Food losses caused by insects during postharvest storage are of paramount economic importance worldwide, especially in Africa. Laboratory bioassays were conducted in stored grains to determine the toxicity of powders of Eugenia aromatica and Moringa oleifera alone or combined with enhanced diatomaceous earth (Probe-A® DE, 89.0% SiO2 and 5% silica aerogel) to adult Sitophilus granarius, Tribolium castaneum and Acanthoscelides obtectus. Adult mortality was observed up to 7 days, while progeny production was recorded at 6–10 weeks. LD50 and LT50 values for adult test insects exposed to plant powders and DE, showed that A. obtectus was the most susceptible towards the botanicals (LD50 0.179% and 0.088% wt/wt for E. aromatica and M. oleifera, respectively), followed by S. granarius. Tribolium castaneum was most tolerant (LD50 1.42% wt/wt and 1.40% wt/wt for E. aromatica and M. oleifera, respectively). The combined mixture of plant powders and DE controlled the beetles faster compared to the plant powders alone. LT50 ranged from 55.7 h to 62.5 h for T. castaneum exposed to 1.0% M. oleifera and 1.0% DE, and 0.5% E. aromatica and 1.0% DE, respectively. Botanicals caused significant reduction of F1 adults compared to the control. Combined action of botanical insecticides with DE as a grain protectant in an integrated pest management approach is discussed.

One of David S. Nivison's (1923–2014) most important contributions is his work in bridging philological studies and philosophical inquiry. His methodological approach resonates in spirit with an approach to the study of Chinese thought advocated by Confucian thinkers such as Zhu Xi and Tang Junyi, who both emphasize jing toward early thinkers. He pays careful attention to textual details, is respectful of cultural context, and seeks to preserve the distinctive features of Chinese traditions of thought and avoid imposing on them western philosophical conceptions. In doing so, he exemplifies the spirit of jing, a serious and cautious attitude dedicated to a proper understanding of early thinkers in their cultural context.

In this paper, an optimized hyper beamforming method is presented based on a hyper beam exponent parameter for receiving linear antenna arrays using a new meta-heuristic search method based on the Firefly algorithm (FFA). A hyper beam is derived from the sum and difference beam patterns of the array, each raised to the power of a hyper beam exponent parameter. As compared to the conventional hyper beamforming of the linear antenna array, FFA applied to the hyper beam of the same array can achieve much more reduction in sidelobe level (SLL) and improved first null beam width (FNBW), keeping the same value of the hyper beam exponent. As compared to the uniformly excited linear antenna array with inter-element spacing of λ/2, conventional non-optimized hyper beamforming and optimal hyper beamforming of the same obtained by real-coded genetic algorithm, particle swarm optimization and Differential evolution, FFA applied to the hyper beam of the same array can achieve much greater reduction in SLL and same or less FNBW, keeping the same value of the hyper beam exponent parameter. The whole experiment has been performed for 10-, 14-, and 20-element linear antenna arrays.