Search results for: Biological activities.

Authors: O. Onoriode Emoyan, E. Eyitemi Akporhonor, Charles Otobrise

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Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) are formed mainly because of incomplete combustion of organic materials during industrial, domestic activities or natural occurrence. Their toxicity and contamination of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem have been established. However, with limited validity index, previous research has focused on PAHs isomer pair ratios of variable physicochemical properties in source identification. The objective of this investigation was to determine the empirical validity of Pearson Correlation Coefficient (PCC) and Cluster Analysis (CA) in PAHs source identification along soil samples of different land uses. Therefore, 16 PAHs grouped, as Endocrine Disruption Substances (EDSs) were determined in 10 sample stations in top and sub soils seasonally. PAHs was determined the use of Varian 300 gas chromatograph interfaced with flame ionization detector. Instruments and reagents used are of standard and chromatographic grades respectively. PCC and CA results showed that the classification of PAHs along pyrolitic and petrogenic organics used in source signature is about the predominance PAHs in environmental matrix. Therefore, the distribution of PAHs in the studied stations revealed the presence of trace quantities of the vast majority of the sixteen PAHs, which may ultimately inhabit the actual source signature authentication. Therefore, factors to be considered when evaluating possible sources of PAHs could be; type and extent of bacterial metabolism, transformation products/substrates, and environmental factors such as salinity, pH, oxygen concentration, nutrients, light intensity, temperature, co-substrates, and environmental medium are hereby recommended as factors to be considered when evaluating possible sources of PAHs.

Keywords: Comparative correlation, kinetically, polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, thermodynamically- favored PAHs, sources evaluation.

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Authors: Iftikhar Ahmad, Youssef Elkezza

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Sarir oilfield is in North Africa. It has facilities of oil and gas production. The assets of the Sarir oilfield can be divided into five following categories, namely: (i) Well bore and wellheads; (ii) Vessels such as separators, desalters, and gas processing facilities; (iii) Pipelines including all flow lines, trunk lines, and shipping lines; (iv) storage tanks; (v) Other assets such as turbines and compressors, etc. The nature of the petroleum industry recognizes the potential human, environmental and financial consequences that can result from failing to maintain the integrity of wellheads, vessels, tanks, pipelines, and other assets. The importance of effective asset integrity management increases as the industry infrastructure continues to age. The primary objective of assets integrity management (AIM) is to maintain assets in a fit-for-service condition while extending their remaining life in the most reliable, safe, and cost-effective manner. Corrosion management is one of the important aspects of successful asset integrity management. It covers corrosion mitigation, monitoring, inspection, and risk evaluation. External corrosion on pipelines, well bores, buried assets, and bottoms of tanks is controlled with a combination of coatings by cathodic protection, while the external corrosion on surface equipment, wellheads, and storage tanks is controlled by coatings. The periodic cleaning of the pipeline by pigging helps in the prevention of internal corrosion. Further, internal corrosion of pipelines is prevented by chemical treatment and controlled operations. This paper describes the integrity management system used in the Sarir oil field for its oil and gas production facilities based on standard practices of corrosion mitigation and inspection.

Keywords: Assets integrity management, corrosion prevention in oilfield assets, corrosion management in oilfield, corrosion prevention and inspection activities.

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Authors: Marilena Ianculescu, Adriana Alexandru

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Internet of Health Things (IoHT) has already proved to be a persuasive means to support a proper assessment of the living conditions by collecting a huge variety of data. For a customized health management of a senior patient, IoHT provides the capacity to build a dynamic solution for sustaining the shift inside the patient-physician relationship by allowing a real-time and continuous remote monitoring of the health status, well-being, safety and activities of the senior, especially in a non-clinical environment. Thus, is created a win-win solution in which both the patient and the physician enhance their involvement and shared decision-making, with significant outcomes. Health monitoring systems in smart environments are becoming a viable alternative to traditional healthcare solutions. The ongoing “Non-invasive monitoring and health assessment of the elderly in a smart environment (RO-SmartAgeing)” project aims to demonstrate that the existence of complete and accurate information is critical for assessing the health condition of the seniors, improving wellbeing and quality of life in relation to health. The researches performed inside the project aim to highlight how the management of IoHT devices connected to the RO-SmartAgeing platform in a secure way by using a role-based access control system, can allow the physicians to provide health services at a high level of efficiency and accessibility, which were previously only available in hospitals. The project aims to identify deficient aspects in the provision of health services tailored to a senior patient’s specificity and to offer a more comprehensive perspective of proactive and preventive medical acts.

Keywords: Health management, Internet of Health Things, remote monitoring, senior patient.

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Authors: Rosarin Rujananon, Poonsuk Prasertsan, Amornrat Phongdara, Tanate Panrat, Jibin Sun, Sugima Rappert, An-Ping Zeng

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In this study, a synthetic pathway was created by assembling genes from Clostridium butyricum and Escherichia coli in different combinations. Among the genes were dhaB1 and dhaB2 from C. butyricum VPI1718 coding for glycerol dehydratase (GDHt) and its activator (GDHtAc), respectively, involved in the conversion of glycerol to 3-hydroxypropionaldehyde (3-HPA). The yqhD gene from E.coli BL21 was also included which codes for an NADPHdependent 1,3-propanediol oxidoreductase isoenzyme (PDORI) reducing 3-HPA to 1,3-propanediol (1,3-PD). Molecular modeling analysis indicated that the conformation of fusion protein of YQHD and DHAB1 was favorable for direct molecular channeling of the intermediate 3-HPA. According to the simulation results, the yqhD and dhaB1 gene were assembled in the upstream of dhaB2 to express a fusion protein, yielding the recombinant strain E. coliBL21 (DE3)//pET22b+::yqhD-dhaB1_dhaB2 (strain BP41Y3). Strain BP41Y3 gave 10-fold higher 1,3-PD concentration than E. coliBL21 (DE3)//pET22b+::yqhD-dhaB1_dhaB2 (strain BP31Y2) expressing the recombinant enzymes simultaneously but in a non-fusion mode. This is the first report using a gene fusion approach to enhance the biological conversion of glycerol to the value added compound 1,3- PD.

