Evaluation of dittrichia viscosa (L.) greuter dried biomass for weed management

Dittrichia viscosa (L.) Greuter, a plant species common in the Mediterranean basin, produces several bioactive compounds, some of which have herbicidal effects. A number of greenhouse and field experiments were carried out in order to evaluate if these effects could be obtained also by using the whole plant biomass, to identify the efficacious doses, determine their effects on seed germination and weed emergence, and to evaluate influence of soil characteristics on biomass efficacy. The experiments carried out evidenced that: (i) the dried biomass completely hampers plant emergence when high doses (30–40 kg biomass m−3 of soil) are mixed into the soil, or delays it at a lower dose (10 kg m−3 ); (ii) the detrimental effects are not affected by soil type. The exploitation of the D. viscosa dried biomass appears to be a feasible option in weed management practices and its potential is discussed

Investigation of optical and electrical properties of Cobalt-doped Ge-Sb-S thin film

Amorphous Germanium Antimony Sulphide (Ge-Sb-S) doped with Cobalt (Co) have been deposited on glass substrates by thermal evaporation technique on a glass substrate. The films deposited onto glass substrates are characterized by Energy Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometer, UV–VIS spectrophotometer, Raman spectroscopy, and Capacitance-Voltage Keithley meter. The optical band gap was calculated from the UV–Visible spectrum and found to be 2.05 eV. Raman spectroscopy measurements reveal that a wide band spectrum from 300 to 410 cm−1 centered at 355 cm−1. The Raman shift peaks at 325 cm−1 and 350 cm−1 are as-signed to the bond stretching mode Sb-S and Ge-S, respectively. In addition, from the obtained Raman spectra it is concluded that the presence of Co doped with Ge-Sb-S. The capacitance and conductance versus voltage measurements were performed at different temperatures. The results show a slight increase in the capacitance with temperature and it reaches a maximum value around 150 °C, and eventually it becomes negative. This behavior is interpreted in terms of the nucleation growth process and the thermally activated conduction process with measured activation energy of 0.79 eV.This work is funded by the University Program for Advanced Research - United Arab Emirates University , (project no. 31S313 ).Scopu

Molecular phylogeny and structure prediction of rice RFT1 protein

Rice is one of the most important species in the family of Poaceae. As one of the major crop that is consumed by world population, it is cultivated commercially in many parts of the world. Hence, the phylogeny study of this crop is crucial as a step for improvement of its breeding programs. Phylogenetic relationship among 12 rice cultivars that originated from two common sub-species; Indica and Japonica were inferred by comparing protein sequence data sets derived from its flowering time gene, namely RFT1 and analyzed using maximum parsimony (MP) method. The predicted structure of RFT1 protein was generated by I-TASSER server and analyzed using YASARA software. The result showed that the cultivars were classified into two major groups, where the first group (Japonica) evolved first followed by the second group (Indica). The findings suggested that some cultivars had a close relationship with each other even it is originates from different varieties. The relationships among these cultivars provide useful information for better understanding of molecular evolution process and designing good breeding program in order to generate new cultivar

Evaluation of a hospital-based integrated model of eye care for diabetic retinopathy assessment: A multimethod study

