Since stomatal conductance (gs) couples the crop photosynthesis and transpiration, estimation of gs is important for adopting management practices which can increase crop growth through efficient use of water. In the current study, a simple model based on TEMPERATURE difference between crop LEAF and a reference surface was used for estimation of the LEAF stomatal conductance. The model calibrated and validated using two years field experiment data with pumpkin carried out during 2013 and 2014 at Research Farm of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad. Results showed that model had a very good performance and very accurately simulated pumpkin LEAF stomatal conductance under conditions without nitrogen deficiency. Under nitrogen deficient conditions, by using the nitrogen nutrition index (NNI), the good or very good performance and accuracy were obtained from the model. The relative difference (RD) between simulated and observed values of average of stomatal conductance during the growing season was ranged from 1. 1% to 2. 5 for non-nitrogen deficient treatments and from 2. 8% to 5% for nitrogen deficient treatments. The accuracy and simplicity of the model and its low input requirements make it suitable for use in stomatal conductance based crop growth models.

Purpose: Environmental stresses are a main disturbing factor influencing horticultural productivity around the world. It will affect all plants including resistant or non-resistant cultivars. So, it is important to find the better cultivars and to check the response to adverse environmental conditions. Research method: Thus, the present research was conducted to evaluate responses of different bearing status of pistachio cultivars including Kalleh-Ghochi (K), Ohadi (O) and Ahmad-Aghaii (A), grafted on Badami-Rize-Zarand as rootstock, for six consecutive years to soil salinity. Findings: ON-bearing trees of ‘Ahmad-Aghaii’ showed the highest yield, followed by ‘Ohadi’ and ‘Kalleh-Ghochi’. In addition, the lowest LEAF TEMPERATURE was observed with this cultivar. Although the highest nitrogen, sodium, carbohydrate, peroxidase and LEAF TEMPERATURE was obtained in ON-bearing trees, however, the lowest potassium and total phenol content indicated in OFF-bearing status. It was found a negative correlation between LEAF potassium content and ABI, between LEAF peroxidase activity and ABI and between LEAF TEMPERATURE and ABI. On the other hand, LEAF TEMPERATURE increased as LEAF sodium content increased. Research limitations: There was no limitation. Originality/Value: From data presented here, it is concluded that salinity and Na accumulation might be effective in changing the response of the pistachio cultivar under harsh environmental conditions which affects yield component and alternate bearing index.

Whereas reducing carbon pollutant and fossil fuel energy consumption have become the most important environmental and economic concerns in the world, electric vehicles and their cooling system are in automotive industry manufacturers and designers agendum more than ever. Various motor electromagnetic and mechanical losses act as heat sources and could lead to performance falloff and premature exhaustion indisputably, if they don’, t dissipate by an appropriate cooling system. Thus, in present work, a model has been prepared in Motor-CAD software for Nissan LEAF’, s BPM electric motor and after modelling various losses in it by means of 2D and 3D simulations with finite element method, it has been attentively investigated in terms of cooling system performance and hotspot TEMPERATUREs and locations in four popular distinct standard driving cycles. It has been revealed in results that diversities in driving patterns can lead to different thermal reactions in vehicle’, s electric motor. These changes can even rearrange thermal critical points and move hotspots to different parts of motor. Beside quantitative point of maximum TEMPERATUREs, various transient responses have been monitored in simulations results and hotspot location moved differently in each cycle. Main novelty of the present research is clarifying the point that in order to design an efficient and suitable cooling system for electric motors in vehicles, driving pattern characteristics must be taken into account.

One of the important issues in the production of concrete is environmental variability that affects the concrete and elements constructed from this material. Due to the importance of different characteristics of concrete in short- and long-term conditions, this article aims to investigate the influence of initial TEMPERATURE conditions of self-compacting concrete on its long-term characteristics and determine the initial optimal TEMPERATURE of concrete. For these purposes, several experiments under three TEMPERATURE conditions of 5, 20, and 40 degree-of-Celsius were conducted to evaluate the rheology and mechanical properties of fresh concrete in the range of 7 and 28 days. In these experiments, alternative mineral admixtures of cement such as micro-silica, fly ash, and zeolite were used to build the concrete specimens. Results demonstrate that the mechanical properties of the specimens increase with increasing initial TEMPERATURE in the short term, while such properties significantly decrease in the long term compared to the specimens constructed under lower initial TEMPERATURE. Moreover, the fluidity of self-compacting concrete increases with increasing initial TEMPERATURE.

