Search

Sun-dried mud bricks are used around the world and have been found in the Levant and Mesopotamia since the Neolithic period. Their form and composition lend important information pertaining to social and technological meaning in human cultures. Fired mud bricks are well known in the southern Levant, often identified in Bronze and Iron Age strata and used as a marker for destruction by fire (conflagration events). Only a few studies have attempted to reconstruct conflagration conditions from fired mud bricks because many variables impact the formation of the final fired brick. These include brick composition, heat intensity (i.e., maximum temperature), heat duration and firing atmosphere (i.e., oxidizing vs. reducing). The myriad combinations of these factors may result in different appearance of fired bricks. Infrared spectroscopy is one method that has been exploited quite extensively in relation to fired clay-based materials: studies were conducted on powdered sediment samples for a fixed duration and in oxidizing conditions, producing calibration curves that were then utilized for reconstruction of past maximal heat. Here we report on an experimental study of the thermal behavior of mud bricks under differing composition, heat intensity, heat duration and firing atmosphere. We carried out experiments in a furnace oven using micro-thermocouples which allowed us to simultaneously measure heat across bricks, from edge to core. The resulting mud bricks were analyzed using Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. We identify a previously unknown thermal effect that occurs in bricks tempered with organic material while they are fired; namely a correlation between the amount of organic temper and elevation of temperatures up to 100 °C above the oven chamber temperature. We record the color patterns obtained at different temperatures and duration of heating, as well as the colors obtained from heating in different atmospheres. We report that the FTIR spectrum of bricks heated in oxidizing conditions differs from that of bricks heated in reducing conditions at the same temperature. We note that the position of the main clay absorbance band cannot be used alone to infer firing temperature as its shift is not systematic. We show that combining this parameter with the width of the same band in the FTIR spectrum makes it possible to achieve better temperature reconstructions from fired bricks. Lastly, we report a small scale case study in which we tested the applicability of the experimental results to the remains of a mud brick wall unearthed within the largest known destruction event in the ancient city of Megiddo, i.e., Tel Megiddo Stratum VIA. We show that this wall was burnt as one unit, having a reduced core and oxidized outer part, where the core experienced temperatures in the range of 500–600 °C and the edge 600–700 °C. The detailed analysis of brick compositions carried out in this study further allows us to reconstruct the ancient bricks' preparation recipe. The results of this study bear important implications for future studies of archaeological conflagration events, and the destruction phenomenon in general.

Aim. Detection of antibiotic substances in samples of grain, extraction cake, and oilcake. Methods. The bioautography method using strains of Bacillus subtilis as test-microorganisms was used to study 102 samples of feed substrates (corn, maize gluten, barley, wheat, sorghum, chaff, dust middling, sunfl ower oilcake and extraction cake, soybean meal, feed yeast and grains). Results. From one to four antibiotic substances, inhibiting the growth of B. subtilis and characterized by a wide range of values of chromatographic mobility index, were detected in 95 % of samples of feed substrates. Average areas of the zones of absent growth of a test- microorganism, corresponding to 2.5 g of the sample, were in the range of 52–217 mm 2 . Conclusions. It was established that feeder grain and other feed substrates are highly contaminated with antibiotics which indicates the necessity of their identifi cation, search for contamination sources, study of prevalence and estimation of the possible impact on the indices of health, performance and reproduction of farm animals and poultry.

The use of rapidly renewable raw materials in the building industry is seen as very promising with regard not only to the environmental issues but also to its economic aspects. A number of producers, not only in this country, have been trying to replace fine construction materials with secondary raw materials or rapidly renewable ones. As an example, technical hemp is a very promising material due to its good mechanical and thermal insulation characteristics. One of the possibilities is its use as filling component for non-constructional filling materials. Combining binders on the basis of non-hydraulic lime with hemp chaff yields a range of new construction materials. These products offer excellent work characteristics for permanent, environmentally sustainable buildings. These products as a whole form a natural composite construction material that can be used to build insulation walls, floor and roof insulation layers, and to obtain excellent heat and acoustic characteristics of buildings.

A total of 122 wheat varieties obtained from the Nordic Genetic Resource Center were infected artificially with an aggressive Fusariumasiaticum strain in a field experiment. We calculated the severity of Fusarium head blight (FHB) and determined the deoxynivalenol (DON) content of wheat grain, straw and glumes. We found DON contamination levels to be highest in the glumes, intermediate in the straw, and lowest in the grain in most samples. The DON contamination levels did not increase consistently with increased FHB incidence. The DON levels in the wheat varieties with high FHB resistance were not necessarily low, and those in the wheat varieties with high FHB sensitivity were not necessarily high. We selected 50 wheat genotypes with reduced DON content for future research. This study will be helpful in breeding new wheat varieties with low levels of DON accumulation.

