Effect of squash training program on health related physical fitness variables of male college students

Squash is classified as a high dynamic exercise. Physical fitness is a measure of all functions and structures which make physical exercise possible. Health related fitness is a subset of physical fitness related to health. This study was to find out the effect of eight weeks of squash training program on heath related Physical fitness variables of male college students. A group of 141 male college students aged between 20-24 years (m=21.76± 2.12) of King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Saudi Arabia participated in this study. The duration of squash training program was 45 minutes, twice a week, for 8 weeks. The following variables were measured before and after training program: Age, height, weight, body mass index, sit-ups, standing long jump, sit and reach, and 550m run. Paired t-test was used to compare before training measures with after training measures. Pre and post-test comparisons exhibited significant improvement in sit-up (20 ± 4 vs. 23 ± 5; p 0.05) in all physical characteristics variables. Squash program had a significant improvement performance on health related physical Fitness variables (sit-ups, stand long jump, sit & reach) of male college students of KFUPM

Enhancing Secure Sockets Layer Bulk Data Trnsfer Phase Performance With Parallel Cryptography Algorithm

With more than 2 billion people connected to the Internet, information security has become a top priority. Many applications such as electronic banking, medical database, and electronic commerce require the exchange of private information. Hashed Message Authentication Code (HMAC) is widely used to provide authenticity, while symmetric encryption algorithms provide confidentiality. Secure Socket Layer (SSL) is one of the most widely used security protocols on the Internet. In the current Bulk Data Transfer (BDT) phase in SSL, the server or the client firstly calculates the Message Authentication Code (MAC) of the data using HMAC operation, and then performs the symmetric encryption on the data together with the MAC. Despite steady improvements in SSL performance, BDT operation degrades CPU performance. This is due to the cryptography operations that include the HMAC and symmetric encryptions. The thesis proposes a new algorithm that provides a significant performance gain in bulk data transfer without compromising the security. The proposed algorithm performs the encryption of the data and the calculation of the MAC in parallel. The server calculates the MAC of the data the same time the encryption processes the data. Once the calculation of the MAC is completed, only then the MAC will be encrypted. The proposed algorithm was simulated using two processors with one performing the HMAC calculation and the other encrypting the data, simultaneously. Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) was chosen as encryption algorithm and HMAC Standard Hash Algorithm 1 (SHA1) was chosen as HMAC algorithm. The communication between the processors was done via Message Passing Interface (MPI). The existing sequential and the proposed parallel algorithms were simulated successfully while preserving security properties. Based on the performance simulations, the new parallel algorithm gained speedup of 1.74 with 85% efficiency over the current sequential algorithm. The parallel overheads that limit the maximum achievable speedup were also considered. Different block cipher modes were used in which the Cipher-Block Chaining (CBC) gives the best speedup among the feedback cipher modes. In addition, Triple Data Encryption Standard (3DES) was also simulated as the encryption algorithm to compare the speedup performance with AES encryption

CHID : conditional hybrid intrusion detection system for reducing false positives and resource consumption on malicous datasets

Inspecting packets to detect intrusions faces challenges when coping with a high volume of network traffic. Packet-based detection processes every payload on the wire, which degrades the performance of network intrusion detection system (NIDS). This issue requires an introduction of a flow-based NIDS that reduces the amount of data to be processed by examining aggregated information of related packets. However, flow-based detection still suffers from the generation of the false positive alerts due to incomplete data input. This study proposed a Conditional Hybrid Intrusion Detection (CHID) by combining the flow-based with packet-based detection. In addition, it is also aimed to improve the resource consumption of the packet-based detection approach. CHID applied attribute wrapper features evaluation algorithms that marked malicious flows for further analysis by the packet-based detection. Input Framework approach was employed for triggering packet flows between the packetbased and flow-based detections. A controlled testbed experiment was conducted to evaluate the performance of detection mechanism’s CHID using datasets obtained from on different traffic rates. The result of the evaluation showed that CHID gains a significant performance improvement in terms of resource consumption and packet drop rate, compared to the default packet-based detection implementation. At a 200 Mbps, CHID in IRC-bot scenario, can reduce 50.6% of memory usage and decreases 18.1% of the CPU utilization without packets drop. CHID approach can mitigate the false positive rate of flow-based detection and reduce the resource consumption of packet-based detection while preserving detection accuracy. CHID approach can be considered as generic system to be applied for monitoring of intrusion detection systems

