Strain differences with respect to economic traits of egg laying chickens entered in the Tennessee Random Sample Laying Test

Data collected during the Fifteenth Tennessee Random Sample Laying Test (1972) were analyzed statistically using analysis of variance and conventional product-movement coefficients of correlation among most variables studied to determine the magnitude of these correlations in both strain and treatment subclasses. The variables studied were egg production, average egg weight, feed efficiency, mortality, egg quality, income over chick and feed cost, body weight and sexual maturity. The effects assessed were strain (14 strains), feeding period during the growing period (short period n 10 to 20 weeks and long period = 10 to 24 weeks), protein level (low level = 10.2 percent and high level = 17.6 percent) and their interactions. Strain differences were significant with respect to most traits studied. The other two main effects, feeding period and protein level, were found also to differ, frequently and significantly. Most of the interactions were observed to be nonsignificant except for some first-order interaction such as strain X protein interactions for percent hen-day egg production after 50 percent of production (P \u3c 0.05) and body weight at housing (P \u3c 0.01), and feeding period X protein for sexual maturity (P \u3c 0.05) and cost per hen (P \u3c 0.01), while the second-order interactions were not significant for any trait. In spite of lack of significance in interactions between variables, there were some interactions which cannot be ignored. They would undoubtedly be significant with larger sample size and experimental procedures which would permit detection of small differences. Tests of significance of coefficients of correlation showed that strains differed in sign of correlations rather than in magni-tude. Treatments showed significant positive relationships of average egg weight with eggs per hen housed and of profit per hen with both eggs per hen housed and average egg weight, while other relationships with different sign were not significant

Yield and selected chemical and morphological responses of several soybean cultivars to soil pH

Yield responses of soybeans to soil pH have been difficult to demonstrate on most soils in Tennessee. Yet, liming has consistently been recommended as a practice to maintain productive soils near neutral. A study was conducted with 21 soybean cultivars on a productive West Tennessee soil to evaluate several chemical and morphological characteristics of these cultivars and determine which of the characteristics had any impact on yield. Twenty-one soybean cultivars belonging to three maturity groups (IV, V, and VI) were planted in three soil pH levels of 5.3, 5.9, and 6.8 in a split-plot arrangement of treatments in a randomized complete block design having four replications. The soil pH levels were the main plots and the cultivars were assigned to the split plots. The study was conducted on a Loring silt loam (Typic Fragiudalf) soil at Ames Plantation. Results indicated that in 1981 as soil pH level increased from 5.3 to 6.8, single and double seeded pods on the main stem, triple seeded pods on the branches, branches per plant and leaf Ca increased. In 1982, yield, triple seeded pods on both main stem and branches, seed weight, leaf Ca, and N increased as soil pH increased. Leaf P decreased in 1982 while leaf Mn decreased as pH increased in both years of the study. Soybeans were treated with supplemental Mo in 1981 but not in 1982. Stepwise regression suggested that leaf P-concentration or soil pH were the best single variable models, expressing 42 to 80 percent of the variation in yield for most of the cultivars in maturity group VI in 1981 and 1982, respectively

Genotype-environment interaction in traits of egg-production poultry stocks

Data used in this study were collected during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Tennessee Random Sample Laying Tests (1974 and 1975). Because of their importance to poultrymen many economic egg production traits were studied. Analysis of variance was conducted to determine the existence of the differences among stocks and treatments and of interactions. Stocks were found to differ significantly from each other with respect to most of the traits studied. To illustrate the differences among stocks, a ranking of their means with respect to each traits was prepared. Treatment effects (varying dietary salt levels and addition of bicarbonate and of methionine and choline) were found to be significant with respect to some tratis studied but not with respect to the others. A low level of salt (0.25%) was found to increase significantly (P \u3c 0.05) average egg weight, and the same effect for low level of choline (i.e.. no added choline) was found. The low salt level had a significant (P \u3c 0.001) influence in increasing percent small blood spots. Supplementary bicarbon-ate of soda significantly (P \u3c 0.05) decreased percent mortality. Choline addition significantly (P \u3c 0.05) increased the percentage of medium eggs. Addition of methionine to the layer diet significantly (P \u3c 0.05) improved feed efficiency traits, i.e.. it significantly (P \u3c 0.05) decreased amount of feed per bird housed, pounds of feed per pound of eggs and pounds of feed per dozen eggs. Supplementary methionine significantly (P \u3c 0.001) decreased specific gravity. There were many indications of interaction. First-order inter-actions, salt-by-bicarbonate-levels interaction was significant (P \u3c 0,05 and P \u3c 0.01) with respect to average egg weight and percent peewee eggs. Stock-by-salt-level interaction was highly significant (P \u3c 0.01) with respect to average egg weight and also significant (P \u3c 0.05) with respect to final body weight, percent large eggs and Haugh units. Interaction of stock with bicarbonate was significant (P \u3c 0.05) with respect to percent large eggs. Stock-by-choline interaction was significant (P \u3c 0.05) with respect to percent large eggs and percent small meat spots. Stockby- methionine interaction was significant (P \u3c 0.01) with respect to per cent large eggs and percent large meat spots. Interaction between choline and methionine was significant (P \u3c 0.01) with respect to specific gravity. Second-order interaction of stock-by-salt-by-bicarbonate was significant (P \u3c 0.05 and P \u3c 0.01) with respect to average egg weight and percent large meat spots, respectively. Stock-by-choline-by-methionine interaction was significant (P \u3c 0.05) with respect to percent small eggs, large eggs and extra-large eggs. The second kind of examination of the data was conducting Bartlett\u27s Test of homogenity of variances. The results of that Test de-clared that variances of stocks to be not homogenous with respect to per-cent peewee, average egg weight, feed efficiency traits, percent small blood spots, percent meat spots and final body weight in the Seventeenth Test. In the Eighteenth Test the hypothesis of homogenity of stock var-iances was rejected with respect to percent peewee, small, medium eggs, average egg weight, percent blood and meat spots and percent mortality. Treatments variances were not homogenous with respect to percent peewee , percent small blood spots and percent large meat spots in the Seventeenth Test. In the Eighteenth Test, with respect to percent peewee eggs and percent small eggs, treatment variances were found to be not homogeneous. The third analysis conducted was the calculation of conventional product - moment coefficients of correlation among all traits studied. Sign and magnitude of the relationships between the traits showed great variation from treatment to treatment and from stock to stock, providing further evidence of differential response of stocks to variations in environment. Evidence for genotype-environment interaction in this study and in others is sufficient to Justify further research specifcally planned to demonstrate and measure such interaction but is not sufficient to formulate any definite and precise recommendations as to testing pro-cedures breeders should use

