Effects of Planting Dates on Field Emergence and Forage Yield of Sudangrass and Sorghum

Sudangrass (Sorghum sudanense) and sorghum (S. bicolor) are annual forage species with ratoon growth. Objectives of this experiment were to determine the effects of planting dates on field emergence and forage yield of sudangrass and sorghum. Sudangrass and sorghum were planted monthly from mid-March to mid-October in 1994 and 1995, respectively. Emerged plants were recorded daily. Surviving seedlings were determined 2 weeks after emergence. Emergence percentages of sudangrass ranged from 61.7% to 90.6% and those of sorghum ranged from 47.5% to 81.3% in 1994. All the surviving percentages were above 90% for both sudangrass and sorghum in 1994. The emergence percentages of sudangrass ranged from 64.1% to 86.1% and those of sorghum ranged from 73.4%to 86.7% in 1995. The surviving percentages of sudangrass were between 77.7% and 95.7% and those of sorghum were between 88.5% and 100%, respectively. Sudangrass produced more forage yield than sorghum did. The forage yield was the highest planted in March among months in both 1994 and 1995. It was suggested that sudangrass should be planted before May to obtain higher forage yield

Effect of Animal Manure on Forage Yield and Quality of Pangolagrass and Soil Fertility

Animal wastes may cause environmental pollution. Lu & Hsu (2004) reported that N utilisation in the manure by pangolagrass was 10-28%. Objectives of this study were to determine the effect of animal manure on forage yield and quality of pangolagrass and soil fertility

Deposition of F-doped ZnO transparent thin films using ZnF2-doped ZnO target under different sputtering substrate temperatures

Highly transparent and conducting fluorine-doped ZnO (FZO) thin films were deposited onto glass substrates by radio-frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering, using 1.5 wt% zinc fluoride (ZnF2)-doped ZnO as sputtering target. Structural, electrical, and optical properties of the FZO thin films were investigated as a function of substrate temperature ranging from room temperature (RT) to 300°C. The cross-sectional scanning electron microscopy (SEM) observation and X-ray diffraction analyses showed that the FZO thin films were of polycrystalline nature with a preferential growth along (002) plane perpendicular to the surface of the glass substrate. Secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) analyses of the FZO thin films showed that there was incorporation of F atoms in the FZO thin films, even if the substrate temperature was 300°C. Finally, the effect of substrate temperature on the transmittance ratio, optical energy gap, Hall mobility, carrier concentration, and resistivity of the FZO thin films was also investigated

Doctor-patient mutual trust, telemedicine quality, and satisfaction: The role of knowledge management

Abstract. Distant medical care satisfaction demands high quality care result. Both quality and satisfaction rely heavily on collective operations on knowledge of and relations between patients and doctors. Thus, knowledge sharing and doctor-patient trust are among the two critical factors that may lead to medical care quality and satisfaction. However, existing literature discussed the abovementioned in a scant fashion and without considering the gap between knowledge of owners in this context (i.e., care offerers such as doctors and receivers like patients). This paper proposes a conceptual model for an integrative discussion of the relationships among knowledge sharing, trust, medical care quality and patient satisfaction, from a fresh perspective of knowledge gap. Theoretical and practical implications are expected to be rich because this conceotual piece offer discussions from a viewpoint that starts from the mnost fundamental factor – collective knowledge attribute in terms of its heterogeneous structure.Keywords. Knowledge sharing, Trust, Distant medical care, Quality, Satisfaction.JEL. D80, D83, D84, D85

The impact of institutional entrepreneurship on value co-creation in long-term care context: A case study

Abstract. "Human-centered" is the core logic for long-term care development. Traditional though on value creation focuses on the financial profits generated in the transaction between product/service suppliers and customers. Differently, value co-creation emphasizes on collective creation of effective impacts (economic and social) via the knowledge and experiences exchanges between key stakeholders. Long-term care is a setting that deals both macro-level institutional and micro-level stakeholder behavioral concerns. The latter is embedded in the former; thus, it is critical to systematically discuss the influences of institutional change on the evolutionary value co-creation in long-term care context. The present article tries to search for theoretical essence and elements of value co-creation in long-term care, which is expected to be achieved jointly by service provider (the caring), receiver (the cared), the healthcare organization (e.g., hospitals), the government units, and other parties. Then the influences of institutional entrepreneurship’s changes on these theoretical elements of value co-creation would be discussed. The article sets to offer clearer understanding of what value co-creation is in the long-term care context and how institutional entrepreneurship can alter value co-creation. Implications for research, practices, and health policy were discussed.Keywords. Institutional change, Long-term care, Value co-creation.JEL. B14, B24, B51

International Consortium of Rice Mutagenesis: Resources and beyond

Rice is one of the most important crops in the world. The rice community needs to cooperate and share efforts and resources so that we can understand the functions of rice genes, especially those with a role in important agronomical traits, for application in agricultural production. Mutation is a major source of genetic variation that can be used for studying gene function. We will present here the status of mutant collections affected in a random manner by physical/chemical and insertion mutageneses. As of early September 2013, a total of 447, 919 flanking sequence tags from rice mutant libraries with T-DNA, Ac/Ds, En/Spm, Tos17, nDART/aDART insertions have been collected and publicly available. From these, 336,262 sequences are precisely positioned on the japonica rice chromosomes, and 67.5% are in gene interval. We discuss the genome coverage and preference of the insertion, issues limiting the exchange and use of the current collections, as well as new and improved resources. We propose a call to renew all mutant populations as soon as possible. We also suggest that a common web portal should be established for ordering seeds. (Résumé d'auteur