Search results for: Biological diversity

Authors: Sh. A. Yousif, M. Bhave

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There is strong evidence that water channel proteins 'aquaporins (AQPs)' are central components in plant-water relations as well as a number of other physiological parameters. We had previously reported the isolation of 24 plasma membrane intrinsic protein (PIP) type AQPs. However, the gene numbers in rice and the polyploid nature of bread wheat indicated a high probability of further genes in the latter. The present work focused on identification of further AQP isoforms in bread wheat. With the use of altered primer design, we identified five genes homologous, designated PIP1;5b, PIP2;9b, TaPIP2;2, TaPIP2;2a, TaPIP2;2b. Sequence alignments indicate PIP1;5b, PIP2;9b are likely to be homeologues of two previously reported genes while the other three are new genes and could be homeologs of each other. The results indicate further AQP diversity in wheat and the sequence data will enable physical mapping of these genes to identify their genomes as well as genetic to determine their association with any quantitative trait loci (QTLs) associated with plant-water relation such as salinity or drought tolerance.

Keywords: Aquaporins, homeologues, PIP, wheat

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Authors: Yasser M. Saad, Heba El-Sebaie Abd El-Sadek

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Some Metapenaeus monoceros cox1 gene fragments were isolated, purified, sequenced, and comparatively analyzed with some other Crustacean Cox1 gene sequences (obtained from National Center for Biotechnology Information). This work was designed for testing the efficiency of this system in reconstruction of phylogenetic relations among some Crustacean species belonging to four genera (Metapenaeus, Artemia, Daphnia and Calanus). The single nucleotide polymorphism and haplotype diversity were calculated for all estimated mt-DNA fragments. The genetic distance values were 0.292, 0.015, 0.151, and 0.09 within Metapenaeus species, Calanus species, Artemia species, and Daphnia species, respectively. The reconstructed phylogenetic tree is clustered into some unique clades. Cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 gene (cox1) was a powerful system in reconstruction of phylogenetic relations among evaluated crustacean species.

Keywords: Crustacean, Genetics, cox1, phylogeny.

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Authors: A. Ghaffari, A. S. Mostafavi

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Complex assemblies of interacting proteins carry out most of the interesting jobs in a cell, such as metabolism, DNA synthesis, mitosis and cell division. These physiological properties play out as a subtle molecular dance, choreographed by underlying regulatory networks that control the activities of cyclin-dependent kinases (CDK). The network can be modeled by a set of nonlinear differential equations and its behavior predicted by numerical simulation. In this paper, an innovative approach has been proposed that uses genetic algorithms to mine a set of behavior data output by a biological system in order to determine the kinetic parameters of the system. In our approach, the machine learning method is integrated with the framework of existent biological information in a wiring diagram so that its findings are expressed in a form of system dynamic behavior. By numerical simulations it has been illustrated that the model is consistent with experiments and successfully shown that such application of genetic algorithms will highly improve the performance of mathematical model of the cell division cycle to simulate such a complicated bio-system.

Keywords: Cell cycle, Cyclin-dependent kinase, Fission yeast, Genetic algorithms, Mathematical modeling, Wiring diagram

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Authors: Billel Kenidra, Mohamed Benmohammed

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Data mining technique used in the field of clustering is a subject of active research and assists in biological pattern recognition and extraction of new knowledge from raw data. Clustering means the act of partitioning an unlabeled dataset into groups of similar objects. Each group, called a cluster, consists of objects that are similar between themselves and dissimilar to objects of other groups. Several clustering methods are based on partitional clustering. This category attempts to directly decompose the dataset into a set of disjoint clusters leading to an integer number of clusters that optimizes a given criterion function. The criterion function may emphasize a local or a global structure of the data, and its optimization is an iterative relocation procedure. The K-Means algorithm is one of the most widely used partitional clustering techniques. Since K-Means is extremely sensitive to the initial choice of centers and a poor choice of centers may lead to a local optimum that is quite inferior to the global optimum, we propose a strategy to initiate K-Means centers. The improved K-Means algorithm is compared with the original K-Means, and the results prove how the efficiency has been significantly improved.

