Abstract: Anxiety is a common disorder that attacks many people in society and often accompanied by physiological sensations such as tachycardia, chest pain, shortness of breath, insensitivity and etc. The purpose of this study is to characterize the putative anxiolytic-like effects of DEV (dichloromethane extracts of valerian) using the elevated plus maze (EPM) in rats. DEV was dissolved in DMSO and orally administered at different doses to adult male wistar rats, 0.5, 1.5 and 3 hours before behavioral evaluation in an EPM respectively. Control rats were treated with an equal volume of DMSO. Single treatment of DEV (at 0.1,0.2. 0.3, and 0.4 g/kg) significantly increased time-spent and arm entries into open arms of EPM versus control groups (p
Abstract: The significance of psychology in studying politics
is embedded in philosophical issues as well as behavioural
pursuits. For the former is often associated with Sigmund Freud
and his followers. The latter is inspired by the writings of Harold
Lasswell. Political psychology or psychopolitics has its own
impression on political thought ever since it deciphers the concept
of human nature and political propaganda. More importantly,
psychoanalysis views political thought as a textual content which
needs to explore the latent from the manifest content. In other
words, it reads the text symptomatically and interprets the hidden
truth. This paper explains the paradigm of dream interpretation
applied by Freud. The dream work is a process which has four
successive activities: condensation, displacement, representation
and secondary revision. The texts dealing with political though can
also be interpreted on these principles. Freud's method of dream
interpretation draws its source after the hermeneutic model of
philological research. It provides theoretical perspective and
technical rules for the interpretation of symbolic structures. The
task of interpretation remains a discovery of equivalence of
symbols and actions through perpetual analogies. Psychoanalysis
can help in studying political thought in two ways: to study the text
distortion, Freud's dream interpretation is used as a paradigm
exploring the latent text from its manifest text; and to apply Freud's
psychoanalytic concepts and theories ranging from individual mind
to civilization, religion, war and politics.
Abstract: Phytophthora cinnamomi (P. c) is a plant pathogenic
oomycete that is capable of damaging plants in commercial production
systems and natural ecosystems worldwide. The most common
methods for the detection and diagnosis of P. c infection are
expensive, elaborate and time consuming. This study was carried out
to examine whether species specific and life cycle specific volatile
organic compounds (VOCs) can be absorbed by solid-phase
microextraction fibers and detected by gas chromatography that are
produced by P. c and another oomycete Pythium dissotocum. A
headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) together with gas
chromatography (GC) method was developed and optimized for the
identification of the VOCs released by P. c. The optimized parameters
included type of fiber, exposure time, desorption temperature and
desorption time. Optimization was achieved with the analytes of P.
c+V8A and V8A alone. To perform the HS-SPME, six types of fiber
were assayed and compared: 7μm Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS),
100μm Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), 50/30μm
Divinylbenzene/CarboxenTM/Polydimethylsiloxane
DVB/CAR/PDMS), 65μm Polydimethylsiloxane/Divinylbenzene
(PDMS/DVB), 85μm Polyacrylate (PA) fibre and 85μm CarboxenTM/
Polydimethylsiloxane (Carboxen™/PDMS). In a comparison of the
efficacy of the fibers, the bipolar fiber DVB/CAR/PDMS had a higher
extraction efficiency than the other fibers. An exposure time of 16h
with DVB/CAR/PDMS fiber in the sample headspace was enough to
reach the maximum extraction efficiency. A desorption time of 3min
in the GC injector with the desorption temperature of 250°C was
enough for the fiber to desorb the compounds of interest. The chromatograms and morphology study confirmed that the VOCs from
P. c+V8A had distinct differences from V8A alone, as did different
life cycle stages of P. c and different taxa such as Pythium dissotocum.
The study proved that P. c has species and life cycle specific VOCs,
which in turn demonstrated the feasibility of this method as means of
Abstract: The study aimed to identify the logical structure of
data and particularities of developing and testing a website designed
for selling farm products through online auctions.
The research is based on a short literature review in the field and
exploratory trials of some successful models from other industries, in
order to identify the advantages of using such tool, as well as the
optimal structure and functionality of an auction portal. In the last
part, the study focuses on the results of testing the website by the
potential beneficiaries.