Agricultural waste screening (coconut fibre and chaff charcoal) in improving the resistance of Mychorrizae Barangan seedling to Blood diseases bacterium and Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense. The application of soil and compost are very general in Barangan banana seedling. However, those media always contaminated by BDB and Foc propagul. This research was intended to examine the influence of planting media composition (soil, coconut fibre and chuff charcoal) in improving the resistance of Mychorrizae Barangan banana seedling to blood diseases bacterium dan Fusarium oxysporum f sp.cubense. Some experiments conducted in wirehouse using a randomized complete block design application of two subtracts for soil substitution included to either coconut fibre (A) or chuff charcoal (B) (v:v) completed by 6 treatments of each: A0 = 100% soil media, A1 = 50% soil + 50% chuff charcoal, A2 = 50% soil + 25% chuff charcoal + 25% sand, A3 = 25% soil + 50% chuff charcoal + 25% sand; A4 = 75% chuff charcoal + 25% sand, A5 = 100% chuff charcoal, B0 = 100% soil, B1 = 50% soil + 50 % chuff charcoal; B2 = 50% soil + 25 % coconut fiber + 25% sand, B3 = 25% soil +50% coconut fiber +25% sand; B4 = 75% coconut fiber + 25% sand, B5 = 100% coconut fiber. The soil generated from banana seedling area of Sempakata village that seriously infected BDB and Foc. The observation variables encompassed percentage of disease attack, density of BDB and Foc. population, period of pathogen incubation and measurement of Barangan seed and AMF colonization resistance development. The results indicated the planting of Mychorrizae Barangan banana seeds applied diminishing soil media as much as 25–100% substituted by chuff charcoal or coconut fiber increased the seed resistance of BDB and Foc.

The average grade of iron ores in China is around 32%, about 10% lower than the world’s average level. In order to alleviate the demand of iron ore for steelmaking industries, it is urgent to develop a highly efficient, energy-saving, low-carbon and environment-friendly technology. The goethite ore from Northern Hainan Island was studied via reduction magnetization by pine, rice chaff, and corn straw biomass fuels. The magnetic properties and magnetic separation were discussed by optimizing the parameters of roasting temperature, roasting time, and the ratio of biomass fuels. The results show that we could obtain concentrated iron ore grade of pine roasting and magnetic separation grade of iron concentrate 61.64% with the recovery of 79.75% via pine fuel roasting, 61.75% with the recovery 80.16% via rice chaff, and 61.47% with the recovery of 81.28% via corn straw roasting. Thereby, we could deduce that biomass fuels for reduction roasting of low goethite ore is promising to substitute the traditional coal and coke fossil fuels.

Biometric technology is rapidly being adopted in wide variety of security applications. However, the system itself is not completely foolproof and is vulnerable to many attacks. Some of the attacks on the biometric system are very severe, one of which is the attack on template security. In spite of the various template security techniques presented in the literature, none of them is able to provide security, diversity, revocability, and good performance simultaneously to the biometric system. Fuzzy vault is one of the most promising bio-cryptographic techniques to prevent the template data from being misused. To make the fuzzy vault practically realizable in real-life applications especially for large databases, the chaff generation time needs to be reduced to a greater extent. This work focuses on decreasing the chaff generation time to reduce the overall vault creation time. The approach presented in the paper has also been tested on real-time dedicated hardware using fingerprint data acquired in real time by using a fingerprint sensor Verifier 300LC to bridge the gap between the research and real-time application scenarios.

Chaff-points generation is one of the most important steps in the fuzzy vault encryption process. This phase is time and computational resource consuming. Several methods were proposed in the literature to optimize this step for resource constrained environments. The challenge is to generate the desired number of chaff-points in a minimum and homoge-neous time and a minimum amount of computational re-sources. In this paper, we propose a new chaff-points gen-eration method based on genetic algorithm and non-fixed squares boundaries for resource constrained devices. The obtained results showed that our method gives the desired number of chaff-points in a better time than other methods.

Even in the modern age, new diseases continue to be reported. Some – for example, infectious disorders – are caused by previously undetected or unknown noxious agents or pathogens, but others are discovered by careful clinical observation and pattern recognition; the new entity of multifocal ectopic Purkinje-related premature contractions (MEPPC) caused by mutations in the gene SCN5A is one such condition.

In vehicular communication systems, cooperative awareness messages provide contextual information required for transportation safety and efficiency applications. However, without the appropriate design, these messages introduce a new attack vector to compromise passenger privacy. The use of ephemeral credentials - pseudonyms - was therefore proposed, essentially to split a journey into unlinkable segments. To protect segment transitions, encrypted mix-zones provide regions where vehicles can covertly change their pseudonyms. While previous work focused on the placement, shape, and protocols for mix-zones, attacks that correlate vehicles entering and existing these zones still remain a problem. Furthermore, existing schemes have only considered homogeneous traffic, disregarding variations in vehicle density due to differences in driver population, road layout, and time of day. Without realistic experimental results, any conclusion on real-world applicability is precarious. In this paper, we address this challenge and present a novel scheme that works independent of vehicles' mobility patterns. More precisely, our system generates fictive chaff vehicles when needed and broadcasts their traces, while it remains unobtrusive if sufficiently many vehicles are present. This greatly improves privacy protection in situations with inherently low traffic density, e.g., suburban areas, and during low traffic periods. Our scheme ensure that an external attacker cannot distinguish between real and chaff vehicles, while legitimate vehicles can recognize chaff messages; this is important, because chaff vehicles (and messages) must not affect the operation of safety applications. In our evaluation, we compare our chaff-based approach with an existing cryptographic mix-zone scheme. Our results under realistic traffic conditions show that by introducing fictive vehicles, traffic flow variations can be smoothed and privacy protection can be enhanced up to 76%. QC 20190313

