Direct burning is the most familiar way of producing energy from wood. Forest products industries are the main users of wood as fuel on a large scale, because they have much woody debris left over from milling and harvesting. The basic strategy is to reduce leftover wood to walnut-size or smaller particles. This size reduction is usually done by a "hog." Large pieces enter the top of the hog an...

Field experiments were conducted to determine the effects of organic andinorganic amendments on weed suppression in sweet maize cultivation (Zea maysL.). A randomized complete block design was employed with four replicates pertreatment with each organic amendment used at half (x/2), single (x=10 t ha-1) anddouble (2x) rates (organic fertilization: cow manure, poultry manure and barleymulch; syn...

plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (pgpr) has been identified as an alternative to chemical fertilizer to increase soil fertility and crop production in sustainable agriculture. the objective of this study was to investigate the effects of single and co-inoculation of azospirillum and pseudomonas strains on plant growth and nutrient uptake of maize as a factorial experiment. treatments includ...

Given the successful application of spectroscopic methods in the field of coffee analysis as fast and reliable routine techniques, the objective of this work was to evaluate the feasibility of employing Diffuse Reflectance Infrared Fourier Transform Spectroscopy (DRIFTS) for discrimination between roasted coffees that presented distinct sensory characteristics and were submitted to a range of r...

The aim of the present study was to examine whether increasing molybdenum (Mo) concentration affects the growth and Mo concentration of maize (Zea mays L. cv Norma SC) and sunflower (Helianthus annuus L. cv Arena PR) seedlings within laboratory conditions. In this experiment, calcareous chernozem soil was used and Mo was supplemented into the soil as ammonium molybdate [(NH4)6Mo7O24.4H2O] in fo...

Subsoiling is an important management practice for improving maize yield, especially for maize planted at high plant density. However, the affected physiological processes have yet to be specifically identified. In this study, field experiments with two soil tillage (CK: no-tillage, SS: subsoiling) and three planting densities (low: 45000 plants ha-1, medium: 67500plants ha-1, and high: 90000 p...

Soils and decayed plant litter contain significant quantities of chlorinated aromatic polymers that have a natural but largely unknown origin. We used cupric oxide ligninolysis coupled with gas chromatography/mass spectrometry to show that Curvularia inaequalis, a widely distributed litter ascomycete, chlorinated the aromatic rings of lignin in wood that it was degrading. In aspen wood decayed ...

The market for decaffeinated coffees has been increasingly expanding over the years. Caffeine extraction may result in losses of other compounds such as chlorogenic acids (CGA) and, consequently, their 1,5-gamma-quinolactones (CGL) in roasted coffee. These phenolic compounds are important for flavor formation as well as the health effects of coffee; therefore, losses due to decaffeination need ...