Abstract: Determination of genetic variation is useful for plant
breeding and hence production of more efficient plant species under
different conditions, like drought stress. In this study a sample of 28
recombinant inbred lines (RILs) of wheat developed from the cross of
Norstar and Zagross varieties, together with their parents, were
evaluated for two years (2010-2012) under normal and water stress
conditions using split plot design with three replications. Main plots
included two irrigation treatments of 70 and 140 mm evaporation
from Class A pan and sub-plots consisted of 30 genotypes. The effect
of genotypes and interaction of genotypes with years and water
regimes were significant for all characters. Significant genotypic
effect implies the existence of genetic variation among the lines
under study. Heritability estimates were high for 1000 grain weight
(0.87). Biomass and grain yield showed the lowest heritability values
(0.42 and 0.50, respectively). Highest genotypic and phenotypic
coefficients of variation (GCV and PCV) belonged to harvest index.
Moderate genetic advance for most of the traits suggested the
feasibility of selection among the RILs under investigation. Some
RILs were higher yielding than either parent at both environments.
Abstract: The possibility of application the dietary fibers in
production of crackers was observed in this work, as well as their
influence on rheological and textural properties on the dough for
crackers and influence on sensory properties of obtained crackers.
Three different dietary fibers, oat, potato and pea fibers, replaced
10% of wheat flour. Long fermentation process and baking test
method were used for crackers production. The changes of dough for
crackers were observed by rheological methods of determination the
viscoelastic dough properties and by textural measurements. Sensory
quality of obtained crackers was described using quantity descriptive
method (QDA) by trained members of descriptive panel. Additional
analysis of crackers surface was performed by videometer. Based on
rheological determination, viscoelastic properties of dough for
crackers were reduced by application of dietary fibers. Manipulation
of dough with 10% of potato fiber was disabled, thus the recipe
modification included increase in water content at 35%. Dough
compliance to constant stress for samples with dietary fibers
decreased, due to more rigid and stiffer dough consistency compared
to control sample. Also, hardness of dough for these samples
increased and dough extensibility decreased. Sensory properties of
final products, crackers, were reduced compared to control sample.
Application of dietary fibers affected mostly hardness, structure and
crispness of the crackers. Observed crackers were low marked for
flavor and taste, due to influence of fibers specific aroma. The sample
with 10% of potato fibers and increased water content was the most
adaptable to applied stresses and to production process. Also this
sample was close to control sample without dietary fibers by
evaluation of sensory properties and by results of videometer method.
Abstract: This research presents the main ideas to implement an
intelligent system composed by communicating wireless sensors
measuring environmental data linked to drought indicators (such as
air temperature, soil moisture , etc...). On the other hand, the setting
up of a spatio temporal database communicating with a Web mapping
application for a monitoring in real time in activity 24:00 /day, 7
days/week is proposed to allow the screening of the drought
parameters time evolution and their extraction. Thus this system
helps detecting surfaces touched by the phenomenon of drought.
Spatio-temporal conceptual models seek to answer the users who
need to manage soil water content for irrigating or fertilizing or other
activities pursuing crop yield augmentation. Effectively, spatiotemporal
conceptual models enable users to obtain a diagram of
readable and easy data to apprehend. Based on socio-economic
information, it helps identifying people impacted by the phenomena
with the corresponding severity especially that this information is
accessible by farmers and stakeholders themselves. The study will be
applied in Siliana watershed Northern Tunisia.
Abstract: This report presents an alternative technique of
application of contrast agent in vivo, i.e. before sampling. By this
new method the electron micrograph of tissue sections have an
acceptable contrast compared to other methods and present no artifact
of precipitation on sections. Another advantage is that a small amount
of contrast is needed to get a good result given that most of them are
expensive and extremely toxic.
Abstract: Localization of nodes is one of the key issues of
Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) that gained a wide attention in
recent years. The existing localization techniques can be generally
categorized into two types: range-based and range-free. Compared
with rang-based schemes, the range-free schemes are more costeffective,
because no additional ranging devices are needed. As a
result, we focus our research on the range-free schemes. In this paper
we study three types of range-free location algorithms to compare the
localization error and energy consumption of each one. Centroid
algorithm requires a normal node has at least three neighbor anchors,
while DV-hop algorithm doesn’t have this requirement. The third
studied algorithm is the amorphous algorithm similar to DV-Hop
algorithm, and the idea is to calculate the hop distance between two
nodes instead of the linear distance between them. The simulation
results show that the localization accuracy of the amorphous
algorithm is higher than that of other algorithms and the energy
consumption does not increase too much.
