Cold hardiness studies of bermudagrass and Paspalum vaginatum Sw.

1979 Fall.Covers not scanned.Includes bibliographical references.The relative cold hardiness of 8 bermudagrass Cynodon sp. and 2 Paspalum vaginatum Sw. cultivars was evaluated in growth chamber by dry weight of regrowth obtained from these turfgrasses. Samples of the turfgrasses which were cold stressed in the field were taken into the greenhouse at regular intervals from fall through winter to spring. The degree of injury of samples subjected to low temperature in the laboratory was estimated via conductivity measurements. The field study related closely to laboratory analyses. There were significant differences between cultivars with respect to cold hardiness. The bermudagrasses appear to be more cold hardy than P. vaginatum cultivars. Of the turfgrasses studied, Brookings appears to be the most cold hardy followed by NEJC, Tifgreen, Pee Dee 102, Tifdwarf, LaJunta, Santa Ana, Tifway, Futurf and Adalayd in decreasing order of cold hardiness. All the cultivars tested were chilling sensitive, but Santa Ana and Tifway were less so than the other grasses tested. The results of the field and chilling injury tests suggest that Brookings is photoperiod sensitive and that it breaks dormancy later than the other cultivars tested

Nitrogen balance and morphometric traits of weanling pigs fed graded levels of wild sunflower (tithonia diversifolia) leaf meal

Leaves of Tithonia diversifolia (wild sunflower) were harvested, processed and subsequently referred to as Tithonia diversifolia leaf meal (TDLM). Proximate composition and amino acid analyses revealed that TDLM is a relative rich protein source at 20.6% crude protein (CP) content. Lysine, leucine and isoleucine were particularly abundant in TDLM and compared favourably with conventional protein sources such as groundnut cake and hen’s whole egg. Pre-feeding trial on standard grower pig diet for 10 days revealed uniform growth among the 24 Large White breed experimental pigs allotted into 4 treatments. Thereafter, a 63-day feeding trial was conducted using four diets containing 19.0% CP and digestible energy value of about 12.55MJ/kg. TDLM progressively replaced soybean at 0 (control), 10, 20 and 30% inclusion levels in diets 1, 2, 3 and 4, respectively. There was a significant reduction (p≥0.05) in daily feed consumption for pigs across the experimental diets with a range of 390.8 g/day in pigs on the control diet to 261.4 g/day in pigs on diet with 30% TDLM. Average daily weight gain (AWG) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) had a similar trend with AWG varying significantly (p≥0.05) from 114.3 g/day for pigs on the control diet to 11.7 g/day for pigs on diet with 30% TDLM. Nitrogen retention (NR) had the highest significant (p≥0.05) value of 2.87 g/N/pig/day for pigs on 10% TDLM followed by 2.26 g/N/pig/day for pigs on the control diet. There were negative net nitrogen retention values of -2.60 g/N/pig/day and -1.70 g/N/pig/day for pigs on 20% and 30% TDLM inclusion levels, respectively. Body length ranged from 55.3 to 61.8 cm; knee to floor ranged from 14.4 to 16.3 cm; and hock to floor ranged from 18.4 to 19.3 cm. Pigs on 10% TDLM based diet surpassed the control diet in body length. Other parameters (live weight, height at withers, chest depth and chest girth) had slightly varying (p≥0.05) values for pigs across different diets with pigs on the control diet and diet with 10% TDLM inclusion level having consistently higher values. The similarities in most parameters determined for pigs on control diet and 10% TDLM strongly suggests the suitability of TDLM at inclusion levels not exceeding 10%. We concluded that further processing techniques may be used to facilitate better utilization of TDLM in pig rations.Key words: Morphometric trait, nitrogen balance, pig

Using Background Information to Enhance News: A Study of Nigerian Newspapers’ Covid-19 Stories

This study evaluates Covid-19 news reports by Nigerian newspapers on the Covid-19 pandemic in a bid to establish the extent of background information used in these reports as well as factors that drive the usage. It adopts the historical methodology and oral/in-depth interviews to extract heuristic and useful information from the news desks of ten newspapers. The evaluation shows that only three newspapers reported the pandemic when it broke out in Nigeria in February 2020 while one, surprisingly, provided background information. It turned out newsroom politics, professional issues, poor sense of news judgment, undue government influence, proprietorial interests, newsroom production pressure, and the phobia of technological application inhibited the inclusion of background information in stories. More contributory to the hindrance was the fixation on the two-dimensional reporting which emphasizes the traditional 5Ws + H whose limitation is of concern. The recommendation suggests that journalists embrace the three-dimensional system which promotes comprehensive reporting

Discursive ideologies in campaign speeches of Cyril Ramaphosa and Julius Malema in the 2019 South African presidential election

This work analyses the discursive ideologies embedded in campaign speeches of Cyril Ramaphosa of the African National Congress (ANC) and Julius Malema of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) in the period before May 8, 2019, the South African general elections. The study is an attempt to uncover the hidden ideologies the candidates subtly employ to sway voters in their favour. The study employed Critical Discourse Analysis to analyse the campaign messages. The data for the study comprised the campaign exchanges of the two candidates retrieved from www.youtube.com. This study shows that the two presidential contenders, through their campaign speeches, employed different ideologies through which they hoped to sway the electorate in their favour. The incumbent, Cyril Ramaphosa, projects the ideology of renewal and the elements of ‘us’ versus ‘them’ in his campaign speeches. Julius Malema, on the other hand, being a young leader, sells the ideologies of economic liberation, ‘us’ versus ‘them’ and ‘young’ versus ‘old’, depicting that only the youth can lead South Africa to the promised land. The study submits that political discourse is laden with specific ideologies which are intended to convince the voters to vote for them. It is therefore important that the public be well informed so that they can rationally uncover and identify these  ideologies and either accept or reject them. Keywords: discursive, ideology, campaign, South African presidential election