Keywords: Microarray data mining, biological pattern recognition, partitional clustering, k-means algorithm, centroid initialization.

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Authors: M. R. Naghavi, S. Rashidi Monfared, A. H. Ahkami, M. A. Ombidbakhsh

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Knowledge of patterns of genetic diversity enhances the efficiency of germplasm conservation and improvement. In this study 96 Iranian landraces of Triticum turgidum originating from different geographical areas of Iran, along with 18 durum cultivars from ten countries were evaluated for variation in morphological and high molecular weight glutenin subunit (HMW-GS) composition. The first two principal components clearly separated the Iranian landraces from cultivars. Three alleles were present at the Glu-A1 locus and 11 alleles at Glu-B1. In both cultivars and landraces of durum wheat, the null allele (Glu-A1c) was observed more frequently than the Glu-A1a and Glu-A1b alleles. Two alleles, namely Glu-B1a (subunit 7) and Glu-B1e (subunit 20) represented the more frequent alleles at Glu-B1 locus. The results showed that the evaluated Iranian landraces formed an interesting source of favourable glutenin subunits that might be very desirable in breeding activities for improving pasta-making quality.

Keywords: Triticum turgidum var. durum, glutenin subunits, morphological characters.

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Authors: Maurício Covolan Rosito, Ricardo Melo Bastos

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Software projects are very dynamic and require recurring adjustments of their project plans. These settings can be understood as reconfigurations in the schedule, in the resources allocation and other design elements. Yet, during the planning and execution of a software project, the integration of specific activities in the projects with the activities that take part in the organization-s common activity flow should be considered. This article presents the results from a systematic review of aspects related to software projects- dynamic reconfiguration emphasizing the integration of project management with the organizational flows. A series of studies was analyzed from the year 2000 to the present. The results of this work show that there is a diversity of techniques and strategies for dynamic reconfiguration of software projects-. However, few approaches consider the integration of software project activities with the activities that take part in the organization-s common workflow.

Keywords: Dynamic Reconfiguration, Organizational workflows, Project Management, Systematic Review

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Authors: Sameh Abu El-Soud, Zahra Zayed, Safwan Khedr, Adel M. Belal

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The population increase in Egypt is urging for horizontal land development which became a demand to allow the benefit of different natural resources and expand from the narrow Nile valley. However, this development is facing challenges preventing land development and agriculture development. Desertification and moving sand dunes in the west sector of Egypt are considered the major obstacle that is blocking the ideal land use and development. In the proposed research, the sandy soil is treated biologically using Bacillus pasteurii bacteria as these bacteria have the ability to bond the sand partials to change its state of loose sand to cemented sand, which reduces the moving ability of the sand dunes. The procedure of implementing the Microbial Induced Carbonate Precipitation Technique (MICP) technique is examined, and the different factors affecting on this process such as the medium of bacteria sample preparation, the optical density (OD600), the reactant concentration, injection rates and intervals are highlighted. Based on the findings of the MICP treatment for sandy soil, conclusions and future recommendations are reached.

Keywords: Soil stabilization, biological treatment, MICP, sand cementation.

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Authors: Sara S. Fouad, Omneya Messallam

