Abstract: A hydroponic trial was carried out to investigate the effect of molybdenum (Mo) on uptake of phosphorus (P) in different rice cultivars. The experiment was conducted using a randomized complete-block design, with a split-plot arrangement of treatments and three replications. Four rates of Mo (0, 0.01, 0.1 and 1 mg L−1) and five cultivars (MR219, HASHEMI, MR232, FAJRE and MR253) provided the main and sub-plots, respectively. Interaction of molybdenum×variety was significant on shoot phosphorus uptake (p≤0.01). Highest and lowest shoot phosphorus uptake were seen in Mo3V3 (0.6% plant-1) and Mo0V3 (0.14% plant-1) treatments, respectively. Molybdenum did not have a significant effect on root phosphorus content. According to results, application of molybdenum has a synergistic effect on uptake of phosphorus by rice plants.
Abstract: The commercial sandcrete block makers in Nigeria use the same cement-sand mix ratio for sandcrete blocks production irrespective of the cement grade. Investigation revealed that the compressive strengths of hollow sandcrete blocks produced with Portland-limestone cement grade 42.5 are higher than the sandcrete blocks produced with cement grade 32.5. The use of stronger sandcrete blocks produced with cement grade 42.5 will ensure the construction of stronger buildings and other sandcrete blocks-based infrastructures and reduce the incessant failure of building and other sandcrete blocks-based infrastructures in Nigeria at no additional cost as both cement grades cost the same amount in Nigeria. It is recommended that the Standards Organisation of Nigeria should create grassroots awareness on the different cement grades in Nigeria and specify that Portland-limestone cement grade 42.5 be used for sandcrete blocks production.
Abstract: Generally, the traditional Shewhart p chart has been developed by for charting the binomial data. This chart has been developed using the normal approximation with condition as low defect level and the small to moderate sample size. In real applications, however, are away from these assumptions due to skewness in the exact distribution. In this paper, a modified Exponentially Weighted Moving Average (EWMA) control chat for detecting a change in binomial data by improving square root transformations, namely ISRT p EWMA control chart. The numerical results show that ISRT p EWMA chart is superior to ISRT p chart for small to moderate shifts, otherwise, the latter is better for large shifts.
Abstract: An analysis of word semantics focusing on the invariance of advanced imagery in several pressing problems. Interest in the language of imagery is caused by the introduction, in the linguistics sphere, of a new paradigm, the center of which is the personality of the speaker (the subject of the language). Particularly noteworthy is the question of the place of the image when discussing the lexical, phraseological values and the relationship of imagery and metaphors. In part, the formation of a metaphor, as an interaction between two intellective entities, occurs at a cognitive level, and it is the category of the image, having cognitive roots, which aides in the correct interpretation of the results of this process on the lexical-semantic level.
Abstract: Ambrosia trifida L. is designated as invasive alien
species by the Act on the Conservation and Use of Biodiversity by the
Ministry of Environment, Korea. The purpose of present paper was to
investigate the inhibitory effects of aqueous extracts of A.trifida on the
development of root hairs of Triticum aestivum L., and Allium
tuberosum Rottler ex Spreng and the electrophoretic protein patterns of
their radicles. The development of root hairs was inhibited by
increasing of aqueous extract concentrations. Through SDS-PAGE,
the electrophoretic protein bands of extracted proteins from their
radicles were appeared in controls, but protein bands of specific
molecular weight disappeared or weakened in treatments. In
conclusion, inhibitory effects of A. trifida made two receptor species
changed morphologically, and at the molecular level in early growth
stage.
Abstract: Endophytic microorganisms are presented in plants of different families growing in the foothills and piedmont plains of Trans-Ili Alatau. It was found that the maximum number of endophytic micromycetes is typical to the Fabaceae family. The number of microscopic fungi in the roots reached (145.9±5.9)×103 CFU/g of plant tissue; yeasts - (79.8±3.5)×102 CFU/g of plant tissue. Basically, endophytic microscopic fungi are typical for underground parts of plants. In contrast, yeasts more infected aboveground parts of plants. Small amount of micromycetes is typical to inflorescence and fruits. Antagonistic activity of selected micromycetes against Fusarium graminearum, Cladosporium sp., Phytophtora infestans and Botrytis cinerea phytopathogens was detected. Strains with a broad, narrow and limited range of action were identified. For further investigations Rh2 and T7 strains were selected, they are characterized by a broad spectrum of fungicidal activity and they formed the large inhibition zones against phytopathogens. Active antagonists are attributed to the Rhodotorula mucilaginosa and Beauveria bassiana species.
