Response of soil physical properties to tillage and straw management on two contrasting soils in the parkland region of western Canada

Non-Peer ReviewedField experiments were conducted to evaluate the effects of 5 years of tillage straw practices on bulk density, penetration resistance, aggregation and infiltration rate of a Black Chernozemic soil at Innisfail (loam, 65 g kg-1 organic matter, Udic Boroll) and a Gray Luvisol soil at Rimbey (loam, 31 g kg-1 organic matter, Boralf) cropped to spring barley in a cool temperate climate in Alberta, Canada. The treatments comprised combinations of two tillage methods: no tillage (NT) and conventional tillage (T), and two straw levels: straw removed (-S), and straw retained on the surface (+S). Each year, the T plots were roto-tilled three times to about 10 cm depth. All the plots were seeded using 2 cm wide disc type openers on drill. Bulk density (Db) of the 0-7.5 and 7.5-15 cm depths was significantly greater in NT plots (between 1.13 and 1.58 Mg m-3) than in T plots (between 0.99 and 1.41 Mg m-3) in both soils, irrespective of straw management. In Black Chernozemic soil, NT treatment had significantly greater penetration resistance (PR) than T treatment up to 15 cm depth. Straw retention significantly reduced PR of the 0-10 cm soil in NT plots but such effect in T plots was small. In the 0-5 cm depth of Black Chernozemic soil, the >2 mm fraction of dry aggregates was highest in the NT+S treatment (72%), followed by NT-S (66%), T+S (56%) and T-S (50%). The wind erodible fraction (aggregates <1 mm size) was smallest (18%) in NT+S and largest (39%) in T-S treatment. Such values for NT-S and T+S were 23 and 33%. Soil aggregation benefited more from a reduction in tillage than from straw retention. Proportion of wind erodible aggregates was generally greater in Gray Luvisol soil than in Black Chernozemic soil. In Black Chernozemic soil, average steady-state infiltration rate (IR) was significantly smaller (33%) in NT plots than in T plots. Straw retention improved IR in both NT and T treatments. In Gray Luvisol soil, IR was not significantly affected by the treatments. In summary, elimination of tillage and straw retention generally improved aggregation and infiltration while bulk density and penetration resistance were within desirable range for plant growth

Successful use of steroids and ureteric stents in 24 patients with idiopathic retroperitoneal fibrosis : a retrospective study

Original article can be found at : http://content.karger.com/ Copyright Karger [Full text of this article is not available in the UHRA]Background/Aims: Retroperitoneal fibrosis (RPF) is a chronic inflammatory disorder causing obstructive nephropathy and renal failure. We reviewed our management of this condition. Method: All patients with RPF treated at a single center over a 15-year period were identified. A full review of notes and computer records was undertaken. Results: Data was available on 27 patients, 3 of which were excluded from later analysis. Diagnosis was based on clinical history and cross-sectional imaging. Retroperitoneal biopsy was undertaken in 3 patients. 96% had significant renal impairment at presentation with a mean serum creatinine of 688 μmol/l. 46% required emergency hemodialysis. All patients were treated with a combination of ureteric stents and/or steroids with an excellent clinical response. The mean best creatinine reached by the cohort was 136 μmol/l, and renal function remained stable in the long term. No patients required chronic dialysis. Ureteric stents were removed within 12 months and low-dose steroids were continued for a mean of 34 months. Recurrent disease was observed in 25% of patients, who all responded well to further steroid therapy. Mean duration of follow-up was 76 months. Conclusions: RPF is very effectively treated by a combination of ureteric stents and steroids, with excellent long-term results using this approach. Continued follow-up is advised because of the possibility of recurrent disease.Peer reviewe

RCA models with correlated errors

AbstractFinancial time series data cannot be adequately modelled by a normal distribution and empirical evidence on the non-normality assumption is very well documented in the financial literature; see [R.F. Engle, Autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity with estimates of the variance of UK inflation, Econometrica 50 (1982) 987–1008] and [T. Bollerslev, Generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity, J. Econometrics 31 (1986) 307–327] for details. The kurtosis of various classes of RCA models has been the subject of a study by Appadoo et al. [S.S. Appadoo, M. Gharahmani, A. Thavaneswaran, Moment properties of some volatility models, Math. Sci. 30 (2005) 50–63] and Thavaneswaran et al. [A. Thavaneswaran, S.S. Appadoo, M. Samanta, Random coefficient GARCH models, Math. Comput. Modelling 41 (2005) 723–733]. In this work we derive the kurtosis of the correlated RCA model as well as the normal GARCH model under the assumption that the errors are correlated