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Egypt has countless prestigious buildings and diversity of cultural heritage which are located in many cities. Most of the researchers, archaeologists, stakeholders and governmental bodies are paying more attention to the big cities such as Cairo and Alexandria, due to the country’s centralization nature. However, there are other historic cities that are grossly neglected and in need of emergency conservation. For instance, Port Said which is a former colonial city that was established in nineteenth century located at the edge of the northeast Egyptian coast between the Mediterranean Sea and the Suez Canal. This city is chosen because it presents one of the important Egyptian archaeological sites that archive Egyptian architecture of the 19^th and 20^th centuries. The historic urban fabric is divided into three main districts; the Arab, the European (Al-Afrang), and Port Fouad. The European district is selected to be the research case study as it has culture diversity, significant buildings, and includes the largest number of the listed heritage buildings in Port Said. Based on questionnaires and interviews, since 2003 several initiative trials have been taken by Alliance Francaise, the National Organization for Urban Harmony (NOUH), some Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), and few number of community residents to highlight the important city legacy and protect it from being demolished. Unfortunately, the limitation of their participation in decision-making policies is considered a crucial threat facing sustainable heritage conservation. Therefore, encouraging the local community to participate in their architecture heritage conservation would create a self-confident one, capable of making decisions for the city’s future development. This paper aims to investigate the role of the local inhabitants in protecting their buildings heritage through listing the community level of participations twice (2012 and 2018) in preserving their heritage based on the ladder citizen participation approach. Also, it is to encourage community participation in order to promote city architecture conservation, heritage management, and sustainable development. The methodology followed in this empirical research involves using several data assembly methods such as structural observations, questionnaires, interviews, and mental mapping. The questionnaire was distributed among 92 local inhabitants aged 18-60 years. However, the outset of this research at the beginning demonstrated the majority negative attitude, motivation, and confidence of the local inhabitants’ role to safeguard their architectural heritage. Over time, there was a change in the negative attitudes. Therefore, raising public awareness and encouraging community participation by providing them with a real opportunity to take part in the decision-making. This may lead to a positive relationship between the community residents and the built heritage, which is essential for promoting its preservation and sustainable development.

Keywords: Al-Afrang/Port Said, community participation, heritage conservation, ladder of citizen participation, NGOs.

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Authors: Mohamed Sanad, Noha Hassan

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A broadband resonant terminal antenna has been developed. It can be used in different MIMO arrangements such as 2x2, 4x4, 8x8, or even 12x12 MIMO configurations. The antenna covers the whole LTE and WiFi bands besides the existing 2G/3G bands (700-5800 MHz), without using any matching/tuning circuits. Matching circuits significantly reduce the efficiency of any antenna and reduce the battery life. They also reduce the bandwidth because they are frequency dependent. The antenna can be implemented in smartphone handsets, tablets, laptops, notebooks or any other terminal. It is also suitable for different IoT and vehicle applications. The antenna is manufactured from a flexible material and can be bent or folded and shaped in any form to fit any available space in any terminal. It is self-contained and does not need to use the ground plane, the chassis or any other component of the terminal. Hence, it can be mounted on any terminal at different positions and configurations. Its performance does not get affected by the terminal, regardless of its type, shape or size. Moreover, its performance does not get affected by the human body of the terminal’s users. Because of all these unique features of the antenna, multiples of them can be simultaneously used for MIMO diversity coverage in any terminal device with a high isolation and a low correlation factor between them.

Keywords: IOT, LTE, MIMO, terminal antenna, WiFi.

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Authors: Alex Elentukh

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The paper is based on data collected from final exams administered during five years teaching the graduate course in software engineering. The visualization instrument with four distinct personas has been used to improve effectiveness of each class. The study offers a plethora of clues toward students' behavioral preferences. Diversity among students (professional background, physical proximity) is too significant to assume a single face of a learner. This is particularly true for a body of on-line graduate students in computer science. Conclusions of the study (each learner is unique and each class is unique) are extrapolated to demystify the notion of an 'average software engineer'. An immediate direction for an educator is to assure a course applies to a wide audience of very different individuals. On another hand, a student should be clear about his/her abilities and preferences - to follow the most effective learning path.

Keywords: K.3.2 computer & information science education, learner profiling, adaptive learning, software engineering.

