Abstract: Comparative analysis of the fauna of two families of butterflies (Lepidoptera: Rhopalocera) – Hesperiidae and Nymphalidae were carried out. In general, 122 species of the families are recorded. among these 33 species belong to Hesperiidae and 89 to Nymphalidae. The numbers by countries are as follows: 72 species are found in Syria (including 24 Hesperiidae and 48 Nymphalidae) and 97 in Armenia (26 and 71 species, respectively). Two species of Hesperiidae are reported for Syrian fauna for the first time and one species is newly recorded for Armenia. From the species above mentioned 38 are common both for Syria and Armenia. For estimation of the similarity of faunas studied were used the Jaccard index. By families the index is rather different, consisting for Hesperiidae 0.5151 and for Nymphalidae 0.337.
Abstract: Soil samples were collected from and around Alkomos cement factory, Alkomos town, Libya. Soil physiochemical properties were determined. In addition, olive leaves were scanned for their fungal content. This work can conclude that the results obtained for the examined physiochemical characteristics of soil in the area studied prove that cement dust from the Alkomos cement factory in Libya has had a significant impact on the soil. The affected soil properties are pH and total calcium content. These characteristics were found to be higher than those in similar soils from the same area. The increment of soil pH in the same area may be a result of precipitation of cement dust over the years. Different responses were found in each season and each site. For instance, the dominance of fungi of soil and leaves was lowest at 100 m from the factory and the evenness and diversity increased at this site compared to the control area and 250 m from the factory.
Abstract: This paper will explore integration model between GIS–SCADA system and enclosure quantification model to approach the impact of failure-safe event. There are real demands to identify spatial objects and improve control system performance. Nevertheless, the employed methodology is predicting electro-mechanic operations and corresponding time to environmental incident variations. Open processing, as object systems technology, is presented for integration enclosure database with minimal memory size and computation time via connectivity drivers such as ODBC:JDBC during main stages of GIS–SCADA connection. The function of Geographic Information System is manipulating power distribution in contrast to developing issues. In other ward, GIS-SCADA systems integration will require numerical objects of process to enable system model calibration and estimation demands, determine of past events for analysis and prediction of emergency situations for response training.
Abstract: This study provides a regeneration protocol for Treculia africana Decne (an endangered plant) through embryo culture. Mature zygotic embryos of T. africana were excised from the seeds aseptically and cultured on varied strengths (full, half and quarter) of Murashige and Skoog (MS) basal medium supplemented. All treatments experienced 100±0.00 percent sprouting except for half and quarter strengths. Plantlets in MS full strength had the highest fresh weight, leaf area, and longest shoot length when compared to other treatments. All explants in full, half, quarter strengths and control had the same number of leaves and sprout rate. Between the treatments, there was a significant difference (P>0.05) in their effect on the length of shoot and root, number of adventitious root, leaf area, and fresh weight. Full strength had the highest mean value in all the above-mentioned parameters and differed significantly (P>0.05) from others except in shoot length, number of adventitious roots, and root length where it did not differ (P
Abstract: Non-crimp three-dimensional (3D) orthogonal carbon fabrics are one of the useful textiles reinforcements in composites. In this paper, flexural and bending properties of a carbon non-crimp 3D orthogonal woven reinforcement are experimentally investigated. The present study is focused on the understanding and measurement of the main bending parameters including flexural stress, strain, and modulus. For this purpose, the three-point bending test method is used and the load-displacement curves are analyzed. The influence of some weave's parameters such as yarn type, geometry of structure, and fiber volume fraction on bending behavior of non-crimp 3D orthogonal carbon fabric is investigated. The obtained results also represent a dataset for the simulation of flexural behavior of non-crimp 3D orthogonal weave carbon composite reinforcement.