Weeds are mainly controlled with herbicides in intensive crop production, but this has resulted in increasing problems with herbicide-resistant weeds and public concerns about the unwanted side-effects of herbicide use. Therefore, there is a need for new alternative methods to reduce weed problems. One way to reduce weed infestation could be to collect or kill weed seeds produced in the growing season. Crop and weeds are harvested simultaneously with the combine harvester, but most of the weed seeds are returned with the chaff to the field creating new problems in future growing seasons. During the harvesting process, the harvester produces heat. Under normal harvest conditions, the exhaust gas temperature measured directly behind the turbocharger of the engine of a combine harvester may reach between 400 °C and 480 °C depending of the size of the engine. These high temperatures indicate that there is a potential for developing a system which perhaps could be utilized to kill or damage the weeds seeds. We investigate how much heat is needed to damage weed seeds significantly and focuses on the germination patterns over time in response to these treatments. We investigated if heat treatment of weed seeds could kill the seeds or reduce seed vigour or kill the seeds before they are returned to the field. The aim is to avoid harvested viable weed seeds being added to the soil seed bank. During the threshing and cleaning process in the combine harvester, most weed seeds and chaff are separated from the crop grains. After this separation, we imagine that the weed seeds could be exposed to a high temperature before they are returned to the field. Seeds of nine common weed species were treated with temperatures of 50 °C, 100 °C, 150 °C, 200 °C, and 250 °C for 0, 2, 5, 10, and 20 s, respectively. Afterwards, the seeds were germinated for fourteen days. Seeds were differently affected by the heat treatments. We found that 50 °C and 100 °C was insufficient to harm the seeds of all species significantly at all durations. Heating with a temperature of 50 °C and 100 °C showed a slight tendency to break the dormancy of Alopecurus myosuroides Huds. and Papaver rhoeas L., but the results were not statistically significant. Seeds treated with 150 °C gave varying results depending on the duration and the weed species. The germination of A. myosuroides was significantly repressed when seeds were exposed to 250 °C for 5 s. Most species were significantly damaged when they were exposed to 250 °C for more than 10 s. Our results showed that there is a potential to explore how the waste heat energy produced by combine harvesters can be exploited to either kill or reduce the vigour of weed seeds before they are returned to the field with the chaff.

The physical properties of biocarbon vary widely with the biomass used, and the temperature and duration of pyrolysis. This study identifies the effects of feedstock characteristics and pyrolysis conditions on the production of biocarbon and the corresponding properties for industrial applications. For coffee chaff and soy hulls, ash content and carbon content increased with pyrolysis temperature and duration. Ash content increased thermal conductivity and specific heat, and decreased electrical conductivity. Change in surface area with pyrolysis conditions was dependent on type of feedstock. Increased surface area corresponded with increased thermal and electrical conductivity. Increased carbon content corresponded with increased graphitization and thermal stability and decreased surface functionality. Properties of soy hull biocarbons were found to be similar to the properties of other biocarbons with industrial applications such as incorporation into polymer composites.

International audience; In wheat, flag leaf, stem, chaff and awns contribute to grain filling through photosynthesis and/or re-mobilization. Environmental and genetic effects on the relative contribution of each organ were examined by analyzing the consequences of sink-source manipulations (shading and excision) and by comparing carbon isotope discrimination (D) values in dry matter (at maturity) and sap (two weeks after anthesis) in six durum wheat genotypes grown in two contrasting seasons. The contribution of flag leaf, stem, chaff and awns to grain filling, estimated by sink-source manipulations, highly varied with the season. The contribution of ear photosynthesis and re-mobilization from the stem increased with post-anthesis water stress. They showed a large genetic variation that was, however, not clearly associated to morphological characteristics of ear and stem. Isotopic imprints of chaff on grain D were identified as a possible surrogate of the destructive and cumbersome sink-source manipulations to evaluate the contribution of carbon assimilated in ears or re-mobilized from stem. This might facilitate screening of genetic resources and allow the combining of favourable drought tolerance mechanisms in wheat.

This study was performed to identify the effect of mixed bed soil on growth of aerial parts and root zone of daughter plants for nursery field strawberry seedling raising with expanded chaff. The plant height and leaf area of daughter plants were highest or largest in the mixed soil of ERH +RH (100:0, v/v), followed by ERH+RH (75:25). The higher the mixing ratio of RH, the shorter the plant height or the smaller the leaf area. A similar tendency was observed in fresh weight. Within a root diameter of 0-0.4 mm and a root height range of 0.4-0.8 mm, root surface area and volume were statistically significantly better with treatment of ERH+RH (100:0, v/v) compared to those of roots treated with ERH+RH (75:25), ERH+RH (50:50) and ERH+RH (25:75). The growth rate of aerial parts and root zone of daughter plants were noticeably lower in two mixing ratios of 50:50 and 25:75. According to the mixing ratios of ERH+CD surface treatment, the number of roots was greatest in plants treated with ERH+CD (80:20, v/v) and ERH+CD (85:15) on August 1. However, the number of roots was highest in plants treated with ERH+CD (85:15, v/v) on August 15. Root length was longest in the plant with no treatment, and drastically shortened from ERH+CD (90:10, v/v) in both surface and mixed treatment. Although root weight showed a significant difference in ERH+CD (90:10, v/v) treatment, its increase was gradual. The rate of root growth was highest in ERH+CD (85:15). These study findings suggest that the content ratios of mixed soil ERH+RH (75:25, v/v) or below and ERH+CD (85:15) are thought to be desirable for the production of high quality seedlings.

