Standardization of Leaf Sampling Technique for Macronutrients in Apricot under Temperate Conditions

Macro- and micro-nutrient content influenced by position of leaf on the shoot and time of sampling was studied to determine leaf-sampling time for apricot grown in temperate region of the country. Results revealed that middle order leaves were the most suitable for determining nutrient needs in apricot trees. Leaf samples should be collected during June - July for determining N, K and Ca; first fortnight of July for P; and, from mid-June to mid-July for Mg

Experimental Study of the Post-Fire Mechanical and Material Response of Cold-Worked Austenitic Stainless Steel Reinforcing Bar

Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. This paper is concerned with the behaviour of stainless steel reinforcing bar following exposure to elevated temperatures from a fire, followed by subsequent cooling. Stainless steel-reinforced concrete is an increasingly popular solution for structural applications which require corrosion resistance, excellent mechanical properties, and long life cycles with little maintenance. In addition, although stainless steel reinforcement has a higher initial cost compared with traditional carbon steel bars, the overall life cycle costs are likely to be quite similar, owing to the lack of maintenance required for stainless steel materials. There is no information available in the literature on the post-fire properties of austenitic stainless steel reinforcement, although these data are essential for any engineer who wishes to study the structural integrity of a reinforced concrete component or system following a fire. Accordingly, this paper presents a detailed discussion and analysis from the results of a series of laboratory experiments on three grades of austenitic stainless steel reinforcement following various levels of temperature exposure and also different cooling rates. Both the mechanical and metallurgical properties are examined, and the behaviour is compared to that of B500B carbon steel reinforcement. It is shown that the stainless steel bars retained their mechanical properties under the majority of the scenarios examined and to a greater degree than traditional materials. This is important for the rehabilitation and salvage of existing reinforced concrete structures following a fire and also to avoid unnecessary demolition and replacement

Stimuli-responsive photoluminescent and structural properties of MIL-53(Al) MOF for sensing applications

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are an intriguing group of porous materials due to their potential influence on the development of indispensable technologies like luminescent sensors and solid-state light devices, luminescent multifunctional nanomaterials. In this research work we explored MIL-53(Al), an exceptional class of MOF that, along with guest adsorption, undergoes structural transitions exhibiting breathing behavior between narrow pore and large pore under temperature and mechanical stress. Therefore, we opted for the time resolved luminescence and FT-Raman spectroscopy to investigate the mechanochromic and thermochromic response of this material under external stimuli. Intriguingly, when subjected to temperature changes, MIL-53(Al) exhibited a ratiometric fluorescence behavior related to the reversible relationship of photoluminescence emission intensity with respect to temperature. Moreover, under higher mechanical stress MIL-53(Al) displayed turn-on behavior in emission intensity, hence offering a thrilling avenue for the application in mechanically deformed-based luminescent sensors and ratiometric fluorescence temperature sensors

Do Geopolitical Tensions and Economic Policy Uncertainties Reorient Mineral Imports in the USA? A Fat-Tailed Data Analysis Using Novel Quantile Approaches

Mineral resources are essential raw materials to generate electricity, fuel vehicles, and heat homes and workplaces. Besides, the global agenda of clean energy deployment, including solar photovoltaics (PV), wind turbines, electric vehicles (EV), and storage facilities, calls for a considerable volume of critical minerals, which elevates their respective import demands. This highly concentrated source of those minerals poses a significant concern triggered by the augmented geopolitical tensions and economic policy uncertainties. In light of this context, our objective is to estimate the response of mineral import demand to global geopolitical risk events and economic policy uncertainty covering monthly data from January 1996 to December 2020. In doing so, we apply the cross-quantilogram (CQ) and the quantile-on-quantile (QQ) regression approaches due to the fat-tailed nature of the data property. Besides, these quantile-based data analysis procedures are appropriate for non-normal data sets and show the co-movement of the variables of interest under a bi-variate modelling approach. More importantly, these two techniques also exhibit the quantile connectedness among the variables in the bearish and bullish conditions. Moreover, our findings show that mineral import demand responds negatively to the USA’s (own) and global geopolitical risk events at the high quantiles under long memory. In addition, this demand reacts positively to the USA’s (own) and global economic policy uncertainty in entire quantiles under long memory. Therefore, our policy suggestions are concerned with tackling geopolitical tensions and economic policy uncertainty by adopting pre-emptive measures within a viable institutional mechanism to continue impressive mineral trade flows. © 2022 by the authors.Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, Minobrnauka; Ural Federal University, UrFUThe research funding from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation (Ural Federal University project within the Priority-2030 Program) is gratefully acknowledged

