Habitat selection of adult bearded vultures Gypaetus barbatus in southern Africa: implications for conservation

The Bearded Vulture, Gypaetus barbatus, was previously distributed across southern and western South Africa, as far south as Cape Town. Today, the entire population in southern Africa is restricted to the Lesotho highlands and the Drakensberg escarpment and nearby mountains in South Africa, where the population continues to decline. Research has shown that territorial abandonment is apparently associated with the density of human settlements within 10km of a territory. This pattern was assumed to be linked to the increased risk of unnatural mortalities in areas with higher human presence. However, habitat use and habitat selection, especially whether the species actively avoids human settlements has not yet been explored and could contribute to this pattern. In this study, we used data from nine adult Bearded Vultures fitted with Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite tags to determine which habitat is being selected. We modelled habitat selection in relation to various topographic and habitat variables, including information on built-up areas (i.e., areas with a high density of buildings). We predicted that birds would select areas of grassland and avoid areas with high building density and adjoining areas. We found that Bearded Vultures selected areas closer to their nest sites and supplementary feeding sites, with steeper slopes, and highly rugged terrain. In terms of habitat, they selected areas with grassland and avoided areas with forest, while cropland was neither selected nor avoided. As predicted Bearded Vultures avoided built-up areas and their vicinity. These results suggest that the Bearded Vulture may be sensitive to the negative impacts of a changing landscape in its distribution range. These results can help conservation managers in guiding development (e.g., human settlement expansion and afforestation) and protecting priority habitats (e.g., grassland) within the breeding range of adult Bearded Vultures

THE MEDIATION ROLE OF CUSTOMER SATISFACTION ON SERVICE QUALITY AND CORPORATE IMAGE - AN EVIDENCE FROM LEBANESE PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES

The higher education sector in Lebanon faces a number of challenges due to its rapid expansion, which has had many implications for the development of the sector. However, each university competes for a limited resources. Thus, promoting the image of the university becomes an essential factor for survival. The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between service quality and corporate image with customer satisfaction as an intermediary in private universities in Lebanon. A survey of 378 respondents was conducted. A judgmental sample of university students was selected. The framework was tested by structural equation modeling (SEM). The results show that the service quality influences both customer satisfaction and the image of the company. In addition, customer satisfaction is partially involved in the relationship between service quality and corporate image . This study suggested that marketers should focus on service quality and customer satisfaction to strengthen the corporate image when adopting their strategies at private universities in Lebanon

Removal of Cationic Surfactants from Aqueous Solutions by Modified Cotton as a Novel High Capacity and Low Cost Adsorbent

Direct and indirect releases of large quantities of surfactants to the environment may result in serious health and environmental problems. Therefore, surfactants should be removed from water before release to the environment or delivery for public use. Using cotton-based adsorbent may be an effective technique to remove surfactants. In this study, the removal of cationic surfactants by modified cotton was investigated. N-Cetyl-N,N,N-trimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) was selected as a cationic surfactant for the experiments. The results revealed that the modified cotton has a high affinity toward the cationic surfactants. Experiments were conducted to examine the effects of applied adsorbent dosage, initial concentration of adsorbate, pH, temperature, salt concentration on the removal efficiency. By increasing the salt concentration, removal efficiency was decreased slightly. The temperature had an adverse effect on removal efficiency. The adsorption of the CTAB increases with increasing pH of the solution. A series of batch experiments were performed to determine the sorption isotherms of modified cotton. Surfactant equilibrium data fitted very well to the Langmuir model. The Langmuir model showed that the maximum adsorption was 909 mg/g which is higher than the capacity of other adsorbents reported until now. The pseudo first-, second- order and corresponding rate equation kinetic models were investigated. Adsorption complies with a pseudo-second-order rate equation

Antibacterial and antibiofilm activities of polysaccharides, essential oil, and fatty oil extracted from Laurus nobilis growing in Lebanon

