Abstract: Soil erosion is a very complex phenomenon, resulting
from detachment and transport of soil particles by erosion agents.
The kinetic energy of raindrop is the energy available for detachment
and transport by splashing rain. The soil erodibility is defined as the
ability of soil to resist to erosion. For this purpose, an experimental
study was conducted in the laboratory using rainfall simulator to
study the effect of the kinetic energy of rain (Ec) on the soil
erodibility (K). The soil used was a sandy agricultural soil of 62.08%
coarse sand, 19.14% fine sand, 6.39% fine silt, 5.18% coarse silt and
7.21% clay. The obtained results show that the kinetic energy of
raindrops evolves as a power law with soil erodibility.
Abstract: Frequency stability of microgrids under islanded
operation attracts particular attention recently. A new cooperative
frequency control strategy based on centralized multi-agent system
(CMAS) is proposed in this study. Based on this strategy, agents sent
data and furthermore each component has its own to center operating
decisions (MGCC).After deciding on the information, they are
returned. Frequency control strategies include primary and secondary
frequency control and disposal of multi-stage load in which this study
will also provide a method and algorithm for load shedding. This
could also be a big problem for the performance of micro-grid in
times of disaster. The simulation results show the promising
performance of the proposed structure of the controller based on
multi agent systems.
Abstract: This paper reveals the interaction between hydrogen
and surface stress in austenitic stainless steel by X-ray diffraction
stress measurement and thermal desorption analysis before and after
being charged with hydrogen. The surface residual stress was varied
by surface finishing using several disc polishing agents. The obtained
results show that the residual stress near surface had a significant
effect on hydrogen absorption behavior, that is, tensile residual stress
promoted the hydrogen absorption and compressive one did opposite.
Also, hydrogen induced equi-biaxial stress and this stress has a linear
correlation with hydrogen content.
Abstract: Taro Scarab beetles (Papuana uninodis, Coleoptera:
Scarabaeidae) inflict severe damage on important root crops and
plants such as Taro or Cocoyam, yam, sweet potatoes, oil palm and
coffee tea plants across Africa and Asia resulting in economic
hardship and starvation in some nations. Scoliid wasps and
Metarhizium anisopliae fungus - bio-control agents; are shown to be
able to control the population of Scarab beetle adults and larvae using
a newly created simulation model based on non-linear ordinary
differential equations that track the populations of the beetle life
cycle stages: egg, larva, pupa, adult and the population of the scoliid
parasitoid wasps, which attack beetle larvae. In spite of the challenge
driven by the longevity of the scarab beetles, the combined effect of
the larval wasps and the fungal bio-control agent is able to control
and drive down the population of both the adult and the beetle eggs
below the environmental carrying capacity within an interval of 120
days, offering the long term prospect of a stable and eco-friendly
environment; where the population of scarab beetles is: regulated by
parasitoid wasps and beneficial soil saprophytes.
Abstract: Heavy metals are one of the major groups of
contaminants in the environment and many of them are toxic even at
very low concentration in plants and animals. However, some metals
play important roles in the biological function of many enzymes in
living organisms. Metals such as zinc, iron, and cooper are important
for survival and activity of enzymes in plants, however heavy metals
can inhibit enzyme which is responsible for defense system of plants.
Polyphenol oxidase (PPO) is a copper-containing metalloenzyme
which is responsible for enzymatic browning reaction of plants.
Enzymatic browning is a major problem for the handling of
vegetables and fruits in food industry. It can be increased and
effected with many different futures such as metals in the nature and
ground. In the present work, PPO was isolated and characterized
from green leaves of red poppy plant (Papaverr hoeas). Then, the
effect of some known antibrowning agents which can form
complexes with metals and metals were investigated on the red poppy
PPO activity. The results showed that glutathione was the most
potent inhibitory effect on PPO activity. Cu(II) and Fe(II) metals
increased the enzyme activities however, Sn(II) had the maximum
inhibitory effect and Zn(II) and Pb(II) had no significant effect on the
enzyme activity. In order to reduce the effect of heavy metals, the
effects of metal-antibrowning agent complexes on the PPO activity
were determined. EDTA and metal complexes had no significant
effect on the enzyme. L-ascorbic acid and metal complexes decreased
but L-ascorbic acid-Cu(II)-complex had no effect. Glutathione–metal
complexes had the best inhibitory effect on Red poppy leaf PPO
activity.
