Current Issue : April - June Volume : 2017 Issue Number : 2 Articles : 5 Articles
Maize cultivation gets popularity now-a-days in Bangladesh because of\nmultifarious use of maize as human food and especially in the poultry industries.\nMaize is cultivated manually which is time consuming, labor intensive and costly.\nA low cost manually operated push type maize planter was designed, developed\nand tested in the testing bed of the department of Farm Power and Machinery,\nBangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh which reduces these problems.\nThe maize planter consists of two runner wheels, a seed hopper, an inclined plate\ntype seed metering device, a seed tube, a pair of bed former and handle. Power is\ntransmitted from the runner wheel to the metering device through bevel gear\nmechanism. UniGreen (NK-41) hybrid maize seeds were used to test the planter.\nThe planter was calibrated in the lab to maintain the desired seed rate of 25-30\nkg/ha. In the laboratory test, the effective field capacity, field efficiency, average\ndistance of dropped seed, plant population and missing rate were found as 0.128\nha/hr, 76.5%, 22.5 cm, 8 plants/m2,and 13.43% respectively for first maize\nplanter. The operational cost of the first maize planter was achieved as 410\nTk/ha whereas in manual planting of maize it is 5250 Tk/ha, thus the planter\nmay save about 92% cost for maize establishment. The pushing force of the\nmaize planter was 90 N, which is quiet low to operate by a female person. The\nmachine might be acceptable since it is easy to operate, simple in design and\nmechanism, light in weight, requires less labor and cost of planting after further\ntrial in the farmer�s field....
Laurel wilt (Lw) is a fatal disease. It is a vascular pathogen and is considered a major threat\nto the avocado industry in Florida. Many of the symptoms of Lw resemble those that are caused\nby other diseases or stress factors. In this study, the best wavelengths with which to discriminate\nplants affected by Lw from stress factors were determined and classified. Visible-near infrared\n(400ââ?¬â??950 nm) spectral data from healthy trees and those with Lw, Phytophthora, or salinity damage\nwere collected using a handheld spectroradiometer. The total number of wavelengths was averaged\nin two ranges: 10 nm and 40 nm. Three classification methods, stepwise discriminant (STEPDISC)\nanalysis, multilayer perceptron (MLP), and radial basis function (RBF), were applied in the early stage\nof Lw infestation. The classification results obtained for MLP, with percent accuracy of classification\nas high as 98% were better than STEPDISC and RBF. The MLP neural network selected certain\nwavelengths that were crucial for correctly classifying healthy trees from those with stress trees. The\nresults showed that there were sufficient spectral differences between laurel wilt, healthy trees, and\ntrees that have other diseases; therefore, a remote sensing technique could diagnose Lw in the early\nstage of infestation....
Fermentation quality of dwarf napiergrass (Pennisetum purpureum Schumach) was estimated\nfor additives lactic acid bacteria and Acremonium cellulase (LAB + AC), fermented juice of epiphytic\nlactic acid bacteria (FJLB), and a no-additive control in 2006 via two ensiling methodsââ?¬â?round-bale\nand vinyl-bag methods in 2006ââ?¬â?and via two ensiling seasonsââ?¬â?summer and autumn of 2013.\nFermentation quality of dwarf napiergrass ensiled in the summer season was improved by the\ninput of additives, with the highest quality in LAB + AC, followed by FJLB; the lactic acid content\nwas higher, and the pH and sum of the butyric, caproic, and valeric acid contents were lower,\nresulting in an increase in the V-score value by each additive. The ensiling method in autumn\nwithout additives affected fermentation quality, mainly due to the airtightness, which was higher for\nround-bale processing than in vinyl bags, even with the satisfactory V-score of 72. Fermentation in\nround bales without additives had a higher quality in autumn than in summer, possibly due to the\nhigher concentration of mono- and oligo-saccharides. Thus, it was concluded that dwarf napiergrass\ncan be produced to satisfactory-quality silage by adding LAB + AC or FJLB in summer and even in\nthe absence of additives in autumn....
Accurate moisture sensing is an important need for many research programs as well as in\ncontrol of industrial processes. This paper describes the development of a high accuracy frequency\ndomain sensing probe for use in obtaining dielectric measurements of materials suitable for work\nranging from 300 MHz to 1 GHz. The probe was developed to accommodate a wide range of\npermittivityâ��s ranging from �µr = 2.5 to elevated permittivityâ��s as high as �µr = 40. The design provides\na well-matched interface between the soil and the interconnecting cables. A key advantage of the\nfrequency domain approach is that a change of salt concentration has a significantly reduced effect\non �µ�¼ , versus the traditional time-domain reflectometry, TDR, measured apparent permittivity, Ka....
Balangon bananas take about 23 to 28 days from harvest to reach Japan since the fruit have\nto be assembled from small and scattered farms, hence the problems of premature ripening and crown\nrot. The effectiveness of vacuum packaging in retarding ripening and in controlling crown rot has\nnot been documented for organically-grown Balangon bananas. Balangon bananas harvested from\nfarms in Don Severino Benedicto, Negros Occidental, Phillipines, were washed three times in tap\nwater, then packed (wet packing) in a 13-kg capacity corrugated fibreboard carton lined with 0.05 mm\nthick low density polyethylene (LDPE) bag, and vacuum-packed using an ordinary vacuum cleaner.\nBananas treated with 1% sodium bicarbonate were also subjected to vacuum packing. Packaged\nbananas were then loaded in refrigerated vans (13.0ââ?¬â??13.5 ââ??¦C), transported to Manila and then to\nthe UPLB-PHTRC laboratory for simulated domestic and international shipments which took about\n25 days from harvest until the bananas reached Japan. Bananas were then taken out of the sealed\nLDPE, allowed to equilibrate at 18 ââ??¦C, treated with 2500 Ã?¼L/L ethephon, and held at 23 ââ??¦C for\nripening. During the 25-day holding at 13.0ââ?¬â??13.5 ââ??¦C, bananas that were vacuum-packaged remained\ngreen. In the control (not vacuum-packaged), a few fingers in each hand started to ripen. The most\nsignificant effect of vacuum packaging in combination with 13 ââ??¦C storage was the control of crown\nrot, particularly when bananas started to ripen. With vacuum packaging, the incidence of crown\nrot at the ripe stage was 2.8% compared with 55.7% in the control. Sodium bicarbonate did not\ncontrol crown rot alone, nor contribute to the reduction caused by packaging and vacuum associated\nwith the control of decay was the high visual quality rating of the fruit. Extended storage under\nvacuum-packed conditions did not significantly affect the physico-chemical and sensory attributes of\nbananas at the ripe stage....
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