Decision-making tutor: Providing on-the-job training for oil palm plantation managers

Over the years many Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITSs) have been used successfully as teaching and training tools. Although many studies have proven the effectiveness of ITSs used in isolation, there have been very few attempts to embed ITSs with existing systems. This area of research has a lot of potential in providing life-long learning and work place training. We present DM-Tutor (Decision-Making Tutor), the first constraint-based tutor to be embedded within an existing system, the Management Information System (MIS) for oil palm plantation management. The goal of DM-Tutor is to provide scenario-based training using real-life operational data and actual plantation conditions. We present the system and the studies we have performed. The results show that DM-Tutor improved students’ knowledge significantly. The participants found DM-Tutor to be easy to understand and interesting to use

Susceptibilities of two populations of Aphis gossiper Glover to selected insecticides

Two populations of Aphis gossypii were collected from cotton and melon crops treated with insecticides to control this aphid species. The  susceptibility of both aphid populations to pymetrozine, Pirimicarb, Oxydemeton-methyl and Imidacloprid was evaluated using leaf deep bioassays in Laboratory which were commonly used to control this aphid on both crops. Results showed that LC50 values of these insecticides against clones of cotton aphid were 452, 1427, 1810 and 209 ppm, respectively. LC50 values of the above mentioned pesticides against clones of melon aphid were 625, 688, 523 and 125 ppm, respectively. Lc50 data showed that aphids reared on melon was 2.07, 1.6 and 3.4 times more susceptible than cotton aphids to Pirimicarb, Imidaclopride and Oxydemeton-methyl and 1.4 times more resistant to Pymetrozine, respectively. In conclusion, it has been shown that clones of cotton aphid is on average 3.4-fold less susceptible to Oxydemeton- methyl, 2-fold less susceptible to pirimicarb, 1.6-fold less susceptible to Imidacloprid and nearly 0.7-fold more   susceptible to pymetrozine than clones of melon aphid. There was little difference in susceptibility to pymetrozine between the two populations. It is also suggested that continuous resistance monitoring should be conducted on a regional scale to identify the efficiency of compounds which are applied against this insect species.Key words: Aphis gossypii, cotton, melon, insecticide resistance

Biochemical characterization of digestive amylase of wheat bug, Eurygaster maura (Hemiptera: Scutelleridae)

Biochemical characterization of  -amylase in the midgut and salivary glands of Eurygaster maura was conducted. Results showed that -amylase activities were present in the salivary glands and gut. The activity of -amylase in the midgut and in the salivary glands was 0.098 and 0.057 U/ml, respectively. The pH of salivary glands and the gut was determined to be in the range of 5- 5.5 (for the salivary glands) and in the range of 6-6.5 (for the gut), using staining indicator. The optimum pH and temperature for salivary glands and midgut amylase activity was 6-7 and 35-40ºC, respectively. The stability of amylase was highest in the acidic pH (4-5). Ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA), urea, sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and Mg2+ inhibited the enzyme activity but, NaCl and KCl enhanced enzyme activity. Based on linear regression analysis of reciprocal starch concentration versus reciprocal amylase activity Km and Vmax were 0.11% and 0.04 mM maltose/min for midgut amylase and 0.298% and 0.071 mM maltose/min for salivary amylase, respectively. Sodium dodecyl sulfate electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) showed that both midgut and salivary glands contain isozymes

Effect of an anti-juvenile hormone agent (Precocene I) on Sunn pest, Eurygaster integriceps (Hemiptera: Scutelleridae) development and reproduction

Sunn pest (Eurygaster integriceps Put.) (Hemiptera: Scutelleridae) is a serious pest of cereals causing severe quantitative and qualitative damage by feeding on leaves, stems and grains. Pesticide application is the main method of Sunn pest control, thus a search for developing new control methods is needed to diminish reliance on insecticides for insect control. So in the current study, the effect of an anti-juvenile hormone agent (precocene I) on the growth, reproductive biology and adult hemolymph proteins of E. integriceps females and males were investigated. The results indicated that precocene I had no acute toxicity to adults and second instars of E. integriceps. The treatment of second instars did not lead to death even in high doses, nor did it induce abnormality. The treatment of the third instar nymphs caused disorder in the physiology and increased mortality. The mortality of third instar was dose dependent (R2 = 0.9774). Hemolymph protein concentrations in control males and females were high (2497.95 ± 0.04 and 2088 ± 0.04, respectively), but they decreased with the starting of oviposition. Hemolymph protein concentrations in treated females were lower than the control, at first day after treatment. With passage of time, hemolymph protein concentrations remained constant and decreased near oviposition. Total protein concentration in males and females was nearly equal, and there were no significant differences among them (P > 0.01). Precocene I also affected the number of eggs laid by females and the percentage of hatched eggs. It can be said that the effect of precocene I was stage- and age-specific, that is, its effects were varied with stage of the insect and its age in that stage. When used in early growth stage, its effect was less. However, when used in the late developmental stage its effect was more apparent and increased mortality as well as abnormalities.Keywords: Eurygaster integriceps Put, precocene I, hemolymph protein concentration, immature development, reproductionAfrican Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 9(36), pp. 5859-5868, 6 September, 201