Abstract: Effects of nicotine on pre-partum body weight and
preimplantation embryonic development has been reported
previously. Present study was conducted to determine the effects of
annatto (Bixa orellana)-derived delta-tocotrienol (TCT) (with
presence of 10% gamma-TCT isomer) on the nicotine-induced
reduction in body weight and 8-cell embryonic growth in mice.
Twenty-four 6-8 weeks old (23-25g) female balb/c mice were
randomly divided into four groups (G1-G4; n=6). Those groups were
subjected to the following treatments for 7 consecutive days: G1
(control) were gavaged with 0.1 ml tocopherol stripped corn oil. G2
was subcutaneously (s.c.) injected with 3 mg/kg/day of nicotine. G3
received concurrent treatment of nicotine (3 mg/kg/day) and 60
mg/kg/day of δ-TCT mixture (contains 90% delta & 10% gamma
isomers) and G4 was given 60 mg/kg/day of δ-TCT mixture alone.
Body weights were recorded daily during the treatment. On Day 8,
females were superovulated with 5 IU Pregnant Mare’s Serum
Gonadotropin (PMSG) for 48 hours followed with 5 IU human
Chorionic Gonadotropin (hCG) before mated with males at the ratio
of 1:1. Females were sacrificed by cervical dislocation for embryo
collection 48 hours post-coitum. Collected embryos were cultured in
vitro. Results showed that throughout Day 1 to Day 7, the body
weight of nicotine treated group (G2) was significantly lower
(p
Abstract: A compact Ultra Wide Band (UWB) antenna with coplanar
waveguide feed has been designed and results are verified in
this paper. The antenna has been designed on FR4 substrate with
dielectric constant (εr) of 4.4 and dimensions of 32mm x 26mm x
0.8mm. The presented antenna shows return loss characteristics in the
band of 3.1 to 10.6 GHz as prescribed by FCC, USA. Parametric
studies have been done and results thus obtained have been
presented. Simulated results have been verified on Rohde & Swartz
VNA. The measured results are in good agreement with simulated
results which make the presented antenna suitable to be used for
wearable applications. Performance analysis of antenna has also been
shown in the presence of three layered Human Arm model. Results
obtained in presence of Human Arm model has been compared with
that in free space.
Abstract: Because current wireless communication requires high
reliability in a limited bandwidth environment, this paper proposes
the variable modulation scheme based on the codebook. The variable
modulation scheme adjusts transmission power using the codebook in
accordance with channel state. Also, if the codebook is composed of
many bits, the reliability is more improved by the proposed scheme.
The simulation results show that the performance of proposed scheme
has better reliability than the the performance of conventional scheme.
Abstract: The recent interest in alternative and renewable
energy systems results in increased installed capacity ratio of such
systems in total energy production of the world. Specifically, Wind
Energy Conversion Systems (WECS) draw significant attention
among possible alternative energy options, recently. On the contrary
of the positive points of penetrating WECS in all over the world in
terms of environment protection, energy independence of the
countries, etc., there are significant problems to be solved for the grid
connection of large scale WECS. The reactive power regulation,
voltage variation suppression, etc. can be presented as major issues to
be considered in this regard. Thus, this paper evaluates the
application of a Static VAr Compensator (SVC) unit for the reactive
power regulation and operation continuity of WECS during a fault
condition. The system is modeled employing the IEEE 13 node test
system. Thus, it is possible to evaluate the system performance with
an overall grid simulation model close to real grid systems. The
overall simulation model is developed in
MATLAB/Simulink/SimPowerSystems® environments and the
obtained results effectively match the target of the provided study.
Abstract: In order to help the expert to validate association rules
extracted from data, some quality measures are proposed in the
literature. We distinguish two categories: objective and subjective
measures. The first one depends on a fixed threshold and on data
quality from which the rules are extracted. The second one consists
on providing to the expert some tools in the objective to explore and
visualize rules during the evaluation step. However, the number of
extracted rules to validate remains high. Thus, the manually mining
rules task is very hard. To solve this problem, we propose, in this
paper, a semi-automatic method to assist the expert during the
association rule's validation. Our method uses rule-based
classification as follow: (i) We transform association rules into
classification rules (classifiers), (ii) We use the generated classifiers
for data classification. (iii) We visualize association rules with their
quality classification to give an idea to the expert and to assist him
during validation process.
