Progress in molecular plant breeding is limited by the ability to predict plant phenotype based on its genotype, especially for complex adaptive traits. Suitably constructed crop growth and development models have the potential to bridge this predictability gap. A generic cereal crop growth and development model is outlined here. It is designed to exhibit reliable predictive skill at the crop level while also introducing sufficient physiological rigour for complex phenotypic responses to become emergent properties of the model dynamics. The approach quantifies capture and use of radiation, water, and nitrogen within a framework that predicts the realized growth of major organs based on their potential and whether the supply of carbohydrate and nitrogen can satisfy that potential. The model builds on existing approaches within the APSIM software platform. Experiments on diverse genotypes of sorghum that underpin the development and testing of the adapted crop model are detailed. Genotypes differing in height were found to differ in biomass partitioning among organs and a tall hybrid had significantly increased radiation use efficiency: a novel finding in sorghum. Introducing these genetic effects associated with plant height into the model generated emergent simulated phenotypic differences in green leaf area retention during grain filling via effects associated with nitrogen dynamics. The relevance to plant breeding of this capability in complex trait dissection and simulation is discussed.

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Absolute total positive-ion electron ionization cross-sections from threshold to 220 eV are reported for a range of halogenated methanes and small perÑuorocarbons (2È4 carbon atoms). Correlations between the measured ionization cross-section and related molecular properties, in particular the vertical ionization potential (or vertical appearance energy) and molecular polarizability volume, are noted. Contributions to the total cross-section from individual bonds are also determined. Cross-sections predicted using these " bond contributions Ï are in agreement with experiment for a wide range of molecules to better than ^10% accuracy, and in most cases to better than ^5%. The experimental data are also compared with ionization efficiency curves calculated using the (DM) and binary encounter Bethe (BEB) models.

The experimental determination of absolute total electron impact ionization cross-sections for polyatomic molecules has traditionally been a difficult task and restricted to a small range of species. This article reviews the performance of three models to estimate the maximum ionization cross-sections of some 65 polyatomic organic and halocarbon species. Cross-sections for all of the species studied have been measured experimentally using the same instrument, providing a complete data set for comparison with the model predictions. The three models studied are the empirical correlation between maximum ionization cross-section and molecular polarizability, the well-known binary encounter Bethe (BEB) model, and the functional group additivity model. The excellent agreement with experiment found for all three models, provided that calculated electronic structure parameters of suitably high quality are used for the first two, allows the prediction of total electron-impact ionization cross-sections to at least 7% precision for similar molecules that have not been experimentally characterized.

Measurements of electron impact ionization cross sections have been made for methane and the series methyl fluoride to methyl iodide. The results for methane and methyl fluoride to methyl bromide have been compared with ionization efficiency curves calculated using Deutsch-Märk (DM) and binary-encounter-Bethe (BEB) methods, and also with the results of an ab initio model which gives the maximum cross section as a function of molecular orientation. In addition, the ab initio and DM methods have been used to calculate the steric ratios for the electron impact ionization of methyl chloride which have been compared with experimental measurements made previously.