Employing performance counters and software wrapper for measuring QoS attributes of web services

Web services have got popular for developing Service-Oriented Architectures recently. As several web services are available to execute the same function, Quality of Service (QoS) turns into a discriminative factor which is significantly considered in service selection and service composition approaches. In different approaches, monitoring of services is used for evaluating QoS attributes. Custom Windows Performance Counters (CWPC) is one of the approaches for monitoring performance of services at server-side. However, it has some limitations and it needs to access and change a service implementation which is not always possible in practice. In this paper, CWPC along with software wrapper is employed for measuring different QoS attributes such as response time, throughput and reliability in order to overcome current limitations. Additionally, it discusses how the proposed monitoring mechanism can be employed to optimize the service provider performance. The results show that the proposed monitoring approach is accurate in measuring QoS attributes

Biochemical, genetic and molecular advances of fragrance characteristics in rice

One of the most valuable traits in high-quality rice is aroma or fragrance, which is important for consumer preference and global trade. Aromatic rice is unique and recognized as a badge of honor and an asset in many countries. Among more than 100 volatile components, 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (2AP) is believed to be the main aromatic compound in rice. The principal gene contributing to 2AP is badh2, which was mapped on chromosome 8 by map-based cloning. A deletion in this gene truncates and makes non-functional the BADH2 protein. Thus, the mutant badh2 transcript leads to 2AP accumulation in aromatic rice. The discovery of the gene has led to the clarification of the biochemistry, molecular genetics and evolution of fragrant rice. The breeding of fragrant rice is now faster because of marker assisted selection (MAS), which is based on recognized genes. For a more extensive elucidation of all effective and fundamental factors contributing to rice fragrance, it is essential to further explore target quantitative trait loci (QTLs) and their inheritance and locations

Allelopathic effect of methanol extracts from Tinospora tuberculata on selected crops and rice weeds

Herbicidal potential of aerial parts of Tinospora tuberculata on germination and seedling growth of seven test plant species, namely rice (Oryza sativa L.); two rice weeds, barnyardgrass (Echinochloa crus-galli L.) and weedy rice (O. sativa f. spontanea); and four vegetable crops, lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.), tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.), carrot (Daucus carota L.), and cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) were evaluated. Six concentrations of methanol extract (3.12, 6.25, 12.5, 25, 50, and 100 g L−1) were compared with the control (distilled water). The rate of seed germination and the radicle and hypocotyl length of 7-day-old test plant seedlings were reduced as the concentration of extracts increased compared to the control. Generally, the degree of toxicity of extracts derived from the leaves was more than the extracts derived from the stem. Cluster analysis and the concentrations required for 50% inhibition (defined as EC50) of all parameters showed that radicle growth was more suppressed than germination and hypocotyl growth. Lettuce and carrot were observed as the most sensitive plants while rice showed the highest tolerance to both extracts. Moreover, the dicot target plants were affected more severely than the monocots when treated with leaf extract. The chemical composition of the T. tuberculata methanolic extracts was analyzed by a GC–MS system. A total of 92 and 22 constituents (not previously identified) were found in the leaves and stem, respectively. The results showed that 17 of the 92 components in the leaves, as compared to 4 of 22 compounds in the stem, are known as toxic compounds. These results suggest that T. tuberculata contains a significant source of plant growth inhibitors with potential for the development of future natural herbicide

Effects of Tinospora tuberculata leaf methanol extract on seedling growth of rice and associated weed species in hydroponic culture

The study was conducted to evaluate the responses of rice and rice weed seedlings (barnyardgrass and weedy rice) at the three-leaf stage to Tinospora tuberculata leaf methanol extract (3.12, 6.25 and 12.5 g L−1) under hydroponic culture. It shows that the leaf methanol extract had various degrees effects depending on target plant species and each tested index (biomass, root length, shoot length, transpiration volume, chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b and carotenoid contents). The effective concentration of the leaf extract capable of reducing 50% of rice growth was higher than those of target weed species. Moreover, the root length was more tolerant to leaf methanol extract in comparison to the other plant parameters measured. A greater reduction was observed in chlorophyll a content compared to chlorophyll b and carotenoid. The results revealed that the reduction of transpiration volume closely coincided with the magnitude of growth inhibition of tested plants. Ultra-fast liquid chromatography analysis revealed 11 of 32 peaks in chemical profile, including benzoic acid, caffeic acid, chlorogenic acid, isoorientin, isovitexin, orientin, p-anisic acid, syringic acid, trans-cinnamic acid, trans-ferulic acid, and vitexin have the same retention time with those peaks of the extract. The amount of compounds was present in the range of between 4 817 and 115.5 mg kg−1 dry weight (DW). The concentration-response bioassay of all 11 individual compounds and their equimolar mixture against the seeds of barnyardgrass revealed their contribution in the allelopahic activity of T. tuberculata leaf extract. The examined compounds and their combination exhibited various degrees of growth inhibitory effects on the early growth of barnyardgrass. Therefore, the specific number, concentration, combination and inhibitory activity of bioactive compounds leads to allelopathy activity of T. tuberculata leaves which could be employable directly as a natural herbicide and its growth inhibitor compounds can be used as a template for producing new herbicides

Study of a quadrupole ion trap with damping force by the two-point one block method