DOI: 10.9734/BJMCS/2015/18993 Editor(s): (1) Victor Carvalho, Polytechnic Institute of Cavado and Ave, Portuguese Catholic University and Lusiada University, Portugal. Reviewers: (1) Anonymous, Al-Zaytoonah University of Jordan, Jordan. (2) G. Y. Sheu, Accounting and Information Systems, Chang-Jung Christian University, Tainan, Taiwan. Complete Peer review History: http://sciencedomain.org/review-history/10087

SUMMARYGrain yield in bread wheat is often tightly associated with grain number/m2. In turn, spike fertility (SF), i.e., the quotient between grain number and spike chaff dry weight, accounts for a great proportion of the variation in grain number among cultivars. In order to examine the potential use of SF as a breeding target, (1) variation for the trait was assessed in six datasets combining commercial cultivars under different environmental conditions, (2) trait heritability was estimated in a set of F1 hybrids derived from controlled crosses between cultivars with contrasting SF and (3) SF distribution pattern was analysed in two F2 segregating populations. Analysis of commercial cultivars revealed considerable variation for SF, under both optimal and sub-optimal conditions. In addition, genotypic variation was consistently larger than genotype × environment interaction variation in all datasets. Narrow sense heritability, estimated by the mid-parent-offspring regression of 20 F1 hybrids and their respective parents, was 0·63. Data from two F2 populations exhibited bell-shaped and symmetric frequency distributions of SF, with a SF mean intermediate between the parental values. Substantial transgressive segregation was detected in both F2 populations. In conclusion, SF appears to be a heritable trait with predominantly additive effects. This warrants further investigation on the feasibility of using SF as an early selection criterion in wheat breeding programs aimed at increasing grain yield.

By-products of cereal grain cleaning were analysed for a number of mycotoxins. Deoxynivalenol (DON) was the most frequently detected in by-products from commercial-scale cleaning procedures (maximum 2.94 mg/kg), followed by zearalenone (ZEA; maximum 0.045 mg/kg) and ochratoxin A (OTA; maximum 0.019 mg/kg). These three mycotoxins were also the most frequently detected in four different fractions collected from wheat run through a dockage tester, a piece of equipment used in the Canadian inspection process to separate material other than grain from wheat. Concentrations of mycotoxins were highest in the ‘light dockage’ fraction that contained dust and roughage such as glumes, fragments of stem, or rachis. Mycotoxin concentrations in this fraction reached up to 32 mg/kg (DON), 0.532 mg/kg (ZEA), and 0.249 mg/kg (OTA). Concentrations of DON in light dockage were significantly correlated with concentrations in whole grain that was un-cleaned or had undergone basic cleaning, indicating that the light dockage fraction could be used as a readily available matrix for the rapid screening of DON in wheat. This would eliminate the time required for additional sampling and preparation of whole grain, and move towards a truly rapid method for the screening of DON in wheat.

In the News Feature “The stem cell skeptic” (4 August, p. [441][1]), K. Servick discusses Paul Knoepfler's concerns about unregulated stem cell trials, which he enumerates on his blog. Our research was one target of Knoepfler's criticism. Servick summarized Knoepfler's concerns and noted that we

In the face of multiple radars and chaff motion, the blanket capability of the chaff jamming corridor is uneven. The basic tactical requirements are analyzed, and the efficiency analysis model of the chaff corridor is put forward based on the chaff characteristics and the actual combat scenario. Some recommendations for the combat application of the chaff jamming corridor are proposed by simulation.

Высокое содержание полноценного растительного белка и масла в зерне и полове ставит сою в ряд незаменимых культур, как в животноводстве, так и в пищевой промышленности. На основе сравнительного анализа содержания питательных веществ и минеральных элементов в соломе и полове зерновых культур и сои, показана рациональность сбора половы и использования в кормлении животных, а соломы в качестве органического удобрения. Приведены результаты по урожайности зерна с одного га, выходу половы, соотношению фракционного состава и объемной массы половы. Для использования половы в качестве корма в животноводстве разработаны технологии энергосберегающего сбора половы. Внедрение разработанных устройств позволит обеспечить сбор половы в достаточном объеме для животноводства и повысить эффективность животноводства по привесу на 11,62 % и по надою на 14,39 %. Эффективность технологии уборки сои со сбором половы, измельчением и разбрасыванием соломы в ценах 2012 года составляет 1.2 млн руб. на один комбайн., The high content of complete vegetable protein and oil in grains and chaff makes soy the irreplaceable culture of a particular importance, both in animal farming and in food industry. Based on the comparative analysis of the nutrients and mineral elements in straw and grain of crops and soybeans, the authors show the rationality of chaff collecting and use of a straw in animal feeding as an organic fertilizer. The results are given on the yield of grain from one hectare, the yield of chaff, the ratio of the fractional composition and the bulk mass of chaff. The technologies of energy saving harvesting of chaff have been developed to use chaff as cattle fodder. The introduction of the developed devices will ensure the collection of enough chaff for animal farming and increase the efficiency of animal farming by 11.62%, and milk yield by 14.39%. The efficiency of soy harvesting technology with harvesting of chaff, chopping and spreading of straw in prices of 2012 costs 1.2 million rubles per one harvester.