Abstract: Cervical dentinal hypersensitivity (CDH) affects 8-30% of adults and nearly 85% of perio-treated patients. Various treatment schemes have been applied for treating CDH, among them being fluoride application, laser irradiation, and, recently, bioglass. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of bioglass, copper-bromide (Cu-Br) laser irradiation and their combination on dentinal tubule occlusion as a potential dentinal hypersensitivity treatment for CDH. 45 human dentin surfaces were organized into three equal groups: group A received Cu-Br laser only; group B received bioglass only; group C received bioglass followed by Cu-Br laser irradiation. Specimens were evaluated with regard to dentinal tubule occlusion under environmental scanning electron microscope. Treatment modality significantly affected dentinal tubule occlusion (p
Abstract: In the laser cleavage of glass, the laser is mostly adopted as a heat source to generate a thermal stress state on the substrates. The crack propagation of the soda-lime glass in the laser thermal cleavage with the straight-turning paths was investigated in this study experimentally and numerically. The crack propagation was visualized by a high speed camera with the off-line examination on the micro-crack propagation. The temperature and stress distributions induced by the laser heat source were calculated by ANSYS software based on the finite element method (FEM). With the cutting paths in various turning directions, the experimental and numerical results were in comparison and verified. The fracture modes due to the normal and shear stresses were verified at the turning point of the laser cleavage path. It shows a significant variation of the stress profiles along the straight-turning paths and causes a change on the fracture modes.
Abstract: Gestures play a major role in comprehension and
memory recall due to the fact that aid the efficient channel of
the meaning and support listeners’ comprehension and memory. In
the present study, the assistance of two kinds of gestures (iconic
and beat gestures) is tested in regards to memory and recall. The
hypothesis investigated here is whether or not iconic and beat gestures
provide assistance in memory and recall in Greek and in Greek
speakers’ second language. Two groups of participants were formed,
one comprising Greeks that reside in Athens and one with Greeks
that reside in Copenhagen. Three kinds of stimuli were used: A video
with words accompanied with iconic gestures, a video with words
accompanied with beat gestures and a video with words alone. The
languages used are Greek and English. The words in the English
videos were spoken by a native English speaker and by a Greek
speaker talking English. The reason for this is that when it comes to
beat gestures that serve a meta-cognitive function and are generated
according to the intonation of a language, prosody plays a major
role. Thus, participants that have different influences in prosody may
generate different results from rhythmic gestures. Memory recall was
assessed by asking the participants to try to remember as many
words as they could after viewing each video. Results show that
iconic gestures provide significant assistance in memory and recall
in Greek and in English whether they are produced by a native or
a second language speaker. In the case of beat gestures though, the
findings indicate that beat gestures may not play such a significant
role in Greek language. As far as intonation is concerned, a significant
difference was not found in the case of beat gestures produced by a
native English speaker and by a Greek speaker talking English.
Abstract: In this paper, a method is proposed for solving Fuzzy Multi-Objective Linear Programming problems (FMOLPP) with fuzzy right hand side and fuzzy decision variables. To illustrate the proposed method, it is applied to the problem of selecting suppliers for an automotive parts producer company in Iran in order to find the number of optimal orders allocated to each supplier considering the conflicting objectives. Finally, the obtained results are discussed.
Abstract: Antioxidant-rich extracts were prepared from pomegranate peels, seeds and juice using methanol and ethanol and their antioxidant activity was evaluated by the 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazine (DPPH) radical scavenging and Ferric Reducing Antioxidant Power (FRAP) method. Both analytical methods indicated a higher antioxidant activity in extracts prepared from peels, which was comparable to that of butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT). Furthermore, the antioxidant activity was correlated to the phenolic and flavonoid content of the various extracts. The antioxidant effectiveness of the extracts was also assessed using corn oil as the oxidation substrate. More specifically, preheated corn oil samples stabilized with extracts at a concentration of 250 ppm, 500 ppm or 1,000 ppm were subjected to accelerated aging (100 oC, 10 days) and the extent of oxidative alteration was followed by the measurement of the peroxide, conjugated dienes and trienes, as well as p-aniside value. BHT at its legal limit (200 ppm) served as standard besides the control sample. Results from the different parameters were in agreement with each other suggesting that pomegranate extracts can stabilize corn oil effectively under accelerated conditions, at all concentrations tested. However, the magnitude of oil stabilization depended strongly on the amount of extract added and this was positively correlated with their phenolic content. Pomegranate peel extracts, which exhibited the highest not only phenolic and flavonoid content but also antioxidant activity, were more potent in inhibiting oxidative deterioration. Both methanolic and ethanolic peel extracts at a concentration of 500 ppm exerted a stabilizing effect comparable to that of BHT, while at a concentration of 1000 ppm they exhibited higher stabilization efficiency in comparison to BHT. Finally, heating oil samples resulted in a time dependent decrease in their antioxidant capacity. Samples containing peel extracts appeared to retain their antioxidant capacity for a longer period, indicating that these extracts contained active compounds that offered superior antioxidant protection to corn oil.
