Abstract: The present study has been taken to explore the
screening of in vitro antimicrobial activities of D-galactose-binding
sponge lectin (HOL-30). HOL-30 was purified from the marine
demosponge Halichondria okadai by affinity chromatography. The
molecular mass of the lectin was determined to be 30 kDa with a
single polypeptide by SDS-PAGE under non-reducing and reducing
conditions. HOL-30 agglutinated trypsinized and glutaraldehydefixed
rabbit and human erythrocytes with preference for type O
erythrocytes. The lectin was subjected to evaluation for inhibition of
microbial growth by the disc diffusion method against eleven human
pathogenic gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. The lectin
exhibited strong antibacterial activity against gram-positive bacteria,
such as Bacillus megaterium and Bacillus subtilis. However, it did
not affect against gram-negative bacteria such as Salmonella typhi
and Escherichia coli. The largest zone of inhibition was recorded of
Bacillus megaterium (12 in diameter) and Bacillus subtilis (10 mm in
diameter) at a concentration of the lectin (250 μg/disc). On the other
hand, the antifungal activity of the lectin was investigated against six
phytopathogenic fungi based on food poisoning technique. The lectin
has shown maximum inhibition (22.83%) of mycelial growth of
Botrydiplodia theobromae at a concentration of 100 μg/mL media.
These findings indicate that the lectin may be of importance to
clinical microbiology and have therapeutic applications.
Abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate effects of
modality and redundancy principles on music theory learning among
pupils of different anxiety levels. The lesson of music theory was
developed in three different modes, audio and image (AI), text with
image (TI) and audio with image and text (AIT). The independent
variables were the three modes of courseware. The moderator
variable was the anxiety level, while the dependent variable was the
post test score. The study sample consisted of 405 third-grade pupils.
Descriptive and inferential statistics were conducted to analyze the
collected data. Analyses of covariance (ANCOVA) and Post hoc
were carried out to examine the main effects as well as the
interaction effects of the independent variables on the dependent
variable. The findings of this study showed that medium anxiety
pupils performed significantly better than low and high anxiety
pupils in all the three treatment modes. The AI mode was found to
help pupils with high anxiety significantly more than the TI and AIT
modes.
Abstract: In-vitro mouse co-culture of E14 embryonic stem cells
(ESCs) and OP9 stromal cells can recapitulate the earliest stages of
haematopoietic development, not accessible in human embryos,
supporting both haemogenic precursors and their primitive
haematopoietic progeny. 1α, 25-Dihydroxy-vitamin D3 (VD3) has
been demonstrated to be a powerful differentiation inducer for a wide
variety of neoplastic cells, and could enhance early differentiation of
ESCs into blood cells in E14/OP9 co-culture. This study aims to
ascertain whether VD3 is key in promoting differentiation and
suppressing proliferation, by separately investigating the effects of
VD3 on the proliferation phase of the E14 cell line and on stromal
OP9 cells.The results showed that VD3 inhibited the proliferation of
the cells in a dose-dependent manner, quantitatively by decreased cell
number, and qualitatively by alkaline-phosphatase staining that
revealed significant differences between VD3-treated and untreated
cells, characterised by decreased enzyme expression (colourless
cells). Propidium-iodide cell-cycle analyses showed no significant
percentage change in VD3-treated E14 and OP9 cells within their G
and S-phases, compared to the untreated controls, despite the
increased percentage of G-phase compared to the S-phase in a dosedependent
manner. These results with E14 and OP9 cells indicate that
adequate VD3 concentration enhances cellular differentiation and
inhibits proliferation. The results also suggest that if E14 and OP9
cells were co-cultured andVD3-treated, there would be furtherenhanced
differentiation of ESCs into blood cells.
Abstract: Vapour recompression system has been used to
enhance reduction in energy consumption and improvement in
energy effectiveness of distillation columns. However, the effects of
certain parameters have not been taken into consideration. One of
such parameters is the column heat loss which has either been
assumed to be a certain percent of reboiler heat transfer or negligible.
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the heat loss from an
ethanol-water vapour recompression distillation column with
pressure increase across the compressor (VRCAS) and compare the
results obtained and its effect on some parameters in similar system
(VRCCS) where the column heat loss has been assumed or neglected.
