Coal preparation plant simulators are computer programs used to evaluate the performance of a preparation plant for given feed coal characteristics and the type of process flowsheet selected. However, none of the commercially available plant simulators attempts to maximize the overall plant yield for alternative flowsheets and also select the most suitable circuit configuration based on maximiz...

Accurate high-resolution three-dimensional (3D) models are essential for a non-invasive analysis of phenotypic characteristics of plants. Previous limitations in 3D computer vision algorithms have led to a reliance on volumetric methods or expensive hardware to record plant structure. We present an image-based 3D plant reconstruction system that can be achieved by using a single camera and a ro...

Metabolic engineering of the volatile spectrum offers enormous potential for plant improvement because of the great contribution of volatile secondary metabolites to reproduction, defense and food quality. Recent advances in the identification of the genes and enzymes responsible for the biosynthesis of volatile compounds have made this metabolic engineering highly feasible. Notable successes h...

BACKGROUND There is a heightened interest in plant-based diets for cardiovascular disease prevention. Although plant protein is thought to mediate such prevention through modifying blood lipids, the effect of plant protein in specific substitution for animal protein on blood lipids remains unclear. To assess the effect of this substitution on established lipid targets for cardiovascular risk re...

This paper presents a model-based approach for competitive analysis of manufacturing plants in the U. S. food processing industry. As part of this approach, plant competitiveness is measured using Operational Competitiveness Ratings Analysis (OCRA) -a new non-parametric method of computing relative inefficiency. Drivers of competitiveness are identified in terms of policies related to plant str...

Determining the relative contributions of diff erent ecological factors for herbivore fi tness is one key to understanding the ecology and evolution of host plant choice by herbivores. Natural enemies are increasingly being recognized as an important factor: host plants of inferior quality for development may still be used by herbivores if they provide enemy-free space (EFS). Here we used the t...

Predators not only consume prey but exert nonconsumptive effects in form of scaring, consequently disturbing feeding or reproduction. However, how alternative food sources and hunting mode interactively affect consumptive and nonconsumptive effects with implications for prey fitness have not been addressed, impending functional understanding of such tritrophic interactions. With a herbivorous b...

a field experiment was conducted in order to study the effect of nitrogen fertilizer and plant density on yield and quality of maize (zea mays l.) cultivar, mv500 silage as second crop. this study was conducted in agricultural research station of kurdistan university during 2012 growing season. the experiment was laid out as split plot based on randomized complete block design with three replic...

In North America, it has been shown that cattle in warmer, drier grasslands have lower quality diets than those cattle grazing cooler, wetter grasslands, which suggests warming will increase nutritional stress and reduce weight gain. Yet, little is known about how the plant species that comprise cattle diets change across these gradients and whether these shifts in dietary quality coincide with...