In insects, the search for food is highly dependent on olfactory sensory input. Here, we investigated whether a single key odorant within an odor blend or the complexity of the odor blend influences the attraction of Drosophila melanogaster to a food source. A key odorant is defined as an odorant that elicits a difference in the behavioral response when two similar complex odor blends are offer...

A synthetic blend of chemicals comprising volatiles released by the human body has been shown to be an effective attractant for female Aedes aegypti in olfactometer bioassays with laboratory-reared mosquitoes. We report the laboratory evaluation of Ae. aegypti response to a synthetic blend tested with 4 types of mosquito traps (CDC model 512, CDC model 1012, CFG, and Fay–Prince traps). Aedes ae...

1 Mechanical Engineering Department Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Edo State, Nigeria. 2 Mechanical Engineering Department Delta State Polytechnic, Ogwashi-Uku, Delta State, Nigeria. Corresponding Author: O. Obodeh __________________________________________________________________________________________ Abstract The techno-economic effects of diesel-kerosene blends on the operation of a dire...

A study was carried out to compare the composition and thermal properties of lard (LD) and engkabang fat (EF) - canola oil (CaO) blend interesterified with Candida antartica lipase (C. antartica). A fat blend EF-4 (40% EF in CaO) was prepared and interesterified using C. antartica lipase at 60°C for different time intervals (6 h, 12 h and 24 h) with 200 rpm agitation. The fat blends before and ...

Combinatorial methods have been developed to study the phase behavior of biodegradable polyanhydrides for drug delivery applications. The polyanhydrides of interest are poly[1,6-bis(p-carboxyphenoxy) hexane] (CPH) and poly[sebacic anhydride] (SA). Both continuous and discrete polymer blend libraries were fabricated by using a combination of solution-based gradient deposition and rapid prototypi...

The charge photogeneration and early recombination in MEH-PPV-based charge-transfer complexes (CTCs) and in MEH-PPV/PCBM blend as a reference are studied by ultrafast visible-pump-IR-probe spectroscopy. After excitation of the CTC band, an immediate (<100 fs) electron transfer is observed from the polymer chain to the acceptor with the same yield as in the MEH-PPV/PCBM blend. The forward charge...

We assessed the change in milk production in 35 dairy herds located in eight states when a blended animal-marine protein product was included in diets at 2 (22 herds) to 4% (13 herds) of dry matter. Average 305-d production across herds was 8844.1 kg (SEM = 153.7 kg) of milk, with a range of 6876.9 to 11,293.2 kg. The mean days in milk for all herds at initiation of the trial was 118.8 d (SEM =...

Films of a biodegradable PLA/PBSA blend and blend-composites containing 2wt% of C20A, C30B and MEE were prepared by solvent casting and spin coating. The films were incubated in vials containing Tris-HCl buffer with Proteinase K, and their weight losses were measured after enzymatic degradation. The surface morphology before and after degradation tests was studied by SEM and in situ AFM. The re...

The charge trapping properties of the blend of polystyrene (PS) and a sterically hindered organic semiconductor SFDBAO (spiro[fluorene-9,7-dibenzo[c,h]acridin-5-one]) are investigated by electrostatic and Kelvin probe force microscopy (EFM and KPFM). EFM signals of trapped charge spots injected with controllable tip biases, which are recorded with different dissipation times t, the percent of S...

In order to overcome the drawbacks of silk fibroin (SF)-based materials, SF has been blended with some polymers. Before using the blend material, understanding of the structures and phase behaviors of the blend is thought to be essential. In this study, solid-state (13)C CP-MAS NMR and Raman imaging techniques were used to study the structures and phase behaviors of blends of SF with polyethyle...