Sorption mechanisms of zinc in different clay minerals and soil systems as influenced by various natural ligands

The bioavailability and fate of Zinc (Zn) in soils is influenced by reactions occurring at the water-mineral interface. Understanding Zn interaction with mineral surfaces is essential to the understanding of Zn fate and toxicity. In this study, adsorption experiments investigated the impact of ligands and pH on the adsorption of Zn to mineral surfaces. X-Ray Absorption Fine Structure Spectroscopy (XAFS) was used to elucidate the adsorption mechanisms of Zn to mineral surfaces as impacted by ligands. Impact of ligands on Zn adsorption was dependent on mineral type and pH of the system. XAFS analysis showed that adsorption mechanisms of Zn were impacted by pH and ligand presence. In the ferrihydrite system, Zn adsorption was enhanced in presence of citrate and phosphate (PO4), reduced in presence desferrioxamine (DFO-B), and reduced in presence of humic acid (HA) at pH\u3e6.0. XAFS analysis showed that Zn formed strong linkages with high affinity edge sites of ferrihydrite in the control and in presence of enhancing ligands (citrate and PO4), whereas formed weaker, low affinity linkages in presence of supressing ligands (DFO-B and HA). From an environmental perspective, Zn was more likely to be desorbed from the ferrihydrite surface in the presence HA and DFO-B. In the kaolinite system, Zn adsorption was reduced in presence of citrate and DFO-B, and increased in presence of HA. Zn formed inner sphere complexes at pH 5.5 in the control and in presence of ligands. At pH 7.5, a Zn-Al layered double hydroxide was formed in the control, that was absent in presence of any ligand, suggesting that ligands suppress the formation of Zn-Al LDH in kaolinite. In the mixed ferrihydrite-gibbsite system, Zn adsorption was enhanced in presence of all ligands, excluding DFO-B. Adsorption mechanisms of Zn to ferrihydrite were unaffected by ligand presence. The impact of organic matter (OM) degradation on heavy metal distribution in sewage sludge was investigated. Cu, Pb and As were bond with the OM fraction of sludge, whereas Zn was bond to Fe/Mn oxide fraction. OM degradation increased mobility and bioavailability of Zn and Cu, whereas it had less impact on Pb and As

THE RED PALM WEEVIL IN THE UAE: MORPHOLOGICAL DIVERSITY AND RNAI-MEDIATED GENE SILENCING OF TWO CUTICLE-RELATED GENES

Red Palm Weevil (RPW), Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), threatens palm trees worldwide. A better understanding of this insect can help with designing an adequate management strategy. This study aimed to a better understand the morphological diversity of RPW and examined RNAi-mediated gene silencing of two cuticle-related genes, vestigial (vg) gene, and Laccase (Lac2) gene by injecting the last larval stage with double-stranded RNA (dsRNA). For the morphological diversity study, adults of RPW were collected and classified by their prothoracic spots. Additional morphological characters were measured such as Pronotum Length (PL), Pronotum Width (PW), Elytra Length (EL), Elytra Width (EW), and total Length (L), as well as observing the density of the hair-like structure on the male rostrum. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, scatterplots to present data distribution within the typologies, box-and-whisker plots to show the distribution of the body length, Student t-test conducted to compare the body length (TL) between typologies, and percentage to reflect hair-like structure density. For RNAi experiments, total RNA was extracted and double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) was prepared to inject the RPW larva. For vg gene, two doses were used (1,800 ng and 5,600 ng), and 5,600 ng for Lac2 gene. To measure the expression level, quantitative Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-qPCR) was performed. The morphological study showed the presence of seven prothoracic spot typologies and addressed the morphological differences and the three levels of rostral setae on the male\u27s rostrum. Besides that, dsRNA had successfully silenced the vg and lac2 genes in R. ferrugineus, resulting in adults emerging with developmental abnormalities that can affect the insect\u27s survival and reproduction

