Come hither or go away? Recognising pre-electoral coalition signals in the news

In this paper, we introduce the task of political coalition signal prediction from text, that is, the task of recognizing from the news coverage leading up to an election the (un)willingness of political parties to form a government coalition. We decompose our problem into two related, but distinct tasks: (i) predicting whether a reported statement from a politician or a journalist refers to a potential coalition and (ii) predicting the polarity of the signal -- namely, whether the speaker is in favour of or against the coalition. For this, we explore the benefits of multi-task learning and investigate which setup and task formulation is best suited for each sub-task. We evaluate our approach, based on hand-coded newspaper articles, covering elections in three countries (Ireland, Germany, Austria) and two languages (English, German). Our results show that the multi-task learning approach can further improve results over a strong monolingual transfer learning baseline.

General and Specific Combining Ability and Genetic Parameters (Zea mays L.) of Single Crosses in Corn

Six inbred lines of maize namely; A (1), B (2), C (3), D (4), E (5) and F (6) were used in half diallel cross. The seeds of inbred lines and its single cross hybrids were cultivated in an experiment using randomized completely block design (RCBD) with three replicates, at Twaitha Research Station, Plant Breeding Improvement Center, Iraq, during autumn season (2016). The parents and F1 were significantly differed at 5% for number of days to tasseling and silking, plant height (cm), ear diameter (cm) and yield per plant. Some hybrids showed a significant desirable heterosis for studied traits such as days to tasseling and silking. While plant height and yield per plant for all hybrids showed a significant desirable heterosis (deviation of F1 from mid parents). The mean squares of general and specific combining ability were highly significant for all traits. The additive and dominance variances were differed from zero for all studied traits. The broad sense heritability values were high for all studied traits. Narrow sense heritability was moderate for number of days to tasseling, plant height and ear diameter, but it was low for number of days to silking and yield per plant. The average degree of dominance was higher than one for all traits.

Inheritance of grain yield and its components in line by tester method of maize (Zea mays L.)

This study was carried out at the Scientific Agriculture Research Center, Al-Ghab, Syria, during 2013 –2014 growing seasons to estimate heterosis, combining ability, phenotypic correlation and path analysis for plant and ear height, ear length, ear diameter, number of rows per ear, number of kernels per row, 100 kernel weight and grain yield per plant for eighteen hybrids produced by the line × tester method, the major findings were: inbred lines, testers, hybrids and combining ability mean squares were significant for all traits, indicating that additive and non-additive gene actions were the important in inheritance of all traits. The ratios of σ2 GCA/σ2 SCA showed that non-additive gene action was more important in controlling all traits except of number of kernel per row. Heterosis percentage for all traits were significant compared with the check variety except of ear height trait. GCA effects showed that the lines P1 and P7 were good combiners for grain yield per plant, also, SCA effects showed that P2×P8, P5×P8, P4×P9 and P1×P7 crosses were the best F1 combiners for grain yield per plant. Results of phenotypic correlation and path analysis values showed that ear length, ear diameter and number of kernel per row were positively and significantly associated with grain yield per plant, also, these traits can be considered as selection criteria may lead to the improvement of grain yield in maize.

Estimation of General and Specific Combining Ability for strains and hybrids of maize (Zea mays) under industrial infection by large corn stem borer Sesamia cretica

The study was done at the field research station Sianow of General Commission for Scientific Agricultural Research at Lattakia, to evaluate the susceptibility of 6 strains of maize Zea mays. L, and fifteen maize crosses obtained by half Diallel cross, against under conditions Industrial infection by large corn stem borer , Sesamia cretica Led. The experience was designed at randomized complete blocks (R.C.B.D). Strain IL.257-09)P1( expressed general high capacity to the attributes of Number of kernels per row(3.089), number of holes (-1.261). Strain IL.298-09 (P2) also expressed general high capacity to the attributes of Ear length (0.717), Intensity of damage (-0.432),% of yield loss (-6.022). strain IL.286-09 (P3) general high capacity to the attributes of diameter Ear (0.292), number of rows per ear (2.806). Strains IL.255-09 )P4) )0.036( and IL.228-09)P5) (0.969) also expressed general high capacity to the attributes of grain yield. Strain IL.262- 09(P6) expressed general high capacity to the attributes of 100- Kernel weight (1.942), infestation grain yield) 0.784), tunnel length (-5.629), Percentage of dead hearts (-1.132).

