The effect of source and rate of sidedress nitrogen on yield and quality of burley tobacco

Two field experiments were conducted during the growing seasons of 1983 and 1984 at the University of Tennessee Tobacco Experiment Station, Greeneville, Tennessee, to study the effect of source and rate of sidedress nitrogen on yield and quality of hurley tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.). The 1983 experiment consisted of two tests, namely sod tobacco (tobacco following sod) and continuous tobacco (tobacco following tobacco). Only sod tobacco was planted in the 1984 season. Three rates of sidedress nitrogen at 33, 100, and 165 pounds per acre, and nitrogen sources in the forms of sodium nitrate, ammonium nitrate, and urea were used. All treatments received a preplant broadcast application of 450 pounds of 9-18-27 per acre. No significant differences were found for yield, grade index, and crop index among the nitrogen rates and sources. Notably higher values were obtained for the sod tobacco over the continuous tobacco. There were significant differences among rates of nitrogen for percent contents of nitrogen, potassium, and calcium in the cured leaves. Percent nitrogen and calcium contents increased with increasing nitrogen rates. While percent potassium showed inconsistent response, percent phosphorus and magnesium contents were not significantly affected by the treatments. Nitrogen sources had no significant effect on the percent contents of nitrogen, phosphorus, calcium, and magnesium. However, sodium nitrate produced significantly higher percent potassium content than either ammonium nitrate or urea

Heightened reliability concerns in the distribution transformers market amidst the energy transition

Distribution transformers are an important part of the electricity grid as they regulate the voltage levels as required. As these transformers have to operate under extreme conditions, including extreme temperatures, overloading, voltage fluctuations and natural calamities, the original equipment manufacturers are required to implement robust design considerations. These design considerations are crucial for offshore wind applications where distribution transformers operate in a remote and harsh marine environment. Once the design considerations are adopted by the OEMs, it is expected that the performance and lifespan of distribution transformers will increase, which will improve the reliability of the overall power system in the long run

Relay selection for multiple access relay channel with decode-forward and analog network coding

This paper presents a relay selection for decode-and-forward based on network coding (DF-NC) and analog-NC protocols in general scheme of cellular network system. In the propose scheme the two source node simultaneously transmit their own information to all the relays as well as the destination node, and then, a single relay i.e. best with a minimum symbol error rate (SER) will be selected to forward the new version of the received signal. Simulation results show that, the DF-NC scheme with considerable performance has exactness over analog-NC scheme. To improve the system performance, optimal power allocation between the two sources and the best relay is determined based on the asymptotic SER. By increasing the number of relays node, the optimum power allocation achieve better performance than asymptotic SER.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures; International Journal of Distributed and Parallel Systems (IJDPS) Vol.3, No.2, March 201

Integration of ICT: The Missing Link in the Pre-Service Teacher Training Program at Karachi, Sindh

In this current study, the researcher explores the integration of information communication technology (ICT) in the teacher training program at the pre-service level. The profession of teaching has become a challenging profession ever in our society as knowledge expands very rapidly and dynamically, and it wants teachers to cope with new technologies in their academic activities. Furthermore, ICT can provide an efficient and effective way for teachers' professional development during pre-service and in-service teacher training; hence, this integration can help connect them with the international community. However, it is very unfortunate that instead of a bulk investment of human and financial resources, the pre-service teacher training program cannot provide prospective teachers with the competencies, necessary skills, and job experience to prepare them for using ICT for the future profession. Similarly, in the current paper, we have taken the issues and application of ICT that supports the teacher's pre-service Education for pedagogical skills. Hence, it was concluded that ICT should be the basic tool when selecting and staffing the teachers in these colleges

Environmental Effects of Trade Liberalisation: A Case Study of Pakistan

Within today’s global economy countries now trade more intensively and frequently than in the past. Trade has become an increasingly important global economic activity, with annual trade volumes increasing sixteen fold over the last fifty years and the ratio of world exports to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) now approaching twenty percent. With this recent acceleration of global trade, countries throughout the world have benefited from more investment, industrial development, and employment and income growth. Other positive effects include increased mobility of capital, increased ease of movement of goods and services (and information) across national borders as well as the diffusion of global norms and values, the spread of democracy and international environmental and human rights agreements. Critics of trade liberalisation argue that these much-acclaimed advantages of trade liberalisation (and globalisation) often underrate the impact of globalisation on widening the economic gap between the North and the South. Over the years, attention has been given to the advantages of trade liberalisation and globalisation to the detriment of the disadvantages. The major disadvantage that is always swept under the rug is the environmental problem. Recently, however, there has been an increasing concern over the potential negative impacts of trade liberalisation, particularly on the environmental and natural resources of developing countries

Fully modified least absolute devotions and fully modified M in estimating regression model with non-stationary explanatory variable and auto correlated random errors

The research is concerned with the adoption of two robust estimation methods: The fully modified least absolute devotions method (FM-LAD) and the fully modified M method (FM-M), in estimating the parameters of regression model with non-stationary explanatory variable and autocorrelated random errors which can be modeled according to one of the mixed models, autoregressive and moving average (ARMA). The research aims to make a comparison between these two methods based on the results of their estimation using simulation experiments prepared for this purpose. The results of the simulation experiment showed the advantage of the fully modified M method over the second method depending on the trade-off criterion mean squared error (MSE)

Discourse and Power Relations: A Critical Discourse Analysis of a Pakistani Talk Show

