Factors affecting the choice of farmers' practices and strategies in a bacterial wilt of banana in the Bushi area, east of the Democratic Republic of Congo

Article purchasedUncertainty forces the daily lives of small farmers Bushi in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, for over a decade after the banana bacterial wilt has literally broken the economic landscape, social, cultural and ecological region. This study attempts to highlight the socio-economic factors that influence the choice of strategies and practices of farmers face this crisis. The data, both quantitative and qualitative, were collected from 232 farmers in 16 localities of Kabare and Walungu in South Kivu in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The result of the econometric analysis shows a correlation between socioeconomic factors and farmers' practices. All things being equal, factors such as age, participation in off-farm activities, experience, size of household, size, membership in the association, access to credit, possession of livestock, traumatic history, the importance of the banana and the severity of the crisis significantly influenced the choice of practices and copings strategies. These results suggest approaches and agricultural and economic stimulus programs that integrate various farmers' logic in the Bushi area to the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo

Analysis of how Dual-tasking Effects Selected Gait Variables in Older Adults with a Known Relative Power

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Mechanical Reinforcement of Polymeric Fibers through Peptide Nanotube Incorporation

High aspect ratio nanotubular assemblies can be effective fillers in mechanically reinforced composite materials. However, most existing nanotubes used for structural purposes are limited in their range of mechanical, chemical, and biological properties. We demonstrate an alternative approach to mechanical reinforcement of polymeric systems by incorporating synthetic d,l-cyclic peptide nanotube bundles as a structural filler in electrospun poly d-, l-lactic acid fibers. The nanotube bundles self-assemble through dynamic hydrogen bonding from synthetic cyclic peptides to yield structures whose dimensions can be altered based on processing conditions, and can be up to hundreds of micrometers long and several hundred nanometers wide. With 8 wt % peptide loading, the composite fibers are >5-fold stiffer than fibers composed of the polymer alone, according to atomic force microscopy-based indentation experiments. This represents a new use for self-assembling cyclic peptides as a load-bearing component in biodegradable composite materials.Engineering and Applied Science

Pengaruh Metode Demonstrasi Terhadap Hasil Belajar Siswa Pada Materi Sistem Koloid

The demonstration method is a method that can make students' attention more focused on what is being taught so that students are more active and do not feel bored in learning. This study aims to see the effect of the demonstration method on student chemistry learning outcomes on colloidal system material at SMA Negeri 1 Tutuyan in the 2020/2021 academic year. This research is a pre-experimental research with one group pretest-posttest design. The population in the study were all students of class XI IPA and the sample taken was class XI IPA MIA 1, totaling 30 people. Testing the hypothesis using the t-test formula at the significant level = 0.05. Based on the data analysis, the value of tcount = 23.90 and ttable = 2.045. The value of tcount > ttable then H1 is accepted and H0 is rejected, so it can be concluded that H1 is accepted, which means there is a significant difference between student learning outcomes on colloidal system material before and after using the demonstration method because there are differences. student learning outcomes. To find out how much the effectiveness of using the demonstration method is continued with the N-Gain test and obtained is 0.76 with high criteria.Metode demonstrasi merupakan metode yang dapat membuat perhatian siswa lebih terfokuskan kepada apa yang diajarkan sehingga siswa lebih aktiv dan tidak merasa bosan dalam belajar. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk melihat pengaruh metode demonstrasi terhadap hasil belajar kimia siswa pada materi sistem koloid di SMA Negeri 1 Tutuyan pada tahun ajaran 2020/2021. Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian Pra-eksperimen dengan rancangan penelitian one group pretest-posttest design. Populasi dalam peneitian adalah seluruh siswa kelas XI IPA dan sampel yang diambil yaitu kelas XI IPA MIA 1 yang berjumlah 30 orang. Instrumen penelitian yang digunakan berupa tes pada siswa diawal  dan  diakhir  pembelajaran. Data dianalisis dengan menggunakan rumus t-test untuk menguji hipotesis penelitian, analisis N-Gain untuk  melihat peningkatan dari hasil belajar siswa. Berdasarkan analisis data diperoleh dari nilai pretest rata-rata 49,47 dan posttest rata-rata 87,67. Analisis hasil belajar menunjukkan bahwa hasil belajar kimia siswa pada materi sistem koloid mengalami peningkatan, analisis N-Gain diperoleh yaitu 0,76 dengan kriteria tinggi. Pengujian hipotesis yang menunjukkan bahwa thitung > ttabel , yang berarti bahwa metode demonstrasi dapat memberikan pengaruh terhadap  hasil belajar siswa