Conclusions of the study underlines that the particularities of some
agricultural products could raise difficulties in the process of selling
them through online auctions, but the use of such system it is
perceived to bring significant improvements in the supply chain.
The results of scientific investigations require a more detailed
study regarding the importance of using quality standards for
agricultural products sold via online auction, the impact that
implementation of an online payment system could have on trade
with agricultural products and problems which could arise in using
the website in different countries.
Abstract: The nutrient composition and sensory properties of
poultry-based patties (PBPs) incorporated with various levels of grey
oyster mushroom (Pleurotus sajor-caju, PSC) were studied. The
PBPs were formulated with either 0%, 25% or 50% of fresh ground
PSC. Results show poultry patty formulated with 25% PSC had
protein content of 17.46% lower than the control patty which had
18.13% but it was not significant. Meanwhile, both cooked poultry
patties containing 25% and 50% PSC significantly recorded lower
concentration of fat at 10.67% and 7.15%, respectively. On the other
hand, poultry patty added with 50% ground PSC shows the highest
concentration of total dietary fibre (TDF) of 4.90 g/100g compared to
poultry patty containing 25% of mushroom (3.40 g/100g) and to the
control (1.90g/100g). In addition, patty incorporated with 25% PSC
had moisture content of 57.91% which is significantly lower than
patty formulated with 50% which had moisture of 61.80%. In the
sensory evaluation, there were no differences recorded in all sensory
attributes of PSC-based patties judged by untrained panelists. In
conclusion, the addition of PSC to replace poultry meat can be
recommended for the purpose of lowering production cost, enhancing
nutritional composition and maintaining the acceptability of poultry
patties.
Abstract: This paper provides new ways to explore the old
problem of failure of information systems development in an
organisation. Based on the theory of cognitive dissonance,
information systems (IS) failure is defined as a gap between what the
users expect from an information system and how well these
expectations are met by the perceived performance of the delivered
system. Bridging the expectation-perception gap requires that IS
professionals make a radical change from being the proprietor of
information systems and products to being service providers. In order
to deliver systems and services that IS users perceive as valuable, IS
people must become expert in determining and assessing users-
expectations and perceptions. It is also suggested that the IS
community, in general, has given relatively little attention to the
front-end process of requirements specification for IS development.
There is a simplistic belief that requirements are obtainable from
users, they are then translatable into a formal specification. The
process of information needs analysis is problematic and worthy of
investigation.
Abstract: The effect of plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria
(PGPR) on seed germination, seedling growth and yield of field
grown maize were evaluated in three experiments. In these
experiments six bacterial strains include P.putida strain R-168,
P.fluorescens strain R-93, P.fluorescens DSM 50090, P.putida
DSM291, A.lipoferum DSM 1691, A.brasilense DSM 1690 were
used. Results of first study showed seed Inoculation significantly
enhanced seed germination and seedling vigour of maize. In second
experiment, leaf and shoot dry weight and also leaf surface area
significantly were increased by bacterial inoculation in both sterile
and non-sterile soil. The results showed that inoculation with
bacterial treatments had a more stimulating effect on growth and
development of plants in nonsterile than sterile soil. In the third
experiment, Inoculation of maize seeds with all bacterial strains
significantly increased plant height, 100 seed weight, number of seed
per ear and leaf area .The results also showed significant increase in
ear and shoot dry weight of maize.
Abstract: Literature review revealed the importance of the
adoption of marketing Relationship for loyalty and retaining
profitable customer (Customer Relationship Management). LPQ
satisfaction will reinforce the loyalty and customer brand
attachment. Customer will communicate the operator to others. The
focus of this study is to examine the relationship between the
LPPQ and the WOM recommendations through: customer
satisfaction, loyalty and attachment. The results show that LPQ
affect positively the satisfaction, negatively the loyalty. LPQ has an
indirectly effect on WOM recommendations but through the
satisfaction and attachment. The mediating effect of satisfaction in
the relationship between LPQ and Loyalty is rejected. This finding
can be explained by the nature of mobile sector in Tunisia.