This research was conducted to evaluate the effect of root zone TEMPERATURE (RZT) on calcium concentration and LEAF necrosis of lily 'Navona' in three different seasons during 2006 and 2007. Bulbs with 16-18 cm in circumference as plant material and cocopeat and perlite mix as medium used in experiments. Traits such as incidence and severity of LEAF necrosis and mineral concentration of leaves were analyzed. Results indicated that with incrementing the RZT from 9 to 20 °C, calcium uptake and mean Ca concentration of leaves significantly increased. In second experiment, that Ca concentration of leaves was 0.55% DM, LEAF necrosis was not occurred. In the first and third experiments, mean Ca concentration of leaves were 0.22%, and Ca concentrations of middle leaves (the most sensitive part to necrosis) were 0.11 and 0.13%, respectively. Calcium concentration of necrosed area in damaged leaves, were 0.09 %. Also reduction in light intensity and increment of relative humidity in second experiment, did not significant effect on calcium concentration and thus LEAF necrosis did not occurred. On whole results revealed that low RZT was the main reason of incidence and development of LEAF necrosis in lily 'Navona'.

Integral water capacity (IWC) is the integral of differential water capacity functions in the range of 0 to infinity soil matric potential multiplied by weighting functions each taking into account the effect of various soil limitations that may develop at a given soil matric potential domain and restrict soil water availability to plant roots. The domains selected for development of weighting functions in most studies have seldom been based on plant response, but rather arbitrary. The purpose of this study was implementing midday green LEAF TEMPERATURE (TL) as a plant-response-based variable to compute integral water capacity. For this purpose, a sandy clay loam soil passed through 4. 76 mm sieve was evenly compacted to three bulk densities of D1=1. 35, D2=1. 55, and D3=1. 75 g cm-3, each replicated thrice, in PVC tubes (called pots hereafter) with 30 cm diameter and 70 cm height. Sunflower (Helianthus Annuus L) seedlings were planted in the pots and, after their full establishment, two periods of wetting and drying cycles were imposed. By monitoring daily soil moisture content at the three depths in the pots and converting them to soil moisture suctions along with the midday TL measurements, a plant-responsebased weighting function was developed and integral water capacity (IWCP) was computed. Integral water capacity (designated as IWCG) was also computed by adopting the weighting functions proposed by Groenevelt et al. IWCP and IWCG in D1 treatment were obtained as 0. 187 and 0. 229 cm3cm-3, respectively. At the highly compacted D3 treatment, the corresponding values diminished to 0. 152 and. 038, respectively, equivalent to 19% and 84% reduction in soil water availability and reflecting the dominant effect of soil compaction on water availability. Averaged over the three compaction levels, IWCP and IWCG were 0. 169 and 0. 14 cm3cm-3, indicating that water availability determined on the plant response basis was 17% greater than that predicted by IWCG. This difference and over-susceptibility (84%) of IWCG to soil compaction imply that the soil suction domains proposed for the various soil limitations and the experimental relations employed in Groenevelt et al. approach to quantify their restricting effects as weighing functions need to be modified according to each particular plant needs or response.

Tomato LEAF curl virus (TLCY, Family Geminiviridae, genus Begomovirus) is a whitefly (Bemisia tabaci) transmitted geminivirus (WTG) causing a destructive disease of tomato in many regions of India, East Asia and Australia. While TLCY isolates from Australia, Bangalore (India) and Taiwan and Tomato yellow LEAF curl virus (TYLCY) isolates from different regions of Asia, Europe and America have a single genomic component (designated DNA A), those from Northern India and Thailand have two components (DNA A and DNA B). Previously, TYLCY-like geminiviruses have been identified from southern provinces of Iran causing LEAF curling, stunting, and severe reduction in fruits of tomato plants in the fields. We have used degenerate DNA A specific PCR primers to clone part of the genome of an Iranian isolate of TLCY (TLCY-Ir) from field-infected tomato plants growing in Iranshahr, Sistan-Baluchestan Province. Degenerate DNA B-specific PCR primers did not amplify a putative DNA B from infected tomato under conditions that DNA B fragments were amplified from plants infected with Tomato golden mosaic virus, a known bipartite begomovirus. The full-length 2763 nucleotide DNA A genome of TLCY-Ir was sequenced and compared to Iranian isolate of TYLCY (TYLCY-Ir, previously sequenced by Bananej et al., (GcnBank accession No. AJ 132711) isolated from tomato in the same region.As other monopartite TLCV and TYLCV isolates, both TLCV-Ir and TYLCV-Ir genomes contain six open reading frames, two on the virion-sense strand and four on the complementary-sense strand. Sequence comparisons indicated that TLCV-Ir is substantially different from TYLCV-Ir with only 79% nucleotide sequence identity. Phylogenetic analysis showed while the TYLCV-Ir represents an isolate of TYLCV-Israel (TYLCV-Is) group, the TLCV-Ir is closer to TLCV isolates from southern India (TLCVs-Bangalore 2-5) which are most similar to other WTGs infecting tomato and cotton in Pakistan, India and East Asia and differ substantially from T(Y)LCVs of the Middle East, America, Europe and Australia.Presence of two tomato - infecting begomoviruses in the same area provides a favorable environment for recombination of these viruses.