Animal-keratin-wastes (AKWs), horns (HN), hair (HR), puffed waterfowl feathers (PF), hydrolyzed waterfowl feathers (HF), hydrolyzed fish meal (HM), crab meat (CM), feathers (FR), shrimp chaff (SC), fish scales (FS), and waste leather (WL) were used as modifiers to prepare animal-keratin-wastes biochars (AKWs-BC) derived from Trapa natans husks (TH). AKWs-BC have a well-developed microporous structure with a pore size mainly below 3 nm. Due to the doping of AKWs, the surface chemical properties of AKWs-BC (especially N functional groups) were improved. The utilization of APWs not only realizes the resource utilization of waste, but also can be used to prepare high-performance biochars.

This research studied the effect of biomass types and moisture content on the performance of a downdraft gasifier. Sawdust, woodchip and bean chaff were used as test samples at three moisture contents (10, 20 and 30% w.b) which was determined with oven drying method and Pascal’s manometric tube was prepared to measure the quantity of methane, hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide in the syngas. The gas obtained at 10% moisture content for the three biomass after gasification was analyzed and compared to standard values. Ash content, gasification time and temperature were measured using standard methods. The ash contents at 10, 20 and 30% moisture contents for wood chips, sawdust and bean chaff were 0.210, 0.457, 0.750kg, 0.202, 0.290, 0.651kg and 0.295, 0.228, 0.394kg respectively. The gas samples were taken at 10% moisture for analysis because it produced the lowest ash content. Gas produced at 10% moisture content showed that methane, CO2 and H2S contents for wood chips; sawdust and bean chaff were 60.85, 27.50, 0.44%; 62.33, 23.77, 0.87% and 63.94, 18.91, 0.58% respectively. The values of CO was insignificant. The moisture content of the biomass significantly (p < 0.05) affected the values of ash content, gasification time and temperature but the effects of biomass types were not significant. Ash content and gasification time increased with increase in moisture level with the least value of 0.210 kg and 61 minutes at 10% moisture content respectively. The gasification temperature decreased as moisture level increased and vice versa. Increase in moisture level increased the ash content and gasification time. The higher the gasification temperature, the lower the time. Gasifier efficiency was also affected by moisture content and biomass types. The best gasifier efficiency was observed at 10% moisture content with 60, 57 and 75% for sawdust, woodchips and bean chaff respectively.

Teff has the largest value in terms of both production and consumption in Ethiopia and the value of the commercial surplus of teff is second next to coffee. The traditional way of threshing and winnowing, leads to contamination of grains with foreign matter (pebbles, dirt, and cow dung) and loss of grains due to the foreign matter dropping in to grains and the wind blowing grains away with chaff. This design helps to find out the typical dimensions of various components of the threshing machine with great accuracy in small time and also gives fine representation of engine drive teff threshing machine. The machine was fabricated by using the low cost material available in local market. Main components of this machine are: frame, sieve, and threshing unit, concave, blower, feeding table, sucker, and grain delivery chute and engine seat. A teff threshing machine was designed, constructed and evaluated for its performance. Mild steel was used majorly for the fabrication of component parts for ease of machining, assembling, maintenance and affordability. The machine was evaluated on farm observed to acceptable threshing capacity and efficiency and the operation cost and quality loss due to traditional threshing were minimized by far.

In this study, pellets made from agricultural byproducts were evaluated and the possibility of their conversion into fuel was investigated. Conventional wood pellets were used as the control, and pepper, perilla, rice chaff, and spent coffee ground were molded into pellets and evaluated based on various parameters such as size, bulk density, and calorific value following the standard for “non-wood pellets” and “resource conservation and recycling promotion laws.” The perilla or rice chaff pellets were determined as bio-solid refused fuel (Bio-SRF) grade because of low durability. Agricultural byproduct (pepper, perilla, and rice chaff) pellets were mixed with spent coffee ground to improve their properties. They were molded into pellets and evaluated based on the above standards. Pepper + coffee (PCP) pellets had lower chlorine content than pepper pellets but copper content was higher. Rice chaff + coffee (CCP) pellets had slightly higher durability, but the bulk density was decreased. Therefore, CCP was determined as Bio-SRF. Perilla + coffee pellets (PRCP) were determined as A grade owing to higher durability. Thus, it was confirmed that agricultural byproducts could be used as viable energy sources by mixing them.