Abstract: Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) enable new
applications and need non-conventional paradigms for the protocol
because of energy and bandwidth constraints, In WSN, sensor node’s
life is a critical parameter. Research on life extension is based on
Low-Energy Adaptive Clustering Hierarchy (LEACH) scheme,
which rotates Cluster Head (CH) among sensor nodes to distribute
energy consumption over all network nodes. CH selection in WSN
affects network energy efficiency greatly. This study proposes an
improved CH selection for efficient data aggregation in sensor
networks. This new algorithm is based on Bacterial Foraging
Optimization (BFO) incorporated in LEACH.
Abstract: The microstrip antennas area has seen some inventive
work in recent years and is now one of the most dynamic fields of
antenna theory. A novel and simple wideband monopole antenna is
presented printed on a single dielectric substrate which is fed by a 50
ohm microstrip line having a low-profile antenna structure with two
parallel s-shaped meandered line of same size. This antenna is fed by
a coaxial feeding tube. In this research, S–form microstrip patch antenna is designed from
measuring the prototypes of the proposed antenna one available
bands with 10db return loss bandwidths of about GPS application
(GPS L2 1490 MHz) and covering the 1400 to 1580 MHz frequency
band at 1.5 GHz, the simulated results for main parameters such as
return loss, impedance bandwidth, radiation patterns, and gains are
also discussed herein. The modeling study shows that such antennas,
in simplicity design and supply, can satisfy GPS application. Two
parallel slots are incorporated to disturb the surface flow path,
introducing local inductive effect. This antenna is fed by a coaxial
feeding tube.
Abstract: In this communication, a low-cost circularly
polarized wire antenna exhibiting improved gain performance for
Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC), vehicle-to-vehicle
(V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communications is
presented. The proposed antenna comprises a Y-shaped quarterwavelength
monopole antenna surrounded by two iterations of eight
conductive arched walls acting as parasitic elements to enhance the
overall antenna gain and to shape the radiation pattern in the H-plane.
A hemispherical radome shell is added to protect the antenna
structure and its effect on the antenna performance is discussed. The
designed antenna demonstrates antenna gain of 8.2 dB with
omnidirectional far-field radiation pattern in the H-plane. The gain of
the proposed antenna is also compared with the characteristic of the
stand-alone Y-shaped monopole to highlight the advantages of the
proposed approach.
Abstract: This study analyzes the critical gaps in the
architecture of European stability and the expected role of the
banking union as the new important step towards completing the
Economic and Monetary Union that should enable the creation of
safe and sound financial sector for the euro area market. The single
rulebook together with the Single Supervisory Mechanism and the
Single Resolution Mechanism - as two main pillars of the banking
union, should provide a consistent application of common rules and
administrative standards for supervision, recovery and resolution of
banks – with the final aim of replacing the former bail-out practice
with the bail-in system through which possible future bank failures
would be resolved by their own funds, i.e. with minimal costs for
taxpayers and real economy. In this way, the vicious circle between
banks and sovereigns would be broken. It would also reduce the
financial fragmentation recorded in the years of crisis as the result of
divergent behaviors in risk premium, lending activities and interest
rates between the core and the periphery. In addition, it should
strengthen the effectiveness of monetary transmission channels, in
particular the credit channels and overflows of liquidity on the money
market which, due to the fragmentation of the common financial
market, has been significantly disabled in period of crisis. However,
contrary to all the positive expectations related to the future
functioning of the banking union, major findings of this study
indicate that characteristics of the economic system in which the
banking union will operate should not be ignored. The euro area is an
integration of strong and weak entities with large differences in
economic development, wealth, assets of banking systems, growth
rates and accountability of fiscal policy. The analysis indicates that
low and unbalanced economic growth remains a challenge for the
maintenance of financial stability and this problem cannot be
resolved just by a single supervision. In many countries bank assets
exceed their GDP by several times and large banks are still a matter
of concern, because of their systemic importance for individual
countries and the euro zone as a whole. The creation of the Single
Supervisory Mechanism and the Single Resolution Mechanism is a
response to the European crisis, which has particularly affected
peripheral countries and caused the associated loop between the
banking crisis and the sovereign debt crisis, but has also influenced
banks’ balance sheets in the core countries, as the result of crossborder
capital flows. The creation of the SSM and the SRM should
prevent the similar episodes to happen again and should also provide
a new opportunity for strengthening of economic and financial
systems of the peripheral countries. On the other hand, there is a
potential threat that future focus of the ECB, resolution mechanism
and other relevant institutions will be extremely oriented towards
large and significant banks (whereby one half of them operate in the
core and most important euro area countries), and therefore it remains
questionable to what extent will the common resolution funds will be used for rescue of less important institutions. Recent geopolitical
developments will be the optimal indicator to show whether the
previously established mechanisms are sufficient enough to maintain
the adequate financial stability in the euro area market.
