Influence of laser treatment on mechanical properties, wear resistance, and Vickers hardness of aluminum alloy was studied. The specimens were treated by using Nd:YaG laser of energy 780 mj, wavelength 512 nm, and duration time 8 ns. The wear behavior of the specimens was studied for all specimens before and after treatment by Nd:YaG laser and the dry wear experiments were carried out by sing pinon-disc technique. The specimens were machined as a disk with diameter of 25 mm and circular groove in depth of 3 mm. All specimens were conducted by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence analysis (EDS), optical microscopy, and Vickers hardness. The results showed that the dry wear rate was decreased after laser hardening and increased Vickers hardness values by ratio of 2.4:1. The results showed that the values of wear rate for samples having circular grooves are less than samples without grooves after laser treatment.
We shall explore a nonlinear discrete dynamical system that naturally occurs in population systems to describe a transmission of a trait from parents to their offspring. We consider a Mendelian inheritance for a single gene with three alleles and assume that to form a new generation, each gene has a possibility to mutate, that is, to change into a gene of the other kind. We investigate the derived models and observe chaotic behaviors of such models.
We construct the family of Poisson nonlinear transformations defined on the countable sample space of nonnegative integers and investigate their trajectory behavior. We have proved that these nonlinear transformations are regular.
Molecular similarity is a pervasive concept in drug design. The basic idea underlying molecular similarity is the similar property principle, which states that structurally similar molecules will exhibit similar physicochemical and biological properties. In this paper, a new graph-based molecular descriptor (GBMD) is introduced. The GBMD is a new method of obtaining a rough description of 2D molecular structure in textual form based on the canonical representations of the molecule outline shape and it allows rigorous structure specification using small and natural grammars. Simulated virtual screening experiments with the MDDR database show clearly the superiority of the graph-based descriptor compared to many standard descriptors (ALOGP, MACCS, EPFP4, CDKFP, PCFP, and SMILE) using the Tanimoto coefficient (TAN) and the basic local alignment search tool (BLAST) when searches were carried.
Circuit intricacy, speed, low-offset voltage, and resolution are essential factors for high-speed applications like analog-to-digital converters (ADCs). The comparator circuit with preamplifier increases the power dissipation, as it requires higher amount of currents than the latch circuitry. In this research, a novel topology of dynamic latch comparator is illustrated, which is able to provide high speed, low offset, and high resolution. Moreover, the circuit is able to reduce the power dissipation as the topology is based on latch circuitry. The cross-coupled circuit mechanism with the regenerative latch is employed for enhancing the dynamic latch comparator performance. In addition, input-tracking phase is used to reduce the offset voltage. The Monte-Carlo simulation results for the designed comparator in 0.18 μm CMOS process show that the equivalent input-referred offset voltage is 720 μV with 3.44 mV standard deviation. The simulated result shows that the designed comparator has 8-bit resolution and dissipates 158.5 μW of power under 1.8 V supply while operating with a clock frequency of 50 MHz. In addition, the proposed dynamic latch comparator has a layout size of 148.80 μm × 59.70 μm.
The stability of clusters is a serious issue in mobile ad hoc networks. Low stability of clusters may lead to rapid failure of clusters, high energy consumption for reclustering, and decrease in the overall network stability in mobile ad hoc network. In order to improve the stability of clusters, weight-based clustering algorithms are utilized. However, these algorithms only use limited features of the nodes. Thus, they decrease the weight accuracy in determining node's competency and lead to incorrect selection of cluster heads. A new weight-based algorithm presented in this paper not only determines node's weight using its own features, but also considers the direct effect of feature of adjacent nodes. It determines the weight of virtual links between nodes and the effect of the weights on determining node's final weight. By using this strategy, the highest weight is assigned to the best choices for being the cluster heads and the accuracy of nodes selection increases. The performance of new algorithm is analyzed by using computer simulation. The results show that produced clusters have longer lifetime and higher stability. Mathematical simulation shows that this algorithm has high availability in case of failure.