Abstract: Mobile technology, augmented reality, and game-based learning are some of the key learning technologies that can be fully optimized to promote pre-literacy skills. The problem is how to design an effective pre-literacy kit that utilizes some of the learning technologies. This paper presents a framework based on mobile augmented reality for the development of pre-literacy kit. This pre-literacy kit incorporates three main components which are contents, design, and tools. A prototype of a mobile app based on the three main components was developed for promoting pre-literacy. The results show that the children and teachers gave positive feedbacks after using the mobile app for the pre-literacy.
Abstract: Internal auditing is one of the most important activities for organizations that implement information security management systems (ISMS). The purpose of internal audits is to ensure the ISMS implementation is in accordance to the ISO/IEC 27001 standard and the organization’s own requirements for its ISMS. Competent internal auditors are the main element that contributes to the effectiveness of internal auditing activities. To realize this need, CyberSecurity Malaysia is now in the process of becoming a certification body that certifies ISMS internal auditors. The certification scheme will assess the competence of internal auditors in generic knowledge and skills in management systems, and also in ISMS-specific knowledge and skills. The certification assessment is based on the ISO/IEC 19011 Guidelines for auditing management systems, ISO/IEC 27007 Guidelines for information security management systems auditing and ISO/IEC 27001 Information security management systems requirements. The certification scheme complies with the ISO/IEC 17024 General requirements for bodies operating certification systems of persons. Candidates who pass the exam will be certified as an ISMS Internal Auditor, whose competency will be evaluated every three years.
Abstract: The effect of 1.0 kJ/m2 Ultraviolet-C (UV-C) light on pH, weight loss, color, and firmness of button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus) tissues during 21-days storage at 4 ºC was studied. UV-C irradiation enhanced pH, weight, color parameters, and firmness of mushroom during storage compared to control treatment. However, application of 1.0 kJ/m2 UV-C treatment could effectively induce the increase of weight loss, firmness, and pH to 14.53%, 49.82%, and 10.39%, respectively. These results suggest that the application of UV-C irradiation could be an effective method to maintain the postharvest quality of mushrooms.
Abstract: The emergence of many environmental issues began with the Industrial Revolution. The depletion of natural resources and emerging environmental challenges over time requires enterprises and managers to take into consideration environmental factors while managing business. If we take notice of these causes; the design and implementation of environmentally friendly green purchasing, production and waste management systems become very important at green logistics systems. Companies can adopt green supply chain with the awareness of these facts. The concept of green supply chain constitutes from green purchasing, green production, green logistics, waste management and reverse logistics. In this study, we wanted to identify the concept of green supply chain and why green supply chain should be applied. In the practice part of the study an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) study is conducted on an aluminum production company to evaluate suppliers.
Abstract: Nowadays innovation represents a challenge crucial to remaining globally competitive. This study seeks to develop a conceptual model aimed at measuring the dynamic interactions of the triple/quadruple helix, balancing innovation and entrepreneurship initiatives as pillars of regional competitiveness – the Regional Helix Scoreboard (RHS). To this aim, different strands of literature are identified according to their focus on specific regional competitiveness governance mechanisms. We put forward an overview of the state-of-the-art of research and is duly assessed in order to develop and propose a framework of analysis that enables an integrated approach in the context of collaborative dynamics. We conclude by presenting the RHS for the study of regional competitiveness dynamics, which integrates and associates different backgrounds and identifies a number of key performance indicators for research challenges.
Abstract: Three emerging contaminants (amitriptyline hydrochloride, methyl salicylate and 2-phenoxyethanol) frequently found in waste-waters were selected to be individually degraded in ultra-pure water by the combined advanced oxidation process constituted by UV radiation and chlorine. The influence of pH, initial chlorine concentration and nature of the contaminants was firstly explored. The trend for the reactivity of the selected compounds was deduced: amitriptyline hydrochloride > methyl salicylate > 2-phenoxyethanol. A later kinetic study was carried out and focused on the specific evaluation of the first-order rate constants and the determination of the partial contribution to the global reaction of the direct photochemical pathway and the radical pathway. A comparison between the rate constant values among photochemical experiments without and with the presence of Cl2 reveals a clear increase in the oxidation efficiency of the combined process with respect to the photochemical reaction alone. In a second stage, the simultaneous oxidation of mixtures of the selected contaminants in several types of water (ultrapure water, surface water from a reservoir, and two secondary effluents) was also performed by the same combination UV/Cl2 under more realistic operating conditions. The efficiency of this combined system UV/Cl2 was compared to other oxidants such as the UV/S2O82- and UV/H2O2 AOPs. Results confirmed that the UV/Cl2 system provides higher elimination efficiencies among the AOPs tested.
