Ligneous flora diversity of a submountain forest

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Ligneous flora diversity of a submountain forest of West Cameroon: The Kouoghap sacral forest of the village Batoufam

 

Emmanuel NOUMI

 

Laboratory of plant Biology, Higher Teachers’ Training College of the University of Yaoundé I, P. O. Box 47 Yaoundé, Cameroun. E-mail: noumikap@yahoo.fr .

 

Accepted 21 September, 2011

 

Abstract

Batoufam is a village of the high lands of the West of Cameroon, situated about 20 km to the South of Bafoussam (5°14' to 5°18' N latitude and 10°20' to 10°31' E longitude), inside the Batoufam-Bayangam caldeira of the volcanic massif of Bangou. The sacred forest Kouoghap (SF) is located on the south-eastern side of this caldeira at 1,450 to 1,550 m elevation. It is estimated today at 47 ha. The 2.5 ha sampling (10 plots of 25 x 100 m) includes all the trees of a diameter at breast height (DBH) of 10 cm or more. 3,173 trees and lianas belonging to 95 species and 31 families, with a total basal area of 90.37 m²/ha, were recorded. Most of the trees were between 10 to 20 m high, with a diameter of 10 to 20 cm. Some of them reach 25 to 30 m in height and 120 cm in diameter. The 6 most important families in terms of diversity, density and dominance are Meliaceae, Leguminosae, Moraceae, Sapotaceae, Rubiaceae and Bignoniaceae. Together they account for 57.31% of the total family importance values (FIV). In this forest, a few of the common species dominate: 11.57% of all species account for 52.34% of the total importance value index (IVI). Only 9.4% of species are represented by one individual. The species with higher IVI are: Syncepalum cerasiferum, Tricalysia macrophylla, Trilepisium madagascariense, Markhamia tomentosa, Funtumia africana, Vitex grandifolia, Lovoa trichilioides, Polyscias fulva, Dracaena arborea, Trichilia rubescens and Carapa grandiflora. The forest appears typical of Guinean lowland rainforest in general on one hand, and the altitude forests on the other hand. In this last option, it is worth noting that 4.2% of species are orophytes that occur widely in the austral and pantropical area, and 1.05% in the austral and subantartic area. These results permit SF Kouoghap to be placed in the archipelago Afro-Cameroonian highlander, according to the phytogeographic classification of White. The specific richness of the studied forest is lower than those of the equatorial rainforests.

 

Key words: Plant diversity, submountain forest, Batoufam, Highlands, West Cameroon.

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Development tasks supporting scale for fathers

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Development tasks supporting scale for fathers

Perihan Ünüvar¹* and Hülya Şahin²

 

¹Department of Preschool Education, Faculty of Education, Mehmet Akif Ersoy University, Turkey.

²Department of Counseling and Guidance, Faculty of Education, Mehmet Akif Ersoy University, Turkey.

 

*Corresponding author. E-mail: perihanunuvar@mehmetakif.edu.tr , perihanunuvar@mynet.com  Tel: +9.0505.832.30.87.

 

Accepted 2 July, 2011

Abstract

In present study, “development tasks supporting scale” (DTSS) for fathers has been developed. Study group consists of 205 fathers with children between ages 3-6 attending pre-school education institutions. Validity and reliability tests have been conducted on the 36-item trial form of the scale. For the validity test, expert views, explanatory and confirmatory factor analysis, bottom and top 27% group discrimination and item total correlation coefficients have been calculated. At the end of explanatory factor analysis, a structure with 17 items and five dimensions has been obtained. Five dimensions explain 64.46% of the total variance. As a result of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), it has been determined that compatibility statistics of scale are [RMSEA (0.03), RMR (0.07) and SRMR (0.05), GFI (0.93), AGFI (0.89), NNFI (0.98), CFI (0.98)] near perfection. Cronbach alpha value of the reliability of scale has been calculated as 0.84 and re-tests reliability as 0.86.

 

Key words: Fatherhood, development task, children, scale, 3-6 ages.

