Phase behaviour modelling of systems containing gas hydrates and asphaltenes

Abstract currently unavailable please refer to PD

Molecular characterization of the rDNA-ITS sequence and a PCR diagnostic technique for Pileolaria terebinthi, the cause of pistachio rust

Eleven samples of the most important pistachio rust (caused by Pileolaria terebinthi (DC.) Cast.,), which causes disease on Beneh (Pistacia atlantica Desf. subsp. mutica (Fisch. & Mey.) Rech. F) and Kasoor (Pistacia khinjuk Stocks.), were collected from herbarium specimens and pistachio fields at the Pistachio Research Institute in Rafsanjan, Iran. The complete sequences of ribosomal DNA internal transcribed spacers ITS1 and ITS2 (rDNA ITS) from the samples were determined and analysed. In general, very little rDNA ITS sequence variation was observed between rDNA ITS sequences of P. terebinthi samples. The length of the PCR fragments was 621 bp (for ITS1F-ITS4) and 1177 bp (for ITS1F-rust1), and consisted of 67 bp at the 3 ́ end of 18S rDNA, 93 bp of ITS1 region, 154 bp of 5.8S rDNA, 246 bp of the ITS2 region, 57 bp (for ITS1F-ITS4) and 613 bp (for ITS1F-rust1) at the 5 ́ end of the 28S rDNA. Restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs) of the rDNA-ITS region were used to identify Pileolaria terebinthi. Three strong bands of 105, 134 and 381 bp and five bands of 105, 134, 200, 301 and 437 bp are observed for the fragment of “ITS1F-ITS4” and “ITS1F-rust1”, respectively. A PCR-RFLP diagnostic technique provided effective identification of the species by a unique pattern with the specific restriction enzyme XapI (ApoI)

RETRACTED: Shear Strength Behavior of Crude Oil Contaminated Sand-Concrete Interface

This article has been retracted: please see Civil Engineering Journal policies: (https://www.civilejournal.org/index.php/cej/about/editorialPolicies).This article has been retracted at the request of the Editor-in-Chief. It has come to our attention that there is significant duplication of text and content between this Civil Engineering Journal article and other paper by the same authors, "Shear Strength Behavior of Crude Oil Contaminated Sand-Concrete Interface" by Amir Hossein Mohammadi, Taghi Ebadi, Abolfazl Eslami, Geomechanics and Engineering (Techno Press) (Volume 12, Number 2, February 2017, pages 211-221) www.techno-press.org/content/?page=article&journal=gae&volume=12&num=2&ordernum=3. One of the conditions of submission of a paper for publication is that authors declare explicitly that the paper is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. The scientific community takes a very strong view on this matter and apologies are offered to readers of the journal that this was not detected during the submission process

Performance of models for predicting the shear capacity of FRP-strengthened RC beams

The behaviour of reinforced concrete (RC) beams shear strengthened with fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) has been extensively studied. Numerous analytical models have been proposed to predict the shear contribution of externally applied FRP to RC beams. Due to the continuous increase of experimental data, it is fundamental to assess the predictive performance of these models, to found the most appropriate ones and their boundaries of application. This study evaluates the predictive performance of some available models using a comprehensive database of published works. The results reveal that current models have significant shortcomings, resulting in unreliable and potentially unsafe predictions. Therefore, a new simple and more effective model is required. This preliminary study briefly discusses potential approaches to improve the accuracy of these models.This study is a part of the project ‘‘Sticker –Innovative technique for the structural strengthening based on using CFRP laminates with multifunctional attributes and applied with advanced cement adhesives’’, with the reference POCI-01-0247-FEDER-039755. The first author also acknowledges the support provided by FCT PhD individual fellowship with the reference of 2020.08876.BD. This work was partly financed by FCT / MCTES through national funds (PIDDAC) under the R&D Unit Institute for Sustainability and Innovation in Structural Engineering (ISISE), under reference UIDB/04029/2020, and under the Associate Laboratory Advanced Production and Intelligent Systems ARISE under reference LA/P/0112/2020

Persian Identity Aspects in Delgosha's System of Poems based on Shahnameh's Ferdowsi Re-creations

Poetic historiography has been formed as one of the historiographical forms of the Mongolian period, following the advent of historiography. In this historiography, as its name implies, history is written in order. The poetic historiography provides a lot of information about the reconstruction of some of the historical events of this time and in terms of showing evidence of the revival of the Iranian and the Persian language. Although the Ilkhani and Timurid periods are the most important periods in Iran's poetic historiography, and many epopees have been created in this age, this kind of historiography has been less studied by researchers. The present research seeks to study the ideas of Iranian identity by a descriptive-analytical method in the poem called Daftar Delgosha by Saheb Shabankareh. The results of the research show that, in Saheb Shabankareh's opinion, the history and historical past have played the most important role in the restoration and reconstruction of the Iranian identity in Islamic times. The deep view of the poet towards Ferdowsi and the influence of Shahnameh have led him to repeatedly refer to the characters and heroes of Shahnameh in his poem. Sometimes even his heroes consider themselves superior to the champions of Shahnameh

Causal Adversarial Perturbations for Individual Fairness and Robustness in Heterogeneous Data Spaces

As responsible AI gains importance in machine learning algorithms, properties such as fairness, adversarial robustness, and causality have received considerable attention in recent years. However, despite their individual significance, there remains a critical gap in simultaneously exploring and integrating these properties. In this paper, we propose a novel approach that examines the relationship between individual fairness, adversarial robustness, and structural causal models in heterogeneous data spaces, particularly when dealing with discrete sensitive attributes. We use causal structural models and sensitive attributes to create a fair metric and apply it to measure semantic similarity among individuals. By introducing a novel causal adversarial perturbation and applying adversarial training, we create a new regularizer that combines individual fairness, causality, and robustness in the classifier. Our method is evaluated on both real-world and synthetic datasets, demonstrating its effectiveness in achieving an accurate classifier that simultaneously exhibits fairness, adversarial robustness, and causal awareness

Feasibility study of wastewater reuse for irrigation in Isfahan, Iran

Abstract: Wastewater reuse is one of the main options that can be considered as a new source of water in regions where water is scarce. The main purpose of this study is to determine the feasibility of Isfahan’s north wastewater treatment plant effluent for agricultural irrigation. To evaluate suitability of treated wastewater for irrigation, important indicators like Sodium Adsorption Ratio (SAR), Soluble Sodium Percentage (SSP)and Potential Salinity were investigated. In this study the SAR value for effluent was 2.62 and according to approved criteria by Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) it was excellent for irrigation,SSPwas 39.7% so it has good quality for irrigation usage and the potential salinity was 4.81 meq/L, thusaccording to approved criteria by FAO it is medium for soil permeability.Also the EC value of effluent was 1250 µS/cm (1.25 dS/m) and according to approved criteria by FAO it was permissible for irrigatio