Economics of nitrogen and integrated weed management in dry seeded rice

Dry-seeded rice (DSR) is an emerging production technology in many Asian countries, whose profitability is higher than puddled transplanted rice. However, weed infestations are severe in the DSR. To increase the competitiveness with weeds and achieve the yield potential of rice, weed management in DSR needs an integration of herbicides and higher nitrogen (N) fertilizer rates. Field experiments were conducted in the aman (wet season) 2012 and 2013 in Bangladesh to evaluate the effect of N rates (0, 80, 120, and 160 kg ha) and weed control methods [one hand weeding (HW); pendimethalin 1000 g ai ha followed by (fb) ethoxysulfuron 20 g ai ha; pendimethalin fb ethoxysulfuron fb one HW; and weed-free] on weed growth and crop yield in DSR. The experiment was arranged in a split-plot design with three replications. The highest grain yield (5.3 to 5.5 t ha) was recorded in the season-long manual weed free treatment when N rate was160 kg ha; however, because of the high cost of labor, this method was not profitable. The use of pendimethalin fb ethoxysulfuron fb one HW effectively controlled weeds and produced a similar yield with the weed-free treatment for all levels of N. However, weed management cost was also higher because of the involvement of one HW. Although pendimethalin fb ethoxysulfuron treatment had always lower yielded than the pendimethalin fb ethoxysulfuron fb one HW, grain yield increased and net profit was similar when N rate increased from 120 to 160 kg ha. Considering weed control efficiency, yield, and economics, pendimethalin fb ethoxysulfuron fb one HW with 120 kg N ha may be recommended to growers. However, if laborers are not available for hand weeding, pendimethalin fb ethoxysulfuron with 160 kg N ha is the best option to achieve high yield in DSR

Prevalence and Antibacterial Susceptibility in Mastitis in Buffalo and Cattle in District Lahore-Pakistan

A total of 450 milk samples including both 272 buffalo and 178 cattle were randomly collected in and around District Lahore to study the incidence of mastitis and antibiotic sensitivity by performing Culture and Sensitivity test. The prevalence of mastitis in buffalo was found 20.98% while in cattle 24.71%. The prevalence of both Clinical and subclincal mastitis in buffalo were 40.35%, 59.64% and in cattle 61.26%, 30.63% respectively. The milk samples mixed with bothmucus and blood in buffalo and cattle were 5.51% and 4.49% respectively. Quarters wise prevalence was 47.72%, 11.36%, 36.36% and 4.54% in the left fore, left hind, right fore and right hind quarters in cattle while In buffaloes, the prevalence was 0%, 68.96%, 11.49% and 19.54% in the left fore, left hind, right fore and right hind quarters respectively. The Ciprofloxacin antibiotic was found highly Sensitive in buffalo while Gentamicin in cattle

DoS Attack Impact Assessment on Software Defined Networks

© 2018, ICST Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering. Software Defined Networking (SDN) is an evolving network paradigm which promises greater interoperability, more innovation, flexible and effective solutions. Although SDN on the surface provides a simple framework for network programmability and monitoring, few has been said about security measures to make it resilient to hitherto security flaws in traditional network and the new threats the architecture is ushering in. One of the security weaknesses the architecture is ushering in due to separation of control and data plane is Denial of Service (DoS) attack. The main goal of this attack is to make network resources unavailable to legitimate users or introduce large delays. In this paper, the effect of DoS attack on SDN is presented using Mininet, OpenDaylight (ODL) controller and network performance testing tools such as iperf and ping. Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) flood attack is performed on a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) server and a User Datagram Protocol (UDP) server which are both connected to OpenFlow switches. The simulation results reveal a drop in network throughput from 233 Mbps to 87.4 Mbps and the introduction of large jitter between 0.003 ms and 0.789 ms during DoS attack.Published versio

Large sharing networks and unusual injection practices explain the rapid rise in HIV among IDUs in Sargodha, Pakistan

