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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

Effects Of Fertilization And Drying Conditions On The Quality Of Selected Chinese Medicinal Plants, Zoe Gardner Oct 2019

Effects Of Fertilization And Drying Conditions On The Quality Of Selected Chinese Medicinal Plants, Zoe Gardner

Doctoral Dissertations

Demand for Chinese medicinal herbs in the U.S. is increasing and American acupuncturists and farmers are interested in domestic production of these plants. Little is known about the feasibility of production of these species outside of China. Four species of herbs were selected for cultivation trials. The purposes of this research were to evaluate the feasibility of cultivation of these species in the northeastern United States, to develop basic agronomic data for each species, and to determine the effects of nitrogen fertilizer on plant growth, yield, and secondary metabolites. Agastache rugosa, Schizonepeta tenuifolia, Leonurus japonicus, and Leonurus …


Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopic Imaging Of Bacteria Within Fresh Produce In Situ, Michael Hickey Oct 2019

Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopic Imaging Of Bacteria Within Fresh Produce In Situ, Michael Hickey

Doctoral Dissertations

The growth curves for E. coli O157:H7 (#043888) are reported. We make the case that the onset of stationary growth is the optimal point at which a bacteria culture is considered suitable for quantitative Raman analyses. The optimal conditions for 3-mercaptophenylboronic acid coating of bacteria cells is also reported. Fundamental drawbacks of the status-quo approach have been elucidated and overcome, based on measurable improvements to the experimental methodology. This approach is shown to be suitable for the evaluation of bacterial rinse-washing efficacy by means of Raman light-scattering. The data were compared to label-free applications and the measurable differences between each …


The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly: Pollinators As Vectors Of Mummy Berry Disease In Highbush Blueberry, Matthew Boyer Mar 2019

The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly: Pollinators As Vectors Of Mummy Berry Disease In Highbush Blueberry, Matthew Boyer

Doctoral Dissertations

Background: Many plants must balance the need for pollination services with mediating the risk of pollinator-vectored pathogens. Vaccinium corymbosum, highbush blueberry, is negatively affected by an insect-vectored, fungal plant pathogen, Monilinia vaccinii-corymosi (MVC), the cause of mummy berry disease, in which the asexual spore mimics pollen grains and is transferred from blighted tissue to flowers via pollinators, resulting in inedible, hardened fruits. Highbush blueberry plants require outcrossed pollen for maximum yield and fecundity. Therefore, yield of blueberry plants rely on a balance between adequate pollination service and disease avoidance. Approach: To explore the relationship between pollinator community and infection …


Apple Disease Forecasting Models: When Climate Changes The Rules, Elizabeth W. Garofalo Mar 2019

Apple Disease Forecasting Models: When Climate Changes The Rules, Elizabeth W. Garofalo

Masters Theses

With a changing global climate, plant pathologists must understand the impact aberrant weather events may have on the development of plant diseases. Fungal plant infections are largely dependent on temperature and precipitation, climate parameters that are predicted to change more in this century. Venturia inaequalis causes apple scab, one of the most destructive apple diseases of temperate growing regions. Temperature and precipitation drive apple scab infections and forecast models, which guide growers in efficient, effective fungicide applications. In some recent years in the Northeast, these models have failed to accurately predict when ascospores of this fungus are available to cause …