• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.317-323
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• 2010

Nutrient availability is a critical component of agroecosystems, and is relevant to both above- and below- ground interactions. The principal objective of this study was to determine how the cessation of fertilization affects the communities of weeds and soil organisms in a corn/wheat field. Changes in dominant weed species, substrate-induced respiration, and the population density of nematodes and microarthropods were evaluated. Microbial substrate-induced respiration (SIR) and the population density of microarthropods decreased following the cessation of fertilization and were partly correlated with the aboveground weed biomass. The cessation of organic fertilizer application but continuing application of inorganic fertilizer reduced the population density of nematodes. In response to the cessation of fertilization, weed communities were dominated by species with little dependency on fertilization. Amaranthus retroflexus was identified as the most dominant species in the corn field; however, it was replaced by Digitaria ciliaris after the cessation of fertilization. In the wheat field, the cessation of fertilization led to a rapid reduction in the biomass of most weeds, except for Vicia angustifolia, supposedly as the result of symbiotic nitrogen fixation. Additionally, the fact that weed biomass was partially correlated with SIR or the population density of microarthropods may reflect a mutual feedback between soil organisms and weeds. The results indicate that the cessation of fertilization alters communities of weeds and soil organisms through changes in weed biomass and interactions with symbiotic microorganisms.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.91-96
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• 2006

The experiment was conducted to study the effect of choice feeding on growth performance, carcass quality, gastrointestinal development and feed utilization of 22-49 days old broilers. One hundred and forty four 22-day-old broilers were randomly allocated to 3 treatments with 4 replicates per treatment and 12 birds per replicate. Three feeding regimes are complete diet (control), ground corn and protein concentrate (treatment I), and soybean meal and balancer (treatment II). Protein concentrate is the residue part of complete diet without corn, and balancer is the residue part of complete diet without soybean meal. Treatment I and II are designed for the broilers to freely choose the two parts of diet. The results showed that: (1) broilers under choice feeding (treatment I and II) had lower performances compared with the control; (2) gastrointestinal development and the efficiency ratios that broilers converted dietary crude protein and lysine to body weight gain were improved in treatment I (p<0.05); (3) there were no significant differences in the apparent metabolizabilities of dietary dry matter, crude protein and gross energy, and deposition ratios of dietary nitrogen and energy, and carcass quality among three feeding regimes (p>0.05).

• Proceedings of the National Institute of Ecology of the Republic of Korea
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.21-27
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• 2024

Harmful pet insects, if not controlled, can negatively affect people, plants and their surrounding environment. In Vietnam, all crops are regularly impacted by pest insects. In serious cases, crops can be totally destroyed by insect pests. Harmful insects that damage crops often grow fast and increase rapidly. Therefore, research on insects is crucial for managing pests, protecting crops, and forecasting pest situation in the following years. This study aimed to collect data regarding changes of pests on rice and corn as two main crops in four provinces in Red River Delta of Vietnam, including Thai Binh, Nam Dinh, Ha Nam, and Hung Yen, from 2018 to 2022. Primary data were collected from reports of government agencies and official statistics. Based on these data, this study evaluated changes of pest insects in five years, discussed reasons for such changes and response methods, and forecasted pest's behavior in the following years. Significant findings of this study include the fact that Vietnam has to face many difficulties to develop its agricultural sector. For insect management, an essential action is to do ground surveys to gather all related data including weather data, pesticide data, crop yield, and product quality. This information is meaningful for finding out causes of changes, understanding relationships between insects and surrounding factors, and predicting the situation in the following years.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Grassland and Forage Science
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.201-210
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• 1992

This study was designed to investigate the content of inorganic nitrogen($NH_4$, $NO_3$) and its change in the 7 different sites; the permanent meadows of alfalfa, orchardgrass, and reed canarygrass, the fields of rye. corn, rice and a mountain region. the results from this study were summarized as follows; 1. The contents of ammonium and nitrate in meadows were 15.89-16.46 and 1.32-1.86ppm, respectively, showing the lower level than in other sites and no significant diffirences among three meadows. 2. In the rice field, the average content of ammonium(7.19ppm) was the highest among all sites, but the content of nitrate(1 l.l7ppm) was the lowest. In addition, almost all of nitrate were spreaded around the surface. 3. In the mountain region, the content of $NH_4$(5.79ppm) was slightly high, but the content of nitrate ( 15.18ppm) was very low. 4. In the rye field. the average content of $NO_3$ was 35.46ppm and show the highest (92.63ppm) at the deep part of soil in the specific season, but it decreased with increasing temperature. 5. In the corn field, which kept bare after harvesting the corn silage, the content of $NO_3$ was high, regardless of seasons and depths, and increased up to maximum of 103ppm. 6. The ground water concentrations of $NO_3$ were not more than 50ppm in the pasture. In the vegetable house, they were less than 30 ppm during the winter and spring and were 80-100ppm during the summer and fall. 7. The concentrations of $NO_3$ in Han river water were lower during the winter and spring(20-30ppm) and higher dxring the summer and fall (50-90ppm).

