Occurrence And Characterization Of Fusarium Spp. Isolated From Mangrove Soils

Genus Fusarium adalah antara kulat fitopatogen dan toksigen penting yang tersebar secara meluas dalam alam semula jadi. Kajian ini bertujuan menentukan keberlakuan dan ciri-ciri pencilan Fusarium daripada tanah bakau, yang terkenal dengan flora dan fauna, sebaliknya tidak begitu diketahui sebagai substrat bagi Fusarium spp.. Sejumlah 136 pencilan Fusarium telah dipencilkan daripada sampel tanah bakau yang diambil dari pada beberapa kawasan bakau di Pulau Pinang dan Kedah. The genus Fusarium is among the most important phytopathogenic and toxigenic fungi, widely spread in nature. The aim of this study was to determine the occurrence and characterize Fusarium isolates from mangrove soils which are well known for its flora and fauna, but poorly known as substrate of Fusarium species

Audiencing Strategies and Student Collaboration in Digitally-mediated Genres of Writing in English

This thesis presents an investigation into the experience of ESL Higher Education young writers when composing three online genres: academic text, diary texts, and blog texts. Central to this investigation is the authenticity of audience and directing texts to ‘real’ readers. Hence, technological tools are utilised in order to approximate such experience of writing for real readers. A qualitative case study was employed over three months of an academic semester at an Omani Higher Education College. Two cases participated in the study of overall 17 students across both cases: 5 males and 12 females and 10 students in case 1 and 7 students in case 2. To attain an in-depth understanding of the cases; different tools of data collection were deployed, including: interviews, classroom observation, reflective diary for recording student perceptions and experiences, and three forms of written texts were collected from the participating students: academic essay, diary, and blog. Thus the reflective diary was both a genre of writing and a data collection method. The study findings highlight that having only a teacher as an ‘audience’ restricted students’ attempts to focus on content, and most of this focus was given to shaping texts in accordance with student perceptions of teacher approved organisation and representation of text. Whereas blogging provided an opportunity to think of a wider range of readers and therefore a greater tendency to author personally selected texts. Also, diary was mostly associated with teacher-audience; though some writers enjoyed writing diary for personal use, the fact that these diary texts vary in accordance with these different understandings of audience offers further credence to claims about the role of real and assumed readers in shaping texts. The significance of the current study is that it offers practical and pedagogical thinking for teaching writing in ESL exploiting the affordances of technology in teaching process writing. It suggests that varying both audience and genres in relation to classroom writing tasks can have benefits for student writers in terms of their understanding of audience, their shaping of text for an audience and increased investment in the content of what they write. It offers insights into problems and issues felt by young writers that are usually unknown to the teachers. Based on those insights, differing issues such as collaboration, process writing and grading are re-evaluated.Ministry of Higher Education (Oman

A New Methodology for Tuning PID‐Type Fuzzy Logic Controllers Scaling Factors Using Genetic Algorithm of a Discrete‐Time System

In this chapter, a proportional‐integral derivative (PID)‐type fuzzy logic controller (FLC) is proposed for a discrete‐time system in order to track a desired trajectory generated using the flatness property. In order to improve the performance of the proposed controller, genetic algorithm (GA) based on minimizing the integral of the squared error (ISE) is used for tuning the input and output PID‐type FLC scaling factors online. The considered controller is applied to an electronic throttle valve (ETV). GA tuning shows a better and robust performance compared to Simulink design optimization (SDO) algorithm in terms of tracking a desired trajectory with disturbances rejection

Human resource: what contribution to flexibility? Case study: A Group of Algerian Company

Evaluation is pervasive and it is necessary for everyone to know its need because it has a big impact on the company accordingly it highlights the needs and the decisions taken of the organization. In the current context where the environment is characterized by complexity and uncertainty, companies must adapt and respond quickly to change. Human capital is considered as a resource for the organization, the most important without any doubt. The role of HR is to encourage initiatives to develop the potential sources of flexibility. Thus the assessment remains essential and necessary at the time of the transition of the Algerian economy to a market economy. Our problem is as follows: the human resource is a brake or business flexibility factor? Our study attempts to explore and apply the research tool of Volberd practiced by a group of companies, such as two-dimensional concept of flexibility in order to characterize their flexibility profiles and highlight the contribution of human resources, as a variable flexibility