Keywords: Recombinant E.coli, 1, 3-propanediol, glycerol, fusion protein.

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Authors: Ghada Badr, Arwa Alturki

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The biological function of an RNA molecule depends on its structure. The objective of the alignment is finding the homology between two or more RNA secondary structures. Knowing the common functionalities between two RNA structures allows a better understanding and a discovery of other relationships between them. Besides, identifying non-coding RNAs -that is not translated into a protein- is a popular application in which RNA structural alignment is the first step A few methods for RNA structure-to-structure alignment have been developed. Most of these methods are partial structure-to-structure, sequence-to-structure, or structure-to-sequence alignment. Less attention is given in the literature to the use of efficient RNA structure representation and the structure-to-structure alignment methods are lacking. In this paper, we introduce an O(N2) Component-based Pairwise RNA Structure Alignment (CompPSA) algorithm, where structures are given as a component-based representation and where N is the maximum number of components in the two structures. The proposed algorithm compares the two RNA secondary structures based on their weighted component features rather than on their base-pair details. Extensive experiments are conducted illustrating the efficiency of the CompPSA algorithm when compared to other approaches and on different real and simulated datasets. The CompPSA algorithm shows an accurate similarity measure between components. The algorithm gives the flexibility for the user to align the two RNA structures based on their weighted features (position, full length, and/or stem length). Moreover, the algorithm proves scalability and efficiency in time and memory performance.

Keywords: Alignment, RNA secondary structure, pairwise, component-based, data mining.

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Authors: Juliana A. Fracarolli, Adilson M. Enes, Inácio M. Dal Fabbro, Silvestre Rodrigues

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The dynamic speckle or biospeckle is an interference phenomenon generated at the reflection of a coherent light by an active surface or even by a particulate or living body surface. The above mentioned phenomenon gave scientific support to a method named biospeckle which has been employed to study seed viability, biological activity, tissue senescence, tissue water content, fruit bruising, etc. Since the above mentioned method is not invasive and yields numerical values, it can be considered for possible automation associated to several processes, including selection and sorting. Based on these preliminary considerations, this research work proposed to study the interaction of a laser beam with vegetative samples by measuring the incident light intensity and the transmitted light beam intensity at several vegetative slabs of varying thickness. Tests were carried on fifteen slices of apple tissue divided into three thickness groups, i.e., 4 mm, 5 mm, 18 mm and 22 mm. A diode laser beam of 10mW and 632 nm wavelength and a Samsung digital camera were employed to carry the tests. Outgoing images were analyzed by comparing the gray gradient of a fixed image column of each image to obtain a laser penetration scale into the tissue, according to the slice thickness.

Keywords: Fruit, laser, laser transmission, vegetative tissue.

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Authors: Naci Büyükkaracığan

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Hydroclimatic observation values ​​are used in the planning of the project of water resources. Climate variables are the first of the values ​​used in planning projects. At the same time, the climate system is a complex and interactive system involving the atmosphere, land surfaces, snow and bubbles, the oceans and other water structures. The amount and distribution of precipitation, which is an important climate parameter, is a limiting environmental factor for dispersed living things. Trend analysis is applied to the detection of the presence of a pattern or trend in the data set. Many trends work in different parts of the world are usually made for the determination of climate change. The detection and attribution of past trends and variability in climatic variables is essential for explaining potential future alteration resulting from anthropogenic activities. Parametric and non-parametric tests are used for determining the trends in climatic variables. In this study, trend tests were applied to annual total precipitation data obtained in period of 1972 and 2012, in the Konya Basin. Non-parametric trend tests, (Sen’s T, Spearman’s Rho, Mann-Kendal, Sen’s T trend, Wald-Wolfowitz) and parametric test (mean square) were applied to annual total precipitations of 15 stations for trend analysis. The linear slopes (change per unit time) of trends are calculated by using a non-parametric estimator developed by Sen. The beginning of trends is determined by using the Mann-Kendall rank correlation test. In addition, homogeneities in precipitation trends are tested by using a method developed by Van Belle and Hughes. As a result of tests, negative linear slopes were found in annual total precipitations in Konya.

Keywords: Trend analysis, precipitation, hydroclimatology, Konya, Turkey.