The paper aims at studying the ways power and inequality are enacted in a Pakistani talk show aired on Capital TV on 14th August 2019. The research primarily focused on analyzing turn-taking patterns of the discussion held between the host of the program and three guests. The analysis revealed the unequal distribution of turns implying the unequal distribution of power between the host and guests as well as between the guests. The host of the program through her discourse asserted power as she was the one to control the topic of discussion throughout the program. Her power can be attributed to the power of media. Besides, one of the guest speakers, Jawwad asserted his power through his knowledge. The female speaker did not have enough representation and was not given enough chance to share her views, therefore, it can be concluded that gender was another element that played an important part in forming the power relations in the discussion that was observed.Keywords: Critical Discourse Analysis, Discourse Power Relations, Media Discourse and Talk Shows, Turn-takin

Effect of Self-Care Guidelines on Quality of Life for Patients with Hepatocellular Carcinoma Undergoing Radiofrequency Ablation

Context: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is considered one of the most challenging tumors with high incidence, prevalence, and mortality rates. Radiofrequency Ablation (RFA) is one of the emerging therapeutic modalities used for the minimally invasive treatment in the management of early-stage HCC.Aim: This study aimed to assess the effect of self-care guidelines on the quality of life for patients with Hepatocellular Carcinoma undergoing Radio Frequency Ablation. Methods: A quasi-experimental design was used to achieve the aim of this study. This study was conducted at the Interventional Radiology Unit, affiliated to Ain Shams University Hospital, on a purposive sample of 50 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma; 25 were randomly allocated to the study group, and 25 were allocated to the control group. A structured interview questionnaire for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma undergoing radiofrequency ablation was used to collect the study data. It comprises three parts: Sociodemographic characteristics, assessment of patients' medical health, and knowledge about HCC and RFA. The second tool was the quality of life of cancer survivors questionnaire (pre /post-test), and finally, a patient-reported self-care practices assessment checklist (pre /posttests). Results: There were statistically significant differences between the study and control groups regarding their total knowledge about hepatocellular carcinoma and radiofrequency ablation therapy pre and post-implementation of self-care guidelines. There were highly statistically significant differences between both groups regarding the total quality of life, pre and post-implementation of self-care guidelines. In addition, there were highly statistically significant differences regarding total self-care practice, pre, and post-implementation of self-care guidelines. A positive correlation was revealed between total knowledge with total self-care practice and total quality of life (pre/posttest). Also, a significant correlation was revealed between the total quality of life and self-care practices post-self-care guidelines implementation at (p<0.001). Conclusion: Implementation of self-care guidelines improved patients' knowledge, quality of life, and self-care practices for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma undergoing radiofrequency ablation. A simplified, illustrated, and comprehensive Arabic booklet including self-care guidelines should be available for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma undergoing radiofrequency ablation. Replication of the current study on a larger probability sample is recommended to achieve generalization of the results. Further studies are recommended to assess factors affecting the quality of life for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma undergoing radiofrequency ablation

Metabolic engineering aimed at the production of keto acids from glycerol : an industrial by-product

Worldwide, energy consumption is at an all-time high and projected to increasingly grow in the upcoming years. Thus, it is critical to uncover alternative sources of energy that are independent of fossil fuels and environmentally neutral. The transformation of biomass into various energy-rich chemicals is an important strategy that is being pursued globally. Biodiesel can be an interesting substitute to fossil fuels. However, this process generates excessive amounts of glycerol, a byproduct that needs to be converted into valuable products if the biodiesel industry is to be sustainable. The principle objective of this thesis is to study how glycerol can be used as a raw material by microbial systems to produce valuable products. The soil microbe, Pseudomonas fluorescens widely utilized in the numerous biotechnological applications due to its nutritional versatility is an obvious choice to tailor into a glycerol-transforming nanofactory. The abiotic modulators namely hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and manganese (Mn) afforded uniquely facile means of triggering metabolic reprogramming aimed at the enhanced formation of pyruvate and α-ketoglutarate (KG). Under the influence of H2O2, P. fluorescens engineers an intricate metabolic network to synthesize ATP and pyruvate. As oxidative phosphorylation is severely impeded, the microbe invokes substrate level phosphorylation to generate energy. This is accomplished via the increased activities of various enzymes including pyruvate carboxylase (PC) and phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC) that were analyzed by blue-native polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (BN-PAGE) and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The high-energy phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP) is then converted into ATP and pyruvate, a process mediated by pyruvate phosphate dikinase (PPDK), phosphoenolpyruvate synthase (PEPS) and pyruvate kinase (PK). Supplementation with a micro-nutrient such as Mn, a divalent metal involved in a variety of enzymes results in the reprogramming of the metabolic networks aimed at the accumulation of KG. The increased activities of isocitrate dehydrogenase (ICDH)- (NAD)P dependent and aminotransaminases aided the exocellular secretion of KG. The overexpression of pyruvate carboxylase (PC) that is evident in the Mn-treated cells provides oxaloacetate, an important precursor to the synthesis of citrate, a key ingredient in the synthesis of KG. Isocitrate lyase (ICL), fumarate reductase (FUMR), succinate semialdehyde dehydrogenase (SSADH), α-ketoglutarate decarboxylase (KDC) and γ-aminobutyric acid transaminases (GABAT) work in concert to produce KG. 13C-NMR helped identify the metabolites participating in the metabolic networks. Immunoblot experiments confirmed the presence of overexpressed enzymes. These disparate metabolic pathways that promote the overproduction of the keto-acids in P. fluorescens have the potential of converting glycerol to value-added products commercially. As the process utilized is devoid of any genetic manipulation, it can be readily implemented in an industrial setting. In conclusion, both H2O2 and Mn can orchestrate metabolic changes in P. fluorescens inducing the production of pyruvate and KG from glycerol respectively. These chemical manipulations may also be applied to other microbial systems.Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Biomolecular Science