Storm Chaser

Storm Chaser is a work of fiction that uses strange, almost supernatural occurrences to symbolically represent various meanings and truths for different characters. Works of fiction that influenced Storm Chaser include The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis, A Perfect Day for Bananafish by J.D. Salinger, The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel by Amy Hempel. Reappearing themes include sacrifice, the desire to live a life of purpose, freewill, and the fear of becoming one’s parents

A study of the climate of Egypt with special reference to agriculture

This thesis contains a study of the climate of Egypt with special reference to agriculture. It is organised in three main sections. The main body of the thesis, beginning with Chapter 3 (Temperatures in Egypt), deals with surface, earth and water temperatures in detail. Analysis of daily maximum temperatures at selected stations during the 15 year period (1960 - 1974) showed that spring is the period during which the frequency and severity of hot spells is greatest. Analysis of precipitation over Egypt showed that the rainy season in Egypt occurs between October and May and the maximum rainfall over the coastal Mediterranean region occurs in January, but in Middle and Upper Egypt this maximum occurs in October and May. Evaporation and evapotranspiration was estimated using the Penman equation and the Thornthwaite formula for selected stations in Egypt. These indicated that the evaporation and evapotranspiration values for each month are very high at Aswan, Kharga and Dakhla stations, in comparison to Alexandria and Tanta. The main weather features which are sufficient to specify what is called Khamsin weather have been analysed. These are excessively high surface temperatures and extremely low humidities, associated with the invasion of south and south-east winds which produce rising dust and duststorms. It is also seen that there are two types of Khamsin depressions. The first originates over the Atlantic and the second forms to the south of the Atlas mountains. Factor analysis techniques have been used to classify the climate of Egypt. The results showed that the climate of Egypt can basically be divided into two climatic zones. The first comprises the Mediterranean Coastal area, including the Delta. The second zone covers the rest of the country south of Cairo. Multiple regression equations have been used to explain the relationships between the crop yields and selected climatic variables. The results derived show that the multiple regression equations analysing climatic data have good predictive qualities in terms of annual yields

Antifouling activity of crude extracts from some Red Sea soft corals

EnThe antifouling activity of crude extracts of 5 common Red Sea soft corals was examined. The extracts were mixed with a marine paint, applied to PVC panels immersed in the seawater of Suez Bay (Red Sea). The barnacle Balanus amphitrite (Crustacea) and tube worms Hydroides elegans (Polychaeta) are the dominant fouling organisms in this area. The results demonstrated that all the tested soft coral extracts exhibited significant antifouling activities with varying degrees. Extracts of Sinularia heterospiculata and Sinularia variabilis showed the highest and potent wide spectrum antifouling activity, particularly in the first 17 days of fouling formation. Extracts of Sinularia polydactyla exhibited significant selective inhibition against settlement of barnacle, while the extracts of Lithophyton arboreum showed significant antifouling activity against the latter successional stages of tube worms. The results of the current study propose that these soft corals may contain bioactive compounds with antifouling activity. These bioactive molecules can be isolated, purified, identified and chemically synthesized for commercial uses in the development of nontoxic and environmentally acceptable antifouling coatings