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Authors: Seyed Mohammad Hosseini, Amirhossein Moghanian

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The main purpose of this research was to design a biomimetic system by freeze-drying method for evaluating the effect of adding 5 and 10 mol. % of zinc (Zn) in 58S bioactive glass and gelatin (5ZnBG/G and 10ZnBG/G) in terms of structural and biological changes. The structural analyses of samples were performed by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. Also, 3-(4,5dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity tests were carried out for investigation of MC3T3-E1 cell behaviors. The SEM results demonstrated the spherical shape of the formed hydroxyapatite (HA) phases and also HA characteristic peaks were detected by XRD spectroscopy after 3 days of immersion in the simulated body fluid (SBF) solution. Meanwhile, FTIR spectra proved that the intensity of P–O peaks for 5ZnBG/G was more than 10ZnBG/G and control samples. Moreover, the results of ALP activity test illustrated that the optimal amount of Zn (5ZnBG/G) caused a considerable enhancement in bone cell growth. Taken together, the scaffold with 5 mol.% Zn was introduced as an optimal sample because of its higher biocompatibility, in vitro bioactivity and growth of MC3T3-E1 cells in comparison with other samples in bone tissue engineering.

Keywords: Scaffold, gelatin, modified bioactive glass, ALP, bone tissue engineering.

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Authors: K.Kadirgama, M.M.Noor, K.A. Abou-El-Hossein, H.H.Habeeb, M.M. Rahman, B.Mohamad, R.A. Bakar

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Cutting fluids, usually in the form of a liquid, are applied to the chip formation zone in order to improve the cutting conditions. Cutting fluid can be expensive and represents a biological and environmental hazard that requires proper recycling and disposal, thus adding to the cost of the machining operation. For these reasons dry cutting or dry machining has become an increasingly important approach; in dry machining no coolant or lubricant is used. This paper discussed the effect of the dry cutting on cutting force and tool life when machining aerospace materials (Haynes 242) with using two different coated carbide cutting tools (TiAlN and TiN/MT-TiCN/TiN). Response surface method (RSM) was used to minimize the number of experiments. ParTiAlN Swarm Optimisation (PSO) models were developed to optimize the machining parameters (cutting speed, federate and axial depth) and obtain the optimum cutting force and tool life. It observed that carbide cutting tool coated with TiAlN performed better in dry cutting compared with TiN/MT-TiCN/TiN. On other hand, TiAlN performed more superior with using of 100 % water soluble coolant. Due to the high temperature produced by aerospace materials, the cutting tool still required lubricant to sustain the heat transfer from the workpiece.

Keywords: Dry cutting, partial swarm optimisation, response surface method, tool life

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Authors: L. K. Davis

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The effects of the evolution force are observable in nature at all structural levels ranging from small molecular systems to conversely enormous biospheric systems. However, the evolution force and work associated with formation of biological structures has yet to be described mathematically or theoretically. In addressing the conundrum, we consider evolution from a unique perspective and in doing so we introduce the “Fundamental Theory of the Evolution Force: FTEF”. We utilized synthetic evolution artificial intelligence (SYN-AI) to identify genomic building blocks and to engineer 14-3-3 ζ docking proteins by transforming gene sequences into time-based DNA codes derived from protein hierarchical structural levels. The aforementioned served as templates for random DNA hybridizations and genetic assembly. The application of hierarchical DNA codes allowed us to fast forward evolution, while dampening the effect of point mutations. Natural selection was performed at each hierarchical structural level and mutations screened using Blosum 80 mutation frequency-based algorithms. Notably, SYN-AI engineered a set of three architecturally conserved docking proteins that retained motion and vibrational dynamics of native Bos taurus 14-3-3 ζ.

Keywords: 14-3-3 docking genes, synthetic protein design, time based DNA codes, writing DNA code from scratch.

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Authors: R. Razavizadeh, F. Adabavazeh, M. Rezaee Chermahini

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Salinity is one of the most widespread agricultural problems in arid and semi-arid areas that limits the plant growth and crop productivity. In this study, the salt stress effects on protein, reducing sugar, proline contents and antioxidant enzymes activities of Carum copticum L. under in vitro conditions were studied. Seeds of C. copticum were cultured in Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium containing 0, 25, 50, 100 and 150 mM NaCl and calli were cultured in MS medium containing 1 μM 2, 4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid, 4 μM benzyl amino purine and different levels of NaCl (0, 25, 50, 100 and 150 mM). After NaCl treatment for 28 days, the proline and reducing sugar contents of shoots, roots and calli increased significantly in relation to the severity of the salt stress. The highest amount of proline and carbohydrate were observed at 150 and 100 mM NaCl, respectively. The reducing sugar accumulation in shoots was the highest as compared to roots, whereas, proline contents did not show any significant difference in roots and shoots under salt stress. The results showed significant reduction of protein contents in seedlings and calli. Based on these results, proteins extracted from the shoots, roots and calli of C. copticum treated with 150 mM NaCl showed the lowest contents. The positive relationships were observed between activity of antioxidant enzymes and the increase in stress levels. Catalase, ascorbate peroxidase and superoxide dismutase activity increased significantly under salt concentrations in comparison to the control. These results suggest that the accumulation of proline and sugars, and activation of antioxidant enzymes play adaptive roles in the adaptation of seedlings and callus of C. copticum to saline conditions.

Keywords: Antioxidant enzymes, Carum copticum, organic solutes, salt stress.