Abstract: This entry concerned with dense silica bricks
microstructure was produced as a part of a project within the
Technology Agency of the Czech Republic which is being
implemented in cooperation of the biggest producer of refractories
the P-D Refractories CZ company with the research organisation
Brno University of Technology. The paper is focused on the
influence of mixture homogenisation and the influence of grain size
of the mineraliser on the resulting utility properties of the material as
well as its microstructure. It has a decisive influence on the durability
of the material in a building structure. This paper is a continuation of
a previously published study dealing with the suitability of various
types of mineralising agents in terms of density, strength and mineral
composition of silica brick.
The entry describes the influence of the method of mixture
homogenisation and the influence of granulometry of the applied Femineralising
agent on the resulting silica microstructure. Porosity,
density, phase composition and microstructure of the experimentally
prepared silica bricks samples were examined and the results were
discussed in context with the technology of homogenisation and
firing temperature used. The properties of silica bricks samples were
compared to the sample without any Fe-mineraliser.
Abstract: In this paper, we propose a multi-agent intelligent
system that is used for monitoring the health conditions of elderly
people. Monitoring the health condition of elderly people is a
complex problem that involves different medical units and requires
continuous monitoring. Such expert system is highly needed in rural
areas because of inadequate number of available specialized
physicians or nurses. Such monitoring must have autonomous
interactions between these medical units in order to be effective. A
multi-agent system is formed by a community of agents that
exchange information and proactively help one another to achieve the
goal of elderly monitoring. The agents in the developed system are
equipped with intelligent decision maker that arms them with the
rule-based reasoning capability that can assist the physicians in
making decisions regarding the medical condition of elderly people.
Abstract: Natural antimicrobials are used to preserve foods that
can be found in plants, animals, and microorganisms. Antimicrobial
substances are natural or artificial agents that produced by
microorganisms or obtained semi/total chemical synthesis are used at
low concentrations to inhibit the growth of other microorganisms.
Food borne pathogens and spoilage microorganisms are inactivated
by the use of antagonistic microorganisms and their metabolites.
Yeasts can produce toxic proteins or glycoproteins (toxins) that cause
inhibition of sensitive bacteria and yeast species. Antimicrobial
substance producing phenotypes belonging different yeast genus
were isolated from different sources. Toxins secreted by many yeast
strains inhibiting the growth of other yeast strains. These strains show
antimicrobial activity, inhibiting the growth of mold and bacteria.
The effect of antimicrobial agents produced by yeasts can be
extremely fast, and therefore may be used in various treatment
procedures. Rapid inhibition of microorganisms is possibly caused by
microbial cell membrane lipopolysaccharide binding and in
activation (neutralization) effect. Antimicrobial agents inhibit the
target cells via different mechanisms of action.
Abstract: Two new metal-based anticancer chemotherapeutic
agents, [(Ph2Sn)2(HGuO)2(phen)Cl2] 1 and [(Ph3Sn)(HGuO)(phen)]-
Cl.CH3OH.H2O 2, were designed, prepared and characterized by
analytical and spectral (IR, ESI-Mass, 1H, 13C and 119Sn NMR)
techniques. The proposed geometry of Sn(IV) in 1 and 2 is distorted
octahedral and distorted trigonal-bipyramidal, respectively. Both 1
and 2 exhibit potential cytotoxicity in vitro against MCF-7, HepG-2
and DU-145 cell lines. The intrinsic binding constant (Kb) values of 1
(2.33 × 105 M-1) and 2 (2.46 × 105 M-1) evaluated from UV-Visible
absorption studies suggest non-classical electrostatic mode of
interaction via phosphate backbone of DNA double helix. The Stern-
Volmer quenching constant (Ksv) of 1 (9.74 × 105 M-1) and 2 (2.9 ×
106 M-1) determined by fluorescence studies suggests the groove
binding and intercalation mode for 1 and 2, respectively. Effective
cleavage of pBR322 DNA is induced by 1.Their interaction with
DNA of cancer cells may account for potency.