Historical Development of Settlements near Fallujah in the Light of Archaeological Evidence and Cuneiform Writing Sources

This study focuses on the historical development of urban settlements in the third millennium BCE, using archaeological evidence and sources of the Cuneiform Torah, and considers the importance of these centers to modern-day Fallujah. The history of Fallujah cannot be separated from the history of Mesopotamia. The area in which Fallujah is situated has seen a number of important settlements at different points in history, since man first came to the region, owing to its prime position at the juncture of internal and external transport routes in Mesopotamia and its involvement in the distribution of water through irrigation channels. The role of these early settlements was inherited by later cities, many of which have had a substantial political and economic impact on the history of Mesopotamia. This study was based on two hypotheses. The first concerns the siting of the settlements along transport routes, and the second concerns their establishment on the basis of irrigation canals and irrigation technology. Keywords: Archaeological, Fallujah, Joha, Cuneiform, Settlement

Sign Gradient Descent Algorithms for Kinetostatic Protein Folding

This paper proposes a sign gradient descent (SGD) algorithm for predicting the three-dimensional folded protein molecule structures under the kinetostatic compliance method (KCM). In the KCM framework, which can be used to simulate the range of motion of peptide-based nanorobots/nanomachines, protein molecules are modeled as a large number of rigid nano-linkages that form a kinematic mechanism under motion constraints imposed by chemical bonds while folding under the kinetostatic effect of nonlinear interatomic force fields. In a departure from the conventional successive kinetostatic fold compliance framework, the proposed SGD-based iterative algorithm in this paper results in convergence to the local minima of the free energy of protein molecules corresponding to their final folded conformations in a faster and more robust manner. KCMbased folding dynamics simulations of the backbone chains of protein molecules demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.Comment: 6 pages, Accepted in 2023 International Conference on Manipulation, Automation and Robotics at Small Scales (MARSS 2023

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING - THE EFFECTIVENESS AND CHALLENGES

In the present era social media created a boom in business. It has changed the way companies deal with their consumers and enable them to market their product or services in personalized way. However, there are still limited studies examining key issues related to the effectiveness of social media as a marketing tool that justify the purpose of its use. The aim of this study is to explore social media marketing effectiveness in the Saudi market in terms of increasing sales, raise brand awareness and gaining customer loyalty. As well as the challenges and constraints that cause the reduction of effectiveness. The data was collected by an e-mail questionnaire sent to targeted consumers from social media marketing in Saudi society as well as interviews with marketing managers in Saudi companies. The results were obtained by testing the theory, that the use of social media as a marketing tool would be effective if the right strategies were used, which depended on identifying the target group and the appropriate promotional content that suits the product or service to be marketed. The experimental results identified different ways of engaging social media as marketing tools specifically in marketing communication, promotion, sales and discounts. It also showed that marketing through social media significantly helps to create and promote brand awareness which in turn leads to increased companies’ sales performance. The study also found that the use of social media has a positive relationship with consumer loyalty to the brand. JEL: M30; M3

The development of the osteocranium in the snake Psammophis sibilans (Serpentes: Lamprophiidae)

Non-avian reptiles are good models to investigate structural and developmental differences between amniotes. Investigations of craniofacial development in a complete series of embryos from oviposition up to hatching are still relatively rare. Consideration of a complete series can reveal developmental events that were previously missed, and thus correct or confirm theories about developmental events. The Egyptian Sand snake, Psammophis sibilans, has been a key species in descriptions of the snake skull development. However, published work was based on a limited sample of specimens collected from the wild. Here, we supplement previous descriptions with an illustrated account of skull development in P. sibilans based on a staged series of embryos and histological sections. Our findings largely agree with those of previous authors, although we record differences in developmental timing, confirming the presence of an egg tooth in this species. We add further observations on the enigmatic fenestra X, showing that it closes rather than merging with the prootic notch. Our observations revealed the likely contribution of the tectum posterius to the occipital roof, the presence of an internal carotid foramen (possibly transitory or variable), and the formation of the initial laterosphenoid pillar