CRYOPRESERVATION OF TRUE-SEED AND EMBRYO OF MAIZE AND SOYBEAN FOR LONG-TERM STORAGE

Study on cryopreservation of Indonesian local cultivars and improved  varieties of maize and soybean has never been done. This method may be used for long-term preservation of seeds of maize and soybean. In this study, the method was applied to maize and soybean, Arjuna and Wilis respectively, as a model for preserving germplasm of ortodox seeds. Whole seeds and excised embryos of both varieties were subjected to two methods of cryopreservation, i.e., two-stage cooling and rapid freezing with or without 15% dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) as cryoprotectant solution prior to immersion in liquid nitrogen (-196oC). Results indicated that there was no significant difference between the use of DMSO for both species in terms of viability, although pretreatment in DMSO was slightly reduced the percentage of viability of both species. Slow freezing to -30oC prior to immersion in the liquid nitrogen could give as high as 76.67% and 51.67% surviving whole seeds of maize and soybean, respectively. Preserving excised embryos of maize in the liquid nitrogen using either slow or rapid freezing significantly reduced the percentage of viability from 20-76.67% to 5-18.33% (four folds) depending on treatments applied. Results also showed that one day or 15 minutes of immersion of samples in the liquid nitrogen gave rise to similar values of viability of maize and soybean, i.e., 20-60% and 20-51.67%, respectively depending on  treatments applied. These results implied that for long-term storage of maize and soybean seeds as they could survive at the rate of 76.67% and 51.67% respectively, the seed can be treated by prefreezing to -30oCwithout the presence of DMSO prior to immersion in liquid nitrogen

DAMPAK SOSIALISASI PELAKSANAAN E-PUPNS TAHUN 2015 TERHADAP TINGKAT PENGUASAAN ICT DI KALANGAN PNS PEMERINTAH KAB. BARRU

Perubahan pendataan pegawai negeri sipil dari cara manual ke pendataan pegawai negeri sipil secara online berbasis internet yang kemudian disingkat e-PUPNS yang dikeluarkan oleh badan kepegawaian negara merupakan hal baru dikalangan pegawai negeri sipil, perubahan ini tentunya akan memberikan dampak terhadap kemampuan PNS dalam penggunaan teknologi komunikasi. Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui dampak sosialisasi pelaksanaan e-PUPNS Tahun 2015 oleh BKD di Kabupaten Barru terhadap tingkat penguasaan ICT (Information Communication Technologi) Pegawai Negeri Sipil di Kabupaten Barru. Objek penelitian ini adalah pegawai negeri sipil di sekretariat daerah kabupaten barru yang menjadi pengguna aplikasi e-PUPNS. Pendekatan yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah kualitatif dengan analisis deskriptif. Pengumpulan data dilakukan melalui observasi partisipasi, wawancara dan dokumentasi, data diklasfikasikan berdasarkan fokus penelitian, reduksi data, verifikasi data berdasarkan dasar teori yang penelitian gunakan, dan dilakukan penarikan kesimpulan secara induktif. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa sosialisasi yang dilakukan oleh BKD kabupaten barru tidak memberikan dampak langsung terhadap peningkatan kemampuan ICT pegawai negeri sipil yang ada di Kabupaten Barru, namun sosialisasi ini memberikan dampak positif berupa perubahan pada tingkat pengetahuan (Komponen kognitif), perubahan tingkat emosional/perasaan (Komponen Afektif), perubahan pada sikap dan tingkat Perilaku (Komponen Konatif). Diketahui pula bahwa tingkat pelapisan dalam hal penerimaan pesan pegawai negeri sipil di kabupaten barru berada pada tingkat Early Majority (penerima mayoritas cepat)

Abstraction, desalination and recharge method to control seawater intrusion into unconfined coastal aquifers

In this study, abstraction, desalination and recharge method and SEAWAT numerical model are used to investigate seawater intrusion repulsion in a hypothetical two-dimensional coastal aquifer to understand the relation of seawater intrusion with abstraction, desalination and recharge parameters (i.e. abstraction/recharge rate, wells distance and depth). Abstraction, desalination and recharge consists of abstraction and desalination of brackish water and recharge of desalinated water. The results of different defined scenarios showed that increase of recharge rate has a significant effect on the seawater intrusion mitigation (e.g. more than 80% variation in saline water volume) while the increase of abstraction rate does not have specific impact on seawater recession (e.g. less than 3% variation in toe position). The method efficiency in reducing seawater intrusion is increased when freshwater is recharged by well at outside of saltwater wedge and close to its toe position. Moreover, it is shown that the abstraction, desalination and recharge performance has slightly improved when the recharge and extraction wells are placed deeper into aquifer and close to aquifer bottom (almost 15% for all characteristics of salt wedge). Ultimately, dilution of saline water with recharged freshwater will widen the mixing zone but as salt wedge recedes toward the sea simultaneously, the mixing zone thickness cannot follow the steady reduction trend.               </strong

Three-dimensional virtual microstructure generation of porous polycrystalline ceramics

Various numerical methods have been recently employed to model microstructure of ceramics with different level of accuracy. The simplicity of the models based on regular morphologies results in a low computational cost, but these methods produce less realistic geometries with lower precision. Additional methods are able to reconstruct irregular structures by simulating the grain-growth kinetics but are restricted due to their high computational cost and complexity. In this paper, an innovative approach is proposed to replicate a three-dimensional (3D) complex microstructure with a low computational cost and the realistic features for porous polycrystalline ceramics. We present a package, written in MATLAB, that develops upon the basic Voronoi tessellation method for representing realistic microstructures to describe the evolution during the solid-state sintering process. The method is based on a cohesive prism that links the interconnect cells and thus simulates the neck formation. Spline surfaces are employed to represent more realistic features. The method efficiently controls shape and size and is able to reconstruct a wide range of microstructures composed of grains, grain boundaries, interconnected (open) and isolated (closed) pores. The numerical input values can be extracted from 2D imaging of real polished surfaces and through theoretical analysis. The capability of the method to replicate different structural properties is tested using some examples with various configurations