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Authors: Rafayel A. Azizyan, Aram E. Gevorgyan, Valeri B. Arakelyan, Emil S. Gevorgyan

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Currently, mathematical and computer modeling are widely used in different biological studies to predict or assess behavior of such a complex systems as a biological are. This study deals with mathematical and computer modeling of bi-substrate enzymatic reactions, which play an important role in different biochemical pathways. The main objective of this study is to represent the results from in silico investigation of bi-substrate enzymatic reactions in the presence of uncompetitive inhibitors, as well as to describe in details the inhibition effects. Four models of uncompetitive inhibition were designed using different software packages. Particularly, uncompetitive inhibitor to the first [ES₁] and the second ([ES₁S₂]; [FS₂]) enzyme-substrate complexes have been studied. The simulation, using the same kinetic parameters for all models allowed investigating the behavior of reactions as well as determined some interesting aspects concerning influence of different cases of uncompetitive inhibition. Besides, it has been shown that uncompetitive inhibitors exhibit specific selectivity depending on mechanism of bi-substrate enzymatic reaction. 

Keywords: Mathematical modeling, bi-substrate enzymatic reactions, sequential mechanism, ping-pong mechanism, uncompetitive inhibition.

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Authors: Hong-Nam Choi, Hyeong-Wook Song, Sungwan Hong, Hong-Kyu Kim

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In Korea, elements that decide the quality of residential environment are not only diverse, but show deviation as well. However, people do not consider these elements and instead, they try to settle the uniformed style of residential environment, which focuses on the construction development of apartment housing and business based plans. Recently, block-unit redevelopment is becoming the standout alternative plan of standardize redevelopment projects, but constructions become inefficient because of indefinite planning criteria.

 In conclusion, the following research is about analyzing and categorizing the development method and legal ground of redevelopment project district and plan determinant and applicable standard; the purpose of this study is to become a basis in compatible analysis of planning standards that will happen in the future.

Keywords: Shape Restrictions, Improvement of Reagulation, Diversity of Residential Environment, Classification of Redevelopment Project, Planning Criteria of Redevelopment, Special Architectural District (SAD).

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Authors: Ayed Salman, Fawaz Al-Anzi, Aseel Al-Minayes

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Heuristics-based search methodologies normally work on searching a problem space of possible solutions toward finding a “satisfactory" solution based on “hints" estimated from the problem-specific knowledge. Research communities use different types of methodologies. Unfortunately, most of the times, these hints are immature and can lead toward hindering these methodologies by a premature convergence. This is due to a decrease of diversity in search space that leads to a total implosion and ultimately fitness stagnation of the population. In this paper, a novel Decision Maturity framework (DMF) is introduced as a solution to this problem. The framework simply improves the decision on the direction of the search by materializing hints enough before using them. Ideas from this framework are injected into the particle swarm optimization methodology. Results were obtained under both static and dynamic environment. The results show that decision maturity prevents premature converges to a high degree.

Keywords: Heuristic Search, hints, Particle Swarm Optimization, Decision Maturity Framework.

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Authors: Kittiwann Nimkerdphol, Masahiro Nakagawa

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Biological reactions of individuals of a testing animal to toxic substance are unique and can be used as an indication of the existing of toxic substance. However, to distinguish such phenomenon need a very complicate system and even more complicate to analyze data in 3 dimensional. In this paper, a system to evaluate in vitro biological activities to acute toxicity of stochastic self-affine non-stationary signal of 3D goldfish swimming by using fractal analysis is introduced. Regular digital camcorders are utilized by proposed algorithm 3DCCPC to effectively capture and construct 3D movements of the fish. A Critical Exponent Method (CEM) has been adopted as a fractal estimator. The hypothesis was that the swimming of goldfish to acute toxic would show the fractal property which related to the toxic concentration. The experimental results supported the hypothesis by showing that the swimming of goldfish under the different toxic concentration has fractal properties. It also shows that the fractal dimension of the swimming related to the pH value of FD Ôëê 0.26pH + 0.05. With the proposed system, the fish is allowed to swim freely in all direction to react to the toxic. In addition, the trajectories are precisely evaluated by fractal analysis with critical exponent method and hence the results exhibit with much higher degree of confidence.

