Some compositional changes in malted sorghum (Sorghum vulgare) grain and its value in broiler chicken diet

Grains of two sorghum (Sorghum vulgare L) varieties were germinated at room temperature for 2, 4 and 6 days. Germination resulted in an increase in protein content due to dry matter loss; this rose with increasing time of germination. The absolute amount of tannin was unchanged until the fourth day of germination but decreased markedly by the sixth day. Fractionation of the grain protein of one variety showed that there was a large increase in the albumin-globulin fraction (rich in lysine) and a decrease in the kafirin and cross-linked kafirin fraction (low in lysine) as a result of germination. Although these changes resulted in a more than 30% increase in lysine content on the fourth and sixth days of germination, a substantial loss in dry matter occurred when germination was continued up to 6 days. When 14-day-old Hubbard chicks were fed a diet containing about 59% malted sorghum supplemented with lysine, they showed better (P < 0.05) weight gain and efficiency of feed conversion than those on malted sorghum without lysine supplementation. However, malting reduced the amount of lysine needed to supplement the diet from 0.25% for unmalted sorghum to 0.18% for malted sorghum.     

Corrosion inhibition and adsorption properties of cerium-amino acid complexes on mild steel in acidic media: Experimental and DFT studies

Abstract

The corrosion inhibition and adsorption behavior of glutamic acid (Glu), glutamine (Gln), and their cerium complexes: cerium glutamate (Ce(Glu)) and cerium glutamine (Ce(Gln)) on mild steel in 0.5?M HCl solutions were studied at 25 and 55?°C and concentration range of 25–200?ppm using potentiodynamic polarization (PDP) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopic (EIS) techniques. The inhibition efficiency was found to be dependent on the concentration and temperature of the system. The potentiodynamic polarization results suggest that the compounds act as mixed-type inhibitors with dominant cathodic inhibition. The mechanism of adsorption deduced from the variation of inhibition efficiency with temperature, as well as the activation parameters, suggest significant physisorption of the inhibitor molecules on the metal surface. The experimental data adhere to the Langmuir and El-Awady et al. kinetic adsorption models. The extent of inhibition was found to be Ce-Gln?>?Gln and Ce-Glu?>?Glu. The scanning electron microscope was employed for the morphological studies and the characteristic of the protective layer on the steel surface verified using UV-Vis spectroscopy and FTIR spectroscopy. Adsorption of the inhibitors on Fe (110) surface was evaluated theoretically.     

Regression Techniques for Oceanographic Parameter Retrieval Using Space-Borne Microwave Radiometry

Variations of conventional multiple regression techniques are applied to the problem of remote sensing of oceanographic parameters from space. The techniques are specifically adapted to the scanning multichannel microwave radiometer (SMMR) launched on the Seasat and Nimbus 7 satellites to determine ocean surface temperature, wind speed, and atmospheric water content. The retrievals are studied primarily from a theoretical viewpoint, to illustrate the retrieval error structure, the relative importances of different radiometer channels, and the tradeoffs between spatial resolution and retrieval accuracy. Comparisons between regressions using simulated and actual SMMR data are discussed; they show similar behavior.     

Benchmarking energy utilization in cement manufacturing processes in Nigeria and estimation of savings opportunities

Nigeria is a leading producer of cement in Africa. Because cement production is energy intensive, with significant adverse impacts on the environment, an apparent need exists to assess the Nigerian cement industry to identify energy use mitigation options. The potentials for reducing energy use in typical Nigerian cement manufacturing plants, through the implementation of available energy efficiency measures, were assessed in this study, alongside the attendant costs of implementing those measures. To achieve these, using numerous globally available energy efficiency technologies and measures, energy conservation supply curves were constructed for three Nigerian cement manufacturing plants which operate on wet, semi-wet, and dry cement manufacturing processes, respectively. Comparisons with global best and Chinese benchmark plants with respect to thermal and electrical energy consumption were also made. The comparisons showed that, with respect to the global benchmark plants, thermal energy savings of between 19.83 and 52%, and electrical energy savings of between 35.23 and 43.10%, were possible. With respect to the Chinese benchmarks, thermal energy savings of 10.74–47.32%, and electrical energy savings of 20.95–30.17%, could be achieved. The plants considered performed significantly less than either of the benchmarks in terms of both thermal and electrical energy usage. The energy conservation supply curves for the plants showed that implementing the cost-effective energy efficiency measures could lead to energy savings of about 235,038, 237,913 and 374,055 GJ/year, for the wet, semi-wet, and dry cement manufacturing plants, respectively. Furthermore, technically feasible efficiency measures could yield energy savings of about 250,272, 259,795 and 395,447 GJ/year, respectively. Achieving these savings will improve profitability in the Nigerian cement industry and make the unused energies available for utilization in other sectors of the Nigerian economy.     