This study examined the effect of methanolic extract of Morinda citrifolia Linn. (MMC) and its bioactive principles, scopoletin and rutin, on dopamine- and noradrenaline-evoked contractility in isolated rat vas deferens preparations. MMC (1-40 mg/mL), scopoletin (1-200 μg/mL), and rutin hydrate (0.6-312.6 μg/mL) dose-dependently inhibited the contractility evoked by submaximal concentrations of both dopamine and noradrenaline, respectively. Haloperidol and prazosin, reference dopamine D2, and α 1-adrenoceptors antagonists significantly reversed the dopamine- and noradrenaline-induced contractions, respectively, in a dose-dependent manner. Interestingly, MMC per se at higher doses (60-100 mg/mL) showed dose-dependent contractile response in rat vas deferens which was partially inhibited by high doses of haloperidol but not by prazosin. These results demonstrated the biphasic effects of MMC on dopaminergic system; that is, antidopaminergic effect at lower concentrations (<40 mg/mL) and dopaminergic agonistic effect at higher concentrations (>60 mg/mL). However, similar contractile response at high doses of scopoletin (0.5-5 mg/mL) and rutin hydrate (0.5-5 mg/mL) per se was not observed. Therefore, it can be concluded that the bioactive principles of MMC, scopoletin, and rutin might be responsible for the antidopaminergic and antiadrenergic activities of MMC.
For estimation of grain yield in wheat, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) is considered as a potential screening tool. Field experiments were conducted to scrutinize the response of NDVI to yield behavior of different wheat cultivars and nitrogen fertilization at agronomic research area, University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF) during the two years 2008-09 and 2009-10. For recording the value of NDVI, Green seeker (Handheld-505) was used. Split plot design was used as experimental model in, keeping four nitrogen rates (N1 = 0 kg ha(-1), N2 = 55 kg ha(-1), N3 = 110 kg ha(-1), and N4 = 220 kg ha(-1)) in main plots and ten wheat cultivars (Bakkhar-2001, Chakwal-50, Chakwal-97, Faisalabad-2008, GA-2002, Inqlab-91, Lasani-2008, Miraj-2008, Sahar-2006, and Shafaq-2006) in subplots with four replications. Impact of nitrogen and difference between cultivars were forecasted through NDVI. The results suggested that nitrogen treatment N4 (220 kg ha(-1)) and cultivar Faisalabad-2008 gave maximum NDVI value (0.85) at grain filling stage among all treatments. The correlation among NDVI at booting, grain filling, and maturity stages with grain yield was positive (R(2) = 0.90; R(2) = 0.90; R(2) = 0.95), respectively. So, booting, grain filling, and maturity can be good depictive stages during mid and later growth stages of wheat crop under agroclimatic conditions of Faisalabad and under similar other wheat growing environments in the country.
The object of this study was to determine the effect of prepartum supplementation of vitamin E with or without injective vitamin E and selenium (Se) on productive and reproductive performances and immune function in dairy cows. Sixty multiparous Holstein dairy cows were divided randomly into three groups at the end of gestation. Cows in each group received one of three treatments: (1) a single intramuscular (im) injection of vit. E + selenium 3 weeks prepartum; (2) daily supplementation of oral vit. E given from 3 weeks prepartum to parturition; (3) injective vit. E + Se with daily supplementation of oral vit. E. Blood samples were collected from cows at calving and from calves at 0 and 7 days of age. Concentration of IgG in serum of cows and calves as well as in colostrum was determined. No significant differences among treatments occurred in the concentrations of IgG, animal, and calf production and reproduction performance. Due to the lack of significant difference between injection and oral supplementation, it is recommended to replace the injection with oral supplementation.
In diversity combining at the receiver, the output signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is often maximized by using the maximal ratio combining (MRC) provided that the channel is perfectly estimated at the receiver. However, channel estimation is rarely perfect in practice, which results in deteriorating the system performance. In this paper, an imperialistic competitive algorithm (ICA) is proposed and compared with two other evolutionary based algorithms, namely, particle swarm optimization (PSO) and genetic algorithm (GA), for diversity combining of signals travelling across the imperfect channels. The proposed algorithm adjusts the combiner weights of the received signal components in such a way that maximizes the SNR and minimizes the bit error rate (BER). The results indicate that the proposed method eliminates the need of channel estimation and can outperform the conventional diversity combining methods.