Keywords: 3D locomotion, bioassay, critical exponent method, CEM, fractal analysis, goldfish.

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Authors: Carmen E. Zapata, Juan Bautista, Olga Montoya, Claudia Moreno, Marisol Suarez, Alejandra Betancur, Duvan Nanclares, Natalia A. Cano

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This study aims to evaluate the diversity of microorganisms in filters PM2.5 and PM10; and determine the genotoxic and cytotoxic activity of the complex mixture present in PM2.5 filters used in the Aburrá Valley Air Quality Monitoring Network (Colombia). The research results indicate that particulate matter PM2.5 of different monitoring stations are bacteria; however, this study of detection of bacteria and their phylogenetic relationship is not complete evidence to connect the microorganisms with pathogenic or degrading activities of compounds present in the air. Additionally, it was demonstrated the damage induced by the particulate material in the cell membrane, lysosomal and endosomal membrane and in the mitochondrial metabolism; this damage was independent of the PM2.5 concentrations in almost all the cases.

Keywords: Cytotoxic, genotoxic, microbiological analysis, PM10, PM2.5.

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Authors: Victoria A. Okwoche, Benjamin C. Asogwa

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This paper analysed the food security situation among Nigerian rural farmers. Data collected on 202 rural farmers from Benue State were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The study revealed that majority of the respondents (60.83%) had medium dietary diversity. Furthermore, household daily calorie requirement for the food secure households was 10,723 and the household daily calorie consumption was 12,598, with a surplus index of 0.04. The food security index was 1.16. The Household daily per capita calorie consumption was 3,221.2. For the food insecure households, the household daily calorie requirement was 20,213 and the household daily calorie consumption was 17,393. The shortfall index was 0.14. The food security index was 0.88. The Household daily per capita calorie consumption was 2,432.8. The most commonly used coping strategies during food stress included intercropping (99.2%), reliance on less preferred food (98.1%), limiting portion size at meal times (85.8%) and crop diversification (70.8%).

Keywords: Analysis, food security, rural areas, farmers, Nigeria.

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Authors: Dmitry Yu. Korulkin, Raissa A. Muzychkina, Evgenii N. Kojaev

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In review the generalized data about biological activity of anthraquinone-containing plants and specimens on their basis is presented. Data of traditional medicine, results of bioscreening and clinical researches of specimens are analyzed.

Keywords: Anthraquinones, physiologically active substances, phytopreparation, Ramon.

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Authors: Ahmed Tawfik, Fausto Giunchiglia, Vincenzo Maltese

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Ontologies provide a common understanding of a specific domain of interest that can be communicated between people and used as background knowledge for automated reasoning in a wide range of applications. In this paper, we address the design of multilingual ontologies following well-defined knowledge engineering methodologies with the support of novel collaborative development approaches. In particular, we present a collaborative platform which allows ontologies to be developed incrementally in multiple languages. This is made possible via an appropriate mapping between language independent concepts and one lexicalization per language (or a lexical gap in case such lexicalization does not exist). The collaborative platform has been designed to support the development of the Universal Knowledge Core, a multilingual ontology currently in English, Italian, Chinese, Mongolian, Hindi and Bangladeshi. Its design follows a workflow-based development methodology that models resources as a set of collaborative objects and assigns customizable workflows to build and maintain each collaborative object in a community driven manner, with extensive support of modern web 2.0 social and collaborative features.

Keywords: Knowledge Diversity, Knowledge Representation, Ontology Development.