Comparison of Nondestructive Testing Method for Strength Prediction of Asphalt Concrete Material

Concrete is one of the most common construction materials used in rigid pavement, bridges, roads, highways, and buildings. Compressive strength is one of the most important properties of concrete, which determines its quality. This study aims to present the use of a new surface dielectric method to estimate concrete compressive strength. Six concrete mixtures were produced with compressive strengths ranging from 30 to 60 MPa. Compressive strength and strength development were determined during 28 days of curing. All concrete mixes were tested using the ASTM standard. The dielectric properties, ultrasound velocity, and rebound number of all concrete mixes were also measured at each day of curing. The results obtained from the proposed dielectric method in predicting the compressive strength of concrete were compared with the rebound hammer and ultrasonic velocity that are frequently used to evaluate the compressive strength of concrete.  The dielectric method shows a higher square correlation coefficient than the other two methods. The results also indicate that combined more than one method of nondestructive techniques will lead to higher prediction and could help to reduce some errors associated with using a certain method alone. The result indicate that the finding of this study could lead to help in reducing the time of evaluating concrete during construction and could also provide tools for practicing engineer to take decision faster with more confidence level on quality of concrete. Doi: 10.28991/cej-2021-03091645 Full Text: PD

KINEMATICS TECHNIQUES DIFFERENCES IN SELECTED HORIZONTAL BAR MANEUVERS

Performance on the horizontal bars largely depends on swings which are fundamental to executing various skills. The kinematics of swings plays an important role in preliminary execution to predetermine the skill performed, thus, swings may differ from one performing skill to another. The purpose of this study was to investigate the technical differences of the swings when the gymnast performs three different skills on the horizontal bars. these are:1) the backward giant swing (BGS); 2) tkatchev (TC); 3) double back somersault dismount (DBSD)

Novel polymers of intrinsic microporosity

A series of novel network and ladder microporous polymers was prepared by conventional nucleophilic aromatic substitution polycondensation reaction between catechol-containing compounds and activated o-fluoro aryl monomers. The building blocks of these prepared polymers consist of rigid compounds such as triptycene, triphenylene or hexaazatriphenylene, which have unique structure properties that force the final product to adopt a large internal free volume within the structure and induce porosity. Also, a series of biphenyl-based polymers was prepared exploiting the severely rotationally hindered structure resulting from steric substitution. The preparation of microporous materials was extended further by using the macrocyclic compounds (such as phthalocyanine) as building blocks to synthesise several macrocyclic-based polymers, taking advantage of the ridged non-planar special geometry of the starting building blocks. The Yamamoto coupling reaction was used to prepare microporous polymers by the self-coupling of various aryl bromide compounds. The resulting polymers were characterised by their elemental and nitrogen adsorption analysis, which showed these materials to possess considerable surface area in each case. The prepared polymers exhibit good thermal stability as indicated by thermogravimetric analysis, the distinct sharing feature of all materials prepared in this study is the rigidity of the resulting polymer architecture originating from severely restricted rotational freedom along the polymer backbone.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Bootstrap technique for image detection

Through more suitability of digital imaging and computer graphics, it suits simpler to convert images content than before without any visually touches for catching these processing issues. Several fake images are created whose content is altered. The research has been reinforced by an application within MATLAB environment of a programmed searching about similar images of the saved image. The research has also been reinforced by a number of forms, pictures, and schemes that clarify the content of the research. The focus of the research lies on two important criteria depending on the content including histogram and statistical criteria of the image for every color. The steps for retrieving process has been clarified starting from statistically analyzing the image and conforming it to the image formed in the database to arrange the images according to their similarity with the target one