Assessment of parasitic load in goat through the examination of faecal matter

Parasitic infection do not show heavy rate of mortality, however there occurrence being chronic, most of the time leads to serious production losses, this led to study about severity of parasitic load and type of parasitic infection in goats. Parasitic infection most of the time leads to serious production losses. Gastrointestinal nematodes are ubiquitous parasites of grazing ruminants and cause decreases in survival, live weight gain, wool and milk production and reproduction performance. Parasitic problems are a serious problem in goat. Total 60 goat faecal samples were analyzed. These results would serve as a baseline for future studies. The majority of the faecal samples (70%) of both zone I and zone II had heavy parasitic load (&gt;3000 epg) followed by 60 per cent samples of zone III. This indicates that majority of the goats of the study area had severe parasitic infection. Chi-square analysis revealed non-significant relation between parasitic load and categories of zones. Majority of samples (48.33%) were infected with the combination of Strongyles, Strongyloides and Coccidiosis. It can be concluded that faecal egg count level was severe in majority of the samples examined

Perception of Muslim Consumers Towards Halal Branding in Advertising

The study is an eye opener into areas of Islamic Marketing that are becoming more substantial and have not been addressed. In advertisements, Halal is considered a brand that holds significant value for Muslim consumers. Furthermore, Halal branding especially in advertising has emerged as a new type of marketing advertisement. Such emergence has caused businesses to reconsider their advertising approach to attract new and retain old consumers. The study is aimed at providing an enhanced understanding on the role of advertising and branding towards Halal consumption. The role is further studied upon through extensive literature review and empirical data collection involving Muslim consumers. Analysis of data collected implied that existing insights on religious consumption is lopsided compared to the blooming Halal market particularly the perception of Muslim consumers towards Halal branding. Findings thus not only affect Muslim consumers, marketers, the government but also impact the society

A mathematical model of shear wave propagation in the incompressible transversely isotropic thermoelastic half-spaces

This article deals with the problem of reflection and transmission of shear waves at a plane interface between two dissimilar incompressible transversely isotropic thermoelastic half-spaces. Two coupled quasi-shear waves are found to propagate due to the incompressibility of such materials. Applying appropriate boundary conditions at the plane interface, amplitude ratios of the reflected and transmitted quasi-shear waves are obtained. It has been observed that these ratios are functions of the angle of incidence, elastic and thermal parameters of the materials. These ratios are computed numerically for a particular model to see the effects of specific heat and thermal expansion on quasi-shear waves in incompressible transversely isotropic thermoelastic materials. The results are also presented graphically

SOME RESULTS ON SEMI-REFLEXIVITY AND REFLEXIVITY IN LOCALLY CONVEX SPACES

In this paper we discuss that if E[] is a barreled space such that every bounded subset of E is relatively compact, then E[] is reflexive, and that a barreled space E[τ] in which there is a denumerable system of convex compact subsets is reflexive. We also discuss Some hereditary-type properties of reflexive locally convex spaces. Keywords: Bornological space, barreled, hereditarily-reflexive, M-space, quasi-complete, reflexive, strong dual. AMS (2010) Mathematics Subject Classification: 46A25

Sensitivity Analysis of a Mathematical Modeling of Ebola Virus Population Dynamics in the Presence of Vaccine

The virus (Ebola virus) (EBV) belongs to the Filoviri-dae family which is a filovirus and is a serious disease which&nbsp; leads to hemorrhagic disease in human and non human such as chimpanzee, gorilla, porcupine, fruit bats etc. In&nbsp; this paper, a mathematical modeling for the population dynamics of EBV diseases in the presence of vaccination&nbsp; was developed. The research shows that, using the human control reproduction number ( Rc )as response and&nbsp; infectious individual as response function, that the sensitive parameters in the formulated system (1) are the&nbsp; personal hygiene (ε ), humans to human contact rate ( β1 ), modification parameter (η ), human vaccination rate ( ρ ), proper burial (φ ) and humans natural mortality rate (μh ). The study shows that personal hygiene rate, effective&nbsp; contact rate of humans, natural mortality of humans’ rate, vaccination rate and proper burial rate are very sensitive&nbsp; to both reproduction number and infectious humans.&nbsp