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The effect of waste polypropylene fibre inclusion

Download the Journal *pdf  The effect of waste polypropylene fibre inclusion on the mechanical behaviour of sand generated from the aggregate industry   Choura .M 1,2*, Khelif .N 2, Mnif .T 2 and Menaa .L3   1National School of Engineers (ENIS), University of Sfax, Tunisia. 2Research Unit, Environmental Geotechniques and Civil Materials, ENIS, Sfax, Tunisia. 3University of Medea, Algeria.   *Corresponding author. E-mail: chouramed@gmail.com.   Accepted 8 November, 2011

Abstract

During the last decades, the rising demand for land reclamation and the utilization of soft or unstable soils led to a great advance in the ground amelioration techniques as a major part of civil engineering around the world. Within this framework, this paper presents the results of an experimental program based mainly on direct shear tests on sand generated from aggregate industry, with and without waste polypropylene (PP) fibre reinforcement, in order to assess the effect of randomly distributed PP fibre on the stress displacement behaviour and shearing strength of this type of sand. The effects of the variation of PP fibre content (limited to 1.5% of the weight of sand) and length (0.5, 1 and 1.5 cm) are investigated. The obtained test results indicate that PP fibre reinforcement increases the maximum shear constraint and changes the sands brittle mechanical behaviour into a more ductile one. These results pave the way to an effective valorisation of such a traditionally useless kind of sand.   Key words: Polypropylene fibres, fibre-reinforced sand, shearing strength, mechanical behaviour.

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Mathematical modeling on tomato plants: A review

Download *pdf C. A. Medina-Ruíz, I. A. Mercado-Luna, G. M. Soto-Zarazúa and I. Torres-Pacheco and E. Rico-García*   Department of Biosystems, School of Engineering, Queretaro State University, C.U. Cerro de las Campanas, Querétaro, México. *Corresponding author. E-mail: ricog@uaq.mx  or garciarico@yahoo.com.mx.  Tel: (52) (442) 1921200 ext. 6016. Fax: (52) (442) 1921200. Ext: 6015. Accepted 31October, 2011

Abstract

Mathematical models allow for predictions of behavior under specific handling and environmental conditions, and are particularly useful in expensive studies or in studies where long term effects may be difficult to monitor. In mathematical modeling there are two main types of models: descriptive models and mechanistic models; the first are relationships between response and predictor which are not ruled by biological processes; the latter takes into account the basic processes in plants by means of differential equations to account for the development of plants. This requires a deeper knowledge of the physiological development of plants. This work reviews mathematical modeling on tomato plant. The TOMGRO model is modular and has been widely studied and calibrated under several climatic conditions which demonstrates that it is a robust model. As a future research the TOMGRO model is proposed to be adapted to other crops.   Key words: Differential equations, descriptive models, mechanistic models.

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Journal: Nutrient Composition

Bello A. G.* and I. Abdu

Department of Forestry and Fisheries, Usmanu Danfodiyo University (UDU), Sokoto, Sokoto State, Nigeria.


Accepted 1 November, 2011

This study was conducted at Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, Nigeria to determine the nutrient composition of four tree seeds. The tree species served as treatments and were replicated four times in a completely randomized design. The seeds of the four tree species randomly selected were analysed for the nutrient and mineral elements. The results showed that; highest moisture and fat contents of 13.75 and 17.125% were recorded in Parkia biglobosa seed and the lowest of 6.5 and 2.125% in Acacia nilotica seed. The highest ash content of 4.5% was recorded in A. nilotica seed and the lowest (2.375%) in Balanites aegyptiaca seed. The highest crude fiber content was recorded in P. biglobosa seed (1.375%) and the lowest (0.75%) in Ziziphus spina-christi seed. 17.66% was the highest crude protein in P. biglobosa seed and the lowest (0.73%) in B. aegyptiaca seed. High content of nitrogen free extract (NFE) was recorded in A. nilotica seed with 91.154% and the lowest in P. biglobosa seed with 60.458%. High sodium content was recorded in A. nilotica seed with 87.25 ppm and the lowest in Z. spina christi seed with 51.8 ppm. The highest magnesium, potassium and phosphorous contents of 2.175, 712.5 and 6.5 ppm were recorded in p. biglobosa seed. The highest calcium content (2.075 ppm) was found in A. nilotica seed. Further research with different species of tree seeds (of good quality or from plus trees) should be carried out for enhancing long term values of the trees.


Key words: Forest trees, artificial regeneration, nutrient composition, proximate analysis. 

Sources: Complete Journal

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