Results show that the heat loss evaluated was higher when compared
with that obtained for the column VRCCS. The results also showed
that increase in heat loss could have significant effect on the total
energy consumption, reboiler heat transfer, the number of trays and
energy effectiveness of the column.
Abstract: There is an ongoing controversy in the literature related
to the biological effects of weak, low frequency electromagnetic
fields. The physical arguments and interpretation of the experimental
evidence are inconsistent, where some physical arguments and
experimental demonstrations tend to reject the likelihood of any
effect of the fields at extremely low level. The problem arises of
explaining, how the low-energy influences of weak magnetic fields
can compete with the thermal and electrical noise of cells at normal
temperature using the theoretical studies. The magnetoreception in
animals involve radical pair mechanism. The same mechanism has
been shown to be involved in the circadian rhythm synchronization in
mammals. These reactions can be influenced by the weak magnetic
fields. Hence, it is postulated the biological clock can be affected
by weak magnetic fields and these disruptions to the rhythm can
cause adverse biological effects. In this paper, likelihood of altering
the biological clock via the radical pair mechanism is analyzed to
simplify these studies of controversy.
Abstract: A new supported liquid membrane (SLM) system for
the selective transport of VO2
+ ions was prepared in this present
work. The SLM was a thin porous polyvinylidene difluoride
(PVDF) membrane soaked with Di-(2-ethylhexyl) phosphoric acid
(D2EHPA) as mobile carrier in Xylene as organic solvent.
D2EHPA acts as a highly selective carrier for the uphill transport of
VO2
+ ions through the SLM. The transport of VO2
+ ions reached to
64%. In the presence of P2O7-2 ion as suitable masking agent in the
feed solution, the interfering effects of other cations were eliminated.
Abstract: Added stresses due to adjacent structure should be
considered in foundation design and stress control in soil under the structure. This case is considered less than other cases in design and
calculation whereas stresses in implementation are greater than analytical stress.
Structure load are transmitted to earth by foundation and role of foundation is propagation of load on the continuous and half extreme
soil. This act cause that, present stresses lessen to allowable strength
of soil. Some researchers such as Boussinesq and westergaurd by
using of some assumption studied on this issue, theorically. Target of
this paper is study and evaluation of added stresses under structure
due to adjacent structure. For this purpose, by using of assumption, theoric relation and numeral methods, effects of adjacent structure
with 4 to 10 storeys on the main structure with 4 storeys are studied
and effect of parameters and sensitivity of them are evaluated.
Abstract: This article presents the results using a parametric approach and a Wavelet Transform in analysing signals emitting from the sperm whale. The extraction of intrinsic characteristics of these unique signals emitted by marine mammals is still at present a difficult exercise for various reasons: firstly, it concerns non-stationary signals, and secondly, these signals are obstructed by interfering background noise. In this article, we compare the advantages and disadvantages of both methods: Auto Regressive models and Wavelet Transform. These approaches serve as an alternative to the commonly used estimators which are based on the Fourier Transform for which the hypotheses necessary for its application are in certain cases, not sufficiently proven. These modern approaches provide effective results particularly for the periodic tracking of the signal's characteristics and notably when the signal-to-noise ratio negatively effects signal tracking. Our objectives are twofold. Our first goal is to identify the animal through its acoustic signature. This includes recognition of the marine mammal species and ultimately of the individual animal (within the species). The second is much more ambitious and directly involves the intervention of cetologists to study the sounds emitted by marine mammals in an effort to characterize their behaviour. We are working on an approach based on the recordings of marine mammal signals and the findings from this data result from the Wavelet Transform. This article will explore the reasons for using this approach. In addition, thanks to the use of new processors, these algorithms once heavy in calculation time can be integrated in a real-time system.
Abstract: For the first time since 1940 and presentation of
theodorson-s theory, distribution of thrust, torque and efficiency
along the blade of a counter rotating propeller axial fan was studied
with a novel method in this research. A constant chord, constant
pitch symmetric fan was investigated with Reynolds Stress
Turbulence method in this project and H.E.S. method was utilized to
obtain distribution profiles from C.F.D. tests outcome. C.F.D. test
results were validated by estimation from Playlic-s analytical method.
