Genotype by environment interaction and stability analyses of grain yield of selected maize (Zea mays L.) genotypes in eastern and central Sudan

In this study, 22 open pollinated maize genotypes introduced from International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) plus two local checks (Var113, Hudieba-2) were evaluated over two seasons (2017 and 2018) and four locations, viz. New Halfa, Kassala, Gezira and Elsuki Research Station farms of the Agricultural Research Corporation (ARC) of the Sudan. The objectives of this study were to determine magnitude of G x E interaction and identify high yielding and stable genotypes under different environments. Treatments were arranged in a randomized complete block design with three replicates. Combined analysis of variance revealed highly significant (P<0.01) variation among environment, genotype, and genotype by environment interaction (GEI). This is an indication of inconsistency of genotypes in response to changing environment, the high influence of environment on yield performance among the maize genotypes and, also, the significant effect of environments indicated that the testing environments were significantly different from each other in yielding potential expression. AMMI analysis of variance for grain yield showed the environment contribution by (24.06%) of the total yield variation and genotypes explained only (9.84%) of the variation. Also, substantial percentage of G x E interaction sum of squares, explained by G x E (50.41%) followed by IPCAI (19.22%) and IPCA2 (15.52%) of the variation. Based on grain yield potential and statistical stability analyses, i.e. Eberhart and Russel model (1966) as well as the additive main effect and multiplicative interaction (AMMI) analysis, revealed that, the genotypes TZBR Eld-4-WC1, BR9922-DMRSR,TZBR Comp1-w, TZBR Comp1-Y and TZBR YPOP STRCY were  recommended for the high yielding favourable supplementary irrigation condition (over 3000 kg/ha) of New Halfa, Gezira and Elsuki while the genotypes TZBREld-3C5, TZBREld-4-WC1, HYDERAB, 97502 (RE) and ECA STRIGOFE-153 were recommended for the unfavourable low yielding (less than 1500 kg/ha) rainfed condition of Kassala

Efficacy of Methyl-eugenol as Male Attractant for Dacus dorsalis Hendel (Diptera: Tephritidae)

Dacus dorsalis Hendel is the predominant species of fruit-fly (99.8%) found in a carambola orchard. Population level was found to be correlated (r = 0.56) with rainfall. Infestation of fruits began 29 days after fruit set. Laboratory studies show that among the three species of fruitflies tested for attractiveness to methyl eugenol, male of D. dorsalis and D. umbrosus showed no significant difference but both are significantly different (p < 0.05) with D. cucurbitae. Virgin adult males of D. dorsalis more than 20 days old were greatly attracted to methyl eugeno

The evaluations of facebook as an educational technology tools in polytechnic’s entrepreneurship courses

Entrepreneurship is integrated into the curriculum structure designed for students studying subjects other than Business. The aim of this study was to evaluate the usage of Facebook as an educational technology tool in entrepreneurship course in TVET institution particularly in Polytechnic Malaysia. The 400 sample was selected randomly among the students from theMalaysian Polytechnic Institutions. Tool analysis using IBM-SPSS version 21.The constructs of Cronbach’s alpha is 0.932. The results supported. It shows the averages mean value scores for educational technology tools is on the approximate scale of 4.0 (3.93). Usages of Facebook as an educational technology tools onto entrepreneurship course was well received by Polytechnics’ studentsKeywords: Facebook usage; educational technology tools; entrepreneurship course;polytechnics; DoI theories

Fluorescence spectroscopy for analysing deterioration of palm olein in batch deep-fat frying

Palm olein has been commercially used as frying medium in batch deep-fat frying. During frying, the oil usually deteriorates due to the exposure to high temperature. In this study, a fluorescence spectroscopy technique was applied to monitor the deterioration of refined, bleached, and deodorized palm olein (RBDPO) in batch deep-fat frying. 22.5 kg of French fries were used as the frying material. In 30 batches, the french fries were intermittently fried at 185 ± 5°C for eight hours a day over five consecutive days capturing 40 hours. The fluorescence intensity of the RBDPO was recorded with excitation at 390 nm and resulting emission of 465 nm. The fluorescence intensity of the RBDPO over five days of frying decreased considering the wavelength range of emission 430-640 nm and excitation 360-430 nm. The decreased in intensity of fluorescence emission and excitation spectra were inversely correlated with the FFA content of the oil samples. This study demonstrates the potential of fluorescence spectroscopy in monitoring the deterioration of RBDPO during batch deep-fat frying

Synthesis, antibacterial activity and cytotoxicity of new fused pyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidine and pyrazolo[5,1-c][1,2,4]triazine derivatives from new 5-aminopyrazoles

New 5-aminopyrazoles 2a–c were prepared in high yields from the reaction of known α,α-dicyanoketene-N,S-acetals 1a–c with hydrazine hydrate under reflux in ethanol. These compounds were utilized as intermediates to synthesize pyrazolo[1,5-a]-pyrimidines 3a–c, 4a–d, 5a–c, and 6a–c, as well as pyrazolo[5,1-c][1,2,4]triazines 7a–c and 8a–c, by the reaction of 2-[bis(methylthio)methylene]malononitrile, α,α-dicyanoketene-N,S-acetals 1a–b, acetylacetone, acetoacetanilide as well as acetylacetone, and malononitrile, respectively. Furthermore, cyclization of 2a–c with pentan-2,5-dione yielded the corresponding 5-pyrrolylpyrazoles 9a–c. Moreover, fusion of 2a–c with acetic anhydride resulted in the corresponding 1-acetyl-1H-pyrazoles 10a–c. The antibacterial activity and cytotoxicity against Vero cells of several selected compounds are also reported

