Abstract: The potential of entomopathogenic nematodes in suppressing T. squalida population on cauliflower from transplanting to harvest was evaluated. Significant reductions in plant infestation percentage and population density (/m2) were recorded throughout the plantation seasons, 2011 and 2012 before and after spraying the plants. The percent reduction in numbers/m2 was the highest in March for the treatments with Heterorhabditis indica Behera and Heterorhabditis bacteriophora Giza during the plantation season 2011, while at the plantation season 2012, the reduction in population density was the highest in January for Heterorhabditis Indica Behera and in February for H . bacteriophora Giza treatments. In a comparison test with conventional insecticides Hostathion and Lannate, there were no significant differences in control measures resulting from treatments with H. indica Behera, H. bacteriophora Giza and Lannate. At the plantation season is 2012. Also, the treatments reduced the economic threshold of T. squalida on cauliflower in this experiment as compared with before and after spraying with both the two entomopathogenic nematodes at both seasons 2011 and 2012. This means an increase in the marketability of heads harvested as a consequence of monthly treatments.
Abstract: Generation of electricity from coal has increased over
the years in the United States and around the world. Burning of coal
results in annual production of upwards of 100 millions tons (United
States only) of coal combustion products (CCPs). Only about a third
of these products are being used to create new products while the
remainder goes to landfills. Application of CCPs mixed with
composted organic materials onto soil can improve the soil-s
physico-chemical conditions and provide essential plant nutritients.
Our objective was to create plant growth media utilizing CCPs and
compost in way which maximizes the use of these products and, at
the same time, maintain good plant growth. Media were formulated
by adding composted organic matter (COM) to CCPs at ratios
ranging from 2:8 to 8:2 (v/v). The quality of these media was
evaluated by measuring their physical and chemical properties and
their effect on plant growth. We tested the media by 1) measuring
their physical and chemical properties and 2) the growth of three
plant species in the experimental media: wheat (Triticum sativum),
tomato (Lycopersicum esculentum) and marigold (Tagetes patula).
We achieved significantly (p < 0.001) higher growth (7-130%) in the
experimental media containing CCPs compared to a commercial mix.
The experimental media supplied adequate plant nutrition as no
fertilization was provided during the experiment. Based on the
results, we recommend the use of CCPs and composts for the
creation of plant growth media.
Abstract: The increments of aromatic structures are widely used to monitor the degree of humification. Compost derived from mix manures mixed with agricultural wastes was studied. The compost collected at day 0, 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 49, 77, 91, 105, and 119 was divided into 3 stages, initial stage at day 0, thermophilic stage during day 1-48, and mature stage during day 49-119. The change of highest absorptions at wavelength range between 210-235 nm during day 0- 49 implied that small molecules such as nitrates and carboxylic occurred faster than the aromatic molecules that were found at wavelength around 280 nm. The ratio of electron-transfer band at wavelength 253 nm by the benzonoid band at wavelength 230 nm (E253/E230) also gradually increased during the fermenting period indicating the presence of O-containing functional groups. This was in agreement with the shift change from aliphatic to aromatic structures as shown by the relationship with C/N and H/C ratios (r = - 0.631 and -0.717, p< 0.05) since both were decreasing. Although the amounts of humic acid (HA) were not different much during the humification process, the UV spectral deconvolution showed better qualitative characteristics to help in determining the compost quality. From this study, the compost should be used at day 49 and should not be kept longer than 3 months otherwise the quality of HA would decline regardless of the amounts of HA that might be rising. This implied that other processes, such as mineralization had an influence on the humification process changing HA-s structure and its qualities.
Abstract: For evaluating the severity of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), one is interested in inspecting the airway wall thickening due to inflammation. Although airway segmentations have being well developed to reconstruct in high order, airway wall segmentation remains a challenge task. While tackling such problem as a multi-surface segmentation, the interrelation within surfaces needs to be considered. We propose a new method for three-dimensional airway wall segmentation using spring structural active contour model. The method incorporates the gravitational field of the image and repelling force field of the inner lumen as the soft constraint and the geometric spring structure of active contour as the hard constraint to approximate a three-dimensional coupled surface readily for thickness measurements. The results show the preservation of topology constraints of coupled surfaces. In conclusion, our springy, soft-tissue-like structure ensures the globally optimal solution and waives the shortness following by the inevitable improper inner surface constraint.