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Authors: A. H. Tadevosyan, S. K. Mayrapetyan, N. B. Tavakalyan, K. I. Pyuskyulyan, A. H. Hovsepyan, S. N. Sergeeva

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Soil contamination with radiocesium has a long-term radiological impact due to its long physical half-life (30.1 years for ¹³⁷Cs and 2 years for ¹³⁴Cs) and its high biological availability. ¹³⁷Cs causes the largest concerns because of its deleterious effect on agriculture and stock farming, and, thus, human life for decades. One of the important aspects of the problem of contaminated soils remediation is understand of protective actions aimed at the reduction of biological migration of radionuclides in soil-plant system. The most effective way to bind radionuclides is the use of selective sorbents. The proposed research mainly aims to achieve control on transfer of ¹³⁷Cs in a system growing media – plant due to counter ions variation in the polymeric sorbents. As research object Japanese basil - Perilla frutescens was chosen. Productivity of plants depending on the presence (control-without presence of polymer) and type of polymer material, as well as content of ¹³⁷Cs in plant material has been determined. The character of different polymers influences on the ¹³⁷Cs migration in growing media – plant system as well as accumulation in the plants has been cleared up.

Keywords: Radioceaseum, Japanese basil, polymer, soil-plant system.

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Authors: Terna T. Paul, Iloechuba P. Ngozika

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A study was carried out to evaluate the growth and yield performance of Pleurotus ostreatus spawn on different organic substrates in Lafia, Nasarawa State, Nigeria. 50 g each of four different substrates namely; corncobs, rice straw, sugarcane bagasse and sawdust sourced locally from farmlands and processing sites, were amended with 2% calcium carbonate and calcium sulphide and sterilized using three sterilization methods namely; hot water, steam, and lime. Five grams of P. ostreatus spawn were inoculated unto treated substrates, incubated in the dark for 16 days and in light for 19 days at 25 ⁰C for the commencement of pinhead and fruit body formations respectively. Growth and yield parameters such as days to full colonization, days to pinhead formation and days to fruit body formation were recorded. Cap diameter and fresh weight of mature mushrooms were also measured for a total count of four flushes. P. ostreatus spawn grown on sugarcane bagasse recorded the highest mean cap diameter (4.69 cm), highest mean fresh weight (34.68 g), highest biological efficiency (69.37%) and highest production rate (2.83 g per day). Spawn grown on rice straw recorded the least number of days to full substrate colonization (11.00). Spawn grown on corn cobs recorded the least mean number of days to pin head (18.75) and fruiting body formations (20.25). There were no significant differences (P ≤ 0.05) among the evaluated substrates with respect to growth and yield performance of P. ostreatus. Substrates sterilized with hot water supported the highest mean cap diameter (5.64 cm), highest biological efficiency (87.04%) and highest production rate (3.43 g per day) of P. ostreatus. Significant differences (P ≤ 0.05) were observed in cap diameter, fresh weight, biological efficiency and production rates among the evaluated sterilization methods. Hot water sterilization of sugarcane bagasse could be adopted for enhanced yield of oyster mushrooms, especially among indigent farming communities in Nigeria and beyond.

Keywords: Agro wastes, growth, Pleurotus ostreatus, sterilization methods, yield.

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Authors: Asok Adak, Debabrata Mazumder, Pratip Bandyopadhyay

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Anaerobic Digestion has become a promising technology for biological transformation of organic fraction of the municipal solid wastes (MSW). In order to represent the kinetic behavior of such biological process and thereby to design a reactor system, development of a mathematical model is essential. Addressing this issue, a simplistic mathematical model has been developed for anaerobic digestion of MSW in a continuous flow reactor unit under homogeneous steady state condition. Upon simulated hydrolysis, the kinetics of biomass growth and substrate utilization rate are assumed to follow first order reaction kinetics. Simulation of this model has been conducted by studying sensitivity of various process variables. The model was simulated using typical kinetic data of anaerobic digestion MSW and typical MSW characteristics of Kolkata. The hydraulic retention time (HRT) and solid retention time (SRT) time were mainly estimated by varying different model parameters like efficiency of reactor, influent substrate concentration and biomass concentration. Consequently, design table and charts have also been prepared for ready use in the actual plant operation.

Keywords: Anaerobic digestion, municipal solid waste (MSW), process design model, simulation study, hydraulic retention time(HRT), solid retention time (SRT).