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Authors: El-Said. I. Shabana, Mohammad S. Tayeb, Maher M. T. Qutub, Abdulraheem A. Kinsara

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Usually, phosphate deposits contain ²³⁸U and ²³²Th in addition to their decay products. Due to their different pathways in the environment, the ²³⁸U/²³²Th activity concentration ratio usually found to be greater than unity in phosphate sediments. The presence of these radionuclides creates a potential need to control exposure of workers in the mining and processing activities of the phosphate minerals in accordance with IAEA safety standards. The greatest dose to workers comes from exposure to radon, especially ²²²Rn from the uranium series, and has to be controlled. In this regard, radon (²²²Rn) was measured in the atmosphere (indoor and outdoor) of Al-Jalamid phosphate-mines working area using a portable radon-measurement instrument RAD7, in a purpose of radiation protection. Radon was measured in 61 sites inside the open phosphate mines, the phosphate upgrading facility (offices and rooms of the workers, and in some open-air sites) and in the dwellings of the workers residence-village that lies at about 3 km from the mines working area. The obtained results indicated that the average indoor radon concentration was about 48.4 Bq/m³. Inside the upgrading facility, the average outdoor concentrations were 10.8 and 9.7 Bq/m³ in the concentrate piles and crushing areas, respectively. It was 12.3 Bq/m³ in the atmosphere of the open mines. These values are comparable with the global average values. Based on the average values, the annual effective dose due to radon inhalation was calculated and risk estimates have been done. The average annual effective dose to workers due to the radon inhalation was estimated by 1.32 mSv. The potential excess risk of lung cancer mortality that could be attributed to radon, when considering the lifetime exposure, was estimated by 53.0x10^-4. The results have been discussed in detail.

Keywords: Dosimetry, environmental monitoring, phosphate deposits, radiation protection, radon-22.

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Authors: Abou-Baker Salim, A. A. K. Abou-Arab, Sherif R. Mohamed, T. A. Eldesouky

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Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) is an ancient fruit of great medical interest and rich source of antioxidants. Pesticides as dimethoate play a crucial role in the occurrence many diseases in plants, animal and human. Therefore the ability of Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) to alleviate hepatotoxicity induced by organophosphate pesticide dimethoate was investigated. Albino male rats were divided randomly into 4 groups and kept at 7 animals per group in an environmentally controlled condition for 6 weeks. The first group was served as a control group (basal diet), the second group fed on basal diet supplemented with 5% freeze dried pomegranate seeds, the third group fed on 20 ppm dimethoate contaminated diet and the last group fed on dimethoate contaminated diet supplemented with 5% freeze dried pomegranate seeds. The results revealed that administration of dimethoate caused high significant increased in liver functions: alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activities as well as lipid peroxide (malonaldhyde, MDA); on the other hand high significant decreased on glutathione (GSH), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), albumin and total protein were observed. However addition of 5% freeze dried pomegranate seeds significantly improved all previously mentioned parameters. These results indicate the dimethoate induced hepatotoxicity and highlight the protective effect of pomegranate seeds as a potential protective agent against dimethoate induced hepatotoxicity. This may be attributed to the powerful antioxidants (polyphenols, total phenols, and total flavonoids) which present in high levels in pomegranate as well as improving the immunity by activation of antioxidant enzymes GSH and GPx.

Keywords: Pomegranate, organophosphate pesticides, dimethoate, liver toxicity, free radicals, antioxidants.

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Authors: Farnaz Amin Salehi, David Edward.Cotton, Mohammad Ali Abdoli, Kambiz Rezapour

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The daily increase of organic waste materials resulting from different activities in the country is one of the main factors for the pollution of environment. Today, with regard to the low level of the output of using traditional methods, the high cost of disposal waste materials and environmental pollutions, the use of modern methods such as anaerobic digestion for the production of biogas has been prevailing. The collected biogas from the process of anaerobic digestion, as a renewable energy source similar to natural gas but with a less methane and heating value is usable. Today, with the help of technologies of filtration and proper preparation, access to biogas with features fully similar to natural gas has become possible. At present biogas is one of the main sources of supplying electrical and thermal energy and also an appropriate option to be used in four stroke engine, diesel engine, sterling engine, gas turbine, gas micro turbine and fuel cell to produce electricity. The use of biogas for different reasons which returns to socio-economic and environmental advantages has been noticed in CHP for the production of energy in the world. The production of biogas from the technology of anaerobic digestion and its application in CHP power plants in Iran can not only supply part of the energy demands in the country, but it can materialize moving in line with the sustainable development. In this article, the necessity of the development of CHP plants with biogas fuels in the country will be dealt based on studies performed from the economic, environmental and social aspects. Also to prove the importance of the establishment of these kinds of power plants from the economic point of view, necessary calculations has been done as a case study for a CHP power plant with a biogas fuel.

Keywords: Anaerobic Digestion, Biogas, CHP, Organic Wastes

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Authors: A. Gruzdz, A. Ihnatowicz, J. Siddiqi, B. Akhgar

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MATCH project [1] entitle the development of an automatic diagnosis system that aims to support treatment of colon cancer diseases by discovering mutations that occurs to tumour suppressor genes (TSGs) and contributes to the development of cancerous tumours. The constitution of the system is based on a) colon cancer clinical data and b) biological information that will be derived by data mining techniques from genomic and proteomic sources The core mining module will consist of the popular, well tested hybrid feature extraction methods, and new combined algorithms, designed especially for the project. Elements of rough sets, evolutionary computing, cluster analysis, self-organization maps and association rules will be used to discover the annotations between genes, and their influence on tumours [2]-[11]. The methods used to process the data have to address their high complexity, potential inconsistency and problems of dealing with the missing values. They must integrate all the useful information necessary to solve the expert's question. For this purpose, the system has to learn from data, or be able to interactively specify by a domain specialist, the part of the knowledge structure it needs to answer a given query. The program should also take into account the importance/rank of the particular parts of data it analyses, and adjusts the used algorithms accordingly.

