OBJECTIVE Leucaena leucocephala (Leucaena) is a perennial tropical legume that can be directly grazed or harvested and offered to ruminants as hay, silage, or fresh. However, Leucaena contain phenolic compounds, which are considered anti-nutritional factors as these may reduce intake, digestibility and thus animal performance. Therefore, the objective of this experiment was to determine effects...

Liquid water can become metastable with respect to its vapor in hydrophobic confinement. The resulting dewetting transitions are often impeded by large kinetic barriers. According to macroscopic theory, such barriers arise from the free energy required to nucleate a critical vapor tube that spans the region between two hydrophobic surfaces--tubes with smaller radii collapse, whereas larger ones...

Surfaces may be rendered superhydrophobic by engineering the surface morphology to control the extent of the liquid-air interface and by the use of low-surface-energy coatings. The droplet state on a superhydrophobic surface under static and dynamic conditions may be explained in terms of the relative magnitudes of the wetting and antiwetting pressures acting at the liquid-air interface on the ...

The Cassie-Baxter model is widely used to predict the apparent contact angles obtained on composite (solid-liquid-air) superhydrophobic interfaces. However, the validity of this model has been repeatedly challenged by various research groups because of its inherent inability to predict contact angle hysteresis. In our recent work, we have developed robust omniphobic surfaces which repel a wide ...

A brief description of how superhydrophobicity can help mitigate the ice accretion problem on power network equipment and other exposed structures by reducing ice-tosurface adhesion is presented. Basic models, namely the Wenzel and Cassie–Baxter models, accounting for the contact angle of water on solid surfaces relating to the influence of surface roughness on hydrophobicity are discussed. The...

Electrowetting (EW) has recently been demonstrated as a powerful tool for controlling droplet morphology on smooth and artificially structured surfaces. The present work involves a systematic experimental investigation of the influence of electrowetting in determining and altering the state of a static droplet resting on an artificially microstructured surface. Extensive experimentation is carr...

Capillary pressure/saturation data are often difficult and time consuming to measure, particularly for non-water-wetting porous media. Few capillary pressure/saturation predictive models, however, have been developed or verified for the range of wettability conditions that may be encountered in the natural subsurface. This work presents a new two-phase capillary pressure/saturation model for ap...

A study was conducted to evaluate the effect of supplementing different levels of Leucaena leucocephala leaves on reproductive capacity and growth of male highland sheep (Arsi type) in Debre Zeit Research Centre. Animals were randomly allotted to one of five experimental rations. In treatment 1 (NS) animals were allowed to feed only on chickpea haulm. Treatments 2 (L100), 3 (L200) and 4 (L300) ...

Chitinase cDNAs from Leucaena leucocephala seedlings were cloned by PCR amplification with degenerate primers based on conserved class I chitinase sequences and cDNA library screening. Two closely related chitinase cDNAs were sequenced and inferred to encode precursor proteins of 323 (KB1) and 326 (KB2) amino acids. Expression of the KB2 chitinase from a pET32a plasmid in Origami (DE3) Escheric...

Chitinase cDNAs from Leucaena leucocephala seed]ings were cloned by PCR amplification with degenerate primers based on conseryed class I chitinase sequences and cDNA library screening. Two closely related chitinase cDNAs were sequenced and inferred to encode precursor proteins of 323 (KBI) and 326 (KB2) amino acids. Expression of the KB2 chitinase from a pET32a plasmid in Origami (DE3) Escheric...