Measuring competitiveness of food processing industry in Malaysia

This paper investigates the measuring competitiveness on the levels of competition for various productions of food products in Malaysia. The study is undertaken using the concept of comparative advantage. In the context of competitiveness of the Malaysian food processing industry the evaluation of comparative advantage has been undertaken. In order to penetrate a wider range of foreign markets, Malaysian food processors have to identify food sectors that are internationally competitive and could withstand internal and external shocks. The Malaysian competitiveness level was determined using the Domestic Resource Cost (DRC) and Social Cost Benefit (SCB) indicators. Twenty food sectors were assessed using the Malaysian food production and trade data from 2000 to 2008. The results indicate that in the post crisis period, Malaysia enjoys an above average level of comparative advantage in the production of twenty foods product in 2008. As expected, Malaysia has a comparative advantage in the food production

Factors Determining Managerial Role in Supply Chain Management: Study on Administrative Trait’s effects on Production

The elements of quicker advancement underway and benefit zones set new desire principles and customary administrative qualities in production network the board forms are being modified to enhance company's aggressiveness in this changing business sector condition. Likewise, organizations are currently hoping to grow new techniques in zones, for example, producing, adaptability, transportation and data advancements so as to have a vital predominance in their store network. Directors are enter factors in the hierarchical execution and the accomplishment of the supply chains. Along these lines, it is suggested that production network procedures must be considered in the general methodology and furthermore the commitments of inventory network the board can not be acknowledged except if it is upheld by the administrative board. As needs be, the reason for this examination is to explore the job of administrative properties and its consequences for the production network execution. The information in this examination are gathered from the production network supervisors of substantial assembling firms (employee>50) in Kayseri. The outcomes demonstrate that administrative traits have affect on production network execution

Antecedents of Firm’s Performance: A Conceptual Model

This paper has been remained as evidence from the creative industry of China where it builds a conceptual framework on antecedents of organizational performance. A systematic literature review was conducted to study the possible antecedents of the performance. It found a number of factors that affect the performance of the creative Chinese industry; the major focus was on absorptive capacity, entrepreneurial orientation and market orientation. The study provides a conceptual framework, to elaborate the combination with a significant effect on performance of the firms and it is a unique contribution to literature and practice

A graphical structure-editor that generates code for attribute grammar systems.

Attribute Grammars were proposed by Donald Knuth (1968) as a tool for describing and implementing the semantics of programming languages. The number of attribute systems now-a-days is counted by tens, some of which are truly attribute systems (such as DELTA, FNC-2, and W/AGE) and other are loosely related to the formalism (such as YACC). Some of the systems are equipped with special input languages (OLGA for FUNC-2, ALADIN for GAG and SSL for the SYNTHESiZER GENERATOR) and others accept some variant of the attribute-grammar notation as their input. In all cases, the structure of the input, although written in different syntactical forms for different systems, reflects the underlying context-free grammar and the set of semantic rules associated with it. A graphical representation for attribute grammars, when built over an efficient recursive data structure, can be used as a base for code generation for attribute-grammar systems. To represent attribute grammars graphically, the basic constructs of the formalism must each have a corresponding graphical object that clearly shows its type and functionality. The Attribute Grammar Generator is a visual editing tool in which objects (graphical object) can be dynamically created and linked to form an attribute grammar. The program provides facilities for creating and linking three types of primitive objects Terminals, Nonterminals and Attributes. The program also provides several dynamic checking operations to inform the user about the consequences of the currently invoked action. The constructed attribute grammar can then be processed by a translator to generate code for previously selected tool such as W/AGE. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 34-02, page: 0793. Adviser: Richard Frost. Thesis (M.Sc.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 1995