Abstract: In situ observation of absorption spectral change of
heptil viologen cation radical (HV+.) was performed by slab optical
waveguide (SOWG) spectroscopy utilizing indium-tin-oxide (ITO)
electrodes. Synchronizing with electrochemical techniques, we
observed the adsorption process of HV+.on the ITO electrode. In this
study, we carried out the ITO-SOWG observations using KBr aqueous
solution containing different concentration of HV to investigate the
concentration dependent spectral change. A few specific absorption
bands, which indicated HV+.existed as both monomer and dimer on
ITO electrode surface with a monolayer or a few layers deposition,
were observed in UV-visible region. The change in the peak position
of the absorption spectra from adsorption species of HV+. were
correlated with the concentration of HV as well as the electrode
potential.
Abstract: Purpose:This paper aims to gain insights to the influential factors of ERM adoptions by public listed firms in Malaysia. Findings:The two factors of financial leverage and auditor type were found to be significant influential factors for ERM adoption. In other words the findings indicated that firms with higher financial leverage and with a Big Four auditor are more likely to have a form of ERM framework in place. Originality/Value:Since there are relatively few studies conducted in this area and specially in developing economies like Malaysia, this study will broaden the scope of literature by providing novel empirical evidence.
Abstract: A simple approach is demonstrated for growing large
scale, nearly vertically aligned ZnO nanowire arrays by thermal
oxidation method. To reveal effect of temperature on growth and
physical properties of the ZnO nanowires, gold coated zinc substrates
were annealed at 300 °C and 400 °C for 4 hours duration in air. Xray
diffraction patterns of annealed samples indicated a set of well
defined diffraction peaks, indexed to the wurtzite hexagonal phase of
ZnO. The scanning electron microscopy studies show formation of
ZnO nanowires having length of several microns and average of
diameter less than 500 nm. It is found that the areal density of wires
is relatively higher, when the annealing is carried out at higher
temperature i.e. at 400°C. From the field emission studies, the values
of the turn-on and threshold field, required to draw emission current
density of 10 μA/cm2 and 100 μA/cm2 are observed to be 1.2 V/μm
and 1.7 V/μm for the samples annealed at 300 °C and 2.9 V/μm and
3.7 V/μm for that annealed at 400 °C, respectively. The field
emission current stability, investigated over duration of more than 2
hours at the preset value of 1 μA, is found to be fairly good in both
cases. The simplicity of the synthesis route coupled with the
promising field emission properties offer unprecedented advantage
for the use of ZnO field emitters for high current density
applications.
Abstract: Speeded-Up Robust Feature (SURF) is commonly used for feature matching in stereovision because of their robustness towards scale changes and rotational changes. However, SURF feature cannot cope with large viewpoint changes or skew distortion. This paper introduces a method which can help to improve the wide baseline-s matching performance in term of accuracy by rectifying the image using two vanishing points. Simplified orientation correction was used to remove the false matching..
Abstract: This paper proposes an easy-to-use instruction hiding
method to protect software from malicious reverse engineering
attacks. Given a source program (original) to be protected, the
proposed method (1) takes its modified version (fake) as an input,
(2) differences in assembly code instructions between original and
fake are analyzed, and, (3) self-modification routines are introduced
so that fake instructions become correct (i.e., original instructions)
before they are executed and that they go back to fake ones after
they are executed. The proposed method can add a certain amount
of security to a program since the fake instructions in the resultant
program confuse attackers and it requires significant effort to discover
and remove all the fake instructions and self-modification routines.
Also, this method is easy to use (with little effort) because all a user
(who uses the proposed method) has to do is to prepare a fake source
code by modifying the original source code.
Abstract: Elastic and inelastic scattering of α-particles by 9Be nuclei at different incident energies have been analyzed. Optical model parameters (OMPs) of α-particles elastic scattering by 9Be at different energies have been obtained. Coupled Reaction Channel (CRC) of elastic scattering, inelastic scattering and transfer reaction has been calculated using Fresco Code. The effect of involving CRC calculations on the analysis of differential cross section has been studied. The transfer reaction of (5He) in the reaction 9Be(α,9Be)α has been studied. The spectroscopic factor of 9Be≡α+5He has been extracted.