To explore the potential of in vitro rapid regeneration, three varieties (Golpaygan-181, Orumieh-1763, and Gorgan-1601) of sainfoin (Onobrychis viciifolia Scop. syn. Onobrychis sativa L.) were evaluated. For the first time, an encapsulation protocol was established from somatic embryogenic callus in torpedo and cotyledonary stages to create artificial seeds. Callus derived from different concentrations of Kinetin (0-2.0 mg L(-1)) and Indole-3-acetic acid (0-2.0 mg L(-1)) was coated with sodium alginate and subsequently cultured either in Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium or in soil substrate. Adventitious shoots from synthetic beads developed into rooting in full and half strength MS medium supplemented with various concentrations of auxin and cytokinin. Prolonged water conservation of black and red soils (1:1) had the highest rate of survival plantlets in the acclimatization process. Diverse resistance techniques in Onobrychis viciifolia were evaluated when the plants were subjected to water deficiency. Higher frequency of epicuticular waxes was observed in in vivo leaves compared to in vitro leaves. Jagged trichomes nonsecreting glands covered by spines were only observed in the lower leaf side. Ultimately, stomata indices were 0.127 (abaxial), 0.188 (adaxial) in in vivo and 0.121 (abaxial), 0.201 (adaxial) in in vitro leaves.
Bioinformatics has been an emerging area of research for the last three decades. The ultimate aims of bioinformatics were to store and manage the biological data, and develop and analyze computational tools to enhance their understanding. The size of data accumulated under various sequencing projects is increasing exponentially, which presents difficulties for the experimental methods. To reduce the gap between newly sequenced protein and proteins with known functions, many computational techniques involving classification and clustering algorithms were proposed in the past. The classification of protein sequences into existing superfamilies is helpful in predicting the structure and function of large amount of newly discovered proteins. The existing classification results are unsatisfactory due to a huge size of features obtained through various feature encoding methods. In this work, a statistical metric-based feature selection technique has been proposed in order to reduce the size of the extracted feature vector. The proposed method of protein classification shows significant improvement in terms of performance measure metrics: accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, recall, F-measure, and so forth.
This study involves the investigation of altering the photocatalytic activity of TiO2 using composite materials. Three different forms of modified TiO2, namely, TiO2/activated carbon (AC), TiO2/carbon (C), and TiO2/PANi, were compared. The TiO2/carbon composite was obtained by pyrolysis of TiO2/PANi prepared by in situ polymerization method, while the TiO2/activated carbon (TiO2/AC) was obtained after treating TiO2/carbon with 1.0 M KOH solution, followed by calcination at a temperature of 450°C. X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), thermogravimetric analysis (TG-DTA), Brunauer-Emmet-Teller (BET), and UV-Vis spectroscopy were used to characterize and evaluate the prepared samples. The specific surface area was determined to be in the following order: TiO2/AC > TiO2/C > TiO2/PANi > TiO2 (179 > 134 > 54 > 9 m(2) g(-1)). The evaluation of photocatalytic performance for the degradation of methylene blue under UV light irradiation was also of the same order, with 98 > 84.7 > 69% conversion rate, which is likely to be attributed to the porosity and synergistic effect in the prepared samples.
This paper introduces a new configuration of compact, triangular- and diamond-slotted, microstrip-fed, low-profile antenna for C/X band applications on polytetrafluoroethylene glass microfiber reinforced material substrate. The antenna is composed of a rectangular-shaped patch containing eight triangles and two diamond-shaped slots and an elliptical-slotted ground plane. The rectangular-shaped patch is obtained by cutting two diamond slots in the middle of the rectangular patch, six triangular slots on the left and right side of the patch, and two triangular slots on the up and down side of the patch. The slotted radiating patch, the elliptical-slotted ground plane, and the microstrip feed enable the matching bandwidth to be widened. A prototype of the optimized antenna was fabricated on polytetrafluoroethylene glass microfiber reinforced material substrate using LPKF prototyping machine and investigated to validate the proposed design. The simulated results are compared with the measured data, and good agreement is achieved. The proposed antenna offers fractional bandwidths of 13.69% (7.78-8.91 GHz) and 10.35% (9.16-10.19 GHz) where S11 < -10 dB at center frequencies of 8.25 GHz and 9.95 GHz, respectively, and relatively stable gain, good radiation efficiency, and omnidirectional radiation patterns in the matching band.