Abstract: According to dramatic growth of internet services, an easy and prompt service deployment has been important for internet service providers to successfully maintain time-to-market. Before global service deployment, they have to pay the big cost for service evaluation to make a decision of the proper system location, system scale, service delay and so on. But, intra-Lab evaluation tends to have big gaps in the measured data compared with the realistic situation, because it is very difficult to accurately expect the local service environment, network congestion, service delay, network bandwidth and other factors. Therefore, to resolve or ease the upper problems, we propose multiple cloud based GPES Broker system and use case that helps internet service providers to alleviate the above problems in beta release phase and to make a prompt decision for their service launching. By supporting more realistic and reliable evaluation information, the proposed GPES Broker system saves the service release cost and enables internet service provider to make a prompt decision about their service launching to various remote regions.
Abstract: Enterprise Architecture (EA) is a framework for description, coordination and alignment of all activities across the organization in order to achieve strategic goals using ICT enablers. A number of EA-compatible frameworks have been developed. We, in this paper, mainly focus on Federal Enterprise Architecture Framework (FEAF) since its reference models are plentiful. Among these models we are interested here in its business reference model (BRM). The test process is one important subject of an EA project which is to somewhat overlooked. This lack of attention may cause drawbacks or even failure of an enterprise architecture project. To address this issue we intend to use International Software Testing Qualification Board (ISTQB) framework and standard test suites to present a method to improve EA testing process. The main challenge is how to communicate between the concepts of EA and ISTQB. In this paper, we propose a method for integrating these concepts.
Abstract: In This paper, the behavior of eccentric braced frame
(EBF) is studied with replacing friction damper (FD) in confluence of these braces, in 5 and 10-storey steel frames. For FD system, the main step is to determine the slip load. For this reason, the performance indexes include roof displacement, base shear, dissipated energy and relative performance should be investigated. In
nonlinear dynamic analysis, the response of structure to three
earthquake records has been obtained and the values of roof
displacement, base shear and column axial force for FD and EBF
frames have been compared. The results demonstrate that use of the FD in frames, in comparison with the EBF, substantially reduces the roof displacement, column axial force and base shear. The obtained results show suitable performance of FD in higher storey structure in
comparison with the EBF.
Abstract: In our modern society electricity is vital to our health,
safety, comfort and well-being. While our daily use of electricity is
often taken for granted, public concern has arisen about potential
adverse health effects from electric and magnetic – electromagnetic –
fields (EMFs) produced by our use of electricity.
This paper aims to compare between the measured magnetic field
values and the simulated models for the indoor medium to low
voltage (MV/LV) distribution substations.
To calculate the magnetic flux density in the substations,
interactive software SUBCALC is used which is based on closed
form solution of the Biot-Savart law with 3D conductor model.
The comparison between the measured values and the simulated
models was acceptable. However there were some discrepancies, as
expected, may be due to the current variation during measurements.
Abstract: Circular knitting machine makes the fabric with more than two knitting tools. Variation of yarn tension between different knitting tools causes different loop length of stitches duration knitting process. In this research, a new intelligent method is applied to control loop length of stitches in various tools based on ideal shape of stitches and real angle of stitches direction while different loop length of stitches causes stitches deformation and deviation those of angle. To measure deviation of stitch direction against variation of tensions, image processing technique was applied to pictures of different fabrics with constant front light. After that, the rate of deformation is translated to needed compensation of loop length cam degree to cure stitches deformation. A fuzzy control algorithm was applied to loop length modification in knitting tools. The presented method was experienced for different knitted fabrics of various structures and yarns. The results show that presented method is useable for control of loop length variation between different knitting tools based on stitch deformation for various knitted fabrics with different fabric structures, densities and yarn types.
Abstract: This paper presents a new study on the applications of
optimization and regression analysis techniques for optimal
calculation of partial ratios of four-step helical gearboxes for getting
minimal gearbox length. In the paper, basing on the moment
equilibrium condition of a mechanic system including four gear units
and their regular resistance condition, models for determination of the
partial ratios of the gearboxes are proposed. In particular, explicit
models for calculation of the partial ratios are proposed by using
regression analysis. Using these models, the determination of the
partial ratios is accurate and simple.
