Articles

Correlation Analysis of Morphometric Traits and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) for Selection of Female Bali Cattle in East Kalimantan

Bali cattle is one of Indonesia’s native germplasm sources for meat supply. This study aimed to characterize basic morphometric traits, analyze the relationships among morphometric traits, and identify potential regions as superior breeding stock for female Bali cattle. The research was conducted from December 2024 to March 2025 across six regions in East Kalimantan Province, involving a total of 251 female Bali cattle aged 12 and 24 months. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, ANOVA, Duncan’s test, Pearson correlation, and Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Correlation analysis indicated strong to very strong relationships among body measurements and morphometric indices. A high correlation was found between Chest Girth (CG) and Chest Index (CI) (r = 0.86) as well as Body Length (BL) (r = 0.74). Body Length (BL) showed a strong correlation with Length Index (LI) (r = 0.82) and with Proportion Index (PI) (r = 0.50). PCA analysis revealed two principal components for 12-month-old cattle: PC1 (BL; CG; LI) at 53.6% and PC2 (PI; LI) at 28.5%. The principal components at 24 months showed PC1 (CG; BL; CI]) at 50.5% and PC2 (PI; LI) at 32.2%. The PCA analysis explained more than 82% of the variation, with chest girth (CG) and body length (BL) consistently emerging as dominant variables. All cattle met the Indonesian National Standard (SNI) criteria for female Bali cattle breeding stock.

Water Quality and Microbial analysis of water collected from the ponds nearby a Cement Plant through WQI and PCA

The present paper aims to analyze the water quality from the samples collected from the periphery of one of the cement plants located in Bhilai. Three different samples were collected in the summer season, covering the area around the cement plant considered. The samples were characterized by means of physicochemical parameters such as pH, TDS (mg/L), Turbidity (NTU), Total alkalinity (mg/L), Chloride (mg/L), Total hardness (mg/L), Fluoride (mg/L), and Nitrate (mg/L).  The Water Quality Index (WQI) for the 03 samples collected was done and was found to be 166.264, 22.207, and 46.997, respectively. The dependency of WQI on various physicochemical parameters, along with the interdependency between the individual parameters, was analyzed using the loading plot obtained using Principal Component Analysis (PCA). It could be noticed that pH and fluoride contribute more to WQI in comparison to the other parameters included in this study. Z-score variance was also plotted to analyze the comparative stretching of the values of various individual parameters recorded. In addition, microbiological analysis was conducted using serial dilution, culturing, Gram staining, and biochemical testing. The presence of Bacillus spp, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella spp, Micrococcus spp, Pseudomonas spp., and Staphylococcus aureus was detected, indicating microbial contamination and possible health risks.