Abstract: Farmers are in need of regular and relevant information relating to new technologies. Production of extension materials has been found to be useful in facilitating the process. Extension materials help to provide information to reach large numbers of farmers quickly and economically. However, as good as extension materials are, previous materials produced are not used by farmers. The reasons for this include lack of involvement of farmers in the production of the extension materials, most of the extension materials are not relevant to the farmers’ environments, the agricultural extension agents lack capacity to prepare the materials, and many extension agents lack commitment. These problems led to this innovative capacity building of extension agents. This innovative approach involves five stages. The first stage is the diagnostic survey of farmers’ environment to collect useful information. The second stage is the development and production of draft extension materials. The third stage is the field testing and evaluation of draft materials by the same famers that were involved at the diagnostic stage. The fourth stage is the revision of the draft extension materials by incorporating suggestions from farmers. The fifth stage is the action plans. This process improves the capacity of agricultural extension agents in the preparation of extension materials and also promotes engagement of farmers and beneficiaries in the process. The process also makes farmers assume some level of ownership of the exercise and the extension materials.
Abstract: Local utilities often face problems of local industrial
wastes, storm water disposal due to existing strict regulations. For
many local industries, the problem of wastewater treatment and
discharge into surface reservoirs can’t be solved through the use of
conventional biological treatment techniques. Current discharge
standards require very strict removal of a number of impurities such
as ammonia, nitrates, phosphate, etc. To reach this level of removal,
expensive reagents and sorbents are used.
The modern concept of rational water resources management
requires the development of new efficient techniques that provide
wastewater treatment and reuse.
As RO membranes simultaneously reject all dissolved impurities
such as BOD, TDS, ammonia, phosphates etc., they become very
attractive for the direct treatment of wastewater without biological
stage. To treat wastewater, specially designed membrane "open
channel" modules are used that do not possess "dead areas" that cause
fouling or require pretreatment. A solution to RO concentrate
disposal problem is presented that consists of reducing of initial
wastewater volume by 100 times. Concentrate is withdrawn from
membrane unit as sludge moisture. The efficient use of membrane
RO techniques is connected with a salt balance in water system.
Thus, to provide high ecological efficiency of developed techniques,
all components of water supply and wastewater discharge systems
should be accounted for.
Abstract: In general, algorithms to find continuous k-nearest neighbors have been researched on the location based services, monitoring periodically the moving objects such as vehicles and mobile phone. Those researches assume the environment that the number of query points is much less than that of moving objects and the query points are not moved but fixed. In gaming environments, this problem is when computing the next movement considering the neighbors such as flocking, crowd and robot simulations. In this case, every moving object becomes a query point so that the number of query point is same to that of moving objects and the query points are also moving. In this paper, we analyze the performance of the existing algorithms focused on location based services how they operate under gaming environments.
Abstract: Perfectly suited for natural or man-made emergency and disaster management situations such as flood, earthquakes, tornadoes, or tsunami, multi-target search path planning for a team of rescue agents is known to be computationally hard, and most techniques developed so far come short to successfully estimate optimality gap. A novel mixed-integer linear programming (MIP) formulation is proposed to optimally solve the multi-target multi-agent discrete search and rescue (SAR) path planning problem. Aimed at maximizing cumulative probability of successful target detection, it captures anticipated feedback information associated with possible observation outcomes resulting from projected path execution, while modeling agent discrete actions over all possible moving directions. Problem modeling further takes advantage of network representation to encompass decision variables, expedite compact constraint specification, and lead to substantial problem-solving speed-up. The proposed MIP approach uses CPLEX optimization machinery, efficiently computing near-optimal solutions for practical size problems, while giving a robust upper bound obtained from Lagrangean integrality constraint relaxation. Should eventually a target be positively detected during plan execution, a new problem instance would simply be reformulated from the current state, and then solved over the next decision cycle. A computational experiment shows the feasibility and the value of the proposed approach.