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Of the nearly 100,000 street-based IDUs in Pakistan, 20% have HIV. We investigated the recent rise in HIV prevalence from 12 to 52% among IDUs in Sargodha despite > 70% coverage with syringe exchanges.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We interviewed approximately 150 IDUs and 30 outreach workers in focus group discussions.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We found six rural and 28 urban injecting locations. Urban locations have about 20–30 people at any time and about 100 daily; rural locations have twice as many (national average: 4–15). About half of the IDUs started injecting within the past 2 years and are not proficient at injecting themselves. They use street injectors, who have 15–16 clients daily. Heroin is almost exclusively the drug used. Most inject 5–7 times daily.</p> <p>Nearly all injectors claim to use fresh syringes. However, they load, inject and share using a locally developed method called scale. Most Pakistani IDUs prefer to double pump drug the syringe, which allows mixing of blood with drug in the syringe. The injector injects 3 ml and keeps 2 ml (the scale) as injection fee. The injector usually pools all the leftover scale (now with some blood mixed with drug) either for his own use or to sell it. Most IDUs backload the scale they buy into their own fresh syringes.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>Use of an unprecedented method of injecting drugs that largely bypasses fresh syringes, larger size of sharing networks, higher injection frequency and near universal use of street injectors likely explain for the rapid rise in HIV prevalence among IDUs in Sargodha despite high level provision of fresh syringes. This had been missed by us and the national surveillance, which is quantitative. We have addressed this by hiring injectors as peer outreach workers and increasing syringe supply. Our findings highlight both the importance of qualitative research and operations research to enrich the quality of HIV prevention programs.</p

Strongly lensed SNe Ia in the era of LSST: observing cadence for lens discoveries and time-delay measurements

The upcoming Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will detect many strongly lensed Type Ia supernovae (LSNe Ia) for time-delay cosmography. This will provide an independent and direct way for measuring the Hubble constant $H_0$, which is necessary to address the current $4.4 \sigma$ tension in $H_0$ between the local distance ladder and the early Universe measurements. We present a detailed analysis of different observing strategies for the LSST, and quantify their impact on time-delay measurement between multiple images of LSNe Ia. For this, we produced microlensed mock-LSST light curves for which we estimated the time delay between different images. We find that using only LSST data for time-delay cosmography is not ideal. Instead, we advocate using LSST as a discovery machine for LSNe Ia, enabling time delay measurements from follow-up observations from other instruments in order to increase the number of systems by a factor of 2 to 16 depending on the observing strategy. Furthermore, we find that LSST observing strategies, which provide a good sampling frequency (the mean inter-night gap is around two days) and high cumulative season length (ten seasons with a season length of around 170 days per season), are favored. Rolling cadences subdivide the survey and focus on different parts in different years; these observing strategies trade the number of seasons for better sampling frequency. In our investigation, this leads to half the number of systems in comparison to the best observing strategy. Therefore rolling cadences are disfavored because the gain from the increased sampling frequency cannot compensate for the shortened cumulative season length. We anticipate that the sample of lensed SNe Ia from our preferred LSST cadence strategies with rapid follow-up observations would yield an independent percent-level constraint on $H_0$.Comment: 25 pages, 22 figures; accepted for publication in A&

Pathogenesis and management of tendinopathies in sports medicine

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/142482/1/tsm26_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/142482/2/tsm26.pd

CONTRIBUTION OF COORDINATION, BALANCE, FLEXIBILITY, ARM MUSCLE STRENGTH TO THE 'KIZAMI-GYAKU ZUKI' PUNCH: ANALYSIS OF FEMALE KARATE ATHLETES

The purpose of this research is to analyze the contribution of coordination, balance, flexibility, arm muscle strength to the kizami-gyaku zuki punch of female athletes. The background to this research is from observations of the qualifying round at the 2023 National Sports Week (PON), on average female athletes earn points from punches. This research is an analytical survey to test the contribution of the independent variables. The sample was 50 female athletes with characteristics namely age 19.8±1.2 years, training experience 8.3±0.6 years, weight 50±1.5 kg, height 160.4±1.5 cm. The tests carried out included coordination using the Hand-Wall Toss Test, balance using the Modified Bass Test of Dynamic Balance, flexibility using the sit and reach test, arm muscle strength using push up for 1 minute, kizami-gyaku zuki punches using a punching bag during 30 seconds. The results of this research show that coordination, flexibility, and arm muscle strength have an effect on kizami-gyaku zuki punches. However, balance has no effect on the kizami-gyaku zuki punches. Adjusted R Square results, the contribution from coordination (r = 0.341) or 34.1%, balance (r = 0.235) or 23.5%, flexibility (r = 0.490) or 49%, arm muscle strength (r = 0.465) or 46.5%, contribution overall against kizami-gyaku zuki punch (r = 0.674) or 67.4%. The conclusion is that it is important for trainers, athletes, and sports karate academics to focus on these four physical components so that the kumite abilities of female athletes can be improved. However, it is important to train in other physical components, such as endurance, technique and tactics and mental. Future research is expected to add variables or update the types of tests used in this research.  Article visualizations