Keywords: Bioinformatics, gene expression, ontology, selforganizingmaps.

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Authors: Theodore N.S. Karfakis, Anna Andrade, Carolina Volkmer-Castilho, Dennis R. Valle, Eric Arets, Paul van Gardingen

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The aim of the work presented here was to either use existing forest dynamic simulation models or calibrate a new one both within the SYMFOR framework with the purpose of examining changes in stand level basal area and functional composition in response to selective logging considering trees > 10 cm d.b.h for two areas of undisturbed Amazonian non flooded tropical forest in Brazil and one in Peru. Model biological realism was evaluated for forest in the undisturbed and selectively logged state and it was concluded that forest dynamics were realistically represented. Results of the logging simulation experiments showed that in relation to undisturbed forest simulation subject to no form of harvesting intervention there was a significant amount of change over a 90 year simulation period that was positively proportional to the intensity of logging. Areas which had in the dynamic equilibrium of undisturbed forest a greater proportion of a specific ecological guild of trees known as the light hardwoods (LHW’s) seemed to respond more favorably in terms of less deviation but only within a specific range of baseline forest composition beyond which compositional diversity became more important. These finds are in line partially with practical management experience and partiality basic systematics theory respectively.

Keywords: Amazonbasin, ecological species guild, selective logging, simulation modeling.

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Authors: Mughal Yar M, Israr Ul Haq, Bushra Noman

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The stem cells have ability to differentiated themselves through mitotic cell division and various range of specialized cell types. Cellular differentiation is a way by which few specialized cell develops into more specialized.This paper studies the fundamental problem of computational schema for an artificial neural network based on chemical, physical and biological variables of state. By doing this type of study system could be model for a viable propagation of various economically important stem cells differentiation. This paper proposes various differentiation outcomes of artificial neural network into variety of potential specialized cells on implementing MATLAB version 2009. A feed-forward back propagation kind of network was created to input vector (five input elements) with single hidden layer and one output unit in output layer. The efficiency of neural network was done by the assessment of results achieved from this study with that of experimental data input and chosen target data. The propose solution for the efficiency of artificial neural network assessed by the comparatative analysis of “Mean Square Error" at zero epochs. There are different variables of data in order to test the targeted results.

Keywords: Computational shcmin, meiosis, mitosis, neuralnetwork, Stem cell SOM;

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Authors: M. Pandi, K. Premalatha

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The DNA microarray technology concurrently monitors the expression levels of thousands of genes during significant biological processes and across the related samples. The better understanding of functional genomics is obtained by extracting the patterns hidden in gene expression data. It is handled by clustering which reveals natural structures and identify interesting patterns in the underlying data. In the proposed work clustering gene expression data is done through an Advanced Nelder Mead (ANM) algorithm. Nelder Mead (NM) method is a method designed for optimization process. In Nelder Mead method, the vertices of a triangle are considered as the solutions. Many operations are performed on this triangle to obtain a better result. In the proposed work, the operations like reflection and expansion is eliminated and a new operation called spread-out is introduced. The spread-out operation will increase the global search area and thus provides a better result on optimization. The spread-out operation will give three points and the best among these three points will be used to replace the worst point. The experiment results are analyzed with optimization benchmark test functions and gene expression benchmark datasets. The results show that ANM outperforms NM in both benchmarks.

Keywords: Spread out, simplex, multi-minima, fitness function, optimization, search area, monocyte, solution, genomes.

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Authors: Ebeed A. Saleh, Kadry M. Sadek, Safaa H. Ghorbal

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Due to the determination of the pollution status of fresh resources in the Egyptian territorial waters is very important for public health; this study was carried out to reveal the levels of heavy metals in the shellfish and their environment and its relation to the highly developed industrial activities in those areas. A total of 100 shellfish samples from the Rosetta, Edku, El-Maadiya, Abo-Kir and El-Max coasts [10 crustaceans (shrimp) and 10 mollusks (oysters)] were randomly collected from each coast. Additionally, 10 samples from both the water and the sediment were collected from each coast. Each collected sample was analyzed for cadmium, chromium, copper, lead and zinc residues using a Perkin Elmer atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS). The results showed that the levels of heavy metals were higher in the water and sediment from Abo-Kir. The heavy metal levels decreased successively for the Rosetta, Edku, El-Maadiya, and El-Max coasts, and the concentrations of heavy metals, except copper and zinc, in shellfish exhibited the same pattern. For the concentration of heavy metals in shellfish tissue, the highest was zinc and the concentrations decreased successively for copper, lead, chromium and cadmium for all coasts, except the Abo-Kir coast, where the chromium level was highest and the other metals decreased successively for zinc, copper, lead and cadmium. In Rosetta, chromium was higher only in the mollusks, while the level of this metal was lower in the crustaceans; this trend was observed at the Edku, El-Maadiya and El-Max coasts as well. Herein, we discuss the importance of such contamination for public health and the sources of shellfish contamination with heavy metals. We suggest measures to minimize and prevent these pollutants in the aquatic environment and, furthermore, how to protect humans from excessive intake.

Keywords: Atomic absorption, heavy metals, sediment, shellfish, water.