Abstract: The present study was aimed in assessing the heavy metal pollution of the soils around Agarak copper-molybdenum mine complex and related environmental risks. This mine complex is located in the south-east part of Armenia, and the present study was conducted in 2013. The soils of the five riskiest sites of this region were studied: surroundings of the open mine, the sites adjacent to processing plant of Agarak copper-molybdenum mine complex, surroundings of Darazam active tailing dump, the recultivated tailing dump of “ravine - 2”, and the recultivated tailing dump of “ravine - 3”. The mountain cambisol was the main soil type in the study sites. The level of soil contamination by heavy metals was assessed by Contamination factors (Cf), Degree of contamination (Cd), Geoaccumulation index (I-geo) and Enrichment factor (EF). The distribution pattern of trace metals in the soil profile according to Cf, Cd, I-geo and EF values shows that the soil is much polluted. Almost in all studied sites, Cu, Mo, Pb, and Cd were the main polluting heavy metals, and this was conditioned by Agarak copper-molybdenum mine complex activity. It is necessary to state that the pollution problem becomes pressing as some parts of these highly polluted region are inhabited by population, and agriculture is highly developed there; therefore, heavy metals can be transferred into human bodies through food chains and have direct influence on public health. Since the induced pollution can pose serious threats to public health, further investigations on soil and vegetation pollution are recommended. Finally, Cf calculating based on distance from the pollution source and the wind direction can provide more reasonable results.
Abstract: In this paper, we consider the MU-MISO downlink scenario, under imperfect channel state information (CSI). The main issue in imperfect CSI is to keep the probability of each user achievable outage rate below the given threshold level. Such a rate outage constraints present significant and analytical challenges. There are many probabilistic methods are used to minimize the transmit optimization problem under imperfect CSI. Here, decomposition based large deviation inequality and Bernstein type inequality convex restriction methods are used to perform the optimization problem under imperfect CSI. These methods are used for achieving improved output quality and lower complexity. They provide a safe tractable approximation of the original rate outage constraints. Based on these method implementations, performance has been evaluated in the terms of feasible rate and average transmission power. The simulation results are shown that all the two methods offer significantly improved outage quality and lower computational complexity.
Abstract: In this study, we integrated ASTER thermal data with an area-based spatial insolation model to identify and delineate geothermally active areas in Yellowstone National Park (YNP). Two pairs of L1B ASTER day- and nighttime scenes were used to calculate land surface temperature. We employed the Emissivity Normalization Algorithm which separates temperature from emissivity to calculate surface temperature. We calculated the incoming solar radiation for the area covered by each of the four ASTER scenes using an insolation model and used this information to compute temperature due to solar radiation. We then identified the statistical thermal anomalies using land surface temperature and the residuals calculated from modeled temperatures and ASTER-derived surface temperatures. Areas that had temperatures or temperature residuals greater than 2σ and between 1σ and 2σ were considered ASTER-modeled thermal anomalies. The areas identified as thermal anomalies were in strong agreement with the thermal areas obtained from the YNP GIS database. Also the YNP hot springs and geysers were located within areas identified as anomalous thermal areas. The consistency between our results and known geothermally active areas indicate that thermal remote sensing data, integrated with a spatial-based insolation model, provides an effective means for identifying and locating areas of geothermal activities over large areas and rough terrain.
Abstract: Industrial drives are source of serious power quality problems. In this, two typical industrial drives have been dealt with, namely, FOC induction motor drives and DTC induction motor drive. The Z-source inverter is an emerging topology of power electronic converters which is capable of buck boost characteristics. The performances of different control methods based Z-source inverters feeding these industrial drives have been investigated, in this work. The test systems have been modeled and simulated in MATLAB/SIMULINK. The results obtained after carrying out these simulations have been used to draw the conclusions.