AbstractObjectiveTo evaluate the antibacterial activity of the extracts of Laurus nobilis against three Gram-positive bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923, Enterococcus faecalis ATCC 29212 and Staphylococcus epidermidis CIP 444) and two Gram-negative bacteria (Escherichia coli ATCC 35218 and Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 27853). Also, the antibiofilm activity has been investigated against the biofilm produced by Staphylococcus epidermidis CIP 444.MaterialsThe polysaccharides, essential oil, and fatty oils extracted from the plant were used in broth microdilution methods to study the minimal inhibitory concentration, and then the minimal bactericidal concentration was determined.ResultsThe results showed that alginate, fucoidan, fatty oils and essential oil have good antibacterial activities against the 5 bacterial strains, and a negligible biofilm eradication activity of fucoidan, laminaran, fatty oil, and essential oil was observed, but a promising biofilm eradication activity was obtained with alginate, which showed a reduced biofilm mass even at low concentration.ConclusionsThe extracts obtained have promising antibacterial capacities which need further investigation for them to be incorporated in medical or nutritional applications

An Investigation of Asphaltene Deposition Mechanisms During Natural Depletion Process by a Two Phase Modeling Using Genetic Algorithm Technique

In this work, the natural depletion process in sandstone and carbonate cores was modeled to investigate the asphaltene deposition mechanisms. A new permeability reduction correlation was proposed based on the Minssieux model that considers a combination of surface deposition, pore throat plugging, and filtration cake mechanisms. The results showed that the filtration cake is a dominant asphaltene deposition mechanism during natural depletion process in both core samples. Therefore, a modified model was proposed with adding formation of filtration cake mechanism due to pore filling to the Wang and Civan deposition model. The absolute average deviation (AAD (%)) for permeability reduction between the results of the three models (including new correlation, the modified model, and Wang and Civan model) and the experimental data were calculated and reported. These values for the three models were 3.28, 2.67, and 4.83% for sandstone core and 3.01, 2.58, and 4.69% for carbonate core respectively. The results showed that the modified model proposed in this study presented good performance for asphaltene deposition predictio

Flammability action of tires material after adding flame inhibitor

Magnesium hydroxide was used as flame inhibitor to increased flame resistance for tires .Magnesium hydroxide was adding with (5%,10%) weight percents to rubber master batch of tire and then exposed the resulting material to a flame generated from gas torch with (10 mm) exposure distance . Method of measuring the surface temperature opposite to the flame was used to determine the heat transferred through tire material. The results were obtained shows enhanced flame resistance for tire by added magnesium hydroxide and this resistance increased by increasing hydroxide Percentage

Determination of Vehicular Pollution in the Road Tunnel of Vana (Haraz Road) in the North of Iran

The combustion of fuels (gasoline, LPG, diesel oil, and so on ...) in vehicle engines produces a lot of substances and gases. Depending on their concentration, their chemical stability and their adverse effects on environment and human being, the most relevant compounds in the exhaust gas are SO2, CO, NOx, H2S and O3. Traffic is the source of pollution in a road tunnel, It has a harmful impact on Human health .The aim of the study is to analyze the amount of atmospheric pollution emitted by vehicular traffic in the road tunnel of Vana which is situated between the provinces of Tehran and Mazandaran in Iran. The geometric characteristics of the tunnel are: the length (1500 m, the longest tunnel), the height (5.5 m) and the mean slope (3%). It is placed in Haraz road, a geographical situation by the length of 35\ub0 56.6` 42.4`` and the width of 52\ub0 15.28` 33.7``.Traffic is undoubtedly one of the important sources of environmental and air pollution. The concentration of pollutants was measured by Babucr A (a portable device with several sensors) in the nine stations in tunnel. Concentrations were measured after diesels and gasoline car traffic in moment , statistical and within a period of one hour and 8 hours .The results showed that SO2, CO, NO, H2S and O3 were 0.47, 57.13, 3.58, 1.2and 0.13ppm respectively, within a period of 8 hours. And also the difference of monthly results was lower than 1.5%

Convalescent plasma in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised controlled, open-label, platform trial