Abstract: This paper examines the students’ self-concept among 16- and 17- year- old adolescents in Malaysian secondary schools. Previous studies have shown that positive self-concept played an important role in student adjustment and academic performance during schooling. This study attempts to investigate the factors influencing students’ perceptions toward their own self-concept. A total of 1168 students participated in the survey. This study utilized the CoPs (UM) instrument to measure self-concept. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) revealed three factors: academic selfconcept, physical self-concept and social self-concept. This study confirmed that students perceived certain internal context factors, and revealed that external context factor also have an impact on their self-concept.
Abstract: Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is a very toxic gas that is produced in very large quantities in the oil and gas industry. It cannot be flared to the atmosphere and Claus process based gas plants are used to recover the sulfur and convert the hydrogen to water. In this paper, we present optical characterization of an atmospheric pressure microwave plasma torch for H2S dissociation into hydrogen and sulfur. The torch is operated at 2.45 GHz with power up to 2 kW. Three different gases can simultaneously be injected in the plasma torch. Visual imaging and optical emission spectroscopy are used to characterize the plasma for varying gas flow rates and microwave power. The plasma length, emission spectra and temperature are presented. The obtained experimental results validate our earlier published simulation results of plasma torch.
Abstract: Thermal-driven refrigeration systems have attracted increasing research and development interest in recent years. These systems do not cause ozone depletion and can reduce demand on electricity. The main objective of this work is to perform theoretical analyses of a thermal-driven refrigeration system using a new sorbent-sorptive pair as the working pair. The active component of sorbent is sodium thiocyanate (NaSCN). Ammonia (NH3) is chosen as sorptive. Based on the thermodynamic properties of the working solution, a mathematical model is introduced to analyze the system characteristics and performance. The results are used to compare with other thermal-driven refrigeration systems. It is shown that the advantages provided by this system over other absorption units include lower generator and evaporator temperatures, a higher coefficient of performance (COP). The COP is about 10 percent higher than the ones for the NH3-H2O system working at the same conditions.
Abstract: The present research focus on the processing of mullite-based ceramics from oil refinery industrial wastes and byproducts of agricultural industry and on the investigating of silane modified surface of ceramics. Two waste products were used as initial material – waste aluminum oxide and waste rice husk. The burning - out additives used were waste rise husk. It is known that the oxide ceramics surface is hydrophilic due to the presence of – OH groups in it. The nature of ceramic surface regarding permeation of water and hydrocarbons can be changed by further treatment with silanes. The samples were studied mainly by X-ray analysis, FT-IR absorbance measurements and microscopic analysis. The X-ray analyses showed the phase composition depends on the firing temperature and on the purity of the starting alumina. Two kind of silanes were used for the transformation of surface from hydrophilic to hydrophobic – trimethoxymethylsilane (TMMS) and trimethylclorsilane (TMCS).
Abstract: Dehydration process was carried out for tomato slices of var. Avinash after giving different pre-treatments such as calcium chloride (CaCl2), potassium metabisulphite (KMS), calcium chloride and potassium metabisulphite (CaCl2 +KMS), and sodium chloride (NaCl). Untreated samples served as control. Solar drier and continuous conveyor (tunnel) drier were used for dehydration. Quality characteristics of tomato slices viz. moisture content, sugar, titratable acidity, lycopene content, dehydration ratio, rehydration ratio and non-enzymatic browning as affected by dehydration process were studied. Storage study was also carried out for a period of six months for tomato powder packed into different types of packaging materials viz. metalized polyester (MP) film and low density poly ethylene (LDPE). Changes in lycopene content and non-enzymatic browning (NEB) were estimated during storage at room temperature. Pretreatment of 5 mm thickness of tomato slices with calcium chloride in combination with potassium metabisulphite and drying using a tunnel drier with subsequent storage of product in metalized polyester bags was selected as the best process.