Final results proved ability of H.E.S. method to obtain distribution
profiles from C.F.D test results and demonstrated interesting facts
about effects of solidity and differences between distributions in front
and rear section.
Abstract: The aim of the study is to determine the effects of
perceived organizational support on organizational identification. In
accordance with this purpose was applied on 131 family physicians in
Konya. The data obtained by means of the survey method were
analyzed. According to the results of correlation analysis, while
positive relationship between perceived organizational support,
organizational identification and supervisor support was revealed.
Also, with the scope of the research, relationships between these
variables and certain demographic variables were detected.
According to difference analysis results of the research, significant
differences between organizational identification and gender variable
were determined. However, significant differences were not
determined between demographic variables and perceived
organizational support.
Abstract: The research focuses on the effects of polyphenols
extracted from Sambucus nigra fruit, using an experimental arterial
hypertension pattern, as well as their influence on the oxidative
stress. The results reveal the normalization of the reduced glutathion
concentration, as well as a considerable reduction in the
malondialdehide serum concentration by the polyphenolic protection.
The rat blood pressure values were recorded using a CODATM
system, which uses a non-invasive blood pressure measuring method.
All the measured blood pressure components revealed a biostatistically
significant (p
Abstract: In this paper, mesh-free element free Galerkin (EFG) method is extended to solve two-dimensional potential flow problems. Two ideal fluid flow problems (i.e. flow over a rigid cylinder and flow over a sphere) have been formulated using variational approach. Penalty and Lagrange multiplier techniques have been utilized for the enforcement of essential boundary conditions. Four point Gauss quadrature have been used for the integration on two-dimensional domain (Ω) and nodal integration scheme has been used to enforce the essential boundary conditions on the edges (┌). The results obtained by EFG method are compared with those obtained by finite element method. The effects of scaling and penalty parameters on EFG results have also been discussed in detail.
Abstract: In this study, the two dimensional heat conduction
problem for the dry friction clutch disc is modeled mathematically
analysis and is solved numerically using finite element method, to
determine the temperature field when band contacts occurs between
the rubbing surfaces during the operation of an automotive clutch.
Temperature calculation have been made for contact area of different
band width and the results obtained compared with these attained
when complete contact occurs. Furthermore, the effects of slipping
time and sliding velocity function are investigated as well. Both
single and repeated engagements made at regular interval are
considered.
Abstract: ORC (Organic Rankine Cycle) has potential of
reducing consumption of fossil fuels and has many favorable
characteristics to exploit low-temperature heat sources. In this work
thermodynamic performance of ORC with regeneration is
comparatively assessed for various working fluids. Special attention is
paid to the effects of system parameters such as the turbine inlet
pressure on the characteristics of the system such as net work
production, heat input, volumetric flow rate per 1 MW of net work and
quality of the working fluid at turbine exit as well as thermal
efficiency. Results show that for a given source the thermal efficiency
generally increases with increasing of the turbine inlet pressure
however has optimal condition for working fluids of low critical
pressure such as iso-pentane or n-pentane.
Abstract: Various mechanisms providing mutual exclusion and
thread synchronization can be used to support parallel processing
within a single computer. Instead of using locks, semaphores, barriers
or other traditional approaches in this paper we focus on alternative
ways for making better use of modern multithreaded architectures
and preparing hash tables for concurrent accesses. Hash structures
will be used to demonstrate and compare two entirely different
approaches (rule based cooperation and hardware synchronization
support) to an efficient parallel implementation using traditional
locks. Comparison includes implementation details, performance
ranking and scalability issues. We aim at understanding the effects
the parallelization schemes have on the execution environment with
special focus on the memory system and memory access
characteristics.
Abstract: Drought is one of the most important natural disasters which is probable to occur in all regions with completely different climates and in addition to causing death. It results in many economic losses and social consequences. For this reason. Studying the effects and losses caused by drought which include limitation or shortage of agricultural and drinking water resources. Decreased rainfall and increased evapotranspiration. Limited plant growth and decreased agricultural products. Especially those of dry-farming. Lower levels of surface and ground waters and increased immigrations. Etc. in the country is statistical period (1988-2007) for six stations in Roudbar town were used for statistical analysis and calculating humid and dry years. The dependable rainfall index (DRI) was the main method used in this research. Results showed that during the said statistical period and also during the years 1996-1998 and 2007. more than half of the stations had faced drought. With consideration of the conducted studies. Drawing diagrams and comparing the available data with those of dry and humid years it was found that drought affected agricultural products (e.g.olive) in a way that during the year 1996 1996 drought. Olive groves of Roudbar suffered the greatest damages. Whereupon about 70% of the crops were lost.