Objectives Diabetic eye disease is a leading cause of blindness but can be mitigated by regular eye assessment. A framework of issues, developed from the literature of barriers to eye assessment, was used to structure an examination of perceptions of a new model of care for diabetic retinopathy from the perspective of staff using the model, and health professionals referring patients to the new service. Design Multimethod: interviews and focus groups, and a separate survey. Setting A new clinic based on an integrated model of care was established at a hospital in outer metropolitan Sydney, Australia in 2017. Funded jointly by Centre for Eye Health (CFEH) and the hospital, the clinic was equipped and staffed by optometrists who work alongside the ophthalmologists in the existing hospital eye clinic. Participants Five (of seven) hospital staff working in the clinic (ophthalmologists and administrative officers) or referring to it from other departments (endocrinologists); nine optometrists from CFEH who developed or worked in the clinic; 10 community-based optometrists as potential referrers. Results The new clinic was considered to have addressed known barriers to eye assessment, including access, assistance for patients unable/unwilling to organise eye checks and efficient management of human resources. The clinic optimised known drivers of this model of care: providing clear scope of practice and protocols for shared care between optometrists and ophthalmologists, good communication between referrers and eye professionals and a collegial approach promoting interprofessional trust. Remaining areas of concern were few referrals from general practitioners, fewer referrals from hospital endocrinologists than expected and issues with stretched administrative capacity. There were also perceived mismatches between the priorities of hospital management and aims of the clinic. Conclusions The new model was considered to have addressed many of the barriers to assessment. While there remain issues with the model, there were also unexpected benefits

Robust H-infinity filtering for 2-D systems with intermittent measurements

This paper is concerned with the problem of robust H∞ filtering for uncertain two-dimensional (2-D) systems with intermittent measurements. The parameter uncertainty is assumed to be of polytopic type, and the measurements transmission is assumed to be imperfect, which is modeled by a stochastic variable satisfying the Bernoulli random binary distribution. Our attention is focused on the design of an H∞ filter such that the filtering error system is stochastically stable and preserves a guaranteed H∞ performance. This problem is solved in the parameter-dependent framework, which is much less conservative than the quadratic approach. By introducing some slack matrix variables, the coupling between the positive definite matrices and the system matrices is eliminated, which greatly facilitates the filter design procedure. The corresponding results are established in terms of linear matrix inequalities, which can be easily tested by using standard numerical software. An example is provided to show the effectiveness of the proposed approac

Evolving Spatio-temporal Data Machines Based on the NeuCube Neuromorphic Framework: Design Methodology and Selected Applications

The paper describes a new type of evolving connectionist systems (ECOS) called evolving spatio-temporal data machines based on neuromorphic, brain-like information processing principles (eSTDM). These are multi-modular computer systems designed to deal with large and fast spatio/spectro temporal data using spiking neural networks (SNN) as major processing modules. ECOS and eSTDM in particular can learn incrementally from data streams, can include ‘on the fly’ new input variables, new output class labels or regression outputs, can continuously adapt their structure and functionality, can be visualised and interpreted for new knowledge discovery and for a better understanding of the data and the processes that generated it. eSTDM can be used for early event prediction due to the ability of the SNN to spike early, before whole input vectors (they were trained on) are presented. A framework for building eSTDM called NeuCube along with a design methodology for building eSTDM using this are presented. The implementation of this framework in MATLAB, Java, and PyNN (Python) is presented. The latter facilitates the use of neuromorphic hardware platforms to run the eSTDM. Selected examples are given of eSTDM for pattern recognition and early event prediction on EEG data, fMRI data, multisensory seismic data, ecological data, climate data, audio-visual data. Future directions are discussed, including extension of the NeuCube framework for building neurogenetic eSTDM and also new applications of eSTDM

Squeezing of a coupled state of two spinors

The notion of spin squeezing involves reduction in the uncertainty of a component of the spin vector below a certain limit. This aspect has been studied earlier for pure and mixed states of definite spin. In this paper, this study has been extended to coupled spin states which do not possess sharp spin value. A general squeezing criterion has been obtained by requiring that a direct product state for two spinors is not squeezed. The squeezing aspect of entangled states is studied in relation to their spin- spin correlations.Comment: Typeset in LaTeX 2e using the style iopart, packages iopams,times,amssymb,graphicx; 17 pages, 5 eps figure file

Cellular and humoral immune responses and protection against schistosomes induced by a radiation-attenuated vaccine in chimpanzees