Nitrate and lipids have been recognized as effective dietary additives to reduce enteric methane (CH4) production. The objective of this experiment was to evaluate the effects of nitrate (NO3¯) and canola oil, alone or in combination, on enteric CH4, volatile fatty acid (VFA) concentrations, digesta kinetics and outflow of DM and microbial non-ammonia nitrogen (MicNAN) from the rumen of cattle. Four rumen-cannulated steers were used in the experiment which was designed as 4×4 Latin Square with four 21-d periods and four treatments. Dietary treatments consisted of a control diet (CON: 400 g/kg lucerne chaff and 600 g/kg barley grain), NO3¯ (CON+20 g NO3¯/kg), O (CON+50 g canola oil/kg), and NO3¯+O (CON+20 g NO3¯/kg + 50 g canola oil/kg)with all inclusions expressed as g/kg as-fed. Exogenous markers (Co-EDTA, Yb-acetate and 15NH4Cl) were continuously infused into the rumen over 4 d to estimate digesta flow and rumen N outflow while whole tract digestibility (DMD) was determined using chromic oxide. Compared with the CON diet, feeding the NO3 ¯+O diet reduced (P < 0.01) methane yield (MY, g CH4/kg DMI) by 25%, daily methane production (DMP, g CH4/d) by 26% (P < 0.01) and the rumen mean retention time (MRT; P < 0.05). Nitrate containing diets reduced DMD (P < 0.01). Total VFA did not differ between treatments (P > 0.05) but NO3¯-containing diets increased acetateproportion (P < 0.01) whereas feeding the O diet increased propionate proportion (P < 0.01). Oil-containing diets reduced rumen volume (P < 0.01). The rumen protozoa concentration was reduced by including NO3¯ and canola oil alone or in combination in the diet of cattle (P < 0.05). This experiment demonstrates that feeding NO3¯+O has a synergistic effect on reducing methanogenesis from beef cattle which is consistent with NO3¯ and canola oil having complementary mechanisms for suppressing enteric CH4 production. Reducing methanogenesis by feeding NO3¯+O in this experiment did not improve the flow of MicNAN from the rumen (g MicNAN/d), microbial growth efficiency (g MicNAN/digestible organic matter intake, DOMI) or the proportion of microbial N derived from rumen NH3. Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Bariloche Fil: Villar, Maria Laura. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Bariloche; Argentina Fil: Hegarty, Roger Stephen. University of New England. School of Environmental and Rural Science; Australia Fil: Nolan, John V. University of New England. School of Environmental and Rural Science; Australia Fil: Godwin, Ian R. University of New England. School of Environmental and Rural Science; Australia Fil: McPhee, Malcolm J. University of New England. NSW Department of Primary Industries, Livestock Industries Centre; Australia

This study measured gaseous emissions, growth performance and pork quality in a deep-litter system and concrete-floor system. Three hundred and twenty weaned piglets with an average body weight (BW) of 6.0 ± 0.3 kg were assigned randomly into three treatments. Treatments 1 and 2 included four pens with 20 pigs for each pen respectively in the deep-litter system, and the ratio of sawdust to chaff was 5:5 and 3:7 for treatments 1 and 2 respectively, the probiotics inoculated into the fermentation bedding for both treatments were composed of Saccharomycetes, Bacillus subtilis and Actinomycetes; treatment 3 was the conventional concrete-floor system including eight pens with 20 pigs for each pen. The concentration of NH3 and CO2 in the deep-litter system was significantly (P

Earth buildings are among the richest sources of archaeobotanical materials from the recent past. Thus, mudbrick constructions are extremely rich in plant materials, especially chaff, straw, fruits and seeds. Recovery of these remains enables us to gain a comprehensive insight into the contemporary floras of past settlements and their surroundings. Mudbricks from southwest Hungary which were 100–150 years old and were used there as traditional natural building materials, were examined in this research from an archaeobotanical point of view. Techniques were used that mostly come from modern seed bank research, and the most efficient processing methods were tested and further developed. Different flotation procedures were compared and the minimum sample volume was also determined. A new sodium chloride (common salt) flotation method was developed, providing a useful separation procedure for the recovery of plant remains and diaspores (seeds) from mudbrick. The effectiveness of sodium chloride is similar to other chemicals used in seed bank research, but much more economical. The minimum and optimum sample volumes are 2,500–3,500 cm3; these are necessary to recover most of the taxa preserved in the bricks. A trend in the recovery of different sized seeds was also observed, revealing that the recovery of smaller seeds was less successful. Using the sodium chloride method, more than 18,000 desiccated diaspores were recovered and identified from 212 kg of mudbrick samples, from the period between 1850 and 1930. A total of 249 taxa were identified, most of which are weedy taxa connected to cereal and ruderal weed plant communities.

The influence of ions of heavy metals on actions of the genetic system of microdistribution of photosynthesis products between grain and chaff of cereal crops is determined. It is shown that oat plants are characterized by the same reaction on the tested metals, whereas the reaction of barley is determined by varietal features and exact heavy metal. The direction and size of shifts in action of the genetic system did not coincide with the level of potential stress resistance of plants.

The circular agriculture mode of forest (fast-growing acacia trees) leftover material→ edible fungus cultivation→ fungus chaff fertilizer → forestry has been built by the project members for the study of more than three years. The high efficiency standardization cultivation techniques of edible fungi has been introduced, demonstrated and promoted. Also, the recycling technology of fungus chaff has been researched and promoted. All of these technologies have reduced the environment pollution of waste fungus chaff and promoted the sustained and healthy development of the edible fungus industry.

