Effects of drinking water treatment sludge on crop quality of zea mays L.

This research was conducted to evaluate effects of drinking water treatment sludge on crop quality. In this trial Zea mays L. (pioneer 32 w 86) was used, and the research was planned according to random blocks sampling design with three replicates. Increased amount of sludge, as of 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 t da-1, was applied on blocks. Zea mays L. seeds were sewed between rows within a distance of 65 cm, and on rows within a distance of 25 cm. Blocks were irrigated to stimulate germination during dry conditions. When the numbers of leaves were reached 8, 10 kg da-1 of N fertilizer was applied. Plant length, first corncob height, corncob length, corncob diameter and number of corncob were observed and measured using randomly selected 10 plants from each block. As a result, the highest plant length, 206.97 cm, was found on blocks of control. The lowest plant length 189.76 cm was found on blocks with 1 t da-1. The highest first corncob height, 85.62 cm, was found on blocks with 1 t da-1 sludge applied. The lowest first corncob height, 82.09 cm, was found on blocks with 4 t da-1 sludge applied. Average of the highest corncob number 1.23 was found on blocks with 4 t da-1 sludge applied. Average of the lowest corncob number 1.03 was found on blocks with 1 t da-1 sludge applied. The highest corncob length 22.08 cm was found on blocks with 2 t da-1 sludge applied. The lowest corncob length 19.94 cm was found on blocks with 3 t da-1 sludge applied. The highest corncob diameter 4.15 cm was found on blocks with 0 t da-1 sludge applied. The lowest corncob diameter 3.86 cm was found on blocks with 1 t da-1 sludge applied

Mucoid Cyst of The Penile Skin: A Rare Entity

A 9-year old male patient was admitted to our clinic for circumcision. Physical examination revealed a mass in the prepuce. After excision of the mass, histopathological examination was consistent with a mucoid cyst of the penile skin, which has been rarely reported. Pathologists and clinicians dealing with genitourinary system pathology should be familiar with this rarely encountered entity.Key Words: Mucoid cyst, penile ski

Identifying the Relationships Between Response Behaviors for Reading Comprehension Items and Student Characteristics

The study aimed to identify the students’ characteristics (perception of self-efficacy, resistance, persistence, taking responsibility and competence for their cognitive processes) that might affect the response behaviors of fifth grade students for open ended questions written in different cognitive levels. This study was designed as relational survey model research. Sample consisted of 392 5th grade students selected by purposeful sampling from Yenimahalle, Mamak and Cankaya districts in Ankara city. Data was collected with reading comprehension achievement test, response behaviors form and student information survey. Analysis was conducted with 366 students’ data after missing values were removed. MPlus package program was utilized to analyze data and structural equation modelling was used. The findings of the research revealed that response behaviors for open ended questions written in different cognitive levels in Turkish learning area were found to be predicted low and at a significant level by students’ perception of self-efficacy, persistence, resistance, taking responsibility and cognitive skills. It might be concluded that improving children’s perception for cognitive and metacognitive skills can enhance their thinking process, lead them to perform complex response behaviors and affect positively their higher order thinking process. In other words, students with high cognitive and metacognitive skills show higher level response behaviors such as putting themselves into author’s shoes, relating their own life to the event in the text or using imagination. Therefore, they can comprehend what they read easily and express it back

Transport Phenomena at a Critical Point -- Thermal Conduction in the Creutz Cellular Automaton --

Nature of energy transport around a critical point is studied in the Creutz cellular automaton. Fourier heat law is confirmed to hold in this model by a direct measurement of heat flow under a temperature gradient. The thermal conductivity is carefully investigated near the phase transition by the use of the Kubo formula. As the result, the thermal conductivity is found to take a finite value at the critical point contrary to some previous works. Equal-time correlation of the heat flow is also analyzed by a mean-field type approximation to investigate the temperature dependence of thermal conductivity. A variant of the Creutz cellular automaton called the Q2R is also investigated and similar results are obtained.Comment: 27 pages including 14figure

The application of precisely controlled functional electrical stimulation to the shoulder, elbow and wrist for upper limb stroke rehabilitation: a feasibility study.

Functional electrical stimulation (FES) during repetitive practice of everyday tasks can facilitate recovery of upper limb function following stroke. Reduction in impairment is strongly associated with how closely FES assists performance, with advanced iterative learning control (ILC) technology providing precise upper-limb assistance. The aim of this study is to investigate the feasibility of extending ILC technology to control FES of three muscle groups in the upper limb to facilitate functional motor recovery post-stroke

Coughing May Lead to Spontaneous Chylothorax and Chylous Ascites

Chylous ascites is a rare form of ascites resulting from the accumulation of lymph in the abdominal cavity. It is due to an interruption in the lymphatic system. Surgical management is indicated in cases of recurrence or failure after conservative treatment. We report a case of spontaneous chylous peritonitis after chylothorax, which is a rare clinical event. The primary reason was unclear and the outcome of medical and surgical treatment was successful