Abstract: The integration of wide variety of communication services is made possible with invention of 3G technology. Code Division Multiple Access 2000 operates on various RF channel bandwidths 1.2288 or 3.6864 Mcps (1x or 3x systems). It is a 3G system which offers high bandwidth and wireless broadband services but its efficiency is lowered due to various factors like fading, interference, scattering, absorption etc. This paper investigates the effect of diversity (MRC), roll off factor in Root Raised Cosine (RRC) filter for the BPSK and QPSK modulation schemes. It is possible to transmit data with minimum Inter symbol Interference and within limited bandwidth with proper pulse shaping technique. Bit error rate (BER) performance is analyzed by applying diversity technique by varying the roll off factor for BPSK and QPSK. Roll off factor reduces the ISI and diversity reduces the Fading.
Abstract: A group of 10 dogs (group A) with Periodontal Disease in the third stage, were subjected to regenerative therapy of periodontal tissues, by use of nano hydroxy apatite (NHA). These animals induced by general anesthesia, where treated by ultrasonic scaling, root planning, and at the end by a mucogingival flap in which it was applied NHA. The flap was closed and sutured with simple steps. Another group of 10 dogs (group B), control group, was treated only by scaling and root planning. No patient was subjected to antibiotic therapy. After three months, a check was made by inspection of the oral cavity, radiography and bone biopsy at the alveolar level. Group A showed a total restitutio ad integrum of the periodontal structures, and in group B still mild gingivitis in 70% of cases and 30% of the state remains unchanged. Numerous experimental studies both in animals and humans have documented that the grafts of porous hydroxyapatite are rapidly invaded by fibrovascular tissue which is subsequently converted into mature lamellar bone tissue by activating osteoblast. Since we acted on the removal of necrotic cementum and rehabilitating the root tissue by polishing without intervention in the ligament but only on anatomical functional interface of cement-blasts, we can connect the positive evolution of the clinical-only component of the cement that could represent this perspective, the only reason that Periodontal Disease become a Cement Disease, while all other clinical elements as nothing more than a clinical pathological accompanying.
Abstract: Antioxidants are became the most analyzed substances in last decades. Antioxidants act as in activator for free radicals. Spices and vegetables are one of major antioxidant sources. Most common antioxidants in vegetables and spices are vitamin C, E, phenolic compounds, carotenoids. Therefore, it is important to get some view about antioxidant changes in spices and vegetables during processing. In this article was analyzed nine fresh and dried spices and vegetables- celery (Apium graveolens), parsley (Petroselinum crispum), dill (Anethum graveolens), leek (Allium ampeloprasum L.), garlic (Allium sativum L.), onion (Allium cepa), celery root (Apium graveolens var. rapaceum), pumpkin (Curcubica maxima), carrot (Daucus carota)- grown in Latvia 2013. Total carotenoids and phenolic compounds and their antiradical scavenging activity were determined for all samples. Dry matter content was calculated from moisture content. After drying process carotenoid content significantly decreases in all analyzed samples, except one -carotenoid content increases in parsley. Phenolic composition was different and depends on sample – fresh or dried. Total phenolic, flavonoid and phenolic acid content increases in dried spices. Flavan-3-ol content is not detected in fresh spice samples. For dried vegetables- phenolic acid content decreases significantly, but increases flavan-3-ols content. The higher antiradical scavenging activity was observed in samples with higher flavonoid and phenolic acid content.
Abstract: The main objective of the research in this paper is to empirically assess the causal relationship of private savings and economic growth in the Republic of Croatia. Households’ savings are approximated by household deposits in banks, while domestic income is approximated by industrial production volume indices. Vector Autoregression model and Granger causality tests are used to in order to analyse the relationship among private savings and economic growth. Since ADF unit root tests have shown that both mentioned series are non stationary at levels, series are first differenced in order to become stationary. Therefore, VAR model is estimated with percentage change in private savings and percentage change in domestic income, which can be interpreted as economic growth in case of positive percentage change in domestic income. The Granger causality test has shown that there is no causal relationship among private savings and economic growth in Croatia. The impulse response functions have shown that the impact of shock in domestic income on private savings change is stronger than the impact of private saving on growth. Variance decompositions show that both economic growth and private saving change explain the largest part of its own forecast variance. The research has shown that the link between private savings economic and growth in Croatia is weak, what is in line with relevant empirical research in small open economies.