Abstract: The ability of pomelo peel, a natural biosorbent, to remove Cd(II) ions from aqueous solution by biosorption was investigated. The experiments were carried out by batch method at 25 °C. The influence of solution pH, initial cadmium ion concentrations and contact times were evaluated. Cadmium ion removal increased significantly as the pH of the solution increased from pH 1 to pH 5. At pH 5, the cadmium ion removal reached a maximum value. The equilibrium process was described well by the Langmuir isotherm model, with a maximum biosorption capacity of 21.83 mg/g. The biosorption was relatively quick, (approx. 20 min). Biosorption kinetics followed a pseudo-second-order model. The result showed that pomelo peel was effective as a biosorbent for removing cadmium ions from aqueous solution. It is a low cost material that shows potential to be applied in wastewater technology for remediation of heavy metal contamination.
Abstract: In contrast to existing methods which do not take into account multiconnectivity in a broad sense of this term, we develop mathematical models and highly effective combination (BIEM and FDM) numerical methods of calculation of stationary and quasistationary temperature field of a profile part of a blade with convective cooling (from the point of view of realization on PC). The theoretical substantiation of these methods is proved by appropriate theorems. For it, converging quadrature processes have been developed and the estimations of errors in the terms of A.Ziqmound continuity modules have been received. For visualization of profiles are used: the method of the least squares with automatic conjecture, device spline, smooth replenishment and neural nets. Boundary conditions of heat exchange are determined from the solution of the corresponding integral equations and empirical relationships. The reliability of designed methods is proved by calculation and experimental investigations heat and hydraulic characteristics of the gas turbine first stage nozzle blade.
Abstract: This paper presents a smart-card applet that is able to
verify X.509 certificates and to use the public key contained in the
certificate for verifying digital signatures that have been created
using the corresponding private key, e.g. for the purpose of authenticating
the certificate owner against the card. The approach has been
implemented as an operating prototype on Java cards.
Abstract: Two species of Physalis, P.angulataL. and P.
peruviana L. were used as models for comparative study to
understand the values of micro-morphological, -anatomical and
architectural characteristics of leaf for taxonomic purposes and
possibly breeding and commercial applications. Both speciespossess
amphistomaticleaves with 1-layer epidermis, 3-4-layer spongy
mesophyll andbicollateral bundle midrib. Palisade parenchyma cells
of P. angulatawere almost twice longer (65-75 μm) than the other
one. Type of stomata was similar as anomocyticbut stomatal
index(SI) at adaxial surface and abaxial surface of P. angulata were
less than of P. peruvianaas 3.57, 4.00 and6.25, 6.66 respectively.
Some leaf architectural characteristics such as leaf shape, order of
venationalsoprovided information of taxonomic significance
Abstract: The internet is constantly expanding. Identifying web
links of interest from web browsers requires users to visit each of the
links listed, individually until a satisfactory link is found, therefore
those users need to evaluate a considerable amount of links before
finding their link of interest; this can be tedious and even
unproductive. By incorporating web assistance, web users could be
benefited from reduced time searching on relevant websites. In this
paper, a rough set approach is presented, which facilitates
classification of unlimited available e-vocabulary, to assist web users
in reducing search times looking for relevant web sites. This
approach includes two methods for identifying relevance data on web
links based on the priority and percentage of relevance. As a result of
these methods, a list of web sites is generated in priority sequence
with an emphasis of the search criteria.
Abstract: This study was conducted to examine the effects of ketum extract on development of Chrysomya rufifacies and to analyze the presence of mitragynine in the larvae samples. 110 newly emerged first instar larvae of C. rufifacies were introduced on ketum extract-mixed cow liver at doses of 0, 20, 40 and 60g. Blowfly development rate was determined with 12 hour intervals and
mitragynine in larvae was extracted and quantitated. C. rufifacies in control group took about 192 hours to complete their development from first instar larvae to adult blowfly; meanwhile blowfly form from the highest dose of ketum was 264 hours. Mitragynine was detected in all groups of treatment, except for control. In conclusion, the presence of mitragynine in C. rufifacies is affected in delaying development rates of the blowfly for up to 62 hours or 3 days. Chemical analysis of mitragynine from larvae samples showed that this alkaloid present in all specimens analyzed.