Available online xxxKeywords: Evapotranspiration Growing degree days Spring wheat WUE HUE Neutron probe a b s t r a c t Estimation of actual evapotranspiration (ET a ) is an important part of agricultural water management in local and regional water balance studies. At the field scale, ET a is important in irrigation planning and scheduling and is an integral part of field management decision support tools. The conventional approach of estimating actual evapotranspiration is difficult and needs more calculations and extensive data on soil-plant-atmosphere. A field experiment was conducted to simplify the measurement and calculation of actual evapotranspiration by using thermal units (heat units) for spring wheat crop under trickle irrigation system in sandy soil. Two irrigation methods were applied; the first one (A) using the crop evapotranspiration (ET c ) that depends on whether parameters, and the second (B) is the depletion from field capacity which dependent on soil parameters. Three varieties of wheat namely Sids12, Misr2 and Gemmeza10 were cultivated on sand soil and treatments arranged in complete randomized block design with three replicates. Application of treatment (B) resulted in highly significant increase in yield production of Gemmeza10 and Misr2 as compared to treatment (A). Grain yield of different wheat varieties grown under treatment (B) could be ranked in the following descending order: Misr2 > Gemmeza10 > Sids12. While under treatment (A) it could be arranged in the following descending order: Misr2 > Sids12 > Gemmeza10. On the other hand, the overall means indicated non-significant difference between all wheat verities. The highest values of water and irrigation use efficiency as well as heat use efficiency were obtained with treatment (B). The equation used in the present study is available to estimate ET a under arid climate with drip irrigation system. journal h omepage: http :/ / www .e lsev ie r. co m/ lo cate/ j rras 1

The uidA gene, encoding for b-glucuronidase (GUS), is the most frequently used reporter gene in plants.As a reporter enzyme, GUS can be assayed both qualitatively and quantitatively. In wheat, there are numerous reports of failure in detecting GUS enzyme activity in tissues of transgenic plants, while other reports have suggested presence of b-glucuronidase inhibitor(s) in wheat tissues. In the present study, we show that the b-glucuronidase enzyme activity is not only tissue-specific but also genotype-dependent. Our data demonstrate that the glucuronic acid could be the candidate inhibitor for b-glucuronidase enzyme activity in wheat leaves and roots. It should be noted that the assays to detect b-glucuronidase enzyme activity in wheat should be interpreted carefully. Based on the data of our present study, we recommend studying the chemical pathways, the unintended effects and the possible loss-of-function of any candidate transgene prior to transformation experiments.

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The main objective of this work is to trace and measure the activity of natural radionuclides 226 Ra, 238 U, 232 Th and 40 K in sandy loam soil and leaves of Jew's-mallow plant (Corchorus olitorius). A pot experiment was carried out and Jew's-mallow was cultivated on sandy loam soil with six types of commercial and recommended fertilizers (NPK). The activity concentrations of 226 Ra, 238 U, 232 Th and 40 K in Bq kg -1 were measured using the high purity germanium detector to assess the effective dose of Jew's-mallow that is largely consumed by the Egyptian population. Gamma activities, at the end of growing season on sandy loam soil, contain a slightly higher concentration of natural radionuclides than the soil at the beginning, but still lower than the worldwide values. The transfer factor for 226 Ra, 238 U, 232 Th and 40 K from soil to Jew's-mallow plants was less than unity in all treatments. The estimated annual effective dose due to the ingestion of Jew's-mallow plant varied from 7.89 -21.5µSv y -1 , which indicated that fertilizer addition was not effective on the level of radionuclide in Jew's-mallow and it's safe for human consumption. M.A. Salama et al. 34 and 40 K) in Jew's-mallow plant fertilized with different fertilizers.

A b s t r , h c t. An idea t o design a new converging collimator for cold neutron time-of-flight measurements is presented. Using this new facility in combination with a neutron time-of-flight spectrometer, we rnay have neutron intensity gain factors about three times that obtained using the conventional straight slit collimators. Expressions for calculating the collimators dimensions as well as the intensity gain and the time resolution broading were presented. Ein neuer, konvergierender Kollimator fur Flugzeitmessungen mit langsramen Neutronen I n h a l t s i i b e r s i c h t . Die Idee der Konstruktion eines neuen, konvergierenden Kollimators furFlugzeitmessungen mit langsamen Neutronen wird vorgestellt. Mit diesem neuen Geriit in Kombination mit einem Neutronenflugzeitspektrometer sollte sich ein Intensitiitsgewinn yon drei gegeniiber konventiordlen Anordnungen ergeben. Die Kollimatordimensionen, der Intensitiitsgewinn und die Verbreiterung der Zeitauflosung werden berechnet.

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The present analysis shows that the operation of thin point-to-p1ane counter in air is based on the establishment of the stable corona mode. A complete analysis of this counter characteristics is presented. A theoretical model is suggested to calculate the counter operating voltage for different gap lengths. The effect of alpha particle source to point distance on the counter operating voltage is investigated. Operational alpha particle counting characteristics have been obtained. The variation of the counter efficiency as a function of the angular source position as well as source point distance are studied. The theoretical findings are experimentally confirmed.