Block Design

Crown rust (Puccinia coronata f. sp. avenae) is the most important disease of oats in Brazil. In susceptible oat cultivars, fungicides are needed to control the disease efficiently. However, spray at low volumes may reduce fungicide performance significantly. A field experiment with the oat cultivar UPFA-20 was carried out at the FAMV/UPF to evaluate the influence of fungicides, rates, and spray volumes on the efficacy of the chemical control for crown rust. The tested treatments combined two fungicides (tebuconazole, Folicur, 0,75 L ha-1; epoxiconazole + pyraclostrobin, Opera, 0,5 L ha-1), four rates (40; 60; 80 and 100% of the commercial rate), and two spray volumes (100 and 200 L ha-1). The field plots were arranged according to a factorial block design (2×4×2) with four replicates. The assessments included the disease severity, disease control, grain quality and grain yield. The net profit of each treatment was also determined based upon the application costs and the sale price ...

We examined 5-year longitudinal changes in Tower of Hanoi (TOH) performance in a population-based sample of adults (35–85 years initially; n = 1480). An age-matched sample (n = 433) was included to estimate practice effects. The longitudinal age gradients differed substantially from the cross-sectional age gradients. This was the case even when practice effects, that were substantial in magnitude across the young/middle-aged groups, were controlled for. Instead of a continuous age-related deficit in performance from 35 and onwards, longitudinal data showed slowing of performance and increases of illegal moves past age 65. Cohort-related differences in educational attainment did not account for this discrepancy. Further analyses revealed a positive relation between practice-related gains and explicit memory of having performed the task at the first test occasion and a positive association between latent changes in TOH and Block Design, in line with cross-sectional findings. In conclusion, the results demonstrate a pattern of age-related changes indicating a late-onset decline of TOH performance and underscore the need to control for retest effects in longitudinal aging research.

The Automated Working Memory Assessment battery was designed to assess verbal and visuospatial passive and active working memory processing in children and adolescents. The aim of this paper is to present the adaptation and validation of the AWMA battery to Argentinean Spanish-speaking children aged 6 to 11 years. Verbal subtests were adapted and pilot tested on a small sample (n = 26). A validation study was conducted including 6-, 8- and 11-year-old children (n = 210). All subtests presented an increase in difficulty as the number of to-be-remembered items raised, and showed high Cronbach's α values. Regarding validity, all subtests had medium to high and significant correlations among them, and with two external measures of working memory (Picture Span and Word Order) and an executive function task (Tower of London); correlations with Block Design were low and non-significant. We conclude that the adapted AWMA can be considered a valid and reliable battery of working memory in Argentinean Spanish-speaking children.►A high internal consistency (Cronbach's α) was observed for all AWMA tests. ►Correlations among all the tests showed they were tapping the same construct. ►Convergent and discriminant validity of the WMA were established. ►The adapted AWMA can be considered a valid and reliable battery of working memory.

We studied the central representation of pudendal afferents arising from the clitoral nerves in 15 healthy adult female subjects using electrical dorsal clitoral nerve stimulation and fMRI. As a control body region, we electrically stimulated the right hallux in eight subjects. In a block design experiment, we applied bilateral clitoral stimulation and unilateral (right) hallux stimulation. Activation maps were calculated for the contrasts 'electrical dorsal clitoral nerve stimulation versus rest' and 'electrical hallux stimulation versus rest'. A random-effect group analysis for the clitoral stimulation showed significant activations bilateral in the superior and inferior frontal gyri, insulae and putamen and in the postcentral, precentral and inferior parietal gyri (including the primary and secondary somatosensory cortices). No activation was found on the mesial surface of the postcentral gyrus. For the hallux, activations occurred in a similar neuronal networ...