Abstract: This paper deals with a stabilization problem for
multi-agent systems, when all agents in a multi-agent system receive
the same broadcasting control signal and the controller can measure
not each agent output but the sum of all agent outputs. It is
analytically shown that when the sum of all agent outputs is bounded
with a certain broadcasting controller for a given reference, each agent
output is separately bounded: stabilization of the sum of agent outputs
always results in the stability of every agent output. A numerical
example is presented to illustrate our theoretic findings in this paper.
Abstract: This paper studies a robust stabilization problem of a
single agent in a multi-agent consensus system composed of identical
agents, when the network topology of the system is completely
unknown. It is shown that the transfer function of an agent in a
consensus system can be described as a multiplicative perturbation
of the isolated agent transfer function in frequency domain. From an
existing robust stabilization result, we present sufficient conditions for
a robust stabilization of an agent against unknown network topology.
Abstract: The present study consisted of an applied test in meat
system to assess the effectiveness of three bio agents bacteriocinproducing
strains: Lm24: Lactobacillus sakei, Lm14and Lm25:
Pediococcus spp. Two tests were carried out: The ex situ test was
intended for three batches added with crude bacteriocin solutions at
12.48 AU/ml for Lm25 and 8.4 AU/ml for Lm14 and Lm24. However, the
in situ one consisted of four batches; three of them inoculated with
one bacteriocinogenic Lm25, Lm14, Lm24, respectively. The fourth one
was used in mixture: Lm14+m24 at approximately of 107 CFU/ml. The
two used tests were done in the presence of the pathogen
St. aureus ATCC 6538, as a test strain at 103 CFU/ml. Another batch
served as a positive or a negative control was used too. The
incubation was performed at 7°C. Total viable counts, staphylococci
and lactic acid bacteria, at the beginning and at selected times with
interval of three days were enumerated. Physico-chemical
determinations (except for in situ test): pH, dry mater, sugars, fat and
total protein, at the beginning and at end of the experiment, were
done, according to the international norms. Our results confirmed the
ex situ effectiveness. Furthermore, the batches affected negatively the
total microbial load over the incubation days, and showed a
significant regression in staphylococcal load at day seven, for Lm14,
Lm24, and Lm25 of 0.73, 2.11, and 2.4 log units. It should be noticed
that, at the last day of culture, staphylococcal load was nil for the
three batches. In the in situ test, the cultures displayed less inhibitory
attitude and recorded a decrease in staphylococcal load, for Lm14,
Lm24, Lm25, Lm14+m24 of 0.73, 0.20, 0.86, 0.032 log units. Therefore,
physicochemical analysis for Lm14, Lm24, Lm25, Lm14+m24 showed an
increase in pH from 5.50 to 5.77, 6.18, 5.96, 7.22, a decrease in dry
mater from 7.30% to 7.05%, 6.87%, 6.32%, 6.00%.This result
reflects the decrease in fat ranging from 1.53% to 1.49%, 1.07%,
0.99%, 0.87%; and total protein from 6.18% to 5.25%, 5.56%,
5.37%, 5.5%. This study suggests that the use of selected strains as
Lm25 could lead to the best results and would help in preserving and
extending the shelf life of lamb meat.