Prediction of Sandstone Dilatancy Point in Different Water Contents Using Infrared Radiation Characteristic: Experimental and Machine Learning Approaches

In rock mechanics, the dilatancy point is always occurring before rock failure during loading process. Water content plays a significant role in the rock physiomechanical properties, which also impact the rock dilatancy point under loading process. This dilatancy point significantly plays a warning role in the rock engineering structures stability. Therefore, it is essential to predict the rock dilatancy point under different water contents to get an early warning for effective monitoring of engineering projects. This study investigates the water contents effects on sandstone dilatancy point under loading in the presence of infrared radiation (IR). Furthermore, this IR was used for the first time as an input parameter for different artificial intelligence (AI) techniques to predict the dilatancy point in the stress-strain curve. The experimental findings show that the stress range in stress-strain curve stages (crack closure and unstable crack propagation) increases with water content. However, this range for deformation and stable crack propagation stages decreases with water content. The dilatancy stress, crack initiation stress, and elastic modulus are negatively linearly correlated, while peak stress and stress level are negatively quadraticaly correlated with a high (R2). The absolute strain energy rate, which gives a sudden increase at the point of dilatancy, is used as the dilatancy point index. The stress level is 0.86 σmax at the dilatancy point for dry rock and decreases with water content. This index is predicted from IR data using three computing techniques: artificial neural network (ANN), random forest regression (RFR), and k-nearest neighbor (KNN). The performance of all techniques was evaluated using R2 and root-means-square error (RMSE). The results of the predicted models show satisfactory performances for all, but KNN is remarkable. The research findings will be helpful and provide guidelines about underground engineering project stability evaluation in water environments. © 2022 Liqiang Ma et al. All Rights Reserved.This paper was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51874280) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2021ZDPY0211)

IEA EBC Annex83 positive energy districts

At a global level, the need for energy efficiency and an increased share of renewable energy sources is evident, as is the crucial role of cities due to the rapid urbanization rate. As a consequence of this, the research work related to Positive Energy Districts (PED) has accelerated in recent years. A common shared definition, as well as technological approaches or methodological issues related to PEDs are still unclear in this development and a global scientific discussion is needed. The International Energy Agency’s Energy in Buildings and Communities Programme (IEA EBC) Annex 83 is the main platform for this international scientific debate and research. This paper describes the challenges of PEDs and the issues that are open for discussions and how the Annex 83 is planned and organized to facilitate this and to actively steer the development of PEDs major leaps forward. The main topics of discussion in the PED context are the role and importance of definitions of PEDs, virtual and geographical boundaries in PEDs, the role of different stakeholders, evaluation approaches, and the learnings of realized PED projects

Prevalence of hepatitis B and C and assessment of responsible risk factors among the vulnerable β-thalassemic patients of Azad Kashmir, Pakistan