The radiation-attenuated Schistosoma mansoni vaccine is highly effective in rodents and primates but has never been tested in humans, primarily for safety reasons. To strengthen its status as a paradigm for a human recombinant antigen vaccine, we have undertaken a small-scale vaccination and challenge experiment in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Immunological, clinical, and parasitological parameters were measured in three animals after multiple vaccinations, together with three controls, during the acute and chronic stages of challenge infection up to chemotherapeutic cure. Vaccination induced a strong in vitro proliferative response and early gamma interferon production, but type 2 cytokines were dominant by the time of challenge. The controls showed little response to challenge infection before the acute stage of the disease, initiated by egg deposition. In contrast, the responses of vaccinated animals were muted throughout the challenge period. Vaccination also induced parasite-specific immunoglobulin M (IgM) and IgG, which reached high levels at the time of challenge, while in control animals levels did not rise markedly before egg deposition. The protective effects of vaccination were manifested as an amelioration of acute disease and overall morbidity, revealed by differences in gamma-glutamyl transferase level, leukocytosis, eosinophilia, and hematocrit. Moreover, vaccinated chimpanzees had a 46% lower level of circulating cathodic antigen and a 38% reduction in fecal egg output, compared to controls, during the chronic phase of infection

Developmental Toxicity of Surface-Modified Gold Nanorods in the Zebrafish Model

Background: nanotechnology is one of the fastest-growing areas, and it is expected to have a substantial economic and social impact in the upcoming years. Gold particles (AuNPs) offer an opportunity for wide-ranging applications in diverse fields such as biomedicine, catalysis, and electronics, making them the focus of great attention and in parallel necessitating a thorough evaluation of their risk for humans and ecosystems. Accordingly, this study aims to evaluate the acute and developmental toxicity of surfacemodified gold nanorods (AuNRs), on zebrafish (Danio rerio) early life stages. Methods: in this study, zebrafish embryos were exposed to surface-modified AuNRs at concentrations ranging from 1 to 20 μg/mL. Lethality and developmental endpoints such as hatching, tail flicking, and developmental delays were assessed until 96 h post-fertilization (hpf). Results: we found that AuNR treatment decreases the survival rate in embryos in a dose-dependent manner. Our data showed that AuNRs caused mortality with a calculated LC50 of EC50,24hpf of AuNRs being 9.1 μg/mL, while a higher concentration of AuNRs was revealed to elicit developmental abnormalities. Moreover, exposure to high concentrations of the nanorods significantly decreased locomotion compared to untreated embryos and caused a decrease in all tested parameters for cardiac output and blood flow analyses, leading to significantly elevated expression levels of cardiac failure markers ANP/NPPA and BNP/NPPB. Conclusions: our results revealed that AuNR treatment at the EC50 induces apoptosis significantly through the P53, BAX/BCL-2, and CASPASE pathways as a suggested mechanism of action and toxicity modality.This research was funded by the Qatar University–internal grant, grant number QUCP-CHS-2022-483 for M.A. and financial funding of the Deanship of Scientific Research at the Al-Zaytoonah University of Jordan (2020-2019/12/28) for N.M

Combined effect of steel fibres and steel rebars on impact resistance of high performance concrete

The investigation on the impact properties of normal concrete (NC)and reinforced concrete (RC) specimens, steel fibre reinforced concrete (SFRC) specimens and RC+SFRC specimens with different steel fibres dosages were carried out with the drop-weight impact test recommended by ACI Committee 544. The results indicate that the number of blows to final failure greatly increased by addition of steel fibres. Moreover, the combination of steel fibres and steel rebars demonstrates a significant positive composite effect on the impact resistance, which results on the improvement in impact toughness of concrete specimens. In view of the variation of impact test results, the two-parameter Weibull distribution was adopted to analyze the experimental data. It is proved that the probabilistic distribution of the blows to first crack and to final failure of six types of samples are approximately two-parameter Weibull distribution.Funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (Grant No.50578026)Financial support provided by the Research Center of Mathematics of the University of Minho through the FCT Pluriannual Funding Progra