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Authors: Ismail, N., Sarijan, S

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The phylogenetic analysis using the most conservative portions of 18S rRNA gene revealed the phylogenetic relationship among the two populations where DNA divergence showed that the nucleotides diversity value were -0.00838 for the Tanjung Dawai, Kedah and -0.00708 for the Cherating, Pahang populations respectively. The net nucleotide divergence among populations (Da) was -0.0073 indicating a low polymorphism among the populations studied. Total number of mutations in the Tanjung Dawai, Kedah samples was higher than Cherating, Pahang samples, which are 73 and 59 respectively while shared mutations across the populations were 8, and reveal the evolutionary in the genome of Malaysian T. gigas. The tree topology of both populations inferred using Neigbour-joining method by comparing 1791 bp of partial 18S rRNA sequence revealed that T. gigas haplotypes were clustered into seven clades, suggesting that they are genetically diverse among populations which derived from a common ancestor.

Keywords: Horseshoe crabs, Tachypleus gigas, 18S rRNA genesequences, phylogenetic analysis

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Authors: Ali. Marjani, M. Farsi, M. Rahimizadeh

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Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is one of the important grain legume crops in the world. However, drought stress is a serious threat to chickpea production, and development of drought-resistant varieties is a necessity. Field experiments were conducted to evaluate the response of 8 chickpea genotypes (MCC* 696, 537, 80, 283, 392, 361, 252, 397) and drought stress (S1: non-stress, S2: stress at vegetative growth stage, S3: stress at early bloom, S4: stress at early pod visible) at different growth stages. Experiment was arranged in split plot design with four replications. Difference among the drought stress time was found to be significant for investigated traits except biological yield. Differences were observed for genotypes in flowering time, pod information time, physiological maturation time and yield. Plant height reduced due to drought stress in vegetative growth stage. Stem dry weight reduced due to drought stress in pod visibly. Flowering time, maturation time, pod number, number of seed per plant and yield cause of drought stress in flowering was also reduced. The correlation between yield and number of seed per plant and biological yield was positive. The MCC283 and MCC696 were the high-tolerance genotypes. These results demonstrated that drought stress delayed phonological growth in chickpea and that flowering stage is sensitive.

Keywords: Chickpea, drought stress, growth stage, tolerance.

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Authors: Magnus Eriksson, Arif Mahmud

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A novel idea presented in this paper is to combine multihop routing with single-frequency networks (SFNs) for a broadcasting scenario. An SFN is a set of multiple nodes that transmit the same data simultaneously, resulting in transmitter macrodiversity. Two of the most important performance factors of multihop networks, node reachability and routing robustness, are analyzed. Simulation results show that our proposed SFN-D routing algorithm improves the node reachability by 37 percentage points as compared to non-SFN multihop routing. It shows a diversity gain of 3.7 dB, meaning that 3.7 dB lower transmission powers are required for the same reachability. Even better results are possible for larger networks. If an important node becomes inactive, this algorithm can find new routes that a non-SFN scheme would not be able to find. Thus, two of the major problems in multihopping are addressed; achieving robust routing as well as improving node reachability or reducing transmission power.

Keywords: OFDM, single-frequency networks (SFN), DSFN, MANET; multihop routing, transmitter macrodiversity, broadcasting.

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Authors: Yasser F. Hassan, Marwa Abdeen, Mustafa Fahmy

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In recent years multi-agent systems have emerged as one of the interesting architectures facilitating distributed collaboration and distributed problem solving. Each node (agent) of the network might pursue its own agenda, exploit its environment, develop its own problem solving strategy and establish required communication strategies. Within each node of the network, one could encounter a diversity of problem-solving approaches. Quite commonly the agents can realize their processing at the level of information granules that is the most suitable from their local points of view. Information granules can come at various levels of granularity. Each agent could exploit a certain formalism of information granulation engaging a machinery of fuzzy sets, interval analysis, rough sets, just to name a few dominant technologies of granular computing. Having this in mind, arises a fundamental issue of forming effective interaction linkages between the agents so that they fully broadcast their findings and benefit from interacting with others.