Circulations in and around cumulus clouds are inferred by using a passive tracer (radar chaff) and an airborne cloud radar during the Barbados Aerosol Cloud Experiment (BACEX). The radar chaff elements used for this experiment are fibers that are cut to a length of about ½ of the radar wavelength to maximize radar returns by serving as dipole antennas. The fibers are packed in fiber tubes and are mounted in a dispenser beneath the wing of the aircraft. The chaff was released near the tops and edges of a growing small cumulus cloud. The aircraft then made penetrations of the cloud at lower levels to observe the chaff signals above the aircraft with the zenith-pointing cloud radar. This study shows that the environmental air above the cloud top descends along the downshear side of the cloud edge and is subsequently entrained back into the same cloud near the observation level. The in-cloud flow follows an inverted letter P pattern. The merits and limitations of the chaff method for tracking circulations in and around small cumuli are discussed.

Wheat is toxic, addictive and makes people want to eat more junk foods, claim some. They say it causes food allergies, bloating and makes them fat. Others even blame it for various mental disorders. Demand for gluten-tree food is rising rapidly to the extent that many restaurants now promote gluten-free dishes on their menus. Here, Geddes separates the facts from the chaff about wheat.

By analyzing the material properties and forming characteristics of the 0.8mm length side hexagon honeycomb corrugated chaff , we studied forming roller’s design and optimization while making corrugated chaffs used forming method and focus on the influence of the chamfer of teeth top edge and number of teeth to forming quality at the corrugated chaff corner .We used finite element analysis software ANSYS / LS-DYNA to simulate the forming process of corrugated chaff , studied the stress contour and stress-time curve of typical element, found the optimal chamfer of teeth top edge and number of teeth, then we used the designed forming roller to verify the effect of chaff forming . By comparison experimental and simulation results,we found good agreement between the two, when the chamfer of teeth top edge dj = 0.08mm, number of teeth z = 40, the chaff has the best forming quality .

The experimental work was carried out at Rice Mechanization Center, Meet Eldeebah village, Kafr Elsheikh governorate during harvesting session of 2013, to manufacture a new prototype for chopping rice and barley straw for producing the litter of poultry houses. The investigated variables were straw feed rate (0.15, 0.16, 0.17 and 0.18kg/s) and chaff cutting length (1.5, 2.5, 3.5 and 5cm). The effect of these variables on the prototype productivity, cutting efficiency and the energy consumed, ware investigated, the main results summarized as: At 0.16 kg/s feed rate, the productivity increased from 0.56 to 1.9t/h for rice, and from 0.41 to 1.39 t/h for barley when the cutting length increased from 1.5 to 5 cm. At 1.5cm cutting length, by increasing the feed rate from 0.15 to 0.18 kg/s, the prototype cutting efficiency decreased from 75 to 70 % for rice, and from 81 to 75.6 % for barley. The energy consumption rate of prototype decreased with increasing the feed rate of rice and barley straw. At 1.5cm cutting length, by increasing the feed rate from 0.15 to 0.18 kg/s, the energy consumption rate of prototype decreased from 9.84 to 8.36kw.h/t for rice, and from 8.36 to 7.1 kW.h/t for barley. Evaluation of using of two cutting methods (manufacture and normal) of shaving woods, barley and rice straw as bedding materials and mixture between barley + rice straw (1:1) on broiler performance, carcass yields, Bedding characteristics and chemical analysis of broiler meat, the body weight gain and feed intake, as well as, feed conversion ratio were improved (P

Sochr D., Adamovský R., Kara J., Hanzlikova I., 2014. Evaluation of the influence of fermentation input sub strates preparation on biogas production intensity . Res. Agr. Eng., 60: 60–67. The article is aimed at verification of the effect of chaff length of fermented material and duration time of the contact of material with oxygen before dosing into the fermenter, on production and energy content of biogas. The results of the verification showed an effect of chaff length in the fermented material on production and energy content of the biogas at processing grass silage with high content of dry-matter and especially maize silage. When processing maize silage, optimal length of chaff in terms of production and energy content of biogas was 13 mm, with grass silage it was from 69 to 112 mm. Verification of the influence of time of grass silage and maize silage contact with air oxygen before dosing into the fermenter did not confirm our hypothesis. It was demonstrated that production and energy content of the biogas increase together with the length of duration of 7 days compared to fermentation of material after max. 3 h of contact with air oxygen.

The radar reflectivity is significantly affected by ground clutter, beam blockage, anomalous propagation (AP), birds, insects, chaff, etc. The quality of radar reflectivity is very important in quantitative precipitation estimation. Therefore, Weather Radar Center (WRC) of Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) employed two quality control algorithms: 1) Open Radar Product Generator (ORPG) and 2) fuzzy quality control algorithm to improve quality of radar reflectivity. In this study, an occurrence of AP echoes and the performance of both quality control algorithms are investigated. Consequently, AP echoes frequently occur during the spring and fall seasons. Moreover, while the ORPG QC algorithm has the merit of removing non-precipitation echoes, such as AP echoes, it also removes weak rain echoes and snow echoes. In contrast, the fuzzy QC algorithm has the advantage of preserving snow echoes and weak rain echoes, but it eliminates the partial area of the contaminated echo, including the AP echoes.