Exploring the CSR Influence on Brand Patronage in Nigeria

This work investigated the influence of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on brand patronage in Nigeria using an upscale bank as the study focus. This investigation became an imperative sequel to the need for current data on CSR dynamics, including the customer's place in those dynamics. Anchored on the Stakeholders Theory, a survey and in-depth interview helped gather the data from the bank's customers and a representative of its CSR and Services Initiatives Department - 300 respondents in all - responding to the quantitative and qualitative approaches. The findings debunked the widespread opinion that customers are ignorant or oblivious of Nigeria's top banks' CSR systems. CSR activities helped promote the investigated bank's image, leading to increased patronage, among other positive outcomes. Findings also demonstrated that by investing in CSR, an organization could achieve a positive outcome in terms of its financial performance. The positive outcomes notwithstanding, Nigerian banks should intensify their CSR activities still and the associated publicity. This escalation could help increase awareness that Nigerian banks are not doing badly in CSR, contrary to opinions

Response surface methodology assessment of osmotic pre-drying and convective dehydration processes on the anti-oxidant property of Hausa variety of tomato

This study was conducted to determine the effect of osmotic pre-drying treatment on the vitamin C content of Hausa variety of tomato. The tomatoes used were sliced to a uniform diameter of 10 mm, deseeded and then osmotically pre-treated with sugar and honey solution at different osmotic concentrations (20, 30, 40, 50, 60 °Bx), osmotic time (10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 min) and osmotic temperature (10, 20, 30, 40, 50 °C). Experimental design was done using the Central Composite Design (CCD) methodology of Design Expert software version 6.0.6. Drying of the samples was done at 65 °C in a cabinet dryer operating mainly on convectional heat transfer. Drying process was completed and terminated when the samples reached their equilibrium moisture content between 3-5% after total drying time of 10 hours. The data obtained were analysed statistically using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and regression analysis at p≤0.05 significance level. The developed model was significant and has goodness of fit with an R2 value of 71.29% and lack of fit test was insignificant at p≤ 0.05. Optimized process conditions for producing the best quality of tomato product with vitamin C content of 22 mg/100 g were 35.43 °Bx osmotic concentration, 11.10 min osmotic time and 23.86 °C osmotic temperature having a desirability function of 1. These conditions were considered to be advantageous as they were more economical, time and energy saving

A Lithographic Process for Integrated Organic Field-Effect Transistors

Abstract-This paper reports a photolithographic process for fabricating organic field-effect transistors which provides two layers of metal with arbitrary via placement, and optionally allows for subtractive lithographic patterning of the transistor active layer. The demonstrated pentacene transistors have a field-effect mobility of 0.1 0.05 cm 2 /(V s). Parylene-C is used both as the gate dielectric and an encapsulation layer which allows for subtractive lithographic patterning. Also demonstrated is a PMOS inverter without level shifting circuitry and level-restoring High and Low . This work demonstrates a high definition, multilayer, integrated photolithographic process which creates organic field effect transistors suitable for use in integrated circuit applications such as a display backplanes

Pharmacophore-Aided Virtual Screening and Molecular Dynamics Simulation Identifies TrkB Agonists for Treatment of CDKL5-Deficiency Disorders

Therapeutic intervention in cyclin-dependent kinase-like 5 (CDKL5) deficiency disorders (CDDs) has remained a concern over the years. Recent advances into the mechanistic interplay of signalling pathways has revealed the role of deficient tropomyosin receptor kinase B (TrkB)/phospholipase C γ1 signalling cascade in CDD. Novel findings showed that in vivo administration of a TrkB agonist, 7,8-dihydroxyflavone (7,8-DHF), resulted in a remarkable reversal in the molecular pathologic mechanisms underlying CDD. Owing to this discovery, this study aimed to identify more potent TrkB agonists than 7,8-DHF that could serve as alternatives or combinatorial drugs towards effective management of CDD. Using pharmacophore modelling and multiple database screening, we identified 691 compounds with identical pharmacophore features with 7,8-DHF. Virtual screening of these ligands resulted in identification of at least 6 compounds with better binding affinities than 7,8-DHF. The in silico pharmacokinetic and ADMET studies of the compounds also indicated better drug-like qualities than those of 7,8-DHF. Postdocking analyses and molecular dynamics simulations of the best hits, 6-hydroxy-10-(2-oxo-1-azatricyclo[7.3.1.05,13]trideca-3,5(13),6,8-tetraen-3-yl)-8-oxa-13,14,16 triazatetracyclo [7.7.0.02,7.011,15]hexadeca-1,3,6,9,11,15-hexaen-5-one (PubChem: 91637738) and 6-hydroxy-10-(8-methyl-2-oxo-1H-quinolin-3-yl)-8-oxa-13,14,16 triazatetracyclo[7.7.0.02,7.011,15]hexadeca-1,3,6,9,11,15-hexaen-5-one (PubChem ID: 91641310), revealed unique ligand interactions, validating the docking findings. We hereby recommend experimental validation of the best hits in CDKL5 knock out models before consideration as drugs in CDD management