Effect of intercropping of maize and cowpea on the yield, land productivity and profitability of components crops in Bena- Tsemay Woreda, Southern Ethiopia

Field experiment was carried out during the 2017-18 cropping season at Kako, Bena-Ttsemay woreda, South Omo zone, Southern Ethiopia to determine the effect of intercropping of maize and cowpea on the yield, land use efficiency and profitability of both crops. The experiment consisted of 4 treatments (sole maize, sole cowpea, one row maize to one row cowpea and one row maize to two-row cowpea) and laid in RCBD in four replications. Intercropping of one row maize to one row cowpea and one row maize to two-row cowpea, resulted in 55.8% and 27.9% greater land use efficiency than for either crop grown alone. The highest MAI was obtained by growing one row of maize to one row of cowpea (11563.17) followed by one row maize to two-rows of cowpea (6783.50).Based on the present finding, intercropping of one row maize and one row cowpea more economic advantage than the other crop combination or grown alone. Therefore, intercropping of one row maize to one row cowpea is an advantageous to farmers in the study area since it would provide additional crop yield with the same piece of land and more profitable related to cost benefit. Int. J. Agril. Res. Innov. Tech. 11(2): 147-150, Dec 2021

First Record of Pseudocapillaria tomentosa (Dujardin, 1845) Moravec, 1987 in Cultured Grass Carp in Basrah Province, Iraq

A total of 110 specimens of cultured grass carp Ctenopharyngodon idella (Pisces: Cyprinidae) were collected from three different fish pond stations in Basrah province, during the period from March till July 2007. Postmortem parasitological examinations indicated infection of the grass carp with the nematode Pseudocapillaria tomentosa and this infection occurred only in Faddak fish ponds during all months of investigation. The maximum incidence of infection was 26.6% in April, while the maximum intensity of infection was 8.5 in June. The present finding of this nematodes represents its first record in Iraqi fishes.

USING METAPHORS TO REDUCE ANXIETY IN ADOLESCENTS

The age of adolescence represents few years of uncertainties and unknown in the development and evolution of a young people. In the search of his own identity, the adolescent needs symbols in order to access the unconscious personal resources. Working with metaphors in the process of counselling and psychotherapy facilitates new signification and sense for the adolescent that experience the most provocative period of his life. This article focuses on the benefits of using metaphorical techniques to improve emotional health in adolescents. We supposed that using a brief experiential metaphoric exercise (My own relaxation and recreation place) would allow the group members to improve their present emotional anxiety experience. The adolescents became more aware of their inner resources (such as tranquillity, calm, trust and hope) and needs. Present finding indicate the effects of expressive-creative methods on anxiety state. Using metaphor in the therapy of adolescents could be an important method to reduce the anxiety and to help them understand the role of their emotions in the process of personal development.

Prediction of Epitope Peptides for PTK Gene of Acinetobacter baumannii

Background: Acinetobacter baumannii is a gramnegative bacilli acquiring both intrinsic and adaptive patterns of multi drug resistance and virulence. Immune-informatics approach holds promise to detect putative epitope peptides from vital virulence factors which can be further synthesized and evaluated for their immunological response. Aim: The aim of the study was to predict the immuno-dominant peptides from the ptk gene of A. baumannii. Materials and Methods: Protein retrieval of the Ptk gene using CELLO V.2.5 was done with the evaluation of antigenicity and allergenicity of the predicted epitopes, using Vaxijen V2.0 server and AlgPred servers. Epitope structure prediction and validation by using RAMPAGE revealed the homology peptides. Molecular Docking of epitopes with HLA-alleles using ClusterPro server, and further identification of B cell epitope was performed by using Kolaskar and Tonganokar antigenicity method. Results: A total of 20 epitopes were predicted and 18 peptides were chosen based on antigenicity and stability analysis prediction. The structure predictions were carried out using pepfold server and based on Ramachandran plot analysis 10 epitopes were taken for further analysis. Conclusion: The present finding has detected and evaluated the desirable epitope as LFFSLIAQW using an immune-informatic approach. However, it needs further experimental validation for its immunological response using standard in-vitro studies.

A new species of Psyllipsocus (Psocodea: Trogiomorpha: Psyllipsocidae) from the mid-Cretaceous amber of Myanmar

A new psocodean species of the family Psyllipsocidae, namely Psyllipsocus yangi sp. n., is described from the Burmese amber. This is the third species of Psyllipsocus from the Burmese amber and is the first Cretaceous Psyllipsocus species with a conical sensillum in mx2. Detailed description of the characters of mouthparts and genitalia are provided. The present finding suggests that Sinopsyllipsocus is a probable synonym of Psyllipsocus.