Estimation of Heterosis and combining ability for yield and some fruit traits in tomato hybrids (Lycopersicom esculentum Mill.)

The research was conducted at Al-Jmmaseh station – the Agricultural Research Center in Tartous- to estimate heterosis, combining ability of yield and some fruit traits. Fifteen hybrids were produced by half diallel crossing method in 2013. These were evaluated in 2014. Most hybrids were characterized by highly significant heterosis values for all the studied traits compared with mid parents and better parents. Heterosis reached (87.76, 50.13)% for yield per plant, (71.44, 43.09)% for average of fruit weight, (19.67, 12.31)% for fruit length, (38.21, 21.43)% for fruit diameter, and (32.5, 20.46)% for number of locules per fruit in comparison with mid parents and better parents respectively. The best hybrids were: (Ou×H) (Ou×W) (Or×H) and maybe they could be promising hybrids if they had superiority in other important traits. Variance due to general and specific combining ability were highly significant for all traits. This ensured that both types of genetic action (additive and non-additive) controlled the inheritance of these traits. σ2GCA/σ2SCA ratio of the additive genetic action overcame the one of non-additive cation in these traits: number of locules per fruit, average of fruit weight and fruit diameter, while the non-additive genetic action was superior in fruit length and total yield.

Estimation of Combining Ability in Al-Salamoniah Maize (Zea mays L.) Hybrids for Some Quantitative Traits Under Two Dates of Nitrogen Fertilizer Application

This research aimed to evaluate the general and specific combining ability components for six inbred lines and 15 hybrids produced by a half diallel cross method, and was conducted during 2010-2011 seasons, in the Department of the Maize Researches at G.C.S.A.R. Damascus . The evaluation included the grain yield, ear height, ear length, and silking under two different treatments of nitrogen fertilizer (1- addition of 50% of N-fertilizer with sowing and the other 50% one month after sowing. 2- addition of 50% of N-fertilizer 18 days after sowing and 50% one month after sowing).and 3 replicates. Results indicated that: Mean squares of inbred lines, and hybrids were highly significant for all studied traits under two adding dates of nitrogen fertilizer, which indicated the presence of genetic distance among parental lines. The ratios (
2 GCA/
2 SCA) showed that additive gene effect was more important than non-additive gene effect in controlling all studied traits except grain yield which showed dominance of non-additive gene effect under tow dates. Many of significant positive GCA effects were obtained for all traits, therefore, it could be concluded, that the inbred lines CML.330, IL.26-09 and CML.334 seemed to be the best general combiners for grain yield. The hybrid (CML.368 × IL.215-09) had showed the best specific combining ability effects for grain yield under the first date, while the hybrid (CML.330 × IL.26-09) showed the best SCA effects under the second date. The second adding date of nitrogen fertilizer (50% 18 days after sowing and 50% one month after sowing) had surpassed of the first date (50% with sowing and 50% one month after) with significant effects for grain yield trait.

Genetic analysis of yield and its components in hybrids of sweet corn (Zea mays L. saccharat)

This research was carried out at the Maize Researches Department of General Commission of Science Agriculture Research (GCSAR), Damascus, Syria, During the growing season 2010 to study general and specific combining ability and the behavior of the inheritance of plant height, ear height, yield per unit area, ear length and ear diameter in sweet corn by the use of half diallel crosses of five selected sweet corn inbred lines (IL.1037-08) P1, (IL.1062-08) P2, (IL.1049-08) P3, (IL.209-08) P4 and (IL.1065-08) P5