Variation isn't that hard: Morphosyntactic choice does not predict production difficulty.

The following paper explores the link between production difficulty and grammatical variability. Using a sub-sample of the Switchboard Corpus of American English (285 transcripts, 34 speakers), this paper shows that the presence of variable contexts does not positively correlate with two metrics of production difficulty, namely filled pauses (um and uh) and unfilled pauses (speech planning time). When 20 morphosyntactic variables are considered collectively (N= 6,268), there is no positive effect. In other words, variable contexts do not correlate with measurable production difficulties. These results challenge the view that grammatical variability is somehow sub-optimal for speakers, with additional burdensome cognitive planning.

Cultivar × Management Interaction to Reduce Lodging and Improve Grain Yield of Irrigated Spring Wheat: Optimising Plant Growth Regulator Use, N Application Timing, Row Spacing and Sowing Date.

Severe lodging of irrigated spring-wheat in sub-tropical Australia has previously caused yield loss of between 1.7 and 4.6 t ha-1 (20-60% of potential yield). In response, agronomic management options were assessed for their ability to reduce lodging and increase grain yield, namely plant growth regulators (PGRs), timing of nitrogen (N) application, row spacing and sowing date, in combination with long and short duration cultivars across 15 irrigated environments from 2012 to 2016. Our study identified significant interaction between genotype, environment and agronomic management (G × E × M) for grain yield and lodging, although some combinations of agronomic techniques were broadly applicable across cultivars. PGR application improved grain yield of most cultivars in well-irrigated fields that had more than 120 kg ha-1 N (mineral N + fertiliser N) at sowing, with yield gains of up to 0.5 t ha-1 observed in both lodged and non-lodged fields. However, PGRs had little effect on grain yield when soil + fertiliser N at sowing was less than 80 kg ha-1 N. In-crop N application (compared to sowing N application) often improved grain yield of short duration, lodging resistant cultivars, but reduced the yield of long-duration, lodging susceptible cultivars in some environments. Narrow row spacing of 19 cm had the highest grain yield across cultivars in low lodging environments. At a severely lodged environment, narrow rows were the highest yielding for five out of six cultivars when PGRs were used, but was the highest yielding for only half of the tested cultivars when PGRs were not used. Cultivar × sowing date interaction for grain yield was also associated with the occurrence of lodging. Neither early nor late sowing had a consistent yield benefit across a range of cultivars, as lodging severity varied between sowing date depending on the timing of storm-induced lodging events. Lodging resistant long-duration cultivars had more stable grain yield across environments and increased grain yield in response to early sowing. Further research is needed to determine the optimum management strategy for new cultivars, because farmers do not always choose the most lodging resistant cultivars for reasons of cultivar disease resistance, grain quality and seed availability.

Contribution of postmortem changes of integrin, desmin and µ-calpain to variation in water holding capacity of pork.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between integrin, desmin, µ-calpain and water holding capacity in fresh pork. High levels of intact integrin at one day postmortem were negatively correlated with day 1 (P<0.05) and days 1-5 (cumulative) drip loss (P<0.05). High levels of intact integrin at five days postmortem were negatively correlated with days 1-7 (cumulative) purge loss (P<0.05). Intensity of intact desmin at one day postmortem was positively correlated with days 1-7 purge loss (P<0.01). There were positive correlations between intensity of intact desmin at day 7 and day 1 (P<0.01), days 1-5 drip loss (P<0.01) and days 1-7 purge loss (P<0.05). Autolysis of µ-calpain was associated with the degradation of desmin and drip or purge loss postmortem. Our results indicate that low levels of degradation of integrin and high levels of desmin degradation were associated with low drip loss values in fresh pork.