Approximately 350 million patients of hepatitis B and 170 million patients of Hepatitis C are present worldwide according to WHO. Many risk factors are involved in the transmission of theses deadly viral infections but blood transfusion in Beta thalassemic patients is working with two faces, one as remedy and the other is key risk factor in the spread of silent killers. Thalassemia patients registered in Combine Military Hospital (CMH) Rawalakot and Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan Hospital, Muzaffarabad Azad Jammu and Kashmir Pakistan were studied for the viral hepatitis B and C prevalence. A total of 303 (including 164 males and 139 females) individuals, aged between 1 and 12 years were studied. All the understudy participants were interviewed through questionnaire method. After taking written consent from each participant or guardian, 5 ml of blood was collected from each participant and brought to the working laboratory for HBV and HCV screening through ICT kit method. All ICT positive samples were further confirmed through ELISA. Individuals 25(8.2%) were found positive for both hepatitis B surface Antigen (HBsAg) and Anti hepatitis C antibody (Anti-HCV antibody) after initial screening with no coinfection of both diseases. Out of 25 total infected individuals, 05(1.6%) were found HBsAg positive and 20(6.6%) were found anti-HCV positive. All the ICT positive individuals were further confirmed by quantitative Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) and 23(7.6%) individuals were confirmed for both hepatitis B and C including 05(1.6%) HBsAg positive as well as 18(5.9%) anti-HCV antibody positive individuals. We can conclude that 8.2% prevalence of hepatitis B and C among thalassemic patients is an alarming health concern which directly indicates to pay attention for ensuring 100% safe blood transfusion

The electrokinetic impact on heavy metals remediation of Tasik Chini iron ore mine tailings, at Pahang state, Peninsular Malaysia

The improper disposal of mining tailings is a severe threat to the surrounding environment because it comprises high concentrations of heavy metals contamination. Any precious metal extraction (mining) produces millions of tons of waste; iron ore extraction is common globally, unlike other metals extraction. The iron ore tailings contain heavy metals such as Arsenic (As), Cobalt (Co), Manganese (Mn), Lead (Pb), Copper (Cu), and Zinc (Zn). This study focuses on extracting hazardous metals such as As, V, and Zn from the disposed waste and improving its geotechnical properties. Nine samples were collected from Tasik Chini Iron ore mine, Pekan district, Pahang State, Malaysia. The initial data were prepared for elemental analysis by following ICP-OES analysis. The results showed that As, Co, Mn, Pb, Cu, and Zn concentrations exceeded the standard guidelines. In recent years, sustainable remediations techniques (EKR) have attracted extensive attention, including the electrokinetic remediation technique. The (EKR) method was applied to extract these metals from iron ore tailings specimens. A comprehensive approach of EKR shows an outstanding result where the highest removal efficiency of As was 68.4 %, Co 64.5%, Mn 67.8%, Pb 67.1%, and Cu was 64.1% and Zn 64.9% with the voltage gradient of 100 and 150 V for 4 and 8 hours constantly. Increasing the voltage gradient could be a cost-effective long-term solution for the remediation of iron ore tailings. The existing method was experienced as an effective and green technique for extracting heavy metals and recycling the mining waste materials

Response of Pakistan’s economic growth to macroeconomic variables: an asymmetric analysis

This study examines the impact of several important macroeconomic variables such as quality of education, infrastructure development, foreign direct investment inflow, and green energy transitions on economic growth. We analyzed annual time series data sample for estimation of the above macroeconomic indicators during 1990 to 2020. We use nonlinear auto-regressive distributive lag model (NARDL) approach to detect the short-term and long-term effects of undermentioned macroeconomic variables on economic growth of Pakistan. The results primarily reveal that the quality education, foreign direct investment inflow, and infrastructure development are playing a significant positive role in the economic growth of Pakistan. Similarly, in short term the foreign direct investment inflow, infrastructure, and green energy transition coefficients are significantly positive related to sustainable development goals. However, the education found as unsubstantial as contributive as other variables. Moreover, the Granger causality and structural break estimations are employed to estimate the causal association between the selected parameters and unexpected change over the economy. The estimated outcomes find the unidirectional causality from education and green energy transition towards economic growth, where education is found within relation to infrastructure. Additionally, bidirectional causal relationship is found between FDI and infrastructure towards economic growth which shows that the increase in foreign investment has the potential to boost the economic growth. Finally, all the estimated indexes are considered as important sources towards the economic growth. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.National Office for Philosophy and Social Sciences, NPOPSS; National Social Science Fund of China, NSSFC: ZD184This paper was supported by the National Social Science Foundation of China (21&ZD184)