution (0, 25, 50, 75 or 95%) for 15 minutes before placement in the forcing solution. The results demonstrated that the pre-forcing ethanol treatments hastened bud break for lilac and privet while delaying bud break for spirea. The percentage of bud break and shoot elongation for lilac and privet were also promoted. Generally speaking, 75% ethanol was the best treatment. Quality softwood growth was therefore produced in the off-season. Such new growth can then be used either as explant materials for micropropagation or as cuttings for rooting.

A certain period of cold is needed to break bud dormancy for almost all woody species. A pre-forcing bleach soak has been demonstrated to at least partially replace this requirement (Yang and Read, 1989). Therefore, new softwood growth can be produced in the off-season. Such supple softwood growth is excellent material to be used either as explants for in vitro culture, or as cuttings for macropropagation of woody species. Further studies on pre-forcing bleach soaks were conducted to investigate optimum concentration and duration of soak, and to find the most suitable depth of bleach solution soak, in order to maximize the breaking of bud dormancy. Optimum bud break was obtained by soaking the basal 1/3 of dormant stems in 10% bleach solution for 10 minutes prior to forcing. Soaking dormant woody stems in alcohol solutions prior to placing stems in the forcing solution was also studied. The alcohol soak had negative effects on bud break of spirea, although it showed positive effects for lilac and privet.

A forcing solution containing 200 mg 8-hydroxyquinoline citrate per liter and 2% sucrose has been demonstrated to extend the season for obtaining softwood growth suitable for use as explants in micropropagation (Yang & Read 1989). Forcing dormant woody stems in the off-season in this fashion also enhances the macropropagation of woody plant species by providing softwood outgrowth that can be rooted as softwood cuttings. GA 3 , IBA, IAA and NAA were incorporated into softwood growth which was later used as cuttings for rooting by adding plant growth regulators at various concentrations to the forcing solution. GA 3 incorporated into the forcing solution hastened bud break, increased shoot elongation, but inhibited rooting of softwood cuttings taken from stems forced in this manner. IBA, IAA and NAA in the forcing solution exhibited typical auxin effects on rooting of cuttings by increasing root number per cutting and root elongation. In order to expedite macropropagation of woody plants, GA 3 and IBA were added SEQUENTIALLY to the forcing solution. Addition of IBA to fresh forcing solution following initial use of GA 3 in the forcing solution counteracted the negative effects of GA 3 and stimulated rooting. This protocol is proposed as a method to assist propagation in rooting difficult species by softwood cuttings in the off-season.

Under the assumption of a pulsar's magnetic field originating from the net polarized spin of its neutrons, and by using the post-Newtonian approximated torsion in the fifth order in (v/c), the spin precession arising from torsion is coordinate dependent, which influences the magnetic field of the pulsar and makes the magnetic inclination close to the rotation axis. Assuming the possibility of the magnetic inclination density to be in random alignment at the initial time, our theoretical calculations show that most pulsars should have smaller inclinations at the age of 106-107 yr, and that the inclination decreases with the increasing age of the pulsar. This fits the theoretical calculations and astronomically observed distribution.

Abstract Experiments were conducted to evaluate the feasibility of pre-forcing treatments for the release of bud dormancy of dormant stems of lilac, privet and Vanhoutte spirea. The new softwood growth of these dormant stems was used either as explants for in vitro culture or as cuttings for rooting studies of woody plant species in the off-season. A pre-forcing 15% bleach solution (0.78% NaOCl) soak hastened bud break, enhanced percentage of bud break, and promoted shoot elongation. Pre-forcing wetting agent treatments produced similar results to those of the bleach soak with variation among wetting agents and plant species. Smaller treatment differences were observed in the forcing characteristics when stems were collected later in the winter, probably because the cold requirement of the buds had been completely or partially met. This technique will provide explants for in vitro culture and softwood cuttings for propagation of woody plants over an extended period.