Odd p isotope 113In: Measurement of alpha-induced reactions

One of the few p nuclei with an odd number of protons is 113In. Reaction cross sections of 113In(alpha,gamma)117Sb and 113In(alpha,n)116Sb have been measured with the activation method at center-of-mass energies between 8.66 and 13.64 MeV, close to the astrophysically relevant energy range. The experiments were carried out at the cyclotron accelerator of ATOMKI. The activities were determined by off-line detection of the decay gamma rays with a HPGe detector. Measured cross sections and astrophysical S factor results are presented and compared with statistical model calculations using three different alpha+nucleus potentials. The comparison indicates that the standard rates used in the majority of network calculations for these reactions were too fast due to the energy dependence of the optical alpha potential at low energy.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures, Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. C. Minor changes mad

Evaluate the validity of the empirical correlations of clearance and friction coefficients to improve a scroll expander semi-empirical model

This study presents a scroll expander modelling methodology for small scale power generation systems by combining scroll geometry and semi-empirical model. Although the semi-empirical model is quite popular, its dependence on several experimentally-determined scroll geometrical and operational parameters makes this approach inflexible for different capacities and operating conditions. Some studies have sought to improve its flexibility in terms of using different working fluids and more accurate empirical parameters, however, those improved models still depend on a considerable number of experimentally-obtained scroll parameters. Therefore, in this study, a practical methodology for a simpler semi-empirical model combined with the operational flexibility of the scroll geometry is presented. Firstly, the flow rates of mainstream and leakage flows are analysed, where a correlation between scroll clearance and pressure ratio is determined. Secondly, a simpler approach to the semi-empirical model of scroll expander is proposed, whereby dependent parameters have been reduced to two parameters by using scroll geometrical calculations. The model is further improved to predict the rotational speed and electricity output by considering the overall friction coefficient of the coupled expander-generator unit. The findings are then compared with the results of an experimental study. The results show that the effective clearance values between scrolls vary according to pressure ratios, increasing from to . Mass flow rate can be predicted within 10% deviation from the experimental results for the same inlet conditions and rotational speed at a transient state. Additionally, considering steady state conditions, modelling results show that the rotational speed and electricity output can also be predicted within 8% and 7.5% of deviation, respectively

Photonic quantum state transfer between a cold atomic gas and a crystal

Interfacing fundamentally different quantum systems is key to build future hybrid quantum networks. Such heterogeneous networks offer superior capabilities compared to their homogeneous counterparts as they merge individual advantages of disparate quantum nodes in a single network architecture. However, only very few investigations on optical hybrid-interconnections have been carried out due to the high fundamental and technological challenges, which involve e.g. wavelength and bandwidth matching of the interfacing photons. Here we report the first optical quantum interconnection between two disparate matter quantum systems with photon storage capabilities. We show that a quantum state can be faithfully transferred between a cold atomic ensemble and a rare-earth doped crystal via a single photon at telecommunication wavelength, using cascaded quantum frequency conversion. We first demonstrate that quantum correlations between a photon and a single collective spin excitation in the cold atomic ensemble can be transferred onto the solid-state system. We also show that single-photon time-bin qubits generated in the cold atomic ensemble can be converted, stored and retrieved from the crystal with a conditional qubit fidelity of more than $85\%$. Our results open prospects to optically connect quantum nodes with different capabilities and represent an important step towards the realization of large-scale hybrid quantum networks

Adaptogenic and nootropic activities of aqueous extract of Vitis vinifera (grape seed): an experimental study in rat model

BACKGROUND: The aerial parts of Vitis vinifera (common grape or European grape) have been widely used in Ayurveda to treat a variety of common and stress related disorders. In the present investigation, the seed extract of V. vinifera was evaluated for antistress activity in normal and stress induced rats. Furthermore, the extract was studied for nootropic activity in rats and in-vitro antioxidant potential to correlate its antistress activity. METHODS: For the evaluation of antistress activity, groups of rats (n = 6) were subjected to forced swim stress one hour after daily treatment of V. vinifera extract. Urinary vanillylmandelic acid (VMA) and ascorbic acid were selected as non-invasive biomarkers to assess the antistress activity. The 24 h urinary excretion of vanillylmandelic acid (VMA) and ascorbic acid were determined by spectrophotometric methods in all groups under normal and stressed conditions. The nootropic activity of the extract as determined from acquisition, retention and retrieval in rats was studied by conditioned avoidance response using Cook's pole climbing apparatus. The in vitro antioxidant activity was determined based on the ability of V. vinifera to scavenge hydroxyl radicals. RESULTS: Daily administration of V. vinifera at doses of 100, 200 and 300 mg/kg body weight one hour prior to induction of stress inhibited the stress induced urinary biochemical changes in a dose dependent manner. However, no change in the urinary excretion of VMA and ascorbic acid was observed in normal animals at all the doses studied. The cognition, as determined by the acquisition, retention and recovery in rats was observed to be dose dependent. The extract also produced significant inhibition of hydroxyl radicals in comparison to ascorbic acid in a dose dependent manner. CONCLUSION: The present study provides scientific support for the antistress (adaptogenic), antioxidant and nootropic activities of V. vinifera seed extract and substantiate the traditional claims for the usage of grape fruits and seeds in stress induced disorders