Abstract: The unit root tests based on the robust estimator for the first-order autoregressive process are proposed and compared with the unit root tests based on the ordinary least squares (OLS) estimator. The percentiles of the null distributions of the unit root test are also reported. The empirical probabilities of Type I error and powers of the unit root tests are estimated via Monte Carlo simulation. Simulation results show that all unit root tests can control the probability of Type I error for all situations. The empirical power of the unit root tests based on the robust estimator are higher than the unit root tests based on the OLS estimator.
Abstract: The present study aimed to investigate the effect of two type of soil (clay and sandy soils) in the potential allelopathic effects of Artemisia herba-alba, Oudneya africana crude powder (0, 1, 3 and 6%) on some growth parameters of two weeds (Bromus tectorum and Melilotus indica) under laboratory conditions (pot experiment).
The experimental findings have reported that the donor species crude powder concentrations were suppressing to shoot length (SL), root length (RL) and the leaf number (LN)) in both soil types and caused a gradual reduction particularly when they are high. However, the reduction degree was varied and species, concentration dependent. The suppressive effect of the two donors on the two weedy species was in the following order Melilotus indica > Bromus tectorum. Generally, the growth parameters of two recipient species were significantly decreased with the increase of each of the donor species crude powder concentration levels. Concerning the type of soil stoical analyses indicated that significant difference between clay and sandy soils.
Abstract: As the Malaysian residential electricity consumption continued to increase rapidly, effective energy policies, which address factors affecting residential electricity consumption, is urgently needed. This study attempts to investigate the relationship between residential electricity consumption (EC), real disposable income (Y), price of electricity (Pe) and population (Po) in Malaysia for 1978-2011 period. Unlike previous studies on Malaysia, the current study focuses on the residential sector, a sector that is important for the contemplation of energy policy. The Phillips-Perron (P-P) unit root test is employed to infer the stationarity of each variable while the bound test is executed to determine the existence of co-integration relationship among the variables, modelled in an Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) framework. The CUSUM and CUSUM of squares tests are applied to ensure the stability of the model. The results suggest the existence of long-run equilibrium relationship and bidirectional Granger causality between EC and the macroeconomic variables. The empirical findings will help policy makers of Malaysia in developing new monitoring standards of energy consumption. As it is the major contributing factor in economic growth and CO2 emission, there is a need for more proper planning in Malaysia to attain future targets in order to cut emissions.
Abstract: Pasta is one of the most widely consumed food products around the world. Rapid determination of the moisture content in pasta will assist food processors to provide online quality control of pasta during large scale production. Rapid Fourier transform near-infrared method (FT-NIR) was developed for determining moisture content in pasta. A calibration set of 150 samples, a validation set of 30 samples and a prediction set of 25 samples of pasta were used. The diffuse reflection spectra of different types of pastas were measured by FT-NIR analyzer in the 4,000-12,000cm-1 spectral range. Calibration and validation sets were designed for the conception and evaluation of the method adequacy in the range of moisture content 10 to 15 percent (w.b) of the pasta. The prediction models based on partial least squares (PLS) regression, were developed in the near-infrared. Conventional criteria such as the R2, the root mean square errors of cross validation (RMSECV), root mean square errors of estimation (RMSEE) as well as the number of PLS factors were considered for the selection of three pre-processing (vector normalization, minimum-maximum normalization and multiplicative scatter correction) methods. Spectra of pasta sample were treated with different mathematic pre-treatments before being used to build models between the spectral information and moisture content. The moisture content in pasta predicted by FT-NIR methods had very good correlation with their values determined via traditional methods (R2 = 0.983), which clearly indicated that FT-NIR methods could be used as an effective tool for rapid determination of moisture content in pasta. The best calibration model was developed with min-max normalization (MMN) spectral pre-processing (R2 = 0.9775). The MMN pre-processing method was found most suitable and the maximum coefficient of determination (R2) value of 0.9875 was obtained for the calibration model developed.