The research was carried out to determine the effects of soil pH (or liming) and nitrogen (N) fertilization on the common mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris L.) and cup plant (Silphium perfoliatium L.) dry mass (DM) yield, calorific value and mechanical properties. Field experiments were set up in 2008 in Western Lithuania on a naturally acid (pH 4.2–4.4) moraine loam. According to the averaged data of four experimental years, the highest DM yield 4100 kg ha-1 of common mugwort was established in 2009, which significantly decreased in the subsequent years. And, conversely, the highest cup plant DM yield 17980 kg ha-1 was obtained in 2011. An increase in soil pH from 4.2–4.4 up to 5.6–5.7, resulting from 6.0 t ha-1 CaCO3 application, increased cup plant DM yield by 27.4%. Fertilization with 120 kg ha -1 N significantly increased common mugwort and cup plant DM yield by 34.5% and 26.7% respectively, compared with the treatment without N fertilization. We also studied the chopping quality of common mugwort and cup plant and chaff fractional composition using sieves with different mesh sizes. The chaff of cup plant was finer and more even, and thus more suitable for use for energy purposes. Plant milling quality showed cup plant particles to be smaller and more even too, and thus better suited for pressing and combustion. The highest calorific value of common mugwort (17.97 MJ kg-1) was obtained in 2010 and that of cup plant (17.48 MJ kg-1) in 2012. The calorific values of common mugwort and cup plant were influenced most by the year of cultivation and 120 kg ha-1 N application.

The study evaluated the contribution of various energy sources to the smallholder processing of oil palm in Nigeria. Ten small-scale palm oil processing mills were visited at Elele, River State, Nigeria for sample collection. The weight of the various solid wastes generated and utilized for boiling process were measured including EFB (empty fruit bunch), PPF (palm press fiber), PKS (palm kernel shell) and chaff, while the volume of diesel used for digestion was also measured. The processing of 1 tonne of FFB (fresh fruit bunch) in the mill yields 63.4–77.1 L of CPO while the following waste by-products were generated from the FFB; 24 to 31% EFB, 23 to 28% PPF, 10 to 12% PKS and 1.4 to 2.4% chaff. Out of the total biomass generated by the mills only 12.74–22.25% EFB, 24.43–33.38% PPF, 2.71–6.71% PKS and 15.12–49.04% chaff were utilized by the various mills for fruit boiling/sterilization, indicating that the majority of biomass wastes is unutilized in the mills. The volume of diesel utilized by the mills for digestion is quite low ranging from 0.6 to 0.8 L. The gross calorific values of the waste biomass are EFB 16.970–18.537 MJ/kg, PPF 16.472–21.037 MJ/kg and PKS 19.378–21.614 MJ/kg. The total energy utilized by the mills for processing 1 tonne of FFB ranged from 2179.43 to 3014.31 MJ. Out of these, biomass energy accounted for 98.22–98.75%, while fossil fuel accounted for the remaining 1.25–1.78%. The study concluded by suggesting innovative ways of substituting the

The purpose of this systematic review was to identify the psychometric properties of measures that assess ageism: the way we think, feel and act towards age and aging. Specifically, we examined what measures of ageism are available; What what aspects/dimensions of ageism (behavioral, attitudinal, affective, explicit, implicit) do existing measures address; and which measures have the best psychometric properties. We examined over 26,000 titles and abstracts, using double-blind methodology to identify relevant papers that meet our research protocol (e.g., written in English, Spanish or French, a quantitative measure to assess ageism towards older people, focused on the development or the evaluation of measurement properties). Double-blind extraction procedure using a pre-registered protocol was employed. We discuss the findings in the context of some of the challenges associated with the assessment of ageism, including the tendency of respondents towards providing socially desirable responses and significant cross-cultural differences in the report of ageism.

Sorghum occupies highest area of cultivation in East and West Hararghe of Ethiopia. Farmers in the area are poor and do not afford an advanced storage systems. Hence, storage is done mainly in underground pit storage with different lining materials. This study was therefore aimed at evaluating those different lining materials in maintaining the sorghum quality. Four different lining materials which are commonly used by the farmers (mud/straw/cow dung mixture (3:3:1 ratio), plastic (thick rubberized canvas), chaff and cement) were used. Ten pits (duplicated), flask shaped with 1 m depth and 1 m diameter with a capacity of about two quintals (200 kg) were constructed. The finding in this comparative study is that, among all underlining materials, underground pit with plastic lining material was good barrier compared to all linings. Moisture migration to the grain increased in each month in all lining materials and the least was recorded in plastic lining. Germination capacity and thousand grain weight were reduced significantly in each material except plastic lining which showed the least change compared to the others. Fungi infestation was also increased in all underground pits with different lining materials. However, lower infestation was found in plastic and cement linings. Based on the quality measurements, plastic lining showed the least change in grain quality compared to the others. It can be concluded that, since the farmers can’t afford advanced storage system, it can be recommended to use plastic lining material among the existing lining materials.

Method of moment(MoM) is an effective numerical method for calculating electromagnetic scattering. In this paper, we derive the numerical formula for calculating the mono-static radar cross section(RCS) of chaff, and obtain the relationship between mono-static RCS of chaff with different lengths and the incident angle of radar wave. The parameter of average mono-static RCS of chaff per unit mass is introduced, and the relationships between the scattering parameter and the length and diameter of chaff are calculated. The simulation results show that the scattering parameter exhibits resonant peaks when the lengths of chaff are slightly less than integer multiples of half wavelength, and the peak values decrease with the increase of chaff's lengths. The scattering parameter is also related to the chaff's diameter. For 3 cm incident wave, when the diameter of chaff is near 17?m, the scattering parameter reaches the maximum value.