The challenge of providing a more efficient and cost-effective ways of harvesting groundnut amongst the small holder farmers is imperative in northern Nigeria as a result of intensity of labor requirement in the task. It is reported that up to 40 % of the total labor required to grow groundnut is expanded on harvesting operation and at peak harvest periods, labor shortages often occur leading t...

A bioassay arena was developed to test the response of the Japanese beetle, Popillia japonica Newman (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae), to various plant-derived factors that may influence the selection of oviposition sites. In choice experiments with natural and artificial plant cues, females preferred to lay eggs in ryegrass rather than in artificial resources. Artificial grass stems received more eg...

The African mole-rats (Bathyergidae) are a family of rodents highly adapted for life underground. Previous research has shown that chisel-tooth digging mole-rats (which use their incisors to dig burrows) are clearly distinguishable from scratch diggers (which only use the forelimbs to tunnel) on the basis of morphology of the skull, and that the differences are linked to the production of high ...

An artificial burrow was developed which fits into standard laboratory cages and significantly reduces stereotypic digging in gerbils. Also, the causes of bar-chewing were assessed experimentally. Neither the lack of gnawing material, nor the spatial proximity of cage-lid bars and food in the hopper nor the routine husbandry procedure of transferring juvenile gerbils to a fresh cage, but premat...

Three cohorts of rats with extensive hippocampal lesions received multiple tests to examine the relationships between particular forms of associative learning and an influential account of hippocampal function (the cognitive map hypothesis). Hippocampal lesions spared both the ability to discriminate two different digging media and to discriminate two different room locations in a go/no-go task...

In this article, we analyze the application of options contract in the special commodity supply chain such as fresh agricultural products. This problem is discussed from the point of the retailer. When spot market and future market are both available, we discuss how the retailer chooses the optimal production. Furthermore, overconfidence is introduced to the supply chain of the fresh agricultur...

Lamport’s Happened-before relation is fundamental to coordinating actions in asynchronous systems. Its role is less dominant in synchronous systems, in which bounds are available on transmission times over channels. This paper initiates a study of the role that time bounds play in synchronous systems by focusing on two classes of problems: Ordered Response, in which a triggering event must be f...