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Authors: Amanda M. Tadini, Houssam Hajjoul, Gustavo Nicolodelli, Stéphane Mounier, Célia R. Montes, Débora M. B. P. Milori

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Soil organic matter (SOM) plays an important role in maintaining soil productivity and accounting for the promotion of biological diversity. The main components of the SOM are the humic substances which can be fractionated according to its solubility in humic acid (HA), fulvic acids (FA) and humin (HU). The determination of the chemical properties of organic matter as well as its interaction with metallic species is an important tool for understanding the structure of the humic fractions. Fluorescence spectroscopy has been studied as a source of information about what is happening at the molecular level in these compounds. Specially, soils of Amazon region are an important ecosystem of the planet. The aim of this study is to understand the molecular and structural composition of HA samples from Spodosol of Amazonia using the fluorescence Emission-Excitation Matrix (EEM) and Time Resolved Fluorescence Spectroscopy (TRFS). The results showed that the samples of HA showed two fluorescent components; one has a more complex structure and the other one has a simpler structure, which was also seen in TRFS through the evaluation of each sample lifetime. Thus, studies of this nature become important because it aims to evaluate the molecular and structural characteristics of the humic fractions in the region that is considered as one of the most important regions in the world, the Amazon.

Keywords: Amazonian soil, characterization, fluorescence, humic acid, lifetime.

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Authors: Kiriaki-Maria Fameli, Vasiliki D. Assimakopoulos, Vasiliki Kotroni

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The Greater Athens Area (GAA) faces photochemical and particulate pollution episodes as a result of the combined effects of local pollutant emissions, regional pollution transport, synoptic circulation and topographic characteristics. The area has undergone significant changes since the Athens 2004 Olympic Games because of large scale infrastructure works that lead to the shift of population to areas previously characterized as rural, the increase of the traffic fleet and the operation of highways. However, few recent modelling studies have been performed due to the lack of an accurate, updated emission inventory. The photochemical modelling system MM5/CAMx was applied in order to study the photochemical and particulate pollution characteristics above the GAA for two distinct ten-day periods in the summer of 2006 and 2010, where air pollution episodes occurred. A new updated emission inventory was used based on official data. Comparison of modeled results with measurements revealed the importance and accuracy of the new Athens emission inventory as compared to previous modeling studies. The model managed to reproduce the local meteorological conditions, the daily ozone and particulates fluctuations at different locations across the GAA. Higher ozone levels were found at suburban and rural areas as well as over the sea at the south of the basin. Concerning PM10, high concentrations were computed at the city centre and the southeastern suburbs in agreement with measured data. Source apportionment analysis showed that different sources contribute to the ozone levels, the local sources (traffic, port activities) affecting its formation.

Keywords: Photochemical modelling, urban pollution, greater Athens area, MM5/CAMx.

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Authors: Ivy Chumo, Sheillah Simiyu, Hellen Gitau, Isaac Kisiangani, Caroline Kabaria Kanyiva Muindi, Blessing Mberu

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The global sanitation workforce bridges the gap between sanitation infrastructure and the provision of sanitation services through essential public service work. Manual pit emptiers often perform the work at the cost of their dignity, safety, and health as their work requires repeated heavy physical activities such as lifting, carrying, pulling, and pushing. This exposes them to occupational and environmental health hazards and risking illness, injury, and death. The study will extend the studies by presenting occupational health risks and suggestions for improvement in informal settlements of Nairobi, Kenya. This is a qualitative study conducted among sanitation stakeholders in Korogocho, Mukuru and Kibera informal settlements in Nairobi. Data were captured using digital voice recorders, transcribed and thematically analysed. The discussion notes were further supported by observational notes made during the interviews. These formed the basis for a robust picture of occupational health of manual pit emptiers; a lack or inappropriate use of protective clothing, and prolonged duration of working hours were described to contribute to the occupational health hazard. To continue working, manual pit emptiers had devised coping strategies which include working in groups, improvised protective clothing, sharing the available protective clothing, working at night and consuming alcohol drinks while at work. Many of these strategies are detrimental to their health. Occupational health hazards among pit emptiers are key for effective working and is as a result of a lack of collaboration amongst stakeholders linked to health, safety and lack of PPE of pit emptiers. Collaborations amongst sanitation stakeholders is paramount for health, safety, and in ensuring the provision and use of personal protective devices.

Keywords: Sanitation, occupational health, manual emptiers, informal settlements.

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Authors: Ashkan Ebadi, Adam Krzyzak

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Recommender systems, also known as recommender engines, have become an important research area and are now being applied in various fields. In addition, the techniques behind the recommender systems have been improved over the time. In general, such systems help users to find their required products or services (e.g. books, music) through analyzing and aggregating other users’ activities and behavior, mainly in form of reviews, and making the best recommendations. The recommendations can facilitate user’s decision making process. Despite the wide literature on the topic, using multiple data sources of different types as the input has not been widely studied. Recommender systems can benefit from the high availability of digital data to collect the input data of different types which implicitly or explicitly help the system to improve its accuracy. Moreover, most of the existing research in this area is based on single rating measures in which a single rating is used to link users to items. This paper proposes a highly accurate hotel recommender system, implemented in various layers. Using multi-aspect rating system and benefitting from large-scale data of different types, the recommender system suggests hotels that are personalized and tailored for the given user. The system employs natural language processing and topic modelling techniques to assess the sentiment of the users’ reviews and extract implicit features. The entire recommender engine contains multiple sub-systems, namely users clustering, matrix factorization module, and hybrid recommender system. Each sub-system contributes to the final composite set of recommendations through covering a specific aspect of the problem. The accuracy of the proposed recommender system has been tested intensively where the results confirm the high performance of the system.

