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The liquid desiccant systems are one of the promising technologies in dehumidification applications. The experimental study on dehumidification performance of a counter flow structured packing liquid desiccant system is done with Aqueous HCO2K as working fluid. The HCO2K solution at different mass flow rate of air and solution is tested. The airflow rate is varied from 0.187 kg/s to 0.272 kg/s and the solution flow rate is varied from 0.053 to 0.115 kg/s. The output parameters, specific moisture change, moisture removal rate, dehumidification effectiveness and latent heat removal capacity varied in following ranges 3-4.2 g/kg of dry air, 2.4- 3.1 kg/h, 0.12-0.21 and 1.7-2.1 kW respectively. Particularly when air flow rate increases from 0.187 kg/s to 0.272 kg/s the moisture removal performance improves about 11% whereas when the solution flow rate increases from 0.055 to 0.115 kg/s, improvement in moisture removal performance about 20%. The results imply that increase in solution flow rate always have the positive impact on dehumidification performance. The increase in airflow rate has the negative impact on specific moisture removal and effectiveness, but the impact is positive in case of the moisture removal rate and latent heat removal capacity. The Overall results show a promising dehumidification performance and further improvement is possible by incorporating a cooling system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In view of the importance of foliar application of macro and micro nutrients to increase the yield and quality of guava under high density planting system, an experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design consisting of nine treatment combinations with three replications. [(Control - Fertigation alone), (NPK (19:19:19)), (NPK + Zn), (NPK + Ca), (NPK + B), (NPK + Zn + Ca), (NPK + Zn + B), (NPK + Ca + B), (NPK + Zn + Ca + B). Among the treatments, fruit weight (225.22 g), fruit volume (215.35 ml), number of fruits per plant (80.35), fruit yield per plant(17.67 kg plant-1), TSS(10.60 0Brix), titratable acidity (0.196 %) and pectin content (1.31 %) was found to be significantly higher with the foliar application of NPK @ 1% + Zn @ 0.5 % + B @ 0.4%. The foliar spray of NPK @ 1% + Ca@ 0.2% + B@ 0.4% significantly increased the fruit diameter (7.85 cm), and ascorbic acid content (159.84 mg 100g-1). Thus, foliar spray of NPK, zinc and boron maintained more number of fruits per plant and improved the fruit set leading to an 18% increase in yield. Whereas, the addition of calcium to the plants increased the ascorbic acid content of the fruit and pectin that enhanced the shelf life of the fruit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Rabies is a fatal but preventable disease with proper pre-exposure anti-rabies vaccination (ARV). Dogs, as household pets and strays, are the reservoir and vector of the disease, and dog bites have been associated with human rabies cases in Sri Lanka over the past few years. However, other susceptible species having frequent contact with humans may be a source of infection. One such species is sheep and immunity following ARV has never been tested in sheep reared in Sri Lanka., Materials and Methods: We have tested serum samples from sheep reared in the Animal Centre, Medical Research Institute of Sri Lanka for the presence of anti-rabies antibodies following ARV. Sheep serum samples were tested with Bio-Pro Rabies enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) antibody kits used for the first time in Sri Lanka and our results were verified by a seroneutralization method on cells (fluorescent antibody virus neutralization, FAVN test) currently recommended by World Organization for Animal Health and World Health Organization., Results: Sheep received annual ARV and maintained high neutralizing antibody titers in their serum. No maternal antibodies were detected in lamb around 6 months of age. Agreement between the ELISA and FAVN test, i.e., coefficient concordance was 83.87%., Conclusion: Annual vaccination in sheep has an effect on maintaining adequate protection against rabies by measurements of anti-rabies antibody response. Lambs need to be vaccinated earlier than 6 months of age to achieve protective levels of neutralizing antibodies in their serum. Introducing this ELISA in Sri Lanka will be a good opportunity to determine the level of anti-rabies antibodies in animal serum samples., Competing Interests: No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported., (© Korean Vaccine Society.)