AFRPシート緊張接着によるRC梁の曲げ補強法の開発に関する実験的研究

Nowadays, Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) sheet bonding method has been rapidly introduced for reinforcing and/or retrofitting of the existing Reinforced Concrete (RC) structures. Due to bonding normal FRP sheet onto the tension-side surface of the RC members, the effects due to bonding the FRP sheet can be expected after rebar yielding. However, cracking and rebar yielding loads cannot be much improved. Recently, in order to increase not only the ultimate load-carrying capacity of the RC members but also cracking and rebar yielding loads, pre-tensioned FRP sheet bonding method has been developed. In the previous studies, metal system was applied as anchoring devices of the sheet. Even though the premature failure at the ends of the sheet can be prevented by applying the metallic anchoring system, the installation of the system into RC members is not easy task because of its heavy weight. Also, stainless steel must be used to be anti-corrosive when FRP sheet is applied. Then, in order to easily apply the pre-tensioned FRP sheet bonding method for reinforcing RC members, the anchoring system should be simplified without any dropping of anchoring performance. From this point of view, here, a flexural reinforcing method using pre-tensioned AFRP sheet without metallic device was proposed. In this method, to distribute the concentrated anchoring stresses of pre-tensioned AFRP sheet, the base cross-directional non-pre-tensioned AFRP sheet was bonded to the concrete surface around the anchoring area. In addition, to decrease gradients of bonding stresses near the anchoring area, a strain relaxation polymer (with low young’s modulus) was used as a bonding material. The applicability of the method was discussed by conducting four-point loading test of the flexural reinforced RC beams with pre-tensioned AFRP sheet and comparing the experimental results with the numerical ones. The analytical portion of the research is employed to describe the flexural behavior of the all tested beams. A multi-section method was applied to analytically estimate the load-displacement relation and the axial strain distribution of AFRP sheet used for flexural reinforcing each RC beam. This research is divided into three studies as follows; (1) Strengthening Study of RC beams; this study examined the behavior of flexural pre-tensioned AFRP strengthening systems without anchoring device, hence investigate the effectiveness and feasibility of a proposed anchoring method. The variables used in the experimental program included the pre-tension force ratio introduced to the AFRP sheet (0, 20, and 40%) and the main reinforcement steel ratio (0.79 and 1.24%). From this study, the results show that the proposed anchoring method is effective and feasible because the load-carrying capacity increased considerably. A good agreement between experimental and analytical methods was achieved up to ultimate state with somewhat a perfect bonding between the AFRP sheet and concrete surface. (2) Strengthening Study of pre-cracked RC beams; this study investigated the load-carrying behavior of pre-cracked RC beams strengthened with pre-tensioned sheet compared to non-pre-cracked ones. Pre-tension force ratio introduced to the AFRP sheet (0 and 40%) and level of prior loading (Level 1 is up to main rebar yielding; Level 2 is up to average point between main rebar yielding and ultimate load) were taken as variables. From this study, it is observed that due to introducing pre-tension force into the sheet, flexural capacity and durability of the pre-cracked RC beams can be improved and the width of cracks can be decreased. This implies that a new anchoring method is effective and feasible. Numerical results can better match the experimental results for non-pre-cracked beams but not for pre-cracked beams subjected to high prior loading because the existing cracks and the stiffness of putty used for flattening the bonding surface were not considered in numerical analysis. (3) Repair Study of pre-cracked RC beams; this study examined the effectiveness of pre-tensioned AFRP systems to restore capacity of repaired pre-cracked RC beams reinforced with pre-tensioned sheet. Pre-tension force ratio introduced to the AFRP sheet (0 and 40%), with/without existing cracks and with/without repairing the cracks by injection epoxy resin were taken as variables. From this study, it can be concluded that : 1) flexural load-carrying capacity of the pre-cracked RC beams can be significantly improved by bonding the pre-tensioned AFRP sheet onto the tension-side surface;2) by repairing the existing cracks, the sheet rupture can be prevented because the opening of cracks and also large strains occurring in the sheet due to the opening can be rationally restrained; and 3) numerical results can better match the experimental results for non-pre-cracked beams but not for pre-cracked ones.室蘭工業大学 (Muroran Institute of Technology)博士（工学

Pool Boiling Heat Transfer from Aluminum Alloy Circular Surface Using Al2O3 and CuO Water Based Nano-fluids