Abstract: This paper presents a power control for a Doubly Fed
Induction Generator (DFIG) using in Wind Energy Conversion
System (WECS) connected to the grid. The proposed control strategy
employs two nonlinear controllers, Backstipping (BSC) and slidingmode
controller (SMC) scheme to directly calculate the required
rotor control voltage so as to eliminate the instantaneous errors of
active and reactive powers. In this paper the advantages of BSC and
SMC are presented, the performance and robustness of this two
controller’s strategy are compared between them. First, we present a
model of wind turbine and DFIG machine, then a synthesis of the
controllers and their application in the DFIG power control.
Simulation results on a 1.5MW grid-connected DFIG system are
provided by MATLAB/Simulink.
Abstract: Feature selection has been used in many fields such as
classification, data mining and object recognition and proven to be
effective for removing irrelevant and redundant features from the
original dataset. In this paper, a new design of distributed intrusion
detection system using a combination feature selection model based
on bees and decision tree. Bees algorithm is used as the search
strategy to find the optimal subset of features, whereas decision tree
is used as a judgment for the selected features. Both the produced
features and the generated rules are used by Decision Making Mobile
Agent to decide whether there is an attack or not in the networks.
Decision Making Mobile Agent will migrate through the networks,
moving from node to another, if it found that there is an attack on one
of the nodes, it then alerts the user through User Interface Agent or
takes some action through Action Mobile Agent. The KDD Cup 99
dataset is used to test the effectiveness of the proposed system. The
results show that even if only four features are used, the proposed
system gives a better performance when it is compared with the
obtained results using all 41 features.
Abstract: As the Silicon oxide scaled down in MOSFET
technology to few nanometers, gate Direct Tunneling (DT) in
Floating gate (FGMOSFET) devices has become a major concern for
analog designers. FGMOSFET has been used in many low-voltage
and low-power applications, however, there is no accurate model that
account for DT gate leakage in nano-scale. This paper studied and
analyzed different simulation models for FGMOSFET using TSMC
90-nm technology. The simulation results for FGMOSFET cascade
current mirror shows the impact of DT on circuit performance in
terms of current and voltage without the need for fabrication. This
works shows the significance of using an accurate model for
FGMOSFET in nan-scale technologies.
Abstract: Latin America is probably the region with greater
social inequality, contrary to the amount of rights enshrined in their
constitutions. In the last decade of the twentieth century, the area
resulted in significant changes to democratization and constitutional
changes. Through low-key public policy, political leaders activated
participation in the culture of human rights. The struggle for social
rights in Latin America has been a constant regulation. His
consecration at the constitutional level has chained search
application. The constitutionalization and judicial protection of these
rights have been crucial in countries like Argentina, Venezuela, Peru
and Colombia. This paper presents an analytical view on the
constitutionalization of social rights in the Latin American context
and its justiciability.
Abstract: Establishing a secure communication of Internet
conferences for participants is very important. Before starting the
conference, all the participants establish a common conference key to
encrypt/decrypt communicated messages. It enables participants to
exchange the secure messages. Nevertheless, in the conference, if
there are any malicious participants who may try to upset the key
generation process causing other legal participants to obtain a different
conference key. In this article, we propose an improved conference
key agreement with fault-tolerant capability. The proposed scheme
can filter malicious participants at the beginning of the conference to
ensure that all participants obtain the same conference key. Compare
with other schemes, our scheme is more secure and efficient than
others.
Abstract: Geographical routing protocol requires node physical
location information to make forwarding decision. Geographical
routing uses location service or position service to obtain the position
of a node. The geographical information is a geographic coordinates
or can be obtained through reference points on some fixed coordinate
system. Link can be formed between two nodes. Link lifetime plays a
crucial role in MANET. Link lifetime represent how long the link is
stable without any failure between the nodes. Link failure may occur
due to mobility and because of link failure energy of nodes can be
drained. Thus this paper proposes survey about link lifetime
prediction using geographical information.