Novel technologies have been necessary for improving fruit quality and productivity of citrus, labor-saving and orchard conservation on steep slope lands since aging of growers and decrease in the number of successors is remarkable in mountain areas of southwestern Japan. The purpose of this paper is to introduce new technologies for improving citrus production that have been developed in recent years. A new fruit quality control system using drip irrigation and liquid fertilization technique combined with year-round plastic mulching was developed, and it enables high quality and stable citrus fruit production. Water and/or nutrient solution is automatically supplied through drip tubes that are laid under the mulching sheets to give adequate water stress, so as to improve sugar and acid content of fruit. A new transportation system for steep sloping citrus orchards, which is a combination of the monorail system and contour narrow paths, was suggested. A small walking cultivator was developed to explain the procedure of narrow path excavation. After introducing the narrow path, working hours for fertilizer and chemical herbicide application were reduced. Disaster prevention mapping of citrus orchards on slope lands was developed based on computer-aided seepage estimation and topographic data. The mapping can show zones of both ascending flow and descending flow of underground water during heavy rains in citrus orchards. The mapping is considered to be effective for the management of orchards and prevention of erosion on slope lands.
AbstractThe purpose of this study was to examine how differences in the type of aromatic nucleus, side-chain structure and type of solvent affect the formation rate of quinone methide (QM) in the alkaline reaction of lignin. The reaction was done at a NaOH concentration of 1.0 mol l−1 and temperature of 75–140°C under an anaerobic condition. The formation rates of QM were in the order: syringyl > guaiacyl > p-hydroxyphenyl, when model compounds with lignin-type aromatic nuclei were compared. This and other results on various phenolic compounds suggested that the formation of QM is rapid from compounds having a high electron density in the aromatic π-electron system. The formation of QM was faster from a C6-C2-type than from a C6-C1-type lignin model compound, which was attributed to the fact that QM is an alkene and hence more stable when an unsaturated carbon in QM has an alkyl substituent, like the C6-C2-type compound. When aqueous 1,4-dioxane solutions with different 1,4-dioxane contents were used, the formation of QM became slower with increasing 1,4-dioxane content. This can be explained by the variation in the negative charge density in the rate-determining step, where the density is larger at the transition than at the initial state and consequently the activation energy is lower in a solvent with higher polarity.
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