Abstract: For a quick and accurate calculation of spatial neutron
distribution in nuclear power reactors 3D nodal codes are usually
used aiming at solving the neutron diffusion equation for a given
reactor core geometry and material composition. These codes use a
second order polynomial to represent the transverse leakage term. In
this work, a nodal method based on the well known nodal expansion
method (NEM), developed at COPPE, making use of this polynomial
expansion was modified to treat the transverse leakage term for the
external surfaces of peripheral reflector nodes.
The proposed method was implemented into a computational
system which, besides solving the diffusion equation, also solves the
burnup equations governing the gradual changes in material
compositions of the core due to fuel depletion. Results confirm the
effectiveness of this modified treatment of peripheral nodes for
practical purposes in PWR reactors.
Abstract: Present study summarizes the control of Vibrio
alginolyticus infection in hatchery reared Clownfish, Amphiprion
sebae with the extract of the mangrove plant, Avicennia marina.
Fishes with visible symptoms of hemorrhagic spots were chosen and
the genomic DNA of the causative bacterium was isolated and
sequenced based on 16S rDNA gene. The in vitro assay revealed that
a fraction of A. marina leaf extract elucidated with ethyl acetate:
methanol (6:4) showed a high activity (28 mm) at 125 μg/ml
concentrations. About 4 % of the fraction fed along with live V.
alginolyticus was significantly decreased the cumulative mortality
(P
Abstract: Chemical vapor deposition method was used to
produce carbon nanotubes on an iron based catalyst from acetylene.
Gas-phase samples collected from the different positions of the tubular reactor were analyzed by GC/MS. A variety of species ranging from hydrogen to naphthalene were observed and changes in their concentrations were plotted against the reactor position. Briefly benzene, toluene, styrene, indene and naphthalene were the main
higher molecular weight species and vinylacetylene and diacetylene were the important intermediates. Nanotube characterization was performed by scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy.
Abstract: In this work, we treat the problems related to chemical and petrochemical plants of a certain complex process taking the centrifugal compressor as an example, a system being very complex by its physical structure as well as its behaviour (surge phenomenon). We propose to study the application possibilities of the recent control approaches to the compressor behaviour, and consequently evaluate their contribution in the practical and theoretical fields. Facing the studied industrial process complexity, we choose to make recourse to fuzzy logic for analysis and treatment of its control problem owing to the fact that these techniques constitute the only framework in which the types of imperfect knowledge can jointly be treated (uncertainties, inaccuracies, etc..) offering suitable tools to characterise them. In the particular case of the centrifugal compressor, these imperfections are interpreted by modelling errors, the neglected dynamics, no modelisable dynamics and the parametric variations. The purpose of this paper is to produce a total robust nonlinear controller design method to stabilize the compression process at its optimum steady state by manipulating the gas rate flow. In order to cope with both the parameter uncertainty and the structured non linearity of the plant, the proposed method consists of a linear steady state regulation that ensures robust optimal control and of a nonlinear compensation that achieves the exact input/output linearization.
Abstract: For collecting data from all sensor nodes, some
changes in Dynamic Source Routing (DSR) protocol is proposed. At
each hop level, route-ranking technique is used for distributing
packets to different selected routes dynamically. For calculating rank
of a route, different parameters like: delay, residual energy and
probability of packet loss are used. A hybrid topology of
DMPR(Disjoint Multi Path Routing) and MMPR(Meshed Multi Path
Routing) is formed, where braided topology is used in different
faulty zones of network. For reducing energy consumption, variant
transmission ranges is used instead of fixed transmission range. For
reducing number of packet drop, a fuzzy logic inference scheme is
used to insert different types of delays dynamically. A rule based
system infers membership function strength which is used to
calculate the final delay amount to be inserted into each of the node
at different clusters.
In braided path, a proposed 'Dual Line ACK Link'scheme is
proposed for sending ACK signal from a damaged node or link to a
parent node to ensure that any error in link or any node-failure
message may not be lost anyway. This paper tries to design the
theoretical aspects of a model which may be applied for collecting
data from any large hanging iron structure with the help of wireless
sensor network. But analyzing these data is the subject of material
science and civil structural construction technology, that part is out
of scope of this paper.