Influence of Surfactants on the Mobility and Separation of Galactose, Arabinose and Rhamanose on Cellulosic Surface

ABSTRACT Different kinds of surfactants have been used for the study of mobility of three sugars. Mobility pattern of all three sugars viz, Galactose, Arabinose and Rhamanose has been studied in different aqueous and alcoholic eluents. An eco-friendly two-dimensional thin-layer chromatographic method was developed by using surfactants as eluents for the separation of Galactose, Arabinose and Rhamanose. Two different kinds of surfactants containing different types of charges were used for the study. Anionic surfactant (sodium cholate) was used in the first run and then the cationic surfactant (Cetyltrimethylammonium chloride) was used after rotating the plate at 90 o

Sintering temperature dependence of optimized microstructure formation of BaFe12O19 using sol–gel method

In an attempt to obtain the best possible properties of barium hexaferrite (BaFe12O19), the sol–gel synthesis method was chosen and, the optimum sintering conditions were established. The effects of the sintering temperature on the structural, morphological and magnetic properties of hexaferrite were studied. X-ray analysis indicates that the sintered samples (1,000–1,150 °C) remained in the hexagonal structure. From this analysis, no secondary phases are identified. The effect of sintering temperature on the grain growth of BaFeBaFe12O19 is confirmed by the microstructure using HR-SEM and is in good agreement with the XRD analysis based on the peak intensity of the (107) plane. The samples sintered at 1,150 °C showed the densities as ~93 % of theoretical density. Sintering temperature affected the grains in compact samples. The results show that homogeneous and dense BaFeBaFe12O19 ceramics obtained at a lower sintering temperature of 1,150 °C which is lower than the normally reported sintering temperature of ≥1,200 °C. The thermal treatment can markedly affect the grains in compact samples

Isolation of bioflocculant-producing bacteria from Penaeus vannamei ponds for the production of extracellular polymeric substances

Bioflocculants are essential polymers with their flocculating activity depending on the characteristics of the secreted flocculants by bioflocculant-producing bacteria. However, the characteristics of bioflocculant produced by microorganisms were not investigated profoundly. In order to better understand these characteristics, determination of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) from bioflocculant-producing bacteria were characterized in terms of protein concentrations. A total of 51 bioflocculant-producing bacteria isolates were screened from Pacific whiteleg shrimp, Penaeus vannamei culture ponds in Setiu, Terengganu, Malaysia. Screening of bioflocculant-producing bacteria were conducted through morphological approaches followed by protein extraction using Lowry assay method. The identified bioflocculant-producing bacteria includes Corynebacterium sp., Klebsiella sp., Lactobacillus sp., Staphylococcus sp., Bacillus sp., Streptococcus sp., Vibrio spp., Neisseria sp., Serratia sp. and Yersinia sp., with the highest protein concentration of 829 mg mL-1 were attained by Staphylococcus sp. The various amounts of EPS concentration produced by different species of bacteria were dependent on their specific population growth and growth rate. Therefore, the establishment of bioflocculant-producing bacteria isolated from biofloc which showed high tendency for EPS production were performed successfully

A framework of a route optimization scheme for nested mobile network

Network mobility technology is now being accomplished with the foundation of NEMO (NEtwork MObility), developed by Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Although, it achieves optimal and continuous communication, it still suffers from some limitations, especially when the level of nesting increases. To overcome these drawbacks, this paper will present a route optimization framework for nested mobile network using hierarchical structure with Binding Update Tree (BUT). This framework should reduce packet overhead, handoff latency, packet transmission delay, and achieve optimal routing. At last, a comparison will be done with bi-directional tunneling used by NEMO Basic Support to evaluate the performance of the proposed framework

Impact of Pavement Condition on Speed Change for Different Vehicle Classes

Pavement surface conditions have an influence on traffic safety, operating speed, maneuverability, driver comfort and service volume. Although many researchers have studied the influence of different roadway characteristics on traffic stream characteristics and performance, little research has been conducted to investigate the impact of pavement conditions on traffic stream characteristics. This research therefore investigates the impact of pavement conditions on traffic speed, the most important traffic stream characteristic. Field data were collected across 13 sites from two-lane, two-way roads in Menoufia and Gharbya governorates, Egypt. Each site included two sections, distressed and un-distressed. Road geometry and pavement condition characteristics were collected manually while traffic surveys were carried out using automatic traffic recorders. The data analysis revealed that poor pavement conditions caused a large variation in vehicle speeds and consequently made the speed distribution deviate from the normal distribution. There was a significant difference between the mean speeds for different classes of vehicles. Inspection of the standard deviations of speed for distressed and un-distressed sections showed significant differences occurring mainly in distressed sections. The corollary of this is that greater uniformity of speed can be expected under pavement conditions which are good. Several regression models were developed for change in speed and pavement condition, across different classes of vehicles. For all models, the inverse Pavement Condition Index (1/PCI) was the best mathematical form for the independent variable. This means that as the PCI decreases, the change in speed increases. The developed models can calculate changes in speed over different levels of pavement distress and class of vehicle under investigation. Ultimately, they could assist traffic and pavement engineers to justify their decisions regarding maintenance strategies, to carry out safety and operational performance analysis, to study vehicle operating cost and to perform pavement life cycle assessment