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.20 no.10
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• pp.1557-1566
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• 2007

Ten male crossbred (Thai $Native{\times}Anglo$ Nubian) goats with average live weight of $27{\pm}2$ kg were randomly assigned according to a $5{\times}5$ replicated Latin square design to receive five diets, $T_1$ = concentrate with 0% cassava chip (CC), $T_2$ = 25% CC, $T_3$ = 50% CC, $T_4$ = 75% CC and $T_5$ = 100% CC. Fresh elephant grass (FEG) was offered ad libitum as the roughage. A metabolism trial lasted for 21 days during which liveweight changes and feed intakes were measured. Based on this experiment, there were no significant differences (p>0.05) among treatment groups regarding DM intake and digestion coefficients of nutrients (DM, OM, NDF and ADF), except for $T_5$ (100% CC) which was lowest (p<0.05) in digestion coefficient of CP than $T_1$ and $T_3$. Rumen parameters (ruminal pH, $NH_3$-N and volatile fatty acids), blood urea nitrogen, blood glucose and packed cell volume were similar among treatments. Moreover, rumen microorganism populations were not affected (p>0.05) by cassava inclusion. The amount of N absorption and retention were similar among treatments, except for $T_5$ which tended to be slightly lower. Based on this experiment, it could be concluded that the optimal level of cassava inclusion to replace corn in goat diets was in the range of 25-75% of CC when fed with FEG and it was a good approach in exploiting the use of local feed resources for goat production.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.653-659
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• 2017

Objective: This trial was performed to examine the effects of ruminally degradable starch (RDS) levels in total mixed ration (TMR) with low corn-based starch on the milk production, whole-tract nutrient digestibility and nitrogen balance in dairy cows. Methods: Eight multiparous Holstein cows (body weight [BW]: $717{\pm}63kg$; days in milk [DIM]: $169{\pm}29$) were assigned to a crossover design with two dietary treatments: a diet containing 62.3% ruminally degradable starch (% of total starch, low RDS) or 72.1% ruminally degradable starch (% of total starch, high RDS). Changes to the ruminally degradable levels were conducted by using either finely ground corn or steam-flaked corn as the starch component. Results: The results showed that dry matter intake, milk yield and composition in dairy cows were not affected by dietary treatments. The concentration of milk urea nitrogen was lower for cows fed high RDS TMR than low RDS TMR. The whole-tract apparent digestibility of neutral detergent fiber, acid detergent fiber and crude protein decreased, and that of starch increased for cows fed high RDS TMR over those fed low RDS TMR, with no dietary effect on the whole-tract apparent digestibility of dry matter and organic matter. The proportion of urinary N excretion in N intake was lower and that of fecal N excretion in N intake was higher for cows fed high RDS TMR than those fed low RDS TMR. The N secretion in milk and the retention of N were not influenced by the dietary treatments. Total purine derivative was similar in cows fed high RDS TMR and low RDS TMR. Consequently, estimated microbial N flow to the duodenum was similar in cows fed high RDS TMR and low RDS TMR. Conclusion: Results of this study show that ruminally degradable starch levels can influence whole-tract nutrient digestibility and nitrogen balance in dairy cows fed low corn-based starch diets, with no influence on performance.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.25 no.8
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• pp.1124-1131
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• 2012