Impact of Multiresolution Active and Passive Microwave Measurements on Soil Moisture Estimation Using the Ensemble Kalman Smoother

An observing system simulation experiment is developed to test tradeoffs in resolution and accuracy for soil moisture estimation using active and passive L-band remote sensing. Concepts for combined radar and radiometer missions include designs that will provide multiresolution measurements. In this paper, the scientific impacts of instrument performance are analyzed to determine the measurement requirements for the mission concept. The ensemble Kalman smoother (EnKS) is used to merge these multiresolution observations with modeled soil moisture from a land surface model to estimate surface and subsurface soil moisture at 6-km resolution. The model used for assimilation is different from that used to generate "truth." Consequently, this experiment simulates how data assimilation performs in real applications when the model is not a perfect representation of reality. The EnKS is an extension of the ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) in which observations are used to update states at previous times. Previous work demonstrated that it provides a computationally inexpensive means to improve the results from the EnKF, and that the limited memory in soil moisture can be exploited by employing it as a fixed lag smoother. Here, it is shown that the EnKS can be used in large problems with spatially distributed state vectors and spatially distributed multiresolution observations. The EnKS-based data assimilation framework is used to study the synergy between passive and active observations that have different resolutions and measurement error distributions. The extent to which the design parameters of the EnKS vary depending on the combination of observations assimilated is investigated     

A semiempirical model for interpreting microwave emission fromsemiarid land surfaces as seen from space

A radiative transfer model for simulating microwave brightness temperatures over land surfaces is described. The model takes into account sensor viewing conditions (spacecraft altitude, viewing angle, frequency, polarization) and atmospheric parameters over a soil surface characterized by its moisture, roughness, and temperature and covered with a layer of vegetation characterized by its temperature, water content, single scattering albedo, structure and percent coverage. In order to reduce the influence of atmospheric and surface temperature effects, the brightness temperatures are expressed as polarization ratios that depend primarily on the soil moisture and roughness, canopy water content, and percentage of cover. The approach used is described, and the sensitivity of the polarization ratio to these parameters is investigated. Simulation of the temporal evolution of the microwave signal over semiarid areas in the African Sahel is presented and compared to actual satellite data from the SMMR instrument on Nimbus-7     

Measurement of lipase activity in rubber (Hevea brasiliensis) seed

Lipase activity in para rubber (Hevea brasiliensis) seed was measured by monitoring the release of free fatty acid by lipolysis of the endogenous lipid in a crushed sample of seed incubated at 37.5°C for 30 min. Free fatty acid was determined colorimetrically by a modified copper soap method. Fresh seeds showed the highest lipase activity. Drying the seeds at 60°C inactivated the enzyme. Drying of the seed at this temperature may be useful as a pretreatment for extraction of oil from the seed.     

Spatial resolution and processing tradeoffs for HYDROS: application of reconstruction and resolution enhancement techniques

Recent developments in reconstruction and resolution enhancement for microwave instruments suggest a possible tradeoff between computation, resolution, and downlink data rate based on postcollection reconstruction/resolution enhancement processing. The Hydrospheric State (HYDROS) mission is designed to measure global soil moisture and freeze/thaw state in support of weather and climate prediction, water, energy, and carbon cycle studies, and natural hazards monitoring. It will use an active and passive L-band microwave system that optimizes measurement accuracy, spatial resolution, and coverage. The active channels use synthetic aperture radar-type processing to achieve fine spatial resolution, requiring a relatively high downlink data rate and ground processor complexity. To support real-time applications and processing, an optional postcollection reconstruction and resolution enhancement method is investigated. With this option, much lower rate real-aperture radar data are used along with ground-based postprocessing algorithms to enhance the resolution of the observations to achieve the desired 10-km resolution. Several approaches are investigated in this paper. It is determined that a reconstruction/resolution enhancement technique combining both forward- and aft-looking measurements enables estimation of 10-km resolution or better backscatter values at acceptable accuracy. Key tradeoffs to achieve this goal are considered.     

Theory for microwave thermal emission from a layer of cloud or rain

Microwave thermal emission from a layer of cloud or rain consisting of spherical particles has been investigated. Scattering effects are studied in great detail with both numerical and analytical approaches. In the absence of ground emission, it is found that scattering induces brightening for optically thin layers and vice versa for optically thick layers. As a function of observation angle brightening occurs near nadir while darkening occurs at large angles in the case of small optical thickness. For large optical thickness, darkening occurs at all angles because of backscattering effects. When the layer of cloud or rain is above an air layer and an ocean surface at a higher temperature, it is found that the darkening effect at large optical thickness is much more pronounced. The darkening effect is also larger for vertical polarizations because the ocean emits more vertically polarized components. The effect of thermal emission and molecular absorption by atmospheric gases is also taken into account. Results obtained from analytical formulas under single scatteirng assumptions are compared and illustrated.