The present work aims to study the effect of nano-particles volume fraction of nano-fluid on the heat transfer during pool boiling with different values of heat flux. The concentration ratios by volume in demineralized water are taken as 0.02 %, 0.20 %, 0.40 %, 0.60, and 0.80 % for Al2O3 nano-particles and 0.02 %, 0.06 %, and 0.20 % for CuO nano-particles. Heat transfer coefficients for pool boiling were established experimentally for different values of volume fraction and heat flux. The heating element is made from an aluminum alloy (AL 6061) with a circular smooth surface of 100 mm diameter and 10 mm thickness. The nano-particles porous layer that builds up during boiling is observed by a scanning electron microscope of the heated surface before and after the boiling. The results demonstrate that the heat transfer rate depends on the concentration ratios and heat flux. Using nano-particles decreases the pool boiling heat transfer in comparison with demineralized water. Due to the deposition of nano-particles on the heated surface, lower heat transfer is obtained for a lower bubble departure compared with demineralized water for the small wall superheat

Laboratory Study of Steel Slag Used in Stabilizing Expansive Soil

This paper presents an experimental study in stabilization of expansive soil using Steel Slag (SS). Experimental program was conducted to evaluate the influence of Steel Slag on improving the engineering properties of expansive clay. A series of tests to measure consistency limits, free swell index, compaction parameters and unconfined compressive strength of natural and stabilized soils. The effectiveness of adding 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, and 30 percentages of SS to the soil was studied. Comparing the results obtained for the natural and stabilized soils revealed that SS has significant effect on strength parameters and considerable improvement in plasticity and swelling properties. Addition of SS to the soil increased the dry density and decreased the optimum moisture content as well as increased the unconfined compressive strength. It is concluded that the use of steel slag to enhance properties of expansive soil is successful and beneficial

Synthesis and antimicrobial activities of some novel bis-pyrazole derivatives containing a hydrophosphoryl unit

Vilsmeier-Haack reaction conditions were applied on some methyl ketone aryl phosphonicdihydrazones to yield some interesting bis-pyrazole derivatives containing a hydro-phosphoryl unit. Bis-{4-formyl-3-aryl-1H-pyrazol-1-yl}phosphine oxides (4a,b) were condensed with some nucleophiles such as aniline, phenacyltriphenylphosphonium bromide and 4-phenylthiosemicarbazide followed by treatment with thioglycolic acid, diethyl phosphite and/or acetic anhydride to yield a novel class of bis-pyrazoles containing sulfur and phosphorus derivatives. Most of the newly synthesized compounds were evaluated for their in vitro antimicrobial activities

Developing prevention model of acute lung injury: Validity of lung injury prediction score and risk panel

AbstractBackgroundAcute lung injury (ALI) is an example of a critical care syndrome with few therapeutic modalities once the syndrome is fully established, and little has been done on the prevention of ALI.Aim of the workThe aim of this work was to early identify the onset of acute lung injury (ALI) on admission and to prospectively evaluate the lung injury prediction score (LIPS).Patients and methodsThe study was carried out on 100 patients who aged >18years, patients who had one or more of the acute lung injury (ALI) predisposing conditions on admission or within 6h after were subjected to lung injury prediction score (LIPS).ResultsAcute lung injury developed in 15 patients, 11 patients (73.3%) had LIPS >3, while 4 patients (26.7%) had LIPS ⩽3 and only 4.70% of those who didn’t develop ALI had LIPS >3, with a statistically significant relationship between patients above and below LIPS value of 3 (P=0.000), LIPS cutoff value of ⩾3.5 on admission had a 73% sensitivity and 95% specificity with an area under the receiver operating curve of 0.883 (95% CI 0.782 to 0.984). Sepsis and pneumonia were the most frequent risk factors (60%).ConclusionsLung injury predictive score (LIPS) could early predict patients at risk to develop ALI on admission, Hyperbilirubinemia, high blood urea level and abnormal chest X-ray on admission were not included in the original LIPS but had significant association with development of ALI

Synthesis, antifungal activity and semi-empirical AM1-MO calculations of some new 4-oxo-4H-chromene derivatives

Some new antifungal agents have been prepared through reaction of 4-oxo-4H-chromene-3-carbaldehydes (1a,b) with some active primary amines (2a-e) and amides/thioamides (6a-d) in different conditions. Structures of the products were established on the basis of elemental analysis, IR, 1H NMR, mass spectra and semi-empirical AM1-MO calculations