RATIONALE: The capabilities and performances of a quadrupole ion trap under damping force based on collisional cooling is of particular importance in high-resolution mass spectrometry and should be analyzed by Mathieu's differential solutions. These solutions describe the stability and instability of the ion's trajectories confined in quadrupole devices. One of the methods for solving Mathieu's differential equation is a two-point one block method. In this case, Mathieu's stability diagram, trapping parameters az and qz and the secular frequency of the ion motion wz, can be derived in a precise manner. The two-point one block method (TPOBM) of Adams Moulton type is presented to study these parameters with and without the effect of damping force and compared to the 5th-order Runge–Kutta method (RKM5). The simulated results show that the TPOBM is more accurate and 10 times faster than the RKM5. The physical properties of the confined ions in the r and z axes are illustrated and the fractional mass resolutions m/Δm of the confined ions in the first stability region were analyzed by the RKM5 and the TPOBM. METHODS: The Lagrange interpolation polynomial was applied in the derivation of the proposed method. The proposed method will be utilized to obtain a series solution directly without reducing it to first order equations. RESULTS: The problem was tested with the ion trajectories in real time with and without the effect of damping force using constant step size. Numerical results from the two-point one block method have been compared with the fifth order Runge–Kutta method. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed two-point one block method has a potential application to solve complicated linear and nonlinear equations of the charged particle confinement in a quadrupole field especially in fine tuning accelerators, and, generally speaking, in physics of high energy

PHYTOCHEMICAL ANALYSIS AND ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITY OF METHANOLIC EXTRACT OF LEAVES OF CORCHORUS OLITORIUS

Objective: The present study was carried out to evaluate the in vitro preliminary phytochemical analysis and antioxidant activity of methanolic leaf extracts of Corchorus olitorius L. The in vitro antioxidant activity was evaluated by DPPH radical scavenging activity method.Methods: Fresh jute leaves (immature, mature and senescence) were collected, air dried and the crude powder was prepared for phytochemical and antioxidant analysis. The powder was mixed with 70% methanol and the supernatant was separated. The antioxidant activity of this methanolic extract was measured on the basis of the scavenging activity of the stable 1, 1-diphenyl 2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical with slight modifications. Phytochemical analysis was performed according to standard laboratory protocol.Results: The results indicated the presence of different phytochemicals viz. glycosides, steroids, cholesterol, alkaloids, phenols, flavonoids, riboflavin, saponins and terpenoids. The sample also showed antioxidant activity by inhibiting DPPH radical. The significant antioxidant activity of methanolic leaf extract of might be due to the presence of saponins, phenols, flavonoids and alkaloids found in the preliminary phytochemical analysis.Conclusion: Present study reveals that the jute leaf possesses different phytonutrients and exhibited DPPH radical scavenging activity, and therefore, may be used for therapeutic purposes

The Relationship Between Emotional Self-efficacy, Sensation Seeking, and the Quality of Child-Parent Relationships With Quality of Life Mediated by High-Risk Sexual Behaviors in Students

Background: Considering the importance of quality of life which is related to various physical, psychological, social, and political dimensions of the individual and the importance of the class which plays a decisive role in forming a successful and healthy society. Also, considering the importance of high-risk behaviors in today’s society and the harm that these behaviors create, five variables of quality of life, type of parent-child relationship and sensation seeking, self-efficacy, and high-risk sexual behaviors have been studied together.Methods: The research method was descriptive-correlational with structural equation modeling (SEM). The statistical population included all male and female undergraduate students of Bandar Abbas Branch of Azad University who were studying in the first semester of the 2018-2019 academic year. 260 people were selected through purposive sampling. The inclusion criteria were being an undergraduate student, conscious satisfaction with the implementation method and research process. Data were gathered by the Child-Parent Relationship Quality Questionnaire (PCRS), Zuckerman Sensation Seeking Scale, Quality of Life Questionnaire, High-Risk Sexual Behaviors Questionnaire and Emotional Self-efficacy Scale. Data were analyzed using structural equations with Amos software, version 8.80.Results: The path coefficient between high-risk sexual behaviors and quality of life was -0.84, which indicates the negative and inverse effect of high-risk sexual behaviors and quality of life. The path coefficient between the quality of the parent-child relationship and high-risk sexual behaviors was -0.86, which indicates the negative and inverse effect of the quality of the parent-child relationship and high-risk sexual behaviors.Conclusion: High-risk sexual behaviors mediate the quality of the parent-child relationship and the quality of life of students

Splitting Arabic Texts into Elementary Discourse Units

International audienceIn this article, we propose the first work that investigates the feasibility of Arabic discourse segmentation into elementary discourse units within the segmented discourse representation theory framework. We first describe our annotation scheme that defines a set of principles to guide the segmentation process. Two corpora have been annotated according to this scheme: elementary school textbooks and newspaper documents extracted from the syntactically annotated Arabic Treebank. Then, we propose a multiclass supervised learning approach that predicts nested units. Our approach uses a combination of punctuation, morphological, lexical, and shallow syntactic features. We investigate how each feature contributes to the learning process. We show that an extensive morphological analysis is crucial to achieve good results in both corpora. In addition, we show that adding chunks does not boost the performance of our system