Effect of sowing date on grain quality of sorghum (Sorghum bicolor

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) is a staple food for a considerable number of people in Africa and Asia. However, poor grain quality is a major concern for the rural communities who depend mainly on sorghum grain for food. Protein, minerals and tannins are important indicators of grain quality. Their quantity is critical in choice of variety to grow for food. An experiment was carried out in a randomised complete block design by sowing 5 sorghum varieties on 18th June, 29th June and 10th July 2015 - in Bor and Arek South Sudan. The objective of the study was to determine the effect of sowing date on protein, tannins, iron and zinc content in sorghum. Grain samples of five sorghum varieties sown on various dates were collected and analysed at Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) Njoro. Protein content was determined using method 44 from Association of American Cereal Chemists. Tannins were determined using the Improved Vanillin- Hydrochloric Acid Assay (IVHAA) while minerals; iron and zinc were determined using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry. Significant site by variety by sowing date interactions at P < 0.05 level of probability were obtained for protein, iron and zinc content of sorghum varieties but not for tannins. Highest protein content of 11.55 per cent was achieved when varieties were sown on 29th June in Bor. Protein of 11.40 per cent was obtained when varieties were sown on 18th June in Arek. At Bor, Beer, Dhet and Seredo varieties; 12.76, 11.0 and 10.64 per cent protein respectively were recorded. At Arek, Beer Seredo and Dhet attained 12.03, 10.92 and 10.60 per cent protein content respectively. Sorghum varieties sown on 18th June had less tannins of 1.19 mgml-1in Bor and 1.09 mgml-1in Arek while varieties sown on 10th July had highest tannins 1.49 mgml-1 in Bor and 1.40 mgml-1 in Arek. Amongst the varieties, Seredo and Agany contained high tannins while Beer and Dhet contained less tannins. Iron and zinc content in sorghum showed higher values for 29th June sowing date both in Bor and Arek. The study showed that Beer and Dhet varieties have good quality grains that can be used to improve human nutrition, hence can be recommended to sorghum farmers in Bor and Arek region.Keywords: Sorghum, Date, Grain quality, Cluster, Tannins, Protein, Iron, Zin

Observation of hard scattering in photoproduction events with a large rapidity gap at HERA

Events with a large rapidity gap and total transverse energy greater than 5 GeV have been observed in quasi-real photoproduction at HERA with the ZEUS detector. The distribution of these events as a function of the $\gamma p$ centre of mass energy is consistent with diffractive scattering. For total transverse energies above 12 GeV, the hadronic final states show predominantly a two-jet structure with each jet having a transverse energy greater than 4 GeV. For the two-jet events, little energy flow is found outside the jets. This observation is consistent with the hard scattering of a quasi-real photon with a colourless object in the proton.Comment: 19 pages, latex, 4 figures appended as uuencoded fil

The ZEUS First Level Tracking Trigger and studies of supersymmetry at HERA

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:D192346 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Ab initioAb\ initio investigation of the screw dislocation-hydrogen interaction in bcc tungsten and iron

International audienceThe interaction of hydrogen with 2/1 screw dislocations is investigated in body-centered cubic tungsten and iron using ab initio calculations. Different core reconstructions are evidenced, depending on the number of hydrogen atoms introduced inside the dislocation core. Corresponding interaction energies are highly attractive in both metals, with a significant contribution of zero point energy associated with H vibrations, particularly in Fe. The pinning by hydrogen of the dislocation in its reconstructed core remains efficient for a local atomic fraction of hydrogen as low as 1/5. Other octahedral interstitial sites close to the reconstructed core are also attractive, contrary to the perfect bcc crystal where these sites are unstable and where hydrogen lies in the tetrahedral sites. Hydrogen recovers its bulk behavior only beyond the eighteenth neighbor octahedral sites. A simple pair interaction model is parameterized on ab initio calculations and used with a mean-field approximation to predict the concentration profiles of hydrogen segregated in and around the dislocation core. This segregation model predicts that dislocation core-sites remain completely decorated by hydrogen atoms up to at least 750 K and 200 K in W and Fe, respectively

Strong increase in thawing of subsea permafrost in the 22nd century caused by anthropogenic climate change

Most earth system models (ESMs) neglect climate feedbacks arising from carbon release from thawing permafrost, especially from thawing of subsea permafrost (SSPF). To assess the fate of SSPF in the next 1000 years, we implemented SSPF into JSBACH, the land component of the Max Planck Institute Earth System Model (MPI-ESM). This is the first implementation of SSPF processes in an ESM component. We investigate three extended scenarios from the 6th phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6). In the 21st century only small differences are found among the scenarios, but in the upper-end emission scenario SSP5-8.5 (shared socio-economic pathway), especially in the 22nd century, SSPF ice melting is more than 15 times faster than in the pre-industrial period. In this scenario about 35ĝ% of total SSPF volume and 34ĝ% of SSPF area are lost by the year 3000 due to climatic changes. In the more moderate scenarios, the melting rate maximally exceeds that of pre-industrial times by a factor of 4, and the climate change induced SSPF loss (volume and area) by the year 3000 does not exceed 14ĝ%. Our results suggest that the rate of melting of SSPF ice is related to the length of the local open-water season and thus that the easily observable sea ice concentration may be used as a proxy for the change in SSPF.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe