Genetic Variability and Diversity of the Agro-Morphological Traits of Torch Ginger (Etlingera elatior) Germplasm in Malaysia

Aims: The main objective of this study is to quantify the genetic variability and relationship among the quantitative traits of the torch ginger germplasm collected across Peninsular Malaysia. Study design: Initially, the experimental design was randomized complete block design (RCBD) but there were unequal number of replications due to limited planting materials. Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted at the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI) Research Station, Jerangau, Terengganu, Malaysia on latitude 04°57.704’N and longitude 103°11.007’E. Data on agro-morphological characterization were collected for three years from June 2010 until May 2013. Methodology: A total of 57 torch ginger accessions were collected from various wild/ cultivated sources from seven states of Peninsular Malaysia namely Terengganu (19), Perak (15), Kedah (7), Johor (6), Pahang (5), Kelantan (3) and Melaka (2). The collection was planted in 2009 and maintained as living collection. At three months old torch ginger plantlets were transplanted into 20 cm × 20 cm × 20 cm holes spaced at 100 cm diameter of culvert. The spacing of culvert between rows and within rows were 2 m respectively. Initially, the experimental design was randomized complete block design (RCBD) but there were unequal number of replications due to limited planting materials. Data on agro-morphological characterization were collected for three years from June 2010 until May 2013. All the 57 accessions were characterized according to descriptors list of genera under Zingiberaceae family with some modifications. A total of 6 qualitative and 16 quantitative descriptors were used. The mean values of each quantitative trait data were computed and subjected to statistical analysis to assess the amount of genetic variation using analysis of variance (ANOVA). The ANOVA was using PROC GLM of SAS 9.4 software (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA). Genotypic coefficients of variation and error variance were estimated using PROC VARCOMP method Type I of SAS 9.4 software. Phenotypic coefficients of variation, heritability and genetic advance were calculated. Pearson correlation coefficient was determined using SAS 9.4 for comparing the relationship among the different traits. The morphological traits were analyzed by numerical taxonomic methods via cluster analysis and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) which was done using NTSYS-PC Version 2.1. PCA based on 16 quantitative and six qualitative traits was performed to determine the genetic variation in the torch ginger accessions. The cluster and PCA were performed to reveal clustering and grouping pattern of torch ginger accessions. Euclidean distance coefficients were estimated for all pairs of accessions, which was then used to present cluster analysis. Results: Analysis of variance indicated that highly significant variation exists among the 57 accessions for most of the traits. The 57 accessions of torch ginger showed high variability for both qualitative and quantitative traits. Among the quantitative traits, the highest CV was observed from number of spikes with the value of 44.25%. The genetic coefficient of variation for 16 morphological traits ranged from 9.76 to 45.86%. Broad sense heritability estimates varied from low to high. Maximum estimates of broad sense heritability were recorded in bract length (80.16%), bud peduncle length (78.74%), number of leaves (75.66%), number of stems per clump (67.99%), inflorescence peduncle length (67.60%) and bud width (65.11%). The genetic advance (GA) in percent of mean was recorded from 11.82 to 67.97%. Besides that, positive correlation coefficient was obtained between some traits. Generally, the genotypes groups were related with morphological characteristics among the accessions. Conclusion: Considering the distribution pattern, vegetative and yield performance of accessions, it is suggested that accessions from cluster VII (KAN022, KAN047 and KAN048) should be selected for future breeding program. These accessions possessed the highest peduncle length that could influence the yield in terms of bud size. Furthermore, the classification and divergence between torch ginger accessions analyzed in this study may assist in conserving plant materials both in-situ and ex-situ.

b-Chromatic Sum and b-Continuity Property of Some Graphs

A b-coloring of a graph [Formula: see text] is a proper coloring of the vertices of [Formula: see text] such that there exist a vertex in each color class joined to at least one vertex in each other color classes. The b-chromatic number of a graph [Formula: see text], denoted by [Formula: see text], is the largest integer [Formula: see text] such that [Formula: see text] has a b-coloring with [Formula: see text] colors. The b-chromatic sum of a graph [Formula: see text], denoted by [Formula: see text], is introduced and it is defined as the minimum of sum of colors [Formula: see text] of [Formula: see text] for any [Formula: see text] in a b-coloring of [Formula: see text] using [Formula: see text] colors. A graph [Formula: see text] is b-continuous, if it admits a b-coloring with [Formula: see text] colors, for every [Formula: see text]. In this paper, the [Formula: see text]-continuity property of corona of two cycles, corona of two star graphs and corona of two wheel graphs with unequal number of vertices is discussed. The b-continuity property of corona of any two graphs with same number of vertices is also discussed. Also, the b-continuity property of Mycielskian of complete graph, complete bipartite graph and paths are discussed. The b-chromatic sum of power graph of a path is also obtained.

Artificial Intelligence in Smart Farms: Plant Phenotyping for Species Recognition and Health Condition Identification Using Deep Learning

This paper analyses the contribution of residual network (ResNet) based convolutional neural network (CNN) architecture employed in two tasks related to plant phenotyping. Among the contemporary works for species recognition (SR) and infection detection of plants, the majority of them have performed experiments on balanced datasets and used accuracy as the evaluation parameter. However, this work used an imbalanced dataset having an unequal number of images, applied data augmentation to increase accuracy, organised data as multiple test cases and classes, and, most importantly, employed multiclass classifier evaluation parameters useful for asymmetric class distribution. Additionally, the work addresses typical issues faced such as selecting the size of the dataset, depth of classifiers, training time needed, and analysing the classifier’s performance if various test cases are deployed. In this work, ResNet 20 (V2) architecture has performed significantly well in the tasks of Species Recognition (SR) and Identification of Healthy and Infected Leaves (IHIL) with a Precision of 91.84% and 84.00%, Recall of 91.67% and 83.14% and F1 Score of 91.49% and 83.19%, respectively.

Repetition Suppression in Visual and Auditory Modalities Affects the Sound-Induced Flash Illusion

Sound-induced flash illusion (SiFI) refers to the illusion that the number of visual flashes is equal to the number of auditory sounds when the visual flashes are accompanied by an unequal number of auditory sounds presented within 100 ms. The effect of repetition suppression (RS), an adaptive effect caused by stimulus repetition, upon the SiFI has not been investigated. Based on the classic SiFI paradigm, the present study investigated whether RS would affect the SiFI differently by adding preceding stimuli in visual and auditory modalities prior to the appearance of audiovisual stimuli. The results showed the auditory RS effect on the SiFI varied with the number of preceding auditory stimuli. The hit rate was higher with two preceding auditory stimuli than one preceding auditory stimulus in fission illusion, but it did not affect the size of the fusion illusion. However, the visual RS had no effect on the size of the fission and fusion illusions. The present study suggested that RS could affect the SiFI, indicating that the RS effect in different modalities would differentially affect the magnitude of the SiFI. In the process of multisensory integration, the visual and auditory modalities had asymmetrical RS effects.

Perspective taking as a mechanism for children’s developing preferences for equitable distributions

How do young children develop a concept of equity? Infants prefer dividing resources equally and expect others to make such distributions. Between the ages of 3–8, children begin to exhibit preferences to avoid inequitable outcomes in their distributions, dividing resources unequally if the result of that distribution is a more equitable outcome. Four studies investigated children’s developing preferences for generating equitable distributions, focusing on the mechanisms for this development. Children were presented with two characters with different amount of resources, and then a third character who will distribute more resources to them. Three- to 8-year-olds were asked whether the third character should give an equal number of resources to the recipients, preserving the inequity, or an unequal number to them, creating an equitable outcome. Starting at age 7, children showed a preference for equitable distributions (Study 1, N = 144). Studies 2a (N = 72) and 2b (N = 48) suggest that this development is independent of children’s numerical competence. When asked to take the perspective of the recipient with fewer resources, 3- to 6-year-olds were more likely to make an equitable distribution (Study 3, N = 122). These data suggest that social perspective taking underlies children’s prosocial actions, and supports the hypothesis that their spontaneous capacity to take others’ perspectives develops during the early elementary-school years.

Equivalent circuit modelling of a three-phase to seven-phase transformer using PSO and GA

Impedance mismatching between different phases of a multiphase transformer is generally observed e.g., in a three-phase to seven-phase transformer, due to an unequal number of turns in different coils. This mismatching introduces error in the study of per phase equivalent circuit diagrams as well as induces an imbalance in output voltages and currents. Therefore, it is a challenging task to develop a per-phase equivalent circuit for the secondary and primary sides (In some cases) too. This paper proposes an artificial intelligence optimization technique like PSO based modeling of the per-phase equivalent circuit of the secondary side. This paper deals with the modeling and simulation of a three-phase to seven-phase power transformer using Artificial Intelligence technique like particle swarm optimization (PSO) and Genetic Algorithm (GA). The proposed model is optimized through PSO and GA algorithms and tested for minimum voltage error in each phase. The proposed model is designed and the objective function is optimized by PSO & GA in MATLAB environment. It is found that the optimized model can be effectively implemented as a per-phase equivalent circuit for the secondary side.

The Frequency of Technical and Tactical Offensive Actions of Elite Serbian Handball Teams

The goal of this research is to determine the modal characteristics of technical and tactical actions in handball offense. The subject sample consists of elite Serbian national handball teams. The observed variables are selected based on the unique criteria that characterizes the conclusion of the offensive actions, both in situations when there is an equal and unequal number of players on the field. The results confirm that all analysed actions are not equally represented in play of the observed teams and that there are multiple factors that contribute to the final team standing. The data shows that the defining characteristic and the highest offensive efficiency of the best teams was achieved by using counterattacks, which is to be expected given the fast pace of the modern handball.

Size effect and merger dominance in salesforce integration

Purpose This study aims to test the authors’ theory that in an integrated sales team, the larger team (either from the acquiring or acquired firm) dominates the smaller team, even though it may be less competent than the smaller one, and that the level of competence of the integrated entity with the dominant but inferior larger team is bound to deteriorate. Design/methodology/approach The study tests the theory by conducting a laboratory experiment. Findings The results from the experiment show that an asymmetrical employee composition structure creates merger dominance in the post-integration group and influences the integration performance. Research limitations/implications Considering the lack of mergers and acquisitions research in the marketing literature, the author believes that this study contributes new information to the literature. The finding that an integrated entity with a dominant but inferior larger partner will demonstrate a resulting degeneration of competence invites empirical research for validation. Practical implications The integration of sales teams is central to ensuring revenue growth and driving the value that mergers promise but often fail to realize. The study findings provide some practical insights in this regard. Originality/value Mergers between asymmetrical partners are common phenomena. However, few studies have investigated how an unequal size of sales teams in pre-merger firms influences the effective integration of different sales teams. To fill this research gap, this study examines whether the involvement of an unequal number of salespeople from pre-merger firms in a post-merger sales team may influence its post-merger performance.

Effects of semen dosage, oviductal sperm storage and insemination interval on egg fertility, embryo mortality and hatchability in Nera Black breeder chickens

The biological basis of sustaining fertility in poultry is their ability to store sperm cells in the sperm storage tubules (SST) located in the uterovaginal junction. However, artificial insemination in poultry industry is haphazardly administered in Nigeria without regulation on semen dose and frequency of insemination for optimum fertility. The objective of this study was to establish a semen dosage and insemination interval for maximum fertility and embryonic survival in Nera black layer breeder chickens. A total of 80 breeder hens (52 weeks) were allotted to five (5) treatments with four (4) replicate per treatment. Semen was pooled from 10 matured breeder cocks and inseminated to four groups of hens at varied semen dose of 0.02mL (T1), 0.04mL (T2), 0.06mL (T3) and 0.08mL (T4) of undiluted semen while hens in T5 were mated naturally, both for two consecutive days. 0.02, 0.04, 0.06 and 0.08mL of pooled semen contained 20.43×10 , 40.87×106 , 61.30×106 and 81.74×106 motile spermatozoa. Eggs were collected, stored and artificially incubated weekly for 4 weeks. Fertility, embryo mortality and hatchability parameters were determined. Another 78 breeder hens were allocated into 4 treatments of 5 replicates per treatment with unequal number of hens and were inseminated with 0.02mL of raw semen containing 20.43 × 106 motile sperm cells at 3, 6, 9 and 12 days intervals. Fertility, hatchability and embryo mortality were determined. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and ANOVA at &0.05 Hatch of fertile eggs in T5 at week 2 (65.36±13.28) was significantly higher (p<0.05) . than T1 (33.83±12.65), T2 (13.25±6.88), T3 (39.17±14.17) and T4 (28.21±11.37). At weeks 1 and 2, there was no significant different across the treatments. Fertility at 4 weeks in T1 (11.53±6.66) was significantly (p<0.05) different from treatments T2 (0.00±0.00), T3 (0.00±0.00), T4 (1.66±1.66) and T5 (0.00±0.00). Total and early embryo mortality in week 3 was significantly higher (p<0.05) in T1 (100.00±0.00, 95.00±5.00) than in treatments T2 (43.75±0.00, 43.75±25.77), T3 (66.67±23.57, 66.67±23.57), T4 (95.00±5.00, 85.00±15.00) and T5 (37.50±23.94, 22.92±15.73). Fertility was significantly (p<0.05) higher in 3 days insemination interval (52.65±7.25) compared with 6 days (39.87±4.70), 9 days (22.98±5.71) and 12 days (36.14±6.89). At weeks 1 and 3, the hatch of fertile eggs across the treatments was not significantly (p>0.05) different from one another. This study suggests that 6 inseminating semen dose of 0.02mL containing approximately 20.43×10 motile sperm cells in Nera black layer breeder chickens will give a maximum fertile period of 5 days, while insemination interval of 3 days using 0.02mLof semen gave highest fertility level.

Agile methodology of well pad development

Placing of wells in clusters with unequal number of thereof is an emerging concept of well pad development which still requires scrutiny even from a theoretical standpoint. The concept has its potential in improving economic efficiency of one of the most capital intensive processes in upstream sector of petroleum industry—the well pad drilling. To advocate and strengthen this profitability enhancing potential, this work integrates clustering of unequal number of wells into modern project management methodologies (agile project management), which has not been done before. It is shown that such symbiosis, which is called here the adaptive well pad development (or agile methodology of well pad development), has twofold benefit consisting of (1) managing of and accounting for uncertainties of real projects and (2) further improving economic performance of development projects in comparison with standalone well pad configurations with unequal number of wells. To exemplify these advantages, detailed simulations of well pad drilling projects were performed with equal and unequal number of wells in clusters. The simulation model accounting for more than 40 parameters and individual features of wells shows that combination of unequal well clustering configurations with adaptation of well pad designs to updates in project parameters results in significant improvements to the net present value (NPV). For three drilling scenarios studied in this work, the NPV increments ranged from 8 to 36%. Additionally, it was found that groupings with unequal number of wells consistently outperform groupings with equal number of wells in uncertain conditions, and NPV improvements from 10 to 20% have been obtained. These findings enrich understanding of the vast space of clustering schemes with unequal number of wells and demonstrate how these well pad configurations can be applied to use ever-changing environment to one's advantage. On basis of this computational study, it is now valid to assert with high degree of certainty and confidence that industrial deployment of clustering with unequal number of wells in combination with proper organizational measures results in boost to the NPV of well pad development projects at the level of several to tens of percent.