Four Thai - rumen fistulated male swamp buffaloes (Bubalus bubalis), about four years old with $400{\pm}20kg$ liveweight, were randomly assigned according to a $4{\times}4$ Latin square design to receive dietary treatments. The treatments were: ground corn cob (GCC) replacement for cassava chip (CC) in concentrate at 0% (T1); GCC replacement at 33% (T2); GCC replacement at 67% (T3); and GCC replacement at 100% (T4), respectively. During the experiment, concentrate was offered at 0.5% BW while 5% urea-treated rice straw was given at ad libitum. The result revealed that there was no effect of GCC replacement on DMI among treatments. In addition, digestibilities of DM, OM and CP were not different while aNDF linearly increased with an increasing level of GCC replacement. However, GCC replacement did not affect rumen fermentation such as ruminal pH, $NH_3$-N and VFA concentration; except C3 proportion which was the highest at 33% replacement while the lowest was at 100% replacement. All replacements of GCC resulted in similar protozoal and bacterial populations and microbial protein synthesis (MPS). Purine derivatives (PD) concentration in urine and PD to creatinine (PDC) index were varied with time of urination and among treatments at 0 to 8 and 8 to 16 h post feeding and higher values were shown among the GCC replacement groups. However at 16 to 24 h-post feeding, it was untraceable. In addition, creatinine concentration was similar among all treatments at every sampling time. Based on the above results, GCC can be used as an energy source for swamp buffalo fed with rice straw. Spot sampling of urine can be used for purine derivatives determination.

• Food Science and Biotechnology
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.814-818
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• 2008

Com and rice starches were physically modified by planetary mill. While native starches showed high peak viscosities (1,001 and 563 cp), it decreased largely (42 and 20 cp for rice and com starch, respectively) after 2 hr of physical modification. When two starches were co-ground, peak viscosities decreased more largely than single ground one only in 30 min, indicating the pasting properties could be easily changed by co-grinding. Especially, the higher the amount of com starch, the viscosity decreased more largely, which means that paste stability could be controlled also by changing the ratio of com and rice starch. Mean particle size increased with physical modification time since particles became spread because of shear force. There were also changes in surface morphology after physical modification. Fluid property, such as mean time to avalanche (MTA), was improved (from $6.16{\pm}0.47$ and $8.37{\pm}1.23\;sec$ to $5.47{\pm}0.78$ and $5.26{\pm}1.37\;sec$ for rice and com starch, respectively) by physical modification. Pasting property, such as swelling power, was also improved by physical modification. These mean that native starches can be applied to both conventional powder and new paste-food industry more efficiently by physical modification.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.16 no.9
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• pp.513-518
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• 2018

In this study, Zea mays L., which were discarded after harvesting in Korea, were collected and used for experiment. The Zea mays L. were dried in the shade and ground before being extracted using two solvents. Subsequently, DPPH, ABTS, the total flavonoid content and the total polyphenol content were measured to analyze antioxidant activity. The diameter of clear zone was measured by using the paper disc diffusion method. The results showed that the ethanol extract had a slightly higher antioxidant and antibacterial activity. The total polyphenol content was measured using gallic acid as standard, and CE(ethanol extract) was found to contain $31.2{\pm}5.2mg\;GAE/g$ of polyphenols, indicating a considerably high activity. When DPPH radical scavenging ability was measured, CE was found to have $4.6{\pm}0.9%$, $6.4{\pm}0.5%$, $22.9{\pm}0.6%$ and $83.2{\pm}0.2%$ at different concentrations of $1{\mu}g/mL$, $10{\mu}g/mL$, $100{\mu}g/mL$, and $1,000{\mu}g/mL$, respectively, with a dependent tendency at the concentration of $1,000{\mu}g/mL$ and a considerably high activity at the concentration of $1,000{\mu}g/mL$. This study is expected to be used as preliminary data to develop new natural antioxidant, antibacteria raw materials, as only little research has been undertaken on Zea mays L., which are mostly discarded after harvesting, while many studies have been so far conducted on corn and corn silks.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.214-227
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• 2018

An object oriented crop model was developed to perform crop growth simulation taking into account complex interaction between biotic and abiotic factors in an agricultural ecosystem. A set of classes including Atmosphere class, Plant class, Soil class, and Grower class were designed to represent weather, crop, soil, and crop management, respectively. Objects, which are instance of class, were linked to construct an integrated system for crop growth simulation. In a case study, yield of corn and soybean, which was obtained at an experiment farm in Rural Development Administration from 1984 to 1986, were compared with yield simulated using the integrated system. The integrated system had relatively low error rate of corn yield, e.g., <4%, under sole and intercropping conditions. In contrast, the system had a relatively large underestimation error for above ground biomass except for grain compared with those observed for corn and soybean. For example, estimates of biomass of corn leaf and stem was 31% lower than those of observed values. Although the integrated system consisted of simple models, the system was capable of simulating crop yield under an intercropping condition. This result suggested that an existing process-based model would be used to have more realistic simulation of crop growth once it is reengineered to be compatible to the integration system, which merits further studies for crop model improvement and implementation in object oriented paradigm.