SummaryBackground Azithromycin has been proposed as a treatment for COVID-19 on the basis of its immunomodulatoryactions. We aimed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of azithromycin in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19.Methods In this randomised, controlled, open-label, adaptive platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19Therapy [RECOVERY]), several possible treatments were compared with usual care in patients admitted to hospitalwith COVID-19 in the UK. The trial is underway at 176 hospitals in the UK. Eligible and consenting patients wererandomly allocated to either usual standard of care alone or usual standard of care plus azithromycin 500 mg once perday by mouth or intravenously for 10 days or until discharge (or allocation to one of the other RECOVERY treatmentgroups). Patients were assigned via web-based simple (unstratified) randomisation with allocation concealment andwere twice as likely to be randomly assigned to usual care than to any of the active treatment groups. Participants andlocal study staff were not masked to the allocated treatment, but all others involved in the trial were masked to theoutcome data during the trial. The primary outcome was 28-day all-cause mortality, assessed in the intention-to-treatpopulation. The trial is registered with ISRCTN, 50189673, and ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04381936.Findings Between April 7 and Nov 27, 2020, of 16 442 patients enrolled in the RECOVERY trial, 9433 (57%) wereeligible and 7763 were included in the assessment of azithromycin. The mean age of these study participants was65·3 years (SD 15·7) and approximately a third were women (2944 [38%] of 7763). 2582 patients were randomlyallocated to receive azithromycin and 5181 patients were randomly allocated to usual care alone. Overall,561 (22%) patients allocated to azithromycin and 1162 (22%) patients allocated to usual care died within 28 days(rate ratio 0·97, 95% CI 0·87–1·07; p=0·50). No significant difference was seen in duration of hospital stay (median10 days [IQR 5 to >28] vs 11 days [5 to >28]) or the proportion of patients discharged from hospital alive within 28 days(rate ratio 1·04, 95% CI 0·98–1·10; p=0·19). Among those not on invasive mechanical ventilation at baseline, nosignificant difference was seen in the proportion meeting the composite endpoint of invasive mechanical ventilationor death (risk ratio 0·95, 95% CI 0·87–1·03; p=0·24).Interpretation In patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19, azithromycin did not improve survival or otherprespecified clinical outcomes. Azithromycin use in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 should be restrictedto patients in whom there is a clear antimicrobial indication

Developing a Fuzzy-Stochastic Multi Objectives Inventory Model

In this paper we developed an inventory model in mixed imprecise and uncertain environment. Presented model is developed form of (r,Q) and is a multi-items model with two objectives as minimizing costs (holding & shortage) and risk level under constraints including available budgetary, the least service level, storage spaces & allowable quantities of shortage. Demand distribution functions are assumed to be exponential and extra demands are supposed in two situations as lost sales and backlogging. At first we develop crisp model then fuzzy stochastic model with fuzzy budgetary, allowable quantities of shortage and shortage spaces (i.e. stochastic with normal distribution function) parameter. All of fuzzy numbers are triangular type. In methodology of solution we change model to a crisp multi-­objective by using difuzzification of fuzzy constraints and fuzzy chance-constrained programming methods, and then solve it by fuzzy logic method. Finally an illustrated example is taken and solved using LINGO package

Association between gene polymorphism rs11614913 in microRNA196a2, with Non-small cell lung cancer risk in the population of southern Iran

Lung cancer is the most common cause of death worldwide and result in 1.4 million deaths per year. Lung cancer is the fifth most common cancer in Iran, with rates of 4.7 to 9.2 per 100 thousand populations. Despite the low incidence, survival is not promising. Identification of biological markers and their application in diagnosis of cancer could lead to early diagnosis and therefore longer survival rate in patients. In this study, we evaluated the association of SNP rs11614913 in mir-196a2 with risk of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in population of southern Iran. SNP rs11614913 in miR-196a2 was assayed in 95 lung cancer patients and 100 controls. Polymorphism was determined by RFLP-PCR. The PCR product was digested with TaaI (5’ ACN^GT) which generated two bands (187bp and 196bp) in TT, three bands (187bp, 196bp and 383bp) in TC and one bandn(383bp) in CC individuals. Analysis of electrophoretic pattern of digestion products revealed that the frequencies of C allele for SNP rs11614913 miR-196a2 were 0.695 in patients and 0.76 in controls. As a result, the genotype frequencies of TT, TC and CC were 0.074, 0.463 and 0.463 in patients and 0.06, 0.36 and 0.58 in controls. The statistical analysis indicates the presence of Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium between the two alleles of the gene in the population studied (p>0.05). Based on the results in this study, no significant association between SNP rs11614913 and susceptibility to NSCLC was found. However, male participants who possess TC/TT genotypes showed high risk for NSCLC compared to those possessed CC genotypes (recessive genetic model)