Keywords: Tourism, hotel recommender system, hybrid, implicit features.

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Authors: Eric Sitorus, Septian Prahastudhi, Turgod Nainggolan, Erwin Riyanto

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Mining by block or panel caving is a mining method that takes advantage of fractures within an ore body, coupled with gravity, to extract material from a predetermined column of ore. The caving column is weakened from beneath through the use of undercutting, after which the ore breaks up and is extracted from below in a continuous cycle. The nature of this method induces cyclical stresses on the pillars of excavations as stress is built up and released over time, which has a detrimental effect on both the installed ground support and the rock mass itself. Ground support capacity, especially on the production where excavation void ratio is highest, is subjected to heavy loading. Strain above threshold of the elongation of support capacity can yield resulting in damage to excavations. Geotechnical engineers must evaluate not only the remnant capacity of ground support systems but also investigate depth of rock mass yield within pillars, backs and floors. Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) is a geophysical method that has the ability to evaluate rock mass damage using electromagnetic waves. This paper illustrates a case study from the Grasberg mining complex where non-invasive information on the depth of damage and condition of the remaining rock mass was required. GPR with 100 MHz antenna resolution was used to obtain images of the subsurface to determine rehabilitation requirements prior to recommencing production activities. The GPR surveys were used to calibrate the reflection coefficient response of varying rock mass conditions to known Rock Quality Designation (RQD) parameters observed at the mine. The calibrated GPR survey allowed site engineers to map subsurface conditions and plan rehabilitation accordingly.

Keywords: Block caving, ground penetrating radar, reflectivity, RQD.

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Authors: M.S. Mazăre, A. M. Pană, L. M. Ştefan, M. Silion, M. Bălan, G. Bandur, L. M. Rusnac

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In the last decade, carbohydrates have attracted great attention as renewable resources for the chemical industry. Carbohydrates are abundantly found in nature in the form of monomers, oligomers and polymers, or as components of biopolymers and other naturally occurring substances. As natural products, they play important roles in conferring certain physical, chemical, and biological properties to their carrier molecules.The synthesis of this particular carbohydrate glycomonomer is part of our work to obtain biodegradable polymers. Our current paper describes the synthesis and characterization of a novel carbohydrate glycomonomer starting from D-glucose, in several synthesis steps, that involve the protection/deprotection of the D-glucose ring via acetylation, tritylation, then selective deprotection of the aromaticaliphatic protective group, in order to obtain 1,2,3,4-tetra-O-acetyl- 6-O-allyl-β-D-glucopyranose. The glycomonomer was then obtained by the allylation in drastic conditions of 1,2,3,4-tetra-O-acetyl-6-Oallyl- β-D-glucopyranose with allylic alcohol in the presence of stannic chloride, in methylene chloride, at room temperature. The proposed structure of the glycomonomer, 2,3,4-tri-O-acetyl-1,6-di- O-allyl-β-D-glucopyranose, was confirmed by FTIR, NMR and HPLC-MS spectrometry. This glycomonomer will be further submitted to copolymerization with certain acrylic or methacrylic monomers in order to obtain competitive plastic materials for applications in the biomedical field.

Keywords: allylation, D-glucose, glycomonomer, trityl chloride

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Authors: Dyah Iswantini, Trivadila, Novik Nurhidayat, Waras Nurcholis

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The antioxidant compounds are needed for the food, beverages, and pharmaceuticals industry. For this purpose, an appropriate method is required to measure the antioxidant properties in various types of samples. Spectrophotometric method usually used has some weaknesses, including the high price, long sample preparation time, and less sensitivity. Among the alternative methods developed to overcome these weaknesses is antioxidant biosensor based on superoxide dismutase (SOD) enzyme. Therefore, this study was carried out to measure the SOD activity originating from Deinococcus radiodurans and to determine its kinetics properties. Carbon paste electrode modified with ferrocene and immobilized SOD exhibited anode and cathode current peak at potential of +400 and +300mv respectively, in both pure SOD and SOD of D. radiodurans. This indicated that the current generated was from superoxide catalytic dismutation reaction by SOD. Optimum conditions for SOD activity was at pH 9 and temperature of 27.50C for D. radiodurans SOD, and pH 11 and temperature of 200C for pure SOD. Dismutation reaction kinetics of superoxide catalyzed by SOD followed the Lineweaver-Burk kinetics with D. radiodurans SOD KMapp value was smaller than pure SOD. The result showed that D. radiodurans SOD had higher enzyme-substrate affinity and specificity than pure SOD. It concluded that D. radiodurans SOD had a great potential as biological recognition component for antioxidant biosensor.

Keywords: Antioxidant biosensor, Deinococcus radiodurans, enzyme kinetic, superoxide dismutase (SOD).