Fibroporia gossypium isolated from an indoor environment in Argentina

Using culture studies and molecular techniques, the brown rot polypore Fibroporia gossypium was identified from a cellar in an old building of Buenos Aires city, the second record of the species in an urban environment in Argentina. The fungus formed large mycelial masses hanging from a wooden support and growing on the walls but did not form basidiomes. The conspecificity of specimens from distant regions is considered and the origin of the present finding is discussed.

Semantically Congruent Bimodal Presentation with Divided-Modality Attention Accelerates Unisensory Working Memory Retrieval

Although previous studies have shown that semantic multisensory integration can be differentially modulated by attention focus, it remains unclear whether attentionally mediated multisensory perceptual facilitation could impact further cognitive performance. Using a delayed matching-to-sample paradigm, the present study investigated the effect of semantically congruent bimodal presentation on subsequent unisensory working memory (WM) performance by manipulating attention focus. The results showed that unisensory WM retrieval was faster in the semantically congruent condition than in the incongruent multisensory encoding condition. However, such a result was only found in the divided-modality attention condition. This result indicates that a robust multisensory representation was constructed during semantically congruent multisensory encoding with divided-modality attention; this representation then accelerated unisensory WM performance, especially auditory WM retrieval. Additionally, an overall faster unisensory WM retrieval was observed under the modality-specific selective attention condition compared with the divided-modality condition, indicating that the division of attention to address two modalities demanded more central executive resources to encode and integrate crossmodal information and to maintain a constructed multisensory representation, leaving few resources for WM retrieval. Additionally, the present finding may support the amodal view that WM has an amodal central storage component that is used to maintain modal-based attention-optimized multisensory representations.

Prvi dokumentirani zapis o Tetragonurus cuvieri Risso, 1810. (Perciformes, Stromatoidea) duž kalabrijskih obala (Južna Italija, Središnji Mediteran)

The first record of Tetragonurus cuvieri Risso, 1810 off Calabrian coast (Southern Italy, Central Mediterranean) is reported. The specimen, a male of 361 mm total length, was found at a depth of 7 m during a scientific visual census research activity, in March 2017. The sighting was located off the Tyrrhenian coast of Calabria (Paola: 39.355453N, 16.029192E). The present finding represents the 1st documented record for the Tyrrhenian coast of the Calabria region.

Impact of Landscape and Season on the Ecological Distribution of Tabanidae and Stomoxyinae, Mechanical Vectors of Bovine Trypanosomosis in the Forest of Sanaga Maritime and Savanna of Ngaoundere, Cameroon

Background: Huge pasture areas in sub-Saharan Africa are heavily infested by tabanids and stomoxyines whose distribution across season and in different landscape differs and is poorly described in Cameroon. Methods: A longitudinal entomological prospection (January 2017 to December 2017) was carried out in the savanna of Ngaoundere and forest of the Sanaga Maritime of Cameroon, using three trap-types (Nzi, Biconical and Vavoua). A total of 18 traps were used in this study with nine in each site.Results: In the forest, 44317 Stomoxys belonging to four species were captured with an apparent density of 136.78 flies per trap and day (f/t/d). Twelve species of tabanids were collected with 3524 individuals with an apparent density of 10.87 f/t/d. Stomoxys niger niger was the most abundant species while for tabanids, Tabanus taeniola (48.63%) was most represented. In the savanna, 4501 (13.89 f/t/d) Stomoxys were collected and regrouped under five species with S. n. niger (70.91%) highly represented and 547 (1.68 f/t/d) tabanids collected and regrouped under 10 species with Tabanus taeniola as the most dominant species. Trap apparent density (ADT) varied with sampled sites, seasons and the prevailing weather conditions in the forest and savanna.Conclusion: From the present finding, it can be deduced that T. taeniola and S. n. niger were the most abundant and indicate the risk of mechanical transmission of dangerous pathogens such as bovine trypanosomosis.

GC-MS Analysis and Antimicrobial Activities of Ethanol Alkaloid Leaf Extracts of Delonix elata.L

Delonix elata L., belongs to family Fabaceae used by the traditional various medicinal practices to cure jaundice, skin disease, heart disease, cancer cell formation, physiological abnormalities, heptoprotective, bronchial and rheumatic problems. The present study was screen the antimicrobial and phytochemical activity of alkaloid leaf extracts. This extracts was assessed on multidrug resistant clinical isolated from both gram positive, gram negative and antifungal strains including Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherchia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Candida albicans and Aspergillus niger. The zone of inhibition was determined by Agar well diffusion method with various concentration. GC- MS analysis was performed to identify major bioactive compounds present in the extracts. The GC – MS studies shown the present of 25 compound were identified in the leaf extract composition. The antimicrobial analysis revealed that C. albicans showed a highest zone of inhibition 25mm at 100 mg/ml of extracts. Present finding suggest that D. elata as plant pharmaceutical and pharmacological importance.