Keywords: Granular computing, rough sets, agents, traffic system.

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Authors: G. Rezai, Z. Mohamed, M. N. Shamsudin, M. Z. Zahran

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The availability of broadband internet and increased access to computers has been instrumental in the rise of internet literacy in Malaysia. This development has led to the adoption of online shopping by many Malaysians. On another note, the Government has supported the development and production of local herbal products. This has resulted in an increase in the production and diversity of products by SMEs. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the influence of the Malaysian demographic factors and selected attitudinal characteristics in relation to the online purchasing of herbal products. In total, 1054 internet users were interviewed online and Chi-square analysis was used to determine the relationship between demographic variables and different aspects of online shopping for herbal products. The overall results show that the demographic variables such as age, gender, education level, income and ethnicity were significant when considering the online shopping antecedents of trust, quality of herbal products, perceived risks and perceived benefits.

Keywords: Demographic factors, herbal products, Malaysian consumers, online shopping, Chi-square analysis

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Authors: Pichet Sriyanyong

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This paper presents the application of an enhanced Particle Swarm Optimization (EPSO) combined with Gaussian Mutation (GM) for solving the Dynamic Economic Dispatch (DED) problem considering the operating constraints of generators. The EPSO consists of the standard PSO and a modified heuristic search approaches. Namely, the ability of the traditional PSO is enhanced by applying the modified heuristic search approach to prevent the solutions from violating the constraints. In addition, Gaussian Mutation is aimed at increasing the diversity of global search, whilst it also prevents being trapped in suboptimal points during search. To illustrate its efficiency and effectiveness, the developed EPSO-GM approach is tested on the 3-unit and 10-unit 24-hour systems considering valve-point effect. From the experimental results, it can be concluded that the proposed EPSO-GM provides, the accurate solution, the efficiency, and the feature of robust computation compared with other algorithms under consideration.

Keywords: Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), GaussianMutation (GM), Dynamic Economic Dispatch (DED).

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Authors: Dmitry Yu. Korulkin, Raissa A. Muzychkina

Abstract:

In review the generalized data about different methods of synthesis of biological activity acylatedhydrohyanthraquinones is presented. The basic regularity of a synthesis is analyzed. Action of temperature, pH, solubility, catalysts and other factors on a reaction product yield is revealed.

Keywords: Aminoacidic acylation, hydroxyanthraquinones, nucleophilic exchange, physiologically active substances.

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Authors: Dmitriy Yu. Korulkin, Raissa A. Muzychkina

Abstract:

In review the generalized data about different methods of synthesis of biological activity halogenated di-, tri- and tetrahydroxyanthraquinones is presented. The basic regularity of a synthesis is analyzed. Action of temperature, pH, solubility, catalysts and other factors on a reaction product yield is revealed.

Keywords: Electrophilic substitution, halogenation, hydroxyanthraquinones, physiologically active substances.

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Authors: S.M. Bahri, F.T. Bendimerad

Abstract:

We propose a downlink multiple-input multipleoutput (MIMO) multi-carrier code division multiple access (MCCDMA) system with adaptive beamforming algorithm for smart antennas. The algorithm used in this paper is based on the Least Mean Square (LMS), with pilot channel estimation (PCE) and the zero forcing equalizer (ZFE) in the receiver, requiring reference signal and no knowledge channel. MC-CDMA is studied in a multiple antenna context in order to efficiently exploit robustness against multipath effects and multi-user flexibility of MC-CDMA and channel diversity offered by MIMO systems for radio mobile channels. Computer simulations, considering multi-path Rayleigh Fading Channel, interference inter symbol and interference are presented to verify the performance. Simulation results show that the scheme achieves good performance in a multi-user system.

Keywords: Adaptive Beamforming, LMS Algorithm, MCCDMA, MIMO System, Smart Antenna.

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