The effect of different harvesting times on seed-set efficiency in cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) varieties

This study was undertaken in the South Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey during the 2006 and 2007 growing seasons to investigate the seed set efficiencies (SSE) of ten cotton cultivars grown in semi-arid climatic conditions. SSE changed by year by approximately 1-2%, averaging 87-88% in both of the study years, respectively. Mean values for varieties ranged from 86.5% (SG-125) to 89.9% (DPL-5111) in 2006 and from 86.2% (SG-125) to 89.5% (Fantom) in 2007. There were significant differences (p<0.05) among the cultivars according to harvesting time, except for the first harvest in 2006. Although differences were small, generally, it was observed that SSE diminished in flowers opened at the end of the growing season. The results showed that SSE was significantly affected (p<0.05) by cultivars, harvesting times and years. Additionally, SSE was significantly (p<0.05) and positively (r= 0.39* and r= 0.44*) correlated to seed cotton yield and seed yield in 2007. There was a significant difference in the number of seeds within the bolls formed early or late in the season, indicating bolls harvested at different times throughout the growing season could not be used for seed production. However, study results strongly indicated that seeds from the first harvest should be used for cotton seed production.Key words: Cotton, Gossypium hirsutum L., variety, harvesting time, seed-set efficiency

Genetic and Non Genetic Sources of Variation for Linear Body Conformation Traits in Bunaji and Friesian X Bunaji cows

The effects of Age of dam at calving, Sex of calf, Breed, Sire, month of calving and season of lactation on linear body conformation traits was investigated in the dairy herd of the National Animal Production Research Institute, Shika Zaria, Nigeria. Seven linear body conformation traits of 25 Bunaji and 25 crossbred (Friesian x Bunaji) cows were measured. The measurements were taken monthly by 3 evaluators for the complete lactation length of the cows, this resulted in 1275 cumulative records, (with 750 records from Friesian x Bunaji and 525 records from Bunaji). The 7 body conformation traits (stature, chest width, wither height, heart girth, body length, body depth and rump width) were measured in centimeter using flexible tape. The results showed that all the genetic and non genetic factors considered had significant effect (P<0.05) on the linear body conformation traits. However, there was no significant (P>0.05) variation amongst the evaluators in their measurements, except RW. The body size characteristics increased with age. The male bearing cows were relatively broader (CW, HG) and longer (BL) than the female bearing cows, though there was no significant difference (P>0.05) in their statures (ST) and the body depth (BD). The crossbred cows were taller (ST, HW) longer (BL), broader (CW, HG), but less deep (BD) than the pure Bunaji. The animals of season 1 were taller (ST, WH), deeper (BD) and longer (BL) than the others. However, animals of season 2 and 3 had similar body sizes (ST, CW, BD, WH, HG, BL and RW). It is therefore suggested that in selecting for body conformation these genetic and non genetic factors should be taken into consideration.Key words: Friesian x Bunaji, linear body conformation, evaluators, breed, sir

Determination of entrance skin dose from diagnostic X-ray of human chest at Federal Medical Centre Keffi, Nigeria

patient during x-ray examination in Federal Medical Centre, Keffi in Nasarawa state, Nigeria. Entrance skin doses (ESDs) for a common type of x-ray procedures, namely chest AP/PA (anterior/posterior) were measured. A total of 200 data were collected from patients who were exposed to diagnostic X-ray during their routine chest X-ray examinations. The age of the patients ranged from 15 to 68 years old while the weight and height of these patients ranged from 37.5kg to 98.5kg and 130.0cm to 175cm,  respectively. The patent’s skin dose were determined using Edmond’s formula, which is based on the X-ray tube and the radiographic exposure parameters of kVp, mAS, SSD and the total filtration of the beams. The calculated mean skin dose ranges from 0.013± 0.01mGy to 0.851±0.023mGy. In general, the ESDs measured for this type of x-ray procedures were found to be lower than or in agreement with the guidance level set by the Nigerian Basic Ionizing Radiation Regulation (NBIRR, 2003) standard and other international bodies and does not pose any significant health risk to the patience or the workers.Keywords: Entrance skin Dose, X-ray, Anterior-Posterior, Exposure, and Radiation

Experimental evidence on promotion of electric and improved biomass cookstoves.

Improved cookstoves (ICS) can deliver "triple wins" by improving household health, local environments, and global climate. Yet their potential is in doubt because of low and slow diffusion, likely because of constraints imposed by differences in culture, geography, institutions, and missing markets. We offer insights about this challenge based on a multiyear, multiphase study with nearly 1,000 households in the Indian Himalayas. In phase I, we combined desk reviews, simulations, and focus groups to diagnose barriers to ICS adoption. In phase II, we implemented a set of pilots to simulate a mature market and designed an intervention that upgraded the supply chain (combining marketing and home delivery), provided rebates and financing to lower income and liquidity constraints, and allowed households a choice among ICS. In phase III, we used findings from these pilots to implement a field experiment to rigorously test whether this combination of upgraded supply and demand promotion stimulates adoption. The experiment showed that, compared with zero purchase in control villages, over half of intervention households bought an ICS, although demand was highly price-sensitive. Demand was at least twice as high for electric stoves relative to biomass ICS. Even among households that received a negligible price discount, the upgraded supply chain alone induced a 28 percentage-point increase in ICS ownership. Although the bundled intervention is resource-intensive, the full costs are lower than the social benefits of ICS promotion. Our findings suggest that market analysis, robust supply chains, and price discounts are critical for ICS diffusion