Abstract: Muscid flies are known to be vectors of disease agents and species that annoy humans and domesticated animals. An example of these flies is Musca domestica (house fly) whose adult and immature stages occur in a variety of filthy organic substances including household garbage and animal manures. They contribute to microbial contamination of foods. It is therefore imperative to control these flies as a result of their role in Public health. The second and third instars of Musca domestica (Linn) were infected with varying cell loads of Bacillus subtilis in vitro for a period of 48 hours to evaluate its larvicidal activities. Mortality of the larvae increased with incubation period after treatment with the varying cell loads. Investigation revealed that the second instars larvae were more susceptible to treatment than the third instars treatments. Values obtained from the third instar group were significantly different (P
Abstract: Malaria constitutes one of the major health problems
in Nigeria. One of the reasons attributed for the upsurge was the
development of resistance of Plasmodium falciparum and the
emergence of multi-resistant strains of the parasite to anti-malaria
drugs. A continued search for other effective, safe and cheap plantbased
anti-malaria agents thus becomes imperative in the face of
these difficulties. The objective of this study is therefore to evaluate
the in vivo anti-malarial efficacy of ethanolic extracts of
Chromolaena odorata and Androgaphis paniculata leaves. The two
plants were evaluated for their anti-malaria efficacy in vivo in a 4-day
curative test assay against Plasmodium berghei strain in mice. The
group treated with 500mg/ml dose of ethanolic extract of A.
paniculata plant showed parasite suppression with increase in Packed
Cell Volume (PCV) value except day 3 which showed a slight
decrease in PCV value. During the 4-day curative test, an increase in
the PCV values, weight measurement and zero count of Plasmodium
berghei parasite values was recorded after day 3 of drug
administration. These results obtained in group treated with A.
paniculata extract showed anti-malarial efficacy with higher
mortality rate in parasitaemia count when compared with
Chromolaena odorata group. These results justify the use of
ethanolic extracts of A. paniculata plant as medicinal herb used in
folklore medicine in the treatment of malaria.
Abstract: After cold pressing of pumpkin oil, the defatted oil cake (PUOC) was utilised as raw material for processing of bio-functional hydrolysates. In this study, the in vitro bioactivity of an alcalase (AH) and a pepsin hydrolysate (PH) prepared from the major pumpkin 12S globulin (cucurbitin) are compared. The hydrolysates were produced at optimum reaction conditions (temperature, pH) for the enzymes, during 60min. The bioactivity testing included antioxidant and angiotensin I converting enzyme inhibitory activity assays. The hydrolysates showed high potential as natural antioxidants and possibly antihypertensive agents in functional food or nutraceuticals. Additionally, preliminary studies have shown that both hydrolysates could exhibit modest α-amylase inhibitory activity, which indicates on their hypoglycemic potential.
Abstract: Polyethylene glycol (PEG) is a condensation polymer of ethylene oxide and water. It is soluble in water and in many organic solvents. PEG is used to make emulsifying agents, detergents, soaps, plasticizers, ointments etc. Ethanol (C2H5OH) also known as ethyl alcohol is a well-known organic compound and has wide applications in chemical industry as it is used as a solvent for paint, varnish, in preserving biological specimens, used as a fuel mixed with petrol etc. Though their chemical and physical properties are already studied, still because of their uses in day to day life the authors thought it is better to study some more of their physical properties like ultrasonic velocity and hence adiabatic compressibility, free length, etc. A detailed study of such properties and some excess parameters like excess adiabatic compressibility, excess free volume and few more in the liquid mixtures of these two compounds with PEG as a solute and Ethanol as a solvent at various mole fractions may throw some light on deeper understanding of molecular interaction between the solute and the solvent supported by NMR, IR etc. Hence the present research work is on ultrasonics/allied studies on these two liquid mixtures. Ultrasonic velocity (U), density (ρ) and viscosity (η) at room temperature and at different mole fraction from 0 to 0.055 of ethanol in PEG have been experimentally carried out by the authors. Acoustical parameters such as adiabatic compressibility (β), free volume (Vf), acoustic impedance (Z), internal pressure (πi), intermolecular free length (Lf) and relaxation time (τ) were calculated from the experimental data. We have calculated excess parameters like excess adiabatic compressibility (βE), excess internal pressure (πiE) free length (LfE) and excess acoustic impedance (ZE) etc for these two chosen liquid mixtures. The excess compressibility is positive and maximum around a mole fraction 0.007 and excess internal pressure is negative and maximum at the same mole fraction and longer free length. The results are analyzed and it may be concluded that the molecular interactions between the solute and the solvent is not strong and it may be weak. Appropriate graphs are drawn.