The essential oils obtained by hydrodistillation of the unripe and ripe fruits of Alpinia mutica Roxb. and Alpinia latilabris Ridl. were analysed by capillary GC and GC-MS. The oils were principally monoterpenic in nature. The unripe and ripe fruit oils of A. mutica were characterized by camphor (21.0% and 15.8%), camphene (16.6% and 10.2%), β-pinene (8.6% and 13.5%), and trans,trans-farnesol (8.0% and 11.2%), respectively. The oils of the unripe and ripe fruits were moderately active against Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, Trichophyton mentagrophytes, and Trichophyton rubrum. 1,8-Cineole (34.2% and 35.9%) and β-pinene (20.2% and 19.0%) were the two most abundant components in the unripe and ripe fruit oils of A. latilabris. The oil of the unripe fruits elicits moderate activity against Staphylococcus aureus and Trichophyton mentagrophytes while Candida glabrata was moderately sensitive to the oil of the ripe fruits.
Radial basis function neural networks are used in a variety of applications such as pattern recognition, nonlinear identification, control and time series prediction. In this paper, the learning algorithm of radial basis function neural networks is analyzed in a feedback structure. The robustness of the learning algorithm is discussed in the presence of uncertainties that might be due to noisy perturbations at the input or to modeling mismatch. An intelligent adaptation rule is developed for the learning rate of RBFNN which gives faster convergence via an estimate of error energy while giving guarantee to the l 2 stability governed by the upper bounding via small gain theorem. Simulation results are presented to support our theoretical development.
A rise in inlet air temperature may lower the rate of heat dissipation from air cooled computing servers. This introduces a thermal stress to these servers. As a result, the poorly cooled active servers will start conducting heat to the neighboring servers and giving rise to hotspot regions of thermal stress, inside the data center. As a result, the physical hardware of these servers may fail, thus causing performance loss, monetary loss, and higher energy consumption for cooling mechanism. In order to minimize these situations, this paper performs the profiling of inlet temperature sensitivity (ITS) and defines the optimum location for each server to minimize the chances of creating a thermal hotspot and thermal stress. Based upon novel ITS analysis, a thermal state monitoring and server relocation algorithm for data centers is being proposed. The contribution of this paper is bringing the peak outlet temperatures of the relocated servers closer to average outlet temperature by over 5 times, lowering the average peak outlet temperature by 3.5% and minimizing the thermal stress.
We have successfully developed a Loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay that could specifically detect generic Escherichia coli (E. coli). This assay was tested on 85 bacterial strains and successfully identified 54 E. coli strains (average threshold time, Tt = 21.26). The sensitivity of this assay was evaluated on serial dilutions of bacterial cultures and spiked faeces. The assay could detect 10(2) CFU/mL for bacterial culture with Tt = 33.30 while the detection limit for spiked faeces was 10(3) CFU/mL (Tt = 31.12). We have also detected 46 generic E. coli from 50 faecal samples obtained from indigenous individuals with 16% of the positive samples being verocytotoxin-producing E. coli (VTEC) positive. VT1/VT2 allele was present in one faecal sample while the ratio of VT1 to VT2 was 6 : 1. Overall, our study had demonstrated high risk of VTEC infection among the indigenous community and most of the asymptomatic infection occurred among those aged below 15 years. The role of asymptomatic human carriers as a source of dissemination should not be underestimated. Large scale screening of the VTEC infection among indigenous populations and the potential contamination sources will be possible and easy with the aid of this newly developed rapid and simple LAMP assay.
The leaf of Gardenia jasminoides Ellis was used as explants and was cultured on MS and WPM media supplemented with various concentrations of NAA, IAA, 2,4-D, IBA, TDZ, and Kn (0 to 5 mg L(-1) with 0.5 increment). After six months, the higher percentage of callus (100%) and the best dry and fresh weight of callus were formed on WPM medium supplemented with 2,4-D and NAA (2.0-3.0 mg L(-1)) and this amount was decreased from (84%) to (69%) when this media supplemented with Kinetin and TDZ (1 mg L(-1)) respectively were used. Leaf segments cultured on WPM media added with Kn (1 mg L(-1)) and TDZ (2 mg L(-1)) yielded the least amount of callus. It was found that WPM media added with IAA (4.5-5.0 mg L(-1)) were optimum for root induction from G. jasminoides plantlets. Antibacterial screening of leaf extracts (in vivo) showed no inhibitory effect against E. coli, P. aeruginosa, S. aureus, and B. cereus, in contrast to callus extracts from leaf cultures supplemented with NAA, which showed inhibition activity against E. coli and B. cereus. The callus extracts from leaf cultures grown on both MS and WPM media showed higher antioxidant and superoxide dismutase activities than leaf extracts.