Bekenstein entropy bound for weakly-coupled field theories on a 3-sphere

We calculate the high temperature partition functions for SU(Nc) or U(Nc) gauge theories in the deconfined phase on S^1 x S^3, with scalars, vectors, and/or fermions in an arbitrary representation, at zero 't Hooft coupling and large Nc, using analytical methods. We compare these with numerical results which are also valid in the low temperature limit and show that the Bekenstein entropy bound resulting from the partition functions for theories with any amount of massless scalar, fermionic, and/or vector matter is always satisfied when the zero-point contribution is included, while the theory is sufficiently far from a phase transition. We further consider the effect of adding massive scalar or fermionic matter and show that the Bekenstein bound is satisfied when the Casimir energy is regularized under the constraint that it vanishes in the large mass limit. These calculations can be generalized straightforwardly for the case of a different number of spatial dimensions.Comment: 32 pages, 12 figures. v2: Clarifications added. JHEP versio

A self-report comorbidity questionnaire for haemodialysis patients

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise statedBackground: Patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) have multiple comorbid conditions. Obtaining comorbidity data from medical records is cumbersome. A self-report comorbidity questionnaire is a useful alternative. Our aim in this study was to examine the predictive value of a self-report comorbidity questionnaire in terms of survival in ESRD patients. Methods. We studied a prospective cross-sectional cohort of 282 haemodialysis (HD) patients in a single centre. Participants were administered the self-report questionnaire during an HD session. Information on their comorbidities was subsequently obtained from an examination of the patient's medical records. Levels of agreement between parameters derived from the questionnaire, and from the medical records, were examined. Participants were followed-up for 18 months to collect survival data. The influence on survival of comorbidity scores derived from the self-report data (the Composite Self-report Comorbidity Score [CSCS]) and from medical records data - the Charlson Comorbidity Index [CCI] were compared. Results: The level of agreement between the self-report items and those obtained from medical records was almost perfect with respect the presence of diabetes (Kappa score κ 0.97), substantial for heart disease and cancer (κ 0.62 and κ 0.72 respectively), moderate for liver disease (κ 0.51), only fair for lung disease, arthritis, cerebrovascular disease, and depression (κ 0.34, 0.35, 0.34 and 0.29 respectively). The CSCS was strongly predictive of survival in regression models (Nagelkerke R2value 0.202), with a predictive power similar to that of the CCI (Nagelkerke R2value 0.211). The influences of these two parameters were additive in the models - suggesting that these parameters make different contributions to the assessment of comorbidity. Conclusion: This self-report comorbidity questionnaire is a viable tool to collect comorbidity data and may have a role in the prediction of short-term survival in patients with end-stage renal disease on haemodialysis. Further work is required in this setting to refine the tool and define its role.Peer reviewe

Natural language analysis of online health forums

Despite advances in concept extraction from free text, finding meaningful health related information from online patient forums still poses a significant challenge. Here we demonstrate how structured information can be extracted from posts found in such online health related forums by forming relationships between a drug/treatment and a symptom or side effect, including the polarity/sentiment of the patient. In particular, a rule-based natural language processing (NLP) system is deployed, where information in sentences is linked together though anaphora resolution. Our NLP relationship extraction system provides a strong baseline, achieving an F1 score of over 80% in discovering the said relationships that are present in the posts we analysed

Frequency Comb Assisted Diode Laser Spectroscopy for Measurement of Microcavity Dispersion

While being invented for precision measurement of single atomic transitions, frequency combs have also become a versatile tool for broadband spectroscopy in the last years. In this paper we present a novel and simple approach for broadband spectroscopy, combining the accuracy of an optical fiber-laser-based frequency comb with the ease-of-use of a tunable external cavity diode laser. This scheme enables broadband and fast spectroscopy of microresonator modes and allows for precise measurements of their dispersion, which is an important precondition for broadband optical frequency comb generation that has recently been demonstrated in these devices. Moreover, we find excellent agreement of measured microresonator dispersion with predicted values from finite element simulations and we show that tailoring microresonator dispersion can be achieved by adjusting their geometrical properties

Detailed estimation of bioinformatics prediction reliability through the Fragmented Prediction Performance Plots

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>An important and yet rather neglected question related to bioinformatics predictions is the estimation of the amount of data that is needed to allow reliable predictions. Bioinformatics predictions are usually validated through a series of figures of merit, like for example sensitivity and precision, and little attention is paid to the fact that their performance may depend on the amount of data used to make the predictions themselves.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Here I describe a tool, named Fragmented Prediction Performance Plot (FPPP), which monitors the relationship between the prediction reliability and the amount of information underling the prediction themselves. Three examples of FPPPs are presented to illustrate their principal features. In one example, the reliability becomes independent, over a certain threshold, of the amount of data used to predict protein features and the intrinsic reliability of the predictor can be estimated. In the other two cases, on the contrary, the reliability strongly depends on the amount of data used to make the predictions and, thus, the intrinsic reliability of the two predictors cannot be determined. Only in the first example it is thus possible to fully quantify the prediction performance.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>It is thus highly advisable to use FPPPs to determine the performance of any new bioinformatics prediction protocol, in order to fully quantify its prediction power and to allow comparisons between two or more predictors based on different types of data.</p