Abstract: The paper aims to compare the performance of vertical and inclined multiple plunging jets and to model and predict their mass transfer capacity by multi-linear regression based approach. The multiple vertical plunging jets have jet impact angle of θ = 90O; whereas, multiple inclined plunging jets have jet impact angle of θ = 60O. The results of the study suggests that mass transfer is higher for multiple jets, and inclined multiple plunging jets have up to 1.6 times higher mass transfer than vertical multiple plunging jets under similar conditions. The derived relationship, based on multi-linear regression approach, has successfully predicted the volumetric mass transfer coefficient (KLa) from operational parameters of multiple plunging jets with a correlation coefficient of 0.973, root mean square error of 0.002 and coefficient of determination of 0.946. The results suggests that predicted overall mass transfer coefficient is in good agreement with actual experimental values; thereby, suggesting the utility of derived relationship based on multi-linear regression based approach and can be successfully employed in modeling mass transfer by multiple plunging jets.
Abstract: An effort for the detection of damages in the
reinforcement bars of reinforced concrete members using PZTs is
presented. The damage can be the result of excessive elongation of
the steel bar due to steel yielding or due to local steel corrosion. In
both cases the damage is simulated by considering reduced diameter
of the rebar along the damaged part of its length. An integration
approach based on both electromechanical admittance methodology
and guided wave propagation technique is used to evaluate the
artificial damage on the examined longitudinal steel bar. Two
actuator PZTs and a sensor PZT are considered to be bonded on the
examined steel bar. The admittance of the Sensor PZT is calculated
using COMSOL 3.4a. Fast Furrier Transformation for a better
evaluation of the results is employed. An effort for the quantification
of the damage detection using the root mean square deviation
(RMSD) between the healthy condition and damage state of the
sensor PZT is attempted. The numerical value of the RSMD yields a
level for the difference between the healthy and the damaged
admittance computation indicating this way the presence of damage
in the structure. Experimental measurements are also presented.
Abstract: Several meteorological parameters were used for the
prediction of monthly average daily global solar radiation on
horizontal using recurrent neural networks (RNNs). Climatological
data and measures, mainly air temperature, humidity, sunshine
duration, and wind speed between 1995 and 2007 were used to design
and validate a feed forward and recurrent neural network based
prediction systems. In this paper we present our reference system
based on a feed-forward multilayer perceptron (MLP) as well as the
proposed approach based on an RNN model. The obtained results
were promising and comparable to those obtained by other existing
empirical and neural models. The experimental results showed the
advantage of RNNs over simple MLPs when we deal with time series
solar radiation predictions based on daily climatological data.
Abstract: In this paper, we present the simulation of the propagation characteristics of the picocellular propagation channel environment. The first aim has been to find a correct description of the environment for received wave.
The result of the first investigations is that the environment of the indoor wave significantly changes as we change the electric parameters of material constructions. A modified 3D ray tracing image method tool has been utilized for the coverage prediction. A detailed analysis of the dependence of the indoor wave on the wideband characteristics of the channel: root mean square (RMS) delay spread characteristics and Mean excess delay, is also investigated.
Abstract: River flow prediction is an essential tool to ensure proper management of water resources and the optimal distribution of water to consumers. This study presents an analysis and prediction by using nonlinear prediction method with monthly river flow data for Tanjung Tualang from 1976 to 2006. Nonlinear prediction method involves the reconstruction of phase space and local linear approximation approach. The reconstruction of phase space involves the reconstruction of one-dimension (the observed 287 months of data) in a multidimensional phase space to reveal the dynamics of the system. The revenue of phase space reconstruction is used to predict the next 72 months. A comparison of prediction performance based on correlation coefficient (CC) and root mean square error (RMSE) was employed to compare prediction performance for the nonlinear prediction method, ARIMA and SVM. Prediction performance comparisons show that the prediction results using the nonlinear prediction method are better than ARIMA and SVM. Therefore, the results of this study could be used to develop an efficient water management system to optimize the allocation of water resources.
Abstract: This paper aims to examine whether a bubble is present in the housing market of China. Thus, we use the housing price-to-income ratios and housing price-to-rent ratios of 35 cities from 1998 to 2010. The methods of the panel KSS unit root test with a Fourier function and the SPSM process are likewise used. The panel KSS unit root test with a Fourier function considers the problem of non-linearity and structural changes, and the SPSM process can avoid the stationary time series from dominating the result-generated bias. Through a rigorous empirical study, we determine that the housing price-to-income ratios are stationary in 34 of the 35 cities in China. Only Xining is non-stationary. The housing price-to-rent ratios are stationary in 32 of the 35 cities in China. Chengdu, Fuzhou, and Zhengzhou are non-stationary. Overall, the housing bubbles are not a serious problem in China at the time.