Lack of adequate nutrient supply and poor soil structure are the principal constraints to crop production under low input agriculture systems of West Africa. Experiments at two sites (Mediga and Yimtenga) were conducted in Burkina Faso to assess the impact of compost on improving crop production and soil properties. In the first experiment, compost was applied at the rate of 0 and 10 Mg ha−1 in Mediga on a Ferric Lixisol, and 5 and 0 Mg ha−1 on a Ferric-gleyic Lixisol in Yimtenga. A second experiment was conducted in Yimtenga to assess the role of compost in mitigating the effect of delay in sowing on crop performance. 0 and 5 Mg ha−1 compost plots were sown within the normal period for sowing sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) and with a delay of 1 month. A randomised block design was used with four replications for the two experiments.Semi-structured interviews were used to study socio-economic issues of compost technology. No significant difference in soil organic matter content was found between treatments receiving compost and no-compost. However, compost application increased soil cation exchange capacity (CEC) from 4 to 6 cmol kg−1. Soil pH was also increased by the compost application. Sorghum yield tripled on the 10 Mg ha−1 compost plots and increased by 45% on the 5 Mg ha−1 compost plots, compared to no-compost plots. Compost application mitigated the negative effects of a delay in sowing. The study showed that farmers were aware of the role of compost in sustaining yield and improving soil quality. However, lack of equipment and adequate organic material for making compost, land tenure and the intensive labour required for making compost are major constraints for the adoption of compost technology. It was concluded that compost application could contribute to increase food availability in the Sahel and therefore, efforts should be made to alleviate the socio-economic constraints to the adoption of compost technology.

The recent publication of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS-III), the most widely used standard test of intelligence, requires the development of a new short form for use with patients with schizophrenia for many clinical and research purposes. We used regression analyses of complete WAIS-III data on 41 outpatients with schizophrenia and 41 education-, and age-matched healthy subjects to determine the best combination of subtests to use as a short form. Excluding three subtests that are time-consuming to administer, and requiring that the solution includes one subtest from each of the four WAIS index scores, the combination that most fully accounted for the variance in full-scale IQ (FSIQ) for both participants with schizophrenia (R(2)=0.90) and healthy controls (R(2)=0.86) included the information, block design, arithmetic, and digit symbol subtests. When the restrictions regarding which subtests could enter were relaxed, the best four-subtest solution included information, block design, comprehension, and similarities. Although the latter explained 95% of the variance in FSIQ for schizophrenia participants and 90% of the variance for healthy controls, it consistently overestimated FSIQ for the schizophrenia group. We recommend the four-factor short form for use in future research and clinical practice in which a quick, accurate IQ estimate is desired.

The objective of the present study was to evaluate herbage accumulation, morphological composition, growth rate and structural characteristics in Mombasa grass swards subject to different cutting intervals (3, 5 and 7 wk) during the rainy and dry seasons of the year. Treatments were assigned to experimental units (17.5 m2) according to a complete randomised block design, with four replicates. Herbage

A study was conducted in South Kordofan, Sudan to determine the effect of tapping, tapping tools and date of tapping on the gum yield of Acacia polyacantha. A two-factor experiment was conducted for two seasons in 2008–2009. One location was used for two seasons and two locations for one season. The first factor (4 levels) was the tools of tapping: Makmak, Farrar, and Sonki, and the control which was not tapped. The second factor (2 levels) was the date of tapping that comprises mid October and mid November. These treatments were arranged in Randomaized Complete Block Design and replicated three times. Gum yield (g/tree and g/ picking) was recorded for five pickings. Economic analysis was done using the partial budget technique. The results showed highly significant (p A. polyacantha. Tapping of the tree with Makmak in mid-November was found to be economically beneficial compared to using the other tools and the control. These results could identify a new source of income for the poor farmers in South Kordofan mainly because of the wild occurrence of Kakamut as a potential gum producing tree species grown naturally in the area.

We conducted three experiments to determine the influence of mechanical processing on corn silage utilization by lactating dairy cows. Total mixed rations contained either unprocessed or processed corn silage harvested between 1/4 and 3/4 milk line. In trial 1, 12 multiparous Holstein cows were used in a replicated double switchback design with 21-d periods. Intake of dry matter (DM) was increased 1.2 kg/d by processing, but milk yield was unaffected. Processing did not affect apparent total-tract DM digestibility, but processing tended to lower starch and corn excretion in feces and reduced concentration of sieved corn kernel particles in feces. In trial 2, 42 Holstein cows were used in an 18-wk randomized complete-block design. Intake of DM and milk yield were unaffected by processing, but milk fat percent was increased 0.35 percentage units by processing. Processing tended to increase total-tract digestibility of starch, but reduced organic matter, crude protein, and neutral dete...

The Liquid-Salt-Cooled Very High Temperature Reactor (LS-VHTR), also known as the Advanced High Temperature Reactor (AHTR), is a new, large (>2400 MW(t)), passively safe, high-temperature reactor concept. It uses a graphite-matrix coated-particle fuel and a graphite moderator similar to the fuel used in modular high-temperature gas-cooled reactors, but with a clean liquid- fluoride salt coolant. The neutronics properties of various