Vanhoutte's spiraea has been propagated in vitro using explants from softwood growth of dormant stems forced in a solution containing 200 mg/l 8-hydroxyquinoline citrate (8-HQC) and 2% sucrose (Yang and Read, 1989). Objectives to further utilize this system were to determine the feasibility of applying plant growth regulators (PGR) via the forcing solution to softwood growth from forced dormant stems and to study the resulting influence on in vitro culture. BA and GA 3 were placed in the forcing solution at various concentrations, including a zero PGR control. Explants were cultured on Linsmaier and Skoog (LS) medium containing zero PGR or different amounts of BA or thidiazuron (TDZ) or combinations of BA and IAA. Control explants placed on LS medium supplemented with 5uM BA with or without 1 or 5uM IAA, or with 0.5 or 0.75 uM TDZ alone produced the best shoot proliferation. BA in the forcing solution stimulated micropropagation, while GA 3 caused less proliferation than explants from control solutions. Forcing solutions containing PGR are useful for manipulating responses of plant tissues cultured in vitro and for studying PGR influence on woody plant physiology.

Sodium hydrogen sulfate (NaHSO3) in aqueous solution was sprayed on bell pepper (Capsicum annuum) plants beginning at first anthesis to test its effects as a photorespiration represser and resulting effects on yield. NaHSO3 sprays promoted plant height, stem diameter, fruit number and plant weight and increased the net assimilation rate, thus increasing yield. Concentrations of 60, 100, 120, 130, 200, 240 and 300 ppm were all effective, with 200 ppm optimum. Sprays repeated for three times at 7 day intervals were more effective in increasing growth and yield of bell pepper than spraying once or twice. This technique has gained acceptance as a practical method for improving production of bell pepper in Northeast China. Additional research is underway to further refine this practice.

A new explanation for the two detected neutrino bursts with an interval of about 4.5 hours is suggested. We propose that the first neutrino burst may have been caused by the collapse of a massive star and the second may have been due to the phase transition from neutron phase to quark cluster phase.

We derive the existence and structures of conventional clusters within the framework of the quark-parton model by using reasonable approximations and properties of conventional resonances. Our approach replaces the phenomenological parameters of the usual cluster models with microscopic parameters from the parton model. The parton model can then give a unified interpretation of clustering phenomena. Hagedorn's maximum hadronic temperature is naturally interpreted.

On the basis of current assumptions of instanton theory we derive strictly the explicit dependence on the masses and spins of the instanton induced potential between a pair of light quarks in baryons, namelyV12=γ+β(m * 1+α )(m * 2+α )η(1-σ1ησ1), wherem i * andσ i (i=1.2) are respectively the mass and Pauli spin of theith quark. On the additional basis of the MIT bag model, we obtain γ=c/R3 and β=b/R3>0, and α>0 is independent of the radiusR of the baryon. The magnitudes of the parametersb and α are also estimated. The MIT bag model is improved by taking into account this potential. Isomultiplet mass splitting formulas are derived in good agreement with experiment.

A quark-cluster phase of superdense matter is suggested. The 3-quark cluster is defined by γ3 = 0andγ8 = 0 but it is not necessarily a color-singlet. The new phase would lead to a long distance order of spin in superdense matter.

Cabibbo angle and quark-lepton masses are derived from a composite model by taking into account the interaction between the internal degrees of freedom.

Neutrinos with non-zero mass could gather to form a new kind of astronomical bodies: the Neutrino Astronomical Objects (NAO). We have investigated the mechanism of their formation and the relation of this formation to that of the galaxies, ascertained their e, p, He4 content, whose presence should produce a series of observable effects. NAOs are a peculiar kind of heavenly bodies with many new properties. They have a linear size of the order of 100 pc, a total neutrino content of the order of 1014M⊙ and an e, p, He4 content of the order of 109M⊙.

A left-right symmetrical model on weak-electromagnetic unification with four neutral gauge particles obeying S4 symmetry in their mass generation mechanism is proposed. The Weinberg-Salam results are obtained with sin2θw fixed naturally to be 0.25, and further results about superweak interactions are also given.