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Authors: A. Halim Sahelan, Mohd Halid Abu, Jamaluddin Hashim, Zulisman Maksom, Mohd Afif Md Nasir

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This study aims to assess the students' needs for the tour planning e-guide. The study is developing on the contribution and importance of the Educational Tour Planning Guide (ETP) is a multimedia course ware as one of the effective methods in teaching and learning of environmental science among the students in primary schools of the Ministry of Education, Malaysia. It is to provide the student with knowledge and experience about tourism, environmental science activities and process. E-guide to ETP also hopes to strengthen the student understanding toward the subject learn in the tourism environmental science. In order to assess the student's needs on the e-Guide to Educational Tour Planning in Environmental Science, the study has produced a similar e-Guide to ETP in the form as a course ware to be tested during the study. The study has involved several steps in order to be completed. It is such as the formulation of the problem, the review of the literature, the formulation of the study methodology, the production of the e-Guide to ETP, field survey and finally the analyses and discussion made on the data gathered during the study. The survey has involved 100 respondents among the students in standard six primary schools in Kluang Johor. Through the findings, the study indicates that the current tested product is acceptable among the students in learning environmental science as a guide to plan for the tour. The findings also show a slight difference between the respondents who are using the e-Guide to ETP, and those who are not on the basis of the e-Guide to ETP results. Due the important for the study, the researcher hopes to be having a fair discussion and excellence, recommendation for the development of the product of the current study. This report is written also important to provide a written reference for the future related study.

Keywords: Tour planning e-guide, educational tour planning guide, environmental science, multimedia course ware.

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Authors: Hachem Ben Naceur, Amel Ben Rejeb Jenhani, Mohamed Salah Romdhane

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Endemic Artemia franciscana populations can be found throughout the American continent and also as an introduced specie in several country all over the world, such as in the Mediterranean region where Artemia franciscana was identified as an invasive specie replacing native Artemia parthenogenetica and Artemia salina. In the present study, the characterization of the new invasive Artemia franciscana reported from Sabkhet Halk El-Menzel (Tunisia) was done based on the cysts biometry, nauplii instar-I length, Adult sexual dimorphism and fatty acid profile. The mean value of the diameter of non-decapsulated and decapsulated cysts, chorion thickness and naupliar length is 235.8, 226.3, 4.75 and 426.8 μm, respectively. Sexual dimorphism for adults specimen showed that maximal distance between compound eyes, diameter for compound eyes, length of first antenna and the abdomen length compared to the total body length ratio, are the most important variables for males and females discrimination with a total contribution of 62.39 %. The analysis of fatty acid methyl esters profile of decapsulated cysts resulted in low levels of linolenic acid (LLA, C18:3n-3) and high levels of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA, C20:5n-3) with 3.11 and 11.10 %, respectively. Low quantity of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, 22:6n-3) was also observed with 0.17 mg.g-1 dry weight.

Keywords: Invasive Artemia franciscana, biometry, sexualdimorphism, fatty acid, Tunisia.

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Authors: Chintanu K. Sarmah, Sandhya Samarasinghe, Don Kulasiri, Daniel Catchpoole

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Gene expression profiling is rapidly evolving into a powerful technique for investigating tumor malignancies. The researchers are overwhelmed with the microarray-based platforms and methods that confer them the freedom to conduct large-scale gene expression profiling measurements. Simultaneously, investigations into cross-platform integration methods have started gaining momentum due to their underlying potential to help comprehend a myriad of broad biological issues in tumor diagnosis, prognosis, and therapy. However, comparing results from different platforms remains to be a challenging task as various inherent technical differences exist between the microarray platforms. In this paper, we explain a simple ratio-transformation method, which can provide some common ground for cDNA and Affymetrix platform towards cross-platform integration. The method is based on the characteristic data attributes of Affymetrix- and cDNA- platform. In the work, we considered seven childhood leukemia patients and their gene expression levels in either platform. With a dataset of 822 differentially expressed genes from both these platforms, we carried out a specific ratio-treatment to Affymetrix data, which subsequently showed an improvement in the relationship with the cDNA data.

Keywords: Gene expression profiling, microarray, cDNA, Affymetrix, childhood leukaemia.

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Authors: S. Homrossukon, A. Anurathapunt

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This is an application research presenting the improvement of production quality using the six sigma solutions and the analyses of benefit-cost ratio. The case of interest is the production of tile-concrete. Such production has faced with the problem of high nonconforming products from an inappropriate surface coating and had low process capability based on the strength property of tile. Surface coating and tile strength are the most critical to quality of this product. The improvements followed five stages of six sigma solutions. After the improvement, the production yield was improved to 80% as target required and the defective products from coating process was remarkably reduced from 29.40% to 4.09%. The process capability based on the strength quality was increased from 0.87 to 1.08 as customer oriented. The improvement was able to save the materials loss for 3.24 millions baht or 0.11 million dollars. The benefits from the improvement were analyzed from (1) the reduction of the numbers of non conforming tile using its factory price for surface coating improvement and (2) the materials saved from the increment of process capability. The benefit-cost ratio of overall improvement was high as 7.03. It was non valuable investment in define, measure, analyses and the initial of improve stages after that it kept increasing. This was due to there were no benefits in define, measure, and analyze stages of six sigma since these three stages mainly determine the cause of problem and its effects rather than improve the process. The benefit-cost ratio starts existing in the improve stage and go on. Within each stage, the individual benefitcost ratio was much higher than the accumulative one as there was an accumulation of cost since the first stage of six sigma. The consideration of the benefit-cost ratio during the improvement project helps make decisions for cost saving of similar activities during the improvement and for new project. In conclusion, the determination of benefit-cost ratio behavior through out six sigma implementation period provides the useful data for managing quality improvement for the optimal effectiveness. This is the additional outcome from the regular proceeding of six sigma.

Keywords: Six Sigma Solutions, Process Improvement, QualityManagement, Benefit Cost Ratio

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