How Psychological Stress Affects Emotional Prosody

We explored how experimentally induced psychological stress affects the production and recognition of vocal emotions. In Study 1a, we demonstrate that sentences spoken by stressed speakers are judged by naive listeners as sounding more stressed than sentences uttered by non-stressed speakers. In Study 1b, negative emotions produced by stressed speakers are generally less well recognized than the same emotions produced by non-stressed speakers. Multiple mediation analyses suggest this poorer recognition of negative stimuli was due to a mismatch between the variation of volume voiced by speakers and the range of volume expected by listeners. Together, this suggests that the stress level of the speaker affects judgments made by the receiver. In Study 2, we demonstrate that participants who were induced with a feeling of stress before carrying out an emotional prosody recognition task performed worse than non-stressed participants. Overall, findings suggest detrimental effects of induced stress on interpersonal sensitivity

Prediction of reduction in aggressive behaviour of growing pigs using skin lesion traits as selection criteria

Aggression at regrouping is a common issue in pig farming. Skin lesions are genetically and phenotypically correlated with aggression and have been shown to have a significant heritable component. This study predicts the magnitude of reduction in complex aggressive behavioural traits when using lesion numbers on different body regions at two different time points as selection criteria, to identify the optimum skin lesion trait for selection purposes. In total, 1146 pigs were mixed into new social groups, and skin lesions were counted 24 h (SL24h) and 3 weeks (SL3wk) post-mixing, on the anterior, centre and posterior regions of the body. An animal model was used to estimate genetic parameters for skin lesion traits and 14 aggressive behavioural traits. Estimated breeding values (EBVs) and phenotypic values were scaled and standardised to allow direct comparison across multiple traits. Individuals with SL24h and SL3wk EBVs in the least aggressive 10% of the population were compared with the population mean to predict the expected genetic and phenotypic response in aggressive behaviour to selection. At mixing, selection for low anterior lesions was predicted to affect substantially more behavioural traits of aggressiveness than lesions obtained on other body parts, with EBVs between −0.21 and −1.17 SD below the population mean. Individuals with low central SL24h EBVs also had low EBVs for aggressive traits (−0.33 to −0.55). Individuals with high SL3wk EBVs had low EBVs for aggression at mixing (between −0.24 and −0.53 SD below the population mean), although this was predicted to affect fewer traits than selection against SL24h. These results suggest that selection against anterior SL24h would result in the greatest genetic and phenotypic reduction in aggressive behaviour recorded at mixing. Selection for increased SL3wk was predicted to reduce aggression at mixing; however, current understanding about aggressive behaviour under stable social conditions is insufficient to recommend using this trait for selection purposes

Genetic associations of novel behaviour traits derived from social network analysis with growth, feed efficiency, and carcass characteristics in pigs

Reducing harmful aggressive behaviour remains a major challenge in pig production. Social network analysis (SNA) showed the potential in providing novel behavioural traits that describe the direct and indirect role of individual pigs in pen-level aggression. Our objectives were to (1) estimate the genetic parameters of these SNA traits, and (2) quantify the genetic associations between the SNA traits and commonly used performance measures: growth, feed intake, feed efficiency, and carcass traits. The animals were video recorded for 24 h post-mixing. The observed fighting behaviour of each animal was used as input for the SNA. A Bayesian approach was performed to estimate the genetic parameters of SNA traits and their association with the performance traits. The heritability estimates for all SNA traits ranged from 0.01 to 0.35. The genetic correlations between SNA and performance traits were non-significant, except for weighted degree with hot carcass weight, and for both betweenness and closeness centrality with test daily gain, final body weight, and hot carcass weight. Our results suggest that SNA traits are amenable for selective breeding. Integrating these traits with other behaviour and performance traits may potentially help in building up future strategies for simultaneously improving welfare and performance in commercial pig farms.</p

A hippocampal Cdk5 pathway regulates extinction of contextual fear

Treatment of emotional disorders involves the promotion of extinction processes, which are defined as the learned reduction of fear. The molecular mechanisms underlying extinction have only begun to be elucidated. By employing genetic and pharmacological approaches in mice, we show here that extinction requires downregulation of Rac-1 and cyclin-dependent kinase 5 (Cdk5), and upregulation of p21 activated kinase-1 (PAK-1) activity. This is physiologically achieved by a Rac-1–dependent relocation of the Cdk5 activator p35 from the membrane to the cytosol and dissociation of p35 from PAK-1. Moreover, our data suggest that Cdk5/p35 activity prevents extinction in part by inhibition of PAK-1 activity in a Rac-1–dependent manner. We propose that extinction of contextual fear is regulated by counteracting components of a molecular pathway involving Rac-1, Cdk5 and PAK-1. Our data suggest that this pathway could provide a suitable target for therapeutic treatment of emotional disorders.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant NS051874)Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung (German Research Foundation Fellowship)European Neuroscience Institute Goettinge