Abstract: This paper studies the design of a simple constellation
precoding for a multiple-input multiple-output orthogonal frequency
division multiplexing (MIMO-OFDM) system over Rayleigh fading
channels where OFDM is used to keep the diversity replicas orthogonal
and reduce ISI effects. A multi-user environment with K synchronous
co-channel users is considered. The proposed scheme provides
a bandwidth efficient transmission for individual users by increasing
the system throughput. In comparison with the existing coded
MIMO-OFDM schemes, the precoding technique is designed under
the consideration of its low implementation complexity while providing
a comparable error performance to the existing schemes.
Analytic and simulation results have been presented to show the distinguished
error performance.
Abstract: The heterotrophic seedling growth can be defined as a
product of two components: (1) the weight of mobilized seed reserve,
and (2) conversion efficiency of utilized seed reserve to seedling
tissue. The first component can be further divided into (1) initial seed
weight, and (2) the fraction of seed reserve, which is mobilized. The
objective of this study was the identification of the sensitive seedling
growth component(s) in response to drought and salinity stresses.
Two experiments were separately conducted using various salinity
levels (osmotic pressure) of 0, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75, 1, 1.25 and 1.5 MPa
created using NaCl as first experiment and by polyethylene glycol
(drought stress) of 0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1, 1.2 and 1.4 MPa in second
experiment. Seeds of five crops species (Hordeum vulgare, Brassica
napus, Zea mays, Medicago sativa and Medicago scutellata) were
used in each experiment. In both experiments, seedling growth,
fraction of seed reserve utilization and weight of mobilized seed
reserve decreased with increasing drought and salt intensity.
However, drought and salinity stresses had no effect on the
conversion efficiency. It was concluded that the sensitive component
of seedling growth is the weight of mobilized seed reserve.
Abstract: In this study, the sorption of Malachite green (MG) on Hydrilla verticillata biomass, a submerged aquatic plant, was investigated in a batch system. The effects of operating parameters such as temperature, adsorbent dosage, contact time, adsorbent size, and agitation speed on the sorption of Malachite green were analyzed using response surface methodology (RSM). The proposed quadratic model for central composite design (CCD) fitted very well to the experimental data that it could be used to navigate the design space according to ANOVA results. The optimum sorption conditions were determined as temperature - 43.5oC, adsorbent dosage - 0.26g, contact time - 200min, adsorbent size - 0.205mm (65mesh), and agitation speed - 230rpm. The Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models were applied to the equilibrium data. The maximum monolayer coverage capacity of Hydrilla verticillata biomass for MG was found to be 91.97 mg/g at an initial pH 8.0 indicating that the optimum sorption initial pH. The external and intra particle diffusion models were also applied to sorption data of Hydrilla verticillata biomass with MG, and it was found that both the external diffusion as well as intra particle diffusion contributes to the actual sorption process. The pseudo-second order kinetic model described the MG sorption process with a good fitting.
Abstract: The aim of this study was to synthesize the single
walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) and determine their hydrogen
storage capacities. SWCNTs were firstly synthesized by chemical
vapor deposition (CVD) of acetylene (C2H2) on a magnesium oxide
(MgO) powder impregnated with an iron nitrate (Fe(NO3)3·9H2O)
solution. The synthesis parameters were selected as: the synthesis
temperature of 800°C, the iron content in the precursor of 5% and the
synthesis time of 30 min. Purification process of SWCNTs was
fulfilled by microwave digestion at three different temperatures (120,
150 and 200 °C), three different acid concentrations (0.5, 1 and 1.5
M) and for three different time intervals (15, 30 and 60 min). Nitric
acid (HNO3) was used in the removal of the metal catalysts. The
hydrogen storage capacities of the purified materials were measured
using volumetric method at the liquid nitrogen temperature and gas
pressure up to 100 bar. The effects of the purification conditions such
as temperature, time and acid concentration on hydrogen adsorption
were investigated.