KMSAFE APP: Campus Safety Mobile App

Many colleges and universities are deciding to implement safety and security apps on them campuses for students, faculty, and staff. In this work, we are proposing a product that uses a very simple hardware button connected by Bluetooth to Android or IOS app for quick Campus Public Safety and local emergency services access. With the emphasis on simplicity and ease of use, we have developed a low cost and highly secure product. Unlike many other products which need more time to use

Wyllieite-type Ag1.09Mn3.46(AsO4)3

Single crystals of wyllieite-type silver(I) manganese(II) tris­orthoarsenate(V), Ag1.09Mn3.46(AsO4)3, were grown by a solid-state reaction. The three-dimensional framework is made up from four Mn2+/Mn3+ cations surrounded octa­hedrally by O atoms. The MnO6 octa­hedra are linked through edge- and corner-sharing. Three independent AsO4 tetra­hedra are linked to the framework through common corners, delimiting channels along [100] in which two partly occupied Ag+ sites reside, one on an inversion centre and with an occupancy of 0.631 (4), the other on a general site and with an occupancy of 0.774 (3), both within distorted tetra­hedral environments. One of the Mn sites is also located on an inversion centre and is partly occupied, with an occupancy of 0.916 (5). Related compounds with alluaudite-type or rosemaryite-type structures are compared and discussed

Sexy sports: a reception study of the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) Olympics website coverage of women's beach volleyball at the 2008 Beijing Olympics

Sexy Sports: A reception study of the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) Olympics website coverage of women’s beach volleyball at the 2008 Beijing Olympics involves an examination of the sporting media and its reportage of the female athlete. The thesis will focus on the reception of the NBC Olympics website coverage of women’s beach volleyball at the 2008 Beijing Olympics by viewing groups constituted by the researcher. The reason for this is that it would be difficult to find naturally constituted audiences for this website, but its reception is never-the-less of research interest. My hypothesis is that the nature of the images and text on the website is overdetermined by the construction of women on other popular texts such as men’s magazines etc. In focusing on the meanings obtained from the content of the website (texts and images), the study will investigate how these meanings are naturalised in specific moments of production as well as through their intertextual relationships with similar texts involved in the glamorisation of female athletes. Specifically the study explores the meanings obtained from the content of the website (texts and images) and how in turn these meanings are naturalised by the consumers of the website. The study will utilise a qualitative research design to unpack the content of the website through the use of qualitative content analysis, focus group interviews and individual in-depth interviews. The research will be informed via a theoretical framework that draws from feminist theory, sport feminism, the concept of intertextuality between media texts, ideology and Stuart Hall’s model of preferred reading. Increasingly mainstream media uses the image of a woman’s body to sell almost anything from men’s razors to margarine and in so far as the reporting of women’s sports is concerned this holds true. Through the research I intend to account for the connotative power of other texts i.e. the men’s magazines and pornography, and how this is likely to be carried through into shaping the meanings that are read off the website. Arguably the production of the NBC texts and images are overdetermined by the existence of similar texts already in transmission in the circuit of culture

Comparative study of the chemical composition and biological activities of the essential oils of Senecio gallicus from Tunisia.

The essential oils of flowers and remaining parts of the plant Senecio gallicus (Asteraceae), growing wild in Sfax (Tunisia), were obtained by hydrodistillation over a period of two years (2012 and 2013). Their analysis by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS), led to a total number of 36 components, belonging to different classes of chemical compounds. Oils compositions were characterized by the abundance of monoterpenes hydrocarbons, the major compounds present in flowers for the two years of study were  respectively the sabinene (49.45% and 28.86%), the α-pinene (9.67% and 9.1%), and the β-myrcene (9.88% and 10.97%). These compounds were also dominant in the essential oils of the plant without flowers where they represent (65.34% and 55%) for the sabinene, (4.14% and 7.3%) for α-pinene, and (6.86% and 0%) for β-myrcene. Obtained essential oils were tested for many biological activities and showed a moderate effect against the fungus Trichoderma reesei and bacteria such as Bacillus sp and Staphylococcus aureus. This study of the Senecio gallicus essential oils represents the first one in Tunisia