Grain storage at farm and warehouses level

Grain storage is very important because the quality of flour obtained from grain will be found in the finished products’ quality. Grains must be stored in well established conditions regarding temperature, humidity, airflow, trying to avoid the risk of being attacked by rodents and insects. If these conditions are not complied with, some qualitative deficits of the grains - such as mould at pH, infestation, fermentation etc. - may appear. The storage methods are those responsible for maintaining a good quality of the grains

A framework for efficient wastewater treatment and recycling systems

Water reuse / Wastewater / Recycling / Pricing / Water allocation / Cost benefit analysis / Wastewater irrigation / Developing countries / Developed countries / Case studies

Prolylcarboxypeptidase (PRCP) as a new target for obesity treatment

Recently, we serendipitously discovered that mice with the deficiency of the enzyme prolylcarboxypeptidase (PRCP) have elevated α-melanocyte-stimulating hormone (α-MSH) levels which lead to decreased food intake and weight loss. This suggests that PRCP is an endogenous inactivator of α-MSH and an appetite stimulant. Since a modest weight loss can have the most profound influence on reducing cardiovascular risk factors, the inhibitors of PRCP would be emerging as a possible alternative for pharmacotherapy in high-risk patients with obesity and obesity-related disorders. The discovery of a new biological activity of PRCP in the PRCP-deficient mice and studies of α-MSH function indicate the importance and complexity of the hypothalamic pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) system in altering food intake. Identifying a role for PRCP in regulating α-MSH in the brain may be a critical step in enhancing our understanding of how the brain controls food intake and body weight. In light of recent findings, the potential role of PRCP in regulating fuel homeostasis is critically evaluated. Further studies of the role of PRCP in obesity are much needed

Other-Initiated Repair Strategies in Solving Understanding Problems in EFL Learners Conversations

The aims of this study were to investigate the employment of Other-Initiated Repair Strategies (OIR Strategies) in solving understanding problem in EFL learners' conversation and to examine the kinds of trouble sources that prompt the employment of OIR Strategies. The participants were nine EFL learners participating in a speaking class in small university in Indonesia. To elicit the learners' conversations two communicative tasks, Spot the Difference and Desert Island were used. The learners' conversations during task performance were video-recorded, then, transcribed using the conventions proposed by Markee (2000) and analyzed qualitatively using Conversation Analysis method. The results showed that EFL learners managed to employ eight types of OIR Strategies comprising of 62 instances in total. The strategies are unspecified repair, interrogative repair, partial repeat plus a question word repair, partial repeat repair, understanding check repair, request for repetition, request for definition, and correction repair. Three different types of trouble sources triggered the use of OIR Strategies, namely linguistic-related problem, interactional-related problem, and meaning-related problem. The study demonstrated that by employing different OIR Strategies, even EFL learners with limited proficiency in English managed to take initiatives to overcome the understanding problem in conversations as part of their learning process. Therefore, the EFL teachers need to consider incorporating the teaching of OIR Strategies as part of their speaking class to improve the students' fluency

Recombinant prolylcarboxypeptidase activates plasma prekallikrein

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/106127/1/jth03969.pd

Temporal pattern separation in hippocampal neurons through multiplexed neural codes

Pattern separation is a central concept in current theories of episodic memory: this computation is thought to support our ability to avoid confusion between similar memories by transforming similar cortical input patterns of neural activity into dissimilar output patterns before their long-term storage in the hippocampus. Because there are many ways one can define patterns of neuronal activity and the similarity between them, pattern separation could in theory be achieved through multiple coding strategies. Using our recently developed assay that evaluates pattern separation in isolated tissue by controlling and recording the input and output spike trains of single hippocampal neurons, we explored neural codes through which pattern separation is performed by systematic testing of different similarity metrics and various time resolutions. We discovered that granule cells, the projection neurons of the dentate gyrus, can exhibit both pattern separation and its opposite computation, pattern convergence, depending on the neural code considered and the statistical structure of the input patterns. Pattern separation is favored when inputs are highly similar, and is achieved through spike time reorganization at short time scales (< 100 ms) as well as through variations in firing rate and burstiness at longer time scales. These multiplexed forms of pattern separation are network phenomena, notably controlled by GABAergic inhibition, that involve many celltypes with input-output transformations that participate in pattern separation to different extents and with complementary neural codes: a rate code for dentate fast-spiking interneurons, a burstiness code for hilar mossy cells and a synchrony code at long time scales for CA3 pyramidal cells. Therefore, the isolated hippocampal circuit itself is capable of performing temporal pattern separation using multiplexed coding strategies that might be essential to optimally disambiguate multimodal mnemonic representations

Improving water productivity, reducing poverty and enhancing equity in mixed crop-livestock systems in the Indo-Gangetic Basin: CPWF project report 68

Farming systems / Mixed farming / Water productivity / Feed production / Livestock / Energy consumption / Gender / Poverty / River basins / Case studies / India / Indo-Gangetic Basin / West Bengal / Haryana / Uttar Pradesh

Enhancement of Learning Style in Kolej Poly-Tech MARA (KPTM) via Mobile EEF Learning System (MEEFLS)

Mobile communication provides access to the outside world without borders everywhere and at any time. The learning method that related to mobile communication technology is known as mobile learning (M-learning). It is a method that communicates learning materials with mobile device technology. The purpose of this method is to increase the interest in learning among students and assist them in obtaining learning materials at Kolej Poly-Tech MARA (KPTM) in order to improve the student's performance in their study and to encourage educators to diversify the teaching practices. This paper discusses the student's awareness for enhancement of learning style using mobile technologies and their readiness to apply the elements of mobile learning in learning to improve performance and interest in learning among students. An application called Mobile EEF Learning System (MEEFLS) has been developed as a tool to be used as a pilot test in KPTM

Enhancement of Learning Style in Kolej Poly-Tech MARA (KPTM) via Mobile EEF Learning System (MEEFLS)

Mobile communication provides access to the outside world without borders everywhere and at any time. The learning method that related to mobile communication technology is known as mobile learning (M-learning). It is a method that communicates learning materials with mobile device technology. The purpose of this method is to increase the interest in learning among students and assist them in obtaining learning materials at Kolej Poly-Tech MARA (KPTM) in order to improve the student's performance in their study and to encourage educators to diversify the teaching practices. This paper discusses the student's awareness for enhancement of learning style using mobile technologies and their readiness to apply the elements of mobile learning in learning to improve performance and interest in learning among students. An application called Mobile EEF Learning System (MEEFLS) has been developed as a tool to be used as a pilot test in KPTM

Mapping the interaction between uPAR and high molecular weight kininogen

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/106070/1/jth03972.pd